ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 21 May 2015)

A Christian Brother, Peter John Toomey, had a habit of indecently assaulting students at a Melbourne Catholic secondary school in the presence of other students, a court has been told. Toomey also taught in other schools including in Ballarat, in regional Victoria. In May 2015, Brother Toomey was mentioned by a Ballarat victim at a public hearing of Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission 2015.

Peter Toomey joined the Victoria-Tasmania province of the Christian Brothers order (the St Patrick’s province) about 1967, when he was aged 18. In 1972, aged 23, he was teaching a variety of subjects in Years 7 and 8 at Trinity Regional College in Brunswick, in Melbourne’s inner north.

In 1998, an ex-student of this school (“Boris”, born in 1960) was having a personal crisis at the age of 38. In discussions with his parents, he revealed how he had been sexually abused by Brother Toomey at the Brunswick school in 1972-3, when he was aged 12. Boris’s father then phoned Broken Rites, asking how to obtain justice. Broken Rites explained that this was a matter for the Victoria Police Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT). Broken Rites provided the phone number of the SOCIT unit.

Boris told the SOCIT unit that he was not Toomey’s only victim. Police managed to locate ten of Toomey’s former students, who provided written statements. These were not necessarily Toomey’s only victims — they were merely those who were interviewed by police. The case was investigated by Detective Tony Mousa of the Brunswick Criminal Investigation Unit, Melbourne.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 21 May 2015)

After committing sexual crimes against boys, Christian Brother Stephen Francis Farrell left his religious order. He then taught in other Catholic schools as “Mister” Farrell and he married three times. But, by December 2013, three of his earlier pupils had got him convicted for his crimes. In one of the court hearings (in 1997), Farrell was supported in court by Jesuit priest Michael McGirr (this made Farrell’s victims feel that they were being abused again). In May 2015, several of Farrell’s victims gave evidence at a public hearing of Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission.

In the early 1970s, St Alipius Catholic boys’ primary school in Ballarat (105 kilometres west of Melbourne) had four classes: for grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. In the early 1970s, four Christian Brothers there were committing sexual crimes against their pupils. In addition, the school chaplain, Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale, was doing likewise.

Brother Stephen Farrell, then aged in his early twenties, taught at St Alipius school in 1973-74.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 22 May 2015)

In 2015, an American Catholic Brother (Brother Bernard Hartman, 75) has been convicted in Australia for committing a series of sexual crimes against Australian children while he worked at a Melbourne school more than 30 years ago. He is believed to be the first Catholic clergy member extradited from the United States to face court in Australia.

Brother Hartman, born in the United States, is a member of an international Catholic religious order known as the Marianist brothers and priests. He worked in Australian schools in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In court in Australia he was charged with sexual assaults on two boys and two girls while he was working at St Paul’s College in Altona, a suburb in Melbourne’s west. (This was then a boys’ school, operated by the Marianist religious order, but now has become one of the campuses of the Catholic Church’s co-educational Emmanuel College.)

The attacks, on victims aged between six and 16, occurred between 1976 and 1982 when Brother Hartman worked at the school. The court was told that the alleged assaults occurred at both the school and at the victims’ homes.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

TOM BOGGIONI
23 MAY 2015

The founder of a chain of Christian “treatment” centers Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar sent their eldest son to for molesting five girls — including his sisters — resigned in 2014 under a cloud of accusations that he had “sexually groomed” and harassed young women and teens in his ministry.

According to RadarOnline Josh Duggar was taken by his father to the Basic Life Principles Training Center in Little Rock, for counseling after admitting to groping the young girls.

Bill Gothard, a Christian writer and minister, founded the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) in 1961, as a way to help families resolve issues by using Biblical principles. Among the services offered at IBLP are ministry seminars, community outreach, counseling for troubled Christians, and mentoring Christian youth.

In an interview, Harold Walker, a former leader at the Little Rock location said he recalled Josh Duggar being brought in, but couldn’t recall the reasons why.

“I really don’t remember the circumstances on why Josh came to our center,” Walker said, “He came down … they used to work at the center, the entire family did.”

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Abby Ohlheiser

This week, a shocking series of allegation, apology and repercussions rocked one of the most famous families in reality television. Josh Duggar, the oldest son of the Duggar family, apologized Thursday after a tabloid published allegations that Duggar had molested multiple young girls as a teenager. A day later, TLC announced that the family’s show, “19 Kids and Counting,” which just finished airing its most recent season Tuesday, had pulled all episodes of the program off the air “effective immediately.”

Although the developments moved quickly, the allegations themselves have existed out of the public eye for more than a decade. A police report obtained by In Touch Weekly and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette appears to detail those allegations, though the names of the suspect and all of the victims have been redacted from the report, because all were minors at the time.

In Touch Weekly, based on its unnamed sources, has said that the redacted suspect in the report is Josh Duggar. The Democrat-Gazette noted that the details of the report it has reviewed match statements made by the Duggars concerning the unspecified “wrongdoing” for which Josh Duggar has apologized. Although Josh Duggar was named by both publications and made statements of apology, he has not specifically addressed the molestation allegations.

What follows is a timeline of the case and some of its context, using the police report as a basis. The Democrat-Gazette has published an exhaustive investigation into the circumstances laid out in the report it obtained. The full document with police redaction was published by In Touch Weekly.

March 2002: This is when the Duggar parents say they were first made aware of allegations that a person in their home was improperly touching others, according to a 2006 statement to police. The couple added that the person confessed to the behavior in July of that same year. Josh Duggar would have been about 14 years old at the time these incidents occurred.

May 2002: Jim Bob Duggar, the family patriarch, who served in the state legislature as a representative from 1999-2002, loses a primary bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.

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UNITED STATES
Philly.com

ALLEN REED, ASSOCIATED PRESS
POSTED: Sunday, May 24, 2015

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – TLC pulled the reality series 19 Kids and Counting from its schedule Friday, a move that follows reports of sexual misconduct allegations against one of the stars, Josh Duggar, when he was a juvenile.

Also Friday, Arkansas police said they had destroyed a record outlining a nearly decade-old investigation into Duggar, 27, a day after he resigned his role with a prominent conservative Christian group amid reports about the allegations.

The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which obtained the offense report before its destruction, reports Duggar was accused of inappropriate contact with five girls in 2002 and 2003. Duggar issued an apology Thursday on Facebook for unspecified bad behavior as a youth and resigned his role as executive director for FRC Action, the tax-exempt legislative action arm of the Washington-based Family Research Council.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 24, 2015

Konrad Marshall

Normally swung shut and baldly unadorned, the wrought iron gates of the early Gothic church were flung wide open on Sunday morning, and tied with colourful ribbons.

They will remain that way at St Patrick’s Cathedral throughout the course of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat, as an expression of the parish desire to be open to this ongoing pain.

Father Justin Driscoll was dressed in resplendent red for Mass, and he stood above the congregation of 100 or more, both welcoming and commanding, his hands raised as the searching homily began.

“I don’t know what to say – and don’t know what not to say,” he said, pausing. “Part of me wants to be silent for long enough to allow the real impact of this past week to simply stay with us.”

It has been a rough few days to be Catholic in this part of the world, and will be rougher still in the coming two weeks as the hearings continue. And yet the parishioners of this place are open to what comes of the investigation.

“We’ve heard so much about our church culture, that has enabled these crimes to continue – a culture of power and secrecy, silencing and clericalism, of protecting the institution,” Father Driscoll continued. “For us it continues to be hard to hear, and it continues to be hard to bear, but that is no reason to seek to silence those voices who are seeking to bring the truth. Those who are speaking need our encouragement, not our condemnation.”

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IRELAND
Independent (UK)

Ireland gay marriage: Church’s decision not to lead No campaign recognised remarkable new reality

PAUL VALLELY

In 1987, the plain people of Ireland were asked in a referendum whether or not they wanted divorce to be made legal in their country. They overwhelmingly voted No. Hardly surprising, everyone said, since Ireland was the most Catholic country in Europe. No more.
The massive vote in favour of legalising gay marriage in the same country charted the profound transformation undergone by Irish society in a single generation.

In less than three decades, the Catholic Church has lost its grip on the Irish. From being one of Europe’s most socially conservative societies, Ireland has become the first country in the world to approve same-sex marriage – one of the modern world’s defining issues – not from the legislation of a parliamentary elite, but through a poll of the whole people.

The self-destruction of the institutional church has been spectacular. Revelations over the extent of sexual abuse by predatory priests have undermined the moral authority of the Catholic hierarchy and overturned the nearest thing Europe had to a theocracy. It was not just paedophile priests. Scandals involving regimes of physical and psychological cruelty have been laid bare involving nuns and religious brothers in schools, care homes and the infamous Magdalene laundries set up by the church for single mothers and “fallen women”.

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JAMAICA
Gleaner

A 53-year-old Westmoreland pastor is now behind bars on sex charges involving a minor.

Pastor Elvis Thompson is charged with having sex with someone under 16 years old and grievous sexual assault.

Thompson is from Cave district, near Bluefields in Westmoreland.

It is reported that last year, the victim went to the pastor’s house to collect payment for goods and was assaulted and raped.

The matter was reported to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse and following an investigation, a file was sent to the Defender of Public Prosecution, Paula Llewellyn.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – The Westmoreland Police yesterday charged a pastor with having sexual intercourse with a minor and also with Grievous Sexual Assault.

Reports are that in 2014, the victim, who was sent to his house to collect payment for goods, was assaulted and raped. The matter was reported to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), and following an investigation, a file was prepared and sent to the office of the Director of Public Prosecution who ruled that the pastor be charged.

The court date will be announced at a later time.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Jody Corcoran

24/05/2015

The overwhelming Yes vote in favour of same-sex marriage must represent an end to the influence and power of the Catholic church over the political and social trajectory of politics and society.

But as the country embarks on a new era, post Celtic Tiger, economic collapse and austerity, this is a good time to ask: With what have we replaced the overbearing authority of that discredited church?

The decline of the church’s influence over the nation’s morals, more specifically over education, health and, to a lesser extent, social services, has been evident for more than three decades.

That diminished authority is more often than not associated with revelations to do with the sexual abuse of children, which began to emerge in the mid-1990s.

It can be pinpointed, however, to the first in a series of scandals when the Bishop of Galway, Eamon Casey, resigned in 1992 after it was discovered that he was the father of a teenage son.

That revelation may have exposed the hypocrisy of the church; but it was the sex-abuse scandals, specifically the controversy in 1995 over the extradition of a paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth, which also brought down the government, that accelerated the decline of the church.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Megan Neil
Sunday 24 May 2015

Catholic church leaders buried their heads about clergy abusing children in Ballarat and should have made victims a priority, a priest convicted of indecent assault has told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Paul David Ryan, 66, told the commission he could not explain how so many notorious pedophiles came to operate in Ballarat diocese at the same time. But he agreed the culture of the diocese allowed it.

“And that allowed me to happen too, even though I was independent of them,” Ryan told the commission during a private hearing, according to a tendered transcript.

“Probably a gross misdirection of who should be supported, for a start: in other words, victims weren’t made a priority.

“Certainly burying their head about their responsibilities and seeing if, ‘OK, let’s try and avoid making this a scandal’, and all that type of thing.”

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | May 23, 2015

The stunning vote of the Irish to legalize same-sex marriage will be taken as one more indication (along with the legalization of divorce and homosexual behavior and abortion if the mother’s life is at risk, plus the decline in Mass attendance and priestly vocations) of the collapse of the Catholic Church in a country where it once bestrode the sod like a colossus. Such would appear to be the wages of a rolling sexual abuse scandal, particularly acute because of the church’s control of public education, and the ugly history of its abusive homes for wayward boys and girls.

But for all that, Ireland remains a country where over 70 percent of the population identifies as Catholic, where a higher proportion of Catholics go to Mass than in the U.S., where the divorce rate is low. And yet, every Irish political party supported the referendum and the citizenry voted in favor by a 62-38 margin. What gives?

What gives, in part, is that Catholicism, understood as a religious culture rather than as a set of official doctrines, is far more amenable to same-sex marriage than is generally thought. Unlike Protestantism, it never valorized the nuclear family as the church in miniature. Catholics have, by contrast, exercised their analogical imaginations in understanding nuns as married to Jesus and bishops to their dioceses. Priests are fathers; abbeys are governed by mother superiors; monks are brothers; nuns are sisters. In Catholicism, there have always been different kinds of holy families that love makes — and so, why not add one more? It’s no accident that Catholics in the U.S. — white, Hispanic, and otherwise — support same-sex marriage at the same rate as the Irish voted.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis honeymoon with Catholics is definitely over! Predominantly Catholic Ireland has now overwhelmingly rejected one of Pope Francis’ key positions by permitting same sex marriage. This follows the recent Catholic revolt in a Chilean cathedral against Pope Francis’ controversial bishop appointment (see here and YouTube ). As a result, the Archbishop of Dublin has publicly and boldly challenged the pope to “get real”. The Irish voted to allow same-sex marriage, by direct referendum by almost a two to one margin, with one of highest voter turnouts ever at more than 60 per cent. This despite ample US funding of the anti-gay supporters, see “US Christians bankrolling “No Vote” in Ireland’s anti-gay marriage crusade”.

This is very bad news for the pope and his “low tax” US Republican billionaire backers with their “anti-gay marriage” crusade now underway for next year’s US presidential elections. An Irish government minister reflected expletively the reaction of many angry Catholics, worldwide, who overwhelming and emphatically reject the pope’s hypocritical and homophobic position in a Church with a signicant number of actively gay clerics. The minister tweeted after the Irish vote, “F*** Yeah!”

The pope’s main source of political power with right wing leaders worldwide derives from his potential ability in elections to “bring out” targeted and mainly single issue fundamentalist voters on issues like gay marriage and abortion. That potential influence is declining rapidly due to the sex abuse and financials scandals. This has been clearly indicated by the Irish vote, as well as by recently popular petitions focused on Cardinals George Pell’s and Timothy Dolan’s alleged abuse cover-ups and callous disregard for abuse survivors. Indeed, the Vatican’s Irish anti-gay crusade paradoxically brought out more papal opposition voters, as is likely to occur in next year’s US elections as well.

Also, more than 65,000 people in just a few days have signed a petition calling for Cardinal George Pell to return to his native Australia and face a government commission on child sex abuse, after allegations that he tried to bribe the victim of a pedophile priest. Addressed to Pope Francis, the Change.org petition calls for Pell — the Vatican’s financial chief and former archbishop of Sydney — to answer questions under oath. Please see “Political leader calls on Cardinal Pell to face Royal Commission” , “‘Australia’s worst pedophile priest’ ” , and “Cardinal Pell is ‘weak and ineffectual’and not very smart” .

Please see also my “A Pope, A New US War, Jeb Bush Neocons & Big Oil” , “By Sacking Only Bishop Finn, Now Pope’s Interests Are First, No?“, “Cardinals Pell and O’Malley Show Limits of Reform”, “Alleged Crimes of Philly Cardinals: Will Pope Act?“, “Now Chile Bishop Revolt Reaches Ireland, USA & UK” and “NY’s Cardinal Dolan, Criminals, & Hypocrisy” .

A few days ago in an last minute and desperate Irish Times article, Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin tried unsuccessfully to use Pope Francis’ media created popularity: “My position is that of Pope Francis, who, in the debates around same-sex marriage in Argentina, made it very clear that he was against legalising same-sex marriage, … “. Now after Irish Catholics overwhelmingly rejected the pope’s and Martin’s position, Martin reportedly has directly challenged the pope publicly in pertinent part (in italics): “It’s a social revolution {the Irish vote} that’s been going on – perhaps in the Church people have not been as clear in understanding what that involved, … We have to stop and have a reality check, not move into denial of the realities. We won’t begin again with a sense of renewal with a sense of denial, … I ask myself, most of these young people who voted yes {to allow same sex marriage} are products of our Catholic school system for 12 years. I’m saying there’s a big challenge there …” (emphasis mine)

In the weeks running up to the voting day and under Vatican direction evidentally, a series of Catholic bishops futilely issued public letters to their congregations outlining their objections to same sex marriage. The Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, even threatened that the Irish Catholic hierarchy might even reconsider its position on whether priests would continue to solemnise the civil aspect of a marriage if a vote approving same sex marriage were passed. That foolish threat backfired apparently.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune MAY 23, 2015

Fallout continues to jolt Catholic institutions across Minnesota as a landmark law permitting lawsuits for older claims of clergy sex abuse marks its second anniversary this week.

Just last week the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis removed a priest from active ministry in Richfield — bringing to 69 the number of accused priests it has identified since the law was passed.

Earlier this month a young Hibbing priest was arrested and jailed for sexual misconduct with three girls, reflecting Catholics’ heightened awareness of contacting law enforcement, not just the church.

A Catholic nun and her religious order were sued last month by a Shakopee man for sexual improprieties, a sign of the law’s widening impact.

The current trial of former priest Francis Hoefgen in Dakota County — a rare criminal prosecution of a priest for child sex abuse — was sparked by an alleged victim emboldened by the new law.

“This is the biggest shake-up in the history of the Catholic Church in Minnesota,” said Charles Reid, a professor of civil and canon law at the University of St. Thomas. “The church has always been a powerful institution in the state — just look the height of the cathedral compared to the State Capitol. What we’re seeing is a humbling of that.”

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ARKANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 22

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

Shame on GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee for defending Josh Duggar by attacking those who report on his admitted abuse and using inflammatory words like “bloodlust.”

In a Facebook post, Huckabee wrote”(Josh) and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities.” That’s a disingenuous statement and a reckless assumption.

It’s disingenuous because Duggar’s parents waited a year before contacting law enforcement about these crimes. Hiding child sex crimes for a year is hardly “open and honest.”

And it’s reckless because Huckabee doesn’t really know whether the Duggars were “honest” with secular authorities about this tragic situation.

“No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story,” Huckabee claims. Those who commit and conceal child sex crimes often make this claim: that no good comes from talking about abuse and cover up. We believe just the reverse.

And history, psychology and good sense suggest otherwise. The more our society discusses, debates and discloses child sex crimes, the safer kids will be. Silence helps wrongdoers. Silence hurts kids.

In his Facebook post, Huckabee repeatedly bashed the media for showing “insensitive bloodthirst” in dredging up things that occurred when Duggar was underage.

It may not be too late to pursue charges against Duggar’s parents or others, possibly for endangering kids, destroying evidence, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, failure to report suspected abuse or other related offenses. We urge law enforcement officials to work hard investigating this case. And we urge pundits like Huckabee and others to put the healing of victims, the safety of kids, the punishment of wrongdoers, the deterring of cover ups ahead of their personal views of or feelings towards their ideological or personal friends.

Finally, Huckabee is wrong to talk forgiveness at this point. Forgiveness is a personal, private choice. Endangering kids is an irresponsible public act. That’s what the Duggar family apparently did.

A victim can choose to forgive their predator. That’s admirable. But I can’t knowingly allow him the chance to hurt others. That’s irresponsible.

If we allow a convicted drunken driver to get behind the wheel of a school bus filled with kids, is that forgiveness or folly?

It’s painful when some misunderstand and misapply the notion of forgiveness in ways that lead to putting other innocent kids and vulnerable adults in harm’s way again, even in cases of proven, serial, predatory behavior by dangerous men.

One other quick point: we forgive after, not during, wrong-doing. In many instances, even now, the church hierarchy continues to act secretively, callously and recklessly, which makes it extremely hard for some victims to even begin thinking about forgiveness. If it becomes clear that Duggar’s family is not still hiding child sex crimes, then and only then will it be time to consider forgiveness.

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UNITED STATES
Roger Canaff

What we know: Josh Duggar’s admission is great fodder against Duggar Family Values, which include anti-gay stances as well as assertions that “non-traditional” values endanger children.

What we don’t know: What created the awful urges in Josh to begin with. Those opposed to what this powerful family both believes and attempts to influence politically are triumphantly declaring things like home-schooling and hyper-religiosity to be petri dishes for the kind of sexual deviance Josh displayed as a teenager.

They’re probably wrong.

As deliciously tempting as it is for some on my side of the political spectrum to demonize the Duggars and their way of life as some sort of catalyst for awful behavior, there’s little psychological evidence to support that. In fact, Josh’s deviance was most likely not (in and of itself) the product of home schooling or any other religious dogma or tradition the Duggars took part in. Sexual deviance, as far we know at this point, does not generate that way. More likely, Josh was (or is) deviant for reasons we don’t understand, but that are probably innate (“nature”) and/or the product of his environment (“nurture”), but in a different way than we normally observe. …

Therefore, the question better asked is not “what made this happen?” but “what allowed it to flourish and continue in that particular situation?” In the case of the world of “19 and Counting,” we should look, as always, to an institution.

In Josh Duggar’s world, the institution of dogmatic, insular Christianity provided him two things: First, It made it easier for him not only to offend, but to get away with offending. Second, it did so in a manner that leaves him today free of legal consequences, still married, and still employable. Here’s how:

Whatever Josh was (or is), he grew up in a male-dominated world where “the father is the head of the family as Christ is the head of the Church.” Firstly, his was an environment that exalted a Christian-based order that, among other things, clamped down on any opposition or suggestion of “rebellion.” This very likely discouraged his victims from reporting his actions to other family members or anyone who might have made a difference. Rebellion, after all, can be perceived as anything that upsets the proverbial apple cart. This was a fact probably not lost on Josh himself as he chose his victims.

Secondly, this same Christian-based worldview necessitated, as it does with any religiously based orthodoxy, an “in-house” solution to conflict or deviant behavior within the environment. Why? Because it reinforces the idea that the religion itself has within it the answer to every problem- there is never a need to consult outside sources which are doubtlessly less pure and enlightened.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has called for the Church to take a reality check after the gay marriage vote.

Archbishop Martin declared the groundswell of support for same-sex couples was a social revolution that did not happen in the last day.

“It’s a social revolution that’s been going on – perhaps in the Church people have not been as clear in understanding what that involved,” he said.

“It’s clear that if the referendum is an affirmation of the views of young people the Church has a huge task in front of it.”

In the weeks running up to polling day, a series of Catholic bishops issued open letters to congregations outlining their concerns about gay marriage and why the Church would not support the reform.

The Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, said the hierarchy may even reconsider its position on whether priests would continue to solemnise the civil aspect of a marriage if the vote was passed.

But Archbishop Diarmuid Martin called on Church leaders to take a look at itself and how it interacts with young people and their views.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

TOM BOGGIONI
23 MAY 2015

Fans of the the Duggar family reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, have taken to Twitter to express support for the Duggar daughters, four of whom were reportedly molested by eldest brother Josh Duggar when they were little girls.

While much attention has been paid to Josh Duggar –who has admitted to sexual improprieties with the girls as well as another young woman who is not a member of the family when he was in his teens– little has been said about the Duggar girls who were victimized.

In their statement to the media, parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar — who hushed up the scandal — mentioned “God” six times without mentioning their daughters once.

Fans of the show, and of the daughters in particular, expressed more support for the girls on Twitter, with one advising eldest daughter Jana to “Run away and be free!”

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IRELAND
Daily Mail

‘Ireland hasn’t just said Yes… it has said F*** YEAH!’: Irish equality minister joins thousands celebrating across the country as first gay marriage vote results point to landslide victory for supporters

By OLLIE GILLMAN FOR MAILONLINE

Ireland is set to legalise gay marriage after voters overwhelmingly backed allowing same-sex unions in a historic referendum.

Celebrations spilled out into Dublin city centre as it became clear that the campaign to extend the right to marry to same-sex couples was heading for a landslide victory.

With almost half of the results in, all constituencies have so far voted in favour of gay marriage, with around 62 per cent backing reform.

With 19 constituencies returning official results, it appeared that Ireland would pass the gay marriage rights reform with close to 65 per cent in favour.

The biggest support was recorded in Kildare North with a 69.67 per cent majority for the Yes side, while the closest contest was in Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s own turf in County Mayo where 52 per cent were in favour.

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ARKANSAS
Northwest Democrat-Gazette

By DOUG THOMPSON; CHAD DAY NWA Democrat-Gazette
Posted: May 23, 2015

SPRINGDALE — An Arkansas State Police corporal who gave Josh Duggar “a very stern talk” in 2003 about the teen’s improper sexual conduct started the clock on the time limit for filing any charges, according to police records and Arkansas law.

The time in which charges could be filed expired before police received an anonymous tip Dec. 7, 2006, about the same conduct by Duggar, records show.

Joshua James Duggar, now 27, resigned as director of a lobbying organization run by the conservative Family Research Council on Thursday. His resignation came less than a day after a 2006 Springdale Police Department report was released through the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The report disclosed sexual misconduct in 2002 and 2003 involving the foundling of sleeping victims and other sexually inappropriate acts with five girls.

Although the report withheld names of the offender and victims, Duggar apologized in a statement after resigning.

“Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends. I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation. We spoke with the authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing, and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling. I understood that if I continued down this wrong road that I would end up ruining my life.”

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail

Unsealed police report reveals ‘Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar covered up after eldest son Josh confessed to repeatedly fondling girls when he was a teen – and case only went to police in 2006 because of Oprah concerns’

By CHRIS SPARGO FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The police report of Josh Duggar’s alleged molestation reveals that incidents happened multiple times between the then teenager and five girls, almost always while the minors were sleeping.

What’s more, both of his parents were aware of the situation but waited over a year to notify anyone in law enforcement, going at that time to see a family friend who was a trooper and did not file a report.

They also revealed details of the incident to church elders who did not reach out to law enforcement.
It was not until producers from The Oprah Winfrey Show, who were planning an interview with the family, received an email alerting them to the alleged molestation that an investigation began, this after the show reached out to the Department of Human Services.

That was in December of 2006, over four years after the first reported offense.

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UNITED STATES
The Hollywood Reporter

by Natalie Stone 5/23/2015

Investigation records tied to Josh Duggar’s alleged sexual molestation of five girls have been destroyed by Arkansas police, a spokesperson told The Associated Press Friday.

Springdale Police spokesman Scott Lewis told AP that Judge Stacey Zimmerman ordered the 2006 offense report destroyed Thursday.

“The judge ordered us yesterday to expunge that record,” Lewis said. He added that similar records are usually kept indefinitely. “As far as the Springdale Police Department is concerned this report doesn’t exist.”

The 27-year-old married father of three resigned from his lobbyist position with the Family Research Council (FRC) on Thursday after reports surfaced that the 19 Kids and Counting star sexually molested five girls as far back as 2002, when Duggar was 14 years old.

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UNITED STATES
New York Post – Page Six

AP

Arkansas police have destroyed a record outlining a nearly decade-old investigation into reality TV star Josh Duggar, a spokesman said Friday, a day after the 27-year-old resigned his role with a prominent conservative Christian group amid reports about sexual misconduct allegations from when he was a juvenile.

Duggar was accused of fondling five girls in 2002 and 2003. Duggar issued an apology Thursday on Facebook for unspecified bad behavior as a youth and resigned his role as executive director for FRC Action, the tax-exempt legislative action arm of the Washington-based Family Research Council. …

Springdale police began investigating Josh Duggar in 2006 when officers were alerted to a letter containing the allegations that was found in a book lent by a family friend to someone else.

The report, originally published by tabloid In Touch Weekly, states that a member of Harpo Studios, the producer of Oprah Winfrey’s then-show, received an email containing the allegations before the family was set to appear in 2006. The tipster warned producers against allowing the Duggars on the show and studio staff members faxed a copy of the email to Arkansas State Police.

Springdale police spokesman Scott Lewis said Judge Stacey Zimmerman ordered the 2006 offense report destroyed Thursday. Zimmerman didn’t return a request for comment on Friday.

“The judge ordered us yesterday to expunge that record,” Lewis said, adding that similar records are typically kept indefinitely. “As far as the Springdale Police Department is concerned, this report doesn’t exist.”

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

May 24, 2015

Warwick McFadyen

How odious they are. How pernicious their intent. They were not murderers, but surely they killed something precious in their victims. Something unique to each of their victims was crushed and in that horrible devastation of body and spirit came an unwanted bond with others: links in the chain of a callous cruelty and nonchalant indifference disposed and imposed on them.

They are the priests of Ballarat, of Maitland, of points far and wide, who snuffed out the light innocence of youth and the implicit trust the young have in adults. In its place grew, in many cases, a dark and nightmarish pit. From such depths these boys had to pull themselves out and go into adulthood and make a life for themselves. The boys became survivors of a casual monstrosity of perversion.

This past week the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sex Abuse has been sitting in Ballarat. It will do so for the next two weeks. Last week victims gave the distressing details of the abuse they suffered and endured while school children. During the victims’ stories and from the evidence it became clear that survival had morphed into a relative term.

One abuse survivor, Philip Nagle, had attended St Alipius Primary School, and of the 33 boys in the grade four picture of his class from the early ’70s a dozen had died. Mr Nagle believed they had all killed themselves. The school “was a place where there was true evil”.

Another survivor spoke of a Christian Brother giving him a choice when he was 12 or 13, “the strap or sex education and I always chose the latter because I didn’t want to get belted. I should have taken the beltings”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 22, 2015

Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks

The board of the Yeshivah Centre is on the brink of collapse, following grim revelations at the Royal Commission and a community campaign.

Board member Michael Goldhirsch stepped down this week, bringing the number of members who have resigned in the past three months to five.

The resignation of Mr Goldhirsch, who has been a member for decades, leaves just three board members.

An online petition signed by members of Melbourne’s Jewish community has called for the committee of management to resign, saying it does “not have the confidence of the community”.

The Parents and Friends Yeshivah Melbourne group, set up in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, is lobbying for positions on the board.

A two-week hearing of the Royal Commission revealed a cover-up at the ultra-Orthodox Yeshivah Centre, which employed convicted sex offenders David Cyprys and David Kramer.

Fairfax Media does not suggest any individual board members were involved in the concealment of any abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Mic

By Julie Zeilinger May 22, 2015

Revelations of sexual assault and child molestation are always deeply disturbing, but they seem to capture the public’s attention most when they are rooted in hypocrisy. This has certainly been the case with Josh Duggar, a member of one of TV’s most wholesome Christian families and (former) executive director of the anti-gay Family Research Council’s lobbying arm, who was recently exposed as a child molester.

In Touch Weekly reported that Duggar was accused of sexually molesting multiple underage girls in a 2006 police report, some of whom were his own sisters.

“Back 12 years ago our family went through one of the most difficult times of our lives,” Josh’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, told People in a joint statement. “When Josh was a young teenager, he made some very bad mistakes, and we were shocked. We had tried to teach him right from wrong. That dark and difficult time caused us to seek God like never before.”

While the act itself is inexcusable, the family has arguably perpetuated even more harm in the way they’ve chosen to handle it. The Duggars have focused their public concern around Josh, the perpetrator, rather than their daughters or the other victims of his actions.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Sounds a bit bah-humbug, doesn’t it?

Stick with me for a sec.

I love Midnight Mass, although I’m not a Catholic, and I’ve been going along for about 20 years at Christmas, although I always have to go by myself because nobody in the family will come. For me, it’s not Christmas till I’ve sung Silent Night by candlelight.

The Catholics do it better than anyone. In my 20 years of solo Christmas Eve action, I’ve attended all kinds of denominations and churches for Christmas Eve services, and I must admit: there’s nothing like the Catholic St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney City for incense and Latin and blokes shuffling round in frocks — all the essential ingredients for a real feeling of festivity.

I love the little families; Italians and Croats and Filipinos and Vietnamese, all crowded in to St Mary’s, getting hotter and hotter as the evening progresses. I love the sleepy babies and the toddlers, wriggling and itching in their starchy new Christmas outfits. In the time I’ve been visiting, the Church has seen an incredible revival. 20 years ago, I could always find a seat.

Now, it’s standing room only, with crowds spilling out onto College Street, from an hour before kick-off.

George Pell did that. Something about the Cardinal’s American Eagle properness and insistence on the pillars of conservative Catholic thought resonated with people in this, our tolerant, egalitarian city.

I guess, like me, enough of them liked the incense and Latin. Maybe they thought Pell’s certain conservatism was reassuring in an uncertain world. Maybe they believed, unlike his many detractors, that Pell was a fundamentally decent man who has been courageous in speaking up for the poor and the needy. Maybe they thought all the drama of Mass was OK as a symbol of the Church’s greatest qualities: charity, mercy, humanity.

Anyway, on this particular evening a few years ago, the Mass had been rumbling along for an hour or so when it came time for Pell and the other priests to make a grand procession of sorts up the aisle. …

It is carrying on with the same arrogance it’s been enjoying since the Middle Ages, when all the pomp was designed to terrify the paupers into behaving. For a thousand years, nobody dared to say: “Mate, you look stupid carrying that dolly around.”

Now plenty of people are saying it. They’re demanding to know why the Church isn’t a proper legal entity that can be sued for the horrific wrongs some of its officials inflicted on innocent children. They want to know what’s happened to those messages of peace, kindness and charity when the Church is flapping around, wasting precious time trying to stop women being ordained, or gay people marrying. They want to know why it’s apparently so quick to betray the principles Jesus taught us when it comes to confronting the hard truth about its own failings.

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IRELAND
Reuters

DUBLIN | BY PADRAIC HALPIN AND CONOR HUMPHRIES

Irish voters backed same-sex marriage by a landslide in a referendum marking a dramatic social shift in the traditionally Catholic country, government ministers and opponents of the bill said on Saturday.

Final results were not expected until later in the day, but ministers predicted Ireland had become the first country to adopt same-sex marriage via a popular vote by a margin of around two-to-one, just two decades after it decriminalized homosexuality.

“This has really touched a nerve in Ireland,” Equality Minister Aodhan O’Riordain said at the main count center in Dublin. “It’s a very strong message to every LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) young person in Ireland and every LGBT young person in the world.” …

The Catholic Church, whose dominance of Irish politics collapsed in the wake of a series of sex scandals in the early 1990s, still teaches that homosexual activity is a sin. But it limited its ‘No’ campaigning to sermons to its remaining flock, a marked contrast with active public opposition to similar moves in France and elsewhere.

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ARKANSAS
InTouch

[with copy of the police report]

BOMBSHELL DUGGAR POLICE REPORT: JIM BOB DUGGAR DIDN’T REPORT SON JOSH’S ALLEGED SEX OFFENSES FOR MORE THAN A YEAR

WARNING: Graphic descriptions contained in police report.

Jim Bob Duggar waited more than a year after his son, Josh, confessed to sexually molesting several female minors before contacting police, In Touch Magazine is reporting exclusively, based on information contained in the official police report.

What’s more, Jim Bob informed the elders of his church about Joshua’s actions and they waited three months before contacting authorities. The explosive new information is contained in a Springdale, Ark., police report obtained by In Touch magazine.

The report has been hidden since 2006 and was just obtained by the mag through a Freedom of information Act request. Jim Bob also refused to allow police to interview Josh when they opened a felony investigation in 2006. The Duggars star on TLC’s hit show 19 Kids and Counting.

In Touch magazine first broke the news of the Duggars’ underage sexual molestation scandal in this week’s magazine. (Note: Josh’s name is redacted from the police report but In Touch has confirmed the passages that refer to him.)

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Brandy Zadrozny

The Quiverfull movement preaches that women must be subservient to all of men’s needs. It’s not impossible to see how abuse could flourish.

Since TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting first premiered in 2008, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have amazed their less fecund audience members with their ability to “extreme parent” nine girls and 10 boys. For 10 seasons, viewers—either in admiration or guilty-pleasure gawking—have watched the large brood live their lives according to evangelical Christian values, which include the total submission of women, sexual purity, homeschooling, and adherence to a particular sect known as the Quiverfull movement, which (among other principles) eschews all forms of birth control.

But just two years before the show aired, according to a police report unearthed by In Touch, the family was involved with police in an investigation of their oldest son, Josh, for the alleged molestation of at least five underage girls—including his own sisters—starting in 2002 when he was around 14. A flurry of admissions and apologies followed the news yesterday, from Josh, his parents and his wife, and Josh resigned from his position as executive director of FRC Action, the lobbying arm of the evangelical Family Research Council. TLC announced Friday it was pulling the show off the air.

For those less acquainted with Quiverfull and the reports of alleged sexual abuse inside the movement by ex-fundamentalists, the allegations were shocking, and dulled the shine on a family that seemed to be perfect. For others, the allegations and Josh’s seeming admission and apology only confirm that the patriarchal religious movement can be both a breeding ground and hiding place for this type of crime.

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UNITED STATES
The Celebrity Cafe

Josh Duggar scandal: TLC pulls all episodes of ’19 Kids and Counting,’ says ‘we are deeply saddened and troubled’

By Daniel S Levine, 5/23/2015

After Josh Duggar admitted that the reports of him molesting young girls as a teen were true, TLC has pulled episodes of 19 Kids and Counting. It was a necessary move, considering the network had to do the same for Here Comes Honey Boo Boo when that show had its own controversy.

Unlike Honey Boo Boo though, TLC hasn’t made a long-term decision, according to TMZ. All episodes of 19 Kids and Counting have just been pulled from the schedule. The network even ran a poorly timed 19 Kids marathon on Thursday.

After the reports, TLC issued a statement on Facebook, which reads:

“Effective immediately, TLC has pulled all episodes of 19 Kids and Counting currently from the air. We are deeply saddened and troubled by this heartbreaking situation, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and victims at this difficult time.”

The scandal has blown wide open in just 24 hours. After an InTouch report about allegations that Josh, 27, molested a young girl while in his teens was published, TMZ reported that he was accused of molesting four other girls as well. One of those young girls was one of his sisters.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

05/22/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

On May 19, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis sent to all clergy the newly revised Code of Conduct for Clergy and an amazingly abbreviated ‘Archdiocesan Safe Environment Policy and Requirements’. I am posting the packet received by clergy below.

Since these documents went out, I have been asked if I would advise clergy to sign the attestation that they will abide by the Code of Conduct. My answer is ‘no’. There is nothing I would like better than to see policies promulgated in this Archdiocese that would improve the safety of children and vulnerable adults. In my opinion, these policies will do little to achieve that goal. More importantly, they are overly broad, lack specificity, and confuse concepts and principles in such a way as to make them largely unworkable. Bad policies (as we have seen repeatedly in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis) quickly become irrelevant, widely ignored, and rarely enforced.

For instance, the Code of Conduct prohibits clergy from acquiring, possessing, or distributing ‘pornography’ (1.4). A good idea, certainly. However, it is not clear if by ‘pornography’ the Code means illegal images, or the more broad, and more inchoate, idea of obscene renderings that ‘lack artistic merit’. Can you imagine that conversations that this lack of clarity will give rise to?

The obvious issue becomes who determines whether an item is pornography or ‘art’. The unspecified ‘whom’ and ‘by what standard’ should be a concern for all clergy asked to adhere to this policy because it does not just apply to matters of sexual morality, but also to issues such as clerical dress. According to the Code, clergy are to dress professionally and appropriately. Yet, anyone who has participated in the discussion regarding the proposed Archdiocesan chasuble (or attended a Chrism Mass) will be aware that notions of what is ‘appropriate’ are open to debate and different interpretation. This particular provision is especially problematic because it is likely aimed at times when priests and deacons would not normally wear vestments or clerics. Can they wear shorts at a picnic? Will a particular priest have to abandon his lederhosen this Saint Boniface Day? I think I understand the intent of this provision, but again the formulation of the concept is so contrived as to make it basically unenforceable.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

Parishioners who last week were ordered to leave a closed Scituate Catholic church, where they’ve been holding vigil, by May 29 have won a temporary reprieve as a Norfolk Superior Court judge scratched that date late yesterday, according to the protesters’ attorney.

Mary Beth Carmody, who is representing the Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, said she was notified Judge Edward P. Leibensperger will not determine a new date for the parishioners to leave until he hears a motion to suspend his May 14 decision that Carmody filed Thursday.

“It’s short-term relief, I would call it, for the parishioners,” Carmody said. “They were concerned that this Sunday would be their last Sunday to worship at the church. It looks like this won’t be their last Sunday, though we don’t know how many more Sundays.”

Carmody also filed an appeal of the judge’s decision on Thursday to the state appeals court.

In his May 14 ruling, Leibensperger declared the parishioners were trespassing and had to leave the premises by May 29.

Maryellen Rogers, president of the Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, who have been holding vigil there since it was closed in a parish consolidation in 2004, said they had no choice but to appeal.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan Twitter

23/05/2015

Women who worked in the Magdalene laundries and two similar institutions will get a long-awaited health card giving access to a range of free services including GP care

The card will be given to women who have accepted a formal offer of compensation under the Restorative Justice Scheme.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and Social Care Minister Kathleen Lynch said the “RWRCI Cards” will issue to the women in June and take effect from July 1.

In the meantime, the HSE will be directly contacting the women who have accepted a formal offer made under the Restorative Justice Scheme.

It will entitle them to GP services, prescribed drugs, medicines, aids and appliances, dental, ophthalmic and aural services, home nursing, home support, chiropody or podiatr, physiotherapy and counselling.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN, JOHN FERGUSON THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 23, 2015

The Catholic Church has failed to expel jailed pedophile Robert Best from the Christian Brothers and the order has paid more than $1.5 million to cover his legal fees.

The fee to defend the child abuser is about half the total amount the Christian Brothers have paid in compensation to scores of victims of abuse in the scandal-plagued Ballarat diocese in western Victoria.

Best was jailed for 14 years and nine months in 2011 for abusing 11 boys, most of them aged between eight and 11, in Ballarat, Box Hill and Geelong between 1969 and 1988.

Despite this reign of terror, the Oceania province leader of the Christian Brothers, Brother Peter Clinch, said yesterday he had been told it was a “very complicated and lengthy” process to have someone expelled from the order.

“That’s where I left it really,” he conceded.

The admission came as Bill Shorten urged George Pell, now a cardinal at the Vatican, to return to Australia to give evidence to the commission if required.

“I do believe that George Pell should help the royal commission and if that means coming back to Australia to co-operate with the royal commission, he should,” the Opposition Leader said.

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OHIO
WSPD

TOLEDO, Ohio – A Toledo Catholic priest has been placed on leave after being accused of violating the diocesean code on sexual abuse of minors.

Reverend Samuel Punnoor was placed on administrative leave Friday by Bishop Daniel E. Thomas. Rev. Punnoor is not allowed to exercise public ministry, administer any of the Sacrements, wear clerical attire or present himself publicly as a priest pending the outcome of ongoing civil and ecclesiastical investigations. He will also not be in residence at Saint Joseph Parish while on leave.

The Diocese of Toledo says there hasn’t been any previous such allegation against Father Punnoor. He has served in the Diocese since April 2011 and passed all necessary background checks and training.

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UNITED STATES
International Business Times

By Kabita Maharana
May 23, 2015

The Duggar family is under severe public scrutiny after reports of sexual abuse against Josh Duggar surfaced on the internet.

Jana is the oldest of the 19 Kids And Counting daughters and fans of the 25-year-old reality star speculate that she might be one of the victims of the eldest son of the Duggar family.

Web Pro News suspects that the four oldest daughters, Jana, Jill Dillard, Jessa Seewald, and Jinger may have been victims of their eldest brother.

The evangelical Christian family has been criticised for being hypocritical as they failed to file a police report after they found out that their son had allegedly molested five underage girls, including some of his sisters, when he was around 14 years old.

According to a report by Raw Story, the Arkansas police have confirmed that the reality star had fondled the breasts and touched the vaginas of multiple young girls, sometime during their sleep, in around 2002.

The sexual abuse was reported to the police only in December 2006 when someone called a hotline and disclosed that Josh had molested several minor girls three and a half years before, a blog post in Patheos reports.

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IRELAND
WTSP

Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today May 23, 2015

DUBLIN (USA Today) — Twenty-two years after decriminalizing homosexuality, Ireland was poised Saturday to become the first country to legalize same-sex marriage as a result of a national referendum that has highlighted the dramatic pace at which this traditionally conservative Catholic nation has changed in recent times.

While counting is still taking place, electoral officers reported an unusually high number of people showing up for Friday’s vote to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. National turnout may top 60%.

Campaigners on both sides believe this high turnout, buoyed by strong engagement from younger members of the electorate as well as the many Irish expatriates who returned home to cast their votes, is likely to favor a “Yes” result. …

The referendum is seen as an especially complex one for Ireland, where about 85% of the population still call themselves Roman Catholic even though church attendance has been steadily declining for a few decades and the church’s moral authority has been questioned in the wake of a series of sexual abuse scandals and cover-ups involving children.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY RICHARD VERNALLS – 23 MAY 2015

An 89-year-old former teacher and Scout leader has been jailed for seven years for “awful” abuse of two of his pupils.

Peter Farrands, also a former church minister, told one of his victims the young boy was his “special lad” as he abused him in a classroom at the Folville Junior School in Leicester during the 1980s.

His other young victim was abused as he stood at the front of the class and read a book, but Farrands was careful to ensure the other pupils could not see his assault.

Sentencing a frail-looking Farrands, Judge Simon Hammond said that the attacks were “awful, awful offences” on vulnerable youngsters which had left the victims “tormented” into adulthood.

The judge was “moved” by the witness testimony of one of the men for whom the effect of abuse “has been frankly devastating”, he added. The other youngster was Robert Gibb, who said after sentencing at Leicester Crown Court: “There’s no forgiveness.”

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UNITED STATES
Charisma News

JESSILYN JUSTICE

Sin, death, repentance, grace: They’re the core elements of what we believe, and by putting them into practice, we set ourselves apart from the world as we strive for holiness.

But holiness is not perfection, as the recent case of Josh Duggar revealed. Brothers and sisters, we were quick to forgive as Christ forgave us, and for that I am thankful.

Duggar recognized his wrongdoing, confessed, repented and has spent his life making up for it. His sin led to his salvation, and we rejoice in that.

However, as I scroll through reactions on social media, I am not without a heavy heart as I see how we as Christians try to cover up our sin, to protect our own and whitewash their wrongdoings without consequences.

Unfortunately, I think this applies too often to sexual abuse in the church. How often do we preach about forgiveness, practice it and let those who participated in sexual crimes take places in leadership?

Forgiveness and moving along doesn’t mean we are without consequences. Though Josh deeply regrets his actions, he’s still haunted by them, as are the victims of his sexual abuse and others.

Though all sin is equal in terms of separating us from the Father, sexual sin is different from others in terms that it’s both an internal and external expression of one’s flesh. To engage in sex outside of God’s intent means we are saying that we know better for ourselves than God does, and we sear our souls in an attempt to gratify our flesh.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Harry Hitzeman

A former West Dundee church youth minister accused of a June 2013 sexual assault of a teen has been sued by the girl’s parents for damages.

The parents of the victim, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, also have sued the pastor at First Congregational Church of Dundee and its parent organizations for negligent hiring and failing to take action against Chad Coe, 33, formerly of Elgin and now living in Lakewood.

“This case involves the rape of a child committed by a (then) 31-year-old youth minister that occurred in the church’s youth ministry office, which destroyed the spiritual, physical and mental core of the child and her parents,” according to the filing by attorney Kevin Lyons, who declined additional comment Friday.

“These offenses were compounded by the face that the offender, Chad Coe, the son of a church council member, was given free reign to groom and abuse the minor youths in his care while the church and senior pastor failed to implement their safe church policies and protect the minor child,” Lyons said in the suit.

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ILLINOIS
Journal Star

Andy Kravetz
Journal Star courts reporter

Posted May 22, 2015

PEORIA — A former youth pastor pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he sexually abused a young girl last year.

Nicholas Lawrence, 27, of Pekin, pleaded in Peoria County Circuit Court to one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in an agreement that saw a lesser charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse dropped. Also, a companion charge that alleged Lawrence possessed child porn was dropped as part of the plea agreement.

The agreement is a “blind,” one which means there’s no agreement as to what sentence Lawrence might receive next month. The sentencing range is six to 60 years in prison with no possibility of probation.

Prosecutor Donna Cruz told Judge David Brown that the girl, then 12, was abused by Lawrence for several months. The two had met through church services years before.

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UNITED STATES
Slate

By Amanda Marcotte

Score one for the tabloid press. Josh Duggar, the eldest son of the creepy super-fundamentalist clan at the center of the TLC show 19 Kids and Counting, has admitted to charges of molesting multiple underage girls when he was a teenager; he has since stepped down from his position as a sex scold for the Family Research Council. Duggar admitted to molesting five girls—some of them reportedly his sisters—and while the family claims to have addressed the situation, a timeline constructed by Gawker suggests he did not get counseling while managing to dodge any prosecution.

The family’s fame guarantees this story will stay in the public memory for awhile, but it’s far from the first sex abuse scandal in the tight-knit world of far-right fundamentalism. As I wrote last year for Slate, Doug Phillips of the far-right group Vision Forum was forced to step down after admitting to “a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman.” The woman in question, Lourdes Torres-Manteufel, claims it was more than “inappropriate,” noting that they met when she was 15 and that he “methodically groomed” by moving her into the house as a nanny and becoming “the pastor of her church, her boss, her landlord, and the controller of all aspects of her life” before pushing for sex. The Duggars were tight with Phillips and Vision Forum, which promoted a lot of Duggar-related material.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Sarah Volpenhein
Forum News Service
POSTED: 05/22/2015

ROSEAU, Minn. — A Catholic priest pleaded guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl while serving in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Crookston in northwestern Minnesota.

The guilty plea comes nearly 10 years after the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 60, assaulted the girl at his home in Greenbush, Minn.

Jeyapaul was extradited from his home country of India to the U.S. in November to face criminal charges brought in two different cases in Minnesota 9th District Court in Roseau, Minn., both alleging sexual abuse by Jeyapaul of underage female parishioners.

He had left the U.S. in September 2005 before criminal charges were filed against him and was first arrested in March 2012 in India.

Jeyapaul pleaded guilty Friday to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony, in one of the two cases. The other case, in which he is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, is still pending.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

MIRANDA DEVINE HERALD SUN MAY 23, 2015

DIE Pell” was the headline on The Age Facebook page, over a photograph of Cardinal George Pell.

Editor in chief Andrew Holden claimed the page had been hacked, and the offending words inserted by persons unknown, where they remained for an hour on Wednesday morning.

“I assume it’s a hacker, but I don’t know absolutely… You never expect somebody from The Age to put those sort of words on a story.”

Well, maybe.

Offensive as it was, the death threat was the least of the shameful abuse that has been heaped on Pell as the child sexual abuse royal commission moves into his former home town of Ballarat.

Not just by the defamatory swamp of Twitter, but by mainstream media and politicians, who have joined the absurd call for Pell to “come home” from the Vatican to answer allegations he ignored one victim of a paedophile priest and tried to bribe another.

He has testified under oath twice, including before the royal commission, last August by video link from Rome, and says he is willing to do so again if asked by the commissioners. Is he expected to respond to a Twitter hashtag?

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SERBIA/CANADA
InSerbia

BELGRADE – Bishop Georgije (Djokic) of Canada was relieved of his duties at the meeting of the Holy Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Tanjug learnt at the SPC.

On Monday and Tuesday, according to the Belgrade media, Georgije was responding to charges brought against him by a commission whose report pointed to his indecent behavior.

Georgije denied all allegations and stressed that he turned a neglected diocese into one of the most reputable ones, Belgrade daily Blic reports.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

By Jacques Gallant

The curious case of Bishop Georgije Djokic of the Serbian Orthodox Church has its fair share of controversy and scandal, starring frustrated parishioners and one very angry nun.

His Grace fell, well, from grace this week when the church’s holy assembly in Belgrade relieved him of his duties under mysterious circumstances, after more than 30 years at the helm of the church’s Canadian diocese.

The decision came after the gathering listened to accusations for three days, and one day for Djokic’s defence, said Rev. Ljubomir Rajic of All Saints Serbian Orthodox Church in Mississauga.

The allegations against Djokic, head of the church in Canada, have not been made public. Allusions have been made to “indecent behaviour” in Serbian media, which also reported that Djokic denied the allegations.

“The bishop is about 67 years old. He had promised to retire when he reached 65, so probably the best thing he could do is to accept this (decision) and bring peace to the Serbian community by retiring,” said Rajic.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Survivors of Magdalene laundries who have accepted offers of redress from the State are to receive special medical cards which will entitle them to free primary and community health services.

A joint announcement by Minster for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and Minister of State for Primary and Social Care, Kathleen Lynch said the women would be entitled to use the services from 1 July.

Under the scheme, the HSE will make available free GP services, prescribed drugs, medicines, aids and appliances, dental, ophthalmic and aural services, home nursing and support, chiropody/podiatry, physiotherapy and counselling services.

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OREGON
The Raw Story

JOAN SHIPPS
22 MAY 2015

A former youth pastor in Oregon was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison on Thursday for sexually assaulting two boys.

Dylan Ritterman, 28, pled guilty to sexual abuse charges for assaulting the boys, who were teenagers under his ministry at United Pentecostal Church in Hillsboro. His plea agreement stipulated that he will not be charged in connection with assaulting a third boy, the Oregonian reports.

Authorities began investigating Ritterman last fall, after one of the victims told his mother Ritterman had been touching him inappropriately, and the mother reported the crime to Oregon’s Department of Human Services. Police arrested Ritterman last December.

Prosecutor Kevin Barton said that the former pentecostal pastor had molested two boys, starting when they were 14 or 15 years of age, “inside the church, on church grounds, at his home, in his car, and in a grocery parking lot.”

Barton also said that church leaders were reluctant to cooperate with investigators. The church’s head pastor initially refused to speak to authorities without his insurance agent there.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Francis has said “no” to an initiative put forward by the President of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) and approved by the Institute’s board, for the creation of a SICAV investment fund in Luxembourg for the management of deposits

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

The decision had been given the green light by the IOR’s lay Board of Superintendence. But it was halted first by the body’s supervisory Commission of Cardinals and then by the Pope himself. The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) will not have its own SICAV – (Société d’Investissement à Capital Variable) a type of investment fund that has a variable share capital. The IOR’s president, Jean-Baptiste de Franssu had wanted to set up this fund in Luxembourg. However, Francis has, since the very start of his pontificate, opposed the IOR’s tendency to behave like an investment bankin some cases. The reform of the Vatican’s finances also means making choices of this kind, in order to underline the unique nature of the “Vatican bank” and ensure that it remains true to the original purpose for which it was created.

The point of the setting up of a SICAV investment fund was to help IOR managers manage a portion of the Institute’s deposits. Luxembourg was chosen as the area where operations would take place as it is in the Eurozone but also offers tax concessions. Vatican Insider has learnt that the decision was taken and formalised by the IOR’s Board of Superintendence headed by de Franssu. But when the project was presented to the Commission of Cardinals headed by Spanish cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, it was discussed and was eventually handed over to the Pope who has been keeping a close eye on key decisions regarding the activities of the Institute.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

TRAVIS GETTYS
22 MAY 2015

Supporters rallied around the Duggar family after they admitted to keeping quiet about their eldest son molesting young girls – including his own sisters.

Josh Duggar, his wife, and his parents issued statements Thursday confirming reports that he had engaged in “inexcusable” behavior more than a decade ago, when he was 14 years old, and he resigned his job with the anti-LGBT Family Research Council as calls poured into TLC to cancel the long-running “19 Kids and Counting.”

However, the Duggars’ defenders offered prayers and messages of support on social media.

“This shouldnt even be in the news,” said Stephanie Truesdell in a Facebook comment. “Its not current. Its done, over, and hes been forgiven. None of us, as fans/viewers, whatever, have any need to say anything. It was reported, and its been handeled. Its over.”

TLC has canceled all airing of “19 Kids and Counting” as the network ponders the show’s long-term future.

“Give them a break,” said Amy Blaydes Wilson. “He was a child himself. Everyone makes mistakes, but it is how you deal with it that makes you better or worse. They are human. We all are human.”

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OHIO
Norwalk Reflector

A Catholic priest in Toledo has been placed on administrative leave after a claim was made alleging he violated the diocese’s policy on the sexual abuse of minors.

The Rev. Samuel Punnoor was reported to Lucas County Children Services by the Diocese of Toledo on May 6 while he was visiting India.

The Toledo diocese released the following statement Friday:

Bishop Daniel E. Thomas today placed Reverend Samuel Punnoor on administrative leave following an allegation that he violated “Appendix A: Diocese of Toledo Code of Pastoral Conduct” of the diocesan To Protect and to Heal: Policy on Sexual Abuse of Minors. Upon learning May 6, 2015, of the allegation against Father Punnoor, the Diocese of Toledo immediately reported it the same day to Lucas County Children Services. At that time, Father Punnoor was visiting his home diocese in India from April 26-May 21. Therefore, it was only upon his return that Bishop Thomas and diocesan officials were able to meet with him today.

The Diocese of Toledo has never before received any such allegation regarding Father Punnoor. The Diocese of Toledo is cooperating fully with Lucas County Children Services as it conducts its investigation.

While on administrative leave, Father Punnoor is not permitted to exercise public ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, wear clerical attire or present himself publicly as a priest pending the outcome of ongoing civil and ecclesiastical investigations.

Father Punnoor, a priest of the Diocese of Pathanamthitta in India, has served in the Diocese of Toledo since April 2011. Upon his arrival, he produced a letter of suitability from the Bishop of his home diocese, passed the necessary background checks and successfully completed the required safe environment training. He has served as Parochial Vicar at Most Blessed Sacrament Parish, Toledo (April 2011-July 2012) and Corpus Christi University Parish, Toledo (July 2012-June 2013) and as Parochial Vicar at Saint Joseph Parish, Maumee since July 1, 2013. In addition, Father Punnoor has served as a faculty member at Central Catholic High School, Toledo (September 2011-May 2012) and assisted periodically with Masses at Historic Church of St. Patrick, Toledo and Immaculate Conception Church, Toledo (May 2012-June 2013).

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail

REVEALED: Founder of faith-healing clinic that ‘treated’ Josh Duggar resigned over accusations he sexually harassed 30 teens and young women

By CHRIS SPARGO FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The clinic that Josh Duggar attended after his parents learned he had molested multiple young girls has been revealed as the Basic Life Principles Training Center.

The facility, in Little Rock, Arkansas, which offers faith-based healing has been criticized by some who have attended their programs and also come under fire after a scandal involving founder Bill Gothard.

Gothard was accused in 2014 of sexually harassing women who worked at his ministry, including teenagers, and not reporting cases of child abuse.

He was never convicted of any crimes, but resigned soon after these claims became public.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By Sarah Volpenhein Today at 4:29 p.m.

A Catholic priest who formerly worked in Minnesota dioceses in St. Paul and Crookston pleaded guilty to child sex crimes Friday.

Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, who is charged in two separate cases in Minnesota 9th District Court in Roseau with sex crimes involving minors, appeared in court today.

Jeyapaul filed a petition to enter a guilty plea in one of the cases, in which he is charged with fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 15.

The priest was extradited from India to the U.S. in November to face the criminal charges that had been pending, in one of the two cases, since 2006.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday May 22

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

Fr. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul – who worked in two Minnesota dioceses: St. Paul and Crookston – has pled guilty to child sex crimes. We’re glad that it’s now crystal clear to virtually everyone that he’s a dangerous man who should be kept away from kids.

But we’re deeply worried that he may soon be free and will likely be around unsuspecting families and assault more children. (He has yet to be sentenced.) And if that happens, the blame can squarely be put on US and Indian Catholic officials who have acted irresponsibly from the outset in this terrible case.

Few child molesters in history have been as widely exposed as Fr. Jeyapaul, thanks to the tireless and courageous prevention efforts of one of his victims, Megan Peterson. Still, most of his neighbors, relatives and colleagues likely know little or nothing about his crimes.

Megan has done almost everything possible – and more than perhaps any survivor we know – to protect kids from this monster. She filed a civil lawsuit, repeatedly cooperated with law enforcement, and even travelled to Geneva where she told a United Nations panel how Crookston Catholic officials acted recklessly, callously, hurtfully and deceptively in this case. She has courageously, generously and effectively taken worked hard and taken risks to make it much harder for Fr. Jeyapaul to hurt more girls or boys. We are incredibly proud of her and grateful to her.

When child sex abuse allegations against Fr. Jeyapaul surfaced, he quickly returned to India. We suspect that Crookston Catholic officials helped him flee. (According to BishopAccountability.org, Minnesota Catholic officials “knew of rumors about inappropriate behavior by Fr. Jeyapaul in 8/04” but Fr. Jeyapaul “suddenly returned to India in 9/05.”)

In India, Catholic officials gave him a job overseeing schools knowing full well that he was considered a fugitive from US criminal authorities.

Twice, United Nations panels have harshly criticized Vatican officials for their refusal to help law enforcement apprehend Fr. Jeyapaul, We worry now about the safety of girls in India near Fr. Jeyapaul. Now that his guilt has been proven, we call on Catholic officials in both the US and India to use their massive resources to warn police, prosecutors, parishioners, parents and the public about this dangerous cleric (using pulpit announcements, parish bulletins, church websites and other means).

Fr. Jeyapaul is one of an increasing number of accused predator priests who have been allowed to flee to other countries despite credible child sex abuse reports or sometimes arrest warrants. (A priest from India was just suspended in Toledo Ohio today because of allegations involving a child.)

[NBC24]

Besides Megan, at least one other brave victim of Fr. Jeyapaul has helped law enforcement too (and has filed a civil suit). We are grateful to her as well. (We suspect there are others who remain trapped in shame, silence, secrecy and self-blame.) And we are grateful to law enforcement – in the US and in India – for pursuing this dangerous predator.

It’s tragic that it took so much time and international pressure – from victims, journalists and law enforcement – to get Catholic officials to simply honor their legal obligation and get a predator priest back to America to face justice.

Bishops in Minnesota and India have protected and continue to protect this serial child predator, by paying him, moving him, and concealing records about him and his crimes. Shame on them.

And shame on every Vatican official who has refused to take action to safeguard children from Fr. Jeyapaul.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Thomas A. Bergstrom, the defense lawyer for Msgr. William J. Lynn, is seeking a return visit before a panel of three state Superior Court judges who previously ruled that his client should get out of jail immediately.

Bergstrom also is seeking permission to brief that Superior Court panel on other appeal issues that the defense lawyer hopes will get his client a new trial.

In response, top appeal lawyers for District Attorney R. Seth Williams argued that Bergstrom was “judge-shopping.” Furthermore, the D.A. asserted that the state Superior Court panel of judges that previously ruled on the Lynn case had made a “material misrepresentation of the law.” Because of that material misrepresentation, the district attorney argued in his brief, it would constitute an “appearance of impropriety” if the same panel were allowed to rehear the case.

On Wednesday, Bergstrom filed a reply brief that claimed the D.A.’s accusation of judge-shopping was “unfounded and insulting.” Regarding the alleged material misrepresentation of the law, Bergstrom wrote that the charge was “disturbing.” He argued that the Superior Court panel of judges was best-suited to rehear the Lynn case because they are already familiar with it.

Msgr. Lynn is the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who was convicted three years ago by a jury on one count of endangering the welfare of a child [EWOC].

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joe Slobodzian
POSTED: FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2015

It’s been three weeks since Msgr. William J. Lynn was sent back to prison after the state Supreme Court reinstated his 2012 conviction and sentence for child endangerment in the Catholic Church priest sex abuse scandal.

For the 64-year-old Lynn, the first church official convicted for a supervisory role over deviant clergy, it’s become a question of waiting behind bars or returning to house arrest while his lawyers continue appealing.

Thomas A. Bergstrom, Lynn’s lawyer, said Friday he plans to visit Lynn on Wednesday to discuss whether he wants to petition the Superior Court to free him on bail pending his new appeals.

For many people, this wouldn’t even be a question. But Bergstrom said that after already serving 18 months of a 3- to 6-year prison term, Lynn “is not enamored of the thought of becoming a jack-in-the-box: in and out and in and out and in again.”

Since Lynn was charged in 2011 on the recommendations of a county grand jury, he has been through a dizzying array of legal proceedings.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Stephen Montemayor Star Tribune MAY 22, 2015

A former Hastings priest testified Friday that he did not sexually abuse an altar boy more than 20 years ago.

“I’ve waited 18 months for this day,” Francis Hoefgen said inside a Dakota County courtroom.

During about 25 minutes of testimony, Hoefgen, 64, of Columbia Heights, said he didn’t remember the boy who said Hoefgen abused him at St. Boniface Church in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Hoefgen faces two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and is one of few priests to face criminal charges for alleged sex offenses that are decades old. As they have all week, about a dozen supporters sat behind Hoefgen in the courtroom.

The defense’s case concluded after Hoefgen’s testimony. The jury recessed for the holiday weekend and will return Tuesday to hear closing arguments and begin deliberating.

Hoefgen kept two white lilac blossoms in a Dixie cup at his table Friday. His attorney, Michael Colich, later said the flowers commemorated the anniversary of his mother’s death. Hoefgen told jurors that he is the youngest of 13 children who grew up in Michigan. He said he came to Collegeville, Minn., to study at St. John’s University, and joined St. John’s Abbey in 1972 “to lead a monastic life and seek God and community.”

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 22, 2015

HASTINGS – Fran Hoefgen took the witness stand Friday and repeatedly denied that he sexually abused an altar boy when he was a priest at a Hastings church.

Hoefgen also said during his testimony that he had no recollection of the altar boy who is accusing him of abuse more than 20 years after it happened.

“I have waited for over 18 months for this day,” Hoefgen said during his brief testimony Friday.

The prosecution and defense rested their cases Friday. Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday after which jurors will begin their deliberations.

Hoefgen, 64, is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Dakota County. He is accused of sexually abusing the altar boy from 1989-92 when he was priest at St. Boniface Church.

Hoefgen was calm and looked at the jury as he answered questions.

“Absolutely not” was the response he gave when asked if he sexually assaulted the altar boy, who is now 36 and testified earlier in the trial.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Steven Morris
Friday 22 May 2015

The former Archbishop of Westminster has admitted he was wrong not to insist Catholic schools run by abbots adopt the recommendations of a report on child abuse in the church.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said he did not ensure that Benedictine schools accepted the measures set out in the report because bishops do not have authority over abbots.

Some of the most famous Catholic schools in the country, including Downside in Somerset and St Benedict’s in west London, have been embroiled in abuse scandals in recent years.

The Nolan report, commissioned by Murphy-O’Connor and published in 2001, made more than 70 recommendations and is credited with changing the nature of how the Catholic church in the UK deals with abuse.

Speaking at the Hay festival in Wales, Murphy-O’Connor said he should have made sure the report’s recommendations were adopted by monastic schools and regretted they were not. “I must have thought abbots could manage themselves,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Times

Former Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has admitted he is deeply ashamed of the way he handled sex abuse allegations concerning a Catholic Church priest in the 1980s.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor told a festival crowd how, as the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, he allowed priest Michael Hill to become the chaplain of Gatwick Airport despite Hill confessing to him that he had abused young boys.

The cleric (82) said he sent Hill for therapy before moving him to a new parish after being given assurances he would have no contact with children.

However, while at his new airport post, Hill went on to sexually assault a young man with learning difficulties who had missed a flight. Hill was jailed in 1997 for a string of attacks and then again for another five years in 2002 after disclosing fresh abuse during a sex offender treatment programme.

Speaking at the Hay Festival in south Wales, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said he would have done things differently now.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 22

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

We are deeply skeptical of claims by officials at a Dallas church that they have “without exception” reported suspicions and knowledge of child sex crimes to law enforcement.” If they did, we doubt they did so promptly and fully. And we are deeply grateful to the brave woman who is exposing possible child sex crimes at the church.

[Christian Today]

A member of Village Church, Jordan Root, admitted viewing and having sexual images of children. But church officials disciplined his wife, Karen Hinkley, for taking steps to have their marriage annulled. Shame on them. And kudos to her for having the courage to expose this wrongdoing.

Pastor Steve Hardin and the church’s public relations director Kent Rabalais have a lot to explain.

Root spent time in East Asia. We worry he may have hurt kids there. We hope anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes or cover ups by Village Church staff will call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing.

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CALIFORNIA
Indian Country Today Media Network

On May 30, the public is welcome to attend a discussion on the Sainthood of Junipero Serra and the real history of California missions hosted by the Barbareño Chumash Tribal ’Iyalmuwič Council and The American Indian Movement of Southern California.

The two organizations have brought together some of the Native community’s most notable academics and leaders to lead two panels at The Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara at 1535 Santa Barbara St., in Santa Barbara, California.

The first panel begins at 9:30 a.m. and will discuss the International Ramifications of Canonization. According to a release about the event, the canonization will affect the entire Western Hemisphere, and this panel will expose the iconic California Mission system, which has long been held by the Catholic Church as a golden era storyline. The second panel will be held at 1 p.m. and will discuss Catholics and Christians against Canonization, and how Serra’s impending sainthood should not be a “Natives vs. Catholic” issue. Panelists will discuss how sainthood is attained and how Serra met those requirements, as well how this situation involves historical trauma and self-determination.

Another event to oppose Serra’s canonization will be held May 31, this one will be an Honoring the Ancestors Ceremony at the Santa Barbara Mission at 1 p.m.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Rosie Scammell | May 22, 2015

VATICAN CITY (RNS) More than 55,000 people have signed a petition calling for Cardinal George Pell to return to his native Australia and face a government commission on child sex abuse, after allegations that he tried to bribe the victim of a pedophile priest.

Addressed to Pope Francis, the Change.org petition calls for Pell — the Vatican’s financial chief and former archbishop of Sydney — to answer questions from Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Appearing in person at the government inquiry is necessary in order to “see and listen to the pain of the victims first hand and explain his actions and decisions,” the petition says.

Calls for the cardinal to testify in Australia follow allegations made earlier this week by the nephew of Gerald Ridsdale, an imprisoned abusive priest, who said Pell tried to silence him after he disclosed suffering sexual abuse.

David Ridsdale told the commission on Wednesday (May 20) that Pell tried to bribe him after hearing of the abuse over 20 years ago.

Some of those who have so far signed the online petition said members of their family had been abused by Gerald Ridsdale. “My father was one of his victims who lived a very tormented life, he passed away three years ago after years of drowning his thoughts with alcohol,” one person wrote.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

[with video]

MARK KENNEDY, OTTAWA CITIZEN
Published on: May 22, 2015

WINNIPEG – The personal discovery came about three years after Justice Murray Sinclair had begun his work in 2009 as chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

By then, Sinclair had heard heart-wrenching stories of cruelty and abuse from aboriginals who had spent their childhood in the residential schools established by the federal government and run by the churches.

And yet, there was one story he had never been told: that of his own father, Henry Sinclair, who died in 1994. One day while Sinclair was visiting his uncle, the truth emerged.

“He revealed during the course of our conversation that my father had been abused in residential schools. And I had no idea until he told me.”

Suddenly, says Sinclair, “everything clicked into place for me to explain why my father was the way he was.”

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

[with video]

MARK KENNEDY, OTTAWA CITIZEN
Published on: May 22, 2015

WINNIPEG – It was a failed social experiment stretching back to Sir John A. Macdonald that set the groundwork for decades of human misery.

The Canadian government, in line with a goal eventually described as a plan to “kill the Indian in the child,” established a system of Indian residential schools.

It began in 1883, when Macdonald passed a cabinet measure to create three residential schools in the West to be operated by the Catholic and Anglican churches.

The plan was announced in the House of Commons by Public Works Minister Hector Langevin, who said:

“In order to educate the children properly we must separate them from their families. Some may say that this is hard but if we want to civilize them we must do that.”

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OHIO
Toledo News Now

By Holly Tuey

TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) –
A Toledo Catholic priest has been placed on administrative leave following allegations that he violated the diocesan code on sexual abuse of minors.

Lucas County Children Services (LCCS) is conducting an investigation involving Reverend Samuel Punnoor, who has served in the Diocese of Toledo since April of 2011.

Bishop Daniel E. Thomas placed Father Punnoor on leave Friday, after he returned from visiting his home diocese in India. The diocese says it learned on May 6 of the allegation that Punnoor violated “Appendix A: Diocese of Toledo Code of Pastoral Conduct” of the diocesan “To Protect and to Heal: Policy on Sexual Abuse of Minors.” Father Punnoor was in India from April 26 until May 21.

Punnoor was placed on administrative leave, during which he is not allowed to exercise public ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, wear clerical attire or present himself publicly as a priest.

The diocese says this is the first time it has received any such allegation regarding Father Punnoor and it is cooperating with LCCS.

Punnoor was serving as parochial vicar at St. Joseph Parish in Maumee since July of 2013. He previously served at Most Blessed Sacrament Parish and Corpus Christi University Parish, both in Toledo. He was also involved with St. Joseph schools and Central Catholic High School in Toledo.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 22

Statement by Claudia Vercellotti, SNAPtoledo@aol.com, 419 345 9291

For more than two weeks, Toledo Catholic officials kept silent about an allegation of misconduct involving a child. Even now, they refuse to give any details that might be helpful to parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors or the public. Shame on them.

[Toledo Blade]

Fr. Samuel Punnoor has been suspended. It’s now up to Bishop Daniel Thomas and his top aides to aggressively seek out others with information or suspicion about Fr. Punnoor and make sure they call law enforcement immediately.

Fr. Punnoor worked at Most Blessed Sacrament and Corpus Christi University parishes in Toledo, Central Catholic High School, Church of St. Patrick, Immaculate Conception Church (all in Toledo) and Saint Joseph parish in Maumee.

We urge every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Punnoor or cover ups by his church colleagues to seek help form independent sources: police, prosecutors, therapists or support groups like ours. We also urge them to protect kids, expose wrongdoing, and start healing.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

After harrowing stories of abuse from survivors, the child abuse royal commission will next week hear from Australia’s worst pedophile priest.

Source: AAP

Australia’s worst pedophile priest, Gerald Francis Ridsdale, will be grilled for at least two days at the child abuse royal commission next week.

A major focus of the commission’s Ballarat hearing is who was responsible for moving Ridsdale from parish to parish, allowing him to continue to offend, and why.

It may end up being Ridsdale who gives the commission much of the information it needs in its investigation.

Ridsdale will give evidence via video-link from jail on Wednesday and Thursday, and into Friday if necessary.

The royal commission’s investigation is far from over and yet senior counsel assisting, Gail Furness SC, has already indicated it has uncovered evidence that church figures knew of the abuse in the early 1960s.

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ILLINOIS
WICS

[with video]

A central Illinois priest who was removed as pastor over an abuse allegation is now speaking out.

Reverend Robert DeGrand says the church inquiry that led to his ouster resembled a witch hunt. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield removed DeGrand from four parishes earlier this month over alleged misconduct that happened in 1980 in Jacksonville.

Media reports show DeGrand says his removal was not directly related to the allegation, but instead, for refusing to move to a private home while on administrative leave after the complaint.

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ILLINOIS
WICS

[with video]

Bishop Thomas Paprocki, firing back after a former central Illinois priest said the church inquiry that led to his ouster resembled a witch hunt.

Robert DeGrand was removed from four parishes earlier this month over alleged misconduct that happened in 1980 in Jacksonville.

Media reports show DeGrant says his removal was not directly related to the allegation, but instead for refusing to move to a private home while on administrative leave after a complaint.

Bishop Paprocki released this statement Thursday that says, in part:

“Our Diocesan Review Board unanimously found that the allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor against Father DeGrand was credible and I accepted their finding. Father DeGrand was removed because he has refused to cooperate with the review board and declined the opportunity they offered to review their finding. As long as that finding stands, I cannot and will not return Father DeGrant to ministry.”

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OHIO
NBC 24

by Amulya Raghuveer

TOLEDO — A Toledo reverend has been placed on administrative leave after a claim was made alleging he violated the diocese’s policy on the sexual abuse of minors.

Reverend Samuel Punnoor, who has served in Toledo since April 2011, is said to have been reported to Lucas County Children Services by the Diocese of Toledo on May 6 while he was visiting his home diocese in India.

Specifics of the allegation against Father Punnoor have not been disclosed; however, diocese officials say parents and guardians of students at Most Blessed Sacrament, Saint Joseph schools, and Central Catholic High School have been advised of the situation.

While an investigation is underway, Father Punnoor has been placed on administrative leave and is not permitted to exercise public ministry, administer Sacraments, wear clerical attire or present himself publicly as a priest.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo

For Immediate Release

Bishop Daniel E. Thomas today placed Reverend Samuel Punnoor on administrative leave following an allegation that he violated “Appendix A: Diocese of Toledo Code of Pastoral Conduct” of the diocesan To Protect and to Heal: Policy on Sexual Abuse of Minors. Upon learning May 6, 2015, of the allegation against Father Punnoor, the Diocese of Toledo immediately reported it the same day to Lucas County Children Services. At that time, Father Punnoor was visiting his home diocese in India from April 26-May 21. Therefore, it was only upon his return that Bishop Thomas and diocesan officials were able to meet with him today.

The Diocese of Toledo has never before received any such allegation regarding Father Punnoor. The Diocese of Toledo is cooperating fully with Lucas County Children Services as it conducts its investigation.

While on administrative leave, Father Punnoor is not permitted to exercise public ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, wear clerical attire or present himself publicly as a priest pending the outcome of ongoing civil and ecclesiastical investigations.

Father Punnoor, a priest of the Diocese of Pathanamthitta in India, has served in the Diocese of Toledo since April 2011. Upon his arrival, he produced a letter of suitability from the Bishop of his home diocese, passed the necessary background checks and successfully completed the required safe environment training. He has served as Parochial Vicar at Most Blessed Sacrament Parish, Toledo (April 2011-July 2012) and Corpus Christi University Parish, Toledo (July 2012-June 2013) and as Parochial Vicar at Saint Joseph Parish, Maumee since July 1, 2013. In addition, Father Punnoor has served as a faculty member at Central Catholic High School, Toledo (September 2011-May 2012) and assisted periodically with Masses at Historic Church of St. Patrick, Toledo and Immaculate Conception Church, Toledo (May 2012-June 2013).

Notice regarding the allegation against Father Punnoor was communicated today to the parents/guardians of the students of Most Blessed Sacrament and Saint Joseph schools, as well as Central Catholic High School. An announcement will also be made at Masses this weekend (May 23-24) at Most Blessed Sacrament, Corpus Christi University and Saint Joseph parishes. While on administrative leave, Father Punnoor is not residing at Saint Joseph Parish.

The Diocese of Toledo continues to be committed to ensuring the protection of children and providing a safe environment for all young people as well as ensuring the dignity and integrity of the priesthood.

The Diocese of Toledo asks for prayers for all those involved in this matter. If you have any concerns or information to report, contact Lucas County Children Services at 419-213-2273 and/or Toledo Diocesan Case Manager Mr. Frank DiLallo at 419-243-2150.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

For the second time this year, a Toledo Catholic priest faces allegations of misconduct involving a minor.

The Diocese of Toledo announced today that the Rev. Samuel Punnoor has been placed on administrative leave by Bishop Daniel Thomas after he learned of an unspecified allegation against the priest. Father Punnoor came to Toledo in April, 2011 from the Diocese of Pathanamthitta in India.

RELATED CONTENT: Diocese of Toledo letter about Rev. Samuel Punnoor

The diocese received the allegation May 6, and Lucas County Children Services was notified that day, according to a diocese statement.

Father Punnoor has served as Parochial Vicar at Most Blessed Sacrament and Corpus Christi University parishes in Toledo, and the Saint Joseph parish in Maumee. He’s also taught at Central Catholic High School, and occasionally assisted at Historic Church of St. Patrick and Immaculate Conception Church in Toledo.

Both Most Blessed Sacrament and Saint Joseph have affiliated parochial schools, and parents of students there and at Central Catholic were notified today of the allegations.

In describing the allegations, the diocese only said that Father Punnoor faced an allegation that he violated a diocesan code of conduct regarding sexual abuse of minors.

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UNITED STATES
Talking Points Memo

By CATHERINE THOMPSON
Published MAY 22, 2015

Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) on Friday rushed to the defense of Josh Duggar, the eldest child of the family made famous by TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” who is now publicly facing allegations that he molested young girls when he was a teenager.

“Josh’s actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, ‘inexcusable,’ but that doesn’t mean ‘unforgivable,'” Huckabee wrote in a Facebook post. “He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities. No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story.”

The Christian, ultra-conservative Duggar family endorsed Huckabee during the 2008 election cycle and did so again when he announced his 2016 campaign this month, after backing former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) in 2012. Endorsements from parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar currently have top billing on Huckabee’s campaign website.

The allegations against Josh Duggar surfaced Thursday when tabloid magazine In Touch published a 2006 police report showing Duggar was investigated for sex offenses, including allegedly fondling five underage girls, that occurred from 2002-2003. Duggar, now 27, was 14 years old when he allegedly committed the offenses. He was never charged with any crime.

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 22

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 urge Portland’s religious leaders to shun officials at a local church and we urge local law enforcement to charge those church officials with obstructing justice, evidence tampering, witness intimidation or other offenses because of how they dealt with a predatory pastor.

[Oregonian]

“This was a worst-case scenario when it comes to a church and a pastor not cooperating.” That’s how Washington prosecutor Kevin Barton described officials at Bethel United Pentecostal Church in Hillsboro.

According to The Oregonian, in a recent child sex abuse case, the church’s head pastor

– “declined to speak with police without a briefing on their investigation,”

– “then declined unless his insurance agent could be present” and

– revealed to police that he had known about the abuse of one boy, told him to document it in a letter (but the boy didn’t speak English well and was incapable of writing a letter in English).

This pastor should be harshly punished. So should any other current or former Bethel United Pentecostal staffer who ignored or concealed child sex crimes by ex-youth minister Dylan Ritterman.

If that punishment can happen through the legal system, that’s ideal. We urge police and prosecutors to look long and hard at charging Bethel officials and prosecuting them vigorously.

If that punishment cannot happen through the legal system, we urge Portland’s religious community to publicly denounce Bethel staff and shun them. Ministers should not idly sit back while their colleagues – in any denomination – endanger kids, conceal crimes, rebuff police, and behave in ways that bring shame on people of faith.

When ministers do nothing while other ministers endanger kids, all churches become less safe.

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UNITED STATES
Rage Against the Minivan

I grew up in the church. My dad was a theologian and preacher. My husband was a pastor for almost a decade. I’ve seen the beauty of the church but also the dysfunction. Like any group of human people, church communities are unique and imperfect. It’s unfair to make broad strokes about all Christians based on the behavior of a few. But at the same time, when unhealthy patterns emerge, it’s important to talk about them so that these patterns don’t maintain damaging behaviors.

One pattern that has troubled me about some churches is the impulse to deal with child sexual abuse “in house.” I’ve seen many variations on this them but it usually involves a pastor or a group of elders who believe that they can “extend grace” and deal with the problem themselves. It often involves some disciplinary action and some kind of restoration process that is overseen by church leaders.

There have been two instances brought to light this week that illustrate this pattern. First, a story broke that detailed the allegations of sexual abuse against Josh Duggar, the oldest brother of the Duggar family depicted in the reality show 19 Kids and Counting. Josh has since admitted to the sexual abuse. According to In Touch, both his father and his church failed to alert authorities in a timely manner. In fact, Josh’s dad told no one for a year following the first discovery, and there were repeated offenses in that year. Finally, things got bad enough that he went to the church:

Jim Bob then “met with the elders of his church and told them what was going on.” No one alerted the police or any other law enforcement agency. Instead they decided to send Josh to a program that consisted of hard physical work and counseling. James said that Josh was in the program from March 17, 2003 until July 17, 2003.

He said the program was a “Christian program.” Michelle Duggar later admitted to police that Josh did not receive counseling and instead had been sent during that time to a family friend who was in the home remodeling business.

There have also been some disturbing allegations this week in regards to the actions of elders and pastors at The Village Church in Dallas. Joshua Root, a leader in their church, admitted to repeatedly viewing child pornography. Possession of child pornography is a federal offense, and yet the church did not contact authorities. What’s worse, they placed his wife under church disciple for filing for an annulment upon learning about her husband’s pedophilia. An except from a letter the pastor sent to Joshua’s wife:

We have been perplexed by your decision to file for an annulment of your marriage without first abiding by your covenant obligations to submit to the care and direction of your elders. As I mentioned in my first letter, this decision violates your covenant with us – and places you under discipline.

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AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Friday 22 May, 2015

Media Statement by Nicky Davis, Leader, SNAP Australia (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

nicky@nickydavis.com.au
0422 538 440

Pope Francis moved Cardinal George Pell to Rome from Australia. Now, the pontiff must force Pell to testify before a governmental panel.

Serious allegations against Pell have repeatedly been raised – both through sworn testimony and through media interviews.

Francis has said – and Catholics all know – that to move forward, the truth about this scandal must be disclosed. Pell’s participation in the governmental inquiry is crucial if this is to happen.

And for the healing of Australian Catholics and victims, Pell must be questioned under oath about child sex abuse and cover up cases in his home country.

The pope must act and act now.

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TEXAS
Christian Today

Mark Woods CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 22 May 2015

The Village Church in Dallas, Texas, has been accused of controlling behaviour.

A Dallas megachurch is facing accusations that it has failed to deal with one of its members who viewed images of child abuse and instead made his wife a subject of church discipline.

The 10,000-member Village Church, whose lead pastor is Matt Chandler, supported two of its members, Jordan and Karen Root, in their work with the SIM USA mission organisation in East Asia. Jordan Root was found to have been viewing child pornography and his appointment with SIM was terminated following an investigation and his admission of guilt.

Jordan Root entered what the church called a “process of walking in repentance” and the church was told: “1 John 1:7 reminds us that he is washed clean of all unrighteousness, met with forgiveness, and granted fellowship with the body. Even with egregious sin, we are now called to reaffirm our love for him.” He was removed from ministry and reported to the authorities. He was allowed to attend worship at the church if he was accompanied by a member, and also forbidden to enter the church’s children’s ministry building.

Karen Root – now Karen Hinkley – took steps to have her marriage annulled and resigned her membership of the church. However, The Village Church has a strict ‘covenant’ membership policy which includes the commitment: “I will seek to preserve the gift of marriage and agree to walk through the steps of marriage reconciliation at The Village Church before pursuing divorce from my spouse.”

Hinkley received a letter from one of the church’s pastors, Matt Younger, acknowledging that Root’s conduct “must have inflicted a great wound upon you, one that we cannot fully understand” and saying, “We desire to care for you and lead you in a manner that is worthy of the gospel.”

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TEXAS
Echoes and Stars

Matt Bredmond

If you do not know what is going on, you need to go read the documentation.

1. At this point, there are very few facts to debate. The story comes from official documentation from The Village Church and the missions agency, SIM. To ask for another side of the story is to simply bury your head in the sand and not want to deal with the uncomfortable facts of the actual story.

2. A church (and its leaders) that places itself in the position of teaching and instructing men and women all over the world through conferences and resources will not be and should not be able to enjoy the luxury of avoiding criticism in its practice of discipline, especially when some of that instruction is on the subject of discipline itself.

3. One question The Village Church and its defenders will have to answer is, “Why is this not a biblical grounds for divorce if they do in fact have the biblical grounds to remove him from ministry indefinitely and feel the need to warn the parents of the church about this man and his exposure to children?”

4. If the use of child pornography is in fact pedophilia, then Karen, the wife has the biblical grounds to divorce/annul the marriage according to most evangelical position papers. The job of the elders is not to validate that decision but to support her.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) sent letters to 55 Bishops—Archbishops, Bishops, Auxiliary Bishops and Retired Bishops – in Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois in search of one who would preside in the place of convicted and now resigned Bishop Robert Finn at the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph scheduled May 23rd ordination of candidates for the priesthood.

We offered to pay the transportation expenses for any one of them willing to stand and prevent this travesty from happening.

We are publishing the full text of our letter at this end of this editorial.

Because we have watched the behavior of Bishops in the 13 years since the eruption of the Boston incarnation of the scandal and learned even more from their depositions and dealings with survivors and their families, we know better than to be hopeful that another Bishop will preside in Finn’s stead on Saturday.

For that reason, we included in our letter a second request of the 55 Bishops: that unwilling or unable to preside at the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph’s ordinations, the Bishops at least contact the temporary administrator of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Bishop Joseph Naumann and request that he change the time so that he could perform the ordinations or incorporate the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph seminarians into the ordination ceremony in his diocese (Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas).

Finn presiding at these ordinations is egregious.

For that, in addition to Bishop Naumann, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Archbishop Vigano, the Vatican’s Apostolic Nuncio (ambassador) to the United States, both of whom approved of this arrangement at the time of Finn’s “voluntary” resignation, April 21, 2015, are responsible.

But ultimately, Pope Francis bears responsibility.

For all the lovely words that have been said about healing, protecting, getting it and moving on in the sexual abuse scandal, – the largest crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in 500 years – this action, allowed to stand, shows the Church’s true colors. …

TEXT of the LETTER SENT TO BISHOPS by NSAC:

May 15, 2015 Dear Excellency: We sincerely request that you replace Bishop Robert Finn as the ordaining Bishop for the May 23, 2015 ordination of seminarians to the priesthood in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. We understand Bishop Finn can perform the ordinations but we seek your assistance in preventing yet another blow to the survivors of sexual abuse by priests and members of religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church.

While another Bishop can replace Bishop Finn for this public ceremony, no one can replace a survivor. It is the survivors’ pain that we believe should be a concern of the heart and soul of the Church as these ordinations approach and are carried out by a Bishop who was and remains a central figure in this crisis. There is no way healing can be real and true if actions such as Bishop Finn presiding at ordinations on May 23 following his resignation nearly three years after his conviction are allowed to continue and are viewed as good decisions.

The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) would be happy to pay your expenses and arrange for your transportation if it would assist you in being the presiding Bishop at the ordination ceremony.

If you choose not to be the presiding Bishop we ask for your action to contact Bishop Joseph F. Naumann, Bishop of Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas and the temporary administrator of the Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph and with fraternal love and in the spirit of fraternal correction vigorously prevail upon him to change the time of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph ordinations in order for his schedule to permit him to be the ordaining bishop or that the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph men who will be ordained priests be included in the ordination ceremony planned by his own diocese where he will be the presiding Bishop.

We appreciate your consideration of our requests.

Sincerely, Kristine Ward Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition

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OHIO
Cleveland.com

By John Harper, Northeast Ohio Media Group
on May 22, 2015

NORTHFIELD CENTER TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The sentencing of a former teacher and school board president on 15 child porn charges has opened old wounds for parents and former students at St. Barnabas School and church in Northfield Center.

Decades of child abuse at St. Barnabas and other catholic schools came to light 13 years ago when the Rev. Daniel McBride, the only priest indicted in a sweeping grand-jury investigation of sex-abuse complaints in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese. McBride was sentenced to three years’ probation for having sex with a teen prostitute last year

The diocese issued a statement saying McBride’s case was “a personal matter and was never connected with the exercise of his priestly ministry.”

Now the Rev. Ralph Wiatrowsky of St. Barnabas has asked a judge to reconsider sentencing former Nordonia Hills school board President Steve Bittel to prison after 67 child porn files were found on his computer. And the letter has some parents outraged.

Angela Mitchell was a student at St. Barnabas in the 1980s, and while she was never a victim of sexual abuse, she says she knows others who were. She is one of 1,600 local parents who have joined a private Facebook group to coordinate efforts asking the Diocese of Cleveland to reconsider Wiecowsky’s job.

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UNITED STATES
Think Progress

BY JUDD LEGUM POSTED ON MAY 21, 2015

Josh Duggar, a reality TV star on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting and the oldest child of the Duggar clan, admitted that he sexually molested several young girls as a teenager. Duggar only owned up to his conduct after records of a police investigation were obtained by In Touch Magazine. He was never prosecuted because, by the time he was reported to the authorities, the statute of limitations had expired.

Prior to his admission on Thursday night, Duggar spent years crisscrossing the country as a spokesman for “traditional values.” Duggar took a job as executive director of the Family Research Council’s political arm in 2013. In that role, which he resigned on Thursday, Duggar argued that marriage equality and abortion rights — among other things — were destroying the values that he and his family embodied.

Here are nine of Duggar’s most sanctimonious moments:

1. When Josh Duggar argued that an LGBT nondiscrimination measure in Arkansas jeopardized the safety of children:

Enacting additional laws that are trying to protect one group of people over another is not really the solution and in fact it has the inverse effect on others…We have to make sure we’re standing up to protect the rights of privacy and protecting the well-being of women and children in our cities.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | May. 22, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO “The religious fabric of the San Francisco archdiocese has been torn, and it did not need to happen. Intentionally or not, it has been wrenched,” said Thomas Sheehan, a Stanford University scholar who summarized what several observers shared with NCR.

Conflict has marked the tenure of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone since his arrival in San Francisco in 2012. In recent months, highly publicized events have made the archdiocese and Cordileone a staple of media coverage, and local Catholics have made their feelings known, from critics calling for Cordileone’s removal in a full-page ad in a major daily, to supporters rallying for the archbishop with a picnic, petitions and a website.

The Bay Area has become an epicenter for colliding visions of what being Catholic means, the role of conscience, church teaching on sex and sexuality, the core role of Catholic schools, the understanding of revealed truth, and how authority should be exercised.

In short, Catholic identity.

“I still think there is a possibility of reconciliation if both sides would just pause for a moment, if Archbishop Cordileone publicly announced as pastor of the archdiocese that he is willing to sit down and start from scratch. He arrived here running, landing with all four episcopal feet on the ground, and with an agenda,” Sheehan added.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS SETTLEMENTS WITH BALLARAT ABUSE VICTIMS

* Financial settlements with 42 victims
* $3.872 million paid out, average $92,000
* Initial payout total $2.958 million, average payout $70,000
* So far 11 claims re-examined with $914,400 in additional payments

WHAT CHRISTIAN BROTHERS SPENT DEFENDING THREE BALLARAT OFFENDERS

* Robert Charles Best – $1,527,949
* Edward Vernon Dowlan (Ted Bales) – $77,000
* Stephen Francis Farrell – $23,000

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CANADA
StarPhoenix

BY HANNAH SPRAY, THE STARPHOENIX MAY 21, 2015

A retired priest was released from custody after he appealed his sentence for a sexual assault he committed in 1978.

Omer Desjardins, 82, was sentenced in January to six months in jail, plus one year of probation, for sexually touching a 10-year-old girl in 1978 in a small community north of Saskatoon.

On April 16, having served just under four months of his sentence, Desjardins was released after a panel of three Saskatchewan Court of Appeal judges reduced his sentence to time served.

“The court of appeal essentially said they’re going to allow the appeal and sentence him to time served, as there were mitigating factors the judge didn’t take into account or give adequate weight to,” said Desjardin’s lawyer, George Green.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

BOSTON —For nearly 11 years now, parishioners have protested the closing of their church on the Massachusetts seacoast, keeping round-the-clock vigil there and holding Sunday services even though the Roman Catholic Church has de-consecrated the sanctuary.

Thursday, the Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church continued to stand their ground, announcing plans to appeal a judge’s order to vacate the church by May 29. They also will appeal the judicial decisions leading up to the ruling and want the judge’s order suspended, pending a decision by the Massachusetts Appeals Court, said Mary Elizabeth Carmody, an attorney for the group.

“There were a number of decisions that handcuffed us at trial,” Carmody said.

The motions were filed in Norfolk Superior Court, where Judge Edward Leibensperger held the one-day trial earlier this month. The trial focused on the question: Who holds title to the church land?

Leibensperger said the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston owns the property in Scituate and he declared the parishioners trespassers. He declined to address church law issues raised by the protesters, who now argue that he didn’t properly consider their arguments.

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CANADA
CBC News

BY DENNIS GRUENDING | MAY 21, 2015

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) will hold its closing events in Ottawa between May 31 and June 3, 2015. The TRC was established in 2008 as a part of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement in order to inform Canadians about the history and legacy of such schools. For more than 130 years, the institutions were operated by the government and by Canadian churches on the government’s behalf. A second portion of the TRC mandate is to inspire a process leading toward reconciliation within Aboriginal families, and between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal communities, churches, governments — and Canadians in general.

Here are some facts about residential schools that shouldn’t be forgotten:

• In 1879, politician Nicholas Flood Davin visited the U.S. to observe residential schools and recommended them for Canada.

• In 1883, Canadian government minister Hector Langevin said, “In order to educate the [Indian] children properly we must separate them from their families.”

• Also in 1883, the Canadian government began to provide funding to church-run residential schools.

• 132 residential schools in total were created.

• Residential schools did not exist in Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

• An estimated 60 per cent of church-run residential schools were operated by Roman Catholics; 25 per cent by Anglicans and 15 per cent by the United Church of Canada. Several others were operated by Presbyterians and other churches.

• 150,000 children were removed from their families and communities and placed in residential schools.

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CANADA
CBC News

As the process to compensate Indian residential school survivors who suffered severe abuse winds down, efforts are being made to reach out to former students who started claims and have not followed up.

Anyone who suffered sexual or severe physical abuse at one of the schools First Nations children across the country were forced to attend could make a claim for compensation under the Independent Assessment Process or IAP.

That compensation is over and above the one-time common experience payment all former students received under the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Making an IAP claim also precluded survivors from suing any of the parties involved with the schools.

But now that the IAP is starting to wrap up, the search is on for hundreds of former students who have not completed their claims, known as “lost claimants.”

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Almost four years after his last sentence for abusing children, the Christian Brothers have still not moved to kick Robert Best out of the order.

Source: AAP

The Christian Brothers have still not made any move to expel convicted pedophile Robert Best from the Catholic order, four years after his latest conviction.

Best has not asked from his jail cell to be removed from the Brotherhood and no-one in the order has taken any initiative to kick him out, the child sex abuse royal commission has heard.

Christian Brothers Oceania Province leader Brother Peter Clinch, who has been in the role since July, said he has not raised the issue of Best’s dispensation process with Rome.

“The matter has not come to my attention yet because he’s still in prison and it hasn’t come to my attention to take it further at this stage,” he told the commission on Friday.

He said Best will be in his 80s when he gets out of jail.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Ballarat

By Margaret Burin

Ballarat locals have decorated a Catholic school fence with colourful ribbons, a campaign called Loud Fence, aimed at showing support for child abuse victims who were silenced.

After days of horrific evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, community members have begun tying bright ribbons onto the fence of the former St Alipius Boy’s School where some of the abuse took place.

One of the organisers, Maureen Hatcher, says it is the community’s way of letting survivors know that Ballarat is behind them.

“The idea is that it’s a loud fence and that’s because there’s just been too much silence,” she said.

“That’s been the crux of this whole disaster, that children weren’t listened to and they just weren’t supported, so it’s time to support them now and give them a voice.”

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen on May 21, 2015

Attorneys representing alleged victims of clergy sex abuse were in court Thursday asking a judge to grant broader access to internal documents kept by the Diocese of Duluth.

The diocese in December 2013 publicly released the names of all priests it considered “credibly accused” of abuse, but officials have combated advocates’ efforts to examine decades’ worth of files.

“These documents are the secret documents that Bishop (Paul) Sirba has under lock and key at the diocese headquarters,” attorney Mike Finnegan said. He claimed that the documents “show what the bishops knew, when they knew it and how they sealed and covered up child sex abuse for years.”

At a Thursday afternoon hearing, Finnegan asked 6th Judicial District Judge Shaun Floerke to order the diocese to turn over all of its files on child sex abuse — a request that a diocese attorney likened to a “fishing expedition.”

The request was brought in a lawsuit filed against the diocese by “Doe 28,” an anonymous man who claims he was sexually abused by a Duluth priest in the 1970s. Attorneys are in the pre-trial discovery phase, working to exchange relevant information to prepare for trial.

Susan Gaertner, the Minneapolis attorney representing the diocese, argued that the discovery request was excessive.

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UNITED STATES
New York Daily News

Josh Duggar accused of sexually abusing 5 underage girls as minor; admits he ‘hurt others, including my family and close friends’

BY ETHAN SACKS , KIRTHANA RAMISETTI

The Duggar family is digging out from a shocking scandal.

Josh Duggar, 27, eldest son of the uber-religious Arkansas clan featured in “19 Kids and Counting,” has admitted to molesting multiple girls when he was a teen.

“Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends,” Duggar said in a statement to People on Thursday. “I confessed this to my parents, who took several steps to help me address the situation.”

Duggar admitted fondling the breasts and genitals of at least five girls, sometimes as they slept. He has resigned his position as a lobbyist with the Family Research Council (FRC), an organization dedicated to preserving family values in America.

“Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends,” the star of “19 Kids and Counting” said in a statement to People magazine. “I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Emily Shire

‘19 Kids and Counting’ star Josh Duggar resigned Thursday from the Family Research Council for acting ‘inexcusably’ as a teenager. Reports allege he molested younger girls—and the family knew.

“Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably,” Josh Duggar stated Thursday night in his formal resignation from the conservative Christian Family Research Council. “Inexcusably” is, perhaps, one of the greatest understatements when it’s made in reference to the allegation that you molested five girls—including allegations, as TMZ reports, from some of your sisters.

In the last day, a stream of increasingly upsetting details have been revealed about the eldest Duggar child in the popular TLC reality series, 19 Kids and Counting.

In Touch uncovered a police report that was filed regarding Duggar in 2006, in which he was accused of molesting multiple female minors in 2002 and 2003 when he himself was 14-15 years old.

The report, filed in December 2006 by the Springdale Police Department in Arkansas, reveals disturbing details about the allegations against Duggar. James (better known to TLC fans as Jim Bob) Duggar told police that in March 2002, he was tipped off by an alleged victim that Josh had been “sneaking into” a room at night and “had been touching… the breasts and vaginal areas.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MAY 22, 2015

Jared Owens
Reporter
Canberra

Bill Shorten has urged the Catholic Church to treat sex-abuse victims “with respect, not just legal strategy” as it considers interrogating survivors to prevent an adverse royal commission finding against its most senior Australian cleric, George Pell, and other senior clergy.

The move would represent an abrupt reversal of its previous decision not to cross-examine victims and follows warnings from commission chairman Peter McClellan that the probe into institutional responses to child sexual abuse will likely be asked to make findings about claims that Cardinal Pell dismissed complaints by two victims of pedophile priests.

Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied these allegations, issuing a statement from the Vatican yesterday attacking “false and misleading headlines” and pledging complete co-operation with the royal commission.

The Opposition Leader today cautioned the church is being judged by how it deals with abuse survivors.

“The whole Church isn’t judged by the standards of some, the errant clergy who have done this are terrible and wicked people. But it’s how we deal with the harm once we know it’s happened, that’s what judges an institution, that’s what judges all of us,” Mr Shorten said in Melbourne.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 22, 2015

Jane Lee

Church lawyers will not recall witnesses for cross-examination on allegations Cardinal George Pell tried to bribe a victim to silence him and ignored another’s reports children were being sexually abused.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council told media outside of the the royal commission into child sexual abuse that “we have determined that regardless of the position the commission is taking that it is not in the best interests of witnesses or anyone else that they be cross-examined”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 22, 2015

Jane Lee

The Christian Brothers have done nothing to remove offender Robert Best from its order since he was convicted of multiple sexual offences against children.

Best was convicted in 2011 of sex crimes against 11 boys at schools in Ballarat, Box Hill and Geelong and is currently serving a 14 year, nine-month sentence.

Brother Peter Clinch, leader of the Christian Brothers Oceania Province, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Friday that Best was still a Christian Brother.

Asked why by Counsel Assisting the Commission Gail Furness, SC, Brother Clinch – who became leader last July – said: “Because he hasn’t gone through the …dispensation, and he has not requested that. And as far as I’m aware at this early stage of my leadership, the congregation hasn’t taken any initiative in that area.”

Brother Clinch could not say why the leadership had not taken any action. The Christian Brothers’ policy in Nairobi was that “any Brother who offends from now on will no longer be a member of the congregation. Prior to that, that means prior to 2013, there is no legislation, in our constitutions for that to happen,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
RH Reality Check

by Jodi Jacobson, Editor in Chief, RH Reality Check
May 22, 2015

Josh Duggar, oldest son of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, the family profiled in the reality TV juggernaut 19 Kids and Counting, resigned his position as Executive Director of the Family Research Council today after reports surfaced that as a young teen he had fondled the breasts and genitals of several girls, including his own sisters, over an unknown period of time beginning in at least 2002.

The Duggars rose to fame based on their brand of “biblical family values,” which as described by writer Vyckie Garrison, are based on the premise that “God designed males and females to fulfill distinct roles [in which] men are to be leaders, teachers, initiators, protectors and providers. Women are created to be “helpmeets” to the men in authority over them (husbands, fathers, older brothers) ~ they are to be submissive and yielding.” The Duggars home-school their kids, place very heavy emphasis on chastity—couples don’t even hold hands before they are engaged to be married—and the “proper” role of women and girls, and eschew birth control, and strongly embrace other so-called Christian conservative values.

The Duggars quickly became big business. Based primarily on the size of their family and the apparent willingness of Michelle and Jim Bob to keep getting pregnant irrespective of the documented dangers to both Michelle and the babies she carries, the cable channel TLC gave them a reality show from which they make a reported $25,000 to $40,000 per episode. From that show grew incessant coverage of the Duggars in People magazine and a range of tabloids, which have documented ad nauseum the weddings of the three oldest Duggar children and the subsequent and, in turn, the rapid birth of their own kids. Add to all of this money from book sales, promotional appearances, and their other family businesses, including real estate, and the Duggars are making a considerable income peddling their values.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By court reporter Peta Carlyon

The head of the Christian Brothers’ Oceania chapter has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse there are no plans to remove paedophile Robert Best from the order.

Best is one of three Christian Brothers who worked in Ballarat in regional Victoria, who have been convicted of abusing children under their care.

He is currently in prison, but is expected to be released when he is aged in his 80s.

Fellow Christian Brother and notorious paedophile Edward Dowlan, now known as Ted Bales, is also in prison and was removed from the order.

But Brother Peter Clinch indicated there were no plans to stop Best from using the Brother title on release.

The commission heard he is not using it in prison.

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