ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Newstalk

[with audio]

Louise Kelly
Thursday 18 July 2013

One of the religious orders refusing to contribute to the Magdalene compensation fund has total assets worth around €1.8 billion.

The Sisters of Mercy are the largest religious order in the country and have around €165 million in cash on their books.

They are 1 of 4 groups of Catholic nuns – also including the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters – who say they will not put any money into the redress scheme but will help the survivors in other ways instead.

Investigative Correspondent with the Irish Examiner, Conor Ryan, told Newstalk’s Breakfast that all 4 orders have substantial assets – but the Sisters of Mercy are the largest:

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Harry McGee

The four religious congregations that have refused to contribute to the compensation fund for residents of their former Magdalene laundries had combined gross assets worth €1.5 billion when the last comprehensive assessment of their financial resources was made in 2009.

However, most of the assets comprise property and buildings in use as schools, hospitals, facilities for health and disability services, making it impossible for the value of the assets to be realised. Some of the assets are held in trust, making transfer problematic. With the property market depressed, 2009 values no longer stand, and attempts to dispose of land have not been successful.

Yesterday Taoiseach Enda Kenny accepted in the Dáil that the orders could not be compelled to pay, and that moral persuasion would have to be applied. There have been calls for the four orders be stripped of their charitable status.

Sisters of Mercy
The country’s largest order, with 2,000 members, founded by Sr Catherine McAuley in 1834, has played a central role in educational provision. In 2009 it had total property assets of over €1 billion. Some €660 million related to schools in use, €60 million to a hospital in use; the value of congregation residences was €200 million and a further €70 million related to other services.

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IRELAND
Irish Sun

By JACOB LEWIS

THE Taoiseach wants religious orders to reconsider after they REFUSED to pay into a compo fund for Magdalene laundry survivors.

And he echoed Justice Minister Alan Shatter that shockingly there’s NO legal way to force the four congregations that ran the workhouses to cough up.

Speaking about the scheme, which will cost between €34.5million and €58million, Enda Kenny said: “I can’t force them to (contribute). I can’t take away their charitable status that some have been talking about. This is an issue that they know about themselves and that’s the position.”

The Government announced the creation of the scheme last month and already 210 women who slaved in the Catholic-run laundries have applied for compensation.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

18 JULY 2013

THE religious congregations who have refused to pay into the redress scheme for Magdalene Laundry survivors got a ticking off from Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday. On Tuesday, Justice Minister Alan Shatter displayed his displeasure too. Both were mild and anaemic in their criticism. The Taoiseach was particularly circumspect, suggesting that the four orders should ‘reflect’ on their refusal to pay into the scheme.

The Justice Minister did a bit of gentle arm-twisting by pointing out the moral onus on the orders to compensate victims.

We accept that the Government cannot employ any legal instrument to force a change of heart.

Nor can it remove the charitable status enjoyed by these institutions, as was demanded by a Magdalene survivor group earlier this week.

But both the Taoiseach and his Justice Minister should have offered more than a gentle slap on the wrist.

There is genuine anger and resentment among survivors, and the general public, over the terse and unsympathetic response from the nuns. This should have been reflected in any government intervention.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

FIACH KELLY POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT – 18 JULY 2013

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has asked some religious orders to “reflect” on their decision not to contribute to the compensation fund for victims of the Magdalene Laundries.

But Mr Kenny said he cannot force the orders to give any funding towards the redress scheme, and said he did not want to mount a legal challenge against them.

The Coalition is preparing to pay out up to €58m in compensation to Magdalene survivors. …

And the Government is seeking a financial contribution from four religious congregations involved in running the institutions: The Good Shepherd Sisters, The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, The Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity.

Mr Kenny, who was questioned in the Dail by Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams on the issue, said the Magdalene survivors wanted a state apology, which he gave, and “because of their circumstances and their ages they wanted put in place a system that was non-litigious and non-adversarial, and that would be quick, efficient and deliver a conclusion and solution for the women”.

The Taoiseach said the compensation scheme cannot be set up without the orders “because they have all the records about who worked, who attended and who lived in the laundries”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Michael O’Regan

Thu, Jul 18, 2013

Taoiseach Enda Kenny called on the religious orders that ran the Magdalene laundries to “reflect” on their decision not to contribute to the redress fund for former residents.

“I cannot force them to do that,” he said. “I cannot take away the charitable status, as some people have called for. This is an issue they know about themselves.”

The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters have told Minister for Justice Alan Shatter that they will not pay into the fund which could cost between €34.5 million and €58 million.

No legal route

Mr Kenny said he had no intention of going down the legal route of confrontation with the orders. The former residents had asked that the matter be dealt with speedily and that compensation be paid. They also wanted a non-adversarial and non-litigious process. “In order to define the work and attendance records of those who lived and worked in the Magdalene laundries, we need the co-operation of the religious orders and they have given it.”

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the issue of liability was clearly motivating the orders’ refusal to make a financial contribution to the redress scheme. “I respectfully say that the Government’s record of failure to tackle the elites and to pursue institutions for wrongdoing is shocking and not good enough,” he said.

Mr Adams said those elites, whether in financial or religious institutions, needed to be made accountable to the people. “It is no accident that the women and girls were mostly poor,” he added. “Then, as now, it is one law for the poor and one law for the rich.”

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UNITED STATES
Renew America

By Matt C. Abbott

From a July 15 news release:
Two hundred and fifty-five child predators were arrested and 61 victims of child sexual exploitation identified during a five-week operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces across the United States and its territories.

Operation iGuardian, which ran May 28 to June 30, was a surge operation conducted as part of HSI’s Operation Predator to identify and rescue victims of online sexual exploitation, and to arrest their abusers as well as others who own, trade and produce images of child pornography.

‘Protecting our youth in the digital age requires all of us to be on the lookout for child predators abusing and extorting victims online,’ said ICE Director John Morton. ‘Children and parents need to understand that not everyone online is who they say they are. Child abusers prowl social media looking for opportunities to force young people into sexual exploitation through guile, deceit, and extortion. We want children to know that it’s wrong for any adult to solicit or pressure them for sex and that the law is on their side.’ …

From a recent issue of The Wanderer (reprinted with permission):

Media Miss Major Point In Milwaukee Abuse Story

By PAUL LIKOUDIS

During the years when reports of clerical sexual abuse were crossing the desk of the former archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert Weakland, OSB – who resigned his post after revelations of his own homosexual predations and a payoff were publicly exposed in May 2002 – was pushing explicit sex education and pro-homosexual programs in his archdiocese.

One of the striking revelations in the 6,000 pages of documentation released July 1 by Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki is that the majority of complaints against offending priests – both current and those of a historical nature dating back decades – landed on Archbishop Weakland’s desk between 1979 and 1990.

Indeed, 29 of the 42 complaints of sexual abuse by archdiocesan priests that led to the archdiocese filing for bankruptcy in federal court were reported to Weakland in that period.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

A “Public Statement Concerning Sexual Abuse in the Church of Jesus Christ” says churches confronted with abuse allegations often put the institution’s reputation ahead of the victim.

By Bob Allen

Seventy-two faith leaders signed a public statement July 17 decrying silence from evangelical leaders on the issue of sexual abuse in the church.

Released by Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), an advocacy group founded by Billy Graham’s grandson and Liberty University School of Law Professor Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian, the statement voices anger and distress over recent allegations of abuse and cover-up by a well-known international ministry and subsequent statements by evangelical leaders.

“These events expose the troubling reality that, far too often, the Church’s instincts are no different than from those of many other institutions, responding to such allegations by moving to protect her structures rather than her children,” the statement said.

It noted that evangelical leaders were quick to comment on major abuse scandals involving the Catholic Church, Penn State University and the military.

“[W]e must now acknowledge long-silenced victims who are speaking out about sexual abuse in evangelical Christian institutions: schools, mission fields and churches, large and small,” the statement said. “And we must confess we have done far too little to hear and help them.”

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 18, 2013

A Hunter priest has blamed general anaesthetic for memory lapses about the events surrounding paedophilia within the Maitland Newcastle Catholic diocese.

In a tedious morning of cross-examination at the special commission of inquiry into alleged sexual abuse cover-ups by the church, Father William Burston, answered more than 40 questions by saying he did not recall or remember.

Following the morning adjournment, counsel assisting the inquiry, David Kell, asked Father Burston if he suffered memory problems.

The priest said he believed he did but had no seen a doctor about it and presumed it was the effects of 10 general anaesthetics administered to him.

Mr Kell remarked to Father Burston that his memory was precise on some aspects and not on others. The priest agreed.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

BY PAUL MAGUIRE AAP JULY 18, 2013

A CATHOLIC priest, second in charge of the Maitland/Newcastle diocese for about seven years until 2005, said on Thursday he had no recollection of the diocese buying a one-way ticket to Papua New Guinea for pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden.

In evidence to a special NSW commission of inquiry, the Hunter Valley’s former vicar general and now Newcastle suburban parish priest, Fr Bill Burston, attributed a “substantial” degree of his memory loss to general anesthetic he said he had received for ten surgical operations between 2004 and last year.

When asked by a barrister assisting the commission, David Kell, if he was aware of another diocese-funded one-way ticket for Fr McAlinden to go to England, Fr Burston said “no”.

Would such tickets have been unusual, Mr Kell asked.

“They would be,” Fr Burston answered.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

Brandie Piper

ST. LOUIS (KSDK) – A new lawsuit is unveiling serious accusations against a St. Louis priest.

The case involves Fr. Joseph Jiang, who is charged with child endangerment for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl. He’s currently on administrative leave from his position at the Cathedral Basilica.

A lawsuit claims Jiang fondled the teen and convinced her to set up a secret email account to send her inappropriate messages.

The support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) filed the lawsuit against St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson, saying he knew the priest was dangerous to children.

NewsChannel 5 asked the Archdiocese for comment and it released the following statement: “Neither the Archdiocese of St. Louis nor Archbishop Carlson has been served a copy of the lawsuit. We do not comment on pending litigation.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
SBWire

San Francisco, CA — (SBWIRE) — 07/17/2013 — The Chicago Insurance Company, a former insurer of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, is trying to avoid paying for priest sexual abuse settlements.

In a federal court filing on Wednesday, the company stated that it is not obligated to cover a $2.25 million settlement between the diocese and the parents of Brian Teeman. The parents contend that their 14-year-old son killed himself in 1983 as a result of repeated sexual abuse by a priest in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Business Journal reported last week that the insurer is also seeking to abstain from paying six claims in a 2008 settlement. In this settlement, 47 plaintiffs were awarded $10 million by the diocese conceded as a result of sexual abuse lawsuits against 12 current or former priests. Each of these claims cost more than $1.6 million and were partially covered by a policy from Lloyd’s of London.

Chicago Insurance argued that he “personal injury” definition in its policy has not been meet, and even if it has, the claims come under an exclusion for battery and assault. The company also cited failure of timely notice of possible demands for coverage on the part of the diocese, stating that it heard about the Teeman lawsuit shortly before the trial began. The Teeman settlement agreement was announced just as jury selection for the trial was being conducted in a Jackson County court in Independence.

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CANADA
Victoria News

By Kyle Slavin – Victoria News
Published: July 17, 2013

Phil Jacobs, the former Saanich priest who earlier this year was convicted of touching a young person for a sexual purpose, will be sentenced Friday (July 19) in Supreme Court in Victoria.

The guilty charge stems from a witness testimony regarding tutoring sessions at Jacobs’ house on the grounds of St. Joseph the Worker Parish on Burnside Road West. The witness said he ended up in a position of laying on the couch with his legs over Jacobs’ lap.

During testimony in December, the young man told the court that Jacobs’ right hand would slide up and down the witness’s left thigh over his pants – “he went from my knee to my groin back and forth … the back of his hand touched my genitals.”

Gropper agreed with the Crown’s assertion that Jacobs’ touching of the victim’s genitals was “deliberate,” and not accidental brushing.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

CBS St. Louis reports that Archbishop Carlson has been accused of “tampering with evidence” in a civil suit related to a criminal case. The criminal case involves Fr. Joseph Jiang, who has been charged with endangering the welfare of a minor by means of fondling a teen-aged girl – after the girl’s family had given him long and intimate access as a “friend of the family” who would sometimes sleep over.

Here in St. Louis there are many supporters of Fr. Jiang, who is a young orthodox priest and who served at the Cathedral Basilica. Note, for example, the vehemence of the comments at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website.

Of course no one knows if Fr. Jiang is indeed guilty. But orthodoxy does not equal innocence, as anyone familiar with Fr. Maciel or Bishop Finn knows.

My only observation here is that what Archbishop Carlson is accused of is almost exactly what Kansas City Bishop Finn did, when he saw to it that evidence was destroyed in a similar case a while back. Bishop Finn saw to it that a computer with child pornography on it was destroyed, so as to protect one of his priests. And now Archbishop Carlson is alleged to have attempted to take possession of a $20,000 check Fr. Jiang wrote to the parents of the alleged victim; a check Fr. Jiang wrote to persuade the parents not to go to the police with the criminal facts that the parents say Jiang admitted to – both to them and to Carlson.

Instead of handing over the check to Carlson, the family gave the check as evidence to police. Jiang was then charged with sexual misconduct and witness tampering.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

When I first settled in Rome in the early 1970s, it was common knowledge among resident foreign journalists that you could get a much better exchange rate for the Italian lira from your dollars or pounds by visiting the Vatican’s own bank, situated inside a medieval tower next to the Apostolic Palace inside Vatican City.

So, showing my press pass, I climbed the stairs into this strange Holy of Holies, where the only other clients in the marble-lined banking hall were priests and nuns.

I wrote out a cheque, which the bank clerk cashed after checking my identity. He handed me about 10% more lira than if I had made the transaction in one of the commercial banks just down the street in Italian territory. I had just discovered my very own offshore fiscal paradise.

Thus began my short-lived but instructive introductory course into Vatican banking. A few months later, someone leaked what was happening and I could no longer gain access to the Vatican’s financial inner sanctum.

Divine appreciation
Then I got to know the Most Reverend Paul Marcinkus, a giant of a priest, who hailed from Chicago, and who had been appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1971 to head the Vatican Bank, the “Institute for the Works of Religion”, or IOR in Italian.

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

Jamie Manson | Jul. 17, 2013

Fr. Helmut Schüller should be on summer vacation right now.

Instead, the Austrian priest, who gained international attention in 2011 for his “Call to Disobedience,” has chosen to spend his time off from parish ministry offering a presentation titled “The Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations” in 15 U.S. cities.

The tour kicked off Tuesday night at Manhattan’s Judson Memorial Church, a historic community in Greenwich Village with affiliations to the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Church.

Tuesday night, however, the space was filled with 230 reform-minded Catholics who braved dangerously high heat and humidity to hear Schüller’s vision for church reform and a renewed priesthood.

Schüller is quick to note he is only one priest among a large community of clergy and lay supporters who are calling on the institutional church for desperately needed reforms. …

Schüller, who previously served as president of Caritas Austria, was appointed vicar general in 1995 by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn but served simultaneously as a church pastor.

Both roles, he said, have given him insight into the current state of the institutional church. As vicar general, he learned that the structure of the church “does not allow too much space for reform or questions,” while as pastor of a parish, he realized that, once he retires, “I will leave my community to an uncertain future.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel July 17, 2013

Following the recent release of documents on the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s handling of sex abuse cases, the local church’s immensely complex 3-year-old bankruptcy case is now poised to resume playing out at three levels of the federal court system.

At the heart of the case are three key questions: Did the archdiocese defraud victims by exposing them to sexually abusive priests, teachers and others without warning them? Just who, among the 575 creditors who allege they were assaulted over the years, is entitled to compensation? And, what church assets, including insurance coverage, can and should be made available to pay them?

The legal debates over these and other issues have filled thousands of pages in federal court filings and already cost the archdiocese millions. And any decision can alter the balance of power between the archdiocese and creditors, pushing them toward a possible settlement or back to their trenches — or setting up a new round of appeals that can drag on for months.

There are all these moving parts,” said Ralph Anzivino, who teaches bankruptcy law at Marquette University. “And unfortunately, it’s a slow process to finally get them to stop moving.”

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OHIO
Newark Advocate

JOHNSTOWN — A Catholic priest who used to serve at the Church of the Ascension was put on administrative leave Wednesday by the Diocese of Columbus as it looks into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

Father Ronald J. Atwood, 69, served at the Johnstown parish from 1982 to 1991, according to a news release issued by the diocese Wednesday.

The sexual abuse of the minor allegedly took place while Atwood served at a Columbus school and parish from 1976 to 1979. The abuse was reported to the diocese Monday, according to the news release.

Atwood has been a priest for the diocese since 1969, serving at parishes all in Columbus except for the stint in Johnstown. He was most recently pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Columbus, according to the release.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON JULY 17, 2013

A Catholic priest in Columbus has been placed on leave after allegations of sexual abuse. Since 1969, this priest has worked at 8 locations, including a high school where one of the alleged abuses occurred.

We commend those who reported the crimes. We urge any other individuals who have witnessed or been abused to come forward in order keep this predator priest safely away from children. We hope that the diocese will warn the parishioners of these locations and ask them to report anything they know to the police. Any additional information that would help convict this criminal will help prevent future crimes against children.

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CANADA
Daily Brew

By Steve Mertl | Daily Brew

Reports that scientists used aboriginal children as unwitting guinea pigs in a nutrition-research project shows Canada still has a lot to answer for in its treatment of First Nations.

It’s not enough that children were wrenched from their parents to spend years in assimilationist native residential schools, where sexual and physical abuse was common. Now we learn that some were deliberately starved as part of a vast experiment in the value of vitamins for at least a decade in the 1940s and early ’50s.

The Canadian Press reported on research by food historian Ian Mosby of the University of Guelph, who stumbled on references to the federally sponsored research while looking into the development of health policy.

“I started to find vague references to studies conducted on ‘Indians’ that piqued my interest and seemed potentially problematic, to say the least,” he told CP. “I went on a search to find out what was going on.”

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Angry leaders from the Assembly of First Nations want a federal response to research that says nutritional experiments were conducted on unwitting, hungry aboriginal children in the 1940s.

Grand Chief Shawn Atleo says the revelations in a Canadian Press story are dominating conversations at an assembly meeting in Whitehorse.

He says the assembly is drafting an emergency resolution demanding that Ottawa acknowledge that aboriginal children are still hungry.

The AFN leaders say the Harper government should stop fighting the assembly’s attempts to eliminate food security for aboriginal people.

The chiefs say the prime minister should put the words of his historic 2008 apology to aboriginal people in action.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday

Written by STEVE LOWE

A COMPLAINT to Bedfordshire police has been made by a former resident of a boys home concerning missing files relating to previous inquiries.

Former residents of St Francis Boys Home in Shefford, which was run by the Catholic Church, are taking a ‘class action’ against the church over claims they were both physically and sexually assaulted.

As reported by Bedfordshire on Sunday, one of the priests alleged to have abused children in the 1950s and 1960s, Father John Ryan, was twice interviewed by police concerning these allegations, in 1997 and 2003.

This newspaper interviewed Father Ryan in 2006 and put these allegations to him but he made no comment. He died in 2008.

We also reported that there were accusations that boys who had run away from the home were taken back by police officers, and subsequently received even greater punishment and abuse.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

Kevin Killeen
July 17, 2013

ST. LOUIS–(MO)–Archbishop Robert Carlson is named in a civil suit, accusing him of attempted tampering with physical evidence in the case of a priest accused of sexual misconduct.

The suit alleges Carlson telephoned the mother of a Lincoln county teenaged girl — a girl under the age of seventeen — who had reportedly been molested by Father Joseph Jiang. The suit claims Carlson asked the mother to give to him a check for $20,000 Jiang had reportedly placed on the family’s car.

“This suggests the Archbishop was possibly attempting to coverup the crime of trying to buy off the parents,” Chackes said.

Chackes says the check appeared after the parents of the girl had discovered the abuse, confronted Jiang, and he admitted it. Instead of handing over the check to Carlson, the family gave the check as evidence to police. Jiang was then charged with sexual misconduct and witness tampering.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Matt Miller | mmiller@pennlive.com

on July 17, 2013

HARRISBURG — Former Harrisburg church deacon Albert Chambers Jr. is being freed from prison, but he won’t escape his past as a child molester.

That was assured Wednesday when Dauphin County Judge Andrew H. Dowling branded Chambers as a sexually violent predator for abusing and taking explicit photos of two teenage girls he met through Antioch Tabernacle Church.

That designation under the state’s Megan’s Law means Chambers, 49, will have to register with police for life. And the cops will tell his neighbors about his crimes.

Yet Chambers, who worked with the church’s youth group, told Dowling that he’s not the same man who was arrested for those crimes nearly two years ago.

“I’ve gotten myself pretty much straightened out,” he said. “I want to be an asset and help people.”

Chambers pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and counts of indecent assault, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with minors and furnishing alcohol to minors in October.

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ROMA
AGI

(AGI) – Roma, 17 lug. – Resta in carcere don Patrizio Poggi, l’ex prete arrestato il 28 giugno per calunnia aggravata per aver screditato le alte sfere della Curia, coinvolgendole in un presunto giro di pedofilia e prostituzione minorile. Lo ha deciso il tribunale del riesame che ha respinto il ricorso presentato dalla difesa dell’ex sacerdote che chiedeva di annullare l’ordinanza cautelare del gip Aldo Morgigni. Il procuratore aggiunto Maria Monteleone, invece, si era espresso per la conferma del provvedimento restrittivo ritenendo provata e pianificata da tempo l’attivita’ calunniatrice dell’indagato.

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ROMA
Blitz quotidiano

ROMA – Don Patrizio Poggi resta in carcere. Il tribunale del Riesame ha respinto l’istanza di scarcerazione presentata dai suoi avvocati. Poggi era stato arrestato il 28 giugno scorso per l’accusa di diffamazione messa in atto, secondo la Procura, per screditare la Curia romana. In una sua denuncia tirava in ballo almeno nove sacerdoti che avrebbero avuto incontri di tipo sessuale con minori.

Don Patrizio Poggi, ex parroco del San Filippo Neri di Roma, condannato a cinque anni di reclusione per violenza sessuale su minori, lo scorso 8 marzo, si era presentato in un ufficio dei carabinieri del Noe (Nucleo per la tutela dell’ambiente) per denunciare alcuni sacerdoti che, secondo lui, avevano avuto incontri di tipo sessuale con minori.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Abogado de denunciantes de Karadima explica las razones de iniciar una demanda civil contra Arzobispado de Santiago

por Karen Soto Galindo – 17/07/2013

Durante esta jornada se concretaría una ronda de entrevistas ante la Justicia, entre ellas la del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, como medida prejudicial probatoria que antecederá a una demanda civil en contra del Arzobispado de Santiago, pero la diligencia fue, por ahora, suspendida.

La razón de la acción civil, explicó a La Tercera el abogado representante de tres de los denunciantes, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, es determinar la responsabilidad eclesiástica, “toda vez que el Vaticano ya condenó a Karadima por los abusos”.

Según la demanda presentada por James Hamilton , José Andrés Murillo y Juan Carlos Cruz, los casos de abuso sexual que involucrarían a Karadima, estaban en pleno conocimiento del Arzobispado, “quien no realizó acto alguno tendiente a evitarlos”.

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OHIO
NBC4i

By: Denise Yost, Multimedia Content Manager

COLUMBUS, Ohio –
A Columbus priest has been placed on administrative leave after allegations involving the sexual abuse of a minor.

According to the Catholic Diocese of Columbus, Father Ronald J. Atwood, 69, has been placed on leave effective July 16.

The Diocese said the investigation involves an accusation of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred during Atwood’s tenure at Bishop Ready High School and St. Stephen the Martyr and St. Peter parishes from 1976-1979. The accusation was reported to the chancery office on July 15, and was then reported to Franklin County Children Services.

A meeting of the Diocesan Board of Review for the Protection of Children will be convened to determine if the allegation is credible and warrants further investigation.

If found credible, information will be forthcoming regarding outreach efforts to be conducted in those places where Father Atwood served in order to determine if other persons wish to come forward and seek help.

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

OHIO
Fox 28

COLUMBUS (Ken Hines) — A priest accused of sexual abuse of a minor is on administrative leave as the Columbus Catholic Diocese conducts an investigation into the allegation.

Father Ronald Atwood is accused of committing the abuse from 1976 to 1979 while working at Bishop Ready High School, as well as St. Stephen the Martyr and St. Peter parishes, according to a Diocese statement.

The allegation was brought to the attention of the Columbus Chancery Office on July 15, then forwarded to Franklin County Children Services. Columbus Bishop Frederick Campbell placed Atwood on leave on July 16, in accordance with Catholic Church policy.

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.

OHIO
Columbus Dispatch

By Theodore Decker
The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday July 17, 2013

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus placed a 69-year-old priest on administrative leave yesterday, pending an investigation into a sexual-abuse allegation dating to the 1970s.

According to the diocese, the Rev. Ronald J. Atwood is accused of sexually abusing a minor during his tenure at Bishop Ready High School and St. Stephen the Martyr and St. Peter parishes in Columbus between 1976 and 1979.

The accusation was made on Monday and was reported to Franklin County Children Services. Atwood has not been charged with a crime.

The Diocesan Board of Review for the Protection of Children will determine if the allegation is credible and warrants further investigation by the diocese.

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

OHIO
10TV

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Catholic Diocese of Columbus said on Wednesday that it placed at 69-year-old priest on administrative leave on Wednesday pending an investigation into alleged sexual abuse.

According to the diocese, Father Ronald J. Atwood is accused sexually abusing a minor.

The diocese stated that the alleged abuse occurred during Atwood’s tenure at Bishop Ready High School and St. Stephen the Martyr and St. Peter parishes in Columbus between 1976 and 1979.

The allegations were reported to the diocese on July 15 this year. The dioceses contacted Franklin County Children Services.

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

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 18, 2013

Victims in the public gallery at yesterday’s special commission of inquiry into alleged child sex abuse cover-ups in the Catholic Church gasped audibly and were visibly shaken when two senior Hunter Catholic priests claimed to have little memory of the events surrounding paedophilia within the diocese.

Father James Saunders and Father William Burston could not respond to a number of questions put to them at the inquiry yesterday, claiming a lack of memory.

Father Saunders, who performed a number of senior roles in the diocese including being Vicar General to Bishop Michael Malone, said he knew of rumours circulating about priest Denis McAlinden’s conduct with children in the 1980s.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Warwick Hunt, asked Father Saunders why McAlinden was referred to in a “bleak fashion” in the minutes of a 1986 bishop’s consultors meeting in Maitland. The priest could not remember.

Father Saunders, who is now in his 70s and semi-retired, shared a parish with McAlinden in 1977 and remembered the then Bishop Leo Clarke warning him the priest might be a “difficult man” which he later took to mean he had a “ferocious temper”.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Tim Townsend ttownsend@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82211

St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson knew that a priest was a danger to children before that priest was charged last year with molesting a teenage girl, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Lincoln County.

The lawsuit was filed by the parents of the girl, who told police last June that the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, an associate pastor at the Cathedral Basilica in the Central West End at the time, had molested her. Jiang, 30, was eventually charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. The girl had described him as a family friend.

In the lawsuit filed Friday, the girl’s parents said Carlson “knew that Father Jiang was dangerous to children” and “that allowing Father Jiang access to minors as part of his duties as a priest, would result in Father Jiang harming minors.” The suit does not provide details of how Carlson would have known Jiang was a threat to children.

According to the suit, the girl’s parents last year asked Carlson if Jiang, who was ordained in 2010, would be removed from the priesthood. Carlson responded “that he would remove Jiang if he ‘had sex’ with the child, but not for activities other than that,” according to the suit.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

Posted on July 17, 2013

(KMOV) – The St. Louis Archdiocese is responding to criticism over a planned prayer service for the exoneration of a local priest charged with sexual abuse.

A posting on Facebook was encouraging parishioners to join cathedral young adults to pray for the exoneration of Father Joseph Jiang during Holy Hour.

Jiang is charged with sexual abuse of a minor and witness tampering.

The “Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests” held a news conference asking how such a prayer service could be planned.

Prosecutors allege Father Jiang molested a teenage girl on four different occasions while staying at her home in Old Monroe, Missouri. Theysaid he then left a check for $20,000 on the windshield of the car belonging to the victim’s family.

People outside the Cathedral Basilica had mixed reactions to the idea of a public prayer service.
“That’s just weird, why you would be praying for someone who’s abusing children,” one person said.

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

IRELAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

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

The four orders that ran the Magdalene laundry laundries, The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters, have stated they will not contribute to the redress fund for the victims of their institutions. Additionally, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has stated he cannot force the orders to contribute. In response, a victims group called Magdalene Survivors Together has demanded the government eliminate the charitable status of the orders and that they receive no more state funding.

To refuse to take responsibility for decades of abuse directly related to these religious institutions is utterly disgraceful. These women are entitled justice and receiving compensation from these orders would only be scratching the surface of what is needed to begin to recover.

We urge these religious “charities” to reexamine their decisions. By blatantly dodging responsibility, they are preventing the at least 600 women from beginning to truly heal. We also encourage the state to consider the plea from Magdalene Survivors Together and revoke theses orders’ charitable status until they are willing to cooperate with the redress for the Magdalene Laundry victims. Refusing to contribute is the opposite of charitable; it is callous and selfish.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON JULY 17, 2013

This new lawsuit is in the public record. It seeks unspecified damages. It makes unusual and disturbing charges.

I’ve not met or spoken with this family. Because of that, and because the victim is young, the crimes are recent, the lawsuit is detailed and prosecution is pending, I won’t answer many questions today. The last thing on earth I would want is to do or say anything that might in any way make an obviously traumatic situation more difficult for this courageous girl and her parents.

Archbishop Carlson, however, has said nothing about the case against Fr. Joseph Jiang. He’s had more than a year to do so. We in SNAP hope he will live up to his promises to be “open and transparent” in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases. Specifically, we hope he will personally respond to the allegations that Fr. Jiang admitted his abuse of this girl to Carlson.

Let’s be clear on what we are NOT saying today. We are not alleging that there’s anything improper about Fr. Jiang’s movements from China to the US and from state to state to state. Again, however, we hope Carlson will shed some light on these somewhat unusual transfers.

We are not alleging that Carlson has done anything illegal. That accusation is in the civil lawsuit and the legal process will resolve that accusation. Again, we hope Carlson will personally address this charge now.

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

NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

Jamie Manson | Jul. 17, 2013 NCR Today

This summer’s most anticipated event—for reform-minded Catholics, at least—kicked off last night in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

Austrian priest Helmut Schüller offered the first of fifteen presentations that he will offer around the U.S. in a program called The Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations.

The event drew a notable crowd of 230 people, who braved sweltering heat and humidity to gather at Judson Memorial Church to hear Schüller discuss the “Call to Disobedience” set forth in 2011 by the Austrian Priests Initiative.

The movement, Schüller said, “was initiated out of deep sorrow for the future of parish communities.”

“As a 60-year-old parish priest, I fear that, when my time is over, I will leave my community to an uncertain future,” he said.

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

IRELAND
Newstalk

Peadar Grogan
15:25 Wednesday 17 July 2013

Catholic priest says any available finance should be used for compensation

A Catholic priest says that the religious orders involved in running the Magdalene laundries should make any funds that they can available to the redress scheme.

Father Paddy Byrne, a curate in Portlaoise, was speaking about the decision by religious orders not to contribute on today’s Newstalk Lunchtime.

He said it was difficult to understand why they had taken the decision. “I think, bottom line, we should be listening to the religious orders on a programme like this today giving their rationale.”

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Explosive new clergy abuse & cover up suit filed
It charges that St. Louis archbishop broke the law
Carlson was allegedly “closely supervising” arrested molester
And he asked victim’s parents to give him priest’s $20,000 check
One person witnessed cleric kissing girl & touching her, suit charges

What
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will disclose an “explosive” new civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit that has been filed against St. Louis’ Catholic archbishop. The suit involves recent and repeated alleged child sex crimes by a priest who has been arrested. It charges that the archbishop

— “knew (the priest) was dangerous to children before (a girl) was abused,”

— asked the alleged victim’s parents for a $20,000 check the priest had given them,
–“committed the criminal offense of attempted tampering with evidence,” and
— has lived with the accused priest (and was in the same diocese with him twice: Saginaw MI & St. Louis).

They will also prod

–anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered the priest’s crimes to contact law enforcement immediately, and
–parishioners and the public to keep open minds and avoid taking actions and making comments that might discourage any other victims, witnesses or whistleblowers from stepping forward.

When
TODAY, Wednesday, July 17 at 1:30 p.m.

Where
On the sidewalk outside the home of St. Louis’ Catholic archbishop, 4510 Lindell (at Taylor) in the CWE

Who
Three-four victims of clergy sex crimes who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a St. Louis woman who is the organization’s long time outreach director

Why
The suit charges that while “under the direct supervision of (Archbishop Robert Carlson) and living in the archbishop’s home,” Fr. Xiu Hui ‘Joseph’ Jiang “sexually, physically and emotionally abused” a girl and that Carlson “knew he was dangerous to children before (the girl) was abused.” Fr. Jiang reportedly admitted the abuse to the girl’s parents and Carlson.

The day after Fr. Jiang’s admissions, Fr. Jiang allegedly put a $20,000 check on the parents’ vehicle windshield. Hours later, Carlson called the girl’s mom and “suggested that the parents return to him the check” from Fr. Jiang. (The parents, however, gave it to police.)

Carlson was “supervising Fr. Jiang very closely” yet “Fr. Jiang was allowed unlimited access to (the girl),” according to the suit, in part because Fr. Jiang “worked to build the (parents’) trust” and “regularly visited their home.”

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

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Poor Bishop Michael Malone has really had a hard time of it because of the paedophile priests under his command in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese.

When he took early retirement a couple of years back, he noted that “I’m emotionally drained by what has happened and feel disillusioned.” He told the local newspaper that he was prone to “toss and turn at night over the sex abuse committed by clergy and experience a lot of anxiety.” Indeed, he played extra roles in his job. As he said, he saw his job as “being both pastor and policeman for the diocese.”

Still not sympathetic to the good Bishop? Try this statement at the present enquiry (which has questioned his commitment to bringing his wayward priests to account): “I pray daily for the victims of sexual abuse, asking God to grant them peace of mind, healing and reconciliation with all people, including the Catholic Church.” The victims will be quite O.K. now, it seems.

When the Commissioner, Margaret Cunneen, asked Bishop Malone if the number of child sexual abuse incidents in the diocese were “greatly out of proportion” when compared to others, Malone was not able to answer the question.

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

CANADA
CBS Radio

[with audio]

Food historian discovers Federal Government experimented on aboriginal children during and after WWII

Food historian Ian Mosby has found evidence of experiments conducted by the federal government on aboriginal children and adults, during and immediately after the Second World War.

What he discovered, when he probed a little deeper, was a program of breathtaking scale and cruelty. Listen to our interview with University of Guelph post-doctoral fellow, Ian Mosby, in which he describes what happened to these people.

After the programme went to air, we received this written statement from Andrea Richer, Press Secretary for the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, Bernard Valcourt:

“If this is story is (sic) true, this is abhorrent and completely unacceptable. When Prime Minister Harper made a historic apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools in 2008 on behalf of all Canadians, he recognized that this period had caused great harm and had no place in Canada. Our Government remains committed to a fair and lasting resolution to the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Andrew Livingstone News reporter, Bob Weber The Canadian Press
Published on Tue Jul 16 2013

Aboriginal children were deliberately starved in the 1940s and ’50s by government researchers in the name of science.

Milk rations were halved for years at residential schools across the country.

Essential vitamins were kept from people who needed them.

Dental services were withheld because gum health was a measuring tool for scientists and dental care would distort research.

For over a decade, aboriginal children and adults were unknowingly subjected to nutritional experiments by Canadian government bureaucrats.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

BY BARRY DUKE – JULY 16, 2013

VICTIMS of priestly rape are less than impressed by a new law laid down by Pope Frankie that prohibits kiddie-fiddling on the Vatican’s turf.

Reacting to news that the Pope has made it a crime to abuse children sexually or physically on Vatican grounds, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a US advocacy group for victims of abuse by priests and other clergy, pooh-poohed the law as “a feel good gesture”.

Said SNAP director David Clohessy in a written statement:

For the Vatican’s image, this is a successful move. For children’s safety, this is another setback … because it will help foster the false impression of reform and will lead to more complacency. The Church hierarchy doesn’t need new rules on abuse. It needs to follow long-established secular laws on abuse. And it needs to push for, not oppose, real reforms to archaic, predator-friendly secular laws (like the statute of limitations).

The legislation also covers child prostitution and the creation or possession of child pornography.

The acts were already crimes under Church law, but are now specifically outlawed within the Vatican city-state, which is home to hundreds of people.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

POLICE have laid 13 additional charges against a former Catholic priest relating to alleged historical child assault offences.

The 59-year-old man faced Armidale Local Court on Wednesday on charges relating to alleged child-sex offences against six boys and three girls in the 1970s and 1980s.

During his appearance, the man was additionally charged with 13 offences relating to alleged assaults against a boy, aged 12 to 14, between 1981 and 1984 in Moree.

They include nine counts of sexual intercourse without consent and four counts of indecent assault.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Wed, 07/17/2013

Gary Rosenblatt

A few days before Tisha b’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, I sat down and read a modern-day version of Eichah, the Book of Lamentations.

This was not an ancient prophet’s eloquent or poignant rendition of the destruction of the ancient Temple; it was the dry, legalese words of a lawsuit that lays out the case of alleged indifference, and fraud, accorded to high ranking and highly respected members of the administration and faculty of Yeshiva University in the 1970s and ’80s regarding the sexual abuse of high school students.

Centuries apart, the warnings — that immoral behavior, left unchecked, leads only downward — still resonate.

The litany of woes said to have resulted from the abuse, and the lack of acknowledgment that it was taking place, is painful to read: case after case, 19 teenagers at the time claiming physical, emotional and psychological distress and trauma; depression leading to drugs, alcohol or sexual addiction; inability to trust others; loss of relationships with loved ones; loss of faith; and suicidal tendencies.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

OSCAR CASTILLO, Daily News Staff Writer castilo@phillynews.com, 215-854-5906
POSTED: Wednesday, July 17, 2013

THE REV. Helmut Schüller, one of the most controversial figures in the Catholic Church, is making a stop in Philadelphia as part of his 15-city U.S. tour.

The Austrian priest will speak at 7 p.m. Friday at Sugarloaf Hill, across Germantown Avenue from Chestnut Hill College.

Schüller’s reformist views are at the center of a controversy in which the Vatican stripped him of his monsignor title last year.

In 2011, Schüller organized more than 400 Austrian priests in an “Appeal to Disobedience,” calling for the ordination of women and married men, the permission of divorced and remarried Catholics to receive sacraments and an end to celibacy for priests.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 17, 2013

A SENIOR diocese priest says he cannot independently recall saying that he wanted ‘‘to contain as much as possible’’ an allegation against then priest Jim Fletcher.

Father James Joseph Saunders, who held various positions under Bishop Leo Clarke and his successor Bishop Michael Malone, was giving evidence to the special commission of inquiry in Newcastle on Wednesday.

The commission heard from counsel assisting, Warwick Hunt, of an internal church email that included quotes attributed to Father Saunders, in relation to a ‘‘new allegation’’ against Fletcher, who was eventually convicted of child sexual abuse offences and died in jail.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen asked Father Saunders whether, as the email said, he wanted to contain the matter as much as possible and preferred not to provide even a dot-point report at this time.

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

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 17, 2013

A senior Maitland Newcastle Catholic Church official told a special commission of inquiry today that he knew of rumours circulating about paedophile priest Denis McAlinden in the 1980s and was warned by a Hunter primary school principal to “be careful with him around children”.

Father James Saunders, who was Vicar General to Bishop Michael Malone in 2001, said the bishop warned him about “vague assertions” to do with the behaviour of convicted priest James Fletcher when he began the job but couldn’t recall whether he told him about McAlinden.

Father Saunders shared a parish with McAlinden for a year in the 1970s but said the only warning he received from the then Bishop Leo Clarke was that he might be a “difficult man”.

After some time with the priest he took that to mean he had a “ferocious temper”.

He said he was warned by a school principal: “You have to be careful with him [McAlinden] around children,” but could not remember the date.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 17, 2013

THREE protesters, one with a sign saying ‘‘Paedophilia No More’’, followed Catholic Father William Burston out of Wednesday’s Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle.

Buttabah man Frank Scaysbrook verbally taunted Father Burston as he left the hearing with his advisers and a Newcastle woman, Pat Garnet, walked beside him holding the sign for the cameras.

This very public display of protest came minutes after Commission Margaret Cunneen warned the public gallery over its behaviour towards witnesses.

At the close of proceedings Ms Cunneen said Father Burston had been been approached in the waiting area outside the commission room and ‘‘subjected to rudeness’’.

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CALIFORNIA
The Washington Times

By Cheryl K. Chumley-The Washington Times

A bill weaving through the California Legislature that would give alleged victims of child abuse more time to sue is raising red flags with the Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, along with several other private groups, say the bill unfairly targets them because it exempts public schools, The Associated Press reported.

The bill opens the doors to more lawsuits. It changes existing laws that restrict — by age or time — alleged child abuse victims from suing. The bill would also let alleged victims confront their abuser’s employer, AP said.

The Catholic Church didn’t try to stop a similar bill that was introduced in 2002. But now, church officials are calling the measure a step back in time and are fighting its passage, AP reported.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fox News

LOS ANGELES – Making its way through the California State Legislature is a bill seeking to give more alleged child abuse victims time to sue.

If passed, the bill would permit victims unable to file a lawsuit due to time or age restrictions the chance to confront their abuser’s employer.

The Catholic Church did not fight a similar 2002 bill that opened the flood gates for hundreds of alleged victims.

This time, however, the church is battling hard against the proposed legislation and calling it a step backward.

The Los Angeles archdiocese and other private groups say they have been unfairly targeted because the bill does not apply to public schools.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
ABC News

By SARAH PARVINI Associated Press
LOS ANGELES July 17, 2013

Tony Quarry suppressed his memories of being abused by a Roman Catholic priest for nearly 30 years and decided to sue only after finding out that his five brothers were molested by the same man — just to discover that it was too late.

The state’s high court ultimately tossed out the brothers’ lawsuit because they missed a special legal window that allowed victims to sue over abuse claims decades after the fact. Their plight, however, has inspired new sex abuse legislation in California a decade after a similar bill cost the church hundreds of millions in civil settlements.

“I still believed in the tooth fairy when these things happened to me,” Quarry, 51, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday. “It’s a good thing for these other people to have the opportunity to step forward.”

Like the previous law, Senate Bill 131 would permit many victims who would otherwise be unable to file a civil suit due to time and age restrictions — like the Quarry brothers — to sue their abuser’s employer in civil court.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Monthly

By Kathleen Geier

Over at the New York Review of Books, progressive Catholic icon and public intellectual extraordinaire Garry Wills has written a a terrific blog post about the politics of canonization in the Catholic Church — i.e., the process by which the Church declares someone a saint. In it, Wills includes some fascinating history and analysis, such as this, about the much-misunderstood concept of “papal infallibility”:

Modern popes have been chary of invoking the suspect “charism,” or divine gift, of infallibility, a power Pius IX [who reined from 1846 to 1878] wrested from his captive Vatican Council. It is a power used only once in the technical sense, in Pius XII’s 1950 definition of a non-controversial doctrine (Mary’s assumption into heaven). But, in place of infallibility, recent popes have found many ways of describing their acts as almost-infallible, irreversible, universal. That is where the canonization process comes in so handily. It gives the pope a kind of back-door infallibility. He says definitively that a person is in heaven, and can work miracles, and worked particular ones (or, for John XXIII, a single one).

Wills’ main argument is that the Vatican’s recent canonization of Pope John Paul II is extremely ill-advised, largely because John Paul “presided over the church during its worldwide pedophile scandal.” Wills asks, rather brutally but, I think, completely fairly, “Who can think that a saint in heaven ever protected a predatory priest?” Indeed.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Sam Levin Wed., Jul. 17 2013

Earlier this week, local victims’ rights advocates were outraged when they saw an invitation to a meet-up at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis to pray for the “defense and exoneration” of Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, a priest accused of repeatedly molesting a teenage girl. Representatives of the Archdiocese of St. Louis said they were not aware of the event until Daily RFT reached out and ultimately canceled it and had the meetup.com listing removed.

The organizers behind the event, however, went forward with the prayer last night — moving it to a private home. These churchgoers and supporters of Jiang emphasize that they are not affiliated with the Archdiocese and have no gripes about church leaders’ decision to cancel.

“We completely believe in his innocence,” says Lucy Hannegan, who has known Jiang for years and has organized informal efforts to back him in the wake of the criminal charges. “We support him and we stand behind him.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

RACHEL BAXENDALE From: The Australian July 17, 2013

A JEWISH Orthodox school in Melbourne failed to report a teacher’s molestation of four boys in the early 1990s to police, enabling the man to leave Australia and reoffend overseas, the Victorian County Court has heard.

David Kramer, 52, pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault and one of indecent acts with a child in relation to incidents which occurred at Yeshivah College in St Kilda East.

The American, whose elderly parents, ex-wife and 11 adolescent and adult children live in Israel, admitted to groping the four boys through their clothing between 1990 and 1992.

Prosecutor Brett Sonnet told a plea hearing today (Wednesday) that Yeshivah College had initially declined to sack Kramer, out of concern for his welfare, until angry parents staged a protest outside his house, across the road from the school.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Yeshiva College principal delayed acting on teacher David Kramer who has molested students, County Court told

Shannon Deery
From: Herald Sun
July 17, 2013

THE principal of a Jewish college refused to report a teacher who admitted molesting students to police because he was concerned for his welfare, a court has heard.

Rabbi David Kramer, 52, pleaded guilty to molesting four young boys while teaching at ultra-orthodox Yeshiva College in the 1990s before fleeing to the US where he was jailed for further offending.

A County Court plea hearing heard today the father of two victims made a formal complaint to then principal Rabbi Abraham Glick who refused to take immediate action.

“The accused admitted touching some of the children but claimed that it was initiated by the complainants,” prosecutor Brett Sonnet told the court.

“Rabbi Glick advised (the victim’s father) that he did not intend to immediately suspend the accused from teaching because he was concerned for his welfare.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A Victorian Jewish school covered up the offences of a pedophile teacher by sending him overseas, a court has heard.

The Victorian County Court was told David Kramer, 52, was “shuffled out the back door to Israel” rather than investigated when allegations that he molested boys at Melbourne’s Yeshivah College were first aired.

Kramer has pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault and one count of indecent acts with a child.

The American-born teacher admitted groping four boys through their clothing between 1990 and 1992.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

July 17, 2013

Adam Cooper
Reporter for The Age

A lawyer representing a teacher who has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing students more than 20 years ago has told a court that Melbourne’s Yeshivah College covered up the scandal rather than contact police.

And even after David Kramer admitted to abusing one victim, the school’s then principal told the victim’s father that the teacher would not be suspended because of concerns for his wellbeing, the County Court was told.

Kramer, a primary school teacher at Yeshivah College between 1989 and 1992 and known to his pupils as “Rabbi Kramer” although not ordained, has pleaded guilty to five charges of sexually abusing four 10-year-old boys in 1990 and 1991, and one charge of committing an indecent act with a child.

Kramer, 52, was extradited last year from the US, where he served 4 years in jail for sodomising a 12-year-old boy in a St Louis synagogue.

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FLORIDA
WBZT

Child porn charges could be filed against a former private school teacher already accused of engaging in sexual acts with two nine year old girls.

At the time of the alleged activity, Stephen Budd was working at the Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach.

The Palm Beach County state attorney’s office now says they received a new search warrant and investigators are looking at new shocking evidence. Budd’s own daughter told police that her father would quote “Do things to her friends that she knew were wrong and made her uncomfortable.”

She says she lived with Budd in Boynton Beach while in high school and her Dad made one of her ninth grade friends dance for him in a catholic school uniform inappropriately touching herself while he videotaped it.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 17 July 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:

– appointed Fr. Francis Duffy, of the clergy of Kilmore, Ireland, as bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois (area 2,437, population 84,700, Catholics 79,600, priests 72, religious 177), Ireland. The bishop-elect was born in Bawnboy, Ireland in 1958 and was ordained a priest in 1982. Following ordination he taught Irish history and language at St. Patrick’s College in Cavan, and in the diocesan school of St. Felim in Ballinamore, where he went on to become head teacher. He served as diocesan secretary and chancellor from 2008 to 2012. He currently assists in the parish of Laragh and in St. Michael’s Church, Clifferna, and is completing his doctorate in Education. He succeeds Bishop Colm O’Reilly, whose resignation from the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

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IRELAND
New Statesman

As a child, Anna Carey saw the dead-eyed women who had been forced to work for free in the laundries sit among the congregation at Mass, seen and yet ignored. Now, as the religious orders responsible refuse to contribute towards financial compensation, it’s not difficult to see how Irish society allowed these abuses to go on for so long.

BY ANNA CAREY PUBLISHED 17 JULY 2013

I loved High Park when I was a kid. The rambling grounds of the convent were just across the road from the quiet Dublin housing estate where I grew up in the 1980s, and every Sunday my family went to Mass in the convent chapel. The chapel was a pretty little Victorian building; when I was very small, I used to jump slowly down the wooden steps of the choir stalls and pretend to be Professor Yaffle from Bagpuss.

Away from the cluster of convent buildings, the grounds were beautiful, with meadows full of wild flowers and a small herd of cows. We would go on nature walks, looking out for squirrels and gathering leaves and flowers. It was all rather idyllic, apart from the fact that we were playing in what had, for decades, essentially been a forced labour camp.

Run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, High Park Convent was the site of Ireland’s largest Magdalene Laundry. Until well into the twentieth century, girls deemed to be “difficult” – because they were sexually active, or sexually abused, or simply poor – were sent to laundries by their families or the state. Despite having committed no crime, they were not allowed to leave the institutions and were forced to work for no pay, making them literally slaves. Many women spent their entire lives there, remaining long after the actual laundries closed down. They had nowhere else to go.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Enda Kenny does not want to take legal action to force religious orders to contribute to the Magdalene fund.

The Taoiseach played down speculation that the Government will force them to foot up some of their multi-million euro redress scheme for survivors of the institutions.

The scheme is expected to cost between €34.5 million and €58 million, depending on how many women apply.

Mr Kenny said he would like to think they would reconsider their decision but he “can’t force them to”.

He added: “I have no interest in going down the legal route of confrontation with the religious orders.”

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IRELAND
Irish Central

The four religious congregations that ran the Magdalene Laundries have announced they will not contribute to the compensation fund for victims.

The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters have informed Minister for Justice Alan Shatter in recent days that they will not pay into the fund, the Irish Times reports.

However the religious orders said they were willing to cooperate fully with other recommendations made by Mr Justice John Quirke.

In his recent report Quirke recommended that the Irish government pay at least €34.5 million ($45 million) in restitution to laundry survivors.

A spokesperson for Shatter said he was ‘disappointed’ with the decision of the religious orders.

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IRELAND
BBC News

A group representing survivors of the Magdalene laundries has urged the Irish government to cease state funding and strip the religious orders that ran them of their charitable status.

The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters refused to financially compensate the survivors.

Magdalene Survivors Together said it was appalling that the Irish government could not hold the religious orders to account.

“The perpetrators of the crimes and the enormous suffering with which these women have suffered is being made a mockery of by the religious orders,” group spokesperson Steven O’Riordan said.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said he cannot strip the four religious orders who owned the Magdalene Laundries of their charitable status.

It follows their refusal to contribute to the Government’s multimillion euro redress scheme for survivors of the institutions.

Magdalene Survivors Together called on the Government to remove the orders’ charitable status and to cease State funding in response to their decision.

The orders concerned are the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, the Good Shepherd Sisters and the Religious Sisters of Charity.

The nuns have offered to help the women in other ways, such as caring for about 100 of them in residential settings.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Michael O’Regan

The four religious congregations that ran the Magdalene laundries had a “moral and ethical’’ obligation to contribute to the fund to recompense former residents, Minister for Justice and Defence Alan Shatter told the Dáil.

“As I stated, the majority of people outside the House would expect such a contribution and many of the former residents expect such contributions,’’ he said.

“I do not believe anything can be achieved by me as a Minister being abusive of those who are members of these congregations.’’

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he cannot force the religious orders to make a contribution to the redress scheme for former residents of the Magdalene laundries.

Four orders of Catholic nuns – The Good Shepherd Sisters, The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, The Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity – have refused to contribute to the fund, which is expected to cost between €34m and €58m .

Speaking in the Dáil this morning Mr Kenny said he was not going to “get into a fight” with the orders about money, as the survivors don’t have time on their side.

“I would like to think that the religious orders would make a contribution here,” he told the house.

However, he added, “I can’t force them to”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has called on the four religious orders who ran the Magdalene laundries to “reflect” on their refusal to pay into a redress scheme for the survivors.

The four orders have told the Government they will not contribute to the redress scheme set up to compensate the former residents of the laundries. The scheme is expected to cost between €34 million and €58 million.

The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters have informed Minister for Justice Alan Shatter in recent days that they will not pay into the fund.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said he is disappointed with the response of the religious congregations regarding former residents of Magdalene laundries and urged them to reconsider the approach they were taking.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

17 JULY 2013

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has urged religious orders to reconsider contributing funds to a compensation scheme for survivors of the Magdalene laundries.

He repeated claims from Justice Minister Alan Shatter that no legal action could be taken to force the four congregations that ran the workhouses to give financial support – after they refused to pay into the multimillion-euro scheme.

“I would ask them to reflect on the question of a monetary contribution,” Mr Kenny said. “I can’t force them to do that. I can’t take away their charitable status that some have been talking about. This is an issue that they know about themselves and that’s the position.”

More than 210 women who worked in the Catholic-run workhouses have already applied to the compensation programme, which was announced by the Government last month.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

FIONNAN SHEAHAN POLITICAL EDITOR – 17 JULY 2013

THE Government isn’t planning to take legal action against a number of religious orders refusing to contribute to the compensation fund for Magdalene Laundries victims.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter can’t force religious orders to give any funding towards the redress scheme but feels they have a “moral obligation” to assist.

The Coalition is preparing to pay out up to €58m in compensation to Magdalene survivors. And the Government is seeking a financial contribution from four religious congregations involved in running the institutions: The Good Shepherd Sisters, The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, The Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity.

The four orders came back to say they don’t intend to make a contribution. But the Coalition is not examining the option of taking legal action to force some form of payment.

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CALIFORNIA
Chronicle of Philanthropy

Catholic leaders in California are waging a battle to defeat state legislation aimed at giving some alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse additional time to file civil lawsuits against the church, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A church-linked group, the California Council of Nonprofit Organizations, has retained five lobbying firms and spent $75,000 fighting the measure. In a church newspaper last month, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez urged parishioners to contact legislators about the bill, which he said “puts the social services and educational work of the Church at risk.”

California dioceses took no position on a 2002 law that loosened the statute of limitations on molestation claims and have since paid $1.2-billion in settlements. A key provision of the new bill would lift the statute for one year for some accusers who missed previous deadlines.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Jehovah’s Witness leaders ordered to give evidence in sex scandal trial after claiming they had a ‘duty to God not to breach confidence’

By ANNA EDWARDS

Church elders refused to comment on a child abuse scandal because they had a ‘duty to God’ to keep the sex attacker’s confession a secret, a court heard.

Jehovah Witness ministerial servant Gordon Leighton admitted sexually abusing a child when he was confronted with allegations before elders at his church,Newcastle Crown Court heard.

But during the official police investigation the 53-year-old, who hit the headlines in the 1990s when his wife Yvonne, 28, died after refusing a blood transfusion after childbirth on religious grounds, denied any illegal wrongdoing.

When detectives asked elders Simon Preyser, Harry Logan and David Scott to make statements about the confession, all three refused and said what they had heard was confidential.

The elders knew about the admissions for three years, but refused to cooperate with the criminal investigation, the court heard.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky Tyne and Wear

By Kevin Donald

Jehovah’s Witness church elders covered up a child sex scandal in their congregation and refused to co-operate with the police.

Ministerial servant Gordon Leighton admitted sexually abusing a child when he was confronted with allegations before elders at his church.

But during the official police investigation the 53-year-old, who hit the headlines in the 1990s when his wife Yvonne, 28, died after refusing a blood transfusion after childbirth on religious grounds, denied any illegal wrongdoing.

When detectives asked elders Simon Preyser, Harry Logan and David Scott to make statements about the confession, all three refused and said what they had heard was confidential.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Conversation

Philip Gilligan

Last week the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) asked the Vatican to disclose details of child sexual abuse cases involving Catholic clergy for the period November 1995 to January 2014.

According to officials, the aims of the questionnaire include seeking to establish what legal action is taken against “perpetrators of sexual crimes” and what support is provided for victims. However, in England and Wales, as elsewhere, the Church is unlikely to be in any position to answer such questions in sufficient detail to satisfy either the UNCRC or survivors such as those represented by Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS).

During the dozen years since the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales declared it was fully committed to implementing all the recommendations of the Nolan Committee, research suggests there is a large gap between the Church’s rhetoric and the reality of its practice, while systems have been insufficiently robust to collect the information required.

In 2006, MACSAS suggested victims and survivors had not felt listened to, believed or supported, or “helped towards their healing” by the church. In 2011, following a survey of survivors’ experiences, the organisation concluded that victims “continue to be ignored and their needs disregarded by Church”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

An advisor to the former bishop of the Catholic Church in the New South Wales Hunter Valley says he tried to contain child sexual abuse allegations against a priest so he did not hinder the police investigation.

Father James Saunders was the former bishop Michael Malone’s vicar general from 2001.

He has given evidence at the special commission that is investigating claims the Maitland-Newcastle diocese covered-up child sexual abuse by Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

Fr Saunders shared the Belmont parish with McAlinden from about 1981 and said he was warned the priest “might be a difficult man”.

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AUSTRALIA
NSW Police Force

Former Catholic priest charged with 13 additional offences – Strike Force Glenroe

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Police have laid 13 additional charges against a former Catholic priest relating to alleged historical child assault offences.

The 59-year-old man faced Armidale Local Court today (Wednesday 17 July 2013) on charges relating to alleged child-sex offences against six boys and three girls in the 1970s and 1980s.

During his appearance, the man was additionally charged with 13 offences relating to alleged assaults against a boy, aged 12 to 14, between 1981 and 1984 in Moree.

They include nine counts of sexual intercourse without consent and four counts of indecent assault.

In total, the man has been charged with 137 alleged child-sex offences and remains on strict conditional bail.

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AUSTRALIA
Armidate Express

By VICTORIA NUGENT July 17, 2013

A BOOK naming an ex-priest whose identity remains gagged has been submitted to Armidale Local Court during the man’s hearing on child sexual abuse charges.

The non-publication order remains on naming the former priest, 59, who today faced 13 fresh charges.

The book was submitted to Magistrate Karen Stafford by defence solicitor Glen Kee.

He asked the magistrate to consider taking action against the author.

But Magistrate Stafford said she would only consider the matter, although continuing to suppress the identity of the defendant until at least September 4.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

NSW police have laid 13 additional charges against a former Catholic priest relating to alleged historical child assault offences.

They say that the 59-year-old man faced Armidale Local Court on charges relating to alleged child-sex offences against six boys and three girls in the 1970s and 1980s.

‘During his appearance, the man was additionally charged with 13 offences relating to alleged assaults against a boy, aged 12 to 14, between 1981 and 1984 in Moree,’ police said in a statement.

‘They include nine counts of sexual intercourse without consent and four counts of indecent assault.

‘In total, the man has been charged with 137 alleged child-sex offences and remains on strict conditional bail.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Daily Journal

SARAH PARVINI Associated Press
First Posted: July 17, 2013

LOS ANGELES — Tony Quarry suppressed his memories of being abused by a Roman Catholic priest for nearly 30 years and decided to sue only after finding out that his five brothers were molested by the same man — just to discover that it was too late.

The state’s high court ultimately tossed out the brothers’ lawsuit because they missed a special legal window that allowed victims to sue over abuse claims decades after the fact. Their plight, however, has inspired new sex abuse legislation in California a decade after a similar bill cost the church hundreds of millions in civil settlements.

“I still believed in the tooth fairy when these things happened to me,” Quarry, 51, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday. “It’s a good thing for these other people to have the opportunity to step forward.”

Like the previous law, Senate Bill 131 would permit many victims who would otherwise be unable to file a civil suit due to time and age restrictions — like the Quarry brothers — to sue their abuser’s employer in civil court.

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FLORIDA
WPTV

By: Brian Entin
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A spokesman with the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office says they received a new search warrant and investigators are going over the new evidence that could lead to more charges for former Rosarian Academy teacher Stephen Budd.

According to West Palm Beach Police, they found dozens of child porn images on a hard drive in Budd’s car after he was arrested in April on sex charges involving two nine year old girls.

Now, new allegations are surfacing from his own daughter.

According to the search warrant from June, Budd’s daughter told police her father “would do things to her friends that she knew were wrong and made her uncomfortable.”

According to the search warrant, she told police while she was in high school and living with her father in Boynton Beach, her dad made one of her ninth grade friends dance for him in a Catholic School uniform inappropriately touching herself while Budd video taped it.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

BOB WEBER / THE CANADIAN PRESS
JULY 16, 2013

Recently published historical research says hungry aboriginal children and adults were once used as unwitting subjects in nutritional experiments by Canadian government bureaucrats.

“This was the hardest thing I’ve ever written,” said Ian Mosby, who has revealed new details about one of the least-known but perhaps most disturbing aspects of government policy toward aboriginals immediately after the Second World War.

Mosby — whose work at the University of Guelph focuses on the history of food in Canada — was researching the development of health policy when he ran across something strange.

“I started to find vague references to studies conducted on ‘Indians’ that piqued my interest and seemed potentially problematic, to say the least,” he said. “I went on a search to find out what was going on.”

Government documents eventually revealed a long-standing, government-run experiment that came to span the entire country and involved at least 1,300 aboriginals, most of them children. …

The research spread. In 1947, plans were developed for research on about 1,000 hungry aboriginal children in six residential schools in Port Alberni, B.C., Kenora, Ont., Schubenacadie, N.S., and Lethbridge, Alta.

One school deliberately held milk rations for two years to less than half the recommended amount to get a ‘baseline’ reading for when the allowance was increased. At another, children were divided into one group that received vitamin, iron and iodine supplements and one that didn’t.

One school depressed levels of vitamin B1 to create another baseline before levels were boosted. A special enriched flour that couldn’t legally be sold elsewhere in Canada under food adulteration laws was used on children at another school.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Senior members of the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church are today expected to front an inquiry into claims the diocese covered-up abuse by two paedophile priests.

The Special Commission has heard that members of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese knew about the abuse of Denis McAlinden for 50 years but did not tell police until 2003.

The inquiry was set up last year after senior policeman Peter Fox claimed the Church tried to protect McAlinden and another Hunter Valley priest, James Fletcher.

The public hearings will continue in Newcastle this morning after the former bishop, Michael Malone, gave further evidence in-camera yesterday.

Father James Saunders, a former advisor to bishop Malone, is scheduled to give evidence followed by Father William Burston and Monsignor Allan Hart.

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CHILE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA BLAINE ON JULY 16, 2013

Judge Juan Manuel Munoz from the Appeals Court in Santiago, Chile has decided to move forward with a pre-lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Santiago and predator priest Fernando Karadima.

In January 2011, Karadima was found guilty of sexual abuse after at least four men came forward with accusations that they had been abused as minors. The statute of limitations prevent Karadima from serving a jail sentence but he was forced from ministry to retire to “a life of prayer and penitence.”

[New York Times]

The purpose of the pre-lawsuit is to find out the level of involvement and the cover up provided by Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati and most of the members of the Chilean Catholic hierarchy who reportedly knew about the abuse as early as 1958 yet said and did nothing about it over the past four decades. Victims believe the investigation will also focus on the four bishops who came from Karadima’s inner circle and, according to court documents and witness accounts, knew of and witnessed Karadima’s abuse yet remained silent. These bishops are Juan Barros, Andrés Arteaga, Tomislav Koljatic and Horacio Valenzuela.

Church officials who were reckless with the safety of children should be held accountable. They should not be allowed to keep their positions of authority if they have misused it. Protecting the Chilean children should be the highest priority of the court and the church. If the investigation shows disregard for the safety of children we hope those who covered up and enabled the crimes will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Victims believe that the church officials who could have intervened to prevent additional abuse and sexual violence refused to do so. In addition, it appears that the same church officials also refused to help victims in need. Lastly, we are disappointed that Pope Francis selected Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz to be a part of the committee chosen to develop ways of reforming the Catholic Church. Considering his track record of putting the interest of predators and reputations ahead of the best interests of children we question the wisdom of this decision.

Now, more than ever, it is important that anyone with information speaks up. We urge anyone who experienced, saw or suspects wrongdoing by Karadima to report it to police immediately. If anyone knows about the involvement of Cardinal Errazuriz and Archbishop Ezzati or any other bishop please speak up so they will be held accountable and children will be safer.

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NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

By Doni Bloomfield
Published July 16, 2013.

Yeshiva University’s credit rating has been downgraded by a major ratings agency amid large and growing deficits, a falling endowment and fears of costly litigation stemming from recent allegations of sexual abuse at its high school.

Moody’s downgraded Y.U.’s debt from A2 to Baa1, putting it below the median credit rating for similar institutions.

The agency says that the litigation prospects of the alleged sexual abuse victims will largely determine if the debt is downgraded further.

Since its peak in 2007 Y.U.’s endowment has cratered, falling 45%, doing handily worse than the stock market. Y.U.’s reliance on hedge funds, in particular, has been extremely damaging. It was also slammed by the financial crisis and damaged by its entanglement with Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scam.

Meanwhile, the federal lawsuit filed last week by former students at Y.U.’s affiliated high school, alleging administrative negligence in response to abuse they suffered there, is demanding over $380 million in damages. According to Moody’s the attendant publicity may have large consequences for Yeshiva’s fundraising efforts.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

ST. LOUIS (KMOX)– The Archdiocese is responding to criticism that it was apparently showing public support for a priest accused of sexual abuse.

The Survivors Network of those Accused by Priests held a news conference saying it was wrong for church officials to call a prayer meeting for the “exoneration” of Father Joseph Jiang. Jiang has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor, and with witness tampering for allegedly leaving a check for $20,000 on the windshield of a car belonging to the family of the alleged victim.

“There was supposed to have been a prayer vigil for Father Jiang for his ‘exoneration,’” said SNAP spokeswoman Judy Jones, “This priest has been arrested, and charged for sexually abusing a minor, a girl under the age of seventeen.”

Jones says the gesture in support of the priest would have a “chilling” effect on victims of clergy abuse, making them feel the church gives the benefit of the doubt to accused priests.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Judy Jones of St. Louis, Assistant Midwest Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 974 5003, SNAPjudy@gmail.com )

Those who commit child sex crimes are sick. They largely cannot help themselves.

Those who publicly back child sex offenders, however, are even more morally culpable. They deliberately choose to act in ways that hurt children. They should be ashamed of themselves.

This includes a group of young adults at the Cathedral parish. Tonight they were to hold a prayer service for Fr. Joseph Jiang. Fr. Jiang is accused of repeatedly molesting a girl last year. He’s been arrested and charged

[Riverfront Times]

These parishioners were not praying for “justice to be done.” They weren’t praying “for the truth to emerge.” They weren’t praying for “all parties involved.” They were praying for an arrested, charged and credibly accused predator priest’s “defense and exoneration.”

Shame on them.

And shame on their pastor, who claims he didn’t know what was happening at his parish. Frankly, we find this hard to believe, especially since this event was apparently planned for months.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

More than 210 women who worked in the Catholic-run workhouses have already applied to the multi-million euro compensation scheme announced by the Government last month.

Mr Shatter revealed he met with the four religious congregations who ran the workhouses – The Good Shepherd Sisters, The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, The Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity – about the redress scheme.

“Regrettably, all four religious congregations have informed us that they do not intend to make a financial contribution,” said Mr Shatter.

“I regard their response as very disappointing.

“It is my view that the congregations have a moral obligation to make a reasonable contribution to the fund required under the scheme and that view is shared by my Cabinet colleagues.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Messenger

UPDATE: St Ambrose College statement after former teacher charged with 47 sexual assaults on pupils

A FORMER teacher has been charged following an investigation in historic sexual abuse at St Ambrose College, in Hale Barns.

Alan Morris, aged 63, has been charged with 47 sexual offences against pupils at the school. from the 1970s to 1990s.

Morris, of Rivington Road, Hale, was a teacher at the school at the time.

The allegations involve 29 former pupils of the boys-only school, who were aged between 11 and 17 at the time.

John Dilworth, head of the CPS North West complex casework unit, said: “Following investigations by Greater Manchester Police into allegations that Alan Morris, a former teacher at St Ambrose School, sexually assaulted pupils at the school between 1972 and 1991, I have reviewed all the evidence that they have gathered and have authorised the police to charge him with 41 offences of indecent assault on a male, one charge of outraging public decency and five charges of inciting gross indecency with a child.”

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

A FORMER priest facing historic child sex abuse charges will appear in Armidale Local Court today.

The 59-year-old man, who cannot be named under a non-publication order, is facing 125 child sex abuse charges, of which 61 relate to the alleged sexual abuse of three girls and six boys during the 1970s and 1980s.

A further 64 offences relate to the alleged abuse of a further two girls and one altar boy in Moree and Armidale in the early 1980s.

The man’s bail conditions prevent him from visiting Armidale except for legal or medical reasons.

He is also forbidden to approach Crown witnesses, his accusers or people aged under 16.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 16

Statement by Mary Caplan of Manhattan, NY area director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 917 439 418, mcaplan@aol.com )

Last week, a United Nations committee requested information from the Vatican about clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

It’s a straightforward and reasonable request. But it’s also an historic and encouraging request.

It’s historic because, until now, no truly independent, international body has ever really sought extensive information from high-ranking Catholic officials about this on-going crisis.

It’s encouraging because it may prod other secular authorities – especially at the international level – to take similar steps to document, investigate, or prevent more violence by Catholic clerics against innocent children and vulnerable adults. And it’s encouraging because it may indicate that the long standing and dangerous preferential treatment of Catholic officials by secular officials is slowly waning.

We urge Pope Francis to provide this information and meet this deadline. He seems to be the master of symbolic gestures. But symbolic gestures don’t protect kids. Tangible, courageous action protects kids.

Others in the Vatican will no doubt pressure the pontiff to do as church officials have always done and resist anything that even seems like external oversight. We hope those well-entrenched, reactionary forces won’t prevail. We predict, however, that they will.

The UN’s request is a simple one. Pope Francis presents himself as a simple man. And he’s carefully fostering an image as a reformer. But kids don’t need an image of reform. They need real reform.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 16

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

According to today’s LA Times, California Catholic officials are waging an expensive lobbying campaign against a bill that would expose predators, help victims, protect kids and deter wrongdoing.

[Los Angeles Times]

Since the early 1990s, America’s bishops have claimed they’ve adopted tough new procedures, policies and protocols to prevent abuse. If that’s true, why are they now still so dreadfully afraid of child sex abuse and cover up cases.

Here’s why the bill focuses on private institutions, not public ones: because that’s where the problem largely is. When abuse happens in a public school, a parent can file a Freedom of Information Act request, speak up at a school board meeting, campaign against board members, run for the board, and fight against bond issues and tax levies. So there are some “checks and balances” and some avenues for redress.

When abuse happens in a private school, no such remedies exist. And private schools depend heavily on their reputations so are more apt to cover up abuse cases.

Once real strides are made to clean up private institutions, we hope lawmakers will focus more on public institutions.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

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

A former priest and registered sex offender has resurfaced at a non-profit in Wilkes-Barre. Robert Timchak works for In The Gap, a group that helps turns vacant lots into residential buildings.

This is why we urge bishops to post the names of proven, admitted, and credibly accused child molesting clerics on their website so that neighbors, friends and prospective employers can be warned about potentially dangerous employees.

We urge anyone with more information about this or any other case to please come forward so that predators are not allowed to be employed within communities near children.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

NCR Editorial Staff | Jul. 16, 2013

EDITORIAL
The Vatican bank, officially known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, is scandal-plagued and has been for years. Pope Benedict XVI took important steps in bringing reform to the bank, not the least of which was insisting that the Vatican follow the international standards set by Moneyval, the European anti-money-laundering agency. Moneyval reviewed Vatican financial procedures last year and will return in 2014 to see if the mandated improvements have been made. For example, Moneyval insisted the Vatican establish an independent Financial Information Authority with the power to investigate suspicious transactions. This agency is headed by René Brülhart, a highly respected Swiss lawyer and expert in the field who in May revealed more than a dozen suspicious activities since 2011. That is real progress.

At the time of his election, Pope Francis received a clear mandate from the College of Cardinals to move the reform ahead faster and further. Francis has said he wants “to allow Gospel principles to permeate [the church’s] economic and financial activities, too.”

We applaud these efforts and encourage a thorough examination of the Vatican bank’s processes and practices.

The resignations of a director and deputy director of the Vatican bank and the arrest of Msgr. Nunzio Scarano underscore the importance of a speedy, efficient housecleaning. But obstacles may impede this cleaning.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Groups representing survivors of the the Magdalene Laundries have criticised religious congregations that owned laundries for their refusal to contribute towards the redress fund for survivors.

London-based Irish Womens Survivors Network Sally Mulready said she was concerned that survivors would feel that the nuns were saying that they did not think much of the women’s plight.

Magdalenes Survivors Together spokesman Stephen O’Riordan said he was flabbergasted by the refusal given that the orders of nuns concerned were responsible for most of the injustice suffered by the women detained in the institutions.

The four orders of nuns have said that they will contribute to the support package for the women in other ways including caring for about 100 of the women.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Sinn Féin has sought a Dáil debate on the refusal of the four religious orders that ran the Magdalene Laundries to make a financial contribution towards the redress scheme put in place for the survivors.

The four religious congregations have told the Government they will not make any financial contribution to the multimillion-euro fund set up to recompense former residents.

The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters have informed Minister for Justice Alan Shatter in recent days that they will not pay into the fund, which could cost up to €58 million.

It is understood they have said they are willing to assist fully in all other aspects of the package recommended by Mr Justice John Quirke in his recent report, including the assembly of records and looking after former residents who remain in their care.

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UNITED STATES
Village Voice

[MYTHS OF THE MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES – Catholic League]

By Anna Merlan Tue., Jul. 16 2013

So, what’s perpetually aggrieved Catholic League president Bill Donohue mad about this week? Is it gay people? Is it the “bizarre” notion of gay people getting married? Is it all those gay priests sneaking into the Catholic Church (who are the real problem over there, in Donohue’s mind anyway, rather than all that child abuse)?

The man has a bit of a theme, is what we’re saying. But Donohue switched gears yesterday, taking time away from his busy schedule of gay-hating and light art criticism to declare, bizarrely, that Ireland’s infamous Magdalene Laundries were “a myth” and “a lie.”

In case you’re not up on your Irish history, the Magadalene Laundries were workhouses where women and girls were incarcerated, starting from the late 18th century and continuing till the middle of the 20th. Inhabitants of the laundries were referred to as “penitents.” Contrary to popular belief, one that was helped along by a Hollywood movie about the laundries, they weren’t solely meant for unmarried pregnant women or prostitutes; some of their inhabitants were also neglected children, some as young as nine or 10, referred by social service agencies. Women with minor criminal convictions were also sent to the laundries. And some of their inhabitants were simply desperately poor and voluntarily committed themselves. (You can see a few surviving photos of a typical laundry and its inhabitants here.)

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FLORIDA
CBS 12

WEST PALM BEACH – A former private school teacher in West Palm Beach who was arrested on sex charges involving two girls could soon face charges of possession of child pornography.

Authorities say they found images on Stephen Budd’s hard drive which contained 41 images of child pornography and 19 videos containing more than two-hours of sexual abuse.

The 51 year old was arrested in April for allegedly offering two girls in his class candy in exchange for sex acts.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Prayer event for arrested priest is cancelled, SNAP Responds
Victims want pastor & organizer disciplined
They tell Carlson: Stop tolerating hurtful actions
Group blasts archdiocese’s “good cop-bad cop” routine
SNAP: “Archbishop takes ‘high road,’ but his staff & flock attack victims”

What
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will disclose that a Cathedral prayer event, for the “defense and exoneration” of an arrested local predator priest, was just cancelled.

Victims will urge St. Louis’ archbishop to

–punish the layman who organized it and pastor who approved it, and

–teach his flock about how to act appropriately when child sex charges surface.

They will also prod:

–anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered the priest’s crimes to contact law enforcement immediately, and

–parishioners and the public to keep open minds and avoid taking actions and making comments that might discourage any other victims, witnesses or whistleblowers from stepping forward.

When
Tuesday, July 16 at 1:00 p.m.

Where
On the sidewalk outside the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, Lindell & Newstead in the CWE

Who
Two-three victims of clergy sex crimes who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

Why
For weeks or months, the Cathedral Young Adults group planned an event to “offer our prayers for the Defense and Exoneration” of Fr. Xiu Hui Joseph Jiang.” It was to be held tonight but was cancelled late yesterday after a reporter asked Archbishop Robert Carlson’s public relations staff about it.

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ITALIA
Blitz quotidiano

Don Mantia patteggiò per abusi su minori: ora in oratorio, genitori insorgono

CREMONA – Don Luigi Mantia ha patteggiato una pena di due anni per abusi sui minori. Il reato gli fu contestato a Martignana Po, in provincia di Cremona, nel 2009. Oggi, dopo il patteggiamento dello scorso febbraio, don Mantia sostituisce il parroco di Pumenengo e i suoi parrocchiani sono tranquilli e bendisposti nei suoi confronti. Ma l’idea che don Mantia frequenti l’oratorio e possa partecipare ad una gita a Zambla con i ragazzi ha scatenato le polemiche, mentre la Curia rassicura: “Non andrà”.

Giuliana Ubbiali e Pietro Tosca spiegano sul Corriere della Sera che il polverone si scatena quando all’oratorio di Casirate d’Adda, che organizzava una gita a Zambla, si diffonde la voce che parteciperà anche il prete “in prestito a Pumenengo”:

“Qualche genitore si informa e apprende che è don Luigi Mantia. Scoppia il polverone, perché è il sacerdote che il 26 febbraio ha patteggiato due anni (pena sospesa) per atti sessuali con minorenni, due bambini di 8 e 12 anni”.

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ITALIA
la Repubblica

Don Luigi Mantia aveva patteggiato due anni (pena sospesa) per abusi su due bambini: ora gli è stata affidata a titolo provvisiorio la parrocchia di Casirate d’Adda. La curia: “Non andrà in montagna con i ragazzi”

Il 26 febbraio scorso aveva patteggiato due anni, con pena sospesa, per atti sessuali con minorenni, due bambini di otto e 12 anni. A meno di cinque mesi di distanza don Luigi Mantia è in servizio all’oratorio di Casirate d’Adda, paese della Bassa bergamasca dove i genitori dei ragazzi che frequentano la struttura hanno sollevato un polverone dopo aver appreso che anche il sacerdote avrebbe partecipato, da lunedì prossimo, alla vacanza dei loro figli in montagna a Zambla.

In realtà don Luigi, che abita al santuario di Caravaggio, è in servizio a Pumenengo, sempre in provincia di Bergamo, ma ‘in prestito’, visto che il parroco è andato in pensione a maggio e il successore arriverà a settembre. Alle accuse don Luigi ha sempre replicato di essere innocente e di aver voluto patteggiare solo per chiudere la vicenda prima possibile, mentre dalla curia di Cremona (Casirate, Pumenengo e Caravaggio, pur in provincia di Bergamo, appartengono a quella diocesi) spiegano che il sacerdote non andrà in vacanza a Zambla. Ma la polemica è ormai scoppiata a Casirate, dove il sacerdote ha contatti con i ragazzi dell’oratorio proprio come a Pumenengo.

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