ABUSE TRACKER

GERMANY
AFP

At least 231 children at a famous boys’ choir school in Germany were victims of physical abuse, a lawyer tasked by the Catholic institution to probe allegations said Friday, giving a far higher figure than thought for the scandal, which dates back decades.

The Domspatzen, a 1,000-year-old choir in Regensburg, Bavaria, was dragged into the massive sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church in 2010, when allegations of assaults that took place several decades ago went public.

The choir was run by Pope Benedict’s elder brother, Georg Ratzinger, from 1964 to 1994 when most of the claimed abuses took place.

Ratzinger has said that the alleged sexual abuse was “never discussed” in the time that he ran the choir attached to the boarding school.

Lawyer Ulrich Weber, who had been commissioned by the diocese to look into the cases, said at a press conference Friday that his research, which included 70 interviews with victims, uncovered abuse that took place from 1945 to the early 1990s.

“I have here 231 reports of physical abuse,” he said.

These ranged from sexual assault to rape, severe beatings and food deprivation, said Weber.

“The reported cases of sexual abuse in Regensburg were mostly concentrated in the period of the mid to end 1970s,” he said, adding that “50 victims spoke of ten perpetrators”.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg Digital

[Lawyer Ulrich Weber said they know of 231 people who were abused but they believe the number is much higher and could go to 700.]

Der Zwischenbericht von Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber zu Gewalt und Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen straft den in der Vergangenheit behaupteten Willen des Bistums Regensburg zur Aufklärung erneut Lügen.

Ich bin unabhängig und ich sag, was ich will. Ohne es explizit auszusprechen, ist das die Botschaft die Ulrich Weber sowohl an die Verantwortlichen im Bistum als auch an die Betroffenen von Gewalt und Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen sendet. Am Freitagvormittag hat der als Aufklärer eingesetzte Rechtsanwalt nach acht Monaten Recherche seinen ersten Zwischenbericht vorgelegt. Und es sind nicht nur die nackten Zahlen, die erneut ein beschämendes Licht auf das Verhalten des Bistums werfen. Weber legt auch klar: Die gewalttätigen und sexuellen Übergriffe waren intern bekannt, ohne dass daraus Konsequenzen gezogen worden wären. Es fällt der Name Georg Ratzinger, aber auch – auf Nachfrage – jener der Domspatzen-Ikone Theobald Schrems.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

Der langjährige Chef der Regensburger Domspatzen, Georg Ratzinger, muss nach Überzeugung des Opferanwalts Ulrich Weber von den zahlreichen Misshandlungsfällen bei dem Knabenchor gewusst haben. Weber sprach von 231 Vorfällen. Der Vorstand der Domspatzen reagierte bestürzt.

eder einzelne Fall berühre die Mitglieder des Gremiums “im Innersten” und mache sprachlos, sagte Roland Büchner, Chorleiter und Vorstand der Regensburger Domspatzen. Der Vorstand wiederholte deshalb auch “in tiefer Erschütterung und Scham” seine Entschuldigung “gegenüber allen Opfern von Missbräuchen und Misshandlungen in Einrichtungen der Domspatzen”.

Zugleich gab es seitens des Stiftungsvorstands Lob für Rechtsanwalt Weber. Man sei “froh und dankbar”, dass er mit seiner Arbeit offenbar gut vorankomme und auch von den Opfern als Gesprächspartner akzeptiert werde. Seitens der Stiftung wolle man ihn auch künftig in allen Belangen vorbehaltlos unterstützen. Es sei wichtig, “dass er den eingeschlagenen Weg weiterhin unabhängig und transparent gehen” könne.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Welle

Bei den Regensburger Domspatzen haben Priester und Lehrer über Jahrzehnte mindestens 231 Kinder geschlagen, gequält oder sexuell missbraucht. Das gab der Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber bekannt, der von der katholischen Kirche und dem weltberühmten Chor mit der Aufklärung des Skandals betraut wurde. Die in seinem Zwischenbericht genannte Zahl der Misshandlungsfälle ist wesentlich größer als bisher angenommen. Weber geht davon aus, dass die Dunkelziffer noch deutlich höher liegt. Er rechnet damit, dass etwa jeder Dritte der rund 2100 Schüler der “Spatzen” zwischen 1953 bis 1992 unter körperlicher Gewalt litt.

Weber sprach seit Mai 2015 mit zahlreichen Opfern, Verantwortlichen und dem Missbrauchsbeauftragten des Bistums Regensburg. Zudem hatte er Einblick in die Geheimarchive, Personalakten des Bistums sowie die persönlichen Notizen des Generalvikars. Nach seinen Recherchen wurden 50 der 231 bislang ermittelten misshandelten Kinder auch Opfer sexueller Gewalt. “Die sexuellen Übergriffe reichten von Streicheln bis zu Vergewaltigungen.” Viele Kinder hätten von Prügeln, blutigen Schlägen mit Rohrstock, Schlüsselbund oder Siegelringen berichtet. “Bettnässern wurde die Flüssigkeitsaufnahme verweigert”, erläuterte Weber. Zudem seien Mitschüler bei Ermittlungen zu Falschaussagen gedrängt worden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Suedwest Presse

Den Knabenchor der Regensburger Domspatzen kennt fast jeder. Was bisher nicht öffentlich war, ist das Ausmaß der Gewalt, mit der die Buben über Jahrzehnte zu Höchstleistungen gezwungen wurden.

PATRICK GUYTON | 09.01.2016

Der Prügel- und Missbrauchsskandal bei den Regensburger Domspatzen war offenbar um ein Vielfaches größer als bisher angenommen. Laut einem am Freitag vorgestellten Zwischenbericht des Sonderermittlers Ulrich Weber, ein Regensburger Rechtsanwalt, soll knapp ein Drittel der insgesamt 2100 Buben in der den Domspatzen angehörenden Vorschule Etterzhausen/Pielenkofen, einem Internat, von körperlicher Gewalt betroffen sein. Vielfach kam es auch zu sexuellem Missbrauch. Weber wertet die damaligen Zustände in den katholischen Einrichtungen als ein “System der Angst”.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP

Regensburg. Die Zahl der nun vorgelegten Misshandlungsfälle ist wesentlich höher als bisher angenommen.

Bei den Regensburger Domspatzen haben Priester und Lehrer über Jahrzehnte mindestens 231 Kinder geschlagen, gequält oder sexuell missbraucht. Das gab der Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber bekannt, der von der katholischen Kirche und dem weltberühmten Chor mit der Aufklärung des Skandals betraut wurde. Die in seinem Zwischenbericht genannte Zahl der Misshandlungsfälle ist wesentlich größer als bisher angenommen. Weber geht davon aus, dass die Dunkelziffer noch deutlich höher liegt. Er rechnet damit, dass etwa jeder Dritte der rund 2100 Schüler der “Spatzen” zwischen 1953 und 1992 unter körperlicher Gewalt litt.

Weber sprach seit Mai 2015 mit Dutzenden Opfern, Verantwortlichen und dem Missbrauchsbeauftragten des Bistums Regensburg. Zudem hatte er Einblick in die Geheimarchive, Personalakten des Bistums sowie die persönlichen Notizen des Generalvikars.

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DEUTSCHLAND
N-TV

Ihre Stimmen begeistern die Menschen in der ganzen Welt, doch hinter den Kulissen der Regensburger Domspatzen spielt sich über viele Jahre Schreckliches ab: Priester und Lehrer schlagen, quälen oder missbrauchen mindestens 231 Kinder sexuell. Und das über Jahrzehnte. Das gibt der Rechtsanwalt bekannt, der mit der Aufklärung des Skandals betraut ist. Er rechnet damit, dass etwa jeder Dritte der Schüler zwischen 1953 bis 1992 betroffen ist.

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GERMANY
The New York Times

By ALISON SMALE
JAN. 8, 2016

BERLIN — At least 231 children who sang in a boys’ choir led for 30 years by the brother of former Pope Benedict XVI were abused over a period of almost four decades, a lawyer investigating reports of wrongdoing said Friday.

The lawyer, Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned by the choir to look into accusations of beatings, torture or sexual abuse, said he thought that the actual abuse was even more widespread.

At a news conference in Regensburg, Bavaria, where the choir traces its roots to the year 975, Mr. Weber estimated that from 1953 to 1992, every third member of the choir and an attached school suffered some kind of physical abuse.

He attributed the beatings and other mistreatment mostly to Johann Meier, director of a lower school attached to the choir from 1953 until his retirement in 1992. Mr. Meier died suddenly later that year, Mr. Weber said. A 1987 investigation of reported abuse did not prompt the choir’s leaders to remove Mr. Meier or take other action, the lawyer said.

Asked whether Benedict’s brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, who conducted the Regensburg choir from 1964 to 1994, had known of the abuse, Mr. Weber said, “After my research, I must assume so.”

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WISCONSIN
Reedsburgh Times-Press

Jess Kaehny Guest columnist

After being charged with multiple sexual assaults of a teen girl, David Knoble, 48, a church music director in Reedsburg, shot himself Dec. 30. Partly due to the public nature of the case and his suicide, it will continue to affect the family and church members involved as well as the community for some time to come.

Unfortunately, child sexual abuse in our country and our community is all too common, despite often being hidden and unknown. According to Darkness to Light (www.d2l.org), a national organization working to end child sexual abuse, about 1 in 10 girls and boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday, and more than 90 percent are abused by someone they know.

Perpetrators often groom their victims and the victims’ families into believing they are someone they can trust. According to court documents in the case, the teen girl believed she was his girlfriend and he manipulated her into keeping his behavior secret.

The Reedsburg Times-Press reported they had a “sexual relationship,” but a 16- or 17-year-old girl cannot give consent. Sexual intercourse, even sexual contact, without consent isn’t sex or a “sexual relationship” – it’s sexual assault. According to the charges in the case, he took advantage of her just like he did the 13-year-old girl back in 2004, a crime for which he only needed to pay a $335 fine. These are the two girls we are aware of, but did he sexually abuse more teens?

As adults, it’s up to us to pay attention. It’s our responsibility to stop and prevent child sexual abuse. Just like the teen’s mom who followed up on a gut instinct that something was wrong from a text message, we need to ask questions and follow up when people cross boundaries with children.

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UNITED STATES
BR

January 8 2016 by Aaron Earls, LifeWay Christian Resources

Nearly half of the background checks requested by churches through LifeWay’s program with backgroundchecks.com reveal some type of criminal offense.

Most of those are minor incidents such as speeding tickets, but 21 percent of inquiries discovered misdemeanors or more serious crimes, LifeWay’s Jennie Taylor said.

Since 2008, when LifeWay began its relationship with backgroundchecks.com, more than 11,300 churches and religious organizations have conducted nearly 230,000 background checks using the program. In the past year, more than 2,100 churches have signed up through the LifeWay ONESource program.

CrossPointe Fellowship in Holmes Beach, Fla., has been using backgroundchecks.com for five years. Sandy Watts, ministry assistant at the church, said, “We feel it is vital to be able to assure parents who entrust their children to us that the adults caring for and supervising their children are safe and have a clear background.”

Watts said most of their checks returned clear, but the few that have been flagged allowed church leadership to talk more deeply with the individuals and sometimes suggest other areas of the church that might be better suited for their service.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Church funds priest on the run

January 10, 2016

Chris Vedelago, Cameron Houston

The Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars providing pensions, housing, and private medical insurance to convicted paedophile priests despite branding them “evil” and having most defrocked.

The Melbourne archdiocese alone is still financially supporting six former priests who have been convicted for committing sex crimes against children.

Parishioners have unwittingly been partly funding the assistance through their donations into church collection plates, which they believed went towards the local church or fundraising for retired priests.

Church records show two of the paedophiles, priests Wilfred Baker and David Daniel, received hundreds of thousands of dollars alone in annual pensions and entitlements.

Their victims received one-off payments of $31,000 to $37,000 under the church’s Melbourne Response redress scheme.

The decision to continue financially supporting disgraced priests was made by senior church figures in Melbourne and the top advisory council at the Vatican, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to documents tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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GERMANY
The Peninsula (Qatar)

Berlin: At least 231 children at a famous boys’ choir school in Germany were victims of physical abuse, a lawyer tasked by the Catholic institution to probe allegations said Friday, giving a far higher figure than thought for the scandal, which dates back decades.

The Domspatzen, a 1,000-year-old choir in Regensburg, Bavaria, was dragged into the massive sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church in 2010, when allegations of assaults that took place several decades ago went public.

The choir was run by Pope Benedict’s elder brother, Georg Ratzinger, from 1964 to 1994 when most of the claimed abuses took place.

Ratzinger has said that the alleged sexual abuse was “never discussed” in the time that he ran the choir attached to the boarding school.

Lawyer Ulrich Weber, who had been commissioned by the diocese to look into the cases, said at a press conference Friday that his research, which included 70 interviews with victims, uncovered abuse that took place from 1945 to the early 1990s.

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GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

A lawyer representing 231 people has alleged that his clients faced abuse by adults working with the Domspatzen, a Catholic choir in Bavaria. Several victims alleged sexual harassment.

Ulrich Weber, the lawyer representing the alleged victims, was commissioned by the church diocese to look into the cases.

In a press conference on Friday, he said: “I have here 231 reports of physical abuse.” These ranged from beatings to food deprivation, sexual assault and rape, Weber told journalists.

“The reported cases of sexual abuse in Regensburg were mostly concentrated in the period of the mid-to-late1970s,” he said. According to the lawyer, “50 victims spoke of 10 perpetrators” at the Regensburger Domspatzen boys’ choir and two associated boarding schools between 1953 and 1992.

However, the actual number of victims could be much higher, Weber said, because at least every third child out of the 2,100 pupils in the choir had been subjected to physical violence.

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GERMANY
Press TV (Iran)

A lawyer in Germany says 231 children suffered physical abuse at a famous boys’ choir school in Germany over a period of roughly 50 years in the past century.

“I have here 231 reports of physical abuse,” Ulrich Weber told a press conference on Friday, reporting on his investigation concerning the Domspatzen school in the city of Regensburg in southeastern Germany.

The abuses, which took place from 1945 to the early 1990s, ranged from sexual assault to rape, severe beatings, and food deprivation, he said.

“The reported cases of sexual abuse in Regensburg were mostly concentrated in the period of the mid to late 1970s,” said the lawyer, who has been commissioned by the diocese of Regensburg to do the investigation.

“Fifty victims spoke of 10 perpetrators,” he added.

Former Pope Benedict’s elder brother, Georg Ratzinger, was the head of the choir from the mid-60s to the mid-90s, while the pontiff spent a five-year term as bishop there from 1977.

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RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island Public Radio

By JOHN BENDER & ELISABETH HARRISON

Two more private schools have reached out to alumni and parents in connection with allegations of sexual abuse at St. George’s School. The schools notified current and former families that a former employee, the Rev. Dr. Howard White, has been accused of sexual misconduct at St. George’s.

White, an Episcopal priest, was dismissed from St. George’s in 1974, after the school says he admitted to sexual misconduct with male students. The abuse was apparently never reported, and White went on to serve as academic dean and chaplain at Chatham Hall, an all-girls Episcopal boarding school in Virginia.

Another private school, Asheville Country Day in North Carolina, would later hire White as assistant headmaster. The school is known today as the Carolina Day School.

Current Headmaster Kirk Duncan said he is not aware of any sexual abuse allegations related to White’s tenure.

“At this point, we have not heard from our community that there were any kinds of concerns while he was here,” said Duncan.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Tony Messenger

In 1983, Father Daniel O’Connell served as a religious mentor to a young female student from Holy Cross College. The Jesuit priest was a chaplain at Loyola University of Chicago. The student, who in legal filings is known as Jane Doe MB, was studying abroad in Italy, where Loyola had a campus and Father O’Connell was assigned.

Over the course of two semesters, O’Connell sexually assaulted Jane Doe MB.

For a while, she kept her silence.

Two years later, I was a freshman at Loyola, living in a coed off-campus dorm called Gonzaga Hall that had its own resident priest.

Father Daniel O’Connell was that priest.

He was my religious mentor.

So it was with a considerable amount of shock and sadness that I opened an email from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, last week describing two legal settlements with women who, like me, trusted Father O’Connell, but, unlike me, were horribly violated by him.

Jane Doe MB had actually settled with the Jesuits back in 2003, when the religious order found her allegation against Father O’Connell credible and paid her $181,000. Part of that agreement called for keeping the abusive priest away from other women in a ministerial setting, which didn’t happen, leading to a new settlement of $82,000.

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UNITED STATES
Forward

[with audio]

Sam Kestenbaum
January 8, 2016

In a conversation with his lawyer and public relations advisor, Marc Gafni, the controversial spiritual leader, speculated about suing the Forward as a “test case” and said that the public campaign denouncing him was driven by Jews who are upset about his new think tank’s success.

The conversation occurred December 30 after the end of an hour-long interview with the Forward about allegations of sexual misconduct that have dogged Gafni, a former rabbi, for decades. The interview was held on a recorded conference line requested and arranged by Gafni’s team; a member of that team sent a copy of the recording to the Forward that included the discussion.

In it, the ex-Renewal rabbi shows a side of himself at odds with his public persona. Gafni said “the Jews are upset” with his success and revealed that he is considering legal action against critics or journalists; even before publication, he discussed the possibility of suing the Forward.

“Let’s have a separate meeting, and figure out — do we want to sue someone and who would that be?” Gafni said to Michael Wright, his press representative, and Christopher Marston, his lawyer. Earlier in the conversation, Gafni said: “If we do decide to take action someplace, maybe the Forward would be the test case.”

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 8, 2016

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

Two women have settled abuse lawsuits – totaling $282,000 – against the Jesuits and an ex-professor and priest at Fordham University because he abused them. The predator also taught at Georgetown University in Washington DC and became the president of St. Louis University in Missouri (All three are Jesuit institutions.)

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

[Riverfront Times]

And one of the cases is only the second of its type anywhere. It could open the door to more cases against Catholic officials. It charges that Jesuits violated a contract they made with the victim to keep the predator priest out of public ministry.

These highly unusual abuse and breach of contract lawsuits are very encouraging. We hope and believe other victims will start using this tactic. (More on this below.)

We applaud both of these women for their courage, their persistence and their concern for others who may be hurt or betrayed by Jesuits.

–The first victim, “Jane Doe MB”

In this just-settled “breach” Fr. Daniel O’Connell “was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old college student in 1983,” according to the New York Times. (She now lives in New York.)

[New York Times]

In 2003, Jesuit officials “found the accusation credible,” paid her $181,000 settlement and agreed to remove O’Connell “from a teaching post at another Jesuit institution” and bar him “from public ministry” or any activity in which he could develop a relationship with a woman.

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INDIA
Mumbai Mirror

By Jyoti Shelar, Mumbai Mirror | Jan 9, 2016

A 51-year-old Catholic priest from Govandi, recently arrested for sexually abusing a teenage boy, is also being investigated by a three-member committee instituted by the Archdiocese.

The Catholic community will be paying close attention to the legal and ecclesiastic proceedings—this is the first case to come to light after the Catholic Bishop Conference of India (CBCI) set a protocol to deal with child sexual abuse by the clergy, that was then approved by the Vatican.

The Shivaji Nagar police arrested Fr Lawrence Johnson on Nov 27 for allegedly abusing a 13-year-old boy at a church. Johnson, now in judicial custody, was arrested under Section 377 (Unnatural sex) and several sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

“The charges are grave and we have taken the allegations seriously,” said Fr Nigel Barrett, spokesperson for the Archdiocese. As per the recently formulated protocol, the three-member committee appointed by the diocese will conduct a thorough investigation and submit a report to the cardinal. That report will be sent onward to Rome, and if the Vatican decides there is due cause, another line of investigation may be ordered. Based on final findings, the accused could be suspended or defrocked.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abuse by Priests

By David Clohessy

“Some bishops were booted out (last year) because of their records on sex abuse.” So claims a writer for Crux.

He’s wrong.

Michael O’Loughlin writes “Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse often lament that bishops have not been held accountable for their handling of the crisis, but in 2015, a few bishops were removed from office for precisely that reason.”

Nope.

First, no one was “removed” from office. They voluntarily resigned. (There’s a difference. Just ask anyone who’s ever been fired.)

Second, two of the three prelates O’Loughlin cites – Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt and Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien – were accused of COMMITTING and CONCEALING sexual misconduct.

They resigned but no one really knows why. For concealing? For committing? For becoming incapable to effectively govern their dioceses? Who knows?

For decades, prelates caught COMMITTING sex crimes or misdeeds have resigned. So if this is the reason they’re gone, this is nothing new.

[Crux]

Again, to be fair, no one knows whether Nienstedt or O’Brien resigned “for their handling of the crisis” or not. It’s wrong for a journalist to make this assumptions.

(There are, of course, two culprits here. Vatican officials could have been honest about the reasons for resignations. Or these prelates could have been honest about the reasons. Shame on all of them for their secrecy.)

So to be more accurate, in 2015, one bishop LIKELY stepped down from his post because he hid clergy sex crimes: Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn. Again, we don’t know for sure because neither Vatican nor Kansas City officials will SAY exactly why Finn stepped down.

(And note that Finn resigned three years after he was criminally convicted of having done so.)

What if the Vatican shocks us all by declaring tomorrow that Nienstedt and O’Brien both stepped down because they concealed sexual wrongdoing, not because they committed it?

We’d still be perfectly accurate in saying that “bishops have not been held accountable for their handling of the crisis.” Why?

Because voluntary resignations do not count as “being held accountable.” Being defrocked, demoted, disciplined and denounced by one’s superiors or by a court of law – THAT’s “being held accountable.” Being stripped of income and titles and prestige – THAT’s “being held accountable.”

And because three bishops resigning for hiding abuse – out of thousands who could and should – hardly represents any real change.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith, Social affairs correspondent / Thursday 7 January 2016

Adult victims who were abused in care in childhood are threatening to walk away from an inquiry set up by the Scottish Government.

One of Scotland’s leading campaign groups made up of people who suffered abuse in children’s homes or residential care accused the minister responsible, Angela Constance, of reneging on a pledge to meet with them and a commitment too remain personally involved in helping them achieve justice.

Scottish Labour accused the education and lifelong learning secretary of jeopardising the future of the independent inquiry into the historic abuse of children in care which she herself set up in December 2014.

Alan Draper, parliamentary liaison officer for In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas) said members were ready to withdraw from the public inquiry after Ms Constance rejected several appeals to meet. The group wants her to honour promises they say she made last year, including commitments to seek solutions to the time bar which makes it impossible to bring civil cases over many historic cases, and address a separate legal block to pursuing civic cases over any child abuse suffered before 1964. They also want clarity about what legal and financial support will be available for abuse survivors.

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UNITED STATES
The Mennonite

Written By: Gordon Houser

Films generally rely on drama to attract the attention of viewers. And with viewers’ attention spans becoming shorter and shorter, a drama like Spotlight is a rarity.

The film tells the story of the investigation by a team at the Boston Globe newspaper, beginning in 2001, of cases of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the Boston diocese.

That investigation took many months of sustained, difficult work. And the film is faithful in showing the careful, persistent work that journalism requires, especially in uncovering a story of such magnitude.

Marty Baron, an outsider—“an unmarried man of the Jewish faith who hates baseball”—arrives from Miami as the new editor of the Globe and assigns a team of journalists to investigate allegations against John Geoghan, an unfrocked priest accused of molesting more than 80 boys.

The paper’s “spotlight” team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative unit in the United States, is led by editor Walter “Robby” Robinson and includes reporters Michael Rezendes, Matt Carroll and Sacha Pfeiffer. They interview victims and try to unseal sensitive documents.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Jan. 7, 2016

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

ALBUQUERQUE – Plans to finalize a settlement agreement in the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 case are moving forward, according to statements made by diocesan attorneys during a status conference before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma Wednesday.

Fifteen attorneys representing clergy sex abuse claimants, the Gallup Diocese and its insurers, two Franciscan provinces and St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School attended the hearing either in person or telephonically. The hearing, which moved quickly, featured little discussion and was notable for its lack of disputes or dissension.

Thomas D. Walker, the diocese’s Albuquerque bankruptcy attorney, said a proposed settlement agreement will be circulated next week to all the different parties in the case, with some of the attorneys working to draft their own revisions.

“And so progress is being made,” Walker told Thuma. A meeting scheduled for Friday, he added, will focus on the non-monetary terms of the agreement.

Susan Boswell, the diocese’s lead bankruptcy attorney, said she hoped a reorganization plan will be filed in early February.

Young Kim, an attorney for Michael P. Murphy who was hired to be the future claims representative, voiced one unresolved problem during the hearing Wednesday. Citing confidentiality issues, Kim declined to provide names or details about the circumstances, but he told Thuma he had not been able to make progress getting one of the parties to return his calls and talk with him.

The judge said he wouldn’t press Kim about who he was “trying to talk to” and “why they aren’t calling him back,” but he left that open as a subject for future discussion.

“If there’s a problem, I want to hear about it,” Thuma said.

The only other concern raised about the proposed settlement agreement came from Assistant U.S. Trustee Ronald Andazola. The position of his office, Andazola said, was that all the terms of the settlement should be public information.

The next status conference is scheduled for Jan. 19.

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GERMANY
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

BERLIN — The Associated Press
Published Friday, Jan. 08, 2016

More than 200 children may have been abused, some of them sexually, by adults working with a Catholic children’s choir in southern Germany, a lawyer tasked with investigating the allegations said Friday.

Ulrich Weber said the 231 alleged victims included 50 who made “plausible” claims of sexual abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen boys’ choir and two associated boarding schools between 1953 and 1992.

Weber, who was commissioned by the Catholic diocese of Regensburg, said that former Domspatzen conductor Georg Ratzinger must have known of at least some of the abuses. Ratzinger, the older brother of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, has previously denied knowledge of the incidents.

Allegations of abuse surfaced several years ago, at a time when the Catholic Church’s handling of such claims was being widely scrutinized following a series of high-profile cases in Europe and the United States.

Weber said his eight-month investigation involved interviews with more than 140 people, including 70 alleged victims. He concluded that almost a third of all pupils at two primary feeder schools for the choir, one in Etterzhausen and one in Pielenhofen, suffered some form of abuse.

The sexual assaults ranged from stroking to rape, he said.

“The events were known internally and criticized, but they had almost no consequences,” Weber said.

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GERMANY
The Guardian

Agence France-Presse in Berlin
Friday 8 January 2016

At least 231 children at a famous boys’ choir school in Germany were victims of physical abuse, according to a lawyer tasked by the Catholic institution with investigating allegations, giving a far higher figure than thought for the scandal, which dates back decades.

The Regensburger Domspatzen, a 1,000-year-old choir in Regensburg, Bavaria, was dragged into the massive sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic church in 2010 when allegations of assaults that took place several decades ago went public.

The choir was run by Pope Benedict’s elder brother, Georg Ratzinger, from 1964 to 1994 when most of the claimed abuses took place.

Ratzinger has said that the alleged sexual abuse was “never discussed” in the time that he ran the choir attached to the boarding school.

Lawyer Ulrich Weber, who had been commissioned by the diocese to look into the cases, said at a press conference on Friday that his research, which included 70 interviews with victims, uncovered abuse that took place from 1945 to the early 1990s.

“I have here 231 reports of physical abuse,” he said.

These ranged from sexual assault to rape, severe beatings and food deprivation, said Weber.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

BY MATT COKER
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Youth pastor Brandon Ernis Lee McDade pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday to molesting five boys under the age of 16 on Grace Hills Church property in Aliso Viejo.

The 30-year-old, who resides in Laguna Hills or Mission Viejo (depending on if you believe his Facebook profile or the Orange County District Attorney’s office respectively), also molested one of the boys at an Orange County movie theater and another at a San Bernardino County camp, during church-sponsored youth trips, according to prosecutors.

The alleged crimes happened between June 2009 and this past December, the OCDA claims. Sheriff’s deputies who’d been contacted by an alleged victim’s parent arrested McDade on Dec. 9, and he was released from jail after making his $20,000 bail. But an additional victim was discovered in the ongoing investigation after the arrest, the OCDA claims.

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MAINE
Church Militant

by Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • January 7, 2016

PORTLAND, Maine (ChurchMilitant.com) – The diocese of Portland, Maine is being sued over allegations that a former bishop covered up a sex abuse scandal.

In seperate civil complaints filed in November, six men claim they were sexually abused by Fr. James Vallely, a Portland diocesen priest, between 1958 and 1977 and that the bishop worked to protect the abusive pastor.

The victims, who were between the ages of 8 and 15 at the time, allege the abuse occured in three different parishes while they served as altar boys of the respective churches.

According to four of the victims, the abuse occured while Fr. Vallely was a priest at St. Michael Catholic Church in South Berwick; a fifth claims he was sexually abused by Vallely in Portland’s St. Dominic Catholic Church; the last asserts Vallely molested him while acting as visiting pastor at St. John Catholic Church in Bangor in 1969.

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INDIA
The Freethinker

Thirty children, all from poor familes, have been removed by police from two homes run by the Emmanuel Seva Group in Greater Noida and Meerut.

According to this report, one of the rescued kids – a boy aged 9 – alleged that he was forced to convert to Christianity, hung by the wrists from a ceiling fan, starved for days and beaten mercilessly for failing to recite Bible passages.

The child, who along with his younger sister and brother had been confined to the home for three years, said their stay was like a “jail term”.

I was allowed to meet my parents once a month for only 15 minutes. The only thing I was taught was the Bible. They forced me to memorise its passages.

They gave us good clothes whenever visitors came. They made us stand in line and recite Bible passages. Once the guests left, the shelter in-charge snatched away our clothes, sweets and gifts and we were back in rags again.

His 11-year-old sister said the children were forced to sleep on a dirty floor that was littered with rodent droppings.

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MISSOURI
Lawyer Herald

A former president of St. Louis University was sued by two women over sexual abuse. Daniel O’ Connell was a known professor at St. Louis and in the late 1960. On Wednesday, according to an activist group, one woman was said to have received a total of $281,000 to settle Daniel O’ Connell’s case. The woman also claimed that officials breached an agreement to bar the professor from teaching.

During the counselling sessions in 1960, a female undergraduate alleges that Daniel O’ Connell used his authority in school to sexually abuse. And in 2012, the same woman filed a lawsuit stating that the professor held her on his lap while indulging in masturbation. The woman said that Daniel O’ Connell told her that sex would bring her closer to God. Daniel O’ Connelly and the lawyers of St. Louis University denied such allegations.

From 1974-1978, Daniel O’ Connell became St. Louis University’s president, however the allegations of sexual abuse did not stop. It was reported last week that St. Louis University and the Jesuits of Missouri Province agreed to pay ‘Jane Doe 929′ $200,000 to settle the 2012 case filed against the professor. Days before reaching an agreement with Jane Doe 929, another victim went to file lawsuit against Daniel O’ Connell again. The University then agreed to pay her $81,000.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 January 2016 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:

– Fr. Juan Carlos Elizalde Espinal as bishop of Vitoria (area 350, population 329,000, Catholics 298,000, priests 291, permanent deacons 5, religious 738), Spain. The bishop-elect was born in Mezkiritz, Spain in 1960 and was ordained a priest in 1987. He holds a licentiate in spiritual theology from the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid, and has served in a number of roles in the archdiocese of Pamplona y Tudela, including director of diocesan university residences, parish priest and professor of theology and head of pastoral ministry of the Public University of Navarra. He is currently episcopal vicar of the zone of Pamplona-Cuenca-Roncesvalles. He succeeds Bishop Miguel Jose Asurmendi Aramendia, S.D.B., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

– Cardinal Ricardo Blazquez Perez, archbishop of Valladolid, Spain, as member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA).

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

IF there is one issue that is guaranteed to inflame passions within the Catholic Church, it is sexual health. In late August 2004 Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the then President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, attacked the Scottish Executive’s forthcoming sexual health strategy. The country faced one of the biggest challenges to its morality in a generation, he argued, as sexual health service providers pushed a “value-free agenda, focusing on a biological/mechanical approach to sex education.” He demanded that the Executive consider alternative approaches which set sexual activity within a moral context.

Much has changed since then but the Church still keeps a close eye on the issue. Now it has rounded on part of a new Scottish Government strategy to address teenage pregnancy. A plan to locate sexual health drop-in centres near schools was not merely “sinister”, it said, but redolent of an “underhand” strategy to impose a moral standpoint opposed to the Catholic schools’ moral perspectives. It also argued that Catholic schools could not be required to signpost young people towards family planning services such as emergency contraception. However, it is worth mentioning that the Church supports other parts of the strategy and approves of the manner in which sex education now focuses on relationships rather than on the sexual act in isolation.

Much concern has been expressed over under-age sex leading to unwanted pregnancies and to single, teenage motherhood, with all the impact on society that that implies. But great efforts have been made to address the rate of teen pregnancies. Last summer it emerged that the Scottish rate had fallen to its lowest-ever level. In 2007 it was 57.7% per 1,000 population: in 2013 it was 37.7%. Clearly, much intelligent, thoughtful work had gone into achieving this reduction, but much more remains to be done in addressing the fact that the number of young women who become mothers is still much higher in deprived areas.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

Bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat es wesentlich mehr Misshandlungsfälle gegeben als bisher angenommen. Von 1953 bis 1992 seien mindestens 231 Kinder von Priestern und Lehrern des Bistums verprügelt oder sexuell missbraucht worden, sagte der von Bistum und Chor mit der Klärung des Skandals beauftragte Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber am Freitag in Regensburg.

„Die sexuellen Übergriffe reichten von Streicheln bis zu Vergewaltigungen“, berichtete der Rechtsanwalt. Weber geht davon aus, dass die Dunkelziffer der misshandelten Kinder noch deutlich höher liegt. Er rechnet damit, dass etwa jeder Dritte der rund 2100 Vorschüler zwischen 1953 bis 1992 unter körperlicher Gewalt litt.

Webers Zahlen sind deutlich höher sind als diejenigen, die das Bistum Regensburg im Zuge seiner eigenen Nachforschungen vor rund einem Jahr öffentlich gemacht hatte. Im vergangenen Februar hatte das Bistum mitgeteilt, dass Berichte von 72 früheren Mitgliedern des weltberühmten Chors aus den Jahren 1953 bis 1992 vorlägen, die so schwer geschlagen worden seien, dass von Körperverletzung auszugehen sei. Die Kirche hatte zudem angekündigt, jedem von ihnen eine Entschädigung von 2500 Euro zu zahlen.

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GERMANY
The Local

Fresh cases of abuse in Regensburg cathedral choir were revealed by investigators on Friday, who said at least 231 children have been abused by priests and teachers since the 1950s in a scandal that has rocked the Bavarian city.

Lawyer Ulrich Weber, who is leading the investigation in Regensburg, said on Friday that between 1953 and 1992, at least 231 children were beaten or sexually abused by priests and teachers of the diocese.

This number was much larger than previously thought – 72 cases of abuse had been reported by last April.

“The sexual abuse ranged from fondling to rape,” said Weber.

He added that the number of unreported cases would bring this figure higher, estimating that around one-third of the 2,100 students during that time period were subject to physical violence.

The Domspatzen – or “Cathedral sparrows” – boys choir of St. Peter’s Cathedral has been plagued by scandal since reports of sexual abuse in Church communities across the country first emerged in 2010.

At that time, a Berlin school announced that around 50 former students had reported they were sexually abused by priests. Afterward, lawyers for victims came forward with allegations of abuse at dozens of other Catholic institutions.

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DEUTSCHLAND
N-TV

[“Domspatzen” scandal is widening]

Der älteste Knabenchor Deutschlands begeistert Menschen in aller Welt. Im Februar 2015 wird jedoch ein Missbrauchsskandal bei den Regensburger Domspatzen öffentlich. Der zuständige Anwalt korrigiert die Zahl der Opfer nun deutlich nach oben.

Bei den Regensburger Domspatzen haben Priester und Lehrer über Jahrzehnte mindestens 231 Kinder geschlagen, gequält oder sexuell missbraucht. Das gab der Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber bekannt, der von der katholischen Kirche und dem weltberühmten Chor mit der Aufklärung des Skandals betraut wurde. Die in seinem Zwischenbericht genannte Zahl der Misshandlungsfälle ist wesentlich größer als bisher angenommen. Weber geht davon aus, dass die Dunkelziffer noch deutlich höher liegt. Er rechnet damit, dass etwa jeder Dritte der rund 2100 Schüler der “Spatzen” zwischen 1953 bis 1992 unter körperlicher Gewalt litt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Berliner Morgenpost

[More than 200 children were abused in the Regensburg cathedral choir.]

Bei den Regensburger Domspatzen wurden laut Medienbericht mehr Kinder missbraucht als bisher bekannt. Sie wurden nicht nur geschlagen .

Regensburg. Bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat es wesentlich mehr Misshandlungsfälle gegeben als bisher angenommen. Von den 1950er bis in die 1990er Jahre hinein seien mindestens 231 Kinder von Priestern und Lehrern des Bistums Regensburg verprügelt worden, sagte der vom Bistum mit der Aufklärung beauftragte Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber auf einer Pressekonferenz am Freitag.

Weber geht in seinem vorgestellten Zwischenbericht davon aus, dass die Dunkelziffer der misshandelten Kinder noch deutlich höher liegt. Er rechnet damit, dass etwa jeder Dritte der rund 2100 Vorschüler zwischen 1953 bis 1992 unter körperlicher Gewalt litt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Regensburg

[Bishop Voderholzer speaks of cases of sexual abuse and physical violence in the diocese.]

Liebe Schwestern und Brüder im Herrn, zu den schweren Lasten und den bedrückenden Erfahrungen des Bischofsamtes gehört die Konfrontation mit den Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester und kirchliche Mitarbeiter und die Fälle von körperlicher Gewalt, vor allem in der Einrichtung in Etterzhausen und Pielenhofen, die erst jüngst wieder in der Öffentlichkeit dargestellt wurden und viele Menschen auch über das Bistum hinaus tief betroffen gemacht haben und betroffen machen.

Sie dürfen mir glauben: Es schmerzt mich und tut mir in der Seele weh: jeder einzelne Fall, hinter dem ja ein Mensch steht, eine Kinderseele in diesen Fällen, schwer gequält, oft für das Leben gezeichnet. Ich kann es nicht ungeschehen machen und die Betroffenen nur um Vergebung bitten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Regensburg

Nach achtmonatiger Untersuchungszeit ist es nun möglich, konkrete erste Ergebnisse zu den Missbrauchs- und Misshandlungsfällen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen herauszugeben. Besonders wichtig ist mir bei dieser Zwischenbilanz auch, dass die Opfer über den Weg der Offentlichkeit zum Stand meiner Arbeit informiert werden.

Die Ausgangssituation: Zum Zeitpunkt meines Einstiegs hatte das Bistum die Zahl von 72 anerkannten Opfern körperlicher Gewalt eingeräumt und konkret zwei wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilte Beschuldigte, die in Zusammenhang mit den Domspatzen standen, namentlich genannt. Für mich waren zunächst vor allem intensive Opfer-, Verantwortungsträger- und Drittgespräche wichtig, um einen eigenen Eindruck vom Umfang der Taten zu bekommen.

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AUSTRALIA
The Local

A Catholic priest from Lower Austria who had what he claims was a consensual love affair with a younger man has been sentenced to four years in prison for rape and sexual assault.

When the allegations first surfaced, Father Fabian’s parishioners reportedly rallied around to support him, with the Kurier newspaper reporting that his sexuality and close relationship with the adult son of a family friend was an open secret.

The 49-year-old was sentenced by a court in Wiener Neustadt for repeatedly drugging and sexually assaulting his 26-year-old acquaintance. The sentence was upheld on Thursday by the high court in Vienna – with the judge saying it was important to send a signal to the clergy that sexual assaults will not be taken lightly.

His lawyer, Michael Dohr, maintains that the relationship was a love affair and “a private matter which had nothing to do with his position as a pastor – so saying this will act as a deterrent to others is a joke.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

[Bettenfeld) Wolfgang Focke’s life is not easy – and it never was. He has spent in four children’s homes nearly 18 years. There he was raped by his own admission, beaten and forced to diverse works. Today the 69-year-old lives in Bettenfeld and is still fighting for reparation.]

(Bettenfeld) Wolfgang Fockes Leben ist nicht einfach – und das war es nie. Fast 18 Jahre hat er in vier Kinderheimen verbracht. Dort wurde er nach eigener Aussage vergewaltigt, geschlagen und zu diversen Arbeiten gezwungen. Heute wohnt der 69-Jährige in Bettenfeld und kämpft noch immer für Wiedergutmachung.

Wolfgang Focke erzählt seine Lebensgeschichte. Es ist eine dieser Geschichten, die sich selbst der Autor eines Horrorromans nicht besser hätte ausdenken können. Wolfgang Focke ist eines der bekanntesten Gesichter der Missbrauchsszene. Das ehemalige Heimkind hat seine Geschichte bereits in vielen Talkshows und Zeitungen erzählt. In unzähligen Ordnern und Sammelmappen hat er penibel die Dokumente aufbewahrt, die sein Schicksal belegen. Mit seinen Ordnern ist er nun nach Bettenfeld gezogen. Von dort aus führt der 69-Jährige seinen Kampf um Wiedergutmachung und Entschädigung fort.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[The longtime head of the cathedral choir, Georg Ratzinger, must have known of the numerous cases of mistreatment in the boys’ choir in the opinion of victims lawyer Ulrich Weber. Weber announced today at a press conference that overall he found 231 incidents of sexual abuse involving boys in the choir.]

Der langjährige Chef der Regensburger Domspatzen, Georg Ratzinger, muss nach Überzeugung des Opferanwalts Ulrich Weber von den zahlreichen Misshandlungsfällen bei dem Knabenchor gewusst haben. Das gab Weber heute bei einer Pressekonferenz bekannt. Insgesamt sprach er von 231 Vorfällen.

Auf die Frage, ob Ratzinger die Missstände bekannt gewesen seien, sagte der vom Bistum Regensburg als Sonderermittler eingesetzte Anwalt wörtlich: “Davon muss ich ausgehen.” Der 91–jährige Georg Ratzinger ist der Bruder von Papst Benedikt. Er war 30 lang, bis 1994, Domkapellmeister und Leiter des weltberühmten Knabenchores. Ratzinger hält sich aktuell in Rom auf und war für eine Stellungnahme nicht zu erreichen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[Significantly more cases of abuse at Regensburg Cathedral Choir]

Priester und Lehrer des Regensburger Bistums haben mindestens 231 Kinder misshandelt, das geht aus einem Zwischenbericht zur Aufklärung der Vorfälle bei dem Domspatzen-Chor hervor. Die Dunkelziffer könnte noch deutlich höher liegen.

Bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat es wesentlich mehr Misshandlungsfälle gegeben als bisher angenommen. Von 1953 bis 1992 seien mindestens 231 Kinder von Priestern und Lehrern des Bistums verprügelt oder sexuell missbraucht worden, sagte der von Bistum und Chor mit der Klärung des Skandals beauftragte Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber in Regensburg.

“Die sexuellen Übergriffe reichten von Streicheln bis zu Vergewaltigungen”, berichtete der Rechtsanwalt. Weber geht davon aus, dass die Dunkelziffer der misshandelten Kinder noch deutlich höher liegt. Er rechnet damit, dass etwa jeder Dritte der rund 2100 Vorschüler zwischen 1953 bis 1992 unter körperlicher Gewalt litt.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Cosenza, January 7 – ‘Vatileaks 2′ defendant Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui defended herself at a press conference Thursday, saying she had been trying to help Pope Francis and not bidding for a place in the Roman Curia when she allegedly gave journalists confidential documents.

“My problem was helping the Holy Father, not getting a place in the Curia,” said the Calabrian-born PR expert, who denies passing on files to the journalists for two expose’-style books.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Cosenza, January 7 – Vatileaks 2 defendant Francesca Chaouqui said Thursday she would never betray confidential remarks by Pope Francis or divulge the content of classified documents.

“No one will ever find out from me anything about conversations I had with the pope or any documents I got and read,” she told a press conference.

“I will never betray my State secrecy,” she said, “even if my son should be born in prison”.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Cosenza, January 7 – Vatileaks 2 defendant Francesca Chaouqui said Thursday her co-defendant Msgr Lucio Vallejo Balda passed confidential Vatican financial documents on alleged financial mismanagement and overspending to two journalists who used them to write two books.

“It’s true, it was me who introduced the two journalists to Msgr Lucio Vallejo Balda, but there was never any agreement to pass them private papers,” she told a press conference at her home town of San Sosti in Calabria.

“It was Msgr Balda who handed over those documents to show that reform had not been put into practice,” she said.

Chaouqui and Balda – who claims she had a brief affair with him – are among five Vatileaks 2 defendants.

Vallejo Balda and PR expert Chaouqui were both members of the now-defunct COSEA commission set up to advise Pope Francis on the reform of the Holy See’s economic and administrative structure.

Investigative journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi and Vallejo Balda’s former assistant Nicola Maio are also on trial.

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ROME
Manila Bulletin

AFP

A former PR consultant to the Vatican on trial along with four others for leaking or publishing secret papers said on Thursday she would not ask Pope Francis for a pardon.

“Those who are innocent do not ask to be pardoned,” Francesca Chaouqui told journalists, ruling out a similar course of action to former pontiff Benedict XVI’s butler who was found guilty in the first Vatileaks trial in 2013 but later pardoned.

Chaouqui insisted prosecutors have “nothing that could lead to a conviction”, and the only thing that ties her to the leaks are accusations made against her by Spanish priest Lucio Vallejo Balda, who is also on trial.

Vallejo Balda has portrayed his former friend Chaouqui as a manipulative temptress, saying he was tempted to break his vow of celibacy because of her sexual advances, a claim she has rubbished.

Chaouqui insists that while she did stay in a hotel with him in Florence, he shared the room with his mother that night.

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ILLINOIS
WTMJ

Roman Catholic priest Bruce Wellems has served as a youth advocate and community organizer in one of Chicago’s poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods. Sexual molestation allegations against Fr. Wellems when he was a teenager have raised questions on whether or not he should be allowed to continue his ministry.

The Chicago Tribune reports that when this misconduct surfaced during his time serving in California, Los Angeles’ Archbishop removed him instantly. Afterwards, Fr. Wellems returned to Chicago where their archbishop is now trying to determine the best course of action concerning Fr. Wellems’ misconduct.

Wellems admits to the allegations, but claims that his past actions do not reflect the person he is today.

“These allegations had nothing to do with who I was as a person,” Fr. Wellems says. “In my adult life I’ve done nothing against children. There’s nothing that’s ever come up.”

What do you think should happen to Fr. Wellems? Should he be allowed to continue his ministry, or should he be defrocked? Jeff Wagner will be discussing the topic in the 12 p.m. hour.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

By ALMA FAUSTO / STAFF WRITER

A former youth pastor at an Aliso Viejo church has been charged with sexually assaulting five boys under the age of 16, the District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

Brandon Ernis Lee McDade, 30, of Mission Viejo, is charged with two felony counts of committing lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14, four felony counts of lewd acts on a child between ages 14 and 15, and two misdemeanor counts of child annoyance. He also faces a sentence enhancement for having multiple victims.

Authorities say the incidents happened between June 2009 and Dec. 20, 2015. At the time, he was working at Grace Hills Church in Aliso Viejo and had access to children. McDade had been employed by the church for approximately six years, Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials said after his arrest.

“McDade is accused of sexually assaulting the victims while the victims were on church property,” according to a statement released by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. “The defendant is accused of molesting one of the victims at a movie theater in Orange County and molesting another victim while the victim was attending a youth church camp in San Bernardino County.”

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TEXAS
KTXS

By Andrew McMillan, Digital Media Assistant, amcmillan@ktxs.com

ABILENE, Texas –
The former Anson youth pastor accused of having a sexual relationship with an underage girl was caught because of a suspicious vehicle report, according to search warrants filed in Taylor County.

Callan Rice, 26, was arrested Dec. 28 for indecency with a child after confessing to the crime.

Court documents say police responded to a suspicious vehicle call on Dec. 20 behind the old Genghis Grill building on S. Clack Street. The officers found Rice and a girl under the age of 17 inside Rice’s truck. The child denied that she had any intimate involvement with Rice.

The officers found their stories suspicious and made a report.

The next day, the girl’s father told an officer he had concerns that Rice had sexually abused his daughter, court documents say.

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SCOTLAND
The National

JANICE BURNS

A SECOND group of people who suffered abuse as children have threatened to boycott the public inquiry into historical allegations in Scotland.

White Flowers Alba (WFA) has already indicated it will take no part in the process and now members of the In Care Survivors’ group (INCAS) have said the Scottish Government was treating them with contempt and could be set to follow suit.

Ministers have insisted the public inquiry, chaired by Susan O’Brien QC, is the widest Scotland has ever seen, and it will investigate abuse in residential settings such as boarding and secure schools as well as among foster families.

These include allegations of abuse at the former Fort Augustus Abbey School and its junior school in East Lothian.

However, survivors have said it fails to address many other cases, including where priests abused children in parishes, and in youth organisations.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

By Neil Vigdor Thursday, January 7, 2016

A Catholic priest who fought to clear his name from being associated with a $12 million sexual abuse settlement against the Diocese of Bridgeport and was a cousin of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has died.

The Rev. Joseph J. Malloy, 71, who was assigned to parishes in Bridgeport, Trumbull, Stratford and the gov ernor’s home city of Stamford , died Saturday at Stamford Hospital. He was laid to rest Wednesday.

The clergyman went to his grave maintaining that he never fondled a former altar boy at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Trumbull, as he was accused of doing by the unidentified parishioner and the man’s attorney.

But the diocese, beset by 26 claims of sexual abuse, agreed to include Malloy in the 2001 settlement that named five other priests. All but two of them were defrocked.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

David Rutter

In 2005, this was a snippet of Bishop Joseph Imesch’s then-sealed sworn deposition detailing two decades of child sexual abuse by Joliet Diocese clerics under his management:

Imesch: “As far as I can remember, I think (priest) Gary (Berthiaume) admitted to me that he had done it before the conviction.”

Lawyer for abuse plaintiffs: “If he had told you that he had committed the offense against the child, isn’t that evidence of the crime?”

Imesch: “That’s a job for the police. I’m not going to get involved in that. That’s not my responsibility. … I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, police, go check on my priest.’ ”

This is a terrible sin’s haunting indifference, which, despite settlements under duress, the Catholic Church still can’t expunge from its ecclesiastical collar. The blood of innocents does not wash off so easily.

Imesch is dead two weeks now. The church found no way to bury his deeds, except to ignore them.

Imesch fought for a decade to shield his secrets, as he had protected known abusers, and decried the court’s bad manners for ultimately revealing them.

So many children. So many hideous wrongs left unpunished.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 January 2016 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father erected the apostolic exarchate for Syrian Catholics in Canada with territory taken from the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark. The Holy Father appointed Fr. Antoine Nassif as first exarch of the newly-erected apostolic exarchate. Bishop-elect Nassif was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1969 and ordained for the Syrian Catholic patriarchal eparchy in 1992. After ordination he served in various roles including: principal of the school of Charfet, Lebanon; vice-pastor in two parishes; and, most recently, as rector of the Patriarchal Major Seminary of Charfet. He speaks French, English, and Italian.

Yesterday, 6 January, the Holy Father appointed:

Bishop Luiz Gonzaga Fechio as Bishop of Amparo (area 2,084, population 381,500, Catholics 314,000, priests 53, permanent deacons 1, religious 123), Brazil. Bishop Fechio was previously auxiliary of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Bishop Juarez Sousa da Silva as Coadjutor Bishop of Parnaiba (area 20,839, population 623,000, Catholics 514,000, priests 48, religious 69), Brazil. Bishop da Silva was previously bishop of the Diocese of Oeiras, Brazil and apostolic administrator of Sao Raimundo Nonato, Brazil.

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NEVADA
The Eagle

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Testimony has begun in the trial of a former storefront church pastor and international fugitive accused of sexually assaulting girls in his Henderson congregation under the guise of counseling.

Otis Holland’s defense attorney Carmine Colucci told a jury Thursday the teenage girls accusing the former United Faith Church congregation leader of abusing them might have concocted stories because they thought they loved Holland.

Prosecutor Robert Langford told jurors many of Holland’ church teachings revolved around the idea that most women have desires but sexual hang-ups that prevent them from achieving spiritual goals.

The 59-year-old Holland has pleaded not guilty to 17 felonies including child sexual assault, lewdness and bribing a witness.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Review-Journal

By David Ferrara
Las Vegas Review-Journal

A former Las Vegas pastor used his church as an outlet to rape several minor girls, a special prosecutor said Thursday during opening statements of a sexual assault trial.

Otis Holland, now 59, fled Southern Nevada in 2011 after Henderson police issued an arrest warrant alleging several counts of sexual assault of a victim younger than 16 years old, one count of child abuse and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime.

“Mr. Holland’s church was unique in one very dark way: he had a fundamental belief about spirituality and sexuality,” said Robert Langford, who is prosecuting on the case. “And that’s what this case is going to be about. He believes you could not begin to attain spirituality if you were troubled by your sexuality. And that’s what he preached.”

Holland was the pastor for United Faith Church, which held services in a storefront on Hacienda Avenue, near Tropicana and Eastern avenues. He met privately with the girls under the guise of “counseling” them about sexual issues, and then performed sex acts on them, Langford said.

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston Globe

By Bella English GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 08, 2016

After weeks of public pressure, the board of trustees at embattled St. George’s School agreed on Thursday to appoint a new “third party independent investigator” to oversee a comprehensive investigation of sexual abuse at the school. The decision was announced in a joint statement by board chair Leslie Heaney and by rape victim Anne Scott, speaking on behalf of SGS for Healing, a group of victims and other alumni.

The decision came after a two-hour meeting between attorneys for the victims and trustees of the prestigious Episcopal preparatory school in Middletown, R.I, and was the first accord between the two sides.

Since December, when Scott went public with her story, accounts have grown of sexual abuse at St. George’s. More than 40 former students have told lawyers they were raped or molested at St. George’s, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, by what both the school and victims’ attorneys acknowledge were at least nine staff or student perpetrators.

The new investigator will be agreed upon by both the board and the victims, and they hope to appoint someone next week.

“Today’s decision is a very important first step in what we hope will be a process of reconciliation and healing,” Scott said.

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MINNESOTA
The Journal

January 7, 2016
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of a building owned by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Judge Robert Kressel on Thursday approved the sale of the Hayden Center to the Minnesota Historical Society for $4.5 million. It’s the first of four real estate holdings expected to be sold by the archdiocese this year.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection last January, saying it couldn’t pay for mounting claims filed by people who said they were sexually abused by clergy.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY MARIA MILLER THURSDAY, JANUARY 7TH 2016

BEDFORD, Pa. — A Bedford County pastor has been removed from his position after accusations of sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s. Rev. Howard White will no longer serve as a fill-in pastor at St. James Episcopal Church after the Episcopal Diocese removed him this week.

The allegations against White stem from a boarding school in Rhode Island where authorities said more than two dozen students have come forward.

Rhode Island state police said that boarding school has acknowledged it didn’t report abusers to authorities and has apologized for not doing more. In the meantime, an attorney for three alleged victims has released documents from the school that he says show White was fired and asked to stay away for at least five years.

Three alleged victims identified in an internal investigation by St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island, allege their abuse came at the hands of White.

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RHODE ISLAND
The New York Times

by KATHARINE Q. SEELYEJAN. 7, 2016

BOSTON — St. George’s School, an elite Rhode Island prep school embroiled in a widening sexual abuse scandal spanning decades, said Thursday that it would commission a new, independent investigation into allegations of misconduct against former staff and former students.

The investigation is to be undertaken by a third party to be chosen with the approval of a group of victims who have been critical of the school’s handling of the matter.

The school and the victims group, which calls itself “S.G.S. for Healing,” said in a joint statement that the investigation would be independent, comprehensive and not limited “in scope or time period and will be conducted in a manner sensitive to victims who may have already provided information.”

The Rhode Island State Police are conducting a separate investigation. And the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania has restricted a retired priest from his duties after the priest was named Tuesday by lawyers for former students as having molested three boys at St. George’s in the 1970s.

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UNITED STATES
First Things

by Philip Lawler
1 . 8 . 16

Any major American newspaper would immediately fire a reporter who was caught using composite characters or inventing quotations for his stories. Hollywood naturally plays by different rules. A film “based on” a true story is considered acceptable; “recreated” dialogue is the norm. We expect print journalists to report on things as they are, while filmmakers are free to depict things as they might have been.

Spotlight, in which director Tom McCarthy recounts how the Boston Globe blew the lid off a simmering sex-abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese, is a paradoxical product. The film pays tribute to dogged investigative reporters, while itself blithely ignoring the standards to which those journalists adhered. Somehow it works. Treating a historical episode as a drama, Spotlight successfully conveys the essence of the story: the frustrations and triumphs of the reporters, the enduring agony of abuse victims, and the flavor of life in a city dominated by disaffected Irish Catholics.

None of the characters in Spotlight behaves quite like the real people I know. (The portrayal of Cardinal Bernard Law, by Len Cariou, is particularly weak, conveying neither the strength of personality nor the tragic flaws of that unhappy prelate.) Yet the actors are thoroughly convincing insofar as they show how their characters might have behaved in given circumstances. Strong performances (particularly by Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rezendes and Michael Keaton as Walter Robinson) and lively pacing drive the story forward. And the plot line—the breaking of a major news story—sustains the excitement.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Altoona Mirror

January 8, 2016
By Ryan Brown (rbrown@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

A retired priest working as a long-term substitute at Bedford’s St. James Episcopal Church was placed on administrative leave this week after he was named in a decades-old abuse case unfolding at a Rhode Island boarding school.

The Rev. Howard White has worked as a “supply priest” – a temporary priest without full powers – at St. James for eight years before his suspension, Bishop Audrey Scanlan, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, said in an interview. On Tuesday, former students at Rhode Island’s prestigious St. George’s School identified White as one of several previously unnamed suspects in a sexual abuse case there.

“I have moved to immediately restrict Fr. White’s ministry and to provide for the pastoral care of the congregation that he currently serves,” Scanlan said Wednesday in a written statement. “I have no information that leads me to believe that there have been any incidents of abuse at St. James, Bedford, but it is imperative that we employ all the safeguards that are available to us while the investigation (continues).”

Allegations against White and other former St. George’s employees date to the 1970s and ’80s, with alumni now claiming at least 23 students faced sexual abuse. A school investigation published in December claimed “Employee No. 2” – now identified as White – had engaged in inappropriate contact with at least three male students before or during 1974.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Valley News

By Michael Rubinkam
Associated Press
Friday, January 8, 2016

An Episcopal priest has been suspended from a Pennsylvania church after being accused this week of molesting three boys at an elite boarding school in Rhode Island more than 40 years ago.

More than two dozen students allege they were molested or raped at St. George’s School in Middletown, R.I., in the 1970s and ’80s. A lawyer for three former students named the Rev. Howard White on Tuesday as being among the six perpetrators the school identified after an internal investigation.

White has not been charged with a crime, and did not return a phone message left Thursday at his home by The Associated Press. He told The New York Times on Tuesday that the allegations were “news to me.” Asked by the newspaper if he had been fired because of the accusations, he said, “That isn’t really true.” He told The Boston Globe he had no comment.

A retired priest, White has been serving as a long-term, fill-in pastor at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford, Penn., about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.

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UNITED STATES
New York Daily News

BY LAURA BULT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Thursday, January 7, 2016

Ten women filed a bombshell lawsuit Wednesday alleging decades of sexual assault and rape by the longtime leader of Christian homeschooling ministry, Bill Gothard, who preaches modesty among women and has ties to Republican politicians and the reality TV Duggar family.

The lawsuit is the latest development after numerous women who sought counseling at Gothard’s Institute of Basic Life Principles, a prominent religious homeschooling ministry, came forward accusing the magnetic leader of sexual abuse, some of whom were minors at the time

The 81-year-old unmarried former president of the IBLP resigned from the ministry in 2014 after more than 30 women said they had been molested by him, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the story.

The lawsuit filed in an Illinois circuit court includes allegations that range from sexual harassment, inappropriate touching and hand-holding, molestation and rape, according to the complaint provided to the Daily News by the lawyers representing the women at the Texas Gibbs Law Firm.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Christy Gutowski
Chicago Tribune

More former followers of the DuPage County-based Institute in Basic Life Principles have joined a multimillion-dollar lawsuit alleging leaders of the renowned conservative ministry conspired to cover up decades of inappropriate conduct.

Five additional women, totaling 10 plaintiffs, filed an amended 110-page lawsuit Wednesday in DuPage County alleging they were victims of “sexual abuse, sexual harassment and inappropriate/unauthorized touching” while they were participants, interns or employees of the institute.

Besides monetary damages, the women asked a judge to impose a “constructive trust” on IBLP’s assets to prevent leaders’ alleged plans to liquidate resources estimated at more than $100 million while they close the institute’s headquarters near Oak Brook and relocate to Texas “in an attempt to flee the jurisdiction (state of Illinois) where this wrongful conduct occurred,” according to the lawsuit.

In October, five of the women sued IBLP and its board of directors. Naperville attorney Shawn Collins later sought to dismiss the suit on behalf of IBLP, arguing it lacked specific facts such as dates, acts and named perpetrators to support such claims. Lawyers for the women did not fight the challenge and instead refiled the suit this week with the addition of five more accusers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Rye & Battle Observer

A former Rye priest pleaded guilty to charges in connection with more than 3,000 indecent pictures of children yesterday (Wednesday, January 6).

Paul Clarke, formerly of Watchbell Road but now lives in Manchester, entered the pleas at Lewes Crown Court.

The 71-year-old had been charged with possessing an indecent image of a child, possession of prohibited images and making a total of 3,100 indecent images of children.

Clarke, of Redclyffe Road, Urmston, Greater Manchester, was arrested after a search of his home in the residential presbytery attached to St Anthony’s Church on November 13, 2014.

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RHODE ISLAND
ABC News

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM AND DENISE LAVOIE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jan 7, 2016

An elite Rhode Island boarding school agreed Thursday to hire a new, independent investigator to look into allegations of sexual abuse made by at least 40 former students covering four decades.

Lawyers for the people who allege they were molested or raped by former school employees and students said they reached an agreement late Thursday with administrators at St. George’s School, a $56,000-a-year coeducational, Episcopalian school in Middletown, Rhode Island.

Many of the alleged victims had questioned the thoroughness of the school’s first investigation, which was led by the law partner of the school’s attorney. In a report last month, the school said that investigation found that 26 students had been sexually abused in the 1970s and ’80s by six former employees. The school acknowledged it didn’t report abusers to authorities at the time and apologized for not doing more.

Since then, Massachusetts lawyers Eric MacLeish and Carmen Durso said they have heard from at least 40 people who say they were abused by former staffers and students at the prep school.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen

A U.S. bankruptcy judge has set a May 25 deadline for victims of child sexual abuse by priests to file claims against the Diocese of Duluth.

Judge Robert Kressel set the deadline, also known as a “bar date,” after a hearing Thursday morning in Minneapolis. The deadline gives victims the full opportunity to seek damages under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which is set to expire the same day.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month after being hit with a $4.9 million verdict in the first case to go to trial under the Child Victims Act.

At the time of the filing, the diocese was already facing five additional lawsuits and 12 claims stemming from abuse allegations. Victims’ attorneys said they expected those numbers to swell ahead of the filing deadline.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 21

Raeanna Marnati, Web Producer, rmarnati@kqdsfox21.tv

In court Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel gave creditors, including survivors of childhood sex abuse, until May 25 to file claims in the bankruptcy case.

The decision requires all information about survivors of sexual abuse to be kept confidential.

The Diocese of Duluth filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection on December 7.

The decision to file bankruptcy came after a Ramsey County jury awarded $8.4 million to a man who says he was molested as a boy by a priest form the Duluth Diocese.

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MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
January 7, 2016

Survivors of sexual abuse have until May 25, 2016 to seek justice against their attackers. That is just a little over firm months away. The Window that has been limited due to bankruptcy by the diocese is part of a federal court order. Anyone who was sexually abused by an priest of the diocese, or who believes the diocese is liable for their abuse must act before the May 25 bankruptcy filing.

Nationally renowned priest abuse attorney Jeff Anderson’s website details instructions. There are a number of key points:

• You must file a claim by May 25.
• Your privacy and confidentiality can be protected.
• Filing your claim can help you and help protect children.

Please act now, because any further delay will result in loss of your right to make a claim

Abuse of children and the continued silence by the offenders needs to be prevented. If you suffered, saw, or suspected such events, it is important to know that there is help out there.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

By Kevin Jacobsen

January 7, 2016

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) — A Bankruptcy judge has set a deadline in the Diocese of the Duluth bankruptcy case.

Judge Robert J. Kressel set a May 25th deadline for creditors, including survivors of childhood sexual abuse, to confidentially file claims

The decision requires all information about survivors of sexual abuse to be kept strictly confidential.

“Any survivors out there who are suffering in silence, blaming themselves, can now confidentially get help and take action,” said attorney Mike Finnegan, “But time is running out.”

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RHODE ISLAND
SGS for Healing

From: Community.stgeorges.edu on behalf of Board Chair
Thursday, January 07, 2016 6:05 PM
Subject: Investigation Update

Dear St. George’s School Alumni and Parents,

On behalf of the Board we want to provide an update concerning an agreement reached today with the Alumni/Victim group “SGS for Healing.” Details can be found in the following statement. We remain committed to an ongoing dialogue with survivors and to ensuring a safe environment for all students at St. George’s.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 7, 2016, 5 p.m.
Joint Statement of St. George’s School and the
Alumni/Victim’s Group SGS for Healing

As a result of an agreement reached this afternoon between St. George’s School and the Alumni/Victim Group “SGS for Healing,” the Board of Trustees has announced that it will retain a third-party independent investigator to be agreed upon by the parties in order to oversee a comprehensive investigation of sexual abuse at St. George’s School. This investigation will not be limited in scope or time period and will be conducted in a manner sensitive to victims who may have already provided information.

Said Leslie Heaney, SGS Board Chair: “The Board is committed to a truly impartial investigation. There is nothing more important to us than that the review be thorough and exhaustive, and that its findings are found to be reliable and credible by all parties, particularly the victims.”

Anne Scott, from the SGS class of 1980 said. “Today’s decision is a very important first step in what we hope will be a process of reconciliation and healing. We look forward to the input of all alumni/victims on today’s developments and the new 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.

Yours truly,
Leslie B. Heaney ’92
Chair of the Board of Trustees
St. George’s School • 372 Purgatory Road, Middletown, RI 02842

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RHODE ISLAND
WPRI

[with video]

Nancy Krause with The Associated Press
Published: January 7, 2016

BEDFORD, Penn. (WPRI/AP) –St. George’s School in Middletown announced Thursday it will hire a third party investigator to look into claims of sexual abuse.

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania announced this week she has suspended The Rev. Dr. Howard White in the investigation into widespread allegations of sexual abuse at the school.

White, who has not been charged with a crime, is a retired priest who has been serving as a long-term fill-in pastor at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.

In a statement to Eyewitness News, St. George’s School and the Alumni/Victim’s Group “SGS for Healing” said:

As a result of an agreement reached this afternoon between St. George’s School and the Alumni/Victim Group “SGS for Healing,” the Board of Trustees has announced that it will retain a third party independent investigator to be agreed upon by the parties in order to oversee a comprehensive investigation of sexual abuse at St. George’s School.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 07, 2016

An arrest warrant has been issued for a suspended New Jersey priest who admitted to a reporter in August that he engaged in a sexual encounter with a teenage boy 13 years ago.

Union County’s presiding municipal court judge, Joan Robinson Gross, issued the warrant for the Rev. Manuel Gallo Espinoza Thursday afternoon, one day after the alleged victim in the case filed a sexual assault complaint in Plainfield Municipal Court.

The Rev. Manuel Gallo Espinoza, seen in social media photos (top), fled the country in 2003 after a 15-year-old boy accused him of rape. At bottom is a copy of the visa he received when he returned to the United States to work as a teacher.

The accuser, Max Rojas Ramirez, contends Gallo Espinoza raped him in the rectory of a Plainfield church just before Easter in 2003, when he was 15. The priest, who was removed from ministry by the Archdiocese of Newark after the accusation was made, then fled to his native Ecuador.

It’s not known where Gallo Espinoza is living now. In June of last year, NJ Advance Media disclosed he had returned to the United States to work as a teacher in Maryland and Virginia before disappearing in 2014.

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NEW JERSEY
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Rabbi Yosef Kolko will remain in prison.

The former haredi camp counselor from Lakewood, New Jersey will serve the rest of 15-year sentence in state prison after a two-judge appellate court panel rejected his claim that he was coerced by members of the haredi community to falsely plead guilty to sexually assaulting an 11-year-old child in his care at the camp, the APP reported.

Judges Harry G. Carroll and Thomas W. Sumners of the Appellate Division of Superior Court ruled yesterday that Kolko’s claims were meritless.

Kolko pleaded guilty in May 2013 during his trial.

Kolko was a counselor at the Yachad summer camp run by the Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School in Lakewood. He also taught at Yeshiva Orchos Chaim School in Lakewood. The abuse took place there in 2008 and 2009, when the child was 11- and 12-years-old.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Kathleen Hopkins, @Khopkinsapp January 7, 2016

TOMS RIVER – A former Orthodox Jewish camp counselor from Lakewood will remain in state prison after judges rejected his claims that he was coerced by his religious community to falsely admit he molested a youngster in his charge.

A two-judge panel on Wednesday refused to allow Yosef Kolko to take back his guilty plea to multiple sexual assault charges in a high-profile case that exposed how Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community handled molestation allegations.

Judges Harry G. Carroll and Thomas W. Sumners of the Appellate Division of Superior Court deemed meritless Kolko’s claims that he was coerced to plead guilty to aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child who had attended a Yeshiva summer camp where he once worked as a counselor.

As a result, Kolko, 39, of Lakewood will continue to serve a 15-year term in state prison, imposed in 2013 by Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson.

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UNITED STATES
Talking Points Memo

ByALLEGRA KIRKLAND
Published JANUARY 7, 2016

A prominent leader in the conservative Christian homeschooling movement was accused of sexual abuse and rape in a lawsuit filed Wednesday by 10 former members of his ministry, The Washington Post reported.

The suit alleges that Bill Gothard, the former head of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, sexually abused some of the women and concealed sexual abuse committed against other young women by family members. One unnamed plaintiff also alleged that Gothard raped her after she reported to the ministry that she had been raped by her father, according to the report.

Gothard told the Post on Wednesday that the rape and sexual harassment allegations against him were false.

“That’s horrible,” he said. “Never in my life have I touched a girl sexually. I’m shocked to even hear that.”

Gothard, who is 81 years old and has never been married, resigned from the ministry in 2014 after more than 30 women accused him of molesting and sexually harassing women he worked with at the ministry.

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CALIFORNIA
Monterey County Weekly

Sara Rubin

People who have met Marc Gafni describe him as magnetic, the kind of person who draws you in. The part-time Pacific Grove resident has built a successful career as a spiritual leader, author and speaker. He’s a founder of the Center for Integral Wisdom, an “activist think tank” based on promoting a philosophy of personal and cultural transformation.

Gafni, 55, himself has gone through transformations in his career, working under different names in different countries, in the religious and secular realms.

Judy Mitzner knew Gafni in 1986, when he was Mordechai Winiarz, a 24-year-old orthodox Jewish rabbi, and she was an observant 16-year-old. She was staying with him and his wife, and says he approached her basement bedroom, said “You know what you want,” and climbed into bed naked with her.

“At the time, the rabbinate said, ‘We’re sorry to hear that, but we’re going to deal with it internally,’” Mitzner recalls.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 07, 2016

Five months after a suspended priest admitted to a reporter that he had a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old boy in 2003, the alleged victim filed a criminal complaint against the clergyman in municipal court Wednesday, saying prosecutors have been slow to act in the case.

The accuser — Max Rojas Ramirez, now 28 — said his sexual assault complaint is intended to speed a resolution in authorities’ investigation of the Rev. Manuel Gallo Espinoza, who has been sought for questioning by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.

“I want him to be charged,” Ramirez said before filing the complaint Wednesday afternoon in Plainfield Municipal Court. “I want justice to be served. It’s been a long time, and nothing has happened.”

The Rev. Manuel Gallo Espinoza, seen in social media photos (top), fled the country in 2003 after a 15-year-old boy accused him of rape. At bottom is a copy of the visa he received when he returned to the United States to work as a teacher.

Because the charge is an indictable offense, a Superior Court judge must find probable cause to support it before issuing an arrest warrant. Ramirez said a hearing on the issue had been tentatively set for Feb. 1. The prosecutor’s office, which has not brought its own charges, declined to comment on the complaint.

New Jersey lawmakers abolished the statute of limitations on sexual assault in 1996.

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MICHIGAN
Deadline Detroit

January 7th, 2016

A former priest who was defrocked over sexual abuse allegations, was one of three people killed in a car crash in Livonia earlier this week, The Detroit News reports.

Joseph Sito, 80, of Livonia, who had been a priest at several Mettro Detroit parishes, died in the Monday accident. Two people in another car also died.

The News writes that Sito was laicized by the Vatican in 2004, which means the Vatican returned him to the status of layman and severed his ties with the archdiocese.

“It’s a tragic accident,” Ned McGrath, spokesman for the local Archdiocese, according to the News reports. “I guess he had a medical event. Three people are dead. It’s a terrible thing.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JANUARY 7, 2016

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was back in bankruptcy court Thursday, where a judge approved the $4.5 million sale of an archdiocese building to the Minnesota Historical Society.

The St. Paul property was the first of four real estate holdings slated to be sold this year. There are signed bids on the other properties, including the archbishop’s home.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel approved the sale of the Monsignor Hayden Center at 328 W. Kellogg Blvd, a former Catholic school that currently houses most of the archdiocese’s offices. In November, the Minnesota Historical Society signed a purchase agreement for the property, which sits across the street from the society’s museum and library.

Kressel, however, was critical about the length of time — more than six months — that the property was on the market. The center is a desirable piece of real estate, he said, located just outside downtown St. Paul.

“I feel like a lot of time and money went into marketing this,” he said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Banbridge Leader

A serving soldier admitted abusing a boy from a residential home run by Anglican missionaries in Lisburn but was never prosecuted, a public inquiry lawyer said.

The serviceman first came to Northern Ireland at the start of the Troubles in 1969 and visited Manor House Children’s Home in Lisburn to take children on day trips and play football, his testimony to police said.

Stormont’s power-sharing administration has established an independent probe which has received allegations of physical and sexual wrongdoing at the institution run by the Society for the Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics.

Christine Smith QC, counsel for the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, which is being held in Banbridge, said one alleged perpetrator was later interviewed by police.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Lisburn Today

This week the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry turned its attention to claims of abuse at Manor House, the former children’s home in Lisburn.

Manor House, which closed in 1984, was run by the Society of Irish Church Missions (ICM), an organisation with links to the Church of Ireland.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry is investigating child abuse in residential institutions in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.

The allegations of abuse relating to Manor House have been made by some former residents who lived at the home during periods in the 1940s, 1960s and 1970s.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A group of people who were abused as children are threatening to withdraw cooperation from the public inquiry into child abuse in Scottish institutions.

The group, In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), says repeated requests for meetings with the minister who ordered the inquiry have been turned down.

But the Scottish Government claims abuse survivors have had “unprecedented levels of access” to ministers and civil servants.

Incas spent years campaigning for before education secretary Angela Constance ordered the Historical Child Abuse Inquiry in December 2014. The group, which represents hundreds of people, who were abused in care, now says it has concerns over the way the inquiry is developing.

After a meeting with Ms Constance in May 2015, Incas says they have not been granted an audience with the minister since. The group has now accused her of treating them with “contempt and indifference.”

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

CHRIS MARSHALL
07 January 2016

Survivors of historical child abuse are threatening to boycott a public inquiry into the issue amid criticism of the education secretary.

The group In-Care Abuse Survivors (Incas) said it was being “treated with contempt” by Angela Constance.

The national inquiry began its work late last year under the leadership of Susan O’Brien QC.

However, many survivors of abuse feel the remit of the inquiry is too narrow because it only covers those who were abused in residential care. There are also concerns about compensation payments and access to legal aid.

In a statement, Incas said: “Survivors have made repeated requests for a face-to-face meeting. Ms Constance has, however, continued to refuse to engage with survivors.”

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SCOTLAND
BBC Scotland

By Reevel Alderson
BBC Scotland’s social affairs correspondent

A second organisation representing survivors of child abuse in Scotland has threatened to boycott the public inquiry established to investigate historical allegations.

Members of the In Care Survivors’ group (INCAS) said the Scottish government was treating them with contempt.

Another organisation, White Flowers Alba (WFA) has already indicated it will take no part in the process.

Ministers have insisted the inquiry, announced in 2014, is the widest ever.

Chaired by Susan O’Brien QC, it will investigate abuse in residential settings such as boarding and secure schools as well as among foster families.

These include allegations of abuse at the former Fort Augustus Abbey School and its junior school in East Lothian.

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RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island Public Radio

By ELISABETH HARRISON & JOHN BENDER

As the St. George’s sexual abuse allegations continue to unfold, an Episcopal reverend named in the investigation has been relieved of some duties in the small Pennsylvania town where he now works.

The Rev. Dr. Howard White served as an assistant chaplain at St. George’s, a prep school in Middletown, in the 1970s. In a report prepared by attorneys representing the alleged victims, White is accused of sexual misconduct with male students during his time at the school.

The report states that White was ordered to leave the school for at least five years, by then-headmaster Tony Zane. White subsequently worked at another boarding school after leaving St. George’s. He has since retired and works as a long-term supply priest at St. James Episcopal Church, in Bedford Pennsylvania, a small community about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The head of the Pennsylvania diocese, Bishop Audrey Scanlon, has “restricted” White’s duties, and she announced the decision in a letter to church members issued on Wednesday. Scanlon writes that she has “no information” that would leave her to believe there have been incidents of abuse at St. James.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tampa Bay Times

Associated Press
Thursday, January 7, 2016

An Episcopal priest was suspended from a Pennsylvania church after being accused this week of molesting three boys at an elite boarding school in Rhode Island more than 40 years ago.

More than two dozen students allege they were molested or raped at St. George’s School in Middletown in the 1970s and ’80s. An attorney for three former students named the Rev. Howard White on Tuesday as being among the six perpetrators the school identified after an internal investigation.

White, who has not been charged with a crime, is a retired priest who has been serving as a long-term fill-in pastor at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Episcopal officials moved swiftly after his name surfaced, saying he would be subjected to church discipline.

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GERMANY
Süddeutschen Zeitung

January 7, 2016

[The number of cases of abuse of youth in the Regensburg diocese’s cathedral choir is much higher than previously known.]

– Die Zahl der Missbrauchsfälle bei den Regensburger Domspatzen liegt wesentlich höher, als bisher bekannt.

– Das geht aus dem Zwischenbericht des unabhängigen Chefaufklärers Ulrich Weber hervor.

– Er geht davon aus, dass mindestens jeder dritte der 2400 Domspatzen zwischen dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und den frühen Neunzigern zum Gewaltopfer wurde.

By Andreas Glas

REGENSBURG – Bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat es wesentlich mehr Missbrauchsfälle gegeben, als bisher bekannt gewesen sind. Das sagte der mit der Klärung des Missbrauchsskandals beauftragte Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber im Gespräch mit der Süddeutschen Zeitung.

Seinen Recherchen zufolge seien bis in die Neunzigerjahre hinein mindestens 200 Kinder von Priestern und Lehrern des Bistums verprügelt und darüberhinaus etliche Kinder sexuell missbraucht worden. Die Kirchenleute hätten teils regelmäßig misshandelt, auch Vergewaltigungen habe es gegeben. Was die Zahl der sexuellen Übergriffe betrifft, will Weber nähere Details an diesem Freitag im Rahmen einer Pressekonferenz in Regensburg nennen.

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RHODE ISLAND
Morning Edition, National Public Radio

January 7, 2016

On Wednesday’s show, some 40 former students at St. George’s School in Rhode Island said they were abuse by staff members starting in the 1970s. The former head of the school has responded.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

January 7, 2016

By Michael Rubinkam

An Episcopal priest has been suspended from a Pennsylvania church after being accused this week of molesting three boys at an elite Rhode Island boarding school more than 40 years ago.

Dozens of students allege they were molested or raped at St. George’s School in Middletown in the 1970s and ’80s. A lawyer for three former students named the Rev. Howard White on Tuesday as being among the six perpetrators the school identified after an internal investigation.

White is a retired priest who has been filling in at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Episcopal officials say he would be subjected to the church’s disciplinary process.

White has not been charged with a crime. He did not return a phone message left at his home Thursday.

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CHILE
Publimetro

January 7, 2016

Por consiguiente, el padre Manuel Hervia puede reintegrarse al ministerio sacerdotal sin ninguna restricción, en concordancia con lo que estime el Arzobispo de Concepción, arquidiócesis en la cual el sacerdote está incardinado.

El Arzobispado de Santiago, luego de haber concluido el proceso judicial penal realizado a instancia de la Santa Sede en el Tribunal Interdiocesano de Santiago en contra del presbítero Manuel Enrique Hervia Olave, denunciado por supuesto abuso sexual de menores, comunica que el fallo es absolutorio.

Por consiguiente, el padre Hervia puede reintegrarse al ministerio sacerdotal sin ninguna restricción, en concordancia con lo que estime el Arzobispo de Concepción, arquidiócesis en la cual el sacerdote está incardinado.

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El Arzobispado de Santiago dio a conocer el fallo absolutorio del Tribunal Interdiocesano sobre la presunta responsabilidad del prebístero Manuel Hervia en relación a un caso de abuso sexual.

CHILE
24HORAS.CL TVN

January 5, 2016

El Arzobispado de Santiago comunicó el fallo absolutorio del Vaticano contra el prebístero Manuel Hervia, denunciado por el presunto abuso sexual a nueve niñas -entre cinco y nueve años- en un hogar de menores en el hogar San Francisco de Regis de Santiago en 2011.

A través de un comunicado, la autoridad eclesiástica comunicó la resolución y detalló que el cura se reintegrará a sus funciones.

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[Church absolves priest accused of sexual abuse of minors]

Manuel Enrique Hervia Olave señaló que “abusar de un niño, una niña o un joven es un pecado espantoso y un delito grave”.

CHILE
La Nación

January 5, 2016

[The Archbishop of Santiago reported that after the conclusion of the criminal trial conducted at the request of the Holy See at the Inter-diocesan Tribunal, the presbiter or Manuel Enrique Hervia Olave was acquitted of the charges of sexual abuse that weighed against him from 2011. — Google Translate.]

El Arzobispado de Santiago comunicó que, luego de haber concluido el proceso judicial penal realizado a instancia de la Santa Sede en el Tribunal Interdiocesano, el presbítero Manuel Enrique Hervia Olave fue absuelto de las acusaciones de abuso sexual a menores que pesaba en su contra desde el año 2011.

Tras el fallo, “el padre Hervia puede reintegrarse al ministerio sacerdotal sin ninguna restricción, en concordancia con lo que estime el Arzobispo de Concepción, arquidiócesis en la cual el sacerdote está incardinado”, dice el comunicado.

También a través de una declaración pública el sacerdote indicó que “esta sentencia absolutoria canónica viene a confirmar lo mismo que ya los tribunales de justicia del Estado chileno habían establecido en abril del 2013”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

January 7, 2016

By Barry Duke, Editor

[Photo caption: Anthony McCallen, 69, left, and James Carragher, 75, this week began lengthy jail sentences for sexually abusing boys in their care at St William’s residential home and school run by the Roman Catholic De La Salle order in Market Weighton, Yorkshire, until its closure in 1994.]

According to this report, former chaplain McCallen, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, was jailed for 15 years for 11 sex offences, including one of male rape, against four boy He was cleared of eight other charges.

McCallen, of Whernside Crescent in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, had previously been jailed for two years for abusing two boys, children of his parishioners at the Sacred Heart Church in east Hull, and other offences.

Former headmaster Carragher, a member of the De La Salle order, was jailed for nine years for 24 sexual offences, including three counts of male rape, against seven boys. Carragher, of Cearns Road in Prenton, Wirral, was cleared of a further 30 charges.

It was his third conviction for abusing pupils at St William’s, for which he was previously jailed for 21 years.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Ulster Star

January 7, 2016

This week the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry turned its attention to claims of abuse at Manor House, the former children’s home in Lisburn.

Manor House, which closed in 1984, was run by the Society of Irish Church Missions (ICM), an organisation with links to the Church of Ireland.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry is investigating child abuse in residential institutions in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.

The allegations of abuse relating to Manor House have been made by some former residents who lived at the home during periods in the 1940s, 1960s and 1970s.

They claim the abuse was perpetrated by some staff, visitors and other children at the home.

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[Priest accused of sexual abuse in children’s home is acquitted in Chile]

CHILE
ACI Prensa

January 6, 2016

By Bárbara Bustamante

SANTIAGO, 06 Ene. 16 / 11:17 am (ACI).- El Arzobispado de Santiago de Chile informó de la conclusión del proceso eclesiástico contra el sacerdote Manuel Enrique Hervia Olave, a quien se absolvió tras haber sido acusado de abusos sexuales en un hogar de menores de Chile en el año 2011. Tras la sentencia, el presbítero podrá volver sin restricción alguna a ejercer su ministerio.

A través de un comunicado dado a conocer ayer, el Arzobispado informó que “luego de haber concluido el proceso judicial penal realizado a instancia de la Santa Sede en el Tribunal Interdiocesano de Santiago en contra del presbítero Manuel Enrique Hervia Olave, denunciado por supuesto abuso sexual de menores, comunica que el fallo es absolutorio”.

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UNITED STATES
USA TODAY

January 7, 2016

By Brian Truitt

Awards don’t always play out the way viewers might expect, so USA TODAY’s Brian Truitt predicts who will win and who should win in top movie categories at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards (NBC, Sunday, 8 p.m. ET/5 PT).

DRAMA

Carol

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

Will win/should win: Spotlight

There is clear competition for the Oscar best picture front-runner, from sprawling epic Revenant to artful action movie Mad Max to the sumptuously 1950s Carol. However, director Tom McCarthy’s look at The Boston Globe’s exposé of the Catholic Church abuse cover-up is an amazingly crafted affair, so expect the journalism drama to continue its awards season run here in a big way.

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CALIFORNIA
The New York Times

January 7, 2016

By Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes

LOS ANGELES — About 45 minutes into “The Big Short,” Adam McKay’s “true story” — or so it says on the billboards — of Wall Street greed, the actor Finn Wittrock turns to the camera and confesses, “O.K., so this part isn’t totally accurate.”

No, he admits, the real-life counterpart to his character didn’t find a road map to the housing crisis of the mid-2000s lying around the marbled lobby of a JPMorgan Chase tower. Actually, he and his investing partner had heard and read about it elsewhere. But, hey, lighten up. It’s just a movie ….

… Even “Spotlight,” Open Road Films’ critically acclaimed look at The Boston Globe’s investigation of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, has its fact-conscious detractors.

“Over all, I think the film is a misrepresentation of how the Church dealt with sexual abuse cases,” said David F. Pierre Jr., who has criticized the film’s veracity online and has challenged The Globe’s investigation in his book “Sins of the Press: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe’s Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church.” In a phone interview, Mr. Pierre said that the movie’s biggest flaw was its failure to portray psychologists who, as cases surfaced, assured church officials that abusive priests could be safely returned to their duties after treatment.

Tom Ortenberg, Open Road’s chief executive, said in an email, in part, “Mr. Pierre is perpetuating a myth in order to distract from real stories of abuse, stories that continue to come to light every day.

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UNITED STATES
GetReligion

January 6, 2016

By Bobby Ross Jr.

We’ve said it before: Negative posts about media coverage of religion are so much easier to write than positive ones.

When critiquing a less-than-perfect story, there are flaws to point out. Unanswered questions to raise. Bias to criticize.

But when a story hits all the right notes — compelling subject matter, fair treatment of all sides, no sign of where the reporter stands — it’s tempting to say, simply, “Hey, read this!” and move along.

That’s the case with Godbeat pro Manya Brachear Pashman’s in-depth report on whether a Chicago priest should return to ministry after revelations of teen misconduct:

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Police found him with about 800 milligrams of a “rocklike substance believed to be crack cocaine”

NEW YORK
Associated Press

January 7, 2016

By Michael Balsamo

MINEOLA, N.Y. – A New York priest whose sister was beheaded by her son in 2014 was arrested Wednesday on drug possession charges after he was caught with crack cocaine, police said.

Rev. Robert Lubrano pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance after being arrested at a motel in Bethpage, Long Island, early Wednesday morning.

The 63-year-old Lubrano, who police say is a Roman Catholic priest but isn’t currently working at a church, was arrested after officers conducting a separate narcotics investigation saw him exchange cash with another man in the motel’s parking lot, police say.

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ROME
Crux

January 7, 2016

By John L. Allen Jr., Associate editor
john.allen@cruxnow.com

Pope Francis is famously a pontiff who seems to be missing an “off” switch, but the first quarter of 2016 shapes up as a period so dense with activity it may tax even his prodigious reservoirs of energy.

From foreign policy challenges to a potential turning point in Catholic/Jewish relations, from a six-day trip to Mexico that includes a stop at the US border, to a jam-packed schedule for his jubilee Year of Mercy, the opening part of the year promises to be full of drama.

No doubt it will all seem memorable and consequential at the time, but looking back, those moments may be recalled as no more than early tremors of what could be the new year’s first papal earthquake: Francis’ much-anticipated apostolic exhortation drawing conclusions from his two tumultuous synods of bishops on the family.

That document is now expected sometime in late February or March, with one hypothesis being a release date of March 19, the feast of St. Joseph and a patron of the family.

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