Documenting the Catholic Sexual Abuse and Financial Crisis – Data on bishops, priests, brothers, nuns, Pope Francis, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Saturday, May 9, 2026
News Archive
A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
(Reuters) – Pope Francis on Friday asked for forgiveness for priests who molested children in some of his strongest words ever on the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis.
“I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests, quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests, to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children,” he told members of a children’s’ rights group according to Vatican Radio.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Pope Francis asked for forgiveness on behalf of priests who sexually abused children and said the Catholic Church must do more to rectify the damage and punish the offenders.
“I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests, quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests, to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children,” Francis said today in a statement posted to the website of Vatican Radio. “We will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and the sanctions that must be imposed. On the contrary, we have to be even stronger.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has asked for forgiveness from people who were sexually abused by priests, and has vowed that there will be no going back in the fight to protect children.
Francis spoke off the cuff Friday to members of the International Catholic Child Bureau, a French Catholic network of organizations that aim to protect children’s rights.
In his remarks, reported by Vatican Radio, Francis said he felt “called to take it upon myself” and ask forgiveness for all the evil that some priests had committed against children.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
THE STRUCTURE of a Daily News article on Archbishop Charles J. Chaput may have inadvertently given readers the impression that I said that Archbishop Chaput admired Pope Francis due to what the article termed the pope’s “rising popularity.”
Instead, I said that while some U.S. bishops may not have known much about the former Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, even those initially unfamiliar with him have been delighted and inspired by the new pope’s words and deeds.
For the record, I would never presume to speak for someone else, particularly for a bishop or archbishop. Also for the record, I was delighted by Archbishop Chaput’s recent trip to the Vatican, in company with Mayor Nutter, to invite the Pope to Philadelphia in 2015.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Commissions set up by church officials to advise church officials on clergy sexual abuse have a checkered history. No one knows this better than Catholics who answered their bishops’ call to serve, but found themselves and their advice rejected or ignored.
The U.S. bishops named a 12-member blue-ribbon panel of lay advisers amid the firestorm of media coverage in 2002.
“A lot of American bishops would not want to see any of us of the original review board named to this [pontifical] commission,” said Nicholas Cafardi, who served on the National Review Board from 2002 to 2004.
“The report we wrote in 2004 was pretty rough on the bishops,” said Cafardi, a Duquesne University law professor, dean emeritus and canon lawyer. “If [the pope and the Vatican] want a credible board, they should have at least one American who has dealt with the realities. This is hardly something to claim credit for, but we had the largest crisis in terms of victims and perpetrators — more than Ireland, Belgium and Australia — because our country has the biggest church.”
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, who also served on the original U.S. National Review Board, said the bishops resisted the board on many points, such as whether there would be audits of priest personnel files and who would do the audits. “I don’t think they realized that this was a time bomb and the magnitude of what was left to come.”
She also noted, “The bishops didn’t honestly deal with each other.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A United Synagogue rabbi advised a child sex abuse victim not to go to the police, despite an “extremely clear” policy on the issue, it has been alleged.
Yehudis Goldsobel (pictured), who was raised in an ultra-Orthodox family from Stamford Hill, suffered sexual abuse at the hands of family friend, Menachem Mendel Levy, between the ages of 13 and 20.
Last July, Levy, 41, who is a father-of-six from Golders Green, was convicted of two counts of child sexual assault and is currently serving a three-year jail term. He recently launched a bid against his conviction and sentence in the hope of early release to attend his son’s barmitzvah, but this was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
6:49 p.m. EDT, April 10, 2014
Seven men accused Jeffery London of sexually molesting them while they were teenagers in his care. Text messages from his phone contained lewd propositions. His wife said she walked in on him in bed with a 16-year-old boy.
But the evidence presented in Broward court last week and this week was not enough to convince the jury.
Four men and two women found London, 50, not guilty of 27 counts of lewd and lascivious conduct and sexual battery of a minor. The jury deliberated for six hours over two days before announcing their decision.
“Thank you. Praise the Lord,” London said after Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan read the verdicts.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on April 10, 2014.
As the reign of his Eminence Francis Cardinal George enters its final stages we (LGBT Community) must wonder is the Church ready to finally begin a conversation about reconciliation and healing. The Cardinal has been responsible for dividing the Catholic Community of Chicago on so many levels, that his apologists have become recognized as either spin doctors, or as downright bigots/hypocrites. Clearly the 900 lb. elephant in the room is the trifecta of homophobia, sexism, and racism.
His handling of the Clergy Sexual Abuse scandal is another gaping wound on the soul of the Archdiocese which has caused so much pain and alienation for the victims and families of those abused sexually by members of the clergy of the Archdiocese.
Whoever the Cardinal George’s replacement is I think we should be open to dialogue, as long as dialogue is based on the understanding that members of the Church have used homophobia, sexism, and racism to advance what can only be described as unchristian values within the Church and society.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Erin Edgemon | eedgemon@al.com
on April 10, 2014
SELMA, Alabama — The Alabama pastor accused of raping a young family member is now being held in the Dallas County Jail on $2 million bond.
Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson said he asked Judge Robert Armstrong III to increase William Best’s bond from $250,000 during today’s arraignment after “more details came out about the horrific nature of the crime.”
Best, 47, was arrested Tuesday and charged with incest, second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy of an underage family member.
Best served as pastor of Living Waters Worship Center in Valley Grande for three years. The church’s board of directors unanimously voted to fire Best following his arrest Tuesday, WSFA reported.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Former Sunday School teacher sentenced to 35 years for sexually assaulting female relative
By VANESA BRASHIER
A former Sunday School teacher and resident of Tarkington and Conroe will spend the next 35 years of his life in prison after being convicted of Indecency With a Child for the continuous sexual abuse of a female relative. The sentence was announced on Wednesday in the Liberty County courtroom of 253rd State District Judge Chap B. Cain.
Barring a successful appeal, Bruce Harp, 59, will be 94 years old before he is eligible for release. Prior to his conviction, Harp was offered a seven-year sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, but that offer was declined.
The seven-year sentence would have meant just three and a half years in prison for Harp since he already has served an equal amount of time in the Liberty County jail while awaiting trial.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Un prêtre de 40 ans, ancien directeur d’une école privée de Goussonville dans les Yvelines, a été mis en examen et écroué mercredi pour viols, tortures et actes de barbarie sur trois enseignantes.
L’horrible secret que portait un prêtre est resté longtemps confiné dans l’enceinte de l’école privée Notre-Dame de la Sablonnière, à Goussonville (Yvelines). Mercredi, l’abbé a finalement été mis en examen et écroué pour viols, tortures et actes de barbarie par un juge d’instruction de Versailles, rapporte «Le Parisien.» Entre septembre et octobre 2010, l’homme de 40 ans aurait violé à plusieurs reprises trois enseignantes de l’établissement de la Fraternité Saint Pie X, dont il était le directeur.
L’homme aurait profité de son influence spirituelle pour abuser des trois femmes. Il aurait choisi comme première cible une femme de famille fragile et déjà abusée sexuellement. «Il lui a fait subir un exorcisme avant de mimer des actes sexuels pour tenter de soigner “le mal par le mal”», explique le site du quotidien. La victime était tellement secouée par cette séance d’exorcisme qu’elle n’a pas pu raconter les sévices subis. Après elle, deux autres femmes seront les victimes présumées du religieux. En 2013, deux d’entre elles ont porté plainte. Lorsque la vérité éclate, la fraternité Saint Pie X sanctionne son membre lors d’un procès canonique et l’éloigne pendant deux ans dans un monastère.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN, Special to The Courant
The Hartford Courant
4:07 p.m. EDT, April 10, 2014
HARTFORD — If he had been asked two years ago what the Roman Catholic Church needed, Voice of The Faithful President Mark Mullaney would have replied, a pope in the mold of reformer John XXIII.
“John opened the windows, opened the doors, opened discussions,” he said of the pontiff who reigned from 1958 to 1963. “There’s a great need for that type of person.”
Mullaney and many others attending the group’s biannual assembly April 6 at the Hartford Convention Center clearly believed he had gotten his wish. Pope Francis’ explosion onto the world stage, his impact on Catholics and how he might reform the church dominated discussion among the more than 200 people from around the nation.
“What he is saying resonates with what we have been saying since our inception,” said Jayne O’Donnell of West Hartford, the group’s development coordinator. “Our hope is to meet Francis in the middle. We don’t expect to get everything that we want. Let’s work together in the sense of our community.” …
O’Connell said the new pope has shown far greater willingness to confront and crack down on priest sexual abuse. She cited Francis’ recent decision to send a seasoned Vatican investigator to look into allegations against a Scottish cardinal.
The pope has also moved to clean up the church’s finances and hold leaders accountable for financial misdeeds, another major focus of Voice of the Faithful, O’Connell said. Francis, for example, moved against the so-called “Bling Bishop,” a German prelate who spent $43 million of church funds building a luxury residence, she said.
“He’s made it clear that he’s not going to allow financial [misdeeds],” O’Connell said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A former pastor who waged a lengthy battle with the province in the 1980s over the licensing of his privately run school is back before the courts, this time to face charges in connection with the historical sex assault of two students.
Thomas Larry Jones, 69, who now lives in Carstairs, has been charged with indecent assault of a female, three counts of gross indecency, four counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and two counts of sexual exploitation.
Calgary police allege the abuse of one of the victims began in 1979, when the girl was five, and continued until she was 15. The abuse of a second girl began in 1986 when she was nine, and continued until she was 18, police said.
At the time, Jones was the pastor of the Western Baptist Church in the northwest community of Montgomery and also ran his own school, the Western Baptist Academy, out of the church basement.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
CALGARY – Police have charged a Carstairs man with allegedly sexually assaulting two girls during his time as a pastor at a northwest Calgary Baptist church.
The charges date back to 1970, when Thomas Larry Jones was working as a religious leader and teacher.
Jones allegedly began abusing one victim in 1979 when she was five-years-old, and continued until she was 15.
It’s alleged he also abused another victim starting in 1986 when she was nine-years-old, and continued until she was 18.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The Calgary Police Service Child Abuse Unit has charged a man with two historical sex assaults dating back to the 1970s.
The charges relate to two female victims who knew the accused as a pastor at a northwest Calgary Baptist church. The allegations came to the attention of police after a similar case in 2012, where another leader at the same church was charged with sexually assaulting three male victims in the 1980s and 1990s.
The most recent investigation revealed the alleged sexual abuse against one of the females began in 1979 when the victim was five years old and continued until she was 15. The other victim was nine years old when the alleged abuse began in 1986, and it continued until she was 18.
In both cases, the victims were parishioners at the Baptist church where the accused was a religious leader and teacher. The assaults allegedly occurred in the church and at the accused’s then neighbouring home.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
CALGARY – A Calgary pastor has been charged with sexually assaulting two children in the 1970s.
Police say the charges involve two female complainants who knew the accused as a pastor at a Baptist church.
Investigators say the alleged abuse against one woman began in 1979 when she was five and continued until she was 15.
They say the other woman was nine when the alleged assaults began in 1986 and continued until she was 18.
Police say they learned of the allegations after a similar case in 2012, when another leader at the same church was charged with sexually assaulting three boys in the 80s and 90s.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A former Calgary church pastor now living in Carstairs has been charged in connection with two sexual assaults that date back to the 1970s.
It’s alleged some of the assaults took place at Western Baptist Church in northwest Calgary, which was the site of another investigation against a former deacon there.
Former church deacon gets prison for child sex assaults
The first victim alleges the abuse started in 1979 when she was five years old and continued for 10 years.
The other victim says she was nine years old when she was first assaulted in 1986 and that the abuse continued until she was 18.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com
on April 10, 2014
The Pennsylvania General Assembly executed the last big deal in an effort to strengthen child protection systems Wednesday.
The state House and Senate both voted without opposition to send two bills changing the state’s mandated reporting requirements to Gov. Tom Corbett, closing a deal that had been months in the making.
The signature changes in the new bills are:
* Expanding the field of people who are required to make reports to state authorities if they reasonably suspect a case of child abuse. The new requirements fold in regular volunteers in children’s programs, most employees at schools and colleges, and attorneys serving schools or agencies that serve a youth population.
* Requires the first report to be to the state’s ChildLine hotline service, or local police or child welfare agencies. This change is intended to reduce the chances of internal cover-ups of suspected abusers, as has led to criminal charges in recent years both in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and and at Penn State.
* Upgrading the severity of the failure to report criminal charges, as an extra incentive for all mandated reporters to take their duties seriously.
With the passage of the mandated reporter changes, “there is a clear path on what they (reporters) are to do with suspected child abuse,” said Sen. Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
BY GLENN BLAIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, April 10, 2014
ALBANY — A fuming Timothy Cardinal Dolan has had it with state lawmakers.
In a letter sent to more than 70,000 families in the Archdiocese of New York this week, Dolan vented his anger at Albany for not approving tax credits that he and other Catholic bishops argued would have boosted funds for parochial school scholarships.
“Well, with some chagrin, I have to admit that a ‘done deal’ in Albany apparently does not mean what you and I think it means – that something will actually get done,” Dolan wrote in the letter sent home with Catholic school children Tuesday.
“I am frustrated, disappointed and angry,” Dolan continued. “As of today, I still have not heard why the promised credit did not go through.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Some law school students send the Justice Department résumés and references. At the University of Virginia School of Law, one class is sending document requests and lawsuits.
The students, along with professors and a university librarian, are tackling the contentious world of white-collar crime, challenging federal prosecutors to unseal settlements with big banks and corporations. In a matter of months, the classroom litigators at the law school’s First Amendment clinic filed their first lawsuit against the Justice Department and won the release of a secret settlement deal.
Building on the test case, the clinic ramped up its effort this week, filing a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain 30 other settlement deals that remain under wraps, a preliminary move that could foreshadow another lawsuit. The deals — mostly nonprosecution agreements with the British bank HSBC, the casino Las Vegas Sands Corporation and a smattering of other corporate giants — spared the companies indictment in exchange for cash penalties and other concessions. …
The experience emboldened the students to request the 30 remaining deals, which spanned the last two decades and a number of industries. Edward D. Jones struck a deal in 2004, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston settled a sex abuse scandal in 2005, and the medical devices company C. R. Bard reached an agreement last year — all of which remain private.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Law students at the First Amendment clinic at the University of Virginia filed freedom of information requests this week in an effort to unseal 30 secret settlement deals between federal prosecutors and banks and corporations. …
The FOIA requests seek information about government deals with the British bank HSBC, the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and several other large companies.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
We commend everyone who helped with this prosecution. And we beg everyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Rev. London to find courage, speak up, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A Ft. Lauderdale jury found a former youth pastor accused of molesting children not guilty on all counts.
When the jury resumed their deliberations Thursday morning in the trial of Jeffrey London they had a question for the judge concerning the definition of “reasonable doubt.” The judge told the jury to go back and read up on the definition.
Just after 2 p.m. a decision was reached and London was acquitted of 27 counts of abuse.
Prosecutors claim London, 50, sexually assaulted four boys who are now adults.
On Tuesday, London took the stand and said he’s been falsely accused. London said the young men who brought the charges were upset at being evicted from the home he provided for them.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. –
A jury found a former youth pastor who ran a boys home that was not registered with the foster system not guilty of sexually abusing four boys Thursday.
The four boys, who are now ages 16 to 26, said Jeffrey London abused them for years when they were teenagers.
Jeffrey London stands accused of turning boys into sex boys in Broward.
London, who faces 27 counts of child abuse, said he allowed the boys to stay in his home, because they were in need of a paternal figure.
“I had a need to help,” London, 50, said Tuesday in front of Judge Michael Usan in Broward County court in Fort Lauderdale.
He met the neglected kids when he was a counselor at the Boys and Girls Club of Fort Lauderdale, a youth pastor at the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, and when he was a dean at Eagle Academy, a Lauderdale Lakes charter school.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
UPDATE: A Broward jury has acquitted Jeffery London of all 27 counts of lewd and lascivious conduct and sexual battery on a minor.
The allegations against London, 50, were brought by seven men who were teenagers when London took them in temporarily at various times between 2000 and 2011.
London wept and thanked God after the verdicts were read.
There are still related charges pending against London involving other victims.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
AN ARMIDALE magistrate has sharply rebuked the defence of a former priest facing historic child sexual abuse for not filing documents to the court.
An order relating to the cross-examination of witnesses was meant to be determined on Wednesday.
However, Magistrate Karen Stafford said the documents had not been provided to the court.
The defrocked priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, first appeared in Armidale Local Court on October 18, 2012.
Wednesday was the 13th time his case has been before the court.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
CHARGES of indecently assaulting children against a former Catholic priest, who worked in the Shoalhaven in the 1970s, will be heard in a Sydney court on June 23.
Robert Flaherty, 70, who now lives at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, appeared in Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday before Magistrate Miszalski, facing five counts of indecent assault against children.
Magistrate Miszalski adjourned the matters until June for hearing.
The offences were alleged to have taken place in the Shoalhaven and Sydney up to 40 years ago, with the alleged victims aged between 11 and 15.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A French fundamentalist priest raped and tortured three teachers at a private religious school he ran during so-called exorcisms, leaving one the victims so disturbed she couldn’t describe events to investigators.
Police say the priest raped three women in the autumn of 2010 after he met them at the private religious school Ecole Notre-Dame-de-la Sablonniere in Goussonville, west of Paris, which he was running at the time, according to French media reports.
For years the women did not come forward to the police and one of them was so traumatized that she couldn’t even describe what had happened to her. The 40-year old priest was charged on Wednesday on charges of cruelty, torture and rape. He is now being held without bail
The cleric had allegedly raped one teacher to purge her of the “evil” of a previous sexual assault and used his “spiritual influence” to convince two other female teachers to experience similar exorcisms.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Kansas City, MO – infoZine – Gene Porter, Deputy United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, presented the Crystal Kipper & Ali Kemp Memorial Award today to Kansas City Police Detective Maggie McGuire for her work on behalf of protecting children, most notably her investigation of convicted Roman Catholic priest Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn.
The award ceremony was part of an annual event hosted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and VictimNet, a coalition of victim service providers and others committed to meeting the needs of crime victims in Jackson County, in conjunction with the observance of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. This year’s theme, “30 Years: Restoring the Balance of Justice,” honors the extraordinary achievements we have made on behalf of crime victims since the passage of the Victims of Crime Act in 1984.
McGuire is a long-time detective with the Kansas City, MO, Police Department and a former task force officer on the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force.
Porter praised McGuire’s “untiring and relentless work” in the investigation of Ratigan and Finn.
Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison without parole after pleading guilty to four counts of producing child pornography and one count of attempting to produce child pornography over a period of nearly six years. Each of those five counts involved the sexual exploitation of a separate child victim, ranging in age from two years old to 12 years old at the time of the offenses.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A South Florida youth pastor facing molestation charges was found not guilty on all counts Thursday.
Jeffery London, 50, had been charged with several counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and sexual battery on minors. He pleaded not guilty.
The jury made its decision Thursday, after deliberations began Wednesday.
London worked with youth at the Bible Church of God and was Dean of Students at Eagle Charter Elementary in Broward.
Since London was arrested in 2012, at least 10 men have accused him of molestation while the men were pre-teens through their teenage years
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A priest in an ultra-conservative Catholic sect has been charged with rape and torture for acts allegedly committed during exorcisms involving three schoolteachers.
Versailles prosecutor Vincent Lesclous said the 40-year old priest with the Society of Saint Pius X, whose identity has not been released to protect the victims, was charged on 9 April and is being held without bail.
He is facing charges of aggravated rape, torture and “committing barbarous acts” for the alleged assaults on three teachers at a private religious school in the western suburbs of Paris.
The prosecutor refused to provide further details, but newspaper Le Parisien reported today that the assaults took place in the autumn of 2010 at the Notre-Dame de la Sablonniere school run by the sect.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By AMY ANTHONY
aanthony@capecodonline.com
April 10, 2014
The state Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Falmouth priest against two other priests, agreeing the suit was filed beyond the statute of limitations.
In November 2010, the Rev. John P. Harrington, formerly a priest at St. Patrick’s Church on Main Street in Falmouth, filed suit in Norfolk Superior Court against the Rev. John H. Perry – the former pastor of St. Patrick’s – and the Rev. William M. Costello, the former pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth.
The suit stems from an incident beginning in January 2005, when Costello told Perry that a parishioner of St. Patrick’s had accused Harrington of stalking her minor son, according to the court decision. In response, Perry told the two directors of religious education at St. Patrick’s about the accusation against Harrington, according to the decision.
Perry then informed Harrington of the accusation, which was false, the decision says.
In response Harrington spoke with Costello, who told Harrington the accusation had not been made by a parishioner but by the parishioner’s co-worker, according to the decision. Costello refused to give Harrington the name of the co-worker.
In November 2007, Harrington learned the identity of the co-worker but after speaking with the co-worker discovered the co-worker had never made any accusation and that Costello had fabricated it, according to the decision.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Today marks the official change of leadership for the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese.
On February 11th, Reverend Monsignor Edward Scharfenberger of the Diocese of Brooklyn was announced as the 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Albany. Scharfenberger was hand-selected to replace the retiring Howard Hubbard by Pope Francis: in his initial meeting with Albany media, Bishop-designate Scharfenberger’s personal outlook seemed to echo that of Francis when he talked about community.
“Politics is obviously a big part of being in Albany. But I have to get to know people first – I’m very passionate about life and all it’s stake, and concerned about treating people differently because they’re in different classes, and I’ll say the words. Whether black or white, male or female, gay or straight, putting people in classes, stereotyping, I have something inside me that goes against that. People have to be treated as people first.”
Scharfenberger studied for the priesthood in Rome, earning a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical North American College in Rome and a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Lateran University’s Accademia Alfonsiana, also in Rome.
He also holds a licentiate in canon law from The Catholic University of America in Washington and a law degree from Fordham University. He was named a monsignor in 1995.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Excerpts from Bishop-elect Edward Scharfenberger’s comments on hot-button Catholic issues:
On abortion: “Our position on the sanctity of life at every stage of human development from conception to natural death is firm, fundamental and unchangeable. When we get into politics, it gets sticky. I am strong pro-life, but I’m not in-your-face. I don’t tell people what to do. This is America.”
On women priests: “This is not an issue open to doctrinal development, but I’m open to listening to anything.”
On gays in the church: “I have friends who are gay and some who are celibate and live together in the same house. It’s up to them. I agree with what Pope Francis said. ‘Who am I to judge?’ Despite whatever term you use to describe your attractions, are you trying to follow Jesus and to live the Gospel? That’s what’s important.”
On the priest sexual abuse scandal: “This is going to be with us forever. It has to be cleaned up. We must cooperate fully with civil and criminal authorities with complete transparency. No more cloak-and-dagger stuff. There must be zero tolerance and justice for the victims. Every structural and bureaucratic process has to be put in place to protect children and adults. And we must inspire people to lead moral lives. As bishop, it’s up to me to set the tone.”
— Paul Grondahl
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
FRANCE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, April 10, 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 French priest was indicted for raping and torturing multiple women at a private religious school. We are saddened by this revelation, but glad victims are speaking up and action is being taken.
The priest, who is part of the fundamentalist society of St. Pius X, had been tried in a religious hearing and sentenced to two year in a monastery for his sexual attacks several years ago. We are disappointed that it has taken several years for this dangerous predator to be indicted.
(NOTE: A former member of the St. Pius X Society, Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity, is now second-in-command of a diocese in Paraguay, despite several credible allegations of child sex crimes against kids in Scranton Pennsylvania.
We hope that anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse will call police and that Catholic officials will be proactive and aggressively seek out victims and witnesses.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
ALBANY (NY)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, April 10, 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)
We are not optimistic about Albany’s new Catholic bishop, Edward B. Scharfenberger, who is being installed today.
He’s a lawyer twice over: in both the civil and canonical realms. The church’s central crisis continues to be clergy sex crimes and cover ups. And it’s become clear over the past 30 years that far too many alleged religious figures deal with this on-going scandal with a lawyerly approach instead of a pastoral one.
And he hails from the Brooklyn Diocese, which has had and still has a very troubling track record on this crisis. (According to independent researchers at BishopAccountability.org, there are 53 publicly accused abusive Brooklyn priests, nuns, and brothers. Albany diocese has 45.)
Because of New York’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statute of limitations, very few men, women and teens who were sexually assaulted by clerics can ever use the courts to expose their perpetrators. So we believe the true number of child molesting clerics, in both Brooklyn and Albany, is substantially higher.
Usually, when a new bishop takes office, Catholics naively assume that he’ll be better than his predecessor when it comes to protecting the vulnerable. We think this is a reckless attitude. Complacency protects no one. Only vigilance protects kids.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
William Best Jr. was the pastor at Living Waters Worship Center on Deepwoods Drive. He was a trusted member of the community and we are glad law enforcement immediately responded when the victim’s mother brought the girl to the station to make a report. When victims report their crimes future crimes can be prevented. We applaud this victim and her family for cooperating with law enforcement so that others will be spared the awful trauma of childhood sexual assault.
We want Living Waters Worship Center officials to publicly explain how this dangerous man was able to work at the center. They should immediately create better child protection policy and reach out to anyone else who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes and report to police.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A social worker closely involved with Termonbacca children’s home run by the Sisters of Nazareth in Derry has said some nuns were “amazing in the ability to care and love”.
The witness, who cannot be named, spoke of his particular high regard for one named senior nun in the 1970s. He said he had “ a lot of time” for this particular nun who has also been praised by other social work professionals in their evidence to the inquiry which is investigating alleged abuses at care homes after 1922.
This nun was particularly keen to have professional, trained social workers included in the care plan for the home, the witness told the inquiry. She had great compassion and ability to recognise need when she saw it and to respond, he said.
Questioned by the inquiry’s senior counsel Christine Smith QC, the witness said this nun “wasn’t afraid to rock the boat” in providing for the children in her care.
She had a sense of direction and probably wanted to be a social worker herself, he told the inquiry.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A French fundamentalist priest repeatedly raped three teachers at the school he ran in the suburbs of Paris during so-called exorcisms, according to French media reports. But for years the victims didn’t come forward to police.
The 40-year-old priest was indicted this week on charges of rape, cruelty and torture for the acts that allegedly left one of the victims in the Paris suburbs so disturbed that she couldn’t even describe them to investigators.
Police said the priest raped the three women in the autumn of 2010 after coming into contact with them at the private religious school Ecole Notre-Dame-de-la-Sablonnière in Goussonville, which he was running at the time, French newsite Toute Les Nouvelles reported. It alleged he had first raped one teacher during an exorcism to purge her of the “evil” from a previous sexual assault.
The priest used his “spiritual influence” to convince two other female teachers to undergo similar exorcisms, French daily Le Parisien reported. It said the victims had claimed that acts of torture had been committed using a broom, a toothbrush and scissors during the ceremonies.
Police became involved only last year when two of the women reported the rapes to authorities. After learning of the crimes several years ago the priest’s fundamentalist society of St. Pius X tried him in a religious hearing and sentenced him to two years in a monastery.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
EDITORIAL
This issue brings together two strains of church life that NCR has been tracking for some 30 years: the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, and the finances of dioceses. It is in these two areas that church leaders are at their most vulnerable.
The sexual abuse of minors by clergy and the subsequent cover-up by those in the church leadership structure have sapped the hierarchy of much of its moral authority. Many times, the church has seemed to be moving on from the immediacy of that crisis, and then something happens — a priest in Newark, N.J., who is supposed to be on restricted ministry is found on youth retreats, or leaders in the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese ignore their own guidelines and the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People — and we are plunged headlong back into that morass.
The unprecedented appointment of the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors should have been greeted with jubilation — a commission of experts with direct access to the pope is something that could not have been imagined even three years ago. Instead, the announcement comes with many unanswered questions: Who will lead the commission? Where will it fit in the Vatican bureaucracy? What is its exact mandate? Sources have been telling NCR since December that this commission would be decisive in answering concerns of victim advocates, particularly in producing procedures to censure bishops who violate church law on clergy sex abuse. What could have been a watershed moment has done little to assuage critics. It is more than an opportunity wasted. It is the surest sign yet of the tremendous resistance that Pope Francis and his Council of Cardinals are meeting inside the church bureaucracy.
The sexual abuse of minors by clergy cost the U.S. church $109 million in 2013 and a total of $2.74 billion since 2004. But don’t look to the bishops’ annual report on compliance with the Dallas Charter to learn how much your diocese paid into that lump sum; the report doesn’t break down any data that way. Such fundamental information, which Catholics who support their church have a right to know, isn’t available because the bishops don’t want to share it. No national norms require financial disclosure and no mechanism holds bishops accountable.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Selon les informations du “Parisien”, la justice reproche à cet ancien directeur de l’école Notre-Dame de la Sablonnière à Goussonville (Yvelines), membre de la Fraternité Pie Saint-Pie X, d’avoir violé à l’automne 2010 trois enseignantes et de leur avoir fait subir des sévices.
Selon le quotidien, “le prêtre aurait usé de son influence spirituelle” sur une mère de famille victime d’abus sexuels, lui faisant “subir un exorcisme avant de mimer des actes sexuels pour tenter de soigner ‘le mal par le mal'”.
Placé en garde à vue chez les gendarmes de la section de recherches de Versailles, l’écclésiastique de 40 ans a été écroué ce mercredi soir. Le procureur de la République de Versailles, Vincent Lesclous, n’a pas donné plus de détails sur l’affaire, invoquant le “respect des victimes”.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Un prêtre intégriste a été inculpé et placé en détention par la justice française qui le soupçonne d’actes de barbarie, viol et torture, sur trois enseignantes d’une école catholique privée de la banlieue parisienne.
Membre d’une communauté proche des milieux d’extrême droite, la Fraternité Saint-Pie X, et ancien directeur d’une école de Goussonville, près de Paris, le prêtre est soupçonné d’avoir violé en 2010 trois enseignantes et de leur avoir fait subir des sévices. Agé de 40 ans, le prêtre a été écroué mercredi soir, selon le procureur de la République de Versailles Vincent Lesclous.
Selon le quotidien Le Parisien, “le prêtre aurait usé de son influence spirituelle” sur une mère de famille victime d’abus sexuels, lui faisant “subir un exorcisme avant de mimer des actes sexuels pour tenter de soigner ‘le mal par le mal'”.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
VERSAILLES, France, April 10, 2014 (AFP) –
A priest in an ultra-conservative Catholic sect has been charged with rape and torture for acts allegedly committed during exorcisms involving three schoolteachers.
Versailles prosecutor Vincent Lesclous told AFP the 40-year-old priest with the Society of Saint Pius X, whose identity has not been released to protect the victims, was charged on Wednesday and is being held without bail.
He is facing charges of aggravated rape, torture and “committing barbarous acts” for the alleged assaults on three teachers at a private religious school in the western suburbs of Paris.
The prosecutor refused to provide further details, but newspaper Le Parisien reported Thursday that the assaults took place in the autumn of 2010 at the Notre-Dame de la Sablonniere school run by the sect.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A new civil abuse and cover up lawsuit was filed today against Chaminade. The alleged victim, Chris Boisaubin, says he was sexually assaulted by Brother John Woulfe at the west county school. Meanwhile, Barbara Dorris of SNAP says, “There has likely been more child sexual abuse at Chaminade than at any school we know of across Missouri,” citing such accused clerics as Fr. William Christensen, Br. William Mueller, Br. Louis Meinhardt, Fr. Robert R. Osborne, Fr. Daniel A. Triulzi, Br. Tony Pistone, all of whom worked there. “And these are just the ones we know about,” she adds.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
[Summary: Former priest Alberto Athie said this morning they are following up on two recent cases of priests who are accused of child sexual abuse. He referred to the cases of Father Eduardo Cordova Bautista and another priests who is said to have abused 45 minors in Oaxaca.]
Ciudad de Méxcio.- El ex sacerdote Alberto Athié reveló esta mañana que están dando seguimiento a dos recientes casos de sacerdotes acusados de abusos sexuales a menores. Fuente: AristeguiNoticias
En entrevista para Noticias MVS, primera emisión, refirió los casos del padre Eduardo Córdova Bautista, en San Luis Potosí, a quien le adjudican hasta cien abusos, y el de un padre oaxaqueño quien habría abusado de 45 indígenas; aunque no indicó el nombre, se trataría de Gerardo Silvestre Hernández.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Leaked complaint letter about alleged cover-up of sexual abuse shocks Melbourne’s Orthodox Jewish community
SHANNON DEERY NEWS LIMITED APRIL 10, 2014
THE man behind a leaked complaint about an alleged sexual abuse cover-up at one of Melbourne’s most prestigious schools says he has been left shocked by its widespread release.
Police have launched an investigation into how the confidential complaint was leaked after it was photocopied and distributed widely.
The author of the complaint sparked a police investigation after he complained about the handling of allegations of sexual abuse at Yeshivah College in a November 2012 letter.
The college has been rocked by a worsening sexual abuse crisis that has seen numerous former employees jailed for the abuse of dozens of students over several decades.
But critics of the college’s handling of abuse cases say there were active attempts to cover-up the evil acts.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Cicero police are searching for more victims of sexual assault after a church employee allegedly engaged in sexual acts and sexual conduct with several juveniles.
Juan David Ferreras, who was employed at Sonido De Alabanza Church in Cicero, is accused of engaging in sexual acts with at least six juvenile victims between 9 and 17 years old while he worked as a youth minister, photographer and teacher at the church, police said.
Police believe the sexual acts took place over the last six years at numerous locations including the church, Ferreras’ apartment and at two camps where he ran youth retreats for Sonido De Alabanza Church, according to Deputy Supt. Jose Gonzalez.
“He had a role of authority within the church,” Gonzalez said. “He gained the trust of young boys, at the time between the ages of 9 to 17 years old, and again then used this position of authority to then perform these acts on these boys.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
7:40 p.m. EDT, April 9, 2014
They trusted him. They loved him. They looked to him as a father figure. And Jeffery London betrayed that trust by sexually molesting the boys in his care, prosecutors said Wednesday.
A Broward jury began deliberating late Wednesday afternoon over whether London was a serial pedophile or, as his defense lawyer argued, a kind man whose good deeds are being punished by opportunistic fortune seekers.
London, 50, of Lauderdale Lakes, faces life in prison if convicted of 27 counts of lewd and lascivious conduct and sexual battery on a child. He was a youth mentor at Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale and the dean of students at Eagle Academy Charter School.
The allegations first surfaced in 2011, with more than a dozen teenagers eventually coming forward.
Prosecutor Justin Griffis reminded jurors of the testimony of seven men, all of whom told similar stories of how their difficult family lives led them to stay with London temporarily at his home in Coral Springs and, later, Lauderdale Lakes. The men said London traded money, clothing and video games for sexual favors.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
David Francis is not bitter, nor angry. He is simply sad for those who suffered abuse, and are still too scared to talk about it.
“It’s a pretty hard thing to deal with,” he said.
“When you start going back and talking about things, you’re going to bring up your past again, so what happens is it can affect your mental stability. It’s a hard thing to talk about.”
At the age of seven, Mr Francis was made a ward of the state and sent to the Beagle Bay mission, north of Broome.
There he says he was abused.
“Sexual abuse happened on the mission pretty common. Especially in the dormitories, there was sexual abuse going on there,” he said.
The 51-year-old plans to tell his story to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.
But he is one of only a handful of people from the Kimberley who have expressed interest in doing so. …
Catholic church influence still strong
He says adding to the wall of silence is the huge influence the Catholic Church still exerts over Aboriginal communities in the north, with many retaining a genuine affection and loyalty to the nuns that cared for them.
In other cases, he says it is something more akin to Stockholm Syndrome, where people have a blind loyalty to the Church they grew up with no matter what.
“The people that have spoken out about abuse in the past, sometimes their own family would turn on them, ‘you can’t say that about the Church, be quiet’,” he said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) — The jury has finished deliberating for the day in the case of a former youth pastor accused of sexually abusing four young boys.
Deliberations began Wednesday afternoon after closing arguments wrapped up and will continue Thursday at 9:30 am.
On Tuesday, the accused pastor, Jeffrey London, 50, took the stand and said he’s been falsely accused. London said the young men who brought the charges, were upset at being evicted from the home he provided for them.
London faces 27 counts of child abuse.
Prosecutors said he molested the boys who are now young men. The four were ‘at risk’ children whom prosecutors said viewed London as a ‘father figure.’
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
VALLEY GRANDE — A Valley Grande pastor is in jail after allegedly having sex with a minor multiple times.
William R. Best Jr., 47, 327 Centenary St., Valley Grande, was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with second-degree sodomy, second degree rape and incest. He is being held on a $250,000 bond in the Dallas County Jail. He was a pastor at Living Waters Worship Center on Deepwoods Drive in Valley Grande.
Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman said the incident was reported Monday, when the child’s mother brought the girl into the sheriff’s department. Huffman said incidents of sexual abuse date back three years, when the girl was 14. Best allegedly had sex with the girl at his home and in the church’s office “dozens of times.”
“Pastors, of all people, should be above stuff like this,” he said. “By committing these acts, he let so many people down, who would come to him with their problems.”
Huffman said the department has “solid DNA evidence” directly linking Best to the crimes. The child is currently in the care of a family member.
Sheriff’s deputies obtained a warrant after conducting interviews and seized a computer from the church office. Huffman said he believes the computer contains pornographic images of the girl and additional charges could be coming.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Erin Edgemon | eedgemon@al.com
on April 09, 2014
A Dallas County pastor is behind bars after being charged with raping an underage family member.
William Best, 47, is charged with second-degree rape, second-degree sodomy and incest, Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman Jr. told WSFA.
Best served as the pastor of Living Waters Worship Center in Valley Grande for three years until the church’s board of directors fired him after the arrest.
The Selma Times-Journal reported the alleged sexual abuse started three years ago when the victim was 14 years old.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A Kansas City police detective was honored Wednesday for her work to protect children, most notably in the case of a Kansas City priest now serving a prison sentence for child pornography.
As a Kansas City detective is honored in the Shawn Ratigan case, diocese is castigated
Read more News
Detective Maggie McGuire received the Crystal Kipper & Ali Kemp Memorial Award, which recognizes the outstanding work of an individual or organization in protecting children from exploitation.
In presenting the award, an assistant federal prosecutor made a series of blistering remarks about Bishop Robert Finn and the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese’s handling of the case.
“When it becomes clear at the outset of the investigation that the entire hierarchy of a centuries-old religious denomination does not seem willing to recognize that the children depicted in the images are, in fact, victims of child exploitation, nor seem very willing to help establish the identity of the children depicted, and instead are spending millions of dollars on legal counsel in an ill-advised effort to avoid having the priest and bishop accept legal responsibility for their crimes, then you know, as an investigator, that your work is cut out for you,” said Deputy U.S. Attorney Gene Porter.
The diocese declined to comment on Porter’s remarks. Since the case came to light, the diocese has taken several steps to strengthen its efforts to protect children, including the appointment of a former assistant Jackson County prosecutor to investigate all reports of sexual misconduct or suspicious behavior by clergy and others in the diocese.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
FUGITIVE Israeli priest, Eliezer Berland (77), who was Tuesday convicted for violating the Zimbabwe’s immigration laws, has been slapped with a three month prison sentence by Bulawayo senior magistrate Sibongile Msipa.
But the embattled but wealthy Rabbi was likely not to go to prison as the sentence had the option of a $200 fine.
In her ruling, the magistrate also ordered his immediate deportation, either soon after the completion of his jail sentence or after paying the fine.
Berland, who back home is facing several allegations of rape and sexual harassment, was arrested while holed up at a Bulawayo hotel and was charged with contravening a section of the country’s immigration Act.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Stephen Briggs
stephen.briggs@peterboroughtoday.co.uk
Published on the 10 April 2014
A teacher and former priest has been jailed for 17 years for sexually abusing girls over a number of years.
David Goodstatd (45) showed no emotion as he was locked up by Judge Sean Enright at Peterborough Crown Court on Monday.
Goodstadt, who taught religious education at Thomas Deacon Academy was found guilty of the rape of one girl and a number of indecent assault charges against the other victims at a trial last month.
One of the girls was abused when she was under the age of 10.
Judge Sean Enright said: “I have read the victim impact statements. It is very clear you have done a great deal of damage over the years.
“You continue to deny the offences. I don’t think you will ever admit them.”
Christopher Gillespie, defending said: “He is a 45-year-old man who will spend a substantial part of the rest of his life in custody in difficult circumstances, which he has bought on himself.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A former teacher and priest has been jailed for 17 years for the sexual abuse of three young girls over a decade.
45-year-old David Goodstadt of Broad Street in Whittlesey was convicted of rape, attempted rape, indecency with a child and five counts of indecent assault following a trial at Peterborough Crown Court.
He was cleared of three other charges and the jury failed to reach a verdict on two other offences.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
So devout Catholics in Milwaukee went to attend the Mass of Atonement and listened to the homily of Archbishop Listecki prepared script by the Vatican Opus Dei PR Deceits Team . Obviously they felt holy and it was “business as usual” as they ate the cloned flesh-and-blood of Christ and as they listened to Archbishop Listecki who wore a magical vestment and parroted out Biblical interpretations from dead John Paul II’s past homilies. Then, as content robot Catholics, they simply said, Amen. Most of them were stupid robot women Catholics. They went home and slept in peace feeling their prayers has automatically forgiven-and-forgotten the crimes of pedophile priests. The Mass of Atonement is like Merlin’s magic wand. SNAP and victims were outside the church, did these Catholics even stop to talk to them why they re outside and not inside eating the flesh of Christ with them? Did Archbishop Listecki explain and clarify his 5 plans – as pointed out by SNAP – see below – which prove the Mass of Atonement is only a hypocritical ploy to divert Catholics’ attention away from the harsh truth of his deceits?
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
El ex sacerdote Alberto Athié denunció esta mañana dos nuevos casos de sacerdotes que habrían abusado de menores en San Luis Potosí y Oaxaca.
El ex sacerdote Alberto Athié reveló esta mañana que están dando seguimiento a dos recientes casos de sacerdotes acusados de abusos sexuales a menores.
En entrevista para Noticias MVS, primera emisión, refirió los casos del padre Eduardo Córdova Bautista, en San Luis Potosí, a quien le adjudican hasta cien abusos, y el de un padre oaxaqueño quien habría abusado de 45 indígenas; aunque no indicó el nombre, se trataría de Gerardo Silvestre Hernández.
Sobre las acusaciones contra Córdova, Athié aseguró que ya existen denuncias en el Ministerio Público pero “están detenidas”; “el caso se llevó en secreto a la Santa Sede, se le retiró del cargo, pero no del ministerio, sigue celebrando”, comentó.
Recordó que Eduardo Córdova Bautista hasta hace poco fue el apoderado de la Diócesis y representante de las relaciones Iglesia-Estado en la Arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí.
“Es un pederasta al que se le adjudican cerca de 100 casos, es reciente, y quiero comentar que existen denuncias en ministerios públicos que están detenidas”, dijo.
Athié hizo un llamado a las familias que sus hijos fueron abusados por este sacerdote para que se comuniquen con él y puedan apoyarlos para integrar una averiguación contra el sacerdote.
Medios en San Luis Potosí, como El Heraldo, indican que el representante jurídico de la arquidiócesis Eduardo Córdova Bautista ha sido señalado insistentemente en las redes sociales como presunto pederasta.
El mes pasado, el arzobispo Jesús Carlos Cabrero Romero consideró que “en muchas ocasiones, en el anonimato de las redes sociales, suelen filtrarse imputaciones de esta naturaleza, en un afán de dañar la buena fama de las personas y la credibilidad de la iglesia”. No obstante dijo que de documentarse, la Iglesia procederá en consecuencia.
“En estos casos el obispo debe ser el primero en ser informado. Y esto no ha ocurrido… Las redes sociales, a veces, perjudican la fama de las personas y dañan mucho a la vida y la convivencia… Me parece que todo es una cuestión inescrupulosa que busca afectar a la persona y dañar a la Iglesia”, comentó el arzobispo.
—¿Seguirá, entonces, (Eduardo Córdova) en funciones de apoderado legal? –se le preguntó en la conferencia de prensa.
—Sí, sigue siéndolo –respondió el mes pasado—, y sigue siendo sacerdote, sigue estando en la oficina como apoderado legal, sigue también desempeñando sus encomiendas, de tiempo completo.
“Este miércoles, el vocero de la Arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí, Juan José Priego Riveraconsideró que las acusaciones hechas por Alberto Athié en contra del padre Eduardo Córdova Bautista, por supuestos casos de pederastia, se deben a un resentimiento hacia la iglesia.
El vocero religioso dijo que las acusaciones de esta índole deben estar justificadas, y no estar basadas en declaraciones con resentimiento.
“Es un activista…se ve que hay mucho resentimiento del Alberto Athié contra la iglesia”, calificó.
Pederasta en Oaxaca
En tanto, en Oaxaca, al menos 45 niños y jóvenes de regiones indígenas sufrieron abuso sexual por parte del sacerdote Gerardo Silvestre Hernández, según diversos testimonios de feligreses y curas oaxaqueños, presentados en 2009, de acuerdo con La Jornada.
En un reporte del periodista Julio Hernández, publicado a mediados de 2012, se detalla que fue hasta mayo de ese año al sacerdote lo suspendieron, tras la denuncia que hizo el mecánico Pedro Mendoza, cuyo hijo de nueve años fue enviado en 2006 como acólito a la parroquia donde oficiaba Silvestre Hernández. Después se conocieron otras dos denuncias de jóvenes que en su niñez también pasaron por la parroquia de San Pablo Huitzo, a cargo de Gerardo Silvestre.
En mayo 2012, el arzobispado de Antequera-Oaxaca emitió un comunicado de prensa en el que precisó: No es el proceder de la arquidiócesis ser notificados a través de denuncias públicas. Desconocíamos la acusación (…) Se nos hace injusto ser acusados de inacción cuando no habíamos sido previamente advertidos y, mucho menos, se nos ha probado lo que se afirma.
En una carta formal enviada por religiosos oaxqueños al cardenal William Joseph Levada, directivo de la Sagrada Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, aseguraron que desde el 16 de junio de 2009 “advertimos a nuestro arzobispo (Chávez Botello) y a su obispo auxiliar, Óscar Campos Contreras –hoy obispo de Tehuantepec–, en una reunión que le pedimos para tratar este caso, que el malestar del pueblo y la noticia de la pederastia del padre Gerardo Silvestre estaba desbordando los límites de las parroquias de Santiago Camotitlán –su parroquia inmediatamente anterior– y Villa Alta, su parroquia actual en este momento”.
Una carta al Vaticano, enviada por religiosos el 4 de agosto de 2010, exponía: “Estamos muy preocupados por esta situación que, consideramos, puede llevar a nuestra iglesia diocesana –y por ella a la Iglesia universal– a una crisis de credibilidad y de pérdida de respeto peor que la que el papa Benedicto XVI advierte en su Carta Pastoral a los católicos de Irlanda”, pues el delito de pederastia que denunciamos, pudiendo resolverse a tiempo, se ha dejado que avance encubierto por nuestro arzobispo, con gran sufrimiento de niños y adolescentes indígenas, de sus padres y de pueblos completos.
Esto es lo que dijo Alberto Athié sobre los dos presuntos sacerdotes pederastas:
(Con información de Pulso de SLP, El Heraldo de San Luis, La Jornada y MVS)
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
As Pope Francis continues apparently to try to fool Catholics with his “bait and switch” strategy, it is helpful to consider Cardinal Pell, Francis’ new choice to maximize the Vatican’s considerable wealth. Pell’s recently revealed and ruthless treatment of victims of Australian priests’ child abuse makes some Wall Street investment bankers’ approach to making money seem beneficent, it appears.
Pell’s significance has been captured well recently by Fr. Thomas Doyle, O.P., the leading worldwide advocate for over a quarter century of justice for priest abuse survivors.
Fr. Doyle in the 1980′s had futilely advised Pope John Paul II’s US representative, Cardinal Pio Laghi, on priest child abuse curtailment policy. Laghi had just finished overseeing the Argentina Catholic Church’s self serving cooperation with a brutal military in the “Dirty War”, while Pope Francis assisted him, as the local Jesuit provincial, by trying to suppress prophetic local Jesuits who challenged the military.
Doyle in his below article uses his unique hierarchical insights, canon law expertise and long advocacy experience to zero in on Cardinal Pell’s “save the money first” approach that seemingly Francis and his cardinal clique now want Pell to apply to maximize the Vatican’s assets mainly, it appears, to benefit the hierarchy. So much for the “preferential option for the poor”, including abuse survivors, it appears.
It is hardly surprising Pope Francis has not appointed Fr. Doyle to Francis’ long delayed and still illusory advisory committee on child abuse, the latest Vatican public relations façade for covering-up the priest child abuse scandal.
Fr. Doyle’s remarks make amply clear why President Obama must set up now a US national commission, like Australia has, to investigate US child sexual abuse in institutions, including in the various churches. If Obama fails to do this, and if Catholics and others fail to demand that he do so, they are also failing in their Gospel mandated duty to protect children by reasonable and readily available means.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Maine high court to decide if lawsuit claiming abuse by ex-priest living out of state may go forward
By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted April 09, 2014
PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday considered whether the statute of limitations bars a woman’s lawsuit against an ex-priest she claims sexually abused her as a child, or, if it may go forward since the man lived out of state and she did not locate him until 2009.
Christine S. Angell, 52, of Portland sued Renald C. Hallee, 69, of Billerica, Mass., and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland in March 2010 in Cumberland County Superior Court. She alleged that between 1970 and 1973, when he was assigned to St. John Catholic Church in Bangor, Hallee abused her.
The claims against the diocese have been settled, according to court documents.
Hallee, who left the priesthood and Maine in 1977, has denied the allegations. He worked as a teacher in Lexington, Mass., from 1978 until his retirement in January 2007, according to court documents. He married in 1983 and has lived in the same home since 1985.
Under Maine law in effect when the abuse allegedly took place, Angell had two years from the time she turned 18 in November 1981 to file the lawsuit, unless Hallee had moved out of state and was not available to be served with the complaint.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Lilly Fowler lfowler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8221
A new lawsuit against a member of the Marianist Catholic order and school alleging sexual abuse of a minor was filed on Wednesday.
The lawsuit, filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court, names the Marianist Province of the United States as a defendant, as well as the Rev. Martin Solma. Solma is head of the Roman Catholic order, which is based here in St. Louis.
Chaminade College Preparatory, a Marianist boarding school in Creve Coeur serving boys in grades 6 through 12, is also named as a defendant.
The lawsuit alleges that Chaminade’s John Woulfe, a member of the Marianist order who is now deceased, sexually abused plaintiff Chris Boisaubin, 59, when he was a minor.
Woulfe, a school counselor, met Boisaubin in about 1970 when he first became a boarding student at the school, according to the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that the sexual abuse occurred when Woulfe welcomed Boisaubin into his office. Locking the door behind him, Woulfe asked Boisaubin to sit in his recliner. Woulfe then reclined the chair and fondled Boisaubin, the lawsuit claims.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, April 9, 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 )
There has likely been more child sexual abuse at Chaminade than at any school we know of across Missouri.
Let’s look at who the Marianists have let teach at Chaminade:
There’s Fr. William Christensen, who’s accused of molesting at least 30 kids in Bangladesh (and may still be there now).
There’s Br. Louis Meinhardt, who’s accused of molesting at least 15 kids at Chaminade and who was only “outed” for the first time in 2011.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, April 9, 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 Cicero youth pastor has been charged with multiple counts of child sexual abuse in a case involving multiple children. We are deeply saddened that there are likely more victims suffering in silence and self-blame.
Juan David Ferreras was the youth pastor at Sonido De Alabanza Church, he also organized two youth retreats for the church. It is extremely upsetting when a man entrusted by the community to work with their children uses his position to sexually assault them. The church should publically explain how this abuse was allowed to occur and create better child protection policies.
We are grateful for Cicero police for searching for more victims and encouraging church members to speak with their children about the case. We urge Sonido De Alabanza Church officials to reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered sexual abuse. They should also reach out to the two camps that ran youth retreats for the church.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
. . .Another out-of-state Catholic priest living at the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer is in the news. Lawyers for Fr. Richard McCormick, who is accused of raping two Massachusettes minors, were in court this week arguing that the charges against him should be tossed out because they violate the cleric’s freedom of religion. A ruling is pending. The center is described as a “retreat” for accused and convicted pedophile priests.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Join Kathy and myself at this wonderful second annual event organized by Justice4PAKids, a non-profit that raises awareness and provides education on protecting children from sexual abuse. It’s a choice of 5K or a 1 mile walk managed by Chester County Running Store. It’s a great way to meet each other. Ask for a blue ribbon on race day to signify your affiliation with Catholics4Change. For information and registration, please visit:
Register Today @ www.justice4pakids.com
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
SUGGESTIONS that former Ballarat Catholic bishop Ronald Mulkearns could be sued over the ongoing sexual abuse saga gained strength yesterday from a specialist lawyer.
Dr Vivian Waller said former Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale’s conviction this week on more sex child offences was the trigger for victims to take the issue further.
She is preparing a landmark case against the Catholic Church in what will be the first test of Cardinal George Pell’s recent commitment to make the church less hostile to litigation from sex abuse victims.
At least 20 victims, including some from the south-west, have instructed her to launch a class action against the Diocese of Ballarat and argue that the church’s negligence or cover-ups allowed Ridsdale to remain as a priest after it was known he was a sexual predator.
It is understood the church could be forced to pay out millions in compensation if the cases succeed.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Summary of Case: A Jesuit priest of the Oregon Province ordained in 1961, Morse’s ministry took him to the dioceses of Yakima, Spokane, Portland in Oregon and Boise. In 2006 Morse was removed from public ministry after accusations surfaced that he had sexually abused children – mostly, but not all, girls – at St. Mary’s Mission on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington state. His victims were said to have been as young as 5 and 6 years-old. Morse denied the allegations. In 2007 his name was on the Spokane diocese’s list of “Admitted, Proven or Credibly Accused Perpetrators of Sexual Abuse.” By 2011 there were than 66 individual claims against him. In February 2014 Morse was known to be residing at the Jesuit Retirement community in Spokane to which he was sent after his 2006 removal.
Ordained: 1961
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
CHICAGO – La Policía de Cicero le presentó múltiples cargos de asalto sexual criminal a Juan David Ferreras por supuestamente abusar de unas seis jóvenes entre las edades de 9 a 17 años.
La Policía indicó que Ferreras, de 47 años, cometió los supuestos abusos mientras fue ministro de juventudes, fotógrafo y maestro de la Iglesia Sonido de Alabanza del 5510 W. 25th St., en Cicero.
Ferreras comparece el 9 de abril en una corte del Condado de Cook.
Para ver fotos de fichados en el área de Chicago, visite este enlace.
Los abusos ocurrieron, no sólo en su domicilio y el templo, sino en otros lugares y en dos retiros para jóvenes organizados por la iglesia, según la Policía de Cicero.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
CICERO (CBS) – Police in west suburban Cicero have charged a youth minister with multiple felonies in a sexual assault case involving at least six boys, and authorities believe more victims might be out there.
Juan David Ferreras, 43, has been charged with one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, two counts of criminal sexual assault, one count of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of indecent solicitation of a child, four counts of distribution of harmful material, and one count of battery.
He was due in bond court on Wednesday.
Police said Ferreras – the son of the pastor at Sonido De Alabanza Church in Cicero – had sex with at least six children ranging in age from 9 to 17.
Ferreras allegedly used his position as a youth pastor, teacher, photographer, and camp retreat organizer to prey on at least six boys. Police fear there might be more victims.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
April 8, 2014 (CICERO, Ill.) (WLS) — Juan David Ferreras, 43, is charged with multiple felonies after an ongoing criminal sexual abuse investigation. Cicero police say there may be more victims.
Cicero Police Supt. Bernard Harrison is asking alleged victims of Ferreras to call Deputy Superintendent Jose Gonzalez at 708-652-2130 ext. 348.
Ferreras worked at Sonido De Alabanza Church, 5510 W. 25th Street, as a youth minister, photographer and teacher there. Police said he engaged in sexual acts and sexual conduct with at least six juvenile victims between the ages of 9 and 17.
Some of the alleged assaults took place at the church, Ferreras’ apartment and two youth camp retreats in Tsikilwa and Ingleside, both of which are in Illinois, police said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Rosemary Regina Sobol
Tribune reporter
April 9, 2014
A youth minister has been charged with sexually assaulting six minors at his Cicero church and at two camps, and police say they believe there may be more victims.
Juan David Ferreras, 43, worked at Sonido De Alabanza Church as a youth minister, photographer and teacher when he had sexual contact with at least six minors ranging in age from 9 to 17, according to town spokesman Ray Hanania.
The attacks occurred in his apartment, in the church at 5510 W. 25th St. in Cicero and at two camps where he ran youth retreats, one of them in Tsikilwa and the other in Ingleside, Hanania said.
Ferreras, of the 5700 block of West 35th Street in Cicero, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual assault, sexual exploitation of a child, indecent solicitation of a child, distribution of harmful material and battery. He is scheduled to appear in bond court today.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
(JTA) — An Israel-based priest who is facing extradition to his native Russia on child molestation charges said he would leave soon to prove his innocence.
Prosecutors in St. Petersburg asked Israel to extradite Gleb Grozovsky, 34, earlier this week in connection with allegations that he molested two girls in Greece last year, the Russian Interfax news agency reported.
On Tuesday, Grozovsky, who is working in Israel in a program that helps drug addicts, wrote on the Vkontakte social network that he would fight the allegations in court.
“I will return to Russia soon, where I will defend my innocence and the honor of Archpriest Viktor Grozovsky’s family because the Russian law enforcement authorities are already making an attempt to hold members of our big family criminally liable, and illegally, by inflicting psychological pressure,” Grozovsky wrote.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office requested the extradition based on what one unnamed source said were ”materials obtained from the Investigations Committee’s Investigations Department for St. Petersburg in connection with a case involving the molestation of two minors.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A 60-year-old former Catholic priest, facing multiple historic child sex abuse charges, has re-appeared at Armidale Local Court.
The former priest appeared before Her Honour Magistrate Karen Stafford.
It’s alleged the accused committed the assaults against three girls and six boys at unspecified locations in Armidale, Moree, Narrabri and Inverell.
The Crown alleges the assaults took place during the 1970s and 1980s.
On Wednesday, at Armidale Local Court, the accused was represented by Mr Hament Dhanji, SC.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Rabbi Eliezar Berland, the head of the Shuvu Banim Breslov hasidic faction, was arrested in Zimbabwe today and then released, Arutz Sheva reported.
Berland fled Israel last year after he was accused of sexually abusing female followers, some of whom were allegedly minors at the time the abuse allegedly took place, and is still wanted for questioning by Israeli police.
Because of that, Berland has been forced to stay in countries, like Morocco and Zimbabwe, which do not have extradition treaties with Israel.
Berland’s son, grandson and several other close followers were arrested last year in Israel for alleged fraud, embezzlement and money laundering, leading some to wonder if Berland may be wanted for questioning involving those alleged crimes, as well.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Fugitive Israeli Rabbi Eliezar Berland, head of the Shuvu Banim Hassidic sect, was arrested in Zimbabwe on Monday, according to reports in the local media.
The rabbi was later released but faces deportation from the African country due to an expired visa, according to the reports.
Berland fled Israel some 18 months ago after being accused of committing indecent acts against several female followers, some of whom were minors at the time of the alleged abuse. He spent time in the United States, Italy, Switzerland and Morocco before arriving in Zimbabwe two months ago.
Shortly after he fled Israel, his son, grandson and several other followers were arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering involving the sect’s finances.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
More than a dozen members of the Anglican Church of Bermuda have been certified to prevent, recognize and respond to child sex abuse on the island.
The advocacy group Saving Children and Revealing Secrets (SCARS) provided the training to Bishop Nicholas Dill, along with current and retired clergy of the Diocese.
It became the island’s first church to ensure that a representative in each parish — 15 in total — had such training.
“Child sexual abuse is so often kept secret that statistics vary widely but what we do know is that it exists in Bermuda and is quite prevalent,” said Debi Ray-Rivers, SCARS executive director.
“Some research in the U.S. has shown that as many as one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually molested before their 18th birthday, which means that no organization is untouched by this personally and socially-devastating issue.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A cardinal and nine bishops walk into the state Capitol — and the very bad joke was on them.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn and Bishop William Murphy of Long Island were among the Catholic prelates who traveled to Albany to seek tax credits for private school donations.
It was their top priority, a crucial step toward rescuing financially troubled parochial schools. In a year when lawmakers were focusing on education , the cardinal and bishops had reason to believe their timing was right.
They met with Gov. Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate co-leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein. The elected officials smiled and nodded and gave assurances.
And the bishops came away feeling suckered. The politicians led them to believe one thing, then did another.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Summary: The Catholic bishops in Germany have started an intensive study to clarify the extent of sexual violence against children and young people in the church. The plan is to raise case numbers from all dioceses and analyze influence of the church on perpetrators and victims. Can this be done? Many people want to bring light to the darkness.]
Pro und Contra
Die katholischen Bischöfe in Deutschland haben eine umfangreiche Studie in Auftrag gegeben: Sie soll das Ausmaß sexueller Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche in der Kirche klären. Geplant ist, Fallzahlen aus allen Bistümern zu erheben und den Einfluss der Kirche auf Täter und Opfer zu analysieren. Kann das gelingen?
Ja! Viele Menschen wollen Licht ins Dunkel bringen
Die Kirche muss sich einer kritischen Durchleuchtung ihres Verhaltens stellen. Meint sie es ernst mit ihrer Ankündigung, aus den Missbrauchsfällen der vergangenen Jahrzehnte zu lernen? Viele Verantwortliche in der Kirche wollen das inzwischen, weil sie wissen: Nur so können verloren gegangenes Vertrauen und die so sehr in Mitleidenschaft gezogene Glaubwürdigkeit der Kirche zurück gewonnen werden. Sie wollen Licht ins Dunkel bringen, um besser verstehen zu können, wie es dazu kommen konnte, dass in einem so erschreckend hohen Ausmaß sexueller Missbrauch im kirchlichen Kontext möglich war.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
[Summary: After the explosion of costs for the bishop’s house in Limburg, former Vicard General Franz Kaspar has expressed deep regret over sexual abuse assault that happened after 1970 at St. Vincent home when he was director.]
Nach der Kostenexplosion für den Bischofssitz in Limburg zeigt der ehemalige Generalvikar Franz Kaspar Mitgefühl. „Ich möchte mein tiefes Bedauern darüber zum Ausdruck bringen, dass das Bauprojekt auf dem Domberg in Limburg das Bistum in eine solche Krise gestürzt hat, und ich hoffe, mit vielen anderen, dass es nun mit Weihbischof (Manfred) Grothe zu einem guten und erfolgreichen Neuanfang kommen wird“, heißt es in einer am Dienstag verbreiteten Stellungnahme Kaspars.
In den vier Zeilen, die sich auf Limburg beziehen, geht er aber nicht ein auf den von Papst Franziskus zum Amtsverzicht gedrängten früheren Limburger Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst. Dieser hatte Kaspar einen wesentlichen Teil der Verantwortung für die Kostenexplosion zugeschoben. Dafür war Tebartz-van Elst wiederum vom Mainzer Bischof Kardinal Karl Lehmann kritisiert worden. Die Kosten für den Umbau des Bischofssitzes waren von ehedem veranschlagten rnd fünf Millionen Euro auf mehr als 30 Millionen Euro geklettert.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
[Summary: Father Marco Rasia, former pastor of Castelletto Ticino, has been sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of sexual abuse of children. He was arrested on April 12 last year and accused to abusing at least six children under age 16.]
E’ stato condannato a sei anni di carcere don Marco Rasia, ex parroco di Castelletto Ticino (Novara), accusato di aver compiuto atti sessuali su minori. Il prete era stato arrestato il 12 aprile dello scorso anno con l’accusa di aver avuto rapporti sessuali con almeno sei ragazzini di 16 anni. I fatti si riferiscono al 2000, quando don Rasia era alla parrocchia di Castelletto Ticino. Sarebbero proseguiti anche dopo il suo trasferimento a Omegna (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola).
Don Marco ha sempre respinto ogni accusa, sostenendo che i rapporti erano consenzienti e che in un caso ci sarebbe stata una vera e propria relazione. Il giudice dell’udienza preliminare di Novara, Gianfranco Pezone, lo ha ritenuto responsabile di violenza sessuale, pur riconoscendo la lieve entità di alcuni episodi, e l’ha condannato a 6 anni. I pm Giovanni Caspani e Irina Grossi avevano chiesto 6 anni e 8 mesi.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A FUGITIVE rabbi, who fled Israel after he was accused of abusing underage girls and sleeping with numerous married women, has finally been arrested in Bulawayo.
Rabbi Eliezer Berland, 72, who is head of Shuvu Banim, one of the largest Jewish educational institutions in Jerusalem, has for a number of weeks been living in various upmarket lodges in Bulawayo.
But luck ran out for him Monday evening when police raided his hideout – Room 301 Holiday Inn in Bulawayo – to arrest him.
Berland was caught with a handful of faithfuls from Israel after cops got a tip off about his whereabouts.
He is being charged with remaining in Zimbabwe without a permit following the expiry of his visitor’s visa.
Berland pleaded guilty to the crime before magistrate Sibongile Msipa and was remanded in custody to this Wednesday.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Rabbi Eliezer Berland, a leader of the Breslov Hassidic community wanted in Israel on suspicion of sexual molestation, was questioned on Tuesday by police in Zimbabwe where he currently resides.
Berland, who heads the Shuvu Banim Breslov community in Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim neighborhood, fled Israel some 18 months ago after being accused of sexual abuse.
After several stops, he took up residence in Morocco but was expelled after a seven month stay by King Mohammed VI in light of the accusations against him, after which he sought refuge in Zimbabwe with a group of his followers.
The Hebrew daily Ma’ariv reported that Berland was brought in for questioning by Zimbabwe’s immigration authorities on Tuesday morning and was released a short time after.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Nick McKenzie, Richard Baker, Mark Russell April 9, 2014
At least 20 victims of former Ballarat paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale have instructed a lawyer to prepare a class action against the Ballarat Catholic diocese.
The landmark class action against the Catholic Church will be the first test of Cardinal George Pell’s recent commitment to make the church less hostile to litigation from sex abuse victims.
Lawyer Vivian Waller said the victims had instructed her to launch claims against the Diocese of Ballarat and argue that the church’s negligence or cover-ups allowed Ridsdale to remain as a priest after it was known he was a sexual predator.
It is understood the church could be forced to pay out millions in compensation if the cases succeed.
On Tuesday, Ridsdale, who admitted to abusing at least 53 children between 1961 and 1982, was sentenced to eight more years’ jail, after he pleaded guilty to 39 new charges involving sex offences against 11 boys and three girls, he having already been jailed in previous court cases.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A South Florida youth pastor testified Tuesday in the sex abuse trial against him.
Jeffery London, charged with several counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and sexual battery on minors, said on the stand that helping people was a part of his Christian upbringing.
“It was like I was a beacon,” London said. “If a child was in trouble, send him to Mr. London. I didn’t go out looking for anyone’s children, they came to me.”
London worked with youth at the Bible Church of God and was Dean of Students at Eagle Charter Elementary in Broward.
Since London was arrested in 2012, at least 10 men have accused him of molestation while the men were pre-teens through their teenage years, the Sun Sentinel reported. London faces life in prison if convicted, according to the newspaper.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Author: Andrea Torres, Local10.com Reporter/Producer, atorres@local10.com
FORT LAUDERDALE –
Former youth pastor Jeffrey London cried while he was on the stand Tuesday, as he defended himself against accusations that he sexually assaulted four boys.
The four boys, who are now ages 16 to 26, said the pastor abused them for years when they were teenagers. London, who was charged with 27 counts of child abuse, said he allowed the boys to stay in his home, because they were in need of a paternal figure.
As defense attorney Lourdes Gonzalez questioned him, he stared at jurors when he said he was helping boys in need.
“I had a need to help,” London, 50, said in front of Judge Michael Usan in Broward County court in Fort Lauderdale.
He met the neglected kids when he was a counselor at the Boys and Girls Club of Fort Lauderdale, a youth pastor at the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, and when he was a dean at Eagle Academy, a Lauderdale Lakes charter school.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
5:30 a.m. EDT, April 9, 2014
Jeffery London, the former youth pastor accused of molesting more than a dozen teenage boys at his homes in Coral Springs and Lauderdale Lakes, took the stand Tuesday to tell a Broward jury that he is innocent.
London, 50, is on trial for 27 counts of sexual battery and lewd and lascivious conduct, all involving teenagers entrusted to his care between 2000 and 2011. The trial involves four alleged victims, with three others having testified to similar behavior in the same time period.
The names of the victims are being withheld by the Sun Sentinel because of the nature of the allegations.
But the defendant, under questioning from defense lawyer Lourdes Gonzalez, denied it all.
“Have you ever had a sexual encounter of any kind with any of these boys?” Gonzalez asked.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
MEQUON, Wis. —Some victims of sex abuse at the hands of religious clergy attended the Mass of Atonement at Lumen Christi Parish in Mequon on Tuesday. Some joined church leaders in prayer while others protested.
Those who protested outside were invited to participated in the Mass, but said they wanted no part of it.
About 100 people attended the Mass celebrated by Archbishop Jerome Listecki.
At one point during the service, Listecki laid down on the floor. It was meant as a symbolic gesture to ask forgiveness for the sins of the clergy involved in sexual abuse cases.
“What can help us to go forward is our reliance on faith and to understand that there is a God and that God can heal and God can forgive,” Listecki said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The Catholic Church in Hawaii is facing another lawsuit, claiming that a former Bishop sexually abused a boy who went to him to report he had been abused by another priest. Attorneys for the 59-year-old Honolulu man filed the suit last week claiming that now-deceased Reverend Joseph Ferrario sexually abused him in the 1960s. The same attorneys filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of a Los Angeles man who claimed Ferrario did the same to him in the 1970s. The lawsuits are filed under a Hawaii law providing a two-year window for claims of sexual abuse against minors to be made, even if the statute of limitations has lapsed. That window closes April 24.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Lawyers are preparing to launch a class action against the Catholic Church on behalf of the victims of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.
Ridsdale was sentenced to eight years in jail on Tuesday for abusing 14 children over three decades.
The 80-year-old pleaded guilty to the charges, which included raping and abusing children as young as four.
The sentence adds three years to the jail term he is already serving for offences committed against dozens of girls and boys in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
Lawyer Vivian Waller will represent at least 20 people in a claim against the Diocese of Ballarat.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Victims of convicted paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale are set to sue the Ballarat Catholic diocese in Australia.
On Tuesday, Judge Michael Rozenes sentenced Mr Ridsdale to an 8-year jail term with a minimum non-parole period of five years for the sexual abuse of 14 children during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The 80-year-old former priest is expected to die in prison serving his jail term.
Vivian Waller, counsel of the 20 people whom Mr Ridsdale victimised, said she has been instructed to file a lawsuit against the Diocese of Ballarat on the note that Mr Ridsdale remained a priest even after it was already known he was a sexual predator because of the church’s deliberate negligence and cover-ups.
“(We’ll be) noting indeed that the Archdiocese of Melbourne knew since 1975 that Ridsdale was a sexual offender and failed to report these matters to the police or even to take Ridsdale out of circulation and contact with children,” she said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
I like Pope Francis, though I won’t be thoroughly smitten by him until he changes his mind on celibacy, contraception and equality for women in the church.
Still, he seems like a good man, and his humility and modesty appear to be having a healthy influence on his flock.
Recently, Francis rid the church of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the so-called “Bishop of Bling,” for billing the Vatican and German taxpayers for $42 million to renovate his Limburg residence, including $620,000 for artwork and $1.1 million for landscaping. The Los Angeles Times reports that when the bishop went to India to minister to the poor, he flew, of course, first class.
Others took notice of the bishop’s dismissal. Last week Archbishop William Gregory of Atlanta decided that spending $2.2 million for a 6,400-square-foot Tudor-style mansion to serve as his residence wasn’t such a good idea. And Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., is facing considerable criticism for planning a $500,000 renovation to his luxurious retirement home, including another elevator, an indoor therapy pool and an office library.
The Catholic Church is renowned for its opulence and pomp, but it has no monopoly on failure to consider the lilies. Western protestants often forget that it’s the meek who will inherit the earth and that the rich will have an easier time getting through the eye of a needle than into the kingdom.
In fact, for world-class misplaced, materialistic religious values, consider the “prosperity gospel,” the dubious notion that God means for us to be wealthy — or at least comfortable — and that righteousness is rewarded with money.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Termonbacca children’s home was a “warm and loving place” a former senior social worker in Derry has told the inquiry investigating institutional abuse at care homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth.
He was the second witness, formerly involved in social work in the city, to praise the level of care provided by the nuns at two residential homes in the city.
The witness, who cannot be named, told the inquiry he first visited Termonbacca in 1975 as there were children there under supervision of the social work team he led.
Questioned by the inquiry’s junior counsel Joseph Aiken, the witness said he found the environment there to be warm and caring and the staff, including some of the sisters to be “very caring”.
He said he saw them in a positive way. It was very large home, he continued, and admitted that children might well have found it intimidating because of its size but he found it welcoming. He admitted that some children could become institutionalised in such a large setting.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
CALIFORNIA
The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing
Virginia Jones
Below is a quote from an article, The Roots of Pastoral Response by Paul Fericano, published in the Santa Barbara Independent from February 5, 2014. This quote tells about one of the important things we accomplished at Ascension Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon — for seven years we have published in the parish weekly bulletin sources of support for survivors that included the names and contact information for two independent organizations with clergy abuse survivors as founders — SafeNet and Compassionate Gathering. (Please note that the co-founder of Compassionate Gathering is Elizabeth Goeke, who is a clinical counselor and former nun. She left her order after being assaulted by a priest. Elizabeth suffered a detached retina and had some grandchildren who needed full time care so she is now retired.)
Only one (Ascension Parish in Portland) has printed a weekly notice continuously (for both the OPO and SafeNet) since 2007. (During this period, and as a result of this one parish’s pastoral response, SafeNet has received nearly two dozen inquiries from survivors and family members living in the Pacific Northwest.)
I don’t have Paul’s permission to link the article so I can’t link it but I can tell you where to find it:
You can cut and paste in your browser or go to the website of The Santa Barbara Independent and look up Paul Fericano and the article.
What we have been doing at Ascension since the Fall of 2005, not merely since 2007, is what needs to take place at every Catholic Church.
Paul Fericano helped us get started on the work although I can’t really say anything more about him as I don’t have his permission, but I don’t feel OK if I don’t give credit where credit is due. Paul deserves lots of credit as my work would have been impossible without his help. I could not have done what I did without his help or the help of others — namely Fr. Armando Lopez. Still Fr. Armando Lopez would not have done what he did in terms of ordering announcements in the parish bulletin that included the names and contact information of two clergy abuse survivors — Paul and Elizabeth Goeke — every week for 7 years without me and other parishioners (Jim, Helen, Mary Lou and Fran) requesting that he do so. Fr. Armando also placed the name of an abusive predecessor — Gus Krumm — and invited survivors to come forward and advertised my Compassionate Gatherings to bring together survivors with other Catholics for listening, healing and reconciliation. Once again he did this at my request as well as Helen’s and Jim’s and with the tacit support of Mary Lou and Fran. No, we did not bring together abusers and victims together, just survivors and other Catholics. I have been involved with citizen diplomacy since the 1980s and thought that the best way to help Catholics understand the issue of clergy abuse was to have them hear the stories of survivors in person. It is much harder to dismiss a person to their face than it is to dismiss a newspaper article. And it works to produce lots of understanding and healing.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Catherine Shoard
The Guardian, Tuesday 8 April 2014
There’s apocalypse in the air the day I go to Dublin. In the driving wind and rain, traffic seizes up, umbrellas crumble, and my map turns to pulp. Later, planes won’t land and lights won’t work. Thank heavens, then, for Brendan Gleeson, holed up in the basement of a hotel near parliament. He grips my hand and grins, massive and unflappable, as the courtyard outside the window seems to explode.
For all his smiling, though, it seems Gleeson isn’t in the most reassuring mood: the apocalypse, it seems, isn’t just swirling around Dublin. “The whole world is in cataclysmic disillusionment,” he says, pouring his fizzy water. “There’s a sense of grieving going on for the loss of clarity over what’s acceptable and what’s not. People don’t trust in the concept of goodness, or in the authorities defining it for us. Religion in general has been dismantled in western Europe. All systems – socialist or capitalist – are crashing.”
The time is right, in other words, for Calvary, Gleeson’s new film, premiered the night before for the home crowd. “There seemed to be a pleasant sense of shock in the room,” he says. “A pleasant whiff of trauma. The reaction tends to be muted – you don’t get standing ovations. But you know it’s working.”
Calvary is the first film to face up to the sexual-abuse scandals that have so tainted the Catholic church lately. Its genius lies in doing this upside down – by querying the anger as much as channelling it. Gleeson plays Father James, a good priest in a west-coast town riven with sin and spite. In the first scene, he takes confession from a man who’s known to him but anonymous to the audience. The man tells him he was repeatedly raped as a boy by a priest, who’s since died. So next Sunday, he’s going to murder blameless Father James as an enforced act of penance. “I’m going to kill you, Father,” says the man, “because you’ve done nothing wrong.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Victims of one of Australia’s most notorious paedophile priests, Gerald Ridsdale, are preparing a landmark class action against the Catholic Church in what will be the first test of Cardinal George Pell’s recent commitment to make the church less hostile to litigation from sex abuse victims.
Lawyer Vivian Waller said at least 20 victims had instructed her to launch claims against the Diocese of Ballarat and argue that the church’s negligence or cover-ups allowed Ridsdale to remain as a priest after it was known he was a sexual predator.
It is understood the church could be forced to pay out millions in compensation if the cases succeed.
On Tuesday, Ridsdale, who admitted to abusing at least 53 children between 1961 and 1982, was sentenced to eight more years’ jail, after he pleaded guilty to 39 new charges involving sex offences against 11 boys and three girls, he having already been jailed in previous court cases.
County Court Chief Judge Michael Rozenes said Ridsdale’s ”unfettered sexual deviance” had been a blatant breach of trust.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The April 10 webinar, featuring Ms. Foundation Senior Strategist Julie F. Kay, and others, plus Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, sponsor of the Child Victims Act of New York, will present national experts on childhood sexual abuse and the movement to reform the statute of limitations on these offenses in New York State.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MS. FOUNDATION AND DOWNSTATE CRIME VICTIMS COALITON
PRESENT APRIL 10 EDUCATIONAL WEBINAR ON NEED TO REFORM
NY’S ANTIQUATED CHILD SEX ABUSE STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS
Female survivors are focus of on-line event featuring Assemblywoman Markey, whose Child Victims Act bill seeks to remove criminal and civil SOLs for childhood sex abuse
The Ms. Foundation for Women, in partnership with the Downstate Crime Victims Coalition, is putting technology to work to reach a statewide audience of victim services and other professionals who provide support and counseling for female survivors of childhood sexual abuse,
The April 10 webinar, featuring Ms. Foundation Senior Strategist Julie F. Kay, and others, plus Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, sponsor of the Child Victims Act of New York, will present national experts on childhood sexual abuse and the movement to reform the statute of limitations on these offenses in New York State.
The program, “Female Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Access to Justice,” seeks to educate professionals and advocates about the urgent need to reform antiquated criminal and civil statute of limitations codes in New York State, which currently require victims to report these offenses within five years after the victim turns 18. The Markey legislation (Assembly bill A1771A), would completely eliminate these statutes of limitations and also provide a one-year civil suspension to permit older victims of abuse to get justice.
Assemblywoman Markey, explaining why current statute of limitations codes in New York are inadequate, said: “Research consistently shows that survivors of childhood sexual abuse do not come to terms with what happened to them until later in life, often not until middle age. Providing more time for them to come forward not only provides justice for those who have been victimized, but will also expose pedophiles who remain hidden because of current law.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) — A former youth pastor accused of sexually assaulting young children took the stand on Tuesday.
Jeffrey London, 50, is accused of molesting four boys who are now grown men. He is charged with 27 counts of child abuse.
London took the stand saying helping people is a calling in his life. He went on to talk about the first child he helped save from the streets.
On Monday, defense gave their opening arguments. Two witnesses later took the stand.
The first witness who took the stand worked at the church and said it was impossible for the sexual abuse to happen. The witness argued the alleged victim’s time frames don’t make sense because there would be have been no time to commit the sexual abuse.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The Christian Brothers have agreed to pay for the cremation of child sexual abuse victim Barry Wilson, who is dying of liver cancer, a victims advocate says.
Mr Wilson was sexually abused when he was about eight years old at the Christian Brothers’ St Augustine’s Orphanage in Geelong.
He gave evidence on Tuesday to the royal commission into child sexual abuse from his hospital bed in Kerang. Mr Wilson was filmed reading aloud his police statement so the evidence could be used in a police investigation into the abuse after his death.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, April 8, 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 Guthrie pastor has pleaded guilty and has been convicted of lewd acts with a child. We are glad this dangerous predator is finally going to prison and we are grateful for the brave victim for speaking out.
David Moore, the pastor at True Life Ministries, was convicted in 2002 of lewd acts with a child, making yesterday’s conviction his second. This goes to show that predators rarely attack once. We are extremely disappointed that True Life Ministries hired Moore. At best they did not do their due diligence and background checking him. At worst they allowed a convicted child molester to work in their church giving him the opportunity to abuse again.
We urge True Life Ministries officials to seek out anyone else who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes at the hands of Moore and to take immediate action against any employee who helped endanger kids by ignoring or concealing Moore’s crimes. We hope the victims will gain peace and courage from his prison sentence and start healing.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A boys’ home being examined for claims of abuse provided a “warm and caring” environment, the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has heard.
The comments were made by a retired director of the former Western Health and Social Services Trust.
The inquiry is examining claims of abuse at 13 homes and training centres in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.
The witness said he visited Termonbacca Catholic Boys Home in Londonderry as a social worker in the 1970s.
Evidence
Two months into the inquiry, two homes are still being examined, St Joseph’s, Termonbacca and Nazareth House, both in Derry.
Since the inquiry opened, most of the evidence has been from former residents, with stories of sexual, mental and physical abuse.
The retired health board official, who is giving evidence under an anonymity agreement, said Termonbacca was a very large home with up to 60 children.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
