ABUSE TRACKER

MISSOURI
Connect MidMissouri

by Mark Slavit

A four-and-a-half hour hearing to determine whether child sex charges against a former priest should be dismissed was held at the Cooper County Courthouse.

Prosecutors charged Gerald Howard with eight felony counts, including sodomy and kidnapping.

The victims said the sexual abuse happened between 1984 and 1987.

The hearing was on a motion to dismiss filed by Howard’s attorney in July.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Evening Sun

By STEVE MARRONI
The Evening Sun
eveningsun.com

Posted: 10/31/2012

A priest who formerly served at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Bonneauville is accused of stealing more than $380,000 from the church.

A preliminary arraignment is set for Thursday for Caesar A. Belchez, 52, on third-degree felony charges of theft by unlawful taking, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, and access device fraud.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg spokesman Joseph Aponick said Belchez has since been “relieved of all priestly duties,” which includes being barred from celebrating Mass, preaching, hearing confession, wearing priestly attire or presenting himself as a priest in good standing.

Charging documents indicate in the five years Belchez was assigned to the Bonneauville church, he took a total of $384,750.76 in cash, checks and credit cards issued to the parish.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

(ANSA) – Vatican City, October 31 – The Vatican said on Wednesday that it would embark on its own ‘spending review’ to find ways to eliminate wasteful layouts as the effects of the global economic crisis weigh on its own treasury. No stone is to be left unturned. The review will look for ways to cut spending on everything from stationery, including photocopies, to consulting services, gifts to visiting dignitaries and payouts to sub-contractors. Even spending on the pope’s ornamental medals will fall under the review’s scrutiny. The Holy See is undergoing a thorough effort to get its finances under control. On September 11, the Vatican said that it had drafted in a Swiss expert to help it fight money laundering more effectively as part of an effort to join the ‘white list’ of states that, unlike tax havens, respect international standards on combatting money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

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SEATTLE (WA)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 31, 2012

There are reports of out Seattle that O’Dea High School principal Br. Karl Walczak was accused of child sexual abuse in court documents and removed from his job in August.

And three months later, parents still have not been told the truth.

According to a letter which has since been taken down from the O’Dea website (it used to be posted here. You can now view it here.), Walczak “took a leave” of absence in August, “to assist in resolving a proof of claim filed in the Christian Brother’s Institute bankruptcy proceedings.”

The letter continues, “Thank you for your ongoing support of Brother Walczak and the entire O’Dea community.”

The only proof of claims filed against individuals in the Irish Christian Brother Bankruptcy were claims of child sexual abuse. There was no mention of any allegations to parents, students or the greater community.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Times of Israel

By Miriam Shaviv
October 31, 2012

London’s ultra-Orthodox establishment is investigating one of its most senior rabbis following a barrage of rumors that he engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with a woman, The Times of Israel has learned.

The rabbi wields considerable influence in the city’s Haredi institutions.

Over the past few weeks, he has been accused in blogs and on the street of a variety of sexual misdeeds with at least one woman — for whom he was allegedly acting as a counselor — and possibly with others. The allegations range from serious criminal offenses to actions which, one rabbi said, may be halachically dubious, but “in the non-rabbinical, non-Haredi world, wouldn’t raise eyebrows.”

The rabbi at the center of the rumors did not return a phone call.

Since mid-October, his London colleagues have met twice to discuss the handling of the case, once in the Orthodox suburb of Golders Green in North West London, and once in the considerably more Haredi Stamford Hill.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan November 01, 2012

These are not easy times for Catholic priests; and they have never been easy times for those children in our society who have been sexually abused, a disproportionate number of them by Catholic priests.

When in Sydney in July 2008, Pope Benedict XVI apologised in these words:

I … acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this country. Indeed, I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering. These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation.

I adopt his apology without demurrer.

Whatever our religion or none, whatever our love or loathing of the Catholic Church, what is to be done in the name of law and justice? Clearly the Church cannot be left alone to get its house in order. That would be a wrongful invocation of freedom of religion in a pluralist, democratic society.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patrick J. Wall

Patrick Doyle wrote an intriguing piece in the Boston Daily after interviewing a number of seminarians. After reading it, I now am more afraid than ever for the future safety of children in the Church.

The formators (priests in charge of seminarian formation) in the Roman Catholic Church in Boston are analogizing millennia-old child sexual abuse crimes to the airline industry. I do not think the folks at Boston Logan, Delta airlines or Boeing would concur.

From the article:

“As Father Chris O’Connor, the Vice-Rector at Saint John Seminary (Boston) is fond of saying, Priests are like airplanes. Most of them take off and land, take off and land, and everything is fine. You only hear about the ones who crash.”

It’s delusion at its highest form.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 31, 2012

We applaud Mark and the other brave victims of this dangerous predator; they are courageously cooperating with prosecutors to keep a shrewd serial child molester away from kids.

We hope they succeed. And we hope that their courage and compassion inspires others who were hurt by Fr. Howard or any cleric to step forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoing and protect children.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By Aly Thomson, The Canadian Press
October 31, 2012

HALIFAX – A Roman Catholic diocese in Nova Scotia will try to close a dark chapter in its history this week as it wraps up a sex abuse settlement with 125 people, but the lawyer representing them says they continue to heal their emotional wounds.

The final instalment of a $16-million compensation settlement for confirmed and alleged victims of sexual abuse is due Thursday from the Diocese of Antigonish, bringing a close to a long legal process spearheaded by Ronald Martin.

Martin launched a class-action lawsuit against the diocese after his brother wrote a suicide note in 2002 alleging Hugh Vincent MacDonald, a priest, sexually abused him. MacDonald was charged with sex-related offences in 2003 but died a year later before the court process concluded.

Martin’s concerns prompted dozens of people to come forward with similar allegations dating back more than 60 years against several priests who worked for the diocese.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

October 31, 2012

NSAC News has been temporarily interrupted due to Hurricane Sandy.

We expect NSAC News to be operational by the beginning of next week.

Our best wishes go to our excellent and dedicated publisher Steve Sheehan and all who have been in Hurricane Sandy’s path and who are suffering through the after effects.

We thank all of our NSAC News subscribers and readers for your support. Please stay tuned.

— Kristine Ward, Chair, NSAC, KristineWard@hotmail.com

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GROSSBRITANNIEN
taz

von Christian Füller

BERLIN taz | Spätestens seitdem der Premier den Fall zur Chefsache erklärte, hat das Thema sexuelle Gewalt auch in Großbritannien eine neue Dimension erreicht. David Cameron sagte im Parlament, die BBC habe sich „ernsten Fragen“ zu stellen, die Ermittler bekämen vollste Unterstützung. Es geht also nicht mehr darum, ob Jimmy Savile, der schrullig-populäre Pop-Moderator, Mädchen sexuelle Gewalt angetan hat.

Cameron und seine Landsleute sehen ratlos und schockiert darauf, wer alles mitgeholfen, mitverbrochen und wer alles weggesehen hat: Gab oder gibt es in der ehrwürdigen BBC einen Ring von Pädokriminellen? Warum hat die Polizei insgesamt sieben Anzeigen gegen den zum Ritter geschlagenen Sir Savile nicht zur Anklage gebracht? Wurde eines der Kinderheime, die Savile mit zig Millionen Pfund unterstützte, gar als Nachschublager für kleine verletzbare Mädchen missbraucht? Beinahe täglich erhöht sich die Zahl der Opfer, die angeben, von Savile sexuell überwältigt worden zu sein. Letzter Stand: 300, alles gravierende Fälle.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

[Video]

Homburg, Johanneum: “Sie haben lange geschwiegen. Erst aus Ohnmacht, später um sich und ihre Familien zu schützen…”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Daily

BY Patrick Doyle POSTED ON 10/31/2012

When I first started reporting for my story “Resurrection,” I was hoping to understand what seemed like a straightforward question: Who wants to become a priest in 2012?

After all, a man who decides to become a priest is choosing a profession at a time when its public reputation has never been lower. Fifty years ago, Catholic priests were pillars of the community: trusted, holy men of integrity. Today, they’re widely seen as a group of odd, lonely, and sexually-repressed men who abuse children at an alarmingly high rate. In 2002, a Wall-Street Journal-NBC News poll showed that 64 percent of people thought priests “frequently” abuse children. Clearly, that’s a number inflated by anger over the abuse scandal, but still, various studies and reports have shown that somewhere between 4 percent and 10 percent of American priests between 1950 and 2003 were accused of sexually assaulting children. The Catholic Church has taken many measures to stop the abuse, including instituting stricter screenings and immediately reporting allegations to the police, but the fact remains that most people still don’t trust priests like they used to.

The Church is well aware of its public-relations problem. As Father Chris O’Connor, the vice-rector at St. John’s Seminary, is fond of saying: “Priests are like airplanes. Most of them take off and land, take off and land, and everything’s fine. You only hear about the ones who crash.”

The past decade has seen a lot of terrible crashes, and in the six months while I was reporting the story, there were a few bad ones. In July, Monsignor William Lynn of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was sentenced to three to six years of prison time for allowing abuse to occur. And locally, Father Andrzej J. Urbaniak, a priest in South Boston, was arrested in August for possessing child pornography. The crashes, unfortunately, will probably continue.

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VIRGINIA
Courthouse News Service

By RYAN ABBOTT

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) – A Christian school fired a fifth-grade teacher after she complained that its pastor forced her to have sex with him in the back seat of his car, the woman claims in court.

The woman, T, sued Christ Chapel Assemblies of God its former pastor Jonathan Gray, in Federal Court.

She claims Gray used his position to force her into having a nonconsensual sexual relationship with him and the church fired her for reporting him.

T claims that soon after Gray began counseling her for problems with her husband, he made unwanted advances to her and touched and kissed her.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Catholic News Service | Oct. 31, 2012

Vatican City —
Pope Benedict XVI has named a Wisconsin-born missionary, Fr. Robert H. Flock, to be an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Flock, who will celebrate his 56th birthday Nov. 4, has served at Santa Cruz Parish in the Archdiocese of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, since 1988. The parish was founded by priests from the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., in the 1950s.

The Vatican announced the new assignment for Flock, a La Crosse priest and native of Sparta, Wis., on Wednesday.

Since 2000, Flock has served as pastor of Santa Cruz Parish and as the head of formation for young priests in the Bolivian archdiocese. He also has been vicar general of the archdiocese since 2003.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

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

– Appointed Fr. Robert Herman Flock Bever of the clergy of the diocese of La Crosse, U.S.A., pastor of the parish of “La Santa Cruz” and formator of young clergy in the Bolivian archdiocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Cochabamba (area 32,306, population 1,668,000, Catholics 1,534,000, priests 307, permanent deacons 28, religious 1,295), Bolivia The bishop-elect was born in Sparta, U.S.A., in 1954 and ordained a priest in 1982. He has worked in pastoral care, first in his American diocese then in Bolivia after moving there as a “fidei donum” priest in 1988.

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IRELAND/AUSTRIA
Association of Catholic Priests

Sean McDonagh reports on the AGM of the Austrian priests’ initiative, Pfarrer, at which he represented the ACP and conveys the thoughts of Fr. Helmüt Schueller, one of Pfarrer’s leaders.

I arrived in Vienna on October 19th 2012 to attend the Annual General Meeting of PFARRER –Initiative (parish priests initiative) I met Fr. Helmüt Schueller, one of the leaders of the Initiative at midday and we proceeded to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the centre of the city. Over coffee Helmüt told me how the Initiative began in 2006. It arose because many priests felt that the Austrian Bishops and the Holy See are not addressing the serious crises which are affecting the Catholic Church right across the globe, but particularly in Austria. Furthermore, Helmüt argues that the Catholic Church shows little respect for the dignity of the baptized and refuses to allow priests and lay people to have any genuine involvement in the decision making processes of the Catholic Church.

In 2008, a number of priests associated with the movement went to Rome. They met with officials at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). One of the senior officials agreed that none of the positions taken by the movement were heretical. However, a younger official declared that almost everything the movement was looking for was heretical.

Membership of the Initiative is open to all priests, including those who have left active ministry. The number of members now stands at around 500 priests out of a total of 3,000 priests in Austria. As we sipped coffee, Helmüt told me that research conducted by Professor Paul Zulehner shows that more than 75 percent of the priests in Austria actually support the aims of the Initiative. They are often afraid to join, as it may affect their career paths in the Church. It seems that anyone associated with the Initiative will not be nominated as a dean in any of the Austrian dioceses

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Seán McCárthaigh

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The town of Ballina has been rocked by the sudden death of a local priest in what is believed to be the first case in recent years of a Catholic cleric in Ireland taking his own life.

Residents in the Co Mayo town yesterday expressed shock at news of the death of Fr Muredach Tuffy, a popular curate and director of the Newman Institute — an educational centre known as Ballina’s “Catholic university”. …

Enniskillen-based priest and well-known broadcaster Fr Brian D’Arcy spoke earlier this week about the pressures of being a priest in Ireland amid the fallout of various clerical sexual abuse scandals, as well as grappling with controversial Church teaching on issues such as clerical celibacy, contraception, and homosexuality.

The Association of Catholic Priests yesterday expressed disappointment and sadness at the response of the Hierarchy to their request for greater engagement with the group about the future of the Church.

The organisation claimed there was often a “palpable sense of dejection, depression and sometimes almost despair when clergy gather as a group”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Another alleged victim of a defrocked Hunter Valley priest has gone to police, complaining of child sex abuse.

70-year-old John Sidney Denham is already accused of abusing 14 boys in the 1970s, mainly at a Newcastle Catholic High School.

Newcastle Local Court has today been told of another alleged victim from the same school.

The defrocked priest is now facing 51 charges including indecent assault and buggery, after two additional charges were laid.

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UNITED STATES/UNITED KINGDOM
What They Knew

Newly uncovered documents reveal twice convicted and imprisoned Chicago Jesuit Donald McGuire SJ began his ministry not in America, but in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s as an associate pastor in Manchester, England. His departure from that post remains unexplained. But given McGuire’s history, superior performance was not likely the factor which lead to his leaving this pastoral position in less than a year. As we have previously uncovered, documents written by his superiors from 1959 have labeled McGuire ‘unfit’ for the priesthood. This fact may in part explain his superiors’ decision to send him outside the US and to the UK, Austria and Germany in 1961 after his ordination.

During this same period, Donald McGuire SJ also travelled frequently to Ireland, giving over six retreats to nuns and laity. Following his departure from Manchester, the Jesuit priest fled the UK and reappeared in Austria and Germany one year later as a part-time military chaplain to British and US soldiers. McGuire being a chaplain to the Anglo-American soldiers is not entirely surprising. As shown HERE, there is a lengthy list of “problem” priests relegated to military service.

What is surprising is the letter below to his Provincial at the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus. The document shows the convicted Jesuit child sex abuser worked as the chaplain to a British boys boarding school in Hamm, Germany in 1962. McGuire conducted retreats for children as young as 7-8 years old, boys 14-17 years old, soldiers serving abroad and engaged in hospital work.

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

Het bisdom Roermond hoeft geen schadevergoeding te betalen aan Elvira, de ex-vriendin van de inmiddels overleden Gulpense deken Joep Haffmans.

Door Maurice Ubags

Elvira had van 1995 tot 2004 een relatie met Haffmans (foto). Ze leerde hem kennen toen ze hulp bij hem zocht. Na afloop van de relatie zei Elvira dat er sprake was geweest van seksueel misbruik; dat de deken haar de ziekte herpes had bezorgd, haar had mishandeld en met de dood bedreigd en haar had betrokken in fraude met kerkgelden. Voor de rechtbank in Maastricht eiste ze een voorschot van 25.000 euro aan smartengeld en schadevergoeding voor medische kosten en verlies van arbeidsvermogen. Elvira betoogde dat het bisdom verantwoordelijk is voor de daden van Haffmans en had nagelaten tijdig in te grijpen. De rechtbank vindt dat het bisdom niet aansprakelijk is. De claim van Elvira struikelt vooral op de lange duur van de relatie. Daardoor kan volgens de rechter ‘niet meer worden staande gehouden dat er sprake is van onrechtmatigheid’.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Breda Heffernan

Wednesday October 31 2012

CARDINAL Sean Brady has refused to meet a group of reforming priests in the latest snub from the church hierarchy to its own members.

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), which has more than 1,000 members, has published correspondence it sent to the cardinal seeking a meeting with bishops to discuss the future of the church.

In response, the Bishops’ Conference executive secretary Fr G Dullea said the hierarchy had decided that engagement with the ACP should happen at local level.

The council is organised on diocesan level and involves priests meeting several times a year to discuss issues and then report to their local bishop. It does not allow for the ACP as a group to meet face-to-face with bishops.

It is the latest snub to the ACP after bishops in the west of Ireland refused to attend an assembly of priests and lay people in Galway last month and signals that relations between the hierarchy and the ACP are at a new low.

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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Bryan Cones

Moving a bishop should be more than an ecclesiastical game of chess.

Climbing the corporate ladder in our business-driven culture is generally applauded. Who doesn’t want the corner office, the big salary, and the perks of joining the true “company men” (who are still usually men, after all)? Staying in the same job or with the same company for too long can suggest a lack of ambition, and it certainly doesn’t improve one’s marketability.

So influential is this supremely American and capitalist value that it may be creeping even into the church. Consider, for instance, the recent move of Bishop Salvatore Cordileone from “lowly” Oakland, California to his new post across the bay as archbishop of San Francisco. A number of observers have speculated about whether his ecclesiastical “ascent” may have been fueled by his outspoken opposition to same-sex marriage in California, and specifically his support of Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that overturned a California Supreme Court decision that legalized such unions.

“Cordileone was the first to step up to the plate,” said Charles LiMandri of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund in the Los Angeles Times. “That’s why his career has skyrocketed.” LiMandri worked closely with Cordileone on the Proposition 8 campaign.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Matthew Backhouse

7:59 PM Wednesday Oct 31, 2012

A Kaitaia evangelical church leader who secretly filmed a teenage girl and a woman has pleaded guilty to a raft of sex-related charges.

Eric Clifford Reid, 63, stood down as pastor of the Kaitaia Family Church after two complainants came forward with allegations he recorded them without their consent.

He pleaded guilty to 25 charges of making intimate visual recordings and 24 charges of possessing intimate visual recordings when he appeared in Kaikohe District Court today.

The Kaitaia community has been shocked by a string of sex allegations this year, including against a prominent businessman and a school teacher who face separate charges of sexually abusing boys.

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NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times

By Matthew Backhouse on Wed, 31 Oct 2012

A Kaitaia evangelical church leader who secretly filmed a teenage girl and a woman has pleaded guilty to a raft of sex-related charges.

Eric Clifford Reid, 63, stood down as pastor of the Kaitaia Family Church after two complainants came forward with allegations he recorded them without their consent.

He pleaded guilty to 25 charges of making intimate visual recordings and 24 charges of possessing intimate visual recordings when he appeared in Kaikohe District Court today.

The Kaitaia community has been shocked by a string of sex allegations this year, including against a prominent businessman and a school teacher who face separate charges of sexually abusing boys.

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BOONVILLE (MO)
Missourian

BY Ben Nadler

BOONVILLE — Mark McAllister hasn’t seen Gerald Howard in nearly 25 years.

On Wednesday, McAllister hopes to see him again, this time from the witness stand. McAllister is expected to testify against Howard, a former priest at the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Boonville, who is accused of using his position of authority to systematically abuse and sexually molest McAllister and other boys.

Howard is charged with three counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of attempted forcible sodomy, and two counts of kidnapping and terrorizing for incidents that were alleged to have occurred between September 1983 and June 1988. Howard is being held on $1.5 million bond.

According to previous Missourian reporting, Howard, formerly known by the name Carmen Sita, was a priest in New Jersey where he was charged with sexual contact with a minor in September 1982 and pleaded guilty in 1983.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

IRELAND’S CATHOLIC bishops have declined to meet the Association of Catholic Priests’ leadership team, saying any such engagement “would best take place at local level by using established structures such as the Council of Priests”.

The ACP team said yesterday it was “both disappointed and saddened by this response”.

It found it “hard to understand why, in this time of great difficulty for the Irish church, neither the bishops as a body, or any individual bishop, is willing to meet with an association that has a membership of over 1,000 priests”.

It noted the Catholic primate “Cardinal Seán Brady, in a letter to the ACP on May 1st of this year, wrote: ‘The ACP has already met representatives of the bishops and also attended a meeting of a Commission of the Episcopal Conference and we expect that there will be ongoing meetings of this nature’.” No such ‘ongoing’ meetings have taken place.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsini

Milwaukee child sex offender pediatrician surrenders medical license, disturbing questions remain

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director (Milwaukee)

CONTACT: 414.336.8575

Today Dr. Thomas Kowalski, a high profile Milwaukee pediatrician, has surrendered his license to practice medicine after the Wisconsin State Medical Board launched an investigation of him for sexually assaulting boys as a Boy Scout official and physician in the 1980’s. Kowalski’s admissions were found in secret files being maintained by the Boy Scouts national headquarters that were court ordered for public release last month. Since then additional information and complaints are
surfacing about Kowalski, and it is likely that there may be potentially many victims of the pediatrician both in the Milwaukee community, but also around the world, since Kowalski traveled as a medical missionary.

But Kowalski is clearly not the only person that needs to be investigated. Disturbing questions remain in this case. According to the Boy Scouts file, Kowalski’s admissions were reported to the Medical Board who apparently cut a secret deal with him that, if he went into “counseling”, there would be no action or record in his medical file. How could individuals on the Medical Board allow an admitted child molester to have continual, daily, private access to hundreds, if not thousands of children over the course of his career?

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

Lawyers on Tuesday dismissed a sexual abuse lawsuit against three Catholic priests in a two-year-old case that captured national attention.

But the case is far from over.

Instead, it is being put on hold while lawyers ask an appeals court to reinstate the local Catholic diocese as a defendant. After that, plaintiff John Doe B.P. plans to re-file the lawsuit and resume litigation.

The delay also gives a reprieve to the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which had been ordered to turn over records in the case. A hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday at which Jackson County Circuit Judge Ann Mesle was to decide whether the group’s national director was in contempt of court for failing to produce records in the case.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Oct. 30, 2012

Kansas City, Mo. —
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is off the legal hook — for now.

For months, the leading advocacy group for U.S. clergy sex abuse victims has been part of a legal saga in county court here after a judge ordered the group to give access to 23 years of internal documents and files to lawyers defending priests accused of abuse.

The case, which centers around a Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocesan priest accused of abuse, sparked the possibility that the group and its executive director, David Clohessy, might be found in contempt for withholding some of the requested documents.

On Tuesday, however, lawyers for both the plaintiff and the man he accuses of abuse, Fr. Michael Tierney, announced in Jackson County, Mo., Circuit Court they had agreed to dismiss the case pending an appeal to higher courts on other issues.

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FLORIDA
News-Journal

By Mark I. Johnson
STAFF WRITER

Published: Tuesday, October 30, 2012

ORLANDO — Opening statements began Tuesday morning in the trial of an Ormond Beach pastor who federal prosecutors called a serial sexual predator who molested children in a child sex trafficking case.

The defense for Luis E. Morales said the allegations are “outlandish” claims of children with no physical evidence or witnesses to back them up.

Morales, 58, sat quietly as Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gable laid out the prosecution’s case claiming he used his position as the self-proclaimed “apostle” of the En Fuego For Jesus ministry to fondle, and in one case rape four little girls between the ages of 10 and 14.

She said Morales taught the victims that to become “ordained prophets” in the church they had to accept this abuse.

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INDIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 29, 2012

An Indiana pastor has been arrested for abusing a handicapped 14-year-old girl.

The allegations against Robert Haywood are incredibly disturbing, and our hearts grieve for this alleged victim and her family. Crimes against the mentally handicapped are troubling and must be treated with extra care.

This trial is sure to be a long and grueling process, both for Haywood and his alleged victim. While these proceedings are ongoing, we urge members of Haywood’s congregation, as well has his neighbors and his family, to avoid public demonstrations of support. It is completely understandable to want to show support for your pastor and friend, but such public displays only serve to frighten victims and witnesses into silence.

We urge Haywood’s supporters to bring him home-cooked meals, visit him in his home and pray together in private, but to avoid shaming the victim in public. We urge anyone who may have any details about this case to come forward and make a report to police.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, October 28, 2012

They shaved him bald that first morning in 2008, put him in an orange jumpsuit and made him exercise past dark.

Through the night, as he slept on the floor, they forced him awake for more.

The sun had not yet risen over the Christian military home when Samson Lehman collapsed for the sixth time. Still, he said, they made him run.

The screaming, the endless exercise, it was all in the name of God, a necessary step at the Gateway Christian Military Academy on the path to righteousness.

So when Samson vomited, they threw him a rag. When his urine turned red, they said that was normal.

By Day 3, the 15-year-old was on the verge of death, his dehydrated organs shutting down.

Slumped against a wall, cold and immobile, Lehman recalls men who recited Scripture calling him a wimp. And he thought: Maybe, if I die here, someone will shut this place down.

Not in Florida.

In this state, unlicensed religious homes can abuse children and go on operating for years. Almost 30 years ago, Florida legislators passed a law eliminating state oversight of children’s homes that claim government rules hamper their religious practices.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Association of Catholic Priests has called for all groups within the Irish church to join in planning how to save it from “effective collapse” in 20 years’ time.

The ACP has asked the hierarchy to join priests and lay-people to discuss the future of the church in light of the decline in the number of priests.

It has called for the reality of the situation to be communicated to Rome and for space to be created at parish, diocesan and national level for discussion of the crisis.

Primate of All Ireland Seán Brady has been told that clerical gatherings are often characterised by dejection, depression and sometimes, almost despair.

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INDIA
Deccan Herald

Police have arrested two priests of a temple at Shivsinghpura near Shahpura in Jaipur district for kidnapping and raping a married woman in their chamber on the temple premises.

The woman in her complaint said the two temple priests forcefully confined her in their chamber and sexually assaulted her for three days. The police have arrested them.

Police said arrested Ashadas, 25, was the priest of Durgamatha Mandir while Shravan Kumar was the priest of adjacent Thakurji temple.

The victim is a resident of nearby village. While she was working in a field on Oct14 the accused made her target and took her to a room in the temple after gagging her, they added.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Today Milwaukee Federal Judge Rudolph Randa has rejected the appeal of Archbishop Jerome
Listecki and his lawyers to throw out of court the claims of 570victim/survivors who have filed for restitution in Federal Bankruptcy court as a result of being raped and sexually assaulted by clergy, employees or volunteers of the Archdiocese. Attorneys for survivors and the Creditors Committee had successfully argued in February before Federal Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley that claims should be allowed to proceed because there was sufficient evidence that the archdiocese had committed decades of fraud by intentionally concealing and transferring scores of known child molesting clerics.

In a letter to Randa dated October 22, 2012 the archdiocese made clear exactly what its intentions are in regards to victim/survivors. “The Archdiocese strongly believes that all the claims” wrote Francis H. LoCoco, Counsel for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, “including those that are subject of the New Objections and Appeals, are not allowable under applicable bankruptcy law.” In other words, the archdiocese wants every single claim tossed out of court. Why, then, did they file for bankruptcy in the first place, urge victims to come forward and file claims, and then spend 7.2 million dollars on lawyers and consultants? Clearly, the archdiocese’s intention all along was to stop the growing number of fraud cases from being successfully filed in Wisconsin civil courts, where victim/survivors would have their chance for justice, and instead use the Federal court to circumvent the state courts.

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NEDERLAND
NRC Handelsblad

door Jeannine Julen

Minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid en Justitie) bood vandaag aan de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de jeugdzorg namens het kabinet zijn excuses aan. Dit deed hij tijdens een bijeenkomst in Utrecht van vertegenwoordigers van slachtoffers, meldt de NOS. Hij werd hierbij ondersteund door staatssecretarissen Teeven en Veldhuijzen van Zanten.

Buitengewoon betreurenswaardig noemde Opstelten het misbruik. De minister:

“Als overheid die verantwoordelijk is voor het stelsel willen wij namens het kabinet excuses aanbieden aan iedere volwassene en ieder kind die dat is overkomen.”

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OHIO
Norwalk Reflector

Norwalk Reflector Staff

Oct 29, 2012

A Cincinnati judge has sentenced a student adviser to one year in prison after he pled guilty to molesting at least two boys at a school for the deaf.

Joshua Bort, 24, who worked as a resident adviser for St. Rita School for the Deaf during the 2011-2012 school year and was immediately dismissed from his position after one of the students shared information about the abuse with the school counselor.

In September in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, Bort pleaded guilty to gross sexual imposition and sexual imposition in exchange for prosecutors dropping two other similar charges. He could have faced up to two years in prison when he was sentenced Oct. 23.

“We are glad that the judge in this case decided that, rather allowing an admitted child molester to freely walk the streets, children would be safer with this predator behind bars,” said Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “By giving Josh Bort prison time instead of simply allowing him to get off with probation, the judge is sending a harsh and clear message that child abuse will not be tolerated.

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IRELAND
TheMediaReport

A number of Irish media outlets have previously relayed the ordeal of Rev. Oliver Brennan, a priest who was falsely accused of sex abuse dating back some thirty years earlier.

However, as the Irish Catholic newspaper now reports, while Brennan feels “a great sense of relief” for having been exonerated of an accusation he always vehemently denied, the priest believes that Church authorities did not fully support him during his difficult time.

When Brennan was first accused in August 2010, his case was referred to law enforcement, and the priest voluntarily removed himself from ministry while declaring that the allegations were completely “false and groundless.”

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

October 29, 2012
By Amy Pavuk, Orlando Sentinel

Opening statements are slated to begin Tuesday in Orlando federal court in the case against a gangster turned self-proclaimed “Apostle,” accused of sexually abusing children he made “prophets” in his ministry.

Authorities say Luis “Tito” Morales groomed victims through En Fuego for Jesus, a ministry he and wife, Linda Morales, started out of their Ormond Beach home in 2003.

Through En Fuego, Tito Morales and Linda Morales — a self-proclaimed prophet — tried to recruit people throughout Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico and Honduras.

Tito Morales is accused of grooming a 12-year-old for sex, and told her that in order to continue in the church that she needed to “service him” as the “Apostle,” according to a transcript of a May 17 initial appearance hearing.

Morales took the child to Connecticut, and while on the trip, molested her, according to documents in the case.

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TEXAS
NewsWest 9

Staff Report
NewsWest 9

BIG SPRING – A trusted minister in the community has been charged with sexually abusing a child.

Police tell NewsWest 9, 70-year-old Samuel Lyte of Big Spring was not only charged for indecency but also continuing sexual abuse and fabricating physical evidence.

Although we don’t know the details of the situation those who know Lyte say he was currently serving as a youth minister at Mount Bethel Baptist Church.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[court document]

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

A federal judge on Monday handed partial victories to both the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the sex abuse victims who make up the vast majority of creditors in its bankruptcy.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa, lets stand a February decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley dismissing one victim’s claim and allowing two others to move forward, at least for now.

The three cases were seen as test cases in which the archdiocese argued that a significant number of victims of clergy sexual abuse had enough information on the church’s handling of cases to have filed fraud claims years earlier, and that the statute of limitations expired before those victims stepped forward. It also sought to exclude cases that involve religious offenders, teachers and others it does not consider its employees, and cases where the victims received prior settlements.

A decision to dismiss all three cases would have opened the door for the archdiocese to remove most of the 574 sex abuse claims involved in the bankruptcy proceedings, victims and their attorneys have said.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Oct 30, 2012 / 04:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has reiterated condemnation of sexual abuse following allegations against deceased British TV star Jimmy Savile, who during his life was given a papal knighthood for his charity work.

“The Holy See condemns in the strongest terms the heinous crimes of sexual abuse of children, takes very seriously what has come to light about Jimmy Savile,” said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi on Oct. 27.

“It is deeply saddened that a person who is stained in this way could in his lifetime be proposed for an honor by the Holy See, which, in the light of what has been learned recently, certainly should not have been given.”

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OHIO
WHIO

GALLIA COUNTY, Ohio —

A pastor based in Gallia County, Ohio is denying charges that he committed sex offenses involving a youth at his church.

David A. Young, 46, pleaded not guilty Oct. 22 to 20 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor stemming from alleged incidents with a girl while she was 13 and 14, according to court records and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

Young was arrested earlier this month at the Simpson Chapel United Methodist Church in Rio Grande, Ohio, where he is a pastor, according to the attorney general’s office.

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NEW ZEALAND
The Farming Show

By: Dana Kinita | Latest Crime News | Tuesday October 30 2012

Kaitaia has been rocked with another sexual assault case against young boys.

A prominent businessman, who has name suppression, has been arrested on 16 charges of indecent assault involving four boys under the age of 16.

The 33-year-old is to appear in the Kaitaia District Court on Thursday.

The small town is already dealing with former deputy principal James Parker admitting to 49 charges of sexual abuse on young boys and church pastor Eric Reid charged with sexual related offences.

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ALABAMA
Lawyers.com

Posted October 30, 2012 in Jury Awards by Sylvia Hsieh

Sexual molestation by church leaders continues to be exposed as a widespread scourge, but their victims are finally getting justice in court.

In the most recent example, a former youth minister in Alabama who had been convicted of sexually abusing a 15 year-old girl has now been been ordered to pay $1 million to his victim.

William David Webb, was a youth minister and executive pastor at the Word of Life Christian Center, where his father, Scott Webb, served as senior pastor at the church. In 2009, he pled guilty for transporting a minor across state lines for purposes of sex. Webb is serving a five-year federal prison sentence.

His victim, Barbara Elizabeth Echols, who is now 24 and married, filed a civil lawsuit against Webb accusing him of sexually assaulting and sexually abusing her beginning when she was 15 years old.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, October 29, 2012

THE MOST high-profile sex abuse trial in years to hit Brooklyn’s insular ultra-Orthodox community is scheduled to begin this week. But hundreds of Satmar Hasids are backing the suspect, not the victim.

Nechemya Weberman, 53, is charged with 88 counts of sexual misconduct for allegedly forcing a teenage girl to repeatedly perform sex acts on him when she was between 12 and 15.

Weberman is a prominent Hasidic counselor, whose ancestor is credited with founding the first yeshiva in Brooklyn.

“It’s going to be a very interesting trial,” said one of the seven attorneys who will argue Weberman’s high-stakes case. All are bound by a judge’s gag order, and declined to discuss details.

Since coming forward last year, the woman, now 18, and her husband have allegedly been the target of a massive intimidation effort, which advocates have argued has long been an obstacle to reporting such cases in the community. More than 1,000 men showed up at a Williamsburg hall this spring to raise $500,000 for Weberman’s legal defense.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

The Pope’s butler has begun serving an 18 month sentence which will consist of being in a small cell in the Vatican police headquarters “during the day.” No mention of where he’ll be at night.

The Vatican statement about the verdict said, “it puts a full stop to the end of a sad affair which has had very painful consequences.”

Here’s the link:

Interesting phrase the Vatican Secretariat of State chose for the statement – “full stop”.

When is the Vatican scheduling a “full stop” on the sexual predators among its clergy and nuns and the bishops, diocesan job holders, cardinals, curial officials, and popes who covered up the abuse?

The roadmap to that full stop should begin in Kansas City, Missouri where the criminally convicted Bishop Robert Finn remains in office – and then continue on a world wide arc to Australia where the truth is being uncovered by a government inquiry, then careen back to Ireland, Belgium, and Canada before circling the United States again as victims have to battle and re-battle their way through the bankruptcy settlement in Milwaukee.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Federal District Judge Allows Archdiocese of Milwaukee Bankruptcy Cases to Move Forward

[court document]

Statement of Jeff Anderson

Contact Jeff Anderson: Mobile 612.817.8665 Office 651.227.9990
Contact Mike Finnegan: 651.227.9990

“The Order of Judge Randa allowing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy cases to move forward on the basis of fraud is positive news for all those survivors seeking relief from the horrors they endured as vulnerable children, and for that reason, we are pleased.

We are sad that one of the survivor’s claims has been dismissed and for that we need to try to do what we can to rectify that at a later time and place. For now the journey continues. We remain hopeful. We remain positive. We remain resolute that working with each of the survivors individually and collectively the process can bring a measure of disclosure, exposure and then some closure.

For now, we stand ready to work with each survivor to fight the next round of battles as the Archdiocese attempts to pick off these claims one by one, and at the same time, expend enormous resources pleading a bankruptcy estate. Indeed, we remain absolutely perplexed that they have chosen not to pursue what appears to us to be an enormous amount of insurance available that could, if pursued aggressively and jointly, provide for full and fair compensation for the survivors and not interrupt the ministry of the Archdiocese.

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FARGO (ND)
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: A priest of the Lansing diocese ordained in 1955, Sullivan was elevated to Auxiliary Bishop in 1972, then to Bishop of Fargo in 1985. Sullivan was accused in 2002 of fondling a high school-aged boy in 1966, after the boy disclosed to him that a religious brother had sexually abused him. Sullivan denied the accusations, and diocesan officials stated they did not believe the accuser because he had not come forward sooner. Sullivan retired in March 2002 due to symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. He died in June 2006.

Ordained: 1955
Incardinated: Lansing, MI
Ordained bishop: Sept. 21, 1972
Installed bishop of Fargo: May 30, 1985
Retired: March 18, 2002
Died: June 12, 2006

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WARSAW (IN)
South Bend Tribune

KELLI STOPCZYNSKI
WSBT-TV

South Bend Tribune

A Warsaw pastor is accused of having sex with a handicapped teenager. His family says he didn’t do it, but court documents say otherwise.

Robert Haywood, 77, is now facing three felony charges for alleged sexual encounters he had with a 14-year-old girl. According to court documents, the victim has cerebral palsy.

Investigators say the first incident happened in the basement at Harvest Time Ministries church in Pierceton – when Haywood allegedly kissed then touched the girl inappropriately.

According to court documents, the second incident – sexual intercourse – happened in the woods behind the victim’s Warsaw home June 20, in Haywood’s truck.

“It is hard to believe because he’s an extremely nice guy,” said 17-year-old Christopher Stetzel who lives next door to Haywood on Washington Street in Warsaw.

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WARSAW (IN)
The Journal Gazette

Archie Ingersoll | The Journal Gazette

The pastor of a Warsaw church was jailed Friday on allegations he had sex with a 14-year-old girl with physical and mental disabilities, according to the Warsaw Police Department.

Robert Haywood, 77, was arrested at his Warsaw home early Friday. He was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on a charge of sexual battery and two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Police said Haywood, pastor of Harvest Time Ministries Church, touched the girl sexually in mid-June in the basement of the church at 4934 E. Pierceton Road. In late June, he fondled the girl and had sex with her in a vehicle in a wooded area in Warsaw, police said.

Warsaw detectives started investigating the case in July. The girl’s “significant” disabilities enhanced the charges against Haywood, police said.

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INDIANA
WANE

WARSAW, Ind. (WANE) – A Warsaw man was arrested Friday morning after allegedly engaging in inappropriate and illegal sexual acts with a mentally and physically handicapped 14-year-old girl.

Robert Haywood, 77, of Warsaw, is a pastor at Harvest Time Ministries Church.

The allegations against Haywood indicate the assault started in June 2012 in the church’s basement.

Police said a second incident, involving sexual fondling and alleged intercourse, occurred in a vehicle in a wooded area in Warsaw in late June.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Richard McBrien | Oct. 29, 2012 Essays in Theology

It’s old news by now, but I want to add my name to the already long list of people who have supported the Leadership Conference of Women Religious against the Vatican and its allies in North America.

The nuns have been in the forefront of the struggle to keep the spirit and the letter of the Second Vatican Council alive, not only in religious communities of women but also in the Catholic church at large.

Unfortunately, LCWR is a scapegoat for everything the right wing in the Catholic church loathes. One should recognize that ultra-conservatives exist in the highest ranks of the Vatican, excluding no ecclesiastical office in the church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
EADT 24

By Colin Adwent Crime correspondent Monday, October 29, 2012

A date has been set for the sentencing of a retired priest who has admitted a total of six sex assaults on two youths.

Father John Haley Dossor, of Kirton, near Felixstowe, abused the two males aged between 13 and 17 during indecent assaults dating back 20 years.

The incidents occurred when Dossor was based at St Mary’s Church in Hadleigh.

The 71-year-old pleaded guilty to six indecent assaults at Ipswich Crown Court two weeks ago.

Judge David Goodin said he would be transferring the case to Norwich Crown Court for sentencing as Dossor may have been known to people at the former Ipswich Crown Court in Civic Drive. The judge said in light of Dossor’s work at St Mary at the Elms in Elm Street, Ipswich, he felt it would be more sensible to transfer the case to another court.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

October 30, 2012

Barney Zwartz

IN WHAT victims of clergy sex abuse fear is a deliberate slight or something more sinister, the Salesian Catholic religious order is running a website with the same name as the world’s biggest group of clergy abuse survivors.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, plans to ask the Salesians to change the name of their Salesian News Australia Pacific, also SNAP.

SNAP Australia co-leader Mark Fabbro said yesterday that the victims’ group, which has 12,000 members worldwide and was set up in the late 1980s, saw it as an attempt to make it hard for people reaching out for help to find the SNAP support website. ”We don’t want victims ending on the Salesian website when they need support,” he said.

But, last night, the Australia-Pacific head of the Salesians said the order intended no affront and would consider changing the website title to avoid confusion.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 29, 2012

A Cincinnati judge has sentenced a student advisor to one year in prison after he pled guilty to molesting at least two boys at a school for the deaf.

We are glad that the judge in this case decided that, rather allowing an admitted child molester to freely walk the streets, children would be safer with this predator behind bars. By giving Josh Bort prison time instead of simply allowing him to get off with probation, the judge is sending a harsh and clear message that child abuse will not be tolerated.

We applaud the victims in this case for speaking out against Bort and exposing his crimes. School officials at St. Rita’s should immediately seek out others who Bort may have hurt. Now that Bort is behind bars, perhaps those who were too afraid to come forward earlier will find the strength and courage to break their silence.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Seksuoloog Erik van Beek spreekt regelmatig mannen die zich seksueel aangetrokken voelen tot kinderen. De overgrote meerderheid van deze mannen worstelt enorm met deze gevoelens. Vaak is hun leven ook op andere terreinen – relatie, werk – in het slop geraakt door de stress. .

Een spanning die nog eens vergroot wordt als de man in kwestie belangstelling heeft voor plaatjes waarop zijn voorkeur expliciet wordt afgebeeld. Dat hoeft lang niet altijd, overigens. Maar wie wel taalt naar kinderporno, zit met een groot probleem. Want het is strafbaar.

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IRELAND
BBC News

Father Brian D’Arcy, one of Ireland’s best known priests, is pondering his future.

A documentary, the Turbulent Priest, charts his 50 years as a member of the Passionist Congregation and as a priest who is regularly in the public spotlight.

But Fr D’Arcy, a broadcaster and newspaper columnist, was censured by the Vatican in April 2012.

From then on, it is understood his newspaper column was run past a Church censor.

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OHIO
Cincinnati.com

[Investigating Deaf Child abuse at St. Rita School for the Deaf – YouTube]

Oct 23, 2012

As a resident adviser at St. Rita’s School for the Deaf, Joshua Bort was supposed to be an example for the students.

Without even a prior traffic ticket, the 25-year-old was a good example, school officials thought, especially after Bort told them a student was responsible for the alcohol and marijuana found at the school.

An investigation, though, revealed that Bort brought the alcohol and drugs into the school – and was using them to molest students, including the one he falsely blamed initially.

In an unusual move, Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman sent Bort, 25, of Maineville, to prison Tuesday for one year. The sentence was unusual because Bort pleaded guilty and the crimes carried the presumption of probation, making prison unlikely.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, October 29, 2012

The religious order that runs some of Ireland’s biggest schools has been rocked by fresh allegations of child sex abuse in Africa.

The Irish Times reports that the Spiritans religious congregation has been hit by new allegations of abuse carried out by members while they were in ministry at schools in Africa.

The order has confirmed to the paper that the accounts of several victims contained in the report are consistent with reports they have received about named priests.

A spokesman told the Irish Times: “The congregation in Ireland expresses profound regret. The content of the reports is consistent with complaints that we have received about the individual priests mentioned.”

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UNITED STATES
What They Knew

Msgr Stephen Rossetti spoke behind closed doors in February 2012 at the Gregorian University Conference on Clergy Sex Abuse at the Vatican.

Below is his speech, it is worth reading when compared to what the Jesuit “intellects” said in our previous post. It warrants even more comparison to what Msgr Rossetti says now. But then again, Msgr Rossetti is not a Jesuit, he just cleans up their mess and treats them.

Jesuits know it’s time to catch up on their sleep when Msgr Rossetti speaks.

Some significant points stated in the speech:

■-There is a complicated web of competing demands- pastoral, legal, clinical, and public relations which can confuse, confound and even paralyze. It is publicly well known that, at times, in our responding, we have failed.

■-“Our mistake was that we forgot that the victims are part of our flock too.” Unfortunately, when we focus on perpetrators and not on victims, there are devastating consequences. Perpetrators almost universally minimize, rationalize, project blame and deny the truth about their crimes. It is difficult for them to face the truth about their behavior; a behavior which Pope Benedict, on several occasions, has rightly called, “filth.”

■-But decades of experience tell us that the vast majority of allegations, over 95 percent, are founded. There is little benefit, and much to be lost, for a person to come forward and to allege that he or she was sexually molested by a priest. It takes courage to do so and a willingness to suffer blame and ridicule.

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NORWELL (MA)
The Patriot Ledger

By Patrick Ronan
The Patriot Ledger

Posted Oct 29, 2012

NORWELL —

The pastor at a Catholic church in Norwell has taken a leave of absence following an allegation of inappropriate behavior with children.

The Rev. Thomas H. Maguire, the pastor at St. Helen’s Church on Route 53 in Norwell, voluntarily left the church after the accusation surfaced, the Archdiocese of Boston announced Sunday.

Norwell Police Chief Ted Ross said the alleged incident involving Maguire occurred within the past week.

“Norwell police and the (Plymouth County) district attorney’s office are aware of the allegation, and we’re looking into it at this time,” Ross said.

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NORWELL (MA)
WATD

By
Garo Hagopian

The Boston archidiocese said a Norwell pastor is on a voluntary leave of absence amid allegations he behaved inappropriately in the presence of children.

Fr. Thomas Maguire of Saint Helen Mother of the Emperor Constantine was placed on leave when the accusation surfaced.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

By Associated Press
Monday, October 29, 2012 –

BRAINTREE — The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in Norwell has taken a voluntary leave of absence following an allegation of inappropriate behavior in the presence of minors.

The Boston Archdiocese announced Sunday that the Rev. Thomas Maguire, pastor at St. Helen Mother of the Emperor Constantine, voluntarily stepped aside after the accusation surfaced.

The church immediately notified police of the allegation and has initiated an investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Michael Mullins October 28, 2012

The Jimmy Savile scandal in Britain shows the Catholic Church is not alone among trusted public institutions that have been undermined by their own culture of silence and denial.

The late Jimmy Savile was the legendary BBC entertainer whose sexual abuse of more than 300 young women was recently revealed amid accusations that the BBC suppressed its own reporting of the abuse because it feared tarnishing its brand.

Colm O’Gorman is an Irish activist who founded the clergy sex abuse victim support group One in Four. He wrote in The Tablet at the weekend of the hypocrisy of the BBC and his own involvement in the public broadcaster’s investigation and reporting of abuse crimes in the Church.

When [a powerful institution] either discovers serious wrongdoing within its own ranks, or indeed is itself guilty of wrongdoing, it often acts to cover up such corruption in an effort to protect its reputation and its authority.

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VATICAN CITY
The Inquisitr

Pope Benedict XVI held a closing mass Sunday to mark the end of a synod, or gathering of bishops, to discuss the faith and find new ways to reach out to lapsed and lukewarm Catholics in an increasingly secular world. The Catholic Church and the Pope have termed this new outreach effort the “New Evangelization.”

The Catholic Church is suffering the loss of many faithful in the wake of sexual abuse scandals and religious positions that are increasingly in conflict with modern secular ideas, such as Church opposition to same-sex unions and abortion. The Pope called on Church leaders Sunday to find new ways to reach out in the modern world, but did not specify how. Based on the recommendations of the synod, the Holy Father is expected to publish a letter on the matter, called an apostolic exhortation, in the coming weeks.

Catholics worldwide heard a section of the Gospel of Mark that dealt with Jesus healing a blind man named Bartimaeus. In his homily, published in full at the Vatican’s website, the Pope used Bartimaeus as a metaphor for the Church in places like western Europe and the United States where the New Evangelization hopes to reach out.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

(Braintree, Mass.) October 28, 2012…The Archdiocese of Boston today announced that Rev. Thomas H. Maguire has taken a voluntary administrative leave of absence as a result of a reported allegation of inappropriate behavior in the presence of minors. Fr. Maguire is the Pastor at Saint Helen Mother of the Emperor Constantine in Norwell, MA. The inappropriate conduct is alleged to have occurred recently.

The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the matter. Fr. Maguire will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation. The decision regarding administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Maguire’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.

“We are committed to the protection of children and young people in our parishes and institutions,” stated Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley. “The faithful and the clergy of the Archdiocese join me in this pledge of prayerful support. We are committed to providing for the pastoral care of the parish while we seek a just resolution. Please join in praying for all impacted by this matter.”

Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy. Cardinal Seán encourages any person in need of pastoral assistance or support to contact the Archdiocese’s Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach by calling 617-746-5985.

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NORWELL (MA)
Boston Globe

By Matt Rocheleau
Globe Correspondent
October 29, 2012

The Roman Catholic pastor of a Norwell church accused of recently engaging in “inappropriate behavior in the presence of minors” has taken a voluntary, paid administrative leave of absence, the Archdiocese of Boston announced on Sunday.

The Rev. Thomas H. Maguire, the pastor at Saint Helen Mother of the Emperor Constantine Parish in Norwell since 2001, will remain on leave, barring him from partaking in any public ministry, pending the results of a preliminary investigation by the Archdiocese.

Archdiocese officials said in a press release that they immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation, but Archdiocese spokesman Terrence C. Donilon declined to comment further about the allegation and investigation.

Maguire, 63, has been a priest for 36 years, working at 10 parishes in Massachusetts, according to Donilon. Before joining the parish in Norwell, he was pastor of Saint Jeremiah Parish in Framingham for about three years, Donilon said.

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NORWELL (MA)
WCVB

NORWELL, Mass. —
The pastor at a Catholic church in Norwell has taken a leave of absence following an allegation of inappropriate behavior with children.

According to the Patriot Ledger, the Rev. Thomas H. Maguire, the pastor at St. Helen’s Church on Route 53, voluntarily left the church after the accusation surfaced, the Archdiocese of Boston announced Sunday.

Norwell Police Chief Ted Ross said the alleged incident involving Maguire occurred within the past week.

“Norwell police and the (Plymouth County) district attorney’s office are aware of the allegation, and we’re looking into it at this time,” Ross said.

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MUNCIE (IN)
The Star Press

Written by
Douglas Walker

MUNCIE — A Muncie pastor’s trial on allegations he sexually abused two teen members of his congregation has been postponed again, and is now set for next spring.

If Matthew A. Kidd, 56, stands trial as scheduled on April 22, more than four years will have passed since the filing of the charges against him: Child molesting and sexual misconduct with a minor, both Class C felonies carrying standard four-year prison terms.

Kidd, the pastor of Freedom Point Apostolic Church, is accused of abusing the then-teens, who are brothers, between 2002 and 2005.

A Delaware Circuit Court 3 jury last January deadlocked on the two charges pending against Kidd.

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FLORIDA
Miami Herald

Longtime Catholic priest Rolando Garcia is accused of sexual abuse for the fourth time, prompting the Archdiocese of Miami to take a defensive stand while many parishioners condemn him.

BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com

Tony Simmons says he ran away from his parents’ home and was living on the streets when the Rev. Rolando Garcia offered him a helping hand at the Church of the Little Flower in Hollywood.

“I was pretty lost,” Simmons, 34, told The Miami Herald. “Father Garcia was the only person who talked to me. He was my friend.”

Last week, Simmons, a decorated U.S. Army specialist who served in the Iraq war, accused Garcia in a lawsuit of sexually abusing him during the mid-1990s, starting when he was 16 years old.

For the first time in recent memory, Miami’s Catholic Church leaders reacted defensively to his negligence suit, the latest of more than 100 filed against the local archdiocese since the clergy-sex abuse scandal broke nationwide a decade ago.

Even before church officials saw Simmons’ suit, the archdiocese issued an unprecedented statement on Tuesday suggesting that if the news media wanted to write a “balanced story,” reporters should ask Simmons’ lawyer where he found him as a client, why he took so long to come forward and why was he homeless?

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IRELAND
Irish Times

MARIE O’HALLORAN

CENSURED PRIEST Fr Brian D’Arcy has said he would have been a much better priest if he had married.

He has also questioned whether he can continue in the priesthood, after the Vatican’s censure when he challenged some of its core teachings.

In a documentary to be broadcast tonight, the cleric, who has been in the religious life for 50 years, also speaks about being sexually abused himself.

In The Turbulent Priest, to be shown on BBC One Northern Ireland at 10.35pm, Fr D’Arcy travels across Europe and speaks to a number of other people about the Catholic Church’s teachings and whether he can continue in the religious life.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Henry Maloney’s activities caused a crisis in the elite school in which he taught, writes PATSY McGARRY

CHRIST THE KING COLLEGE, BO

In March 2009, Spiritan/Holy Ghost priest Fr Henry Maloney pleaded guilty in the Circuit Criminal Court to abusing Mark Vincent Healy and the late Paul Daly when both were pupils at St Marys College in Dublins Rathmines between 1969 and 1973. He was given a suspended sentence due to ill health and as he was already under strict supervision at Kimmage Manor in Dublin, where he has been since.

In 2000 he had been sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for sexually assaulting two other boys at St Mary’s in the early 1970s. He served 15 months. Maloney had been dean of discipline and junior form tutor at St Mary’s, where he also coached boys in rugby.

He has been out of ministry and under supervision since 1996.

Maloney was ordained in 1967 and taught at St Mary’s between 1968 and 1973, following which he was transferred to the Spiritan/Holy Ghost Christ the King College in Bo, Sierra Leone.

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IRELAND/KENYA
Irish Times

KENYA: St Teresa’s Boys Secondary School, Nairobi

ALEX DE Figueiredo is a retired teacher living in Vancouver. He was a day pupil at the Spiritan/Holy Ghost St Teresas secondary school in Nairobi, Kenya, from 1955 to 1961. He has been in Canada since 1969.

His family were from the Indian state of Goa and staunchly Catholic. His father was the first Asian to get a job in Kenya’s public service. Beforehand only whites held such posts. “He broke the barrier,” Alex told The Irish Times.

Of his experiences at St Teresa’s he recalled: “I was sexually abused by Fr Patrick Hannan [school headmaster and parish priest] from the age of 11 to 16 [January 1956-1961].”

It began when he was called in by Hannan for an exam during those first Christmas holidays. He had been sick and had missed school and Hannan told Alex’s father he wanted to see what progress the boy was making. When the priest reached orgasm on that occasion, “I was shocked. I didn’t know what it was.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

IRELAND: Rockwell College, Co Tipperary

“DERMOT” IS an Irishman who has had a distinguished international career. He attended the Spiritan/Holy Ghost novitiate at Rockwell from 1954 to 1956/7, in preparation for priesthood in that congregation.

While there he “formed the opinion that a number of seminarians there were being sexually abused” by novitiate director Fr Christopher Meagher. Further into his conversation with The Irish Times he acknowledged that he too had been abused by the priest, physically and sexually. He recalled Meagher as “violent, predatory and dangerous”.

He was “a damaged individual who in moments of clarity wasn’t a bad priest. My anger is at the congregation. Other priests knew but priests don’t rat on priests,” Dermot said. Victims had “very difficult lives and were very damaged” and he was convinced the congregation “knew very well what had happened at Rockwell”.

In 1996 Dermot confronted the Irish provincial leadership of the Spiritans/Holy Ghost Fathers about all of this.

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IRELAND/CANADA
Irish Times

CANADA: A SECOND priest accused by Mark Vincent Healy of abusing him between 1969 and 1973, when he was a boy at St Mary’s College, Rathmines, was Fr Arthur Carragher.

The priest, who died in Canada on January 10th, 2011, was ordained in 1952 and served in Nigeria for 17 years before joining the teaching staff at St Marys in 1969.

In 1971 he transferred to Toronto to the congregation’s Trans Canada province.

That move was described to The Irish Times in June 2011 by then Holy Ghost Irish provincial Fr Brian Starken as “a little bit strange”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

NEW ALLEGATIONS have emerged of abuse carried out by members of the Spiritans religious congregation, including while they were in ministry at schools in Africa.

The order has said the accounts of several victims contained in today’s coverage are consistent with reports they have received about named priests.

The leading religious congregations in Ireland expressed “profound regret”, saying the content of the reports “is consistent with complaints that we have received about the individual priests mentioned”.

The congregation runs some of the best-known schools in Ireland, including Blackrock College, St Mary’s, Templeogue College and St Michael’s in Dublin, as well as Rockwell College in Co Tipperary.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Dozens of Anglican parishioners have been told the damage caused by the defrocking of several Hunter and Central Coast priests is horrendous.

Newcastle’s Anglican Bishop Brian Farran has been in the firing line since he defrocked three Hunter priests including the former Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence earlier this year.

They were stripped of their holy orders over sexual abuse allegations.

No charges have been laid and all three deny the allegations.

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BELGIE
Knack

(Belga) Het arbitragecentrum voor seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk heeft al meer dan vierhonderd verzoekschriften ontvangen. Twee derde van de verzoekers is Nederlandstalig, tachtig procent is man, zo bleek vandaag in de opvolgingscommissie in de Kamer. In zeven op de acht behandelde zaken kwam de commissie al tot een “verzoening”.

Op 15 oktober had het centrum 380 verzoeken ontvangen. Een week later waren dat er al 403. En daar kunnen er nog tot eind oktober bijkomen. Slachtoffers hebben immers nog tot 31 oktober om een verzoek in te dienen. Van de 380 verzoeken op 15 oktober waren er 257 Nederlandstalig, 122 Franstalig en 1 Duitstalig.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated October 28, 2012

It is time that The Hague brings Benedict XVI into trial for his crimes against humanity before he dies, read about them here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/09/hague-is-asked-to-investigate-vatican.html as his secular counterpart, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, following a six-year trial by a secular Italian court in Milan, was found guilty and sentenced to four years in jail, see news updates below. Meanwhile the Synod of Bishops has come out with a brilliant New Marketing of Old Vatican Deceits in the words of Filipino Bishop Tagle, a potential Pope, drums roll, “humility and the power of silence”. Those 262 Bishops are saying that the world must simply “follow Jesus’ example of humility and shut-up their mouth…and not think or criticise and speak the truth about the Pope and his cohorts of criminals at the Vatican.

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WORCESTER (MA)
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: A priest of the Worcester diocese, Rueger was named Auxiliary Bishop in 1987. He was accused in a 2002 lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy, aged 13-14, in the 1960s, after giving the boy alcohol. Rueger denied the accusation. A diocesan investigation found no proof of the charges and a Pope’s representative to the US agreed with the findings. Rueger retired in 2005. In Oct. 2012 he is known to be in residence at the Worcester parish that has been his home since 1987.

Ordained: 1958
Incardinated: Worcester
Appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Worcester: Jan. 19, 1987
Consecrated: Feb. 25, 1987
Retired: 2005

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IRELAND
Galway News

October 28, 2012

THE National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) says it has “no reason to be dissatisfied” with the Bishop of Clonfert’s assurances on the reporting of child abuse allegations.

Ian Elliot, chief of the NBSCCC, has confirmed that they sought and received assurances from Bishop John Kirby that all the diocese’s documentation for the period covered by the review of safeguarding practices had been made available.

That is according to a report in today’s “Sunday Business Post” and the statement by the child safeguarding board contradicts a story in “The Irish Times” some weeks ago which alleged that the Bishop was aware of a higher number of abuse victims in his diocese than had been declared.

Bishop Kirby strongly rejected the allegations in the daily newspaper’s story at the time they were published.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The BBC’s Tim Reid said police have confirmed they “have today arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation”

Former pop star Gary Glitter has been arrested on suspicion of sex offences by police investigating Jimmy Savile abuse claims.

He has been taken from his home into custody at a London police station.

Glitter, 68, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was jailed in Vietnam in 2006 for child sex offences.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

THE leader of Scotland’s Catholics, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, was a long-standing friend of Savile but was not aware of his dark secrets and has now said that he should lose the papal honour.

THE leader of Scotland’s Catholics yesterday called for paedophile Jimmy Savile to be stripped of his papal knighthood.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien had a long-standing friendship with Savile and, unaware of his dark secrets, paid tribute to the DJ and TV presenter after his death last year at the age of 84.

But his spokesman said yesterday that Savile should lose the papal honour, which was bestowed in 1990.

He said: “As far as we are concerned, we would absolutely endorse and support that move.

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MARYLAND
Washington Post

Bethesda synagogue grapples with presence of rabbi convicted of sex crime

By Michelle Boorstein,

Published: October 26

The early months of 2012 at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Synagogue were busy with the things typical for a liberal congregation: a phone bank for gay marriage, a silent retreat, a weekend study session on unorthodox ideas such as observing Sabbath through dance and movement.

Then in February, David Kaye, a longtime Montgomery County rabbi and registered sex offender, started attending Saturday services.

Adat Shalom’s three clergy had quickly agreed to a request from Kaye to pray at the synagogue, believing his presence to be in keeping with Adat Shalom’s identity as an open, diverse spiritual community where all are welcome.

Through the spring and early summer, Kaye was a part of the congregation. He came for Sabbath and oneg, the post-service lunch. He stood with other mourners to say the communal prayer for the dead, for his parents. He went to the silent retreat.

But over the months, discomfort with Kaye’s presence in some quarters of the 500-family congregation grew. Finally, he was asked to leave.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

October 28, 2012

By FRED CONNORS – Senior Staff Writer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

GLEN DALE – In some states, including West Virginia, child sexual predators named earlier this month in the Boy Scouts of America’s so-called “perversion files” can still be prosecuted.

West Virginia law has no statute of limitations on a felony. In Ohio, the statute in child sex cases limits prosecution to a time period of 21 years either from when the child turns 18 or when it was first reported to an adult.

Portland, Ore. Attorney Kelly Clark released the BSA documents on Oct. 18 after the Oregon Supreme Court ruled they could be made public.

The 14,500-page file reveals decades of alleged child sexual abuse involving scout leaders but never reported to law enforcement. It contains allegations of abuse of more than 1,000 Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts across the country and internal memos and reports between scouting officials and letters from victims. More than 1,200 offenders are named in alleged sexual assaults from 1965-85.

Locally, a Glen Dale man who served as scoutmaster for Troop 82 sponsored by the P.T.A. at Glen Dale Elementary School is named as an offender. Six boys reported allegations against the man, according to the BSA files.

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WISCONSIN
Sheboygan Press

New mission: The Rev. James Connell has made it his duty to reach out to victims of clergy abuse

SHEBOYGAN — One day, the Rev. James Connell heard himself described as a party to a fraud who helped to cover up a notorious case of clergy sexual abuse.

That’s the day his whole life changed.

At the time, Connell was both pastor of St. Clement and Holy Family Catholic churches and a vice chancellor at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He was looking into the sexual abuse case against Lawrence Murphy, who abused students at a Milwaukee-area school for the deaf beginning in the 1950s.

And on that day in 2009, members of a group called the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests stood on the steps of the archdiocese and demanded his removal from the review board investigating the case because, they said, he sent information about Murphy’s crimes to church officials instead of to the police.

That’s all he was required to do, but Connell went home and took a long look at himself. Now, he calls that moment his epiphany.

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UNITED STATES
New York Post

Alex Gibney — the Oscar-winning documentarian who has trained his lens on Eliot Spitzer, Lance Armstrong, Julian Assange and Enron — has found his most controversial topic yet with the Oscar-buzzed exposé “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” which traces a sex-abuse scandal from a Milwaukee Catholic church to the Vatican.

The movie was banned by the Venice and Rome film festivals this year, and Gibney says of its rejection: “I was disappointed. The Vatican exerts a very strong influence in Italy. There is a palpable sense of fear there. This film takes on the Vatican’s complicity [in covering it up].”

The HBO film, in theaters Nov. 16, follows the story of Father Lawrence Murphy at the St. John’s School for the Deaf in Wisconsin, who molested 200 of the school’s pupils for 24 years until 1974. He was never disciplined, even after his actions were brought to the attention of the Vatican. Instead, he was moved to other schools.

“The direct connection of the Vatican to this sheds light on the way they’ve shoved this stuff under the carpet,” says Gibney, who discovered a similar scandal involving deaf students in Verona, Italy, while making the film.

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WISCONSIN
Sheboygan Press

Written by
Janet Ortegon

Adam Sprenger’s parents suspected for years that something horrible had happened to their son.

It took 10 years and a random piece of mail — a mysterious credit card bill for an astronomical amount of money — for the truth to come out.

And the truth was nightmarish: When he was about 12, Adam was assaulted by his priest.

Adam, who is now 36 and living in Minnesota, agreed to let his parents tell the family’s story. Though he’s put the trauma behind him, the Sprenger family hopes that telling Adam’s story will encourage other victims to come forward.

The Rev. Bill Effinger, pastor of Holy Name Parish from 1972 to 1992, took Adam under his wing in 1987 to help the boy consider a possible future in the priesthood. After two overnight trips, Adam stopped talking about wanting to be a priest.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

BY: Jay Tokasz

He endeared himself to area police officers, responding at any hour of the day to their personal or professional tragedies.

Parishioners of the East Side parish where he celebrated Masses grew to love his disheveled, everyman way of ministering, and impoverished residents in the neighborhood appreciated his caring attention.

In some ways, the Rev. Joseph F. Moreno Jr. did the kind of gritty priestly work for which few other clergy are suited.

Yet Moreno, 54, also was by many accounts a tortured soul – an enigmatic man who craved attention but refused to allow people to really know him.

His death Oct. 13 due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound sent shock waves across Western New York and caused his family and other supporters to blame diocesan officials for what they called a callous mishandling of the priest.

With the Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandal still looming as a backdrop, some people wondered whether an allegation of that sort had surfaced for Moreno, who reportedly was distressed over his pending departure from St. Lawrence Church, where he had been living since 2005.

In a statement, the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo said no allegations of sex abuse of a minor were ever raised about Moreno. There were no indications Moreno harmed a child. But the priest had other troubling incidents in his past, including a 1989 conviction for attempted arson and falsely reporting an incident and a 2005 bankruptcy filing in which he listed $447,000 in debts.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

The Huffington Post | By Mark Hanrahan Posted: 10/24/2012

British lawmaker Tom Watson MP sent shock waves through the country’s political establishment Wednesday, when he asserted in parliament that a former UK prime minister was linked to a “powerful pedophile ring.”

Watson made the assertions during the weekly questions session with Prime Minister David Cameron. In a question to Cameron, Watson said:

“The evidence file used to convict pedophile Peter Righton, if it still exists, contains clear evidence of a widespread pedophile ring.

“One of its members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former prime minister who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad.

“The leads were not followed up but if the file still exists I want to ensure the Metropolitan police secure the evidence, re-examine it and investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful pedophile network linked to parliament and to No 10.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
China Daily

A sex scandal gripping Britain’s BBC deepened on Wednesday with claims that a pedophile ring had existed involving some of its stars, as its former director-general said his handling of the case shouldn’t stop him becoming the boss of the New York Times.

The BBC has been thrown into disarray by accusations it helped cover up sexual abuse by one of its most celebrated former presenters, Jimmy Savile, and has struggled to explain why one of its own shows killed an investigation into it.

The broadcaster’s current Director-General George Entwistle has been condemned for his handling of one of the worst crises in the corporation’s 90-year history, and questions have also been raised about his predecessor Mark Thompson, who is set to take over at the New York Times next month.

The British government warned the BBC on Wednesday that the scandal was raising “very real concerns” about public trust. …

Lawyers representing some of the male and female victims, some of whom were as young as 8 when the abuse occurred, said their clients had indicated an organized pedophile ring involving other celebrities had existed at the BBC during the height of Savile’s fame in the 1970s and 1980s.

“There is information of a possible pedophile ring, and we have people who have approached us with that information,” said Alicia Alinia, one of the lead lawyers involved in the cases for the Slater and Gordon law firm.

“It seems to be a number of people who were involved other than Jimmy Savile, I can’t reveal any specific names of celebrities involved, but it seems as though it wasn’t just limited to unknowns.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Fiona Phillips

As much as I’m sick of seeing his leering, lecherous face, chewing on his fat “look at me, I’m more important than you” cigar.

As much as I cringe when I see his medallion-adorned chest, shell-suit teasingly unzipped to expose it.

As much as I abhor the vile ­turbocharged egocentricity that made him think they “wanted it” as much as he did.

And as much as I really don’t want to say this, I’m going to.

I’m going to say there is a positive to the mire of misery and depravity and vile ­exploitation wreaked by Jimmy Savile.

Because, if it weren’t for the revelation of his prolific abuse of young children, paedophilia might still be where it was.

Largely not talked about. Or ­whispered. The abused struck dumb by shame.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The papal knighthood given to Jimmy Savile “should not have been bestowed”, a Vatican spokesman has told the BBC.

The Catholic Church in England and Wales confirmed it has written to the Holy See to ask if the honour can be posthumously removed.

The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, called for an investigation, recognising the “deep distress” of Savile’s alleged victims.

Savile, who may have abused some 300 people, was granted the award in 1990.

Meanwhile, a statement released by Savile’s nephew, Roger Foster, described the family’s “despair and sadness” over the revelations, adding “our feelings are in turmoil as we await the next turn of events”.

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VATICAN CITY
RTE News

The Vatican has said it cannot rescind the papal knighthood awarded to television star Jimmy Savile, however the honour dies with the individual.

Savile, a well-known BBC children’s television host who died last year at the age of 84, has emerged as an alleged child sex predator after his death.

Savile was made a Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II in 1990.

The Catholic Church of England said it has contacted the Holy See to ask it to posthumously revoke Savile’s honour in recognition of the “deep distress” of the victims allegedly abused by Savile, a well-known BBC children’s television host who died last year at the age of 84.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Vatican news correspondent, Enzo Romeo, has just published a book analysing the tensions in the Holy See over the past two years. The text reveals the involvement of a Vatican policeman in the Vatileaks inquiry

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

“It does make one wonder what poison pen letter writers, moles and all this poison have to do with the announcement of Christ’s message, which should be the Church’s only priority. Nothing in theory…But money, power, scandals and gossip – evenn wars – are part of human history and the Church is immersed in this history…The Church must live with the failures which are a reminder that we need to constantly convert to the Gospel. It will also have to take recent events as a lesson and speed up that renewal which is vital if the Church is to engage in a dialogue with modern man and ensure that he does not forget the transcendental realm.”

These opening words are the key to reading “Guerre Vaticane” (“Vatican Wars” – Rubettino publishers, pp. 272, 13 Euros), the book written by Enzo Romeo, Vatican correspondent and editor-in-chief of Tg2’s world news section (Tg2 is Italian television channel Rai 2’s news programme, Ed.).The book is the first attempt to analyse what has been going on in the Roman Curia over the past two years. What is interesting about Romeo’s book is that it gives a comprehensive interpretation of events, a “war” characterised by blows and counter-blows, anonymous letters and an unscrupulous use of the media, which caused clashes between various networks and groups.

One of the revelations the book makes is the involvement of a Vatican policeman in the inquiry into the leaked confidential documents. It is likely that the policeman had some kind of contact with the Pope’s self-confessed former butler who has now been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for the theft of secret documents from the papal apartment and for photocopying and sending them to Italian writer, Gianluigi Nuzzi. The policeman was initially suspended from service as a precaution and had no direct involvement in Gabriele’s trial. He may do in the brief and less important trial against Vatican Secretariat of State computer technician, Claudio Sciarpelletti, on 5 November. However, it is likely Vatican investigators have not found enough evidence against him and this is probably the reason why his involvement has so far been kept secret.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The British DJ who was made Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II was accused of abuse against minors

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

Jimmy Savile, the late BBC DJ who was posthumously accused of sexually abusing minors, was invested as Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great (an equestrian order recognised by the Holy See) during John Paul II’s pontificate. Now, after information requests from the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, the Holy See stated that the knighthood given to the DJ should never have been bestowed. It also strongly condemned the acts of sexual abuse committed by Savile and stressed through the Vatican’s official spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi that “the honour expires with the death of the individual.”

A spokesman for the Catholic Church in England and Wales confirmed that Archbishop Nichols “wrote last week to the Holy See asking the competent office to investigate whether the papal honour awarded to Jimmy Savile for his charitable works could be posthumously removed and its effects nullified.”

The Jesuit Vatican spokesman told the BBC that the Holy See “firmly condemns the horrible crimes of sexual abuse of minors,” and considers the Savile revelations “very grave”. He said the Holy See is “deeply saddened that a person who has been soiled in this way could in his lifetime have been proposed for an honour by the Holy See, which in the light of recent information should certainly not have been bestowed.”

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UNITED STATES
Patriot-Ledger

By Suzette Standring

In this TV episode I interview Father Emmett Coyne, author of The Theology of Fear, which details how the Vatican is more concerned with its political power than Jesus’ teachings. A Roman Catholic priest of 46 years, Father Coyne feels he is “on the last lap of his life,” and wants to tell the truth. Click the above link to watch this eye-opening program!

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Deborah Orr
The Guardian, Friday 26 October 2012

There are many lessons to be learned from the Jimmy Savile scandal. One of the more simple ones, surely, is that celebrity shortens the arm of the law. Yet Scotland Yard has said to the media that it expects to arrest “up to a dozen” household names soon. What can this achieve, beyond providing chances to dump computers, hire a lawyer or get on a flight to Thailand?

Part of the reason Savile and others were able to prey on young people with impunity was that their word was always considered more valuable than those of their victims. The point when sympathy for Peter Rippon, the man who halted the Newsnight investigation into Savile’s crimes, evaporated was when it emerged that he’d dismissed the collaborative testimony of four of Savile’s victims as “just the women”, adding for good measure that, 40 years ago, 14 years old was “not too young” to be a girl in a special school, manipulated and bribed into sexually servicing a powerful man. How appalling.

Such behaviour is utterly reprehensible, whatever age a preyed-upon person is. For under-16s, then as now, it is immoral and illegal. The age and gender of the people who complained about Savile was viewed, even last November, as somehow a mitigation of his behaviour, when those, along with his celebrity, were actually details that abetted him in both his exploitation and his ability to get away with it.

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