CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (STMW) – The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in the Lakeview neighborhood on the North Side has been reinstated after an investigation found an allegation of sexual contact with a child nearly 20 years ago was unfounded.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Thursday, according to a statement from Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Susan Burritt.

O’Connell agreed to step aside in early December at Cardinal George’s request after a formal allegation was presented to archdiocesan officials that he engaged in sexual contact with a minor while working at Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park in the late 1990s, according to the statement.

O’Connell worked at the southwest suburban parish between 1997 and 2012, and has held various posts within the archdiocese since his ordination in 1983, Burritt said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

A priest has been reinstated to a parish in the Lakeview neighborhood after an investigation concluded that an allegation of sexual misconduct against him “was unfounded,” according to the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell stepped down as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish, 1429 W. Wellington Ave., in December after it was alleged that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor in the late 1990s while a pastor of an Orland Park church.

The archdiocese released a statement today saying the allegation was investigated by the Cook County sheriff’s office, which “conducted an independent investigation and concluded that the allegation was unfounded.”

In addition, the “Archdiocesan Independent Review Board. . .did not find reason to suspect that sexual abuse of a minor had occurred and recommended that Father O’Connell be returned to active ministry,” the archdiocese said.

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KENTUCKY
WHAS

[with video]

WHAS11.com
Posted on April 15, 2014

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — Testimony got underway on Tuesday, April 15, in the sexual abuse trial of a former Louisville priest charged with molesting two boys in the 1970s.

This morning, one of the alleged victims was on the stand testifying against James Schook.

The prosecution called its first witness Tuesday morning, April 15. One of the alleged victims, 56-year-old Richard Whitfield took the stand describing how he met James Schook when he was a 7th grader back in the ‘70s.

Whitfield describes how he was interested in becoming a priest and Schook became a mentor figure while Schook himself was finishing seminary school and while living at Saint Rita’s Catholic Church.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Sean Dunne @SeanDunneNYC April 15,2014

A papal visit to Ireland is looking increasingly more likely following comments by representatives of Archbishop Charles Brown in Dublin. Brown, an Irish American Notre Dame graduate is Papal Nuncio in Ireland.

The Archbishop has already held high-level discussions with senior government officials to explore a potential visit.

Archbishop Brown met senior politicians in Leinster House, Ireland’s parliament building, last week including Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore. It follows a decision by the Seanad (Senate) to invite the pontiff to Ireland.

The Irish Catholic newspaper reported that the visit is being given “serious consideration” and is described as a realistic prospect.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 15 April 2014 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., responding to questions from journalists, today declared that next May, the Holy See – along with Cyprus, Lithuania, Guinea, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Uruguay – will present its Initial Report on the Convention Against Torture (CAT) to the relevant Committee.

“It is a standard procedure adhered to by all States party to the Convention”, said Fr. Lombardi. “Considering the types of obligations included in the Convention, the Holy See signed the Convention in 2002 exclusively in the name of and on the part of Vatican City State. For this reason, the Holy See continues to fulfil its obligations on the part of Vatican City State and to present periodical reports, in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Convention”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Birmingham Mail

Apr 15, 2014 By Fionnuala Bourke

An altar boy who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest is suing the heirs of two long-dead Birmingham Archbishops.

The victim, aged in his 50s, has launched a damages claim against the estates of George Dwyer and Maurice Couve de Murville.

He asserts that the former clerics failed to “control” or “remove from post” paedophile priest Samuel Penney.

Seventy-five year-old Penney was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in 1993 after he admitted indecently assaulting seven children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Times-Leader

April 15. 2014

By Mark Guydish – mguydish@civitasmedia.com

SCRANTON — The priest charged with plying a 13-year-old with alcohol and fondling her feet and legs admitted to struggling “with a pantyhose, feet, strangulation and chloroform fetish,” according to police documents.

In an affidavit written as part of a search warrant application, Scranton Police detective Jennifer Gerrity also wrote that Rev. Philip Altavilla “indicated that he took photographs of the victim’s feet,” apparently referring to the 13 year old allegedly assaulted Christmas morning 1998, “in addition to photos of other teenage girls feet. He kept the photos in a bag at his residence.”

Altavilla, 48 and raised in Plains Township, “also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicted woman being strangulated, given chloroform and then sexually assaulted.”

The paperwork says Altavilla gave written permission for Gerrity and detective Vince Uher to search his residence,where they seized a computer and cellular phone. “A message appeared on the screen “in plain view of Uher … and indicated that the author has been haunted for years, I still remember waking up with you.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

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

A 14 year old Tennessee girl spoke up and reported her abuse by a former religious leader. We are grateful to this brave girl for having the courage to speak up and help protect other children.

[WSMV]

Randy Guilliani was once the worship leader at Gallatin Church. He was also the step grandfather to the victim. It is deeply disappointing when a person in a position of trust violates that so greatly.

We urge Gallatin church officials to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes by Guilliani. They should urge anyone with information to report to police.

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

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

A child sex abuse case against a Louisville priest has finally started. We are glad that there have been no more delays and justice can begin.

[WDRB]

Fr. James R. Schook was indicted in 2011, but his crimes began in the 1970s. Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz and Vicar General Brian Reynolds both were aware of allegations against Schook. They even temporarily removed him from his position at St. Ignatius Martyr Church in 2009. Despite these warnings a dangerous predator was allowed to roam free and potentially hurt more children.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 15 April 2014)

Two West Australian women have prompted a Catholic priest to admit in court that he committed sexual offences against each of them when they were young girls living in different parishes many years ago. This demonstrates why it is always worthwhile for a church-victim to have a chat with specialist police in the Child Abuse Squad.

This priest, Father Patrick Holmes, is a member of a Catholic religious order called the Camillian Fathers (or Ministers to the Sick). This order specialises in providing chaplains for hospitals as well as working in parishes.

On 15 April 2014, Father Holmes (aged 79) appeared in Perth Magistrates Court, Western Australia, where he pleaded guilty to six charges relating to indecently dealing with two young girls.

In two different parishes, the offences occurred (in different years) in the presbytery (the house where priests live).

Father Holmes admitted that:

1. In 1969, he dealt indecently towards a girl, who was six to seven years old, at the Holy Name parish in Carlisle, a Perth suburb.

2. In 1980, he dealt indecently towards a girl, who was 10 to 12 years old, at St Aloyius parish in Shenton Park, a Perth suburb.

A magistrate ordered Holmes to appear next in Perth District Court in June 2014. when a judge will hold pre-sentence proceedings, followed by a sentencing.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN APRIL 15, 2014

A NOTORIOUS paedophile priest who was allowed to continue working despite accusations of serious assaults against children has died while waiting to face justice on new charges.

Alleged victims of Wilfred Baker have been left devastated that he will not be held to account for a string of crimes against kids between 1966 and 1974.

He was set to stand trial in the County Court on a string of new offences including indecent assault and gross indecency.

The Herald Sun understands brothers allegedly abused by Baker were poised to give evidence against the disgraced priest.

But prosecutors today filed a notice of discontinuance in the matter following his death in February.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A Victorian pedophile priest who once confessed to molesting his parishioners’ children has died before facing fresh sex abuse allegations in court.

77-year-old Wilfred James Baker was due to stand trial in the Victorian County Court on charges including indecent assault and buggery after new complainants came forward last year.

The former parish priest of Eltham had already been jailed for four years, with a minimum of two, in 1999 after he confessed to sexually abusing eight boys over a 20-year period.

He was awaiting trial for offences allegedly committed in the 1960s and 1970s when he died.

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SCOTLAND
Independent Catholic News

The new Bishop of Paisley, Bishop John Keenan, has decided not to move into the detached sandstone villa used by his predecessors, and move instead to a church property in Greenock’s east end, Herald Scotland reports.

In his first wide-ranging interview since being installed last month, Bishop Keenan has told of his concern that those in destitution have been “abandoned by society and the church”, adding he would reflect “a church out on the street not one that’s comfortable in the chapel”.

Echoing Pope Francis, the 49-year-old said there were still structures within the church restricting its ability to reach out to those on the margins of society. Bishop Keenan said: “Exclusion is a scandal for a country that calls itself Christian.”

He has also spoken of the need to strip some power and responsibility in the church away from the clergy and hand it to lay members, adding he supported the Pontiff’s call for a “new reformation” within Catholicism.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

15 April 2014

Archbishop Christopher Prowse has urged his clergy to exercise courage, pastoral prudence and mercy in their “most complex vocation”.

The Archbishop was speaking to a gathering of his priests at St Christopher’s Cathedral for the annual Chrism Mass, during which the sacramental oils to be used during the year are blessed.

He took the chance to offer some words of encouragement to priests whose vocations have been challenged by the royal commission into child sex abuse by Church officials and a “confusing secularist society”.

“We live out the priesthood in the shadow of the Calvary Cross as always but in a particular manner today.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Salvation Army’s Major Peter Farthing tells royal commission child abusers not same as paedophiles

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH APRIL 15, 2014

THE Salvation Army supported a self-confessed child molester to get a working with children check, it admitted today in the child sex abuse royal commission.

It’s former personnel chief, Major Peter Farthing, said that it was not what it seemed and accused the lawyer who asked the question of providing the latest media headlines.

He said that although one of its officers Colin Haggar got a working with children check, he did not actually ever work with children after he had admitted sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl in 1989.

He was being questioned by Karen McGlinchley who was appearing for a number of witnesses including Major Michelle White, who finally blew the whistle on Mr Haggar last year and reported him to the NSW Ombudsman.

“You may have just provided today’s headlines against the Salvation Army,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Rivers Echo

Jessica Grewal 15th Apr 2014

THE “sadistic” Salvation Army officers who once ruled the Riverview Boy’s home may never be held accountable for their sins but the end of yesterday’s royal commission hearing brought much-needed closure to the surviving victims who shed light on one of the most disturbing chapters in the region’s history.

Over the past two months, the royal commission has been investigating the Salvation Army’s response to victims who claimed they had been abused at the hands of those who were supposed to protect them at several of the organisation’s boy’s homes across Queensland and New South Wales.

At least five of the offending officers, two of whom are still living, were said to have been transferred between the homes rather than being reprimanded.

The commission heard that a culture of abuse going unreported had existed from the turbulent post-Second World War period, right up until Riverview – later known as the Endeavour Training Farm – was shut down by the State Government in the late 1970s.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Apr 15, 2014

Poor oversight and flawed policies are among the serious shortcomings inside the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that opened the door “for some priests to harm children,” a panel ordered by the archbishop concluded Monday.

“Behavioral warning signs were minimized or inappropriately rationalized,” the panel said, adding the archdiocese also has a “confusing and inadequate” system to report complaints of sexual abuse of children.

The report by the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force calls for criminal background checks of priests at least every six years and an anonymous hotline for complaints. The hotline would forward allegations of child sexual abuse to the head of the archdiocese’s child safety programs.

The task force did not criticize anyone by name or hold any church official responsible for the clergy sexual abuse crisis. It did not recommend any punishment for bishops or other senior officials who covered up abuse allegations. And, although it called for transparency, it urged that some information on abusive priests be kept private.

The report provides a list of 32 people interviewed by the task force, including Archbishop John Nienstedt and former archbishop Harry Flynn. The task force tried to interview Nienstedt’s former deputy, but the archdiocese wrongly claimed it didn’t know how to locate him, the report said. No victims of clergy sexual abuse or their family members are included on the list.

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MINNESOTA
Washington Times

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – There have been serious shortcomings in how the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests because too much decision-making power was given to one or two people who weren’t subject to adequate oversight, a task force commissioned by the archdiocese reported Monday.

The task force recommended forming a single clergy-review board with a majority of laypeople to review all allegations of clergy misconduct. It said a lay person should be hired to take charge of all issues related to clergy sexual abuse and to report allegations to police. And it called for a comprehensive auditing and monitoring program to ensure that efforts to provide a safe environment are effective.

Archbishop John Nienstedt has pledged to accept the recommendations, the archdiocese said in a statement. The Rev. Reginald Whitt, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas who named the seven-member task force last October, will oversee the implementation of the 53-page report, the statement said.

The report drew an immediate rebuke from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which said the task force wasn’t really independent. The group predicted nothing would change.

“It’s laughable that this panel blames ‘outdated systems’ for deliberate decisions by dozens of Catholic officials. As long as we act like these are ‘mistakes’ and not intentional, self-serving choices by smart but selfish men, kids will continue being hurt and crimes will continue being concealed,” SNAP’s outreach director, Barbara Dorris, said in a statement.

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IRELAND
Laois Nationalist

A Catholic priest has said he would do anything to protect a child, but that he would not break the seal of confession.

Father Gearoid O’Donnchu, a retired parish priest, was speaking in light of yesterday’s publication of the Children First Bill.

The new law makes it mandatory for professionals, including clergy, to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

Father O’Donnchu said he was not sure whether his stance would break the law, but that if it did, he would still be prepared to observe the confessional seal.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Patrick Counihan @irishcentral April 15,2014

An Irish priest has warned that he will not break the seal of confession despite his support for all efforts to end clerical child sex abuse.

Retired Catholic parish priest Fr Gearoid O Donnchu told the Irish Examiner that he would do anything to protect a child, but will not reveal anything heard in confession.

He spoke to the paper in light of the publication of the Children First Bill.

The new legislation makes it mandatory for the clergy and professionals to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

The priest admitted he is not sure whether his stance would break the law, but that if it did, he would still be prepared to observe the confessional seal.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Griffin

The publication of the long-awaited Children First Bill was broadly welcomed today but some campaign groups and opposition members voiced concern over the legislation’s lack of sanctions.

The Bill places a statutory obligation on certain professionals and other people working with children to report child protection concerns to the Child and Family Agency (Tulsa). Medical practitioners, teachers, social workers, gardaí, members of the clergy and child protection officers, among others, will be required to report such concerns.

The legislation also obliges those intending to provide services to children to carry out a risk assessment and prepare a child safeguarding statement within three months of commencing the service.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said the new law aims to make best safeguarding practice the “cultural norm” for anyone working with children. “Our focus on who is mandated [to report safety concerns] in the Bill is in accordance with international practice. I believe it strikes the correct balance in achieving high quality reporting, with high substantiation rates while avoiding overwhelming the child protection system with inappropriate reports, which is a key criticism of the operation of mandatory reporting in other countries,” she said.

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IRELAND
Journal

THE CHILDREN FIRST bill has been published, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald announced today.

The legislation will put Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children [2011] on a statutory footing.

This is a Programme for Government commitment and was recommended in the 2009 Ryan Report implementation plan.

In March, Fitzgerald noted that the bill “has been talked about by Fianna Fáil since 1999″. …

The Bill provides for a number of key child protection measures, including:

* A requirement on mandated persons to report child protection concerns to the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) including: medical practitioners; registered nurses; teachers; social workers; gardai; psychologists; members of the clergy

* A requirement on mandated persons to assist the Child and Family Agency in the assessment of a child protection risk, if requested to do so by the Agency;

* Organisations providing services to children required to to comply with best practice in child protection as set out in the Children First Guidelines and to produce a Child Safeguarding Statement;

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Noel Baker
Senior Reporter

The Government yesterday hailed the publication of the long-awaited Children First Bill which, if made into law, will make it mandatory for professionals to report possible incidents of abuse.

However, anti-abuse campaigners and opposition deputies asked why there were no sanctions for those named professionals who failed to report abuse and neglect, with Fianna Fáil claiming it was a “U-turn”.

Among those who will be required to report alleged abuse under the terms of the bill are medical practitioners, registered nurses, teachers, social workers, gardaí, psychologists, members of the clergy, and pre- school child care staff.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Marie Collins says it is ‘morally wrong’ for child abusers to be protected through the seal of confession. A survivor herself, she was recently appointed to a Vatican commission on protecting children from abuse.

She has been speaking after a priest this morning told how he would do anything to protect a child – but would not break the seal of confession.

Father Gearóid Ó Donnchú, a retired parish priest, was speaking in light of the publication yesterday of the Children First Bill.

The new law makes it mandatory for professionals – including clergy – to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

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NETHERLANDS
The Tablet

15 April 2014

Roermond diocese in southern Holland has apologised for the sexual abuse of two boys by its former Bishop Johannes Gijsen, who served there from 1972 to 1993 and died last year.

The two cases were deemed well-founded by the commission investigating abuse claims in the Dutch Church and date back to the period 1958-1961, when Gijsen was a chaplain and teacher at a minor seminary.

The weekly Katholiek Nieuwsblad, which first reported the story, said the commission found Gijsen had improperly touched two boys and forced one to perform oral sex. He was confronted with the latter accusation in 2011 but denied knowing the accuser and sued him for defamation.

The case was closed at the time, but reopened a week after Gijsen died because the second victim had come forward. On review, the commission found his excuse was not credible because the victim’s family had said he used to visit them.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

Why exaggerate when the simple truth is so much more effective?

Like we could not find a legitimate argument, so we stretched out someone else’s?

Child molestation by priests is not torture.

I see this latest UN filing by SNAP as playing right into the Vatican’s hands, with a weak legal argument that hurts our cause. I hope I am wrong, but as always, I write here what I see and that is what I see. A confounding, almost preposterous, stretch when there are hundreds of legitimate criminal charges that could be made against Catholic bishops.

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

Bishop Frans Wiertz has made a statement from the Church in Maastricht about a recent scandal involving Jo Gijsen, Wiertz’s predecessor, who abused two children.

“Our church has also had it difficult to face up to the faults that are the result of the actions of her members. We have in The Netherlands and our bishopric been confronted in a painful way this week that a bishop, priests and monks abused their power and committed acts that cannot withstand the light of day: abuse of children and young people. It could not be worse” Wiertz said.

The bishop has been under pressure the last few days to say something about the scandal. He is thought to have known for some time what Jo Gijsen did, but only broke his silence about it on Monday.

Wiertz spoke at a special service, with the theme of propitiation. The service was organized by the bishop himself and with input from Mea Culpa, among others, which is an organization of abuse victims.

Wiertz asked himself if the protection of the institute was more important than the protection of the victims? “It hurts to be confronted with these sinister black sides of the church. We want to recognize that the ecclesiastical leaders and church members have awoken great irritation and that they have made themselves guilty of serious cases.”

Wiertz continued to tell the churchgoers, among whom several abuse victims were present, that forgiveness does not come easy. “Forgiveness is only possible there, where recognition of fault has preceded”, Wiertz said. Jo Gijsen has always denied everything, and even accused one of the indicters of defamation.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Father Tom Doyle and Jerry Slevin on Abuse Crisis and Pope Francis: When Will Words Yield Actions?

I highly recommend Father Tom Doyle’s recent presentation (pdf) to the group Voice of the Faithful regarding where we find ourselves with the abuse crisis in the Catholic church today. It’s entitled “Clergy Sexual Abuse and the Church Today: Turning Talk into Action.” Doyle’s assessment of where we find ourselves is sobering (and, for my money, right on target):

There are no clear signs of hope that the institutional Church is beginning to comprehend the horrendous nature of sexual abuse by clerics. There has been a great deal of rhetoric and public relations bluster but there is little if anything to show sincerity. To date no bishop has been subjected to any penal process or penal sanctions for sexually abusing minors or adults himself or for their failure to remove known perpetrators.

There’s lots of talk. There’s not any action to speak of. Convicted criminal Bishop Robert Finn continues to sit undisturbed on his episcopal throne in Kansas City, and, as Tom Doyle notes, bishops keep right on playing cruel hardball games with abuse survivors, forfeiting pastoral imperatives to do instead what lawyers tell dictate to them, withholding information about abusive priests, putting known predators into ministry, and letting the odious Bill Donohue function freely as their vicious media attack dog.

Tom Doyle does not find a great deal of hope in the appointment of the new eight-member papal advisory commission on abuse, because, well, our popes have long since been advised. They know the score. They know what to do.

The problem is and has been doing, not talking. …

As Jerry Slevin notes,

Instead of really facing the abuse problem, Pope Francis instead usually just tries to change the subject, for example, by more mystical propaganda ploys like the upcoming canonizations of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII. Of course, neither of their abysmal records on holding bishops, or even priests, accountable for abusing children has even been addressed in the “rush to sainthood”. How long does Francis think he can go on trying to change the subject? Although many Catholics sometimes appear to be overly docile and wishful thinkers, most of them are not that naïve, as the 30 plus million US Catholics who have left the Church appear to indicate.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 15, 2014

THE Salvation Army helped one of its officers apply to be allowed to work with children a decade after he first confessed to his superiors that he had sexually assaulted a young girl.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that Colin Haggar was readmitted into the church’s ranks, and subsequently promoted, two years after first admitting he abused the girl in 1990.

In 2002, the commission heard this morning, the Army applied for Mr Haggar to be granted a Working With Children Check, without disclosing his previous abuse. Another successful application for a renewal of this assessment was made last year.

Giving evidence this morning, the Army’s former Secretary for Personnel, Major Peter Farthing, said a recent operational restructure meant the organisation had been unaware Mr Haggar had some responsibility for children living in crisis accommodation in Sydney.

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CANADA
Didsbury Review

Tuesday, Apr 15, 2014 | BY Kevin Vink

A 69-year-old Carstairs man and former Baptist church leader turned himself in to Calgary police to face charges related to alleged sexual assaults against two females dating as far back as the 1970s, say police.

Det. Jeff Klinger spoke to press in Calgary on Thursday, April 10, stating that Thomas Larry Jones was charged the previous day with a total of 12 counts related to the case.

The case came to light following another case where a man turned himself in and admitted to assaulting three male victims while in a leadership role in a Calgary-based Baptist church, he said.

A female came forward with claims against Jones in 1993, but Klinger said there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the case.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

People who sexually abuse children are not all paedophiles and the Salvation Army would dispute having one in their ranks, a senior official at the church says.

Its former secretary for personnel, Major Peter Farthing, on Tuesday also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he did not launch an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of two women because such inquiries were not ‘second nature’ to him.

The commission has heard that former Salvation Army officer Colin Haggar admitted abusing an eight-year-old girl in a central western NSW town in 1989.

But this did not necessarily make him a pedophile, Mr Farthing said.

‘My understanding is that a pedophile is somebody whose primary sexual orientation is towards children or adolescents, and not all offenders are paedophiles,’ Mr Farthing told the commission.

‘Some people offend in a kind of crime of opportunity – a situational crime.

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CANADA
Bayshore Broadcasting

Tuesday, April 15, 2014 4:37 AM by Kevin Bernard

Fred King will be back in Court on Wednesday to answer charges in Church assault.

(Owen Sound) –
The leader of the Church of Jesus Christ Restored, is back behind bars at Penetanguishene.

55 year old Fred King had a brief court appearance in Owen Sound on Monday, where his case was put over until Wednesday for a bail hearing.

King was known as “The Prophet”, and leader of the cult-like group just outside of Chatsworth, south of Owen Sound.

He was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant prior to his arrest in Hamilton last Friday.

King had disappeared after former members of the Church of Jesus Christ Restored in Chatsworth went to police in 2012 with allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 14, 2014

The Catholic church has done nothing to warrant being forgiven, says a sex abuse victim.

“What Pope Francis said doesn’t mean a thing,” said the Mount Cashel survivor, who does not want his name used.

“He can bow his head, shuffle, look at the ground as he is walking, but this is nonsense.”

Last week in Vatican City, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness from people who were sexually abused by priests, and vowed that there will be no going back in the church’s fight to protect children.

Francis made the off-the-cuff remarks after coming under criticism from victims’ advocacy groups for a perceived lack of attention to the problem and ongoing demands that he sanction bishops who covered up for pedophiles.

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TENNESSEE
WSMV

[with video]

Reported by Hayley Mason

GALLATIN, TN (WSMV) –
For nearly 10 years, the 14-year-old step-granddaughter of Randy Guilliani has sat in silence toiling with heart-wrenching memories of the abuse she endured as a child.

“Because I was so young, I wasn’t sure if it was right or wrong,” she said. “I knew that it felt weird. It felt different,” she added. She says it started when she was just five years old. Guilliani sexually assaulted her and did not stop until she was six.

“It took a long time for me to finally come out and say it. It was bothering me a lot. I started going to counseling. I was getting depressed,” she said.

She said she would go to Guilliani’s home in Hendersonville almost daily after school when her mother had to work. Guilliani, who told police he was once a worship leader, most recently at a Gallatin church, was always nice, she said, and spoke in a “sweet voice.”

“He told me not to say anything, so I wouldn’t,” the teen said. “I didn’t think that it was anything bad.” As she got older, she realized it was not only bad, it was a crime. “I would remember what happened and I started thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, he did such horrible things to me when I was a little girl.'”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WNEP

[with video]

April 14, 2014, by Stacy Lange

SCRANTON — While Roman Catholic priests in our area are committed to Holy Week these days. A priest in the Diocese of Scranton may be facing more trouble.

Court papers filed by Lackawanna County detectives focus on the questionable behavior of the former pastor of Saint Peter’s Cathedral already facing charges.

Newswatch 16 obtained a copy of a search warrant Scranton Police filed after they went to the rectory at St. Peter’s Cathedral earlier this month to arrest Father Phil Altavilla. Investigators need the warrant to search the priest’s computer and phone.

A search warrant approved by a magistrate in Lackawanna County says more about what Fr. Phil Altavilla told his alleged victim. The warrant describes a recorded conversation with her just before the priest’s arrest on child sex abuse charges. …

The search warrant says, “Altavilla also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicting women being strangulated, given chloroform, and then sexually assaulted.”

The priest willingly gave up his computer, Ipad, and cell phone for investigators to search.

Investigators will wait to see if what they find on those devices leads them to more charges against Altavilla or more victims.

Scranton Police detectives said it may take weeks for investigators to search Altavilla’s computer and phone.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

KAITLYN OFFER COURT REPORTER PERTHNOW APRIL 15, 2014

AN elderly Perth Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two young girls, dating back to 1969 and 1980.

Father Patrick Holmes, 79, appeared in Perth Magistrates Court this morning, where he admitted six charges relating to two young girls under the age of 13.

Police charged Holmes over an offence in 1980, at the St Aloyius Church in Shenton Park, when he indecently assaulted a girl who was aged 10 to 12 years old when she visited the presbytery after school.

He also indecently assaulted a girl aged six to seven years old in 1969 while working at the Holy Name Church in Carlisle, also allegedly in the presbytery.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Joanna Menagh

A Catholic priest in Perth has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two young girls in offences dating back decades.

Patrick Holmes, 79, indecently assaulted a girl aged about 12 in the Perth suburb of Shenton Park in 1980.

The offences occurred when the girl visited the presbytery at St Aloysius Church after school.

Holmes also assaulted a girl aged seven while working at the Catholic Holy Name Church in Carlisle in 1969.

Holmes pleaded guilty to six indecent dealing charges.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: It sounds unbelievable, but in New South Wales a convicted child abuser is pursuing his victim for almost $20,000, and the victim says he feels as powerless as when he was being assaulted.

The child abuser is a former school teacher who was employed at the Blue Mountains Grammar School in the early 1970s. Even though he was convicted of molesting his former student, he now wants the victim to pay his legal bill.

Lawyers and a New South Wales politician say the case highlights the need for legal reforms.

Lorna Knowles has the story.

LORNA KNOWLES: Mark Wurth was repeatedly abused at the school by the then-house master and geography teacher, Neville Gilbert Betteridge.

MARK WURTH: He was coming into the dormitory through the infirmary of a night and taking me from my bed.

LORNA KNOWLES: In 2004, Betteridge was convicted of indecently assaulting Mr Wurth and was given a three year suspended jail term. Seven years later, Mr Wurth sued Betteridge and the Anglican Church Diocese, which ran the school at the time, for damages.

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NEW MEXICO
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 14, 2014

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — A federal judge is ordering the Diocese of Gallup to mount an advertising campaign and post notices to alert the public about the process for filing claims in its bankruptcy case.

The order signed Friday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma also sets an Aug. 11 deadline for people who allege they were sexually abused by priests in the diocese to file claims in the bankruptcy case.

Diocese attorney Susan Boswell says the diocese plans to spend up to $40,000 for newspaper advertisements and television and radio spots.

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NEDERLAND
L1

De Stichting Mea Culpa heeft er begrip voor dat het bisdom het nieuws over het seksueel misbruik door oud-bisschop Gijsen niet openbaar heeft gemaakt.

Dat zegt Bert Smeets van de stichting Mea Culpa, die zich inzet voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door priesters van de katholieke kerk.

Volgens Smeets wilden de twee slachtoffers van het seksueel misbruik ook niet dat er ruchtbaarheid aan zou worden gegeven. Dit vanwege hun privacy.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

[Without mentioned his name, Roermond Bishop Frans Wiertz said former Bishop Jo Gijsen brought shame through his actions of abusing two boys.]

Door verslaggever Joris van de Kerkhof

Zonder zijn naam te noemen heeft de huidige bisschop van Roermond van zijn voorganger gezegd dat hij “schande heeft verwekt door daden te verrichten die het daglicht niet kunnen verdragen: misbruik van kinderen en jongeren, erger kan niet”.

Bisschop Wiertz sprak in de Onze Lieve Vrouwe Basiliek in Maastricht tijdens een zogenoemde boetedienst. In de basiliek werd een kunstwerk onthuld voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk. Deze week werd bekend dat de voorganger van Wiertz, bisschop Gijsen, kinderen seksueel heeft misbruikt.

Schuld
Volgens Wiertz heeft de katholieke kerk het er moeilijk mee om schuld onder ogen te zien, schuld die het gevolg is van daden van haar leden. “Wij zijn in Nederland en in ons bisdom nog deze week er op een pijnlijke wijze mee geconfronteerd dat een bisschop, priesters en kloosterlingen hun macht hebben misbruikt en afbreuk hebben gedaan aan hun kerkelijke zending.”

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WASHINGTON/OREGON
KOIN

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) – The 14-year-old girl allegedly lured by a Catholic priest from Scappoose became so frightened she ran to a nearby daycare for help when it happened in early March.

That information is found in court documents obtained by KOIN 6 News in the case against Fr. Michael Patrick.

The alleged incident happened March 10 near Burton Elementary School in Vancouver. Documents said the girl told authorities Fr. Patrick stopped next to her and then continued to follow her down the street. He kept trying to coax her into his car and at one point said, “Come on, Cutie,” the documents said.

That night, Vancouver police spoke with the priest. Though the girl identified him at the time, he was not arrested. …

He’s been in the Archdiocese of Portland since 1998:

St. Alexander, Cornelius 1998-99
St. Patrick, Portland 1999-2001
St. Edward, Keizer 2001-03
St. Phillip Benzi, Redland 2004-10
Holy Trinity, Bandon 2010-12
St. Wencelaus, Scappoose, 2012 – present

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Newsroom

BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Last month Roman Catholic Archbishop John Myers announced the closing of elementary school Blessed Pope John XXIII Academy in West Orange.

A number of Newark Archdiocesan schools have closed in the past few years because the archdiocese couldn’t afford to keep them open. Yet at this point, renovations on Myers’ retirement home are within the church’s budget.

NorthJersey.com reported that the expansion of Myers’ home in two years includes fireplaces, an indoor pool, and a fifth bedroom, with costs adding up to more than $500,000. Protesters delivered petitions signed by 22,000 at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Sunday.

The latest school closing will take place June 30, because its enrollment has not gone up in the past seven years. “Our school has been deeply rooted in West Orange for years. Although our students come from diverse backgrounds, we are all dedicated to cultivating an environment that promotes equality and respect as well as spiritual and intellectual growth in our students,” said Principal Lynda Wright, according to The Alternative Press. “When I heard this news, I was brokenhearted for all of us.”

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UNITED STATES
Headlines from the Catholic World

April 14, 2014 By CNA Daily News

New York City, N.Y., Apr 14, 2014 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Maryland-born priest Father John Connor, L.C., has been named the head of the Legion of Christ’s territory of North America.

“I’m humbled by this assignment and ask for the prayers of everyone in the North American Territory,” Fr. Connor said April 14.

Fr. Eduardo Robles Gill, the Legion of Christ’s general director, announced the appointment April 12.

Fr. Connor will replace the territory’s outgoing director Fr. Luis Garza as of May 1.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Vincent A. Orlando was ordained a Jesuit priest of the New Orleans Province in 1974. He worked as an educator in Jesuit high schools in Dallas and Houston, TX and in Tampa, FL. In April 2002 he was removed from ministry after a report was made to the New Orleans Province that in 1985, when Orlando was assigned to Strake Prep. in Houston, he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor. The Jesuits acknowledged in May 2002 that this was not the first complaint against Orlando. In 1984 a Strake student told school officials that Orlando tried to inpappropriately touch him during a school ski trip. The New Orleans Province was informed; civil authorities were not. Orlando was “admonished” and kept his job at Strake until a transfer to Tampa in 2000. He is known to have been living since 2003 in a Jesuit community in New Orleans.

Ordained: 1974

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PA Homepage

New details are emerging into the investigation of a priest in the Diocese of Scranton.

Less than two weeks ago, Father Philip Altavilla was arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching a 13-year-old girl back in 1998.

Scranton police say Father Altavilla inappropriately touched the girl after giving her alcohol after midnight mass on Christmas in 1998.

A search warrant filed in connection with the case by Scranton police indicates investigators have seized the computer and phone of Father Altavilla.

The sign outside Saint Peter’s Cathedral has been changed within the last two weeks.

With Father Philip Altavilla suspended from his position in the Diocese of Scranton, his name has been removed from the board that once indicated he was Cathedral Priest. …

Eyewitness News has obtained a search warrant application made by Scranton police who were looking to seize the computer and the phone belonging to the long-time priest from his room in the rectory building, which is right next to Saint Peter’s Cathedral.

During an interview with detectives, the search warrant says, “the defendant admitted that he struggled with a pantyhose, feet, strangulation and chlorofoam fetish.”

The paperwork continues, “Altavilla also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicting women being strangulated, given chloroform and then sexually assaulted.”

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

[Summary: Without mentioning his name directly, Bishop Frans Wiertz on Monday night distanced himself from predecessor Jo Gijen, who the church has admitted sexually abused two boys. Bishop Wiertz spoke during a special celebration in Masstricht.]

Zonder diens naam concreet te noemen heeft bisschop Frans Wiertz maandagavond tijdens een speciale boeteviering in Maastricht in voor hem opmerkelijk klare bewoordingen afstand genomen van zijn voorganger Jo Gijsen en diens daden van seksueel misbruik.

Door onze verslaggever

In een tien minuten durende preek had Wiertz het over “een bisschop, priesters en kloosterlingen die hun macht hebben misbruikt en afbreuk hebben gedaan aan kerkelijke zending. Ze hebben schande verwekt, door daden te verrichten die het daglicht niet kunnen verdragen: misbruik van kinderen en jeugdigen. Erger kan niet”.

De bisschop sprak over zonden en schuldgevoelens, waarmee je alleen in het reine kunt komen door ze onder ogen te zien, in plaats van ze te verdringen. “Tientallen jaren is het ontkend of toegedekt. Nu het in de ware omvang bekend geworden is, is de schaamte groot. Ouders hebben hun kinderen toevertrouwd aan mensen van de kerk in de mening dat er geen veiligere plek was. Kinderen werden misbruikt. Hun verhalen werden vaak niet geloofd. (…) Ook al is het een halve eeuw geleden gebeurd, wij ervaren het als een erfschuld, die haast niet meer goed te maken is.”

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KENTUCKY
WHAS

Updated today at 4:47 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — Jury selection began on Monday afternoon in the sexual abuse trial of a former Louisville priest.

Father James Schook is charged with several counts of sodomy.

Police said he sexually abused two boys back in the 1970s. He was ruled competent to stand trial last year, even though his attorneys had argued that he was terminally ill and too sick to stand trial.

The start of Schook’s trial has been delayed several times.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Joe Kimball

A task force set up by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis found serious shortcomings in the handling of clergy abuse cases. Archbishop John Nienstedt said he accepts the recommendations called for to improve the situation.

Church officials chose the task force amid serious allegations made against priests, and the way that church officials dealt with offending priests.

The archdiocese today released the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force’s report (pdf) which list these “serious shortcomings:”

* For many years, the Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors. These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent.

* Communication within the Archdiocese and with the faithful, the public, the media and victims of abusive clergy about clergy secual abuse of minors has been inadequate and, at times, non-existant. Information became compartmentalized which prevented decision-makers and relevant boards from knowing all the pertinent information, including early warning sigs which could have suggested future problems.

* The Archdiocese’s record-keeping regarding the performance and conduct of its clergy is not comprehensive or coordinated and relies on outdated systems. Among other things, facts that relate to clergy misconduct are often unavailable to decision-makers at important points in the process.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 15, 2014

A FORMER policeman employed by the Salvation Army to investigate child abuse committed by its officers says the organisation is unable to cope with the number of cases being brought against it.

John Greville yesterday told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was one of two full-time investigators employed by the church, which has received about 200 allegations of historical abuse so far this year.

“They’re not coping very well at all. We need to respond to all the victims who are making reports as well as keeping up with the current caseload,” Mr Greville said.

The former NSW detective, whose contract with the church ends in two weeks, was also critical of some senior officers within the church regarding its own internal investigations. “They obviously don’t appreciate the seriousness with which some of these processes need to be undertaken,” he said.

He was particularly critical of the church’s handling of child abuse allegations against senior officer Colin Haggar, who confessed to sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl in regional NSW in 1990.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

by Mike Durkin

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
A 7-member, vicar-appointed task force with the “single overriding goal” of protecting children has released its report on the handling of clergy sexual misconduct issues within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The report found a top-heavy power structure, a lack of oversight and accountability and the failure to follow procedures “created opportunities for some priests to harm children.”

THE INVESTIGATION

The task force met 23 times between October 2013 and March 2014, reviewing thousands of pages of documents and interviewing 32 individuals — a group that included archdiocese officials, parish priests and experts in the field of child sexual abuse.

“This report cannot undo the damage that has been done to many people within the archdiocese,” the task force wrote. “The task force’s hope is that our recommendations will help prevent future clergy sexual abuse of minors.”

5 PROBLEMS

The investigation found “serious shortcomings” in the implementation of the Dallas Charter, which sets the standards for handling sex abuse complaints in American parishes:

Too much power at the top: “For many years, the archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors. These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent”

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MINNESOTA
Daily Reporter

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: April 14, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS — A task force examining the way the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests says too much power was given to one or two people to decide how to handle claims.

The task force, which was commissioned by the archdiocese, recommended several changes Monday.

The report recommends a single review board, with a majority of laypeople, to review all allegations of clergy misconduct. A layperson would be named the archdiocese’s delegate to manage its response to all misconduct reports.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

BY DAVID SINGLETON (STAFF WRITER)Published: April 14, 2014

A Diocese of Scranton priest accused of inappropriately touching a teenge girl in 1998 after giving her alcohol told investigators he searches the Internet for depictions of women being strangled and sexually assaulted.

The information is contained in an application for a search warrant for the Rev. Philip Altavilla’s computer and cellphone filed by Scranton detectives with Magisterial District Judge John Pesota.

Father Altavilla was arrested April 3 on charges he provided alcohol to a 13-year-old girl after the Christmas Eve midnight Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in 1998 and then fondled her feet while giving her a ride home. He faces a preliminary hearing April 30.

In an affidavit supporting the search warrant application, investigators said Father Altavilla told them in an interview the day of his arrest that he struggled with a fetish involving feet, pantyhose, chloroform and strangulation.

He admitted he had taken photographs of the victim’s feet, as well as the feet of other teenage girls, and kept the pictures in a bag in his residence, the affidavit said.

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CANADA
Quinte News

Rene Labelle, a former Tyendinaga Township priest, is going to prison.

Labelle was sentenced to 16 months prison and 30 months probation in a Kingston court room Monday. He will also be on the sex offender registry for 10 years and will have to complete counselling.

The parents of the victim called the incident an extreme breach of trust in their victim impact statement.

They said they witnessed a 180-degree change in their child after the incident on Wolfe Island in 2004

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 14

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Once again we have a very lengthy Catholic church report that claims ‘mistakes’ have been made and implying that some minor ‘tweaks’ in job titles and church policies will make abuse by clergy and cover ups by bishops a problem in the past. That is, of course, silly and deceptive.

[St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese]

It’s worth noting that

–the archdiocesan recklessness and callousness have already been exposed numerous times by law enforcement, news sources, court documents and brave survivors. This report admits – in very “toned down” terms – what everyone already knows and has known for months or years.

–the vague acknowledgment that ‘people at the top’ have made ‘mistakes’ is old news and deceitful. They have engaged in criminal behavior. (Interestingly enough, the word ‘crime’ is only mentioned just three times in 56 pages.)

–church officials will allegedly do internal ‘audits’ of an internal program created by them for themselves and then tell us how they are doing. On its face, that’s not an objective or effective process.

— nowhere in the report does it say call police or law enforcement.

The panel claims that “The Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors.” Sadly, no matter how much “tweaking” Catholic officials do, this will remain unchanged, because the church is a rigid, ancient, secretive, self-serving hierarchy.

“These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight,” the panel claims. And of course “these individuals” will never get “adequate oversight” because, again, the church is a rigid, ancient, secretive, self-serving hierarchy.

We agree that “processes and decisions have appeared secretive,” But that’s because they were, and still are, in fact “secretive.” It’s naïve to pretend or believe otherwise.

Remember, Catholic officials have dealt with clergy sex crimes and cover ups for centuries and publicly for decades.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Thomas J. Naughton was ordained a priest of the Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus in 1965. He went on to work in high schools, parishes and retreat houses across the South, as part of the Jesuit’s New Orleans Province, with a two-year stint in St. Louis, MO and a year in Berkeley, CA. In the mid-1990s he relocated to southern California where he worked as a visiting priest in a a Mission Viejo parish. He was removed in April 2002 after a man reported to the Jesuits that Naughton sexually abused him in 1978 at Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas, TX, when Naughton was the school’s president. Naughton, as it was reported in 2002, was removed from Dallas’ Jesuit Prep. in 1979 after he attempted to grope a young faculty member in a locker room whirlpool and was seen in the same one-person tub with someone else. Naughton was recalled to the New Orleans Province after his 2002 removal, and at some point returned to southern California. He died in August 2012.

Ordained: 1965
Died: Aug. 6, 2012

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Concentrated power, poor oversight and little communication with the faithful are among serious shortcomings inside the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that opened the door “for some priests to harm children,” a panel ordered by the archbishop said Monday.

“Behavioral warning signs were minimized or inappropriately rationalized,” the task force said, adding the archdiocese also has a “confusing and inadequate” system to report complaints of sexual abuse of children.

The report calls for a system overhaul in how complaints are received and accused priests monitored. It also calls for a single clergy review board, with lay people in the majority, to receive and review all allegations of clergy misconduct.

“Despite Archdiocesan policies and procedures designed to protect against clergy sexual abuse of minors, a flawed organizational structure with little oversight and accountability created opportunities” for some priests to abuse children, the report released Monday said.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 04/14/2014

There are “serious shortcomings” in the way the Twin Cities archdiocese has dealt with alleged child sexual abuse by its priests, a report released Monday concludes.

The Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force, whose members were appointed in October by the Rev. Reginald Whitt of St. Thomas University, said the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis had for many years “concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions” about clergy sex abuse.

One of those, former Vicar General Kevin McDonough, refused through his attorney to be interviewed by the task force.

Task force members wanted to interview another former vicar general, Rev. Peter Laird.

The archdiocese said Laird was on leave and “it did not have contact information for him.”
Among the report’s conclusions:

— Record-keeping on clergy is done by outdated systems and is not comprehensive.

— The archdiocese’s complaint-reporting system is “confusing and inadequate.”

— The archdiocese has “no meaningful compliance auditing and monitoring program to evaluate, test, and monitor compliance with policies and procedures that are designed to prevent and detect sexual abuse of minors.”

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MEXICO
Vanguardia

[Summary: Barbara Blaine, founder of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said her organization is disappointed in the Vatican’s response to a UN report on how the church handles sexual abuse allegations and is also disappointed that the pope did not take stronger measures against the Legion of Christ.]

México, D.F.- Barbara Blaine estaba a punto de cumplir 13 años cuando el sacerdote de su parroquia comenzó a abusar de ella. “Era verano”, dice hoy esta mujer que ronda los 58 natural de Toledo (Ohio) fundadora y presidenta de una organización de víctimas de la violencia sexual del clero con presencia en 79 países, SNAP.

La tortura duró hasta su graduación, pero en ese tiempo nunca se lo dijo a nadie. Los traumas llegaron después. “Empecé a tener pesadillas, lloraba de pronto sin ningún motivo aparente y decidí ver a un terapeuta. Él me preguntó por mi infancia, si mis padres bebían o éramos pobres. Yo respondía de forma adecuada hasta que un día me pidió que le hablara de mi primer beso y del primer novio. Entonces empecé a contar que tenía 12 años y que había sido un cura. Aún no era muy consciente de lo que había sucedió”.

EN MÉXICO

En 1988 comenzó su trabajo en la organización que esta semana la ha llevado a México para participar en un foro internacional sobre el significado del informe del Comité de los Derechos del Niño de la ONU a la Santa Sede. El documento, histórico porque nunca antes un organismo internacional había cuestionado a la Institución, acusa al Vaticano de no haber reconocido nunca “la magnitud de los crímenes sexuales” cometidos por parte de sus religiosos y de “no haber tomado las medidas necesarias para proteger a los menores”. El informe presentado a comienzos de año en Ginebra concluye que los abusos “se siguen cometiendo de forma sistemática mientras la inmensa mayoría de los culpables disfruta de total impunidad”.

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NEW JERSEY
South Jersey Times

By Alex Young/South Jersey Times
on April 14, 2014

SALEM — The former Salem City pastor accused of sexually assaulting a minor was arraigned Monday in Salem County Superior Court, where it was revealed that a relative was his alleged victim.

Jonathan H. Smith, 59, appeared at the county courthouse on Market Street to hear the charges filed against him and entered a plea of not guilty before Superior Court Judge Timothy Farrell.

While reading a summary of the case during the hearing, Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Rastelli revealed that the alleged victim was a minor relative, who spent time at Smith’s Market Street home during the summer of 2013.

Rastelli said the boy’s mother became concerned when he returned home after his time in Salem and something didn’t seem right.

The boy told his mother about the alleged incidents who then alerted the authorities.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Beginning in the fall of 2013, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (“the Archdiocese”) faced a crisis arising from media reports that it had mishandled complaints of sexual abuse of minors by its clergy. The media reports suggested a betrayal by the Church of its fundamental duty to protect children entrusted to its care. These allegations were irreconcilable with the commitment of the Church to provide a safe environment for all children, stated in The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (“Dallas Charter”) adopted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in June 2002. The reports were also shocking and confounding given the Archdiocese’s difficult experience with similar misconduct decades before and the damage it caused to both victims and the Church.

Archbishop John C. Nienstedt responded on October 5, 2013, by establishing a new Office of Episcopal Vicar for Ministerial Standards to assume full responsibility for all issues related to clergy sexual misconduct. In turn, the Episcopal Vicar established “an independent, lay task force to review any and all issues related to clergy misconduct and to make specific recommendations regarding actions to be taken and policies and procedures to be implemented.”

The volunteer, seven-member Task Force appointed by the Episcopal Vicar agreed from the outset on a single overriding goal for its work: the protection of children. The Task Force did not undertake to investigate specific allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors; rather, its focus was on the efficacy of the Archdiocese’s Safe Environment organizational structure and its processes related to preventing and detecting such abuse. The Task Force met 23 times between October 2013 and March 2014. Its members interviewed 32 individuals (including Archdiocese officials, parish priests, experts and advocates experienced in child abuse issues, and other members of the community) and reviewed thousands of pages of documents.

The Task Force’s work revealed serious shortcomings in the Archdiocese’s implementation of
the Dallas Charter:

1. For many years, the Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors. These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Monday, April 14, 2014

Report and Recommendations to Protect Children from Clergy Sexual Abuse

The Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force believes that implementation of the recommendations found in our Report and Recommendations to Protect Children from Clergy Sexual Abuse will improve the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s Safe Environment Program and will help protect children. The Report is a comprehensive document that stands on its own; accordingly, members of the Task Force will not be involved in press activities related to its release.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Monday, April 14, 2014

Source:Jim Accurso

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is grateful that the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force (Task Force) has submitted its Report and Recommendations to Protect Children from Clergy Sexual Abuse to the archdiocese. The Task Force recommendations include specific actions to be taken and will require norms, structures, and procedures to be developed for their implementation. The Vicar for Ministerial Standards, Fr. Reginald Whitt, O.P., will see to the implementation of the recommendations, which Archbishop John Nienstedt has pledged to accept. The Task Force urges prompt action and the archbishop concurs that action should be timely. The archdiocese will provide periodic updates on the status of implementation.

“I thank the Task Force members for their clear, thoughtful and precise efforts,” said Archbishop Nienstedt, offering his gratitude to Task Force members. “Their report reflects their obvious dedication to this work, as well as the comprehensive nature of the results. It will guide us in fulfilling our important goals which I have stated before and repeat now: the protection of children, the healing of victims, and the restoration of trust of the faithful and of our clergy who are serving our communities with honor. We look forward to working in collaboration with Fr. Whitt to implement these recommendations.”

The independent Task Force began its work last October. Its members were chosen by
Fr. Whitt, a Dominican priest and law professor at the University of St. Thomas. The Task Force operated independently of both Fr. Whitt and Archbishop Nienstedt. The Task Force had full authority and all the resources needed to complete its work. The Task Force completed its work on March 31 and gave its Report and Recommendations to Fr. Whitt on April 3, who suggested some minor terminological corrections. Following consultation with the Task Force and their agreement to those corrections, Fr. Whitt submitted the Report and Recommendations to the archdiocese on the afternoon of April 11.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: April 14, 2014

St. Paul archdiocese’s process for handling sex abuse complaints had “serious shortcomings,” task force says.

A clergy abuse task force created by the St. Paul Minneapolis Archdiocese found “serious shortcomings” in the way the archdiocese handled charges of clergy sex abuse of minors.

“The Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors,” said the task force report, released Monday afternoon.

“These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent.”

The task force also found that communication related to child abuse within the Archdiocese, as well as between the archdiocese and its church members and public, “has been inadequate and, at times, nonexistent.”

It also found that the archdioceses’ record-keeping on clergy conduct was not comprehensive and relied on “outdated systems.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By The Republican Editorials
on April 14, 2014

If Pope Francis were to leave the papacy immediately, if he were never to make another public pronouncement, he would have already made an enormous, positive impact on the Catholic Church.

His words about child sexual assault will act as a salve to the thousands of children and adults who have lived in pain and disillusion following the illegal, immoral and evil acts of priests.

“I feel compelled to take personal responsibility for all the evil that some priests, many – many in number (although) not in comparison with the totality – to assume personal responsibility and to ask forgiveness for the damaged caused by the sexual abuse of the children,” he said Friday. “The church is aware of the damage. We don’t want to take a step back in dealing with his problem and the sanctions that must be imposed. On the contrary, I think we must be even stronger. You don’t play around with the lives of children.”

The pope’s unprepared remarks were delivered in Spanish Friday to members of the International Catholic Child Bureau.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

[with video]

By Kira Brekke

Pope Francis asked for forgiveness last week from those who have been sexually abused by priests and vowed to make changes to prevent future assaults. However, one victim said an apology doesn’t solve such a deeply entrenched issue.

“There is a design flaw in the system of the Catholic Church that allows for this kind of behavior to go on and continue,” Peter Isely explained to HuffPost Live’s Ricky Camilleri.”We’ve been through this cycle of apologies many times over the past years with popes, and so it’s hard to really not be somewhat skeptical about it.”

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict defrocked more than 400 priests over the course of two years for molesting children, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. As a result of this systematic issue, Isely said he always asks priests and clergymen just one question:

“I ask them, ‘Look, you can’t be a woman and a priest, I’ll buy that for the moment. And you can’t be a married man and priest, I’ll buy that for the moment. But why can you be a child sex offender or a child molester and a priest?’ It’s the only occupation that I know in civil society in which you can sexually assault and abuse children and [be allowed to remain] employed and working with children and families in that occupation around the world. That is what has got to change.”

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NEW YORK
ABC News

NEW YORK April 14, 2014 (AP)
By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer

A second U.N. committee plans to question Vatican officials on failures to stop clergy sex abuse.

The hearing scheduled for May 5-6 in Geneva will look at whether the Vatican’s record on child protection violates the U.N. Convention Against Torture. The Holy See ratified the treaty in 2002.

Vatican spokesmen said Monday they could not immediately comment.

Last January, Vatican officials testified for eight hours before an obscure human rights committee on the scale of clergy sex abuse globally.

The Vatican was compelled to appear as a signatory to the U.N. Convention for the Rights of the Child, which requires governments to take all adequate measures to protect children from harm. The Holy See was one of the first states to ratify the treaty in 1990.

The U.N. committee issued a scathing report, accusing Vatican officials of systematically placing their own interests over those of victims. The Vatican condemned the findings as a reflection of “prejudiced” positions of anti-Catholic advocacy groups.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal group based in New York, submitted reports on behalf of victims to both committees urging closer U.N. scrutiny of the church record on child abuse. For the upcoming hearing before the U.N. Committee Against Torture, the Center for Constitutional Rights argued the rape of children by clergy amounted to torture and inhuman treatment, and the Vatican hasn’t done enough to stop the abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

APRIL 14, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

During the Philadelphia Coalition for Victim Advocacy lunch on April 11, awards were given to those who go above and beyond for victims of crime. Detective James Dougherty won the Barbara McPherson Award/Police Personnel Award.

Here’s an excerpt from the program book: “…He worked with compassion and diligence on the clergy abuse cases resulting in many victims revealing their victimization. The prosecutors in these trials stated that in their opinion, the convictions of the offenders would have been impossible without the contributions of Det. Dougherty.

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights and Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Introduction

Naming is important. Pope John Paul II recognized as much when he observed that “[t]orture must be called by its proper name” upon the Holy See’s accession to the Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.3

Yet nowhere in the Holy See’s Initial Report under the Convention (“Initial Report”) does it make any mention of the widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence committed by Catholic clergy against hundreds of thousands of children and vulnerable adults around the world.4

There is no mention of acts that have resulted in an astonishing and incalculable amount of harm around the world – profound and lasting physical and mental suffering – with little to no accountability and access to redress.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (“CCR”) and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (“SNAP”) welcome the opportunity to submit this report, which sets out the refusal of the Holy See to uphold the core principle of respect for the inherent dignity and protection of the physical and mental well-being of the human person enshrined in the Convention against Torture (“Convention” or “CAT”) through its absolute prohibition on torture, and obligations set forth therein. This Committee has played an important role in recognizing rape and other forms of sexual violence as what they are – forms of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as is discussed further herein. This committee has also articulated the importance of naming such acts in this way so as to “directly advance the Convention’s overarching aim of preventing torture and ill-treatment. Naming and defining this crime will promote the Convention’s aim, inter alia, by alerting everyone, including perpetrators, victims, and the public, to the special gravity of the crime of torture.”5

By contrast, the Vatican has consistently minimized the harm caused by the actions of the clergy, through both the direct acts of sexual violence and church officials’ actions which follow, such as cover-ups and victim-blaming. As a member of the Parliament of Victoria (Australia) recently observed:

The Catholic church minimized and trivialized the problem; contributed to abuse not being disclosed, or not being responded to… ensured that the Victorian community remained uninformed of the abuse; and ensured that perpetrators were not held accountable with the tragic result being that children continued to be abused. We found that today’s church leaders view the current question of abuse of children as a ‘short term embarrassment’, which should be 2 handled as quickly as possible to cause the least damage to the church’s standing. They do not see the problems as raising questions about the church’s own culture. 6

The Holy See’s Initial Report to this Committee is itself evidence of the minimization of these offenses and the resulting harm. While the Holy See’s report unequivocally condemns torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and purports to claim that its status as a party to this Convention serves as an example to others,7 it makes no mention of the widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence against children and vulnerable adults by its priests and others associated with the Church. Upon accession to the Convention, the Holy See noted that it had “unequivocally condemned ‘whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself.”8

Still, after numerous commissions, inquiries, ongoing scandals and tens of thousands of victims coming forward, the Holy See has not recognized in its reporting to this Committee the ways in which the sexual violence it has enabled and fostered have “violated the integrity” of countless human persons, resulting in harm that is devastating on an individual and collective level.

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights

April 14, 2014, New York – Late on Friday, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), representing the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), filed a report with the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) documenting the severity of long-term harms suffered by survivors of sexual violence by Catholic clergy. The UN committee is reviewing the Vatican on its compliance with international prohibitions against torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under the Convention Against Torture, which the Vatican ratified in 2002. This will be the second time in four months that top Catholic officials have been called before the UN to account for the Vatican’s human rights record on addressing the ongoing worldwide crisis of sexual violence and cover-ups within the Catholic Church. Vatican representatives will appear before and be questioned by the Committee on May 5 and 6, 2014.

“Months ago, Vatican officials submitted a report to the Committee Against Torture that makes no mention whatsoever of the rape, sexual violence, and cover-ups within the church, which carry severe and long-lasting harm,” said CCR Senior Staff Attorney Pam Spees. “But the Committee Against Torture and international human rights law are clear: rape and other forms of sexual violence are recognized as torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and the Vatican has fallen woefully short of its obligation to prevent and protect against these crimes.”

The report details the gravity of long-term harms suffered by survivors of clergy sexual violence, including increased risks of suicide and attempted suicide; mental illness, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and addictive disorders. The report also notes studies and reports showing that survivors suffer physical harms as a result of sexual violence, among them neurological damage and changes in brain function as a result of the traumatic events, as well as increased risk of cancer.

“On the church’s continuing abuse crisis, many Catholic officials talk compassionately in public but act recklessly and callously in private,” said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP. “But the Vatican can’t have it both ways—they can’t sign international treaties and then break them with impunity, especially by continually endangering innocent children and vulnerable adults, by protecting those who commit and conceal heinous crimes, preserving their own reputations and clerical careers.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 14, 2014

Statement by Mary Caplan of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 917 439 4187, mcaplan682@aol.com )

People are safest when power is checked. But roughly one billion people are involved in an institution in which power is basically unchecked. It’s the Catholic Church. And its structure leaves their children vulnerable to those who would commit and conceal child sex crimes.

That vulnerability is not just historic, it’s current. Kids remain in harm’s way in the church today.

And that unhealthy, rigid, secretive, hierarchical, virtually all-male structure is not changing. Despite hundreds of thousands of children being sexually violated by clergy, top Catholic officials have done and are doing virtually nothing to institute a series of “checks and balances” that would make innocent kids and vulnerable adults safer – by deterring cover ups, by exposing predators, or by punishing wrongdoers.

They are making promises and adopting policies and establishing protocols and issuing apologies, none of which matter because the real decision-makers in the church – the clergy – have all the power and continue to abuse it for selfish ends: power, prestige and promotions.

So that’s why we are turning to secular authorities to do what religious figures refuse to do: hold Catholic officials responsible for the pledges they’ve made and the choices they make – reckless, callous and deceitful choices – to protect guilty adults over innocent children.

Vatican officials signed a treaty on the rights of the child. In February, they were held responsible – via a blistering United Nations report – for breaking that treaty.

We hope the UN’s Committee on Torture will issue a similar report after they read the evidence and question Vatican officials in May in Geneva.

These United Nations panels have no subpoena power. They can’t compel testimony. They can’t arrest, charge, convict or imprison anyone.

They can investigate, however, and issue reports and use their “bully pulpits” to do what most other secular authorities are too small, under-funded or timid to do – call out Catholic officials for saying one thing and doing another, and for putting children in harm’s way time and time and time again, not just in years past, but today as well. They can lay out recommendations that remind us of the enormous gulf between how Catholic officials deal with sexual violence and how they SHOULD deal with sexual violence.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 14, 2014

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

A lawyer representing clergy sex abuse victims has filed a motion seeking records from the Catholic Diocese of Corpus Christi because of the crimes of Fr. Clement Hageman.

[ABQ Journal]

We hope Corpus Christi Bishop Michael Mulvey will respond promptly and fully. Catholic officials should be voluntarily turning over and making public records about child molesting clerics, instead of waiting for subpoenas and court orders.

According to a New Mexico newspaper, Hageman “is accused in lawsuits of sexually assaulting at least six boys in the Gallup diocese” and “had earlier worked in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, where sexual abuse allegations were made against him, according to personnel records made public in other cases.

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Hageman’s crimes will call police, expose wrongdoers and deter cover-ups. Those who commit and conceal heinous clergy sex crimes – whether living or dead, whether priest or bishop – should be exposed and, if possible, punished so that kids will be safer and crimes will be deterred.

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NEDERLAND
Dichtbij

[Summary: The Catholic Church already has 1,000 cases of known sexual abuse and it knows of 600 perpetrators. The offenders including priests, brothers and nuns. In the meantime, there is growing dissatisfaction with the way the church deals with allegations of sexual abuse. There is a storm of criticism over the silence of the Roermond diocese who knew for months that former Bishop Jo Gijsen had abused two boys.]

ROERMOND – De klachtencommissie seksueel misbruik in de RK Kerk heeft tot nog tot al zo’n 1000 zaken afgedaan, en daarbij zijn zo’n 600 daders door de mand gevallen. Met daders wordt bedoeld: priesters, paters, broeders, nonnen, kortom: geestelijken van de katholieke kerk in Nederland. In totaal had de kerk in maart al zo’n 11,5 miljoen euro uitgekeerd aan de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik.

Dat zei voorzitter Wiel Stevens van het meldpunt voor seksueel misbruik binnen de RK Kerk voor het programma Nieuwsuur. Intussen groeit de onvrede over de manier waarop de kerk in Nederland omgaat met de aanpak van het misbruik. Zo gaat er een storm van kritiek door het land over het halsstarrige zwijgen door het bisdom Roermond, dat al maanden wist van het misbruik door Gijsen, maar de lippen op elkaar geperst hield. Totdat het bisdom er niet meer om heen kon.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lancashire Telegraph

EAST Lancashire priests have said that there will be no ‘hiding place’ for the ‘wicked and wrong’ abusers of children in the Catholic Church.

Members of the clergy spoke out after Pope Francis insisted the church would ‘not take one step backward’ in tackling the problem, which has blighted the faith in recent years.

The move, which could now open the floodgates for hundreds of compensation claims by victims, has been supported across the area, with one priest saying the Pope’s strong stance is right even if it does bankrupt the Catholic hierarchy.

Several former priests and teachers at the Jesuit-run Stonyhurst College in the Ribble Valley were investigated over sex abuse allegations in the late 90s Father James Chaning-Pearce, who taught maths and physics there, was convicted of molesting four boys and jailed for five years in 1997.

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights

April 11, 2014 – In response to Pope Francis’s statement today asking for “forgiveness for the damage [some priests] have done for having sexually abused children” and promising “sanctions”, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued the following statement:

“Actions speak louder than words. If Pope Francis wants to meaningfully address this crisis and the institutional impunity that perpetuates it, there are three steps he must take.

1. Remove all priests known to have raped children or others, and require reporting to secular authorities. Today, throughout the world, priests who are known to church officials continue to hold posts in congregations, schools, orphanages, and elsewhere, unbeknownst to local communities. The church has shown over and over that it cannot police itself. These matters must be turned over to the proper authorities, and it is well within the scope of Pope Francis’s power to make sure this happens.

2. Punish church officials who have covered up cases of rape and sexual violence by clergy, failed to report them, and obstructed investigations by law enforcement. Pope Francis’s promised “sanctions” must address the systemic impunity that helped to create the culture of rape and sexual violence that exists today within the church.

3. Encourage and protect church whistleblowers who have come forward with information about the crisis of sexual violence. So far church officials have intimidated and retaliated against whistleblowers. Pope Francis can and must work with whistleblowers to get to the root of the problem.

The Catholic Church is governed as a monarchy with the Pope having “supreme, immediate and universal ordinary power.” Pope Francis has all the authority he needs to move from words to action and stop further abuse.”

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Groups blast Vatican before UN panel
Victims & advocates file detailed new complaint
Top Catholic officials will soon be questioned in Geneva
A similar UN panel harshly criticized church after first such hearing
This time, it’s the Committee Against Torture looking at church hierarchy
Groups document on-going Catholic child sex abuse scandal as ‘acts of torture’
Their goal: to “expose, punish & deter widespread & systematic sexual violence”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, leaders of an abuse victims’ support group and a human rights organization will disclose and discuss their new formal complaint to a United Nations panel that sharply criticizes top Catholic officials for enabling and concealing sexual violence.

Next month in Geneva, Vatican officials will appear in person before that panel.

WHEN
Monday, April 14 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Ave (between 50th & 51st) in Manhattan

WHO
Four-six members of two groups – an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)

WHY
Next month in Geneva, the UN Committee on Torture will question Vatican officials on their compliance with an international treaty condemning and forbidding torture.

Representatives of SNAP and CCR are formally making a detailed and extensive complaint to the UN Committee. The 80+ page submission documents a systematic, widespread and on-going global practice of concealing rape and abuse, tolerated and enabled by the Vatican and shows how these acts constitute torture.

The jurisdiction of the UN Committee Against Torture names rape as a form of torture. Top Catholic officials signed and ratified the Convention on Torture nearly 15 years ago. By doing this, they legally agreed to uphold the rights and regulations laid out in the treaty.

The Vatican is now being called by the committee for its periodic review on how they have implemented the treaty.

SNAP and CCR’s submission shows the role played by Vatican officials in the on-going protection of perpetrators, the hiding of crimes and the enabling of rape, sexual assault, and torture of thousands of innocent children and vulnerable adults around the world.

In January, Vatican officials were called before the Committee on the Rights of the Child, also in Geneva, for their periodic review under another UN treaty which top church officials also signed. A month later, that committee released a long and scathing report on how the Catholic hierarchy is refusing to protect children and stop the systematic and widespread cover ups. The report attracted worldwide attention.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

April 14, 2014

Annette Blackwell

A woman whose Salvation Army officer husband went to police to turn himself in for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl says she cannot recall details of the event and denies trying to intimidate an officer.

Kerry Haggar, a lieutenant colonel in the Salvation Army whose husband Colin has been subject of an inquiry into the army’s handling of abuse complaints said on Monday she could only recall that her husband had gone to police to report “he had inappropriately touched a child”.

The royal commission into child sex abuse hearing started two weeks ago and has heard that Colin Haggar admitted abusing the girl in a central western NSW town in 1989.

James Condon, who is now the man in charge of the army’s eastern region, gave evidence last week that he accompanied Mr Haggar when he went to police in 1990 to report the offence.

Mr Condon, who was a captain at the time, could also not recall details but said police had told Mr Haggar no action could be taken without the victim making a complaint.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Salvo officer accused woman of blowing whistle on husband’s child sex abuse: royal commission hears

April 14, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A senior Salvation Army officer, whose husband, also an officer, sexually assaulted a young girl, later sent an accusatory Facebook message to a whistleblower, the royal commission into child-sex abuse has heard.

Lieutenant-Colonel Kerry Haggar denied she was trying to intimidate the whistleblower just weeks before the woman was due to give evidence at the commissions’ public hearings into abuse within the Salvation Army.

Colonel Haggar, formerly a member of the Salvation Army’s senior cabinet, broke down while giving evidence before the royal commission on Monday.

She apologised for sending the message to Captain Michelle White, who had gone to the Office of the Children’s Guardian and the Ombudsman in 2013 and reported that Colonel Haggar’s husband, Colin Haggar, had assaulted a young girl in 1989.

“I’m incredibly sorry and I’d like to reiterate publicly to Michelle my apologies for sending that,” Colonel Haggar said, after describing the message as “unwise”.

“It was – sorry. It was a very personal reaction out of my own distress.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A former NSW detective says he formed the view a Salvation Army officer was not truthful when he said he only committed one offence against an eight-year-old girl.

John Greville has been contracted by the Salvation Army’s Professional Standards Office to investigate historical allegations of abuse.

On Monday Mr Greville, who has worked with the Wood Royal Commission and the NSW Ombudsman on child protection, said he was asked in January to look into the case of Colin Haggar, a Salvation Army lieutenant colonel who was director of a Sydney crisis shelter for women and children.

The commission has heard Haggar was dismissed from the Salvation Army in 1990 after he confessed to the sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl in a central western town in NSW. In 1993 he was re-admitted to the army and promoted.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

Major Peter Farthing was chair of the Personal Injuries Complaints Committee assessing claims of child sexual abuse from 2005 to 2009. He’s admitted some of their decisions were ‘pathetic’, and that in at least one instance of correspondence with a victim of child sexual abuse, the Salvation Army was trying to cover itself legally. At one point in the hearings, Major Farthing asked the Salvation Army’s lawyer to ‘remind him’ to review whether an extra payment should be offered to one victim who was raped as a child and had bricks tied to his feet before he was thrown into a swimming pool.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: A former head of the Salvation Army committee that assessed claims of child sexual abuse has admitted that some of their decisions were ‘pathetic’, ‘disbelieving’, and ‘mean-spirited’.

Major Peter Farthing also told the child abuse Royal Commission that in at least one instance of correspondence with a victim, the Salvation Army was trying to cover itself legally.

At one point in the hearings, Major Farthing asked the Salvation Army’s lawyer to ‘remind him’ to review whether an extra payment should be offered to one victim who had bricks tied to his feet before being thrown into a swimming pool.

Sarah Dingle reports.

SARAH DINGLE: Major Peter Farthing notched up 36 years with the Salvation Army last January. He’s held senior leadership positions, including chair of the Personal Injuries Complaints Committee, or PICC, from 2005 to 2009.

As chair of the PICC he presided over the vast majority of victims complaints that came to the Salvation Army. Payments were calculated using a matrix.

Major Farthing confirmed to Counsel Assisting Simeon Beckett that the matrix allocated money depending on what kind of abuse was suffered.

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VIRGINIA
The New Republic

BY KIERA FELDMAN @kierafeldman

The March newsletter for Patrick Henry College’s Alumni Association began with a notice that birth announcements were temporarily suspended. Instead, it was to be a “more sober edition,” devoted to the fall-out from “Sexual Assault at God’s Harvard” a story I wrote for The New Republic in March about the mishandling of sexual assault cases at the elite evangelical school. In my investigation, I uncovered allegations that the Patrick Henry administration treated sexual assault perpetrators with impunity, discouraged women from going to the police, and blamed victims for dressing or behaving immodestly. Over the past month, the school’s administration, students, and alumni have responded to the story with an outpouring of public statements and online commentary.

Shortly after the story’s publication, Patrick Henry released a statement announcing the hiring of “a specialized legal firm” to audit the school’s policies and procedures regarding sexual assault and harassment. At the same time, the school maintained administrators “did not attempt to cover-up any sexual crimes” and “did not seek to blame women” for male students’ actions. “The fact is that the information provided by the key individuals at the time differs from the allegations now related in the New Republic article,” said the statement, which was read aloud during chapel. The student body responded with applause.

Some Patrick Henry students voiced their support for school administrators. “The monstrous Dean Corbitt described in the article is almost unrecognizable,” a sophomore wrote in an email to the American Conservative. “She seems like a twisted distortion of the friendly, cheerful woman who is always seems [sic] to be willing to help out all the students.”

By comparison, a statement from the Patrick Henry College alumni association suggested that alums have been far more critical of the administration than most current students. The alumni made several demands: transparency in PHC’s audit; “better victim care to students when they come forward”; the hiring of a victim’s advocate; and campus education “regarding issues such as consent.”

PHC did not disclose the name of the “specialized legal firm” hired to run the audit, not even to its students. The school did not respond to follow-up questions from The New Republic. “The secrecy about the firm is just shady,” a PHC junior told me. “The whole problem was that they’ve been dealing with these things behind closed doors.”

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

[Summary: Government Minister Edith Schippers said she approves of the decision of the Catholic Church not to go actively public with information about Bishop Jo Gijsen’s abuse of two boys.]

Minister Edith Schippers (Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport) keurt het besluit van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk om niet actief naar buiten te treden met informatie over misbruik af.

door onze verslaggevers

Ze reageerde op het bericht dat het bisdom Roermond al twee maanden geleden wist dat oud-bisschop Jo Gijsen twee kinderen heeft misbruikt, maar deze informatie al die tijd bewust niet naar buiten heeft gebracht.

,,Ik vind het zelf wel kwalijk dat het allemaal zo lang duurt, dat het allemaal zo moeizaam gaat en dat je niet actief publiceert, maar dat je wacht totdat je gebeld wordt”, zei ze in het programma WNL op Zondag. De Kerk verplichten om informatie naar buiten te brengen, is volgens haar niet de oplossing. ,,Je kunt dingen verplichten, maar uiteindelijk beslist diegene die de informatie heeft of die hem geeft.”

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

[Summary: Bishop Frans Wiertz of the Roermond diocese on Monday will discuss the issue of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church during a service at Basilica of Our Lady in Maastricht. He will also unveil an artwork by Pierre Habets called the “Road to Reconciliation.” The diocese last week admitted that former Bishop Jo Gijsen sexually abused two boys from 1958 to 1961. Gijsen died last year.]

Bisschop Frans Wiertz zal maandag, tijdens een boeteviering in de basiliek van Onze Lieve Vrouwe in Maastricht, nader ingaan op het thema van seksueel misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk. Tijdens de kerkdienst zal ook het werk de ‘Weg naar Verzoening’ van kunstenaar Pierre Habets worden ingezegend.

van onze verslaggever
Roermond

De onthulling van het kunstwerk en Wiertz’ voordracht daarbij zijn sinds vorige week in het actuele daglicht komen te staan van het misbruik door oud-bisschop Jo Gijsen. Het bisdom Roermond bood vrijdag twee mannen die als minderjarige jongens tussen 1958 en 1961 meermaals door Gijsen werden misbruikt publiek excuus aan. Dat gebeurde nadat de klachtencommissie voor seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk hun klachten gegrond had verklaard.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

APRIL 13, 2014

BY JEFF GREEN, MINJAE PARK AND JIM NORMAN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD

In what seems to be shaping up as a tale of two churches, Roman Catholic Archbishop John J. Myers found himself increasingly isolated from congregants who attended an Easter season Mass at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Palm Sunday.

Although Myers greeted parishioners on the steps of the imposing twin-towered stone cathedral, he declined to meet with protesters carrying a stack of petitions signed by 22,000 people objecting to lavish renovations being made to his weekend residence and future retirement home in rural Hunterdon County.

Neither Myers nor his personal secretary, Monsignor Michael Andreano, who delivered the homily, made specific reference to the expansion of the residence, which includes a fifth bedroom, fireplaces and an indoor therapy pool, at a cost of more than $500,000.

But in his homily, Andreano focused on how Jesus was ostracized before his death.

“Perhaps we, too, are disappointed by crowds turning away from us, by being abandoned by friends and supporters, by experiencing our own little persecutions and beatings and horrors and tragedies and even death,” he said.

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CANADA
Canoe

DENIS LANGLOIS, QMI AGENCY
Apr 13, 2014

OWEN SOUND, Ont. — The leader of a Chatsworth, Ont.-area church who disappeared two years ago amid allegations of physical and sexual abuse was arrested on the weekend, police said.

Frederick Madison King, 55, was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant after OPP announced 31 charges last week against him and his brother, Judson William King, following a 16-month investigation

OPP were tipped late Friday that Frederick King was at a Hamilton, Ont., hotel, Sgt. Dave Rektor said. King was arrested without incident, Rektor said in a statement.

King is scheduled to appear in court Monday in Owen Sound.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 14, 2014

THE NSW government intends to make a formal submission to the royal commission alleging two senior Salvation Army officers lied over their account of the church’s handling of a child’s sexual abuse.

Cross-examining one of these officers this morning, the barrister representing the state, John Agius SC, said a letter signed by the pair describing why they were leaving a NSW country town in 1990 was “full of untruths”.

In the letter, sent to other local members of the Salvation Army, Colin and Kerry Haggar said “we are taking a break from the duties of officership so that we can spend time on our own spiritual growth”.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard the pair were forced to leave their positions after Mr Haggar admitted to sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl.

“So you lied to them, because that will be our submission at the end of the day?” Mr Agius asked Mrs Haggar, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Salvation Army, who was recently forced to stand down from her position on its “cabinet’’ of senior administrators.

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TENNESSEE
WGNS

A 54 year old pastor has been arrested in Gallatin on various child sex abuse charges. Randy Giulliani was arrested there last week after a victim went to authorities in Sumner County. Giulliani, who used to work as a preacher at a Rutherford County church, is being held on 200-thousand dollars bond in Gallatin. Authorities do say he has not been associated with the congregation for the past two years. Giulliani faces a charge of rape of a child and aggravated sexual battery.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: Monday, April 14, 2014

People who allege they were sexually abused by priests in the Diocese of Gallup have until Aug. 11 to file claims in the diocese’s bankruptcy case, an Albuquerque judge ordered Friday.

The order, signed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma, also sets out steps the diocese must take – including a multistate advertising campaign – to alert the public about the process for filing claims.

The Diocese of Gallup plans to spend up to $40,000 for newspapers advertisements and 90-second TV and radio spots in a four-state area, the diocese’s lead attorney, Susan Boswell of Tucson, said in a hearing this week.

James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who represent sexual abuse victims in the case, estimated last week that the diocese currently faces claims from 30 to 35 people who had not reached settlements with the diocese before it filed for bankruptcy last year.

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NEW JERSEY
The Daily Journal

Written by
Jim Walsh
Courier-Post

Before moving to South Jersey one year ago, Bishop Dennis Sullivan lived in a Manhattan mansion with a chair reserved exclusively for a visiting pope.

Sullivan, now leader of the Diocese of Camden, is again in a mansion — but this one has the church leader on a hot seat.

Critics have assailed Sullivan’s decision to spend $500,000 for a Woodbury estate, a 20-room manor known as Rugby Pines once used by the president of Rowan University.

They assert the money would be better spent helping the needy, and say the bishop should seek a more humble home.

Sullivan is not alone.

Controversies have flared recently over church leaders’ pricey homes in the Atlanta and Newark dioceses. And Pope Francis removed a German bishop from his post last month after the cleric spent the equivalent of $43 million for a new residence and related improvements.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former teacher who sexually abused his student at a high school in the NSW Blue Mountains now wants his victim to pay his legal bills.

Mark Wurth was repeatedly abused at the Blue Mountains Grammar School by then-house master and geography teacher Neville Gilbert Betteridge in the 1970s.

“He was coming into the dormitory through the infirmary of a night and taking me from my bed back to his room,” Mr Wurth told the ABC.

In 2004, Betteridge was convicted of two counts of indecent assault on Mr Wurth and given a three-year suspended jail term.

Seven years later, Mr Wurth decided to sue the Anglican Church Diocese, which ran the school at the time, and Betteridge for damages.

The church paid Mr Wurth an out-of-court settlement and Mr Wurth then offered to withdraw the action against Betteridge.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

AN elderly priest has been charged with child sex offences, accused of abusing two young girls in 1969 and 1980.

It will be alleged in 1980 a priest at the St Aloyius Church in Shenton Park indecently assaulted a girl who was aged 10 to 12 years old when she visited the presbytery after school.

The same priest allegedly indecently assaulted a girl aged six to seven years old in 1969 while working at the Holy Name Church in Carlisle, also allegedly in the presbytery.

A 79-year-old has been charged with six counts of indecent dealing with a child under 13 years old.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH APRIL 14, 2014

THE wife of a Salvation Army officer has told how she apologised to the mother of an eight-year-old who he had sexually assaulted.

“She was very forgiving,” Lieutenant Colonel Kerry Haggar told the child sex abuse royal commission today.

“She told me not to worry about it.”

Lt Col Haggar said her husband Colin, who was also a lieutenant colonel in the Salvos until he was finally dismissed earlier this year, had told her what he had done in late 1989 when they were living in a western NSW town.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A 79-year-old Perth priest has been charged with child sex offences going as far back as 1969.

Police allege the man indecently assaulted a girl who was aged 10 to 12 when he was a priest at St Aloysius Church in Shenton Park in 1980.

They claim the same priest was working at the Holy Name Church in Carlisle in 1969 when he indecently assaulted a girl aged six to seven.

The offences allegedly occurred at the presbytery.

The man has been charged with six counts of indecent dealing with a child under 13.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

A 79-year-old man has been charged over alleged incidents involving children dating back to the 1960s while he was a Catholic priest.

The charges follow investigations by child abuse squad detectives relating to sexual assault and serious physical matters involving children in State care before March 1, 2006.

The priest was based at a Shenton Park church in 1980 when he allegedly indecently assaulted a girl who was aged 10-12 years when she visited the presbytery after school.

“It is further alleged in 1969, the same priest was working at a church in Carlisle, when he indecently assaulted a girl who was aged six to seven years of age,” police said.

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AUSTRALIA
Cowra Community News

A SPIKE in sex crimes may be the result of more people coming forward to report offenders, police say.

Sexual assaults in New South Wales increased by 125 per cent between 1990 and 2013.

More recently, in the two years up to December 2013, indecent assault and other sex offences jumped by 7.8 per cent, according to the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR) data released yesterday (Thursday).

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas says he believes the Special Commission of Inquiry and royal commission, both addressing institutionalised child sex abuse, have encouraged victims to come forward.

“We feel they have to have had an impact and probably a positive one in more people feeling confident in coming forward and reporting what has happened to authorities,” he’s told Sydney journalists.
“That can’t be a bad thing.”

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NEW JERSEY
WABC

NEWARK (WABC) — Critics are turning up the pressure on the Archbishop of Newark, over his plans to spend half a million dollars of Archdiocese money to expand his weekend home.

More than 17,000 petition signatures protesting the plans were delivered to Newark’s main cathedral Sunday.

The Archdiocese plans a 3,000 square foot expansion at the home in Hunterdon County. It includes an indoor pool. a hot tub, and three fireplaces.

It’s all to get the home ready for Archbishop John Myers’s retirement.

The Archdiocese has said donations and the sale of unnecessary properties are funding the expansion.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Erin O’Neill/The Star-Ledger
on April 13, 2014

As Barbara Grieco walked toward Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark today for Palm Sunday mass, she stopped to add her name to a petition calling on Archbishop John J. Myers to sell the large home in Hunterdon County where he plans to retire.

“Our Archbishop should really follow the Pope’s example by leading a simple life,” Grieco, a Montclair resident, said. “The money that’s going to this mansion, there are a lot of programs that could use the money.”

Faithful America, a national Christian group based in Washington, D.C., collected online signatures from more than 22,000 people who are critical of Myers for building a 3,000-square-foot addition on a 4,500-square-foot home in Franklin Township.

About a dozen parishioners and clergy sex abuse victims today had hoped to deliver the signatures directly to Myers after noon mass at the Ridge Street church.

Myers, who presided over the mass, did not meet with the group.

Rather, they delivered the signatures to Myers’ spokesman, Jim Goodness.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By John Munson/The Star-Ledger

Mary Gannon presents a petition with over 22,500 names to Newark Archdiocese Spokesman Jim Goodness calling for the Archdiocese to sell the retirement home it is building for Archbishop John J. Myers. They met on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart during Palm Sunday mass. Newark, NJ 4/13/14 (John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

A national inquiry into the Salvation Army’s handling of child abuse allegations resumes in Sydney on Monday.

Over the past two weeks the royal commission into child sex abuse in institutions has heard how some victims of abuse in army homes in NSW and Queensland felt they weren’t believed when they approached the charitable organisation with complaints.

The commission is also examining how the army dealt with officers about whom allegations were made.

James Condon, the Salvation Army commander in NSW, Queensland and ACT was questioned last week about the continued employment of one officer, Colin Haggar, who confessed to abusing an eight-year-old girl in 1989.

Commissioner Condon told the commission that in the early 90s he went with Mr Haggar to the Parramatta police station to report the assault.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

Updated April 11, 2014

TALK is CHEAP in Opus Dei PR Stunt of Crocodile tears apology of POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ & WORST THIEF of MANKIND!

Pope Francis narcissist ego is distending so quickly that he is acting as the greatest pretender and impostor of Jesus and performing the biggest magic tricks more than all popes combined: First, he has “personally taken on” on the Vatican Bank’s hundreds of billions of Euros and swiftly magically reduced them to a mere 7 Billion – for appearance’s sake. Second, now, he has “personally taken on” responsibility for the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army of Biblical Proportions under the 27 years watch and responsibility of John Paul II – whom he’ll canonize in two weeks time. Pope Francis’s apology of “I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil of some priests…” is tantamount to President Obama if he were to say that he “personally takes on” responsibility for the Iraq War which was declared and presidentially launched by George W. Bush – (when Obama was merely a senator in Chicago) in the Bush era – that has cost Americans trillions of dollars and thousands of dead and maimed young American soldiers.

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