ABUSE TRACKER

MICHIGAN
Battle Creek Enquirer

[with copy of the letters from Rev. John Fleckenstein to parishioners and from Bishop Paul Bradley]

The controversial former Minnesota archbishop who came to Battle Creek to assist the Rev. John Fleckenstein is departing immediately, St. Philip Catholic Church parishioners were informed today.

A letter from Fleckenstein to parishioners dated Thursday said Archbishop John Nienstedt chose to leave in the face of concerns from churchgoers, and Fleckenstein agreed.

Nienstedt had resigned last summer as archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis,10 days after the archdiocese was criminally charged for its leaders’ handling of allegations of sexual abuse by its priests. One, Curtis Wehmeyer, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys and possessing child pornography; he’s serving a five-year prison sentence.

A longtime friend of Fleckenstein, Nienstadt offered to help out at St. Philip while Fleckenstein underwent health treatments. He was to serve here for six months.

Some parishioners expressed concern about the safety of children in the church in the presence of a leader who had resigned in the face of the Minnesota scandal.

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Katherine Towers, Cameron Stewart
The Australian
January 22, 2016

Family friends of a Melbourne woman sexually molested by her school headmistress have ­accused the former principal of seeking to exploit the Israeli justice system to avoid being extradited to Australia.

A family friend of the victim, has accused serial sex offen­der Malka Leifer of manipulating a Jerusalem court and exploiting legal loopholes to avoid charges of sexually abusing female students while principal of the ultra-orthodox Adass Israel School in Melbourne.

“We know their lawyer insisted from the start she will never come to Australia,” said the friend who asked not to be named. The friend believes Ms Leifer is attempting to “exploit the justice system and foil the extradition.”

The accusations come after another failed attempt by Aus­tralian authorities to have the Jerusalem District Court hear an application to extradite Ms Leifer, a mother of eight, to Victoria on more than 70 child sex offence charges.

She is under house arrest in the ultra-orthodox enclave of Bnei Brak in central Israel after fleeing Australia in the middle of the night following revelations she had sexually abused more than eight Jewish girls at the school.

Despite extradition proceedings being launched more than 12 months ago, Ms Leifer has avoided all court hearings ­because “panic attacks” were stopping her from attending.

Lawyers for Ms Leifer have ­applied to the court to reject the application because of her mental health.

The Jerusalem District Court has heard evidence from mental health doctors claiming her panic attacks were genuine and the ­result of the extreme pressure of the court hearing.

Victim advocates have called on the court to hear the application at Ms Leifer’s home or via video link to avoid the stress of appearing in a courtroom.

The Times of Israel reported that the court has released a statement saying those options are not viable as a “hearing cannot be held in the presence of Malka Leifer … No (tranquillising pill) can help (calm her down) before a court hearing”.

Last year, one of her victims received one of Australia’s biggest payouts for such abuse when the Victorian Supreme Court awarded her more than $1.2 million.

Judge Jack Rush found the girl had been sexually abused and preyed upon by Ms Leifer from the ages of 15 to 18 at the school in Melbourne’s southeast.

He was scathing of the behaviour of school board members, whom he accused of helping to squirrel Ms Leifer out of the country.

Victoria Police launched an investigation into the action of Adass Israel School board members, who could face criminal charges for impeding an investigation.

A police spokeswoman said yesterday that the investigation “remains ongoing”.

The Israeli-based group acting for the victims says the delay in forcing Ms Leifer to return to Australia to face the charges had become “intolerable” for victims, who were angry and frustrated with the alleged delaying tactics.

Head of the Israel National Council for the Child Yitzhak Kadman warned that Israel could become a haven for Jewish paedophiles fleeing authorities in other jurisdictions if the Leifer extradition application was thrown out of court.

The Jerusalem District Court will decide on the extradition ­application next month.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

21/1/2016

​One of Malka Leifer’s courageous alleged victims has asked me to publish the following:

​I have been quiet so long – suffering in silence, reading the news, hearing the filtered, censored updates of where Malka Leifer is holding,

The day she was arrested in Israel rocked my world, in a good and difficult way. Difficult because it brought on a fresh wave of emotions and triggers and good because finally, FINALLY the Jewish Orthodox world will give validation that I and many others were horrifically abused by this smiling charismatic monster.

What can I say except that as the months roll by and the manipulative woman that us students all knew so well is playing her games again, albeit at a much higher level and with a bulldog of a lawyer by her side who vowed that she will never return to Australia.

The nightmares, constantly, the days where food does not matter, the constant flashbacks every time her name is mentioned , the shroud of secrecy because you don’t want to be ostracised for wanting justice to prevail. The copious tears and alternating feelings of utter numbness. In this case, time does not heal, time is not healing. Time is prolonging the dreadful, all-consuming pain as month after month after month of this perilous heart wrenching journey, that smiling sick woman evades justice yet again and again.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Jan. 20, 2016

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

ALBUQUERQUE – If predictions by the Diocese of Gallup’s attorneys are accurate, the diocese will be filing its Chapter 11 reorganization plan in early February.

Details about the settlement agreement with clergy abuse claimants, however, are being kept under wraps.

In a status hearing Tuesday, Thomas Walker, the diocese’s Albuquerque bankruptcy attorney, told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge David T. Thuma that a proposed plan had been circulated last week to various parties who had participated in mediation, including unnamed “funding participants,” and the proposed plan was eliciting a number of detailed comments.

“We are hoping to get all of those back by the end of this week or the beginning of next week and put together another draft promptly,” Walker said.

Walker and Susan Boswell, the diocese’s lead bankruptcy attorney from Tucson, agreed they were hoping to file the plan the first week of February.But exactly who will be the primary funders of the plan has not been publicly revealed. Attorneys representing various parties repeatedly referred to “funding sources” throughout the hearing but did not identify them by name.

Last spring Thuma ordered 10 parties into mediation: the Gallup Diocese, the New Mexico Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, the Catholic Relief Insurance Company of America, the Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist in Ohio, Gallup’s Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. John the Baptist Parish in Arizona, the Catholic Peoples Foundation, St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors that represents the interests of clergy sex abuse claimants.

Unidentified funding sources

In Tuesday’s hearing, Boswell said there are two other funding sources that did not participate in the mediation. Copies of the settlement plan will be provided to them before the plan is filed, she said. Boswell also confirmed that two funding sources are drafting their own separate settlement agreements.

James Stang, legal counsel for the Unsecured Creditors Committee, reported to Thuma that attorneys for the committee are currently working on preparing a trust that will hold the settlement funds to be distributed. In addition, he said, they are consulting with the private attorneys who represent abuse claimants about allocation protocols for distributing the settlement funds, as well as talking to possible candidates for the position of claims reviewer.

A problem raised in a previous hearing is apparently being resolved, but once again attorneys declined to identify the funding source being discussed.

Young Kim, an attorney for Michael P. Murphy, the future claims representative, had complained to Thuma that one of the parties in the case had not been returning his calls. Because Murphy has been appointed to represent any possible abuse claimants that might come forward in the future, a fund has to be established to address such claims.

On Tuesday, Kim said he had begun talking with an attorney for that unnamed funding source. Legal issues of due diligence and the creation of a confidentiality agreement between the parties remain unresolved.

Thuma urged all the attorneys to keep focused on the diocese’s projected timeline.

“It would be great if we could get this plan on file in early February and go to a confirmation hearing in probably April and get this case behind us,” he said. “All our constituencies would be well served, so let’s try to get that to happen if we can.”

Thuma scheduled the next status hearing Feb. 2.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Nicola Slawson
@nicola_slawson
Thursday 21 January 2016

A leaked draft report into the BBC’s practices at the time of the Jimmy Savile scandal has revealed the full extent of the former DJ’s predatory sexual activity.

The report, published by the investigative news website Exaro and led by Dame Janet Smith, is said to include “devastating detail” of the corporation’s “sheer scale of awareness” of the late star’s activities.

The report is said to point to a “deferential culture”, “untouchable stars” and “above the law” managers at the corporation. However, the BBC cannot be criticised for failing to uncover Savile’s “sexual deviancy”, it says.

The retired judge’s report outlines multiple rapes and indecent assaults on children by Savile, which she claims were all “in some way associated with the BBC”.

A BBC spokesman said they would not be commenting as they had not yet seen the final report or the draft. He said: “We cannot confirm the authenticity or contents of the leaked report and we don’t believe Exaro has the full version.”

Smith responded to the leak on Thursday morning, saying in a statement that the “document is out of date and significant changes have been made to its contents and conclusions. The document should not have been made public and cannot be relied upon in any circumstances.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The New York Times

By KIMIKO DE FREYTAS-TAMURA
JAN. 21, 2016

LONDON — A culture of deference to “untouchable stars,” an “above the law” attitude among members of management and a climate of fear at the BBC allowed Jimmy Savile, the disgraced British television personality, to carry out sexual assaults on children for decades, according to a leaked draft of an inquiry published on Thursday.

The 500-page draft, which was published by the news website Exaro, said the inquiry had heard from many BBC employees who knew of Mr. Savile’s predatory behavior, called the broadcaster’s investigations “wholly inadequate” and raised the possibility that other pedophiles could still be at the BBC.

Dame Janet Smith, a retired judge who has been leading a three-year independent investigation on behalf of the BBC into the broadcaster’s practices during the years it employed Mr. Savile, from 1964 to 2007, said in the draft that the multiple rapes and sexual assaults committed by him were all “in some way associated with the BBC.”

The draft also said that the atmosphere regarding whistle-blowers at the BBC had worsened since the revelations about Mr. Savile, and that people were now even less likely to come
In a statement, the inquiry said that the document was out of date and that “significant changes” had been made to its contents and conclusions. The final report is expected to be released within six weeks.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Today is the 3rd day of a hunger strike by Diego Esposito, a victim of the priest Silverio Mura. He is not satisfied that actions has been taken by the curia against the priest.]

Oggi è il 3° giorno di sciopero della fame per Diego Esposito, vittima del sacerdote Silverio Mura, che con questa protesta civile e non violenta chiede alla curia di Napoli, a 6 anni dalla sua prima denuncia, legittime risposte sui provvedimenti presi.

Ma pare proprio che la curia di Napoli di provvedimenti non ne abbia preso proprio nessuno, come lo stesso Diego denuncia con questa sua protesta, per l’ennesima volta pare che il sacerdote sia stato nuovamente spostato in un’altra scuola, sempre a contatto con adolescenti, come quando adescò Diego alla scuola media Borsi 2 di Ponticelli.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[Abuse allegations: Hildesheim diocese pays money to a young woman.]

Nach den Missbrauchsvorwürfen gegen den früheren Pfarrer Peter R. zahlt das Bistum Hildesheim einer jungen Frau eine Geldsumme als Anerkennung ihres Leids.

Die damals 14-Jährige hatte im März 2010 in Hildesheim schwere Vorwürfe gegen Pfarrer R. erhoben. Er stand damals schon im Zentrum des Missbrauchsskandals am Berliner Canisius-Kolleg mit mehr als hundert Opfern. Doch das Bistum Hildesheim gab die neuen Hinweise nicht gleich an die Staatsanwaltschaft weiter (mehr zu dem Fall lesen Sie hier).

Hildesheims Bischof Norbert Trelle räumte Ende Dezember Fehler ein, wies den Vorwurf der Vertuschung aber zurück.

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FRANCE
Fdebranche

[There’s a sex abuse scandal at the Catholic school of St. Martin de Sartrouville. A teacher of 36 years was arrested Monday at his home in Chanteloup-les-Virgnes before being placed in custody in Viroflay. He is suspected of assaulting three children ages 8-1.]

Un instituteur d’une école catholique soupçonné de pédophilie

Scandale à l’école catholique Saint-Martin de Sartrouville. Un instituteur de 36 ans a été interpellé, lundi à son domicile de Chanteloup-les-Vignes, avant d’être placé en garde à vue à Viroflay. Les enquêteurs de la brigade de protection de la famille (BDPF) le soupçonnent d’avoir, durant l’année 2015, agressé trois enfants âgés de 8 et 11 ans, dont deux élèves en classe de CE 2 et CM 2 et le troisième, passé en classe de sixième, cette année.

Jeudi dernier, des parents portent plainte au commissariat de Sartrouville. Ils accusent l’enseignant d’avoir pratiqué des caresses et des fellations aux enfants. Les faits auraient eu lieu dans les parties communes de l’école à des moments où l’instituteur était seul avec les élèves. Mais aussi à son domicile.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Express

Von Christof Ernst

Bonn –
So hautnah und authentisch kann Theater sein: Am morgigen Donnerstag hat in der Werkstattbühne des Bonner Theaters das Stück „Bilder von uns“ Premiere. Es geht um den Missbrauchs-Skandal am Aloisiuskolleg in Bad Godesberg.

Das Brisante: Geschrieben hat das Drama Thomas Melle (40), der selbst 1994 an der Skandal-Schule Abitur machte. Im Mittelpunkt seines Stückes steht Jesko Drescher (Benjamin Grüter). Der ist 40 Jahre alt und rundum zufrieden – bis eines Tages ein brauner Umschlag in seinem Briefkasten liegt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelisch

[German dioceses have paid out a total of 6.4 million euros to victims of abuse.]

Mehr als 6,4 Millionen Euro haben die Bistümer laut einem Bericht in den vergangenen fünf Jahren an Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs gezahlt. Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz wollte die Summe nicht kommentieren.

Die Bistümer in Deutschland haben einem Zeitungsbericht zufolge in den vergangenen fünf Jahren mehr als 6,4 Millionen Euro an Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs gezahlt. Die Summe wurde an mehr als 1.000 Antragssteller ausgegeben, wie die “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (Mittwochsausgabe) unter Berufung auf eine Umfrage unter den 27 Diözesen berichtet.

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz wollte die Summe nicht kommentieren. Pressesprecher Matthias Kopp wies darauf hin, dass bei der zentralen Kommission bisher mehr als die von der Zeitung angegebenen 1.054 bewilligten Anträge eingegangen seien. 1650 Anträge von Missbrauchsopfern seien über die Bistümer und Ordensgemeinschaften angekommen. Die Kommission habe mehr als 95 Prozent der Anträge mit der Empfehlung zurückgegeben, eine materielle Anerkennung zu zahlen. In der Gesamtzahl der Zeitung sind mögliche Anträge bei Ordensgemeinschaften nicht enthalten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Neue Westfalische

[The Paderborn archdiocese Paderborn has paid 352,000 Euro to victims of abuse.]

Aufklärung: Die katholische Kirche zieht nach fünf Jahren eine Zwischenbilanz

Paderborn. Das Erzbistum Paderborn hat in den vergangenen fünf Jahren rund 352.000 Euro an Missbrauchsopfer ausgezahlt. Von März 2011 bis Dezember 2015 haben 105 Personen entsprechende „Anträge auf Leistungen in Anerkennung des Leids, das Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs zugefügt wurde”, gestellt, teilte Thomas Throenle von der Presse- und Informationsstelle im Erzbistum Paderborn nw.de auf Anfrage mit. Etwa ein Drittel der Antragsteller seien Frauen, zwei Drittel seien Männer.

Zuständig für die Anträge ist die Zentrale Koordinierungsstelle (ZKS) in Bonn, angesiedelt beim „Büro für Fragen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger im kirchlichen Bereich” der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Wird in Paderborn ein Antrag eingereicht, wird er nach erster Prüfung nach Bonn weitergeleitet. Den Empfehlungen der Kommission folge das Erzbistum in der Regel, so Throenle. 62 Anträge aus Paderborn wurden der ZKS vorgelegt, 60 erkannte die Kommission an, 2 wurden abgelehnt.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 21 January 2016 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:

– Rev. Can. Marco Brunetti as bishop of Alba (area 1,050, population 157,526, Catholics 142,526, priests 137, permanent deacons 10, religious 293), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Turin, Italy in 1962 and ordained a priest in 1987. He holds a licentiate in theology and health pastoral ministry, and has served as parish priest, member of the Presbyterium and of the national council for health pastoral ministry.

– Msgr. Giuseppe Russo, Italy, as under-secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA).

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By KYLE SCHWAB The Oklahoman

OKLAHOMA CITY – A sex offender convicted in 1995 has been charged with dozens of sex crimes against a 14-year-old girl who, investigators say, attended a religious course he taught at a Del City church.

Donnie Ray Schultz, 45, of Del City, was charged Monday in Oklahoma County District Court with 19 counts of second-degree rape, 31 counts of forcible oral sodomy, one count of manufacturing child pornography, one count of possession of obscene material involving the participation of a minor under the age of 18 and engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses in two or more counties.

Investigators reported Schultz, also known as Shultz, became friends with the girl through the bible class he taught at Calvary Christian Church and later began a sexual relationship with the girl.

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OKLAHOMA
Independent Journal

BY KAYLA BRANDON

Donnie Ray Schultz is a self-employed repairman by trade, but in his spare time, he used to volunteer as a religious teacher at an Oklahoma church.

As KFOR News reports, the 45-year-old was arrested outside his home December 18 for a crime that has since stunned the church community.

A Calvary Christian Church spokesperson tells the Oklahoman they’re in utter shock:

“While (Schultz) led a small group Bible study on church doctrine, he was one of seven members who took turns teaching the class. The class was for adults only, but apparently some participated in the class before they were eighteen. (He) was never in any paid, employee relationship with the church. He (led) the discipleship class as a volunteer.”

The victim – a teen – told investigators that Schultz would sometimes record their time together on his computer and cell phone.

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OKLAHOMA
Fox 25

BY BILL SCHAMMERT TUESDAY, JANUARY 12TH 2016

A former volunteer bible teacher at Calvary Christian Church in Del City has been charged in Oklahoma County court. Donnie Ray Schultz, 45, is facing 19 charges of second degree rape, 31 charges of forcible oral sodomy, one charge for manufacturing child pornography, one charge for possessing child pornography and one charge for a pattern of criminal offenses.

Fox 25 first told you about Schultz last month. The former registered sex offender was arrested on December 18 outside his home.

According to court documents, the alleged rapes happened to one victim between July of 2014 and August of 2015. Authorities say Schultz and the victim would engage in sexual activity in a variety of spots, including his home, the victim’s home, and other homes where Schultz was doing home repair. The victim was between 14 and 15 years old at the time of the alleged incidents.

The probable cause affidavit says the victim told police, Schultz would often use his iPhone to take pictures or video of the sexual acts.

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OKLAHOMA
Addicting Info

Yet another victim of sexual abuse can thank a church for introducing her to her assailant. The Calvary Christian Church in Del City, Oklahoma was the scene of a brainwashing that led to more than 50 counts of sexual abuse charges against 45-year-old Donnie Ray Shultz.

Shultz, who has a history of sexual abuse, was allowed to volunteer to teach a class on church doctrine, in spite of his sordid past. While the class was supposed to be for adults, a spokesman said , “apparently some participated in the class before they were eighteen.”

In this case, four years before. Even though the church was aware of Shultz’s past when he joined 19 years ago, they are still “shocked” at the allegations. The girl told police that she had intercourse with Shultz 20-30 times and engaged in oral sex several times as well. Police are investigating Shultz for the possibility that there are other victims.

You have to wonder how things like this continue to happen. The Catholic church, plagued by arrests and lawsuits over molested altar boys, still manages to let a priest or two through the cracks every now and then. People like Josh Duggar, who consider themselves to be of a higher moral fiber than the rest of us because of his relationship with Jesus, astound us with incredible acts of hypocrisy that can somehow be explained away with “a moment of weakness” and set aside because with enough prayer God forgives you.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

Bing Crosby’s niece, Sister Dolores Crosby, has just been “outed” as a child molester in Seattle.

[HeraldNet]

Why do we mention this?

Because abuse by nuns remains a deeply hidden part of this crisis. Because victims of predatory nuns often feel ignored and misunderstood. And because somewhere, a nun might be molesting a child today.

Remember when ultra-conservative Vatican officials picked three bishops (Peter Sartain, Leonard Blair and Thomas Paprocki) to “examine” US nuns? Here’s what we wrote to those three:

“We suspect that fewer nuns molest than priests. (Research suggests that more men are sexual predators.) At the same time, however, that’s just speculation. And regardless of the rates or percentages of abuse, two other facts are important. First, there are more nuns than priests. (55,944 nuns in the US versus 41,406 priests) Second, many more nuns had more access to more kids, largely because they worked and work in schools.

Ultimately, however, the numbers or percentages are not especially relevant. If there are 400 or 4,000 or 40,000 adults who were victimized by nuns in this country, every single one of them deserves help. And if there are 4 or 40 or 400 children who may be victimized in the future by nuns in this country, they need protection.”

Check out the link on our home page called “Abuse by Women Religious.” Or click here: http://www.snapnetwork.org/nun_abuse

We urge you to share that link with current and former Catholics you know. Together, maybe we can find and help one suffering individual who was sexually exploited by a nun or protect one vulnerable kid who might be tomorrow.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

One of the child abuse victims whose story inspired Spotlight has praised the filmmakers over their handling of the sensitive subject matter.

Phil Saviano was molested by a Catholic priest as a youngster and he later helped a team of Boston Globe journalists break a story about child abuse within the church.

The 63 year old is played by actor Neal Huff in the movie, which is directed by Tom McCarthy and features an all-star cast of Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci.

Spotlight has become an awards season favourite in recent weeks.

It is tipped as a potential Best Picture winner at the upcoming Academy Awards, and Saviano is adamant the cast and crew deserve recognition for their work on behalf of abuse victims.

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NEBRASKA
Omaha World-Herald

By Michael O’Connor / World-Herald staff writer

An advocacy group for clergy abuse victims is raising concerns about the appointment of a retired bishop to a chaplain’s post in the Lincoln Diocese.

Bishop Robert Finn, convicted in Missouri of not reporting suspected child abuse, has become chaplain at the School Sisters of Christ the King convent in Lincoln.

David Clohessy, executive director of the national organization Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said it is wrong for Finn to be serving in any ministry position.

“In any church job, Finn may well again have the chance to report or conceal child sex crimes and repeat his offense,” Clohessy said. “Why take the risk?”

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FLORIDA
TCPalm

By Lisa Broadt of TCPalm

STUART — During an era of sweeping changes, and in the face of increasing government resistance, local media must continue to fight for journalism, Washington Post Editor Marty Baron said Wednesday at Temple Beit HaYam.

Baron — one of the journalists portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film “Spotlight” — addressed more than 500 attendees during a 90-minute question-and-answer session that touched on issues including democracy and freedom of the press, and Baron’s newfound “celebrity journalist” status.

The event was moderated by Treasure Coast Newspapers Editor Mark Tomasik and included questions submitted by the audience, several of which touched on the status of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who on Saturday was freed from an Iranian prison after more than a year of confinement.

Rezaian, the Post’s Tehran bureau chief, last year was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial, and while Post reporters and editors brought attention to Rezaian’s case and consistently advocated for his release, there was a real concern that he “could be in jail for many years,” according to Baron.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

By HANNAH BROWN \ 01/21/2016

Directed by Tom McCarthy With Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams Running time: 128 minutes Rating: R (for some language, including sexual references) Many of my colleagues at the New York Post were educated at Catholic schools and, after a few drinks, they liked to reminisce. I used to think that their stories about the cruelty of the nuns and priests were exaggerated for comic effect.

But now I wonder whether the brutal corporal punishment they described wasn’t just a small part of the abuse they endured.

The worldwide revelations of pedophilia in the Catholic Church have reached up to high levels of the Vatican in recent years.

Perhaps some people have become jaded about this issue, particularly those of us who are not Catholics and never put our faith in anyone from the Church.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Now

By Patrick Walker | pwalker@8newsnow.com

LAS VEGAS

The fate of a former pastor, who is accused of sexually assaulting underage girls, is now in the hands of a jury.

Attorneys wrapped up closing arguments in the Otis Holland trial Wednesday evening. Jurors began deliberations shortly after 4:30 p.m

Holland is facing 17 felony counts of sexual assault and lewdness, along with misdemeanor counts of witness tampering and conspiracy to destroy evidence.

It’s taken four years for Holland to go on trial. When Holland was first charged, he fled to Mexico.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 22, 2016

Stephanie Bunbury
Film and arts writer

They don’t make films like Spotlight any more, so people say. Perhaps they never really did. Spotlight is about a real-life team of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe who worked for months to document and finally reveal the cover-up by the local Catholic church of the sexual abuse of children by priests. What Spotlight is not about: star performances (even though its ensemble cast includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdam); the reporters’ personal lives; plot twists or emotional peaks and troughs; reporters as heroes. There is just work: the painstaking, paper-shuffling, probing work of accumulating facts and corroborating them to the point where a newspaper – that hulking, old-fashioned, barely lamented old warhorse of the Fourth Estate – can speak authoritative truth to power. And, as signposted by its six Oscar nominations, it is absolutely gripping.

The Spotlight team’s investigation came relatively late in the saga of sex-abuse scandals within the church; the series, which would eventually top 600 articles as more people came forward with stories and more priests were exposed, won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 2003. One thing Tom McCarthy’s film makes clear, however, is that Boston is a staunchly Catholic city where the Church, schools, sport and government are clubbily intertwined. Fifty-five per cent of their readers were practising Catholics. “The church had such power,” says Walter “Robbie” Robinson, the real head of the Spotlight unit, played by Michael Keaton in the film, “that if legislation it didn’t like was before the Massachusetts Legislature, they could get it killed.”

Not that the Globe felt compromised. Successive metro-section editors had run stories for years about accused and convicted priests in the normal run of its news coverage, earning a rebuke and an invocation of heavenly punishment from the local cardinal in the process. Even so, it took the arrival of an editor from outside Boston – Marty Barron, who came from the Miami Herald and would go on to become executive editor of the Washington Post – to lift the lid on the whole can of worms. “Don’t go after the man; go after the system,” he tells the team early in Josh Singer’s script, which has reportedly cleaved as closely as possible to the facts even down to what was said. So they do.

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UNITED STATES
Asia One

Run Time: 129 min
Classification: NC16
Genre: Investigative thriller
Grade: 3.5/5

How do you uncover a secret without getting overly emotionally involved, write a good story and do some people justice? Sounds like the job of a journalist? It certainly does.

Actor-director Mark Ruffalo had the challenging task of playing a journalist who broke a story that took the world by storm.

On Jan 6, 2002, The Boston Globe had published one of its biggest stories in history. It was time that people all around the world knew of a great sin in the history of the Catholic church.

Entitled “Church allowed abuse by priest for years”, the article was an investigative journalism piece done by the Spotlight team in the Globe.

Inspired by an actual event, the movie ‘Spotlight’ portrays the whole process of highlighting sexual crimes of the Catholic church, where several Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing young boys in Boston over a period of 30 years.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Exclusive by the National Reporting Team’s Lorna Knowles

The Catholic Church is in damage control after one of its lawyers demanded that a child sex abuse survivor repay an out-of-court settlement because she spoke to the media about her case.

Lawyers for the Diocese of Wagga Wagga also sought a public apology from the woman for “untruths” she told to the local newspaper.

But after being contacted by the ABC yesterday, the Bishop of Wagga Wagga said he did not instruct the lawyer to make the demands and he would not be pursuing abuse survivor Gina Swannell for the money.

Ms Swannell said she was repeatedly abused by a priest when she was just six years old at a church in Urana, west of Wagga Wagga.

At the time, she was a boarder at the nearby St Francis Xavier school.

Ms Swannell was one of the original campaigners for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In 2013, she was one of the first to give evidence to the commission in private hearings.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Matthew Dixon
Jan. 21, 2016

Opinion:

WATCHING local priests tie ribbons to church fences says a lot about the Loud Fence movement.

Previously, the issue of child abuse within the church had been a matter not to be talked about and kept in the dark.

However, the Loud Fence movement has been one which has been about showing community support for the survivors.

The people tying ribbons, some with connections to churches and others not, want to send a message to those survivors.

To say, ‘we understand it is tough and we want to see change and support you to get the closure you deserve’.

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WASHINGTON
The Daily Astorian

By Matt Winters
The Daily Astorian

Published:
January 21, 2016

LONG BEACH, Wash. — At least three Roman Catholic priests stationed in Pacific County from 1958 to 1971 were identified Friday by the Archdiocese of Seattle as being among 77 Catholic clergy believed to have sexually abused Washington state children.

In one case, a Seaview priest identified by the archdiocese as a sex offender was immediately replaced by another also on the offender list. In another instance, the archdiocese has already paid a Pacific County man to settle a lawsuit over molestation by a priest in Raymond.

In all but one case, the implicated local priests are known to be deceased.

Court case

James Knelleken served at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Raymond from 1958 through 1964. In 2009, the archdiocese agreed to a $350,000 settlement with a Pacific County man who said he was abused as a 16-year-old in 1959 by Knelleken, according to contemporary news reports. The victim was only identified by his initials in court documents. A second victim of Knelleken’s from another county settled his case in October 2007 for $110,000, the Associated Press reported.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Crux

By Michael O’Loughlin
National reporter January 20, 2016

Did a Philadelphia priest die in prison, falsely accused of sexual abuse by an unreliable witness who was desperate to please overzealous prosecutors?

That’s the suggestion of a Newsweek cover story whose author obtained a psychiatric evaluation of Daniel Gallagher, who in 2011 said two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher had raped him in the late 1990s.

His testimony led to a child-endangerment conviction for the Rev. William Lynn, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s former secretary of clergy and the first Church official to go to jail for child endangerment. It also led to the imprisonment of the teacher and the two priests.

One of those priests, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, died in prison in 2014 after being denied a heart operation.

Gallagher was the subject of a 2011 Rolling Stone story written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the reporter who wrote the now discredited story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia.

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RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10

St. George’s School, together with survivor group SGS for Healing, has hired a new investigator to handle the allegations of sexual abuse at the Middletown, Rhode Island school.

Just one week and two days after the school and group announced it retained former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger as lead investigator on the case of alleged sexual abuse, the school and alumni/victims’ group have named Martin F. Murphy as its new independent investigator.

Murphy, a partner at the law firm of Foley Hoag in Boston, is a former First Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County and former chief of the Major Crimes Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The switch was made after the school and survivors group were “unable to reach agreement on legal terms of engagement” with Harshbarger and his Boston firm, Casner & Edwards, according to a release.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 20, 2016

60 sex abuse cases
29 settlements
1 stingy insurance company

Things have been pretty quiet in Hawaii. And because of a new lawsuit, we now know why.

The Diocese of Honolulu today sued one of its insurers, First Insurance Insurance of Hawaii, for refusing “to honor commitments made in liability policies it sold the church over the course of several decades.”

The lawsuit isn’t the meat of the story. These kinds of suits happen all of the time. Insurance companies don’t like to pay big claims. It’s bad for business.

It’s what’s IN the text of the Diocese’s complaint that is newsworthy.

* Sixty child sex abuse cases have been filed against the Diocese of Honolulu as a result of the civil window
* There have been three rounds of mediation
* Approximately 29 child sex abuse cases against the diocese have already been settled

Since this information didn’t come from the victims’ attorneys, we can only guess that this intel was a part of the mediation privilege … until now. In other words, they aren’t allowed to talk about it (yet—hence the Hawaii radio silence for the past few months). The only party who could talk about it was the Diocese. And they were mad enough at First Insurance to blow their cover.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

The report commissioned by the Dublin Council of Priests may be found at this link Dublin Archdiocese 2030 projection

Short summary of some of the main points.

A predicted 61% reduction in numbers of priests between 2014 and 2030

If Religious Orders relinquish parish responsibilities, the FTP population would fall to 111 which would represent a 70% reduction in numbers between 2014 and 2030.

(“FTP” refers to the equivalent number of Priests working at 100% capacity.
For example, if there are four Priests, two working at 100% capacity and two working at 75% capacity (due to the impact of ageing), the population for the purposes of the analysis would be 3.5 FTPs)

The age profile of Priests in 2030 will be higher than in 2014 and 75% of Priests are projected to be older than 60 which will present a further issue. This also highlights that the issue will be magnified in the years following 2030 when these Priests retire

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Weekly Mass attendances in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese are projected to drop by a third over the next 15 years, while the number of priests serving in parishes is expected to fall by over 60 per cent to 144 in the same period.

And this is the most optimistic projection. A report prepared for the Dublin Council of priests by external consultants notes that if religious congregations such as the Redemptorists or Jesuits redeploy their priests from parish duties, then Dublin will be left with just 111 priests in 2030 – a drop of 70 per cent.

The analysis, prepared by consultants Towers Watson, also found that 57 per cent of Dublin’s priests today are over 60.

It is projected that three-quarters of priests will be over 60 by 2030.

Weekly Mass attendance levels in Dublin are currently put at 20-22 per cent (of the population), while being as low as 2-3 per cent in some working-class parishes.

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RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island Public Radio

By ELISABETH HARRISON

St. George’s School and a group of former students who have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse have announced that Scott Harshbarger will no longer conduct the independent investigation into the school’s history.

In a joint statement, the school and the former students say they were unable to come to an agreement with Harshbarger and his firm Casner & Edwards over the terms of engagement.

Instead, the two parties have named a new investigator, Martin F. Murphy, of the Boston law firm Foley Hoag.

The school previously retained the attorney Will Hannum, whose investigation found credible reports of sexual abuse from 26 former students, involving six former school employees. The report also detailed reports of sexual abuse by several former students.

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RHODE ISLAND
Sun Chronicle

Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A new lead investigator has been chosen to look into allegations of sexual abuse at a prestigious Rhode Island boarding school.

Wednesday’s announcement Boston attorney Martin Murphy will lead the investigation into St. George’s School comes a week after ex-Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger was chosen to lead.

The Middletown, Rhode Island, school acknowledges it didn’t report abusers to authorities.
An attorney for the accusers won’t say why Harshbarger is no longer investigating. Harshbarger hasn’t returned a call seeking comment.

Murphy represented Dr. Dirk Greineder, who was convicted in 2001 of killing his wife. They argued at trial a stranger did it.

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RHODE ISLAND
Durso Law

St. George’s School and SGS for Healing today announced the retention of a new independent investigator, after being unable to reach agreement on legal terms of engagement with Scott Harshbarger and his firm, Casner & Edwards. The inability to reach agreement with C&E had nothing to do with the purpose of the independent investigation, or any underlying facts. All parties have great respect for Mr. Harshbarger and his work, and remain committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive and thorough investigation.

To that end, St. George’s School and SGS for Healing are pleased to announce that Martin F. Murphy, a partner at the law firm of Foley Hoag in Boston, has agreed to serve as the independent investigator. Mr. Murphy is a former First Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County and former Chief of the Major Crimes Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. He has an outstanding reputation and a proven track record as an investigator and courtroom advocate.

Said Anne Scott of SGS for Healing: “SGS for Healing remains deeply committed to working alongside St. George’s School to carry out the independent investigation. We look forward to getting started on that now with Martin F. Murphy, and are confident that the results of the investigation will shine a clear light on a positive path forward for survivors and the entire school community.”

Said Leslie Heaney, Chair of the School’s Board of Trustees: “The board is committed to seeking the truth and ensuring that all the facts are reviewed by the independent investigator. We look forward to Mr. Murphy’s involvement and pledge the full support of St. George’s during his investigation.”

For further information, please contact:
For St. George’s School: Joseph Baerlein, (617) 443-9933
For Anne Scott and SGS for healing: Eric MacLeish, (617) 817-1797 or Carmen Durso (617) 728-9123.

DURSO LAW
LAW OFFICE OF CARMEN L. DURSO
175 Federal Street, Suite 1425
Boston, MA 02110-2287
Tel: 617-728-9123 – Fax: 617-426-7972
carmen@dursolaw.com
www.dursolaw.com

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .Judge Carol Jackson has set March, 2017 as the trial date for Fr. Joseph Jiang’s lawsuit against several defendants. The twice-accused cleric is the only U.S. priest to file a “conspiracy” case against alleged child abuse victims’ parents, the police, a prosecutor’s office and SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

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MICHIGAN
RT

John Nienstedt resigned as head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2015 after he allegedly ignored repeated warnings of a sexually abusive priest. He has now taken a temporary position at a church in Michigan, to the alarm of parishioners.

Beginning on January 6, St. Philip Catholic Church in Battle Creek invited Nienstedt to assist with saying masses and other duties within the Diocese of Kalamazoo while his friend, Father John Fleckenstein, attends to health issues and other projects for the diocese.

The church announced the move in a bulletin earlier this month. Nienstedt, 68, “will celebrate some of the weekend and weekday Masses, visit the sick in the hospital, visit the sick and homebound, and celebrate Mass for the nursing home and assisted living facilities,” Fleckenstein’s memo said. “He will also celebrate some Masses on Sundays around the Diocese when there is a priest who needs to be away. … While the Archbishop is not ‘assigned’ to the parish, I’m grateful he will assist us in these next few months.”

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MISSISSIPPI
WDAM

By Whitney Argenbright, Associate Producer

WAYNE COUNTY, MS (WDAM) –
The Wayne County pastor accused of sexual abusing a minor waved his preliminary hearing Wednesday in an Alabama court.

Tommy Joe Newberry was arrested December 22 in Alabama and charged with enticing a minor, and two counts of sexual abuse and sodomy.

He was released on a $36,000 bond.

According to Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer, the crimes happened over several years at Newberry’s home in Alabama.

Officials said Newberry admitted to sexually abusing six victims in his congregation between the ages of 11 and 15.

Stringer said Newberry’s case will be presented to a grand jury sometime in February.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Week

Wed, 01/20/2016
David Clohessy

Hundreds of Jewish officials have signed a “declaration” challenging individuals and organizations to be more transparent and accountable in scandals (“Seeing ‘Crisis’ In Jewish Ethics, Group Urges Reform,” Jan. 15).

We don’t think it will help, at least not in cases of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up. Decisive discipline, not moral exhortations, is what deters those who commit or conceal sexual misdeeds.

In our decades of experience, we’ve seen officials in many denominations make pronouncements, protocols, procedures and policies about clergy sex crimes, misconduct and cover-up. They rarely have any effect.

What does make a difference? The vulnerable are protected, the guilty are punished and the wrongdoing is deterred when two steps are taken.

First, when secular law is reformed, victims, witnesses and whistleblowers are able to expose wrongdoers in court. Second, when church officials publicly and harshly punish those who commit or conceal clergy sex crimes and misdeeds.

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NEW MEXICO
Artesia News

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Attorneys for a New Mexico diocese say they plan to submit a proposed settlement plan next month for a bankruptcy case that has lasted two years.

The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1Owo6LQ ) that attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup on Tuesday told a U.S. Bankruptcy judge that they will submit a proposal in the 26-month-old case.

Judge David Thuma says he hopes to schedule a confirmation hearing in April to finalize the settlement.

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WASHINGTON
KUOW

[with audio]

By BILL RADKE & MATT MARTIN

When the Seattle Archdiocese released names of 77 abusive clergy last week, many Catholics heralded a new era of transparency.

But attorney Michael Pfau raised an eyebrow. He knew something that wasn’t noted in the press release – or the flurry of news stories that followed. A major trial for a notorious pedophile priest was scheduled for June, and Pfau was interviewing victims.

“Why did you release these names late on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend in January?” Pfau said he would ask Archbishop Peter Sartain. “Why isn’t the archbishop addressing this in person, taking questions as opposed to putting out a list?”

Pfau has represented hundreds of people in abused by clergy in Washington state. One of his current cases involves Fr. Michael Cody, who worked at St. Edward’s Seminary, St. Luke, Holy Family, St. James Cathedral, Sacred Heart in La Conner, St. Charles in Burlington and Assumption in Bellingham.

The church knew of accusations against Cody as early as 1962. In a March 19, 1962, letter to Archbishop Thomas Connelly, a psychiatrist said Cody had admitted to molesting eight girls age 12 or under and described him as exhibiting “sadistic tendencies toward boys.” Cody spent time in treatment, then returned to the archdiocese, where others within the church expressed concern as he moved from parish to parish, according to documents, where he continued to abuse kids.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PhillyVoice

BY CHRISTINA LOBRUTTO
PhillyVoice Staff

A report by a forensic psychiatrist suggests that a former Philadelphia altar boy known as “Billy Doe” may have provided “unreliable information” in a landmark 2011 sexual abuse case, Newsweek reports.

“Billy Doe,” who was identified in the Newsweek piece, underwent a court-ordered forensic psychiatric evaluation by Dr. Stephen Mechanick, a Main Line psychiatrist, in October 2015.

The 27-year-old accused two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests and a teacher of molesting him at a Northeast Philadelphia parish in the 1990s. He told grand jurors in the case that he was sexually assaulted regularly by three men at St. Jerome’s Parish in Holme Circle, a traumatic experience that he said produced years of torment, drug abuse, behavioral problems and suicide attempts.

All of those charged were convicted, as was Monsignor William J. Lynn, the former archdiocesan secretary for clergy who was sentenced for failing to supervise a priest accused of sexual misconduct who later assaulted a then-10-year-old altar boy in 1999.

Newsweek obtained Mechanick’s report on “Billy Doe”:

The client is apparently immature and self-indulgent, manipulating others to his own ends…. He refuses to accept responsibility for his problems. He may have an exaggerated or grandiose idea of his own capabilities and personal worth. He is likely to be hedonistic and may overuse alcohol or drugs. He appears to be quite impulsive, and he may act out against others without considering the consequences…. Paranoid features and externalization of blame are likely to be present…. His manipulative and self-serving behavior may cause great difficulties for people close to him…. An individual with this profile is usually viewed as having a Personality Disorder, probably a Paranoid or Passive-Aggressive Personality. Symptoms of a delusional disorder are prominent in his clinical pattern.

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FRANCE
News 24

Paris – The child abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church are only the tip of the iceberg, the journalists who exposed one of the hierarchy’s biggest cover-ups said on Wednesday.

Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for uncovering how the Church had hushed up the activities of nearly 90 paedophile priests in Boston, told AFP that thousands more have escaped justice in the United States alone.

With the Hollywood film Spotlight about their painstaking probe of the scandal for the Boston Globe newspaper nominated for six Oscars and a slew of other prizes, they said research showed between six- and 10% of priests have abused children.

Robinson, who led the newspaper’s Spotlight investigative team, said they found that around one in 10 priests in Boston were molesters after “the Church was forced to make its records public”.

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MICHIGAN
The Daily Beast

KATIE ZAVADSKI

An archbishop accused of covering up a major sex-abuse scandal is moving to a new church—and local residents are not pleased.

A battle is brewing in Battle Creek, Michigan, where residents are less than pleased that an archbishop accused of covering up a sex-abuse scandal has now embraced a second calling as a pastor in their town.

John Clayton Nienstedt served as the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis for 7 years but resigned this June, shortly after a prosecutor announced criminal charges and a civil suit against the archdiocese for allegedly covering up child sex abuse. Now Nienstedt has taken up a new post in Michigan, filling in for a sick old friend at St. Philip’s Roman Catholic Church.

A spokesperson for the Kalamazoo diocese told local papers that the arrangement between the archbishop and Father John Fleckenstein, who is ill, is just a simple agreement between friends. But detractors worry that the archbishop’s controversial past is getting a free pass.

Jennifer Haselberger served as Chancellor for Canonical Affairs in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. She was also the person who revealed how the archdiocese allegedly hid sex-abuse allegations.

Haselberger finds it plausible that Nienstedt and Fleckenstein didn’t expect the blowback in Battle Creek.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsweek

BY RALPH CIPRIANO ON 1/20/16

On October 9, 2015, a former Philadelphia altar boy reported to the office of Dr. Stephen Mechanick to undergo a court-ordered forensic psychiatric evaluation. It took nearly three hours because the two men had a lot of ground to cover. Daniel Gallagher is a slender 27-year-old with a wispy beard who is better known as “Billy Doe.” Under that pseudonym, he made national headlines in 2011 when he claimed to have been serially raped as a fifth- and sixth-grader at St. Jerome’s parish by two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

Gallagher subsequently became the Philadelphia district attorney’s star witness at two historic criminal trials. His graphic testimony helped convict three alleged assailants, as well as Monsignor William Lynn, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s former secretary for clergy, who was found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child. The monsignor became the first Catholic administrator in the country to go to jail for failing to adequately supervise a sexually abusive priest.

The Billy Doe rape story was so sensational it attracted the attention of crusading Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely. She described Billy Doe in a 2011 story, “The Catholic Church’s Secret Sex-Crime Files,” as a “sweet, gentle kid with boyish good looks” who had been callously “passed around” from predator to predator. According to the charges recounted by Erdely, two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher “raped and sodomized the 10-year-old, sometimes making him perform stripteases or getting him drunk on sacramental wine after Mass.”

Erdely is the same reporter who later wrote about “Jackie,” a University of Virginia student who claimed she was gang-raped by seven men at a fraternity party. The 2014 story, which dominated headlines and cable TV news for weeks, was subsequently exposed as a hoax by “Jackie,” retracted by Rolling Stone and is now the subject of a couple of libel suits.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Mainz

Das Bistum Mainz sieht sich aufgrund der Veröffentlichung im SPIEGEL vom 16.01.2016 und der AZ vom 18.01.2016 zu folgender Klarstellung veranlasst:

Sowohl dem SPIEGEL als auch Herrn Heibel, auf den sich der SPIEGEL bezieht, ist bekannt, dass das Verfahren gegen Norbert E. mit Beschluss des Amtsgerichts Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe vom 24.07.2006 gemäß § 153 Abs. 2 StPO mit Zustimmung der zuständigen Staatsanwaltschaft auf Kosten der Staatskasse eingestellt wurde. Damit war das weltliche Strafverfahren, das sich insgesamt über vier Jahre hingezogen hatte, abgeschlossen. Tatvorwurf des Verfahrens war, dass Norbert E. einen 13-jährigen Jungen anlässlich einer Übernachtung im Pfarrhaus über der Kleidung für etwa fünf Sekunden am Geschlechtsteil berührt haben sollte.

Eine Einstellung gem. § 153 Abs. 2 StPO erfolgt, wenn die Schuld des Täters als gering anzusehen ist und kein öffentliches Interesse an der Verfolgung besteht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Badische Zeitung

by: Sebastian Kaiser

[Again the Catholic Church is shocked by reports of cases of sexual abuse. Between 1953 and 1992 it is known 231 boys were abused in the Regensburg boys choir and the number of unreported cases is likely to be far higher. Against the work-up of the cases takes place decades later and again the deed are long time-barred.]

Erneut wird die katholische Kirche von Berichten über Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch erschüttert. Zwischen 1953 und 1992 sollen bei den Domspatzen des Bistums Regensburg mindestens 62 Jungen sexuell missbraucht und 231 misshandelt worden sein – die Dunkelziffer dürfte weitaus höher liegen. Wieder findet die Aufarbeitung der Fälle erst Jahrzehnte später statt, wieder sind die Taten längst verjährt. Noch immer stehen der Aufarbeitung von Missbrauchsfällen innerhalb der katholischen Kirche vielerorts verkrustete Strukturen im Weg.

Regensburg ist ein gutes Beispiel dafür, dass in Einrichtungen der katholischen Kirche über Jahrzehnte hinweg sexueller Missbrauch und Misshandlungen geschehen konnten und Taten lange Zeit vertuscht wurden – ohne dass die Verantwortlichen eingegriffen hätten. Es drängt sich der Eindruck auf, dass dies auch mit den handelnden Personen vor Ort zusammenhängt. Der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Gerhard-Ludwig Müller, der heute die Glaubenskongregation in Rom leitet, hat zu Beginn des Missbrauchsskandals 2010 zum Ausdruck gebracht, dass er die Medienberichte für eine Kampagne gegen die Kirche halte.

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DETUSCHLAND
Crescendo

[Open your eyes Georg Ratzinger!]

Sehr geehrter Georg Ratzinger –
Sie sind müde, Ihre Gesundheit macht Ihnen zu Schaffen: der Körper, das Denken – die Augen. Und, ja, ich kann mir vorstellen, wie mühsam und anstrengend es sein muss, am Ende eines Lebens, fast erblindet, die Augen dann doch noch einmal öffnen zu müssen, wie viel Kraft es braucht, die müden Lider zu heben, nur, um in die Hölle blicken zu können: statt der angenommen 70 Missbrauchsfälle bei den Regensburger Domspatzen reden wir nun wohl von mehreren hundert, der Rechtsanwalt, der die Fälle aufarbeitet, beobachtet einen „Dominoeffekt“ der Offenbarungen und den Einsturz eines Lügengebäudes, lieber Georg Ratzinger, das Sie damals mit erreichtet haben. Hieronymus Bosch hätte sich kaum schlimmer ausmalen können, wie es unter Ihrer Leitung bei den Domspatzen zugegangen ist: Ohrfeigen, Züchtigungen, Missbrauch – im Himmel sollen angeblich die Engel singen, auf Erden wurden sie von Herzens-Zerstörern ausgebildet! Und Sie, Georg Ratzinger, müssten nur einmal noch die Augen öffnen, um Ihre Rolle dabei zu erkennen: vor Gott und der Welt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NOZ

[German dioceses in the past five years have paid out 6.4 million euros to victims of sexual abuse. So far money application was made by more than 1,000 victims.]

Osnabrück. Die Bistümer in Deutschland haben in den vergangenen fünf Jahren mehr als 6,4 Millionen Euro an Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs gezahlt. Das ergab eine Umfrage unserer Redaktion unter den 27 Diözesen. Die Summe wurde an mehr als 1000 Antragssteller ausgezahlt, die sich zwecks Anerkennung des erlittenen Leides an die katholische Kirche gewandt hatten.

* Seit 2011 können Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs bei der katholischen Kirche einen Antrag auf Anerkennung des Leides stellen. Mehr als 1000 Anträge sind seitdem bei den Bistümern eingegangen.

* Die Bistümer haben in den vergangenen Jahren 6,4 Millionen Euro an Betroffene ausgeschüttet.

* Die Summe beinhaltet auch Kosten für psychologische Betreuung.

Die Zahl der Beschuldigten Geistlichen oder Laien liegt bei weit mehr als 800. Nicht alle Bistümer machen dazu Angaben. Die Taten sind in aller Regel verjährt. – 17 Anträge: Missbrauch im Bistum Osnabrück: Opfer erhalten 66.000 Euro | noz.de – Lesen Sie mehr auf:

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wir Sind Kirche

[Overview of the abuse cases in diocesan and religious as far as they were made public by the Church or the press.]

Bis heute ist die katholische Kirche nicht in der Lage, den 2010 versprochenen Abschlussbericht über die Missbrauchsfälle in den eigenen Reihen vorzulegen – auch dies eine Missachtung der Opfer, die sich gemeldet haben. Die vorliegende Aufstellung ist nicht vollständig. Mit Fehlern muss aus mehreren Gründen gerechnet werden: Nicht immer ist klar, ob der Begriff “Fall” einen Täter, eine Gewalttat oder ein Opfer meint. Wenn die Täterzahl genannt wurde, nicht jedoch die Anzahl der Opfer, bin ich davon ausgegangen, dass jeder Täter ein Opfer hatte – wohl wissend, dass ein Täter im Schnitt 4 Opfer hat (Leygraf-Studie 2012). In einigen Veröffentlichungen wurden als Täter auch benannt, wer körperliche und seelische Gewalt, nicht jedoch sexuelle Gewalt anwandte. Da alle Gewaltformen vergleichbar traumatisch erlitten werden, halte ich die Differenzierung zwar für sinnvoll, aber nicht für entscheidend.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Sussex school named after a former Bishop of Chichester alleged to have sexually abused a child in the 1940s and 1950s is to be rebranded.

The Diocese of Chichester paid compensation and apologised after sex abuse allegations were made against the Rt Rev George Bell in a civil claim.

He was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until his death in 1958.

Bishop Bell C of E School said it was looking at two new names – St Edward’s College and St Catherine’s College.

In a statement, the Eastbourne school said it was reviewing its name as part of a rebranding exercise that started in 2014.

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SLOVENIA
STA

Ljubljana, 20 January – The Supreme Court upholding a judgement that ordered the Catholic Church to pay damages to a victim of a paedophile priest can only help the institution that builds itself on trust and religion, the daily Delo says in Wednesday’s commentary.

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WASHINGTON
KUOW

[audio\

By BILL RADKE & MATT MARTIN

Bill Radke speaks with Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seattle, about why the church recently released a list of 77 priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Radke also speaks with Mary Dispenza, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, about her reaction to the list and what she would like to see the church do in order to better handle abusive priests.

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CALIFORNIA
A Room with a Pew

PAUL FERICANO

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.”
— Seneca

On January 12, the 165 friars that make up the Franciscan Province of St. Barbara in California overwhelmingly elected a new provincial, David Gaa. Their choice not only signified the most hopeful sign of change in the province since the clergy abuse crisis of 1993, but it also brought an end to seven years of autocratic rule. Make no mistake: the Franciscans are poised to do a complete 180 in the ways that count most. And while the friars would never admit to it publicly, it’s clear that Gaa’s election is a compassionate but firm repudiation of former provincial John Hardin’s divisive policies. The suffering people of this province, friars and laypersons alike, could not feel more grateful if St. Francis himself had kneeled and washed their feet.

The evidence supporting this new direction was overwhelming. Many Franciscans felt angry, frustrated, and weary with the management style and spiritual path of their order. Their votes last week reflected this as plainly as their hopes for the future. Not only did they elect a new provincial with strong reconciliation and pastoral credentials who, for years, worked as a missionary in the Ukraine and the American southwest, but they also chose a vicar provincial, Martin Ibarra, with equally sound pastoral skills who has spent the last several years ministering to the poorest of the poor in Mexico. These are the top two men the friars have chosen to lead them into a brighter light. And to ensure their success, they elected a slate of six new definitor friars (Garrett Galvin, Anthony Garibaldi, John Gutierrez, Dan Lackie, Bill Minkel and Joe Schwab), the majority of whom have a long history of engaging in pastoral and social justice work.

Dissatisfaction among the friars has been smoldering for quite some time. Over the past few years, private conversations have revealed a deep displeasure with some of their “misfit brothers” (as one friar put it kindly). If I sometimes challenged them to take action I was often met with silence. One can argue that a sense of helplessness kept the friars from publicly speaking out. But their oath of allegiance actually contributed to their own suffering and, more to the point, to the unnecessary suffering of others. Repressive vows of obedience shackled these men to an antiquated rule that ultimately allowed others to distort the order’s principles and to abuse their power. Does this sound familiar? We saw these same tactics employed during the worst years of the abuse crisis. As a result, the unhealthy environment that one outgoing administration created will long be remembered as one of the most regressive leaderships on record and one of the least Franciscan in spirit. The irony here would be woefully tragic if it weren’t so absurd. And perhaps it’s a bit of both.

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MICHIGAN
Pioneer Press

Associated Press
POSTED: 01/19/2016

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Some members of a Michigan Catholic diocese have expressed concerns that a priest who led the Twin Cities archdiocese during a clergy sex abuse scandal is helping out in a Battle Creek church.

John Nienstedt is celebrating Masses at St. Philip while its pastor recovers from an illness.

Nienstedt resigned as archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in June after charges were filed claiming the church failed to protect children from clergy sex abuse. Nienstedt has not been charged.

The Associated Press left a message Tuesday evening seeking comment from Nienstedt.

St. Philip parent Samantha Pearl said “the church is demonstrating that it is willing (to) protect those who have hurt children.”

“It’s hard to imagine them inviting this kind of scandal on themselves,” she said. “It defies reason that this is the choice they have made and that they continue (to) defend. It makes no sense.”

Kalamazoo diocese spokeswoman Victoria Cessna said the church has no knowledge of pending allegations against Nienstedt. She added the diocese uses “every process available to us to ensure that the Archbishop, as any visiting priest who is exercising priestly ministry, meets the requirements set forth for them to do so.”

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NEW ZEALAND
The Northern Advocate

By Kristin Edge

A clinical psychologist has given evidence in a trial involving the alleged sexual abuse of 13 Northland girls to help a jury understand why children do not report abuse when it happens.

The trial in the Whangarei District Court has been set down for three weeks during which all 13 complainants, who at the time were aged between 6 and 15, are expected to give evidence. James Brian Sanders, 68, has denied 38 charges including rape and indecent assault committed against 13 complainants at Doubtless Bay and Bream Bay between 1998 and 2013.

The alleged offending happened when Sanders was president of the Bream Bay branch of the Latter Day Saints Church and when he helped his wife run an after-school programme in the Far North.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 20, 2016-

Paul Byrnes
Film critic

SPOTLIGHT ★★★★1/2
(M) General release (129 minutes)

From January 28

At the end of Spotlight, in case you weren’t already angry enough, there is a list of all the places around the world in which major cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy have been uncovered since the Spotlight investigative team did its work in Boston in 2002. There are 105 American cities and 102 from other parts of the world. These include a list of 22 places in Australia, from Adelaide to Wollongong.

That’s hardly a surprise, given that our own Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has produced so much harrowing and damning testimony since 2013 – and it’s not finished yet.

Wisely, the movie is not about child abuse. It’s about how a newspaper, The Boston Globe, had the guts to go after the Catholic Church in a town full of Catholics, knowing that their own heavily Catholic readership would not like it. It’s about the way the Catholic Church, a powerful institution in Boston (as everywhere), tried to conceal the knowledge that almost 250 of its priests were implicated in child sexual abuse – some of them repeatedly, in other dioceses, before they were given new positions supervising children in Boston. And it’s about a depressing question, one that faces every newspaper journalist: could this story still be done now? How many of the world’s great newspapers can still afford to run a unit like Spotlight, the oldest continuous investigative unit in the American media, founded in 1970?

Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, Win Win) handles this story with restraint and intelligence. This might just be the best newspaper film since All the President’s Men in 1976. The reasons are many, but mainly a sense of proportion, by which I mean the movie doesn’t treat the reporters as bigger than the story. Mark Ruffalo plays the rumpled Mike Rezendes, a terrier, always ready to fight, but he’s no more important than the other reporters. Michael Keaton is the Spotlight team leader, Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson, who plays golf with some of the people he has to go after.

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WASHINGTON
The News Tribune

FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The Archdiocese of Seattle last week published what it calls a comprehensive list of priests and clergy known to have sexually abused children. The 76 men and one woman on the list held positions of authority in the Catholic church around Western Washington – including Pierce County – as far back as 1923. Their egregious breaches of sacred trust had been known for years.

The list easily could be filed under the label “what took you so long?” It could be cross-referenced under the heading “better late than never.”

It took several years for the archdiocese to release the list because of what a spokesman described Tuesday as a long, sustained process of “facing our failure.” The church has apologized and tried to help victims heal, rooted out the offenders, and installed safeguards to ensure that crimes so evil are never again perpetrated by individuals acting in persona Christi.

An Archdiocese Review Board has worked deliberately (translation: slowly) since 2003. Taking measured steps toward openness and transparency is part of the process, spokesman Greg Magnoni said. The list was released freely, not compelled by any legal threat, he said.

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MEXICO
Daily Mail (UK)

Ruth Wariner was the thirty-ninth of her father’s forty-two children, growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turn a blind eye to the practices of her community. She lived in ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity.

After Ruth’s father – the man who had been the founding prophet of the colony – was murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother remarried, becoming the second wife of another faithful congregant.

At their church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world and that women can only ascend to heaven by entering into polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible.

That is what life was like on Colonia LeBaron, the polygamous compound in Chihuahua, Mexico, where Ruth lived until she ran away at the age of 15, taking her three younger siblings with her.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

January 20, 2016
Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

A MAN who vandalised court and church buildings calling for George Pell to be jailed has been slapped with a good behaviour bond.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, today admitted to the early morning attacks on Melbourne’s County Court and the Catholic Church’s headquarters.

He launched the attacks in the early hours of November 25, a day after the child abuse royal commission continued its probe into the Melbourne Archdiocese.

The attacks, in which he sprayed anti-Pell slogans, were caught on CCTV.

The man claims to be the victim of sexual abuse but his alleged attacker was acquitted in 1995.

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WASHINGTON
HeraldNet

Julie Muhlstein | jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com

A day after my husband died in 1998, Sister Dolores Crosby showed up on my doorstep. She handed me a used paperback. It was “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by the rabbi Harold Kushner.

I considered Crosby a friend, although not a close one. From 1992 to 1999, she was the respected and well-liked principal of Everett’s Immaculate Conception & Our Lady of Perpetual Help School where my kids went to school.

And now? I’m stunned. That was my reaction to seeing Crosby’s name — the only woman — on the list of 77 names released Friday by the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. According to the archdiocese, the listed people either admitted to sexually abusing children while serving as Catholic clergy or the church found that allegations against them were credible.

Crosby, who retired from Immaculate in 1999, was 73 when she died in 2007 in her native Spokane. The niece of famous crooner Bing Crosby, she had also worked at Holy Rosary School in Edmonds and St. Frances Cabrini School in Pierce County in the 1970s, and for 13 years at Our Lady of the Lake School in Seattle.

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HAWAII
Honolulu Civil Beat

By Chad Blair

Lawsuits against the Catholic Church alleging sexual abuse of parishioners are all too common.

But in a twist, the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii is suing a local insurance company, alleging that the insurer won’t cover settlements arising from scores of past sexual abuses cases in the islands.

In a lawsuit filed Jan. 14 in 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu, the church alleges that First Insurance Co. of Hawaii refuses to honor commitments made in liability policies it sold the church over the course of several decades.

The settlements, according to the lawsuit, involve more than 60 former and current parishioners and students who confirm that when they were children, “a number of priests or brothers of others subjected them to sexual abuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Kristina Keneally

Viewed through modern eyes, it seems extraordinary that it took the Catholic church nearly two millennia to comprehensively condemn slavery.

After centuries of grappling with the issue, including attempts to distinguish between just and unjust enslavement of human beings, the Catholic church gave a full denunciation of slavery in the 1965 Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World).

The Catholic church is a slow-moving beast, especially when it comes to social and economic reforms. Fifty years after Vatican II, the Church announced just this week that it would slavery-proof its supply chains.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Holy See Secretariat of the Economy, confirmed in a keynote speech at an international financial conference in Rome this week that the Vatican would join some 400 companies in eradicating the use of forced labor from suppliers. Cardinal Pell not only signed the Church up to the anti-slavery campaign, but also provided his assessment of the current global “economic malaise” and offered what he described as a “Catholic contribution” to improving the global economy.

Pell’s speech was odd, but it was also revealing. Odd because Pell did not offer a coherent and systematic assessment grounded in Catholic social thought (and these exist) of how to achieve a fair and just economy. Rather he provided a selective history of Catholic economic teachings and a disjointed commentary that borrowed from both the Occupy Movement and Margaret Thatcher. Maybe that’s the best we can expect from a man whose boss is an Argentinean socialist, and whose good friend is Tony Abbott. Pell straddled the fence: he condemned CEOs who earn large bonuses as the “undeserving rich” who pay too little tax, but also took to task nations who accumulated debt and political constituencies that won’t embrace sacrifices. …

For Cardinal Pell, this preference for motivating right action by inspiration rather than regulation is relevant when it comes to understanding his reaction, as well as others in the church, to the sexual abuse crisis. Pell has preferred to deal with complaints about priests on a discrete basis rather than recognise a systemic problem that requires a systemic solution. His Towards Healing process is just that – a process for handling complaints. It does not prescribe new rules or regulations for the purpose or preventing future abuse.

The church in Australia and across the western world comprehensively failed to understand that the rules – the laws of civil society – applied to them. Rather than heed the law, or even use it to their advantage to motivate priests to comply with civil laws, the church continued to believe that individual priests could make individual decisions to stop abusing children. The hierarchy believed that priests could be “inspired” to be good. This, of course, had disastrous consequences for thousands of children.

Cardinal Pell has been a reluctant participant in the Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse. Pell is the only person to be called before the Royal Commission for a third time. Scheduled to appear in December 2015, he submitted a last minute request to appear via video-link, citing poor health that prevented his travel to Australia. The Commission declined his request. At this stage it is unclear if or when Pell will appear.

My prediction – we won’t see Cardinal Pell physically in Australia again, at least until the Royal Commission has completed its work and submitted its findings. Perhaps never.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 20th, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Attorneys in the Diocese of Gallup bankruptcy case told a judge Tuesday that they plan to submit a proposed settlement plan in early February.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma said he hopes to schedule a confirmation hearing in April to finalize the settlement and resolve the 26-month-old case.

An attorney representing 57 alleged victims of sexual abuse said in a phone interview Tuesday that the settlement may include a release of church documents by the diocese.

Two members of the claimants’ committee are negotiating with the diocese about “nonmonetary” issues such as document disclosures and policy changes, said James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who represents alleged victims.

The Diocese of Gallup in November 2013 became the ninth Roman Catholic diocese in the U.S. to file for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in response to lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children by clergy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press and Journal

20 January 2016 by Jon Hebditch

A police probe into claims of historic child abuse at a Moray monastery has ended with no one being charged.

The investigation focused on allegations a young boy was violently sexually abused and two others suffered physical harm at 13th century Pluscarden Abbey in the 1960s and 1980s.

Officers began making inquiries at the Roman Catholic abbey – the only working medieval monastery in the UK – after being contacted by a man who claimed to have suffered abuse.

Both he and a second man who also made allegations of abuse at the Benedictine monastery have discussed their claims with support group White Flowers Alba.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

Dave Aeikens

St. John’s Abbey says it has released the files of 18 monks believed to have sexually abused children.

The 18 files include nine monks who have died and two who have separated from St. John’s Abbey and live as laymen.

The other seven files include monks who live on the St. John’s campus under a safety plan the abbey has developed.

The abbey said in a statement it knows of no incident of sexual abuse of a minor by a monk at St. John’s in more than two decades.

The files include detailed personal information on the monks that is protected by state and federal laws, the statement said.

“The victims need to know the scope, the magnitude, the horrific nature of this abuse,” said Charles Reid, a St. Thomas professor and Catholic Church expert. “When we learn everything about these priests, it benefits everyone,” Reid said.

You can read the files here.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

Ben Rodgers, brodgers@stcloudtimes.com

COLLEGEVILLE — St. John’s Abbey announced Tuesday it released the personnel files of 18 monks who have been accused of sexual misconduct against minors.

The release of the personnel records is a part of a 2015 settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit brought against the abbey and one of the 18 accused monks.

The monks whose files were released include Allen Tarlton, Richard Eckroth, Tom Gillespie, Finian McDonald, Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Fran Hoefgen, Othmar Hohmann and Bruce Wollmering.

According to the abbey, nine of the monks whose files have been released are now deceased, and two have left the abbey. The other seven live at the abbey under a campus safety plan, according to the abbey’s statement issued Tuesday.

The files that were published on Tuesday were released to Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm, who would publish the files in their entirety. According to a release from the law firm, nine of the 18 files were released in 2015.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Matt Sepic Collegeville, Minn.
Jan 19, 2016

St. John’s Abbey on Tuesday made public the personnel files of 18 monks it says have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors decades ago.

The release of the papers is the result of a lawsuit settled last spring. The pages number in the thousands. They include everything from the monks’ birth and baptismal certificates to work assignments on the 2,700-acre campus.

There are also many personal letters and emails, as well as psychosexual assessments from doctors.

Attorney Jeff Anderson had already made documents public on nine of the monks. Abbot John Klassen says the release of the rest is the abbey’s latest step in reckoning with allegations of sex abuse.

“We look at this as a 30-year process of responding in a positive way to respond to survivors, secondly to make sure we hold offenders accountable, and thirdly to make sure that we’re living in a safe environment.”

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By John Fitzgerald

St. John’s Abbey on Tuesday released personnel records on 18 monks accused of sexual abuse against minors. Ben Rodgers of the St. Cloud Daily Times reports that the files were released to Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm, which notes that seven of the 18 monks were allowed to work in diocese after initial reports of abuse. The files are available at The Minnesota Transparency Initiative’s website. The monks are Andre Bennett (dead), Michael Bik (on restriction), Robert Blumeyer (dead), Cosmas Dahlheimer (dead), Richard Eckroth (dead), Thomas Gillespie (on restriction), Francis Hoefgen (no longer a monk), Othmar Hohmann (dead), Dominic Keller (dead), John Kelly (no longer a monk), Brennan Maiers (on restriction), Finian McDonald (on restriction), Dunstan Morse (on restriction), James Phillips (on restriction), Francisco Schulte (on restriction), Allen Tarlton (on restriction), Pirmin Wendt (dead), Bruce Wollmering (dead).

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MINNESOTA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 19, 2016

or … The proof is in the paper, but only if you can find it.

And the monks at St. John’s want to make sure you never find it.

Today, Minnesota Public Radio announced that St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville (MN) is releasing the secret sex abuse files of 18 predatory monks in a large document dump. The monks were forced to release the files to victims as a result of a 2015 lawsuit brought by a victim from the St. John’s Prep School. In theory, it was supposed to be up to the victim when the documents were made public.

Some of the 18 predators whose files are slated to be released live in the St. John’s Monastic Residence (location C above – right smack between the Prep School dorm and cafeteria, in case you were wondering if the offending monks had access to students on campus.). The prep school has students from the 6th to 12th grades. High schoolers can live on campus.

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MINNESOTA
Saint John’s Abbey – Minnesota Transparency Initiative

Saint John’s Abbey is voluntarily releasing the files of monks who credibly have been accused of sexual abuse of minors. These files include the personal letters, medical records, legal documents, and other papers that document every aspect of these monks’ lives. They are being released with the consent of the monks in the hope that their disclosure will help survivors.

Read an interview with Abbot John Klassen, OSB, on the importance of the files and their role in the abbey’s decades-long journey to help the healing of survivors, to hold offending monks accountable and to prevent abuse. The interview is here.

The release of these files builds on a more-than-quarter-century-long record of transparency by the Abbey, including multiple times in which the names of those credibly accused have been made public. In no way do we minimize the actions of the monks or the harm caused survivors. We do believe, though, that a fair discussion of these issues must include some critical facts:

* No incident of sexual abuse of a minor by a monk of Saint John’s has occurred in more than two decades. Saint John’s is a safe and nurturing environment. …

Monk Status Summary

Bennett, Andre
Bennett_Summary_History
Bennett_1

Bik, Michael
Bik_Summary_History
Bik_1

Blumeyer, Robert
Blumeyer_Summary_History
Blumeyer_1

Dahlheimer, Cosmas
Dahlheimer_Summary_History
Dahlheimer_1

Eckroth, Richard
Eckroth_Summary_History
Eckroth_1
Eckroth_2

Gillespie, Thomas
Gillespie_Summary_History
Gillespie_1

Hoefgen, Francis
Hoefgen_Summary_History
Hoefgen_1

Hohmann, Othmar
Hohmann_Summary_History
Hohmann_1
Hohmann_2
Hohmann_3
Hohmann_4
Hohmann_5
Hohmann_6

Keller, Dominic
Keller_Summary_History
Keller_1

Kelly, John
Kelly_Summary_History
Kelly_1

Maiers, Brennan
Maiers_Summary_History
Maiers_1
Maiers_2

McDonald, Finian
McDonald_Summary_History
McDonald_1
McDonald_2
McDonald_3

Moorse, Dunstan
Moorse_Summary_History
Moorse_1
Moorse_2

Phillips, James
Phillips_Summary_History
Phillips_1

Schulte, Francisco
Schulte_Summary_History
Schulte_1
Schulte_2

Tarlton, Allen
Tarlton_Summary_History
Tarlton_1
Tarlton_2
Tarlton_3
Tarlton_4
Tarlton_5

Wendt, Pirmin
Wendt_Summary_History
Wendt_1

Wollmering, Bruce
Wollmering_Summary_History
Wollmering_1

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JANUARY 19, 2016

St. John’s Abbey released its personnel files on 18 monks credibly accused of sexually abusing minors on Tuesday, but the files already were being labeled incomplete by victims’ advocates.

It marks the first time the abbey, long the subject of sex abuse allegations, has made its files public. The release was the result of a legal settlement reached by a St. Cloud man who said he was sexually abused by a monk as a 14-year-old prep school student in 1977.

The monks worked as teachers, counselors, parish priests and chaplains across Minnesota and beyond. The files reveal how they were transferred to other religious work even as the abbey was aware of sexual improprieties.

“The files share heartbreaking and tragic details of suffering inflicted on survivors of misconduct,” said Abbot John Klassen. “We in the monastic community grieve the pain and suffering of those who have been harmed.”

But Patrick Marker, a former St. John’s Preparatory student who has long run a website focusing on sexual misconduct at the abbey, said the list is incomplete.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

1/19/2016

St. John’s Abbey Releases Files of 18 Monks Accused of Sexual Abuse as Required by 2015 Settlement

Monks Were Allowed to Work Elsewhere After Abbey Received Abuse Reports, Including Minnesota Dioceses

Dioceses of St. Cloud, Duluth and Crookston Have Yet to Release Their Files on Accused St. John’s Monks

(St. Paul, MN) – St. John’s Abbey today released personnel files of 18 of its monks who were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors. The documents in the files show that several of these monks were allowed to work at other parishes and dioceses internationally, in the United States and in Minnesota, without warning to parishioners or the public in those locations, after St. John’s Abbey received abuse reports about them.

Today’s release was required pursuant to the terms of the 2015 settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit brought by Troy Bramlage against St. John’s Abbey and the Rev. Allen Tarlton, one of the 18 credibly accused monks. Nine of the 18 files were previously released publicly by Jeff Anderson and Associates, Bramlage’s attorneys, pursuant to the settlement in 2015. The files of the following credibly accused monks were released previously: Tarlton, Richard Eckroth, Tom Gillespie, Finian McDonald, Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Fran Hoefgen, Othmar Hohmann and Bruce Wollmering. The other nine monk files released today are those of Michael Bik, Brennan Maiers, Dunstan Moorse, James Phillips, Francisco Schulte, Andre Bennett, Dominic Keller, James Kelly and Pirmin Wendt.

The files show that multiple accused monks were allowed to work at other locations after the Abbey received abuse reports, including:

• Hoefgen – Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Diocese of Marquette, MI;
• Hohmann – Diocese of Duluth, Diocese of St. Cloud
• Tarlton – Bahamas, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Archdiocese of Louisville;
• Eckroth – Bahamas
• Schulte – Bahamas, Rome, Mexico City, Oregon, Diocese of Crookston, Diocese of St. Cloud;
• Moorse – Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archdiocese of Santa Fe;
• Maiers – Diocese of Duluth, Diocese of St. Cloud

“It is alarming that so many of these credibly accused monks were allowed to work at other parishes, dioceses and communities after St. John’s Abbey received abuse reports,” said Mike Finnegan, attorney for Bramlage. “Parishioners, parents, kids and communities were not warned about the monks’ abusive past. We urge the Dioceses of St. Cloud, Duluth and Crookston to release all files and documents on these monks and any other credibly accused priests.”

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3473 Cell/612.817.8665
Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3473 Cell/612.205.5531
Mike Bryant: Office/320.259.5414 Cell/800.359.0061

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

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

Long-secret records about a child molesting Catholic cleric who worked in Oregon have been released because abuse victims insisted on the disclosure as part of a legal settlement. Oregon church officials should tell parents, parishioners and the public about him.

He’s Father Raymond Francisco Schulte. (His photo is at BishopAccountability.org) As recently as 2010, he was living in Rome. But around 1998, he worked at three missions of the Parish of St. Patrick in Madras, Oregon (in the Baker diocese).

[Jeff Anderson & Associates]

He is accused of sexually molesting a child in 1988 and of knowing about abuse by two other clerics (Br. Dunstan Moorse and Br. John Kelly). His Catholic supervisors claim he’s living a “restricted” lifestyle in Minnesota at St. John’s but has reportedly traveled often, including to Italy. Two boys filed a civil abuse and cover up suit against him in 2010 and one year later, another similar suit was filed in Puerto Rico. At least one of those suits has settled. And church officials from two institutions – St. John’s Abbey and the St. Cloud diocese – have included his name on lists they’ve made public of credibly accused clerics.

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample and Baker Bishop Liam Cary should personally visit the parishes near where Fr. Schulte lived or worked (even temporarily), begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward. They should also use parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements across the entire diocese to seek out others who may have been assaulted and are still suffering. And they should permanently post on his diocesan website the names, photos and whereabouts of every child molesting Oregon are cleric, whether alive or dead, diocesan or religious order, or admitted, proven or credibly accused. (About 30 US bishops have done this. It’s the bare minimum a bishop should do to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.)

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Oregon will summon the strength to speak up. Kids are safer only when victims, witnesses and whistleblowers are courageous enough to act. Silence is tempting but it only helps wrongdoers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By EMMA GLANFIELD FOR MAILONLINE

A children’s pastor raped two vulnerable teenage girls after grooming them on Facebook, a court heard today.

Timothy Storey, 35, allegedly led a ‘double life’ expounding Christian values of abstinence at St Michael’s Church in Victoria, central London, while targeting young girls from the congregation.

Storey began his ‘incremental, insidious’ grooming by sending the girls flattering messages on Facebook, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court heard.

He allegedly sent explicit sexual content including photographs of his penis and his manipulation of the women was so powerful one of them described him as ‘more influential than God’, jurors were told.

Storey is said to have bullied girls when they didn’t submit to his demands, telling one she ‘wasn’t worth wasting a condom on’.

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ITALIA
Perugia Today

[Father Lucio Gatti, who has been accused to sexual abuse and other kinds of abuse, is back in court but the discussion is about compensation for the victims.]

È iniziato oggi il processo, in sede civile, a Don Lucio Gatti. Il prete che patteggiò in sede penale, due anni di reclusione, per abusi sugli ospiti della Comunità di Sanfatucchio di Castiglione del Lago (PG) che egli stesso dirigeva.

Diversi i capi di imputazione che lo riguardavano, tra i più importanti abuso dei mezzi di correzione e abuso sessuale. Umiliava e ricattava i suoi assistiti, spesso persone abbandonate e con problemi di tossicodipendenza, fino al punto da abusarne sessualmente.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

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

We are thrilled that Rev. Jacob Malone has been arrested but we hope law enforcement officials will investigate and perhaps charge others at his churches – in Minnesota, Pennsylvania or Arizona – who may have ignored or concealed his child sex crimes.

[NBC 10]

Very often, such investigations turn up evidence that fellow church employees or members knew of or suspected child sex crimes but kept silent. We hope that’s not the case here. But it’s important that such investigations happen. That’s the best way to deter current and future cover ups in other churches.

We hope every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Malone or cover ups by his colleagues will find the strength to call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Crown Prosecution Service

An independent inquiry into allegations made against Lord Greville Janner

Response to the independent inquiry into allegations made against Lord Greville Janner

19/01/2016

On Friday 15 January, Mr Justice Openshaw brought to an end criminal proceedings against Lord Greville Janner for child sexual offences, after the Central Criminal Court received formal evidence of his death.

The conclusion of criminal proceedings means that the findings of an independent inquiry into the handling of past allegations of sexual abuse by Lord Janner can now be published.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) commissioned the inquiry last year, when she stated that decisions not to prosecute following previous investigations into Lord Janner were wrong. Retired High Court Judge Sir Richard Henriques was asked to conduct a thorough and independent review into the CPS decision making and handling of all past allegations relating to the Lord Janner case and to make any recommendations he felt appropriate.

The independent inquiry found:

* The decision not to charge Lord Janner in 1991 was wrong and there was enough evidence against him to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for offences of indecent assault and buggery. In addition, the police investigation was inadequate and no charging decision should have been taken by the CPS until the police had undertaken further enquiries.

* In 2002, allegations against Lord Janner were not supplied by the police to the CPS and accordingly no prosecution was possible. This merits investigation by the IPCC.

* There was sufficient evidence to prosecute Lord Janner in 2007 for indecent assault and buggery. He should have been arrested and interviewed and his home searched.

Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said: “The inquiry’s findings that mistakes were made confirms my view that failings in the past by prosecutors and police meant that proceedings were not brought. It is a matter of sincere regret that on three occasions, opportunities to put the allegations against Lord Janner before a jury were not taken.

“It is important that we understand the steps which led to these decisions not to prosecute, and ensure that no such mistakes can be made again.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

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

A Detroit priest who rose to become an archbishop but resigned amid controversy is back in Michigan and generating more controversy. He’s accused of sexual impropriety with several Detroit area seminarians, retaliating against one who rebuffed his advances, concealing clergy sex crimes, and interfering with an investigation into his alleged sexual misdeeds.

For seven years, Archbishop John Nienstedt headed the Catholic church in St. Paul Minnesota. But he stepped down last year ten days after prosecutors filed criminal charges against Nienstedt’s archdiocese, becoming “the nation’s first (to be) charged with failure to protect children,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

But three days ago, Nienstedt said his first masses at his new post at St. Philip’s parish in Battle Creek in the Kalamazoo diocese. He has deep roots in the Detroit area (see below).

This is a stunningly reckless and callous move. We call on Pope Francis to reverse it all of Michigan’s bishops to denounce it. Again, he is accused of committing sexual misconduct and concealing child sex crimes. Why take the risk that he’ll hurt young Michigan Catholics or betray adult Michigan Catholics?

This is an outrage. Kalamazoo church officials are putting young people in harm’s way. It’s just that simple.

Shame on Kalamazoo Bishop Paul Bradley, Twin Cities Archbishop Bernard Hebda and on every single Catholic priest, employee and parishioner who silently approves or accepts this dangerous decision without protest.

As Michigan’s “metropolitan” prelate, it’s especially important that Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron denounce this move.

This is a key reason clergy sex crimes, misdeeds and cover ups continue in the church: because those who commit these heinous acts are still usually protected – and sometimes promoted – regardless of how much harm they cause.

We urge Michigan Catholics and citizens to learn about Nienstedt’s deceitful handling of the abuse and cover up crisis, especially the case of Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer, at BishopAccountability.org

Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, like Nienstedt, resigned because of the abuse crisis. Pope John Paul later put Law back into a church. Pope Francis is allowing the same irresponsible move here. Arguably, this is worse. Law was never personally accused of sexually abusing or exploiting anyone.

Catholics who believe their church hierarchy has “reformed” and now handles abuse cases “better” should take note. This decision shows that Catholic officials still put the wishes and needs of their brother bishops ahead of nearly every other consideration, including the safety of the flock.

Again, Pope Francis should stop this reckless and hurtful move.

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DEUTSCHLAND
religion.orf

[According to a former member of the Regensburg cathedral choir said many teachers at the world-famous boys’ choir were not only physically and sexually violent but they also had Nazi pasts. These included former SA, SS and Nazi party members that could not teach in a regular schools, according to Udo Kaiser. Kaiser is among sexual abuse victims at the choir and he said he was abused at the time Georg Ratzinger was choir director.]

Laut einem früheren Mitglied der „Regensburger Domspatzen“ waren viele Lehrer bei dem weltberühmten Knabenchor nicht nur gewalttätig und sexuell übergriffig, sondern hatten auch eine NS-Vergangenheit.

„Das waren ja lauter frühere SA-, SS- und NSDAP-Leute, die an einer normalen Schule nicht unterrichten durften“, sagte Udo Kaiser einem Kathpress-Bericht zufolge der Berliner „tageszeitung“ (taz). Es werde nichts getan, um diese Verbindungen aufzuklären. Kaiser wurde nach eigenen Angaben in seiner Zeit bei den Domspatzen, deren Kapellmeister 1964 bis 1994 Georg Ratzinger, Bruder von Papst Benedikt XVI., gewesen war, sexuell missbraucht. Die Diözese Regensburg habe das bis heute nicht anerkannt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

Der Zwischenbericht zu den Misshandlungs- und Missbrauchsfällen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat offenbar noch mehr Betroffene ermutigt, sich beim zuständigen Juristen Ulrich Weber zu melden. Seit seiner Pressekonferenz am 8. Januar hätten ihm 60 weitere Personen von körperlicher Gewalt berichtet, sagte der unabhängige Anwalt am Dienstag dem Bayerischen Rundfunk (BR): “Meine Neutralität ist der Grund dafür, dass sich erneut Opfer bei mir melden. Sie haben den Eindruck, bei mir Gehör zu finden.”

Das Bistum Regensburg selbst wollte sich nicht zu den neuen Zahlen äußern. “Unabhängigkeit bedeutet, dass wir die Arbeit von Herrn Weber nicht kommentieren”, sagte ein Sprecher auf Anfrage der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA).

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[An additional 60 people have come foward to say they suffered abuse at the Regensburg choir school. The lawyer conducting the investigation previously announced that 231 were victims.]

Am 8. Januar hat der Regensburger Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber seinen Zwischenbericht über Misshandlungen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen vorgelegt – mit dem Ergebnis, dass sich seitdem 60 weitere Opfer bei ihm gemeldet haben. Ein ehemaliger Domspatz sagt außerdem, dass viele prügelnde Lehrer NS-belastet waren.

231 Fälle körperlicher Gewalt und 62 Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs von 1953 bis 1992 nennt der mit der Klärung der Vorfälle beauftragte Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber in seinem Zwischenbericht. Die meisten Misshandlungen seien in der früheren Vorschule der Domspatzen in Etterzhausen und dann in Pielenhofen bei Regensburg begangen worden. Weber geht davon aus, dass die Dunkelziffer der misshandelten Kinder noch deutlich höher liegt. Das zeigen auch die aktuellen Reaktionen auf seinen Zwischenbericht: In den vergangenen zehn Tagen haben sich 60 weitere Opfer körperlicher Gewalt gemeldet.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Conductor Lothar Zagrosek discusses his time spent at the Regensburg boys choir school in the 1950s.]

Mindestens 231 Fälle körperlicher Misshandlungen habe es bei den Regensburger Domspatzen gegeben, so der mit der Aufklärung betraute Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber. Erstmals äußert sich nun auch ein großer Name der Musikwelt als Betroffener: der Dirigent Lothar Zagrosek. Hier sein Bericht.

“Mein Name ist Lothar Zagrosek. Ich war mit meinem Zwillingsbruder Eberhard und einem drei Jahre jüngeren Bruder Johannes in den Jahren 1952 bis 1959 in Etterzhausen und in Regensburg. Die Schilderung meiner Erlebnisse möchte ich auf einige wenige aber signifikante Erinnerungen beschränken. Mein kleinerer Bruder Johannes hatte einmal während einer Messe nicht sofort mitgesungen, weil er das Kirchenlied im Liederbuch nicht gleich gefunden hatte. Daraufhin wurde er noch während der “heiligen” Messe herausgerufen und in der Bibliothek so geschlagen, dass man eine Putzfrau rufen musste, um das Blut aufzuwischen. Sein Ohrläppchen war eingerissen.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org), David Ouellette, NH SNAP Leader (603-833-0391, SNAPNH@SNAPnetwork.org)

Victims urge prosecutors to pursue predator priest
He admitted abuse and pledged to stay away from kids
But he’s worked for years at two more NH churches
SNAP to AG: “Investigate whether he violated plea deal”
Group also prods Hillsborough County Attorney to act

A victims’ support group is urging New Hampshire prosecutors to investigate whether an admitted predator priest broke a legal agreement that he stay away from children.

Fr. Mark Fleming, who now lives in Manchester, “admitted molesting three boys” and “signed an agreement that forbade him from ‘participating in any future religious, educational, or organized social programs which involve children,’” according to legal documents and news accounts.

“The Hillsborough County Attorney’s office agreed not to seek indictments if Fleming stuck to the deal,” the Concord Monitor reported yesterday.

But until recently, Fr. Fleming worked at South Parish Unitarian in Charlestown, NH (603 826 3418) and before that at the First Universalist Church of West Chesterfield(603-256-6193, betseybrackett@hotmail.com, Shanjmac@gmail.com).

[Concord Monitor]

“If prosecutors sign plea deals with predators, they must enforce those deals,” said David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Unitarian officials admit he worked at these churches. He may, in fact, have worked in other settings around kids. So we beg New Hampshire’s Attorney General and Hillsborough County’s prosecutor to investigate this troubling situation.”

Documents from the Manchester diocese and the attorney general’s office “reveal that Fleming admitted molesting three boys at Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Hudson in 1983” and Fr. Fleming’s work at those churches “may have broken his (non-contact) agreement,” the Concord Monitor reported on Monday.

“A murderer shouldn’t work in a gun shop and an admitted serial child molesting cleric shouldn’t work in a church, especially when he’s sworn to law enforcement that he won’t,” said David Ouellette of Rochester, SNAP’s New Hampshire Director. “Common sense tells us Fr. Fleming broke his word. But only an independent investigation by experienced law enforcement professionals can tell us he has assaulted more boys or girls since his 1984 plea deal.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Jan. 18, 2016

The call came 36 years ago this month. It was the always-scheming Arthur Jones. He said he would be in Washington, wanted to sit down at the National Press Club over lunch. Jones was NCR editor; I was then an editor at The Washington Star. I’d written for NCR over the years and always enjoyed Jones’ edgy journalism style.

We had corresponded over the years and had met once, in Rome, during the conclave following Pope Paul VI’s death in 1978. He was there for NCR; I, for the Detroit Free Press, where I was a reporter before coming to the Star.

Over lunch at the Press Club in January 1980, Jones asked if I might consider coming to Kansas City, Mo., as NCR editor. As I had just come to Washington 18 months before, I told him the timing was bad.

He was persistent. Two months later, he called again. “There’s no other journalism position in America with the freedom and satisfaction of NCR editor,” he again said. Would I consider coming to Kansas City, just to look around?

Well, you know where this story went. …

And, of course, in June 1985, we began coverage of the clergy sex abuse tragedy. Alone for years, we were persistent and faced much ecclesial and social pressures. Jones, and later editors Tom Roberts and Dennis Coday, have stayed the course, much to their credit.

Countless other reports, exposés and features have filled NCR’s pages over the years. The late 1990s and early 2000s were years of editorial transition, from print to electronic. It has meant our reporting has gotten much faster, our reach farther. We have gone from weekly to hourly, from national to global.

And in the past two years, we’ve added Global Sisters Report to our editorial repertoire. It has been a creative source of energy within the company, highlighting some of the best work going on in the church today.

Oh, the rich memories.

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MINNESOTA/MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

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

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP outreach director (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

“I’m being picked on because of the evil news media’s and gay marriage supporters.” That’s what the just-moved ex-head of the Twin Cities Catholic archdiocese told his new Michigan flock last Sunday.

[Battle Creek Enquirer]

Shame on Archbishop John Nienstedt. We hope his ducking and dodging will persuade prosecutors to cut him and his complicit church colleagues no slack and those with knowledge of and suspicions about his own sexual misconduct to step forward.

In the Twin Cities, some 400 child sex abuse victims have come forward in recent years. Some 66 clerics are proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesters. The archdiocese faces pending criminal charges for refusing to report suspicions of child sex crimes to police.

But no matter. Nienstedt’s to blame for none of this. It’s tragic, and telling, that even now he can’t find the humility to admit, or even pretend to admit, a single lie, deceit, misstep or irresponsible move.

Like thousands of Catholic clerics who commit or conceal heinous child sex crimes, Nienstedt has quietly been moved out of state and recklessly put back to work in a parish even though he’s accused of

–sexual impropriety with young seminarians
–retaliating against at least one of them who rebuffed his sexual advances
— repeatedly minimizing, enabling and hiding child sex crimes by other clerics.

The archdiocese he headed for years faces a pending criminal charges. And he’s one of about two dozen US bishops to resign in the face of allegations of committing and/or concealing clergy sexual misdeeds.

But he’s done nothing wrong, he’s telling his new Battle Creek Michigan parishioners. Shame on him.

While providing no proof or specifics, he self-servingly claims that

–news media last week reported “misleading information” about him and
–that “some would like to punish (him) for (his) defense of Catholic teachings (on) marriage.”

How convenient to cry “misinformation” while refusing to give media interviews or even a single example of inaccurate reporting. How disingenuous to attack and claim to know others’ people’s motives.

Every US Catholic bishop opposes gay marriage. So why haven’t pro-gay marriage forces gotten every bishop to resign and every diocese to be criminally charged and every prelate to be accused of molesting six or more seminarians and retaliating against one who rejected his sexual advances?

We hope Nienstedt’s mind-boggling denials will prod:

— St. Paul prosecutor John Choi to double down on his effort to hold Nienstedt and his: colleagues responsible for their irresponsible decisions to protect themselves and endanger others,
— St. Paul Catholic officials, especially Archbishop Bernard Hebda, to denounce Nienstedt, and

– every single person who saw, suspected or suffered sexual misdeeds or cover ups in Minnesota or Michigan will find the strength to call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jan. 19, 2016

After years of raising concerns to U.S. bishops about potential holes in their clergy sexual abuse policies to little avail, a group of Catholic advocates has requested Vatican intervention.

Catholic Whistleblowers, in a formal request for investigation, alleges the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not followed through fully on its policy of zero tolerance toward abusive priests and deacons, in part because its guidelines lack a mechanism to assure that bishops send the necessary cases to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition, the organization argues that the conference uses a higher bar than church law to determine which cases require review by Rome.

“In a deliberate and ongoing way, the USCCB reneges on its commitment [to zero tolerance]. The conference does not exercise the leadership necessary to assure that known sexually abusive priests and deacons are removed from the community and that the community is warned about the sexually abusive priests and deacons,” Fr. James Connell, a canon lawyer and a member of Catholic Whistleblowers, said in the letter.

The U.S. bishops’ conference declined comment on the petition, saying that since it was sent to the Congregation for Bishops, the conference defers to the Vatican on how the questions raised are addressed.

The 13-page letter, dated Jan. 4, is addressed to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and was mailed to more than 450 U.S. bishops. It requests a formal investigation into the U.S. bishops’ practices, particularly those spelled out in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, or the Dallas Charter. Like previous petitions Catholic Whistleblowers has sent the Vatican, the latest cites Canons 1389 and 1399 of the Code of Canon Law, arguing the U.S. bishops’ conference has caused harm and scandal through its policies and behavior to address sexual abuse.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Sarah Mac Donald | Jan. 19, 2016

DUBLIN Irish clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins has said she hopes 2016 will see results from the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, despite the “frustratingly slow” pace of the reforms being developed by it.

Speaking to NCR in a personal capacity, Collins, a member of the commission, admitted that she has found Vatican bureaucracy “very difficult.”

The safeguarding body, which is starting its third year of work, is headed up by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley and holds its next plenary meeting at the beginning of February.

“We do work in our working groups in between these big plenary meetings. A lot of it is done electronically. We’re working all the time. It is busy and quite stressful,” said Collins.

Collins, who brought the priest who abused her as a sick child in a Dublin hospital in the 1960s to justice in 1997, warned that “there is still resistance” within the church to safeguarding protocols and that is why the commission’s work is “essential.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 1/19/16

WEST CHESTER, Pennsylvania — Police say a married Pennsylvania pastor wanted on charges he raped and impregnated a teen girl is back in the United States and in custody.

West Whiteland Township police tell WCAU-TV that Jacob Malone arrived Monday at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport from Ecuador. He was arrested by customs agents and is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.

The 33-year-old Exton resident was charged earlier this month with rape, institutional sexual assault and other crimes. Police say it began in September 2014, when the girl was 17.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyVoice

BY CHRISTINA LOBRUTTO
PhillyVoice Staff

A Chester County pastor accused of raping and impregnating a teenage girl has been arrested, CBSPhilly reports.

Jacob Malone, 33, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers upon his arrival back in the United States at Newark Liberty International Airport.

West Whiteland, Pa. Detective Scott Pezick told People Thursday afternoon that Malone, of Exton, had been in Ecuador for approximately two weeks.

He is expected to face charges of rape, institutional sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minor and furnishing liquor to a child, according to the detective.

Malone reportedly met the victim when she was 12 while he was a pastor at a church she attended in Mesa, Arizona. In 2014, he reached out to the then-17-year-old girl and invited her to stay with him and his family at his new home in Minnesota, where he allegedly tried to have inappropriate contact with her.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NJ.com

By Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 19, 2016

A former pastor at a Pennsylvania church who fled to Ecuador after allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl was arrested entering the country at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday, authorities said.

Jacob Malone, 33, of Exton was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals and will be extradited to Chester County to face charges of institutional sexual assault and rape, West Whiteland, Pa., police said in a news release.

Malone met the victim when she was 12 and he worked at a church in Mesa, Arizona. The married father then moved to a church in Minnesota before relocating his family to Downington, Pa in 2014.

The then-17-year-old girl moved in with Malone and his family soon after they settled in suburban Philadelphia, police said. He allegedly provided the victim alcohol after she turned 18 and sexually assaulted her on one occasion after she became intoxicated, police said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

[with video]

A former Chester County, Pennsylvania, pastor wanted on charges he raped and impregnated a teen girl sat behind bars Monday morning after returning to the United States to face charges.

Jacob Malone, who lived in Exton, was in Ecuador as allegations came to light that he raped a girl while working at Calvary Fellowship Church in Downingtown, said police.

Malone arrived in Newark, New Jersey and was taken into custody by United State Customs agents at Liberty International Airport, said West Whiteland Township Police..

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

“Basta essere presi in giro, ora voglio i fatti”. Dopo 6 anni di attesa che sono pesati come un macigno sulla sua vita, quella della moglie e i suoi 2 figli, Diego Esposito ha deciso di intraprendere una clamorosa protesta, lo sciopero della fame ad oltranza.

Diego è tra le altre cose l’unica delle vittime della rete L’ABUSO ad aver ricevuto una risposta scritta dal Vaticano, nella quale gli si prometteva di intervenire, ma dopo più di 2 anni, dopo l’assordante silenzio della Diocesi di Napoli che per ora si è limitata a nascondere il prete, Diego non ce la fa più. “Le vittime chiedono giustizia e vedere impunito il proprio carnefice non è giustizia, ma un’ulteriore violenza”, commenta Diego.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[NAPLES January 18, Diego Esposito (not his real name) has begun a hunger strike to the death because Father Silverio Mura, who Diego alleges abused him, is hiding from the curia.]

Come annunciato la scorsa settimana, è iniziato questa mattina lo sciopero della fame a oltranza di Diego Esposito (nome di fantasia) , vittima don Silverio Mura, il sacerdote napoletano nascosto dalla curia.

Una protesta civile e non violenta con la quale Diego vuole sensibilizzare la Diocesi e le gerarchie vaticane alle quali chiede da 6 anni “verità e giustizia”. Scrisse anche a Papa Francesco il quale rispose a Diego, ma a distanza di due anni da quella risposta, Diego denuncia che niente è cambiato.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

[Andreas Ebert was abused as a child in the evangelical Windsbach Boys Choir. He has forgiven the perpetrators. This is a conversation about covering up in the Catholic and Protestant churches.]

Andreas Ebert wurde als Kind im evangelischen Windsbacher Knabenchor misshandelt. Er hat den Tätern verziehen und wurde Pfarrer. Ein Gespräch über Vertuschung in der katholischen und evangelischen Kirche.

Interview: Hannes Leitlein

Frage: Bei Missbrauch steht meistens die katholische Kirche im Fokus. Sie wurden im evangelischen Windsbacher Knabenchor drangsaliert.

Andreas Ebert: Gegen die Vorkommnisse in Regensburg war das in Windsbach vergleichsweise harmlos. Dort ist mir kein Fall sexuellen Missbrauchs bekannt. Doch es gab auch bei uns ein System der Gewalt. Delinquenten wurden vom Internatsleiter übers Knie gelegt und mit der Peitsche behandelt. Sein Nachfolger hat im Jähzorn brutal zugeschlagen. Unser Chorleiter wandte selten körperliche Gewalt an. Das lief vor allem auf der psychischen Ebene ab. Für ihn waren wir “Stimmmaterial”. Wenn wir versagten, wurden wir erniedrigt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Aachener Zeitung

[The Aachen diocese has stop paying a priest accused of sexual abuse.]

AACHEN. Der wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilte Pfarrer K. aus Nettetal erhält kein Geld mehr vom Bistum Aachen. Das bestätigte am Montag Bistumssprecher Stefan Wieland auf Anfrage unserer Zeitung.

Nachdem der Bundesgerichtshof K.s Revision im Herbst verworfen hatte und das Urteil des Landgerichts Krefeld rechtskräftig wurde, habe das Bistum die Zuwendungen in Höhe von 1100 Euro pro Monat gestrichen. Unmittelbar danach habe das Bistum die Akten des Falles in den Vatikan geschickt, wo nun das kirchenrechtliche Verfahren läuft, sagte Wieland weiter.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Baden Online

[An allegation of sexual abuse has been made against Father Richard.]

Gegen Pater Richard aus der Seelsorgeeinheit Zell am Harmersbach ist der Vorwurf des sexuellen Missbrauchs erhoben worden, das teilte ein Sprecher des Kapuzinerordens heute per Schreiben mit. Der Fall liege weit über 30 Jahre zurück. Pater Richard habe das Kloster bereits verlassen und lasse derzeit alle Ämter ruhen.

Pater Richard aus der Seelsorgeeinheit Zell am Harmersbach lässt ab sofort seine Aufgaben in der Seelsorgeeinheit und im Kloster ruhen. Das teilte der Provinzial der Kapuziner, Bruder Maruinus heute über einen Sprecher des Ordens in einem Schreiben mit.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelisch

[Those affected by sexual abuse are calling for an overhaul of the penal code as it relates to sexual abuse.]

Sexualisierte Gewalt an Kindern, Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen sei nach wie vor ein mehr oder weniger straffreies Delikt, beklagte der Betroffenenrat beim Missbrauchsbeauftragten der Bundesregierung am Dienstag in Berlin. Neben Gesetzesänderungen sei auch eine repräsentative Studie über den Umgang mit Sexualstraftätern bei der Polizei, den Staatsanwaltschaften und Gerichten nötig.

“Wir fordern, dass das Ausmaß und die Existenz sexualisierter Gewalt in allen Gesellschaftsschichten sowie das Leid und die Folgen von erlebter sexualisierter Gewalt gesellschaftlich anerkannt und nicht totgeschwiegen werden”, heißt es in der Stellungnahme des Betroffenenrats. Das Gremium rief die Opfer von Übergriffen in der Silvesternacht, aber auch alle anderen Betroffenen auf, über die Taten zu sprechen und sich Hilfe zu suchen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
epd

[Abuse expert misses academic workup.]

Der Leiter des Kinderschutz-Zentrums an der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom vermisst akademisch-theologische Arbeiten über den Missbrauch von Kindern in der Kirche. “Die akademische Theologie hält Abstand zu dem so schweren, abgründigen Thema”, sagte der deutsche Theologe, Psychologieprofessor und Psychotherapeut Hans Zollner der Zeitschrift “Publik-Forum”. Es gebe “nahezu keine Veröffentlichungen”. Es stellten sich aber dringende Fragen wie die, was es bedeute, beim Täter von Vergebung zu sprechen und bei einem Opfer von Erlösung oder Heilung.

Wichtig sei es auch, zu erforschen, was der Missbrauch von Kindern für das Bild der Kirche von sich selbst bedeute oder was es heiße, dass der Priester als “Mann Gottes” ein Täter sei, sagte Zollner, der auch Mitglied der Päpstlichen Kommission für den Schutz von Minderjährigen ist. Bischöfe delegierten das Problem gern an Psychologen und Kirchenrechtler, kritisierte der Vizerektor der Universität Gregoriana und sagte: “Das genügt nicht.”

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