ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Thousands of child sex abuse victims would benefit from tougher laws to make it easier for them to seek justice from their abusers, the New South Wales Greens said as part of their election campaign.

The Greens announced a plan to reform legislation so victims could seek compensation more easily and lodge civil claims years after the abuse.

The reforms would also permit judges to impose tougher sentences.

The three-point plan also included preventing churches from hiding their money in trust funds.

Greens MP David Shoebridge said the reforms were similar to measures being introduced in Victoria and some countries overseas.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Titusville Herald

By Joshua Sterling
jsterling@titusvilleherald.com

Due to a new state law intended to protect children from sexual abuse, a response to the Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State University, any employee or volunteer who has “routine interaction” with children is required to obtain extensive background checks, every three years.

On Oct. 22, 2014, House Bill 435 was signed into law, becoming Act 153.

The law went into effect Dec. 31.

Now, employers and volunteer groups are making the effort to get their people through required background checks, which can range between $10 to nearly $50 per person.

Those required to submit to the background checks and not doing so could face civil and criminal penalties.

Who needs clearances?

For volunteers, the answer is, beginning July 1, any adult applying for an unpaid position as a volunteer responsible for the welfare of a child or having direct contact with children.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

Fr Richard Rodgers, parish priest of St Mary’s, Cleland, North Lanarkshire, has been suspended following an allegation of historic sexual abuse made to his diocese.

“Following a complaint received by the Diocese of Motherwell and passed to Police Scotland, he will not be in active parish ministry for an unspecified period of time,” a Motherwell Diocesan spokesman said.

“Fr Rodgers has agreed to this and will not be living in the parish house or undertaking any public ministry. While the Diocese of Motherwell await the outcome of the police investigation, no further statements will be made.”

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

03/18/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Some of you might have seen these stories covered by other media, but since they are of general interest to readers of this blog I thought I would mention them here. The final two are specific to the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

1). Yesterday, the Archbishop of Adelaide, Australia, was charged with concealing knowledge of child sexual abuse. Archbishop Philip Wilson, who became the highest ranking Catholic prelate to be charged with such a crime, denies the charges and is vowing to mount a vigorous defense. In the meantime, he has temporarily stepped down from his positions with the Australian Bishop’s Conference and the Truth and Justice Healing Council, which is working with the Royal Commission. Interestingly, the charges are not related to Wilson’s episcopal administration, but instead allege that he concealed knowledge of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest with whom he was assigned in the 1970s.

2). The National Catholic Reporter is reporting that the investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the former Archbishop of St. Andrew’s and Edinburgh who stepped down prior to the conclave of 2013, has been completed and the report presented to Pope Francis. Unlike the debacle of an investigation taking place in Saint Paul, the investigation into allegations that O’Brien had engaged in inappropriate sexual activity with priests and seminarians for decades was ordered by the Holy See and entrusted to Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the former prosecutor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now Archbishop of Malta. Reputed to be ‘hot enough to burn the varnish off the Pope’s desk’, the report on O’Brien was completed within a year. Meanwhile, in Saint Paul…

3). Speculation is mounting that a big announcement regarding the W.D.O.E. is coming in mid-April after priests were informed today that the Clergy Study Day originally scheduled for April 22 has been postponed. In a brief email, priests were informed that both the new date and the topic of the study day will be ‘forthcoming’. There has already been speculation among priests that the Archbishop’s resignation would be accepted by Pope Francis on or around April 15, while others (mainly non-clergy) have predicted a proposed settlement to the bankruptcy announced around that time. We shall see…

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FLORIDA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Joseph H. Saunders
March 18, 2015

Father Leo P. Riley, a priest working at St. Peter the Apostle church in Naples, Florida has been placed on administrative leave after he was accused of molesting a child while he was an associate pastor at Resurrection Parish in Dubuque, Iowa.

The Archdiocese of Dubuque is investigating the sexual abuse claim against Riley, which is alleged to have occurred in 1985. This investigation comes after the Archdiocese of Dubuque paid $5.2 million to settle sexual abuse claims with 26 people in 2013. It is not known yet whether Riley was part of any of those claims.

Church officials in Iowa are urging anyone with information or suspicions about Fr. Riley to call them. However, David Clohessy , director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says that contacting the church is wrong. Clohessy urges victims or whistleblowers in Iowa or Florida to call police or prosecutors. SNAP is adamant that child sex crimes should be reported to the independent, unbiased professionals in law enforcement and not to self-serving, biased church bureaucrats.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Randolph

By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger

Posted Mar. 18, 2015

RANDOLPH – The South Shore Chamber of Commerce rarely gets homilies, but the business group got one Wednesday from Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

Speaking to a full room at the Chamber’s luncheon at Lantana, the cardinal said “we are here to take care of each other.”

He also said the church is “a field hospital” whose primary mission is to tend to “the poor and downtrodden.” …

He outlined the bleak situation he faced when arrived, in the wake of a clergy sex abuse scandal that forced his predecessor, Cardinal Bernard Law, to resign.

“The Archdiocese was in free fall,” he said. “We had a thousand (sex abuse) lawsuits. We owed the Knights of Columbus millions. Our Catholic hospitals were losing millions.”

“Welcome to Boston,” he quipped.

He said the Archdiocese’s finances and programs are now “much improved,” after a decade of lawsuit settlements, parish closings and mergers, and property sales.

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MAINE
WABI

MAR 18, 2015

ADRIENNE DIPIAZZA

The faithful at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor are reacting to the conviction of their former leader on child sex charges.

A judge found ex-priest Adam Metropoulous guilty Tuesday of sexual abuse of a minor.

He pled guilty Monday to child pornography and invasion of privacy charges.

The church’s parish council president Lee Speronis says he and many parishioners never expected that the case would go to trial, and that it’s been a rough several months for the church.

But now that Metropoulos has been found guilty, Speronis says the healing process can begin.

“Everybody heals at their own pace, and everybody reacts differently. And it’s really important to understand that, respect each other’s sensitivities. The Diocese of Boston has been great. It’s given us access numbers for people to call, call the professionals that know how to care for people in this scenario. And we all need hugs, that’s for sure. But some people need more than that. And Boston’s been fantastic about that. And this is all pretty fresh. It just happened yesterday. So I’ve heard from many people. The feelings are all over the place, quite honestly,” Speronis said.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Steve Limtiaco
Pacific Daily News

The priest in charge of the Merizo and Umatac Catholic churches has resigned after being arrested by Guam police Tuesday, according to the Archdiocese of Agana.

In a written statement, the archdiocese announced that Archbishop Anthony Apuron has accepted the resignation of the Rev. Father Luis Camacho as pastor of the San Dimas, Malesso, and San Dionisio, Umatac, parishes, effective immediately.

According to the archdiocese, the Guam Police Department provided information that Camacho was booked and released Tuesday on allegations of custodial interference.

That specific crime is listed under the section of Guam law under “kidnapping and related offenses.”

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GUAM
Yahoo! News

Associated Press

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — The Catholic Church says a priest in Guam has resigned as pastor after being arrested.

The Pacific Daily News (http://bit.ly/1CwgQwt ) reports the Archdiocese of Agana says it accepted Rev. Luis Camacho’s resignation effectively immediately. Camacho was the pastor of several parishes in the U.S. territory.

The archdiocese says Camacho was booked and released Tuesday on allegations of custodial interference.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Reporter: Emma Alberici

Reporter Joanne McCarthy from the Newcastle Herald helped expose the Catholic Church’s protection of paedophile priests. She speaks to Emma Alberici about the decision to charge Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson with covering up the sexual abuse of children in the Hunter Valley.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The Catholic Church is facing serious allegations of covering up crimes.

The Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has taken leave after being charged with concealing child sexual abuse.

The charge relates to a long-dead notorious paedophile priest, Jim Fletcher, in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in New South Wales.

Archbishop Wilson was a junior priest at the time when he worked with Fletcher. It’s alleged Philip Wilson was told Fletcher had abused a child in 1976.

Archbishop Wilson isn’t speaking to the media, but he’s declared his innocence in a statement in which he reaffirms his “commitment to dealing proactively with the issue of child sexual abuse.”

Back in 2010, Archbishop Wilson said he was unaware of any abuse allegations.

PHILIP WILSON, ARCHBISHOP, CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF ADELAIDE (Stateline SA, ABC TV, May 20 2010): Well, I think that it’s all based on the claim that I knew that there was something happening. I did not know and therefore there was no way in which I had responsibility to do anything.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco

(SAN FRANCISCO, March 18, 2015)

The Archdiocese of San Francisco is,alongwith the Catholic St.Vincent de Paul Society, the largest supporter ofservicesforthe homeless inSan Francisco. Every year, it helps many thousands of people through food, housing, shelter programs for people at risk including homeless mothers and families, and in countless other ways.

St. Mary’s Cathedral is a huge part of that program, and does more than any other Catholic church. The Cathedral itself serves hundreds of homeless people giving them food and shelter, as an integral part of the San Francisco Interfaith Council’s efforts in that regard, for example, opening its doors for shelter and food for five weeks over the holidays.

This sprinkler system in alcoves near our back doorways was installed approximately two years ago, after learning from city resources that this kind of system was being commonly used in the Financial District, as a safety, security and cleanliness measure to avoid the situation where needles, feces and other dangerous items were regularly being left in these hidden doorways. The problem was particularly dangerous because students and elderly people regularly passthese locations on their way to school and mass every day.

When the system was installed,after other ideas were tried and failed, the people who were regularly sleeping in those doorways were informed in advance that the sprinklers were being installed. The idea was not to remove those persons, but to encourage them to relocate to other areas of the Cathedral, which are protected and safer. The purpose was to make the Cathedral grounds as well as the homeless people who happen to be on those grounds safer.

We are sorry that our intentions have been misunderstood and recognize that the method used was ill-conceived. It actually has had the opposite effect from what it was intended to do, and for this we are very sorry.

We have also now learned that the system in the first place required a permit and may violate San Francisco water-use laws, and the work to remove this system has already started, and will be completed by the end ofthe day.

For more information, please call Larry Kamer at (415) 290-7240 or email:
lkamer@kamergroup.com

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Newsweek

BY LUCY WESTCOTT 3/18/15

A prominent San Francisco cathedral is removing a water system that served as a deterrent to homeless people as they slept after a local television station reported about the system Wednesday.

St. Mary’s Cathedral, the main church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, installed a mechanism two years ago that drips water from a hole about 30 feet above an alcove where homeless people typically shelter and sleep, KCBS in San Francisco on Wednesday. The stream lasts for about 75 seconds and runs every 30 to 60 minutes, according to KCBS.

A homeless man identified only as Robert told KCBS, “They actually have signs in there that say, ‘No Trespassing.’” Those who gather in the alcove are not warned before the water starts dripping.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco released a statement on Wednesday morning after KCBS’s broadcast apologizing for using the water system, which it said was intended to mimic similar systems used by other buildings in the area to keep the area clean of “needles, feces and other dangerous items [that] were regularly being left in these hidden doorways.… The idea was not to remove those persons, but to encourage them to relocate to other areas of the cathedral, which are protected and safer. The purpose was to make the Cathedral grounds as well as the homeless people who happen to be on those grounds safer,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
KGO

by Elissa Harrington
Wednesday, March 18, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Does the premier Catholic church in San Francisco have a confession to make? The homeless trying to find refuge at St. Mary’s Cathedral claim the church is using water not to cleanse them, but to get rid of them. The Archdiocese of San Francisco is now looking into accusations that well-timed sprinklers are preventing the homeless from taking shelter at the landmark church.

Homeless like to sleep in the church’s covered doorways to protect themselves from the elements. But if you look directly above, you’ll see a spout that sprays water on them while they sleep.

“Sometimes I come here to sleep,” said Ignacio.

Ignacio slept outside San Francisco’s Saint Mary’s Cathedral on Tuesday night. He placed his sleeping bag near the main entrance to stay dry. That’s because he says under the covered doorways, “the water comes down every 30 minutes.”

He says throughout the night, water sprays from a spout above, soaking the homeless and their things.

One person camping out in one of the nooks came prepared with an umbrella.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Washington Post

By Abby Ohlheiser March 18

In order to prevent homeless people from sleeping outside of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the Archdiocese of San Francisco installed a system that dumps water onto the ground near its sheltered doorways, where people tend to rest at night.

On Wednesday, after facing substantial backlash for the deterrent, the archdiocese announced that the system will be removed “by the end of the day.”

In the statement, the archdiocese said it initially decided to install the controversial system “after learning from city resources” that similar deterrents were “commonly used in the Financial District” in San Francisco to “avoid the situation where needles, feces and other dangerous items were regularly being left in these hidden doorways.”

“The Archdiocese of San Francisco is, along with the Catholic St. Vincent de Paul Society, the largest supporter of services for the homeless in San Francisco,” the statement adds.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
National Catholic Register

by BRIAN FRAGA 03/18/2015

CONCORD, N.H. — Imprisoned for 21 years after his conviction for crimes he is adamantly denies he committed, Father Gordon MacRae says he is “cautiously hopeful” that the federal courts will give him a new opportunity to prove his innocence.

“I know that Supreme Court decisions and precedents have made it very difficult for innocent defendants to have a case re-heard at this level. Most people who judge the justice system by TV’s Law and Order don’t understand the steep uphill climb,” Father MacRae told the Register in an email message Tuesday after his attorneys presented oral arguments on behalf of his habeus corpus appeal at U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H.

Father MacRae, whose story is told on the These Stone Walls blog, has been incarcerated in the New Hampshire State Prison since his September 1994 conviction on one count of sexual assault and four counts of felonious sexual assault charges. Now 62, Father MacRae was a parish priest in the Diocese of Manchester, N.H., when the alleged victim accused Father MacRae of molesting him several times when he was a 15-year-old boy in the early 1980s.

In court documents, Father MacRae’s attorneys argue that “newly discovered evidence,” which include allegations that the accuser concocted his story for financial gain, establishes Father MacRae’s “actual innocence.” His lawyers argue that innocence should override any time limits or procedural bars that prevent a new hearing of the case.

The March 7 “hearing, for which there is no decision yet, was not a hearing on the merits but solely on whether case law and procedure will even allow for a hearing on the merits,” Father MacRae said.

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NEDERLAND
Aartsbisdom Utrecht

[Victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church should report the abuse by May 1.]

De voorzitters van de Bisschoppenconferentie, KNR, en slachtofferkoepel KLOKK, VPKK en MCU waren op maandag 16 maart bijeen in Utrecht en geven gezamenlijk de volgende verklaring af:

De voorzitters van de Bisschoppenconferentie, KNR, KLOKK, VPKK en MCU roepen mensen die als minderjarige slachtoffer werden van seksueel misbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk, op zich voor 1 mei 2015 te melden bij het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK.

Men kan zich melden via de website www.meldpuntmisbruikrkk.nl

Of schriftelijk:
Meldpunt misbruik RK Kerk
Postbus 13277
3507 LG Utrecht

Of telefonisch: 030-2306900

Er kan worden volstaan met het indienen van een klacht in enkele korte zinnen.

Kardinaal Eijk, voorzitter Bisschoppenconferentie
Br. C. van Dam, voorzitter KNR
G. Klabbers, voorzitter KLOKK
Mw. A. Knibbe-van Dijck, voorzitter VPKK
B. Smeets, voorzitter MCU

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Michaelangelo Conte | The Jersey Journal
on March 18, 2015

A Hudson County Superior Court judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of a North Bergen pastor convicted of molesting a 13-year-old child last month after he failed to appear at a pre-sentencing hearing this week, officials said.

Gregorio Martinez, 47, who was described as a prophet and exorcist during testimony, was convicted on Feb. 25 of aggravated sexual contact, child abuse and endangering the welfare of the child.

He was to appear before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez on Tuesday for the pre-sentencing hearing and the judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest when he did not show up, a court official said.

Officials have also released additional details of unrelated sex charges the Jersey City resident faces.

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GUAM
Marianas Variety

19 Mar 2015 By Jasmine Stole – jasmine@mvguam.com – Variety News Staff

HAGÅTÑA — Following the arrest of Rev. Luis Venancio Benavente Camacho, 29, the Archdiocese of Agana announced his resignation as pastor of San Dimas parish in Merizo and San Dionisio parish in Umatac effective immediately.

According to A.J. Balajadia, Guam Police Department public information officer, Camacho was found with a 17-year-old girl at a beach in Agat Tuesday morning. Balajadia said Agat precinct officers arrested Camacho at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Police charged him with custodial interference for being with a female minor who was not in school at the time the priest and the girl were found parked at a beach in Agat, Balajadia said.

Camacho was booked and released. Police and the Agana Archdiocese did not issue further details related to Camacho’s arrest.

Yesterday morning, the Office of the Attorney General said it had no knowledge of Camacho’s arrest. Usually, the AG’s office does not pursue criminal charges until after it is given information by the police.

The archdiocese issued a short statement yesterday evening regarding Camacho’s arrest:

“The Archdiocese of Agana was made aware that Father Luis was booked and released yesterday, March 17, 2015. The alleged offense is custodial interference, according to information provided by the Guam Police Department. The archdiocese has initiated a canonical investigation and is cooperating fully with civil authorities. In the meantime, Father Luis’ faculties have been restricted.”

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CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, March 18

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 new civil lawsuit charges that a priest abused a child and that Catholic officials could and should have prevented the crimes.

[CT News]

The complaint is filed against Fr. Walter Phillip Coleman, who worked at churches in Stamford, Danbury, New Canaan, Fairfield, Bridgeport, Brookfield Center, Danbury, Norwalk, Georgetown, Trumbull and Shelton.

We worry that others who have been hurt by Fr. Coleman are still trapped in shame, silence, confusion and self-blame. We desperately urge them to find the strength to seek help from independent sources, not church officials. And we beg them to call experienced sources, like police, prosecutors, therapists and groups like ours.

If any other people – especially current or former church staff or members – have seen suspicious behaviors or crimes by Fr. Coleman, they must step forward if kids are to be protected.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A Roman Catholic priest has been suspended from his North Lanarkshire parish amid a police investigation into allegations of historical sexual abuse.

The Diocese of Motherwell said Father Richard Rodgers, 79, would be absent from St Mary’s Parish Church in Cleland for “an unspecified period of time”.

It said the action had been taken after a complaint was received and passed to Police Scotland.

A spokesman for the force said the matter was being investigated.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Motherwell said: “Following a complaint received by the Diocese of Motherwell and passed to Police Scotland, Father Richard Rodgers, parish priest of St Mary’s, Cleland, will not be in active parish ministry for an unspecified period of time.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

March 19, 2015 by J-Wire News Service

In the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Sydney’s Rabbi Selwyn Franklin became interim president of NORA, the New Organisation of the Rabbis of Australasia…a post he will not contend at NORA’s inaugural conference.

Nora has issued the following statement: “NORA is presently operating only as a steering committee in order to co-ordinate the reformulation of the rabbinic association of Australia to ensure that it meets with contemporary standards of governance and accountability. The steering committee is directed solely to that task with a view to a new rabbinic association becoming operative after a conference of Australian rabbis planned for June in 2015.

Rabbi Selwyn Franklin’s role as interim “president” has been to co-ordinate the various tasks of the interim steering committee. Rabbi Franklin does not intend to be a candidate for the position of president of the newly reformulated organisation.

It has been suggested that Rabbi Franklin ought not to continue his present function with NORA because of his role as vice-president of the KA in light of conclusions reached by the KCI operating under the auspices of the Board of Deputies of New South Wales. Those conclusions are disputed by the KA and the competing contentions of the KCI and the KA have been ventilated publicly.

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AUSTRALIA
Lewis Blayse

Image: Archbishop Philip Wilson being chauffeur-driven away from the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide yesterday (Source: Herald Sun, 17 March, 2015). [Author’s note: Is that a Rolex, Phil? Might wanna pawn it, babe; Ian Temby QC don’t come cheap, and I hear Pope Francis is on some sort of economy drive or something, new Vatican ‘financial czar’ Cardinal George Pell’s embarrassing shopaholism notwithstanding.]

For a tiny country at the ass-end of the world, Australia occasionally punches well above its weight.

It did so yesterday, making world headlines in the process.

In a day that may just end up, in years to come, overshadowing the anniversaries of other Australian world firsts such as the much-celebrated invention of cask wine, Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson (pictured above) was yesterday formally charged with a “charge of concealing a serious indictable offence” (The Australian, 17 March, 2015).

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

POLICE are investigating after a complaint was made to the Diocese of Motherwell about Father Richard Rodgers.

A PRIEST has been removed from his parish while police investigate allegations of historic sex abuse.

A complaint was made to the Diocese of Motherwell about Father Richard Rodgers, priest at St Mary’s church in Cleland, North Lanarkshire.

It was passed to police earlier this month and the diocese said the 79-year-old “will not be in active parish ministry for an unspecified period of time”.

He is said to have agreed to the suspension and priests from nearby churches will look after St Mary’s.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

18 March 2015 By Stratton Williams

Parishoners in a close-knit community this week told of their shock at their priest being probed by police over sex abuse allegations.

Father Richard Rodgers is under investigation by police into claims of “historic sex abuse.”

And the Cleland St Mary’s priest has been axed by Motherwell Diocese “for an unspecified period of time” after they received a complaint.

Fr Rodgers has also been kicked out of his parish house and his current whereabouts are unknown.

He is also chaplain to Cleland Hospital and St Mary’s Primary School.

A worried parishioner, who didn’t want named, said: “If what’s being said is true, then it’s disgusting.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
CBS SF Bay Area

Doug Sovern

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — KCBS has learned that Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the principal church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has installed a watering system to keep the homeless from sleeping in the cathedral’s doorways.

The cathedral, at Geary and Gough, is the home church of the Archbishop. There are four tall side doors, with sheltered alcoves, that attract homeless people at night.

“They actually have signs in there that say, ‘No Trespassing,’” said a homeless man named Robert.

But there are no signs warning the homeless about what happens in these doorways, at various times, all through the night. Water pours from a hole in the ceiling, about 30 feet above, drenching the alcove and anyone in it.

The shower ran for about 75 seconds, every 30 to 60 minutes while we were there, starting before sunset, simultaneously in all four doorways. KCBS witnessed it soak homeless people, and their belongings.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Channel 4

[with video]

Richard Kerr, who was abused at the notorious Kincora boys’ home in Belfast, tells Channel 4 News police tried to stop him testifying at a trial where three staff were jailed.

Mr Kerr, who was sent to Kincora in 1975 when he was 14, also said he was trafficked from Belfast to London and taken to the Dolphin Square flats in Pimlico, where children are alleged to have been abused by well-connected paedophiles in the 1980s.

In 1981, three senior staff at Kincora – Joseph Mains, Raymond Semple and William McGrath – were jailed for abusing 11 boys. Mr Kerr told Channel 4 News ” two plainclothes policemen” visited him before the trial.

Interrogated

He said: “They came to my home and they removed stuff from my drawers, and they put me in a car and they took me to the police station and they interrogated me, put me in a cell for seven hours and as they removed me from my cell, they made it clear to me that I’m not to talk about this and that I’m lying and not to tell lies, and I felt they were giving me a warning.”

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CONNECTICUT
CT News

Posted on March 18, 2015 | By Daniel Tepfer

BRIDGEPORT – A Shelton man claims, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, that he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a priest while he served as an altar boy at the former St. Patrick Parish here in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court, brings to six the number of men who have claimed in lawsuits to have been sexually abused by the Rev. Walter Phillip Coleman since the 1970s.

“Father Coleman was sexually exploiting, assaulting and abusing minor children in his parish for years, with impunity,” said Jason Tremont, of the Bridgeport-based law firm Tremont Sheldon Robinson Mahoney. “Parents and guardians entrusted their children to the care and protection of the church. Rather than protect them, Father Coleman violated them physically, morally and spiritually.”

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MAINE
Greek Reporter

by Ioanna Zikakou – Mar 18, 2015

Former Greek Orthodox priest Adam Metropoulos was convicted of four counts of child sexual abuse in Bangor, Maine. A judge delivered the verdict on Tuesday, March 17.

Metropoulos’ trial began on Monday with the testimony of a former altar boy at St. George Greek Orthodox Church. The young man who is now 23 years old testified that he had been sexually abused by the former priest when he would sleep over at the man’s house.

Furthermore, during his testimony the young man said that he would often pretend to be asleep and never mentioned the assault to protect the lives of people around him.

The 52-year-old former priest who had already pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and violation of privacy involving the secret videotaping of a woman while she was showering in September, took the stand on Tuesday. He attempted to defend himself saying that he never had intercourse with the teenager. However, he did admit to touching him inappropriately when he was asleep.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

JOHN MEAGHER, MONTREAL GAZETTE

Published on: March 17, 2015

A Catholic brother and former educator at Collège St-Hilaire southeast of Montreal was arrested Tuesday in connection with sexual assaults on a teenager more than 25 years ago.

Brother Jean-Paul Thibault, 72, is accused of using his position of authority to commit sexual assault and indecent exposure at the college in Mont-St-Hilaire.

Police say the crimes took place between 1982 and 1989, partly at the college where the adolescent victim was boarding.

Thibault, a Lac-Sergent resident, is still part of college’s board of directors. He also belonged to the congregation of Frères de Notre-Dame de la Miséricorde.

Following their investigation, Richelieu-St-Laurent police, who were assisted by the Sureté de Québec, believe there may be other victims of Thibault.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

03/18/15
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer

A Yeshiva College faculty vote of “no confidence” in the university’s president, Richard Joel, has made public in dramatic fashion a long-simmering debate within the institution — and the greater Orthodox community — over who is to blame for the financial crisis and what should be done about it.
The vote of the fulltime faculty of Yeshiva College, the undergraduate school for men, which was taken last Friday, was organized by its executive committee. Eighty percent voted “no confidence,” 3 percent “confidence,” and 17 percent abstained, with nearly two-thirds of the faculty casting votes. Sixty-six faculty members took part in the vote.

In response, the university’s board of trustees issued a letter backing Joel, noting that he and his administration — and an outside firm brought in to help resolve the school’s money problems — “have performed admirably in a difficult environment.”

Somewhere in the middle, perhaps, members of the Orthodox community, including prominent alumni in a wide range of fields, express sadness over YU’s predicament and deep concern about its future, recognizing the unique role it plays beyond the classroom as the flagship and center of Modern/centrist Orthodox life.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph and Argus

A PHOTO- GRAPHER and writer in Haworth is releasing a novel based on the experiences of survivors of sexual abuse.

The work by Paul Hartnett (pictured), called Deletion, is due out as an electronic book on March 30.

He said: “Sickened as I am by the revelations that shine a light upon historic child sex abuse that is often connected to a breach of the duty of care within faith schools, my book takes the form of a fictional television documentary set in and around a Catholic school.

“The focus is upon four survivors of systematic sexual abuse by Catholic priests.”

“The four decide to release a download single, EP and an album 40 years after the tracks were recorded in the latter part of their school days, back in the mid 1970s.

“In some respects, this is a punk protest against decades of failings by the Catholic Church.

“This is a subject very close to my heart as a ‘survivor’ of attempted molestation as a child by Catholic priests at Ealing Abbey’s St Benedict’s School.”

Mr Hartnett, who lives in the Brow area of Haworth, added that to accompany his new book he formed a band and recorded tracks in both Keighley and Colne studios, to develop the lyrics featured in the book.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

Victoria Brenan
Reporter

Father Richard Rodgers was suspended from his North Lanarkshire parish after a complaint was made to the diocese and passed to police.

The 79-year-old, who served at St Mary’s Parish Church in Cleland, has been suspended for an indefinite period while the investigation continues.

Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal has reportedly stepped in to cover mass at St Mary’s while cover from elsewhere in the diocese will be put in place for parishioners in his absence.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Motherwell said: “Following a complaint received by the Diocese and passed to Police Scotland, Fr Richard Rodgers will not be in active parish ministry for an unspecified period of time.

“Fr Rodgers has agreed to this and will not be living in the parish house or undertaking any public ministry.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MARCH 19, 2015

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

A ROYAL commission plans to hold a public hearing into church child abuse in Newcastle after gathering evidence of past crimes by priests of two churches.

The move comes after NSW Police this week charged the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, with allegedly concealing abuse by a pedophile priest when both men were working in the area during the 1970s.

As the most senior Catholic ­official internationally to face such a charge, the decision to prosecute the archbishop, revealed by The Australian, made world headlines.

Some Catholic schools in Adelaide asked parents and students to pray for the archbishop, who has denied the allegation and will ­appear in court next month.

In an email sent hours after the formal charge on Tuesday, Nazareth Catholic Community director Michael Dahl asked parents of the school’s 1300 pupils to “keep (the) archbishop in your prayers”.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

A CATHOLIC priest has been suspended from the church after police launched an investigation into historic sex abuse allegations.

Father Richard Rodgers, a priest in North Lanarkshire, was suspended from his parish after a complaint was made to the Diocese and then passed on to Police Scotland.

It is understood Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal arrived at St Mary’s Parish Church in Cleland and told parishioners of the move before stepping in to cover mass himself.

The congregation was also told cover from elsewhere in the Diocese would be put in place for parishioners in his absence.

The 79-year-old has been removed from active ministry for an “unspecified period of time” after the allegations came to light.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, March 18

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 Saginaw native and ex-Greek Orthodox priest has been found guilty of sexual abuse in Maine, some 30 years after having committed similar crimes in Michigan. We’re grateful that he’s been caught but now the focus shifts to his church former colleagues and supervisors in Michigan and Maine.

[WGME]

A Maine newspaper reports that Adam Metropoulos “was convicted in Michigan in 1983 of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 13, according to Saginaw court records.” And yesterday, a judge found him guilty on four counts of child sex crimes in Bangor.

[Bangor Daily News]

These church officials have a moral and civic duty to aggressively reach out now to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by Metropoulos or cover ups by his ex-colleagues or superiors. All too often, church officials recruit, educate, ordain, hire, and train clergy, giving them vast authority over and access to vulnerable families and kids. When one of those clerics is caught abusing, church officials immediately distance themselves from him or her and do little or nothing to help law enforcement charge or convict them.

Metropoulos will soon be sentenced. That sentence should be based on as much information as possible. And getting more information about his crimes is possible if only his ex-colleagues and supervisors take immediate steps to find others he may have hurt. They should use church bulletins, parish websites, and pulpit announcements to beg anyone with suspicions or information about Metropoulos to step forward immediately.

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SPAIN
The Local

A priest has been arrested in Burgos for performing repeated exorcisms on an underage girl suffering from anorexia.

A judge in Burgos has called for the arrest of exorcist, Jesús Hernández Sahagún, along with the girl’s priest after she went through 13 exorcisms while still a minor.

Sahagún, the official exorcist of Valladolid, is facing charges of gender violence, causing injury and mistreatment according to local newspaper, Diario de Burgos, and has been asked to make a statement on the events.

The events date back to 2012, when the girl began to suffer from anorexia. According to El País, her religious parents became convinced she was possessed by the devil and decided to have their child exorcised.

She was tied up and had crucifixes positioned over her head, according to El País.

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SCOTLAND
Motherwell Times

A priest has been removed from St Mary’s Parish Church in Cleland as Police Scotland investigate historic sex abuse allegations.

Father Richard Rodgers was axed from the parish after a complaint was made to the Motherwell Diocese, and subsequently passed to police.

The 79-year-old has been removed from active ministry for an ‘unspecified period of time’ and will not be living at the parish house as the enquiry is conducted.

Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal recently stepped in to cover mass at St Mary’s, while cover from elsewhere in the Diocese will be put in place for parishioners in Fr Rodgers’s absence.

It is thought Fr Rodgers was also involved with St Mary’s Primary School and worked as chaplain at Cleland Hospital.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A priest has been suspended from a North Lanarkshire catholic church amid a police investigation into historic sex abuse allegations.

Father Richard Rodgers was suspended from his parish after a complaint was made to the diocese and then passed on to police.

The 79-year-old, who served at St Mary’s Parish Church in Cleland was axed from active ministry for an “unspecified period of time” after the allegations came to light.

He will not be living in the parish house while the investigation takes place.

Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal is understood to have stepped in to cover mass at St Mary’s while cover from elsewhere in the diocese will be put in place for parishioners in his absence.

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BOSTON (MA)
Fox Boston

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) –A Boston reverend accused of shooting a teenager was back in court Tuesday, and facing additional charges after police searched him home.

New details have emerged in what investigators say is the double life of Shaun Harrison. Police say after the community activist and former dean of Boston English High School allegedly shot his 17-year-old student in the head in a drug deal gone bad, they found his stash of guns, drugs and ammunition.
“I don’t have a comment and when I do have a comment, you’ll be the first one to know. Have a good day,” Harrison’s family member said to our cameras outside of court.

When asked if he thought Harrison was guilty, a friend of the reverend, Vernard Coulter, refused to comment.

However, he did say, “I am not defending Shaun and I’m not defending anyone. I’m just here as a friend and as a clergy, that’s all.”

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

By: Antonio Planas

A search warrant at the Rev. Shaun Harrison’s Roxbury home — executed three days after he allegedly shot a teen boy he mentored — turned up guns, nearly 30 grams of cocaine and bags of marijuana stored in a basement safe, a prosecutor said today.

Harrison, 55, was arrested March 4 for allegedly shooting a 17-year-old English High School student in the back of the head.

At his Roxbury District Court arraignment today, Harrison was held on an additional $150,000 cash bail for evidence seized during the March 6 search of his basement.

According to court documents, in the basement safe of Harrison’s home were: 29.5 grams of cocaine, four plastic marijuana bags, one Ruger .380, one Smith and Wesson revolver, and ammo including one spent shell casing from a .38.

Prosecutor David Bradley said the spent shell casing did not come from the firearm used to shoot the teen. He also said a previous search of Harrison’s home on a separate warrant turned up a rifle, shotgun, scales and other paraphernalia.

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BOSTON (MA)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston cleric and former public high school employee already facing an attempted murder charge for allegedly shooting a 17-year-old student in the head has pleaded not guilty to gun and drug charges.

A judge Tuesday bumped bail for the Rev. Shaun Harrison by $150,000 to a total of $400,000 following his arraignment on two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and single counts of trafficking in cocaine, and other charges.

The gun and drug charges came after a search of the 55-year-old Harrison’s home. Police found two guns and drugs in a safe in his basement.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

By: Antonio Planas

The Rev. Shaun O. Harrison had a “dispute” over pot dealing with the teen he is accused of shooting on March 3 after recruiting him to sell drugs, a prosecutor said yesterday, as the fired school employee was hit with new charges from a cache of cocaine, marijuana and guns cops found in his building.

The search warrant executed March 6 on a safe in Harrison’s basement at his Roxbury home turned up: 29.5 grams of cocaine, four plastic marijuana bags, one Ruger .380, one Smith & Wesson revolver, ammo and one spent .38 shell casing, court documents said.

Harrison, 55, who has been held on $250,000 bail on an attempted murder charge, pleaded not guilty in Roxbury District Court yesterday to the additional gun and drug trafficking and possession charges. Judge Kenneth Fiandaca slapped Harrison with an additional bail of $150,000, raising his total to $400,000.

Prosecutor David Bradley said in court investigators spoke with the wounded teen — who had bullet evidence removed from his cheek — at Boston Medical Center.

Harrison is accused of shooting the 17-year-old English High School student in the back of the head as they walked alone on a Roxbury Street the night of March 3 following “a dispute over drug dealing that was going on — selling marijuana,” Bradley said.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Steve Limtiaco

The priest in charge of the Merizo and Umatac Catholic churches has resigned after being arrested by Guam police Tuesday, according to the Archdiocese of Agana.

In a written statement, the archdiocese announced that Archbishop Anthony Apuron has accepted the resignation of Rev. Father Luis Camacho as pastor of the San Dimas, Malesso and San Dionisio, Umatac, parishes, effective immediately.

According to the archdiocese, the Guam Police Department provided information that Camacho was booked and released Tuesday on allegations of custodial interference.

That specific crime is listed under the section of Guam law under “kidnapping and related offenses.”

Guam law states a person is guilty of custodial interference if: they take or entice a relative under the age of 18 from lawful custody and cause serious bodily injury to that person; they take or entice a person under the age of 18 or an incompetent person from their lawful custodian, knowing they have no right to do so; they are the parent of a child and violate a court order related to child custody and attempt to conceal the child.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Father Luis Camacho of the Umatac and Merizo Churches was arrested on a charge of custodial interference after he was caught with a minor inside of a car while she was supposed to be at school.

Guam – The pastor of the San Dimas and San Dionisio churches down south, Father Luis Camacho, is facing charges of custodial interference after he was found inside of a car with a minor sometime Tuesday.

Guam police Spokesman officer AJ Balajadia confirms that Luis Camacho was arrested for being with a 17-year-old female who was supposed to be at school. Balajadia says Camacho and the minor were found inside of a car parked at a beach in Agat. Father Luis Camacho was booked and released.

The Archdiocese of Agana released a statement today announcing that Father Luis Camacho resigned effective immediately. The Archdiocese says they are also conducting their own investigation as well cooperating with local authorities.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Mar 18, 2015

By Jolene Toves

KUAM News has confirmed a priest has tendered his resignation following his arrest on Tuesday. It’s yet the latest controversy to come out of the local Catholic church, already torn apart over many issues. Guam Police Department spokesperson Officer AJ Balajadia confirms a man by the name of Luis Camacho was arrested Tuesday on charges of custodial interference.

Balajadia says Camacho was with a 17-year-old female minor who was not in school at the time they were found by police parked at a beach in Agat. Balajadia says Camacho was booked and released.

According to the Archdiocese of Agana website, in January 2014 Father Camacho was assigned as pastor of San Dimas Church in Merizo and San Dionisio Church in Umatac.

According to news files it was in November 2013 that Camacho who was 28 years old at the time was ordained by the archbishop into the sacred order of priesthood. According to a press release that was issued at the time, Camacho was formed at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona. It went on to state that Camacho is a native son of Guam and will be the first Chamorro to be ordained from the seminary and that he is part of the Agana 2 community of the Neocatechumenal Way.

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CHILE
La Tercera

[The new bishop of Osorno told a judge in 2011 that he did not cover up sexual abuse in the case of Fernando Karadima.]

“Llegué a la parroquia de El Bosque el año 1971 o 1972, cuando cursaba 3° Medio. Allí el párroco era el padre Iglesias y el padre Karadima era vicario (…). Me gustó el ambiente que allí se vivía, y como ya estaba presente mi vocación sacerdotal, me acerqué más al padre Fernando, para que me orientara”. Así comienza la declaración judicial que, el 7 de junio de 2011, el actual obispo electo de Osorno, Juan Barros Madrid, le entregó a la ministra en visita Jéssica González, quien investigaba los presuntos abusos sexuales denunciados en contra del sacerdote Karadima. Barros testificó casi cuatro meses después de que se hiciera pública la condena del Vaticano a Karadima (ver recuadro). Su declaración constó de cuatro páginas y está firmada por él.

Frente a la polémica que generó su nombramiento en la diócesis de Osorno, ocurrido el pasado 10 de enero, y la acusación de Juan Carlos Cruz, denunciante de Karadima, que lo sindicó como “encubridor” del párroco de El Bosque, Barros difundió este lunes una carta pública, ratificando que asumirá el cargo y asegurando que jamás supo de los abusos de Karadima, los que condenó.

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MINNESOTA
Hutchinson Leader

Posted: Wednesday, March 18, 2015

By TERRY DAVIS davis@hutchinsonleader.com

The Diocese of New Ulm has been named in 12 Notices of Claim alleging sexual misconduct with a minor by four priests of the diocese, including one who served St. Anastasia Catholic Church in Hutchinson for 11 years.

The Rev. Dennis Becker, the only one of the four still alive, served here from June 1987 to June 1998, before moving on to churches in Kandiyohi and Lake Lillian. He retired in July 2000. He was the only one of the four not previously identified by alleged victims of abuse, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

According to a press release issued by the diocese to area churches March 6, the allegations that put Becker on the list stem from his time at Winsted’s Church of the Holy Trinity in 1964 to 1965, soon after the 1962 ordination of the Lind, Minn., native.

Prior to serving at St. Anastasia, Becker served at Catholic churches in Nassau, Minn., North Mankato, Winsted, Cottonwood, where he also was the city mayor for four years, Clarkfield, DeGraff, Benson and Danvers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Why I fear this monstrous sex abuse cover-up is FAR worse than we know… by SIMON DANCZUK, the MP who first exposed the Cyril Smith scandal

By SIMON DANCZUK FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Countless times I’ve heard the sentence now, and it’s usually followed by an exasperated sigh. ‘Yes, we knew all about Cyril.’

Former Lancashire police officers, Greater Manchester police officers and Metropolitan police officers all knew.

Thames Valley detectives knew. Special Branch knew. Even former prime minister Margaret Thatcher had been warned.

Everyone except the public seemed to be aware that the former Liberal MP for Rochdale and ‘national treasure’ Cyril Smith was a child abuser. But no one, apparently, was able to do anything to stop him.

When, in April last year, I first started to speak about the police’s certain knowledge of Smith’s serial offending after publishing my book on his double life as a child abuser, I was dismissed as a conspiracy theorist.

I had researched Smith and his revolting proclivities for more than two years, so I knew what I was talking about. Yet when I mentioned the word ‘cover-up’ it provoked cynical laughter among some of the old guard in Parliament.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By George Houde
Chicago Tribune

A Catholic priest from an Arlington Heights church will return to court Friday to face indictment on allegations he kept pornographic images of children on his home computer.

The Rev. Clovis Javier Vilchez-Parra, who made a brief appearance in court Tuesday morning, when the indictment was originally due to be issued, was arrested in February after an investigation by Palatine police and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Vilchez-Parra was freed after posting $17,500 on a $175,000 bail bond.

Prosecutors said Vilchez-Parra, 34, was charged with reproduction of child pornography and felony possession of child pornography after investigators traced Internet images to his computer at his home in Palatine.

The home is provided by the Archdiocese of Chicago, which also is providing him the services of his lawyer, Joseph Roddy, the attorney said. It’s not clear if the priest is staying in the house again as he awaits trial. Roddy said the archdiocese did not post Vilchez-Parra’s bond.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

ANDREW DOWDELL THE ADVERTISER MARCH 18, 2015

PATRICIA Feenan lost her faith in the Catholic Church years ago, but is pinning her hopes in the legal system to determine if Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson conspired to hide child sex abuse.

Mrs Feenan — whose son, Daniel, exposed the crimes of paedophile priest Father James Fletcher — said a charge of concealing church sexual abuse against Archbishop Wilson was a major development.

“It was a relief to realise finally that a senior person could be charged. I have faith in the legal system, I always say the church let us down but the legal system and the police didn’t,” she said.

Fletcher died in prison in 2006 while serving a sentence for abusing Daniel Feenan in the early 1990s, however it is alleged the priest’s crimes dated back to at least the mid-1970s.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

The Salvation Army is shutting down its emergency counselling phone hotline after operating it for more than 30 years.

The Salvos, as the Christian organisation is commonly known, said the telephone service would close at the end of June. It has been running since 1983.

The decision was made as part of an internal Salvation Army review that’s “considering the best possible means by which The Salvation Army can serve the Australian community”.

“The review by senior Salvation Army leadership and independent external experts commenced two years ago and aims to determine the long-term viability of all the services The Salvation Army currently runs,” the Salvos said in a statement on Wednesday.

The organisation flagged further changes to its services.

“Some programs and Salvation Army churches will close, have support funding reduced or be amalgamated as part of the overall review,” it said.

Last year, the Salvos blamed a shortfall in revenue from its annual Red Shield Appeal Doorknock on the tough federal budget, and Salvation Army-related revelations before the child abuse Royal Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Kathleen McPhillips
Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Science at University of Newcastle

On Tuesday, NSW Police charged one of the most senior Catholic clergymen in Australia – the Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson – with the concealment of an allegation of child sexual abuse by convicted paedophile priest James Fletcher in Maitland in the 1970s. Wilson said he will “vigorously defend” his innocence.

The significance of Wilson’s charges

The importance of Wilson being charged cannot be overstated. Despite state inquiries and court hearings finding time and again that Catholic Church clergymen systematically failed to report child sexual abuse to police, no Catholic clergyman in Australia has ever been convicted of this crime.

Only a handful of clergymen have been charged and convicted with this crime globally in, for example, the US and France. Wilson is the most senior clergyman in the world to face this charge.

The charge against Wilson is a result of the ongoing work of Strikeforce Lantle. This was established by Newcastle police in 2010 to investigate the alleged concealment of child sexual abuse by church officials in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The Catholic archbishop of Adelaide should stand aside until the finalisation of a claim that he concealed child sexual abuse by a priest, says a victim support group.

Philip Wilson has strenuously denied a NSW police allegation that he concealed a serious offence regarding child sexual abuse in the state’s Hunter region.

The abuse was allegedly committed during the 1970s by another priest, when both men worked in the Maitland Diocese, near Newcastle.

The 64-year-old archbishop released a statement on Tuesday saying he had taken immediate leave and had retained Ian Temby QC, one of the country’s top barristers, to represent him.

But Broken Rights spokesman, Dr Bernard Barrett, said it would be ‘more credible and the public would then know they can have confidence’ if Wilson officially stood aside from his position while the criminal charge is pending.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Former Catholic priest and District Court judge Chris Geraghty says the charging of an Australian Archbishop over allegations he concealed child sex abuse in the 1970s is likely to lead to other charges against Catholic clergy embroiled in similar cases.

Archbishop Philip Wilson, who is on indefinite leave, has denied the allegations and said he will be defending them.

Mr Geraghty told Radio National’s Religion and Ethics Report that the charging of Wilson was a big blow to the Catholic Church.

“If Philip Wilson is getting charged, there will be others I would think going to be charged too and they’d be running for cover worrying what’s going to happen,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Ian Temby QC: the ‘$1000 an hour’ barrister who will defend Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson against sex abuse cover up claims

ANDREW HOUGH THE ADVERTISER MARCH 18, 2015

THE Catholic Church will likely pay the legal fees and the cost of one of the country’s leading barristers to defend Archbishop Philip Wilson against a sex-abuse cover-up charge.

Sydney QC Ian Temby, 72, who charges up to $1000 an hour, will oversee Archbishop Wilson’s defence as the latest prominent case in an almost 50-year career.

Having represented both sides of the bar table, he was Australia’s first Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, the founding NSW corruption watchdog and is a former royal commissioner.

The Archbishop’s case, described by experts as “extremely unusual”, is expected to cost at least $10,000 a day to defend.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WTOP

By Dick Uliano
March 17, 2015

WASHINGTON — A second teenage girl has stepped forward to accuse a D.C. police officer and pastor of sexual abuse.

Court documents accuse 45-year-old Darrell Best of Upper Marlboro, Maryland with assaulting a 17-year-old girl in December, inside his office at the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. The girl has told police the assault occurred after Best took the girl to dinner at an upscale D.C. restaurant.

According to the documents the victim works with her mother cleaning the SE D.C. church where Best serves as pastor — God of a Second Chance Ministry Church.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox DC

By Marina Marraco, FOX 5 Reporter

WASHINGTON – Disturbing new details continue to surface about a D.C. police officer and pastor accused of sexually abusing two teenagers.

Monday night, FOX 5 spoke exclusively with the teens and their families.

Now, we are hearing from a woman who says Darrell Best inappropriately accosted her when she was a small child.

“I just remember him being very creepy,” the woman told FOX 5 exclusively.

Now in her 30s, the woman does not want to show her face but says Best made inappropriate advances when she was just six.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WUSA

[with video]

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — A second alleged victim has come forward in the case of a D.C. police officer and local pastor who is accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl.

Officer Darrell Best faces four counts, including first-degree sex abuse while armed.

One teen says Best forced himself on her in an office inside D.C. police headquarters.

The two victims say Best was armed when he sexually assaulted them and they tried desperately to get him to stop.

Best is not just a cop; he’s also a youth minister. The younger teen, who is just 16, says he called her out of choir practice and repeatedly pushed her down on his desk and sexually assaulted her.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

By Manny Tsigas
18 MAR 2015

Archbishop Philip Wilson is the most senior Catholic clergyman in the world to face such a charge.

But some Catholics are defending his reaction to the charge.

Archbishop Philip Wilson has been charged with one count of concealing a child-sex allegation, an allegation made against a priest, Jim Fletcher, in the 1970s.

Both men were working in the Maitland Diocese of New South Wales at the time, but they went on to meet very different fates.

In 2001, Philip Wilson was appointed Archbishop of Adelaide.

In 2006, Jim Fletcher died — two years after being jailed for raping a 13-year-old boy between 1989 and 1991.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Helen Davidson
@heldavidson
Wednesday 18 March 2015

The Archbishop of Adelaide, charged on Tuesday over the alleged cover up of child sexual abuse by a fellow priest, has stepped down from his role in a supervisory group that deals with the royal commission.

Victims’ advocates have welcomed the charge, but labelled the church’s response to it “arrogant.”

NSW police charged the archbishop, Philip Wilson, and issued a court attendance notice over allegations he concealed knowledge about child sexual abuse committed by a fellow priest, Jim Fletcher, in the 1970s, when the pair worked together in the Hunter region.

He is the highest-ranking church official in the world to be charged with such a crime. Wilson denies any wrongdoing and released a statement saying he would defend the charge.

Nicky Davis, head of the international advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said that for survivors of abuse the news was “as big as the announcement of the royal commission”.

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MISSOURI
Webster-Kirkwood Times

Man Accused Of Setting Fire To Shrewsbury Playground Was Seminary Student

The man accused of setting fire to playground equipment at a Shrewsbury park earlier this month was studying to become a Catholic priest.

William C. Holmes, 23, of the 300 block of Hoener Street in Waterloo, Ill., was in an undergraduate program at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Shrewsbury, according to the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Police say he confessed to starting two fires at Brinkop Park in Shrewsbury, which caused roughly $100,000 of damage to the playground equipment and a picnic table.

Holmes was charged with two felony counts of knowingly burning or exploding, and released after posting a $10,000 bond, according to court documents filed with the case.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Sheriff urged to allow priest to stay in parish house

A SHERIFF has been urged to allow a priest at the centre of a row with the Catholic Church to stay in his parish house.

Father Matthew Despard, 50, is involved in a long-running dispute over a book he wrote alleging a gay mafia was operating at the top of the Church.

Fr Despard was ordered to leave his home at St John Ogilvie in High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, but refused, disobeying the wishes of the Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Toal.

Bishop Toal told Fr Despard to leave the house in November 2013 but the Church later launched a legal action at Hamilton Sheriff Court to evict him.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Lucy McNally

A woman whose father was sexually and physically abused at an Anglican Church-run home in New South Wales says she will keep fighting for compensation money for her family, even though the church has rejected her claim because she is a “secondary victim”.

Kim Brannigan barely knew her father Wayne for the first 26 years of her life.

Scarred by an horrific upbringing of sexual and physical abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore, he was a heavy drinker who would erupt in fits of rage when remembering the men and women responsible for robbing him of his childhood.

But when Ms Brannigan reunited with her father as an adult, she formed a close bond with him and saw first-hand the devastating effects the abuse had on him.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Lucy McNally

The Anglican Church is quietly preparing for a hearing that could see the defrocking of one of its former bishops, five months after the royal commission recommended he face disciplinary action for ignoring complaints from sexual abuse victims.

Keith Slater, whose title remains the Right Reverend, was forced to resign as the Grafton Bishop in 2013 for the way he handled abuse claims from a group of 40 people.

They were men and women who had been sexually, physically and or psychologically abused at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore between the 1940s and the 1980s.

Bishop Slater gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, where he said he was “personally humiliated” by his decision to put the church’s finances over the victims in a compensation battle.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
18 MAR 2015

The Catholic archbishop of Adelaide should stand aside until the finalisation of a claim that he concealed child sexual abuse by a priest, says a victim support group.

Philip Wilson has strenuously denied a NSW police allegation that he concealed a serious offence regarding child sexual abuse in the state’s Hunter region.

The abuse was allegedly committed during the 1970s by another priest, when both men worked in the Maitland Diocese, near Newcastle.

The 64-year-old archbishop released a statement on Tuesday saying he had taken immediate leave and had retained Ian Temby QC, one of the country’s top barristers, to represent him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis, Rajeev Syal and Matthew Weaver
Tuesday 17 March 2015

Theresa May has said the claims a police investigation into the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith was scrapped, and corruption blocked other historic police operations into child abuse, were “shocking and could lead to criminal prosecutions”.

The Conservative home secretary also told a committee of MPs on Tuesday she hoped immunity from prosecution under the Official Secrets Act will be offered to former police officers and intelligence agents who are prepared to testify about allegations of paedophile rings and other child sex abuse to the police, or to the government’s separate public inquiry.

May was speaking after a Newsnight report on Monday that an ex-detective had claimed Smith was arrested in the early 1980s as part of an investigation into child-sex parties, but was released hours later.

Officers were ordered to hand over notebooks and video footage from their undercover operation, the BBC programme claimed, and were told they would be violating the Official Secrets Act if they revealed what had happened.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Piece by piece, the evidence mounts of a high-level paedophile ring in the 1970s and 80s involving figures from what used to be called the establishment: MPs, diplomats, officials and senior police officers. On Tuesday, the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced that it was to supervise an inquiry into the Metropolitan police’s failure to continue inquiries into child abuse because they involved public figures. Later that day, BBC Newsnight alleged that an extensive investigation conducted by the Met in 1981 secured video evidence of sex parties involving the Liberal MP Cyril Smith and a senior figure from the security services abusing teenage boys from care homes. But – according to the Newsnight report – the Met’s investigation was abruptly halted by an unknown senior officer who threatened to prosecute under the Official Secrets Act any officer who revealed what they had found.

If this charge is substantiated, it marks another new low in the wretched history of the failure to protect victims of abuse. But this would be abuse of a different and even darker kind, for it would amount to a grotesque misappropriation of state power. The Official Secrets Act has only one purpose: to protect the security of the state. It is the weapon of last resort, to be employed only in extremes. It is almost beyond belief that it could have been used to stifle an investigation into a crime as terrible as the sexual abuse of children by adults.

There is a second point. Whatever was threatened more than 30 years ago cannot be prayed in aid now. Officers are reportedly telling MPs that they are still worried that they might be prosecuted under the Act. At a session before the cross-party home affairs committee on Tuesday afternoon, the home secretary, Theresa May, agreed to demands that there should be a guarantee of immunity for any officer who gave evidence. Although ultimately it is a matter for the attorney general and the new chair of the child sexual abuse inquiry, the New Zealand judge Justice Lowell Goddard, a precedent has already been set in the inquiry into the Belfast boys home, Kincora, the subject of a separate inquiry. But it is very hard to understand how the threat of prosecution could have power over any officer with evidence of such a crime. Are they really claiming that the state, after all that we have learned over the past few years, is still so wilfully blind to the nature of child abuse that it might threaten official secrets prosecutions in order to stifle the truth?

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

NIGEL MORRIS HELEN CARTER Tuesday 17 March 2015

Police and intelligence officers with information about paedophile rings should be protected from prosecution if they appear before the official inquiry into historic sex abuse, Theresa May has said.

The Home Secretary backed immunity for witnesses following claims that officers investigating the activities of the late Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith were threatened with court action under the Official Secrets Act.

Scotland Yard is being investigated over allegations it covered up child sex abuse because of the involvement of MPs and police officers.

A former detective has claimed that the politician escaped prosecution because other Establishment paedophiles feared he would reveal their identities in court and said he was ordered to drop his investigation into Smith.

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UNITED STATES/CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 16, 2015

Statement by Melanie Sakoda of Moraga CA, Orthodox Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 925-708-6175, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com )

The synod of bishops of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) will be meeting in Syosset, New York, from Tuesday, March 17 through Friday, March 20, 2015.

[Orthodox Church in America]

Members of an abuse survivors’ group are once again urging Orthodox Church in America officials to defrock a high ranking clergyman who was found guilty of molesting a child.

[SNAP]

[SNAP]

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say that the denomination has publicly acknowledged that their sex abuse policy requires that clergy who have been convicted of child sexual abuse be laicized by the synod of bishops.

[Orthodox Church in America]

Archbishop Seraphim Storheim, who for many years was the OCA’s highest ranking clergyman in Canada, was convicted in January of 2014 for sexually violating an 11 year old altar boy in Winnipeg. The archbishop was sentenced to 8 months in jail the following July, but appealed both the conviction and the sentence. However, his conviction and his sentence were recently upheld by the appellate court.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Sounak Mukhopadhyay

New South Wales Police have charged Adelaide Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson with concealing child sexual abuse. This is related to the offences committed by Jim Fletcher, the Hunter region paedophile priest, who worked with Wilson in the ‘70s.

According to NSW Police, the investigation is a part of its operation “Strike Force Lantle”. It said that the operation, launched in 2010, there were serious allegations against clergy “formerly and currently attached to the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese of the Catholic Church” of serious child abuse offences. Police have accused 64-year-old Wilson of concealing a serious offence. According to police, Wilson failed to report a case of child sex abuse allegedly committed by Fletcher.

Wilson is scheduled to appear the Newcastle Local Court on Apr. 30. He issued a statement announcing that he was taking leave from his position as he had been notified of the charges against him. The former Bishop of Wollongong was known as a “healing bishop” there because of the way he had handled child-abuse controversies.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Politics Home

Theresa May has come under fire for refusing to declare the salary of the chairwoman of the inquiry in to historic child sex abuse in England and Wales.

Chair of the Home Select Committee Keith Vaz asked the Home Secretary repeatedly to clarify what Justice Lowell Goddard’s salary would be ahead of the inquiry.

Theresa May responded: “I am not in a position to tell you that in this meeting Mr Chairman.

“That information will be made available in due course.”

Mr Vaz pressed for an answer from the Home Secretary: “You’re telling us that you’re not going to tell the Select Committee how much Judge Goddard is being paid?”

Following a further rebuttal, Mr Vaz said: “I feel very let down by you Home Secretary.

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MASSACHUSETTS
TheMediaReport

David Pierre

In a way it was inevitable: After years of media hysteria over the issue of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Church officials have now decided on a policy of “shoot first, ask questions later” when it comes to even the scantest allegations of impropriety.

In January of this year, in an astonishing act of injustice, Boston’s Cardinal Seán O’Malley forced the resignation of three individuals from a Catholic school in Revere, despite the fact that no one broke any law or did anything wrong.

If it were not clear already, it should be clear now: “Zero tolerance” has now fully morphed into paranoia and cruelty.

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AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priets

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Statement by Nicky Davis, Leader, SNAP Australia, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( nicky@nickydavis.com.au, 0422 538 440 )

Survivors’ long wait for any senior church official to be held responsible for covering up widespread and systemic child sex crimes is finally over.

[BBC News]

At last those who enable and coverup the sexual exploitation of defenseless children are no longer a protected species. We hope this charge is the first of many.

For too long, survivors have seen those responsible for enforcing laws against covering up child sex crimes ignore evidence and fail to investigate case after case.

Most institutional child sexual violence involves senior officials refusing to act, not reporting to police, and allowing predators continued access to their favourite prey.

In NSW this is, and has long been, against the law.

But it is almost never investigated, and there have been no convictions.

Now, thanks to dedicated officers like Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox risking his career to demand action, and courageous survivors, soon no-one in Australia will be above the law.

This one criminal charge will protect more Australian children than decades of empty promises and expensive PR by church officials.

However given the Vatican’s track record of providing a safe haven for child sex predators and those who coverup their crimes, it might be advisable to require Archbishop Wilson to surrender his passport.

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MAINE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 17

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

We’re grateful that a judge has found an ex-Greek Orthodox priest guilty of sexual abuse. Now the focus shifts to his church former colleagues and supervisors.

[WGME]

These church officials have a moral and civic duty to aggressively reach out now to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by Adam Metropoulos or cover ups by his ex-colleagues or superiors. All too often, church officials recruit, educate, ordain, hire, and train clergy, giving them vast authority over and access to vulnerable families and kids. When one of those clerics is caught abusing, church officials immediately distance themselves from him or her and do little or nothing to help law enforcement charge or convict them.

Metropoulos will soon be sentenced. That sentence should be based on as much information as possible. And getting more information about his crimes is possible if only his ex-colleagues and supervisors take immediate steps to find others he may have hurt. They should use church bulletins, parish websites, and pulpit announcements to beg anyone with suspicions or information about Metropoulos to step forward immediately.

We applaud the courage of every victim, witness or whistleblower who helped police and prosecutors convict Metropoulos. We hope Greek Orthodox church officials and members will show similar courage and do everything possible to find and help others who may have been assaulted by this ex-priest.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted March 17, 2015,
.
BANGOR, Maine — A Maine superior court justice on Tuesday found the former priest at St. George Greek Orthodox Church guilty on four counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

Adam Metropoulos, 52, of Bangor took the stand Tuesday and denied sexually assaulting an altar server in 2006 and 2007 when the boy was 15.

He told Superior Court Justice Ann Murray on the second day of his jury-waived trial that he never had sex with the now 23-year-old. Metropoulos admitted that he touched the victim’s genitals over his pajamas once.

The grown altar server, who now lives in Vermont, testified Monday that Metropoulos repeatedly sexually assaulted him when he was 15. The man is not being identified by the Bangor Daily News because is the victim of a sex crime.

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MAINE
WCSH

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) – A former Greek Orthodox priest from Bangor has been convicted of four counts of sexually abusing a child.

A judge delivered the verdict Tuesday against 52-year-old Adam Metropoulos. He will be sentenced in a few weeks.

Metropoulos had already pleaded guilty to child pornography charges.

The trial began Monday with testimony from a former altar boy at St. George Greek Orthodox Church. The man, now 23 years old, said he had been sexually assaulted by Metropoulos when he slept at the priest’s home as a teenager. The man said he often pretended to be asleep during the assaults.

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MAINE
WABI

MAR 17, 20152:

JOHN KRINJAK

A former priest from Bangor has been found guilty on all counts in the child sex trial against him.

On Monday 52-year-old Adam Metropoulos pleaded guilty to child pornography and violation of privacy charges.

Tuesday afternoon Justice Ann Murray found Metropoulos guilty on the four remaining counts relating to sexual abuse of a minor.

Earlier Tuesday Metropoulos took the stand in his own defense.

Metropoulos was the priest at St. George Greek Orthodox Church until his arrest in September.

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MAINE
WGME

March 17, 2015

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A former Greek Orthodox priest charged with sexual abuse of a child has been convicted on all four counts.

A judge delivered the verdict Tuesday against 52-year-old Adam Metropoulos. Sentencing will be in a couple of weeks. Metropoulos had already pleaded guilty to child pornography charges.

The trial began Monday with testimony from a former altar boy at St. George Greek Orthodox Church who said he had been sexually assaulted by Metropoulos when slept at the priest’s home as a teenager.

The man, now 23, says he often pretended to be asleep during the assaults.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JULIA TERRUSO, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Two documentaries by Sam Katz’s Emmy-winning production company will capture Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia – and the months of behind-the-scenes preparation leading up to it.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Monday that it is commissioning Katz’s History Making Productions to create two documentaries. The first will feature the lead-up to Francis’ visit and the World Meeting of Families, an international Catholic conference being held in Philadelphia from Sept. 22 to 25. The second will focus on Francis’ two-day stay that Saturday and Sunday.

The goal is to have the documentaries available for purchase on DVD and digitally in time for the holidays, Katz said. Proceeds will go to the World Meeting of Families – Philadelphia 2015, a nonprofit created to plan the international gathering and the papal visit.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis for two years has mainly continued the quarter century old priest child abuse cover-up policy of his two predecessors, it appears. The policy includes keeping secret Vatican records relating to the cover-up, including some records most recently requested futilely by Australia’s Royal Commission. The papal cover-up policy has completely failed.

Now an Australian Archbishop has become the world’s most senior Catholic leader criminally charged with concealing child abuse.The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has been charged with concealing child sexual abuse by Fr, James Fletcher, who died in prison while serving time for raping an altar boy. If found guilty, the archbishop could serve up to two years in jail. It is uncertain at present whether Wilson’s criminal proceedings will involve any secret Vatican records.

Pope Francis needs to ask whether more criminal charges against bishops, and even cardinals, will soon follow. He needs to revisit his “go slow” approach to curtailing priest child abusers and to holding complicit bishops accountable only to secretive Vatican proceedings. Even one of the pope’s two showpiece abuse survivor commission members, the UK’s Peter Saunders, has now even bravely and boldly offered to take over personally the Vatican child protection efforts, presumably after Saunders has gotten to see up close the “go slow” commission’s selective and inadequate efforts.

Francis needs a real “gamechanger”. He needs to call for an ecumenical council, as Pope John XXIII did over a half century ago. and make the subject of bishop accountability a top priority item for the new council.

Given the escalating governmental investigations, in Australia (including of Archbishop Wilson and Cardinal Pell), in the UK ( including of Cardinal O’Brien), in Minneapolis (including of Archbishop Niensted and his former vicar, the brother of President Obama’s Chief of Staff), in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (USA) (including of Archbishop Wesolowski), and in many other countries, Pope Francis, in his self declared short remaining papacy, will need all the trust he can generate now by giving the full truth, without spin, to Catholics. A full airing at a council can help build that trust.

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FLORIDA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on another questionable accusation against a priest:

I do not know Father Leo Riley but I trust him when he says he is innocent of charges recently made against him: the Floridian priest, who is assigned to a parish in East Naples, is being accused of sexually abusing someone when he worked in an Iowan parish. Why might I be inclined to believe him and not his accuser?

First, the accusation extends back 30 years. If someone were violated, why would it take three decades to come forward? Not for a moment do I believe the much-discredited notion of “repressed memory.” The psychological evidence conclusively shows that the more serious the experience the less likely it is for the victim to “forget” it, even temporarily.

Second, Father Riley has never had an accusation made against him, until now. Abusers typically have a track record—they tend not to be one-time offenders. This priest is 58, so if he were a predator, in all likelihood we would at least know of charges against him that were dismissed. There aren’t any.

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CONNECTICUT
The Kansas City Star

BY DAVE COLLINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
03/17/2015

HARTFORD, CONN.
A suspended Roman Catholic priest who authorities say dealt pounds of methamphetamine and bought a sex shop to possibly launder his drug money is asking a federal judge for leniency when he is sentenced next week.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin’s public defender filed a sentencing request in federal court in Hartford on Monday. It cited Wallin’s three decades of charitable service as well as more than 80 letters of support, including one from the late Cardinal Edward Egan.

The 63-year-old Wallin pleaded guilty in 2013 to a methamphetamine conspiracy charge and agreed to a possible prison sentence of 10 to 11 years. Sentencing is scheduled for March 24.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article15017579.html#storylink=cpy

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CONNECTICUT
News 12

[with video]

BRIDGEPORT – The lawyer for a suspended Catholic priest who allegedly ran a meth ring is asking the judge for leniency when he is sentenced next week.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin pleaded guilty in 2013 to a conspiracy charge and agreed to a possible prison sentence of 10 to 11 years.

Wallin is now asking for four years in prison and 500 hours of community service.

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UNITED STATES
eMissourian

Reviewed by Bill Schwab

Irish author John Boyne’s insightful novel, “A History of Loneliness” is an insightful novel about a dark side of his country’s recent church history, the revelation that pedophile priests have been passed from parish to parish by a hierarchy unwilling to expose the scandals. Boyne describes this tragedy by creating a gripping narrative with a sharp, flowing dialogue.

Father Odran Yates, an honorable Irish priest, has served as the chaplain of a boy’s school for nearly 30 years. He has never abused a student, but early in the novel his former seminary roommate is found guilty of multiple abuses, jailed and put on the sexual offender list for life.

As the scandal emerges, Yates sees trust in the church collapsing around him and observes the scandal’s damaging consequences in the young lives of parishioners. Yates himself becomes a suspect and is treated as a pariah by people who previously respected him. He grows reluctant to appear in public for fear of insults and disapproving stares. Then, Yates himself is arrested for taking the hand of a young boy in a department store in order to help the child find his mother. Despite the charge against him being dropped, he grieves that he can no longer even talk to a child without getting strange looks nor can he have a meeting with the altar boys without a parent present.

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UNITED STATES
Frum Follies

For five days I have anguished about a perverse rabbinical court ruling. It twists facts and tangles logic; it betrays honest witnesses and rewards those who lied. It does all this to protect institutions and jobs.

If Abraham had been pleading to this rabbinical court, he would have dispensed with appeals to a just G-d. He wouldn’t have concerned himself with the number of righteous people. He wouldn’t have settled with just bringing out his nephew Lot and Lot’s family. Instead he would have declared: “Surely a just rabbinical court would not let 150 people lose their jobs, not when they are supporting men who learn Torah in kollel, not when they come from prominent families.”

‘Sire, Sodom and Gomorrah are requesting Federal disaster relief aid.’Abraham would not have even settled for demoting just those who allowed Sodomy to happen on their watch. Abraham would have pleaded, “But surely a just rabbinical court realizes that if we admit this much, everyone else will be tainted. No! You must declare that you believe all who claimed ‘my hands did not shed this blood or even knew about it.’”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Frum Follies

The enlarged joint beis din issued a ruling on the Meisels seminaries which was posted on the Daas Torah blog on 3/11/15 with the misleading title, “Joint Beis Din – Israeli and Chicago – issues psak regarding former Meisels seminaries that all is well and that no one needed to be fired!”

I ask my readers to forgive me for taking six days to respond. But a travesty of this magnitude deserves a full fledged report and rejoinder, not just a nasty swipe.

Further below is a full translation of the entire document posted on Daas Torah. But, first some observations and cautions.

Eidensohn’s claims notwithstanding, the ruling criticizes some staff and did some fancy footwork to exonerate others. Mrs. Hindy Ullman was a tough one to exonerate because the Beis Din received evidence she was directly told of an abused student and she dismissed it out of hand characterizing the student as not credible.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By NICK BIELBY March 17, 2015

Catholic church abuse victims say a criminal charge against the Archbishop of Adelaide for allegedly failing to report crimes against children in the Hunter shows the church is not above the law.

A former Maitland priest, Archbishop Philip Wilson has become the most senior Catholic clergyman to be charged with concealing the sexual abuse of children.

Police attached to Strike Force Lantle charged the 64-year-old with concealing a serious offence yesterday.

He is accused of failing to report the abuse of defrocked priest James Fletcher when both men were working in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese in the 1970s.

Vacy man Peter Gogarty, who was one of Fletcher’s victims between 1972 and 1978, said he had always believed other ­members of the clergy knew about Fletcher’s actions.

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SCOTLAND
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Mar. 17, 2015

Pope Francis has in hand a report on the allegations regarding Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the former Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland, who stood down in 2013 after admitting sexual misconduct, The Tablet is reporting.

In February 2013 as O’Brien was preparing to leave for Rome and the conclave that would elect Pope Francis, a number of priests and one former priest went public with allegations of sexual misconduct by O’Brien, much of it stretching back for years the men’s seminary days. O’Brien did not attend the conclave and resigned shortly before it was convened.

Last year, Francis sent Charles Scicluna, then an auxiliary bishop in Malta and now an archbishop there, to investigate the allegations against O’Brien. That is the report that Francis has, and according to one of the men whom Scicluna interviewed, it’s “hot enough to burn the varnish” off the Pope’s desk.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

According to a former officer, police were told to hand over all their evidence, as Nick Hopkins reports

An undercover police operation that gathered evidence of child abuse by Cyril Smith and other public figures was scrapped shortly after the MP was arrested, BBC Newsnight has been told.

The Liberal MP, who died in 2010, was held during a 1980s probe into alleged sex parties with teenage boys in south London, a source told the programme.

The source said Smith was released from a police station within hours.

The Met is looking into the handling of historical child sex abuse cases.

The force would not comment on the details of the allegations about Smith put to them by Newsnight.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WJLA

WASHINGTON (WJLA) – A Metropolitan Police officer who also serves as pastor of a D.C. church was arrested Monday night for allegedly sexually abusing a teen girl.

On Saturday, a 16-year-old girl and parishioner of God-A Second Chance Ministry in Southeast Washington reported to D.C. police that 45-year-old Darrell Best, of Upper Marlboro, Md., had sexually abused her on three different occasions dating back to December 2014 while he was off duty.

A warrant was issued for Best on Sunday on a charge of First Degree Sex Abuse of a Minor. He was arrested in Largo, Md. on Monday.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Julie Zauzmer March 17

A D.C. police officer who was also a pastor was charged Monday with sexually abusing a teenager who attended the church that he led.

Darrell Best, 45, of Upper Marlboro was arrested in Largo at about 9 p.m. Monday, two days after the teen came forward to report the abuse, according to a D.C. police press release. Best was charged with first-degree sex abuse of a minor.

The police statement said that the victim, who is 16, told police that Best was her pastor at God-A Second Chance Ministry Church and that he abused her three times, starting in December. Police obtained a warrant for Best’s arrest the next day.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CBS DC

WASHINGTON (WNEW) — A D.C. police officer and pastor has been arrested and charged with first degree sex abuse of a minor.

Investigators say a 16-year-old girl reported that she was a victim of 45-year-old Darrell Best of Upper Marlboro three times starting in December.

The girl attends the church where Best preaches, God-A Second Chance Ministry Church in Southeast.

Best was arrested in Largo Monday evening.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
New York Daily News

BY TOBIAS SALINGER NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A Washington, D.C., cop and preacher is accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl from his church on three occasions in the past four months.

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Darrell Best, 45, on Monday night, two days after a 16-year-old God-A Second Chance Ministry Church congregant came forward as an alleged victim, police announced late Monday night.

“She felt intimidated to the point that she couldn’t resist,” a man claiming to be the girl’s father told WTTG-TV.

Another church member, an 18-year-old woman, has said that Best prepositioned her, WTTG reported.

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AUSTRALIA
BBC News

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has been charged with concealing child sexual abuse by a priest in the 1970s.

He denies failing to report abuse carried out by Jim Fletcher, who died in prison in 2006 while serving time for raping an altar boy.

If found guilty the archbishop could serve up to two years in jail.

The charge came amid a nationwide investigation into paedophilia in institutions.

Archbishop Wilson, 64, said he would be taking leave from his position and added he would fight the charge.

“I intend to vigorously defend my innocence through the judicial system,” he said in a statement, adding that he was also committed to dealing with the issue of child sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

LIKE all citizens charged with a crime, the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, 64, is innocent unless he is found guilty. He was charged yesterday with concealing child sex abuse by another priest in the 1970s. Appropriately, the Archbishop has taken indefinite leave. He has promised to “vigorously defend my innocence” against the charge of concealing a serious indictable offence. If convicted, he could face two years’ jail.

The decision by NSW Police to charge the Archbishop, first revealed by The Australian online yesterday, is a further sign that after years of inaction, bungling and cover-ups, the wheels of justice are turning for victims of sex abuse in Australia. Case by case, testimony by testimony, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have dug deep to uncover the ugly truth.

For 20 years, the moral authority of Christian and other churches has been torn asunder by revelations of abuse by priests and others in privileged positions of trust, and by the cover-ups of church authorities. The problem also extends far beyond churches, of course, to schools, state orphanages, sports clubs and foster homes. Many cases, sadly, occur within families.

Archbishop Wilson’s predicament will not help the church’s credibility. He is understood to be the most senior Catholic official worldwide to face such a charge, although several bishops have been accused of similar conduct. The Archbishop is vice-president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, a body he previously led as president for six years. Before his promotion to Adelaide in 2001 he was bishop of Wollongong and, earlier, vicar-general of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. It was a problematic diocese for decades and a dangerous place for vulnerable children. Numerous cases of abuse by priests have emerged. In August 2012, another former vicar-general, Tom Brennan, became the first Australian Catholic priest charged with concealing child abuse committed by another. Brennan died before he faced trial.

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NEDERLAND
de Stentor

[An Australian pedophile was apprehended in the Philippines through action by police in the Netherlands.]

DEN HAAG (ANP) – Een gewelddadige Australische pedofiel is in de Filipijnen gearresteerd na onderzoek door de Nederlandse politie.

Een 10-arig meisje is waarschijnlijk omgekomen door het misbruik en de mishandelingen door de man. Dat heeft de politie donderdag bekendgemaakt.

Zeker 8 minderjarige meisjes zijn slachtoffer geworden. Het lichaam van het 10-jarige meisje is opgegraven uit de vloer van een voormalige woning van de Australiër.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

[Troubled Children of God. Victims talk about their abuse.]

Von Matthias Drobinski

Es sind diese Zeichnungen ins Schwarz und Weiß, die im Zuschauer die Beklemmung wachsen lassen. Sebastian Bellwinkel und Birgit Wärnke haben auf die üblichen Betroffenen-Interviews verzichtet, bei denen Opfer ihr Gesicht nicht zeigen wollen und deshalb im Halbdunkel reden, mit verpixelten Gesichtern, als seien sie die Täter. Sie haben die Geschichten aus den Interviews und den Gerichtsprotokollen zu kleinen, düsteren Comics verdichtet. E

in großer mächtiger Mann mit Priesterkragen und spiegelnden Brillengläsern verborgen, beugt sich über ein schockstarres Kind mit angstgeweiteten Augen, eine Hand tastet sich vor. Und man ahnt, warum die Opfer sexueller Gewalt oft ein Leben lang nicht von der Tat loskommen, erst recht nicht, wenn der Täter Gott auf seiner Seite zu haben scheint.

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AUSTRALIEN
Spiegel

Adelaide – Gegen den katholischen Erzbischof von Adelaide sind Ermittlungen wegen der Deckung von Kindesmissbrauch eingeleitet worden. Die Polizei des australischen Bundesstaats New South Wales hat ein offizielles Ermittlungsverfahren gegen Philip Wilson eröffnet.

Dem 64-Jährigen wird vorgeworfen, in den Siebzigern einen Missbrauchsfall nicht gemeldet zu haben, der mutmaßlich von dem inzwischen verstorbenen Priester Jim Fletcher begangen wurde. Fletcher, bekannte Pädophiler, arbeitete damals zusammen mit Wilson in einer Diözese bei Newcastle.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WTOP

WASHINGTON — A Metropolitan Police Department officer and pastor has been arrested for sex abuse of a minor.

Darrell Best, 45, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland was arrested and charged on Monday, March 16.

On Saturday a 16-year-old girl reported to the Metropolitan Police Department that on three occasions, beginning in December 2014, she was a victim of Best who also acts as pastor of God of a Second Chance Ministry Church in Southeast D.C.

Best was arrested in Largo, Maryland after an investigation.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Mar. 16, 2015

MILWAUKEE A retired Milwaukee priest, who is also a certified public account, is asking that the FBI to investigate why $7.8 million was spent by the Milwaukee Archdiocesan Cemetery Trust Fund over a four-year period during which the cemeteries operations generated net profits each year.

The priest, Fr. James Connell, told NCR that he contacted the archdiocese with his questions before sending his letter to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley who is handling the Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition filed by the archdiocese more than four years ago.

Connell, also a former vice chancellor for the archdiocese, said that archdiocesan spokesman Jerry Topczewski responded to his email saying that the funds were used solely as they were intended “but he gave me no explanation for where I was wrong or what I missed in their statements.”

“I have not seen the letter, but I’m not sure what standing Father [Connell] has with Judge Kelley,” Topczewski told NCR. “Nonetheless, the archdiocese’s financial statements, expenditures, etc., have been available to the creditors’ committee for more than 4 years and their accountants, BRG, have certainly scrutinized them.

“Regarding any money received from the cemetery perpetual care trust, those monies are used solely for the purpose for which they were intended – the perpetual care of archdiocesan cemeteries.”

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