ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
Church of England

11 July 2015

The General Synod today gave final approval to a package of proposals intended to take further the process of making the Church a safer place for children and vulnerable adults – both by making the disciplinary processes under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 more effective where safeguarding issues arise and by strengthening the Church’s wider legal framework in relation to safeguarding in various ways. The legislation was originally introduced in February 2014 following a consultation launched at Synod in July 2013.

Speaking in the debate, Bishop Paul Butler, lead bishop on safeguarding, said:
“We all want every single one of our churches and institutions to be safer places and communities for all people; notably for children and adults at times of risk and harm, whether that be long or short term.” He added that along with facing up to the consequences of the past “our emphasis has to be on prevention” stressing that, along with the new legislation, high quality training, safe recruiting and effective quality assurance needed to be implemented at every level of church life. The Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure and draft Amending Canon No. 34 (links below) contains a range of elements including:

Adding to the bishop’s existing powers to suspend a priest or deacon, extending to circumstances where the local authority or police provide information which leads the bishop to be satisfied that they present a significant risk of harm. With similar powers for an archbishop to suspend a bishop in such circumstances. (As with all existing provisions this includes a right of appeal to President of Tribunals where suspension occurs).

· Provision for the disqualification from office as a churchwarden or member of a parochial church council (‘PCC’) anyone whose name appears on a statutory barred list (under the Safeguarding and Vulnerable Groups Act).

· Provision for the bishop to suspend a churchwarden or PCC member on safeguarding grounds in circumstances similar to suspending clergy (with a similar right of appeal).

· For the first time a statutory obligation on office holders in the Church to have regard to safeguarding advice issued by the House of Bishops (it has previously been expected of clergy but it is now formalised into a statutory provision).

· Removal of current one year limitation period that applies generally to complaints of clergy misconduct: in relation to complaints of clergy sexual misconduct towards children and vulnerable adults there will be no time limit.

· Canonical duty on diocesan bishop to have a Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser (‘DSA’) to carry out certain functions. Dioceses have in fact had DSAs for a number of years but this formalizes the requirement to ensure proper provision is in place.

· A new power given to archbishops and bishops to direct bishops and clergy to undergo a risk assessment (with it the right to request that the President of Tribunals reviews the direction). Subject to this review, it would be misconduct to refuse to undergo the assessment.

· Similar powers for the bishop in relation to readers and layworkers.

The aim is to secure Parliamentary approval and the Royal Assent by the end of the year.

Notes

The Bishop of Durham’s speech on Final approval for the Draft Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure.

Bishop of Durham’s speech on the Final approval for the Draft amending Canon No. 34.

The Draft Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure

Draft amending Canon No. 34

The latest practice guidance, approved by the House of Bishops, May 2015

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor
11 Jul 2015

Paedophile priests could get back into the pulpit despite a major overhaul of Church of England child protection rules to prevent a repeat of a series of sexual abuse scandals, the Archbishop of York has warned.

Dr John Sentamu voiced alarm that the long-awaited changes to ecclesiastical law, which were passed unanimously by the General Synod on Saturday, might not be enough to stop abusers already been banned from ministry from demanding to be reinstated.

The Archbishop, the second most senior figure in the Church of England, warned that even he has no power to demand to see the files of banned cleric from other dioceses who retire to his area and apply for a new permission to serve as a priest again.

He told the Synod that unless the loophole is closed, abusers could return to serve as priests in a different part of England and potentially reoffend.

Speaking as the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, outlined a swathe of new safeguarding rules to the Synod, Dr Sentamu told of two separate cases where retired priests banned from ministry elsewhere had applied to him for PTO [Permission To Officiate] but refused to take part in a risk assessment.

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CANADA
Indian County Today Media Network

Indigenous leaders in Canada welcomed the apology of Pope Francis for the Catholic Church’s complicity in the “grave sins” of colonization, though they hoped it was just a prelude to further statements aimed directly at the deeds committed during the country’s residential schools era.

In his speech on July 9 during a three-country trip to South America, the Pontiff “humbly” asked for forgiveness for the “crimes against Native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”

“This can be taken perhaps as an indication that maybe he will be open to complying with, accepting our recommendation, that he come to Canada and apologize specifically to survivors of residential schools and their families,” Justice Murray Sinclair, head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), told Yahoo Canada News. “Overall, I see it as a good sign.”

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By GAIA PIANIGIANI

JULY 11, 2015

VATICAN CITY — The trial of a former Vatican ambassador accused of sexually abusing boys while stationed in the Dominican Republic and of possessing child pornography was adjourned indefinitely on Saturday after he fell ill and was hospitalized.

The defendant, Jozef Wesolowski, 66, was taken to an Italian hospital for an “unexpected illness” on Friday, the Vatican said in a statement. The trial will resume when Mr. Wesolowski recovers, it said.

Before the adjournment, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Gian Piero Milano, accused Mr. Wesolowski of purchasing and retaining on his two computers an “enormous quantity” of child pornography and of sexually abusing a number of boys in the Dominican Republic presumed to have been 13 to 16 years old.

Mr. Wesolowski, a former archbishop, is also accused of causing serious harm to the boys he is accused of abusing and of offending “Christian morality,” Mr. Milano said in a statement released Saturday.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Jul 10, 2015

One of the great privileges of child advocacy is the opportunity to meet the real heroes of life. These include those who were victimized as children and have come to a point in their life where they are able to advocate for so many others who suffer in silence. Mary DeMuth is one such hero. As I take a short hiatus from my blog to enjoy some time with my amazing family, I was thrilled that Mary agreed to write this guest post. Let’s hope and pray that the Church listens to her powerful and convicting words, and that those suffering in silence may get a glimpse of authentic love and hope. Thank you, Mary. – Boz
_____________________________________________________________________________

Something is wrong when churches protect perpetrators and marginalize victims. In recent months, we’ve seen a bit of the underbelly of covering up sexual abuse, demanding victims forgive and forget instantly for the sake of the poor offenders whose lives might be ruined if they were found out.

Cover up that exalts the “ministry” or a ministry personality over the well being of one who has been sinned against does not represent the Jesus I follow.

Jesus looked for the outcasted. He dignified the marginalized. He stooped (in the sweetest, gentlest way) to side with the woman caught in adultery, against her prosecutors and (perhaps) her sexual partner. He confronted sin in his closest group of ministry partners, even telling Satan to take a backseat. He noticed the woman with the issue of blood—a victim of biology and the probably shunning of the crowd. He clearly listened to the downtrodden. He identified, by coming to earth, with those bent beneath their loads. He welcomed scampering children while the disciples scoffed. His lap was safe.

And He said this: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42, ESV). When a ministry adult or congregant pursues his/her own sexual deviance and violates a child sexually, how is he/she exempt from the millstone? And why do we try to alleviate the weight of that millstone by covering up?

The Church does far better when it acknowledges its sin, living fearlessly and honestly, than when it prefers to show a pretty, unadulterated face to the world. Unfortunately, we have become so enamored with the ministries we have built, forgetting that God Himself builds His Church (and thinking it weighs on our shoulders), that we have lived in depraved fear, preferring the words of perpetrators over the words of those abused. We wrongly believe that we are in the business of reputation management.

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MICHIGAN
The Morning Sun

Editorial

Last week, it was announced that the Rev. Denis Heames, of St. Mary’s Parish on the campus of Central Michigan University, was being placed on administrative leave due to “boundary violations related to his priestly ministry.”

A statement released by the Diocese of Saginaw stated: “Last weekend, it was brought to my attention that Father Heames has been involved in boundary violations related to his priestly conduct, serious enough to require appropriate assessment and treatment,” Bishop (Joseph) Cistone shared with parishioners at St. Mary University Parish… ‘It is important to assure you that these actions in no way involved minors. Nonetheless, peoples’ lives have been affected and Father Heames will need to address these matters in a comprehensive way. Consequently, this past week, I placed Father Heames on an administrative leave of absence.’”

The reaction from the community was one of shock. Father Heames, or Father Denis, as he is also known, seemed to be well liked in the parish community.

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VATIKAN
Blick

Vatikanstadt – Der erste Pädophilie-Prozess im Vatikan ist am Samstag nach nur sieben Minuten vertagt worden. Der Angeklagte, der ehemalige polnische Erzbischof und Vatikanbotschafter Jozef Wesolowski, wurde schwer erkrankt auf die Intensivstation in ein Spital in Rom gebracht.

Dies teilte Staatsanwalt Gian Piero Milano dem Gericht mit. Ein neuer Termin stand zunächst nicht fest. Die Staatsanwaltschaft wirft dem 66-jährigen Ex-Geistlichen sexuellen Missbrauch minderjähriger Jungen in seiner Zeit als Nuntius in der Dominikanischen Republik von 2008 bis 2013 vor.

In seiner anschliessenden Zeit im Vatikan und bis zu seiner Festnahme im September 2014 soll er zudem kinderpornographisches Material aus dem Internet heruntergeladen haben. Sein Verhalten stelle eine grobe Verletzung der «religiösen Prinzipien und christlichen Moral dar», erklärte Staatsanwalt Milano bei der Verlesung der Hauptanklagepunkte.

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VATIKAN
Wir Sind Kirche

[Twenty women have been appointed to the Vatican culture council to give advice on women.]

Der Vatikan installiert erstmals ein weibliches Beratungsgremium für eine Kurienbehörde, und zwar für den Päpstlichen Kulturrat.

Anregungen aus der Sicht von Frauen vermitteln. Unter den Mitgliedern ist auch die italienische Franziskanerin Sr. Mary Melone, die erste Rektorin der Päpstlichen Universität Antonianum in Rom. In seiner Begrüßungsansprache sagte Kardinal Ravasi, er freue sich darauf, den Rat der Frauen anzuhören und sich von ihren Einsichten herausfordern zu lassen.

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VATIKAN
Spiegel

Kurz vor Beginn seines Missbrauchsprozesses ist der ehemalige Vatikanbotschafter Josef Wesolowski ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert worden. Er sei auf der Intensivstation und könne daher nicht an dem Prozess wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger teilnehmen, teilte der Vatikan mit. Die Eröffnungssitzung am Samstagmorgen werde sich daher auf eine kurze Anhörung beschränken.

Wesolowski wird vorgeworfen, während seines Aufenthalts in der Dominikanischen Republik von 2008 bis 2013 Kinder sexuell missbraucht zu haben. Außerdem soll er während seines Aufenthalts im Vatikan zwischen August 2013 und September 2014 kinderpornografisches Material aus dem Internet heruntergeladen haben.

Der 66-jährige Pole leidet bereits seit Längerem an nicht öffentlich bekannten gesundheitlichen Problemen. Wesolowski war im September 2014 im Vatikan festgenommen und zunächst unter Hausarrest gestellt worden. Papst Franziskus hatte ihn nach Bekanntwerden der Vorwürfe im Herbst 2013 von seinem Posten abberufen. Nach einem disziplinarischen Verfahren wurde der frühere Erzbischof in den Laienstand versetzt – die höchstmögliche Strafe in der Kirche.

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VATIKAN
Evangelisch

Der ehemalige Nuntius in der Dominikanischen Republik, Josef Wesolowski, liege in einem Krankenhaus auf der Intensivstation, hieß es im Vatikan am Samstag.

Der Prozess sollte am Samstagvormittag beginnen. Er wird nun vermutlich auf unbestimmte Zeit vertagt. Dem polnischen Ex-Erzbischof wird Missbrauch von Kindern in der Dominikanischen Republik und der Besitz pornografischen Materials vorgeworfen.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

11 JULY 2015
BY CHRIS OSUH

Todros Grynhaus molested two teenage girls then fled the UK and tried to exploit Israel’s ‘Law of Return’ to get citizenship and escape prosecution

A paedophile Jewish scholar who fled to Israel after his crimes were exposed has been jailed for over 13 years.

Todros Grynhaus was branded an ‘utter hypocrite’ for professing his Orthodox faith while ‘cynically condemning his victims to suffer’.

The 50-yesar-old fled the UK in February 2013 and tried to exploit Israel’s ‘Law of Return’ to get citizenship and escape prosecution here, the Manchester Evening News reports.

But in a landmark ruling top judges in Israel, where he arrived with false papers, rejected his case and deported him back to Manchester to face justice in September last year.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

Bee Staff Reports

A priest in residence at Modesto’s Holy Family Catholic Church has been placed on administrative leave due to allegations of inappropriate conduct with a minor occurring years ago.

In a statement released Friday, the Most Rev. Stephen Blaire, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Stockton, said the allegations against Father Editho Mascardo have been reported to the Stockton Police Department.

No further information about the accusation, including the age and gender of the minor or when and where the alleged conduct might have taken place, was released.

Mascardo, also a chaplain for Stanislaus County, had served previously as an associate pastor at St. Anthony’s Church in Hughson from 2006 to 2011. He also served as parochial vicar at St. Patrick’s Church in Sonora, where in 2013, he celebrated the 30th anniversary of his ordination, according to a church bulletin.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC 30

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The Catholic priest accused of stealing close to a half million dollars from a church in Tulare has pleaded not guilty to embezzlement charges.

Father Ignacio Villafan entered the plea during an appearance in court in Tulare Friday morning. He’s charged with stealing $425,000 from St. Rita’s Catholic Church. Villafan was arrested in December.

Tulare authorities say someone at the church discovered accounting problems and notified the diocese, which then reported problems to Tulare police. Charging documents say Villafan took money between 2005 and 2012. If he’s found guilty, Villafan will face seven years in state prison.

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INDIA
New Indian Express

KADAPA: Acting on a complaint made by Bharataratna Mahila Mandali organisers that a prostitution gang was transporting minor girls to Tamil Nadu, police and RPF personnel raided the group in Kadapa railway station and nabbed three minor girls, two of their relatives and one more person on Friday.

Many of the girls ran away from the station after seeing the police. It was revealed that a local church was reportedly taking 25 local minor girls to Tirupur in Tamil Nadu for providing them training in tailoring.

According to reports, the church organisers of Kalasapadu in the district regularly send unemployed women and girls to Tirupur spinning mills to give them training in tailoring works. On Friday, under the protection of church priest Prasad, 25 minor girls aged between 13 and 15 years assembled at the Kadapa railway station waiting for their train.

Meanwhile the media got phone calls from Bharataratna Mahila Mandali organiser Moole Saraswathi saying that a prostitution gang was at the railway station to transport minor girls to Tamil Nadu. Immediately mediapersons along with police and RPF rushed to the spot.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mancunian Matters

By Lewis Chapman-Barker

A Salford paedophile has been jailed for historic sex offences against two children, including sexual abusing a girl from the age of seven, following a trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Todros Grynhaus, 50, from Salford was found guilty of four counts of indecent assault of a girl under the age of 16, and two counts of indecent assault of a girl under the age of 14 and sexual assault.

Grynhaus was today sentenced to 13 years and two months of jail time, and signed the sex offenders register for life.

Between 1996 and 2004, he sexually abused a girl from when she was seven to the age of 15 in the Salford area, and in 2004 he sexually abused another 15-year-old girl in the Salford area.

Detective Sergeant Joanne Kay said: “Grynhaus had gained the trust of his victims before sexually assaulting and abusing them.

“He thought he could get away with his crime but thanks to their bravery in coming forward and supporting this investigation, we have been able to prosecute him.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Lewis Dean
July 10, 2015

Prominent Orthodox Jew Todros Grynhaus has been jailed for sexually abusing girls as young as seven despite pleading that he lived his life by strict Jewish rules.

Grynhaus, 50, from Salford, was found guilty of four counts of indecent assault of a girl under the age of 16, two counts of indecent assault of a girl under the age of 14 and sexual assault following a trial at Manchester Crown Court.

He was today (Friday, 10 July) sentenced to 13 years and two months and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

The son of influential London rabbi and Beth Din judge Dayan Dovid Grynhaus, Todros Grynhaus had dismissed the accusations as “pure fiction” and part of a “revenge plot”.

But he was found guilty of sexually abusing a girl between 1996 and 2004 from when she was seven to the age of 15 in the Salford area. He was also guilty of sexually abusing another 15-year-old girl in the Salford area in 2004.

Flight to Jerusalem

Police launched an enquiry in November 2012 after information was disclosed to them regarding alleged crimes. Three months later, Grynhaus fled to Jerusalem using a false passport but was deported in September 2014 and arrested.

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VATICAN CITY
Sky News

A former papal diplomat charged with the sexual abuse of boys has been admitted to hospital ahead of his trial at the Vatican.

Jozef Wesolowski is being treated in intensive care as his trial was set to open on Saturday.

The judge is expected to immediately adjourn the case to a later date.

The 66-year-old faces charges that he sexually abused shoeshine boys in the Dominican Republic and possessed child pornography.

The former Catholic archbishop’s trial was seen as a high-profile way for Pope Francis to make good on pledges to punish high-ranking churchmen involved in sex abuse of minors, either by molesting children or by systematically covering up for priests who did.

Sky Correspondent Mark Stone says the criminal trial represents the first of its kind.

Wesolowski, from Poland, was discretely recalled to the Vatican by Pope Francis in 2013 after allegations surfaced in an investigative TV programme in the Dominican Republic.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 11 July 2015 (VIS) – This morning, at 9.30, at the Vatican City State Tribunal, the first hearing took place in the criminal trial of the ex-nuncio to the Dominican Republic Jozef Wesolowski, indicted for the crime of possession of child pornography and for paedophile acts.

The panel of judges is composed of Professor Giuseppe Dalla Torre, president; Professor Piero Antonio Bonnet; Professor Paolo Papanti-Pellettier; and Professor Venerando Marano, substitute.

The promoter of Justice is Professor Gian Piero Milano, assisted by Professor Alessandro Diddi and Professor Roberto Zannotti. The defence counsel is Antonello Blasi.

At the opening of the trial the promoter of Justice announced that the defendant was not present in court as he has been admitted to hospital.

The Court took due note of the impediment to the presence of the defendant, following the onset of an unexpected illness necessitating his transfer to a public hospital where he is currently in the intensive care unit.

In accordance with Article 471 c.p.p. the Tribunal suspended the trial and postponed it until a later date, awaiting the termination of the cause that has given rise to the postponement.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The trial of a former archbishop charged with child sex offences has been adjourned after the defendant fell due hours before he was due to appear in court at the Vatican.

Jozef Wesolowski, 66, is accused of paying for sex with children in the Dominican Republic from 2008-2013.

He is being treated in intensive care for an unspecified illness.

Wesolowski is the first high-ranking Catholic to stand trial in the Vatican on sex abuse charges.

He has already been found guilty by a special church tribunal and defrocked.

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VATICAN CITY
Belfast Telegraph

A former papal diplomat charged with the sexual abuse of boys was taken to hospital and put in intensive care ahead of the opening of his trial at the Vatican.

The trial against Jozef Wesolowski had been scheduled to open today in a Vatican courtroom. Now the judge is expected to immediately adjourn to a later date.

There were no details available immediately from the Vatican about Wesolowski’s medical condition.

Wesolowski, 66, faces charges that he sexually abused shoeshine boys in the Dominican Republic and possessed child pornography.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop accused of child sex abuse, has been hospitalized hours before a trial against him was set to open at the Vatican. The unprecedented trial is likely to be adjourned to a later date.

The 66-year-old former archbishop was placed in intensive care at a Vatican hospital, Holy See officials said Saturday, just hours before a trial against him was set to begin.

The details about Jozef Wesolowski’s medical condition have not been disclosed.

The former Polish archbishop and papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic was set to stand a trial on Saturday for possessing child pornographic material in Rome during 2013-14 and sexually abusing minors during his stint as Vatican ambassador between 2008 and 2013.

Wesolowski was recalled to Rome in 2013 after local media accused him of paying young boys to perform sexual acts. He was defrocked by a Church court in June last year and was then put under house arrest on the orders of Pope Francis in September. Vatican inspectors found pornographic material on his computer following his arrest.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Avaneesh Pandey @avaneeshp88 a.pandey@ibtimes.com on July 11 2015

Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop and papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic, has been hospitalized and placed in intensive care ahead of his trial in a Holy See court on Saturday.

Wesolowski, 66, was defrocked last year after a Vatican tribunal found him guilty of pedophilia. He, however, has denied all the charges.

Details of Wesolowski’s medical condition are currently not available. The judge has now adjourned the case to a later date, according to media reports.

Wesolowski — the highest-ranking church member to be investigated under the Vatican’s new, stricter sex-abuse laws — is accused of sexually abusing several boys in the Dominican Republic between 2008 and 2013 during his term as the “apostolic nuncio” or Vatican’s ambassador. Vatican inspectors also recovered child pornographic material from his computer when he was arrested last September.

The unprecedented criminal trial is being seen as an attempt by Pope Francis to accomplish his previous promises to have “zero tolerance” for the “ugly crime” of sexual abuse by members of the clergy. Wesolowski’s trial is the first time that the Vatican has used the criminal justice system put in place by the pope to handle cases of alleged abuse by clerics.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

A former archbishop and papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic fell ill and was taken to hospital ahead of the opening of his trial on Saturday for alleged child sex offences, a Vatican official said.

Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop and papal nuncio, or Vatican ambassador, in Santo Domingo, is accused of paying boys to perform sexual acts, of downloading and buying paedophile material, and offending Christian morality.

Under arrest in the tiny Vatican state since last September, Wesolowski complained of feeling ill on Friday and was sent to an Italian intensive care unit, the court heard. Officials did not give any further information about his condition.

The trial, seen as an important test of Pope Francis’s drive to clean up the Roman Catholic Church, opened regardless, with the court reading out a list of five charges against the 66-year-old Polish national.

The hearing was then postponed until a future date.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome

Saturday 11 July 2015

The former Vatican diplomat Józef Wesołowski has been taken to hospital with an “unexpected illness” on the opening day of his trial for alleged child sex abuse.

The development, announced in a Vatican bulletin, has delayed the first trial inside the Holy See of a senior official on charges of paedophilia and possession of child pornography.

The Vatican said the hearing at the state tribunal had started on Saturday morning when the promoter of justice announced that the former nuncio to the Dominican Republic had been admitted to intensive care at an unnamed public hospital with an “unexpected illness”. The trial was suspended and postponed until a later date, yet to be announced.

No further details of Wesolowski’s medical condition were given.

The trial is seen as a test of Pope Francis’s commitment to tackling the church’s legacy of sexual violence against children. It is the first time the church has used the criminal justice system Francis put in place to handle cases of alleged clerical wrongdoing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph (UK)

By AFP

A former Polish archbishop was placed in intensive care on Saturday, just hours before his unprecedented trial on paedophilia charges was due to start at the Vatican, the Holy See said.

Jozef Wesolowski is accused of sexually abusing minors during his 2008-13 stint as Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic and of possessing child pornography in Rome in 2013-14.

The hospitalisation of the 66-year-old, who has been suffering unspecified ill health for several months, means Saturday’s session will likely simply record the start of the case and then recess, Vatican officials told reporters covering the trial.

His case is seen as a test of Pope Francis’s push to prosecute sexual predators in the face of accusations that the Catholic Church has not done enough to identify and punish paedophiles in its midst.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

[with video]

By Faith Karimi and Hada Messia, CNN

(CNN)A former papal ambassador accused of sexually abusing minors has been hospitalized in an intensive care unit — pushing back his trial once set to start Saturday in Vatican City.

Jozef Wesolowski, 66, was under house arrest in Vatican City when he fell sick Friday night and was rushed to a public hospital.

A judge subsequently held a short hearing and adjourned Wesolowski’s trial to a yet undetermined date, the Vatican Press Office said. It did not provide any details on his condition.

Wesolowski, 66, is the highest-ranking former Vatican official arrested for alleged sexual abuse of minors. He is also the first tried on such charges at the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
Rapid News Network

Contributed by TYLER OWEN on July 11, 2015

Charges included possession of what prosecutors described as “enormous” quantities of child pornography on his two computers, including after Wesolowski was recalled to the Vatican following the emergence of rumors that he sexually abused shoeshine boys near Santo Domingo’s waterfront.

The leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, declared back in March that there should be “zero tolerance” against perpetrators of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, later told journalists that Wesolowski felt ill on Friday afternoon, was taken to a Vatican infirmary, and then transferred to a hospital.

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VATICAN CITY
UPI

By Amy R. Connolly | July 11, 2015

VATICAN CITY, July 11 (UPI) — A former Roman Catholic archbishop accused of sexually abusing boys was hospitalized in intensive care Saturday, the day his trial was to start.

Jozef Wesolowski, 66, the highest-ranking former Vatican official arrested on child sexual abuse allegations, was admitted for an “unexpected illness.” It is unclear when the trial will resume. He has already been found guilty by a church tribunal and defrocked.

Wesolowski is the first to be tried at the Vatican on such charges. If found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

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VATICAN CITY
Herald-Review

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A former papal diplomat accused of sexually abusing teenage boys while stationed in the Dominican Republic has been hospitalized in intensive care, forcing adjournment of his trial Saturday in a Vatican courtroom for allegedly causing grave psychological harm to the victims and possessing an enormous quantity of child pornography.

Medical records attesting that Jozef Wesolowski had been admitted a day earlier because of “sudden illness” to an intensive care unit of a Rome public hospital were presented by the prosecutor to the judge, who read it without saying what ails the former prelate.

The 66-year-old Pole’s lawyer, Antonello Blasi, told journalists he hadn’t been told what ails his client.

“I saw him two or three days ago, and, given his age and his state of mind, he was fine,” said Blasi. The lawyer told the court that Wesolowski, who has been under house arrest in a room above the courtroom, had been “willing and able” to come to court.

Judge Giuseppe Della Torre adjourned the trial indefinitely.

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GEORGIA
Patch

By JUSTIN OVE (Patch Staff)

The pastor of a church in Kennesaw has been convicted of two counts of child molestation and sentenced to prison, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.

John Pinkston, 78, was arrested and charged with felony child molestation and felony sexual battery in August of 2013 after investigators claim he molested two young girls while at the Congregation Church of God Seventh Day located at 2751 S. Main St. in Kennesaw between the dates of July 17 and Aug. 22. One of the victims notified her parents and the parents contacted police.

During an interview with Kennesaw Police, Pinkston admitted he touched one of the girls, saying it was a “stupid mistake” that only lasted 15 seconds, the DA’s Office said.

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ALABAMA
Baptist News

By Bob Allen

A former Southern Baptist youth minister has been sentenced in a third Alabama county for sexually abusing young boys in the 1980s.

Mack Allen Davis, 74, former youth pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., was sentenced July 9 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree sexual abuse in St. Clair County.

The new sentence, related to crimes against a 9-year-old, is concurrent to earlier 15 year sentences imposed in May in Jefferson County and June 19 in Cherokee County.

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UNITED KINGDOM
This is the West Country

A former communications chief for the Bishop of Truro found guilty of historic child sex abuse has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Jeremy Dowling, 77, from Bude, who was the Diocese of Truro’s communications officer for 25 years, was charged with 15 counts of indecently assaulting a boy under the age of 16 after five former pupils came forward to police to complain that they were victims of sexual abuse.

Most of the incidents happened at a private school in Bude where Dowling lived for most of his time as a teacher and senior member of staff at a private boarding school in Bude between 1959 and 1971, and at the time of the offences all the victims were aged between 10 and 13.

Numerous witnesses, including former pupils and members of the school, came forward to provide evidence about the abuse.

Detective Constable Grant Mills, Launceston CID, said: “Dowling selected and groomed his victims prior to the abuse starting and subjected them to a prolonged and distressing period of abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former teacher who sexually abused schoolboys decades ago has been jailed for seven years at Truro Crown Court.

Jeremy Dowling, 77, also an ex-press officer for the Diocese of Truro, assaulted five boys aged between 12 and 15 when working at a preparatory school from 1959 to 1971.

Dowling left the school in 1972 following a police investigation but the inquiry “went nowhere.”

Judge Graham Cottle told Dowling he had committed a “gross breach of trust”.

He also said his actions had “caught up” with him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Plymouth Herald

By Plymouth Herald | Posted: July 10, 2015

A FORMER teacher and communications officer to the Bishop of Truro has been put behind bars after sexually abusing five young boys.

Jeremy Dowling, 77, from Bude, was sentenced to seven years in prison today at Truro Crown Court after admitting 15 counts of indecently assaulting a boy under the age of 16.

The former teacher was convicted after five ex-pupils came forward to police to complain that they were victims of sexual abuse.

Dowling was a teacher and senior member of staff at a private boarding school in Bude between 1959 and 1971.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Portsmouth News

Ben Fishwick
ben.fishwick@thenews.co.uk
Saturday 11 July 2015

CHURCH leaders have apologised for putting children at risk of child abuse by not sacking a paedophile priest.

It comes as Terry Knight, who in 1996 admitting abusing boys, has for a second time been convicted of abuse in the 1980s at St Saviour’s Church in Stamshaw, Portsmouth.

During a trial over historic abuse claims Knight, now 76, revealed to jurors how the church asked him to promise to ‘control his behaviour’ after mothers of child victims confronted him in 1985.

Claims of a cover-up have been repeatedly denied by the Church of England in Portsmouth.

But now the Diocese of Portsmouth admitted the church put other children at risk by leaving Knight in post between 1985 and 1995 – when he was arrested.

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JAPAN
Japan Times

BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI
STAFF WRITER
JUL 10, 2015

A recent successful lawsuit by a rape victim in her 40s against her childhood molester in the Hokkaido city of Kushiro has underscored the need for Japan to grant sexual abuse survivors longer statutes of limitations, the woman and her lawyers said Friday.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a landmark ruling handed down by the Sapporo High Court last year ordering an uncle of the victim to pay her ¥30 million in restitution for sex abuse he inflicted upon her from 1978 to 1983. The abuse started when she was three years old and ended when she was eight.

“After all those years, I finally feel confident about who I am,” the woman said about the Supreme Court decision during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, asking to remain anonymous to protect her privacy.

“Rape is a crime more horrible than murder, because it kills your soul,” she said.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Fri, Jul 10, 2015

Even though this has been a monumental week in the pontificate of Pope Francis, marked by his “homecoming” visit to hispanic South America, another equally significant moment may come on Sunday in the Vatican itself when former papal Nuncio, Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, goes on trial in a Vatican City State court on charges of paedophilia.

Papal Nuncio to the Dominican Republic from 2008 to 2013, Archbishop Wesolowski was laicized in a canon court hearing in Rome in June of last year in which he was found guilty of child sex abuse. The former nuncio had been accused of paedophilia in 2013 by a Dominican Republic TV channel which reported that he regularly frequented an area in Santa Domingo well known for child prostitution.

Just when it appeared that investigators both in the Dominican Republic and in his native Poland were preparing to file charges against him, he was hurriedly recalled to Rome in August 2013. In January 2014, in response to media reports that Poland wanted to extradite the Archbishop, Holy See spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi stated that as a Vatican City state citizen, he would first be tried in both Holy See (canonical) and Vatican City state courts. Furthermore, Fr Lombardi said that the Holy See, Poland and the Dominican Republic were co-operating in the Wesolowski investigation.

Reportedly involved in “incidents” involving not just minors but also Polish priests based in the Caribbean island, the former nuncio’s trial seems set to be a test case for just how far Pope Francis will push new accountability systems. The last time that the Vatican held a high-profile trial came in October 2012 when Pope Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, went on trial, accused of stealing and then leaking to the media confidential documents from the papal household.

The international echo of the scandal created by that trial, which ulitmately ended with Benedict granting Gabriele a full pardon after he had initially been sentenced to 18 months in prison, was one of the factors that prompted the cardinals to elect Pope Francis at the March 2013 conclave. On arrival in Rome for the conclave, several cardinals told reporters that the Gabriele case suggested that the Vatican Curia was in dire need of a general “clean up”.

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VATICAN CITY
The Independent (UK)

DOUG BOLTON Friday 10 July 2015

Jozef Wesolowski, the first important Vatican official to be charged with paedophilia, is set to stand trial in a Holy See court tomorrow.

The former Polish archbishop was the papal envoy to the Dominican Republic for five years. In 2013, accusations emerged that he was involved in child abuse there, and an investigation was launched by both Dominican and Vatican authorities.

A Vatican criminal hearing opened in September last year, shortly before which he had been laicised – the Catholic term for defrocking, that forbade him from doing his ministerial work.

His diplomatic immunity has also been revoked, which meant that he could potentially have been tried in the Domincan Republic – however, as a city-state, the Vatican has its own courts, and will try him there.

The maximum penalty Vatican courts could previously give was life imprisonment, but this was abolished by Pope Francis shortly after he became Pope. Wesolowski could now face the maximum penalty of 30 to 35 years in prison.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

Paedophile Jewish scholar left victims terrified after campaign of sexual abuse – and tried to flee to Israel to escape prosecution

CHRIS OSUH

Todros Grynhaus was told by the judge he took “cynical advantage” of his young victims vulnerability

A religious scholar who fled to Israel after he was exposed as a paedophile was branded an ‘utter hypocrite’ as he was jailed for over 13 years.

Todros Grynhaus fled Manchester in February 2013 and tried to exploit Israel’s ‘Law of Return’ to get citizenship and escape prosecution here.

But in a landmark ruling top judges in Israel, where he arrived with false papers, rejected his case and deported him back to the UK to face justice in September last year.

His conviction for sex offences against girls in Greater Manchester has led to a change in attitudes in the Haredi Jewish community, the court heard, and prompted the country’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, to urge members to report child sex abuse.

As the son of rabbi, a teacher of scripture, a successful businessman and father-of-ten, Grynhaus enjoyed high standing in Salford’s tight-knit ultra-Orthodox community.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Jul 10, 2015

A Twin Cities priest acquitted of sexual misconduct last year wants the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to reimburse him for more than $46,000 in legal costs.

In December, a jury found the Rev. Mark Huberty not guilty of two counts of sexual misconduct. He had been charged with having a sexual relationship with a woman with whom he also had a pastoral relationship.

In a claim filed in federal bankruptcy court, Huberty, who is still a priest, wrote that he was seeking reimbursement “as a matter of equity.”

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BOLIVIA
WGME

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Here are the latest developments from Pope Francis’ trip to South America: …

11:40 a.m.

Bolivian police say they have detained three Chileans who wanted to deliver a letter to Pope Francis. The men are protesting the Pope’s ordainment of a bishop in southern Chile who is accused of covering up for a pedophile priest.

Police held the three men for more than 14 hours in the city of Santa Cruz. The men say they missed a chance to ask Francis to reconsider naming the Rev. Juan Barros as bishop in the city of Osorno.

Barros is accused of covering up the sex abuse by crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, whom the Vatican has sanctioned for abusing young boys.

The Pope’s appointment of Barros has led to an unprecedented outcry by abuse victims and Catholic faithful in Chile.

A Vatican investigation found Karadima guilty in 2011 and sentenced the now 84-year-old priest to a cloistered life of “penitence and prayer.” It remains Chile’s highest-profile case of abuse by a priest.

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BOLIVIA/CHILE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[As a victim of Father Karadima, I am deeply grateful to the thousands who have denounced the promotion of the Pope’s friend and fellow criminal of this predator, Bishop Juan Barros. I am especially grateful that even now, many refuse to surrender and accept that an entire diocese Chile, Osorno, is governed by a complicit and abusive clergy.]

Para publicación inmediata Viernes 10 de Julio 2015

Juan Carlos Cruz, Sobreviviente de Chile (+1 312-420-4301, jccruz1@aol.com)

Como víctima del P. Karadima, estoy profundamente agradecido a los miles que han denunciado la promoción del Papa del amigo y compañero criminal de este depredador, el obispo Juan Barros. Estoy especialmente agradecido de que incluso ahora, muchos se niegan a rendirse y aceptar que una diócesis chilena entera, Osorno, se rige por un clérigo cómplices y abusivo.

Así que yo alabo a los tres hombres, Juan Carlos Claret, Mario Vargas y Felipe Navarrete, quien con el apoyo de muchos católicos de diferentes parroquias Osorno – que ayudaron a pagar por su viaje – trataron de entregar en mano una carta acerca de Barros al Papa en Bolivia. Me duele que fueron injustamente detenidos durante 14 horas. Deberían haber sido nos lcomed como héroes. Para aquellos de nosotros que siguen sufriendo a causa de los sacerdotes depredadores y obispos corruptos, son de hecho los héroes.

[La Segunda]

[National Catholic Reporter]

Espero que cada persona que se preocupa por los niños – ya sea chilena o no, ya sea católica o no – se unirá a los de nosotros que estamos trabajando para que todos los niños más seguros por hablar en contra de la elevación de los hombres hirientes como Barros.

CONTACTO: Juan Carlos Cruz (+1 312-420-4301, jccruz1@aol.com, David Clohessy (+1 314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org)

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran Jul 10, 2015

Interim Archbishop Bernard Hebda plans to release an “accounting” of investigations into his predecessor, Archbishop John Nienstedt, and acknowledged that he doesn’t yet know how the Twin Cities archdiocese will plead to criminal charges tied to clergy sex abuse.

“I’m not exactly sure” how the archdiocese will plead to the misdemeanor charges for its role in failing to protect three sexual abuse victims of ex-priest Curtis Wehmeyer, Hebda, 55, told MPR News in a 10-minute interview Friday following his first weeks running the archdiocese.

Hebda said he would make the final call, ultimately. “Of course, we want to plead the truth,” he said, “and then also to be able to figure out what’s correct, and I need a little bit more time to do that.”

Asked if believed the archdiocese was guilty, he said, “I think that would be one of the things that would be decided by a court.”

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

By Tova Dvorin
First Publish: 7/10/2015

The case of the rabbi from northern Israel who has been accused by at least eight women of sexual abuse has captured the attention of the Israeli public, with the rumor mills swirling after the press has declined to publish the rabbi’s identity.

On Friday, Arutz Sheva spoke to a number of experts involved with the rabbi’s yeshiva and the case on the issue to understand the full extent of the investigation and its ramifications.

“A woman called me and asked if it was true that rabbis are allowed to do things that are forbidden according to the Shulchan Aruch,” Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat (Safed) said, citing a fundamenal Jewish legal text. “The answer is ‘of course not’ – and to the contrary, rabbis must be even more careful in areas of Jewish law.”

“The woman did not say who it was, but in the end we realized it was him,” he continued. “I asked Rabbi Haim Bazaq to be the mediator in a hearing in Tzfat over the issue and together we heard her witness testimony. She said other women may have been affected. We called him [the rabbi – ed.] and he admitted these things to me and to Rabbi Bazaq.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Elizabeth Mohr
emohr@pioneerpress.com

In the month since he was appointed interim archbishop, Bernard Hebda has surmised a few things about the state of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: the situation is complex, the legal issues are challenging, and rebuilding will take time.

But Hebda, officially known as the apostolic administrator, remains optimistic.

“I see so many good things going on. But at the same time, I know there are people who have been hurt, who have lost some trust,” Hebda said in an interview Friday. “So we need to be able to respond to their needs and really the need for the church to be that healthy institution she needs to be to do Christ’s work.”

The Vatican appointed Hebda last month when Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche resigned.

Hebda, who inherited a legal and emotional firestorm, is viewed by some as a fixer.

Hebda said he’s been familiarizing himself with the archdiocese’s current crisis: bankruptcy, criminal charges, an investigation into Nienstedt, and a Catholic community reeling from revelations of clergy sex abuse and allegations of a cover-up.

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BOLIVIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Friday July 10, 2015

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (+1 312-399-4747, bblaine@SNAPnetwork.org)

Three young men have been arrested in Bolivia (and apparently held for 14 hours) after trying to deliver a letter to Pope Francis about a controversial Chilean bishop the pontiff promoted.

We applaud the courage of these men who are concerned about the horrific track record of Bishop Juan Barros, who concealed and, some say, participated in child sex crimes by Fr. Fernando Karadima.

While we don’t know many details of their arrest, we suspect it was an over-reaction by authorities. We hope the arrest was not in response to pressure from Catholic officials. We commend Mario Vargas, Juan Carlos Claret and Felipe Navarrete for trying to protect children and get a corrupt church official out of office.

[La Segunda]

[Natonal Catholic Reporter]

Pope Francis should reach out to, and listen to, these brave men. The pope should also demote Barros immediately and apologize for his callous and irresponsible promotion of Barros.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
10 JUL 2015

The Catholic Church’s insurance company has been given a week by a royal commission to produce almost 2000 files that could show exactly what the church knew about 63 abusers in its ranks.

At a directions hearing in Sydney on Friday Justice Peter McClellan, chair of the child sex abuse royal commission, ordered Catholic Church Insurers provide a list of relevant material by Monday, and the files by next Friday.

The hearing was called when CCI failed to meet the deadline of a previous summons and produce all the requested files. It has handed over some folders.

The commission wants to know what the insurer found when it carried out its own investigations into whether the Catholic Church had prior knowledge priests and other clergy were abusing children.

In the 1990s, CCI set up a dedicated sexual abuse insurance policy to cover the church for alleged sexual abuse claims going back more than 20 years.

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BOLIVIA
Bio Bio

En el marco de la visita del Papa Francisco a Latinoamérica, los representantes del movimiento de Laicos y Laicas en contra del Obispo de Osorno, Mario Vargas y Juan Carlos Claret, viajaron al país vecino para mostrar su descontento al sumo pontífice por la nominación de Juan Barros como autoridad eclesiástica en la ciudad.

En ese contexto, los osorninos fueron retenidos en la localidad de Santa Cruz, por portar un cartel cuya inscripción se prestó para malas interpretaciones.

Así lo señaló el hermano de uno de los detenidos, el concejal Carlos Vargas, quien explicó a Radio Bío Bío que si bien fueron recibidos de la mejor manera, cuando el Papa Francisco daba su discurso se refirió sobre el referendo marítimo que mantiene Bolivia con Chile, minuto en el cual la polícía se percató que uno de los lienzos chilenos dictaba “Papa Francisco ¿por qué nos abandonaste? Osorno- Chile”.

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BOLIVIA
El Nuevo Herald

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

La policía boliviana detuvo durante 14 horas a tres jóvenes chilenos que pretendían entregarle al papa Francisco una carta de protesta por el nombramiento del obispo Juan Barros, a quien acusan de proteger a un cura implicado en varios casos de pederastia.

“Papa Francisco por qué nos abandonaste, Osorno Chile”, se leía en el medio de la bandera de ese país con la que esperaban al papa, contó a The Associated Press el viernes Carlos Claret, un dirigente de los laicos de la ciudad chilena de Osorno que llegó a Santa Cruz junto a dos compañeros.

Claret explicó que como horas antes el papa había mencionado que Chile y Bolivia debían dialogar sobre la causa marítima, la policía creyó que su protesta era contra eso.

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BOLIVIA
La Segunda

[LA PAZ, Bolivia. – The Bolivian police detained for 14 hours three young Chileans in Santa Cruz who wanted to give Pope Francis a letter of protest at the appointment of Bishop Juan Barros in Osorno, who they accuse of protecting a priest involved in a case of pedophilia.]

LA PAZ, Bolivia. — La policía boliviana detuvo durante 14 horas a tres jóvenes chilenos en Santa Cruz que pretendían entregarle al Papa Francisco una carta de protesta por el nombramiento del obispo Juan Barros en Osorno, a quien acusan de proteger a un cura implicado en un caso de pederastia.

“Papa Francisco por qué nos abandonaste, Osorno Chile”, se leía en el medio de la bandera del país, contó Carlos Claret, un dirigente de los laicos que llegó a la ciudad boliviana junto a dos compañeros.

Claret explicó que como horas antes el Papa había mencionado que debe haber diálogo entre Chile y Bolivia por la causa marítima, la policía creyó que su protesta era contra eso.

“Nuestra causa es totalmente diferente. Es estúpido porque nos quitaron la oportunidad de hacerle llegar la carta en contra la designación de Barros”, explicó Claret el viernes a The Associated Press.

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MINNESOTA
KDLT

ST. PAUL, Minn. –
The interim leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says he expects the church’s legal difficulties will be among the most urgent problems he’ll need to address.

In an interview with The Associated Press Friday, Archbishop Bernard Hebda also said transparency will be an important part of rebuilding trust in the archdiocese.

Under his predecessor, Archbishop John Nienstedt, the archdiocese was shaken by the clergy sex abuse scandal and subsequent criminal charges against the archdiocese, as well as bankruptcy.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

[with video]

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JULY 10, 2015

Archbishop Bernard Hebda, in his first week at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said Friday that his top priority during his temporary stay is to deal with issues of “the courts.”

Hebda, who has a law degree, said he is getting a crash course in the archdiocese’s legal issues — its bankruptcy and the wave of clergy abuse claims.

That’s not to mention other challenges facing the Twin Cities Catholic church, including the chancery’s internal investigation into reports of sexual misconduct by former Archbishop John Nienstedt.

“I certainly recognize there is a great of interest there, and it would be difficult for the archdiocese to move forward without really considering carefully how we might be able to give an accounting [publicly] of what’s been going on,’’ said Hebda during his first public interview.

Hebda said his temporary assignment in St. Paul, unlike his current position as coadjutor bishop in the Diocese of Newark, N.J., hasn’t allowed for a gradual transition to the job.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with audio]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP/WCCO) — The interim leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says he expects the organization’s legal difficulties will be among the most urgent problems he’ll need to address.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda also said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that transparency will be an important part of rebuilding trust.

Under his predecessor, Archbishop John Nienstedt, the archdiocese was shaken by a clergy sex abuse scandal, criminal charges and bankruptcy.

Hebda says he hasn’t had time since he was appointed temporary administrator in June to formulate a plan to rebuild the archdiocese. But he says he’ll collaborate with a wide variety of people on how best to do so.

He celebrates his first Mass in the archdiocese Sunday at the St. Paul Cathedral.

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GROSSBRITANNIEN
Nachrichten

[A pedophile investigation has begun in Great Britain.]

In Großbritannien ist am Donnerstag nach erheblichen Startschwierigkeiten eine Untersuchung zu einem Skandal um Pädophilie-Fälle angelaufen, in den auch Politiker und Vertreter öffentlicher Institutionen verwickelt sein sollen. Nachdem das Verfahren bereits zwei Mal ins Stocken gekommen war, weil die beauftragten Juristen in den Verdacht der Befangenheit gerieten, beauftragte Innenministerin Theresa May die neuseeländische Richterin Lowell Goddard damit, die Vorgänge aus den 80er Jahren aufzuklären. Ihre Untersuchung biete Gelegenheit, institutionelle Fehler der Vergangenheit beim Schutz von Kindern aufzuzeigen, sagte Goddard.

“Der sexuelle Missbrauch von Kindern über mehrere Generationen hinterlässt dauerhafte Wunden, nicht nur bei den Opfern, sondern auch in der ganzen Gesellschaft”, sagte die neuseeländische Richterin zum Auftakt der Untersuchung. Nach vorläufigen Erkenntnissen müsse davon ausgegangen werden, dass in Großbritannien im Schnitt fünf Prozent der Kinder sexuellen Aggressionen ausgesetzt gewesen seien. Ihre Untersuchung werde voraussichtlich mehrere Jahre dauern.

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VATICAN CITY
Newsweek

By Felicity Capon 7/10/15

The criminal trial of a former papal diplomat on charges of child sexual abuse will get underway tomorrow in Rome, in a case that could set a historic precedent for how the Catholic church handles priests accused of sex abuse.

Polish-born Józef Wesołowski, 66, will face a criminal court of the Holy See, and will be the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to face criminal charges for paedophilia.

Wesołowski, ordained in 1972, later served as a papal diplomat in the late 1990s and 2000s. He was eventually named the nuncio, or ambassador, to the Dominican Republic in 2008. …

Some argue that the new tribunals set up by Pope Francis simply prove that the Vatican is attempting to handle the matter internally. David Clohessy, executive director of the US-based charity Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, says: “Catholic officials across the world especially in Rome continue to be dreadfully secretive and irresponsible when it comes to clergy sex abuse and cover-up cases, and this one is no different. Church officials are doing everything to keep these cases as quiet as possible and as far away from secular authorities as they can.”

“We’re utterly not convinced,” Clohessy continues. “There’s a clear divide; either turn cases over to the independent unbiased professionals in law and enforcement or continue to handle them quietly and internally. That’s what happening here.” Clohessy also believes it is unlikely to emerge who helped Wesołowski conceal his crimes.

However, Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive officer of the UK’s National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), believes the trial marks an important turning point in the Catholic church’s child abuse scandal.

“We think this is a good step forward for the Church facing up to child abuse in its own ranks,” she told Newsweek. “It is the first test of the new laws and guidelines Pope Francis has put in place for abuse of this type, and proof the Church is moving in the right direction. We’ll watch the outcome with great interest.”

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph

By Nick Squires, Rome 10 Jul 2015

The former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic will go on trial on Saturday in the Holy See charged with paying for sex with minors, in an unprecedented test of Pope Francis’s determination to tackle sex abuse by clergy.

Jozef Wesolowski, 66, from Poland, is accused of giving money to street children in exchange for sexual acts while serving as the Vatican’s nuncio, or ambassador, to the Caribbean country

“He seduced me with money,” a shoeshine boy who was 14 when he was abused by the archbishop, told The New York Times. “I felt very bad. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I needed the money.”

The landmark trial opens as Pope Francis conducts a three-country tour of his home continent of South America, visiting Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

It will take place in a Vatican tribunal inside the tiny city state, where Wesolowski faces charges of sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography on his computer. …

His trial is expected to conclude early next year.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

July 10, 2015

A Jewish teacher and rabbi’s son who molested two teenage girls was “an utter hypocrite” who professed his Orthodox faith while “cynically condemning his victims to suffer”, a judge has said.
Todros Grynhaus, 50, was jailed for 13 years and two months on Friday.

He must pay one victim £45,000 and the other £35,000 in compensation as well as prosecution costs of £35,000.

Grynhaus had taught in Jewish schools in Britain and abroad before setting up a successful direct debit management business while filling a role as a respected figure within the Charedi community in Salford.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Timothy Holroyde said: “This was a refined degree of cruelty on your part. You knew what you were doing and you knew what harm you would cause. You are an utter hypocrite. You professed your religion whilst cynically condemning your victims to suffer and giving false evidence seeking to cast blame on them.

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GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A 78-year-old pastor was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for molesting two young girls at his church in Cobb County.

John Aubrey Pinkston, of Dallas, was found guilty on two counts of child molestation Thursday afternoon after the jury deliberated for only half an hour.

Two young girls testified that Pinkston touched them at Congregation of God Seventh Day, a Kennesaw church Pinkston founded and led. Pinkston admitted to police that he had touched one girl, saying it was a “stupid mistake” but that it lasted “only 15 seconds,” according to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.

“Not only did he not take responsibility, when he took the witness stand, he spit in everyone’s face with the nonsense that he used to try to manipulate that jury,” Cobb Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring in a news release.

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UNITED KINGDOM
West Briton

THE FORMER communications chief for the Bishop of Truro has been jailed for seven years for abusing young boys in the 1950s and 1960s.

Jeremy Dowling, 77, of Church Path, Bude, admitted 15 counts of sexually abusing boys under the age of 13 while he was teacher at a boarding school in Cornwall.

The charges relate to offences against five young boys who were students at the school.

Truro Crown Court was told the victims were his “favourites” and he groomed them by giving them sweets and gifts.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

NCR Editorial Staff | Jul. 10, 2015
30 years later

EDITORIAL

It is inconceivable that any bishop would stand before a congregation and give them the following instructions:

If you commit a serious sin against the community, your first obligation is to conceal it.

If an accuser comes forward, deny the offense and condemn the accuser as someone who simply wants to besmirch your name.

If that doesn’t quiet the accuser, offer payment for the person’s silence.

If that fails, hire the best lawyers in town.

And if, finally, you have no escape, go to settlement and apologize to anyone who may have been hurt by your “mistakes.”

The scenario is unthinkable, but it is also descriptive of the very behavior that Catholics have witnessed among their leaders, with slight variations, for the past 30 years.

Those of us who have reported on the scandal for the past three decades, who have read through endless pages of horrific accounts and unfathomably slippery depositions, understand the descriptive exhaustion that Dominican Fr. Tom Doyle displays in his essay. There are no words left to adequately describe the level of deceit and corruption that existed in bishops’ residences and chancery offices across this land as thousands of priests, hidden and protected by bishops, abused tens of thousands of our children.

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OREGON
The Daily Beast

Nina Strochlic

This week, police alleged an Oregon priest either placed a camera in his church’s bathroom or covered for someone who did. He wouldn’t be the first religious leader to do so.

Attention churchgoers: your parish bathroom is no longer a respite from the tedium of mass or a place to seek refuge when you see the approaching embrace of your older aunt. In fact, it may be watching you.

Over the past few years, there has been a rash of hidden cameras found recording in church bathrooms across the country. In a creepy tale coming out of Oregon, a 34-year-old priest was caught in an elaborate ruse to prevent a 15-year-old parishioner from turning in the hidden camera he found in the bathroom to the police.

The unnamed boy had noticed a strange fixture next to the toilet and alerted Father Ysrael Bien. The priest assured the boy and his family that he had contacted the authorities, and they had launched an investigation.

When the boy’s father continued to check in for updates, the priest told him authorities had shut it down due to lack of evidence. But at further pestering from the family, Bien ultimately admitted that he had never reported the camera at all. He was afraid of “the consequences of losing the device,” he apparently told the father.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Lismore priest arrested 90 minutes before Crescent Head tribute over historic child sex allegations

ASHLEE MULLANY NEWS LIMITED JULY 11, 2015

A CATHOLIC priest based at a primary school and working part-time as a police chaplain is in custody after being charged with historic child sex offences.

Father John Patrick Casey was arrested 90 minutes before he was due to deliver a speech at a police ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the Crescent Head murders on Thursday.

Casey, a priest with the Lismore diocese, was arrested by Richmond detectives on Thursday morning following a five-month investigation into claims of sexual abuse.

The 67-year-old is accused of sexually assaulting two boys, aged nine and 11, while serving with the Lismore diocese in the 1980s.

NSW Police confirmed Casey was working as a chaplain with the force providing “spiritual welfare” and support to officers when he was arrested this week.

He was based at the church linked to the Mary Help of Christians Primary School in Sawtell, south of Coffs Harbour.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Keith L. Alexander July 9

Barry Freundel, the once-influential Orthodox rabbi who was sentenced in May to 6 1/2 years in prison for videotaping dozens of women as they prepared for a ritual bath, will return to D.C. Superior Court on July 31 for a hearing after his attorney filed court documents arguing that his client was wrongly sentenced, which led to extra prison time.

Prosecutors have begun notifying the women about the hearing in front of Senior Judge Geoffrey M. Alprin, the same judge who oversaw the case.

Freundel’s attorney, Jeffrey Harris, argued in his motions with the court that Freundel should not have been sentenced 45 days for each of the 52 victims that he pleaded guilty to videotaping. Instead, Harris argued that Freundel should have been sentenced only for the single act of videotaping. Harris made the same argument at Freundel’s May 15 sentencing, though prosecutors and Alprin disagreed.

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ITALY
Catholic Culture

Catholic World News – July 09, 2015

A prosecutor in Rome has announced plans to halt the investigation into the death of Roberto Calvi in 1982.

Calvi, who had been the chairman of the Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from Blackfriar’s Bridge in London. Although his death was originally ruled a suicide, emerging evidence strongly suggested that Calvi had been murdered. An investigation prompted reports of Mafia involvement, likely connected with the loss of Mafia funds in the collapse of the bank that Calvi had managed.

The failure of the Banco Ambrosiano also led to sharp criticism of the Vatican. The Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works, had been heavily invested in the Banco Ambrosiano. Calvi’s ties to the Vatican had won him the nickname, “God’s banker.”

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

A Catholic priest in northern New South Wales, John Patrick Casey, 67, appeared in court on 10 July 2015, charged with sexual offences, allegedly committed against two young boys in the 1980s. Casey has been denied bail. A magistrate said the charges are serious and could bring a custodial sentence if there is a conviction.

John Patrick Casey is a priest of the Lismore diocese, which covers the NSW north coast from Port Macquarie to the Queensland border. The city of Lismore is where the diocese has its headquarters.

John Patrick Casey is currently a priest for the “Mary Help of Christians” parish at Sawtell, near Coffs Harbour. (After he was charged, the diocese announced that Father Casey is standing down from this position.)

The police investigation was conducted by detectives from the NSW Police’s Richmond Local Area Command, which has headquarters in Lismore. The detectives were investigating information which had been received by Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission.

At 9.00am on 9 July 2015, John Patrick Casey was arrested by detectives and was taken to Kempsey Police Station where he was charged with nine offences. He was refused police bail and was placed behind bars.

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VATICAN CITY
Ukraine Today

Ex-Polish archbishop charged with paying for sex with minors

Catholics here in Warsaw are awaiting the Vatican’s first ever trial for sex abuse against a former archbishop from Poland. Jozef Wesolowski faces criminal charges of paying for sex with minors and possessing child pornography.

The trial begins this Saturday in the tiny-city state, the headquarters of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church. A former long-term Vatican correspondent from Poland said the case shows the church’s approach to dealing with reports of paedophilia is changing.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo (Acento.com.do).- For the first time in Catholic Church history, a prelate of the category of former ambassador will be tried in the Vatican state charged with sexually abusing children in the Dominican Republic.

Jozef Wesolowski, a confidant of John Paul II, was ambassador in Santo Domingo from 2008 to August 2013, when he was removed by Pope Francis after the journalist Nuria Piera denounced in her investigative program that the Vatican’s representative in Dominican Republic consumed alcohol and sexually abused children and adolescents.

The also journalist Addis Burgos in her program from Santiago accidentally uncovered that the then envoy also met with Polish priest Waldemar Wojciech Gil (who called himself Padre Alberto), pastor at Juncalito, and both sexually abused Dominican minors. Burgos interviewed a man in Juncalito who also revealed that “white man from the capital” who turned out to be Wesolowski, also accompanied Gil.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

23 June

On announcing the statutory Inquiry, the Home Secretary requested a moratorium on the destruction of material. On the 23 June 2015 the Inquiry sent out further guidance on the detail of what may or may not be destroyed across Government and by other agencies. These letters were sent to both the Cabinet Secretary and other relevant organisations setting out categories of documentation that must be kept pending further requests from the Inquiry. The letters are below:

Letter to Sir Jeremy Heywood

Letter to Religious Leaders

Letter to Police CCs

Letter to NHS CEOs

Letter to Local Authority CEOs

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

9 July

The Inquiry has secured strong legal protection for whistleblowers. Following a process of discussion with the offices of the Attorney-General and the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Attorney-General gave an undertaking on 15 June 2015 that no document or evidence provided to the Inquiry will result in, or be used in, any prosecution under the Official Secrets Acts or any prosecution for unlawful possession of the evidence in question.

This undertaking provides the greatest possible protection for whistleblowers, consistent with the requirements of the public interest.

The full text of the Attorney-General’s undertaking is attached here.

Attorney-General Letter

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

9 July

As part of her opening statement today the Chair announced the membership of the Victims and Survivors’ Consultative Panel (VSCP). Those appointed are:

Sheila Coates
Lucy Duckworth
Fay Maxted
Michael May
Peter McKelvie
Peter Saunders
Chris Tuck
Daniel Wolstencroft

Please see the attached statement from the VSCP.

Victims and Survivors’ Consultative Panel Collective Statement

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

9 July

Today, the Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Hon. Lowell Goddard DNZM, officially opened the Inquiry at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.

In her statement, the Chair set out the aims of the Inquiry, described its working methods and outlined its structure.

She confirmed that victims and survivors would be at the heart of the Inquiry. And she laid down the following challenge to those institutions that have a duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse:

“Take a proactive stance towards the Inquiry – review your files, records and procedures voluntarily and take the initiative to self-report instances of institutional failure, rather than waiting for us to come and see you. Above all, review your current safeguarding policies to make sure they are consistent with best practice, and take whatever steps you can to provide a safer environment for children now.”

The full text and summaries of the Chair’s opening statement are here:

Opening Statement

Executive Summary

Key Announcements

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BOLIVIA
Bloomberg

by Nathan Gill

Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for crimes committed by the Catholic Church during the colonization of the Americas at a summit in Bolivia, home to one of the region’s largest indigenous populations.

“I say with sorrow that the church has committed many serious sins against the indigenous peoples of America in the name of God,” Francis said to applause at a summit of popular movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia on Thursday. “I humbly ask for forgiveness not only for the offenses of the church itself, but also for the crimes against native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”

Pope Francis, on his second stop in a three-nation tour of Latin America, also defended the church and denounced the modern-day persecution of its members for speaking out against injustices and powerful interests.

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MISSOURI
The Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
09 JUL 2015

A former youth pastor was accused this week of sexually assaulting a girl over a five year period, beginning when she was 12 years old.

The St. Louis Dispatch reported that former Ballwin Baptist Church youth pastor Cameron Patterson, who also worked as an after school program supervisor for Wentzville School District, was charged on Wednesday in Lake Saint Louis with two counts of felony child molestation.

Court records indicated that Patterson had sexually assaulted the victims “hundreds of times” beginning at the age of 12 and continuing until she was 17 years old, The St. Louis Dispatch noted.

Patterson reportedly used email to apologize to the victim, court documents said.

He allegedly told her that he “wanted to seek professional counseling for his sins and to seek guidance from church officials and his parents.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Daily Beast

Nico Hines

Accused of raping and sexually assaulting three boys just hours after Britain’s largest inquiry into sexual abuse opens.

LONDON — A senior British police chief was charged with the rape and sexual assault of three boys Thursday, just hours after a massive public inquiry into child sex abuse was officially opened.

Gordon Anglesea, 78, a senior policeman in Wales for 34 years, is accused of abusing three boys between the ages of 11 and 16 in the late 1970s and ’80s.

His arrest comes after decades of systemic cover-ups that left thousands of children victimized. Lowell Goddard, the judge presiding over the long-awaited Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, said she had reason to believe that more than 1 in 20 British children were sexually abused while police and the authorities systematically downplayed the number of crimes reported to them. Britain’s police forces have only begun to properly investigate hundreds of cases of alleged child abuse in recent years.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill Chief Reporter
July 10 2015

The royal household will be asked to provide evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which began proceedings yesterday by stating that no powerful interest would be allowed to obstruct its investigations.

Justice Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge chairing the inquiry, initially left the royal household off her lengthy list of institutions — public and private — that would be examined over historical child sex abuse allegations.

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SCOTLAND
The National

TWO survivors have joined forces to found a new organisation to campaign for reparations for those who have been abused as children.

Andi Lavery and Chris Daly, both survivors of abuse as young boys, have established White Flowers Alba, which signifies the flourishing of hope and became a symbol of the Jacobite cause.

White roses were also worn by SNP MPs on the day of the Queen’s Speech in May.

White Flowers Alba joins the existing survivor groups In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), and Former Boys and Girls Abused in Quarriers Homes. The organisation already has dozens of members and has secured legal representation from one of Scotland’s leading law firms, Beltrami & Company.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Friday 10 July 2015

The first high-ranking Vatican official to be charged with paedophilia will face a criminal court in the Holy See on Saturday, in an unprecedented test of Pope Francis’s commitment to tackling the church’s legacy of sexual violence against children.

The trial of the former nuncio Józef Wesołowski from Poland marks the first time that the church has used the criminal justice system put in place by the Argentinian pontiff to handle cases of alleged clerical wrongdoing.

Allegations that Wesołowski paid teenage boys for sexual acts while he was the Vatican’s top diplomat in the Dominican Republic rocked the Holy See when the story broke two years ago. Wearing a baseball cap low over his head, he allegedly trawled the promenade in Santo Domingo for victims among the shoeshine boys.

“He definitely seduced me with money,” Francis Aquino Aneury told the New York Times in 2014.

Aneury said he was 14 when a man the shoeshine boys used to call “the Italian”, because he spoke Spanish with an Italian accent, offered them large sums of money in exchange for sexual acts.

“I felt very bad. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I needed the money,” he said.

The outcome of the trial, and the way it is conducted, will either be seen as validation of the pope’s belief that the Vatican is capable of independently meting out justice against one of its own, or as confirmation of critics’ fears that the new tribunals will act as a church-sponsored shield to protect its hierarchy from other legal jurisdictions. …

Gabrielle Shaw, the chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, a British charity whose founder, Peter Saunders, sits on the pope’s abuse commission, said the trial was welcome. “Generally we would like to see theses cases handled by law enforcement [in the countries where the alleged crimes occurred], but we need to give these new procedures a go,” she said. “If he is tried and found guilty and punished, it could mark a new beginning for how the Catholic church deals with this.”

Not every victim advocacy group shares that view. David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, believes the trial is a farce. “There are thousands of child-molesting priests, nuns, brothers, and yes, archbishops,” he said. “For the Vatican at this late stage to deem one of them guilty should not be considered earth-shattering by anyone.”

Clohessy said the trial was another “attempt to handle crimes quietly and internally”. Instead, Vatican officials should have raced to the Dominican Republic and publicly declared their concerns as soon as the rumours about Wesołowski emerged.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church’s insurance company has been given a week to produce almost 2,000 files to the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

In February, Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) was issued with a subpoena to hand over documents about the Church’s response to child sexual abuse allegations.

CCI initially said it would take two months to produce them, but that deadline has well and truly passed, and today the royal commission held a special hearing to find out why.

The commission has heard CCI has gathered 1,960 files — some containing hundreds of pages — relating to more than 60 perpetrators the Church may have known had a propensity to offend.

But they have not yet been provided to the inquiry, and counsel assisting the royal commission, Gail Furness, said the delay was causing problems in the commission’s work.

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MAINE
Maine Public Radio

[with audio]

By PATTY WIGHT

PORTLAND, Maine – A defamation trial against a Freeport man who accused the founder of an orphanage in Haiti of sexually abusing children in his care is underway this week. The defendant, Paul Kendrick, took the stand in federal District Court in Portland Thursday.

Patty Wight was there and joins Maine Things Considered host Nora Flaherty with the latest details.

Nora Flaherty: Patty, first why don’t you tell us more on what this case is all about.

Patty Wight: This suit was brought by Michael Geilenfeld, who is the founder of an organization that provides a number of services to poor Haitian children, including an orphanage for boys. Another plaintiff is a nonprofit organization called Hearts with Haiti, which does fundraising for Geilenfeld’s organization.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Freeport man who was named in a defamation lawsuit after accusing the founder of a Haitian orphanage of child abuse defended himself in court on Thursday, saying he was trying to protect poor and vulnerable children.

Orphanage founder Michael Geilenfeld and Raleigh, North Carolina-based Hearts with Haiti brought the civil lawsuit against Paul Kendrick. Kendrick had accused Geilenfeld of molesting boys who were in his care.

Kendrick took the witness stand for the first time on Thursday, two days after lawyers gave opening statements.

Kendrick and his attorney say the trial will vindicate the boys’ accounts of sexual abuse, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network reported. Seven of the boys are expected to testify.

Geilenfeld filed his lawsuit in February 2013, alleging that Kendrick wrote repeatedly in emails and on a blog that Geilenfeld sexually abused boys at his orphanage in Haiti. Geilenfeld has denied the charges.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Catholic brother who taught at North Catholic faces sentencing in Australia for sexual assaults

July 10, 2015

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Before he arrived in Pittsburgh in 1986 for an 11-year teaching stint among unsuspecting youths, an American Roman Catholic religious brother left a trail of devastated young lives in Australia, a Melbourne court heard at a presentencing hearing this week following his sexual abuse conviction.

Victoria County Court heard victim-impact statements and other testimony Wednesday in the case of Brother Bernard Hartman, a member of the St. Louis-based Marianist Province of the United States.

He faces sentencing July 24 for his convictions this spring of sexually assaulting two girls and a boy during the 1970s and early 1980s, when he taught at a boy’s Catholic high school in suburban Melbourne. The boy was a student, and the girls were sisters of students.

“At the age of 50 I am unsure if I will ever gain what was taken from me in my childhood years,” Mairead Ashcroft of suburban Melbourne told the court.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Pirate FM

A Bude man who abused children for more than ten years is appearing in court to be sentenced.

Jeremy Dowling used to be a teacher before becoming press officer for the Diocese of Truro.

The 77 year old admitted the sex attacks on five youngsters and is due to be sentenced on Friday morning.

Dowling was charged with 15 counts of indecent assault.

It happened after five former pupils came forward to complain they were victims of sexual abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent and Sussex Courier

A popular ex-teacher and assistant priest sexually assaulted two young boys who he bribed with cash, gifts and help with their homework, a court heard.

Chris Howarth, who is married, allegedly forced his victims to engage in a series of “weird” acts which included dirty talk, rubber shoes and a gas mask.

The court was told he abused the youths at his Uckfield home, at church, in his school office and in his caravan in return for payments of up to £100 a week between 2004 and 2012.

The 67-year-old is currently on trial charged with 20 counts of sexual activity involving the boys, who both attended Uckfield Community Technology College, where he taught subjects including maths, religious studies and languages – and was deputy head – for 38 years.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

by Paul Blume

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that Catholic churches in Minnesota do not have to play a video produced by a group of clergy abuse victims at Sunday mass. Attorneys representing clergy abuse victims had asked the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to compel its 187 parishes to play the video this weekend.

“We don’t have the power to reach people in the pews,” attorney Jeff Anderson said.

The video encourages victims of abuse by priests to come forward before the fast-approaching Aug. 3 settlement deadline. They argued it was the best way to reach abuse victims still “hiding in the shadows.” The archdiocese said no, and on Thursday a federal judge agreed, ruling it was produced more as an advocacy piece than a true notification mechanism.

“The archdiocese being opposed to it is disturbing,” Anderson said. “It’s disgraceful and I fault them for not allowing for it to be played.”

“The video, personally to me, is a very touching and moving piece,” said Charlie Rodgers, an attorney for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “And there is an appropriate place for it. I think the victim’s advocates will make sure it is widely disseminated where it should be disseminated. But perhaps it’s not proper to disseminate it in a Sunday mass.”

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AUSTRALIA
Wangaratta Chronicle

Jamie Kronborg
jkronborg@nemedia.com.au
July 10, 2015

THE appalling storm of child sexual abuse that gathered for decades – and has since publicly engulfed religious and other institutions in a $500 million Commonwealth royal commission – has not passed by the Anglican diocese of Wangaratta.

Bishop John Parkes – in a long interview with the Chronicle about the church, its standing and the challenges confronting it in contemporary society – has confirmed that sexual abuse took place.

He has apologised – saying “there can be no more hiding”.

He has also detailed the ways in which the church has moved strongly to abate risk – using codes of conduct and sophisticated mechanisms to screen clergy and other church workers.

These include psycho-sexual assessments of people seeking to become priests.

The bishop confirmed that decades ago a former rector had “viciously” abused a young person in one of the diocese’s smaller country parishes.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A NSW Catholic priest and police chaplain denied bail over alleged child sex offences from 30 years ago was working at a primary school until his arrest yesterday.

John Patrick Casey faced the Port Macquarie Court this morning on nine offences.

They are alleged to have been committed against two brothers in the Lismore Diocese in 1985.

The diocese takes in the region from the Queensland border to Camden Haven, south of Port Macquarie.

More recently, the 67-year-old priest was based at the Mary Help of Christians Primary School in Sawtell until being taken into custody yesterday.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The New York Times

By JESS BIDGOOD

JULY 9, 2015

SCITUATE, Mass. — It was a bright Sunday morning at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, and the building’s stained glass windows cast a jewel-colored glow over the service. An elegant 81-year-old woman led a few dozen congregants in Catholic prayer. A single flutist accompanied the hymns.

But there was no priest. The parishioners were not, in fact, supposed to be there. And there is nothing the Archdiocese of Boston would like more than for them to get out.

“We,” Jon Rogers, one of the organizers, said with some frustration, “are disobedient Catholics.”

The parishioners here gather every Sunday for acts of communion and epic resistance. The building is deconsecrated. The parish was, like dozens of others in the region, slated to close in 2004, but some of its members, who call themselves Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini, have kept it open by keeping at least one member inside the church at all times — a dogged effort called a vigil.

Wielding baked goods, detailed sign-up sheets and fierce devotion, they have frustrated the powerful Archdiocese of Boston, of which they are a part, and officials there have taken their own parishioners to court to get them out. In the coming months, the two parties will meet again in court for the parishioners’ appeal. The petitioners filed their brief in a Massachusetts appeals court this week.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

A CATHOLIC priest and police chaplain from the Lismore Diocese, which includes Grafton, has been denied bail in the Port Macquarie Court this morning.

John Patrick Casey was charged with historical child sex offences, allegedly committed against two brothers aged nine and 11 in 1985.

Until yesterday, the 67-year-old priest was based at the Mary Help of Christians Primary School in Sawtell.

The ABC reported that in the courtroom, Casey’s lawyer argued he should be granted bail because he had no prior convictions and was not a flight risk.

But the Magistrate refused bail.

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AUSTRALIA
Coffs Coast Advocate

THE parish priest at Sawtell’s Mary Help of Christians is facing a range of historic child sex assault charges.

Father John Casey, 67, is facing charges from incidents which allegedly occurred in the Lismore Diocese in the 1980s.

Fr Casey was refused bail in Port Macquarie Local Court today this morning after being charged with five counts of a sexual assault on a person under 16-years-old, four counts of sexual assault and committing an act of indecency.

Bishop of Lismore, Reverend Geoffrey Jarrett, said Fr Casey has been stood down from his position, effective immediately.

The priest, who is also a part-time police chaplain, was arrested at 9am on Thursday and was taken to Kempsey Police Station.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

[with video]

By Eden Checkol

July 9, 2015

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) — Seven priests have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children, and five of those priests served in Duluth for a portion of their priesthood.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents sex-abuse survivors, released the names of the seven priests Tuesday, after a settlement was reached between a man identified as Doe 30 and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Catholic order of priests and brothers.
.
The names of the priests are: Orville Lawrence Munie, Michael Charland, James Vincent Fitzgerald, Robert Reitmeier, Emil Twardochleb, Paul Kabat and Thomas Meyer.

A lawsuit Doe 30 filed against Fitzgerald led to the release of the six other names.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Verne Wagner, Duluth SNAP director

We belong to a support group called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). We’re here to discuss the newly-outed five predator priests who have worked in Duluth. We’re here to warn parents and the public about the two of them who are still alive. And we’re here today to prod Duluth Catholic officials to find some courage, do what’s right, disclose more information and take real steps – not cosmetic ones, not superficial ones – to protect kids.

Let’s start with the obvious, the simple and the pressing: One of these clerics, Fr. Charland, is a psychologist in the Twin Cities. Other than being a priest, could there possibly be a more dangerous job for a child molester to have?

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Why isn’t there an alert on every Catholic website in Minnesota, saying “WARNING – a credibly accused child molester is now working as a therapist! Please don’t let your children near him!”

Facing legal pressure, Catholic officials have reluctantly but publicly put Fr. Charland’s name on a list of publicly and credibly accused abusers. They obviously admit he’s dangerous. But they refuse to take even a quick, cheap, simple step to keep kids away from him. Shame on them.

We beg every single Catholic lay person and staff person in the Duluth diocese to contact Bishop Sirba and urge him to warn families about Fr. Charland. He could literally be molesting a girl in his office this afternoon or a boy in his neighborhood this evening. Bishop: Stop splitting hairs and making excuses and claiming ignorance. Start taking action to prevent more devastating child sex crimes.

We have a few other requests today.
We beg who was hurt by any these priests to speak up and get help.
We beg them to call secular authorities, not church officials.
We beg them to call independent sources of help, like our support group.
We beg former Catholic employees in Duluth and across Minnesota to “come clean” with information or suspicions about these priests.
We beg these ex-employees to call police and prosecutors.

Current Catholic officials in Duluth and across Minnesota, we beg them to “come clean” with more information about the priests and to use their vast resources to aggressively seek out their victims.

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AUSTRALIA
New South Wales Police Force

Police Chaplain charged with historical child sex offences – Northern Region

Thursday, 09 July 2015

Catholic priest has been charged following alleged historical child sex offences in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.

In February 2015, Richmond Detectives commenced investigations into allegations against a priest, who is also a part-time police chaplain.

It is alleged the offences took place in the Lismore Diocese in the 1980s.

The investigation has been referenced at the Royal Commission.

At 9am today (Thursday 9 July 2015), detectives arrested the priest; he was taken to Kempsey Police Station and charged with nine offences.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

A CATHOLIC priest working as a police chaplain will face court today over child sex offences alleged to have happened when he was working in the Lismore diocese in the 1980s.

In a statement, NSW Police say detectives from the Richmond Local Area Command have been investigating the priest since February after evidence raised in the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission is ongoing and is still accepting submissions from victims who were abused as children at or via institutions such as churches, schools, or sports clubs.

Detectives arrested the former Lismore priest on Thursday and charged him with nine offences at the Kempsey Police Station.

He was refused bail and will appear before Kempsey Local Court today (Friday July 10, 2015).

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MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
July 9, 2015

The Diocese of Duluth has had one list disclosure. I have looked at the list here:

The Diocese of Duluth Release Their List of 17 Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Minors

There have also been other lists from other parts of the state.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Adds 17 to List of Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Minors

Diocese of Winona Release Their List of 14 Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Minors

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Release Their List of 34 Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Minors

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Release 9 More Names

St. John’s Abbey Release Their List of 18 Monks and Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Minors

The Diocese of Crookston Release Their List of 6 Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Minors Mike Bryant | Jan 27, 2014.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Elizabeth Mohr
emohr@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/09/2015

It’s not the job of the court to encourage claims against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for clergy sexual abuse, so it won’t require the church to promote a video doing that, a federal bankruptcy judge said Thursday.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel said that he already established guidelines to notify people about the deadline to file claims with the court, but that a video produced by the committee of unsecured creditors — composed primarily of victims — goes beyond the purview of the bankruptcy court and skids into advocacy.

The committee had asked Kressel, who is overseeing the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case, to compel the archdiocese to promote the video, which features three victims who urge other victims to come forward.

The committee said the video, which it asked to be shown during Mass this weekend, was aimed at notifying more people of the impending Aug. 3 deadline to file claims against the church.

Attorneys for the archdiocese and its parishes objected to the request, saying the committee was asking the court to become an advocate and to go beyond its own notification order, which should be sufficient. Church representatives also argued that asking parishes to promote or show the video during Mass raised concerns about the court injecting its power into religious ceremonies.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Jul 9, 2015

A federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday rejected efforts to have a video about clergy sex abuse played in parishes throughout the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Victim advocates and attorneys argued that playing the video would help alert abuse survivors of an Aug. 3 deadline for filing claims against the archdiocese.

But while the video is moving, it is aimed at people who already know about the deadline but can’t decide if they want to file a claim, Judge Robert Kressel said. That goes beyond simply giving people notice of the deadline and amounts to advocacy that is outside the creditors’ committee’s purview, he added.

Church leaders are not legally responsible for encouraging claims, archdiocese attorney Charlie Rogers said. “We’re not to be advocates. We’re not to be psychiatrists. We’re not to be counselors. But we’re to provide notice.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent

Despite promises that the Goddard Inquiry into child sexual abuse will cause no further harm, survivor Esther Baker has spoken of her fears that the process may compound some people’s suffering.

Ms Baker spoke exclusively to Sky News in May, alleging that she suffered sexual abuse throughout her childhood and was raped by VIPs in Staffordshire in the 80s and 90s – occasionally she said uniformed police officers stood guard.

Her allegations are now part of an active police investigation.

The inquiry has now formally opened with its chair, New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard, outlining the guiding principles that will shape it.

Ms Baker was one of the survivors who was involved in the early stages of the inquiry but she has since withdrawn after becoming disillusioned with the process.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

TOM BROOKS-POLLOCK Thursday 09 July 2015

Almost exactly a year ago, home secretary Theresa May announced the creation of an independent panel to look into allegations of historical sexual abuse.

It will look at claims of abuse – some against high-profile figures – and its alleged cover-up by councils, the courts, schools, the church, the BBC and the Army, by assessing whether these institutions failed in their duty of care to protect children.

On Thursday, the inquiry finally opens, chaired by Justice Lowell Goddard, a judge from New Zealand. But the inquiry has been an almost constant headache for Mrs May.

Two proposed chairs – Baroness Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf – stood down amid criticism that there were too close to the Establishment, and the process has been beset by delays and wrangling over the terms of reference.

Opening the inquiry in London on Thursday, Justice Goddard said: “We want to hear from any individuals who were sexually abused as children in an institutional setting such as a care home, school or religious institution, anyone who reported abuse to a person in authority such as a police officer, social worker or teacher where the abuse was ignored or not properly acted upon.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sandra Laville and Owen Bowcott
Thursday 9 July 2015

Thousands of victims of child sexual abuse are being invited to testify across the country in a truth project set up as part of the biggest public inquiry into criminality and corruption by public and private institutions in England and Wales.

Justice Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge appointed to run the long-awaited independent inquiry into child abuse within state and non-state institutions, vowed that no individual or institution however powerful would be able to obstruct her investigations.

The monarchy, government, politicians, church leaders, schools, hospitals and the media would all be examined, she said. Insurance companies which deny victims the truth to prevent compensation payouts, and internet providers who fail to tackle online abuse, will also be investigated.

While the inquiry – which has a budget of £17.9m from the Home Office for the coming year – would not be able to convict people or punish them, Goddard said it would not shrink from naming individuals who have abused children and the institutions which allowed it to happen.

“The naming of people that have been responsible for the sexual abuse of children or institutions that have been at fault in failing to protect children from abuse, is a core aspect of the inquiry’s function,” she said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
RTE News

Britain’s largest ever public inquiry will travel from the “corridors of power” in Westminster to the poorest parts of the country to uncover the true scale of child sex abuse, its chairwoman has vowed.

Judge Lowell Goddard issued a stark warning to individuals and institutions that they will face scrutiny, “no matter how apparently powerful”.

She said both victims and society had been left “scarred” by historic abuse and referred to estimates suggesting that one in 20 children in the UK has fallen victim as evidence of the “sheer scale” of the problem.

Finally opening the troubled inquiry, the judge stressed it will not hesitate to make findings relating to named people and organisations.

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