ABUSE TRACKER

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

June 6, 2014

Ireland didn’t cherish all its children equally. We still don’t

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Published 06/06/2014

Colette Browne

It is too late to help the 800 children whose bodies were dumped in a septic tank in Co Galway, but there are thousands of children living in poverty and suffering from neglect today who can be saved.

Speaking about the shocking discovery of hundreds of tiny corpses in a mass grave in Tuam, Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan said it was “a reminder of a darker past in Ireland”.

The notion that back then, in a dim and distant past, Ireland didn’t cherish all of its children equally is both distressing and reassuring.

We grieve for the long-dead children of unmarried mothers, who were condemned to a life of torment for the crime of being born, but salve our consciences with the knowledge that today things are better.

We tell ourselves that the callousness and cruelty of the past are interred with the remains of those children in their tomb.

But for many, the suffocating gloom of that dark past never lifted. We just choose to ignore it.

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.

At some point, Christianity here became more about punishment than forgiveness

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Published 06/06/2014

David Quinn

Other countries are able to be nostalgic about their past. Britain can have the ‘Darling Buds of May’, which romanticises rural life in England in the 1950s. ‘Call the Midwife’ is also set in the 1950s, this time in east London, but it is still fairly nostalgic about the past.

America has lot of films and TV shows that romanticise the 1950s. I don’t think we have any. Instead we have lots of films that do the opposite and I think a huge part of the reason is that we are still haunted by the fact that we put so many people into mostly church-run institutions that were often inhuman and dehumanising.

Britain also had its institutions and they were also terrible places. But we seemed to have more of them, we put proportionately more people into them and we kept them open until closer to the present day.

Another example of the awfulness of many of our institutions has just come to light, namely the fact that almost 800 children and babies may have died at a Tuam mother and baby home run by an order of nuns between 1925 and 1961.

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.

One woman remembers babies ‘disappearing’ at an orphanage run by nuns

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Geraldine Gittens
Published 05/06/2014

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday admitted that more mass baby graves – other than the one found at Tuam, Co Galway – could possibly exist throughout Ireland.

Dublin woman Martina Keogh holds this very suspicion.

Martina was sent to St Joseph’s industrial school in Clifden, Co Galway by the courts, for the crime of stealing an apple and a swimming suit.

She spent almost two years at the school in the 1960s – and during this time she claims that some babies disappeared.

She believes that the case of the Clifden school warrants a full analysis by the Government, in relation to whether babies died while in the care of the Sisters of Mercy and if so, where they were buried.

Martina, from Dublin’s north inner city, entered the home for orphans aged nine.

As one of the older children, she remembers a grim situation where babies were malnourished.

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.

Weiskircher Priester unter Missbrauchsverdacht

DEUTSCHLAND
SR Online

Das Bistum Trier hat den Pfarrer der Pfarreiengemeinschaft Weiskirchen mit sofortiger Wirkung beurlaubt. Gegen den Pfarrer wird ein Vorwurf des sexuellen Missbrauchs einer 16-jährigen Jugendlichen erhoben. Der Fall soll sich in den 80er Jahren ereignet haben.

(06.06.2014) Nach einer Pressemitteilung des Bistums bezieht sich der Vorwurf auf einen Vorfall, der sich bereits Anfang der 80er, also vor rund 30 Jahren, im Raum Koblenz abgespielt haben soll. Das Bistum hat jetzt offenbar die dortige Staatsanwaltschaft informiert. Strafrechtlich könnte der Fall also bereits verjährt sein.

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.

Missbrauchsverdacht: Bistum beurlaubt Priester

DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

[Summary: Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier said a priest has been placed on leave for alleged sexual abuse of a minor. The priest, assigned to the parish community of Saarland Weiskirchen, is said to have abused a 16-year-old in the early 1980s. According to the diocese, the prosecutor has been informed.]

(Trier) Der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann hat einen katholischen Priester der saarländischen Pfarreiengemeinschaft Weiskirchen wegen Missbrauchsvorwürfen beurlaubt. Der Geistliche soll Anfang der 80er Jahre eine 16-Jährige im Raum Koblenz missbraucht haben.

Nach Angaben des Bistums wurde die Staatsanwaltschaft informiert. Dem Priester wurde zunächst untersagt, öffentlich Gottesdienste zu feiern. Weitere Angaben zu dem Vorfall machte Bistumssprecherin Judith Rupp auf Anfrage von volksfreund.de nicht. Mehr zum Thema später auf volksfreund.de und in der TV-Wochenendausgabe.

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.

Catholic Priest-Teacher Accused of Abuse

ARIZONA
Courthouse News Service

By TIM HULL

TUCSON (CN) – A Catholic priest who also taught high school took a mentally disabled parishioner to a hotel room, gave him alcohol and sexually assaulted him, the alleged victim claims in court.

Father Richard Zamorano, a former teacher at Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, has been suspended from the Diocese of Tucson since the allegations arose in 2012, a spokeswoman for the diocese said.

“He is currently a priest whose ministries are suspended – he is not able to practice any priestly ministries,” said Steff Koeneman, director of communications for the Diocese of Tucson.

“It was reported to civic authorities, they were aware of it, they did conduct a criminal investigation, and as far as we know that case was closed,” Koeneman added. “But that doesn’t determine what the church does. He is still on suspension as far as the church is concerned.”

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.

Mass grave scandal: ‘I thought, there but for the grace of God go I’

IRELAND
Irish Independent

[with videos]

Caroline Crawford
Published 06/06/2014

A survivor of the Tuam Mothers-and-Babies home has said it was a “miracle” he survived – describing it as akin to a “rabbit colony” with hundreds of children living in an environment with overflowing toilets and little care.

JP Rodgers was born in the home in 1947. Just 13 months after his birth, he was separated from his mother who was moved to the Magdalene Laundry in Galway city while he remained in the home until he was fostered at the age of five.

“It wouldn’t be very fond memories I have of it,” he said.

Speaking of the large numbers of children growing up in the harshest of conditions, Mr Rodgers, pictured right at the site of the grave, said it was nothing short of a miracle that he survived.

“I can’t say for sure but in my mind’s eye there were probably about 200 children. The place was just alive with children. I remember being in the playground, standing there alone, maybe not very well as I do remember a period where I was very, very ill. Thankfully I came out of it but I was probably no different from anybody else in the place,” he added.

Speaking about the conditions growing up, Mr Rodgers recollects clearly the shed with sinks to wash at and open-air toilets.

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.

More Molestation Charges Levied At Tulsa Pastor

OKLAHOMA
News On 6

[with video]

Lori Fullbright, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma – A third victim has come forward to accuse a Tulsa pastor of molestation.
Galilee Baptist Pastor Damien Bonner now faces eight charges of lewd molestation.

You might remember in January, police arrested Jermaine Clemons for beating up a youth minister from that same church. Clemons said he did it because the youth minister was sending inappropriate texts to Jermaine’s teenage daughter.

Clemons said he begged Bonner, the pastor, to investigate the youth minister, but his pleas were ignored.

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.

Philip Reed appointed new CEO of royal commission into child sexual abuse

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has appointed Philip Reed as its new chief executive.

Mr Reed is a former director-general of the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General and has worked at senior government levels in Victoria and New South Wales.

He takes up his new position with the royal commission next week, replacing Janette Dines who resigned last month.

Janette Dines was appointed to the commission in late 2012 and was previously the director-general of Emergency Management Australia.

While the circumstances surrounding her departure remain unclear, the ABC understands Ms Dines will be returning to a previous role.

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.

Lawyer lauds Canberra’s role in exposing Catholic sex abuse scandals

AUSTRALIA
The Age

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

The prosecution of Canberra Marist Brother John William Chute (aka Brother Kostka) in 2008 and subsequent six-figure civil compensation payouts were crucial in exposing the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal nationwide, ACT lawyer Jason Parkinson says.

“The Marist Brothers cases [in the ACT] were pivotal in Australian history [in relation to abuse within the Catholic system],” he said.

“Because they were dealt with in open court, it exposed how the Catholic Church acted in private and people did not like what they saw. This led to the groundswell of disgust that contributed to the decision to establish the royal commission.”

Mr Parkinson, of Porters Lawyers, represented more than 20 alleged victims whose claims were settled between 2008 and December 2009.

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.

Youth pastor at Hopewell church charged with soliciting girl online

VIRGINIA
Times-Dispatch

Posted: Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Roanoke Times

ROANOKE — A youth pastor at a church in Hopewell has been charged in Montgomery County with soliciting a 12-year-old girl online.

Deric Wallace Peacock, 30, of Chesterfield County was arraigned Wednesday morning in Montgomery County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on five counts of using a communication system to facilitate certain offenses involving children, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nael Abouzaki said.

Abouzaki said Peacock is charged under a subsection of that code, which states that the offender exposed himself to the child and/or proposed an act to the child.

At the time of his arrest, Peacock was the youth pastor at South Hopewell Church of God. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between May 15 and 22, Abouzaki said.

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

Disposal of babies’ bodies in Tuam ‘as bad as Nazi Germany’: Fr Brian Darcy

IRELAND
Breaking News

Well-known cleric Fr Brian Darcy has said the discovery of almost 800 babies’ bodies next to a Galway mother-and-baby home is as bad as anything that happened in Nazi Germany.

The Government has today confirmed that a “scoping exercise” is underway to determine whether other mass graves such as that found in Tuam exist in other parts of the country.

Fr Brian Darcy said he thought previous scandals involving the Church had left him “unshockable”, but that this was a shocking as something that happened in Germany during World War II.

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.

Fr Brian says mass grave discovery is akin to horror story from Nazi Germany

IRELAND
Sunday World

By Karl Doyle

Sunday World columnist, Fr Brian D’Arcy, has reacted with shock and disbelief to the discovery of the bodies of almost 800 babies near a ‘mother and baby’ home in Tuam, Co Galway.

Speaking on Newstalk’s Lunchtime programme, the curate told interviewer John Keogh that the grim find was akin to something that would have happened in Nazi Germany during WWII.

He has also demanded that those responsible should be brought to justice for what he called “an atrocity”.

Speaking about his outrage on hearing of the mass grave, he told the programme: “When I heard it first I began to think that this was some atrocity that had happened in a foreign country – the remnants of a famine in some other country, or a bad regime, because that’s what it sounded like to me.

“It’s just a dreadful, horrible thing. I simply couldn’t believe it was in my own lifetime and in the same religion to which I belonged to and have professed to all my life.

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.

Fr Brian D’Arcy: Tuam mass baby grave ‘an incredible, awful, unchristian and unsocial thing’

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Fr Brian D’Arcy has said the mass baby grave discovered in Tuam is “an incredible, awful, unchristian and unsocial thing”.

Speaking to John Keogh on Newstalk Lunchtime earlier today, he said it was unbelievable that such a thing could have happened in his own lifetime.

“When I heard it first I really began to think that this was some atrocity that had happened in a foreign country, or remnants of a famine in some other country, or a bad regime, because that’s what it sounded like.

“It’s just a dreadful, horrible thing, and I simply couldn’t believe it was in my own lifetime and in the same kind of religion to which I belonged to and have professed all my life. I just simply doesn’t bear thinking about it.

“It’s just a kind of hypocrisy that keeps popping up from that era.

“Political hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy, and it’s the kind of thing which says some children were very valuable while at the same time it seems to have been this massive thing that children from unmarried mothers were not valuable, and when you look at it there can be no other conclusion drawn from it.”

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.

Mass baby grave in Tuam, Galway…

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Mass baby grave in Tuam, Galway: ‘The priest said Mass, then the grave was covered up again’

BY CAROLINE CRAWFORD – 06 JUNE 2014

The person who discovered the remains of hundreds of babies in a septic tank has recalled the “tiny skeletons” he encountered when he unearthed the grave when he was just 12 years old.

Frannie Hopkins was playing with a friend at the site back in 1975 when the pair noticed that one of the slabs covering an old septic tank had come loose.

“At the time we found a concrete slab over what I described at the time as a tank, I now see it was a tomb,” he said.

“We removed the lid and we found that it was full of skeletons; they appeared to be that of children. They were tiny skeletons, there just seemed to be an awful lot for one small little grave.

“A few days later, our parents told us not to go there, that the priest had been there and had said Mass and prayers and that the grave had been covered up again.”

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.

‘TUAM BABIES’ MASS GRAVE ALLEGATIONS MUST SPARK URGENT INVESTIGATION

IRELAND
Amnesty International

05 June 2014

Disturbing revelations about an unmarked “mass grave” of up to 800 babies and children found in Tuam, County Galway, must prompt urgent answers from the Irish Government about the wider issue of past child abuse in state-run and sponsored institutions, said Amnesty International today.

“This shocking case needs immediate attention and answers from the Irish Government. A thorough investigation must be carried out into how these children died and if ill-treatment, neglect or other human rights abuses factored into their deaths. We also need to know why these children were not afforded the respect of a proper and dignified burial,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

Irish and international media have reported that the remains of 796 babies and children were found in a septic tank in Tuam. The site, on the grounds of an institution run by a religious order of nuns, was operated as a ‘home’ for unmarried mothers, reportedly between 1925 and 1961, at a time when bearing a child outside marriage carried significant social stigma. Reports suggest that a local historian compiled information on the remains, and it was brought it to the attention of the Irish Government last year.

“The Irish Government must not view this and other cases as merely historic and beyond its human rights obligations,” said John Dalhuisen.

The international human rights framework of law emerged during the period in which these children lived and died. If the home closed in 1961, it is possible that some of the deaths occurred at a time when the European Convention on Human Rights was in force. Even before then, Ireland was aware of the internationally agreed norms expected of it in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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.

More mass baby graves in Ireland?…

IRELAND
Daily Mail (UK)

More mass baby graves in Ireland? Prime Minister Enda Kenny orders an investigation as memorial for 800 dead babies is planned

By HARRIET ARKELL and FERGHAL BLANEY
PUBLISHED: 03:17 EST, 6 June 2014 |

Irish officials are to investigate whether there are more mass baby graves after the discovery of 800 infants buried in a septic tank outside an old mother and baby home in Co. Galway.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny intervened from the United States yesterday to say that he had ordered his officials to ‘see what the scale is, what’s involved here, and whether this is isolated or if there are others around the country that need to be looked at.’

He spoke as human rights group Amnesty called for an urgent formal investigation into the evidence that suggested 796 children, from newborns to eight-year-olds, were secretly buried without coffins in a tank outside the former home in Tuam.

Historian Catherine Corless, whose discovery was revealed by the Mail earlier this week, said her study of death records for the St Mary’s home run by Catholic Bon Secours nuns from 1925-1961 pointed to the existence of the mass grave.

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.

Irish to investigate possibility of babies buried in other mass graves

IRELAND
Washington Post

BY TERRENCE MCCOY
June 6

International and Irish rage mounted on Thursday as officials in Ireland scrambled to respond to the recent discovery of the bodies of nearly 800 babies, long dead, stored in a septic tank at a Catholic institution for unwed mothers in western Ireland.

Officials will now investigate whether there are additional mass graves near other homes for unmarried mothers, Agence France-Presse reported Prime Minister Enda Kenny saying Thursday.

Kenny said Irish authorities will “draw together a number of senior officials from across the departments until we see what the scale is, what’s involved here, and whether this is isolated or if there are others around the country that need to be looked at.” He said Dublin must decide what the “best thing to do in the interest of dealing with yet another element of our country’s past.”

Another leading Irish politician, Brendan Howlin, said a criminal investigation may be in the future. “The government is ruling out nothing,” he said, according to the Daily Mail. “The sense of revulsion almost all of the people of Ireland have at the callous disregard for the most innocent of our young people has to be met with openness and with clarity, and that’s what the Government will do.”

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.

Mass baby grave in Tuam, Galway…

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Mass baby grave in Tuam, Galway: Laid to rest in septic tank, shameful fate of 800 little children

BY ADRIAN RUTHERFORD – 05 JUNE 2014

For more than half-a-century it has hidden a terrible secret, a horrifying and sinister reminder of a shameful chapter in Irish history.

At the site of a former home run by the Catholic Church in Tuam, a small town west of the Irish midlands, lies a mass grave filled with the bodies of almost 800 children.

Locals have known about it since 1975, when two boys broke apart a concrete slab and discovered a tomb filled with small skeletons. The remains, interred in a concrete septic tank, were initially thought to be from the Great Famine era of the 1840s.

A parish priest said prayers and the site was sealed once more, the number of bodies below unknown, their names forgotten.

Little more was thought about the grave until about 10 years ago when a historian, Catherine Corless, began investigating children’s deaths at the home. What she discovered has shocked her, appalled the Irish State and made headlines around the world.

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Psychologist concerned for Hunter Valley police in the wake of wrongful child abuse cover-up claims

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

Mental health concerns have been raised about Newcastle police officers wrongly accused of covering up child sex crimes by Catholic priests.

A Special Commission of Inquiry into two Hunter Valley paedophile priests Dennis McAlinden and James Fletcher was sparked by allegations by detective Chief inspector Peter Fox.

He alleged cover-ups by both police and Catholic Church officials.

The Inquiry highlighted serious failings in the church but the commission found no evidence of a police cover-up.

The inquiry also found Peter Fox was not a credible witness.

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.

Royal Commission to hold roundtable on Working with Children Checks

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

6 June, 2014

The Royal Commission will hold a roundtable in Canberra to discuss Working with Children Checks.

The roundtable discussion, the second by the Royal Commission, will be convened by the Chair of the Royal Commission Justice Peter McClellan AM and Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald AM and will be held at University House, Australian National University on Monday 16 June 2014.

Participants will include state and territory government representatives, Children’s Commissioners, advocates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-government organisations.

The roundtable discussion will help the Royal Commission to better understand Working with Children Checks and their implementation across jurisdictions.

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.

Media Statement – Royal Commission appoints new CEO

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission has annouced that Philip Reed will commence as Chief Executive Officer from Tuesday 10 June 2014.

Philip Reed was most recently Director-General at the Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts in Queensland, and prior to that, Director-General of the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General. He brings significant levels of experience in senior levels of government in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales.

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Worcester Diocese asks judge to dismiss gay couple’s suit over Northbridge real estate deal

WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A lawyer for the Diocese of Worcester asked a judge Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit filed against church officials by a gay couple alleging the two men were denied the right to buy diocesan property in Northbridge because of their sexual orientation.

The request was made during a Worcester Superior Court hearing at which the couple’s lawyer asked Judge Richard T. Tucker to find, as a matter of law and without the necessity of a trial, that they were the victims of unlawful discrimination.

Judge Tucker took both motions under advisement.

The civil lawsuit alleges the diocese backed out of the real estate deal in 2012 because the men were gay and church officials feared they might hold same-sex weddings on the property.

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Former Lower Paxton Twp. church youth leader pleads guilty to child sex abuse charges

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Jeremy Arias | jarias@pennlive.com
on June 05, 2014

A former church youth leader accused of sexually abusing children pleaded guilty Thursday in Dauphin County to molesting two children over several years.

Joshua M. Markelwitz, 28, was a youth leader at the Charlton United Methodist Church in Lower Paxton Township where he met his first victim, according to police. Markelwitz pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, indecent exposure, sexual abuse of children, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors and giving alcohol to minors, according to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office.

While Judge Richard A. Lewis was not scheduled to sentence Markelwitz until September, the district attorney’s office expected Markelwitz to receive 12 to 24 years in prison.

Ari Daniel Weitzman, listed as Markelwitz’s defense attorney, was not available for comment Thursday afternoon.

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Former youth leader pleads guilty to sex charges

PENNSYLVANIA
WGAL

CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. —A former youth leader was in court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to several sex charges, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

Joshua Markelwitz, of Enola, Cumberland County admitted to sexually molesting a girl when she was about 11-years-old.

Police say he met her through his Lower Paxton Township church.

Police say the molestation happened over a three year period.

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Metis group hired sex offender to work with residential school survivors

CANADA
Turtle Island News

By Steve Rennie

THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – The Metis National Council enlisted a convicted sex offender in 2011 to work with survivors of residential schools, the church-run institutions where children endured physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

The Canadian Press obtained a copy of the council’s contract with Norman Hansen of the northern Saskatchewan village of Buffalo Narrows, as well as provincial court records showing his prior sexual assault convictions.

Contacted by phone, Hansen, now 70, declined to talk about his work for the council or his sexual assault convictions. He hung up when asked if the council was aware of his criminal record when it offered him a contract.

Court records show Hansen was convicted of two separate sexual assaults against two women in or around Saskatoon. The first assault took place in February or March of 2003, while the second assault occurred on April 2, 2003.

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Father and son pastors deny sex abuse charges, father pleads not guilty

OHIO
Cleveland.com

By Patrick Cooley, Northeast Ohio Media Group
on June 05, 2014

WESTLAKE, Ohio – An official at Church on the Rise on Crocker Road publicly addressed sex-crime charges levied against a senior church leader and his son during a Wednesday evening service.

Paul Endrei, 53, faces multiple charges of sexual battery and gross sexual imposition, while his son, Jordan Endrei, 26, faces a charge of unlawful sexual contact with a minor. Both are accused of abusing the same girl, who was 14 years old at the time of the suspected abuse.

Both men spoke to the congregation Wednesday night, but didn’t directly address the criminal charges.

The official told church members that both men adamantly deny the charges and expect to plead not guilty. He promised the church would be forthcoming with its members about the criminal cases as they proceed.

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The Italian Job

VATICAN CITY
Commonweal

Massimo Faggioli

A few weeks after Benedict XVI announced his resignation, the political philosopher Giorgio Agamben published a short book called The Mystery of Evil: Benedict XVI and the End of Times. In that volume, Agamben calls the pope’s resignation a prophetic moment, and argues that it highlights the crisis of institutional legitimacy. His conclusions may be farfetched—an eschatological showdown between church and political power probably isn’t in the offing—but he does bring into focus the sense of crisis that shook the Vatican in the months leading to Benedict’s departure. A series of scandals—from Vatileaks to the Vatican bank—raised questions about Benedict’s administrative capacities, questions he himself seemed to answer when he chose to resign in February 2013. As the cardinals assembled in Rome to elect a new pope, curial reform became the conclave’s watchword. That is Francis’s mandate. It is also one of his greatest challenges. Whether he is able to rouse the church from its institutional coma depends entirely on his ability to manage his opposition.

Francis’s first year has been characterized by a carefully coded fight for the ground between the old guard and the new. An abstract debate about the “continuity or discontinuity” of Vatican II has been replaced by a conversation about concrete issues such as poverty and inequality. Francis has shown a willingness to discontinue old practices—for example, the Vatican officially prohibits priests from washing women’s feet on Holy Thursday, but that’s exactly what he did just weeks after his election. Francis’s new language and style have not been universally welcomed by the bishops, especially those in his backyard. Some of them silently resist these changes.

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Sex case delay ire

AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

By VICTORIA NUGENT June 6, 2014

A MAGISTRATE has vented her anger over the 14th delay in the case of a defrocked priest charged with historic child sex offences.

The former priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, first faced Armidale Local Court on October 18, 2012.

On Wednesday, his case was adjourned again because the prosecutors were not prepared. Magistrate Karen Stafford criticised the Director of Public Prosecutions for failing to comply with her orders, saying it was “completely unacceptable”.

She had previously set down a hearing for April 9 to determine whether alleged victims needed to attend committal proceedings.

The Director of Public Prosecutions wasn’t ready and asked for an adjournment until this week.

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June 5, 2014

Iglesia potosina indaga a otros dos curas por abuso de menores

SAN LUIS POTOSí (MEXICO)
Milenio [Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico]

June 5, 2014

By Eugenia Jiménez Cáliz

Read original article

Los implicados son Noé Trujillo, prófugo acusado de estupro, y Francisco Javier Castillo, denunciado por pederastia y exonerado por la justicia civil.

La arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí inició investigaciones en dos casos más de sacerdotes acusados de abuso sexual contra menores, que fueron denunciados por los padres de las víctimas ante la Procuraduría General de Justicia Estatal (PGJE), informó Armando Martínez Gómez, abogado que representa al arzobispado potosino. Respecto a los dos casos presentados ante las autoridades civiles, dijo que la arquidiócesis tiene conocimiento de que el cura Noé Trujillo, acusado del delito de estupro contra una menor de 14 años, se encuentra actualmente prófugo de la justicia porque ya se giró una orden de aprehensión. La madre de la menor, que presentó la denuncia ante la PGJE, mencionó que descubrió en el perfil de Facebook de su hija que una persona le proponía tener relaciones sexuales en una cabaña. Su hija le confesó que el sacerdote Trujillo la llevó a un poblado que no identificó, donde sostuvo relaciones sexuales con ella. Al respecto, la arquidiócesis inició un proceso canónico y suspendió a Trujillo de su ministerio mientras se integra el expediente para enviarlo a Roma. El Directorio Eclesiástico Nacional señala que Trujillo fue incardinado a la arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí, ordenado sacerdote el 9 de diciembre de 2006 y tiene 38 años.

En el otro caso, el cura Francisco Javier Castillo Ríos, de la iglesia del Sagrado Corazón en la comunidad de Ojo Caliente, municipio de Santa María del Río, fue denunciado ante la PGJE por abuso sexual de un menor. La queja fue presentada en 2012 y, de acuerdo con la arquidiócesis, tanto el juez como la sala superior de justicia de San Luis Potosí no ejercieron acción penal en su contra, negaron la orden de aprehensión y quedó exonerado por la justicia civil. De cualquier manera, abundó el abogado católico, al conocerse la denuncia contra Castillo Ríos el arzobispado potosino inició una investigación y en los próximos días el cura puede ser suspendido de su ministerio mientras se realizan las indagaciones eclesiásticas. Castillo Ríos tiene 43 años, recibió su ordenación sacerdotal el 30 de agosto de 2003 y se registra que es un eclesiástico titular de la secretaría de Pastoral Vocacional en la arquidiócesis potosina.

En el otro caso, el cura Francisco Javier Castillo Ríos, de la iglesia del Sagrado Corazón en la comunidad de Ojo Caliente, municipio de Santa María del Río, fue denunciado ante la PGJE por abuso sexual de un menor. La queja fue presentada en 2012 y, de acuerdo con la arquidiócesis, tanto el juez como la sala superior de justicia de San Luis Potosí no ejercieron acción penal en su contra, negaron la orden de aprehensión y quedó exonerado por la justicia civil. De cualquier manera, abundó el abogado católico, al conocerse la denuncia contra Castillo Ríos el arzobispado potosino inició una investigación y en los próximos días el cura puede ser suspendido de su ministerio mientras se realizan las indagaciones eclesiásticas. Castillo Ríos tiene 43 años, recibió su ordenación sacerdotal el 30 de agosto de 2003 y se registra que es un eclesiástico titular de la secretaría de Pastoral Vocacional en la arquidiócesis potosina.

Ratifican denuncia

La arquidiócesis de SLP ratificó ayer la denuncia contra el ex sacerdote Eduardo Córdova Bautista, quien ha sido suspendido de su ministerio por el Vaticano. Sin embargo, aclaró que se requiere la ratificación de la denuncia por parte de la víctima para que las autoridades judiciales continúen con el proceso. Armando Martínez Gómez, abogado de la arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí, informó que en el caso del ex sacerdote Eduardo Córdova las autoridades judiciales han iniciado la inspección ocular en las parroquias donde se denunció que cometió los abusos sexuales a menores; una de ellas es el templo de Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación, donde fue párroco el acusado. Uno de los 19 jóvenes que denunciaron a Córdova el viernes pasado señaló que en esa parroquia el ex sacerdote tuvo “acercamientos lascivos, tales como abrazarlo contra su pecho y tocarle los genitales en las oficinas y casa parroquial, en las que desempeñaba funciones laborales y pastorales”. Oración y manifestantes A través de las redes sociales se invitó ayer a los católicos de San Luis Potosí a participar en “una cadena de oración” alrededor de la sede del arzobispado potosino para contrarrestar una supuesta manifestación que realizarán integrantes de un grupo de apoyo a las víctimas de pederastia que acusan a los sacerdotes. El mensaje señalaba “Estimados amigos: tenemos información confiable de que Martín Faz, con grupos feministas, anti-vida, anti-iglesia y anti-todo, están organizando una manifestación con 500 personas, con ánimos de agresión al arzobispado el próximo miércoles a las 11 horas. “Por este motivo estamos convocando para que sin ningún ánimo de agresión ni respuesta a las provocaciones hagamos una valla de oración en torno al arzobispado el próximo miércoles a las 10:00 AM a fin de evitar cualquier agresión a nuestros sacerdotes o al arzobispado. Te sugerimos llevar un rosario. Si contemplamos que este tipo de agresiones solo se dan en países como Argentina, estamos muy equivocados. La Iglesia nos necesita. Dios nos proteja”, concluye el mensaje. • • • La PGJE abre mesa especializada La Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE) de San Luis Potosí puso en operación una “mesa especial para la investigación y atención a denuncias por pederastia”, con la intención de dar respuesta a las acusaciones que se incrementaron luego del caso del ex cura Eduardo Córdova Bautista. El procurador Miguel Ángel García Covarrubias informó que esa “mesa especializada” fue integrada con siete agentes del Ministerio Público, un grupo especial de Policías Ministeriales y un psicólogo que atenderá a las víctimas que acudan a presentar su denuncia. García Covarrubias indicó que en esa instancia atenderá todas las denuncias de abuso a menores de edad en la entidad. Actualmente 19 víctimas han acusado a Córdova y hay dos más contra otros religiosos. El procurador dijo que después de la ratificación de la denuncia contra el ex cura Córdova Bautista por parte de la arquidiócesis será necesario convocar a las autoridades eclesiásticas y llamar a declarar ante la mesa especializada a los arzobispos Arturo Antonio Szymanski Ramírez, Luis Morales Reyes y Carlos Cabrero, ya que los tres fueron responsables de ese territorio durante los años en que Córdova abusó sexualmente de menores.

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Mother and baby scandal hidden in plain sight

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Once again, it has taken international press headlines to make the Government address a dirty little secret the State has been aware of decades.

The horrific discovery of hundreds of children buried in a septic tank at a former home for unmarried mothers in Tuam in Galway merely lit the fuse on a scandal that was hiding in plain sight.

We have heard Government and opposition TDs alike express their horror at these “shocking revelations” and the need to fully investigate the circumstances surrounding the Tuam discovery.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he wanted to know if there are any other baby graves at mother-and-baby homes in other parts of the country.

Had politicians not heard of ‘angel plots’ dotted around the country? Had they not heard of mother-and-baby homes and the unspeakable abuses that occurred in them?

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Make site of mass grave a crime scene, say TDs

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Shaun Connolly, Political Correspondent

The Galway site where bodies of hundreds of babies and children were disposed off should be treated as a crime scene, opposition TDs demanded.

As the outpouring of shock and anger triggered by revelations surrounding events at a Tuam Bon Secours mothers and babies home dominated the political agenda, the Government was again accused of not acting with enough urgency.

Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan said the Government would decide on what lines of investigation to mount before the end of the month, as he indicated that the probe would not be confined to Tuam.

Independent TD Catherine Murphy said “sanitised” language was being used to describe what had really happened at the Tuam mass grave containing the remains of 796 babies and children, put there between 1925-1961.

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El Vaticano expulsa a sacerdote mexicano que viol a 20 niños

SAN LUIS POTOSí (MEXICO)
AquíNoticasMX [Tuxtla Gutiérrez, México]

June 5, 2014

By Redacción

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Eduardo Córdova Bautista fue sometido a un proceso administrativo por violación a un menor en San Luis Potosí en 2012.

Redacción

Por primera vez el Vaticano hizo del dominio público el retiro del ministerio sacerdotal a Eduardo Córdova Bautista quien abusó sexualmente de un menor de 15 años en San Luis Potosí en (2012).
La sanción no requirió de la aprobación del Papa Francisco, ya que fue dictada después de un proceso administrativo, por lo que el cura prefirió no defenderse. También se presentó una denuncia masiva de 19 personas en la Procuraduría de Justicia de San Luís Potosí en contra del ex sacerdote.
El presidente de la organización Propuesta Cívica, Martín Faz, dijo que los denunciantes confían en que un juez libere la orden de aprehensión contra Córdova Bautista, quien está acusado de cometer al menos 100 violaciones en contra de adolescentes.


En tanto que Armando Martínez, presidente del Colegio de Abogados Católicos de México, dijo que el arzobispo de esa entidad, Jesús Carlos Cabrero, ya anunció de manera pública el retiro del religioso.
Recordó que el año pasado los padres de la víctima denunciaron al cura, «después, se hicieron las entrevistas a los testigos, se integró toda la investigación y se envió a Roma para que allí la evaluaran».
El abogado comentó que el proceso duró hasta enero de 2014, cuando se envió el expediente al Vaticano. «La suspensión llegó en abril y desde entonces se ha intentado localizar a Córdova Bautista para notificarle la decisión, pero no aparece.


«Se hizo un juicio canónico, se oyeron a todas las partes, se envió el expediente a Roma y se tuvo la determinación de separar al acusado del cargo. Los religiosos de San Luis Potosí han cooperado con la autoridad para que por uno no queden manchados todos», resaltó Martínez Gómez.
Indicó que la denuncia que la Iglesia católica presentó ante la Procuraduría General de Justicia en el Estado, es la única que tiene documentada.


Cuestionado sobre los señalamientos de que el ex ministro de culto abusó de 100 menores, el litigante respondió que esas acusaciones las ha hecho el ex sacerdote Alberto Athié, pero deben denunciar.
«Yo lo invito a que cumplan con la ley (la organización Iniciativa Ciudadana en Apoyo a Victimas de pederastia), y que interpongan la denuncia ante las autoridades competentes, y que no sólo hagan este tipo de declaraciones en los medios. La Iglesia ya lo hizo, les falta a ellos que dicen conocer a las víctimas que presenten la denuncia, porque de lo contrario pueden ser denunciados como encubridores de un hecho delictivo», expresó el presidente del Colegio de Abogados Católicos de México.


Primer antecedente de retiro de sacerdocio, en Tehuacán Nicolás Aguilar Rivera fue despojado del sacerdocio por el Vaticano en 2009, ya que abusó sexualmente de al menos 90 menores en México y EU.
El ex párroco de Cuacnopalan y de Tehuacán está prófugo desde el 2003, cuando el juzgado tercero liberó una orden de aprehensión en su contra por el abuso de cuatro menores de edad y él escapó del Ministerio Público ubicado en El Riego, en San Vicente Ferrer, Tehuacán, Puebla.


Joaquín Aguilar una de las víctimas, comentó que sufrió abuso sexual en 1993 y en 2006 interpuso una demanda civil en contra del cardenal de Los Ángeles Roger Mahony y de Norberto Rivera Carrera, por encubrimiento.
Destacó que el ex sacerdote está señalado como uno de los clérigos que más violaciones ha cometido y por ello organizaciones civiles presentaron ante el Comité de Derechos del Niño de las Naciones Unidas los casos documentados de al menos 120 abusos.


Con violación «explica» lo que es sentir a Dios Algunas de las víctimas del cura pederasta Eduardo Córdova dieron su testimonio de los abominables abusos a los que fueron sometidos.


«Te he mostrado lo que es sentir a Dios. Si en algún momento dudas de la existencia de Dios, piensa en el significado de esto que te acabo de hacer: es cuando alguien te posee, y yo a ti te he poseído como ninguna otra persona podrá hacerlo», dijo el sacerdote Eduardo Córdova Bautista una de sus múltiples víctimas de abuso sexual que por primera vez se atrevió a contar lo que sufrió a la periodista San Juana Martínez.


El sacerdote no solamente abusó de otro de ellos, sino que obligaba al menor a tocarlo.


«Ése día él agarró mi mano conduciéndola a sus genitales y me dijo que tenía que aprender ciertas cosas sobre la respiración, cómo relajarme. Estábamos en la casa parroquial, en su habitación, yo me sentí incómodo, me puse muy tenso y me eché para atrás y ya no me obligó a nada más, se quedó hablando y hablando, él estaba desnudo», narró.


Otra víctima relata que venían al DF y se hospedaban en el hotel Casa Blanca, cerca del Monumento a la Revolución. Solía acompañarse de jovencitos dizque para acercarlos a Dios en sus encuentros con autoridades católicas.
«Tenía dispuestos dos vasos de una bebida que él dijo era whisky, el cual yo no había probado nunca. Con la finalidad de no oponerme a sus órdenes, debí probar, pensando que así me dejaría en paz. Al terminar de beberlo me acosté para descansar, y al poco rato sentí que, dejando su cama y sólo vistiendo un calzoncillo, se recostó a mi lado, con una proximidad física que me resultó incomoda y vergonzosa», fue el testimonio de una más de las víctimas del pederasta.

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In lawsuit settlement, Delbarton releases sex abuse victim from confidentiality agreement

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger
on June 05, 2014

MORRISTOWN — William P. Wolfe — who was sexually abused by a priest at the Delbarton School when he was a 14-year-old student there — had waited 30 years to tell his story.

Today the Morris Township prep school settled a lawsuit filed by the 44-year-old Wolfe, and released him from a confidentiality agreement he signed in 1988.

“I’m exceedingly happy,” Wolfe said. “I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”

The agreement, announced in Superior Court in Morristown, means Wolfe, who filed the suit as “John Doe,” can use his own name and speak about the abuse at the hands of the Rev. Timothy Brennan. The cleric pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact in 1987.

The agreement still bars Wolfe from discussing the amount of the settlement, and a lawsuit filed by Delbarton against his lawyer is remains unresolved. The school sued the lawyer, Gregory Gianforcaro, for violating the confidentiality agreement in 2012, after he said publicly the settlement was in the seven figures.

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How mid-century Ireland dealt with unwed mothers and their children, and why we’re talking about it today

IRELAND
Vox

Updated by Dylan Matthews on June 5, 2014

Researcher Catherine Corless has uncovered records suggesting that the bodies of 796 infants were buried in a septic tank in Tuam, Ireland. The tank — previously believed to have held victims of the Irish famine of the 1840s — was on the property of a “mother and baby home” run by the Bon Secours nuns between 1925 and 1961; while the cause of death is unknown, the unsanitary conditions of the homes was likely a major factor.

The mother and baby homes, along with the Magdalene laundries for “fallen women” and other institutions erected by the Catholic Church in Ireland (often with state participation), have seen renewed scrutiny since the 1990s as abuses committed against the women condemned to live in the institutions have come to light. The mother and baby homes sometimes forced mothers to put their children up for adoption, often to the US, while Magdalene laundries subjected women to forced labor (usually, as the name implies, washing clothes and linens) and physical abuse. One mother and baby home, Sean Ross Abbey, was featured in last year’s film Philomena. Last year, the Irish government agreed to compensate survivors of the Magdalene laundries, while those abused in mother and baby homes have yet to be compensated, and children of mothers in the homes say they have been denied access to records.

Mari Steed is the cofounder of the group Justice for Magdalenes and US coordinator for the Adoption Rights Alliance, Ireland. She was one of more than 2,000 children born in Ireland and put up for adoption in the United States without their mothers’ consent. We spoke on the phone Wednesday, June 4, about the history of the Magdalene laundries and mother and baby homes, what we know about the conditions that led to the tragedy in Tuam, and what reforms still need to be made. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. …

DM: How did they relate to the mother and baby homes, which the current revelations concern?

MS: [Boston College professor and activist] James Smith refers to it as Ireland’s “architecture of containment,” and that’s exactly what it was. You had these industrial schools, the Magdalene laundries, the mother and baby homes, all with different remits, but the basic model was to contain and segregate anything that was deemed morally inferior by society, whether that’s children, unwed mothers, the women in the Magdalenes, etc. They were all cross connecting at various points. Children were sent to laundries, women came out of laundries or went into laundries from mother and baby homes.

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DEEPLY SADDENED’ BON SECOURS SISTERS WELCOME TUAM MOTHER-AND-BABY INVESTIGATION

IRELAND
The Nationalist

THURSDAY, JUNE 05, 2014

The Sisters of Bon Secours have said they are shocked and deeply saddened by the discovery of hundreds of dead babies in a septic tank on the grounds of a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

The home was in operation from 1925 to 1961.

In a statement issued this evening, the sisters welcomed the recent Government announcement to initiate an investigation in an effort to establish the full truth of what happened.

The statement reads: “In 1961 the Home was closed. All records were returned to the local authority, and would now be within the Health Service Executive, Co Galway.

“The Bon Secours Sisters are committed to engaging with Catherine Corless, the Graveyard Committee and the local residents as constructively as they can on the graves initiative connected with the site.

“The Sisters welcome the recent Government announcement to initiate an investigation, in an effort to establish the full truth of what happened.”

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‘It is possible to determine cause of death in Tuam babies’

IRELAND
Irish Independent

[with video]

A leading consultant forensic scientist says an examination of the skeletal remains of almost 800 babies found in Tuam could determine how they died.

The bodies of the infants were located in a sceptic tank on the site of a former Mother and Babies home in Tuam, Co Galway.

The site was first located in 1972.

In recent days, a local historian has suggested the babies’ bodies were placed there between 1921 to 1965.

Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland programme earlier today, Geoff Knuper, who works in major crime in Ireland and the UK as well cases of The Disappeared, said cause of death could be determined despite the passing of more than four decades.

“It’s clearly very disturbing,” he said.

“I think in the first instance this should, or could, be a matter for the Garda Siochana, the coroner and of course the State Pathologist would play a key role in any such investigation.”

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Ireland mass graves: Nuns have no records from former home for unmarried mothers

IRELAND
The Independent (UK)

ED CARTY Thursday 05 June 2014

Nuns in charge of an institute for single mothers where hundreds of babies were buried in a septic tank have said they no longer hold records from the home.

The Mother and Baby Home in Tuam was one of 10 similar homes across Ireland believed to hold the remains of another 3,200 babies and infants.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has called for the religious orders which ran these institutes to release full details of all the people they took in.

But the Sisters of Bon Secours, which operated the institute in Tuam, Co Galway, said it handed its records to the state after it closed.

They added in a statement that they were shocked and deeply saddened by reports of the burial of 798 dead infants from 1925 to 1961.

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Mass baby grave in Tuam, Galway…

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Mass baby grave in Tuam, Galway: Enda Kenny voices concerns that other mass graves exist across Ireland

BY NIALL O’CONNOR AND PA – 05 JUNE 2014

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has voiced concern that there exists other mass baby graves across the country.

Speaking during a trade mission to the US, Mr Kenny said the government will work actively to determine the scale of the situation.

The Taoiseach described the discovery of a mass grave in Tuam, Co Galway as “another element of our country’s past”.

He said Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan will update the government on the findings of a newly established review group.

“I’ve asked Minister Flanagan to draw together a number of senior officials from across the department until we see what the scale of what is involved here. Whether this is an isolated (incident) or whether there are others around the country that need to be looked at,” Mr Kenny said.

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Priest remains on leave from Grand Blanc church after allegations of inappropriate touching

MICHIGAN
MLive

By Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com
on June 05, 2014 at 5:30 PM

GRAND BLANC, MI – A Grand Blanc priest accused of inappropriately touching two children is the first priest put on leave in the Catholic Diocese of Lansing since a 2005 decision by the church to publicize the names of priests accused of abuse.

The church says police and child protective services opened an investigation after Rev. Ken Coughlin was accused of inappropriately touching the hands and legs of two students in May.

Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton told The Flint Journal on Thursday, June 5, that he’s reviewing the case to determine if criminal charges will be filed.

But the attorney for the priest says Coughlin did nothing wrong and wants to return the parish.

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Suspended priest sentenced for sexual tryst with teen

PENNSYLVANIA
Citizens Voice

BY DAVID SINGLETON
Published: June 3, 2014

A suspended Diocese of Scranton priest who admitted meeting a 15-year-old boy for a sexual encounter will spend eight to 23 months in the Lackawanna County Prison.

The Rev. William Jeffrey Paulish, 57, of Blakely, told Judge Michael Barrasse he would like to change what happened Sept. 19 at the Penn State Worthington Scranton campus in Dunmore but he cannot.

“I should have known better,” the Rev. Paulish said.

In addition to handing down the eight- to 23-month jail sentence, Barrasse placed the Rev. Paulish on probation for two years and ordered him to perform 100 hours of community service. The priest will be required to register as a sex offender for 15 years under the Adam Walsh Act.

The Rev. Paulish was arrested after campus security discovered him with the teenager in the back of the priest’s 2009 Toyota Venza in a Worthington Scranton parking lot. The boy did not have pants on, and both he and the Rev. Paulish later said they had engaged in sex acts, police said.

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Jehovah’s Witnesses Begin 2014 Convention Series

UNITED STATES
Advocates for Awareness of Watchtower Abuses

PRESS RELEASE –

Jehovah’s Witnesses begin 2014 convention series, but beware of “the wolf in sheep’s clothing”

June 5, 2014

On June 6th Jehovah’s Witnesses will start their 2014 convention series in various cities within the USA and Canada. During the first week they will be arriving in such diverse places as Bakersfield, California and Penticton, British Columbia. Many local businesses look forward to a temporary cash injection because Jehovah’s Witnesses conventions typically attract a few thousand visitors.

Some local newspaper editors might be reluctant to upset businesses who advertise in their publications by writing about certain often unknown and unpleasant facts about an organization whose adherents will soon be flooding into their area.

Advocates for Awareness of Watchtower Abuses (AAWA) respects this economic reality, but also wants the public and civic leaders living in the convention cities to know that the Jehovah’s Witness leadership has never been totally truthful about what happens when a person becomes entangled with their group.

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Church sued for abuse that occurred at VBS

TENNESSEE
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Southern Baptist church in Tennessee is being sued for $2 million by a mother whose 10-year-old daughter was sexually abused while attending Vacation Bible School in 2009.

The girl, now 15, and her mother both use pseudonyms in a lawsuit filed May 20 Madison County Circuit Court alleging negligence by First Baptist Church in Bemis, Tenn., for allowing longtime church member Chad Luttrell to volunteer for VBS despite knowledge of “substantial problems” he had caused in the past concerning inappropriate conduct with female church members including girls between ages 6 and 10.

Luttrell, 35, was arrested June 10, 2009, and charged with aggravated sexual battery. He pleaded guilty, got probation and landed on Tennessee Sex Offender Registry.

Prior to that, the lawsuit alleges, church leaders knew of complaints involving Luttrell kissing a young girl on the face and stalking and harassing three adult female church members in 2006.

Then-pastor Mark McSwain filed a police report in December 2006 about “a problem growing in the church” for several weeks with Luttrell. The investigating officer said McSwain told him that Luttrell was caught kissing a young girl on the mouth and had been following and making physical threats toward three adult women.

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National Development and Fundraising Manager – Legionaries of Christ (White Plains, NY)

UNITED STATES
DFW Catholic

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNDRAISING MANAGER
Fundraising, FT Employee
Legionaries of Christ (White Plains, NY)

National Development and Fundraising Manager
Legion of Christ Incorporated, Institutional Advancement
Atlanta GA or White Plains NY

The Legion of Christ Incorporated is seeking a skilled, energetic and experienced National Development and Fundraising Manager to lead a team of nationwide lay fundraisers in achieving annual fund development goals that directly provide financial means for Regnum Christi Movement apostolic endeavors, religious community support and evangelization efforts. The position works in close collaboration with a wide array of internal and external individuals and organizations. Position reports to the Director of Marketing Development.

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Westlake pastor’s son will also face sex abuse charge

OHIO
Cleveland.com

By Patrick Cooley, Northeast Ohio Media Group
on June 05, 2014 at 8:20 AM, updated June 05, 2014 at 1:09 PM

WESTLAKE, Ohio – The son of a pastor accused of sexual battery was indicted on similar charges this week, according to court records.

Jordan Endrei, 26, who lives in North Olmsted and serves as the assistant pastor of Church on the Rise in Westlake, was arrested Wednesday, court records said.

He faces a charge of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, court records said. The victim was 14 years old at the time of the suspected abuse.

Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will told the Chronicle Telegram that Jordan’s father, Paul Endrei is accused of molesting the girl beginning in 2005. He is also accused of having sexual contact with her in 2009, 2010 and 2013, he said.

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VA- Youth pastor charged with online child sex crimes, SNAP responds

VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 5, 2014

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

A Virginia youth pastor was arrested for allegedly sexually soliciting a minor online. We are glad law enforcement stopped this dangerous predator.

[WTVR]

Deric Wallace Peacock was the youth pastor at Church of God South Hopewell since January 2013. We are grateful that undercover law enforcement officers were the ones Peacock was soliciting, but are worried that there might be real victims suffering in silence and self-blame. (Peacock and his wife reportedly were foster parents.)

We urge law enforcement to urgently investigate whether Peacock sexually assault any children that may have been in his care or at his church. Church officials should publicly disclose that Peacock has been arrested and beg anyone who saw, suspected, or suffered child sex crimes to come forward, call law enforcement and start healing.

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In the face of the shortage of priests in the world, Dr. Paul Collins argues the ‘excommunication’ of the Leader of the International Movement We Are Church is “iniquitous”!

AUSTRALIA
Catholica

Dr Paul Collins and his wife, Marilyn, know the recently ‘excommunicated’ leader of the International Movement We Are Church, Dr Martha Heiser, well. Marilyn through her work with OCW (Ordination of Catholic Women) and Paul worked with her on media at the last two Papal Conclaves. In this report and commentary he suggests the ‘excommunication’ of Dr Heiser by an Austrian Bishop is ‘iniquitous’ given the world-wide crisis the Catholic Church is facing in having enough priests to minister to even a declining participating congregation.

Background…

Founded in 1995 in Austria in the wake of the Cardinal Hermann Gröer sexual abuse scandal, the International Movement Wir sind Kirche [We are Church (IMWAC)] is one of the largest and most important renewal movements in the Catholic church, with active groups in more than 25 countries. In Australia Catholics for Ministry (CfM) is affiliated with IMWAC and shares its ideals and works co-operatively with it. CfM shared much of the media work with the IMWAC leadership through two papal elections (2005 and 2013), with plans to co-operate again during the Synod on the Family in Rome in October this year.

However, on 21 May 2014 Dr Martha Heiser, President of IMWAC, was informed by the Bishop of Innsbruck, Manfred Scheuer, that she and her husband Gert had been formally excommunicated because for several years they had celebrated the Eucharist without a priest in their home. While essentially the excommunication was levied by Scheuer, it was issued with the approval of Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Roman Inquisition). According to Austria’s Kathweb ‘Pope Francis was reportedly not informed personally about the procedure.’ This has been confirmed by Martha Heiser who says that ‘the pope was not involved.’

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SNAP seeks independent review of abuse handling by prominent SBC churches

UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A support group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse is asking the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to hire an independent consultant to investigate two churches’ handling of confessions by a former staff member subsequently convicted of molesting several boys decades earlier.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a non-profit organization claiming to be the largest, oldest and most active self-help group for clergy sex abuse victims, sent a letter June 5 to Executive Committee President Frank Page recommending Boz Tchividjian’s organization GRACE for an independent review of circumstances involving John Langworthy, longtime associate pastor of music and ministries at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, Miss.

Langworthy resigned from the church in 2011 and confessed to the congregation of “sexual indiscretions with younger males” that took place prior to his coming to Morrison Heights Baptist Church 22 years earlier.

In 1989, according to a former co-worker, Langworthy was fired by Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas after confessing to inappropriate behavior with boys but not reported to police as required by Texas law.

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Pope Francis ends Italian control over Vatican’s financial watchdog

VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Josephine McKenna | Jun 5, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis on Thursday (June 5) dismissed the five-member board that oversees the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, an abrupt move that will give the financial operation more of an English-speaking focus.

The Vatican said the pope named five experts from Switzerland, Singapore, the United States and Italy to replace those who were removed from the board of the Financial Information Authority (AIF), the Holy See’s internal regulatory agency.

All five outgoing members were Italians who had been expected to serve five-year terms ending in 2016. The sole American on the new board is Juan Zarate, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Two of the new five members are Italian.

The pope has taken a hard line on cleaning up the Vatican finance system, and he had been urged to appoint professionals with international expertise to work with the head of the AIF, Rene Bruelhart, a Swiss lawyer. Francis has taken a personal interest in the scandal-tainted Vatican bank, or Institute for Religious Works.

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Bush security aide joins Vatican bank committee

VATICAN CITY
Channel News Asia

Pope Francis dismissed the Italian five-man board of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority and named new members including a woman for the first time and a former security adviser to US President George W Bush.

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Thursday dismissed the Italian five-man board of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority and named new members including a woman for the first time and a former security adviser to US President George W Bush.

Juan Zarate from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, who was Bush’s deputy national security adviser for counter-terrorism, will now have to enforce transparency rules for scandal-hit Vatican finances.

The three others chosen are Italian manager Maria Farina, Swiss financial consultant Marc Odendall and Joseph Pillay, who helped build up Singapore’s economy as a top civil servant and businessman, the Vatican said in a statement.

The five Italian members of the body, who were appointed by the Pope’s predecessor Benedict XVI, were dismissed in what a source told Vatican affairs news agency I.MEDIA was part of a bid by Francis to get rid of the “old guard”.

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The Sisters of Bon Secours will co-operate fully with any inquiry into discovery of mass baby grave

IRELAND
Highland Radio

Almost 800 dead babies and infants were found in a septic tank on the grounds of a former Mother and Baby Home just outside Tuam.

In a statament this evening, the Sisters says they’re shocked and deeply saddened by the discovery and say that all records were returned to the local authority when the home closed in 1961 and would now be with the HSE in Co. Galway.

The Minister for Children told the Dáil this evening that the mass grave in Tuam will not be the only one subject to investigation.

But Charlie Flanagan admitted he had no power to ensure a criminal investigation by the Gardaí:

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Youth pastor accused of asking ‘girl’ to fondle herself during online chat

VIRGINIA
WTVR

BY SCOTT WISE, ROB CARDWELL AND WAYNE COVIL

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. – A youth pastor from North Chesterfield was arrested and charged with several online sex crimes against children. Deric Wallace Peacock, 30, is charged with sexual solicitation of a minor by electronic means; requesting a minor to fondle her own sexual or genital parts; and three counts of exposing his sexual or genital parts to a minor.

All charges against Peacock are felonies.

Peacock was arrested as the result of an undercover investigation by the Christiansburg Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit, according to Christiansburg Public Relations Officer Becky Wilburn.

Wilburn said Peacock was never having a conversation with a child, rather he was communicating with undercover police officers.

He is being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

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When a child is abused … by another child

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversry

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 5, 2014

I have written on this subject before. But today’s story out of Sacramento is more tragic and upsetting.
The mother of an eight-year-old sodomy victim has filed a lawsuit against the mobile home park where the crime happened in 2013. She charges that the management of Sacramento’s Park Royal Estates Mobile Home Park knew that a 15-year-old boy was raping and terrorizing resident children in key-access, monitored, and “secured” areas of the park. But instead of calling the cops and reporting their suspicions, staffers kept quiet.

Fortunately, the boy immediately reported to his mother, who called the police. The 15-year-old is now in jail. He has allegedly raped at least one other child in the park.

Why wouldn’t park staffers report what they knew or suspected? Maybe it was fear of the 15-year-old. Maybe it was fear of his parents. Perhaps staffers feared that parents would pick up their children and move out of the park if they knew what was happening. Maybe they just though it was “child’s play.” Whatever the rationale, it was wrong. It’s a cover-up as tragic as the clergy sex abuse crisis … especially since, like clerics who offend and are moved around, juveniles who offend get a “free pass” and no help to actually stop the behavior.

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TN- Victims seek SBC’s help as it meets next week

TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 5, 2014

For more info: David Clohessy, 314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Clergy abuse victims ask to speak at Baptist annual meeting
They also want independent review of clergy abuses & cover-ups
And group again urges SBC’s top official to apologize for insulting them

A victims group is asking the head of the Southern Baptist Convention for a chance to speak at the annual denominational meeting this month in Baltimore. They also want the SBC to hire an outside organization to study abuse in Baptist churches and an apology from the top SBC official.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Dr. Frank Page, wanting a chance to speak about preventing clergy sex crimes before thousands of Baptists who will gather in Baltimore on June 10-11.

SNAP has “25 years of experience working with clergy abuse survivors,” the group says, and so the organization “can help the SBC in shaping practices and policies that help prevent abuse and cover ups and foster more appropriate responses to abuse allegations.”

SNAP also wants the SBC Executive Committee to hire and consult with another organization, GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), for an independent expert review of the scandal involving a convicted child sex offender and Baptist employee John Langworthy of Mississippi and Texas.

“The way Baptist officials are responding and have historically responded to clergy sex abuse is and has been unproductive and does not make kids safer against clergy-predators,” said Amy Smith of Dallas, SNAP leader. “We hope that if they would just allow for an independent review of even one of the many reported cases of a cover-up, it might educate them on the dynamics of this problem and prod them and others to stronger action.”

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Mary Lou McDonald warns that Tuam mass grave could be one of ‘dozens’

IRELAND
The Journal

SINN FÉIN HAS called for a full public inquiry into mother and baby homes after a mass grave allegedly containing the bodies of almost 800 infants was discovered on the grounds of a former children’s home in Tuam.

The party’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said that any inquiry launched by the government must not focus exclusively on the home in Galway.

She said that similar graves could exist at “dozens” of mother and baby homes across the country.

“As shocking as Tuam has been – and it is very, very harrowing – it’s not an isolated incident at all.

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Pope Francis shakes up Vatican’s finance panel

VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF JUNE 05, 2014

ROME – Pope Francis today pressed his campaign to internationalize the Vatican’s financial management, replacing an all-Italian panel overseeing his anti-money laundering agency with a new group drawn from four different nations, including a Harvard professor and former official in the George W. Bush administration.

The appointments came a day after the announcement that a Catholic business manager from Australia will hold a senior position in the pope’s new Secretariat of the Economy, designed to force fiscal transparency and discipline on all Vatican departments.

The “Financial Information Authority” (AIF) was created in 2010 under Pope Benedict XVI to bring the Vatican into compliance with international standards in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Its director is a Swiss lawyer named Renè Bruelhart, who previously led a European regulatory body called the Egmont Group, where one of his claims to fame was restoring a Gulf Stream jet owned by Saddam Hussein to Iraq’s new government in 2003.

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UPDATE 1-Pope fires entire board of Vatican financial watchdog

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, June 5 (Reuters) – Pope Francis sacked the five-man board of the Vatican’s financial watchdog on Thursday – all Italians – in the latest move to break with an old guard associated with a murky past under his predecessor.

The Vatican said the pope named four experts from Switzerland, Singapore, the United States and Italy to replace them on the board of the Financial Information Authority (AIF), the Holy See’s internal regulatory office. The new board includes a woman for the first time.

All five outgoing members were Italians who had been expected to serve five-year terms ending in 2016 and were laymen associated with the Vatican’s discredited financial old guard.

Reformers inside the Vatican had been pushing for the pope, who already has taken a series of steps to clean up Vatican finances, to appoint professionals with an international background to work with Rene Bruelhart, a Swiss lawyer who heads the AIF and who has been pushing for change.

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Italian ‘old guard’ ousted in Vatican shake-up

VATICAN CITY
The Local

Pope Francis on Thursday named four new members to the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority including a former security adviser to US President George W. Bush, sweeping away an “old guard” of Italian appointees.

Juan Zarate from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, who was Bush’s deputy national security adviser for counter-terrorism, will now have to enforce transparency rules for scandal-hit Vatican finances.

The three others chosen are Italian manager Maria Farina, Swiss financial consultant Marc Odendall and Joseph Pillay, who helped build up Singapore’s economy as a top civil servant and businessman, the Vatican said in a statement.

Five Italian members of the body who were appointed by the pope’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, were also dismissed.

A source told Vatican affairs news agency I.M

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Pope Francis Shakes up Vatican Financial Watchdog

VATICAN CITY
ABC News

VATICAN CITY June 5, 2014 (AP)
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

Pope Francis ousted the all-Italian board of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency Thursday and installed a more international set of experts following clashes between the board and the agency’s director.

The four new board members are from Italy, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.

The previous board of the Financial Information Authority had complained that it was being kept in the dark about agency activities since Swiss anti-money-laundering expert Rene Bruelhart arrived as director in 2012. The infighting led Italian Cardinal Attilio Nicora to resign as authority president earlier this year.

The Vatican created the agency in 2010 to supervise and regulate the Holy See’s financial activities and share financial information with other countries to comply with international anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing norms. Under Bruelhart’s direction, the Holy See has entered into about a dozen financial information-sharing agreements with other countries.

One of the former Italian board members, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, is also president of the Vatican tribunal, creating a potential conflict of interest given that the independent financial watchdog agency forwards suspected cases of financial crimes to the tribunal’s prosecutors for further investigation.

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NE- Omaha Archbishop is contender for promotion

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 5, 2014

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

Omaha’s Archbishop George Lucas is being considered for the next archbishop of Chicago, replacing Cardinal George. We hope he isn’t chosen.

[CBS St. Louis]

In his previous post as bishop of Springfield IL, Archbishop Lucas let his predecessor, Bishop Daniel Ryan, continue to celebrate mass and remain on the job as a priest, despite the fact that Ryan was dogged by multiple accusations of having sex with young men.

[WOWT]

In 2010, as Archbishop of Omaha, Lucas kept silent about credible child sex abuse allegations against Fr. John Fiala, a priest who famously attempted to hire an assassin to kill his victim.

[SNAP]

In 2011, Lucas told his flock that Fr. Perry Robinson was being put “on sabbatical” due to his advanced age. In fact, he had actually suspended Robinson upon learning of sexual abuse allegations.

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Pokrov.org celebrates its 15th anniversary!

UNITED STATES
Pokrov

Author: Staff
Date Published: 06/04/2014
Publication: Pokrov.org

This month Pokrov.org celebrates its 15th anniversary as an online resource for survivors of abuse in the Orthodox Christian Churches. As we recommit ourselves to continue the work we began in 1999, we would like to remind our readers that we have been under the umbrella of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, since 2008. If you want to do something in honor of our anniversary, please consider a donation to SNAP.

Thank you!
Cappy Larson
Melanie Jula Sakoda

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Pope Francis to Childless Married Couples: Don’t Just Have Pets – Have Kids

VATICAN CITY
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
June 5, 2014

In a homily on Monday, the single and childless Pope encouraged married couples to not limit their love to their personal pets but to extend to having their own children.

Francis challenged married couples on Monday to resist a “culture of wellbeing” which he suggested had “convinced us it’s better not to have children.” …

Pope Francis recently announced that he will meet with victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic Church clergy for the first time in his papacy later this month. His decision was not universally applauded; a support group for victims, dismissed what it called a “public relations” gesture, arguing that it didn’t address the real problems.

The Vatican leader said at an inflight news conference as he was returning to Rome from the Holy Land that priests abusing children is “such an ugly crime” and a “very grave problem,” Catholic News Service reported.

“We must move ahead, ahead, zero tolerance,” he stated, revealing that he would meet six to eight sex abuse victims from various countries, including Germany, the U.K. and Ireland.

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Two Archbishops with Local Ties in Running for Chicago Cardinal’s Successor

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

Fred Bodimer
June 3, 2014

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Catholic officials have confirmed the search for a successor for Chicago Cardinal Francis George has begun, and two archbishops with local ties are in the discussion.

Current Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory headed the Belleville Diocese during the height of the clergy abuse scandal from 1994 to 2004. He’s a Chicago native and a former Auxiliary Bishop there.

Another name being discussed is the current Omaha Archbishop George Lucas. He’s a St. Louis native and a former chancellor and vicar general of the St. Louis Archdiocese. He served as Bishop of the Springfield Illinois Diocese from 1999 to 2009.

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GA- Atlanta’s Archbishop is contender for promotion

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 5, 2014

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

Atlanta’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory is being considered for the next archbishop of Chicago, replacing Cardinal George. We hope he isn’t chosen.

[CBS St. Louis]

Gregory has worked in Illinois before and has a less than stellar history with child sexual abuse cases. Consider these five examples;

— In 2004, just two years after the Dallas bishops’ meeting, he was found in contempt of court for withholding evidence in a child sex abuse trial

[BishopAccountability.org]

–Members of the bishops’ own hand-picked abuse panel said he was guilty of “backsliding” on many of the child safety measures in the 2002 Dallas Charter for the protection of Children and Young People. Board members also claim that they were intentionally manipulated by Gregory and other bishops.

[BishopAccountability.org]

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VA- Ex-school board head abused in Virginia; SNAP responds

VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 5, 2014

Statement by Becky Ianni. Virginia director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests ( 703-801-6044, SNAPVirginia@cox.net )

A former school board chairman and federal employee has been indicted on 111 felony charges related to the sexual abuse of four children in Stafford, Virginia.

[Fredericksburg.com]

We applaud the federal authorities and the Stafford County Sheriff’s office for their efforts in bringing Thomas Francis Villacres to justice. Without their efforts, he may never have been exposed and countless children might still be in danger.

Villacres, who currently lives in Florida, is a former teacher and Army officer. We urge the Stafford School system to reach out to other possible victims. We fear that Villacres may have either committed or concealed child sex crimes in the school district.

According to a news report, he was also involved in St. William of York Catholic Church. We are worried that there might be other victims suffering in silence. We hope that Bishop Paul Loverde and the Arlington Catholic Diocese will use all their resources including the diocesan newspaper, church bulletins, and pulpit to encourage other possible victims to come forward to the authorities. We also hope that Loverde will personally visit each parish where Villacres spent time and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to contact law enforcement immediately.

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Missbrauchsklage: Richter schließt Öffentlichkeit aus

OSTERREICH
Kurier

[Summary: Court proceedings involving allegations of sexual abuse at a Jesuit college have been closed to the public.]

Der Schadenersatzprozess gegen einen Lehrer, dem sexueller Missbrauch zur Last gelegt wird, musste ohne Zuhörer über die Bühne gehen.

Es ist schon von Weitem zu erkennen, wer der Beklagte ist: Mit großen Sonnenbrillen und einer Schirmkappe nähert sich Mag. S., 56, dem Verhandlungssaal 8 des Wiener Landesgerichts für Zivilrechtssachen. Die Fotografen, vor denen sich der des sexuellen Missbrauchs Geklagte schützen will, gibt es aber nicht.

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Archbishop prepares parishioners for ‘horrendous’ child sexual abuse stories

AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 5, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

The Catholic Archbishop of Goulburn and Canberra has written to parishioners to prepare them ahead of next week’s visit to Canberra by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He has also asked Catholics to pray for the victims who will be giving evidence over two weeks from next Tuesday.

“They [the commissioners] will be examining the way in which the Marist Brothers responded to allegations of child sexual abuse in their schools in the ACT, NSW and Queensland,’’ Archbishop Christopher Prowse said.

“I write to prepare you for the public testimonies of the very sad experiences of some victims.

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Pressure mounts for Tuam baby death investigation

IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

BY MARTINA NEE Galway Advertiser, Thu, Jun 05, 2014

Calls for an urgent inquiry into the deaths of nearly 800 children at a Tuam mother and baby home continue, and pressure mounts on the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to take the lead into the investigation and apologise on behalf of the State.

The existence of a mass grave, containing a large number of unidentified remains, and the discovery that up to 796 children may have died at the mother and baby home run by the Bon Secours order during its period of operation from 1925 to 1961 has received national and international attention in recent weeks.

The site had previously been considered a graveyard for unbaptised babies or Famine victims. However, in 1975 two boys had been playing when they discovered partially broken concrete slabs covering a disused septic tank which was found to contain bones. It is believed that these remains were those of children disposed of without proper burial or records of their interment. Research was later undertaken by local historian and genealogist Catherine Corless through records in the possession of the Galway County Council revealing the large number of deaths at the mother and baby home. Ms Corless set up a committee and a campaign to erect a memorial has gained momentum in recent months.

Fine Gael Galway East TD and Minister of State for Training and Skills, Ciaran Cannon, has this week called for an urgent inquiry, including a Garda investigation, into the unexplained deaths. Minister Cannon raised the matter over the weekend with the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, and the Minister for Children, Charlie Flanagan, with a meeting due to take place by today and an official announcement to follow.

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Tuam children’s bodies: Catholic Church ‘has no records’

IRELAND
BBC News

A Catholic archbishop in the Republic of Ireland has said the church has no records about the burial of nearly 800 children at a mother and baby home.

The remains were in a concrete septic tank at the County Galway home. The children, aged between two days and nine years, died between 1925 and 1961.

The grave in Tuam was found nearly 40 years ago, but was initially thought to be from the 1850s famine.

Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary said he was “greatly shocked” by the news.

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Nuns ‘would welcome independent inquiry into mass baby graves’

IRELAND
RTE News

A congregation of nuns that ran three of the State’s mother-and-baby homes has said it would welcome an independent inquiry into the issues surrounding the burial of babies and children in unmarked graves.

The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ran mother-and-baby homes in Sean Ross Abbey in Co Tipperary, Bessborough near Cork city and Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.

In a statement to RTÉ News, a spokesperson for the congregation said it would be happy to take part in such an inquiry to establish the truth about what it called a “very sad chapter in the history of Irish society”.

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Calls for inquiry into Tuam babies scandal

IRELAND
RTE News

There have been increasing calls for an inquiry into the discovery of an unmarked mass grave at a former Catholic Church-run home in Tuam, Co Galway, where almost 800 children died between 1925 and 1961.

The grave was discovered in the former grounds of one of Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes run by the Bon Secours order of nuns.

Researcher Catherine Corless said the bodies were buried in a sewage tank on the grounds.

Ms Corless said public records show that 796 children died at the home before its closure just over 50 years ago.

She told RTÉ that some of the dead were as young as three months old.

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Ireland Investigates Alleged Discovery of 800 Babies in Sewer Tank

IRELAND
NBC News

BY ALEXANDER SMITH

Grim reports that nearly 800 dead babies were discovered in the septic tank of a home run by nuns has set off a round of soul-searching in Ireland and sparked calls for accountability from government and Catholic Church officials.

Fresh research suggests that some 796 children were secretly buried in the sewage tank of the home in Tuam, County Galway, where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth in an attempt to preserve the country’s devout Catholic image.

Officials said they were “horrified” at the discovery and said it revealed “a darker past in Ireland,” a country often haunted by its history of abuse within powerful church institutions.

The home was run by nuns from the Bon Secours Sisters congregation between 1925 and 1961. It was one of the “mother and baby” homes across Ireland, similar to the Sean Ross Abbey, in Tipperary, where Philomena Lee gave her child up for adoption in a story that was this year made into the eponymous Oscar-nominated film “Philomena.”

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Probe into mother and baby homes

IRELAND
Dundalk Democrat

The Government has bowed to national and international pressure over the scandal of the death of 4,000 babies who were buried in unmarked, unconsecrated and mass graves at homes for unmarried mothers.

The horrifying record of so-called mother and baby homes over several decades in the last century is being reviewed after campaigners forced renewed focus on the need to formally commemorate how 800 infants died and were buried in at one institute in Co Galway.

The remains of the youngsters were interred in a concrete, septic tank in the grounds of a since-abandoned home in Tuam, run by Catholic nuns from the Sisters of the Bon Secours between 1925 and 1961.

The names of the 796 children buried in the mass grave without a headstone have been confirmed by a local historian after she made repeated requests from the state for records. Records of hundreds more at other homes are still being held confidentially.

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Archbishop of Tuam calls on Galway nuns to act morally

IRELAND
Newstalk

Kerry Graye
08:05 Thursday 5 June 2014

The government has promised a comprehensive investigation into the deaths of children at Mother and Baby homes nationwide.

Brendan Howlin told the Dáil several departments are involved in a ‘scoping exercise’ to determine the extent of mass graves near homes.

The issue was raised by the opposition during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil this lunchtime, after news that the remains of nearly 800 babies and children were found in a disused septic tank beside a former home in Tuam, Co. Galway.

Independent TD Catherine Murphy demanded to know why the site of the mass grave at a septic tank in Tuam, Galway had not been declared a crime scene:

Earlier, an adoption rights campaigner compared the process of digging out information on deaths at Mother & Baby homes to ‘trying to penetrate the iron curtain’.

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Mass baby grave in Tuam, Galway…

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Mass baby grave in Tuam, Galway: Bon Secours nuns told to assist investigation

05 JUNE 2014

The Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary has told Bon Secours nuns that they have a moral obligation to engage with an examination of how 796 children died and were buried in a mass grave.

The remains of the youngsters were interred in a concrete septic tank in the grounds of a home in Tuam, run by the Sisters of the Bon Secours, between 1925 and 1961.

A “scoping exercise” to determine the facts behind the case will begin shortly, with a number of government departments involved.

Last night, the Archbishop acknowledged the horror suffered by women “in giving up their babies for adoption, or witnessing their death”.

“The pain and brokenness they endured is beyond our capacity to understand,” he said.

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Diocese adds to morality guidelines

OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By JoAnne Viviano
The Columbus Dispatch • Thursday June 5, 2014

Employees of Catholic schools, churches and other organizations overseen by the Diocese of Columbus are being asked to sign updated agreements that include examples of immoral conduct that could lead to their firing.

The changes also specify that workers must abide by Catholic Church teachings “both within and outside their employment duties” and regardless of their religious affiliation.

The changes are meant to clarify existing policies, diocesan spokesman George Jones said yesterday.

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Galway mass grave should be ‘crime scene’

IRELAND
UTV

Published Thursday, 05 June 2014

The Adoption Rights Alliance is calling for a mass grave discovered in Co Galway to be treated as a crime scene.

The remains of up to 800 babies and toddlers were found next to a home for unmarried mothers in Tuam, which was operated by the Bon Secours Sisters between 1925 to 1961.

A historian confirmed the names of the 796 children buried in the mass grave after she made repeated requests from the state for records.

The Tuam burial site was discovered in 1975 by 12-year-old friends Barry Sweeney and Francis Hopkins.

But, locally, it was referred to for years as a famine burial site where youngsters who had died in the 1840s disaster were buried in a mass grave, often on unconsecrated ground.

Records of hundreds more at other homes are still being held confidentially.

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Wood Royal Commission instigator John Hatton calls for ‘evictions’ from Catholic Church in wake of damning inquiry

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

A former New South Wales MP who warned about clergy abuse in the Hunter Valley says people should be evicted from the Catholic church in the wake of a damning Special Commission of Inquiry.

The Inquiry looked at cover-ups relating to paedophile priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen was critical of some church witnesses saying they were misleading or reluctant to give evidence.

Former Independent MP John Hatton who is credited with instigating the Wood Royal Commission into police also gave evidence.

More than 25 years ago Mr Hatton wrote to the then Archbishop of Sydney Edward Clancy, raising concerns about McAlinden.

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Silence from Self-Described Pro-Life Groups Over Mass Burial of 800 Babies

IRELAND
Bock the Robber

Posted by Bock on May 30, 2014

If there was an outcry from Catholic groups about the mass burial of 800 babies in Tuam, news of it hasn’t penetrated as far as this little backwater.

David Quinn of the Iona Fringe Prayer Group has been remarkably silent on the issue, despite his usual eagerness to appear on TV if two dogs are caught copulating. Likewise, there hasn’t been a peep out of the Macaroonahoonarooney clan who built the Youth Defence franchise out of nothing, presumably because their campaign for the welfare of babies extends only to those not yet born. Every sperm is sacred, but apparently not every two-year-old, in the world of the Irish Catholic Right.

Why? The answer is simple enough. If you dominate women’s fertility, as the Catholic clergy did for decades, you control society. If you long to keep that control alive, as the extremists do, you’ll cling to the strategies that worked in the past and you certainly won’t be thinking of the demented, sexually-frustrated evil nuns and brothers who took their rage out on the unfortunates who fell into their clutches, or who were driven there by Monsignor Everyman in his fine parish priest’s motor car.

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What are We to Make of All This?

UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

800 dead orphans thrown away in a septic tank by Catholic nuns in Ireland.

As this article reveals, the contempt with which these orphans were treated did not begin the minute they died. The “Home Babies” were ridiculed and ostracized throughout their typically short and miserable lives.

And, apparently, treated with criminal neglect.

A local health board inspection report from April 1944 recorded 271 children and 61 single mothers in residence, a total of 333 in a building that had a capacity for 243.

The report described the children as “emaciated,” “pot-bellied,” “fragile” with “flesh hanging loosely on limbs.” The report noted that 31 children in the “sun room and balcony” were “poor, emaciated and not thriving.” The effects of long term neglect and malnutrition were observed repeatedly.

Children died at The Home at the rate of one a fortnight for almost 40 years, one report claims. Another appears to claim that 300 children died between 1943 and 1946, which would mean two deaths a week in the isolated institution.

It’s a lesson we have yet to learn, for this is a staggering reality.

Elsewhere, writers are pointing out the hypocrisy of pro-life groups that have remained silent on this crime. “Every sperm is sacred, but apparently not every two-year-old, in the world of the Irish Catholic Right,” notes Bock the Robber.

And here in America, the bishops continue to behave like racketeers when it comes to sex abuse. In my home town of St. Louis, our archbishop’s favorite priest has now been accused for a second time of sex abuse, and the archbishop’s response has been to smear the alleged victim’s parents with a public press release.

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Iglesia potosina indaga a otros dos curas por abuso de menores

MEXICO
Milenio

[Summary: The San Luis Potosi archdiocese has initiated investigations against two priests accused of sexual abuse of minors. The cases have been forwarded to the state attorney general.]

EUGENIA JIMÉNEZ
05/06/2014
México

La arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí inició investigaciones en dos casos más de sacerdotes acusados de abuso sexual contra menores, que fueron denunciados por los padres de las víctimas ante la Procuraduría General de Justicia Estatal (PGJE), informó Armando Martínez Gómez, abogado que representa al arzobispado potosino.

Respecto a los dos casos presentados ante las autoridades civiles, dijo que la arquidiócesis tiene conocimiento de que el cura Noé Trujillo, acusado del delito de estupro contra una menor de 14 años, se encuentra actualmente prófugo de la justicia porque ya se giró una orden de aprehensión.

La madre de la menor, que presentó la denuncia ante la PGJE, mencionó que descubrió en el perfil de Facebook de su hija que una persona le proponía tener relaciones sexuales en una cabaña. Su hija le confesó que el sacerdote Trujillo la llevó a un poblado que no identificó, donde sostuvo relaciones sexuales con ella.

Al respecto, la arquidiócesis inició un proceso canónico y suspendió a Trujillo de su ministerio mientras se integra el expediente para enviarlo a Roma.

El Directorio Eclesiástico Nacional señala que Trujillo fue incardinado a la arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí, ordenado sacerdote el 9 de diciembre de 2006 y tiene 38 años.

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Condena Vaticano a sacerdote mexicano abusador

MEXICO
Notimundo

Condena Vaticano de manera definitiva a sacerdote mexicano abusador

Por Andrés Beltramo Alvarez. Corresponsal

Ciudad del Vaticano, 4 Jun (Notimex).- El Vaticano halló culpable del delito de abuso sexual contra menor al sacerdote mexicano Eduardo Córdova Mendoza y le retiró definitivamente del sacerdocio católico, con un decreto que será transmitido en las próximas horas a la Arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí.

Según confirmaron a Notimex fuentes vaticanas, tras analizar los testimonios y las pruebas aportadas, la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe impuso al clérigo la “dimisión del estado clerical”, pena reservada a los casos más graves.

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Former nun of the Sisters of St. Ursula, who was sexually abused as a child by her high school Principal (also a nun of the Sisters of St. Ursula), seeks validation and justice

NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Media Release

June 4, 2014

The Board of Trustees of Notre Dame School refuses to believe an alumna’s account of sexual abuse, and the Sisters of St. Ursula, who administer the school, have ignored her requests for justice

Graduates and parents of Notre Dame School will be asked to join former nun’s call for justice from Notre Dame School and the Sisters of St. Ursula

What: A demonstration outside a Manhattan Catholic girls’ high school graduation

When: Thursday, June 5, 2014 from 5:00 PM until 6:30 PM

Where: On the sidewalk outside Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003

Who: Cecilia Springer is an 83 year-old former nun and graduate of Notre Dame School, class of 1948, who was approximately 14 years old and a sophomore at Notre Dame School when the Principal of the school, Sr. Mary Andrew (aka/ Sr. Frances Doyle), followed her up the school staircase from the lunchroom and sexually abused her. The sexual abuse occurred on more than one occasion. Ms. Springer, the former Sister Mary Grace, learned that at least one other classmate experienced similar sexual abuse by Sr. Mary Andrew. Her advocate from Road to Recovery, Robert M. Hoatson, will be present as will fellow clergy sexual abuse survivors.

Why: Cecilia Springer became a Sister of St. Ursula following graduation from college even though she had suffered sexual abuse as a child by her high school Principal, Sr. Mary Andrew, S.U., at Notre Dame School. She left the Sisters of St. Ursula many years later after it became untenable for her to remain in a religious order of women that did nothing about sexual abuse at their school, Notre Dame. Cecilia Springer was interviewed by representatives of the Notre Dame School Board of Trustees and their lawyer, but they have refused to help her in any way in her senior years. Those attending the graduation exercises of Notre Dame School will be asked to prevail upon Notre Dame School and the Sisters of St. Ursula to do the right thing by acknowledging that Cecilia Springer is, indeed, a victim of sexual abuse by Sr. Mary Andrew, apologizing to her for what happened, and assisting her in living a more stress-free life.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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Andrew Sullivan on Mass Grave of Irish Babies …”

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Andrew Sullivan on Mass Grave of Irish Babies Born to “Fallen Women”: “That Is Not a Sign of a Church Gone Astray. It’s a Sign of a Church Given Over to Evil”

Andrew Sullivan looks at the discovery of the bodies of 800 babies in a mass grave (they were stuffed inside a septic tank) behind a home for “fallen women” run by the Sisters of Bon Secours in Tuam, Ireland, and asks why such a kerfuffle ensued when the U.N. Rapporteur on Torture tried to indict the Vatican for “crimes against humanity” because of its cover-up of the mass rape and abuse of children. As he notes, what can possibly describe the story now emerging from Tuam except the term “crime against humanity”?

These children were born to “fallen women” who bore them while living at the facility of the Bon Secours nuns, and who were then left in the care of the nuns when these women moved on to new lives after serving a term of penance as virtual slave laborers for the nuns. Documents indicate that many of these children died of outright neglect and malnutrition — and when they died, their bodies were stuffed into a septic tank.

The heart of the matter for Andrew Sullivan:

To my mind, these foul crimes against women and children, along with the brutal stigmatization of gay people as “objectively disordered”, remain a testament to how the insidious, neurotic and usually misogynist fixation on sex has distorted and destroyed Christianity in ways we are only now beginning to recover from. For what we see here is the consequence of elevating sexual sin above all others, of fixating on human sexuality as the chief source of evil in the world, and of a grotesquely distorted sense of moral priorities, where stigmatization of the sexual sinner vastly outweighs even something as basic as care for an innocent child.

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House advances child sex abuse lawsuit bill

MASSACHUSETTS
WWLP

[with video]

BOSTON (STATE HOUSE) – House leaders sprung a proposal on Wednesday to extend the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits brought by victims of alleged child sexual abuse, reengaging with a controversial topic that has been debated for years on Beacon Hill but has eluded compromise.

The House gave initial approval to a bill (H 4126) recommended last week by the Committee on the Judiciary, co-chaired by Belmont Sen. William Brownsberger who has taken the lead on this issue in the Senate in recent years.

The committee does not currently have a House chair, but Rep. John Lawn, of Watertown, has taken the lead on the issue for House leadership.

“We think we’ve crafted a bill that we can put forward that people feel comfortable with that gives people who’ve been abused a chance to face their accusers in a timeline that they’re able to. It’s complicated,” Lawn told the News Service.

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Will Pope Francis Move The Church From Token Words To Real Action On Sex Abuse?

UNITED STATES
WBUR

Thu, Jun 05, 2014
by Rich Barlow

Is Pope Francis really zeroing in on “zero tolerance” for clerical pedophiles and their episcopal enablers?

The pontiff’s recent declaration to that effect brought headlines but no action against abusers, critics said. Their despair is premature; Francis wouldn’t be the first leader who temporized before doing something that had to be done. Think of Lincoln, who vexed abolitionists by waiting two years after his election before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Or Franklin Roosevelt, who promised a balanced budget in his first presidential campaign, wising up once in office and siding with damn-the-deficit New Dealers. (If you think it profane to analogize the Vatican to crass politics, you haven’t been reading the news.)

Francis’s comments followed a harsh United Nations report, the second this year, on the Vatican’s management of abuse. Like Lincoln and FDR, he will have to back his words with deeds — more than just celebrating Mass with some abuse victims, which he also announced during an in-flight press conference last month. He further told reporters that the Vatican is investigating three unidentified bishops on sex abuse-related issues; he didn’t say whether the trio are alleged molesters themselves or suspected of concealing abuse, a practice among some mitered miscreants with which we’re sadly familiar.

Factor in Francis’s demonstrated compassion and his creation of an advisory panel on abuse — including Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who won kudos for his handling of abuse cases — and there’s reason to hope this pope will follow through with publicizing credibly accused abusers and punishing bishops who covered up for them. Those reasonable demands come variously from victims’ advocates and even some Catholic traditionalists. Perhaps some names on this scandal will serve as markers for assessing the pope. Here are three clerics, named in the U.N. report, whose cases will be instructive as to whether the church has learned the tragic lessons of its past sins:

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Former Hammond Baptist pastor wants sentence overturned

ILLINOIS
NWITimes

June 02, 2014 • Sarah Reese sarah.reese@nwi.com, (219) 933-3351

HAMMOND | An attorney for a former pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond filed a motion Monday asking a federal judge to overturn his client’s 12-year prison sentence for sex with a teenage parishioner.

Jack Schaap, 56, was sentenced in March 2013 during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Hammond. He pleaded guilty in September 2012 to having the then-17-year-old girl transported to Illinois and Michigan for sexual encounters.

In a motion to vacate, correct or set aside Schaap’s sentence, Florida lawyer Charles Murray says Schaap’s defense attorneys provided ineffective counsel.

Schaap laid out a similar argument in a March letter to U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano. At the time, Schaap was acting as his own attorney and requested more time to hire an attorney to help him seek post-conviction relief.

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Megachurch Pastor Convicted of Sexually Abusing Teen Appeals …

ILLINOIS
Christian Post

Megachurch Pastor Convicted of Sexually Abusing Teen Appeals Prison Sentence, Blames Victim for Seducing Him

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
June 4, 2014

A former Indiana megachurch pastor imprisoned for sexually abusing a former female student at his church’s high school is attempting to overturn his prison sentence by accusing the victim of seducing him.

The former leader of a 15,000-person congregation, Jack A. Schaap, 56, who is married and has two children, has asked U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano to overturn his 12-year sentence, “due to the aggressiveness of (the girl) that inhibited impulse control.”

Schapp was sentenced in 2013 for sexually abusing the victim and taking her across state lines, and is not set to be released until 2023.

According to Charles Murray, Schaap’s attorney, the defense wants to present new evidence casting the victim as an alcohol and marijuana user and one who met Schaap with “prior extensive sexual experience,” reported NWI.com.

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Former Megachurch Pastor, Convicted Sex Offender, Blames Victim

ILLINOIS
Inquisitr

Megachurch pastor Jack Schaap, who was convicted in 2011 on charges of child molestation with an underage girl, is hoping to have his 12-year sentence overturned, claiming that he was a victim of the girl’s “aggressiveness” and that she “inhibited [his] impulse control.”

The risky defense was uncovered in new court documents by NWITimes.com. Schaap was a former minister of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, a congregation of around 15,000 members.

Schaap, a married father of two at the time, pleaded guilty to “transporting a female student of the church’s high school to Illinois and Michigan for sexual encounters,” the site noted. “He also had sex with her in his church office here in June and July 2012.”

If the megachurch pastor fails to convince the judge of his underage victim’s aggressiveness, then he will likely stay at the correctional facility in Ashland, Kentucky, until April 20, 2023.

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Ex-Hammond megachurch pastor asking judge to reduce 12-year sentence for having sex with teen

ILLINOIS
TribTown

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: June 04, 2014

HAMMOND, Indiana — The former pastor of a northwestern Indiana megachurch is asking a judge to reduce his 12-year sentence for having sex with a teenage congregant because he claims the girl was sexually experienced and aggressive.

An attorney for Jack Schaap filed a memorandum this week in U.S. District Court in Hammond asking to present new evidence about the girl’s “prior extensive sexual experience” and her use of alcohol and marijuana, The (Munster) Times reported (http://bit.ly/S9lpqi ) Wednesday.

Schaap, now 55, was pastor of the 15,000-member First Baptist Church of Hammond for 11 years when he was fired in July 2012. He pleaded guilty last year to transporting the girl to Illinois and Michigan for sexual encounters over a four-week period starting the week before the girl turned 17. He also had sex with her in his church office.

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Ex-megachurch pastor blames underage victim, wants out of prison

ILLINOIS
NWITimes

June 03, 2014 • Bill Dolan bill.dolan@nwi.com, (219) 662-5328

HAMMOND | A former minister of First Baptist Church of Hammond is gambling he can get out of prison by branding as a seductress the underage girl he molested.

Jack A. Schaap, 56, is asking a federal judge to overturn his 12-year sentence “due to the aggressiveness of (the girl) that inhibited impulse control …”

It is a risky strategy that may backfire with U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano, who sentenced Schaap last year and would hear the new petition, according to veteran local defense attorneys.

“Judge Lozano may give him more time,” said one lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous.

Schaap pleaded guilty to transporting a female student of the church’s high school to Illinois and Michigan for sexual encounters. He also had sex with her in his church office here in June and July 2012.

He is being held in the Federal Correctional Institute in Ashland, Ky., and he isn’t eligible for release until April 20, 2023.

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Editorial: Notre Dame parishioners deserve answers

PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

After enduring many years of parish grade school closures being an annual event, Roman Catholics in Delaware County now must face the annual prospect of seeing entire parishes closed.

Archdiocesan officials prefer to euphemistically refer to them as “mergers” since the disenfranchised parishioners are advised to attend the nearest surviving parish. But the reality is, their parishes no longer exist in name or in their neighborhoods. Their churches are merely “worship sites.”

It is part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Parish Planning Initiative proposed in 2010 by former Philadelphia archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, to determine parish sustainability in the five-county region. Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput started implementing the initiative in 2011, but Delaware County’s then-46 parishes did not starting coming under the microscope until fall of 2012. Last year five Delaware County parishes were closed. Three more are targeted this year, bringing the number of parishes for Delaware County’s more than 200,000 Roman Catholics down to 38.

Parishioners and their pastors are expected to engage in “self-studies” and assess their parishes’ fitness for survival as part of the initiative. The regional bishop and the dean usually meet with the pastors as well as their pastoral and finance councils to hear their recommendations. The Archdiocesan Strategic Planning Committee shares all final proposals with the Council of Priests and the College of Consultors for their review before final approval by the archbishop.

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Catholic Church under fire over response to paedophile revelations

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

The Catholic Church is under fire over its weak response to revelations that its officials failed to act against paedophiles in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley region.

Transcript

SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: The Catholic Church is under fire over its weak response to revelations that its officials failed to act against paedophiles in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

The Church has stood down two mid-level priests from minor bureaucratic roles, but is yet to act against two of its most senior clergymen, who were criticised in the report by the special commission of inquiry.

One of the priests who was singled out by the inquiry who’s at the very top of the Church, we can’t name.

The other is the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Brian Lucas. Tonight, there are calls for his resignation.

Adam Harvey reports.

WILLIAM WRIGHT, BISHOP, DIOCESE OF MAITLAND-NEWCASTLE: As Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, I am profoundly sorry for the terrible hurt caused by the crimes of McAlinden and Fletcher and I have a deep and abiding regret that individuals in this diocese failed to protect the most vulnerable.

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Anger grows over reported mass grave of children from Irish unwed mothers home

IRELAND
CNN

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
Thu June 5, 2014

(CNN) — Outrage over the reported discovery of the bodies of almost 800 children at a former home for unmarried mothers run by nuns in Ireland prompted calls Wednesday for a full investigation.

The children whose remains have apparently been found in Tuam, in County Galway, are believed to have died between 1925 and 1961, according to local media reports.

The grim discovery was highlighted in a front-page report in the Irish Mail on Sunday, which cited the efforts of local historian Catherine Corless to research the burial sites of 796 children listed as having died at the home, which was run by the Sisters of Bon Secours.

According to the newspaper, Corless believes their remains are all buried in the unmarked mass grave next to the place where the home once stood. Local children stumbled upon the grave in the 1970s, local media reported, but the site was never examined afterward.

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Retired western Kentucky priest pleads guilty to sexual abuse of minor during 1970s

KENTUCKY
Daily Reporter

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: June 04, 2014

OWENSBORO, Kentucky — A former western Kentucky priest has pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse in the 1970s.

The Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer (http://bit.ly/Tf9gRJ ) reports the Rev. Louis Francis Piskula, who is now 74, entered into a plea agreement that dropped a first-degree sodomy charge brought in a 2012 indictment.

Piskula’s lawyer, Steven Dowell of Owensboro, said his client “vehemently denied” the sodomy charge and dropping it made it possible for Piskula to accept the deal. It calls for a maximum five-year sentence, with sentencing set for Aug. 6.

The case involved a minor under the age of 12 while Piskula was serving at Blessed Mother Catholic Church in Owensboro.

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USA female Vatican Pied Piper says, “SNAP is wrong to discourage victims from meeting the pope”. Opus Dei Beast PR stunt woman in the USA

UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

Updated June 4, 2014

Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea has been a guidance counselor for 30 years with victims of sexual abuse and in her recent article about the planned meeting of Pope Francis with victims, she ridicules SNAP, the largest group in the USA and the world, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and she calls its director David Clohessy “arrogant and guilt-inducing”. Anyone can tell that something is intrinsically wrong with a guidance counselor who’s mocking and deriding the victims of rape, say a raped woman, the victim of a rapist, as “arrogant”. Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea is not an exception and she demonstrates how as cold-blooded and lacking in compassion and compunction for victims she is just like her Holy Father saint John Paul who is no saint for children because he said nothing and did nothing to save and protect them for 27 years – read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/05/cold-blood-ed-pope-john-paul-ii-is-no.html. For her information, David Clohessy as a little boy suffered between 1969 and 1973, from the ages of 12 to 16, at the bestial hands of priest Reverend Whiteley – http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/magazine/12PRIEST.html?pagewanted=all Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea lacks professionalism as a counselor despite the years of experience under her belt.

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On the Front Lines of Clergy Sexual Abuse

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND 06/05/2014

Twelve years have passed, but Father Roger Landry, a Fall River, Mass., priest, vividly remembers then-Bishop Seán O’Malley weeping during a meeting with his priests as he recalled the stories of victims of clergy abuse.

At the time, Bishop O’Malley was preparing for the 2002 Dallas meeting that would approve a landmark “zero tolerance” policy for priests credibly abused of child sexual abuse. Bishop O’Malley had come to Fall River in 1992, in the wake of a scandal involving a serial clerical predator, James Porter.

“As he was recalling what some of the victims of Father Porter had told him, he started to weep so profusely that he needed to excuse himself for several minutes,” Father Landry told the Register.
“The sexual abuse of minors in the Church was never an ‘issue’ for him that he could approach in a detached way. It had a human face — in fact, many human faces — and affected him viscerally,” Father Landry added.

“He approached the sexual-abuse crisis in the Diocese of Fall River as a spiritual father and human being, not litigiously,” Father Landry said.

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June 4, 2014

Pressure builds for Tuam babies inquiry

IRELAND
Irish Times

Harry McGee, Ronan McGreevy

Thu, Jun 5, 2014

There is growing pressure on the Government to hold a full historical inquiry into the deaths of almost 800 children in a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway between the 1920s and the 1960s.

There were numerous calls from TDs, Senators and councillors yesterday for a full inquiry following the disclosure that many infants and children who died in the home run by the Bon Secours order were buried in an unmarked plot.

Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan said yesterday that he was giving “active consideration to the best means of addressing the harrowing details emerging regarding the burial arrangements for children who died many years ago in mother and baby homes”.

‘Deeply disturbing’

“Many of the revelations are deeply disturbing and a shocking reminder of a darker past in Ireland when our children were not cherished as they should have been,” he said.

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Prayers for victims

AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

05 June 2014

Archbishop Christopher Prowse is asking people throughout the Archdiocese to pray for victims of child sexual abuse due to give evidence at the Royal Commission hearings in Canberra from 10 June.

In an open letter circulated to all parishes, the Archbishop has warned that the testimonies of some victims are likely to shock many people.

The letter includes a suggested prayer of the faithful to be used at Mass.

The letter reads:

“Dear People of God in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn,

“Starting June 11th, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will be conducting their next public hearings in Canberra.

“They will be examining the way in which the Marist Brothers responded to allegations of child sexual abuse in their schools in the ACT, NSW and Queensland.

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Royal Commission to investigate alleged links between indecent assault of Wollongong alter boy and the Vatican

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nick McLaren

Allegations into the Wollongong Catholic Church’s dealings with the Vatican over an alleged child sex abuse case in the 1990’s are set to be investigated by the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold hearings into allegations involving John Gerard Nestor, who was was a priest when he was charged and found guilty of indecently assaulting a 14 year old altar boy.

The now Prime Minister Tony Abbott provided a character reference for Father Nestor and his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Nicky Davis from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, says the initial investigation will bring more cases to light.

“Wollongong is one particular area that SNAP has been aware of where there is a particularly bad cover up in that area,” she said.

“It’s certainly one of the worst regions where there has been a concentrated amount of abuse and survivors have not seen any sort of justice or been heard or treated.”

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