ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By Elle Watson June 25, 2013

“Bad blood” and internal politics were ongoing in the NSW Police Force at the time a Strike Force was established to investigate concealment of alleged sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, a Special Commission of Inquiry has heard this morning.

Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy said Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told her about internal issues in 2010, before the establishment of Strike Force Lantle.

“It was obvious that there were internal political issues, I didn’t want to buy into them,” Ms McCarthy said.

“My obligation to the victims was to make sure they were looked after by police … How police handled the investigation was up to police.”

She said Det Chief Insp Fox indicated in emails sent in 2010 he was “desperately keen” to investigate matters of concealment by the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Wollondilly Advertiser

The late-night email set out how to wipe email trails and mask mobile calls to keep them secret. But the contact between Peter Fox and Joanne McCarthy was nevertheless exposed.

As relationships go, this one has caused a lot of trouble – for the police, the Catholic Church, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and even the Prime Minister. Now it’s all being laid bare in the Newcastle Supreme Court.

Fairfax Media journalist McCarthy is being grilled in the witness box at the special inquiry into how police and Catholic Church priests and officials handled allegations of sexual abuse in NSW’s Hunter Region.

The inquiry was set up by the NSW Premier after a whistleblower policeman, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, went on ABC’s Lateline last November, alleging a cover-up. The Prime Minister called a separate royal commission on child sexual abuse days later.

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IDAHO
Reuters

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho | Tue Jun 25, 2013

(Reuters) – Four men sued the Boy Scouts of America and its largest sponsor, the Mormon Church, on Monday accusing both organizations of failing to protect them from sexual abuse by adult volunteers when they were children at scouting activities in Idaho.

Three of the men said they were abused as members of Boy Scout troops affiliated with the Utah-based church, two of them by a scout leader previously identified as a molester in a complaint brought by a parent.

The fourth plaintiff belonged to a troop sponsored by a chapter of the Elk Club, which was not named as a defendant in the suit.

All the cases of abuse alleged in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, the state capital, occurred in the early 1980s and 1970s, when the plaintiffs ranged in age from 12 to 14.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A senior New South Wales policeman has apologised to whistleblower Peter Fox for comments he made in his statement to the Special Commission investigating child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church.

The Special Commission is looking into Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s claims that he was ordered to stop investigating two Maitland-Newcastle priests, Father Denis McAlinden and Father James Fletcher.

Peter Fox’s superior, Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey, began giving evidence this afternoon at the public hearings in Newcastle.

In court today he made changes to his statement before it was tendered to the Commission, saying there were “unfair comments” regarding Peter Fox, and he apologised.

He also told the court there was no intention to shut Peter Fox out of the investigation but “it needed fresh eyes”.

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IDAHO
Idaho State Journal

By Dave Goins / For the Journal

BOISE — A federal court case filed here Monday against the Boy Scouts of America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints names a Driggs man as one of three alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse crimes against now-former Boy Scouts.

Plaintiffs in the case accuse the defendants — the LDS Church, (that has promoted Scouting programs), and the Boy Scouts — of failing to inform parents of the scouts that documents — recently opened by courts — show it was known that pedophiles were working within the ranks of the Boy Scouts.

“The lawsuit is based on the defendants’ failure to inform the parents of the threat of pedophiles preying on unsuspecting boys,” said Boise attorney Andrew M. Chasan, a legal representative for the four unnamed plaintiffs.

A church spokesman in Salt Lake City, Utah, responded with a news release to the legal action filed in U.S. District Court Monday in Boise, stating that, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind, and works diligently to prevent abuse and provide support and assistance to victims of abuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By Barney Zwartz June 25, 2013

The Catholic Church is still impeding police pursuit and conviction of clergy sex offenders, according to a former head of Victoria Police’s sexual crimes squad.

Former Detective Inspector Glenn Davies, who now works with victims of clergy sex abuse, says his experience of working with the church is that it is “protectionist, elitist and dismissive of suggestions for change”.

Mr Davies, who resigned from Victoria Police last year after he admitted briefing journalists about then-current investigations, made a submission to the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled clergy sexual abuse. This was posted on the inquiry website late on Tuesday.

Ten submissions were posted on the website, including a defence of Towards Healing by one of its investigators, former police superintendent Paul Murnane, plus a second “right of reply” by Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 25, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

One of the Australian Catholic Church’s most senior figures, Father Brian Lucas, confessed in an internal church document that he knew the disgraced paedophile priest Father Denis McAlinden had been “interfering with children” but he had done nothing about it.

Fairfax Media reporter Joanne McCarthy told the inquiry into church and police handling of sexual abuse in the Hunter region that documents handed to her by a victim, known as AL, indicated the systematic protection of paedophiles within the church.

Father Lucas’ confession was contained in documents that then bishop of Maitland-Newcastle diocese Michael Malone had authorised be released.

In 1993 Father Lucas had known of McAlinden’s abuse of a girl aged under 10. Two years later McAlinden was defrocked in secret.

On Tuesday afternoon the inquiry heard that McCarthy gave the documents to a NSW detective, Shaun McCleod, in April 2010.

“The material that the police had obviously shows on the face of it an intention to alert McAlinden … if that isn’t trying to protect a paedophile, I don’t know what is,” McCarthy’s barrister, Winston Terracini, SC, suggested to her.

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ZAMBIA
allAfrica

BY MARTIN NYIRENDA, 25 JUNE 2013

THE Church has come into the spotlight not for all the good reasons, it has been marred by sex scandals with reports of brothers duping sisters all in the name of prophecy and defilement cases occurring right in the grounds of worship.

Thus this has cast some doubts on some people as to whether the Church still remains that holy sanctuary which is expected to be the custodian of the moral values where every troubled soul can run to seek solace.

Not too long ago a Kabwe housewife recounted in a magistrate’s court how a prophet allegedly raped her in the process of being prayed for.

The woman recounted before Kabwe resident magistrate Jennifer Bwalya that on the fateful day she travelled to Kasavasa area to meet the prophet, who was in the company of another person for prayers.

In this case, Anthony Musoka was slapped with a charge of rape.

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NEW MEXICO/ARIZONA
The New Mexican

By Tom Sharpe
The New Mexican

Twelve lawsuits filed recently in Arizona charge that the Roman Catholic bishop of Gallup protected alleged pedophile priests by assigning them to pastoral duties in small parishes for more than two decades.

Robert E. Pastor of the Phoenix law firm of Manly Steward Finaldi said the lawsuits were filed in Coconimo County on behalf of 10 men and two women, who were minors when they were allegedly molested in Arizona by priests from the Diocese of Gallup. About two years ago, he said he filed a similar lawsuit, on behalf of a man, which is set to go to trial in February.

“That first case came to me and, like a lot of people, you think, ‘Well, that’s just one bad priest. There can’t possibly be any more’ — even though we know about Boston, we know about L.A., we know about Milwaukee, and, lo and behold, what do we find out?” Pastor said. “That there were many priests in the diocese of Gallup and we know why — because the bishop of Gallup was picking his priests from the sex-offender treatment center there at Jemez Springs, New Mexico, and that’s got to be one of the poorest decisions anyone’s ever made.”

The Rev. James Wall, Gallup’s bishop for the last four years, did not respond to a message seeking comment, but issued a pre-prepared written statement though the diocese’s media liaison, the Rev. Tim Farrell of Farmington. The statement says that while the diocese can’t comment on pending litigation, Wall prays for the victims of abuse and urges anyone who has experienced misconduct by any official of the church to contact law enforcement.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Herald News

Diocese of Fall River says lawsuit filed by woman in Rev. Porter sex abuse case continues ‘painful episode’

[Porter documents]

[Porter timeline]

[Porter laicization letter to the pope]

[Original laicization to the pope]

By Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Jun 24, 2013

More than 20 years later, the scandal of the Rev. James Porter continues to be a “painful episode” for the Diocese of Fall River.

On Monday, the diocese said it had not seen the latest lawsuit filed in a Minnesota state court on behalf of a woman there whom Porter abused several times from 1969-70.

The victim was 9 years old at the time. She said Porter molested her whenever he visited her family’s home and in the parish school in Bemidji, Minn., where he served as an assistant to the pastor.

The woman, now her in 50s, continues to suffer emotional distress, humiliation, loss of self-esteem and embarrassment, said Jeff Anderson, a civil attorney representing the plaintiff who has represented dozens of other sex abuse victims in lawsuits against the Catholic Church.

The lawsuit in Minnesota — where the statute of limitations does not apply in sex abuse cases — accuses the Diocese of Fall River and its co-defendants of negligence and seeks $50,000 in damages.

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MINNESOTA/MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Somerset

By Brian Fraga

Below is a timeline of Father James Porter provided by Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing a Minnesota woman who says Porter abused her from 1969-70.

The plaintiff has filed a lawsuit against in a state court in Minnesota against the Diocese of Fall River, the Diocese of Crookston, Minn., and the Servants of the Paraclete, seeking $50,000 damages and a court order that the defendants release the names and files of all priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Timeline
1952 – graduates from Boston College High School
1956 – completes Mathematics degree from Boston College
April 2, 1960 – ordained a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, MA, graduates from Baltimore seminary and assigned to St. Mary’s Church in North Attleborough.
1963 – Parents at St. Mary’s make complaints against Porter and he’s transferred to Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River, MA

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

BY PAUL MAGUIRE AAP JUNE 25, 2013

A JOURNALIST began a secret information exchange with a senior NSW police officer because she believed he was ready to investigate the concealment of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Hunter Valley.

Newcastle Herald reporter Joanne McCarthy told a special NSW commission of inquiry on Tuesday that was the reason behind her extensive contact with Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox from 2010.

Under cross examination by barrister Wayne Roser on behalf of several other senior police officers, Ms McCarthy denied her arrangement with Det Insp Fox had anything to do with difficulties he may have been encountering within the force.

When explaining a series of emails during 2010 and 2011 between herself and the officer, Ms McCarthy said: “He was ready to investigate concealment.

“Possibly he was feeling isolated and alone.

“I think I was a bit of a sounding board, I guess he was feeling pretty much on the outer and I was trying (she broke off and resumed) … possibly we were both feeling the same way.”

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Paul Maquire
AAP

A NSW crime manager has told an inquiry he holds no animosity towards the whistleblower who alleges police and clergy covered up abuse allegations involving Catholic priests.

Newcastle crime manager Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey says he believes Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox is a good detective.

“Despite what anyone may think, I have no animosity to (Detective Chief Inspector) Peter Fox,” he told the inquiry into the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by Hunter Valley Catholic priests on Tuesday.

“He’s a good detective, a very senior police officer and I have no problem with his work at all.”

Det Insp Fox secretly provided information to several journalists since 2010 for numerous newspaper, radio and televisions reports about child sexual abuse by priests.

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COLORADO
The Gazette

Published: June 24, 2013

By LANCE BENZEL lance.benzel@gazette.com –

During private encounters away from church, a Colorado Springs priest allegedly lavished attention on a 15-year-old altar boy – showering him with gifts and supplying him with booze, pot and cigarettes.

But according to the Rev. Charles Robert Manning’s one-time assistant, all that attention came with a price.

“He told me there were three things he wanted to do before he died: To kiss me, to see me naked and to have sex with me,” the former altar boy, now 18, told a jury Monday in recounting an alcohol-fueled day in the fall of 2011 in which he said Manning, 78, crossed all three wishes from his list.

Formerly a pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church, 8755 Scarborough Drive in Colorado Springs, Manning has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and several related counts, some alleging he supplied the boy with drugs and alcohol.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Barry Roche

A former priest who pleaded guilty to abusing two altar boys over 20 years ago yesterday spoke of the shame of being among the most despised people in Irish society as he apologised to his victims for what he had done to them.

Patrick Crowley (62), a former priest of the diocese of Cork and Ross who was laicised in 2002, said it pained him to listen to the effect of his abuse on his victims.

Crowley took the stand at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday to apologise after pleading guilty to three counts of sexually assaulting one boy and six counts of sexually assaulting the other boy on various dates between September 1st, 1989, and May 31st, 1990.

“As a convicted paedophile I live with the reality that every day of my life I am among probably the most despised people in society. It is very hard to forget what I have done. I cannot pretend I did not know what I was doing was wrong,” said Crowley.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
WDAZ

[Porter documents]

[Porter timeline]

[Porter laicization letter to the pope]

[Original laicization to the pope]

By: Cynthia Johnson, WDAZ

Attorneys for a woman suing the catholic diocese of crookston released internal church documents today that warned leaders one of their priests was a threat.

The documents date from 1967 to 1970. They are communications among the bishops of Fall River, Massachusetts, Crookston, Minnesota and other church officials. The documents are letters about Revered James Porter, who was removed from the priesthood in 1974 and in 1993 was convicted of molesting 28 children. He was a priest at St. Phillip Parish in Bemidji in 1969 when the victim, who is known as Doe 4, was allegedly sexually abused by Porter.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Athena Yenko | June 25, 2013

Joanne McCarthy, Newcastle Herald reporter, admitted in the Newcastle Supreme Court that NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell had summoned her for a “bizarre” request that “threw” her off and made her wish she was not there.

Ms. McCarthy said that the Commissioner requested for some tips on how to handle allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church’s Maitland-Newcastle diocese. She said that during the meeting, the Commissioner probed for names and numbers of all the abused victims.

Ms. McCarthy thinks that the “bizarre” request was provoked by a prior incident when she encouraged a sexual abuse victim to give a statement to the Commissioner. During the incident, she called for the victim to “get angry with him” referring to how the inquiring police handled the victim.

Ms. McCarthy also admitted flinching over accusations that she was “in league” with priest child abuse whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Fox or that her “alliance” made her took his side exclusively. She strongly denied allegations that she supported Inspector Fox’s “agenda against certain police.” She made it clear that her primary objective was “get the victims looked after.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NEIL KEENE From: The Daily Telegraph June 25, 2013

A SENIOR police officer investigating child sex abuse in the Catholic Church said prosecutions “weren’t the way to go” when it came to historical offences, a special commission of inquiry has heard.

Newcastle journalist Joanne McCarthy told the inquiry, which resumed yesterday, that a senior police officer involved in investigations called her in 2010 to tell her a “truth and reconciliation” process might be more appropriate.

“I thought in my head: ‘As if’,” she said.

The first part of the commission of inquiry is looking into why police whistleblower Peter Fox was taken off the investigation and whether it was appropriate to remove him from the case.

Evidence expected to begin next week aims to shed light on whether the Catholic Church covered up instances of pedophilia, and if so to what extent.

Ms McCarthy, whose work prompted calls for a Royal Commission, said she had encountered various police hesitant to pursue the Catholic Church.

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

Bisschop Gijsen (80) is maandag in Sittard overleden. Dat heeft het bisdom Roermond laten weten. Hij was van 1972 tot 1993 bisschop van Roermond. Hij stond bekend als een eigenzinnige en zeer behoudende bisschop.

Sittard
Van onze verslaggever
Joannes Matthijs Gijsen werd geboren te Oeffelt (Noord-Brabant) op 7 oktober 1932. Op 6 april 1957 werd hij priester gewijd. Op 20 januari 1972 werd mgr. Gijsen, toen rector van het zusterklooster Sint-Elisabethdal in Nunhem, benoemd tot 22ste bisschop van Roermond.

Zijn bisschopswijding vond plaats in de Sint-Pietersbasiliek te Rome door paus Paulus VI op 13 februari van dat jaar. Op 4 maart vond de inbezitneming van de zetel in de Roermondse kathedraal plaats. Mgr. Gijsen bleef bisschop van Roermond tot 23 januari 1993. Hij werd rector van een klooster in Walpersdorf (Oostenrijk) tot hij op 12 oktober 1995 werd benoemd tot eerst apostolisch administrator en vanaf 25 mei 1996 tot bisschop van Reykjavik (IJsland). Dit bleef hij tot hij op 30 oktober 2007 met emeritaat ging. In 2007 kwam hij terug naar Nederland.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Wall Street Journal

SEATTLE, June 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Priests from across the U.S. gather in Seattle this week for The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests’ (AUSCP) second national assembly celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. (www.uscatholicpriests.org)

Almost a thousand priests across the U.S. are members of AUSCP. They will consider 15 resolutions representing their broad concerns and determine together what action will be taken on resolutions that pass.

There are resolutions that address the processes by which church authority is exercised; others address how bishops are selected; and some on the expansion of ordination. Particular initiatives include evangelization, general absolution, and the use of the 1974 Sacramentary.

Fr. David Cooper, AUSCP board chair, says, “AUSCP is committed to open and transparent discussion and to the careful consideration of the important proposals put forward by our members. We are encouraged that the array of these resolutions reflects the broad concerns of our membership. It should be an exciting assembly.”

Assembly speakers on Vatican II will be: Fr. Patrick Brennan, author of The Mission Driven Parish; Catherine Clifford, professor of theology at Saint Paul University, Ontario, Canada; Fr. James A. Coriden, canon law professor at Washington Theological Union; Robert Blair Kaiser, author and journalist for Time Magazine, and an award winning reporter on the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965); and Robert Mickens, current Vatican correspondent for The Tablet, an international Catholic weekly magazine.

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ITALIA
Wall Street Italia

ROMA (WSI) – “I filmati hard di festini in Vaticano sono conservati nella cassaforte di un notaio di Lugano. Me lo ha raccontato un imprenditore che lavora con la Santa Sede e io ho portato tutte le carte ai giudici”.

Parla Francesco Zanardi, presidente della “Rete abuso”, un’associazione italiana che ha raccolto negli anni decine e decine di denunce di giovani vittime di sacerdoti e che le ha puntualmente girate alla polizia.

Due anni fa da Zanardi si è presentato un imprenditore. E gli ha raccontato una storia di festini e adescamenti di ragazzi. Di fatti scabrosi accaduti dentro le mura della Santa Sede. “Ho preso il suo racconto con le pinze, inizialmente con molta diffidenza – racconta Zanardi -. Perché venire da me e perché dirmi quelle cose orribili? Mi ha risposto d’essere rimasto disgustato da quel mondo e che voleva uscire da un giro in cui era stato introdotto da un noto manager vicino alla Santa Sede. Erano i giorni in cui si parlava del Corvo in Vaticano. Ho capito, però, che qualcosa di vero c’era”.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 24, 2013

I have not seen the series premiere yet, but Showtime is streaming the whole first episode of their new series RAY DONOVAN on YouTube.

According to the Facebook page: “Set in the sprawling mecca of the rich and famous, RAY DONOVAN does the dirty work for LA’s top power players. The one-hour drama series stars Liev Schreiber as the go-to guy who makes the problems of the city’s elite disappear”

Why do I care (besides the fact that I really need a new show to watch now that I have seen all of the episodes of Walking Dead and Downton Abbey)? Well, it’s personal. Last year, the show’s production supervisor reached out to me because one of the show’s stars hoped to talk to victims of priest sexual abuse. Actor Dash Mihok wanted to create an accurate representation of his character Bunchy Donovan, Ray’s brother, who is a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. Since I personally could not help (I’m not male and not a victim of a priest), I put them in contact with my good friend Ken (an actor, as well as a survivor), who helped him wrap his arms around a complex and difficult subject.

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MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer

[Porter documents]

[Porter timeline]

[Porter laicization letter to the pope]

[Original laicization to the pope]

JUSTIN GLAWE
BEMIDJI PIONEER

BEMIDJI — As Jim Grimm stood on the sidewalk in front of St. Philip’s Catholic School Monday, two silent and unmoving faces stared back in photo form.

One, a young girl with a gap-toothed grin, neatly cut brunette hair and a red and white polka dot dress, and the second, an elderly man with glasses and a tan sweater.

The man was Rev. James Porter, a priest who molested Grimm and at least 20 other boys — then students at the school — in 1969-70. The girl, now a woman in her 50s living in the Bemidji area, is “Jane Doe 4,” who filed a lawsuit against Porter’s former employer, the Diocese of Crookston, Monday.

Jeff Anderson, an attorney who represented Grimm in the first round of lawsuits against the diocese 21 years ago, has been filing lawsuits on behalf of victims thanks to the Child Victims Act, signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton in May.

Anderson represents Jane Doe 4.

“They have a legal and moral obligation” to release internal files on priests suspected of abuse, Anderson said of the Diocese of Crookston.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

[Porter documents]

[Porter timeline]

[Porter laicization letter to the pope]

[Original laicization to the pope]

Allen Costantini

CROOKSTON, Minn. — A lawsuit filed by Saint Paul attorney Jeff Anderson in Crookston Monday morning charges The Diocese of Crookston, the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts and the Servants of the Paraclete group with a dozen counts of nuisance and negligence in their handling of former Priest James Porter.

Porter admitted or was linked to the abuse of more than 100 young boys and girls, dating back to the 1950’s. This lawsuit involves the case of a unnamed Minnesota woman, now in her 50’s, who alleges that Porter, who died in 2005, molested her while he was a priest at St. Phillips parish in Bemidgi in 1969 and 1970.

“And where she and her family had come to trust this very cunning, but very dangerous wolf in shepherd’s clothing, Father James Porter,” said Jeff Anderson.

Bemidgi is in the Crookson diocese. Porter became a priest and committed sex abuse while in the Fall River diocese. He was treated for his abusive practices by the Servants of the Paraclete group.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON June 25, 2013

The Newcastle Herald ­journalist awarded for her role in bringing about a royal commission into child sexual abuse has told a special inquiry Peter Fox was more eager to investigate ­allegations of clergy concealment than other police.

Winner of the Graham Perkin Award, Joanne McCarthy, gave evidence at the Special Commission of Inquiry yesterday for the final week of hearings into the police investigations of alleged sexual abuse cover-ups by the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

Ms McCarthy said when she spoke to Detective Inspector David Waddell about a potential concealment he was “not wholeheartedly” convinced the matters should be investigated.

“I’m not saying that negatively … not saying you’re against doing something,” Ms McCarthy told the special inquiry.

Comparatively, she said Detective Chief Inspector Fox jumped hurdles some officers were unable to overcome because they were matters involving the church.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD June 24, 2013

FOR all its cast of characters, this Special Commission of Inquiry into the police handling of “certain child sexual abuse allegations” in the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has a few star witnesses.

In an earlier bank of sittings, it was Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, whose allegations of collusion between church figures and senior police led to the inquiry in the first place.

Yesterday afternoon, though, it was the turn of Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy, whose six years of reporting on child sexual abuse has “shone the light” on a previously hidden shame.

As the committee heard, Ms McCarthy won the 2012 Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year award in March this year for her body of work on child sex abuse in the Catholic Church in the Hunter Valley.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 24, 2013

AFTER a year of waiting for police to act on their investigations into alleged child abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church, journalist Joanne McCarthy took her concerns to the Police Integrity Commission.

Making her much-anticipated appearance before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday, the Newcastle Herald journalist said her motivation stemmed from her desire to support abuse victims, one of whom had complained about how police had treated her.

She also told the inquiry that she had a heated conversation with then-Newcastle police commander and now Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell.

“I rang him to get angry with him and to let him know that I wasn’t happy [about the way that an abuse victim had been treated by police],” Ms McCarthy told the inquiry.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

June 25, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell invited journalist Joanne McCarthy to a meeting with police so she could ”give them some tips” on handling allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church’s Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

McCarthy, a Fairfax Media reporter, told a commission of inquiry in the Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday she thought the suggestion was ”bizarre”. She said it ”threw me” to have been asked at the meeting by police for names and numbers of abuse victims, and she ”didn’t want to be there”.

She had earlier called Mr Mitchell to ”get angry with him” over police treatment of a victim who had offered a statement, with McCarthy’s encouragement.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A New South Wales inquiry into sex abuse by Hunter region Catholic priests says calls for it to be expanded to investigate claims about the shredding of police documents are outside its terms of reference.

The ABC’s Lateline program last week revealed that internal police documents relating to a key Catholic church body set up to deal with abuse cases, were shredded.

Later reports suggested the documents were only copies but the police whistleblower who prompted the Newcastle-based inquiry, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, yesterday called for its terms of reference to be expanded to look into the claims which he said “sent shivers down his spine”.

But in a statement last night, the Special Commission of Inquiry said the request had been considered, but it was decided it was outside its terms of reference.

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ISRAEL
Failed Messiah

A 45-year-old gay personal trainer and tour guide has come forward to claim that haredi Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger sexually harassed him five years ago.

Another Gay Sexual Harassment Allegation Against Chief Rabbi Surfaces
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

A 45-year-old gay personal trainer and tour guide has come forward to claim that haredi Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger sexually harassed him five years ago.

Ynet reported that the man says he came forward now because Metzger was questioned under caution by the police last week week in a fraud, breach of public trust, money laundering and embezzlement allegations investigation which has also resulted in the arrests of three of Metzger’s associates, a police raid on Metzger’s home and on his office, and Metzger being put on house arrest for 15 days beginning last Thursday.

There are multiple sexual harassment allegations against Metzger that have previously been made public. Some of those allegations stretch back as far as the late 1980s. The most recent incident made public before this allegedly took place a few months ago.

The personal trainer-tour guide says the incident took place when he accompanied a group of priests to a meeting with Metzger in the chief rabbinate in Jerusalem.

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ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
6/24/2013

The detention of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger’s former driver and personal assistant, Haim Nissan Eisenshtat, was extended on Monday by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court until at least June 30 in the bribery and fraud case which has nearly brought down the chief rabbi and three others on bribery, money-laundering and fraud allegations.

Two other suspects, Simcha Karkovsky – manager of the Beit Hatavshil charity in Bnei Brak, and Nissan Ben-Zion Zioni – manager of a beit midrash study hall and rabbinical school in Tel Aviv, were both released to house arrest under various conditions.

The decision comes following a successful appeal by the three on Sunday before the Lod District Court in which it overruled the Rishon Lezion court’s earlier decision extending the suspects detention for longer.

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ISRAEL
JTA

By Ben SalesJune 24, 2013

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Rabbi Shmuel Pappenheim of the haredi Orthodox organization Eda Haharedit shares little common ground with Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, a religious pluralism activist.

But when news broke last week that Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, was arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, Pappenheim and Regev had the same reaction: Who cares?

For Pappenheim, the chief rabbi is a political figure who has scant influence as a religious leader.

And to Regev, he represents a coercive religious authority whose actions have little meaning for Israel’s secular majority.

Both regard the chief rabbi’s legal troubles as both unsurprising and largely irrelevant.

“Whom does the chief rabbi serve?” asked Regev, who heads Hiddush, a religious pluralism nonprofit. “The secular sector has no connection to the rabbinate. It doesn’t have any expectations of the chief rabbinate.”

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

“Regardless of whether mandatory reporting laws were in place, any right-thinking person would have realised that the sodomy of children was a serious crime which merited police investigation, no matter who the alleged perpetrator was. It is offensive and irresponsible to suggest that an 11-year-old child could have consented to sexual activity with someone 10 years his senior – in fact Australian law has always deemed such behaviour to be statutory rape.”

For immediate release
Monday 24 June 2013

[The Australian victims advocacy group] Tzedek strongly condemns and is appalled by the callous views and behaviour of Rabbi Boruch Lesches as reported in The Age.

We expect the police to thoroughly investigate all claims relating to the rape and sexual abuse of children at Yeshivah, irrespective of when this is alleged to have occurred, and to vigorously pursue any perpetrators and their enablers to the full extent of the law, including considering extradition of anyone now living overseas who is credibly accused of committing a serious criminal offence.

If Rabbi Lesches was indeed aware of the allegations that children under Yeshiva’s care had been assaulted and raped by a person known to him, his behaviour is both immoral and unfathomable. Regardless of whether mandatory reporting laws were in place, any right-thinking person would have realised that the sodomy of children was a serious crime which merited police investigation, no matter who the alleged perpetrator was. It is offensive and irresponsible to suggest that an 11-year-old child could have consented to sexual activity with someone 10 years his senior – in fact Australian law has always deemed such behaviour to be statutory rape.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

Rabbi Boruch Lesches issued a partial apology last night for saying that young victims of child sexual abuse may have wanted the sex and consented to it. But Lesches – who did not apologize for claiming that “goyyim” as young as five willingly have sex with dogs and with their own siblings because they are bored and don’t have much to do (unlike Jews, who have lots of Torah to study) – apparently lied several times in that apology.

Rabbi Boruch Lesches – Chabad’s former rosh yeshiva in Sydney, Australia and its current mora d’asra (chief rabbi) in Monsey, New York – issued a partial apology for saying that young victims of child sexual abuse may have wanted the sex and consented to it, largely by claiming that his remarks were taken out of context and that the Australian newspapers that had the tape of his comments did not try to contact him before accusing him publicly.

But Lesches – who did not apologize for claiming that “goyyim” as young as five willingly have sex with dogs and with their own siblings because they are bored and don’t have much to do (unlike Jews, who have lots of Torah to study) – apparently on those and accounts, as The Age reported today:

…Despite Rabbi Lesches clearly recalling in the telephone conversation the alleged abuse of one Sydney boy, he said in his statement [i.e., the partial apology] that he was “never informed of any allegations regarding minors prior to this call”.

“In retrospect I am shocked to hear of these allegations, because I often entrusted my own young children to the care of the alleged perpetrator, without hesitation. I would never have done so had I known of the allegations,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Times

Michael Mickler

New York, June 24, 2013 — Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) was elected 266th pope of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013. As the leader of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, he has completed his first 100 days in office. Unlike American presidents, there’s no expectation of this period being a benchmark of his early success. Nor did Francis come into the pontificate with a ready-made plan of action. In fact, he admitted to being “disorganized.”

Still, he inherited a church at a crossroads, if not in crisis. Exposure of “backbiting, corruption and cronyism” inside the Vatican, the so-called “Vatileaks,” hastened the previous pontiff’s departure. Following Francis’ election, Erin McClam of NBC News wrote that he had “a to-do list as long as his cassock.” She suggested he faced seven major challenges: cleaning house at the Vatican; leading the church out of the sex abuse scandal; getting along with other faiths; winning the West; should women be priests and priests marry; modernization; and persecution. …

Leading the church out of the sex abuse scandal

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) noted Francis was not on its list of “the worst choices for pope.” There was no evidence of his complicity or cover-up of abuses. Still, he was among many of the world’s Catholic bishops — fully 25% — who failed to meet a deadline for establishing policies to deal with complaints and priests who were accused, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Three weeks into his pontificate, Francis I told the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church’s chief enforcement agency, to “act decisively with regard to cases of sexual abuse.” SNAP officials dismissed this as “empty rhetoric,” once again, “a top Catholic official asking another top Catholic official to take action about pedophile priests and complicit bishops … Big deal.”

It is clear that Francis I will need to do much more (discipline offenders, reveal histories) to establish his credentials as a leader capable of combating the scourge of predatory priests.

Grade: C

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ARIZONA/NEW MEXICO
Sacramento Bee

By Montoya, Jimenez & Pastor, P.A.

Published: Monday, Jun. 24, 2013

PHOENIX, June 24, 2013 — /PRNewswire/ — A Catholic bishop allegedly engaged in an active and on-going attempt to cover-up clergy sexual abuse, according to civil lawsuits filed by two women and ten men against the Diocese of Gallup and its priests. This brings the total number of lawsuits pending against the Diocese of Gallup to 13. The Diocese of Gallup includes northern Arizona. All of the lawsuits were filed by Phoenix attorney Robert E. Pastor in Coconino County Superior Court. The law firm of Manly, Stewart & Finaldi are co-counsel.

The lawsuits allege that the Bishop of Gallup protected pedophile priests by assigning them to poor rural towns along historic Route 66. The priests were routinely assigned to small parishes made up of mostly Hispanic families.

These 6 priests of the Diocese of Gallup are accused of misconduct: The Revs. William Allison, John T. Sullivan, Clement Hageman, Raul Sanchez, Brother Mark Schomack, and Monsignor James Lindenmeyer. The lawsuits include the following facts and allegations:

Rev. William Allison:

*Originally from the Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana;
*Patient at the sexual abuse treatment center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico run by the Servants of the Paraclete;
*Bishop of Gallup assigned him to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Flagstaff, Ariz;
*Bishop of Gallup asked Fr. James Lindenmeyer to keep a close eye on him.
*Lindenmeyer wrote the Bishop “that three boys came to me and have told me of incidents involving *Father Allison and I have no reason whatsoever to doubt their word.”
*Neither the Bishop nor Lindenmeyer reported the sexual abuse to police. Instead, the lawsuit alleges *Lindenmeyer “requested that all this be kept in the strictest of confidence, just as the seal of the confessional.”

Rev. John T. Sullivan:

*Sullivan allegedly sexually abused Catholic children in New Hampshire before arriving in Arizona.
*The Bishop of Grand Rapids, Michigan wrote to other Catholic bishops stating that he “honestly believe[d] Father Sullivan is a psychopath [and] while nothing of an immoral nature came out in the open while he was with us, there were indications of his conduct with children.”
*Sullivan became a patient at the sex offender treatment facility Via Coeli located in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
*The superior general of the treatment center, Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald, stated he was “very much disturbed by this errant padre. He has been in very serious difficulties in every parish in which he has served. Priests who have known him are of the opinion that he should have been laicized years ago. *The scandals in which he has been involved have been most serious and it is amazing that he has escaped civil prosecution.”
*Gallup assigned Sullivan to Madre de Dios Catholic Church in Winslow, Ariz.
*The Bishop of Gallup reported to other bishops that Sullivan “was doing a fine job and was very much liked by the poor Mexican people among whom he was working.”
*The lawsuit alleges that the Diocese of Gallup knew or should have known Sullivan would continue to sexually abuse the children of the families at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Rev. Raul Sanchez:

*The Catholic Church helped Sanchez emigrate from Mexico to the United States where he become an United States Citizen.
*The Bishop of Gallup sent him to a prestigious university in Rome where he obtained his degree in Cannon Law.
*He was made Chancellor of the then Diocese of Gallup.
*Sanchez was suddenly reassigned to serve as a chaplain in the U.S. military.
*In the lawsuits, Pastor alleges that the Diocese of Gallup received “complaints of sexual misconduct by Father Sanchez toward boys and or girls.”
*Lawsuits allege the decision to assign Sanchez to positions outside the Diocese of Gallup is part of a pattern and practice designed to “avoid scandal and news of [Fr. Sanchez’] sexual misconduct.”

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ITALIA
Libera

Il presidente dell’associazione, Francesco Zanardi, riporta alla magistratura il racconto di un imprenditore italiano che sostiene di aver preso parte a incontri sessuali

LUGANO – Filmati hard di festini in Vaticano sarebbero conservati nella cassaforte di un notaio di Lugano. È la dichiarazione shock che riporta questa mattina il Caffè, che ha raccolto la testimonianza di Francesco Zanardi, presidente di “Rete abuso”, un’associazione italiana che raccoglie da anni denunce di giovani vittime di sacerdoti, girandole in seguito alla polizia.

Zanardi ha così messo in luce i fatti dei quali è venuto a conoscenza due anni fa, quando un imprenditore che lavora con la Santa Sede gli si è presentato raccontandogli storie di festini e adescamenti di ragazzi avvenuti dietro le mura del Vaticano.

“Ho preso il suo racconto con le pinze, inizialmente con molta diffidenza – racconta Zanardi al Caffè -. Perché venire da me e perché dirmi quelle cose orribili? Mi ha risposto d’essere rimasto disgustato da quel mondo e che voleva uscire da un giro in cui era stato introdotto da un noto manager vicino alla Santa Sede. Erano i giorni in cui si parlava del Corvo in Vaticano. Ho capito, però, che qualcosa di vero c’era”.

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ITALIA
Libero Quotidiano

Parla il presidente di Rete Abuso. Un imprenditore tedesco consegna le prove in duplice copia. Ma la Procura ha molti dubbi su questa storia

Video pornografici che immortalano alte cariche del Vaticano mentre abusano di giovani minori durante alcuni, segretissimi, festini sarebbero stati depositati presso un prestigioso notaio di Lugano. Questa l’ultima rivelazione choc di Francesco Zanardi, presidente di Rete Abuso impegnato nella tutela dei diritti minorili, primo a denunciare il presunto scandalo che coinvolgerebbe una fitta rete di prelati del Vaticano. L’inchiesta, partita dalle pagine del Fatto Quotidiano, ha posto l’accento sulla probabile esistenza di prove che documenterebbero i fatti, orribili, accaduti tra le mura vaticane. Festini hard, abusi, giovani minorenni: questo ciò che sarebbe stato documentato in alcuni filmati realizzati direttamente dai giovani coinvolti e custoditi presso uno studio notarile nel centro della cittadina svizzera.

Gola profonda – A rendere nota l’indiscrezione Francesco Zanardi, paladino della crociata contro la pedofilia (e anche lui vittima di abusi da piccolo). Se l’indiscrezione dovesse essere confermata porterebbe importanti novità sul caso delle orge con minori in vaticano. La denuncia sarebbe partita da una fonte top secret, un imprenditore tedesco con rilevanti agganci in Santa Sede, che avrebbe depositato regolare denuncia presso i magistrati italiani che, a loro volta, avrebbero aperto un fascicolo di indagine. Zanardi ha raccontato a Il Caffè di essere entrato in contatto con l’imprenditore circa due anni fa quando, all’epoca, il presidente di Rete Abuso era riuscito a smascherare un prete pedofilo, don Italo Casiraghi, che nonostante la condanna per abusi continuava a svolgere le sue funzioni parrocchiali presso Pietra Ligure.

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ITALIA
il Caffe

MAURO SPIGNESI

“I filmati hard di festini in Vaticano sono conservati nella cassaforte di un notaio di Lugano. Me lo ha raccontato un imprenditore che lavora con la Santa Sede e io ho portato tutte le carte ai giudici”. Parla Francesco Zanardi, presidente della “Rete abuso”, un’associazione italiana che ha raccolto negli anni decine e decine di denunce di giovani vittime di sacerdoti e che le ha puntualmente girate alla polizia.

Due anni fa da Zanardi si è presentato un imprenditore. E gli ha raccontato una storia di festini e adescamenti di ragazzi. Di fatti scabrosi accaduti dentro le mura della Santa Sede. “Ho preso il suo racconto con le pinze, inizialmente con molta diffidenza – racconta Zanardi -. Perché venire da me e perché dirmi quelle cose orribili? Mi ha risposto d’essere rimasto disgustato da quel mondo e che voleva uscire da un giro in cui era stato introdotto da un noto manager vicino alla Santa Sede. Erano i giorni in cui si parlava del Corvo in Vaticano. Ho capito, però, che qualcosa di vero c’era”.

Zanardi, molestato da bambino, è una specie di “cacciatore di pedofili”. Viaggia in lungo e in largo per l’Europa, ha un database ricco di dati, nomi e fatti. Cerca di capire dove sono finiti i preti condannati, se sono ancora in attività e se hanno ancora a che fare con i ragazzi. Raccoglie le notizie, le verifica, e se ritiene che abbiano un fondo di verità e un profilo penale le passa alla magistratura. È lui che ha scovato nell’esilio di Pietra Ligure don Italo Casiraghi, l’ex parroco di Gordola condannato nel 2005 per atti sessuali con fanciulli. “L’ho anche filmato, e il video l’ho messo su internet, mentre celebrava la messa – racconta -. E pensare che il parroco del paese mi aveva detto che non era più in attività”.

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ITALIA
Giornalesttismo

di Dario Ferri – 24/06/2013 – Il presidente di “Rete Abuso” aggiunge un altro elemento al caso dei festini hard rivelato dal “Fatto Quotidiano”

I video hard che ritraggono alti prelati del Vaticano mentre abusano di giovani minori in festini top secreti sarebbero custoditi da un notaio di Lugano. E’ la denuncia shock di Francesco Zanardi, presidente di “Rete Abuso” e rivelatore dell’ancora presunto scandalo che coinvolgerebbe il Vaticano.

NASCOSTI A LUGANO – Una decina di giorni fa il “Fatto Quotidiano” aveva rivelato l’esistenza di prove che documenterebbero lo svolgimento di festini hard nei quali alti prelati del Vaticano molesterebbero giovani minorenni. I video che proverebbero questi abusi, filmati dagli stessi ragazzi coinvolti in questa vicenda, sarebbero custoditi presso un prestigioso studio notarile della più importante città della Svizzera italiana, Lugano. La rivelazione shock è stata fornita da Francesco Zanardi, noto attivista che lotta contro la pedofilia, anch’egli vittima di molestie sessuali da piccolo, e presidente di “Rete Abuso”. Zanardi ha confessato questa importante, se sarà confermata, novità sul caso delle orge con minori in Vaticano al settimanale ticinese “Il Caffè” , che ne ha fatto storia di copertina della sua ultima edizione. La rivelazione sarebbe stata a fatta al presidente di “Rete Abuso” da un imprenditore tedesco con importanti agganci all’interno della Santa Sede, e come ha dichiarato lo stesso Zanardi, la denuncia è già stata presentata presso i magistrati italiani, che hanno aperto un fascicolo di indagine.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

St. John of God Brother, Kevin McGrath is to be extradited from New Zealand to Australia to face 252 charges of child sexual abuse in the Newcastle- Maitland area. His case, strangely, has not come up at the New South Wales government enquiry.

This is particularly so, because of the errors by the NSW police in the extradition process.

McGrath had been a teacher and dormitory master at the St. John of God boarding school for boys with learning and behavioural difficulties, “Marylands” in New Zealand. He also worked with the Hebron Trust, which was a learning centre for street kids.

In 1993, he was sentenced to three years prison for offences against these boys. If they had already been having difficulties, they would have had severe ones after McGrath had finished with them.

In 2006, he was convicted on a further 22 charges in New Zealand, and released on bail in 2008. By this time, one would assume that authorities would be fairly well convinced that he would be found guilty of the 252 charges raised from his time at the notorious KendalGrangeCollege in Morisset, in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

Australia’s Catholic Cardinal, George Pell (pictured above, entering court with former housemate Fr. Gerald Ridsdale) has been spared a problem.

Ridsdale, Australia’s worst paedophile priest, was eligible for parole this month. However, his application for parole was rejected by the Victorian Adult Parole Board after more people spoke out on allegations of abuse, causing a new investigation. Despite considering Ridsdale’s bid for freedom, the Adult Parole Board ruled to defer any decision until receiving the outcome of Victoria Police’s probe.

The Victorian Adult Parole Board, newly headed by Elizabeth Curtain, has been under fire over recent parole decisions, notably a case where a serial, violent sex offender was released, then assaulted and murdered ABC radio staffer, Jill Meagher, from Ireland.

Ridsdale was being urged to reveal how the church helped cover up his illegal activities. His victims say he should give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. “If he started to talk about what he knew, the Catholic Church house of cards would come tumbling down,” one of Ridsdale’s victims said.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) — The trial for a former Louisville priest accused of sex abuse has been delayed. James Schook was supposed to go on trial Monday, but both sides agreed that he can be evaluated by a state psychiatric facility.

Schook is accused of abusing two boys in the 1970s, but was just charged in 2011.

Last week, his attorneys said Schook was too sick to go on trial due to his having terminal skin cancer. The case has been delayed before because doctors said Schook might not live until the end of the year.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Leader-Telegram

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE – The Archdiocese of Milwaukee plans to make dozens of priests’ personnel files public in the next week, along with hundreds of pages of other documents that sex abuse victims hope will hold Roman Catholic leaders accountable for transferring abusive priests to other parishes and concealing their crimes for decades.

The documents are being released as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and victims suing it for fraud.

The archdiocese has said the records will include personnel files for 42 priests with verified claims of abuse against them, along with depositions from top church officials, including New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who previously led the Milwaukee archdiocese. The documents are to be posted on the archdiocese’s website by July 1.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Nick Xenophon says senate must consider principles of parliamentary privilege over priest naming

MICHAEL OWEN From: The Australian June 25, 2013

INDEPENDENT senator Nick Xenophon says Senate President John Hogg must consider important principles of parliamentary privilege if he probes the incorrect naming of an Adelaide priest as a perpetrator of clerical sexual abuse.

Senator Xenophon yesterday stopped short of agreeing to accept any sanction from the Senate over his actions.

“I am not going to pre-empt anything the Senate does – but there are also important principles of privilege at stake and the reasons for it,” he said.

“I am confident the President of the Senate will deal with the complaint fairly and promptly, unlike the way the Adelaide Archdiocese of the Catholic Church dealt with John Hepworth’s complaints.”

Senator Xenophon used parliamentary privilege in September 2011 to name Monsignor Ian Dempsey as one of three priests who allegedly abused former head of the Traditional Anglican Communion John Hepworth in a Catholic seminary the 1960s.

The South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions recommended earlier this month that no abuse charges be laid against Monsignor Dempsey, after a 19-month investigation found there was insufficient evidence for a jury to have a reasonable chance of conviction.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A former Catholic priest, who confessed to sexually assaulting two altar boys in the sacristy of a Co Cork church over 20 years ago, has been imprisoned for 12 months.

Patrick Crowley, 62, with an address at Cuan Mhuire, Athy, Co Kildare, admitted sexually assaulting one boy on six occasions and the second boy on three occasions on dates between September 1989 and June 1990.

Cork Circuit Criminal Court was told the abuse took place after morning mass.

One victim described what happened to him as his “dirty secret.”

He said it changed him from a happy go-lucky, carefree boy, to a cagey, secretive one.

He recalled his gut wrenching fear and anxiety and said he felt he was being preyed upon and actively hunted.

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DEUTSCHLAND
intern-at.de

Angestoßen durch die Presseveröffentlichungen und die Fernsehauftritte von Alexander Probst und Franz Wittenbrink haben sich einige Ehemalige der Regensburger Domspatzen zusammengesetzt um an einer möglichst vollständigen Darstellung der früheren Zustände an den Schulen und Internaten in Regensburg und Etterzhausen/Pielenhofen sowie einer möglichst umfassenden Aufklärung der sexuellen Übergriffe mitzuwirken.

Anlass hierfür sind vor allem die bagatellisierenden Darstellungen durch handelnde Personen (wie beispielsweise Georg Ratzinger und Sturmius Wagner) in der Öffentlichkeit, und auch die verharmlosenden Stellungnahmen auf der Homepage der Regensburger Domspatzen und der oberflächlichen Berichterstattung auf den Internetseiten des Bistums Regensburg.

Dies ist umso erstaunlicher, wenn man bedenkt, dass auch heute sowohl in der Chorleitung wie auch in der Schulleitung Personen tätig sind, die diese Zeiten selbst miterlebt haben. Es drängt sich hier leider wieder der Eindruck auf, dass nur maximal soviel in der Öffentlichkeit zugegeben werden soll, wie sich aufgrund der Darstellung in den Medien nicht mehr verheimlichen lässt. Selbst uns bekannte Opfer die sich heute noch in Diensten bzw. scheinbaren Abhängigkeiten zur kath. Kirche befinden, umgeben sich bei telefonischer Nachfrage weiterhin mit der Mauer des Schweigens, die die jahrzehntelangen Missstände erst ermöglicht haben.

Uns allen ist klar, dass sich auch in der Zukunft Übergriffe und Missbrauch nicht vollständig verhindern lassen. Aber nur mit einer umfassenden Aufklärung und Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit, wird sich ein Bewusstsein schaffen lassen, das die Anzahl solcher Vorfälle vermindert. Und ein einziger Fall, der durch eine solche Aufarbeitung in der Zukunft verhindert wird, rechtfertigt diese für manchen auch schmerzliche Aufklärung.

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DEUTSCHLAND
intern-at.de

Unter der fast wortgleichen Überschrift verbreitet das Bistum Regensburg auf seiner Homepage seit Januar 2013 falsche Darstellungen und versucht durch Halbwahrheiten und unwahre Behauptungen ausgesuchte Betroffene des sexuellen Missbrauchs bei den Regensburger Domspatzen in der Öffentlichkeit unglaubwürdig zu machen (für Interessierte hier der Link: Bistum Regensburg – Stellungnahme zu den Äußerungen Herrn Alexander Probst).

Zu Beginn des Textes heißt es:
„Jede Beschuldigung gibt das Bistum Regensburg weiter an die Staatsanwaltschaft. Stellt die das Verfahren wegen Verjährung ein, strengen wir kirchenrechtliche Aufarbeitung an. Für den Fall, dass dies nicht möglich ist, weil der Schuldige verstorben ist, hat die Kirche als einzige Institution in Deutschland ein Anerkennungsverfahren eingeführt…“

Dies ist eine eindeutige Fälschung der „Leistungen in Anerkennung des Leids, das Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs zugefügt wurde“, wie sie im März 2011 von der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz veröffentlicht wurde. Dort heißt es nämlich „Das vorliegende Papier behandelt ausschließlich Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger, bei denen eine Schmerzensgeld- oder Schadensersatzleistung aufgrund von eingetretener Verjährung rechtlich nicht mehr durchsetzbar ist.“ Davon, dass der Schuldige verstorben sein muss, steht da nichts geschrieben.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

Vor mehr als drei Jahren wurde der sogenannte Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche bekannt. Bistümer und Orden versprachen nach dem Bekanntwerden der Taten, die Opfer zu entschädigen, die Vergehen aufzuarbeiten und dafür zu sorgen, dass sich so etwas in der Zukunft nicht wiederhole. Was ist aus alledem inzwischen geworden? Irene Esmann hat nachgefragt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

Gut drei Jahre ist es her, dass die katholische Kirche in Deutschland vom Missbrauchsskandal überrollt wurde. Es gab viele Entschuldigungen der Amtskirche sowie das Versprechen, die Fälle aufzuarbeiten. Was ist daraus geworden?

Von: Irene Esmann
Stand: 20.06.2013

Die Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle in der katholischen Kirche erfolgt in “unterschiedlichen Geschwindigkeiten”, so drückt es Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig aus, der von der Bundesregierung eingesetzte unabhängige Beauftragte für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs. Die deutschen Bistümer richteten einen Entschädigungsfonds ein, die Benediktinermönche in Ettal machten erst kürzlich mit einer wissenschaftlichen Studie auf sich aufmerksam, die auch von Seiten der Betroffenen als großer Schritt in die richtige Richtung gewürdigt wird. Dem gegenüber stehen der Ausstieg der Diözesen aus einem wissenschaftlichen Projekt mit dem kriminologischen Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen und die Beschwerden von Betroffenen, ihre Anträge auf Entschädigung seien nicht weitergeleitet und mit Serienbriefen abgeschmettert worden.

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OSTERREICH
Katholisches

(Wien) Die Priesterrebellen der österreichischen „Pfarrer-Initiative“ um den ehemaligen Wiener Generalvikar Helmut Schüller, den Linzer Priester Peter Paul Kasper und den Pfarrer Gerald Gump gaben heute, Mittwoch, eine Pressekonferenz in Wien. Sie erklärten in Papst Franziskus einen „Hoffnungsträger“ zu sehen. Verstanden wissen wollen sie das jedoch nicht als Gehorsamserklärung gegenüber dem Papst, sondern im Sinne, daß der Papst die Forderungen der „Pfarrer-Initiative“ erfüllen solle. Wörtlich als „Hoffnungsträger“ bezeichnete auch Wiens Erzbischof Kardinal Schönborn Papst Franziskus erst vor wenigen Tagen, was wohl anders gemeint war, als es sich die Rebellen denken.
Die Rebellen fordern „Anerkennung von Grundrechten für alle Getauften“. Konkret meinen die zum Teil im offenen Konkubinat lebenden Priester „freien Zugang“ zu den Sakramenten und zwar zu allen, auch zu den Weiheämtern „egal ob Frauen oder Männer und ob verheiratet oder unverheiratet“.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian June 25, 2013

A FAIRFAX reporter who spent years working with the detective at the centre of a NSW government inquiry into Catholic church child abuse said yesterday the policeman might have been motivated by a personal agenda against his colleagues.

The reporter, Joanne McCarthy of The Newcastle Herald, moved to distance herself from the detective, Peter Fox, telling the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry that “my job, as he sees it, is to criticise the NSW Police”.

The inquiry was established after Detective Chief Inspector Fox publicly claimed he was “ordered to stand down” from the investigation into an alleged cover-up relating to a pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden.

“He believed that he should have been involved in the investigation,” McCarthy told the inquiry. “That’s his position.”

In a 2010 email sent to McCarthy, two years before he went public with his claims, Chief Inspector Fox said he hoped to withhold witness statements he had taken from police investigating the alleged conspiracy. This email went on to state that two of his superior officers were “practising Catholics”, although McCarthy told the inquiry she “didn’t buy into” the policeman’s argument.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 24/06/2013
Reporter: Emma Alberici

The NSW special commission of inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church resumed in Newcastle and heard both praise and criticism for the police officer who sparked the inquiry Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church resumed today in Newcastle with praise and criticism for detective chief inspector Peter Fox, the police officer who sparked the inquiry.

The journalist who Peter Fox has described as his informant, Joanne McCarthy from the Newcastle Herald, took the stand today.

She described Peter Fox as having a different approach to his investigations, saying he was pretty keen compared to other police.

Ms McCarthy also told the inquiry she was phoned by another senior police officer in the Hunter who said the internal Church documents she’d supplied to investigators would not lead to a prosecution.

JOANNE MCCARTHY, NEWCASTLE HERALD (female voiceover): “On 13th August, 2010, I received a call from police officer Stephen Ray. He told me that in regards to the Catholic Church, prosecutions weren’t the way to go. He said a Truth and Reconciliation Commission might be the better way to go.”

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ISRAEL
Israel Hayom

Mordechai Gilat

In a normal country, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger, who is embroiled in a criminal scandal, would have spent the past few days in a jail cell, all by himself with nothing but the famous odor of Lysol to keep him company. He would have been behind bars, like any other suspect. He would have been questioned under caution and exposed to some of the evidence against him in the interrogation room.

After all, he is the prime suspect in a serious fraud case and there is no reason to show him any courtesy. The needs of the investigation mandated that all he and the other three suspects — who also enjoyed the same courtesy by default — be remanded in police custody, with or without undercover agents in their cells to get them to incriminate themselves, to thwart any possibility that they would coordinate their testimonies or obstruct the investigation.

But this is not a normal country and here Metzger was remanded to house arrest, with the help of his longtime attorney David Libai, who has successfully seen him through previous scandals and who knows his client very well.

Libai, a former justice minister, is usually recruited to defend the creme de la creme of white-collar and corruption suspects; those who are in dire, or seemingly dire, legal straits, and those whose case seems to be a lost cause. They call on him to bail them out of jail and see them through a serious indictment or lengthy sentence. He is reputable and well-connected and his rates are very high.

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ISRAEL
Harretz

By Yair Ettinger | Jun.24, 2013

How will the investigation of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger affect the elections set to take place a month from now, which will determine who the chief rabbis will be for the next ten years? Although it’s very hard to predict how the 150-member electoral committee will behave, the investigation of Metzger is undermining the confidence of the Haredi candidates from Shas and Degel Hatorah who were thought of as favorites since legislation that would have strengthened the religious-Zionist candidates was shelved last week. This is how the election campaign, with all its instability, appears at the moment — and there could be further upheavals in store over the next month.

Of the 150 members of the electoral committee, 123 are known for their positions as chief rabbis of cities and local authorities, rabbinic judges, mayors and heads of religious councils. Twenty others are representatives of the public, appointed by the chief rabbis and by the minister of religious services. Among the remaining seven are two ministers — Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz and Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, who were appointed on Sunday, and another five members of Knesset.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein must now decide what will happen to Rabbi Metzger’s representatives on the committee. By law, each of the two chief rabbis appoints five representatives of the public. Metzger and his Sephardi colleague, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, handed in their lists last Thursday, shortly before Metzger’s investigation began. Metzger’s list contains one prominent name, that of Rabbi Ben-Tzion Tzioni, the same man who was arrested last Thursday and was allegedly one of the people who gave bribe money to the chief rabbi. His name allegedly links the two, a matter that the police will be probing, while the four other representatives will come under scrutiny for other reasons.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Dr. Samuel Lebens / Jewish World blogger | Jun.24, 2013

Apparently, Rabbi Joseph Soloveithchik, the great Modern Orthodox leader and scholar, was practically offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel. Legend has it that he was assured that if he wanted the position, David Ben-Gurion would personally see to it that he would be selected. As the story has it, Soloveitchik declined the offer partly because it was the case that Ben-Gurion, a secular prime minister of a secular government actually had the sort of power to appoint whoever he saw fit to preside over the Rabbinate of Israel (for a more historically accurate account of Soloveitchik’s potential candidacy, see Rabbi Jeffery Sack’s article on the issue). Certainly, Prof. Isaiah Leibowitz refused to support Soloveitchik’s candidacy for the following reason:

“I view the very institution of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel – religious leadership established by an atheistic government for reasons of political gain, religious leadership functioning with the authority of such government and entwined in its bureaucracy – as a prostitution of religion, destruction of the Torah, and desecration of God … I wish to further point out that I’ve heard from friends in the United States that R. Soloveitchik himself has privately expressed his complete agreement with what I have written … regarding separation of religion and state.”

Indeed, without going quite so far, Soloveitchik did later say himself that, “the Chief Rabbinate is ensnared in the political net … It proves that this holy institution is nothing more than a ball for the political parties to play with.”

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ISRAEL
YNet

Reuven Weiss, Akiva Novick
Published: 06.24.13

A 45-year-old trainer has accused Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger of sexually harassing him some five years ago, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.

The personal fitness trainer, who is a homosexual, said he decided to talk after the rabbi was questioned under caution by the police this week on suspicion of bribery, fraud, embezzlement, breach of trust and money laundering.

The trainer, who also worked as a tour guide, said on Sunday that the alleged incident took place as he was accompanying a group of priests who had met with Metzger at the chief rabbi’s office in Jerusalem during their visit to Israel.

“During the meeting I sensed that Rabbi Metzger did not stop looking at me,” the man recalled. “After the meeting he approached me and said he could help me get work as a tour guide for groups visiting Israel. He asked for my phone number, and then asked if I would accompany him to his office. When we entered he closed the door, and from here things got really weird. He asked if I worked as a trainer and said he was looking for one. He told me he also wanted to get massages. I was shocked.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 24 June 2013 (VIS) –.Today, the Holy Father appointed Fr. Mario Leon Dorado, O.M.I., as apostolic prefect of Western Sahara. Fr. Leon Dorado is currently administrator of the same Apostolic Prefecture.

On Saturday, 22 June, the Holy Father: …

– accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, USA, presented by Bishop John Charles Dunne, upon having reached the age limit.

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INDIANA
News-Sentinel

News-Sentinel staff reports
Monday, June 24, 2013

The priest removed from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Hessen Cassel admitted to allegations of child abuse after being confronted, according to Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

Rhoades has named the Rev. William Kummer as the church’s new administrator. Its previous administrator, the Rev. Cornelius Ryan, was removed June 10 because of the allegation of past sexual abuse of a minor.

Kummer, whose appointment is effective July 16, is no stranger to Fort Wayne, previously serving at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 4500 Fairfield Ave. The diocesan website, www.diocesefwsb.org, lists him as the current pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church in Plymouth.

Rhoades made the announcement after he finished celebrating the 5 p.m. Mass on Saturday at St. Joseph, according to a copy of his remarks made available by the diocese.

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NEDERLAND
NRC

[Summary: The bishop, 80, has died. Gijsen was the highest Dutch Church leader who was charged with child abuse. According to a complaint lodged against him, Gijsen – when chaplain in Valkenburg – in 1958 committed extensive sexual acts with the 10-year-old son of a parishioner in 1958. The now 64-year-old man filed his complaint in this regard in 2009, before the abuse scandal in the Netherlands was revealed.]

Jo Gijsen, de bisschop van Roermond van 1972 tot 1993, is overleden. Dat heeft het bisdom vanmiddag bekendgemaakt. Gijsen werd 80 jaar oud. Hij was al langere tijd ernstig ziek.

Tijdens zijn ambtsperiode in Roermond was Gijsen omstreden wegens zijn conservatieve opvattingen. Zo deed hij geruchtmakende uitspraken over homoseksualiteit. Dat was volgens hem tegennatuurlijk en onder alle omstandigheden af te wijzen.

Gijsen was de hoogste Nederlandse kerkbestuurder die werd aangeklaagd wegens kindermisbruik. Volgens een klacht die tegen hem werd ingediend heeft Gijsen, toen hij in 1958 kapelaan was in Valkenburg aan de Geul, verregaande seksuele handelingen verricht met de 10-jarige zoon van een parochiaan. De nu 64-jarige man diende zijn klacht hierover in 2009 in, vóór het misbruikschandaal in Nederland geopenbaard werd.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer
on June 24, 2013

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A longtime priest at St. Helena Church on Cleveland’s West Side has pleaded guilty to stealing $176,000 from the Romanian Catholic institution, a prosecutor said.

The Rev. Andre Matthews, 54, used some of the money to pay credit card bills, buy cars and pay tuition for a family member to attend Cleveland State University, according to Assistant County Prosecutor James Gutierrez.

Gutierrez said some of the money Matthews stole was raised through church-sponsored bingo.

The West 65th Street church is one of several Romanian Catholic churches in Northeast Ohio and has 80 to100 families as members, said the Rev. Ovidiu Marginean, chancellor at the Romanian Catholic Diocese of Canton. Services are primarily conducted in Romanian.

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SCOTLAND/VATIKAN
religion@ORF

Der Vatikan will laut einem Medienbericht die Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen den schottischen Kardinal Keith O’Brien überprüfen. O’Brien war zu Beginn des Jahres nach Vorwürfen sexueller Belästigung zurückgetreten.

Der Vatikan will die Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen den schottischen Kardinal Keith O’Brien (75) untersuchen. Das habe der päpstliche Nuntius in Großbritannien, Erzbischof Antonio Mennini, einem angeblichen Missbrauchsopfer persönlich mitgeteilt, berichtet die deutsche katholische Nachrichtenagentur KNA unter Berufung auf die Zeitung „The Observer“ (Sonntag).

Der „Lenny“ genannte frühere Priester hatte O’Brien zu Jahresbeginn beschuldigt, ihn in seiner Zeit als Seminarist sexuell belästigt zu haben. Der Kardinal trat kurz darauf als Erzbischof von St. Andrews und Edinburgh zurück und verzichtete auch auf seine Teilnahme an der Papstwahl in Rom.

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DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

Gegen den Pfarrer laufen staatsanwaltschaftliche Ermittlungen, ihm wird vorgeworfen, einem Jugendlichen zur Vornahme sexueller Handlungen Geld angeboten zu haben. Der Pfarrer bestreitet dies. Annahme des Amtsverzichts ist keine Vorverurteilung

Trier (kath.net/pm) Der Pfarrer der Pfarreiengemeinschaft Lebach im Saarland hat gegenüber dem Trierer Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann seinen Amtsverzicht zum 30. Juni 2013 erklärt. Bischof Dr. Ackermann hat diesen Verzicht in der vergangenen Woche angenommen. Gegen den Pfarrer laufen staatsanwaltschaftliche Ermittlungen. Ihm wird vorgeworfen, einem Jugendlichen zur Vornahme sexueller Handlungen Geld angeboten zu haben. Der Pfarrer bestreitet diese Vorwürfe.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

Ein Priester der saarländischen Pfarreien-Gemeinschaft Lebach verzichtet wegen Missbrauchsvorwürfen auf sein Amt. Damit sei keine Vorverurteilung des Geistlichen verbunden, teilte das Bistum Trier am Montag mit.

Der Mann war vor knapp einem Jahr von Bischof Stephan Ackermann beurlaubt worden, weil er einem Jugendlichen Geld für sexuelle Handlungen angeboten haben soll. Der Pfarrer, der Mitte 60 Jahre alt ist, bestreitet die Vorwürfe. Die Staatsanwaltschaft Saarbrücken ermittelt.

Der Trierer Bischof hatte den Priester gebeten, auf sein Amt als Pfarrer zu verzichten. Der Grund: Ackermann will dessen Stelle neu besetzen, um «eine geordnete Seelsorge gewährleisten zu können», hieß es. In der Zwischenzeit hatte der Dechant des Dekanates Dillingen für eine grundlegende Seelsorge als Pfarrverwalter gesorgt. Der Pfarrer erklärte nun seinen Amtsverzicht zum Ende diesen Monats.

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OSTERREICH
OE1@ORF

Ehemalige Heimkinder, die Opfer schwerer körperlicher oder sexueller Gewalt wurden, bekommen von der Stadt Wien oft 30.000 Euro oder mehr als Anerkennungszahlung. In Kärnten bekommen ehemalige Heimkinder 5.000 Euro oder gar nichts. Nicht einmal der bis vor kurzem zuständige FPK-Landesrat Christian Ragger findet das gerecht. Und jetzt, wo Ö1 zu recherchieren begonnen hat, wollen Ragger und die neue SPÖ-Soziallandesrätin Beate Prettner alles ändern.

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OSTERREICH
Tiroler Tageszeitung

Die Staatsanwaltschaft Steyr legt dem heute 79-Jährigen sexuellen Missbrauch, andere Sexual- und Gewaltdelikte sowie den Besitz einer nicht registrierten Pumpgun zur Last. Dem Mann drohen bis zu 15 Jahre Haft.

Steyr, Kremsmünster – Im kirchlichen Missbrauchsskandal muss sich am kommenden Montag erstmals ein höherrangiger Geistlicher, der ehemalige Konviktsdirektor des oberösterreichischen Stiftes Kremsmünster, vor einem weltlichen Strafgericht verantworten. Die Staatsanwaltschaft Steyr legt dem heute 79-Jährigen sexuellen Missbrauch, andere Sexual- und Gewaltdelikte sowie den Besitz einer nicht registrierten Pumpgun zur Last. Dem Mann drohen bis zu 15 Jahre Haft.

Vom Bekanntwerden der Kremsmünsterer Missbrauchsaffäre in den Medien bis zur Anklage sind mehr als drei Jahre vergangen. Ursprünglich wurde in 39 Fällen ermittelt. Einige Verfahren wurden eingestellt, weil die Vorfälle verjährt oder die Beweise zu dünn waren. Übrig blieben 24 Opfer und ein mutmaßlicher Täter. Der ehemalige Geistliche soll von September 1973 bis Juni 1993 an 15 Zöglingen „sexuelle Handlungen unterschiedlicher Intensität“ vorgenommen haben. Hinzu kommen weitere neun, die laut Staatsanwaltschaft Opfer gewalttätiger Übergriffe waren – dazu zählen gemäß Anklage u.a. Ohrfeigen, Tritte, „Stereowatschen“, Schläge mit einer Ochsenpeitsche oder das „Vogelfrei“-Erklären einzelner Zöglinge.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The Irish people “have, to all intents and purposes, become pagan” in the opinion of “a substantial number” of Ireland’s Catholic bishops and some priests, a new report from the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has said.

It said “there seems to be a substantial number of bishops, and some priests, who believe that the problems we are facing are not due to any difficulties in the Church or with the priesthood, but are caused by a lack of faith in the people.

“The people, they told us, have bought into the evils of materialism and consumerism, and don’t have time or interest in faith any more. They have, to all intents and purposes, become pagan. And they believe that ‘evangelisation’ is the answer.” But “there didn’t seem to us to be any practical ideas, or indeed energy, around how this evangelisation could be progressed,” it said.

The association’s leadership team has so far met priests’ councils in the Catholic dioceses of Dublin, Waterford, Kerry, Killaloe, Clonfert, Tuam, Elphin, Achonry, Killala, Clogher, Kilmore, Armagh and Ossory and Raphoe.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Stephen McNeice
10:35 Monday 24 June 2013

A report released by the Association of Catholic Priests shows deep division among Church officials

The report claims “there seems to be a substantial number of bishops, and some priests, who believe that the problems we are facing are not due to any difficulties in the Church or with the priesthood, but are caused by a lack of faith in the people.”

Although acknowledging that many priests and bishops strongly disagree with the conclusion, others maintain that abuse allegations and the Church’s policies themselves are no longer fundamental problems. Instead, the major issue facing Catholicism in Ireland is that the Irish people have “to all intents and purposes, become pagan… The people, they told us, have bought into the evils of materialism and consumerism, and don’t have time or interest in faith any more”

However, the short report – available on the ACP website – also states “apart from stating their understanding of the problem, there didn’t seem to us to be any practical ideas, or indeed energy, around how this evangelisation could be progressed… If there are such radically different understandings of the current situation, it is hard to see how we can make headway in working towards a solution”.

The group met with priests and bishops through regional priest councils to gauge their opinion of current clerical issues. They have also reported on responses to issues such as The New Missal, allegations against priests and the Year of the Faith. Although some topics divided opinion, there was consensus that the New Missal was largely unsatisfactory and the Year of the Faith was a “non-event”.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

[Report on ACP meetings with Priests Councils]

Monday, June 24, 2013
Most Irish bishops believe we have become a “nation of pagans” who bought in to the “evils of materialism and consumerism” of the Celtic Tiger era.

By Eoin English
Irish Examiner Reporter

A report from the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) also claims there is a strong view among ecclesiastical authorities that falling vocations and Mass attendance figures are a result of people “not having time or interest in faith”, rather than as a result of any of the clerical sex abuse scandals to rock the Church.

It also found the vast majority of priests believe the controversial New Missal is “very unsatisfactory”.

The ACP report, published yesterday after its first series of nationwide meetings with priest councils, said the bishops believe that evangelisation and re-education is needed — but it warned against relying on ageing priests to renew the Church.

“The age, lack of energy, tiredness of priests was very obvious. Expecting these men to bring about any real change was clearly not living in the real world. Keeping the show on the road for another few years is the most that can be expected from most of them.”

ACP founder Fr Tony Flannery has warned that without urgent action, Ireland could be without priests within 20 years.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

June 24, 2013 by J-Wire Staff

Rabbi Baruch Dov Lesches has apologised for remarks reported by Fairfax Media intimating that young sexual assault victims may have been consenting.

In a prepared statement Rabbis Lesches says: ”

I would like to apologize for statements made in a private telephone conversation that caused pain to the greater public. I deeply regret the incident.

I would like to make my position absolutely clear: Without any reservation, I endorse the rabbinical rulings encouraging victims of abuse to report to the police.

I was saddened to see an edited audio clip released by the Australian media regarding a personal phone conversation I had with an alleged victim of child abuse. I am troubled by the unprofessional conduct of the reporter who did not call me to verify the facts. Had he called me, I’m sure the information I would have provided would have produced a dramatically different article.

As I clearly told the caller in a subsequent phone conversation: I had no knowledge of the alleged charges claimed to have occurred some twenty-five years ago and discussed in the news report. In the conversation, I was discussing a separate incident where I was under the impression that both alleged parties were similar in age, twenty-one years old, a fact noted by Fairfax at the end of the audio clip. I was never informed of any allegations regarding minors prior to this call.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Anne Lu | June 24, 2013

Rabbi Baruch Dov Lesches is sorry after saying that some of an alleged paedophile’s victims from a Sydney Jewish school might have consented to the affair. The former senior rabbi was recorded in a phone conversation, saying that it’s best not to report the sexual abuses to the authorities.

Lesches was a senior leader at a Yeshiva centre in Sydney in the 1980s when a man has allegedly sexually abused at least four boys. He was apparently told of the crime, but he opted not to report it to the authorities, even claiming that some victims might have given their consent.

Fairfax Media has obtained a legally recorded telephone conversation between the rabbi and a person familiar with the series of alleged child rapes and molestations. Lesches has been heard in the phone call to counselling the alleged paedophile after learning that he had sexually abused a boy ten years younger than him.

He said in the conversation that he had told the man that he and the boy would be forced out of the Yeshiva community if he could not control his urges.

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AUSTRALIA
Macleay Argus

By Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie June 24, 2013

A prominent Australian rabbi has apologised for extraordinary comments he made about child sexual abuse and reporting paedophiles to police.

Former senior Sydney rabbi Boruch Dov Lesches, who is now one of New York’s leading ultra-Orthodox figures, made his remarks in a recent conversation with a person familiar with a series of alleged child rapes and molestation carried out by one man associated with Sydney’s Yeshiva community in the 1980s.

In a legally recorded telephone conversation obtained by Fairfax Media and provided to NSW police investigating the Yeshiva cases, Rabbi Lesches revealed he knew about the alleged abuse of one boy but did not go to police, instead warning the alleged perpetrator that if he did not stop both he and the boy would be sent away from the community.

Rabbi Lesches also suggested the boy may have consented to sexual relations.

“We are speaking about very young boys … everybody says about the other one that ‘he agreed to this’,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Jerusalem Post

[with video]

Rabbinical Council of Victoria says comments by former Sydney Chabad leader were appalling.

A former senior Chabad leader in Sydney in Monsey, N.Y, has issued an apology for making comments suggesting that some of the Jewish victims of alleged child sex abuse in Australia may have consented, Australian media reported Monday.

In a legally recorded telephone conversation obtained by Fairfax media and posted on YouTube, Rabbi Boruch Lesches – who now heads the Lubavitch community in Monsey, NY – admitted to knowing about the alleged abuse of a boy but not going to the police with the information. Instead, according to Fairfax Media, the rabbi told the alleged perpetrator that if the abuse did not stop, both he and the boy would be dismissed from the community.

The phone conversations were provided to NSW police investigating child sex allegations against a man associated with Sydney’s Chabad community in the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 24, 2013

NEWCASTLE Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy has taken the stand at the Special Commission of Inquiry into how police and senior clergy handled allegations of child sex abuse within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese.

Ms McCarthy told the inquiry that she was handed information concerning disgraced priest Denis McAlinden by a victim of abuse in late 2009.

Some time later, Ms McCarthy forwarded the information to police, with the consent of the victim known only as AL.

Ms McCarthy said the significance of the information only dawned on her later when she was investigating how the church had handled its own investigation into McAlinden.

She also said she had had no contact with Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox aside from a brief phone call in 2007.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

A DETECTIVE at the centre of a state government inquiry into child abuse within the Catholic church “has ridden to glory on a saddle of lies”, according to one of his colleagues.

The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry, which resumed this morning, was set up after Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox publicly claimed he was “ordered to stand down” from the investigation of a pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden.

The officer in charge of that investigation, Jeff Little, told the hearing that many of Detective Fox’s claims, including that the police Strike Force was “set up to fail” were untrue.

“I was absolutely mortified by those comments,” Detective Sergeant Little said.

”The mere fact that he’s ridden to glory on a saddle of lies at this point is a concern for me.”

Detective Little, whose investigation into the alleged cover-up of McAlinden’s crimes by senior clergy ultimately ran to almost 3000 pages of evidence, said other of Detective Fox’s claims were misleading.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A police whistleblower’s report that sparked an inquiry into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the NSW Hunter region was ‘written on a saddle of lies’, the inquiry has heard.

Detective Sergeant Jeffery Little was giving evidence on Monday in the Newcastle Supreme Court at the special commission of inquiry into child abuse allegations in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese.

Since December 2010 Sgt Little has been in charge of Strike Force Lantle, which was established to look into complaints four alleged victims made about Father Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher, who are both now dead.

Sgt Little said the report by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, which suggested the police operation was a sham, included ‘significant’ inaccuracies.

Comments made by Det Insp Fox that the police operation was a sham were ‘a manipulation of the truth’, Sgt Little told Commissioner Margaret Cunneen.

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AUSTRALIA
Christianity Today

Mr Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, has delivered his first wide ranging public speech on the issues and approach the Catholic Church’s independent advisory group will take in the lead up to and throughout the Royal Commission into child abuse.

Mr Sullivan said the 13-member Council, made up of 10 lay people including four who have been victims of clerical sexual abuse or have family members who have been abused, would provide independent advice on reforms to the Church across a range of issues.

Mr Sullivan, speaking to the St Thomas More Forum in Canberra last night, spoke extensively about how the victims of clerical abuse had been treated by the Church in the past and currently.

“We need to put in place better systems, processes, redress and contrition that says, in one way or another – you are damaged, we believe you, we are sorry, we want to help you heal and we are working to try to make sure that what you went through never happens again.

“We have to examine a culture which has allowed secrecy and silence, intimidation, legalism and obfuscation to let sexual abuse happen.”

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

[witness list]

The Special Commission of Inquiry into an alleged child sexual abuse cover up by the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese has resumed in Newcastle this morning.

The special commission is examining allegations made by Detective Chief Inspector Fox that he was ordered by senior police to stop investigating paedophilia within the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

Detective Sergeant Jeffrey Little was the first to take the stand this morning.

The detective sergeant, who lead a 2010 investigation into child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, said Detective Chief Inspector Fox was nominated as the possible leak of information to the media.

The special commission, which ran overtime during the May sittings, will hear from the remainder of senior members of the NSW Police Force this week.

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AUSTRALIA
Camden-Narellon Advertiser

June 24, 2013.

NSW police whistleblower Peter Fox had “ridden on a saddle of lies” in his investigation into alleged cover-ups of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, a commission of inquiry in Newcastle has been told.

Detective Sergeant Jeffrey Little, appointed in late 2010 to head Strike Force Lantle to investigate the cover-up allegations, said there were “significant inaccuracies” in material Detective Chief Inspector Fox had passed on from his own investigation.

Detective Sergeant Little roundly rejected Detective Chief Inspector Fox’s earlier evidence to the inquiry, which resumed at Newcastle Supreme Court today after a five-week recess, that Strike Force Lantle was a “sham” and had been “set up to fail”. He said he had been “absolutely mortified by those comments”.

“If it was set up to be a sham, why would I have had the two things Fox didn’t have, that is, the support of my superiors, and a plan”.

The inquiry has heard evidence that Chief Inspector Fox held back evidence from Strike Force Lantle because he did not trust the police. Detective Sergeant Little said that in contrast to Chief Inspector Fox, “I was not operating in secret, I recorded things, I didn’t operate on speculation or manipulation of the truth”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

SARAH MACDONALD – 24 JUNE 2013

THE Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland has hit out at the lack of financial and legal support for priests falsely accused of child sexual abuse.

A spokesman for the association, which represents more than 1,000 Irish priests, told the Irish Independent that the ACP was aware of at least a dozen priests against whom false allegations had been made in the past few years.

Fr Tony Flannery said there were now sufficient numbers of false allegations to “cause concern” and that the ACP had been directly involved in three recent cases where priests were cleared of wrongdoing.

These relate to Kerry priest Fr Liam O’Brien, Louth priest Fr Oliver Brennan and missionary priest Fr Kevin Reynolds (pictured), who was falsely accused by RTE’s ‘Prime Time Investigates’ in 2011.

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AUSTRALIA
Big Pond News

Monday, June 24, 2013

A police whistleblower’s report that sparked an inquiry into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the NSW Hunter region was ‘written on a saddle of lies’, the inquiry has heard.

Detective Sergeant Jeffery Little was giving evidence on Monday in the Newcastle Supreme Court at the special commission of inquiry into child abuse allegations in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese.

Since December 2010 Sgt Little has been in charge of Strike Force Lantle, which was established to look into complaints four alleged victims made about Father Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher, who are both now dead.

Sgt Little said the report by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, which suggested the police operation was a sham, included ‘significant’ inaccuracies.

Comments made by Det Insp Fox that the police operation was a sham were ‘a manipulation of the truth’, Sgt Little told Commissioner Margaret Cunneen.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox, staff

The Fairfax journalist at the centre of a child sexual abuse strike force in the Hunter Valley has told the New South Wales Special Commission a policeman asked her to write an article in a bid to bring more victims forward.

Newcastle Herald reporter Joanne McCarthy has received a national award for her work regarding child sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese.

The special commission of inquiry into clergy child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley is investigating Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s claims he was told to stop investigating two priests, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

The court has heard Ms McCarthy was considered “the genesis” of strike force Lantle, which was set-up to investigate allegations of a cover-up by the church.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 24, 2013

Paul Maguire

A journalist has told an inquiry that she wrote a series of newspaper articles about child sexual abuse by priests because she wanted to help the victims.

Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy’s articles, over two years from 2010, led to the establishment of the special commission of inquiry into child abuse allegations in the Hunter region and won her a top national award for investigative journalism.

“It was my only objective,” Ms McCarthy told Commissioner Margaret Cunneen in the Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday.

“It was about having the victims and their families looked after.

“I didn’t want to go the police.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

The Vatican is to carry out an inquiry into Cardinal Keith O’Brien after his admission of sexual advances towards young priests.

After weeks of speculation, it was reported that an apostolic visitation will take place. During the process, a “visitator” will have direct authority from the Pope to investigate a complaint to the Vatican last October by a Scottish priest, and further allegations from four former seminarians of inappropriate sexual advances and “drunken fumblings”.

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VIRGINIA
Christian Post

By Jessica Martinez , CP Contributor
June 23, 2013

The Richmond Outreach Center (ROC) is searching for a permanent senior and executive pastor to fill the vacant positions after four of its five pastors resigned earlier this month over allegations of a sex scandal and cover-up.

A church spokesperson, who did not want to be identified, told CP the new senior pastor will have spiritual and administrative oversight of the organization, while the executive pastor will handle the majority of administrative responsibilities. CP has also learned that ROC has enlisted the help of Pastor Jonathan Falwell and other consultants from Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., to conduct their nationwide search, which the board of directors anticipates will take six months to a year.

ROC’s board of directors said they will also conduct a search for an interim preacher to lead Six O’clock ROC, their Saturday night services, until the senior pastor position is filled.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[witness list]

A New South Wales inquiry into child sexual abuse by Hunter Valley Catholic priests resumes in Newcastle this morning.

The first part of the inquiry began last month, looking into claims by policeman Peter Fox that he was told by senior colleagues to stop investigating two Catholic priests.

The Special Commission will this week hear from several senior police officers, as well as local Fairfax journalist Joanne McCarthy.

She has been described by Detective Chief Inspector Fox as his “informant”.

The second part of the inquiry is expected to start next week, and will look at how the church handled the complaints and allegations that church officials did not co-operate with police.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Marie O’Halloran

Mon, Jun 24, 2013

A report advising the Government on a redress scheme to compensate women incarcerated in Magdalen laundries, is expected to go to Cabinet tomorrow and be published on Wednesday.
The report by former High Court judge Mr Justice John Quirke was submitted to Minister for Justice Alan Shatter at the end of last month. Apparent details of the document were leaked to the media in the past two weeks but in the Dáil subsequently, Mr Shatter dismissed the reports.

Reconciliation

These included suggestions the retired judge had recommended a reconciliation forum between former residents and nuns from the four religious orders who ran the institutions. The proposals were dismissed as “utterly pointless” by representatives of the group Magdalene Survivors Together.
Asked about the publication date of the report a Department of Justice spokeswoman said yesterday, “we don’t have any details on this” but it is understood that after the Cabinet considers the report tomorrow, survivors and their representatives will receive the report at a briefing on Wednesday in advance of its publication later that day.

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FORT WAYNE (IN)
Seattle PI

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana bishop says a priest has admitted sexually abusing a child in Africa about 20 years ago.

The Journal Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1899hvB ) Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese told members of a Fort Wayne parish that the Rev. Cornelius Ryan “immediately and freely admitted the allegations” when confronted by church officials on June 10.

Rhoades appointed Ryan the administrator of St. Joseph Catholic Church-Hessen Cassel in December 2011 after its previous pastor was removed over a sexual abuse allegation.

Rhoades went to the parish to celebrate Mass Saturday. He told parishioners that he has not faced a more painful situation as a bishop than what they’re experiencing.

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ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

By JEREMY SHARON
06/23/2013

As the political battles over control of established religion in Israel become ever sharper and more vicious, it may become ever harder to prevent the ongoing decline in legitimacy of the chief rabbinate.

As if the Chief Rabbinate was not under enough scrutiny with the unseemly shenanigans surrounding the upcoming election of new chief rabbis, the dramatic events surrounding the investigation of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger for financial improprieties have served to cast an even darker shadow over the once-respected institution.

The current investigation into Metzger, which is not his first as chief rabbi and not even his second as an ordained rabbi, is just one of several recent indicators of the grave crisis of legitimacy facing Israel’s rabbinate.

Indeed, Metzger’s appointment in 2003 was seen by many as a haredi ploy to weaken the institution of the Chief Rabbinate, given his lack of credentials, especially compared to the other prominent candidates at the time: the much respected national-religious leader Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, chief rabbi of Ramat Gan; and the equally wellconsidered rabbi and rabbinical judge Shlomo Daichovsky, who is currently the director of the state rabbinical courts system.

But the leading haredi rabbi of the time, the late Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, decided to back Metzger, despite his slight credentials, which secured Metzger the election due to the strength of the haredi parties in the electoral committee for the Chief Rabbinate.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
on June 23, 2013

A Weehawken woman who says her twin sons were sexually abused by a member of a religious order in two New Jersey counties is calling for the resignation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers and the Newark Archdiocese’s new vicar general, who the woman says knew about the alleged abuse and did not act on it.

The 61-year-old woman, who asked not to be named so her sons won’t be identified, said she spoke to Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, the archdiocese’s new vicar general, in 2009 about allegations that her sons had been abused by two members of the Vocationist Fathers religious order.

Da Cunha did nothing, the woman said in a Jersey City conference room recently.

“It fell on deaf ears,” said the woman.

Da Cunha was promoted earlier this month to replace Monsignor John E. Doran as vicar general, second in command to the archbishop. Doran was demoted due to his supervision of the Rev. Michael Fugee, who worked with minors in violation of a lifetime ban on ministry to children. Da Cunha is a member of the Vocationist Fathers.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

Former bishop of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese Michael Malone and the mother of a boy abused at the hands of a Catholic priest in Maitland will take the stand during the next round of public hearings into child ­sexual abuse allegations across the diocese.

The hearings will continue today in Newcastle Supreme Court, starting with police ­officers, including former Maitland detective, Wayne Humphrey.

From July 1 hearings are expected to include evidence from diocesan head Bishop Bill Wright and police whistleblower Peter Fox.

Patricia Feenan – the mother of Daniel Feenan who was abused by Father James Patrick Fletcher – is expected to take part in the public hearings from July 8.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer Central Luzon
5:20 am | Monday, June 24th

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto said he had not tolerated erring priests in Pampanga, particularly those who had violated their vows of celibacy and poverty or committed indiscretions.

Aniceto, 76, issued the denial in reaction to a chapter in the book, “Altar of Secrets: Sex, Politics and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church,” by Aries Rufo, which put the spotlight on Catholic priests and parishioners in Pampanga.

“Was the Kapampangans’ forgiving attitude the reason behind Aniceto’s lax attitude as well? Regardless, critics said he perpetuated a problem by abusing the reverence that Pampanga Catholics reserved for their priests,” Rufo wrote in the chapter, “Leading double lives,” subtitled “Viral disease.”

The author quoted an unnamed Church official as describing the parishioners to have become “desensitized to the real situation.”

Sought for reaction, Aniceto, who oversees the archdiocese with 120 priests, said “every decision is contextual.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY CANDACE SUTTON From: news.com.au June 22, 2013

Teacher Michael Drew, now 57, was sacked from St Agnes’ Catholic Primary School in Matraville in 1982, but his crimes against girls dated back to as early as 1979. Source: Supplied
THE victims of a serial child molester, a Catholic school teacher, say the church and school authorities knew of the abuse – and did nothing to stop it.

A Sydney lawyer has called for charges to be laid against the Catholic Church and some of the former principals of a Catholic primary school after one of its teachers was this week sentenced for molesting girls as young as eight.

Documents obtained by news.com.au show the school’s principal at the time of the offences knew the details of the sexual assaults and actively decided to cover them up rather than go to police.

Jason Parkinson, the solicitor representing the victims, says charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice may be able to be laid against school authorities at the time of the offences and against church officials who knew of the cases.

Mr Parkinson’s call comes after the sentencing judge criticised the school and church authorities for allowing girls at the school to be sexually assaulted by the teacher who “took away their lives”.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

The Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) is appalled by, and unequivocally distances itself from, comments attributed to Rabbi Boruch Lesches [the former Chabad rosh yeshiva in Sydney] as reported in The Age (23 June 2013). As stated on numerous occasions,the RCV encourages the reporting of all incidents of child sexual abuse to the police.

Among other things, Leches said that poor “goyyim” as young as five have sex with dogs as a matter of course because they’re bored and don’t have much else to do.

He also said that young Jewish boys who were raped by a Chabad pedophile may have wanted the sex and consented.

Leches is now the mora d’asra (senior rabbi and community leader) of Chabad’s main synagogue in Monsey, New York, and is often called on to act as a posek (decisor of halakha, Jewish law) for Chabad followers worldwide.

So far, no official Chabad group has publicly condemned Leches’ remarks or distanced Chabad from them (although many Chabad rabbis do sit on the RCV).

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Houston Chronicle

By The Associated Press, | June 23, 2013

MILWAUKEE (AP) — HOW MANY PRIESTS WERE INVOLVED?

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has verified claims of sexual abuse by 45 priests, including 23 who are still alive. None is allowed to work as a priest, and 15 have been officially defrocked. Most of them are accused of abuse that took place before 1990.

HOW MANY VICTIMS ARE THERE?

It’s hard to say because some victims may not have come forward. But one former priest, Lawrence Murphy, has been accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at a school for the deaf from 1950 to 1974. Other priests have been accused by only one person thus far. There are more than 570 sexual abuse claims pending in bankruptcy court, but some of those involve lay people or priests assigned to religious orders, not the archdiocese. Attorneys have not said specifically how many of the 570 claims relate to the 45 priests on the archdiocese’s restricted list.

HOW DID CLERGY ABUSE CASES END UP IN BANKRUPTCY COURT?

Abuse victims had long sought to hold the archdiocese accountable, but most didn’t come forward until well into adulthood, when it was too late under Wisconsin law to sue the church for negligence in supervising its priests. A 2007 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision gave them a window, saying the six-year limit in fraud cases didn’t start until the deception was uncovered. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, once it became clear that it could face a slew of lawsuits. It said it wouldn’t have the money to pay if those cases went against it.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Beaumont Enterprise

By M.L. JOHNSON, Associated Press
Updated 10:34 am, Sunday, June 23, 2013

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Archdiocese of Milwaukee plans to make dozens of priests’ personnel files public in the next week, along with hundreds of pages of other documents that sex abuse victims hope will hold church leaders accountable for transferring abusive priests to other parishes and concealing their crimes for decades.

The documents are being released as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and victims suing it for fraud. The archdiocese has said the records will include personnel files for 42 priests with verified claims of abuse against them, along with depositions from top church officials, including New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who previously led the Milwaukee archdiocese. The documents are to be posted on the archdiocese’s website by July 1.

Similar files made public by other Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders have detailed how leaders tried to protect the church by shielding priests and not reporting child sex abuse to authorities. The cover-up extended to the top of the Catholic hierarchy. Correspondence obtained by The Associated Press in 2010 showed the future Pope Benedict XVI had resisted pleas in the 1980s to defrock a California priest with a record of molesting children. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger led the Vatican office responsible for disciplining abusive priests before his election as pope.

Archdiocese officials in Milwaukee have long acknowledged that abusive priests were transferred to new churches with no warning to parishioners. Former Archbishop Rembert Weakland publicly apologized to a Sheboygan church for this in 1992, and in a 2008 deposition previously made public, he spoke of multiple cases in which church leaders were aware of priests’ histories but members were not. Still, victims have pushed aggressively for the priests’ files to be released.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

VERITY EDWARDS From: The Australian June 24, 2013

AN Adelaide priest who says he was wrongly named by Nick Xenophon in federal parliament as a perpetrator of sexual abuse wants Senate President John Hogg to discipline his fellow senator and is calling for parliamentary privilege to be reviewed.

Senator Xenophon used parliamentary privilege in September 2011 to name Monsignor Ian Dempsey as one of three priests who allegedly abused former head of the Traditional Anglican Communion, John Hepworth, in a Catholic seminary in the 1960s.

The South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions recommended earlier this month that no abuse charges be laid against Monsignor Dempsey, after a 19-month investigation found there was insufficient evidence for a jury to have a reasonable chance of convicting.

Monsignor Dempsey has written a letter to Senator Hogg, expected to arrive today, asking him to address the use of parliamentary privilege to name a person without accountability.

“As well as reasonably expecting a public apology from Senator Xenophon, it may be time for the Senate to address the unique privilege of naming any Australian citizen without any accountability — and, as in my case, getting it terribly wrong,” Monsignor Dempsey wrote.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Francis Sullivan

Not long after starting with the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, which has been set up to provide the Catholic Church’s response to the royal commission into child sexual abuse, I spent a day in Melbourne meeting a group of victims of clerical sexual abuse.

For more than four hours I sat and listened to their stories, the horror they endured, and the betrayal they felt.

It was harrowing and confronting and it brought home to me how removed I was from their experiences.
After the final person had finished their story I was asked what I had to say.

I look at the group and said I didn’t know what to say – that I had no answers.

All I could eventually say was that I would do my best.

After a long pause, a 50-year-old man looked at me and said: “Don’t you dare let us down again.”

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By BISHOP GEOFFREY ROBINSON June 23, 2013

Sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has been nothing short of an epidemic of catastrophic proportions. The devastation of victims, the ruination of priests and religious, the damage to a major world religion and its faithful are horrendous and incalculable.

I have sat and listened to many stories of horrific sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, stories that made me ashamed to be a priest and a Catholic.

I have listened to people whose lives have been ruined and I have felt a sadness and horror I cannot put into words. I have spent time with people close to suicide and I have watched the moving struggle of others trying to put their lives together again.

As a young teenager I was abused myself and I hope this makes me more sensitive. What’s happened within our Church has been nothing short of a catastrophe. Only the annihilation of the causes of this abuse will do, so that this can never happen again.

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