ABUSE TRACKER

HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 21, 2014

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie just signed the bill that extends Hawaii’s two-year civil window for sex abuse victims. Victims in public schools are also eligible for accountability under the new law!
Thank you Senator Maile Shimabukuro for your tireless work on behalf of victims.

From the Honolulu Star Advertiser:

New law adds time to file abuse suits

By Derrick DePledge

Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Friday signed a bill into law that will extend a window for another two years to file lawsuits over decades-old childhood sexual abuse and allow suits to be brought against the state and counties.

Dozens of child sex abuse lawsuits have been filed in Hawaii against the clergy, churches and others over the past two years after the state temporarily lifted the statute of limitations to bring claims. The new law extends the window until April 2016 and adds the state and counties as potential defendants.
Victims must prove gross negligence on the part of private organizations or the state — a legal standard meant to discourage frivolous accusations.

The Roman Catholic Church and others have opposed lifting the statute of limitations on lawsuits, arguing that it is difficult to defend against abuse claims that could be decades old. But the church had urged that the state and counties be covered by the law if it were extended, contending it was unfair to hold only private organizations financially accountable for abuse.

Abercrombie vetoed a similar bill in 2011, citing concerns about due process rights and the unknown financial liability to the state.

“I think the issue trumps the state’s interest as expressed then,” the governor said Friday. “I think you have to put the human condition first.”

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Verne Wagner on Jun 20, 2014

As recently reported, a priest, Fr. Timothy Backous, who was appointed to work in Duluth at St. Michael’s parish and at Essentia Health, was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old in the early 1990s (“Priest on leave after allegations aired,” June 13). When asked about it, diocesan officials from Duluth and the Twin Cities pleaded ignorance to knowing about his past. Instead of properly vetting this man’s credentials and work history, they relied on a letter from the head of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., who said Backous had a clean record and was fit to work with children with no restrictions.

When questioned later, a head of St. John’s Abbey said he didn’t feel the accusations against the priest were proven. The parents of the young, 13-year-old boy, however, were told by the head of the abbey in the 1990s that Backous would receive treatment for his behavior and would be transferred out of the area and never allowed to work with children again.Back in the 1990s this was how bishops and other church leaders handled sexual abuse. Tell the parents we are sorry, we’ll provide counseling for your son, and we’ll get the priest into treatment and transfer him out of the area. We know now that type of response only leads to more children being abused by clergy pedophiles.

Now we see the Duluth Diocese putting children at risk by not properly vetting Backous. Saying we didn’t know is not an acceptable excuse in today’s world. Did Backous actually receive treatment? And if he was transferred, to where? Did he molest children in other parishes? What type of investigation was conducted on Backous and by whom? How can we trust the Duluth Diocese to protect our children if it doesn’t review a priest’s history and ask questions like where he worked, whether he ever was in trouble, and why was he transferred so much? Were there any complaints issued against him for sexual abuse?

We cannot allow the Catholic Church or any other institution that has access to our children or vulnerable adults to not properly and professionally vet prospective employees.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By MARK OPPENHEIMER

The sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church broke into the news around 2000, just as Paul Elie was writing his book “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.” His topic was the intertwining friendships of four great Catholic thinkers and writers, some of the best people in his tradition: Dorothy Day, Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor and Thomas Merton.

Meanwhile, he was reading, in the news, about the abuse of children.

When Mr. Elie published his book, in 2003, news of the abuse and the cover-ups was still coming. A practicing Catholic, and an alumnus of Fordham, a Catholic university, he felt that the only story people heard about his church was an evil one.

“I felt a pain about my tradition,” Mr. Elie said when I met him for an interview in Brooklyn last month. “Something was broken here, and there must be something in the way we tell our stories that could help to make it better. I’m in the story business. So how could I help to heal it, somehow?”

As it happened, Mr. Elie vaguely knew Dave Isay, the MacArthur “genius” grant winner and founder of StoryCorps; as an editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, he had edited a book by Mr. Isay’s future wife. StoryCorps is an oral history project that has recorded more than 55,000 Americans telling stories from their lives to interviewers they have chosen. An edited version of one story airs on NPR every Friday, and all the stories are archived at the Library of Congress.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Jerome Christenson

The Diocese of Winona has offered a public explanation of why it continues to pay pension benefits to a defrocked pedophile priest, a week after the revelation was made public by a law firm suing the diocese.

“Recently, there has been criticism of the Diocese of Winona for providing former priest, Thomas Adamson, with his pension benefits,” reads a statement released first to parishioners, then to the public.

“The provision of Mr. Adamson’s benefit is not discretionary or voluntary, it is required by law,” the statement continues.

Adamson is paid out of the diocesan Priest Pension Fund, created to provide retirement income and health-care benefits to retired diocesan clergy. A priest who has served the diocese and made contributions to the retirement fund for 10 years is vested in the plan, and his right to be paid benefits from the plan is protected by state and federal law.

According to the diocese: “The Diocese cannot elect to withhold vested pension benefits from employees even when the employee has committed misconduct. The Diocese of Winona strictly adheres to the legal obligations associated with the pension plan.”

Adamson, ordained a priest in 1958, continued in active ministry until 1985, after allegations became public that he had sexually abused boys in parishes where he had been assigned. In 2009 he was laicized — officially removed from the Roman Catholic priesthood — by Pope Benedict XVI on the recommendation of Bishop Bernard Harrington.

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UNITED STATES
Fresno Bee

BY ANNE BIGGS
Fresno
June 20, 2014

In Ireland, at 14, my birthmother was raped on her way home from school. Three months into her pregnancy, she was transported to Castlepollard, one of many of the mother-baby homes throughout Ireland, to anticipate my delivery. While she waited, her name was changed, and her belongings taken from her. She toiled in the fields, washed walls and cleaned floors, but it was never enough. The Catholic sisters demanded 90 pounds to cover her maternity costs. Her family couldn’t pay, so she was sent to the Magdalene Laundries to pay off her debt to society.

We newborns were taken from our mothers because the Catholic Church deemed them sinners in the eyes of God, and unfit to care for us. We were labeled “bastards,” and later “banished babies.”

We were kept a secret to the outside world. Only when a chance for adoption came was care taken to meet standards required by the government to leave Ireland. When my time came, I didn’t meet their requirements. Sisters immediately provided me with the temporary care necessary to be adopted. Why weren’t we all treated as well, every day?

I spent the first four years of my life with the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Ireland. They were responsible for my care. My health issues, plainly put, were abuse and neglect.

I survived that mother-baby home in Ireland and, in 1953, I was carried off a plane and handed into the arms of my shocked adoptive parents. The sisters wrote them, stating I was “fragile.” Their definition of fragile must have been: unable to walk or talk, severe malnutrition, intestinal parasites, rickets, epilepsy and emotionally stunted.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Catholic Church should set up its own commission of investigation following mother and child home controversy

Vincent Twomey

Thu, Jun 19, 2014

‘Unwed mothers and their infants were an affront to morality. They were spurned and ostracised both by the public relief and charitable institutions.” This statement could well describe the attitude to children born out of wedlock and their mothers in the first half of 20th-century Ireland, an attitude the Tuam scandal has once again painfully brought to our attention. It is taken from the article Bastardy and Baby Farming in Victorian England by Dorothy L Haller.

The New Poor Law of 1834 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland made all illegitimate children the sole responsibility of the mother, letting the putative father off scot-free, not for the first time. The main reason for amending the previous law was to make the “fallen women” serve as examples to other women and to inspire virtue, thus putting an end to the birth of illegitimate children.

Lord Althorp remarked that making the victims of the seducer’s art maintain their own resulting children is “a boon to the female population”, since, as Haller put it, they “would serve as examples to others and inspire virtue thus putting an end to the birth of illegitimate children”.

This led in time to the malpractice of the so-called baby farmers, women who would solicit as many sickly infants as possible, charge a fee to adopt them and then let them die of thrush brought on by malnutrition. It took various horrors of multiple infanticides at the end of the 19th century before the government intervened. An Act passed in 1897 empowered the local authorities to seek out “baby farms and lying-in houses, to enter homes suspected of abusing children, and to remove those children to a place of safety. It also redefined improper care of infants.” That remained in force up to 1957, according to Haller. Is it still part of Irish law?

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Pamela Duncan

Sat, Jun 21, 2014

The department of local government and public health’s 1930 report on the mother and baby home in Pelletstown in Dublin was upbeat in its assessment: “The health of the institution was excellent during the year. The death rate fell considerably.”

Despite the mortality rate of over 19 per cent, 1930 did signify an improvement on previous years, according to government documents accessible at the National Library.

“The fall in the death rate is attributed to the improved accommodation, better milk supply and better nursing,” the annual report notes.

Pelletstown, on the Navan Road in Dublin: departmental reports acknowledge a “deplorable loss of life” in 1925 and 1926. Photograph: Adoption Rights AllianceMore than 660 children died in home over seven years

One in five died

While fatalities had undeniably fallen, the fact remained that 66 – or almost one in five – of the 336 children housed in Pelletstown died in the year to March 31st, 1930.

Half the children housed in the institution died in 1925, with a measles epidemic cited as the explanation for the high death rate . The following year, more than a third died. The death rate rose to 42 per cent in 1927 before falling to under 20 per cent in 1930.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Pamela Duncan

Sat, Jun 21, 2014

More than 660 infants and children died in Pelletstown mother and baby home in Dublin during a seven-year period up to the end of March 1930, State records show.

The reports also contain figures compiled by the Registrar General that show the mortality rate among “illegitimate” infants in 1925 and 1926 was five times that of infants born within marriage, something the departmental reports acknowledge as a “deplorable loss of life”.

Department of Local Government and Public Health reports show there were 662 deaths in the institution on the Navan Road between April 1st, 1924 and March 31st, 1930.

Mother and baby homes were established in Ireland in the 1920s and 1930s to house unmarried mothers and their children. …

The institution was run by the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul but was “provided and administered by Poor Law authorities”. It closed in 1985.

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AUSTRALIA
Queensland Times

Jessica Grewal | 21st Jun 2014

COUNTLESS children at an Ipswich Queensland boys’ home were raped, tortured and forced to live in filth under the watch of the Salvation Army and the State Government, the royal commission into child sexual abuse is expected to find.

A damning submission from counsel assisting the inquiry into four of the Army’s boys’ homes – Riverview near Ipswich, Alkira at Indooroopilly and two others in NSW – calls on the commission to find cultural problems within the Salvation Army structure allowed the systematic abuse of children to occur “on a wide scale and over a considerable period of time”.

The inquiry had looked at five predators – Victor Bennett, Lawrence Wilson, Donald Schultz, John McIver and an officer known only as X17 – were allowed to move around all four homes despite allegations of child abuse.

Describing the failure as “a very dark period in the history of the Salvation Army”, Simeon Beckett said victims, many of whom were already vulnerable and grieving the loss of their parents, were forced to live in homes where the “authoritarian nature … widespread and excessive use of physical punishment created a climate of fear … and provided officers and employees who wanted to sexually abuse children sufficient cover to escape detection”.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Sinead O’Shea @irishcentral June 20,2014

At the root of the “Home Babies” scandal in County Galway was a dark reminder of how ruthless and cruel Ireland has been in its treatment of anyone who did not fit the national narrative, the nation’s idealization of itself.

That oppression has by no means ended, as filmmaker and journalist Sinead O’Shea makes clear in a fine article from today’s Guardian newspaper, which delves into shocking allegations that the Irish government arranged for abortions abroad for young women who got pregnant while staying in government homes.

In her hard-hitting piece, below, O’Shea echoes W.H. Auden in her sense of what blighted the nations development in the 20 century: “Those to whom evil is done/Do evil in return.”

By failing to grapple adequately with our own broken past, Ireland careened wildly from abused to abuser, a post-colonial horror show both infantalized and infantilizing, where special contempt was reserved for our weakest citizens.

To grow up, to move beyond each crisis that beset us, will require a new era of candid truth telling. That is why her article today is already striking such a chord internationally. – Cahir O’Doherty

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Steve Lieberman, slieberm@lohud.com

A 55-year-old New Square educator, the father of 20 children and brother of a sex offender, has been indicted on charges of sexually abusing a pre-teen boy from 2001 to 2006.

Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld faces a charge of second-degree course of sexual conduct, a felony count covering a variety of sexual acts over a period of time. The count carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

The indictment accuses Taubenfeld of sexually abusing the boy, who was under age 13 at the time, on multiple occasions between September 2001 and May 2006, District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said Friday.

While prosecutors declined to identify the young man, Zugibe spoke with The Journal News before Taubenfeld’s arrest in January by Ramapo police.

The boy, Laiby, said the abuse started Sept. 11, 2001, when he went to Taubenfeld seeking comfort after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, police said. The abuse allegedly continued until he turned 13 in 2006.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Rabbi Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld, a 55-year-old teacher in the Skvere hasidic village of New Square, New York, has been indicted on charges of sexually abusing a pre-teen boy over a five-year period from 2001 to 2006

New Square Hasid Charged With Child Sex Abuse
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Rabbi Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld, a 55-year-old teacher in the Skvere hasidic village of New Square, New York, has been indicted on charges of sexually abusing a pre-teen boy over a five-year period from 2001 to 2006, the Journal News reported tonight.

Taubenfeld – who is the brother of convicted pedophile Herschel Taubenfeld – is charged with charge of second-degree course of sexual conduct, a felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

He was arrested on January 17.

It is unclear when Taubenfeld was indicted or why the indictment may have taken so long to be filed.

The alleged victim, identified only as Laiby, told the Journal News the abuse started on September 11, 2001 and continued until he turned 13 in 2006.

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MEXICO
Star Media

La Arquidiócesis de la ciudad fronteriza norteña de Tijuana, donde estaban adscritos los sacerdotes, aseguró que los siete fueron suspendidos y no pueden ejercer el ministerio mientras dure la investigación de una comisión eclesial que no tiene plazo para concluirla.

Los nombres de los sacerdotes no han sido revelados por la Iglesia católica, aunque un grupo de víctimas de abuso sexual a manos de religiosos reveló que uno de ellos es el reverendo Jeffrey Newell, acusado de abuso cuando estuvo en la Arquidiócesis de Los Angeles.

Tras una consulta de The Associated Press, en la Arquidiócesis de Tijuana se limitaron a decir el viernes que es correcto que Newell es uno de los siete sacerdotes suspendidos y bajo investigación, aunque no se dieron más detalles ni se revelaron los otros nombres.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY JENNIFER FEEHAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A dying Catholic priest who was convicted of killing a nun has turned to a federal court judge to ask that he be allowed to return to Toledo, possibly to spend his final days in the care of nuns who have agreed to take him in.

Gerald Robinson, 76, is in a hospice unit at Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, a hospital run by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. His attorney, Rick Kerger, filed a petition for equitable relief Friday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.

“In this instance what is sought is an act of grace for a dying man, relief the state cannot fashion,” Mr. Kerger wrote in the petition. “Yet the fact that the state has not provided for such relief does not mean that the federal court is impotent.”

Ohio law governing the release of dying prisoners states, “No inmate is eligible for release under this section if the inmate is serving … a sentence for aggravated murder or murder,” and an earlier appeal to Gov. John Kasich failed.

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HAWAII
SF Gate

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, The Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed 16 bills into law Friday afternoon on proposals ranging from modernizing the electric grid to stopping police officers from having sex with prostitutes in the line of duty.

Several of the proposals dealt with protecting children from harm and restoring justice to victims of Internet crimes. …

— CHILD SEX ABUSE: A pair of proposals lengthen the amount of time victims of child sex abuse have to file claims. One bill (SB 2687) extends the amount of time that victims of child sexual abuse have to file civil lawsuits until 2016 if the date of their claim had already passed the statute of limitations. A flurry of lawsuits had been filed before a deadline. Another bill (HB 2034) removes the statute of limitations on filing criminal child sex abuse claims for continuous abuse or abuse in the first and second degrees.

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MEXICO
The Republic

E. EDUARDO CASTILLO Associated Press
June 20, 2014

MEXICO CITY — The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico confirmed on Friday that it has suspended seven priests, including one accused of abuse while serving in Los Angeles, from its diocese in the border city of Tijuana pending an investigation into alleged sexual harassment and abuse.

The Archdiocese of Tijuana didn’t reveal the names of the priests but it did confirm to The Associated Press that Rev. Jeffrey Newell was among them.

Newell was first mentioned as being a part of the priests under investigation in a statement by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which is the main U.S. group of victims of abuse by priests.

In 2010, a U.S. man filed a lawsuit in California against the Los Angeles archdiocese alleging that church leaders engaged in fraud and negligence by allowing Newell to continue working around children after he went to church officials to accuse Newell of abuse.

“It’s tragic that this predator priest has apparently struck again,” the U.S. victims group said in a statement. “Fr. Newell should have never been given a church job in Mexico.”

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Steve Lieberman, slieberm@lohud.com

A former South Nyack church youth group leader is expected to surrender to serve a sentence of three years in state prison for sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl, after a court denied his appeal.

Todd Retallack, 50, once married with children, is expected to surrender Tuesday. He was convicted by a Rockland County jury on Dec. 8, 2012, of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

He was a friend of the child’s family and had been babysitting when the abuse occurred, authorities said.

Retallack, who officials said also once served as a youth group leader at the Living Christ Church in Nyack, was arrested by South Nyack-Grand View police in May 2011.

“This case called for a prison sentence to both punish the defendant and to serve as a warning to other individuals who prey on children,” Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said.

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UNITED STATES
The Nuance

June 20, 2014 By Zach Hoag

After spending the first half of my life in the church, I’ve come to the conclusion that evangelical culture is largely dysfunctional in its understanding of “forgiveness.”

And nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the recent report by Al Jazeera America on Bob Jones University.

BJU is fundamentalist to be sure, but their demonstrated approach to “forgiveness” is very common – perhaps even pervasive – in broader evangelical culture. And when abusive and harmful people are part of the equation, the results are especially egregious. I’ve experienced abuse from family/church authority. I’ve been counseled repeatedly by the church to “forgive” and “reconcile.” The results have always been disastrous, causing even greater destruction and harm.

A threat that often came from the church – and still painfully rings in my ears at times – is that to not “forgive” and “reconcile” with my abuser would mean the lifting of God’s blessing from my life. My calling would become invalid. My life would become worldly and meaningless.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel June 20, 2014

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley ruled Friday that she does not have jurisdiction to approve the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s reorganization plan while key questions in a related lawsuit over $60 million it holds in trust for the maintenance of cemeteries are pending before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The decision is a victory for the creditors committee, which had sought to block approval of the plan until the appellate judges rendered their decision — a process some have said could take a year. And it has forced the cancellation of the October confirmation hearings, at least for now — a setback for the archdiocese.

James Stang, lead attorney for the creditors committee, called Kelley’s ruling “an important step in preserving our rights against the cemetery trust while the appeal is pending.”

Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski said the church’s attorneys are studying the ruling, but he added: “After nearly four years in bankruptcy, we remain committed to doing what we can to continue to move this proceeding forward.”

At issue before the 7th Circuit is whether forcing the archdiocese to put even $1 of the cemetery trust into the bankruptcy estate — and ultimately a settlement for clergy sex abuse survivors — would violate its free exercise of religion under the First Amendment and the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

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UNITED STATES
Moscow Villager

By Kelsey Dallas
Posted Jun. 18, 2014

Publishing a youth pastor-turned-sexual-predator’s account of his crime may be one way to attract readers. But, as Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal learned this week, controversial posts can cause more harm than good.After posting a first-person account of statutory rape, Leadership Journal addressed the overwhelmingly negative response by first editing and then removing the initial post.The piece, titled “From Youth Minister to Felon,” was posted by Leadership Journal on June 9. Although it has been replaced by an apology, the original story is available in the online archive (subscription required).Harold Smith, the president and CEO of Christianity Today International, and Marshall Shelley, the editor of Leadership Journal, penned the apology, explaining they regretted the post’s focus on consent and mutuality and the youth pastor’s failure to acknowledge the harm he caused his teenage student.”The post, intended to dissuade future perpetrators, dwelt at length on the losses this criminal sin caused the author, while displaying little or no empathetic engagement with the far greater losses caused to the victim of the crime and the wider community around the author,” Smith and Shelley wrote.The initial piece brought a flurry of responses, some that were published on Christianity Today branded sites.

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ZIMBABWE
News Day

THE president of the Chiefs’ Council, Chief Fortune Charumbira, on Thursday vowed traditional leaders would crack the whip on rapists and people who engaged in incest under the guise of culture, saying they were in the same class as murderers.

VENERANDA LANGA

He said chiefs were going to form a coalition with churches in order to root out fly-by-night sects which were coming up with questionable regulations for their members, resulting in sexual abuse of minors and women.

Chief Charumbira was part of the speakers during the launch of the national campaign against rape where female participants accused traditional leaders of taking young and underage girls as wives.

He said traditional leaders who did that should be prosecuted.
“Whites removed criminal jurisdiction from traditional leaders and now we hear there are bribes being paid to law enforcement agents to sweep rape cases under the carpet or give lighter sentences,” Chief Charumbira said.

“Chiefs’ courts should be strengthened because we derive our powers from God and as chiefs, we are going to crack the whip and facilitate nationwide investigations on people who sexually abuse children and women in the guise of culture.”

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NIGERIA
Daily Post

By Emmanuel Uzodinma on June 20, 2014

The Police in Enugu State have arrested one Timothy Ngwu, the General Overseer of Vineyard Ministry of the Holy Trinity, located at Ihe/Owerre, Nsukka in Enugu State.

Before his arrest on Friday, the self acclaimed Pastor, who said he was obeying God’s command, has put no less than 20 members of his church in a family way.

DailyPost gathered that Ngwu does not spare married women in his evil act.

The spokesman of the Enugu State Police Command, Ebere Amaraizu, DSP, disclosed that “the pastor claims to be obeying prophetic/spiritual injunction to do the will of God, which is to impregnate any one chosen and revealed by the Holy Spirit, irrespective of whether the woman is married or not.

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POLSKA
Gosc

My, biskupi, wyznajemy że zbyt często – zamiast postawić na pierwszym miejscu dobro dzieci – dawaliśmy się zwieść oszustwu, dwulicowości i „mechanizmom negacji” sprawców zbrodni pedofilii. Zawstydzeni i skruszeni prosimy o przebaczenie. Prosimy Boga i prosimy ludzi skrzywdzonych przez kapłanów! – powiedział 20 czerwca w Krakowie bp Piotr Libera.

Przekazanie ognia podczas pierwszego w Polsce nabożeństwa pokutnego za grzechy pedofilii w Kościele, które odbyło się w kościele Najświętszego Serca Pana Jezusa w Krakowie 20 czerwca.

W homilii podczas liturgii pokutnej „za grzechy wykorzystania seksualnego dzieci i młodzieży przez duchownych” wyraził ubolewanie, że “pewna część naszego Kościoła” wciąż nie potrafi wysłuchać ofiar i uczciwie nazwać pedofilii zbrodnią.

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POLSKA
Gazeta Krakow

– My, biskupi, wyznajemy, że dawaliśmy się zwieść sprawcom zbrodni pedofilii, zamiast uwierzyć skrzywdzonym dzieciom – te mocne słowa wypowiedział bp Piotr Libera podczas pierwszej w historii polskiego Kościoła mszy pokutnej za grzech pedofilów w sutannach.

– Kiedy duchowny wykorzystuje dziecko, które powinien prowadzić do Boga, to sam odrzuca i zdradza Boga. Krzywda zostaje z dzieckiem na całe życie. To tak jakby ten duchowny odprawiał czarną mszę – tymi słowami, wypowiedzianymi kiedyś przez papieża Franciszka, zaczął homilię mszy pokutnej “za grzechy wykorzystania seksualnego dzieci i młodzieży przez duchownych” biskup płocki Piotr Libera.

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POLAND
GlobalPost

AFP

Poland’s powerful Catholic Church apologised on Friday for paedophilia committed by its priests during an unprecedented ceremony attended by top clergy and abuse victims.

“Ashamed and contrite, we ask for forgiveness from God and the priests’ victims,” bishop Piotr Libera said during a special liturgy in the southern city of Krakow.

Church leaders in the heavily Catholic country had already apologised at press conferences but never before had the gesture taken such a solemn form, Jesuit priest Jacek Prusak told AFP.

The event was part of a two-day conference on preventing church paedophilia that was attended by experts from abroad and several victims.

Priest paedophilia has long been a taboo topic in Poland.

“Compared to the United States or Ireland, Poland’s Church is only at the very beginning of the road,” said Father Adam Zak, youth coordinator for the Polish bishops’ conference.

Several high-profile cases have rocked the nation in recent months, including that of Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who is alleged to have had sex with boys while serving as a papal envoy in the Dominican Republic.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WGGB

[with video]

(WGGB) — Survivors of child sexual abuse are applauding a bill that recently passed the Massachusetts House and Senate.

The bill extends the statute of limitations for victims to file lawsuits against their abusers.

Kathy Picard of Ludlow is one of the prime movers behind this latest piece of legislation. For a long time, she repressed her abuse and finally feels that now she can begin the healing process.

“Mine…it was a family member that sexually abused me at a young age,” Picard explains.

Picard became a victim of sexual abuse by a family member at the age of 7 and the abuse lasted ten years.

She repressed the abuse until she came forward 21 years later.

“It’s impacted my life tremendously and it will always be a part of my life. Being a survivor of sexual abuse…it’s something that is always going to be part of my life.”

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 20, 2014

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

A Christian radio host is accused of child sex crimes. This is a real test for officials at WCSG Family Christian Radio.

[MLive]

They can fall prey to the temptation to stay quiet. Or they can step up and help police. They can do nothing. Or they can use their airwaves to beg others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by John Baylo to call prosecutors, expose wrongdoers, and protect others. We hope station staff acts responsibly and take action to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

We hope everyone who knows or works with Baylo will aggressively reach out to those who may have been hurt and may be suffering in silence, shame and self-blame.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 20, 2014

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

Innocent children and wounded victims have lost and serial wrongdoers have won today in a Charlotte courtroom, as clergy sex abuse and cover up cases against Charlotte Catholic officials have been tossed out.

We’re deeply saddened by this ruling.

It’s heartbreaking every time Catholic officials successfully exploit legal technicalities to deny abuse victims their day in court and evade responsibility for their heinous behavior.

We hope everyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in North Carolina won’t be deterred by this ruling. We hope they will find the courage to come forward, get help, and call police.

It’s pretty clear, based on the actions of church and law enforcement officials, that Fr. Joseph Kelleher and Fr. Richard Farwell are child molesters. But Charlotte Catholic officials care more about their reputations and comfort than about children’s safety, so they’re using every legal maneuver possible to block trials, maintain secrecy and discourage victims.

We hope the bishop fails. We hope this ruling will inspire others who have been assaulted by Catholic priests, nuns, seminarians and brothers to overcome their fears, expose pedophile priests and seek justice.

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CHILE
Entorno Inteligente

CHILE: Iglesia determina que obispo de San Felipe es inocente tras ser acusado de abuso sexual

[Summary: The San Felipe bishop announced this morning result of the investigation against Bishop Christian Contreras of that city who was accused of sexual abuse. It was determine that the bishop is innocent of the allegation. Contreras said he always said the accusation was false.]

la tercera / Esta mañana el obispado de San Felipe dio a conocer el resultado de la investigación en contra del obispo de esa localidad, Cristián Contreras , quien fue acusado de abuso sexual.

La investigación que dio como resultado la inocencia del religioso, se inició cuando llegó una carta enviada por un sacerdote de la Provincia de Petorca -cuyo nombre se mantiene en reserva- al Arzobispado de Santiago, el 8 de agosto pasado, en la que se relataba un episodio en el que el religioso supuestamente abusaba de un menor de 16 años.

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POLAND
Independent Record

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Leaders of Poland’s Catholic Church apologized on Friday to the victims of child sex abuse by priests and admitted they have long ignored the problem.

Abuse victims and experts on child psychiatry and sex abuse from Germany and the U.S. attended a conference behind closed doors in Krakow. The first day closed with a Mass held in apology.

“Ashamed and repentant, we ask for forgiveness,” said presiding Bishop Piotr Libera. “We ask God and we ask people who were hurt by the priests.”

He said Poland’s bishops “too often” instead of protecting the child gave credence to the “negation coming from the perpetrators of the crime of pedophilia” and to their insistence that the child was “imposing itself and trying to seduce.”

The media were only allowed to attend the opening and the evening apology Mass. Friday was the first day of the two-day conference led by Krakow Archbishop Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was previously personal secretary to Pope John Paul II.

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POLAND
Leadership (Nigeria)

— June 20, 2014
Stanislaw Dziwisz, Polish Cardinal said on Friday that every possible step must be taken to put an end to the scourge of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

He made the call in Krakow (Poland) at the opening of a two-day conference for church representatives and lay people to discuss how sexual abuse by priests, against youth can be stopped.

Dziwisz was a close aide to late pope John Paul II, who was accused of not doing enough to tackle clerical sex abuse scandals during his 1978-2005 papacy.

“The church must do everything to make sure these situations are not repeated,” he said.

Catholic Church has been plagued by accusations and guilty verdicts as more and more children have stepped forward to claim they were sexually abused by priests.

The church stands accused of, for years, trying to hide the problem by moving alleged wrongdoers to districts far away from their accusers in an attempt to sweep the controversy under the rug.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Boz Tchividjian | Jun 20, 2014

There are some days when I am thrilled to report positive developments within the Protestant world about the slow but steady shift taking place on issues relating to child sexual abuse. Just a few years ago, there was very little private or public discourse within most Protestant circles about abuse within the Church. Besides the ignored cries of survivors and a few advocates, public acknowledgment and dialogue on this subject was off limits. As a result, children continued to be at risk in our churches and survivors continued to be silenced through blame and false pity.

In the past year, I have encountered more and more folks who are beginning to realize that the Church has been largely silent — and this silence has had excruciatingly dark and grave consequences for countless individuals and for the very soul of the Church. Through some amazing (and many very painful) set of circumstances, I believe a growing number within the Protestant community are finally beginning to realize that there is an epidemic of child sexual abuse within the Church and that silence and inaction are unacceptable.

Three years ago, I was invited by a major Protestant denomination to lead a seminar that focused on issues facing the church related to child sexual abuse. Five people attended. Though I was a bit disappointed, I was encouraged to be able to connect with some abuse survivors who had been deeply hurt by their church. So when I was asked this year to lead a similar seminar, I was expecting a low turnout. To my amazement, the room was full. What an encouragement to witness the thawing hearts of professing Christians who acknowledge that we have much to learn about protecting children, serving survivors and demonstrating repentance to those we have hurt or ignored.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Observer

By Michael Gordon
mgordon@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Friday, Jun. 20, 2014

A Mecklenburg County judge has thrown out two lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte stemming from decades-old abuse cases against two priests.

Superior Court Judge Robert Bell issued his ruling Friday. Attorneys for the diocese had argued last month that the four plaintiffs missed the state’s deadline for filing such complaints.

Charlotte attorney Sam McGee, who represents one of the plaintiffs, said Friday that an appeal of Bell’s decision is likely.

“Something awful happened here,” he said. “Even if it takes a long time for the victim to process, which is the typical pattern in this kind of trauma, what this ruling says is, ‘Well, there is not a legal way to address that wrong.’ ”

The alleged abuse by the Revs. Joseph Kelleher and Richard Farwell occurred in the 1970s and 1980s in Charlotte, Albemarle and Salisbury. The lawsuits against the diocese were filed in 2011 and 2012.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD TV

GAYLORD, Mich. (WOOD) – A local Christian radio personality has been arrested on a state criminal sexual conduct charge, according to federal authorities.

WCSG’s John Balyo was arrested Friday at a Christian music festival in Gaylord following an investigation by Michigan State Police, Battle Creek police and Homeland Security Investigations, authorities said. As part of the investigation, police raided Balyo’s home in Caledonia, searching his house, a car and the garage.

Federal authorities said Balyo, 35, is facing a charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Balyo allegedly paid a man identified as the subject of a separate HSI child pornography investigation to arrange sexual encounters with minor victims.

Investigators are working to identify any other potential victims.

Chris Lemke, the general manager of Cornerstone University-owned WCSG, issued the following statement Friday afternoon:

“We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the arrest and allegations against John Balyo, WCSG morning radio host. He has been put on indefinite paid administrative leave pending further investigation and the legal process. Our thoughts and prayers are with those involved in the investigation.”

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MICHIGAN
Fox 17

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A radio personality at a Grand Rapids radio station was arrested Friday afternoon, suspected of criminal sexual conduct.

John Balyo is the host of the morning show on WCSG radio at Cornerstone University, according to his Twitter page.

Battle Creek Police told FOX 17 Friday afternoon the case is connected to the arrest of a man earlier this month at a Battle Creek home.

In the wake of Balyo’s arrest, WCSG general manager Chris Lemke issued the following statement: “We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the arrest and allegations against John Balyo, WCSG morning radio host. He has been put on indefinite paid administrative leave pending further investigation and the legal process. Our thoughts and prayers are with those involved in the investigation.”

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MICHIGAN
WOOD Radio

Posted Friday, June 20th 2014

Christian radio personality, John Balyo, for WCSG has been arrested on a state criminal sexual conduct charge, according to federal authorities.

Balyo was arrested Friday in Gaylord at a Christian music festival.

WOOD TV reports Balyo’s home in Caledonia was raided along with a car and garage, by police as part of an investigation by Michigan State Police, Battle Creek police and Homeland Security Investigations.

Federal authorities said Balyo, 35, is facing a charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Allegedly Balyo paid a man, identified as the subject of a separate HSI investigation for child pornography, to arrange sexual encounters with minor victims.

Balyo is currently held at the Calhoun County Jail. Investigators a working to identify other potential victims.

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MICHIGAN
WZZM

Bob Brenzing and Christopher Zoladz, WZZM

GAYLORD, Mich. (WZZM) — A WCSG Family Christian Radio personality has been arrested on charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

35-year-old John Balyo of Caledonia, was arrested Friday by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with officers from Michigan State Police and the Battle Creek Police Department.

Authorities say Balyo allegedly paid another person, who is a defendant in another child exploitation case, to arrange for sexual encounters with minor victims. Further details are being withheld until Balyo appears in court.

Authorities say the investigation was conducted under HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators.

WCSG general manager Chris Lemke released the following statement Friday afternoon: “We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the arrest and allegations against John Balyo, WCSG morning radio host. He has been put on indefinite paid administrative leave pending further investigation and the legal process. Our thoughts and prayers are with those involved in the investigation.”

Below is a news release from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department:

HSI arrests gospel radio DJ on criminal sexual conduct charges

GAYLORD, Mich. – A Caladonia man was arrested Friday on state charges of criminal sexual conduct following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Michigan State Police Internet Crimes Against Children.

HSI special agents and officers with the Michigan State Police and Battle Creek Police Department arrested John Baylo, 35, Friday, without incident on state charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Baylo is an on-air personality at Grand Rapid’s Family Christian Radio station, WCSG.

According to the investigation, Baylo allegedly paid a defendant, who is the subject of a separate HSI child-exploitation investigation, to arrange sexual encounters with minor victims. Further details about the investigation are being withheld pending the defendant’s appearance in court to answer to the charges.

A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By John Tunison | jtunison@mlive.com
on June 20, 2014

GAYLORD, MI — John Balyo a radio personality for Christian station WCSG, has been arrested on a sex assault charge.

Police arrested the 35-year-old Balyo, of Caledonia, on charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

He was arrested after an investigation involving Homeland Security Investigations, the state police and Battle Creek police.

According to a statement issued by HSI, Balyo “allegedly paid a defendant, who is the subject of a separate HSI child-exploitation investigation, to arrange sexual encounters with minor victims.”

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ILLINOIS
The Doings LaGrange Park

Jane Michaels
jmichaels@pioneerlocal.com |

LaGrange Park resident Ken Kaczmarz didn’t lace up running shoes much before 2009. Since then the 43-year-old electrical engineer has run eight marathons and has his sights set on a grueling Ironman competition Sept. 7 in Madison, Wis. to benefit World Vision’s child protection programs.

Q. Why did you start running?

A. I had some deadline projects at work. It was very stressful. I’m director of the electrical engineering department for CompX International, Inc. in Grayslake. I started running one day to the end of the block, and after a few months, I ran a 5K. As I got into it, my church, Christ Church of Oak Brook, had a team for World Vision. I joined their team and did the Chicago Marathon in 2011. …

Q. This cause is also highly personal?

A. One of the reasons I became involved was because as a kid, I was molested by a priest. I was extremely active in the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests from 2002 to 2006. I was one of the leaders in Chicago, but I had to get out of it. It was absorbing my life. I’ve helped hundreds of survivors, so I saw what sexual abuse does and how it destroys lives.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

June 20, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

Gregory Sutton
The Canberra hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse began on June 10 with the formal lifting of the suppression order on Gregory Sutton’s name that had been in effect (but sometimes breached) since his trial in 1996.

Sutton, who now “lives in the community”, was released from prison after serving 12 years in 2008. His original 18-year-sentence, for 67 counts of child sexual assault, is due to expire at the end of this year. He is 62-years-old, was in regular contact with his lawyer, Greg Walsh, during the Canberra hearing and, through him, apologised to a number of his victims.

Sutton taught for the Marist Brothers from 1973 to 1987 and, over that time, is known to have committed offences at six different schools including Marist College Canberra where he abused seven boys, all aged between 10 and 11, from 1980 to 1983.

The first allegation that Sutton may have been abusing children was made by Denis Doherty, the headmaster of his first school, in 1974.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 20, 2014

The Canberra Times

The harrowing ultra-marathon that is the royal commission on institutional responses to child sexual abuse left Canberra on Thursday after public hearings centred almost entirely on abuses by two former teachers, and how their employer, the Marist Brothers religious order, responded to the allegations surrounding their activities.

So egregious were these abuses, and so transparently lacking the Marist Brothers’ response, that they have become almost a byword for institutional abuse in religious schools in NSW, Queensland and Canberra. Indeed, the Catholic Archbishop of Goulburn and Canberra, Christopher Prowse, wrote to parishioners before the two weeks of proceedings began to prepare them for the “public testimonies of the very sad experiences of some victims’’.

The crimes of John William Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, are familiar to many Canberrans. Chute was jailed in 2008 after pleading guilty to a string of offences committed when he was a teacher at Marist College in Pearce, between 1985 and 1989. Seven charges dating from before then – Chute’s teaching career spanned 1952-93 and included stints at 12 Marist Brothers schools in NSW – had to be dropped because of statute of limitations issues.

The identity of the other Marist teacher – which had been the subject of an 18-year-old suppression order after his conviction and jailing in 1996 on multiple child sexual abuse charges – was revealed at the royal commission last week as Brother Gregory Sutton. Like Chute, Sutton taught at a number of schools throughout NSW before coming to Canberra, leaving behind him a trail of victims. Many have never overcome their psychological trauma, as they detailed to the hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

EVIDENCE given under oath by the Salvation Army’s Sydney leader James Condon about his handling of child sexual abuse committed by another officer was “highly improbable”, the NSW government has said.

The criticism, in a written submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, is supported by one of the church’s internal ­investigators, whose submission states “the evidence given by Commissioner Condon is not plausible”.

The dispute is detailed in documents published yesterday by the commission, which also state there is evidence suggesting more than 100 boys suffered brutal physical and sexual abuse at Salvation Army-run children’s homes across Australia.

This included being beaten, raped or locked in a “cage”, often for weeks at a time, a submission from the commission’s counsel, Simeon Beckett, said.

Senior Salvation Army officers “failed to investigate” allegations of many of these crimes, Mr Beckett said. “Structural, systemic and cultural problems permitted the sexual abuse of children to occur on such a wide scale” and over several decades before 1983.

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ROME
GlobalPost

Jason Berry
June 20, 2014

In the latest installment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s bad luck blues, the former Vatican secretary of state, 79, has responded to critical news coverage by defending the renovation of his 6,500-square-foot apartment and denying anything was amiss in a $20 million Vatican Bank loan he helped steer to Lux Vide, an Italian TV production company.

The German daily Bild Zeitung cited unofficial sources in reporting last month that a Vatican investigation of Bertone was underway for that transaction.

“I don’t understand these attacks,” Bertone told ANSA, the Italian news agency. “I am in harmony with the pope…He likes me.

In his airplane news conference returning from Israel to Rome, Francis responded to a question about Bertone’s role in the loan. “It’s something being studied,” the pope said, according to Catholic News Service. “It’s not clear. Maybe it’s the truth but at this moment it’s not definitive.”

For six months, Bertone worked to cement good will with the pope by staying on as the second-highest Vatican official under Francis, assisting in the transition.

The secretary of state is traditionally viewed as the pope’s prime minister, the public face of a papacy. Bertone was a highly public figure for the shy, retiring Benedict.

When Francis emerged as a commanding personality, at ease in public, Bertone took a long back seat in his final months in office. He was wise to do so. Bertone had baggage, lots of it.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague Post

Prague, June 20 (ČTK) — Czech Social Democrat (ČSSD) lawmaker Igor Jakubčík caused outrage with his statement that the Catholic Church was an ally of Nazi Germany and approved of Jews’ murders in the Chamber of Deputies today.

“The Catholic Church did not suffer during World War II. It was one of the biggest allies of Nazi Germany. The Catholic Church approved of the transfers and murders of Jews,” Jakubčík said.

He took part in a debate on a draft amendment by some ČSSD lawmakers, which extends the deadlines for the assessment of churches’ applications for the return of property to churches confiscated from them by communists and for checking the restitution decisions. The law on restitution took effect in January 2013.

Jakubčík also said the church assisted Nazi criminals when leaving for South America after the war.
František Laudat (opposition TOP 09/STAN) called on Jakubčík to make an apology.

Government Christian Democrat (KDU-ČSL) deputies Ludvík Hovorka and Jaroslav Klaška said Jakubčík’s statement is unfortunate and ill-advised.

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UNITED STATES
Ring of Fire

Posted on June 20, 2014
by Chandler Carney

Conservative Christian colleges across the United States have taken it upon themselves to conduct rape and sexual assault investigations, which have transpired into a ferocious game of victim-blaming and PR cover-ups. The administrator’s “investigations” have left many students feeling more traumatized than before they sought assistance.

The issue is that these institutions are not legally bound to comply with federal laws intended to address rape. They have opted out of receiving federal funding, which makes them exempt from Title IX requirements regarding sexual violence. “Title IX says schools must hold a separate investigation independent of a criminal investigation to ensure that victims can change dorms and class arrangements, get campus restraining orders, and receive help filing a police report if they choose to do so,” states New Republic writer Kiera Feldman.

Patrick Henry College in Virginia is one right-wing private Christian school that prides itself on not accepting any assistance from the government in order to not comply with Federal regulations aimed at student safety, education or financial assistance. The school’s website states that “in order to safeguard our distinctly Christian worldview, we do not accept or participate in government funding.”

The Dean of Patrick Henry College, Sandra Corbitt, has taken it upon herself to conduct investigations, as many other unqualified administrators have done at fundamentalist universities. One victim remembers Corbitt stating that “it’s my job to poke holes in your story. I have to make sure that you’re not lying to me…I don’t think you’re wholly innocent in this situation.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Carmen Durso

On Wednesday the MA House of Representatives, and on Thursday the state Senate, each unanimously passed House Bill 4126, an act which substantially extends the civil statute of limitations on suits against those who sexually abuse children.

This bill opens the Courthouse doors to thousands of childhood sexual abuse survivors who were previously barred from obtaining justice, or being able to name their abusers in a public forum. And it particularly important for those whose opportunity to file a criminal case is forever barred.

Prompted by news of the 552 victims in the Boston Archdiocese clergy abuse crisis of 2002-2003, this process started 11 years ago, with a bill filed by Representative Ronald Mariano, (D) Quincy, now House Majority Leader. Despite strong opposition from affected institutions, Rep. Mariano continued to refile, and strongly support, this measure in each session since then.

In 2012, two additional legislators, Rep. John Law, (D) Watertown, and Sen. William Brownsberger, (D) Belmont, joined this effort, and with the strong support of House Speaker DeLeo, and Senate President Murray, were able to craft a bill which garnered the approval of all interested parties.

Over the past 11 years, numerous abuse survivors, individual supporters, advocacy organizations, legislators, mental health professionals, lawyers, parents, clergymen and media reporters, have all played a significant role in keeping this issue alive, by demonstrating how wide spread child sex is and putting a human face on the affected victims.

Because there are still significant time limitations to bring suit, it is important to understand what the bill does:

A child who is sexually abused may file a civil suit against the perpetrator of the abuse, or the employer/supervisor of the abuser, until age 53.

The provision allowing claims against the perpetrator is retroactive. So someone abused in the past, will have until age 53 to bring suit. Suits against the employer/supervisor of the abuser are prospective only, that is, they can only be brought for abuse which occurs after the effective date of the new law.

However, there is also a new 7 year discovery rule with regard to both perpetrators of abuse, or the employer/supervisor of the abusers. This means that, regardless of the victim’s age, s/he may bring suit within 7 years after s/he first understands that s/he has been harmed by the abuser’s conduct. This provision is retroactive as to BOTH abusers and employer supervisors.

The 7 year discovery rule applies, regardless of the age of the survivor.

For more information, contact:

Carmen Durso
LAW OFFICE OF CARMEN L. DURSO
175 Federal Street, Suite 1425
Boston, MA 02110-2287
T: 617-728-9123
F: 617-426-7972

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Ceske Noviny

Prague – Czech Social Democrat (CSSD) lawmaker Igor Jakubcik caused outrage with his statement that the Catholic Church was an ally of Nazi Germany and approved of Jews´ murders in the Chamber of Deputies today.

“The Catholic Church did not suffer during World War Two, it was one of the biggest allies of Nazi Germany. The Catholic Church approved of the transfers and murders of Jews,” Jakubcik said.

He took part in a debate on a draft amendment by some CSSD lawmakers, which extends the deadlines for the assessment of churches´ applications for the return of property to churches confiscated from them by communists and for checking the restitution decisions. The law on restitution took effect in January 2013.

Jakubcik also said the church assisted Nazi criminals when leaving for South America after the war.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 19 June 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Baltimore, U.S.A., as bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts (area 7,306, population 871,000, Catholics 248,800, priests 181, permanent deacons 85, religious 362), U.S.A. He succeeds Bishop Timothy Anthony McDonnell, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

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CANADA
CBS News

Twenty-four names have been engraved in a stone erected outside a Chapel Island school.

The newly-unveiled monument erected outside of Mi’kmawey School recognizes members of the community forced to endure residential schools.

Between 1923 and 1967, many native children were taken from their families and sent to the Shubenacadie School, where some were subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

Thursday’s unveiling ceremony honoured the victims — but also focused on those living in the community now.

During the ceremony, elementary school children read the names of those uprooted from their home community many decades ago and sent to Shubenacadie.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

The body investigating historical claims of abuse at Derry care homes for children has been forced to issue an apology – after an error led to a number of names of witnesses who requested anonymity appearing on the inquiry’s official website.

The Derry Journal was contacted by a former of resident of St. Joseph’s Boys home in Termonbacca earlier this week who said he had been able to find reference not only to himself but to his siblings by name in daily transcripts published on the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry website.

The ‘Journal’ examined a sample of daily transcripts and found a number of other witness names.

The majority of these privacy breaches related to the indexing of the day’s hearing.

The man told the ‘Journal’: “A lot of very bad things happened to me at Termonbacca. What we went through…

“When I decided to give evidence

“I was asked if I wanted to waive my anonymity – and I replied that I did not. To find my name… to me it just says they considered us worse than dogs on the street. We deserved respect – and we feel betrayed.”

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CALIFORNIA/MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 20, 2014

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

A priest who worked in and was sued in Los Angeles for child sex crimes has quietly been working in Mexico but was recently suspended by his bishop.

Fr. Jeffrey Newell is one of seven Tijuana priests who have been temporarily ousted for alleged child sexual abuse.

[U-T San Diego]

[USA Today]

It’s tragic that this predator priest has apparently struck again. It’s even more tragic because these devastating crimes could have been prevented if only Catholic officials in Los Angeles and Mexico had acted responsibly. They have many resources – parish bulletins, websites and pulpit announcements – that they could and should have used to warn families about Fr. Newell.

Fr. Newell should have never been given a church job in Mexico. At the least, he should have been suspended – if not defrocked – years ago. Catholic bishops in both places should be ashamed of themselves for knowingly letting this dangerous cleric be around children.

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Newell’s crimes will speak up, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 20, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Church lawyer says that priest is defrocked
Victims blast MO bishop for violating church policy
SNAP to Jeff City diocese: “End the continuing secrecy”
Catholic officials let pedophile legally change his name
Then they sent him from NJ to “unsuspecting families” in MO

A lawyer for Catholic church officials disclosed Wednesday that a twice-convicted predator priest who pled guilty this week to sexually assaulting three Missouri boys has been formally defrocked by the Vatican.

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Jefferson City Bishop John Gaydos for keeping this news secret for almost two years and begging him to “aggressively seek out” others who may have “seen, suspected or suffered” the cleric’s crimes.

In an email to the director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, attorney Charles Carella of Roseland NJ (973 994 1700, CMCarella@carellabyrne.com) said Fr. Carmen Sita (known in Missouri as Fr. Jerry Howard) was permanently ousted from the priesthood in September of 2012 by then-Pope Benedict. Carella represents the Newark archdiocese, which ordained Sita/Howard.

(Here’s a link to the actual defrocking document:

[SNAP]

“Catholic officials in Missouri callously kept this fact hidden from parents, police, parishioners and the public, which essentially rubbed even more salt into the already-deep wounds of this serial predator’s victims and their families,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “It would have been a real comfort to many victims and to many concerned Catholics to know that Fr. Howard was off the payroll and kicked out by the Vatican. But instead of sharing this information, Bishop Gaydos hid it.”

SNAP also charges that the bishops’ secrecy “clearly violates the U.S. bishops formal and allegedly binding national abuse policy, which mandates ‘openness and transparency’ in clergy sex abuse cases.”

At least five New Jersey men have settled civil cases stemming from child sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of Sita/Howard, according to New Jersey attorney Greg Gianforcaro (908 859 2200 phone, 908 310 4624 cell, gianforcarolaw@msn.com).

At least one former Missouri man has settled a civil case involving Sita/Howard. He is Mark McAllister, who grew up in Boonville, but now lives in Virginia (540 520 8674, macmd@cox.net).

In 1982, Fr. Sita pled guilty in Jersey City to molesting a boy and giving him liquor. Then, Newark Archdiocesan officials let Sita change his name to Gerald “Jerry” Howard and sent him to the Jefferson City Missouri diocese, under then-Bishop Michael McAuliffe. McAuliffe assigned Fr. Howard to Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic parish in Boonville.

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UNITED STATES
Philadelphia Daily News

BY JASON NARK, Daily News Staff Writer narkj@phillynews.com, 215-854-5916
POSTED: June 19, 2014

SOMETIMES THEY turn on the television in the office, to scramble the sound of babies screaming.

They’ll jump up from their computers and suggest a coffee break, hoping sunlight and some conversation will fade the images they’ve just seen.

Some go running, letting rage push their pace, tears and sweat mixing over the miles.

No matter what they do to decompress, the investigators, lawyers and forensic analysts who handle child-pornography cases say they can’t outrun the first image they saw on the job, let alone the thousands of other horrors their eyes and ears have witnessed.

“When you choose to do this job, you are going into that world and it is permanently traumatic to your psyche in a way that can’t be reversed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan, who has handled hundreds of cases involving child pornography, recently said at her Center City office.

“It’s the darkest underside of humanity, and that’s what we have to deal with every day. Once you do it, there’s no turning back. There’s no taking it away.”

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IRELAND
The Guardian

Roy Greenslade

Filmmaker and journalist Sinéad O’Shea interviewed me for her 2008 documentary “The McCanns v The Media”. She has made films and reports from all over the world. In recent years she has worked on child abuse investigations for the BBC, Al-Jazeera English and RTÉ.

I am carrying this guest blog in part because she touches on a topic I often mention – the failure of mainstream Irish media to do their job properly. But she goes way beyond the lack of inadequate reporting to consider the darker side of her home country.

I want to stress that this is her view, and not mine, but I do think her piece needs an airing. Absent a forum within Ireland, I am delighted to provide one here…

In the past couple of weeks Ireland’s problem with itself has again become the subject of global headlines.

Four years ago Catherine Corless began collecting testimonies from former residents of the Bons Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

The institution was run by the clergy and funded by the state to house unmarried mothers, the “untouchables” of Irish life.

Corless remembered the place from her own childhood surrounded by eight-foot walls with “broken bottles on top.” There were so-called “home babies” in her school too.

They were, said Corless, kept to “one side of the classroom, arriving and leaving at different times so there would be no interaction with ‘ordinary’ schoolgirls.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Irena Ceranic

The headmaster of a private Perth school has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse the school has improved its policies for mandatory reporting.

The commission is investigating how a teacher was able to molest students for 10 years from 1999, despite several colleagues raising suspicions.

The current headmaster joined the school in 2011, after the teacher was convicted.

The school’s child protection policies were inspected in 2012 by an independent consultant, who made 21 recommendations.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Cape Cod Times

By The Associated Press
June 20, 2014

BOSTON — Massachusetts House and Senate negotiators will begin work soon to hammer out a compromise bill designed extend the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sex abuse to file lawsuits.

On Thursday the Senate approved a bill extending the time an individual can file a claim of sexual abuse from 3 years after the act occurs to 35 years, taking effect when the victim has reached 18 years old.

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CAMBODIA
Cambodia Daily

BY OUCH SONY AND ALEX CONSIGLIO | JUNE 20, 2014

SA’ANG DISTRICT, Kandal province – The chief monk of Tuol Krasaing pagoda was defrocked on Wednesday after crashing his sport utility vehicle while drinking and driving and wearing a military police uniform, according to police.

Phang Meas, a 70-year-old monk at Tuol Krasaing pagoda, was in the car with the chief monk, Khan Heng, at the time of the crash.

Phang Meas said Mr. Heng stopped to buy beers on the way to his father’s funeral and began drinking them while driving. That’s when he put on a military police uniform labeled with the name “Second Lieutenant Sen Theavy” over his robes.

“He was wearing the uniform so that people would not know a monk was driving the car,” Phang Meas said. “I’m happy he’s not coming back. He was always drinking wine and scolding other monks.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
Published 20/06/2014

A LEADING theologian has criticised Mary McAleese’s claim that the Pope’s synod is “bonkers” saying her comments were “not in keeping with what you would expect from an ex president”.

The retired professor of moral theology at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Fr Vincent Twomey, rejected Mary McAleese’s hard hitting criticisms, saying they were “not serious comments”.

Ms McAleese made headlines earlier this week when she criticised the Catholic Church’s forthcoming synod on the family, in Rome.

On Monday, Dr McAleese dismissed the synod as “bonkers” because the views of celibate bishops would be canvassed.

She said there was “something profoundly wrong and skewed” about asking “150 male celibates” to review the Catholic Church’s teaching on family life.

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ITALIE
La Croix (France)

[Summary: A Sicilian bishop is being blamed for a nearly $5.6 million euro debt, according to Panorama, the Italian weekly. ]

L’hebdomadaire italien Panomara publie ce mercredi 18 juin une enquête sur le risque de faillite d’un petit diocèse en Sicile, Mazara del Vallo, qui a notamment engagé de fortes dépenses pour la construction d’une église.

En couverture, le pape François l’air soucieux, « scandale » écrit en grosses lettres. À l’intérieur, mise en page avec photos d’un évêque portant une chasuble signée Armani et d’une église au coûteux chantier : l’hebdomadaire Panorama daté du mercredi 18 juin met en cause la gestion de Mgr Domenico Mogavero, 67 ans, évêque de Mazara del Vallo, pittoresque chef-lieu d’un petit diocèse côtier au sud de Palerme, en Sicile, non loin de Marsala, qui a donné son nom au fameux vin doux.

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ITALIA
Panorama

«C’è un meccanismo perverso che sta emergendo a me, sta emergendo in queste settimane in cui io finalmente ho potuto accedere, nonostante io l’avessi chiesto 10 mila volte, alla effettiva situazione economica della diocesi», così monsignor Domenico Mogavero, vescovo di Mazara del Vallo, si rivolge ai preti della diocesi nel corso di una drammatica riunione nella quale espone il bilancio con debiti che sfiorano i sei milioni di euro.

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MEXICO
Milenio

[Summary: A minor who once served at the parish of Our Lady of the Annunciation has filed a complaint with the attorney general of San Luis Potosi state saying he was raped and sexually abused by priest Eduardo Bautista Cordova.]

ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ VÁZQUEZ
19/06/2014
San Luis Potosí

Un menor de edad que en su momento fungía como sacristán de la Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación, a cargo del ahora ex sacerdote Eduardo Córdova Bautista, presentó denuncia en la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado por violación, abuso sexual calificado, corrupción de menores, privación ilegal de la libertad y otros en contra de Córdova quien se encuentra prófugo.

En un comunicado de prensa, los abogados de coadyubancia legal en apoyo las víctimas de Córdova dieron a conocer que la denuncia fue presentada el pasado lunes, con lo que se inició la averiguación previa número 74/2014.

El comunicado dice lo siguiente.

La víctima, cuyo nombre se mantiene en reserva para su protección, presentó formal denuncia en contra de Eduardo Córdova Bautista, cuyo paradero se desconoce y en contra de la Arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí, respecto de los hechos que se relatan en el contenido del escrito que fue presentado con el objeto de ser constitutivos de alguno de los delitos previstos en la Ley, para que se proceda en términos del Código Procesal Penal vigente en el Estado para consignar en relación con la posible comisión de los Delitos de violación, abuso sexual calificado, corrupción de personas menores de dieciocho años de edad, privación ilegal de la libertad, encubrimiento y lo que resulte.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun Daily

HUNDREDS of children are believed to have been kidnapped in Africa and brought to Britain for brutal voodoo rituals, a UN watchdog said, urging London to do more to combat the scourge.

“We’re concerned about reports that hundreds of children have been abducted from their families in Africa and trafficked to the UK, especially London, for religious rituals,” said Kristen Sandberg, head of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

“They are used in so-called voodoo rituals, and are also raped and sexually abused. The number of convictions is extremely low,” the former Norwegian supreme court judge said Thursday.

British police are reported to have recorded scores of cases over the past decade of children who have faced torture and abuse as part of witchcraft rituals.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 19:55 EST, 19 June 2014

A mysterious memo about “Frater Bart”, an email from a lawyer suggesting a pedophile brother be kept under wraps after doing time and a sudden journey to Canada.

All three surfaced at a royal commission hearing into how the Marist Brothers Australia handled child sex abuse allegations against two men who over decades molested children at schools in the ACT, Queensland and NSW.

Below the surface is the devastation of victims.

The commission sitting in Canberra this week heard first from survivors. There were the victims of Gregory Sutton, jailed for 12 years in 1996 after pleading guilty to 67 charges of sexually assaulting 15 different children, and those who as children fell foul of predator John Chute, known as Brother Kosta, who was sentenced to six years’ jail in 2008.

The mysterious memo was revealed when Brother Alexis Turton – who has been vice-provincial and provincial, and until 2012 head of the order’s professional standards office – entered the witness box.
The confidential memo for the attention of church lawyers detailed Sutton’s history with the order back to 1974 – when he was grooming and molesting boys at a north Queensland primary school – up to August 18, 1989, when Turton sent him to a Canadian therapy centre.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Travis Andersen, Derek J. Anderson and Jennifer Smith | GLOBE STAFF | GLOBE CORRESPONDENTS JUNE 20, 2014

The Massachusetts Legislature is on the verge of finalizing a bill that will give alleged child sexual abuse victims an additional 32 years to file civil lawsuits, a move one specialist said will open the door to thousands of new cases.

The bill would extend the statute of limitations for filing suits against alleged perpetrators and, in future cases, the people or institution supervising them. Under the legislation, the victims would be able to file suits up to age 53, instead of the current limit of age 21.

The Senate passed the measure Thursday, after it was approved by the House Wednesday.

Lawmakers expect to send a bill to Governor Deval Patrick’s desk soon, after a few more procedural votes, said Senator William N. Brownsberger, the Senate cochairman of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

“We’re very glad we were able to get this done,” said Brownsberger. “It is going to protect children in the future. It really is.”

Carmen L. Durso, a lawyer for sexual abuse victims and a vocal supporter of the bill, also hailed its passage. “It will open the doors of the courthouse to thousands, literally thousands of people who have otherwise been excluded from being able to file suits,” Durso said by phone. “This will give them the opportunity to name their perpetrators and do what almost all of them want to do, which is make sure their perpetrators can’t get to other victims.”

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INDIANA
The Journal Gazette

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

FORT WAYNE – Two representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on Thursday urged the bishop of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese to account for the whereabouts of two priests removed from ministry after credible sexual abuse allegations.

Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest region associate director, said the group wants Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades to post the information on the diocese’s website, as 30 other U.S. bishops have done.

“If they are too dangerous to work in a parish somewhere,” she said, “they are too dangerous to be out amongst other places where they have access to kids.”

Jones and SNAP member Steven Spaner, both of the St. Louis area, stood in front of the diocese’s offices at 915 S. Clinton St. for about an hour beginning at 10:30 a.m., speaking to the media and holding pictures of male and female child victims.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

BY BRENT WITTMEIER, EDMONTON JOURNAL

EDMONTON – Evidence given by residential school abuse survivors in closed-door hearings should never see the light of day, the lawyer in charge of abuse settlement process says.

Dan Shapiro, chief adjudicator of the Independent Assessment Process, says Canada will be courting a potential “privacy disaster” if it doesn’t destroy the 800,000 audio recordings, transcripts and other documents associated with 38,000 claims of sexual abuse, physical abuse and other heinous acts.

Destruction is the only way to show “proper respect” to aboriginal Canadians who were abused and victimized at Canada’s residential schools, Shapiro said Thursday, following a presentation at the University of Alberta’s access and privacy conference.

“The records contain some of the most intimate, private information,” Shapiro said. “Even the perception that their information will be made public can cause great harm emotionally and revictimize those individuals and create ripple effects in their communities.”

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CALIFORNIA
KTLA

JUNE 19, 2014, BY MELISSA PAMER

A church volunteer accused of molesting at least five boys and girls in an El Monte congregation where his arrest prompted prayers appeared in court in Pomona Thursday.

Johnny Beserra III, who pleaded not guilty last month to 13 felony counts and one misdemeanor in connection with an ongoing child molestation investigation, appeared for a preliminary hearing setting conference but the proceeding was postponed to July 16.

The May 24 arrest of the 20-year-old shocked officials at United Pentecostal Church in El Monte, where Beserra attended Sunday school and later graduated from the church’s K-12 school, El Monte Christian Academy, according to a pastor at the church.

“We’ve known him for many, many years. It was definitely a shock,” said Nathan Cupoli, a youth minister.

Church officials took the “news” about Beserra to El Monte police within an hour being alerted, Cupoli said Wednesday.

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MASSACHUSETTS
New England Public Radio

[with audio]

by: Henry Epp
JUNE 19, 2014
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.

Catholics in western Massachusetts are getting a new leader. Pope Francis picked Mitchell Rozanski of Baltimore to replace retiring bishop Timothy McDonnell.

At a press conference in Springfield, Bishop McDonnell introduced his successor with a little humor.

“They scoured the earth, and found the right man to take my place. Unfortunately, he’s from south of the Mason-Dixon line,” McDonnell said.

That regional difference leaves plenty of work for the incoming Bishop. The 56-year-old Rozanski had never been to western Massachusetts before this week. But he says he’s ready to immerse himself in the community. …

Parishioner Anne Lynch of Springfield has something else she wants Rozanski to focus on. After Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral, Lynch said she hopes the new bishop brings young people back to the church, who may have been alienated by the sexual abuse scandals of the last few decades.

“These kids aren’t as trusting as we were as kids. I mean, you never thought the priests did anything wrong, and these kids know that they’ve done wrong, and it’s going to take time,” Lynch says.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Berkshire Eagle

Pope Francis has made his first direct impact upon Western Massachusetts with the appointment of Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, of Baltimore, to succeed the retiring Bishop Timothy McDonnell and become the ninth bishop of Springfield. Ideally, as a bishop he will use the pope as an example in setting policies and engaging in the many issues facing the church.

Bishop Rozanski is an encouragingly young 55, and his Polish heritage will please the many Berkshire residents of Polish ancestry. The parishioners of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Adams went over Bishop McDonnell’s head in successfully persuading the Vatican to allow it to remain open after it was closed by the Springfield diocese six years ago. It was reopened as a mission of the St. John Paul II Parish in Adams, and we hope Bishop Rozanski will consider returning the church to parish status, as desired by members.

So far in his tenure as pope, Francis has put an emphasis on civil rights and economic fairness and de-emphasized the social and political issues that have consumed the church for years. An example came two years ago when Bishop McDonnell, along with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, denounced the Affordable Care Act because of its requirement that contraception be included in employees’ health benefits. That was one narrow aspect of a law that has been and will be of great benefit to poor Americans, including Catholics, who cannot otherwise afford health care, and encourage Bishop Rozanski to look at the big picture when it comes to programs that help the needy. …

The twin scandals of sexual abuse by priests and the cover-ups of this abuse by church leaders exploded in the Archdiocese of Boston courtesy of Cardinal Bernard Law — still enjoying his Vatican sanctuary — and touched Springfield as well. Two months ago, Pope Francis became the first pontiff to ask forgiveness on behalf of the Catholic Church for the decades-old pedophile scandal, which should signal dioceses around the country that they should exchange defensiveness for aggressiveness in addressing this problem.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

NICK GRIMM: A warning now – this next story from the royal commission into child sexual abuse contains disturbing details.

The headmaster of an Anglican school in Perth says the conviction of a former teacher has been etched into the minds of the school community.

The primary school teacher is now in jail for molesting five of his students, but he was able to “groom” the boys for years before he was arrested.

A public hearing has been told that the concept of grooming behaviour is still absent from the school’s child protection policy, even after the man went to trial twice.

Thomas Oriti reports.

THOMAS ORITI: The 12th case study of the royal commission told a harrowing story. It’s a story spanning more than a decade where a primary school teacher, known as “YJ”, lured boys inside his classroom and sexually abused them.

When one victim turned 18, he went to the police. He told the hearing the abuse changed his life forever.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ

Paris Arrow

Hola Francisco, ¿cómo está usted? Es la corona papal demasiado pesada para la cabeza? ¿Se siente solo en la cima de la Pirámide del Vaticano? Lee nuestros 6 sugerencias sobre cómo se puede cambiar el mundo sea un lugar mejor antes de morir … porque realmente, usted ha cometido el robo más grande en la historia de la humanidad! Y el único lugar donde se vaya a es el lago de fuego – si usted no devuelve el robo por parte de los imperialistaslos acumulado en bancos suizos del Vaticano a las naciones pobres del Tercer Mundo. http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/06/6-suggestions-for-pope-francis-as-he.html

So what’s the matter, podgy Francisco, you thought the papacy was an easy job like dancing the Argentina tango or waving the child duck dance of wibble wobble as you papal fart at 1.2 billion Catholics with Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team lies, lies, lies day after day like an old OD fool on the Vatican hill? Can’t you stand anymore the frantic Francis-Maniacs adulation at St. Peter’s Square every Wednesday – the guaranteed money machine of millions of dollars audience – that brings in hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to gather and pray the robotic Angelus with you?

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Royal commission told lawyer tried to silence ‘regrettably upfront’ sex offender Kostka Chute

June 19, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

A lawyer acting for the Marist Brothers visited serial paedophile Kostka Chute in jail in a bid to prevent him from making disclosures that would endanger the order’s insurance cover, it was alleged at the sex abuse royal commission.

Peter O’Brien, who is representing victim and whistleblower Damian De Marco, put it to the former head of the order, Brother Alexis Turton, on Thursday that significant steps had been taken to ensure Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) would not withdraw its cover of crimes committed by Chute.

The Marist Brothers, through its insurers, has paid out $6.84 million to 38 of Chute’s victims.

Brother Alexis had been the order’s professional standards officer at the time of Chute’s Canberra trial and the class action that followed.

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MEXICO
Arquidiocesis de Tijuana

Escrito por Administrator
martes, 17 de junio de 2014
Tijuana, B.C. a 17 de junio de 2014.

La Arquidiócesis de Tijuana desea comunicar a los fieles católicos y a todas las personas de buena voluntad una situación que le está tocando vivir con dolor.

En comunión con la Iglesia Católica Universal en lo que respecta a la atención de casos de abuso a menores por parte de clérigos, esta Iglesia particular participa en algunas revisiones que la Santa Sede está llevando a cabo.

La Iglesia siempre ha indicado los criterios doctrinales respecto a la vida de los presbíteros. Estos criterios han sido incluso acentuados por el Papa emérito Benedicto XVI, y asumidos y continuados por el Papa Francisco, quien insiste a tiempo y a destiempo en revisar y afrontar las situaciones irregulares que puedan darse en algunos clérigos de las diversas diócesis del mundo.

En tal sintonía, la Arquidiócesis de Tijuana asume sus deberes morales y espirituales y colabora con la Santa Sede en juicios eclesiásticos en los que se analizan acusaciones hechas a algunos clérigos pertenecientes a esta Iglesia particular.

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MEXICO
El Solde Tijuana

Laura Bueno Medina

La arquidiócesis de Tijuana reconoció que se están investigando siete casos, en su mayoría, por abuso sexual, por parte de las instancias eclesiásticas del Vaticano, en donde se determinará la acción y sentencia que se ejerza contra los hoy acusados de acoso o agresión sexual.

Se acusa a un sacerdote, no precisamente de un abuso completo, sino sencillamente de acoso, pero sin llegar a mayores, y se dice que es menor (la víctima), no un niño, no hay ningún caso de niños, si de menor, porque se puede considerar que con quien haya tenido que ver es menor de edad, explicó el líder de la arquidiócesis de Tijuana, Rafael Romo Muñoz.

Asimismo el arzobispo Rafael Romo Muñoz informó que de los siete sacerdotes implicados, las recomendaciones de la Santa Sede fueron que se retirara a cinco de los padres de manera temporal de su tarea de oficiar misa, mientras que los dos restantes siguen celebrando en sus respectivas parroquias.

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MEXICO
20 Minutos

La Arquidiócesis de Tijuana informó que analiza las acusaciones qen contra de siete sacerdotes por abuso de menores, de los cuales sólo uno ha sido separado temporalmente de su cargo.

Las investigaciones en torno de los sacerdotes continúan por la Arquidiócesis En conferencia de prensa, el arzobispo Rafael Romo Muñoz indicó que este caso ya era seguido por El Vaticano desde 2012 con continuidad en 2013, pero sólo hasta de manera reciente recibieron los resultados de las primeras indagatorias por parte de Roma.

Aclaró que no existe ninguna denuncia de tipo penal, sino que sólo se han dado algunas medidas cautelares, y aseguró que la Arquidiócesis continuará con las indagatorias en tanto se recibe la segunda recomendación de El Vaticano.

Señaló que, sin embargo, las investigaciones en torno de los sacerdotes continúan por la Arquidiócesis, aunque anotó que “la emisión de un juicio definitivo queda reservada a las instancias competentes, cuando los procesos concluyan”.

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MEXICO
Noticieros

TIJUANA, México, jun. 19, 2014.- El Vaticano investiga a cinco párrocos de la Arquidiócesis metropolitana de Tijuana, por supuestos abusos a menores y adolescentes.

Las indagatorias iniciaron en 2012, pero aún no se ha confirmado su culpabilidad, y las presuntas víctimas aún no han presentado denuncias ante las autoridades judiciales.

Rafael Romo Muñoz, arzobispo de la Arquidiócesis de la ciudad, aseguró que apoyará a la Santa sede en tanto se determina la situación de los sacerdotes.

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MEXICO
Uno TV

La Arquidiócesis de Tijuana, Baja California, informó que analiza las acusaciones en contra de siete sacerdotes por abuso de menores, de los cuales sólo uno ha sido separado temporalmente de su cargo.

En conferencia, el arzobispo Rafael Romo Muñoz indicó que este caso ya era seguido por El Vaticano desde 2012 con continuidad en 2013, pero sólo hasta de manera reciente recibieron los resultados de las primeras indagatorias por parte de Roma.

Aclaró que no existe ninguna denuncia de tipo penal, sino que sólo se han dado algunas medidas cautelares, y aseguró que la Arquidiócesis continuará con las indagatorias en tanto se recibe la segunda recomendación de El Vaticano.

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MEXICO
UT San Diego

By Sandra Dibble

TIJUANA — Seven priests from Tijuana’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese are under investigation for sexual abuse of minors.

Archbishop Rafael Romo Muñoz made the announcement Wednesday, following news reports earlier this week about an investigation into accusations of pedophilia by several Tijuana priests. Though a number of priests were named in the news reports, Romo stressed that “there is no sentence on the part of the Holy See.”

At a news conference responding to the allegations, Romo said church authorities first began investigating the allegations in 2012. The following year, in March, priests from the Archdiocese of Hermosillo were dispatched to Tijuana, on orders of the Vatican, and charged with interviewing the accused priests, their alleged victims and any witnesses to the abuse. Their report was sent to the Vatican, which in turn made recommendations to Romo in April.

Romo said that all of the alleged victims in these cases were in their teens. “There is no case of abuse of children,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 20, 2014

Anthony Klan
Reporter-Investigations Unit
Sydney

THE Catholic Church has agreed to begin paying child-abuse victims of an Adelaide ­special school after 12 years of legal wrangling, following a petition that gained more than 104,000 signatures.

Peter Mitchell, whose son was sexually abused at the St Ann’s special school in Adelaide more than two decades ago, and who launched the petition in February, said the Catholic Archbishop for Adelaide, Philip Wilson, had agreed to meet him in mediation.

“The fact that lawyers for the Catholic Church have moved to end the fight through the courts and begin mediation on our cases is a huge breakthrough,’’ Mr Mitchell said.

Pedophile Brian Perkins abused and produced pornography of severely intellectually disabled children at the school, where he worked as a bus driver, between 1986 and 1991.

South Australian police seized photos of naked, disabled children at Perkins’s home in 1991, but he was not arrested until 1993.

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AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily

A church lawyer advised the Marist Brothers to keep jailed pedophile John ‘Kostka’ Chute out of the legal arena when he was released, because he was so honest he was likely to ‘dump on others’.

Br Chute taught at various schools including St Carthages in Lismore over his long career. He was jailed for multiple sex offences and now lives in a nursing home.

Brother Alexis Turton, the former head of the Marist Brothers Order in Australia, was copied into an email to the current head of the order Brother Jeffrey Crowe from a church lawyer in May, 2009.

Br Turton was under intense cross examination on day two of his evidence to a royal commission hearing into how the order handled allegations of sexual abuse against two brothers jailed for pedophilia.

The solicitor representing Damien De Marco, who was abused by Chute (known as Brother Kostka), challenged Br Turton as to what knowledge he had of the abuse.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 19, 2014

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

A Corpus Christi priest has been acquitted on charges of assaulting an altar boy.

[Caller-Times]

We suspect there’s more to this case than has been revealed. We also suspect that some have seen, suspected or suffered wrongdoing by Rev. Patrick Serna. If so, we hope that they find the courage and strength to speak up, get help, expose misdeeds and protect others.

We have little faith in so-called “church investigations” into alleged clergy crimes and misconduct. And it should be remembered that in criminal matters, the bar is high for a conviction. Accused priests often get expensive, top-notch defense lawyers.

We are grateful that this family sought justice in court. We hope more of the truth about this situation surfaces soon.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Thursday, July 19

Statement by David Clohessy of SNAP (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

We take strong issue with comments on abuse made by the new head of the Springfield diocese.

For several years, Bishop Rozanski has been on the US bishops abuse committee. That body has been virtually worthless. It has done little or nothing about the absolute bare minimum and has focused far more on public relations than abuse prevention.

[WGGB]

He claims that being on the panel “has taught me first of all about the importance of reaching out to victims and survivors acknowledging their pain.”

This is disingenuous. Bishops keep pretending that they didn’t “understand” abuse until recently and that their carefully crafted cover ups were somehow well-intentioned “mistakes” when they were deliberate decisions to protect church officials instead of innocent children.

We hope Bishop Rozanski proves us wrong by promptly posting not just names, but photos, whereabouts and work histories of every child molesting cleric who is or has been in his diocese – whether living or dead, whether diocesan or religious order, whether proven, admitted or credibly accused.

If he’s learned about “the importance of reaching out to victims,” we urge him to go, this weekend, to every parish where Fr. Charles J. Sullivan worked, and beg victims, witnesses and whistle blowers to contact police.

Fr. Sullivan was publicly accused three years ago, the allegations were deemed credible, and church officials said he would live a “life of prayer and penance.” But according to Bishop Accountability.org, his whereabouts are unknown. So he’s likely living among unsuspecting neighbors, perhaps volunteering at a school chess club in the afternoons or babysitting his relatives kids in the evening. It’s possible he might be criminally charged, convicted and imprisoned, if the bishop would show – by his deeds, not his words – that he does indeed “understand the importance of outreach.”

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
WGGB

(SPRINGFIELD, Mass.) (WGGB)–Springfield’s new Bishop Mitchell Rozanski of the Archdiocese of Baltimore was introduced to Western Massachusetts on Thursday.

Bishop Rozanski also celebrated his first mass in the chapel at St. Michael’s Cathedral.

Earlier in the day. the diocesan staff had a chance to meet Bishop Rozanski as he shook hands and said hello.

Then the new bishop was formally introduced at a diocesan news conference.

Bishop Rozanski was ordained a priest in 1984 and in 2004 he was named auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Baltimore.

Bishop Rozanski says his years of service as a pastor will help him transition to being bishop in Springfield,”I love being out among the people, I get great strength from being out among the people and I look forward to working with priests and the religious men and women, the deacons and the people of the Diocese of Springfield,” says Bishop Rozanski.

In Baltimore Bishop Rozanski has served on the child and youth protection committee for the conference of Catholic bishops for the past 7 years.

He has a message to victims of clergy sex abuse,”It has taught me first of all about the importance of being a shepherd, of reaching out to victims and survivors acknowledging their pain, and certainly the spiritual harm that has been done,” says Bishop Rosanski.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Think Progress

BY TARA CULP-RESSLER JUNE 19, 2014

The students who attend Bob Jones University, one of the most conservative Christian colleges in the country, say that they’re often traumatized after seeking counseling from school administrators on the issue of sexual assault. According to an Al Jazeera investigation, Bob Jones staff members have responded to allegations of rape by telling rape victims they should repent for their sins.

Katie Landry, who was raped by a coworker several times during the summer before she started attending Bob Jones, didn’t tell anyone about her assault for several years. She was deeply ashamed and failed most of her classes her first year of school. When she eventually sought counseling, the dean of students told her that “we have to find the sin in your life that caused your rape.”

“He confirmed my worst nightmare — it was something I had done, it was something about me, it was my fault,” Landry said in an interview with Al Jazeera’s program America Tonight. The dean also asked her if she had done anything “impure” or smoked pot.

“I think they should have not heaped more shame on me. Because I was already filled to the brim with shame. I didn’t need any more,” Landry added.

Other students, who opted to speak to Al Jazeera anonymously, shared similar stories. One student says her school counselor told her to ask her rapist for forgiveness. “I would say that the impact of the two years of counseling I had with her is that I felt like I had been raped all over again,” that student recounted.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

18 JUNE 2014

The chairman of Northern Ireland’s public inquiry into historical institutional child abuse has requested a one-year extension to his work.

Stormont’s first and deputy first ministers said Sir Anthony Hart made a persuasive and compelling case and will recommend that the Executive agrees to lengthen the investigation.

The treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers, in houses run by nuns, brothers or the state is a key concern of the retired High Court judge’s probe which is being held in Banbridge, Co Down, and was ordered by ministers.

The panel is considering cases between 1922, the foundation of Northern Ireland, and 1995 and open oral testimony is due to finish in a year’s time.

Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness said: “We do not underestimate the complexities of dealing with institutional abuse. We must ensure that the inquiry provides every opportunity for those impacted by the allegations of institutional abuse to be heard in an open forum.

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INDIANA
WANE

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) A couple protesters stood at the front of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese office Thursday to encourage Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades to release more information about two priests accused of sexually abusing children.

The protesters are from SNAP, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. They are concerned about the location of two priests. One is Father Cornelius Ryan who served at Saint Joe Hessen Cassel at 11337 Old Decatur Road South from 2011 to 2013. The second, Father James Seculoff was the pastor of Saint Patrick’s parish at 2120 Harrison St.

According to Bishop Rhoades, Ryan admitted to sexually abusing a child in Africa about 20 years ago. Seculoff also spent time serving in the Fort Wayne area and resigned amid sexual abuse allegations.

“We would like Bishop Rhoades to please put more information out there for the parents,”Judy Jones from the Midwest SNAP said. “And just what is the status of these two priests? Where they are being kept? Where they are located? If they’re too dangerous to be in a parish, they’re too dangerous to be out there working in other places where they could be among children.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Thursday, July 19 2014

Statement by Kathryn Robb (kathrynrobb1@gmail.com 781-856-7207 cell), a board member of Massachusetts Citizens for Children and a member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests and an advocate for this legislation

A bill to reform Massachusetts archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations on child sex crimes has passed the State Senate today. (It passed the House earlier.)

[MassLive]

We are grateful to the many determined victims and advocates who have made this progress possible. While this measure is far from perfect, we’re encouraged by it. Any legislation that gives more child sex abuse victims more chances to expose more predators in court is positive. We are grateful as well for the hard work by Rep. John Lawn and Senator William Brownsberger on this crucial bill.

At the same time, however, we hope Massachusetts lawmakers will do more to enable victims to also expose those who conceal child sex crimes. That would give employers more incentive to act promptly, transparently and responsibly when abuse reports arise and to take stronger steps to prevent abuse and cover up in the future.

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NEW ZEALAND
Auckland Now

ERICA DONALD

A former nun who re-entered the secular world after being sexually abused by a priest is now trying her hand at singing, songwriting and recording.

Pauline Grogan, 69, performed her first 10-song concert on June 2 at Pinehurst School on Auckland’s North Shore where she still does some relief teaching and hopes to have her CD, Songs of Life, ready for sale by the end of the year.

Grogan is no stranger to diversity – working as a teacher and marriage celebrant; once touring the country with her one woman play and still pulling in big audiences as a motivational speaker.

She is also the author of Beyond the Veil, an autobiography documenting her years as a novice and nun from the age of 17; her sexual abuse at the hands of a catholic priest, and the new life she made for herself after leaving the convent when she was 29.

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IRELAND
Limerick Post

Alan Jacques | June 19, 2014

A LOCAL Republican Sinn Fein (RSF) activist is calling for the Good Shepherd convent and other institutions in the city where the Catholic Church were involved, to be investigated in light of the recent mother and baby home scandal in Tuam.

Sean O’Neill maintains that the latest revelations represent yet another harrowing aspect of the relationship between Church and State in post Civil War Ireland. The Limerick RSF activist insists that all the other institutions where the Catholic Church were involved in State policy must also be examined.

The Good Shepherd institution opened on Clare Street in 1848. Now home to Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD), it served as a Magdalene Laundry for over a century. Mr O’Neill feels the role of the nuns at the convent must now be probed.

“In Limerick, the Good Shepherd nuns ran an industrial school and a laundry where young children were incarcerated until they reached 16 years. The laundry was a commercial undertaking using child labour and the conditions seemed to be prison like,” Mr O’Neill claims.

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ITALY
Irish Central

John Spain @irishcentral June 19,2014

In Italy last week on a break, it took me a moment to realize what the hotel owner was talking about when we were chatting after I had checked in.

“The babies — what a sad event,” he said. “But in Italy too we had such things. The church …” he sighed, shaking his head and shrugging at me in understanding and sympathy.

Two things struck me about this. It was an indication of how the appalling story of the remains of hundreds of babies found at the former unmarried mothers and babies home in Tuam in Co. Galway had traveled. We were staying in a small town in northern Italy, not somewhere you expect to be up to speed on news from Ireland.

But the graphic and shocking story had made the Italian newspapers, complete with references to skeletons of babies uncovered “in a septic tank.”

On that basis, it’s probably accurate to say that the story went around the globe. And it is extremely damaging to the image of Ireland, exposing the cruelty and hypocrisy of our recent past for the whole world to see.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Marist Brother and known paedophile made deputy leader of community attended by boys as young as 12

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 19, 2014

A KNOWN paedophile was made a deputy leader of a Marist Brothers community and allowed to work at a “farmhouse” facility which was attended by boys from the age of 12, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told today.

When he was charged by police, Brother Kostka Chute had his legal fees paid for by the Marist Brothers, a multi-million dollar organisation that enjoys tax-free status, and accompanied to court on every occasion by the religious orders’s director of professional standards, Brother Alexis Turton.

Brother Turton, 74, who is a former Australian provincial, or head, of the Marist Brothers, said he could understand that his support for Brother Kostka was likely to have appeared offensive to the victims of his abuse but he had considered it part of his role.

He said there was an expectation within the Marist Brothers that he made sure that Chute, who was living at a Marist Brothers property at Blacktown, kept his court appointments.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ewan Gilbert

Concern over the Catholic Marist Brothers’ indemnity against legal action by victims of child sexual abuse was the subject of an email sent by a lawyer for Brothers being questioned at an inquiry.

The email, produced on the last day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings in Canberra, was sent to the Catholic Marist Brothers in 2009, warning them about convicted paedophile Brother John Kostka Chute.

In it, lawyer Howard Harrison warned Marist Brothers provincial Jeffrey Crowe and director of professional standards Brother Alexis Turton that the Brothers could be at risk from Brother Kostka’s “honesty”.

“Just back from Canberra,” Mr Harrison wrote in the email after visiting Brother Kostka in jail.

“Regrettably quite upfront about various discussions with provincials over the years. I think we will have some problems with indemnity in due course.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Alexandra Chachkevitch and Lisa Black
Tribune reporter
1:21 p.m. CDT, June 19, 2014

The Rev. James Dokos, leader of Glenview’s Saints Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church, will be charged with felony theft in the alleged mishandling of a trust fund at a Milwaukee church, said David Feiss, assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County.

Authorities have concluded a monthslong investigation and will file a charge against Dokos of Class G felony theft, alleging he misappropriated an amount of money exceeding $10,000, Feiss said.

The Tribune reported in October that documents the newspaper obtained showed that Dokos, while serving as pastor of Annunciation Church Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee, wrote checks to himself totaling tens of thousands of dollars from a trust fund provided to the church, and that he used the fund to pay at least $32,000 in credit card bills. The documents included copies of cancelled checks and banking records from the trust fund.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • June 19, 2014

The other day, I blogged about the conviction of Fr. Isidore (Stanley) Brittain on child pornography charges. The Orthodox priest was an unpaid staffer at his local Orthodox parish, and, according to police, was “loosely affiliated” with the parish at the time of his arrest. Last week, I wrote about how the OCA’s 2011 Sexual Misconduct committee (SMPAC) report strongly faulted Met. Jonah for letting Fr. Isidore serve in that Corvallis parish, given his past record of alcoholism, sexual harassment, and seeking out gay sex. I said then that the committee was absolutely right to fault Jonah, but the report (which was a heavily politicized document) failed to fault Bishop Benjamin as well.

I’ve just located in my files Met. Jonah’s response at the time to the SMPAC report, in which he strongly disputes its reporting and conclusions. Here is a relevant part to the Brittain case:

Fr Isidore was released (as suspended) to the Diocese of the West at the request of Bishop Benjamin, to be under the close supervision of his psychologist and his spiritual father, Fr Stephen Soot. I spoke personally with the psychologist, as well as Fr Stephen and Mat. Mona Soot.

After a period of time, Bp Benjamin asked that the suspension be modified, at the express recommendation of Fr. Isidore’s psychologist, to assist at the Liturgy for the sake of his healing and recovery, to which I agreed. I had been invited to Fr. Soot’s parish in Corvallis, OR, by Bp Benjamin, who specifically asked me to permit Isidore to serve with us, as a sign of hope for his full recovery, and at the recommendation of his psychologist.

Not only does the memorandum confuse the timeline of events, and have a number of key facts simply wrong, its assertion that Fr. Isidore was not closely supervised in his recovery efforts [sic]. I doubt he could have been more closely supervised. In fact, both Bp Benjamin and I have exercised extreme care in this, and his process carefully monitored by a psychological professional together with a priest. Absent significant financial resources to pay for inpatient treatment or to pay for his room and board at a monastery, how could we have done anything better?

Boy, this chaps my hide. Here’s what could have been done better: Brittain ought to have been defrocked, and allowed to participate in the parish as a layman. If Jonah’s account is accurate, it is appalling to consider that these clerics — Met. Jonah, Bp. Benjamin, and Fr. Soot — believed that a sexually troubled priest (in this case, an alcoholic homosexual) ought to be able to use ministerial service in a parish as an aid to rehabilitation. And that they took the advice of a psychologist over common sense. In one sense, this is understandable; the Catholic bishops routinely did this in years past. But these decisions were made in 2009 or later, long after everybody knew, or ought to have known, how foolish and risky these decisions were.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
The Raw Story

By Tom Boggioni
Wednesday, June 18, 2014

According to an investigative report from Al Jazeera America, rape victims searching for help at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., were told to repent and seek out their own “root sin” that caused them to be raped.

Within the past year BJU has opened its own investigation into sexual abuse and rape, and now former students who were victimized are coming forward to tell their stories about life on a campus where they were shamed and told to keep their stories to themselves.

Coming from a conservative Mennonite family, Katie Landry, who at age 19 had never even held hands with a boy, was raped multiple times by her supervisor at her summer job. Two years later, haunted by the attacks, and attending Bob Jones University, she sought help from then dean of students, Jim Berg.

According to Landry, Berg asked whether she’d been drinking or smoking pot and if she had been “impure.” He then brought up her “root sin.”

“He goes, ‘Well, there’s always a sin under other sin. There’s a root sin,’” Landry explained. “And he said, ‘We have to find the sin in your life that caused your rape.’ And I just ran.”

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 19

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

A controversial Chicago-based religious group is admitting that a high profile Protestant pastor acted “inappropriately” with teenaged girls.

Our hearts ache for the dozens of women who as teens and young adults were sexually harassed by Rev. Bill Gothard. We share the hurt they must feel because Gothard’s church superiors so tardily and so inadequately.

[Chicago Sun-Times]

Gothard should never be around kids, not now, not evern. The Institute in Basic Life Principles should fire him and do everything possible to prevent him from hurting more innocent youngsters. And they should aggressively and publicly beg others who saw, suspected or suffered Gothard’s hurtful acts to come forward, get help and call police.

We strongly suspect that Gothard or his church supervisors have broken the law, either by molesting kids, destroying evidence, stonewalling police, decieving prosecutors, endangering others or similar offenses. We beg those with any knowledge or suspicions of wrongdoing by Gothard or IBLP officials to contact law enforcement agencies promptly.

We are also very troubled by Gothard’s wish to “work with and encourage young people . . . on a personal basis.” No parent should trust him. His church colleagues and supervisors should aggressively warn families about him and do all in their power to make sure he stays way from youngsters.

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TEXAS
KIII

CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) – A popular priest in Sinton has been acquitted of assaulting a 13-year-old boy

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

The Faith is supposed to be comprehensive, fertile, life-giving. It is catholic in the sense that it encompasses everything. Like a great work of literature, it includes the heights and depths of human nature, the wonder of creation, the beauty of passing fancies whispered silently, the shock of stunning realities shouted loudly. It is complex, where everything interpenetrates or foreshadows everything else. It is beautiful. It is terrifying. It is awesome. It is heaven and hell, the earth, the cosmos. It is a mystery, like life itself.

But we make it into a neutered puppy, crated up throughout the day, making sure it “does its business” outside the house. The Catholic Faith – indeed the Holy Trinity – has become a toy, a tool, or worse a club that we join to beat others over the head with.

It is supposed to perfect our nature, but we use it to kill our nature. We use it to cut off even our healthy and natural reflexes.

As a blog reader wrote to me concerning the Archbishop Carlson situation …

When otherwise good people rationalize away the scandal, and write lengthy essays telling us to not look behind the curtain, that’s what I don’t like. They aren’t disputing the facts: they are just trying to tell Catholics why they shouldn’t be outraged.

In other words, we don’t want to be real about this – or about anything. Our Faith serves not as a bridge to Love, not as a challenging and thrilling way to engage the tragedies and comedies of our very existence, not as a means of making life better and of caring for others, even at the cost of our own self-sacrifice, but as a shield: as a barrier or a diaphragm to prevent conception, to block conception in the intellectual sense, to prevent us even conceiving of anything that might trouble us.

Galileo wrote to Kepler …

Oh, my dear Kepler, how I wish we could have one hearty laugh together! Here at Padua is the principal professor of philosophy whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets through my glass [i.e., telescope] which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here? What shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious folly! And to hear the professor of philosophy at Pisa laboring before the Grand Duke with logical arguments, as if with magical incantations, to charm the new planets out of the sky.

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TEXAS
Caller-Times

Krista M. Torralva
11:17 AM, Jun 19, 2014

SINTON – A Sinton priest accused last year of assaulting an alter boy was acquitted by a San Patricio County jury.

Rev. Patrick Serna was accused of jabbing a 13-year-old alter boy in the back in February 2013 at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sinton, prosecutor Frank Errico said. The charge was simple assault, a Class C misdemeanor.

The Diocese of Corpus Christi had launched an investigation after the accusation and found Serna innocent.

“The not guilty verdict handed down Wednesday in San Patricio County court regarding allegations of assault by the pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sinton, affirms his innocence and upholds the investigative findings of the Diocese of Corpus Christi. Prayers are requested for all concerned as well as the restoration of the good name of the priest involved,” the Diocese said in an emailed statement.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Religion Reporter June 18, 2014

A board investigation of the former president of a controversial Oak Brook-based religious and home-schooling organization, who resigned following allegations he sexually harassed teen girls, concluded he acted in an “inappropriate manner.”

But “no criminal activity was discovered” to have been committed by Bill Gothard, according to a statement by the board of directors of the Institute in Basic Life Principles posted on its website.

The board said based on a review conducted by outside legal counsel, it unanimously agreed that “at this time” Gothard “is not permitted to serve in any counseling, leadership or board role within the IBLP ministry.”

That leaves open the question of whether the 79-year-old Gothard may be allowed to return one day as he did after resigning following another sexual scandal years earlier.

The ministry, which Gothard founded, has held seminars reaching millions and includes the home-schooling arm Advanced Training Institute International. It has operations in seven states and 12 countries.

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