ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Police have reopened a 10-year-old investigation into sexual abuse at a former County Durham detention centre, which saw two staff jailed.

Church minister Neville Husband, who worked at Medomsley juvenile detention centre as a prison officer and store man Leslie Johnson were jailed in 2003.

The pair, both now dead, were convicted of sexually abusing inmates.

Durham Police has now reopened the investigation after a former inmate claimed he was also abused.

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TEXAS
ABC 13

[with video]

HOUSTON (KTRK) — A pastor stands accused of molesting an eight-year-old girl at a church in southwest Houston. Now investigators say there could be other victims.

Romulo Jimenez was in court Wednesday morning. He’s charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child. He’s the pastor at Cento Christiano Vida Nueva. Prosecutors say the eight-year-old victim in the case claims the 67-year-old assaulted her in his office, in a church bathroom and in a parked car in the parking. Now they’re looking for more possible victims.

“If there are parents who are concerned, who go to this church where this pastor had contact with their children, they need to contact law enforcement right away so that we can make sure that their children were safe,” said assistant district attorney Angela Smith.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
The Wall Street Journal

By Mark Peters

Lawyers representing sex abuse victims and other creditors in the bankruptcy filing of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee want a federal judge to vacate his own ruling and recuse himself because of where his relatives are buried.

A filing this week calls for U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa to vacate his recent decision that $55 million in a cemetery trust are protected from creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings.

The reason: Judge Randa has at least nine relatives in cemeteries maintained by the trust and purchased the gravesites of his parents, meaning the trust includes funds from him, according to the motion.

The Milwaukee archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2011 as it faced allegations of sexual abuse by priests. In 2007, then-Archbishop of Milwaukee Timothy Dolan, now a cardinal and head of the New York Archdiocese, asked the Vatican for permission to move the funds into an “autonomous pious foundation,” according to a letter he sent to Rome.

The letter said the funds were diocesan assets restricted for the perpetual needs of the cemeteries.

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CANADA
The Province

BY JENNIFER SALTMAN, THE PROVINCE AUGUST 14, 2013

A former Abbotsford Hindu priest convicted of sexual offences involving teenage members of his congregation continues to deny responsibility for his crimes.

Karam Vir, 33, was convicted in May of two counts of touching a young person for a sexual purpose and one count of sexual assault in connection with incidents that took place in 2009 and 2010 while he was employed at Abbotsford’s Hindu temple on Walmsley Avenue.

A sentencing hearing was held Wednesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack .

Vir made sexual advances toward the two victims, who were 17 years old, after befriending them at the temple. One young woman said Vir kissed her and there was brief sexual intercourse and/or touching three times. The other victim testified that Vir talked about wanting to get sexually involved with her but she resisted his sexual advances.

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NEW YORK
Jeff Anderson & Associates

NEWS RELEASE: 32 VICTIMS ALLEGE SEXUAL ABUSE AT YESHIVA UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL IN NEW YORK

[the lawsuit]

(New York, NY) – The nationally prominent child sex abuse law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates, has teamed up with New York-based attorney Kevin T. Mulhearn to announce the addition of more survivors of abuse in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York naming as defendants Yeshiva University, Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy-Yeshiva University High School for Boys, Rabbi Norman Lamm, Rabbi Robert Hirt and various members of the Board of Trustees for Yeshiva University.

The complaint states that the 32 Plaintiffs were sexually abused while students at Yeshiva University High School by perpetrators including the school’s former Principal George Finkelstein, who targeted vulnerable students, used his power as an administrator to silence the victims and lowered their grades thus affecting their scholastic futures.

“This has been one of the most trusted institutions and through recent revelations it helps us all to realize there are serious problems that are left to be addressed. It’s now the mission of these survivors shared by us advocates to make sure a measure of justice is done for the past so children are protected in the future,” stated Attorney Jeff Anderson.

From 1962-1995, numerous reports were made to report Finkelstein’s abuse but no one listened. Reports of sexual abuse were also made involving another sexual abuser Richard Andron, as well as Judaic faculty member Rabbi Macy Gordon. None of the perpetrators were ever reported to law enforcement despite then-Vice President Israel Miller’s knowledge of Gordon’s sexual abuse. Gordon was allowed to remain on campus and proceeded to sexually assault at least one more student.

During a December 2012 interview, Rabbi Lamm admitted he knew of some allegations of improper sexual activity involving several YUHS staff members but he chose to deal with the allegations privately instead of contacting law enforcement. Lamm resigned July 1, 2013 and issued a letter stating “I acted in a way I thought was correct which now seems ill conceived…I now recognize that I was wrong.”

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a California bill, SB 131, that would suspend the statute of limitations for one year in cases where someone claims he was molested when he was a minor in a private institution; the law applies to those who were 26-years-old in 2002:

Good news: SB 131 never got out of committee today. While the bill can still be voted on during this legislative session, time is running out. The fact that it stalled today is encouraging.

This bill has more to do with punishing the Catholic Church for offenses alleged to have been committed decades ago than it does with protecting minors today. The bill is also an affront to fairness on another level: it gives the biggest offenders of all—those who work in the public schools—a pass.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

[with video]

Father Francis Davidson, a former headmaster of the Scottish Catholic boarding school at the centre of an abuse scandal, has resigned from a role with Oxford University.

The initial BBC programme had uncovered evidence of serious physical and sexual abuse at the now-closed Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands and feeder school Carlekemp in East Lothian.

A number of former pupils have since come forward to say that they too suffered abuse while at the schools.

Hugh Kennedy, a former pupil, says he was abused as a boy and that his abuser: “Has to face the consequences of what he has done.

“I will face Chrysostom if need be. This is a bogey man that has been on my shoulder all my life”.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A former headmaster of a scandal-hit Catholic boarding school has resigned from a senior role at a Benedictine college of Oxford University.

Father Francis Davidson is accused of covering up child sex abuse during his time at Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands.

He is quitting as monastic superior of St Benet’s Hall.

He was responsible at the Oxford college for the welfare of student monks.

Fr Davidson’s resignation follows a BBC Scotland investigation into physical and sexual abuse at Fort Augustus and its preparatory school in East Lothian, Carlekemp.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

By Jaclyn Brandt

MILWAUKEE – The creditors in the bankruptcy case against the Milwaukee Archdiocese are asking for a judge to set aside a ruling blocking funds from a trust be used to pay their settlement.

The trust is meant to be used for cemeteries owned and operated by the archdiocese, and U.S. District Judge Randolph Randa last month ruled that the funds couldn’t be used in the bankruptcy settlement because it would “substantially burden” their freedom of religion under the First Amendment, according to the Journal Sentinel.

The creditors, many who are sex abuse victims of the church, have also asked Judge Randa to recuse himself from the case because of a possible conflict of interest. They are asking a bankruptcy judge to release records stating whether Randa and his wife own plots in one of the cemeteries.

They “discovered that at least nine of Judge Randa’s relatives (including his mother, his father and his wife’s parents) are buried in cemeteries owned and operated by” the archdiocese.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Bruce Vielmetti and Karen Herzog of the Journal Sentinel

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s creditors have filed motions asking the federal judge in the church’s bankruptcy case to set aside a key ruling and recuse himself from the case over a potential conflict of interest.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa ruled in late July that forcing the archdiocese to tap the $50 million-plus it holds in a trust for the perpetual care of cemeteries would substantially burden its free expression of religion under the First Amendment and a 1993 federal law aimed at protecting religious liberty.

Then Aug. 2, lawyers representing the archdiocese’s creditors — primarily sex abuse victims — asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley to compel the release of any records showing whether Randa and his wife, Melinda, have purchased any plots or crypts in one of the archdiocese’s cemeteries, or whether they have any interest as heirs or beneficiaries of several relatives known to be buried in them.

In motions filed Monday — one to set aside the ruling and the other asking Randa to recuse himself — the creditors said they “discovered that at least nine of Judge Randa’s relatives (including his mother, his father and his wife’s parents) are buried in cemeteries owned and operated by” the archdiocese.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
The Republic

By M.L. JOHNSON Associated Press
August 14, 2013

MILWAUKEE — Creditors for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee have asked a federal judge to set aside a key ruling in its bankruptcy case and step down because of what they say is a conflict of interest.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying pending sexual abuse lawsuits could leave it with debts it couldn’t pay. Its creditors include hundreds of people who were sexually abused by clergy and have accused the archdiocese of transferring predator priests to new churches without warning parishioners.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa ruled last month that more than $55 million is off-limits from those victims and other creditors because the money is in a cemetery trust fund protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.

The cemetery fund has been a point of contention because victims’ lawyers see it as one of the few big pools of money that could potentially be available for settlements. The creditors’ committee said in documents filed Monday that Randa’s decision should be set aside because at least nine of his relatives, including his parents, are buried in cemeteries operated by the archdiocese.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Kathy Lynn Gray
The Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday August 14, 2013

Columbus police are investigating why the suspended director of the Ohio State Fair youth choir did not report allegations of a former staff member’s inappropriate interactions with choir members in 2011, a detective said yesterday.

Detective Amy Welsh said Charles R. Snyder learned of the sexual allegations against Zachary R. Ruppel that same year but did not tell police.

Snyder did report a different set of allegations against Ruppel this year, according to fair officials. After that happened, Snyder, the fair choir director since 1992, was suspended by fair manager Virgil Strickler.

Snyder, of Coshocton, did not work at this year’s fair.

Ruppel worked with the fair choir in 2011 but was not asked to return. He was choir director at St. Francis DeSales High School in Columbus from 2010 until the end of the school year in June.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Written by
Grant Rodgers

Johnston police on Monday arrested a Muslim imam who serves at the Des Moines Islamic Cultural Center after he reportedly sexually abused two women during a ritual.

Nermin Spahic, 40, was charged with third-degree sexual abuse and sexual exploitation by a clergy and transported to Polk County Jail, according to a press release from the Johnston Police Department.

Spahic’s arrest came after police were called to a house in Johnston where Spahic was allegedly involved in a “ceremonial ritual” with an 18-year-old woman and her 35-year-old mother, according to the release. The woman told police Spahic sexually assaulted them both.

Spahic, a Des Moines resident, denied any sexual contact with the women.

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IOWA
ABC5

By: ABC5 News
Contact: news@myabc5.com
Twitter: @ABC5_WOI

Johnston Police say that an Imam with the Des Moines Islamic Cultural Center has been arrested and charged with sexual abuse.

Nermin Spahic, 40, is facing charges of third degree sexual abuse and sexual exploitation by a therapist or counselor.

Johnston Police were called to a home Monday evening after a report came from a person that their friend and her mother were being sexually assaulted at their home.

Officers says that they found two females, an 18 year old and a 42 year old, along with Spahic in the residence. The females say that Spahic was in the home because the 42 year old mother asked him to provide religious guidance to her daughter.

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IOWA
Patch

Posted by Deb Belt (Editor) , August 14, 2013

A religious leader called by a family to help a teenager with problems has been charged with sexually assaulting the teen and her mother during a ritual ceremony in their home, according to the Johnston Police Department.

Nermin Spahic, 40, of Urbandale was arrested and taken to the Polk County Jail on charges of third-degree sexual abuse and sexual exploitation by a clergy. Police said Spahic is an imam — a Muslim religious leader – at the Islamic and Cultural Center Bosniak.

According to Lt. Lynn Aswegan with the Johnston Police Department, the incident began at about 10 p.m. Aug. 12 when officers were called to a Johnston home on a report of a sexual assault in progress. The person who called police said she had received text messages from a friend claiming that she was at home with her mother and that both women were being sexually assaulted by a male “priest” at the residence.

Officers arrived at the house and talked with an 18-year-old female, her 42-year-old mother, and Spahic. The women told officer Spahic is a Muslim imam that the mother had sought out in an attempt to provide some assistance and religious guidance to her teen daughter on personal issues the daughter had been struggling with.

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IOWA
KCCI

JOHNSTON, Iowa —A woman and her daughter told Johnston police Monday that an imam sexually assaulted them while performing a ceremony at their home.

Police said they received a call about a sexual assault in progress at 10:01 p.m. The caller told police that she had received text messages from a friend claiming that she was at home with her mother, and that both her and her mother were being sexually assaulted by a male priest.

Officers said they found the 42-year-old mother, her 18-year-old daughter and Nermin Spahic, 40, of Des Moines, at the home.

The women told police Spahic was a Muslim imam and that the mother had sought him out in an attempt to provide some assistance and religious guidance to her daughter regarding some personal issues.

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AUSTRALIA
Big Pond News

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The whistleblower detective whose claims sparked a NSW commission of inquiry into institutionalised child abuse doesn’t expect it will stop pedophile priests and others from molesting the young.

Instead Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox believes the best outcome, along with legislative changes, is that child abuse is minimised.

‘There will always be some degree of wrong-doer or corruption in any organisation,’ he told AAP.

‘You can minimise it but you can never win it.’

Insp Fox was recently grilled for 13 days at the inquiry, set up after he went public with allegations churches in the Hunter Valley covered up for pedophile priests, silenced investigations and destroyed crucial evidence to avoid prosecution.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[Catholic Religious Men’s Leaders Explore New Evangelization, Renew Child Protection Commitment, and Elect New Officers]

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 14, 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 Delaware priest, who claims there’s a “war on the Roman Catholic priesthood” has just been elected head of America’s Catholic religious orders. He also insists that two convicted child molesters are innocent and that prosecutors are “overzealous.” We think he’s an extremist.

He is Fr. James J. Greenfield, an official with the Wilmington-Philadelphia Province of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. He insists that his colleague Fr. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Spero, who were found guilty of child sex crimes in January by a Philadelphia jury, were wrongly convicted.

Fr. Greenfield is the new president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, purportedly representing some 17,000 religious order clerics in the US. ( http://www.cmsm.org/ )

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UNITED STATES
Patrick J. Wall

Throughout the last twenty years of advocating on behalf of survivors of childhood sexual abuse, I have heard countless names for the secret sex abuse archives in the Roman Catholic Church.

These files, according to the Code of Canon Law, are mandatory in every Diocese or Archdiocese around the world:

Can. 489 §1. In the diocesan curia there is also to be a secret archive, or at least in the common archive there is to be a safe or cabinet, completely closed and locked, which cannot be removed; in it documents to be kept secret are to be protected most securely.

§2. Each year documents of criminal cases in matters of morals, in which the accused parties have died or ten years have elapsed from the condemnatory sentence, are to be destroyed. A brief summary of what occurred along with the text of the definitive sentence is to be retained.

Can. 490 §1. Only the bishop is to have the key to the secret archive.

Now comes yet another name from Newark Archbishop John J Myers J.C.D.: the caged files

Caged files, Secret Archives, Hell files, 489 files, Confidential files, the various names speak to the same reality. Big institutions like the Archdiocese of Newark maintain documents and secret histories on people who are credible threats right now. And these “caged files” are NOT designed to protect the public. Instead, they are locked, vaulted, and secreted away to protect the church from the dark immoral haunts whose release—they believe—could upend the institution. Thankfully, survivors in their relentless pursuit of justice continue to rattle the cage, in the hopes that it breaks and frees the secrets.

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FLORIDA
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Aug. 13, 2013 NCR Today

ORLANDO, FLA. The archbishop given expansive oversight by the Vatican of U.S. Catholic sisters told their annual assembly Tuesday he seeks to be their “brother and friend.”

The brief remarks by Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain came in the opening session of the four-day meeting of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).

The group, which represents about 80 percent of the country’s 57,000 Catholic sisters, is meeting 18 months after the Vatican sharply criticized it and placed it under Sartain’s control, naming him its “archbishop delegate” and giving him wide authority to review its statutes and programs.

The past year and a half, Sartain told the 825 assembled sisters, had given him “numerous opportunities” to meet with their leaders over the matter. While they have had some “very significant conversations” during that time, he said they had also had humorous ones too.

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ISRAEL
Failed Messiah

Leading Zionist Orthodox Rabbi Asks Convicted Sex Abuser To Continue Teaching In Yeshiva

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Less a week after politically connected Rabbi Mordechai Elon was found guilty of indecent assault by force on a minor, a leading Zionist Orthodox rabbi – perhaps the leading Zionist Orthodox rabbi – Haim Druckman has asked Elon to keep teaching his weekly class in Druckman’s yeshiva, Ynet reported.

Druckman previously made statements in favor of Elon and against Elon’s victims. He also previously publicly supported Ze’ev Kopolevitch, the former head of Jerusalem’s Zionist orthodox Netiv Meir Yeshiva, who was convicted of sexually abusing his students, and failed to report allegations that Kopolevitch was abusing students to police.

Now Druckman has responded to Elon’s conviction by inviting him to go on teaching at the Or Etzion Yeshiva Druckman heads, as Elon has been doing for the past three years.

And so, on Sunday the convicted child sex abuser returned to his normal teaching duties with Druckman’s full blessing.

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ISRAEL
YNet News

Less a week after he was found guilty of indecent assault by force on a minor, Rabbi Mordechai Elon is receiving significant support from one of the most prominent religious Zionist rabbis. Ynet has learned that Rabbi Chaim Druckman, one of the leaders of the national-religious public, invited the convicted rabbi to deliver his weekly Torah lesson at his yeshiva of Or Etzion.

In the past few days, Rabbi Druckman has avoided voicing a public opinion in regards to Rabbi Elon or repeating his past statements in favor of the man or against those who accused him of committing sex offenses – likely for fear of creating a public row.

Druckman has been criticized in the past for innocently backing Ze’ev Kopolevitch, the former head of Jerusalem’s Netiv Meir Yeshiva, who was convicted of indecent acts against his students, thus hurting the victims once again.

Buy Ynet has learned that last week, shortly after the court delivered its ruling, Druckman invited Elon to go on teaching at his yeshiva, as he has been doing in recent years. On Sunday the convicted rabbi returned to his routine teaching duties, and after delivering a lesson at a Jerusalem synagogue he headed south to the Or Etzion Yeshiva in Merkaz Shapira.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By ROCCO LaDUCA
Observer-Dispatch
Posted Aug 14, 2013

UTICA —
Although the Very Rev. Stephen Enea stands accused of not paying contractors nearly $500,000 for renovations to the Italo-Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan cathedral in Utica, he insists it was always his intention to pay the bill.

But after starting the restoration work about two years ago based on a promised financial donation from a confidential source, Enea said that benefactor’s life-situation changed and he or she could no longer pay the contribution as planned.

The bills went unpaid for months, with Enea hoping that sooner or later the money would be obtained, either from the donor or through other fundraisers and contributions.

Soon the renovations at and around the Cathedral of the Theotokos of Great Grace in Cornhill were put on hold about a year ago, and the contractors finally “ran out of patience” with their demands that the archdiocese pay up, Enea said. The Utica parish has about 130 members.

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

Mr Sullivan said this week’s meeting at the Vietnamese Catholic Community Centre in Westminster, to discuss the upcoming Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, was overwhelmingly positive. Delegates responded with determination and compassion and all involved understand the importance of the Commission to victims and to the Church.

‘For the Church’s part, the first step to coming to terms with the devastation and the enormity of child sexual abuse is to have an open and honest discussion. The silence that accompanies sexual abuse in the broader community is too often the same as the silence that goes on within institutions including the Catholic Church,’ Mr Sullivan said.

The ABC reports that a psychologist who advised the Catholic Church committee that deals with sexual abuse says the church’s insurance company dictated how victims should be treated under the Towards Healing protocol.

Dr Robert Grant is a US-based psychologist who specialises in abuse and trauma, has worked with the Catholic Church on sexual abuse issues in seven countries, and has written a number of books on clerical abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WFMZ

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Allegations of child pornography against a local athletic coach illustrate the need to strengthen Pennsylvania’s laws to protect children, said Rep. Marcy Toepel (R-Montgomery).

Toepel is prime sponsor of House Bill 321, awaiting action in the Senate, which calls for stricter penalties against those convicted of child pornography charges.

The bill is modeled after federal sentencing guidelines, which establish greater sentences based upon aggravating factors, such as the age of the child, number of images possessed, and the nature and character of the abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP August 14, 2013

ORGANISATIONS that handled child sex abuse claims against a former Aboriginal children’s services CEO will be in focus in Sydney next month, when the new royal commission begins holding public hearings.

The first public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will start on September 16 and run for up to a week.

It will specifically look at how organisations responded to child sex abuse allegations made against former CEO of Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services, Steven Larkins.

Larkins was sentenced to a maximum of 22 months jail last year after being convicted of possessing child pornography.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Newswire

Ann Carey available to address potential impact of organization’s assembly

Contact: Kevin Wandra, 404-788-1276

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 13, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ — The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) begins its next assembly today in Orlando. Given the LCWR’s ongoing contentious relationship with the Vatican over issues such as life, marriage and sexuality, the assembly is certain to generate headlines. Ann Carey, the foremost expert on women religious, is available to discuss what to expect from the assembly and its potential implications for women religious.

In April 2012, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith revealed the findings of a four-year assessment of the conference that found “serious doctrinal problems” and the need for reform. Letters from LCWR officers and presentations sponsored by the conference revealed themes that do not adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Church, and an actual advocacy for positions on faith and morals that are not compatible with the Catholic faith, such as the female priesthood and homosexuality.

“When the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) meets for its annual assembly this week, the hot topic of discussion is sure to be whether the sisters will cooperate with a reform of the organization ordered last year by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” Carey said. “Several ‘dialogue’ sessions have taken place over the past year between Archbishop J. Peter Sartain and officers of the LCWR, whose 1,300-plus members lead about 80 percent of the Catholic sisters in this country, but there have been no signs of progress. Thus, LCWR members entering their assembly this week will have to decide if they are willing to correct some doctrinal errors in their corporate policies, publications and programs or refuse to do so and risk losing their canonical status as a Vatican-approved conference of superiors of religious orders.”

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BOSTON (MA)
Irish Central

By IrishCentral Staff Writers,
Published Tuesday, August 13, 2013

A search for a religion with ‘more morals’ than the Catholicism she was raised in led Katherine Russell, 24, the widow of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to convert to Islam, her husband’s former friend has revealed.

According to the Boston Globe, retiree Donald Larking, 67, commenced an unlikely friendship with Tamerlan in 2011 when the Boston bomber was 25 and his mother Zubeidat Tsarnaev had begun caring for Larking’s quadriplegic wife in their home just west of the city.

‘She wanted a church with more morals,’ Larking told the Globe. ‘She felt that a mosque would be a safer place for her daughter to go to nursery school.’

Larking, who is himself a convert from Catholicism to Islam, met Tsarnaev’s wife when Zubeidat Tsarnaev returned to Russia last year. When Zubediat left the country for good Katherine Tsarnaev reportedly took over the role of carer to Larking’s wife.

Speaking to the Globe, Larking claimed that Tsarnaev admitted she had become disillusioned with the Catholic Church following the series of international sexual abuse scandals that engulfed it in recent decades.

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ILLINOIS
Peoria Journal-Star

By PAM ADAMS (padams@pjstar.com)
Journal Star
Posted Aug 13, 2013

PEORIA — The Catholic Diocese of Peoria’s $1.35 million settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit occurred a month before the case was scheduled for trial in Peoria County.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, once an altar boy in Normal, announced the settlement Tuesday in Newark, N.J., where former Peoria Bishop John Myers is now archbishop.

The lawsuit alleged Myers, while in Peoria, failed to prevent the Monsignor Thomas Maloney from abusing Andrew Ward. Maloney died four years ago.

Ward’s mother, Joanne, called for jail for Myers during a news conference Tuesday in Newark, while Ward’s local supporters gathered outside the Peoria diocese to urge law enforcement officials to review Myers’ deposition and Maloney’s personnel file, both released as part of the settlement, for possible criminal charges.

“If Myers had done something, maybe Andrew wouldn’t have been abused,” said Jeff Jones, 59, of Rockford, referring to a complaint made to Myers about Maloney a year before Ward made his claims.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Tom Moran/ The Star-Ledger
on August 14, 2013

The story is familiar by now, but no less infuriating. Newark Archbishop John J. Myers hears a credible complaint of sexual abuse against a priest. He hides that fact. He protects the priest. He doesn’t tell police.

And instead of stopping the abuse, he allows the abuser to search for a fresh victim among the children of the faithful, the little souls he should be protecting.

“I don’t want his resignation,” said the mother of one victim. “I want Bishop Myers to go to jail.”

Her name is Joanne Ward, she lives outside Toledo, Ohio, and she knows that’s not going to happen, despite the convincing evidence in freshly released court documents that Myers flat-out lied this time to protect the accused abuser.

But Ward wants to the world to know about Myers, at least. So she came to Newark yesterday with her husband and stood outside his office holding a poster-sized picture of her boy when he was 8 years old, the year she says he became a sexual play thing to a priest in the Peoria, Ill., diocese where Myers was in charge.

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/ILLINOIS
The Star-Ledger

[Bishop Myers deposition via BishopAccountability.org in easy to use format]

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on August 14, 2013

In the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Ill., signs that the Rev. Thomas Maloney posed a danger to children were hard to miss.

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.

The warnings would continue in letters from parishioners and in internal diocese correspondence.

But Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, then bishop of Peoria, says he missed it all.

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.

COLORADO
The Gleaner

By Beth Smith
Posted August 13, 2013

A trial date has been scheduled in Colorado for a former youth pastor who is facing sexual abuse charges both there and in Henderson.

John Holland Brothers Jr., 44, who was employed here at Hyland Baptist Church, is expected to go to trial on Jan. 21 in Colorado District Court on 16 felony counts of sexual assault on a child and one count that is a sentence enhancer, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Rusty Prindle in Routt County, Colo.

If convicted of the sentence enhancing charge, that means a judge is required to make the sentence more severe, Prindle said.

Brothers — who is being held on a $500,000 bond in a Colorado jail — faces two counts of first-degree sexual abuse in Henderson. A pretrial conference is scheduled here on Sept. 9.

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.

FLORIDA
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Aug. 13, 2013 NCR Today

ORLANDO, FLA. Leadership Conference of Women Religious members have begun to check in. Some 850 will be here.

Again, as a year ago, this LCWR assembly faces an very uncertain conclusion, and, one man, a prelate, Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, appointed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to oversee LCWR, will largely determine the outcome.

To more than a few here this seems to be a major blunder, a huge waste of time and energy, and a distraction from the Gospel-focused mission of women religious congregations. It also seems to be an episode in a church anachronistically crippled in sexism.

A quick pulse of the women here, however, reveals not anger, but a curious sense of cautious hope, a belief the Spirit, in the end, will have her way.

Sartain is expected to speak for some 30 minutes Thursday afternoon in a room closed to outsiders. His talk will be followed by 45 minutes of responses from the audience. Sartain is attending the entire LCWR assembly, but, according to at least one planner, will not be in other closed sessions. Despite his CDF mandate, he appears to be more guest here than manager. He was not involved in the planning of the gathering, an enterprise still entirely under LCWR control, a source told NCR.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

Op-Ed

By David Alvarez
August 9, 2013

By any standard Pope Francis’ Brazil trip was a great success. Enthusiastic crowds clogged the routes of the papal motorcade and reportedly more than a million people were present for the pope’s final Mass on Copacabana beach. The media no less than Catholic pilgrims seemed enchanted by the new pontiff and his appeals for dialogue, conciliation and social justice.

For this pope, who presents himself above all else as a pastor and teacher, the achievements of this first international foray must be satisfying. Now, though, it’s time for Francis to put away his bags, step out of the international spotlight and tackle the job of administering the church of which he is the head. At this moment in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis can do more good working at his desk than waving from the popemobile.

For papal functionaries, the positive headlines from Brazil may have been especially welcome because they displaced several less edifying Vatican story lines. In June, Italian police arrested a priest working in the office responsible for overseeing Vatican properties and investments, charging him with conspiring to illegally move about $27 million from Switzerland to Italy. After the priest’s arrest, the director and deputy director of the Vatican bank resigned and became objects of criminal investigations by the Italian police. Next the media turned to reports that a Vatican diplomat, recently appointed to a senior post in the Vatican bank, dispensed favors to a Swiss army officer with whom he allegedly maintained an inappropriate relationship.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lancashire Evening Post

A cathedral priest has denied three counts of indecently assaulting a male in the 1990s.

Canon Stephen Shield, 53, who was dean at the Roman Catholic cathedral in St Peter’s Road, Lancaster, appeared at Preston Crown Court to face the charges.

Shield was arrested by police on March 23 and charged with three offences of indecent assault relating to one male.

The offences are said to have been committed more than two decades ago when the alleged victim was aged between 17 and 24.

Shield was granted bail with conditions he does not contact directly or indirectly the alleged victim or have any unsupervised contact with any person under the age of 18.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

[Catholic Whistleblowers]

Marie Rohde | Aug. 13, 2013

MILWAUKEE
Fr. James Connell, a retired Milwaukee priest who helped found a national network of clergy and sisters committed to reporting instances of sexual abuse within the church, offered advice Tuesday for Catholic leaders dealing with the pedophilia scandal: Come clean.

“Maybe there are other issues that are buried that they don’t want us to hear about,” Connell said at a luncheon of the Milwaukee Press Club. “Maybe there’s something under the lid. I worry that there are other things there.”

Connell, a founding member of Whistleblowers, noted that the 6,000 pages of documents released as part of the Milwaukee archdiocese’s bankruptcy case represent only 10 percent of the documents contained in the court file.

“How much more damaging is the actual truth compared to what we are dreaming now?” Connell asked. “Jesus said ‘the truth will set you free.’ ”

About half the priests serving in the Milwaukee archdiocese are affiliated with religious orders, and the archdiocese has refused to release records of reports of misconduct made against those men, saying that the orders are responsible for them.

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PEORIA (IL)
Journal Star

[Bishop Myers deposition via BishopAccountability.org in easy to use format]

[Via Jeff Anderson & Associates: Deposition of Archbishop Myers Redacted
Deposition of Msgr Gerald Ward Redacted
Deposition of Archbishop Myers Redacted]

By PAM ADAMS (padams@pjstar.com)
Journal Star
Posted Aug 13, 2013

PEORIA —
On the heels of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria’s $1.35 million settlement on sexual abuse charges brought by a former altar boy in Normal, three members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, gathered near diocese headquarters today to urge all victims of abuse to come forward.

“I’m standing right here to ask every child who’s been abused to come forward, come forward. It doesn’t have to have been by a Catholic priest,” said Jeff Jones, 59, a Rockford man who says he was abused by a Catholic priest while growing up in Pekin.

Jones, his brother, Joe, 63, who currently lives in Pekin, and Bob Heinz, 63, of Kickapoo, who says his wife was abused by a priest in Michigan, said they came to Peoria to show support for Andrew Ward and his family. Ward, now 25 and living in Michigan, filed a lawsuit accusing the late Monsignor Thomas Maloney of sexual abuse at Epiphany Catholic Church between 1995 and 1996. The lawsuit also accused Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, former bishop of the 26-county Peoria diocese, of failing to act on Ward’s allegations.

Ward’s mother, Joanne, speaking during a press conference in Newark, said Myers should be jailed. The settlement includes the release of Myers deposition in the case.

Back in Peoria, Jeff Jones praised Ward for speaking out about his abuse in 2008.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug. 13

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

Authorities have charged a Houston pastor with sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl.

This predator is away from kids largely because, according to one news account, “a church member who saw suspicious activity . . . continuously voiced her concerns.” We are grateful to this brave and compassionate person for speaking up.

We are also grateful to the girl’s parents who are apparently cooperating with law enforcement.

At the same time, we are disappointed in the predator’s wife who claims he has “repented.” Even if this is true, it’s irrelevant.

It’s heartbreaking to see churchgoers radically and recklessly misinterpret the concept of forgiveness in ways that endanger children. By all means, let’s forgive the drunk who causes a car accident that hurts kids. But let’s not hire him as a school bus driver. By all means, let’s forgive the adult who beats up a child. But let’s not put her in charge of a classroom.

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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.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

August 13, 2013, by Mike Lowe

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — Father James Connell, a Catholic priest, is calling out the church hierarchy on its handling of the child sex abuse scandal. This, after the Milwaukee Archdiocese in July released thousands of pages of documents detailing sex abuse cases — some dating back decades.

In 2010, Father Connell rose to national prominence after publishing an open letter to Catholics that was sharply critical of the churc
h’s audit procedures, its standard for removing accused priests and cannon law.

Father Connell appeared at the Milwaukee Press Club to talk about his efforts, and FOX6′s Mike Lowe asked him about the central question raised in that letter.

Mike Lowe: “You said, ‘why is it so difficult for the leaders of the Catholic Church to do the right thing?’

What’s the answer?”

“Some would say part of it is, the leaders are hanging on to keeping this, we’re in charge, we’re the powers, top down, nobody’s going to tell us. Another school of thought is maybe there are other moral issues buried that we don’t want people to know about — and if we start talking about other things, maybe other things will open up?” Father Connell said.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

[Bishop Myers deposition via BishopAccountability.org]

TUESDAY AUGUST 13, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

The parents of a man who alleges that he was sexually abused by a priest after John J. Myers, now archbishop of Newark, allowed the cleric to continue working in an Illinois diocese years ago talked about their son’s hardships outside the Basilica Cathedral of the Sacred Heart Tuesday afternoon.

Joanne and David Ward, who now live in Michigan, said during a press conference announcing a $1.35 million settlement of their son Andrew’s lawsuit against Myers and the Diocese of Peoria that he is still feeling the effects of the abuse.

“The church has taken my faith; it has destroyed my family,” Joanne Ward said.

Myers said he did not know about a sexual abuse complaint against a priest in his former diocese in Illinois in a 2010 deposition related to the case, which was released Tuesday. In correspondence that was among documents released on Tuesday, Myers downplayed a parishioner’s report of suspicious activity involving the same priest, who during the 1990s showered him with gifts of silver, gold coins and cash during his decade-long tenure there.

Andrew Ward, now 25, alleged in the suit that he was abused when he was 8 years old by Monsignor Thomas W. Maloney, who died in 2009. He did not attend Tuesday’s press conference. According to a letter in the diocese’s file on Maloney, a year before the alleged abuse began, a woman reported to the Diocese of Peoria that she also was molested by the cleric as a youth.

Jeff Anderson, Ward’s attorney, said during the press conference that Myers was not telling the truth when he said he did not know about the initial complaint. Those kinds of complaints, he said, “always go to the top.”

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NEW JERSEY
San Antonio Express-News

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The Archbishop of Newark says he was unaware of allegations of sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior made against a priest he once supervised in Illinois.

Archbishop John Myers said he knew nothing of the allegations against Monsignor Thomas Maloney. Myers was the bishop of Peoria, Ill., from 1990 to 2001, while Maloney was a priest in Normal, Ill.

The Diocese of Peoria is paying $1.35 million to settle a claim of abuse against Maloney, who died in 2009.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug 12

Statement by Mark Crawford New Jersey Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 732-632-7687, mecrawf@comcast.net )

There are two parts of this settlement. One is the money. The other is the papers.

It’s easy and tempting to focus on the money. But that’s missing the point. The real significance here is in the deposition and the documents.

When New Jersey citizens and Catholics read Myers’ 200 page newly-disclosed deposition – and this predator’s newly-disclosed personnel file – they may know more about Myers’ misdeeds in one Illinois case almost 20 years ago in Illinois than they do about any of Myers’ misdeeds in numerous New Jersey cases over the past 12 years.

Why? Because of New Jersey’s archaic, predator friendly laws which prevent most New Jersey child sex abuse victims from being able to use the civil courts to expose and deter crimes and cover ups.

New Jersey’s outdated statutes have done an enormous service to corrupt men like Myers and an enormous disservice to wounded victims like me.

In Illinois, brave Andrew Ward could file an abuse case and take that case to court. And that possibility – top members of the Catholic hierarchy on trial, day after day, being grilled about their evil deeds – that possibility is what scared Peoria’s bishop into resolving this case and turning over these records.

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NEW JERSEY/ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

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 )

Archbishop John Myers answers under oath are pathetic. He wants us to believe everyone and everything else is at fault, while he allegedly did nothing wrong.

[Bishop Myers deposition via BishopAccountability.org]

He blames allegedly bad files, therapists, underlings, canon law (p. 188) and even buildings (page 34 & 145).

His memory of how others didn’t act properly seems very clear. But his memory about his own wrongdoing suddenly gets very murky. (On page 35, for example, he can’t recall whether he ordered his staff to report suspected child sex crimes to authorities. Later, he can’t even recall whether he was on a bishops’ sex abuse committee in the 1990s.)

Over and over again he keeps claiming he does not recall reports of abuse, suspicions of abuse, what he did, what he did not do, or what year anything happened. (But corrected an attorney on what year Cardinal Ratzinger took over the CDF.)

In several letters Myers thanks Msgr. Maloney (a credibly accused child molester), thanking Maloney for gifts including “your much-loved camera,” a silver object so big “it could be tied around one’s neck like the proverbial ‘millstone,’” gold coins and a monetary gift, which Myers says he will use to gamble on the dog races in Florida.

These gifts seem inappropriate and troubling. We hope Myers will explain why he took them.

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PEORIA (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: August 13, 2013

Statement by Jeff Jones of SNAP (815 985 9441, jjones1007@gmail.com)

I am proud and grateful to be here today. Like Andrew Ward, I have played a small role in helping to uncover the corruption and complicity of the Catholic hierarchy in the Peoria Diocese. I know, from painful first-hand experience, that Peoria Catholic officials fight long and hard against victims. So I am proud of Andrew and his parents. They have achieved something here that very few victims have achieved – some long over-due truth and justice that will help protect others by deterring future cover ups.

I’m here because Andrew has settled his lawsuit. It was a long, hard battle. It involved one predator priest, one corrupt bishop and one troubled diocese. It settled for $1.35 million.

But even more important, it means two significant documents are being publicly disclosed. The first is a 200 page deposition of Peoria’s former bishop. The second is the personnel file – or part of the personnel file – of a Peoria predator priest.

This is crucial. When victims sue, it’s usually because they desperately want Catholics and citizens to know the truth about this horror. Because Andrew is brave and smart and determined, more of the truth is being revealed today. Parents and parishioners in Peoria should join me in thanking the Ward family.

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

By Dale Lezon | August 13, 2013

A pastor at a southwest Harris County church has been accused of sexual contact with an 8-year-old girl.

Romulo Jimenez, 67, is charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child, according Harris County documents filed in the case. The alleged incidents occurred at Centro Christiano Vida Nueva at 8811 Synott when Jimenez was a pastor.

The girl, who is now 9 years old, told investigators Jimenez took her into his office at the church, laid her on the desk, rubbed her legs, lowered her pants and underwear and kissed her, according to a complaint filed in the case.

On another occasion, she told investigators, Jimenez made her sit on his lap in his parked car in the church parking lot while he kissed her.

A witness told investigators she saw Jimenez coming out of his bathroom late one night, according to the complaint. Inside the restroom, the complaint states, she saw the girl with her pants and underwear down. The witness said Jimenez told her he had been helping the girl go to the bathroom. When the woman asked the girl what had happened, the girl did not respond.

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TEXAS
KHOU

HOUSTON—A Houston pastor is accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl in his congregation and his wife says he has repented for his wrongdoings, according to court documents.

Romulo Jimenez, 67, was charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Jimenez was a pastor at Centro Christiano Vida Nueva, located in the 8800 block of Synott, and the alleged abuse happened multiple times on church property.

The allegations surfaced after a church member who saw suspicious activity between the pastor and the little girl continuously voiced her concerns. After authorities got involved, the disturbing details began to unfold.

The child told investigators the first time Pastor Jimenez touched her inappropriately was when she was just 8 years old. She said he took her into his church office one Friday evening and laid her on top of the desk. He then removed a portion of her clothing and sexually assaulted her, according to court documents.

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TEXAS
KRTK

[with video]

HOUSTON (KTRK) — A pastor from a southwest Houston church is facing a felony charge, accused of molesting a little girl over a matter of months.

A young girl told authorities that beginning last August, when she was eight years old, she was touched inappropriately by Pastor Romulo Jimenez at her church, Cento Christiano Vida Nueva, which is located in the 8800 block of Synott. She said he molested her in his office, and in his car parked in the church parking lot.

A witness told officials she saw Jimenez acting strangely when he exited his restroom one night in February, and she found the victim in the restroom partially undressed. She says she alerted the girl’s parents.

The victim’s mother told authorities that the girl initially denied anything happened, but later told her mother about the incidents. According to court documents, the girl’s parents confronted Jimenez, and he told them he had made a mistake.

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TEXAS
Click2Houston

HOUSTON –
A Houston pastor is accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old female parishioner multiple times on church property.

Romulo Jimenez is charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child. He is the pastor at Centro Christiano Vida Nueva at 8811 Synott. Court documents state the little girl said she was at church on a Friday evening in August 2012 when Jimenez asked her to accompany him to his church office. She claims Jimenez then sexually assaulted her.

Investigators say the girl told them about another alleged incident in which Jimenez took to her to his parked car in the parking lot of the church and sexually assaulted her.

Then on February 8, 2013, a witness told police she saw Jimenez coming out of his church bathroom late at night, then the witness found the girl in the restroom with her pants and underwear down. Court documents state the witness confronted Jimenez who told the witness that he was helping her go to the restroom. He then left.

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ILLINOIS
Pantagraph

[Bishop Myers deposition via BishopAccountability.org in easy to use format]

[Via Jeff Anderson & Associates: Deposition of Archbishop Myers Redacted
Deposition of Msgr Gerald Ward Redacted
Deposition of Archbishop Myers Redacted]

By Edith Brady-Lunny eblunny@pantagraph.com

NORMAL — A haphazard filing system and the Irish inclinations of a former bishop of the Peoria Catholic Diocese are among the reasons that allegations of sexual misconduct by priests were delayed or never turned over to police, according to 200-page deposition released Tuesday by the lawyer for a former Normal student who has been awarded $1.35 million by the diocese in an abuse case.

John Myers, now Archbishop of Newark, N.J., answered questions in 2010 as part of a lawsuit filed by Andrew Ward, now 25, of Michigan. Ward accused the late Thomas Maloney, a former priest at Epiphany Church in Normal, of abusing him when he was in the second grade.

Ward and his parents announced the settlement Tuesday at a news conference in Newark.

The diocese declined to comment on the settlement Monday, citing “the confidentiality of those involved in a legal case.”

In his four-hour deposition, Myers said former Peoria Bishop Edward O’Rourke, who also is deceased, did not pass along any allegations of abuse when Myers took over as bishop in 1990.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Star Tribune

MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin priest known for speaking out about clergy sexual abuse says that if he could speak directly to Pope Francis, the first thing he would ask the pope to do is having regular meetings with victims.

Rev. James Connell says the best way to understand what abuse victims experience is to get to know them.

He says he also would ask the pope to order church officials to speak openly about clergy sexual abuse and release all documents related to it.

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NEW JERSEY/ILLINOIS
The Star-Ledger

[Read Archbishop Myers deposition here.]

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on August 13, 2013 at 2:47 PM

The mother of a boy allegedly abused by a priest in the Diocese of Peoria called today for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to be jailed, saying he could have prevented the molestation because he knew of a previous allegation when he served as bishop there.

Joanne Ward, speaking at a press conference outside of the Archdiocesan Center in Newark, said Myers knew in 1994 that Msgr. Thomas Maloney allegedly molested a girl but took no action against Maloney because the two were friends.

A year later, Ward said, Maloney allegedly abused Ward’s son, Andrew Ward, then 8, at a church in Normal, Ill.

“Bishop Myers knew Monsignor Maloney was molesting children and allowed him to go into my son’s school, and because of that, my family went through devastation,” said Joanne Ward, 50. “I don’t want his resignation. I want Bishop Myers to go to jail.”

The press conference was held to announce a $1.35 settlement in a lawsuit against the Diocese of Peoria. As part of the settlement, the diocese agreed to the release of Myers’ deposition in the case and other documents.

Myers served as bishop of Peoria from 1990 to 2001.

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the fate of SB 131:

Tomorrow, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee will once again take up the issue of suspending the statute of limitations for cases involving minors who allege they are victims of sexual abuse. SB 131 would allow anyone who was 26-years-old in 2002, and claims to have been molested, one year to file suit. To those interested in justice, the bill appears to be fair. But there is just one problem: most of those who meet the criteria are not legally permitted to file suit. How can this be? Because it does not apply to anyone who was violated by a public employee, such as a public school teacher, aide, counselor or coach. For them—and they account for the lion’s share of abuse—it’s just too bad.

The purpose of this outrageous bill is to sock it to the Catholic Church. In California, lawmakers already suspended the statute of limitations for private institutions; they did so in 2003. But public school teachers have never been subjected to this condition. In other words, the bill is nothing more than a vindictive effort to punish the Catholic Church.

Leading the fight against this bill are the California bishops, and the California Catholic Conference; we are particularly taken by the aggressive leadership of Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez. We are proud to play a support role: The Catholic League has contacted well over 10,000 members in California asking them to weigh in on this issue.

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GERMANY
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

Not only the Nazi past haunts Germany. The generation of 1968 said and did things that they wish people would forget. Sexual liberation was total – and included children.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit has been squirming a long time, but seems not to have suffered any consequences because of his advocacy (and he claimed at one time) practice of pedophilia.

Another politician has bitten the dust. (Main article in FAZ).

The Green party, to its credit, commissioned an academic study of the political advocates of pedophilia. To the regret of many, the commission is releasing many ghosts from the past.

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

This page provides an easy-to-use web version of the deposition of Archbishop John J. Myers taken on May 12, 2010, in Andrew Ward v. Diocese of Peoria and Maloney Estate, a case involving alleged sexual abuse by Rev. Thomas Maloney in the Diocese of Peoria. Archbishop Myers was the bishop of Peoria in 1990-2001, before he came to Newark. This web version provides descriptions of the deposition exhibits, with links to the individual exhibits.

We also provide a searchable PDF of the original Myers deposition and exhibits (an 8 megabyte file), from which this web version was developed, as well as a PDF of the related deposition of Msgr. Gerald Ward, and a searchable PDF of the Maloney personnel file (a 25 megabyte file), from which the exhibits for the two depositions are taken.

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NEW JERSEY
CBS New York

[Deposition of Archbishop Myers Redacted

Deposition of Msgr Gerald Ward Redacted

Deposition of Archbishop Myers Redacted]

NEWARK (CBSNewYork) — An advocacy group for church sex-abuse victims is calling for John Myers to be removed as Newark’s archbishop after his former diocese settled a case that happened on his watch, 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg reported.

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria in Illinois has agreed to pay $1.35 million to Andrew Ward, a former altar boy who says he was molested in the mid-1990s, when he was 8 years old, by Monsignor Thomas Maloney, who died in 2009. Ward also accused Myers of failing to take appropriate action to prevent the alleged abuse.

A year earlier, a woman told the diocese that Maloney sexually abused her as a child, but he was allowed to remain in the ministry, and Myers did not notify police of the allegation, the lawsuit said.

The settlement comes three months after the Rev. Michael Fugee, who admitted to groping a boy more than a decade ago, was charged for violating an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office that barred him from working with children. The Newark Star-Ledger reported that Fugee attended a youth retreat in Monmouth and listened to confessions there.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, August 13 – A new papal decree aimed at combating money laundering and corruption “is a positive sign,” the Vatican’s head of financial intelligence said Tuesday, but cautioned that “some steps still needed to be taken”. “I don’t think it would be opportune to have misplaced expectations,” added René Bruelhart, head of the Holy See’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), in an interview with Vatican Radio. Last week Pope Francis issued a law, known as a “motu proprio”, that gives the AIF the new task of supervision over all areas of the Roman Curia, the Church’s administration, as well as its other institutions.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 08/08/2013
Reporter: Steve Cannane

The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse is taking submissions into the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing protocols which were introduced in 1996 to deal with abuse committed by clergy.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is taking submissions into the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing protocols, introduced in 1996 to deal with abuse committed by clergy.

The protocols are meant to be driven by pastoral concerns dealing with the pain of victims through a Christian response.

But tonight for the first time a consultant to the committee has spoken out, saying the Church’s insurance company had too much influence on the response and that a senior official from the company boasted of destroying Church personnel records.

Recently at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse, the CEO of Catholic Church insurance, Peter Rush, said CCI officers remained independent of the underlying process.

Steve Cannane has this exclusive report, produced by Sashka Koloff.

STEVE CANNANE, REPORTER: Catholic Church insurance was set up in 1911 to insure Church properties against fire.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 08/08/2013
Reporter: Tony Jones

The CEO of the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan discusses the role of the Catholic Church’s insurance company in how the church handled cases of sexual abuse by clergy.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Joining us in the studio is the chief executive officer of the Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan.

Thanks for being here.

FRANCIS SULLIVAN, CEO, TRUTH, JUSTICE & HEALING COUNCIL: Thank you for having me.

TONY JONES: Now you just heard Robert Grant at the end of that interview saying that these high-level committees, set up really to create Towards Healing, that he’d never heard people being concerned about the well-being of victims. They were concerned about Church liability and about priests who’d been accused. That’s a pretty shameful indictment of the process, isn’t it?

FRANCIS SULLIVAN: Well it’s upsetting to hear that. But I think one thing’s important: Towards Healing was a seismic shift from previous protocols the Church had in place and those protocols had the Church’s interests first. Towards Healing is all about putting the victim’s interest first and of course …

TONY JONES: Well not according to Robert Grant. It’s about putting the lawyers first, according to him. Well, the lawyers seem to have dictated the process of what actually happened in Towards Healing, so he was saying it’s interest, the financial interest, the liability, the culpability of the Church that was really at stake here.

FRANCIS SULLIVAN: Accepting what he says, I mean, we have to look at the proof of the document. I think Dr Grant was talking about meetings he was involved with as a consultant in the working up of what became the document. So there are many interests around the table and I accept what he’s saying; there would have been insurance interests at the table. But the document that the bishops and the religious leaders of Australia signed off historically in 1996 talks about: it’s based on the victim. Secondly, Tony, it’s interesting …

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ILLINOIS/NEW JERSEY
The Record

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER

Related: Read Myer’s deposition and case documents (pdf)

The embattled Archbishop of Newark claimed ignorance of a sexual abuse complaint against a priest in his former diocese in Illinois, and he dismissed a parishioner’s report of suspicious activity involving the same priest, who showered him with gifts of silver, gold coins and cash during his decade-long tenure there.

The statements by Archbishop John J. Myers were part of a 2010 deposition released today in a settlement between the Diocese of Peoria and a man who says he was abused by Monsignor Thomas W. Maloney when he was 8 years old. According to a letter in the diocese’s file on Maloney, a year before the alleged abuse began, a woman reported to the Diocese of Peoria that she also was molested by the cleric as a youth.

Alleged victim Andrew Ward’s family is holding a 1 p.m. press conference outside the Newark Archdiocese chancery to announce a $1.35 million settlement of the case. His attorney, Jeff Anderson, said that had Myers investigated the case and taken action against Maloney, he could have possibly stopped the priest from allegedly abusing Ward and at least three other children.

“The choice he made was to protect the reputation of the diocese and his own at the peril of Andrew Ward and many other kids who have since come forward when he chose to keep Monsignor Maloney in ministry,” Anderson said.

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SLOVENIA
STA

Ljubljana, 13 August (STA) – The Holy See has laicised former Kašelj priest Franci Frantar, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2008 for paedophilia, the siol.net web portal reported on Tuesday.

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PEORIA (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Pedophile priest case settles for $1.35 million
Ex-Peoria bishop is also accused of wrongdoing
Controversial prelate now heads Newark archdiocese
His 200 page deposition is being released for first time
And long-secret records of child molesting cleric are disclosed
Victims urge others who “saw, suspected or suffered crimes to speak up”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, victims of pedophile priests will

–announce and discuss a $1.35 million dollar settlement of a child sex abuse & cover up lawsuit,
–beg local Catholics to read hundreds of newly released long secret church records in the case, and
–prod Peoria’s bishop to post names of predator priests on his website.

They will also urge every person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Peoria Diocese – under the former bishop or subsequent bishops – to call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing.

WHEN
TODAY, Tuesday, Aug. 13 at 1:00 p.m.

WHO
Two members of a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), including a former Pekin man who was also abused by a Peoria Diocese priest

WHERE
Outside the Peoria Catholic diocese headquarters (“chancery office”), 607 NE Madison Ave in Peoria, IL

WHY
In June 2008, Msgr. Thomas W. Maloney was accused in a civil suit of abusing s then eight year old altar boy in 1995-1996 at Epiphany Catholic Church in Normal. The suit also accused then-Peoria Bishop John Myers of ignoring or hiding the crimes.

That suit has just settled for $1.35 million. And as part of the settlement, hundreds of pages of Msgr. Maloney’s personnel files will be posted on line today, along with a 200+ page sworn deposition of Myers. (The records will be available at BishopAccountability.org – in the “New & Newsworthy” section of the site- and at AndersonAdvocates.com)

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ILLINOIS
Jeff Anderson and Associates

Deposition of Archbishop Myers Redacted

Deposition of Msgr Gerald Ward Redacted

Deposition of Archbishop Myers Redacted

Maloney timeline

My name is Andrew Ward and I was molested by Monsignor Maloney who was like a God to me when I was young. I couldn’t tell and didn’t for a long time, but when I did my parents and family believed me but nobody in the Diocese or at the church did. I made a report to the police, but they did not prosecute Monsignor Maloney because they did not know that anybody else had been abused and so everybody acted like I had made this up and was lying.

The ones that made me the saddest and hurt the most are Archbishop Myers and all those men at the top who continued to protect him instead of help and believe me. At that time all I wanted was to be believed. I then brought suit with the help of my family. Even though I’ve had a real hard time of it, I’m getting better because there were other people who did come forward who reported the same kind of abuse of them that happened to me. To the other victims and my family, I say thank you for believing me and supporting me.

I am making this statement because I want people to know my story so that the Diocese and those top people aren’t allowed to continue to lie and deny and blame victims like me. I hope me making this statement and my family going public with this helps others. I hope more than anything else that Archbishop Myers and Bishop Jenky don’t continue to get away with this and other kids are not allowed to be hurt the way I was.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Aug. 13, 2013

ANALYSIS
The church faces three temptations, according to Pope Francis: the temptation to turn the Gospel message into an ideology; the temptation to run the church like a business; and the temptation of clericalism. In an address July 28 to the episcopal council of CELAM, the Latin American conference of bishops, Pope Francis laid out these temptations and how the church should respond to them. I began to look at the issue last week; this week, I continue the analysis.

Making the Gospel message an ideology

This temptation, the pope argues, has been present in the church from the beginning. It attempts to interpret the Gospel apart from the church or the Gospel itself. Francis says you must look at the Gospel with the eyes of a disciple. There is no such thing as “antiseptic” hermeneutics.

Other forms of the ideological temptation include sociological reductionism and psychologizing. The first interprets the Gospel message through the lens of social science, whether from a Marxist or libertarian perspective. Here, the Gospel is manipulated for political reasons. It is a temptation of both the right and the left to use the Gospel to serve political goals. Fear of this temptation probably led Francis to be cautious toward liberation theology while at the same time very negative toward libertarian capitalism. …

Clericalism

The last temptation of the church is to clericalism, which, as its name implies, is a particular temptation for bishops and priests, but Francis argues that often, the laity is complicit. “The priest clericalizes the layperson and the layperson kindly asks to be clericalized because deep down it is easier.” He believes that “the phenomenon of clericalism explains, in great part, the lack of maturity and Christian freedom in a good part of the Latin American laity.”

Freedom of the laity, he argues, “finds expression in communal experiences: Catholic as community.” Greater autonomy, which on the whole he believes is a “healthy thing,” is expressed through popular piety. “The spread of bible study groups, of ecclesial basic communities and of pastoral councils,” he says, is also “helping to overcome clericalism and to increase lay responsibility.” Liberal clericalism can disdain popular piety while conservative clericalism fears giving the laity a greater role in the church.

Although these were presented as temptations for the Latin American church, it is obvious that they are universal. They are alive and well in Rome and in the United States.

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PHILIPPINES
Asia Sentinel

Written by Aries C. Rufo
TUESDAY, 13 AUGUST 2013

The following excerpt is from “Altar of Secrets: Sex, Politics and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church” by Aries C. Rufo, a prize-winning Filipino journalist. The book deals with long-festering problems in the Philippine Church. We present a companion review nearby here.

Tucked somewhere in Metro Manila is a gated orphanage run by nuns. Lush trees and greenery cover the sprawling area, providing a fresh respite from the urban jungle just outside its premises. At the time of my visit in August 2012, a few workers were repairing some of the structures and buildings, while volunteer staff did the laundry and the cooking.

But this is no ordinary orphanage. It was (or still might be) home to some of the children fathered by Catholic priests. The sister in charge confirmed that they had housed children whose fathers were priests. “We accept the children regardless of who their fathers are,” the sister said. But she clarified, “We have no children sired by priests right now.”

She spoke these words normally, as if answering an ordinary question. After all, an orphanage is an orphanage, a refuge of infants and children seen as a burden or shame by their fathers and/or mothers.

Inside the orphanage, the nun led us to a newly constructed one-storey building that served as the nursery for newborns. They also had a nursery school. She said it was by the grace of God that they were able to take care of the children before they were sent to their foster parents.

Pressed to confirm reports that the orphanage served as a halfway house for women impregnated by priests, the soft-spoken nun said it was not the issue. “The issue is to give these children a decent future

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PHILIPPINES
Asian Sentinel

Written by John Berthelsen
TUESDAY, 13 AUGUST 2013

A devastating look at sex, politics and money in the Philippine Catholic Church by Aries C. Rufo. Published by the Journalism for Nation Building Foundation, Pasig City, Philippines. Soft cover, 309 pp. Available at bookstores in the Philippines

Aries C. Rufo, a prize-winning Filipino journalist, was once a devout Catholic who as a youth “loved staying inside the church for it offered refuge from the punishing heat outside. The airy atmosphere and the deafening silence were pure ecstasy,” he writes. As a boy he seriously contemplated entering the seminary although the desire to do so eventually waned.

After decades as a journalist, some of it spent covering the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)?, he sat down to write this book, Altar of Secrets: Sex, Politics and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church.

“While the Church dips its fingers into every aspect of Filipino life,” he writes, “it has resisted outside attempts to poke into its internal affairs. Like a cloistered monastery, it has kept from the public the scandals and irregularities of its members, within its sacrosanct walls.”

With Catholics making up 86 percent of the Philippine population and with the Council of Bishops holding inordinate sway over the country’s leaders, the church seemed almost unassailable. But Rufo’s journey through the secrets of the Catholic Church of the Philippines finds an institution in grave disarray. The Council’s last-ditch attempt to stop passage of the landmark Reproductive Health Bill failed and the subsequent attempt earlier this year to drive lawmakers from office for voting for the measure was also a miserable failure. Earlier this year a survey by the church found that more than half of Filipino Catholics have not married under Catholic rites.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Kos

“They know they don’t have to keep their victims quiet forever, just long enough to run out the clock”

As has been previously discussed, one of the major issues regarding childhood sexual abuse and justice is that the statute of limitations vary state to state. Often times, the statute has run out by the time a victim/survivor is ready to talk about what happened to them. However, many states are re-visiting this issue and some are making changes:

Lawmakers in New Jersey are considering a bill that would completely eliminate the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases, but that bill has some powerful opponents.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Michael McGeehan is sponsoring a bill that would temporarily waive the statute of limitations for sex abuse charges.

Tree Climbers: Arkansas Lifts Statute of Limitations on Sex Crimes Involving Minors

Tree Climbers: A WATERSHED Moment for Child Sexual Abuse Survivors (New York Ruling Statute of Limitations)

…federal judge Frederic Block, in what may be a watershed moment for sexual abuse survivors, ruled in August that portions of the suit could proceed because administrators may have lied when they said they did not become aware of the abuse allegations until 1991.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel Aug. 12, 2013

The Milwaukee County district attorney’s office has been asked to investigate possible theft from the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church by a former priest.

Assistant District Attorney David Feiss confirmed Monday that he was reviewing documents sent to the office by Annunciation’s Parish Council. Feiss declined to comment further.

After discovering financial “discrepancies,” the council voted to request the district attorney investigate the matter, according to a news release from the church.

“The concerns that have been raised have nothing to do with current church operations or leadership, and regular church programs, services and normal operations are unaffected and will continue as usual,” Emmanuel Mamalakis, a lawyer representing the church, said in a news release.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

[Click here for the story.]

Guam – Up in the Archdiocese, it’s been several weeks since the controversial firing of Santa Barbara priest Father Paul Gofigan, but it’s unclear what will happen to him or if a resolution, if any, has been reached.

We spoke with the canon lawyer representing Father Paul in his quest to redeem himself from the tarnished reputation he believes was laid upon him by the Archdiocese of Agana.

He was accused of failing to obey Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s directive to dismiss an employee who was a registered sex offender. But Father Gofigan has stated that he had. In an earlier interview with PNC, Father Gofigan said he took the employee off the payroll after he was advised to do so in 2011. The man’s role at the parish became voluntary from that point on, according to Father Gofigan.

And the priest refuses to resign, telling PNC that his rights as a priest were violated when he wasn’t given a chance to defend himself before the Archdiocese made its abrupt decision a month ago.

Father Gofigan has retained a canon lawyer, Father Adolfo Dacanay, a Jesuit Priest who heads the prestigious Ateneo De Manila University’s Theology Department.

Though Father Dacanay declined to comment on the case since it is in litigation, one thing he did make clear—there is no employee-employer relationship between a bishop and a priest.

“The relationship between the bishop and the priest is not an employer-employee relationship, so I would be very careful about describing the relationship between the priest and the bishop as an employee-employer relationship,” Father Dacanay notes.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Posted Tue Aug 13, 2013

The Federal Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding private sessions in Canberra this week.

The commission is holding private sessions around Australia with people who experienced child sexual abuse while in institutional care.

Commission chief executive officer Janette Dines says the private sessions are conducted informally in the presence of one or two commissioners.

“People who have come to a private session tell us that it was a positive and worthwhile experience,” she said.

“We understand how difficult it can be for people to come forward and talk about what happened to them. There are trained counsellors available to provide immediate support to anyone in distress.

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CANADA
HQ Yellowknife

Monday, August 12, 2013

Yellowknife, NWT – Two local leaders have waded into the debate over whether Canada’s residential schools era should be referred to as a genocide.

The latest controversy came last week when Aboriginal chiefs in Manitoba complained after a Winnipeg museum scratched the word genocide from an exhibition about Canada’s treatment of aboriginals.

Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington says we need to look into the latest revelations about residential schools.

“What we’re seeing is that there was a lot more going on in the residential schools history than we ever thought. When we see that they were using children for food experiments, when we see that there was other things like that going on by our Canadian government, those are things that have to come out. We have to acknowledge our past. If we don’t acknowledge our past, how can we be a truly strong people?”

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus says both levels of government need to make sure an investigation is thorough.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

The official bulletin of the Holy See has lifted the secrecy from the meditation dictated to the cardinals at the beginning of the last conclave, with the doors already closed. Here are the essential passages

by Sandro Magister

ROME, August 13, 2013 – The Holy See has an official bulletin entitled “Acta Apostolicae Sedis.” It is written in Latin, while the documents reproduced there are in the original languages. Its issues can be read on the Vatican website beginning with that of 1909:

> Acta Apostolicae Sedis

Since 2003 it has been issued in monthly booklets with the pages numbered starting in January. The latest booklet taken to press is also the first of Francis’s pontificate:

> Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 5 aprilis – 3 Maii 2013

It contains among other things the proceedings of the conclave that on March 13, 2013 elected pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio. With one innovation with respect to what was already known.

The innovation – previously covered by secrecy – is the complete text of the meditation dictated to the grand electors on March 12, behind closed doors, immediately before the start of the voting.

The cardinal charged with the meditation was the Maltese Prosper Grech, an Augustinian, 87 years old and therefore without the right to vote. After his meditation, in fact, he left the Sistine Chapel. …

WHEN THE ACCUSATIONS TELL THE TRUTH

It is another thing when what is said about us is the truth, as has happened in many of the accusations of pedophilia. Then we must humble ourselves before God and men, and seek to uproot the evil at all costs, as did, to his great regret, Benedict XVI. And only in this way can we regain credibility before the world and give an example of sincerity. Today many people do not arrive at believing in Christ because his face is obscured or hidden behind an institution that lacks transparency. But if recently we have wept over many unpleasant events that have befallen clergy and laity, even in the pontifical household, we must consider that these evils, as great as they may be, if compared with certain evils in the history of the Church are nothing but a cold. And just as these have been overcome with God’s help, so also the present crisis will be overcome. Even a cold needs to be taken care of well to keep it from turning into pneumonia.

SMOKE OF SATAN IN THE CHURCH

The evil spirit of the world, the “mysterium iniquitatis” (2 Thes 2:7), constantly strives to infiltrate the Church. Moreover, let us not forget the warning of the prophets of ancient Israel not to seek alliances with Babylon or with Egypt, but to follow a pure policy “ex fide” trusting solely in God (cf. Is 30:1; 31:1-3; Hos 12:2) and in his covenant. Courage! Christ relieves our minds when he exclaims: “Have trust, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). […]

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ILLINOIS/NEW JERSEY
The Record

Illinois diocese to pay $1.35 million in suit that alleges Myers failed to stop pedophile priest while bishop there

MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER

A Catholic diocese in Illinois has agreed to pay $1.35 million to settle a lawsuit that claims John J. Myers, its former bishop and now the archbishop of Newark, failed to keep an alleged pedophile priest away from children.

The Diocese of Peoria received a complaint from a woman in 1995 that she was molested by Monsignor Thomas W. Maloney during her childhood, but church officials did not act, the suit contends. A year later, the suit says, Maloney went on to abuse 8-year-old Andrew Ward, the plaintiff in the case.

The settlement will be announced Tuesday at a press conference outside Myers’ office in Newark. A deposition of Myers, which has been under court seal since 2010, and other documents also will be released.

Ward’s family is expected to attend the news conference, where they will “discuss Myers’ pattern and practice of repeatedly failing to protect children while working as bishop in Peoria and now as the archbishop of Newark,” said Ward’s attorney, Jeff Anderson.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Maureen Fiedler | Aug. 13, 2013 NCR Today

The website of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) offers this headline: “We welcome new members and new ideas for living religious life into the future.” And this year, some of those new ideas might come from the keynote speaker at the annual LCWR assembly in Orlando, Fla.: Franciscan Sr. Ilia Delio, who directs the Catholic Studies Program at Georgetown University. She is one of the emerging thinkers emphasizing the “new cosmos story” and, in this case, its relevance for contemporary religious life.

But hanging over the entire assembly is the Vatican “mandate” that made headlines last year. LCWR leaders and many others offered stinging critiques of the mandate’s thrust and inaccuracies. Thousands of Catholics took to the streets and cathedral steps to voice their protest.

Now, Sr. Patricia McDermott, president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, a large community in LCWR, said in an interview that “the points of direction for the future, I think are unacceptable — that the bishops would be looking at our materials, our publications, giving direction to the assembly. … That’s not a conference that most leaders want to belong to.” I’m sure she speaks for far more LCWR members than just herself.

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, head of the three-bishop committee that is supposed to carry out the mandate, will speak at the assembly and reportedly will take questions from the assembled sisters. It will be interesting to see if he has heard any of those messages and if he understands the thrust of religious life today.

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NEW JERSEY/ILLINOIS
Peoria Journal-Star

The Associated Press
Posted Aug 12, 2013

NEWARK, N.J. —
The Catholic Diocese of Peoria will pay $1.35 million to settle a case of sexual abuse that took place when Newark Archbishop John J. Myers was in charge, a former altar boy’s lawyer said Monday.

The former altar boy accuses the late Monsignor Thomas Maloney of abusing him at Epiphany Catholic Church in Normal in the mid-1990s. His lawsuit accuses Myers, then the bishop of the 26-county diocese, of failing to take action against Maloney, who died in 2009.

The former altar boy says he was 8 years old when the abuse took place. His attorney, Jeff Anderson, accuses Myers of failing to protect children in Peoria, where he was bishop from 1990 to 2001, when he moved to Newark.

Anderson said the case against the diocese was settled Friday. The diocese and its attorney Joseph Feehan did not immediately return messages left after hours Monday. In an emailed statement Monday night, diocese Chancellor and general counsel Patricia M. Gibson said, “It is the standard policy of the Diocese of Peoria not to discuss details of any specific settlement out of respect for the confidentiality of those involved in a legal case. Any funds used for settlements do not come from diocesan or parish assets, but are paid through insurance coverages available to the diocese.”

Anderson said that on Tuesday he will release a 2010 deposition of Myers being questioned about the case. A spokesman for Myers did not immediately return a request for comment.

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CANADA
Chronicle-Herald

August 12, 2013 BY AARON BESWICK TRURO BUREAU

The Diocese of Antigonish is beginning a review process to decide which of its 62 churches it can afford to operate in Richmond, Inverness, Antigonish, Guysborough and Pictou counties.

After a similar review in Cape Breton and Victoria counties, the diocese decided it will close 16 of 43 churches there.

“There’s a lot of talk and worry about it,” said Ronald (Buddy) MacEachern, chairman of the finance committee for Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church in Ballantynes Cove, Antigonish County.

Father Donald MacGillivray, spokesman for the diocese, said the review is the inevitable result of a declining population, fewer priests and declining church involvement among those who stay in rural communities, and a frustration among many Catholics with the church over the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the diocese.

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ILLINOIS
Pantagraph

By Edith Brady-Lunny eblunny@pantagraph.com

PEORIA — The family of a former student at Epiphany School in Normal will announce on Tuesday a $1.35 million settlement in an abuse case involving allegations against a deceased parish priest, and release the deposition of Archbishop John Myers, the former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria.

Andrew Ward, now 25 and living in Michigan, filed a lawsuit in 2008 accusing the late Monsignor Thomas Maloney of sexually abusing him at Epiphany Catholic Church between 1995 and 1996 when Ward was in the second grade.

The settlement was reached several weeks ago, but details will be publicly disclosed Tuesday in Newark, N.J., where Myers serves as archbishop, said Minnesota lawyer Jeff Anderson, who represents Ward.

Diocesan Chancellor Patricia Gibson was not aware of the press conference and had no comment on the settle-ment.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
San Antonio Express-News

[Catholic Whistleblowers]

AUGUST 13, 2013

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A retired Wisconsin priest is speaking out about his work with a whistleblowers group focused on clergy sexual abuse.

Rev. James Connell is the former vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He also served as pastor of Holy Name of Jesus and Saint Clement parishes in Sheboygan.

Connell often joins victims of clergy sexual abuse at news conferences and has called publicly for the Milwaukee archdiocese and other church organizations to be more open about their handling of sexual abuse cases.

He is on the steering committee of Catholic Whistleblowers, a group of current and former priests, nuns and others working to shed light on abuse and church leaders’ response.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Este lunes se inició en la primera sala del Tribunal Oral en lo Penal de Temuco el juicio en contra del ex sacerdote Orlando Rogel Pinuer, quien está en prisión preventiva desde 2012 acusado de abuso sexual de al menos seis menores internos en hogares dependiente de la Iglesia Católica. Entre estos se encuentra el internado San Francisco de Cunco, donde el prelado se desempeñaba como párroco y responsable del hogar.

El propio sacerdote declaró que todo lo que se ha reportado no corresponde y descartó tener contacto directo con los internos porque su rol era de guía espiritual, agregando que quienes sí tenían contacto eran los inspectores del hogar aledaño a la parroquia de Cunco.

Orlando Rogel Pinuer tiene dificultades en su desplazamiento por el deterioro de su salud a causa de la diabetes que lo aqueja.

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NEW JERSEY/ILLINOIS
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on August 12, 2013

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria will pay $1.35 million to settle a lawsuit that contends Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, Peoria’s former bishop, failed to take action against a sexually abusive priest in the mid-1990s, freeing him to molest again.

The settlement, reached late last week, is to be formally announced at a press conference Tuesday afternoon outside Myers’ office in Newark.

The alleged victim’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, also will release a transcript of Myers’ deposition in the case. The deposition had been under court seal since 2010.

Anderson represents Andrew Ward, who has accused the Rev. Thomas Maloney, now deceased, of molesting him in Illinois in 1995, when Ward was 8.

A year earlier, a woman told the diocese Maloney sexually abused her as a child, but the priest was permitted to remain in ministry, the suit contends. Myers also failed to notify police of the allegation, Anderson said.

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INDIANA
Pantagraph

By Edith Brady-Lunny eblunny@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON — A former Twin City minister has been sentenced to 12 years in prison following his guilty plea to predatory criminal sexual assault charges.

Rodney D. Applington, 42, a former associate pastor at East White Oak Bible Church in rural Carlock, was charged in January with having illegal physical contact with a minor girl.

A second charge of predatory criminal sexual assault was dismissed in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Assistant State’s Attorney Adam Ghrist said after Friday’s hearing that “this case reminds us that child sex abuse is real and present in Bloomington-Normal. Acceptance of this as a community will lead to education and help protect our children.”

Applington faced six to 30 years on the Class X felony charges without the plea deal. He must serve 85 percent of the 12 years in prison.

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NEW JERSEY
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[note: This does not link to a Web site.]

Media Advisory

August 12, 2013

Illinois family to speak out on current Newark Archbishop John J. Myers’ failure to protect their son from sexual abuse while working as Bishop in Peoria

St. Paul Attorney to announce $1.35 million settlement in the case and release Myers’ deposition

WHAT: At a news conference on Tuesday in Newark, New Jersey, prominent clergy abuse attorney Jeff Anderson will:

· Announce the settlement of a child sexual abuse case for $1.35 million involving the Diocese of Peoria, former Peoria Bishop and current Archbishop of Newark John J. Myers and deceased priest Msgr. Thomas W. Maloney.

· Introduce the family of Andrew Ward, a former altar boy at Epiphany Church in Normal, Illinois, who was sexually abused when he was 8 years-old by Msgr. Maloney while Maloney worked at the family’s parish in the mid-1990s and Myers was the bishop of the Peoria Diocese.

· Reveal the deposition of Archbishop Myers taken May 12, 2010 and discuss Myers’ pattern and practice of repeatedly failing to protect children while working as Bishop in Peoria and now as the Archbishop of Newark.

WHEN: Tuesday August 13th, 2013 at 1:00 PM EDT

WHERE: Outside the Archdiocesan Center
171 Clifton Avenue
Newark, NJ 07104

WHO: Attorney Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based, internationally known trial lawyer widely recognized as a pioneer in sexual abuse litigation. Anderson has represented thousands of survivors of sexual abuse by authority figures and clergy. Robert Hoatson, a former Archdiocese of Newark priest and founder of the non-profit Road to Recovery, who has called for Myers’ resignation since 2009 for his failure to protect children. The parents of sexual abuse survivor Andrew Ward will share the experiences of Andrew and the family.

Notes:

· Information packets will be available at the press conference.

· Depositions and documents will be available at www.andersonadvocates.com and at www.bishopaccountability.org under the “New and Noteworthy” section.

· More information on Father Collins can be found at www.catholicwhistelblowers.org.

· Road to Recovery, a non-profit organization supporting survivors of clergy sexual abuse can be found at www.road-to-recovery.org.

· Father Patrick Collins, a retired priest formerly of the Diocese of Peoria will be available via telephone to discuss Myers’ pattern of conduct while working as Bishop in Peoria.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Mobile/612.817.8665
Contact Robert Hoatson: (862)368-2800
Contact Fr. Patrick Collins: (616)886-6042

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON AUGUST 12, 2013

Tomorrow in Newark, parents of a child sex abuse victim will
— announce a settlement of a child sexual abuse and cover up case involving a priest,
— release a deposition of Newark Archbishop John Myers and
— release long-hidden church records about a predator priest.

We are very proud of Andrew Ward and his brave and compassionate family. We are especially grateful they had the strength to take legal action, the persistence to overcome the church hierarchy’s seemingly endless delays. And we are glad they insisted that these records be disclosed. In child sex abuse and cover up cases, it’s crucial that the dreadful wrongdoing of both those who commit and those who conceal these heinous crimes are exposed. That’s the best way to prevent future child sex crimes and cover ups.

When clergy sex abuse and cover up cases settle for seven figures, the reason is simple. It’s almost always because Catholic officials ignored, minimized, hid and enabled horrific crimes against children and those officials fear these damaging facts will emerge in court. That’s why bishops are willing to pay large figures – to save themselves and their colleagues from having to answer tough questions, under oath, in open court, where their complicity will be laid bare for all to see.

We are anxious to see these records. We suspect they’ll show Myers acting as selfishly and irresponsibly in Peoria as he is acting in Newark. We also suspect there are other current and former Peoria church employees who played a role in keeping Msgr. Maloney’s crimes secret for years.

The predator, Msgr. Maloney, is deceased, so he can’t be prosecuted. But we hope that those who saw or suspected Maloney’s crimes or Myers’ cover ups and helped hide the truth might be prosecuted.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Australian Royal Commission is specifically charged with, and limited to, institutional responses to child sexual abuse. As has been noted in a previous posting, there may be questions regarding just what constitutes an “institution” in the context of this enquiry.

One of those grey areas may well be the response of the judicial system. There are often cases where the general public feels that judges are out of touch with community expectations, especially concerning sentencing. There is also the issue of “revictimisation” resulting from how victims are treated in the court process, especially for child witnesses (see, for example, the book by S. Caroline Taylor, “Court Licensed Abuse: Patriarchal Lore and the Legal Response to Intrafamilial Sexual Abuse of Children”). Further, there have been concerns about which factors are included in variable sentencing for the same offence.

These are all valid issues for the Royal Commission to consider. Submissions on these topics will undoubtedly be sent in, and there should be no excuse for them to be ruled as being outside the Terms of Reference of the enquiry.

Although the following case originates in the U.K., parallel examples in the Australian judicial system certainly exist, and it is relevant given the similarities of the two systems. Many legal people would beg to differ with the opinions expressed in this posting, but that does not mean that the issue should not be fully debated in the enquiry setting.

A very recent case (in the U.K.) raised the ire of many people, but there was little they could do to change things, because that is how the judicial system currently operates, both here and in the U.K. No similar comment can be made for other systems, such as in the U.S. That would be for them to consider should they ever reach the point of having their own national enquiry.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By UMBERTO BACCHI: August 12, 2013

The Holy See has been embarrassed by claims that Pope Francis’s new PR had accused a senior cleric of corruption and said that Pope Benedict XVI had leukaemia in tweets she made before she got the job.

The Vatican has reportedly launched an inquiry into the hiring of Francesca Chaouqui, 30, who was appointed as PR officer for a new papal committee set up to overhaul the Vatican’s financial administration in July.

Before securing the job, Chaouqui had extensively tweeted about Vatican affairs, often not mincing her words, giving rise to speculation that she had access to some degree of confidential information.

In a tweet in March Chaouqui described the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, as corrupt and claimed that he was involved in dubious business deals with an unnamed company from the Veneto region.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

ROME
Part 1 of this article appeared in the Aug 2-15 issue: A revolution underway with Pope Francis

Amid the clamor over Pope Francis’ comments on gays, women, the Vatican bank and other juicy topics during a July 28 in-flight news conference, one stray but revealing remark largely slipped through the cracks.

Asked if he had run into resistance to change in the Vatican, Francis delivered a mildly rambling response stressing the presence of many helpful and loyal people, along with the blunt judgment that the place’s quality has declined from the era of “old curialists” who simply did their jobs.

Then came the telling line: “It’s true,” the pope said, “that I haven’t done very much.”

In a sense, of course, he was being modest. Francis has done a great deal, mostly to reverse negative impressions of the church and to afford it a new lease on life. Yet in terms of concrete acts of governance, he had a point. …

Sex abuse

Another front where critics believe the church needs more transparency is its response to the child sexual abuse scandals.

Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who has more than two decades of experience dealing with the scandals, recently placed two ideas on the table. In a July 26 interview with NCR, O’Malley said Francis should:

* Convene the presidents of bishops’ conferences around the world and try to convince those who have not adopted strong anti-abuse guidelines to do so;

* Adopt the same anti-abuse protocols in the Vatican that have become standard practice in dioceses and other Catholic venues around the world, including background checks and screening of all personnel, training in abuse detection and prevention, and instructions in how to handle complaints.

It’s not clear whether Francis will act on those recommendations, although O’Malley is in a unique position to move the ball. He’s the lone American among the eight cardinals tapped in April to assist Francis in “governance of the universal church.”

Francis made an interesting point about the issue during his onboard news conference, distinguishing between “sins” of one’s past that may be forgiven and forgotten, and “crimes,” such as “the abuse of minors,” that require a different response.

It was a small but potentially telling sign that Francis intends to take a firm line. Many observers believe one test will be whether Francis extends the tough accountability the church now has for priests who abuse also to bishops who mismanage abuse complaints. Senior churchmen expressed confidence to NCR that Francis will do so, though to date there’s been no clear move along those lines.

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Predator priest worked in MT
New records about him just released
Catholic officials should do outreach, group says
SNAP to bishops: “Don’t let his victims suffer in shame, isolation and self-blame”

A now deceased Catholic priest, who was credibly accused of sexually abusing kids, worked in Montana according to long-secret church files about him that have just been made public.

And a support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Montana’s two Catholic bishops to “use their vast resources to reach out to anyone else he may have hurt.”

Fr. Robert S. Koerner was assigned to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Billings from 1956 to 1963, according to documents posted on Bishop-Accountability.org and the website of Los Angeles attorney Ray Boucher. The records were released on July 31, 2013 as part of a 2007 settlement of some 660 clergy sex abuse victims in southern California.

According to a letter from then-San Diego Bishop Robert Brom in 2003, Fr. Koerner “sexually abused children throughout the years of his pastorate at St. Patrick Parish [in Calipatria, CA], from 1963 to 1990.”

Catholic officials have a duty, a victims group says, to “aggressively seek out and help anyone who may have been hurt by him.”

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

To the Staff at Oratory Preparatory School in Summit NJ,

To the Staff at St. Cecilia’s parish in Englewood NJ,

Newly released church records show that a credibly accused child molesting cleric, Fr. Joseph B. DiPeri, worked at your school/parish. He also worked in Jersey City, Newark, and Garfield (all in the Newark archdiocese.) He may well have also been assigned to or done substitute work in other parishes or Catholic institutions.

We in SNAP suspect you and/or your staff has known these facts – and maybe more facts – for years. If so, shame on you for your years of reckless, self-serving silence.

Regardless, we believe that you and your staff now have a duty to aggressively reach out to

–others who may have suffered DiPeri’s crimes, and

–others who may have seen or suspected or concealed DiPeri’s crimes.

New Jersey men or women may have been sexually assaulted by him. If so, those victims may still be suffering in shame, silence and self-blame. They need – and deserve – to know that they are not alone, the abuse was not their fault, and that recovery is possible. Your outreach may help achieve this.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Para este lunes, desde las 09:00 horas, está programado en el Tribunal Oral en Lo Penal de Temuco el juicio en contra del ex sacerdote Orlando Rogel Pinuer, acusado por seis delitos sexuales.

El pasado 21 de junio, ante la jueza de Garantía, María Teresa Villagrán y en presencia del acusado, se desarrolló la audiencia de preparación del juicio oral. En ella, tanto el Ministerio Público como la defensa presentaron sus respectivas pruebas, las que fueron aceptadas por las partes sin exclusiones, dejando además constancia que el caso no presenta vicios formales.

El caso será conocido por los jueces Cecilia Subiabre Tapia, quien presidirá la Segunda Sala, Luis Torres Sanhueza, quien tendrá a su cargo la redacción del fallo que se dicte en su oportunidad y Luis Sarmiento Luarte.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By KATE BARTLETT Aug. 10, 2013

As chaplain at the University of Newcastle, Kate Bartlett’s role is to nurture the spirituality of students.

Kate’s life is deeply entrenched in her faith.

She has a degree in theology and has spent years in the ministry.

She also attends Sunday morning mass where she gathers with victims of sexual abuse and relatives of those who have abused.

As such the Tenambit woman’s faith has been challenged by recent revelations in the ­special commission of inquiry, but her love for God remains strong.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

GENE KERRIGAN – 11 AUGUST 2013

It’s important to remember that only a very small percentage of Irish Catholic priests raped and abused children. Though estimates vary, there are some that put the figure as low as around 4 per cent. A lot of entirely innocent priests were subjected to unwarranted suspicion.

It’s equally important to note that the Catholic Church as an institution wholly and consistently covered up such crimes. It did so as a matter of policy, in a number of jurisdictions, repeatedly and over many years. Again and again, to sustain the reputation and maintain the political power of the church, the institution protected rapacious priests from the law and moved them to fresh fields, in which they could do further damage to children.

It says a lot for the resilience of the hierarchy that despite this disgusting record, so many of their flock remain stalwartly obedient. So much so that the Irish church retains a tight grip on education and health.

The church was caught repeatedly putting its own interests above the interests of abused children. This, surely, should have resulted in the church being immediately relieved of institutional responsibility for schools. Not out of anger, or revenge – simply as a prudent measure. To do otherwise is to gamble with the welfare of children.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

EILISH O’HANLON – 11 AUGUST 2013

Back in 1992, the country was rocked by the discovery that a Catholic priest had enjoyed a sexual relationship with a consenting adult woman and had fathered a child. Those were the days. The bar on sexual scandal in the church has been raised considerably higher since then.

Nostalgia’s probably misplaced, all the same. There may be a temptation to think that Eamon Casey did nothing wrong in having an affair with American divorcee Annie Murphy when she was staying at his home in the early 70s, at least not in comparison with the paedophile priests who would, in later years, be sharing the same parish with the Bishop of Galway; but it would be hard to sustain that comforting argument after listening to the first interview in 20 years with his son, recorded for the first of a four-part TV3 documentary series on the hidden history of Irish journalism and broadcast last week under the title Print And Be Damned.

Speaking to Donal MacIntyre, Peter Murphy recalled his first meeting with Casey, when he was only 15, in a lawyer’s high-rise office in Boston. How he tried to engage with his father “and him having really no interest in engaging back with me”. How he eventually fled in tears, a “blithering mess”. It wasn’t hard to see the hurt and bewildered young boy behind the articulate and affable 39-year-old that Murphy is today.

The argument that Casey was a hypocrite because, while always known for his progressive tendencies, he nonetheless backed the church’s position on celibacy, doesn’t really stand up. A man can have an affair while still believing that priests should be celibate. There’s no contradiction. But there are sins other than hypocrisy. We’re supposed to disapprove of the damage that can be done by deadbeat dads who wash their hands of responsibility for their offspring, and it’s no better just because the culprit is a bishop rather than a welfare cheat.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today released its third issues paper and is inviting the public to contribute ideas and expertise on the best ways to create child safe institutions.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said a child safe institution is one that actively protects children and young people from sexual abuse in an institution.

“The Royal Commission wants to hear from a wide range of interested people, as well as government and non-government organisations, about what makes a child safe institution,” said Ms Dines.

“The Royal Commission is examining what organisational policies and practices – like codes of conduct, complaint handling procedures, and recruitment and supervision processes for staff and volunteers – are the most effective at reducing risks to children and keeping them safer in institutions.”

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has called for submissions on the discredited “Towards Healing” program for dealing with victims. It has previously called for responses from people who have gone through the “Towards Healing” process.

[The issues paper can be read at the website: www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au]

Any Catholic Church source will assure people it is a wonderful scheme, designed to help victims. As yesterday’s posting revealed, a church insider has claimed its only purpose is to minimize the costs of compensation, and to avoid involvement of the civil authorities. Evidence was also claimed to be routinely destroyed.

The Catholic Church is so pleased with the concept, introduced in Australia in 2000, that it has introduced a “Towards Healing” program in Ireland. An indicator of the Irish church’s approach is given by the contact person for the scheme, Wally Young of Young Communications at:- 087-2471520. The Bishops supporting the scheme claim they will pray for victims, and fast in repentance, on the first Friday of each month.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been calling for submissions on various topics in advance of the public hearings which are due to begin reasonably shortly.

There will be many detailed submissions by the big organisations, such as the churches, which will be written by professionals in public relations and the law. There will also be a few from various activist groups, and the occasional individual victim. Some specialist groups, such as social work agencies, the Australian Medical Association and so on, will make formal submissions which will be professionally produced, too.

It is all too easy for the Commission officials to forget that it is meant to be all about existing, and potential, victims of abuse. Big, official structures like the Royal Commission can all too easily be dominated by the views of the large players, via their professionally-produced submissions.

Those with the largest megaphone will naturally be the most easily heard. The only way to counter this advantage of the big players is to resort to the rusty gate principle. Keeping on making noises about the real issues, if done consistently and frequently, can gain the attention of the final decision-makers, when it comes to the recommendations part of the enquiry process.

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PENNSYLVANIA
GoErie

BY JAMES F. DRANE
Contributing writer

Pope Francis is a reform-minded pope. He started his papacy with a Vatican Bank reform, and this was certainly needed. Italian authorities recently arrested a priest employee of the Vatican Bank who was already under investigation for money laundering; Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was charged with conspiring to move 20 million euros in cash from Switzerland to Italy for his friends. All of this gave credence to long-circulated rumors that some of the Vatican Bank’s clerical accounts were being used for illegal purposes.

The Vatican Bank’s purpose was to finance papal projects and religious charities. In fact, however, it has been a focus of scandal for some time. Recent coverage of the Vatican Bank scandal shocked Americans, but in Italy, the news was a source of entertainment. The Italian government stopped doing business with the Vatican Bank some time ago because of the bank’s lack of financial transparency.

Pope Francis moved fast to fumigate the Vatican Bank. He appointed a trusted bishop to the top post and created a committee of advisers to report directly to him. He continues to introduce more and more transparency and accountability. The question is, could this be the beginning of an even more extensive church reform?

Moneyval, a bank monitoring agency under the Council of Europe, praised Pope Francis’ actions, but it also made clear that the Vatican Bank needed more reforms. Can Pope Francis continue to make the needed reforms?

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Pope Francis has appointed Sliema-born Mgr Antoine Camilleri to the Vatican’s Financial Security Committee. The committee, which brings together various top Vatican officials, aims to prevent and counter money laundering, terrorism financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

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NEBRASKA
Omaha World-Herald

World-Herald News Service

KEARNEY — A Kearney man is free on bond after being charged with sexually assaulting two boys 12 years ago.

Thomas Anthony Jones, 37, is charged in Buffalo County Court with two counts of felony sexual assault of a child on Jan. 1, 2001, in Kearney.

According to court records, the alleged victims, now ages 23 and 15, reported that their former church youth leader, Jones, allegedly exposed himself to them and touched their private parts. The alleged victims – who would have been 11 and 3 at the time of the alleged assault – reported the abuse Tuesday.

Jones was a youth leader at Lighthouse Foursquare Church at 3520 Ave. F.

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OHIO
Mansfield News Journal

Written by
Mark Caudill
News Journal

MANSFIELD — Scott Butner is a notorious name in the history of First Presbyterian Church.

Butner, then 17, pleaded guilty to five counts of rape and five counts of gross sexual imposition in a child molestation case in 1992. He received a concurrent sentence of eight to 25 years in prison for the rape counts and a suspended 10-year sentence for the gross sexual imposition convictions.

Butner was a volunteer baby sitter at First Presbyerian Church, 399 S. Trimble Road, in 1990 and 1991 when the abuse happened. Richland County Prosecutor James Mayer Jr. said there were 18 victims between the ages of 4 and 10.

Butner has a parole hearing next Friday. Last month, Mayer met with a member of the parole board to express his opposition to Butner’s release.

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SCOTLAND
The Observer

Kevin McKenna
The Observer, Saturday 10 August 2013

So the downfall of the Catholic church in Scotland didn’t occur at the hands of the Orangemen or the secular humanists of the church’s vivid imagination. All of the most grievous wounds it has suffered have turned out to be self-inflicted. The catalogue of sexual abuse by hundreds of priests stretching back decades; the sexual bullying of priests by its own cardinal; the cover-ups and intimidation of witnesses and victims – it didn’t need the assistance of any external agency to bring about the moral catastrophe that currently engulfs it.

The single beacon in this, the Scottish church’s darkest period, was provided by the most unlikely source. One of the victims of the sex abuse by priests at Fort Augustus Abbey School broke his anonymity last Sunday night and agreed to be interviewed on television. His words gave us a sense of the anger and humiliation he still felt more than 40 years after his torment. Yet he also possessed a dignity, courage and wisdom that has been entirely missing from the Scottish Catholic church and from Rome since the lid began to be lifted on this cesspit earlier this year.

This man was not impressed by the apology offered by the bishop of Aberdeen, Hugh Gilbert, pointing out, correctly, that public opinion and widespread revulsion following BBC Scotland’s excellent investigation into abuse at Fort Augustus the previous week had dragged it from the church.

For any confession to be considered sincere and authentic, this brave man also pointed out, it has to be accompanied by “a firm purpose of amendment”. Nothing, though, in any of what has passed for a response from the church, has contained anything remotely like “a firm purpose of amendment”.

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