ABUSE TRACKER

NEW HAMPSHIRE
ABC News

By LYNNE TUOHY Associated Press

New Hampshire’s highest court on Wednesday rejected a new trial for a man convicted of raping and impregnating a 15-year-old member of his church, a case that gained national attention because the church’s pastor made the teen apologize to the congregation.

Ernest Willis was convicted in May 2011 of raping the girl in 1997. His lawyer argued that statements he made to the pastor of the fundamentalist Trinity Baptist Church should not have been used against him. But prosecutors countered that Willis’ statements were not protected by religious privilege because they involved the sexual abuse of a child.

Willis’ lawyer, chief appellate public defender Christopher Johnson, said he had no comment on the unanimous ruling by the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

Jurors at Willis’ trial heard testimony by former Trinity Baptist Church pastor Charles Phelps that Willis told him that he was “the aggressor” and that there were two instances of sexual assault — one during driving lessons he was giving the girl, Tina Anderson — and again at her apartment a month later. The Associated Press does not typically identify victims of sexual assault, but Anderson wanted her name publicized to highlight church abuse and has discussed her case on nationally televised shows.

The justices noted that all 50 states have laws protecting the confidence of clergy-parishioner communications, but New Hampshire is one of six states that revokes that privilege in its child abuse reporting statutes.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

We had expressed our opinion on this subject once, but of course, the powers that be in the Maltese Church took no notice of us.

The Curia’s legal representatives recently made their submissions in court in reference to the abuse of boys at the St Joseph’s Home. Just as Bishop Scicluna had claimed right from the start of his appointment, the Church’s legal team said its client is not legally responsible for the (pedophile) crimes committed by ordained and practicing Churchmen. It said that while it sympathized with the victims, the Church does not intend to pay any compensation. This is an ugly scene, a very ugly one.

We can think of no other country in the world where Church leaders tried this argument and got away with it. The defendants would have been laughed right out of court with such an argument, which is why no other diocese used this sort of argument and why many have bankrupted themselves in paying out compensation, rather than try it. Can we say that it is only in Malta that Church finances outweigh all other considerations?

Around the world, faced with charges and accusations from victims who told of infinite pain they suffered, the Church suffered a huge loss of face. Popes, such as Pope Benedict and even Pope Francis have been scathing in their condemnation of the crimes committed by priests and have apologized to the victims, in some cases, as happened in Malta, the Pope personally to the victims.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho August 19, 2013

The Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, has agreed to pay $1.35 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that Archbishop John J. Myers–who served there as bishop from 1990 to 2001–failed to remove a priest from ministry despite having evidence that he had abused a minor. (Myers, you’ll recall, has come in for some criticism regarding his handling of accused priests in his current diocese, Newark.)

The plaintiff, Andrew Ward, now twenty-five, accused the late Rev. Thomas Maloney of molesting him in 1995 and ’96, when Ward was eight. About a year earlier, a woman informed the diocese that Maloney had abused her sister when she was ten years old. Myers denies knowing anything about it. Indeed, if anything comes through in the 2010 deposition of Myers, just unsealed as part of the settlement, it’s that the archbishop’s memory is less than ideal.

For example, Myers doesn’t remember much about the generous gifts Maloney gave him over the years (starting in the late 1980s, apparently). Does he recall receiving Maloney’s own “precious” camera? No. What about gold coins? Sort of. The silver object so large “it could be tied around one’s neck like the proverbial millstone,” as Myers desrcibed it to Maloney in a thank-you note? Hard to say.

Now, it’s not unusual for priests to give gifts to their bishop following confirmations. Such offerings usually amount to $1 per child, rarely totaling more than $500. But many bishops set up trusts to receive such funds for later disbursemet to charity. Myers apparently used them to cover personal expenses–including his mother’s health care, his vacations, and his trips to the track.) (SEE UPDATE BELOW.)

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The U.S. has criticised Pope Francis for not having replaced the Vatican Secretary of State yet

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“We also wanted someone with good managerial skills and leadership skills, and so far that hasn’t been as obvious.” This is what the Archbishop of New York and American papal candidate, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, had to say about Pope Francis at World Youth Day in Rio a few weeks ago. The cardinal voiced this rather frank criticism during an interview with Vatican correspondent John Allen, published on the National Catholic Register website last 24 July.

Basically, one of the most media-friendly protagonists of the last Conclave that elected Bergoglio to the Throne of Peter just four months ago has said that Francis, the Argentinean Pope “from the other side of the world” has not been enough of a “manager”. In his comment, Dolan was particularly referring to the fact that the Vatican Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, has not been replaced yet. Bertone, who was Benedict XVI’s right hand man, was widely criticised during the pre-Conclave discussions. “I would expect that after the summer lull, we’ll see some more signs of management changes,” Cardinal Dolan added, after stating that he had expected the replacement to happen before the summer, as many had wrongly predicted.

Dolan’s comment is completely separate from other statements made by top figures in the U.S. Catholic Church, such as the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, who admitted he was quite disappointed Francis was elected Pope by “members of the right wing of the Catholic Church” in an interview with the National Catholic Register. Many websites and blogs had the same reaction. Unlike certain conservative and traditionalist circles, the Archbishop of New York does not complain about such things as the little changes made to the liturgy, about the current Pope’s simple style or about the fact he has not repeatedly stressed the Church’s well-known position with regard to abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality. But Dolan has not hidden his dissatisfaction regarding Francis’ failure so far to act as a real “manager” – a typically American concern.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santiago, Dominican Republic.- The Santiago Office of the Prosecutor on Tuesday declared Polish priest Wojciech Gil (Alberto) a fugitive, on charges that he sexually abused three children in the Janico community of Juncalito.

Santiago prosecutor Luisa Liranzo said the Justice Ministry awaits the 4th Instruction Court to evaluate the charges, to then seek the priest’s extradition from Poland.

She said the court was petitioned after the Catholic priest allegedly fled to Poland and the ensuing difficulties to expedite the return.

Although the scandal broke in late May, the case had faded from public attention, despite attempts to get the Catholic Church to secure the return of the prelate who worked in the community for eight years.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on August 21, 2013

Last weekend’s letter from Newark Archbishop John J. Myers regarding his handling of sexual abuse cases is so crowded with falsehoods and insults that it’s difficult to know where to begin.

What’s most revealing is what is missing: There’s not a single word of sympathy for the victims and their families. Myers instead insults them by suggesting they are blaming the church for problems in their own families. “One can understand when family difficulties lead parents, even by conjecture, to blame someone outside the family,” he wrote. “But conjecture is no reason to undermine the Ministry of individual Priests (or Bishops for that matter.)”

It boggles the mind that in 2013 an archbishop would dare speak of families like this. But it is vintage Myers. While many bishops are working hard to rehabilitate the church, he offers only haughty disdain for those who question his judgment.

This time, he calls his critics “evil, wrong, and immoral” and suggests that they may burn in hell: “God will surely address them in due time.”

The latest damning information comes from a lawsuit the church recently settled for $1.35 million. It accuses Myers of ignoring a credible accusation against a priest on his watch. The lawsuit claimed that the Rev. Thomas Maloney went on to repeatedly abuse an 8-year-old boy.

In his deposition, Myers says he never saw written warnings that went to the diocese, perhaps because of his “slipshod” filing system. If that were true, if it was an innocent mistake, you would expect Myers to offer a heartfelt apology to the victim and his family for his failure to red-flag these cases. Instead, he has refused for years to meet with them.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2013

NEWARK ARCHBISHOP John J. Myers does not like criticism. In an Aug. 15 letter to priests of his archdiocese, Myers declared that those who question his or the Catholic Church’s role in protecting children are “simply evil, wrong, immoral, and seemingly focused on their own self-aggrandizement.”

Myers has the advantage of being in a job not affected by popular opinion or newspaper editorials. Only Pope Francis can remove him from his position in Newark.

The archbishop is miffed that the media, politicians and, yes, the children victimized by clergy, most of them now adults, and their families continue to demand answers and accountability from him. The sexual abuse of minors by clergy is not a myth or the brainchild of anti-Catholic publicity seekers. The U.S. bishops have acknowledged that too many predator priests were allowed to emotionally scar the children they were ordained to protect because too many bishops put the image of the institutional church ahead of the image of the man upon whom that church was founded.

Myers, before coming to Newark, was the bishop of Peoria, Ill. That diocese reached a $1.35 million settlement, announced last week, with a man who claimed he had been molested by a priest in 1996, a month after the diocese received a complaint from a woman claiming to have been abused as a child by the same priest. Myers denies any knowledge of that woman’s complaint and said the diocese may have lost it because of a “slipshod filing system.”

His explanation is slipshod as well. In New Jersey, the Newark Archdiocese entered into an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office that barred a priest who had been convicted of groping a minor from having future contact with minors. The conviction had been overturned because of a judicial error; the agreement with county law enforcement was supposed to keep the priest, Michael Fugee, away from children. That did not occur. Myers did not take responsibility for that either. But the archdiocese’s second-in-command, Monsignor John E. Doran, resigned in the wake of the scandal.

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VATICAN CITY
The Australian

JOHN FOLLAIN, IN ROME From: The Sunday Times August 19, 2013

WITH her film-star looks, flowing hair and leather jacket provocatively unzipped, Francesca Chaouqui cuts an unusual figure alongside the elderly men who run the Catholic church.

But when the 27-year-old public relations consultant was appointed to a key Vatican commission last month, the step was hailed as a symbol of Pope Francis’s determination to bring in fresh blood.

Last week, however, the unconventional choice turned into an embarrassment for the Argentine Pontiff as attention focused on a series of tweets sent from Ms Chaouqui’s account in the months before her nomination – including one in which Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, was labelled as “corrupt”.

The row has exposed a Vatican power-struggle appearing to pit the Pope, whose vision is of “a poor church, for the poor”, against the Roman Curia, the bureaucracy that has been tainted by scandals over corruption, pedophilia and cronyism.

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NEW JERSEY
Radio Vatikan

Der Erzbischof von Newark, John Joseph Myers, hat sich in einem Brief zu der Kritik an seinem Umgang mit den Vorwürfen des sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester in seiner früheren Diözese Illinois geäußert. In dem Brief an Geistliche verteidigt sich der Erzbischof im Falle eines Mannes, der das Bistum Peoria, in dem Myers von 1990-2001 als Bischof tätig war, verklagt hat. Die Aussage, in der der Mann einen Priester wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs beschuldigt, war in der vergangenen Woche veröffentlicht worden. Wie die Nachrichtenagentur AP am Dienstag mitteilte, bestreitet Erzbischof Myers, von den Vorwürfen gegen den Priester gewusst zu haben. In dem Brief schreibt er, dass Kinder niemals einem Risiko ausgesetzt sein sollten. Er bezeichnete die Vorwürfe seiner Kritiker und der Medien, die verbreiten würden, dass er Kinder nicht schützen würde, als „böse, falsch und unmoralisch“.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

During the course of a private meeting Benedict XVI said that a mystical experience led him to resign

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“God told me to.” This was Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s reason for stepping down from the pontificate. An anonymous individual who visited Ratzinger about a week ago gave a statement recounting what was said during the private meeting, Catholic news agency Zenit reports.

Ratzinger’s decision to stay out of the limelight still raises many questions, six months after the shock announcement of his resignation, Zenit says. One person was lucky enough to hear the reasons for this decision from Ratzinger’s very lips. Although the Pope Emeritus lives a cloistered life, he does very occasionally accept highly private visits in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican which is his current residence.

During these meetings, the former Pope does not comment, reveal secrets or make any statements that may weigh on the new pontificate as “the words that were said by the other Pope.” He is as discreet as he has always been. At most, all he does is observe the wonders that the Holy Spirit is doing through his successor, or he talks about himself and about how his decision to resign was the result of divine inspiration.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Sam Levin
Wed., Aug. 21 2013

Last month, a Lincoln county family filed a lawsuit against St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson alleging that he tried to cover up a sex abuse case involving a local priest and even attempted to tamper with incriminating evidence. The priest in question is Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang who reportedly has very close ties to Carlson — and who is accused of repeatedly molesting a teenage girl.

Now, Carlson has filed a formal response to the suit, asking the courts to dismiss it, arguing that neither he nor the Archdiocese of St. Louis is liable.

Victims’ rights advocates say this move is not surprising but still troubling. “It’s like no matter what the facts are or what the allegations are, his response is stunningly uniform: ‘You can’t hold me responsible,'” David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, tells Daily RFT.

SNAP, along with the attorneys representing the accuser, say the case against Jiang and the Archdiocese is unique for several reasons. Notably, the accusations refer to very recent incidents; Jiang, according to the suit, molested the girl several times last year and admitted his actions to the victims’ parents in June of 2012. The suit also says notes clear evidence of the abuse — including text messages from Jiang who allegedly tried to pay off the family.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Reporter

Archbishop Chaput has decided to market six nursing homes and one assisted living facility — Lansdale’s Saint Mary Manor is among them — operated by Catholic Health Care Services for potential sale. He has also decided to pursue a possible outsourced management and leasing agreement for the 11 active Archdiocesan cemeteries and two sites designated for future cemetery development.

This July, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia published audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012. The financial statements disclosed a $39.2 million operating deficit for that period as well as several very significant and ongoing balance sheet issues that measure in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since his arrival in Philadelphia nearly two years ago, Archbishop Chaput has repeatedly expressed his commitment to financial transparency and prudent stewardship of the resources of the Archdiocese. Beginning last summer, a series of steps were taken to begin to remedy Archdiocesan fiscal challenges. The Archbishop’s residence along with a property in Ventnor, New Jersey, were both sold to provide necessary immediate cash flow. Many other actions followed including a reduction of 25 percent of the workforce at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in order to stem the operating deficit. Additionally, an evaluation of various Archdiocesan real estate assets and operating entities was undertaken. This evaluation focused on assets that could potentially be used to remedy the balance sheet issues. None of those measures were taken lightly, but all were essential to maintaining the presence of the Catholic Church in the Philadelphia region and the good works accomplished through its various ministries.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By PATTI MENGERS
pmengers@delcotimes.com

Officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia are marketing St. Francis Country House in Darby for potential sale along with five other nursing homes and one assisted-living facility operated by Catholic Health Care Services in an effort to defray a multimillion-dollar operating deficit.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said Tuesday he may also hire private contractors to manage and operate Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery in Upper Chichester, St. Michael’s Cemetery in Chester, SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Marple, eight other archdiocesan cemeteries and two sites targeted for future cemeteries in Bucks and Chester counties to try and save money.

“Our difficult financial situation must be addressed and the actions that we need to take may be painful ones. I understand this fact fully, but it is of critical importance that we rebuild our financial foundation so that we can continue our collective good works,” said Chaput in a prepared statement.

Audited financial statements published by the archdiocese in July revealed a $39.2 million operating deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, “as well as several very significant and ongoing balance sheet issues that measure in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to a press release.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

These potential actions follow the recent release of the Archdiocesan financial report and seek to rebuild a solid financial foundation for the Church of Philadelphia

Contextual Background

This July, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia published audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012. The financial statements disclosed a $39.2 million operating deficit for that period as well as several very significant and ongoing balance sheet issues that measure in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since his arrival in Philadelphia nearly two years ago, Archbishop Chaput has repeatedly expressed his commitment to financial transparency and prudent stewardship of the resources of the Archdiocese. Beginning last summer, a series of steps were taken to begin to remedy Archdiocesan fiscal challenges. The Archbishop’s residence along with a property in Ventnor, New Jersey, were both sold to provide necessary immediate cash flow. Many other actions followed including a reduction of 25% of the workforce at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in order to stem the operating deficit. Additionally, an evaluation of various Archdiocesan real estate assets and operating entities was undertaken. This evaluation focused on assets that could potentially be used to remedy the balance sheet issues. None of those measures were taken lightly, but all were essential to maintaining the presence of the Catholic Church in the Philadelphia region and the good works accomplished through its various ministries.

Background Regarding Today’s Announcement

Among the operating entities evaluated were Catholic Health Care Services and the Office of Catholic Cemeteries, which have both been well managed for many years. As a result, Archbishop Chaput has decided to market the six nursing homes and one assisted living facility operated by Catholic Health Care Services for potential sale. He has also decided to pursue a possible outsourced management and leasing agreement for the 11 active Archdiocesan cemeteries and two sites designated for future cemetery development.

In making this announcement, Archbishop Chaput said, “Our difficult financial situation must be addressed and the actions that we need to take may be painful ones. I understand this fact fully, but it is of critical importance that we rebuild our financial foundation so that we can continue our collective good works.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, August 21, 2013

In an aggressive move to help remedy its deep financial woes, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Tuesday that it had put its six nursing homes up for sale.

The archdiocese also said it would attempt to lease out 11 cemeteries and two parcels that could be used as cemeteries.

In addition, the archdiocese said it would try to outsource the management of the cemeteries, a move that could cut costs and increase revenue.

“Our difficult financial situation must be addressed and the actions that we need to take may be painful ones,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said in a news release.

“I understand this fact fully, but it is of critical importance that we rebuild our financial foundation so that we can continue our collective good works.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Main Line

By PATTI MENGERS
pmengers@21st-centurymedia.com

Officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia are marketing St. Francis Country House in Darby for potential sale along with five other nursing homes and one assisted-living facility operated by Catholic Health Care Services in an effort to defray a multimillion-dollar operating deficit.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said Tuesday he may also hire private contractors to manage and operate Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery in Upper Chichester, St. Michael’s Cemetery in Chester, SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Marple, eight other archdiocesan cemeteries and two sites targeted for future cemeteries in Bucks and Chester counties to try and save money.

“Our difficult financial situation must be addressed and the actions that we need to take may be painful ones. I understand this fact fully, but it is of critical importance that we rebuild our financial foundation so that we can continue our collective good works,” said Chaput in a prepared statement.

Audited financial statements published by the archdiocese in July revealed a $39.2 million operating deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, “as well as several very significant and ongoing balance sheet issues that measure in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to a press release.

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NORWAY
News in English

August 21, 2013

A Catholic priest employed by the diocese in Oslo has been defrocked and charged with assault after admitting to having had sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl in Bergen. Oslo Bishop Bernt Eidsvig went public with the case on Tuesday, despite objections from police in Bergen.

“We’ve been criticized by the police for reporting this, but it was already known in Bergen,” Eidsvig said. He said he wanted to avoid speculation or accusations that the Catholic Church in Norway was withholding information on the case. The police, however, would have preferred to launch their own investigation before the case became known.

Eidsvig told reporters that the relation between the priest and the teenager went on for around a week this past summer. The girl, who is not Catholic, later reported it to another priest who immediately contacted Eidsvig. He told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that he flew to Bergen the next day, where the priest now charged with assault confessed.

It’s the latest in a string of cases involving assault within the Catholic Church worldwide, but Eidsvig said it’s the first he’s aware of in Oslo. Three years ago, a former bishop in Trondheim admitted sexual assault against an alter boy years earlier, though, and the church has an archive of other cases deemed “sensitive.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Newswire

Catholic Religious Women continue claim to the right to ‘faithful dissent’ and their own understandings of faith, ecclesial authority and religious obedience, says expert.

Contact: Lisa Wheeler, Carmel Communications, 770-591-0045, Media@CarmelCommunications.com

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ — The annual assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious took place August 13-16 in Orlando, Fla. The main topic of the meeting was how to respond to a mandate of reform of the organization issued by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on April 17, 2012. That mandate directed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to accomplish in five years: a revision of the LCWR’s statutes; review and reform of LCWR plans and programs; creation of LCWR programs to help member congregations deeper formation in Church doctrine; review and application of liturgical norms and texts; and review of LCWR links with the affiliated organizations Network and Resource Center for Religious Institutes.

Archbishop Sartain met in closed session with the entire membership to discuss the CDF assessment and to answer questions. An LCWR press release issued at the end of that three-day meeting said: “Although we remain uncertain as to how our work with the bishop delegates will proceed, we maintain hope that continued conversations of this depth will lead to a resolution of this situation that maintains the integrity of the LCWR and is healthy for the whole church.”

Ann Carey, considered by many to be the foremost expert on women religious, and whose book, SISTERS IN CRISIS REVISITED, spends an entire chapter reporting on the CDF doctrinal assessment of the LCWR, and includes for readers the actual Vatican document as an Appendix, had this reaction:

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ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

Former cabinet minister Michael Melchior attacked former MK Haim Druckman on Tuesday for defending Rabbi Mordechai Elon, a recently convicted sex offender, and inviting him to his yeshiva.

Writing on his Facebook page, Melchior, like Druckman a rabbi, recalled that he refused to join a long list of prominent people who congratulated Druckman when he won the Israel Prize. Melchior said that when he was told he was the only one who had refused, he responded that he could not back anyone who covered for or protected someone who harmed youth.

“I was not at all surprised to read that Rabbi Druckman continues to invite Rabbi Elon to teach young men in his yeshiva in Or Etzion, even after his conviction in court,” Melchior wrote in both English and Hebrew.

Melchior praised the Takana Forum of prominent religious Zionist figures, which fights sexual abuse in the National Religious sector, for the way it handled the allegations against Elon. He said he wished the ruling of the forum and the court was respected by Druckman and others who continue to back Elon.

“I wonder, what more needs to happen before Religious Zionism, Bnei Akiva yeshivas and yeshivot hesder will no longer consider this person [Druckman] suitable to lead them,” Melchior wrote. “Is it possible to enter the month of mercy and forgiveness, and the Days of Awe and claim to The Almighty that we have done all that we must do in order to set an example for, and to protect our children? Is it not said that in a place where God’s name is being desecrated, we do not give respect to Rabbis? In this instance, when a Rabbi is an icon, I ask what could be a bigger desecration of God’s name than to pay tribute to a man that has turned a blind-eye to harm done to innocent children?” Elon was convicted on two counts of indecent assault by force against a minor by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court two weeks ago. He could serve up to seven years in prison.

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ISRAEL
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Writing on his Facebook page, former MK and cabinet minister Rabbi Michael Melchior ripped into Rabbi Haim Druckman, a former member of Knesset who heads Israel’s state conversion authority and the Bnei Akiva system of yeshivas, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Druckman is both an enabler of and an apologist for Rabbi Mordechai Elon, who was convicted almost two weeks ago of sexually abusing a minor who was his student.

Druckman previously viciously attacked Elon’s victims and publicly endorsed Elon. Despite that behavior, Druckman was awarded the Israel Prize. Melchior was the lone Zionist Orthodox/Modern Orthodox rabbi of note who publicly refused to congratulate him.

Then after Elon was convicted almost two weeks ago, Druckman invited Elon to continue to teach a weekly class at Druckman’s yeshiva despite that conviction.

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CHILE
Channels

A former Chilean priest was convicted in four sexual abuse cases on Tuesday and could face up to 15 years in prison.

The former priest was the administrator for the Hogar de Menores (Young Persons Home) San Juan Bosco and priest at the Immaculate Conception Parish of Cunco in Temuco, Chile about 650 kilometres (400 miles) south of Santiago from 2004 to 2011.

The crimes were carried out between the years 2006 and 2011, though the public prosecutor of Temuco, Omar Merida, said there was evidence the 53-year-old priest had been abusing youngsters for years before.

“The evidence we presented showed that these same acts had been occurring for at least the last 20 years,” Merida said.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Nederland moet het pedoseksuelen moeilijker maken om in het buitenland slachtoffers te maken. Daarom moeten veroordeelde pedoseksuelen met een hoog recidive-risico aan het Register Paspoortsignaleringen worden toegevoegd, zegt Corinne Dettmeijer-Vermeulen, nationaal rapporteur mensenhandel en seksueel geweld tegen kinderen. Zij presenteerde gisteren haar rapport ‘Barrières tegen kindersekstoerisme’.

Waarom moet er iets gebeuren met de reizende pedoseksuelen?
“Deze mensen mogen binnen Nederland niet op een school werken, of vrijwilliger zijn bij de padvinderij, maar we vinden het wel best dat ze naar het buitenland gaan om daar kinderen te misbruiken. Ik bestrijd de gedachte van ‘opgeruimd staat netjes’. Nee, we zijn als land, als samenleving ook verantwoordelijk voor de bescherming van buitenlandse kinderen tegen deze pedoseksuelen.”

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Wednesday, 21 August 2013
by Martin Scicluna

The jury is still out on Francis I, who surprised the world only five months ago when he stepped out onto the balcony above St Peter’s Square in Rome as the 266th Pope. Since his election this Argentinian cardinal has won plaudits for his humility, common touch and way with words as he has said repeatedly he wants to lead “a poor church, for the poor”.

On his recent debut abroad in Brazil, the first Latin American pope injected a spring in the church’s step in the largest Roman Catholic country. In a long, informal press conference on the flight home, he also underlined the new style that his papacy has brought, heralding a softer tone on sexual issues and a tougher line on Vatican cliques – the latter having been the undoing of his cerebral but lacklustre predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Humble and plain-speaking, Francis’ energy and urgency on this trip were in marked contrast with the sense of drift that has afflicted the Church in the last decade. At a meeting of bishops, he called for a new “missionary spirit” and decried “obsolete structures”, strictures which should strike a distinct chord with the hierarchy of the Maltese Church. …

Pope Francis is clearly determined to clean out the Augean Stables at the Vatican. By contrast, the Maltese Church, against the trend of virtually every Catholic Diocese in the world which has been involved in child-abuse scandals and has agreed to pay financial compensation for priestly misdeeds, is resisting in the Maltese Courts any settlement with the ten victims concerned. It argues that the Maltese Archdiocese was never accused or convicted of having committed the criminal acts in question and it could not know in advance that some consecrated person or member was likely to commit a crime.

The Maltese Church would be more honest if it said plainly that its reason for resisting compensation to the victims is that it fears the financial consequences. But that should surely be beside the point, demonstrating too much earthly acquisitiveness and being utterly bereft of moral responsibility. Other Archdioceses around the world have gone bankrupt, and it may be that this must be the price to pay for restoring the Maltese Church’s integrity.

The central issue should be the well-being of those who have suffered as a consequence of the Church’s lack of care. To argue, as some have, that the victims are only in it for the money is cynical and a diversion. The victims are entitled to whatever the law will allow for the grotesque crimes perpetrated on them as children.

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

CALIFORNIA
Press-Enterprise

AUGUST 20, 2013 BY DAVID OLSON

I wrote today on the debate over a bill in the California legislature that would allow some alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse a chance to sue even if their cases are decades old.

On Monday, I sat down for four hours with David Nickell in his Riverside backyard as he told me the wrenching story of how, he said, a priest in San Bernardino repeatedly abused him when he was 11 and 12 years old.

Nickell’s hands were shaking during much of the interview. Other times, they were clasped together tightly.

“This is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” he told me.

I was struck how even at age 45, Nickell still partially blames himself.

“I just don’t know what I did to make him do this,” he told me.

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CALIFORNIA
Press-Enterprise

BY DAVID OLSON August 20, 2013

David Nickell said the repeated sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest in 1980 still haunts him today.

Nickell, 45, of Riverside, looks back at years of “self-medicating” and drifting from job to job and relationship to relationship and believes at least some of the instability in his life is the result of what he said was sexual abuse he suffered when he was 11 and 12 years old.

“I’ve lost a lot of years,” Nickell said.

Current law does not allow Nickell to pursue legal action against the Diocese of San Bernardino, because the alleged abuse happened so long ago. But a bill now being debated in the state legislature would give Nickell and some other alleged victims one year to file suit, exempting them from the statute of limitations for sexual abuse.

A 2002 law granted a similar one-year window but supporters of the new bill say many victims don’t realize the effects of their abuse until later in life.

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CHILE
BBC News

A Chilean priest has been convicted of sexually abusing four children who were under his care at a young people’s home in the city of Temuco.

The court heard how Orlando Rogel Pinuer, 53, gave teenagers alcohol and money in exchange for sexual acts.

Prosecutor Omar Merida said there was evidence Rogel had abused other youths for years. He accused the Catholic Church of failing to co-operate.

The priest faces 15 years in prison, and will be sentenced on Sunday.

He carried out the abuse while acting as administrator of the San Juan Bosco young people’s home in Temuco between 2006 and 2011.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press

Exclusive By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter

THE Archbishop of York’s Office is investigating claims of a Church cover-up after a retired York vicar admitted sexually assaulting boys.

York Minster Canon Emeritus John Norman, who died in 2005, was cautioned and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register in 2004 – but not prosecuted – after he confessed to offences against three youngsters, The Press can reveal.

The sister of one of his victims claims the only penalty from the Church was to be barred from administering the sacraments and he was allowed to remain a Canon Emeritus at the Minster. She said he died the following year on his 90th birthday with his high reputation intact, and he was praised with glowing obituaries in publications such as The Church Times.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, also claimed the Church had never apologised to her brother for the abuse, which happened on boys-only camping trips organised by Canon Norman as well as in the village rectory, when her brother was a chorister at Dunnington church and Canon Norman was rector.

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CHILE
Nigerian Times

Orlando Rogel Pinuer, a former Chilean priest has been convicted on four counts of sexual abuse cases and faces up to 15 years in prison. The former priest was the administrator for the Hogar de Menores (Young Person’s Home), San Juan Bosco, and a priest at the Immaculate Conception Parish of Cunco in Temuco, Chile.

His crimes were carried out between 2006 – 2011, although the prosecutor said that there was evidence that the 53 year old priest had been abusing young boys for at least 20 years, even though previous charges do not exist.

The priest would use his religious control over his young victims, and would even give them alcohol and spending money in order for them to continue to perform sexual acts on him. All his victims were in boarding school, aged between 14 – 16 years old age.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Patch

Posted by Eric Campbell (Editor) , August 20, 2013

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Tuesday it will seek to sell some nursing homes it operates and outsource management of some of its cemeteries.

The move comes after last month’s report that the archdiocese ran a $39.2 million deficit in the 2012 fiscal year.

The health-care facilities that may be affected include the following, according to Kenneth A. Gavin, the archdiocese’s director of communications:

Immaculate Mary Home, Philadelphia
Villa Saint Martha, Downingtown (Chester County)
Saint Francis Country House, Darby (Delaware County)
Saint John Neumann Home, Philadelphia
Saint Martha Manor, Downingtown (Chester County)
Saint Mary Manor, Lansdale (Montgomery County)
Saint Monica Manor, Philadelphia
The following existing cemeteries and planned cemetery sites also could be affected:
All Souls Cemetery, Coatesville (Chester County)
Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken (Montgomery County)
Cathedral Cemetery, Philadelphia
New Cathedral Cemetery, Philadelphia
Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon (Delaware County)
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Philadelphia
Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery, Linwood (Delaware County)
Resurrection Cemetery, Bensalem (Bucks County)
Saint John Neumann Cemetery, Chalfont (Bucks County)
Saint Michael Cemetery, Chester (Delaware County)
Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery, Springfield (Delaware County)
All Saints Cemetery, Newtown (Bucks County)
Holy Savior Cemetery, Penn Township (Bucks County)

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A retired priest from the NSW Central Coast has been charged with possessing child abuse material.

Detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad’s Child Exploitation Internet Unit raided a home on the Central Coast on Tuesday.

They arrested a 72-year-old man and seized computer equipment, a DVD and other items for forensic examination.

The man was taken to Wyong police station and charged with two counts of possessing child abuse material.

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CHILE
Bio-Bio

Declaran culpable a sacerdote de Cunco por cuatro casos de abuso sexual

Culpable de cuatro de los seis hechos de abuso sexual por los que fue acusado fue declarado este martes un sacerdote de Cunco, tras desarrollarse el respectivo juicio oral en Temuco.

Los jueces integrantes de la Primera Sala del Tribunal Oral de Temuco resolvieron declarar culpable por unanimidad del delito de abuso sexual reiterado al sacerdote Orlando Rogel Pinuer, absolviéndolo de dos de las imputaciones, tal como lo confirmó el fiscal de la Unidad de Delitos Sexuales Omar Mérida.

El persecutor no descartó, en caso de establecer que existe algún delito, iniciar una nueva causa respecto de la negativa de la Iglesia Católica y particularmente del obispo de la Diócesis de Villarrica, Francisco Javier Stegmeier, de apoyar la investigación, además de negar acceso a una supuesta investigación canónica.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By DAN PROUDMAN Aug. 21, 2013

A RETIRED Catholic priest has been charged with child pornography offences after detectives raided

Detectives from the sex crime squad’s child exploitation internet unit seized computer equipment and a DVD for forensic examination.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad’s Child Exploitation Internet Unit raided a home on the Central Coast on Tuesday.

They arrested a 72-year-old man and seized computer equipment, a DVD and other items for forensic examination.

The man was taken to Wyong police station and charged with two counts of possessing child abuse material.

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AUSTRALIA
NSW Police Force

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

Detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad’s Child Exploitation Internet Unit (CEIU) have charged a retired Catholic priest with offences relating to child pornography.

As part of their ongoing investigations into the possession, production and dissemination of online child-abuse material, detectives executed a search warrant on a home at the Central Coast about 8.30am yesterday (Tuesday 20 August 2013).

A 72-year-old man was arrested at the premises and police seized a number of items, including computer equipment and a DVD for forensic examination.

The man was taken to Wyong Police Station and charged with two counts of possess child-abuse material.

He was given strict conditional bail to appear at Wyong Local Court on Wednesday 4 September 2013.

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CALIFORNIA
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated August 20, 2013

We beg all members of the California State Assembly Appropriations Committee – – the California legislative panel to vote “YES” on SB 131 this Wednesday (8/21) – and make it easier for California child sex abuse victims to expose their child molesters in court. We invite all Committee members to read our letter to Los Angeles Judge Emilie H. Elias who made – the historic decision and judgement – to release all pedophile priests’ files of the Los Angeles Archdiocese – against the million dollars lawyers of Cardinal Mahony who wanted them all to be shredded and hidden and denied to the public.

Our letter – New Year’s plea to the judge of Los Angeles: Reveal the whole truth, the entire truth now – today apply as well to the California State Assembly Appropriations Committee when they’ll make their historic vote on SB 131.

Dear (Judge Emilie H. Elias) California State Assembly Appropriations Committee,

You are our final hope for the whole truth and nothing but the truth…and May the Almighty God help you and give you the courage to do the right thing.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON AUGUST 20, 2013

Tomorrow, a California legislative panel will vote on SB 131, a measure that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to expose child molesters in court.

Leading the charge against the measure: California’s Catholic bishops.

The highest ranking prelate in the state, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, claims that the bill

–“fails to protect all victims of childhood sexual abuse” (So if a bill doesn’t protect EVERYONE or fix EVERYTHING, it should be defeated?)
–“discriminates against Catholic schools” (Really? The bill doesn’t mention Catholic schools.)
–“discriminates against other private employers” (No, the bill focuses on private employers because that’s where history and common sense tell us abuse is more apt to be covered up. That’s not “discrimination,” that’s smart public policy.)
–“puts the Church’s social services and educational mission at risk” (Really? That’s what virtually every bishop says every time anyone proposes reforming the archaic, arbitrary, predator-friendly statute of limitations.)

Gomez isn’t the only Catholic official who’s wrong about this. The bishops’ lead public relations guy, Kevin Eckery, claims “Nobody who may have been abused in a public daycare will have any rights under this law whatsoever.”

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey 101.5

By Ray Rossi August 20, 2013

I take my salvation in my hands, according to Archbishop Myers of Newark, for suggesting that perhaps the sexual abuse that’s taken place by priests on his watch is a reflection of his ministry.

The tip of the iceberg goes back to the scandal of Rev. Michael Fugee, where the Archbishop took heat for his handling of the affair, or lack thereof.

Since then, his stewardship has been called into question again, this time over revelations that a priest in the Diocese of Peoria where the Archbishop served and with whom he was friendly, says warning signs of sexual abuse by said priest ‘got by me’!

According to this:

In late 1994 or early 1995, a woman told church officials Maloney had molested her when she was a child, documents show. Later in 1995, the woman’s sister wrote to the diocese on her behalf, again insisting action be taken against the priest.

Four years later, a couple wrote to the vicar general, second-in-command of the diocese, complaining Maloney had an explicit sexual conversation with their 13-year-old son during confession, the documents show.

But Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, then bishop of Peoria, says he missed it all.
In a deposition unsealed as part of a $1.35 million settlement with one of Maloney’s alleged victims, Myers said he had no inkling Maloney — a friend who vacationed with him and lavished him with gifts of jewelry, gold coins and cash — was a potential molester.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 20, 2013

**********************ACTION ALERT******************************

Want to take action TODAY to help victims and protect kids? Here’s how:

Tomorrow, Wednesday (8/21), the California State Assembly Appropriations Committee will consider a measure that makes it easier for child sex abuse victims to expose predators in court, keep kids safe right now and hold wrongdoers accountable.

Please take just a few minutes and contact the lawmakers below, urging them to vote YES on SB 131.

The San Jose Mercury News—as well as other papers across the state—have urged a yes vote. You can also read my previous posts about the bill here and here.

You CAN HELP! Please send an email TODAY. And please circulate this request to others you know understand the importance of shining the light of truth on child sexual abuse.

Here is the list of important legislators to contact. You can find their email address and phone numbers here.

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NEW JERSEY
TheMediaReport

In an open letter last week to all of the priests of his archdiocese, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers responded to “false” and “deceitful” reporting that has characterized the recent frenzied media coverage of a case involving Myers’ supervision of a now-dead priest decades ago in the 1990s in the Diocese of Peoria (Illinois) when he was a bishop there.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger newspaper – which has relentlessly attacked Archbishop Myers this year – has claimed that Myers did nothing after he received first-hand knowledge that a priest under his watch in Peoria was accused of abuse.

In truth, after a thorough examination of the matter by TheMediaReport.com, the facts are clear: Myers, while he was Bishop of Peoria, had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of any sex abuse committed by the particular priest in question, and the Star-Ledger has uncritically trumpeted the unfounded claims of Jeff Anderson, the high-profile contingency lawyer who has an extensive history of disseminating misinformation and malice against the Church, and who has been at the center of a money-seeking lawsuit in this case.

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ESPANA
El Mundo

El Juzgado de Instrucción 1 de Castellón ha archivado provisionalmente el primer caso que se conoció en España en el que la propia Iglesia denunció ante la Justicia ordinaria los presuntos abusos sexuales de un sacerdote hacia un menor, siguiendo las nuevas directrices del anterior Papa, Benedicto XVI.

El auto del 30 de julio de 2013, hecho público este martes por el Tribunal Superior de Justicia de la Comunidad Valenciana, expone que al cierre de la Instrucción, el titular del Juzgado 1 de Castellón ordena el sobreseimiento provisional de la denuncia contra J. M. M. V., fraile carmelita que ejercía en la localidad de Burriana (Castellón), acusado de un presunto delito de abuso sexual a un monaguillo cuando el joven era menor de edad.

El sobreseimiento de la causa llega tras la petición de archivo por parte del Ministerio Fiscal, que no considera “debidamente acreditada la concurrencia de los elementos exigidos por los tipos de los abusos sexuales del Código Penal” y al no haber formalizado la acusación particular -formada por el propio monaguillo, J. S. G., y su padre- su denuncia contra el imputado.

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

For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug. 20

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

It’s interesting what Archbishop Robert Carlson does NOT say, either in public or in his new eight page legal response.

He doesn’t say “Fr. Jiang never admitted his crimes to me.” (In their civil suit, that’s what the parents say happened.)

He doesn’t say “I never called the girl’s mom.” (In their civil suit, that’s what the parents say happened.)

He doesn’t say “I never asked anyone to turn over the $20,000 check to me.” (In their civil suit, that’s what the girl’s parents say Carlson did.)

He doesn’t even say “I think Fr. Jiang is innocent.”

In a footnote, he does say the charge that he tried to tamper with evidence is “baseless.” But again, he refuses to say whether he called the mom or asked for Jiang’s $20,000 check. Why won’t he just come clean and answer even these two simple questions?

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Aug. 20, 2013 NCR Today

Pulling few punches, Newark Archbishop John Myers responded over the weekend to what he classified as “deceitful and misleading” news reports of a deposition he made related to a clergy sex abuse lawsuit in his previous Peoria, Ill., diocese.

In a letter sent to Newark archdiocesan priests, encouraging them to share its content with “parishioners, and all who are interested in the truth,” Myers accused his critics — many of whom have called for his resignation — of raising false and misleading statements of his handling of abuse allegations in both Peoria and Newark.

“For those who are truly with us — the Church — in the protection of children, they have my respect, gratitude, and embrace,” he said. “For any who set out to claim that I or the Church have had no effective part in the love and protection of children, is simply evil, wrong, immoral, and seemingly focused on their own self-aggrandizement.”

“God only knows their personal reasons and agenda. We are still called to love them. And God will surely address them in due time,” Myers wrote in the letter, a version of which was made public online through the personal blog of Fr. Jim Chern, chaplain of the Newman Catholic Center at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J.

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NEW JERSEY
Washington Post

[Archbishop Myers deposition via BishopAccountability.org]

NJ archbishop calls critics ‘evil, wrong’ over accounts of settlement from previous Ill. post

By Associated Press,
NEWARK, N.J. — The Roman Catholic archbishop of Newark, N.J., has issued a scathing rebuke to his critics, blasting them as “evil, wrong, immoral” for questioning his handling of an allegation of sex abuse in his previous diocese in Illinois.

In a letter to clergy, Archbishop John J. Myers defends himself in the case of a man who sued the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., which Myers helmed from 1990 to 2001. In a 2010 deposition that a lawyer for the accuser recently released, Myers said he did not know of other allegations against Monsignor Thomas Maloney. The diocese of Peoria reached a $1.35 million settlement in the case this month.

The deposition said diocesan correspondence recorded one allegation of abuse and another of inappropriate behavior against Maloney, but Myers said they may have been lost in the diocese’s slipshod filing system and did not cross his desk. Myers said he wasn’t alerted to the allegations and didn’t see them when reviewing Maloney’s files while recommending him for a promotion in 2000. Maloney died in 2009.

“At no time was I ever aware that some people thought him to be a threat to children or young people,” Myers wrote, noting the case that recently settled was brought to the attention of the Diocese of Peoria in 2007, years after he left.

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 JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug. 20

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

It’s inappropriate and unseemly for a purported shepherd to use religious services to harshly attack the motives of others. It’s always suspect when a powerful officials claims the news media is to blame for his difficulties.

And it’s extraordinarily cruel to publicly accuse an abuse victims parents of trying to “undermine the Ministry of individual Priests . . .or Bishops (sic),” as Myers did on Sunday.

Andrew Ward’s brave and caring mom and dad are trying to deter cover ups, not “undermine Ministry.” They are to be commended, not censured, and especially not censured from pulpits paid for by parishioners.

Shame on Myers for heaping even more pain on this family that has already suffered immeasurably.

Myers selfishly exploited his “captive audience” last Sunday for his personal defense. He cynically tries to conflate his own justifiably-tattered reputation with “our Roman Catholic Faith and its Teachings.” But every Catholic knows there’s a difference between one individual bishop’s wrongdoing and the entire collective Catholic faith. To claim otherwise is perverse.

Demanding that Myers apologize or step down is meaningless. The Vatican, not Myers, should take the next step. And that step should be to denounce and demote this selfish man.

Finally, almost 15 years ago, when the first clergy sex abuse and cover up case began to attract national attention, Catholic officials in Louisiana urged their flock to stop reading and buying a local newspaper.

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

Archbishop wants case against him tossed out
He dodges recent & unusual accusations, SNAP says
But he “vehemently” denies trying to tamper with evidence
SNAP: “Carlson promised ‘answers,’ but offers only legal excuses”
He claims church can’t be held responsible for recent alleged abuse
“Disclose where suspended predator priest is living now?” abuse victims ask
Chinese cleric is one of six wrongdoers who worked at Cathedral on Lindell
Self help group wants archbishop to hold public meeting about all offenders

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will hand out copies of a new legal defense motion filed by St. Louis’ archbishop in response to a disturbing recent civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit that charges Catholic officials with evidence tampering. They will, also blast the archbishop’s “legalistic, non-response” and

–point out that five credibly accused priests and one convicted bishop worked at the Cathedral on Lindell,
–prod the archbishop to hold an open public meeting about the predators, and
–urge him to turn over records about all five alleged child molesting clerics to local law enforcement.

When:
TODAY, Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 1:30 p.m.

Where:
Outside the St. Louis Cathedral on Lindell at Taylor in the city’s Central West End

Who:
Three-four members of a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), including a St. Louis man who is the group’s long time director

Why:
Last month, a shocking lawsuit alleging very recent child sex crimes and attempted cover up by St. Louis’ archbishop was filed. Now, Archbishop Robert Carlson has responded to those accusations with a new, eight-page legal response in which he calls “baseless” the charge that he tried to tamper with evidence. On five other charges, however, Carlson basically argues that he can’t be held responsible even if the allegations in the case are true. Carlson’s lawyers want the entire case against him tossed out.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

LCWR 2013 Assembly: Little Evidence Yet of Any Reforms

NEWS ANALYSIS: More than a year after the Vatican mandated changes, the U.S. women religious leaders’ group appears uninterested in complying.

by ANN CAREY
08/20/2013

When the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) met in its annual assembly Aug. 13-16 in Orlando, Fla., the main topic of business was how the sisters would respond to a 2012 mandate of reform from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). The LCWR is a canonically erected superiors’ organization of nearly 1,400 sisters who are leaders of about 80% of the women religious in this country.

Interest in their 2013 assembly was heightened by the presence of the Vatican’s apostolic delegate charged with conducting the reform, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle. He had offered to attend the LCWR 2012 assembly to discuss the mandate that had come out April 18 of that year, but had been told then by LCWR leaders that his presence “would not be helpful.”

This year, Archbishop Sartain addressed the entire membership in a closed session and fielded questions about the mandate from LCWR members. He also met with the LCWR’s 21-member national board during the first of three days of board meetings after the assembly closed.

However, the only decision announced by LCWR in an Aug. 19 press release was simply to continue talking with Archbishop Sartain and Bishops Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., and Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, who the Vatican appointed to assist him.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

+Diarmuid Martin surveys the Irish Church in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis and the economic downturn. This article, first published in America on 20 May 2013, is adapted from an address at the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture in New York. Read the original article and comments here

I entered the seminary in Dublin in October 1962, just one week before the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The winter of 1962-63 was one of the bleakest in decades, and our seminary was a very cold place in more ways than one. My memory of the seminary is of a building and a routine, a discipline and a way of life that seemed to have been like that for decades. Even to someone who was not a revolutionary, it all seemed very out of touch with the world from which I had just come, and in which my friends were thriving. But one was not supposed to think that way. Things were to be done as they had always been done. The Catholic Church was unchanging, but that was about to change.

For decades Ireland was looked on as one of the world’s most deeply and stably Catholic countries. Today Ireland finds itself, along with other parts of Europe, being classified as “post-Catholic.” Everyone has his or her own definition of the term. You can fully define post-Catholic only in terms of the Catholicism that has been displaced. Irish Catholicism has its own unique history and culture. Renewal in the Irish church will not come from imported plans and programs; it must be home-grown.

Ireland does, of course, share the same currents of secularization with other countries of the Western world and thus shares many of the same challenges. There are specific challenges within Europe; there are specific challenges common to the English-speaking world. Yet the fact that Ireland is an English-speaking country does not mean it can be put into the same category as the United States and Great Britain. …

The effects of the child abuse scandals have had a demoralizing effect on the entire church in Ireland and continue to do so. In one sense the scandal crisis could not have come at a worse time, in that confidence in the church was well on the wane; and when the scandals broke, their effects were devastating. Today Ireland has strong child protection measures in place, and the Irish church is a much safer place for children than in the past. I would like to pay tribute to the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, and in particular Ian Elliot, for their extraordinary contribution to helping make the church a safer place for children. One still has to ask, however, where the roots of this scandal and its mismanagement were to be found within the church. Was the issue simply the action of a few deviant priests who did not represent the church, or was there something deeper?

Certainly the overwhelming majority of priests in Ireland led and lead an exemplary moral life; they carry out their ministry with great dedication and enjoy great support and affection from their people and contribute and support the new ethos of child safeguarding.

What is extraordinarily high is the number of children who were abused. We are talking about thousands. There is no way you can simply explain away the huge number of those who were abused and the fact that this took place undetected and unrecognized within the church of Jesus Christ. Today we are in a safer place, but it took decades to attain this.

One of the great challenges the Irish Catholic Church still has to face is that of strong remnants of inherited clericalism. The days of the dominant or at times domineering role of clergy within what people call the “institutional church” have changed, but part of the culture still remains and from time to time reappears in new forms. We often overlook the fact that the very term “institutional church” has meaning only in a context of clericalism.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Royal Commission warm-up acts, the NSW and Victorian enquiries, are finished, pending their reports next month. The Queensland enquiry, the Carmody Enquiry, was a real let down and is best forgotten about. The federal enquiry is not due to have its first public hearings until after the federal election.

On the bright side, Cardinal Pell will return from his Roman summer holiday shortly, complete with suitcase full of new outfits, and briefcases full of books. One would hope that none of those pesky protestors take the opportunity to meet him at the airport, wearing offensive T-shirts!

He can then take a firm hand at the helm steering the church through the minefield of the Royal Commission. The absence of his steady influence caused some problems at the NSW enquiry.

One of the problems he would undoubtedly have avoided was the embarrassing matter of the shredding of documents by police from the Church-Police paedophile liaison meetings. He would also have avoided the problems of having the NSW Police minister being caught out saying the Ombudsman had given the ethical nod to these meetings, which the former head prosecutor had implied demonstrated a conflict of interest for the police.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

THOMAS CHAMBERLIN THE COURIER-MAIL AUGUST 19, 2013

A RETIRED Catholic priest facing more than 50 child sex abuse charges says he is still too ill to appear in court.

The Father, 77, who taught in southeast Queensland schools in the 1970s and 1980s, is accused of abusing girls and boys under the age of 16.

Detectives earlier this year charged the man with 57 counts of indecent treatment of children and one count of common assault relating to offences alleged to have taken place between 1977 and 1988.

The retired priest, who cannot be named, did not appear in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Monday and his lawyer Barry Ryan tendered a medical certificate to excuse his client’s appearance.

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

Jeff Kunerth
August 19, 2013

Leadership Conference of Women Religious concluded their meeting in Orlando Monday no less defiant of the Vatican.

The LCWR, which represents about 43,000 American nuns, has been criticized by the Vatican for deviating from Catholic doctrine, including its positions on gays, women in the ministry, and the gender of God, who is sometimes referred to as “she.”

The sisters, who represent about 43,000 American nuns, met several times with a representative from the Vatican during their convention in Orlando. Archbishop J. Peter Sartain was given five years in 2012 to bring the nuns in line with the strict teachings of the church.

On Monday, the LCWR issued a statement that said, “The session with Archbishop Sartain allowed a profound and honest sharing of views…The extraordinarily rich and deeply reverent conversation during the board meeting gave us a greater understanding of Archbishop Sartain, and we believe he now also better understands us…”

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The economic costs of child sexual abuse are very difficult to estimate. Most authors err on the side of caution and use the lowest estimate as the basis of their papers. Taylor et al. (2008) (see references below), for example, use the lowest rates of reported abuse, to arrive at a figure for an “incidence cost” (cost to the taxpayer plus cost to victims) of between $13.7 billion and $38.7 billion, in Australia.

Since this is a preliminary article, the average figure of about $25 billion will be used, even though most would agree that even the higher figure of $38.7 billion is probably far too small in reality.

Again, using the lower bounds of the statistics, about 10% of child abuse is child sexual abuse. This means that this abuse costs $2.5 billion.

Allowing, yet again, for the minimum figure, 7% of child sexual abuse comes from strangers, mainly religious sources, and others such as Scouting. This yields a final figure of $175 million, as the cost of clerical and other offenders’ child sexual abuse, to the taxpayer and the victims.

Of this, to be really conservative with the figures, it can be deduced that the minimum cost of clerical child sexual abuse is of the order of $100 million to the taxpayer and victims.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

RELATED DOCUMENTS

• Myers’ letter to priests of the archdiocese
• Myers’ 2010 deposition related to a lawsuit in the Diocese of Peoria
• Myers’ letter thanking Maloney for his ‘much-loved’ camera
• Myers thanks Maloney for the ‘wonderful gift’
• Myers’ thank-you letter indicating he will gamble at the dog track
• Myers thanks Maloney for ‘your most generous gift,’ invites him to Florida
• Myers thank-you letter for a silver object
• Myers invites Maloney to Crete
• Myers assures a parishioner Maloney has not been accused of impropriety

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on August 20, 2013

NEWARK — In a sharply worded offensive, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers lashed out at the media and his critics in a letter released over the weekend, saying he has been the target of “deceitful and misleading” information about his oversight of sexually abusive priests.

Myers, who has limited his public comments in the face of recent scandals, took broad aim in the letter, addressed to priests of the archdiocese and distributed to parishioners at weekend services in Essex, Union, Bergen and Hudson counties.

In addition to the media, he questioned the motivations of politicians and former or retired clergy members who have spoken out against him, terming them “traveling bandwagons” and suggesting they have a prejudiced and spiteful view of the Roman Catholic faith. He suggested, too, they would be judged by God.

“For any who set out to claim that I or the Church have had no effective part in the love and protection of children, is simply evil, wrong, immoral, and seemingly focused on their own self-aggrandizement,” Myers wrote. “God only knows their personal reasons and agenda. We are still called to love them. And God will surely address them in due time.”

Myers wrote the letter in response to newspaper and television reports last week about a $1.35 million legal settlement reached between the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., and the family of a man who contends an Illinois priest abused him as a child in 1995 and 1996.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist
on August 20, 2013

Editor’s note: This letter by Newark Archbishop John J. Myers was distributed to priests of the archdiocese over the weekend. Myers was responding to news stories about a $1.35 million settlement between the Diocese of Peoria, his former post, and the family of a boy who was allegedly abused by a priest there. The family and its attorney blamed Myers for failing to take action against the priest despite repeated warning signs.

August 15, 2013

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

My Dear Brother Priests in the Archdiocese of Newark:

This past week local media, once again, provided deceitful and misleading information about situations in the Diocese of Peoria and in this Archdiocese. I am dutybound to denounce the impressions presented as false and harmful to many people. They can also be confusing to many others.

To the best of my knowledge, the particular case cited was brought to the attention of the officials in the Peoria Diocese in or about 2007, more than five years after I left that Diocese and arrived in New Jersey.

In the deposition given by me and selectively quoted by an interested attorney, some upset parents, and a former Priest of this Archdiocese, I spoke under oath and truthfully about matters relating to a certain Priest. I never vacationed with him, and I received no gifts other than those often given to a bishop by Pastors or Parishes. Since we were both coin collectors, I recall that he once gave me a coin of minimal value, of which he had several examples. At no time was I ever aware that some people thought him to be a threat to children or young people. Officials at the Diocese of Peoria who investigated an earlier case during my years there found that no allegation was sufficiently supported by evidence. In 2007, when Law Enforcement officials investigated the case cited in the lawsuit, the Diocese of Peoria provided all information concerning the earlier case. That investigation by the authorities determined that neither allegation had any basis for any criminal action. If the opposite had been the case, I would have acted to protect children and young people as I did on any other occasions in Illinois and here in New Jersey. Priests would have been taken out of Ministry as I have done in both locations. Children should never be at risk in so far as we can know.

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UNITED STATES
Tikkun

by: Timothy Villareal on August 15th, 2013

Steve Theisen, 61, is the Iowa director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Unlike the vast majority of men and women whose lives have been positively affected by the support SNAP provides to victims of clergy abuse, Theisen was not sexually abused by a Catholic priest: he was sexually abused by a Catholic nun.

The abuse began in the 4th grade, when Theisen was just nine-years-old. He stayed after class one day to wash the blackboards. Alone with the nun in the classroom, she showed him how the Eskimos kiss: by rubbing noses. Some weeks later, she then showed him how Americans kiss. Then a few more weeks passed. The nun then said to the boy, “This is how the French kiss.” And with that, the forty-something nun stuck her tongue in the boy’s mouth. It escalated from there. As Thiesen recalls, the nun never touched his genitals, and neither of them were ever disrobed. But from 4th through 6th grade, after school and sometimes on weekends, the nun would have him on the floor, French kissing and necking. Sometimes the nun would be on top of him, other times she put the boy on top of her.

Theisen also recalls sitting next to the nun in chapel. She would hold his hand under her religious habit so that no one would see.

It was not until well into adulthood that Theisen told someone what had happened to him: his therapist. It took 18 sessions with the therapist to finally open up about the experience that so affected his life. As Theisen explained to me, trust does not come easy to victims of child sex abuse.

Theisen’s testimony is gut-wrenching to hear, for those who are willing to listen. Not only did he live in daily fear as a child that someone would find out what was happening between him and the nun, he was also wracked by guilt. For when the school children would ask the nuns why they wore rings on their fingers, the nuns would tell the children that they were married to Christ. During the abuse, Theisen thought he was committing “the most grievous sin in the entire world because he was fooling around with Jesus’s wife.”

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

OFFICERS are asking people to contact them after former pupils claimed that they were molested and beaten by the monks who taught them decades ago.

VICTIMS of alleged abuse by monks at two Catholic boarding schools are being encouraged to contact police.

Dozens of former pupils at the Fort Augustus Abbey school in the Highlands and its East Lothian feeder school, Carlekemp, have claimed that they were molested and beaten by the monks who taught them decades ago.

A group of former pupils told a BBC documentary that they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

Fr Duggan died in 2004 but some abuse claims relate to men who are still alive and police said they have been investigating since March.

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AUSTRALIA/SCOTLAND
Herald Sun

AAP AUGUST 20, 2013

VICTIMS of alleged abuse by monks, including an Australian, at two Catholic boarding schools in Scotland are being encouraged to contact police.

Dozens of former pupils at the Fort Augustus Abbey school in the Highlands and its East Lothian feeder school, Carlekemp, have claimed they were molested and beaten by the monks who taught them decades ago.

A group of former pupils told a BBC documentary that they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

Duggan died in 2004 but some abuse claims relate to men who are still alive and police said they have been investigating since March.

One former headmaster of Fort Augustus, Father Francis Davidson, resigned from a role at Oxford University last week amid accusations that he failed to act on reports of abuse during his time in charge in the 1970s.

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — A review of churches by the Diocese of Antigonish isn’t about closing churches but instead about ensuring the diocese is properly fulfilling its mandate, an official says.

The diocese already completed a review of churches in Cape Breton and Victoria counties, which led to a number of closures. It is now turning its scrutiny to churches in Richmond, Inverness, Antigonish, Guysborough and Pictou counties.

Rev. Donald MacGillivray, the director of pastoral planning, said the region covered by the diocese is undergoing tremendous demographic change.

“Cape Breton is in decline, in terms of the population, we lose about one per cent of our population per year on Cape Breton Island, and that is pretty well true of most of rural Nova Scotia,” MacGillivray said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON Aug. 20, 2013

The full extent of the horror inflicted on Ballarat children by Catholic priests Gerald Ridsdale and Ronald Claffy, and Christian Brothers Robert Best, Edward Dowlan, Stephen Farrell and Gerald Fitzgerald may never be known.

We know 107 cases have been substantiated during former Bishop Ronald Mulkearn’s 26-year term from 1971 until 1997.

We know through the recent state government inquiry into institutionalised child abuse, the Catholic Church Insurance has a list of clergy they would not cover because of their paedophilic activities, yet they remained in service and were just relocated.

We know 40 of the victims committed suicide.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Tuesday 20 August 2013

THE leading Catholic cleric announced as the successor to shamed Cardinal Keith O’Brien has confirmed he has had meetings with the Pope over the role he inherits next month.

Monsignor Leo Cushley, the Archbishop-elect of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said he held talks last Tuesday with Pope Francis over the situation facing the Archdiocese since Cardinal O’Brien was forced to resign after allegations of abuse and admitting decades of sexual behaviour with other clerics earlier this year.

Mgr Cushley, a Vatican diplomat unveiled as Cardinal O’Brien’s successor last month, had said he had not spoken with the Pontiff about the situation despite working closely with both him and Benedict in Rome.

But the former Diocese of Motherwell parish said of his meeting with Pope Francis: “It was encouraging and very heartening to learn how well the Holy Father knows and appreciates the situation of the Archdiocese and its priests and people.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Andrew Hamilton | 24 July 2013

The culture of an organisation comprises the shared attitudes, values, patterns of relationship and practices that make it more likely that members will act in particular ways. In an army unit where there is a culture of binge drinking and contempt for women, more incidents of sexual assault may well occur than in other units where these features are absent.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s recent book on the culture of the Catholic Church carries on his critique of the factors that have contributed to clerical sexual abuse of children and to denial and concealment of it. The aspects of Catholic culture that he believes conducive to it include: a relationship with God dominated by fear; immaturity; compulsory clerical celibacy, an exclusively male caste standing over the church; a lonely way of life; a cult of privacy and secrecy; a compulsive need to defend the actions and attitudes of the Pope.

Together these things made it more likely that priests will be tempted to abuse children, will have the opportunity to do so, will abuse with impunity, and have their actions denied and covered up by others.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

MONDAY AUGUST 19, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

A defiant Newark archbishop lashed out at critics in a letter to Catholic clergy, defending his handling of an alleged pedophile priest and denouncing the media, victims’ advocates and politicians as “evil” for distorting his record.

John J. Myers distributed the letter in response to press accounts that detailed a 2010 deposition in which he denied knowing about a priest’s alleged sexual abuses while he was bishop of an Illinois diocese. But during Myers’ time as bishop in Peoria, the diocese received an allegation that the priest had molested a child and that no action was taken, according to records made public in the settlement.

In the letter, which Myers urged priests to share with churchgoers, the archbishop declared that anyone who claims that he had “no effective part” in protecting children from abuse is “simply evil, wrong, immoral and seemingly focused on their own self-aggrandizement.”

“God only knows their personal reasons and agenda,” the archbishop wrote. “We are still called to love them. And God will surely address them in due time.”

Francis Fiorenza, professor of Catholic Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, said he has never seen such a strongly worded statement from a bishop. Many Roman Catholic prelates have gone on the defensive during the decades-long sex-abuse scandal, but Myers may be the first to cast their critics and the media as sinners, he said.

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NEW JERSEY
Father Jim Chern’s Blog

LETTER FROM ARCHBISHOP MYERS

Over the last few months, certain media outlets in our state — including a newspaper which used to be a staple in our family home growing up (that has removed any pretense of objectivity and is blatantly hateful to the Catholic Church, both locally and universally) — have made one of their goals to force our Archbishop John J. Myers to resign. They’ve been selectively reporting and manipulating facts to advance their distorted narrative.

Today, Archbishop Myers sent the following letter to all of the priests of the Archdiocese and has given us permission to share it with people of good will, especially those who, understandably, have been so troubled with scandal plagued headlines.

I appreciate your taking the time to read this and ask that you continue to hold the Archbishop and our Archdiocese in your prayers. As a priest, reading legitimate accounts about the abuse of children by some priests, and some of the actions (or inactions) by superiors when these crimes came to light has been a horror to learn about and has saddened me considerably personally as I’ve witnessed the immense hurt this has caused to the entire body of Christ that is the Church.

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NEW JERSEY
Catholic Culture

In a letter to priests, Archbishop John Myers of Newark strongly denounced recent media coverage of a settlement in which the plaintiff charged that the prelate allowed a priest to remain in ministry despite evidence of prior sexual abuse.

The Diocese of Peoria, which Archbishop Myers led from 1990 to 2001, was party to the $1.35-million settlement.

“This past week local media, once again, provided deceitful and misleading information about situations in the Diocese of Peoria and in this Archdiocese,” Archbishop Myers said in his letter, as quoted on the blog of Father Jim Chern, the archdiocese’s vocations director.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By PHILIP A. VANNO
Observer-Dispatch
Posted Aug 19, 2013

UTICA —
The Very Rev. Stephen Enea has until Sept. 5 to decide if he will accept a deal offered by the District Attorney’s Office, or go to trial to answer charges that he failed to pay contractors close to $500,000 for renovations to his Cornhill church.

Flanked by a handful of supporters, Enea, head of the Cathedral of the Theotokos of Great Grace, appeared before Judge Michael Dwyer in Oneida County Court Monday morning alongside public defender Corey Zennamo, and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The archbishop of the Italo-Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the Americas and Canada, along with his chief operating officer, Phillip G. Barker Jr., were indicted without counsel on Aug. 13, but were required to re-appear Monday with attorneys.

Barker did not enter a plea since he still has no representation — it was determined Monday that he doesn’t qualify for public defense. Dwyer gave him until Thursday to find an attorney, and return to court.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

One churchgoer on Sunday said he has a hard time buying the Newark archbishop’s explanation after a settlement was announced last week between an alleged sex-abuse victim and the Illinois diocese the archbishop once led. Others said he has made mistakes, with a few echoing the suggestion of some state lawmakers that he step down.

Only a few of the more than dozen parishioners interviewed on Sunday praised Archbishop John J. Myers’ leadership and his handling of three priests accused of molesting children.

Following the 10:30 Mass at Our Lady of Visitation in Paramus, Dr. Lino Mier called on Myers to “accept responsibility” in the case that led to the Illinois settlement. The victim’s parents charged that Myers, who led the Peoria Diocese between 1990 and 2001, failed to keep a predator priest from their child and others by not acting on a woman’s abuse claim.

Documents released last week revealed that a top Myers aide received a molestation complaint about the priest and that no action was taken. Myers testified in a deposition that the complaint got lost in the diocese’s “slipshod filing system” and he never saw it.

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CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press
Published: Friday, Aug. 16, 2013

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police have arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting children he met while working as an usher at a Jehovah’s Witness church.

Police announced 34-year-old Marcelo Alonso Lozano’s arrest Friday, but didn’t say how many children have accused him.

For six years, Lozano was an usher at Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Sun Valley.

Police say he used his position to initiate relationships with victims and their families.

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CALIFORNIA
Guardian Express

On July 29, 2013, around 4:30 p.m., North Hollywood Detective Division detectives arrested 34-year-old Marcelo Alonso Lozano, a suspect North Hollywood Detectives Arrest Serial Child Sexual Assault Suspectidentified in a series of child sexual assaults in the San Fernando Valley. A subsequent investigation has revealed that the he is possibly involved in additional sexual assaults of victims throughout the San Fernando Valley area of the City of Los Angeles. The known victims ranged from eight to fifteen years of age at the time of the sexual assaults.

Lozano was affiliated with the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Sun Valley as an usher for approximately six years and used this position to initiate a relationship with his victims and their families.

Anyone with additional information about this case is urged to contact LAPD North Hollywood Sexual Assault Detectives at (818) 623-4090 or (818) 623-4045. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) using a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters “LAPD.” Tipsters can also go to LAPDOnline.org, click on “Anonymous Web Tips.”

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Southern California

[with video]

By Beverly White | Saturday, Aug 17, 2013

After an usher at a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Sun Valley was charged with sexually abusing four boys he met at the church, investigators are searching for more possible victims.

Los Angeles police are asking families, especially in the San Fernando Valley, to take a good look at the booking photo of Marcelo Alonzo Lozano.

The 34-year-old was charged July 31 with nine felony counts that he sexually abused four boys. He pleaded not guilty and his bail was set at $1.8 million.

Before his arrest for alleged serial child sex assault, Lozano worked as an usher at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sun Valley.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

BY RUBEN VIVES
August 16, 2013

The Los Angeles Police Department released a photo of a man on Friday suspected of sexually assaulting several children in the San Fernando Valley and hope other victims and witnesses will come forward.

Detectives arrested Marcelo Alonso Lozano at 4:30 p.m. Monday, July 29, after he was allegedly identified in a series of child sexual assaults in the Valley, the department said in a statement.

Investigators say Lozano may have been involved in additional attacks and are searching for potential victims or eyewitnesses. The victims ranged from 8 to 15 years of age at the time of the assaults, police said.

Investigators say Lozano was affiliated with the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Sun Valley as an usher for six years. They say he used that position to initiate a relationship with his victims and their families.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Charles J. Reid Jr. | Aug. 17, 2013

VIEWPOINT
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia put into words the anxiety many right-wing Catholics must be feeling at the extraordinary popularity Pope Francis has been enjoying. In an interview with John L. Allen Jr., Chaput, speaking on behalf of his conservative followers, said that members of the right wing of the Catholic church “generally have not been really happy about his election.” The pope, Chaput stated, will “have to care for them, too.”

What worries Chaput in particular is the sudden interest in the new pope from unfamiliar quarters. Practicing Catholics love the pope, of course, “but they’re not actually the ones who really talk to me about the new pope. The ones who do are nonpracticing Catholics or people who aren’t Catholic or not even Christian.” And why should this be so? Chaput has his suspicions: Yes, these outsiders are thrilled by the new pope’s friendliness and his warmth, but “I think they would prefer a church that wouldn’t have strict norms and ideas about the moral life and about doctrine.”

Wow. Where do we start? We could talk about the parable of the prodigal son, since Chaput truly sounds a great deal like the adventuresome young man’s older brother, the one who stayed home and toiled with his father and grew resentful when the old man slew the fatted calf upon his brother’s return. Or we could talk about the shepherd who rejoiced over finding his lost sheep.

But let’s focus instead on what it means to be an evangelical church. For some time now, decades really, the church has been turning in upon itself. This is most especially noticeable in conservative circles. The culture is seen as hostile. The ambient culture is “pagan,” to use Chaput’s description. Indeed, he has even called some Catholics pagan in their approach to the faith.

But shouting “pagan, pagan” is no way to win souls. And this is evidenced by even the briefest consideration of Catholic membership statistics. Catholic membership has grown in Africa, but it has lost members in Latin America to more enthusiastic forms of evangelical Protestantism. And in the United States, Catholic membership would be in decline were it not buoyed by immigration.

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The right wing’s favored response to these dismal trends is to blame the left. But the right wing needs to know that it has controlled the church hierarchy for some three decades now. It is the right wing that must look in the mirror. A stricter form of boundary police will not attract outsiders; it will repel them. Indeed, it has.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Aug. 19, 2013 NCR Today

The leadership of the main group representing U.S. Catholic sisters met this weekend with the archbishop appointed by the Vatican to oversee them and they had a “profound and honest sharing of views,” the group said in a statement Monday.

Representatives of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) were meeting with Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, who was appointed by the Vatican in April 2012 as the group’s “archbishop delegate” and given wide authority to revise its statutes and programs,

The prelate and the sisters met following LCWR’s annual assembly, which was held in Orlando, Fla., Aug. 13-16 and saw some 825 sisters, representatives of the country’s Catholic orders of sisters, attend. Sartain also attended the gathering and held a closed door, 90-minute meeting with the LCWR members Aug. 15.

While that closed-door meeting provided Sartain “little opportunity” to answer LCWR members’ questions, LCWR says in its Monday statement, the archbishop “had been listening intently and heard the concerns voiced by the members, and their desire for more information.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By SELIM ALGAR
August 19, 2013

A Bible-thumping Seventh Day Adventist pastor shamelessly begged a Queens church secretary for sex despite the fact that both are married — and the organization’s all-powerful leader tried to cover up the scandal, the secretary’s blockbuster lawsuit claims.

Grecia Mena, a staffer at the Jamaica headquarters of the group’s Northeastern Conference, claims in the suit that pastor José Burroughs tried to talk her into the sack for years, despite her protests and complaints.

Mena, 40, says in her suit that the preacher told her that he was accustomed to having women throw themselves at him and could not understand why she didn’t follow suit.

“I don’t understand,” he allegedly said. “Anything I want, I get.”

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: August 19, 2013

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 Houston pastor has been arrested for sexually abusing a 8-year-old girl.

We applaud the young girl’s family for reporting the abuse of Romulo Jimenez to authorities.

We encourage the members of Centro Cristiano Vida Nuevo to report anything they may have experienced, witnessed, or suspected to police in order to ensure that this predator is kept away from children forever.

We urge officials at the Centro Cristiano Vida Nuevo church to also reach out to potential victims at any other church or work place where Jimenez may have spent time.

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ARGENTINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Friday, August 16

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

An Argentine Catholic cleric alleged to have abused more than 50 children faces an appeal of his recent acquittal.

SNAP applauds the seven victims for appealing the court’s decision to free Justo José Ilarraz earlier this month from multiple charges of sexual abuse.

We urge officials at the Minor Seminary of Paraná to encourage anyone formally and currently involved with the institution who may have experienced, witnessed, or suspected abuse by Ilarraz to report to it authorities in order to lock-up this predator and protect children.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Times

Aug. 19, 2013

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will be holding private sessions in Melbourne this week.

Royal Commission chief executive officer, Janette Dines said that more than 200 people have already told their story in private sessions across the country and more than 2500 people have shared their story with the Royal Commission over the phone or in writing.

“The private sessions are already contributing significantly to the Commissioners’ understanding of the nature and extent of the sexual abuse of children within institutions in Australia,” Ms Dines said.

“Many of the personal stories which the Commissioners receive report a level of abuse and mistreatment of children which will shock many people,” said Ms Dines.

“We understand how difficult it can be for people to come forward and talk about what happened to them,” Ms Dines said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP August 19, 2013

ABORIGINAL community groups in Western Australia’s Kimberley region will meet with the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse this week.

The royal commission will visit Broome, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek and Kununurra.

The meetings will focus on how to make it easier for Aboriginal people to engage with the royal commission and how Aboriginal community organisations can support people wanting to share their story.

Commissioners Helen Milroy and Andrew Murray will meet with representatives of the Kimberley Stolen Generations, Yawuru community leaders, Aboriginal legal and medical services, sexual assault and mental health services, and the Kimberley Land Council.

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TEXAS
KTRK

[with video]

Simon Gutierrez

HOUSTON (KTRK) — A local church is speaking out about their pastor’s arrest and the charges he faces. Romulo Jimenez is accused of molesting an eight-year-old girl.

Sunday services went on as scheduled at the church, but members admit the situation is difficult for everyone.

Centro Cristiano Vida Nuevo is a Spanish-speaking church in southwest Houston. This week, its congregation learned Jimenez had been arrested on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

“It’s hard but we trust in Jesus Christ,” member Javier Quinones said.

According to prosecutors, a church member caught Jimenez and a young girl in the church’s bathroom. That started the investigation. The girl told investigators it wasn’t the first time Jimenez had sexually abused her.

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ROME
Business Standard

Rome, Aug 17 (IANS/AKI) A former economy minister in Italy said he was suing a woman member of the new Vatican financial reform panel, who is also a journalist, over tweets she made claiming he is gay.

Giulio Tremonti told the Ansa news agency that he was also suing Alessandro Sallustri, editor-in-chief of Il Giornale daily that printed tweets by 30-year-old journalist Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui.

Chaouqui was last month named the only female and only Italian to a panel to review the Vatican’s financial administration.

“Having nothing to do at all with two well known Vatican ‘lobbies’, I am taking legal action against Chaouqui,” Tremonti said.

Chaouqui reportedly made a number of controversial posts on Twitter before her appointment, including one in March when she called Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone “corrupt”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Crimes

For Immediate Release

Vatican Bank Holocaust Litigation
Dr. Jonathan Levy, PhD
info@brimstoneandcompany.com
+1 202-318-2406

VATICAN CITY, ROME — A formal request has been made to Vatican Bank president, Ernst von Freyberg, to audit approximately 30 current and former Vatican Bank accounts that were identified as having laundered Holocaust era assets from the Balkans. The account information was gathered from several sources including government reports and the testimony of former Special Agent William Gowen who served in Rome in 1946-1947. The request comes immediately after the Vatican Bank’s current bid for transparency which includes a new website, an ongoing audit of private accounts and the appointment of several Vatican Commissions to combat money laundering at the tarnished institution.

Dr. Jonathan Levy, who is the attorney for several thousand claimants, Holocaust victims, their heirs, and organizations, has also asked the European Union Ombudsman and the European Commission to lend their good offices to the effort since the Vatican City State is an associate member of the Euro Zone.

The funds at stake were derived from the Ustasha Treasury, consisting of gold and valuable looted from Yugoslavia during the Second World War and deposited at the Vatican Bank in 1946. The new Vatican Bank website states that the bank also known as Institute for Religious Works is under the jurisdiction and laws of the Vatican City and its courts. Previously, the EU Commission had abstained from becoming involved claiming there were doubts as to the jurisdiction involved.

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GENEVA
Vatican Crimes

For the second time in recent months, a United Nations panel will soon determine if Vatican officials are complying with an international treaty. The Geneva-based UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) has set next May as the date for a review of whether top church officials are honoring the 1984 treaty on torture.

[United Nations Human Rights]

“Every time anyone tells Catholic officials ‘You will be held to the same standard as other institutions,’ that’s progress,” said Barbara Blaine of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “This is an encouraging development. We suspect this committee will see and point out how the church hierarchy continues to tolerate and enable sexual violence.”

“Vatican bureaucrats have long made and broken promises with impunity. Ever so slowly, those days are waning,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “But progress is happening only because of brave victims and determined advocates. So for the safety of innocent kids and vulnerable adults, we all must all keep pressing hard and keep exposing complicity.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
kipa-apic

Freiburg i. Br., 9.8.13 (Kipa) Was lange nur gemunkelt wurde, wird unter Papst Franziskus langsam enttabuisiert: Das Problem der homosozialen “Männerbünde” in der Kirche. Von Franziskus selbst in einem Gespräch mit Ordensoberen aus Lateinamerika als “schwule Lobby” bezeichnet, schanzen sich diese Bünde Titel, Positionen und Machtzugänge innerhalb der Kirche zu, erläutert der bekannte deutsche Jesuit und ehemalige Leiter des Berliner Canisius-Kollegs, Klaus Mertes, in der Zeitschrift “Herder Korrespondenz” (August-Ausgabe).

Es sei an der Zeit, diese Bünde zu “entmachten”. Dabei werde sich Papst Franziskus “hoffentlich nicht einschüchtern” lassen. Mertes, der mit einem Brief an ehemalige Kolleg-Schüler 2010 den Anstoss zur Aufdeckung des Missbrauchsskandals gab, zeigt in seinem Beitrag die vielen Fallstricke und Missverständnisse auf, die das Thema homosexueller Seilschaften in der Kirche mit sich bringt. Zum einen müsse anstelle von einer “schwulen Lobby” – einem Begriff “aus dem Arsenal der homophoben Kampfsprache” – vielmehr von einer “männerbündisch verengten” homosozialen Struktur des Klerus gesprochen werden. Offen sei, ob diese Seilschaften, die zugleich eine “frauenfeindliche Aussenseite” aufwiesen, tatsächlich aus einer “systematisch aufgebauten Subkultur” in der Kirche hervorgingen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
General – Anzeiger

BERLIN. Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch an Kindern in einer katholischen Schule setzten Anfang 2010 eine Welle von Enthüllungen in Gang. Es wurden immer mehr Taten in kirchlichen Einrichtungen und Schulen aufgedeckt.
Einige Beispiele:

Januar 2010: Am Berliner Canisius-Kolleg der Jesuiten werden erste Verdachtsfälle bekannt. In den folgenden Monaten kommen in ganz Deutschland weitere Fälle ans Licht. Auch das oberbayerische Kloster Ettal und die Regensburger Domspatzen sind betroffen.

März 2010: Die Leitung der weltlichen Odenwaldschule im hessischen Heppenheim gibt bekannt, dass es an der Reformschule sexuelle Übergriffe auf Schüler gegeben hat. Weitere Fälle werden publik.

November 2010: Sieben Jahre Haft wegen hundertfachen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern – dazu verurteilt das Landgericht Kassel einen früheren katholischen Pfarrer aus dem Prämonstratenser-Orden. Der Mann war Schulpfarrer in Fritzlar.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Freie Welt

von Professor Adorján F. Kovács

Viele Kommentatoren haben aufgrund der jüngsten Vorschläge der Grünen, von denen der zu einem fleischlosen Tag in deutschen Kantinen nur der spektakulärste ist, festgestellt, dass diese Partei etwas Oberlehrerhaftes hat.

Nicht ohne Grund sehen manche auch einen messianischen Weltverbesserungsdrang, der schon ideologische Züge trägt. Eine Partei der Besserwisser mit höherem Bewusstsein, die die Wahrheit gepachtet haben.

Die Grüne Partei hat aber auch eine merkwürdig doppelte Moral. Nicht nur ist sie die Friedenspartei, die erstmals nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wieder deutsche Kriegsteilnahmen möglich gemacht hat. Diese janusköpfige Ausrichtung zeigt sie auch bei der Unterstützung der sogenannten Homo-Ehe, während die ihr nahestehende politische Stiftung nach Heinrich Böll benannt ist, der ein rheinischer Katholik war und mit einer ganzen Reihe von grünen Themen sicher nicht konform gewesen wäre. Aber er kann sich ja nicht mehr wehren.

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DEUTSCHLAND
dradio

Von Jens Rosbach

Nur jeder sechste Geistliche, der sich an Kindern vergriffen oder Kinderpornografie genutzt hat, hat eine gestörte Sexualität. So lautet das Ergebnis einer Studie von Hans-Ludwig Kröber, Forensiker an der Berliner Charité. Andere Pädophilie-Forscher zeigen sich irritiert.

Die Studie kommt zu einem erstaunlichen Ergebnis: Nur zwölf Prozent der auffällig gewordenen Priester sind tatsächlich pädophil, weitere vier Prozent ephebophil – neigen also zu pubertierenden Jungen. Autor Hans-Ludwig Kröber bilanziert, dass lediglich jeder sechste Geistliche, der Minderjährige missbraucht beziehungsweise Kinderpornografie konsumiert haben soll, eine gestörte Sexualität zeigt:

“Es ist so, dass die große Mehrheit der Täter nicht sexuell pervers ist, irgendwie abweichend auf Kinder gepolt. Sondern Männer sind, die durchaus eine normale erwachsene Sexualität haben, die aber – auch aus ihrer sozialen Situation heraus – dann gegenüber überwiegend pubertären Kindern übergriffig geworden sind und die früher auch durchaus mit erwachsenen Personen sexuelle Kontakte gehabt haben.”

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

One of the great battlegrounds of the Royal Commission will revolve around the issue of mandatory reporting. At present there is great variability across the states on both who must report, and what must be reported. A national standard would, of course, make sense to many people.

Some of the offending organisations, including the Catholic Church in particular, vigorously oppose mandatory reporting, especially in the context of the confessional. Many commentators have suggested that church law is being elevated to a position above that of the state.

In Ireland, government officials have made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the law of the state reigns supreme. Here, few politicians have dared to comment because of the political power of the churches. As the public becomes more aware of the role of mandatory reporting in protecting children, in the course of the Royal Commission hearings, then there will be more pressure on government to take a clear stand one way or the other.

This is why the Catholic Church, in particular, is pushing its line so fiercely on the issue. Indeed, one member of its PR Unit, set up to deal with the fall-out of the Royal Commission, is an “expert” advocate for winding back existing mandatory reporting laws (see previous posting).

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A helpline for those who may have suffered abuse at two Catholic boarding schools in Scotland has been launched by a children’s charity.

A BBC Scotland programme uncovered evidence of abuse by monks at the Fort Augustus Abbey school in the Highlands and Carlekemp in East Lothian.

Police are investigating the allegations and there have been calls for a public inquiry.

Children 1st has set up a dedicated support line for anyone affected.

The organisation traditionally helps children, young people and families recover from abuse, neglect and violence and campaigns for children’s rights.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

The Curia said today that it could not be held legally responsible for the criminal acts made by former priests Godwin Scerri and Charles Pulis, who were convicted of child sex abuse.

The Curia was replying in court to a case filed in May where ten clerical child abuse victims sued the two former priests, the Church and the government for damages.

The victims did not asking for a specific amount but said they were expecting the court to appoint an expert to identify what losses they suffered as a direct result of the abuse.

The civil lawsuit was filed by Lawrence Grech, Joseph Magro, Leonard Camilleri, David Cassar, Noel Dimech, Angelo Spiteri, Raymond Azzopardi, Charles Falzon, Phillip Cauchi and Joseph Mangion.

In its reply today, the Curia said the Church could not be collectively held responsible for the actions of Scerri and Pulis. Although the Archdiocese had pastoral responsibilities, it did not have responsibility for personal actions of its members which exposed them to criminal or civil actions.

Furthermore, without prejudice, the Curia said the requests were unfounded because the Archdiocese was not negligent and had always sought the best interests of those who were less fortunate.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune

BY MIKE GORRELL | THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

PUBLISHED AUGUST 16, 2013

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The furor over a proposed pay cut for the priests serving the Salt Lake Valley’s Greek Orthodox community is intensifying.

A report prepared for the parish council by its audit committee said the priests at Holy Trinity and Prophet Elias churches took money out of accounts intended for the needy and used it “in ways that are questionable and appear to be inappropriate.”

The audit was delivered July 15 to the parish council, two weeks before the council cut its three priests’ pay by 40 percent, saving $125,000 annually and helping balance its revenue-barren annual budget.

Greek Orthodox parishioners received a summary of the audit in an email distributed Monday from the Parish Council, the day before the council announced a special assembly will be held Aug. 25 at Prophet Elias church in Holladay to discuss priestly pay — and other short- and long-term solutions to parish financial problems.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Mike Gorrell | The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Aug 08 2013 12:02 pm • Last Updated Aug 15 2013

By official decree, rites marking the Feast of the Transfiguration were allowed to take place Monday and Tuesday in the Salt Lake Valley’s two Greek Orthodox churches, Holy Trinity and Prophet Elias.

But that’s it, for the time being. There won’t be any more Sunday services. No baptisms or weddings, either.

Metropolitan Isaiah, the Denver-based Greek Orthodox leader whose region includes Utah, recently ordered the three clergy members serving the community to “immediately suspend all priestly ministry to the parish.”

“They are not to celebrate any liturgy, sacraments or services whatsoever,” he added, later modifying the order to permit the priests to conduct the Great Vespers, Orthros and Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Transfiguration. “This includes Sunday liturgies, beginning this Sunday, Aug. 4, and all scheduled weddings and baptisms.”

His directive came after the cash-strapped Parish Council voted July 29 to cut the pay of the three priests by 40 percent to balance the 2013 budget.

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SCOTLAND
Scotland on Sunday

by SHAN ROSS
Published on the 18 August 2013

A DEDICATED helpline for victims of alleged sexual and physical abuse at two boarding schools in Scotland run by the Catholic Church is being launched today.

Children 1st, the charity that campaigns for children’s rights, set up the helpline following allegations of abuse at the Benedictine-run Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands and its prep school Carlekemp in East Lothian.

The move follows the former headteacher at the boarding school stepping aside from his current position at an Oxford hall for student monks. Father Francis Davidson faces allegations that he failed to act on reports of sexual abuse that were made during his time at Fort Augustus in the 1970s.

It also follows a BBC Scotland investigation broadcast last month that featured five men who claimed they had been raped or sexually assaulted by two Australian monks Father Aidan Duggan and Father Chrysostom Alexander. Father Fabian Duggan, Father Aidan Duggan’s brother has also been accused of abuse.

About 50 alleged victims at the two schools have spoken about events over nearly three decades. A total of ten monks face allegations of physical abuse; four monks and a lay teacher are accused of sexual abuse, including rape. Police Scotland is investigating the allegations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Prensa Latina

London, Aug 18 (Prensa Latina) The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, ordered to reopen the files of deceased priests who served in his diocese to determine whether or not they incurred in child sexual abuse, reported British media.

Sentamu decided to investigate all priests who worked in his diocese from 1950, an investigation identified as the first of its kind in this religious institution.

In making the announcement, the archbishop acknowledged the immense damage done to children when they are sexually abused, and noted that time does not heal those wounds automatically.

“Where it is established that a child was betrayed by individuals in positions of trust and the institution failed to to protect them, the Church must acknowledge the damage done, provide an apology, and improve policies and practices to ensure that the same mistake will never repeat again”, he said, quoted by the Guardian.

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ILLINOIS
Belleville News-Democrat

By DAVID CLOHESSY

Five years ago this month, a Belleville jury made a stunning decision. They awarded $5 million to Jim Wisniewski who was sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest for years.

And exactly 20 years ago, Belleville’s Catholic Diocese made national headlines as the first of 17 credibly accused child- molesting clerics was removed from ministry.

How have Belleville Catholic officials changed, if at all, in the years since these disturbing developments?

Stunningly little. And their response has largely mirrored the arc followed by the rest of the Catholic hierarchy: First, temporary period of improvement and grandiose promises (while the glare of media attention is intense) then a long period of quiet backpedalling (when public pressure subsides).

In 1993, like a row of dominoes, eight clerics were accused of child sexual abuse and suspended from active duty: the Revs. Jerome Ratermann, James Calhoun, Robert Vonnahmen, David Crook, Robert Chlopecki, Deacon Francis Theis, the Revs. Eugene Linnemann and Edwin Kastner.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Lawyers for Bernard Shero and Father Charles Engelhardt have filed legal papers claiming their clients were wrongly convicted due to judicial errors and prosecutorial misconduct.

The lawyers made their claims in separate documents filed on Aug. 1 with Judge Ellen Ceisler, both entitled, “Defendant’s Statement of Errors To Be Complained Of On Appeal.”

Michael J. McGovern, writing on behalf of Father Engelhardt, asserted that Judge Ceisler should have tossed a conspiracy charge against Father Engelhardt a lot sooner than she did. During the trial, the judge overruled defense objections to the charge that Father Engelhardt had conspired with Father Edward Avery to rape Billy Doe, the victim in the case, when he was a 10-year-old altar boy.

After the jury delivered its verdict and convicted Engelhardt of conspiracy, the judge at sentencing announced she was going to throw out the conspiracy charge as unproven. But that decision came after the judge had given “lengthy and repetitive jury instructions on conspiracy and accomplice liability thus unduly emphasizing” the conspiracy charge to the jury, McGovern wrote. The conspiracy charge took up 10 out of 44 pages of jury instructions, and one page of a two-page jury verdict sheet that listed “four separate charges of conspiracy and accomplice liability,” McGovern wrote.

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CALIFORNIA
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

California Assembly Appropriations Committee,vote YES to SB 131… Contact/ Write to members of the House Appropriations Committee – let them know you support the bill!

All good members of the California State Assembly, Committee on Appropriations, please vote “yes” SB 131 – a bill by state Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose. Help victims of abuse. SB 131 should be approved as quickly as possible, and Gov. Jerry Brown should sign it.

All good people of California, contact and write to members of the House Appropriations Committee – let them know you support the bill – and let final justice happen for hundreds, if not, thousands of victims of pedophiles (priests) in California!!

Committee members, please “yes” SB 131 – Let Justice ring loud from the hilltops of Los Angeles and Sacramento and all over California!

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The St. Catherine’s Girls Home, at Geelong in Victoria, is yet another of the old Children’s Homes worthy of new look by the Australian Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. There are two main reasons for this.

Firstly, there is the matter that a flat was maintained within the Home for a priest who acted as a “chaplain”. This provided the potential for abuse. Indeed, that happened with one Fr. Bernard Maxwell Day, who occupied the flat between 1961 and 1963.

It was the practice in St. Catherine’s that, after early morning Mass, the priest’s breakfast would be prepared in the convent kitchen and a girl would have to take it to the priest’s flat. A girl would also be sent to tidy the priest’s bedroom and make his bed. These women say that Father Day used to sit girls on his knee and touch them indecently. They assumed that this was the normal job of priests.

Former inmates of St Catherine’s say that Mother Aquin learned about Father Day molesting girls and she therefore had him removed from the institution. This forms the second basis of concern about this particular Home. There is no evidence that Day was reported to the appropriate authorities.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Ken Briggs | Aug. 16, 2013 NCR Today

The otherwise noble Leadership Conference of Women Religious has done itself a disservice by agreeing to be muzzled. The Vatican demanded it as part of the visit to their annual assembly by Archbishop Sartain in his recently appointed role as their disciplinarian. Going along with it continued the sisters’ pattern of believing that secrecy is the means of realizing their goals and assuring Rome’s best behavior. It’s typical of their good intentions but devoid of reasonable expectations. Though there are times when secrecy is justified, it’s mostly a tactic by the powerful to maintain control of events and agenda. This looks exactly like that.

The usual line is that conflicts are much better dealt with behind closed doors. That usually means that those in power pose a threat to the plaintiffs if the silence is broken, while devising means of leaking their side of the story to the press. Our patriot ancestors found this to be cause for Revolution. The Constitution trumpeted openness as the key to a healthy democracy.

No, the church isn’t a democracy, but human interactions on most any level benefit from the light of day.

Many sisters are no doubt caught in two church cultures at this point. Under the old order, acceding to the will of ordained male superiors was a given. Near absolute compliance was the order of the day. Vatican II scrambled that culture by encouraging sisters to take more initiative themselves, only to be widely opposed when they actually tried to do it. That left a good many sisters still caught between two cultures, the deeply ingrained instinct toward obedience tempered by relative autonomy. The experience has surely been wrenching and that calls for oompassion.

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ILLINOIS/WISCONSIN
Chicago Tribune

By Alexandra Chachkevitch, Chicago Tribune reporter
August 17, 2013

Officials at a Milwaukee church once headed by the pastor who now leads a Glenview congregation have asked authorities to investigate the way the priest oversaw a trust fund.

Questions surrounding the Rev. James Dokos’ time at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee prompted the parish council at Sts. Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Glenview to hold an emergency meeting Thursday night.

Parish Council President James Gottreich said members took “some steps to protect ourselves,” but would not elaborate — except to say the council did not move to oust Dokos.

Dokos arrived at the Glenview congregation about a year ago, replacing the Rev. Angelo Artemas, who headed Sts. Peter and Paul for more than 10 years. Artemas is now the pastor at Annunciation in Milwaukee, which Dokos led for about 20 years.
lenview are concerned about the questions raised in Milwaukee, but have not drawn any conclusions.

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FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

By Jorge Milian
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The daughter of ex-Rosarian Academy teacher Stephen Budd, who is already facing charges of molesting two of his former fourth-grade students, told police that her father videotaped her childhood friends while directing them to dance and touch themselves.

Jillian Budd, now 26, notified police of the videotaping in April, according to court documents obtained Friday by The Palm Beach Post. The documents detail an interview West Palm Beach Police had with Budd’s daughter and also spell out 59 additional charges of child pornography that Budd now faces.

After executing a search warrant that was prepared June 18, police found 41 images and 19 videos of boys and girls under the age of 12, and girls under the age of 18 having sex with adult males. The videos were described in a probable-cause affidavit as sadomasochistic. However, it is unknown if the girls in the videos are Budd’s former students or his daughter’s friends.

Reached Friday by the Post, Jason Weiss, Budd’s attorney, declined comment on the new allegations because he said he had not yet seen the state attorney’s report. Weis did say that he intends to enter a plea of not guilty at Budd’s bond hearing on his original child molestation charge. That hearing is scheduled for next Friday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

THE Archbishop of York is launching an independent investigation into the records of hundreds of deceased clergy to trace any information that may exist relating to allegations of child abuse.

The dramatic move announced today will involve checking through records more than 60 years old.

It comes in the wake of claims Dr John Sentamu’s predecessor, Lord Hope of Thornes, covered up allegations of abuse against Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral.

All the files of deceased clergy who served in the Diocese of York from before 1950 to the present are to be recalled from the archives to be checked by an independent reviewer for any evidence of abuse.

Lord Hope, who was Archbishop of York between 1995 and 2005, has strongly denied all claims of negligence which followed reports he was twice told about allegations about Mr Waddington, who died from cancer five years ago after retiring to York in 1993.

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.