ABUSE TRACKER

ITALIA
IVG

Savona. Servirà ancora qualche giorno per sapere se ci sarà un clamoroso dietrofront nella vicenda giudiziaria che riguarda l’ex Vescovo di Savona Dante Lafranconi, indagato per violenza sessuale perché non avrebbe impedito ad alcuni sacerdoti della sua Diocesi di compiere atti di pedofilia, o se l’archiviazione nei suoi confronti verrà confermata. Questa mattina si è infatti discussa l’udienza di opposizione al provvedimento e il giudice per le indagini preliminari Fiorenza Giorgi si è riservata di decidere sulla richiesta.

Entro qualche giorno il gip dovrebbe quindi emettere l’ordinanza con la quale potrebbe confermare l’archiviazione per prescrizione del reato oppure chiedere al pubblico ministero di svolgere ulteriori accertamenti e, di fatto, riaprire il caso. L’opposizione all’archiaviazione (chiesta dal pm Giovanni Battista Ferro) è stata presentata dall’associazione della Rete L’abuso, che tutela le vittime di preti pedofili ed è rappresentata da Francesco Zanardi, presente oggi in tribunale insieme al legale che lo sta assistendo in questo procedimento, l’avvocato Carla Corsetti di Frosinone. Presente all’udienza anche l’avvocato Michele Tolomini di Cremona che assiste Monsignor Lafranconi.

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.

UNITED STATES
ABC Radio National (Australia)

[with audio]

In the United States recently, in the dioceses of St Louis and Kansas City in Missouri, church leaders have issued subpoenas demanding access to the records of the organisation called SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP is mainly a counselling and support group and many victims have given details of their cases, even if they do not want to prosecute perpetrators. Into the bargain, one of the leading conservative Catholic voices, William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, told The New York Times recently that SNAP was ‘a menace to the Catholic Church’ and said the church needed to ‘toughen up and buy some good lawyers’. The national director of SNAP, David Clohessy, explains the nature of the legal challenge that his organisation faces.

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.

NEW YORK
JTA

(JTA) — A New York appeals court overturned the conviction of a Brooklyn rabbi on charges of molesting a teenage boy over the withholding of evidence.

Rabbi Baruch Lebovits had served one year of his prison sentence before being released to house arrest pending the outcome of his appeal, which was announced last week.

The decision by the State Supreme Court’s appellate division said that while the evidence shows that Lebovits was guilty, he was deprived of his right to a fair trial because prosecutors did not hand over until the middle of the trial a detective’s notes about one of the witnesses that the defense was expected to call.

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.

IRELAND
UTV

Published Wednesday, 02 May 2012

Cardinal Seán Brady has said he feels “betrayed” by the Church officials who had the authority to stop paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has claimed that officials failed to act on evidence he gave them about clerical child abuse – but he accepts that he “was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past”.

Cardinal Brady released a statement on Wednesday following new claims that he failed to act on allegations of abuse made against Fr Brendan Smyth.

He said suggestions that he led the 1975 Church inquiry were “seriously misleading and untrue” and that he was asked by Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore to assist senior officials “on a one-off basis only”.

Cardinal Brady added that he acted only as a “note-taker” during 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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Eyewitness News has learned that a decision regarding dozens of priests suspended by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is imminent.

Sources have told Eyewitness News that Archbishop Charles Chaput is expected to make an announcement regarding the suspended 27 priests in the coming days.

The 27 priests were suspended for misconduct or sexual abuse allegations following a 2011 Grand Jury report.

Archbishop Chaput has called all Archdiocesan priests to a 2 p.m. meeting Wednesday at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield, Pa.

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.

IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

2 May 2012 Last updated at 08:37 ET

Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland has been challenged over allegations that he failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest.

A BBC documentary found he was aware of the names and addresses of children being abused by a paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

The church points out that in 1975, “no state or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland”.

This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church is broadcast on Wednesday 2 May 2012 at 2100 BST on BBC Two. Watch on BBC iPlayer (UK only) or check for repeats at the above link.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

May 03, 2012

ATTORNEY-General Greg Smith told Father Chris Riley in an email last year that he was regularly praying for the alleged paedophile priest Finian Egan.

He also complained to Father Riley that one of Egan’s alleged victims Nikki Wells had launched a media attack on him and his chief of staff Damien Tudehope, whose brother is Egan’s barrister.

Mr Smith’s office has released the emails in an attempt to prove that he had not dismissed Ms Wells’ claims on grounds she wanted money from the Catholic Church.

Ms Wells says she was devastated when on July 17 last year she received an email from Father Riley saying: “I was with Greg Smith the other day and I raised you [sic] case with him. He commented that ‘You were just trying to get $1m from 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.

IRELAND
The Journal

RESPONDING TO ALLEGATIONS made by BBC’s This World last night, Cardinal Seán Brady has criticised the programme makers for overstating and “seriously misrepresenting” his role in a 1975 church inquiry into allegations of child abuse against notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

In the written statement, the top official of the Catholic Church in Ireland said he will not resign over the fresh claims but intends to continue the “vital work” being carried out to ensure proper and robust procedures are in place to respond to any allegations of abuse against children.

Commenting on the secret inquiry in 1975, Brady said last night’s programme gave the impression that he was the only one to know of the allegations and that he “somehow had the power to stop Brendan Smyth”.

“I had absolutely no authority over Brendan Smyth. Even my Bishop had limited authority over him,” he said, after refuting notions that he led the investigation.

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 Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 1, 2012 

Oliver O’Grady is like a cockroach: He will never, never, ever go away.

A new Oliver O’Grady victim has come forward and filed a lawsuit against the notorious predator and the Diocese of Stockton. SNAP will have a press conference tomorrow to release details. On the heels of the Michael Kelly verdict, this is very, very disturbing news. I have yet to see any kind of apology from the diocese for either Kelly’s actions or the horrific legal hardball tactics that the diocese employed in an attempt to scare the victim into dropping his suit.

O’Grady is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in Ireland for possession of child abuse images (child porn).

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin and David O’Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writers

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput plans to meet Wednesday with hundreds of Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, stirring hopes that he may announce the fates of nearly two dozen clergy suspended last year over child sex-abuse or misconduct allegations.

The e-mail invitation sent to priests Monday did not disclose the purpose of the afternoon gathering at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield, Delaware County. Archdiocesan officials did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The meeting comes days before Chaput’s stated deadline for deciding whether some or all of the suspended clerics will be restored to ministry.

“Some of these cases are very near conclusion,” Chaput wrote in his March 8 newsletter. “My hope is that most will be completed and announced over the next eight weeks.”

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
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 2 May 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father: …

– Appointed Msgr. Paul R. Sanchez of the clergy of Brooklyn, U.S.A., episcopal vicar for Queens, and Msgr. Raymond F. Chappetto, also of the clergy of Brooklyn, vicar for clergy and consecrated life and pastor of Our Lady of the Snows at Floral Park, as auxiliaries of Brooklyn (area 466, population 4,849,605, Catholics 1,556,575, priests 619, permanent deacons 179, religious 177). Bishop-elect Sanchez was born in Brooklyn in 1946 and ordained a priest in 1971. He has worked as pastor in a number of parishes and is a member of the diocesan liturgical commission. Bishop-elect Chappetto was born in Astoria in 1945 and ordained a priest in 1971. He has worked as pastor in various parishes in Brooklyn.

On Tuesday 1 May it was made public that the Holy Father appointed Fr. Raymond Poisson, pastor of the Sainte-Marguerite-d’Younville pastoral unit in the diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Canada, as auxiliary of Saint-Jerome (area 2,156, population 444,000, Catholics 431,000, priests 91, permanent deacons 19, religious 137), Canada. The bishop-elect was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada in 1958 and ordained a priest in 1983. He studied in Canada and in Rome, and has served in pastoral duties and as private secretary to the bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cirpriano

On Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Anthony Pomeranz took the witness stand and read another volume of Monsignor William J. Lynn’s grand jury testimony into the record.

Pomeranz is growing into the role. He’s got that deer-in-the-headlights look down pat, and he reads his lines with the carefree assurance of a man with a grant of immunity, which is what the monsignor must have thought he had when he appeared before the grand jury in 2002, and made one forehead-slapping admission after another.

The most recent volume of grand jury testimony was about the hapless monsignor’s pursuit back in 2000 of a 27-year-old Lothario priest named Father Sylwester Wiejata.

Father Wiejata was having affairs with married women. To the jury, hearing the priest’s heterosexual exploits must have been a welcome relief from the usual tales in Courtroom 304, where gay predator priests are usually stalking pre-pubescent altar boys. But sadly, Father Wiejata had another problem; not only did he love the moms, but he also couldn’t keep his hands off the daughters.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A witness has testified in the clergy abuse case that defendant monsignor William Lynn misled parish staff after they raised concerns about the conduct of a priest in the early 1990’s. Lynn, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with endangering two boys, but this evidence is alleged to show a pattern of conduct by the Archdiocese, including Monsignor Lynn, dating back decades.

Anthony Bozeman, then a youth minister, has testified he and others, including priests and a nun in Our Lady of Hope parish in Philadelphia had concerns about the relationship between Father David Sicoli and a 13-year-old boy.

They went to Monsignor William Lynn, the Secretary for Clergy, who ordered a mental health evaluation, but also said Sicoli had no previous problems. However, evidence in the church’s secret archives, reviewed by Monsignor Lynn showed Father Sicoli had a history of allegations of misconduct dating back to the 1970’s.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Abuse victims support group One in Four has said new allegations surrounding Cardinal Seán Brady’s role in the Brendan Smyth abuse scandal require an explanation from the Cardinal.

A BBC documentary last night claimed that information was given to an investigating team of clerics, including Cardinal Brady, in 1975 about other children who were being abused at the time, but that the information was not passed on.

The information uncovers how the Primate of All-Ireland was handed written names and addresses of three boys and two girls who were being abused or were at risk of being abused by Smyth in 1975 — 19 years before he was jailed in 1994. Four of the children were being abused, it later emerged. Two continued to be abused after the 1975 inquiry.

Despite having five names, Cardinal Brady only made contact with one of the children, a young man from Cavan. However, he did not tell the boy’s parents, gardaí, or the health authorities about the boy’s confirmation that he had been abused. He just sent a report to his bishop, who later barred Smyth from Confession and reduced his ability to complete public duties.

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.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Ireland’s most senior cleric Cardinal Sean Brady has said his role in a 1975 investigation into paedophile Brendan Smyth had been exaggerated.

The Primate faced renewed demands to resign after it emerged a then 14-year-old victim of Smyth`s warned him in secret interviews that it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.

The Cardinal said his role in the inquiry has been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in a BBC documentary aired last night.

“I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused,” 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.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Victim of pervert priest says cardinal Brady took notes as he told of vile assaults

By Greg Harkin
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Between 1973 and 1975, altar boy Brendan Boland was among many victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

Aged just 14, he plucked up the courage to report his two years of horrific abuse at the hands of the Nobertine Order priest.

It wasn’t an easy thing to do for an adult, never mind a young teenage boy.

He approached a priest he could trust who worked with his local youth club; he in turn told Brendan’s parents and his Bishop.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The founder of One in Four has called for Cardinal Sean Brady to admit he failed to act appropriately by not reporting the abuse of children in 1975.

A BBC documentary last night claimed Cardinal Brady was part of a team of clerics who were made aware of allegations of abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth in 1975, but failed to act.

However in a statement released before the programme aired last night, the Cardinal’s spokesman said the then Father Brady was a notetaker for the inquiry, and it was not his responsibility to inform the civil authorities.

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.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

The Pope himself should have come to Ireland himself following the allegations of child abuse by Irish priests in the 1970s, it has been claimed.

The call came from a contributor to a radio debate in the wake of last night’s revelations that Cardinal Sean Brady knew of cases of abuse by a priests like Father Brendan Smyth.

A BBC investigation found that Cardinal Brady, the primate of all-Ireland, had the names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old boy, Brendan Boland was questioned about 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.

IRELAND
BBC News

The latest claims about Cardinal Sean Brady in a BBC investigation come after numerous reports into clerical sex abuse in Ireland.

October 2005 The Ferns Report, an Irish government inquiry, found that successive bishops had failed to adequately protect children from abuse in the Wexford diocese.

It uncovered more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse by priests and said the allegations were made against 21 priests who had been working in the diocese between 1966-2002.

May 2009 The Ryan Report found that sexual and psychological abuse was “endemic” in Catholic-run industrial schools and orphanages in Ireland for most of the 20th century.

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

CHARLIE TAYLOR and GERRY MORIARTY

Catholic primate Séan Brady has today seriously criticised a BBC television programme which focused on the church’s handing of clerical sex abuse allegations.

Dr Brady said allegations made against him in the BBC This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, were “seriously misleading and untrue” and claimed the programme makers set out to “deliberately exaggerate and misrepresent” his role in events.

Click here for Cardinal Seán Brady’s full statement:

According to the programme, which was broadcast on BBC Nothern Ireland last night, a Catholic Church inquiry team that included the then Fr Brady failed to pass on allegations of abuse to parents of some of the vicims of the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth in 1975.

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.

IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

2 May 2012 Last updated at 04:10 ET

Brendan Boland was 11 years old when he was sexually abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.

Back in 1975, he reported the abuse to Fr (now Cardinal) Sean Brady and two other priests, hoping to end the abuse of him and others. After giving evidence to them he was sworn to secrecy.

Cardinal Brady signed two reports about the abuse of Boland and another boy and passed them on to his bishop, but the police were never informed.

It was not until 1994 that Smyth was convicted of dozens of offences against children over a 40-year period.

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.

IRELAND
BBC News

As the BBC’s This World documentary offers fresh revelations about the failure of the Irish Catholic primate Cardinal Sean Brady to protect children from abuse, Church representatives, politicians and victims of clerical abuse respond.

Senior Vatican prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna
“My first point is that Fr Brady was a note taker in 1975, he did what he should have done. He forwarded all the information to the people that had the power to act.

My second point is that in the interest of the Church in Ireland, they need to have Cardinal Brady as the archbishop of Armagh because he has shown determination in promoting child protection policies. You need to have leaders who have learned the hard way and are determined to protect children.

They have learned because they have realised that you have to act immediately.

Maeve Lewis, One in Four
“It will be heartbreaking for survivors to realise that their suffering could have been avoided if only action had been taken.

While on paper the Church now has good child protection practices, this documentary casts a shadow on the credibility of Cardinal Brady as a leader of the new policy. Although the times were very different then, it is unimaginable that any adult had such knowledge and failed to 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.

IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

New revelations about the failure of the Catholic primate of all-Ireland to protect children from abuse have been uncovered by the BBC’s This World show.

It found Cardinal Sean Brady had the names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old boy was questioned about abuse.

Smyth abused him and others in guesthouses on trips across Ireland.

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.

IRELAND
BBC News

Cardinal Sean Brady has issued his response to the BBC’s This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church.

Here is the full text of his statement.

“On Tuesday 1 May 2012, the BBC ‘This World’ series broadcast a programme entitled ‘The Shame of the Catholic Church’ on the BBC Northern Ireland network. In the course of the programme a number of claims were made which overstate and seriously misrepresent my role in a Church Inquiry in 1975 into allegations against the Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

“In response to the programme I wish to draw attention to the following:

“Six weeks before broadcast (15 March 2012) I drew the attention of the programme makers to a number of important facts related to the 1975 Church inquiry into Brendan Smyth, which the programme failed to report and which I now wish to restate for all other media who report on this matter:

“To suggest, as the programme does, that I led the investigation of the 1975 Church Inquiry into allegations against Brendan Smyth is seriously misleading and untrue. I was asked by my then Bishop (Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore) to assist others who were more senior to me in this Inquiry process on a one-off basis only;

“The documentation of the interview with Brendan Boland, signed in his presence, clearly identifies me as the ‘notary’ or ‘note taker’. Any suggestion that I was other than a ‘notary’ in the process of recording evidence from Mr Boland, is false and misleading;

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.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The founder of One in Four, Colm O’Gorman, has said that Cardinal Sean Brady’s defence of his role in a 1975 abuse inquiry is “just not good enough”.

Cardinal Brady responded today to allegations in a BBC documentary, saying it that a number of claims were made which seriously misrepresented his role in the 1975 church inquiry into Fr Brendan Smyth.

In a statement, Cardinal Brady highlighted a number of “important facts” to the programmes makers six weeks before the broadcast, most notably that the suggestion that he led the inquiry into the abuse allegations were “seriously misleading and untrue”.

Cardinal Brady said that he was a “notary” at the meeting which was outlined in the programme, adding that even now the guidelines currently in place to ensure child protection in the Irish state make clear that the person “who first receives and records the details of an allegation of child abuse in an organisation that works with children, is not the person who has responsibility within that organisation for reporting the matter to the civil authorities”.

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.

IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

2 May 2012 Last updated at 08:37 ET

Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland has been challenged over allegations that he failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest.

A BBC documentary found he was aware of the names and addresses of children being abused by a paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

The church points out that in 1975, “no state or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland”.

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.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady has insisted he will not resign – saying his role in a 1975 investigation into paedophile Brendan Smyth had been exaggerated.

The Primate faced renewed demands to resign after it emerged a then 14-year-old victim of Smyth’s warned him in secret interviews that it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.

The Cardinal said his role in the inquiry has been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in a BBC documentary aired last night.

“I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused,” 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.

NEW ULM (MN)
The Journal

May 2, 2012

By Josh Moniz – Staff Writer, The Journal

NEW ULM – In Minneapolis, Winona and New Ulm, members of the Minnesota branch of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) staged protests Tuesday to demand more information about the sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Minnesota by releasing a list of 130 clerics accused of misconduct.

At each location, SNAP members presented May Day baskets stuffed with the list of accused clerics to ranking church officials, if they were willing to meet with them. Otherwise, the baskets were hung on doors.

The New Ulm Diocese was not a primary focus of the event. But, it was included as an overall effort to gain information from dioceses because priest connected to abuse had been part of the diocese more than 25 years ago. Cyril Denn, a North Mankato resident, was the only SNAP member to attend the New Ulm event. Denn suffered sexual abuse while at St. John’s Prep in Collegeville.

The protest was intended to bring out information about sexual abuse by priests for two reasons: first, to put pressure on the diocese to identify church officials not yet cited for misconduct. Second, it was more squarely aimed to bring to light clergy already accused of misconduct to encourage their victims to come forward and receive help.

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

Fine Gael general secretary Tom Curran is to chair a session of a day-long conference in Dublin next Monday organised by the Association of Catholic Priests.

Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery, a member of the association’s leadership team and brother of Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery, was censured last March by the Vatican because of his views on contraception, celibacy and the ordination of women.

He was also advised to withdraw from the association. Fr Flannery was advised by Rome to spend six weeks in a monastery, and while there to “pray and reflect” on his situation and begin “to think with the church” (sentire com ecclesia).

He and colleague Fr Gerard Moloney, who is editor of the Redemptorists’ Reality magazine, have been banned by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on account of their liberal views.

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
OpEd News

By
Joey Piscitelli

STOCKTON, CA.

The Diocese of Stockton’s latest lawsuit nightmare may very well be the straw that breaks the Cardinal’s back. Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles California to be precise.

A new allegation and lawsuit has surfaced this week in San Joaquin Superior Court naming convicted serial molester Fr. Oliver O’Grady once again as the child sex abuser of a victim who is now 25 — and this accusation falls well within the statute of limitations for child abuse cases. The allegation is a potential atomic bomb that may cause the Stockton Diocese to implode. O’Grady was previously convicted in 1993 for lewd and lascivious acts of child abuse.

O’Grady is in jail in Ireland right now, serving a three year sentence for a conviction of possession of child pornography. The prosecution in Ireland followed on the heels of numerous lawsuit settlements that were paid by the Stockton Diocese for O’Grady’s admitted molestation spree that spanned decades in California.

The new Superior Court lawsuit filed by attorney Joe George of Sacramento states the victim was 4 to 5 years old when he was molested by O’Grady in 1992 when O’Grady was in ministry at Saint Andrew’s Parish in San Andreas and at Saint Anthony’s.

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.

MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Jerome Christenson jchristenson@winonadailynews.com

She stood alone under a cloudy sky to speak for the victims and for herself.

“I am a victim of rape by a priest,” Megan Peterson said.

She was 14, she said, when she was first raped by the Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul, her parish priest in Greenbush, Minn. The abuse went on for 10 months, she said, until Jeyapaul fled to his native India. Charges were filed against Jeyapaul and extradition proceedings have begun. Peterson and the Diocese of Crookston reached a civil settlement last summer.

Peterson, now 22 and a student at Winona State University, was at the Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Winona Tuesday afternoon to tell her story and ask the bishop and diocesan officials to work for and with people sexually exploited and abused by Catholic clergy and religious. She was there as part of a May Day visit by members of SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — to the headquarters of Roman Catholic dioceses across Minnesota.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 01/05/2012
Reporter: Tim Palmer

Following a series of 7.30 stories on the Church’s response to complaints of sexual abuse, a Sydney priest with connections to the NSW Attorney General has handed himself in to police to face charges of abuse dating from the 1970s and ’80s.

Transcript
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: A Sydney priest who is a close associate of the NSW Attorney General has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing three girls and a boy over 15 years in the 1970s and 80s. The police investigation of Father Finian Egan followed allegations raised in a series of stories on this program. They examined the Church’s response to the initial complaints, and the lengthy holdup in the criminal investigation, during which NSW Attorney General Greg Smith apparently dismissed one of the alleged victims as “money hungry”. Tim Palmer reports.

TIM PALMER, REPORTER: After decades, this was a defining moment for two of the women who have alleged Father Finian Egan turned their lives upside down by sexually assaulting them as children.

KELLIE ROCHE, ABUSE VICTIM: It’s a relief. For me it’s like… it’s finally… it’s something’s happening. Something legal is starting.

TIM PALMER: It was the Catholic Church that first investigated a series of allegations against Finian Egan made by Nikki Wells and Kellie Roche, who claimed he’d attacked them when they were at school or a fellowship at a north-west Sydney church.

ABUSE VICTIM: Even when I left that school and went to another high school we still attended 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.

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

(This article was last updated
on 2 May 2012.)

On 1 May 2012, New South Wales police charged Catholic priest Father Finian Egan with alleged sexual abuse of four children in the Sydney region in the 1970s and ’80s.

Father Egan, who is aged 77 in 2012, belongs to the Broken Bay diocese, which covers parishes to the north of Sydney Harbour (including on the NSW central coast). He is listed as a priest in the latest edition of the annual Australian Catholic Directory, published in mid 2011.

Father Egan, who maintains his innocence, was charged with 16 counts of indecent assault and one count of rape, relating to alleged assaults while he was a priest in Sydney and the NSW central coast.

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.

LOVELAND (CO)
Coloradoan

A former Loveland church volunteer and toy store owner promised an iPad upgrade, and trips to Disneyland and Elitch Gardens before sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, the victim said in court.

“You are the most disgusting person I ever met in my life,” she said while standing at the lectern, sobbing softly. “You are really screwed up, and someone had to stop you.”

Robert Ernest Kirchhoff, 54, of Loveland was sentenced to two years in jail and 10 years to life of in-tensive sex-offender probation for grabbing the girl by the wrist and sexually assaulting her for 20 minutes in late January. He had been babysitting the girl as she was at his home to visit his 12-year-old daughter the night of Jan. 27.

8th Judicial District Judge Julie Field gave him the maximum sentence under a plea agreement that the victim’s family said they supported. She said Kirchhoff’s “profound grooming behavior” and posses-sion of child pornography, along with his history of domestic violence, were taken into account.

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.

NEW ZEALAND
The Northern Advocate

Mike Barrington | Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A Northland bishop has suspended an Anglican Church deacon after what the bishop says are false claims about a child sex abuser.

Deacon Tapu Laulu pulled 18 children out of a church camp after spotting a man that he had been told was a child sex abuser.

However, the man – who is known to Paihia-based Bishop of Tai Tokerau, the Rt Rev Te Kitohi Pikaahu – has never been charged or convicted of the alleged offence.

Bishop Pikaahu – has claimed the alleged sexual offending was based on a 16-year-old rumour concerning two people who were teenagers at the time.

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.

IRELAND
9 News (Australia)

20:51 AEDT Wed May 2 2012

Shawn Pogatchnik

The leader of Ireland’s four million Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, faced renewed pressure to resign on Wednesday after a BBC documentary accused him of helping to cover up child abuse committed by a notorious pedophile priest in the 1970s.

Brady already has admitted he took written testimony in 1975 from two abused teenage boys and gave the report to his bishop, not the police.

The revelations became public after victims sued Brady and the church for damages and won confidential settlements.

One of those now-adult children, Brendan Boland, told the BBC he also alerted Brady to five other children being abused by the same priest, but Brady didn’t tell their parents of the danger.

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.

NEW ULM (MN)
KEYC

[with video]

By Joel Runck, News Reporter

NEW ULM, Minn. –
More Disclosure. That’s what the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is requesting.

With a bag stuffed with papers, Cy Denn of SNAP, made his way into the diocese headquarters in New Ulm.

Once inside, Denn presented the names of individuals who are accused of misconduct.

“What we’re trying to do is not only get their name out there but…to find out how many more people have suffered some type of abuse,” Denn said.

The list presented by SNAP denotes 130 current and former clerical members. One of those names is Reverend Douglas Schleisman of New Ulm.

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.

MONTANA
Helena Independent Record

By SANJAY TALWANI Independent Record | Posted: Wednesday, May 2, 2012

One of two major sex abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena grew Tuesday with the addition of 18 plaintiffs, bringing the total to 76 alleged victims in that case.

Vito de la Cruz, a lawyer for the plaintiffs with the Yakima, Wash.-based Tamaki Law Firm, said more plaintiffs are still to come.

The 40-page amended complaint filed in District Court in Helena outlines many specific abusive acts, including fondling, forced sodomy and an offer of cash for sex, committed by both male and female clergy on boys and girls in Helena and several other locations, from the 1940s into the 1970s.

The complaint identifies several former clergy by name. De la Cruz said allegations still to come may include more recent alleged incidents.

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

GERRY MORIARTY and CHARLIE TAYLOR

The Vatican’s senior sex crimes prosecutor has today defended Cardinal Sean Brady’s handling of allegations of clerical sex abuse.

Monsignor Charles Scicluna said the current primate had no case to answer over renewed allegations of mishandling information given to him in 1975 about serial sex abuser Fr Brendan Smyth.

The allegations were made in a BBC This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland last night.

Speaking on RTÉ Morning Ireland earlier today, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter described the cases detailed in last night’s programme were “tragic and disturbing incidents.”

He said the programme highlighted the need for reforms such as those currently being introduced by the Government such as the Withholding of Information Bill, which was published last week.

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.

AUSTRALIA/IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Luke Byrne

Wednesday May 02 2012

A RETIRED Irish priest was yesterday rushed to hospital after he was charged by police in Australia with a raft of child-sex offences.

Fr Finian Egan (right) left a Sydney police station by ambulance after being questioned and subsequently charged with 17 offences dating back to the 1970s.

The 77-year-old cleric was charged with 16 counts of indecent assault and one count of rape over a 15-year period.

The charges relate to the alleged sexual abuse of four different children — three girls and a boy — between 1972 and 1987 while he was serving as a priest to parishes in Sydney and the Central Coast.

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.

AUSTRALIA
SBS

Greg Smith says he would never disparage an alleged sex assault victim, but he’s avoiding apologising over comments related to the case of Finian Egan.

NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith has declined to apologise to the alleged abuse victim of a retired Catholic priest after accusing her of “trying to get $1 million from the church”.

Father Finian Egan, 77, was on Tuesday charged with a raft of child sexual offences dating back to the 1970s.

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.

IRELAND
TV3

New allegations have been made about Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in a child sexual abuse inquiry in 1975.

In a BBC documentary, a man who was abused by paedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth as a child, claimed he told a church inquiry about other children who were at risk, but the allegations were not acted on.

The programme claimed that the parents of the children at the centre of the new allegations were never informed that they were at risk.

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.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Greg Harkin
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Even 15 years after his death, the malign shadow of Fr Brendan Smyth still haunts the Catholic Church

Cardinal Sean Brady has insisted that he would not resign after fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.

Documents suggest that he was an investigator into paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth — and not a just a note taker.

The BBC allegations also include claims Cardinal Brady and the Church failed to pass on any warnings to other victims of Smyth, despite accepting the evidence of a victim.

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.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By John Mulgrew
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Cardinal Sean Brady has been Primate of All Ireland since 1996 and in the last few years he has been forced to deal with the damaging fallout from two reports into clerical abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Two major reports into child sex abuse were published — the Ryan report, which looked at abuse within Catholic institution, and the Murphy report which examined a massive abuse cover-up in the Dublin diocese.

In 2010 it emerged that Cardinal Brady had been present when children signed vows of silence over allegations of abuse made against paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth in 1975.

He had previously apologised for his role in mishandling the case of the serial child abuser.

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.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Fergus Black
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Leering chillingly into the camera lens, the face is that of perhaps the country’s best-known and most notorious of paedophile priests.

The fallout from the controversy surrounding the case of serial sexual predator Fr Brendan Smyth continues to resound almost 15 years after his death.

A member of the Norbertine Order, Smyth’s litany of abuse going back to the 1940s led to the collapse of a government and the exposure of widespread clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

Born in Belfast in 1927, Smyth joined the Norbertines in 1945, but decades would pass before his hidden life as one of the most notorious Irish clerical sex abusers was to be revealed.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Greg Harkin and Independent.ie reporters

Wednesday May 02 2012

CARDINAL Sean Brady is expected to release a full statement later today after refusing to resign over fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.

Previously unseen documents suggest that he was an investigator into paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth — and not a just a note taker.

Brendan Boland, from Co Louth, a victim of serial abuser Brendan Smyth, when he was just 12, told how information about his evil deeds was not passed onto parents of other victims by the inquiry team and two boys continued to be abused after the inquiry.

The allegations are made in a BBC documentary which also revealed that a hand-written note for a church inquiry into Smyth in 1975, at which the then Fr Brady was present, puts him in an investigative role.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Lyndsey Telford

Wednesday May 02 2012

THE Vatican’s chief investigator has insisted that Ireland’s most senior cleric has no case to answer over renewed allegations of mishandling of allegations against the paedophile Brendan Smyth.

Monsignor Charles J Scicluna (pictured) defended Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in secret interviews with a 14-year-old victim in 1975 in which he was told it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.

The Vatican cleric, from the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, claimed the Primate of All-Ireland had fulfilled his duties by referring information on child abuse to his seniors.

Three years ago when explosive allegations about Cardinal Brady’s role in the canon inquiry into Smyth emerged he said he would resign if he found his actions or failings had led to another child being abused.

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.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Ken Briggs on May. 01, 2012 NCR Today

The grudge hardened in 1971 when the superiors of women’s religious communities decided to re-name themselves the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The flash point was the word “leadership.” The Vatican protested it’s use, the superiors overrode the objections and Rome’s campaign against “radical feminism” became a fixture in Holy See strategy.

“Leadership” signified a breaking loose from the pre-Vatican II assumption that male clerics had the final say on everything about sisters’ existence. They were insisting on a degree of autonomy based on “Perfectae Caritatis,” the instructions given them by Vatican II.

The ink had barely dried on the document as the head of the Italian bishops was warning the sisters not to take this freedom too far. That would be abusing official authority. Eventually this bacame a full fledged attack on renewal as a mindless fling with worldliness, individualism and apostacy.

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.

ROME
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW

POPE BENEDICT XVI has long made it clear he believes Europe’s traditionally Christian countries need a major spiritual “dig-out” to ward off both growing secularisation and the “eclipse of the sense of God”. Two years after he created the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation, however, one is tempted to ask whether he means new evangelisation or new inquisition.

Irish public opinion is much concerned by revelations that Irish priests such as Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Brian D’Arcy have been “silenced” by the Holy See over the last two years. Yet, there a lot of people getting their knuckles rapped by the Holy See – from US nuns to Austrian priests to teachers at Catholic schools and even Holy See functionaries.

Earlier this month, Emily Herx, a literature teacher at the St Vincent De Paul Catholic School in Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, claimed she had been sacked from the school last year because she had undergone in vitro fertilisation (IVF). She claimed, in a lawsuit, that the school’s church leader, Fr John Kuzmich, had told her she was a “grave, immoral sinner” who would cause a “scandal” if people learned she had undergone IVF, while local bishop Kevin Rhoades had told her “IVF is an intrinsic evil”.

In a statement that stirs echoes of the Eileen Flynn affair in New Ross in the late 1980s, the Fort Wayne diocese publicly asserted its right as a religious employer “to make religious-based decisions consistent with its religious standards”.

Closer to home, Pope Benedict, during his traditional Maunday Thursday “Chrism” Mass at Easter, sharply rebuked more than 300 Austrian priests who had issued a “call to disobedience” on key tenets in church teaching, including regarding women’s ordination.

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.

IRELAND/AUSTRALIA
The Irish Times

PÁDRAIG COLLINS in Sydney

A RETIRED Irish priest has been charged with the rape and indecent assault of children in Sydney and the New South Wales Central Coast between 1972 and 1987.

Fr Finian Egan turned himself in at a police station in the northwestern Sydney suburb of Ryde yesterday morning, accompanied by a lawyer. The 77-year-old was subsequently charged with 17 offences relating to alleged assaults on four children.

The charges include one count of rape and two of indecent assault over an alleged attack on a then 17-year-old girl in 1972. Fr Egan has also been charged with committing indecent assaults on a 14-year-old boy and girls aged 11 and 16.

Two of his alleged victims hugged each other as the priest hobbled into the police station on a walking stick.

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.

MONTANA
Beartooth NBC

By Kristin Price

18 plaintiffs were added today, to a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Diocese of Helena and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to 78.

In March, lawyers representing both sides in the case agreed to hold mediation to resolve the lawsuit. The plaintiffs’ attorney who filed the amendment today says mediation required some changes be made to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Vito de la Cruz, says, “There’s an agreement with the diocese and us to file the second amended complaint to remove some of their claims that we had raised initially and also to add additional plaintiffs.”

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

A SPOKESMAN for Cardinal Seán Brady said before the BBC programme was broadcast that he had not seen it, but wanted to make the following points.

The text is slightly edited:

* It is critical to note Cardinal Brady’s comment in 2009, that he would resign if by his action children were put at risk, was specifically in response to a question about if he was a bishop with overall responsibility for dealing with allegations . . . but . . . in 1975, he was a priest who was asked by his own bishop to record evidence . . . Fr Brady had no authority over Brendan Smyth . . . It would be disingenuous to report the 2009 quote in any other way.

* Even today, in the State’s own guidelines for responding to allegations of abuse against children, it is the “Designated Person” in the organisation who has responsibility for reporting the matter to the civil authorities, not the person who first receives or notes the details of the allegation, as Fr Brady did in 1975.

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

How Church’s handling of clerical child abuse led to court cases decades later

1973 Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth began his abuse of schoolboy Brendan Boland (12). It continued for two years.

Early 1975 Brendan Boland spoke to a priest in his home town of Dundalk about his abuse by Smyth. It was reported to church authorities. The bishop of Kilmore, Francis McKiernan, received reports of another allegation of abuse by Smyth involving a boy in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan.

March 1975 Fr Seán Brady was asked by Bishop McKiernan to conduct a canonical inquiry into the two allegations involving Smyth. The then Fr Brady was a 35-year-old teacher at St Patrick’s College, Cavan, and part-time secretary to Bishop McKiernan. Brady also held a doctorate in canon 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.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor

A VICTIM of late paedophile priest Brendan Smyth has stated he gave information to a Catholic Church inquiry team that included Fr Seán Brady – now Cardinal Brady – about how Smyth had abused other children.

Brendan Boland (51), from Co Louth, said this information was not passed on to the parents of these children, two of whom continued to be abused by the serial child sex abuser.

Smyth continued to abuse one particular Belfast boy a year after Mr Boland had given information about this abuse to a church inquiry, it was claimed last night. Three priests, including canonical lawyer Fr Brady – now the Catholic primate, Cardinal Brady – conducted that 1975 inquiry.

Details of this abuse and how such details were not passed on to the children’s parents or to gardaí are contained in a BBC’s This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, broadcast last night on BBC Northern Ireland. It is to be rebroadcast tonight on BBC 2.

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.

IRELAND
BBC News

By Andy Martin
BBC News

Cardinal Brady became the Catholic Primate of all-Ireland in 1996, but the appointment that may define his career was made 21 years earlier.

As a Bishop’s secretary in 1975, he was tasked with investigating a complaint of sexual abuse made against a fellow priest, the man who would later be exposed as Ireland’s most prolific paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth.

The manner in which he handled that internal church inquiry has come under intense scrutiny in a BBC ‘This World’ investigation.

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.

IRELAND
BBC News

A BBC investigation has uncovered fresh revelations about the role of the Catholic primate of all-Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, in the failure to protect children from child abuse.

The BBC’s This World programme revealed he had the names and addresses of children who were being abused or were at risk of abuse by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth but failed to ensure they were being protected.

The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old was questioned about abuse.

In 1975, Cardinal Brady was a priest and teacher in County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland, when he was sent by his bishop to investigate a claim of child sexual abuse by a fellow priest.

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.

WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A woman testified in court today that she was physically abused and sexually assaulted by her church pastor during counseling sessions aimed at treating her eating disorder.

The 45-year-old alleged victim was the first witness called by Assistant District Attorney Cheryl R. Riddle during The Very Rev. Charles Michael Abdelahad’s jury-waived Central District Court trial on charges of indecent assault and battery, five counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and four counts of assault and battery.

Rev. Abdelahad, 55, of 14 Bryant Ave., Shrewsbury, the longtime pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral at 30 Anna St., is on a voluntary leave of absence from his position at the church, according to his lawyer, James G. Reardon Jr.

The complaining witness testified that she first met Rev. Abdelahad in 1987, after a suicide attempt left her comatose in a hospital’s intensive care unit, and the young priest came to administer the sacrament of Holy Unction.

She said she and Rev. Abdelahad formed a relationship, but lost touch for several years after she moved back in with her family in Connecticut.

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.

UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The New York Times has shown yet again that the abuse of children does not really bother them unless it involves the Catholic Church. But if there were still any doubts, the Times has made it perfectly clear that the decades-old abuse of minors by Catholic priests is simply a tool with which it can bludgeon the Catholic Church because it does not conform to its left-wing liking.

It was only a week ago when a New York Times editorial fretted about the Catholic Church’s efforts to align the dissident leadership of a conference of left-wing nuns with Church doctrine, and the paper predictably used the scandals as a useful cudgel to promote “progressive” dissent.

Now Times’ opinion writers Maureen Dowd and Nicholas D. Kristof have double-upped on the Grey Lady’s predictable tactic with similar Church-bashing columns running just a week later in the same Sunday issue together on the same day.

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.

MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: A parish priest of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese ordained in 1962, Stitts died in 1985 at age 50. He was named in lawsuits in 1995 and again in 2010 as having sexually abused at least a dozen boys in the 1960s and 1970s. The archdiocese was alleged to have known of Stitts’ sexual of abuse of children as early as 1970, but took no action to discipline him or to prevent further abuse by him. Archdiocesan officials deniend hiding information about Stitts.

Ordained: 1962
Incardinated: St. Paul and Minneapolis
Died: Oct. 13, 1985

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.

UNITED STATES
Toy Soldier

Often times people want to help others but do not know how. This cannot be any truer than when it comes to helping abused men and boys. The resources sometimes are not apparent and are often difficult to find. Sometimes the resources are hidden or even barred by other groups who wish to polarize the issue. The intent here is to provide those who wish to help male victims with the opportunity to do so. Every month I will post a new link to an organization that provides services for male victims. As the list grows, I will create a page where all the links can be found.

Please remember that you do no have to empty your wallets to help. Even a small donation can go a long way. And for those on the other side of the issue, it would go a long way to demonstrating real concern for all victims if you donated 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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Brian Roewe on May. 01, 2012 NCR Today

The trial of two priests alleged in a conspiracy of covering up cases of priest sex abuse in the Philadelphia archdiocese has opened its sixth week to hearing prior grand jury testimony from each of the defendants.

Today, prosecutors from the Philadelphia district attorney’s office presented the grand jury testimony of William J. Lynn, in relation to former priest Sylvester Wiejata.

Lynn was the secretary of clergy in the archdiocese from 1992-2004, during which time he reviewed allegations against Wiejeta of inappropriate touching of a teen girl and sexual advances toward young women, as well as an affair with a married woman.

Wiejeta was defrocked in 2002, six years after his ordination.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
In August 2000, Lynn told the grand jury, he received an anonymous call from a woman, who said she knew of Wiejata history because she had an affair with him. She said that she came home and discovered Wiejata there fondling and kissing her 13-year-old daughter.

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.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Elizabeth Dunbar, Minnesota Public Radio
May 1, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on Tuesday released a list of 130 clerics accused of sexual abuse in the state.

The group delivered the list in May Day baskets to the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Diocese of Winona and the Diocese of New Ulm.

Bob Schwiderski, the group’s director, said most of the people on the list have already been accused through police reports, court documents or media reports.

“There’s been a decision made to bring those names out for the benefit of those still suffering in silence and with a hope that the religious leaders in the Catholic Church in this state realize how important it is to reach out to those same people,” Schwiderski 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.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Ten years after a historic papal response to clerical sex abuse, the Vatican urged priests to strive for greater holiness in their own lives so that they might effectively minister to others and reverse the tide of atheism.

In its annual letter to priests for 2012, the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy focused on Blessed John Paul II’s 2002 Holy Thursday letter to clergy, in which the late pope responded to the growing revelations and scandal of sexual abuse of minors by priests.

The congregation’s letter also gave priests a guideline for examining their consciences concerning everything from how they celebrate Mass to how well they are living a pure, humble and generous life detached from consumerism.

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.

MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: Stevens pleaded guilty in 1987 to sexual misconduct with a minor. He resided at a St. Paul, MN parish from 1988-2002 and worked on the archdiocese’s computer services team. He was removed from ministry in June 2002, after the U.S. Bishops drafted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Ordained: 1980
Incardinated: St. Paul-Minneapolis

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Young and darkly handsome, Sylvester Wiejata had an eye for the ladies, especially married ones.

Problem was, Wiejata was a priest.

This morning a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury listened to the grand jury testimony of Msgr. William J. Lynn as he tried to explain his alleged failure to act as Wiejata’s sexual overtures went from married women to single women in their 20s and, ultimately in August 2000, allegations that he had fondled the 13-year-old daughter of a woman with whom he had an affair.

As secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, Lynn, 61, was the Archdiocesan official responsible for investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests. Charged with endangering the welfare of children. He is the first Catholic church official to be criminally prosecuted in a landmark trial focusing on the sexual abuse of children by some priests in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Lynn had denied the charge that his alleged inaction enabled deviate priests to continue preying on children and his lawyers have argued that he was the first church official here to move against priests against whom there were years of record allegations of sexual misconduct.

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.

POLAND
WSN

A priest in Poland, found guilty of having sex with a disabled 19-year-old girl who was entrusted in his care, has been sentenced to four years in prison.

This is the first time a priest has been caught and sentenced in Poland, though there have been few incidents in the past where priests were asked to resign.

Bialystok’s District Court found that between July 2010 and February 2011 the priest had sexual intercourse with her as many as eight times, a media report 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.

ROME
Business Insider

Sanya Khetani|April 30, 2012

In the most recent scandal involving the Vatican, the Church allegedly accepted a sum of one billion lire (about $660,000) in 1990 to bury the remains of mobster Enrico de Pedis in a basilica, next to various popes and cardinals, The Independent reports.

The paper cites a source from ANSA.it (though the report appears to be offline) who says that “despite initial reluctance” the then vicar-general of Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, “in the face of such a conspicuous sum, gave his blessing” to the arrangement, despite the fact that de Pedis had been the head of the notorious Magliana gang. The money was reportedly used on missions and to restore the Basilica. The Vatican has refused to comment.

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.

ROME
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

When Pope John Paul II used to address seminarians studying in the Eternal City, he would often urge them to “learn Rome.” By that, he meant that just moving around the city, and especially spending time in its estimated 300 churches, can offer an education in Catholicism.

Today is the one-year anniversary of John Paul’s beatification, and it’s also the occasion for a reminder that the late pope’s tip about “learning Rome” is truer than he probably intended. A recent brouhaha over the burial of a mob boss in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare illustrates that Rome’s churches often do, indeed, have much to teach about Catholicism – warts and all.

The scandal centers on the late Enrico De Pedis, a.k.a “Renatino,” who was among the bosses of the Banda della Magliana, the “Magliana Gang,” named after a Rome neighborhood, which was the city’s most notorious organized crime outfit in the 1970s and 1980s. After being gunned down near the Piazza de Fiori in 1990, De Pedis was buried in a crypt within the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare (albeit in what the church’s pastor describes as basically a “closet,” in an unconsecrated area not open to the public).

From the beginning, it always seemed incongruous that a mob boss should end up buried in the kind of space typically reserved for cardinals, Catholic nobles, and other ecclesial dignitaries. That was perhaps especially so in the early 1990s, in an era in which the anti-mafia activism of courageous Catholic priests such as Fr. Pino Puglisi in Sicily put them at grave risk (Puglisi was assassinated in 1993). Critics wondered how the church could back Puglisi with one hand, and open its doors to De Pedis with the 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.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Nicky Phillips, Nick Ralston May 02, 2012

A SYDNEY Catholic priest who revealed he has been married for a year has been removed from his post by church officials.

Father Kevin Lee, a priest at Padre Pio parish in Glenmore Park, told Channel Seven last night he married his wife, whom he met in the Philippines, in secret last year.

”I’ve fallen in love and I’ve got married and it’s outside of most people’s awareness,” he said. ”But I’m sure people within the church could have had a suspicion.”

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.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

May. 01, 2012
By An NCR Editorial

Publication of the annual audit of dioceses and eparchies to determine how they are complying with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People is intended to assure the Catholic faithful and the wider society that church leaders remain vigilant in their efforts to combat sex abuse of children by priests and other ministers.

On several levels, the audits, the ninth of which was just released, achieve that purpose. Church leaders are paying more attention than ever before to the protection of children. No other institution in this country has spent as much time or money establishing requirements for education of both children and adults around the topic of sex abuse. The effort has become a model for the church in some other parts of the world and could well become a model for other denominations, not to mention civil entities, such as school systems.

The encouraging news is that the number of reported incidents is diminishing. Some of that certainly is because of the programs put in place since 2002. One might logically conclude that it’s also the result of fewer priests and a much different relationship that has evolved between laypeople and priests because of the scandal. Of the 704 allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy during the audit period, only 21 involved “current minors.” The rest were “historical allegations” first reported in 2011, but occurring in the past and “often decades ago.” Of the 21 current accusations, the audit states, seven were found to be credible, three were found to be false, three were still under investigation, three were “unable to be determined,” and five were considered boundary violations, not 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.

AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

Andrew Clennell and Clementine Cuneo
The Daily Telegraph
May 02, 2012

ATTORNEY-General Greg Smith told charity worker Father Chris Riley an alleged paedophile priest’s child abuse victim was making allegations because she was “trying to get $1 million”, Father Riley said yesterday.

Father Finian Egan, a close friend of Mr Smith who he mentioned in his maiden speech speech in 2007, saying “at St Gerard’s Father Finian Egan charmed us with his Irish wit and his pastoral devotion to his flock”, was charged yesterday with rape and other sexual assault offences relating to four minors dating back 40 years.

Youth worker Father Riley wrote in an email to one of Father Egan’s alleged victims, Nikki Wells, on July 17 last year, that: “I was with Greg Smith the other day and I raised you (sic) case with him. He commented that ‘you were just trying to get $1m from 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.

BOSTON (MA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 30, 2012

It is disconcerting that, in the case of Rev. Mendicoa, the Archdiocese of Boston has made nothing public except that the claim was “unsubstantiated.” How was this determination made? Who were the witnesses? What criteria were used? Because it provides no answers to these questions, the Archdiocese’s statement really means nothing. A statement this cryptic and a process this mysterious neither exonerates the priest nor reassures the public.

If Mendicoa was truly innocent, we suspect that he would not have to seek permission to perform priestly functions. The fact that Mendicoa is still restricted in ministry, even though he has been taken off of administrative leave, is telling. We urge Boston church officials to make known what has actually been found out in this case instead of using vague terms and odd punishments. A decade ago these officials pledged to be open and honest about clergy sex crimes and allegations. We would appreciate some of that honesty in this case.

Finally, we believe that often in these cases, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” In other words, we feel that Cardinal O’Malley has ample resources he could use to really seek out others with knowledge or suspicions about this case. Instead, he seems to have taken the ‘bare minimum’ approach, which is a disservice to everyone involved.

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.

AUSTRALIA
7 News

[with video]

A Catholic priest from Glenmore Park claims many priests lead a double life as he revealed his own clandestine marriage, a 7News exclusive has exposed.

Father Kevin Lee, a priest for 20 years, has admitted to 7News that he has found love and wedded.

In a controversial claim, Lee says that many Catholic priests pursue relationships and argues compulsory celibacy within the faith should be reconsidered.

“I’ve fallen in love and I’ve got married and it’s outside of most people’s awareness,”

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.

POLAND
Deccan Herald (India)

Warsaw, May 1, 2012 (IANS)

A priest in Poland, found guilty of having sex with a disabled 19-year-old girl who was entrusted in his care, has been sentenced to four years in prison.

This is the first time a priest has been caught and sentenced in Poland, though there have been few incidents in the past where priests were asked to resign.

Bialystok’s District Court found that between July 2010 and February 2011 the priest had sexual intercourse with her as many as eight times, a media report said.

The incident came to light when the girl became pregnant last year and.reported the matter to the police. The girl gave birth to a baby a few months ago but the name of the father of the child has not been mentioned anywhere on the documents, reports 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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Posted May 01, 2012

Following a series of 7.30 stories on the Church’s response to complaints of sexual abuse, a Sydney priest with connections to the NSW Attorney General has handed himself in to police to face charges of abuse dating from the 1970s and ’80s.

Tim Palmer
Source: 7.30 | Duration: 6min

Transcript

CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: A Sydney priest who is a close associate of the NSW Attorney General has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing three girls and a boy over 15 years in the 1970s and 80s. The police investigation of Father Finian Egan followed allegations raised in a series of stories on this program. They examined the Church’s response to the initial complaints, and the lengthy holdup in the criminal investigation, during which NSW Attorney General Greg Smith apparently dismissed one of the alleged victims as “money hungry”. Tim Palmer reports.

TIM PALMER, REPORTER: After decades, this was a defining moment for two of the women who have alleged Father Finian Egan turned their lives upside down by sexually assaulting them as children.

KELLIE ROCHE, ABUSE VICTIM: It’s a relief. For me it’s like… it’s finally… it’s something’s happening. Something legal is starting.

TIM PALMER: It was the Catholic Church that first investigated a series of allegations against Finian Egan made by Nikki Wells and Kellie Roche, who claimed he’d attacked them when they were at school or a fellowship at a north-west Sydney 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.

DEUTSCHLAND
Gay Osterreich

Da es für einen Präfekten durchaus anstrengend sein kann, den Kopf eines Knaben zwischen die Beine zu klemmen und ihn mit dem erigierten Penis zu schlagen, kann es schon zu Stöhnlauten kommen. Sexueller Missbrauch im strafrechtlichen Sinn sei das jedoch nicht, meint zumindest der Rechtsanwalt des Bistums Regensburg.

Bereits vor zwei Jahren wurde bekannt, dass auch im weltberühmten Knabenchor ‘Regensburger Domspatzen’ in den Jahren 1958 bis 1973 zu sexuellem Missbrauch gekommen sein soll. Zwei ehemals leitende Geistliche sollen darin verwickelt gewesen, die Taten sind jedoch bereits verjährt. Trotzdem hat die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz zugesagt, den Opfern (sämtlicher Missbrauchsfälle durch katholische Geistliche) eine genaue Prüfung der Vorfälle und – im Falle eines berechtigten Anspruches – eine Entschädigung zugesagt.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
Erzbistum Bamberg

Erzbistum untersagt weiterhin alle seelsorglichen Tätigkeiten

Bamberg. (bbk) Das Gericht des Erzbistums München hat einen 67-jährigen Bamberger Diözesanpriester wegen sexueller Übergriffe auf Minderjährige während seiner Tätigkeit im damaligen Ottonianum Bamberg (1978 bis 1984) in sechs „jeweils minderschweren Fällen“ schuldig gesprochen. Es bestätigte die vorläufige Versetzung in den Ruhestand und das Verbot jeder seelsorglichen Tätigkeit. Das Gericht verhängte als Strafe die dauernde Versetzung in den Ruhestand; außerdem darf der Geistliche den Titel „Domkapitular em.“ nicht führen.

Den Prozess hat das Offizialat München im Auftrag der römischen Glaubenskongregation geführt. Die staatsanwaltschaftlichen Ermittlungen wurden im Januar 2009 wegen Verjährung eingestellt. Das Erzbistum Bamberg veranlasste die Klärung der Vorwürfe durch ein kirchliches Gericht.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

By Sarah Hoye, CNN

Philadelphia (CNN) — One of the two Philadelphia priests on trial in a landmark child sexual abuse and conspiracy case admitted in 2008 that he allowed a 14-year-old to view pornography and sleep in the same bed with him during an overnight visit in 1996, according to testimony given to church investigators.

Monsignor Kevin Quirk, the presiding priest over the 2008 canonical trial of Rev. James Brennan, read Brennan’s testimony into the court record on Monday. Brennan is accused of attempted rape in the 1996 incident and is currently standing trial in criminal court.

“Did I allow it happen? Yes. I take full responsibility for it,” Brennan testified in 2008, adding that the behavior was “borderline” inappropriate. Brennan denied touching the 14-year-old or exposing himself, according to the 2008 testimony that Quirk recounted for the court on Monday.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Greg Harkin

Tuesday May 01 2012

CHURCH leaders will come under renewed pressure when a BBC documentary is screened tonight outlining the widespread cover-up of clerical sex abuse here.

‘This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church’ is said to focus on Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in an ecclesiastical investigation that led to the silencing of two victims of Fr Brendan Smyth.

Victims of paedophile priests in Co Donegal will also tell how the church failed to deal with complaints which allowed one cleric to continue to abuse more victims.

The broadcaster has refused to comment on the investigation by reporter Darragh Mac Intyre but BBC sources say the documentary has “powerful testimony” from abuse 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.

UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

April 30, 2012

Posted by J. Peter Nixon

In its recent statement regarding the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith noted that its principal means of assessing the doctrinal fidelity of the LCWR was a review of keynote and leadership addresses at the LCWR annual assembly. Many of the documents in question are publicly available on the LCWR web site. Given the controversy, I wanted to read some of these documents myself.

What I found was not what I expected. With all the concerns the CDF raised about “radical feminism,” I assumed I would encounter many stirring denunciations of patriarchy and criticisms of the Church’s teaching that the sacrament of Holy Orders be restricted to men.

Intimations of those positions find their way into the documents here and there. At most, however, they are a minor concern. The core struggle revealed in these addresses is an emotional and spiritual one: how to live out a religious life in communities whose vision of Church—a vision that once seemed a real possibility—is increasingly a road not taken.

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.

UNITED STATES
GoErie

By JAMES F. DRANE
Contributing writer

How does one explain the public reprimand of American sisters, from a group of bishops and Vatican officials who failed so tragically to handle the mentally ill pedophile priests and the damage they did to innocent children and to the Church?

The American sisters targeted belong to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which includes a majority of American nuns. They were reprimanded for questioning Church teaching on homosexuality, male only priesthood and for promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” They were also reprimanded for public statements that disagree with and challenge the American bishops, “who are the authentic teachers of faith and morals.”

All the above accusations and reprimands were associated with a discussion of President Barack Obama’s health-care plan.

One explanation of what is happening comes from an enduring culture inside the Vatican. Inside the Vatican, there is a particular culture, just as there is a culture inside every large industrial organization, big bank, leadership group of a Protestant Church or government agency responsible for protecting the president. Without an understanding of an inside culture, one can never explain particular unusual behaviors.

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.

CANADA
Vancouver Sun

By KIM PEMBERTON, Vancouver Sun
April 30, 2012

A Calgary law firm with 4,100 clients seeking compensation for abuse in residential schools is taking too long to register some of their claims, a court-ordered investigation has found.

The investigation found Blott and Company has not yet registered about 1,400 of the claims, even though a government-imposed deadline to do so before September of 2012 is looming.

The findings of the three-month long investigation, made public Monday in B.C. Supreme Court, included a recommendation that Blott and Company no longer be able to represent clients under the Independent Assessment Process for Indian residential schools survivors seeking settlement packages from the government.

The investigation also found that in some cases, Blott and Company claimants were charged “criminal interest rates” of 20 to 60 per cent for loans in anticipation of the compensation awards.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Northern District Times

1 May 12 @ 01:10pm by Robbie Patterson

FOMER Priest at St Gerard Majella parish Carlingford, Father Finian Egan, 77, was arrested by police this morning and charged in regards to 17 child sex allegations dating back four decades.

The West Ryde-based Catholic Priest, attended Ryde Police Station with his legal representatives at 10am.

The offences allegedly occurred between 1972 and 1987, while he was appointed as a priest to parishes in Sydney and on the Central Coast.

He worked for twenty years, (1979 to 1999) as Parish Priest in charge of St Gerard Majella parish, Carlingford.

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.

AUSTRALIA
NSW Police Force

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

Detectives in Sydney’s north-west have arrested and charged a Catholic priest with child sex offences dating back four decades.

The 77-year-old man attended Ryde Police Station with his legal representative about 10am today (Tuesday 1 May 2012).

He was taken into custody by detectives attached to Eastwood Local Area Command and questioned in relation to alleged sexual offences against four children.

The offences allegedly occurred between 1972 and 1987, while the man was appointed as a priest to parishes in Sydney and on the Central Coast.

He was subsequently charged with 17 offences, including:

Three charges of Indecent Assault Section 61E(1) relating to an alleged incident involving a 16-year-old girl at Carlingford in 1987;
10 charges of indecent assault Section 76 relating to an alleged incident involving a 11-year-old girl at Carlingford in 1979;
One charge of indecent assault Section 81 relation to an alleged incident involving a 14-year-old boy at The Entrance in 1973; and
Two counts of indecent assault (Section 76) and one count of rape (Section 63) relating to an alleged incident involving a 17-year-old girl at The Entrance in 1972.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC Sydney

By police reporter Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop

Updated May 01, 2012

A retired Catholic priest at the centre of a child abuse scandal has been charged after turning himself in to police in Sydney’s north-west.

Father Finian Egan was helped out of his car by detectives as he arrived at Ryde Police Station with a lawyer at about 11:00am (AEST).

Two of his alleged victims hugged as the 77-year-old hobbled with a walking stick into the station.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

A RETIRED Catholic priest and friend of the NSW attorney general was taken to hospital after being charged with a raft of child sexual offences dating back to the 1970s.

Finian Egan, 77, left a Sydney police station in an ambulance after being questioned and charged with 17 offences today.

Attorney-General Greg Smith has been a long-time friend of Egan, who drove himself to Ryde police station this morning, where detectives escorted him inside.

He was arrested and questioned over alleged sexual offences against four children, police said in a statement.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

A CATHOLIC priest who is a friend of NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith has been arrested in relation to child sex offences.

Police said the 77-year-old priest was questioned at Ryde police station and charged in relation to alleged indecent assaults that had been renamed under the Crimes Act 1900..

The priest was the subject of a police investigation that began in 2010 following complaints he abused young girls 30 years ago.

He has maintained his innocence.

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.

NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Zaterdag via mijn advocaat het verweerschrift van de zusters Augustinessen van st. Monica ontvangen, de wereld op zijn kop!! Maar dat was te verwachten. Ook IK heb goede herinneringen aan een bepaalde zuster van deze orde. Zij was daar moeder overste en vriendin van mijn moeder, zij kende elkaar uit Utrecht (mijn geboortestad) van de Poortstraat.

Na een hoop ellende thuis was mijn moeder zo lief om haar te vragen mij op te willen nemen in hun orde voor een opleiding kinderverzorging in het klooster te Sittard, en natuurlijk dat deed zij maar al te graag.

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.

NEDERLAND
de Volkskrant

Kinderen in pleeggezinnen en tehuizen worden daar drie tot vier keer vaker slachtoffer van seksueel misbruik dan jongeren die thuis wonen. Uit huis geplaatste jongeren met een licht verstandelijke beperking zijn zelfs tien keer vaker slachtoffer. Tussen 2008 en 2010 kwam misbruik in de jeugdzorg ‘schokkend vaak’ voor, stellen wetenschappers van de Universiteit Leiden in een nog niet openbaar gemaakt onderzoeksrapport in opdracht van de commissie-Samson.

Seksueel misbruik is volgens de onderzoekers nog een groot taboe. De helft van de ondervraagde jongeren die slachtoffer werd van seksueel misbruik in de jeugdzorg, durfde zelfs in de anonieme vragenlijst niet te melden wie de dader is. Degenen die wel antwoordden, noemden medewerkers van de instelling als dader, maar ook pleegouders of groepsgenoten.

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.

NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Dat is te wijten aan een gebrek aan expertise, stellen deskundigen vrijdag in dagblad Spits.

Vandaag speciaal op deze dag 28 April is het kind in mij aan het woord. Vandaag 28 April op deze dag overleed mijn vader toen ik 6 jaar oud was. Hij stierf vlak voor me, hij drukte op de ivoren toets van de radio viel achterover en ging geruisloos heen. Het kind in mij is nooit gehoord, ik werd samen met mijn broertje en zusje het huis uit gedreven, de dode achterlatend, het kind in mij, zijn stem gesmoord.

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.

NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Het grijze, visieloze midden, had vandaag in Den Haag een glorieuze dag. Een overwinning met bezuinigingen die ver zullen doorsnijden in menig gezin, winkel, bedrijf, gemeenschap en de machtsverhoudingen in dit land voor de waan van de dag op zijn kop zet. De felicitaties waren voor allen die hadden meegewerkt aan deze snelle omwenteling terwijl diezelfde politici zich weken opsloten om met Brussel een geschikt akkoord te vinden applaudisseerden, en keken naar deze verrassende wederopstanding van Jezus in Kunduz kleedij, ‘hosanna hosanna’. ‘Ai’, zag je Rutte denken er waren meer opties dan de zwart-wit-gele Wilders in zijn driehoeksverhouding met Henk en Ingrid. De realiteit kan zeer snel veranderen. Snel erbij horen, allianties smeden, en kijken wie we electoraal kunnen aftroeven en buitensluiten’. Dat politici blij kunnen zijn met miljarden aan bezuinigingen, verbaast me; de wederopstanding van het midden.

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.

NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Voor zover bekend eerste keer dat Limburgse geestelijke toegeeft weet te hebben gehad

door Annelies Hendrikx en Bjorn Thimister
HEERLEN – Voor het eerst – zover bekend – geeft een vertegenwoordiger van de rk kerk in Limburg toe dat hij wist van seksueel misbruik in een jongensinternaat.

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.

NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Na het VERSCHIJNEN VAN HET DEETMAN RAPPORT, waarin wordt gesproken over tussen de 10.000 en 20.000 SLACHTOFFERS van SEKSUEEL KINDERMISBRUIK, hebben zich slechts enkele levende daders gemeld. Hoeveel daders het precies betreft is door de commissie Deetman nooit openbaar gemaakt. Hetzelfde geldt voor de strafmaatregelen welke RKK tegen betrokkenen heeft genomen. Tot op heden ontbreekt het aan transparantie!! Datzelfde geldt voor GEWELD, PSYCHISCH LIJDEN, DE CASTRATIES, DE MEDISCHE EXPERIMENTEN EN DE AFSTANDSBABY’S.

WIJ ROEPEN DAN OOK DE TWEEDE KAMER OP EEN GRONDIG PARLEMENTAIR ONDERZOEK in te stellen. Ook het OM moet deel uitmaken van dit parlementair onderzoek.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

By Ruth Whippman

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

You have to hand it to the Catholic Church. It takes a certain level of chutzpah to come through the most widespread global paedophile scandal in human history and its subsequent alleged cover-up, and still be dishing out moral guidance on ‘disordered sexual practices.’

A few days ago, it was revealed that the Catholic Education Service, the body responsible for all state-funded Catholic schools in England and Wales, had sent a letter to all of the schools in their network urging them to encourage their pupils to sign a petition against gay marriage. Critics, including the British Humanist Association, who hope to mount a legal challenge, claim that the move contravenes the Equality Act of 2010, which prohibits, amongst other things, discrimination on the grounds of sexuality.

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.

NETHERLANDS
Radio Netherlands

Children in foster families and youth care facilities are three to four times more often the victims of child sex abuse compared to children living with their parents.

Children with a mild mental retardation living in group homes are even ten times more often the victims of sexual abuse. National daily de Volkskrant writes that a group of scientists from the University of Leiden conclude that abuse among children in youth care was ‘shockingly common.” The study, conducted on behalf of the Samson Commission, covers the period from 2008 to 2010.

The scientists write that sexual abuse is still a major taboo. Half of the abuse victims were too afraid to name their abuser, even when the questionnaire was completely anonymous. Those who did answer named institutional workers as their abusers, but also foster parents and fellow group members.

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.

STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

Posted: Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Editor’s note: Father Michael Kelly sent this email to some of his supporters on April 19. Kelly fled to Ireland after being found liable in a civil sexual abuse case filed against him and the Stockton Diocese; the diocese has settled the suit for $3.75 million.

Dear Friends,

The first thing I want to tell you all is that none of you have any idea how much your support and your prayers continue to mean to me. It was those prayers and support that got me through the past four and a half nightmare years, and especially the court case and its unjust verdict. I did none of those things I was accused of.

Some people have emailed me of other allegations being brought up, I can tell you that I did none of those things, either. I will maintain my complete innocence until my last breath. God knows, and I know, that it isn’t true.

Regarding the court case: I testified for a full day and a half. I also left the details of and access to my financial resources with my attorney so that whatever is decided by the court financially, I would accept the legal responsibilities imposed on me by the court — even though I did 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.

AUSTRALIA
The Telegraph

By Andrew Clennell and Clementine Cuneo
The Daily Telegraph
May 01, 2012

A CLOSE friend of NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith, Catholic priest Father Finian Egan, has been charged with rape and indecent assaults today in connection with alleged child sex offences.

A statement from Police released a short time ago said detectives had “arrested and charged a Catholic priest with child sex offences dating back four decades”.

“The 77-year-old man attended Ryde Police Station with his legal representative about 10am,” the statement 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.

AUSTRALIA
Banyule & Nillumbik Weekly

01 May, 2012

FEDERAL MP Rob Mitchell has called for the Baillieu government to introduce laws to compel the Catholic Church and other clergy to report allegations of child sexual abuse.

The federal MHR for McEwen has been lobbying to introduce mandatory reporting laws for clergy and religious organisations.

Under current legislation, doctors, police, nurses, midwives and teachers must report any suspected sex abuse.

Mr Mitchell said he was motivated to push for law reform after one of his constituents came to him after her son was abused by a priest – who has since been charged.

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.

NEBRASKA
World-Herald

By Teresa Lostroh
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN — More than 100 adults who were sexually abused as children have come to Cynthia Topf for help over the past 25 years, the Omaha clinical psychologist said.

A definitive event — the death of their abuser or the birth of a child, for example — often prompts victims to seek counseling for the anger, depression and nightmares that can linger long after the abuse.

Topf works with some clients to emotionally prepare them as they seek justice in civil courts. But many victims come to her long after the opportunity for their day in court has expired.

Under current Nebraska law, child sexual assault lawsuits must be filed by the victim’s 25th birthday. Criminal child sex assault cases have no statute of limitations.

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 (IL)
Bellingham Herald

By GARY MARX AND DAVID JACKSON – Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO -Prosecutors said Monday that they are ending their decade-long effort to extradite a former Roman Catholic priest who fled to India shortly before he was charged with 20 counts of criminal sexual assault and abuse of a 16-year-old Chicago girl.

Sleeva Raju Policetti has maintained his innocence since abruptly leaving Chicago in 2002, and in India he has waged a protracted court battle against efforts to extradite him to Chicago to face trial.

Policetti’s alleged victim initially worked with authorities, setting in motion an international extradition that required the approval of the U.S. State and Justice departments and India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

But in recent days she told Shauna Boliker, the Cook County first assistant state’s attorney, that she no longer wanted to pursue the case, effectively forcing prosecutors to drop it.

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.