ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan St. Paul · May 19, 2016

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is about to move a step closer to emerging from bankruptcy.

By the end of the month, the archdiocese will file a bankruptcy reorganization plan detailing how it expects to remain a financially viable organization while providing compensation for victims of clergy sex abuse.

The proposal will likely be controversial.

The archdiocese has been in bankruptcy for about 16 months and insurers, parishes, abuse victims and other parties have been in mediation during most of that time. The parties involved were told to keep talks confidential. But there are indications that critical matters, especially insurance coverage, remain unresolved.

At a late March court hearing, archdiocese attorney Richard Anderson told a federal judge that a plan would include financial contributions from the archdiocese and insurers. But he didn’t offer details and said the church could file a plan without first securing the support of sex abuse victims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Central

Nick Bramhill @irishcentral May 19,2016

A leading advocate for reform in the Irish Catholic Church has conceded that trying to bring about meaningful change is “like beating one’s head against a stone wall.”

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), which represents over 1,000 priests across the country, and a four-man delegation of Irish bishops are due to hold their first face-to-face talks in three years on Thursday.

But Father Tony Flannery, a founding member of the group, has admitted he fears the meeting is little more than a token gesture from church leaders and will not pave the way for significant reform.

Speaking ahead of the talks, which take place at Columba Center in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, the veteran Redemptorist said, “Experience leads me to have little hope or expectation from the meeting. I suspect the motivation of the Bishops Conference is to quieten us, and stop us from saying that they won’t meet us.”

Flannery, one of several clerics who have been “silenced” by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith for his liberal views, also called for ongoing dialogue between the clergy and church authorities to tackle the ever-worsening vocations crisis.

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ILLINOIS
Lake County News-Sun

Jim NewtonContact Reporter
News-Sun

A former Libertyville Serbian Monastery monk trainee, who was charged in 2014 with indecent solicitation of a minor, accepted a negotiated plea deal Monday and will serve a year of probation in Ohio.

Dario Spasic, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of indecent solicitation of a child, a Class 3 felony, in exchange for the probationary sentence. If convicted at trial, he could have potentially faced a sentence of two to five years in prison.

The sentence, approved by Judge Patricia Fix, specifies that Spasic will serve his year of probation in Ohio, where he now lives, under the supervision of a sex-offender probation program in that state.

He must also register as a sex offender for the next 10 years, have no unsupervised contact with children and pay $2,000 in court costs.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Uriel Heilman
May 19, 2016

(JTA) — Even before FBI investigators descended last week on the Satmar Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel, there was a growing sense in this insular community that it and its unique way of life were under attack.

Two months earlier, the FBI had been in the village investigating alleged fraud of a government program, and community leaders also have been facing a mounting campaign by dissidents to increase state oversight of yeshiva curricula.

“We need to know what kind of danger we’re in,” the Satmar rebbe in Kiryas Joel, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, said in a widely publicized May 4 speech about the threat of closer state supervision of yeshiva curricula. “These are bad times for us Jews, terrible. We need to pray to God that they should not interfere with the upbringing of our children.”

In last week’s FBI raid, investigators confiscated computer equipment and boxes of documents from the village’s Department of Public Safety and its main yeshiva, United Talmudical Academy. An unnamed law enforcement source interviewed by a local newspaper, the Journal News, said the raid was related to the publication on social media two weeks ago of a leaked hidden-camera video that appeared to show a principal of the yeshiva kissing and grasping young boys in his office. Some 6,000 students are enrolled in the school.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Rochdale Online

The Chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Honourable Dame Lowell Goddard is visiting Manchester to launch the Inquiry’s ‘Truth Project’ in the region.

Dame Lowell Goddard is meeting organisations that support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in Manchester today to announce the start of the Inquiry’s Truth Project in the north west of England.

The Truth Project gives the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse that occurred in an institution, or where there was an institutional failure to protect a child, an opportunity to share their experience during an informal discussion called a private session.

The information shared will help to provide a better understanding of the scale of child sexual child sexual abuse and will assist in identifying patterns and themes about its nature and impact. In due course, the Inquiry may publish anonymised accounts of the experiences shared, to provide a better understanding of the consequences of child sexual abuse on the lives of victims and survivors and their families.

The Inquiry is guided by three principles which underpin all of its work. It is, and must seen to be, comprehensive, inclusive and thorough. Bearing witness to the personal experiences of victims and survivors is central to the Inquiry’s terms of reference.

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TEXAS
Times Record News

By John Ingle of the Times Record News

The pastor of Henrietta Church of Christ in Clay County is in the Archer County Jail Wednesday morning after he turned him self in on a warrant from Clay County.

Archer County Sheriff Staci Beesinger said 50-year-old Robert Todd Davis turned himself in at 4:45 a.m. on a charge of sex abuse of a child/continuous victim under 14.

The recommended bond placed on the warrant was set at $250,000 and Davis bonded out Wednesday morning.

Clay County Sheriff Kenny Lemons said his office investigated an incident after an “outcry” by the victim.

He said they completed their investigation in February and handed over their finding to the District Attorney’s Office.

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KENTUCKY
Tristate Homepage

[with video]

On May 3, an allegation was made that an Owensboro pastor had engaged in inappropriate conduct with a minor.

The Diocese of Owensboro says they immediately reported the allegation against Father Gerald Baker to the Kentucky child abuse hotline.

The diocese says a 13 member review board suspended Father Baker from public ministry until the matter is resolved.

According to the diocese, Father Baker and the diocese are cooperating with investigation by law enforcement.

Bishop Medley states, “Any allegation of the abuse of a minor is unsettling. The Diocese of Owensboro has offered support to the alleged victim in this case and to his family. In a sad moment such as this, it is always incumbent upon us to address any who may have ever suffered abuse within the embrace of the Catholic Church and invite them to come to us that we might offer support and assure that no one else is ever harmed.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

By Liam Migdail-Smith

HARRISBURG – It took a lawsuit for Phil Saviano to learn the truth that set him on the path of an activist fighting childhood sexual abuse. He had spent years trying to put his own abuse behind him. The Catholic priest who had molested him when he was an 11-year-old growing up near Worcester, Mass. was impulsive and reckless. Saviano figured he must have been caught and wouldn’t have access to other kids.

He was in his 40s when he saw news reports that the priest had been arrested for abusing children in New Mexico. And when church officials contended the allegations were news to them, Saviano turned to the courts.

That’s how he got his hands on the church documents that showed the priest had been kicked around to parishes all over the country before he was eventually arrested.

“What a lawsuit does for you is it gets you access to the personnel files,” Saviano said during a panel discussion at the Pennsylvania Capitol Wednesday. “It gets you to the truth.”

It was that discovery that he took to the Boston Globe reporters who, in 2002, revealed a systematic cover-up of abuse by church officials that allowed child predators to continue to operate. Saviano is a key character in “Spotlight,” last year’s Academy Award-winning film about the Globe investigation.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT

ALBANY — After being called out by victims, Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday said he wanted to pass a bill in the next few weeks that would make it easier for adults who were sexually abused as kids to seek justice.

“This is an incredibly important issue and we are serious about addressing it this session,” Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said. “We have been discussing options with the Legislature, have met with advocates and survivors, and are meeting with them again (Thursday).”

The governor, Azzopardi said, will push to extend the legal time frame for an adult abused as a child to bring a civil lawsuit. Currently, adults victimized as children have until their 23rd birthday to bring a case.

Cuomo would seek to do away entirely with the statute of limitation as it pertains to bringing child sex abuse criminal cases.

And he would look to change a law that requires victims who were abused in a public institution like a school to file a notice of intent to sue within just 90 days of the date when the incident occurred.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY LARRY MCSHANE

If New York’s child sex abuse victims lived across the Hudson River, facing their attackers in court would be a legal right instead of an unending battle.

A New Jersey man filed a lawsuit this month alleging his Spanish teacher at Hightstown High School initiated a sexual relationship when he was 16, during the 1985-86 school year.

“He thought he was in a loving relationship with this woman,” said the alleged victim’s attorney, Robert Fuggi. “He didn’t realize all those years were not love, but sexual assault and rape.”

The man, identified in court papers only as J.D., is now 46. But unlike New York, where victims must file legal action by age 23, New Jersey suspends the statute of limitations if the victim fails to realize both what happened and its continued negative impact on the victim’s life.

Those targeted by adult predators often turn to drugs and alcohol, bury their memories or suffer from ailments like panic attacks, experts say.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Guardian (UK)

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Thursday 19 May 2016

For the past 12 years, the church of St Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate, near Boston, has not been empty for a single moment.

Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, a group of parishioners has maintained a vigil inside the building to prevent its sale by the archdiocese of Boston, to help pay the Catholic church’s enormous bills relating to its long and sordid history of child sexual abuse.

Children have slept in the sacristy, meals have been eaten beneath the stained glass windows, planning meetings have been held in the pews, prayers said and candles lit.

But not for much longer. After the supreme court this week declined to hear an appeal against an earlier court ruling, the parishioners must now vacate the premises, and will hold a final farewell service on 29 May.

Their long battle against the archdiocese of Boston is over. But, far from being exhausted and defeated, the core group of about 100 parishioners who have occupied the church since 2004 are gearing up to start afresh.

“We’re going to stay together, reach out and re-energise thousands of disenfranchised Catholics who no longer trust the church,” Jon Rogers, the group’s spokesman, told the Guardian.

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TEXAS
Texomas Homepage

HENRIETTA

The pastor of a Henrietta church and a long time coach and teacher has been charged with the continuous sexual assault of a child and has bonded out of the Archer County Jail.

Archer County Sheriff Staci Beesinger said 50-year-old Robert Todd Davis turned himself in to her office early this morning.

Davis was charged in a Clay County warrant and his bond was set at $250,000.

According to District Attorney Paige Williams, the alleged assaults occurred from May 2009 to May 2013 and were continuous — meaning 2 or more criminal acts in a period of more than 30 days.

Williams said the specific offenses are sexual assault through penetration and indecency with a child through contact.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Daily Reflector

Thursday, May 19, 2016

When we hear stories about children being violated by someone trusted in their lives — a teacher, coach, pastor, or family member — we are horrified and angry. Often in these situations, people likely knew something was wrong, but did not act out of fear or lack of knowledge. This is why the line in the Academy Award-winning movie, Spotlight, resonates with us at Prevent Child Abuse NC: “It takes a village to abuse a child.”

Our reactions cannot stop with horror and anger. We all have a role to play. We can prevent child sexual abuse when we shine a light on protective factors and stay involved in our community and work together to make sure our schools, faith communities and neighborhoods are safe, nurturing environments for children of all ages.

Preventing child sexual abuse is not the responsibility of children; it’s the responsibility of the adults who live in the neighborhoods and communities where children live. Sexual abuse has been identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as a significant public health issue.

Child sexual abuse is preventable. There are ways school leaders, PTAs, coaches, faith leaders, communities and parents can prevent abuse from occurring. When we speak up, we transform the lives of children, the adults they will become and the schools, faith communities and neighborhoods they call home.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune

By Jill Harmacinski jharmacinski@eagletribune.com

HAVERHILL — The Rev. Arnold Kelley is accused of sexually abusing a boy at a Boston area church in the 1970s — but not at All Saints Parish in Haverhill, where he mostly recently lived before retiring and going into a nursing home.

This made All Saints parishioner Kathleen Parker question why a recent civil sex abuse lawsuit against Kelley was being discussed with the media late Wednesday morning on a public sidewalk outside her church at 120 Bellevue Ave.

“I find it quite offensive,” said Parker, who asked Robert Hoatson, the leader of a sexual abuse recovery organization, why he felt it necessary “to defame our happy home.”

Parker said her family has also been touched by the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, but for “the better part of 20 years we have found a home” and “healing” at All Saints, she said.

“Father Kelley doesn’t live here,” said Parker, adding the priest in now in his 80s, retired and lives at Mary Immaculate nursing home in Lawrence where he is in failing health.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

CHRISTOPHER CURTIS, MONTREAL GAZETTE

Lawyers working for the federal government used a technicality to avoid compensating a man who survived sexual abuse at an Indian residential school in Quebec, legal experts say.

The survivor, an Innu man, says he was molested by a priest and a nun while attending a residential school near Sept-Îles between 1969 and 1971. And while a judge deemed the claim “credible” in a 2015 legal document, federal lawyers managed to get it thrown out because it occurred after the school’s administration was transferred to the province in 1969.

A confidential memorandum obtained by the Montreal Gazette suggests the federal government knew this distinction was merely technical. The federal government document shows that even after 1969, the Sept-Îles residential school was being run by the same nun who administered it when it was a federal Indian Residential School with documented cases of sexual and physical abuse.

The claim was one of an estimated 1,000 rejected across Canada because of this technicality — often referred to as the “administrative split.” That estimate, first reported by The Globe and Mail, comes from independent officials who evaluate residential school abuse allegations.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

Chris Churchill Published Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Albany

In 1997, Bridie Farrell was a 15-year-old from Saratoga Springs who dreamed of becoming an Olympic speed skater. That’s when she was repeatedly sexually abused by an Olympian more than twice her age, she says.

Like many underage sexual-abuse victims, Farrell kept her mouth shut. She didn’t dare report what was happening.

“I didn’t know if anyone would believe me,” Farrell said Wednesday. “And if they did, I didn’t know what would happen next.”

Farrell says it took a decade to fully understand that she was not to blame for what happened and the personal struggles that followed. It took even longer before she was ready to go public with her story.

By then, the deadline to pursue criminal charges or civil litigation had long since passed. New York’s statute of limitations bars child sexual-abuse victims from proceeding with cases once they turn 23.

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GUAM
Malaysian Digest

HAGATNA: The head of the Catholic Church in Guam was Wednesday forced to publicly defend himself from accusations of sexual abuse, describing the allegation as part of an ongoing “malicious” attack.

“To be absolutely clear and to avoid any misinterpretations of my statement I deny all allegations of sexual abuse,” Archbishop Anthony Apuron said in a televised statement.

The accusation was made by 52-year-old Roy Taitague Quintanilla who said he was molested 40 years ago when he was an altar boy at a church where Apuron was the parish priest in the western Pacific US territory.

Quintanilla, gathered with family and friends outside the archdiocese office in the Guam capital Hagatna, read a letter addressed to Apuron claiming he was abused after a trip to the movies with other altar boys.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Northern Echo

Rachel Conner, Reporter (Weardale)

A VICTIM of child abuse at the hands of a priest is calling for the Bishop of Durham to be retrained after claims he failed to respond to his complaint adequately.

The man, who has asked to be identified only as “Joe”, has written to the Durham Diocesan Safeguarding board calling for Bishop of Durham Paul Butler to be retrained before dealing with other victims.

Joe reported the abuse to Bishop Paul, who is the Church of England’s head of safeguarding, in July 2014 and received an apology from him around 18 months later. A church spokesperson said he was taking the lead in changing its policies.

Joe has also written to the House of Bishops, a body of senior members of the Church of England, ahead of a meeting in York next week calling for them to repent and act on the findings of an independent report into sexual abuse.

The Elliott Review, which looked into Joe’s case, was published in March and contained a number of recommendations calling for changes to be made to the church’s safeguarding structure and training on dealing with disclosures of abuse to be introduced.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Jacqueline Perry Guzman | Post News Staff

Roy Taitague Quintanilla, who publicly accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting him 40 years ago when he was a 12-year-old altar boy at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Agat where Apuron was then the parish priest, launched a rebuttal to Apuron’s denial late yesterday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Quintanilla held a press conference in front of the Archdiocese of Agana chancery in Agana Heights to confront Apuron over the alleged sexual abuse.

Quintanilla, a 52-year-old former Guam resident who now lives in Hawaii, gathered with family members and friends and read a letter detailing the incident beginning with a trip to the movies with the altar boys of the parish and then each of them being dropped off at their home. “I was the last of the altar boys in the van. I thought you were going to take me home like the others, but instead, you asked if I could sleep at your house,” he said, reading the letter.

He alleged that he was told to sleep in the same room as Apuron and that Apuron grabbed his private parts.

After reading the letter, Quintanilla delivered it to the chancery office.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

EDINA, Minn. (KMSP) – No charges will be filed against Father Timothy Dolan after the Edina Police Department completed its investigation into allegations the Fridley, Minn. pastor was in possession of child pornography. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released the following statement Wednesday:

“The Edina Police Department notified us that its criminal investigation is complete and that the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office will not pursue charges against Father Timothy Dolan, who is on a required leave from ministry. Father Dolan had been pastor at Saint William Church in Fridley, a position he recently resigned.

“In accordance with our protocols and with law enforcement’s permission, the Archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will now conduct an internal investigation focused on Father Dolan’s fitness for ministry.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Maria Panaritis, STAFF WRITER

HARRISBURG – Rep. Mark Rozzi turned to Phil Saviano, sitting next to him inside the Capitol. Like Rozzi, Saviano was raped by a priest decades ago and has worked to expose such abuse.

But the Boston-area man’s efforts had huge impact: They helped spark the global clergy-sex abuse scandal in 2002 and figured in this year’s Oscar-winning film Spotlight.

Saviano was marquee draw on a panel assembled Wednesday by Rozzi to support a high-stakes bill that would open a new window for adult victims to sue the men or women who abused them as children and the institutions that could have, – but did not – discover or stop it.

“You are keeping victims alive here in Pennsylvania,” Rozzi told Saviano, “because they know they have opportunity here with this reform legislation.”

Saviano’s appearance capped an intensive two-day lobbying effort by victims’ advocates to win over key Senators on the bill, at the same time opponents – including the Catholic Church – are marshalling efforts to defeat it.

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CANADA
Ottawa Sun

ANDREW DUFFY

In his London, Ont. firm, lawyer Robert Talach is known as “the priest guy.”

That’s because, for more than a decade, Talach has done little else in his practice but sue the Catholic Church on behalf of Canadians who say they were sexually abused as children by priests. He has represented abuse victims from Vancouver to Moncton,

“I’m almost 13 years into just chasing the priests,” he said in an interview. “I do one United Church case every year, maybe one Anglican. But I have 50 Catholic cases…It says they have a problem.”

He believes the Catholic Church, by requiring a celibate priesthood, made sexuality a forbidden subject among priests and the bishops responsible for managing them. It meant, he said, that even sex abuse was not discussed.

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NEW YORK
Riverdale Press

May 18, 2016
By Alice Guilhamon

Local activists and a delegation of Jewish leaders went to Albany earlier this month to lobby for passage of the Child Victims Act, the legislation to end the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases and to open a window for past cases to be prosecuted.

Rabbi Ari Hart of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale joined the group in the state capital.

“This is an issue that cuts across every demographic and every faith and all sectors of society,” he said.

He and his colleagues represented 150 rabbis and Jewish leaders who signed a letter of support for reforming the state’s statute of limitations, or SOL, on child sex abuse. Rabbi Hart said about 50 people participated in the activism on May 3 and 4.

Activists and politicians who support the Child Victims Act spoke. Speakers included Jim Scanlan, a clergy abuse survivor depicted in “Spotlight.” The film was screened as part of the lobbying days.

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SOUTH AFRICA
IOL

CAPETIMES /
18 May 2016

By: Siyavuya Mzantsi
Siyavuya Mzantsi

FORMER St Matthews Church reverend June Major alleges a bishop and a reverend were among Anglican Church of Southern Africa members to separately attempt to rape, sexually harass, abuse and discriminate against her.

She has named the priests, but the Cape Times is withholding their names at this stage.

Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said a case was opened at the Bellville police station and transferred to the Grahamstown Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit for further investigation.

Among her allegations, Major said a Reverend X had tried to rape her.

She had also allegedly been discriminated against by her former employer at the church, Bishop of Table Bay Garth Counsell, by denying her a means of earning a living abroad when she resigned.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

The Archdiocese of Ottawa responds to Ottawa Citizen articles on sexual abuse

ANDREW DUFFY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

The Archdiocese of Ottawa continues to pay for the many sins of Rev. Dale Crampton.

Court documents reveal that the diocese has paid $741,783.44 in compensation to 10 of Crampton’s victims, who were sexually abused by the Catholic priest between 1963 and 1982.

More lawsuits are before the courts. The victims in those cases are seeking $3.7 million.

In total, the diocese now knows of at least 17 people who say they were victimized by the priest as children.

Through interviews and court documents, the Citizen has learned that members of the Ottawa clergy were warned at least seven times about Crampton’s sexual misconduct, beginning in 1965.

In a statement issued Wednesday, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic diocese, Deacon Gilles Oullette, said it has been engaged in a process of “justice and reconciliation” with victims for many years. “We engage with victims in the forum which they choose, but we do so always in a spirit of reconciliation and repentance,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com
on May 18, 2016

Phil Saviano earned vindication in 2001 when a tough investigating team at the Boston Globe began to look into his claims that priests in that diocese had been molesting children for decades.

Saviano’s story, which was depicted in the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight,” has been widely recognized and on Wednesday, the 63-year-old activist recounted that story as part of a panel discussion at the state Capitol on the need to reform the state’s sex crime laws.

“This effort to improve statute of limitations across the country is one of most significant things to come out of this Globe investigation,” said Saviano, who is also a member of the support and advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Saviano was joined on the panel discussion by its organizer, Rep. Mark Rozzi, (D-Berks), George Foster, the Altoona businessman who led investigators into uncovering decades worth of clergy abuse in that city’s diocese, Marci Hamilton, a constitutional lawyer, Patricia Dailey Lewis, the executive director of the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children as well as two survivors of sexual abuse.

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KENTUCKY
The Gleaner

By Tom Lovett of The Gleaner

A Catholic priest who once served in Union County has been suspended by the Diocese of Owensboro after an allegation of improper conduct with a minor.

An allegation against Father Gerald Baker, pastor of St. Mary of the Wood Catholic Church in Whitesville, Kentucky, and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fordsville, Kentucky, was filed with the diocese on May 3, according to Bishop William Medley.

Baker served at St. Ann Catholic Church in Morganfield from June 2003 until June 2012, when he was appointed at St. Mary of the Wood.

“We got a call that a young person had made an accusation that Father Gerald Baker had acted in an inappropriate manner with him — of a sexual nature,” Medley said. “So our first response was to report that to authorities and then move to assure that the person making that accusation is getting whatever support that they might need.”

Medley said the allegation came from a young person in the St. Mary of the Wood parish. He was uncertain when the alleged incident might have taken place.

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UNITED STATES
Raw Story

ARTURO GARCIA
18 MAY 2016

A reclusive man describing himself as a fundamentalist Christian is attempting to resume sales of a “virtually indestructible” stick he sold as a disciplinary tool — without drawing attention to himself, the Friendly Atheist reported.

The vendor, Steve Haymond, sent letters to former customers nearly 10 years after his California-based company, Biblical Child Training, stopped operating because of what he called “external pressures and family reasons.”

Haymond said in the letter, sent from a Montana address, that he was ready to resume making the “chastening instrument” — a 9-inch long and 1.5-inch wide polyurethane stick that is 3/16ths of an inch thick. However, he said he would only do so “on a private basis and without a web site or any internet exposure.”

“Feel free to let other Biblically-minded parents know about this chastening instrument, but do not post anything about it on the internet and please exercise discretion as to who you tell about them,” the letter read. “Although proper chastisement is legal, there are some (even among family members) who mistakenly believe that spanking of any kind constitutes child abuse. Our willingness and ability to make these instruments available to parents who believe in Biblical chastisement depends both on their responsible use by us as parents (see our tips) and care in who we tell about them. Thanks for your sensitivity on this.”

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Date: Thursday, May 12, 2016

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Archbishop Bernard Hebda

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis learned that a lawsuit was served today alleging that Rev. Marvin Klaers sexually abused a minor in the 1970s. As is our protocol, we immediately notified law enforcement from the area where the abuse is reported to have happened. Our Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will wait to conduct its own investigation until law enforcement gives its approval.

Father Klaers is not currently in ministry and has not been since 2014.

Please join me in praying for all victims of abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Archbishop Bernard Hebda

The Edina Police Department notified us that its criminal investigation is complete and that the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office will not pursue charges against Father Timothy Dolan, who is on a required leave from ministry. Father Dolan had been pastor at Saint William Church in Fridley, a position he recently resigned.

In accordance with our protocols and with law enforcement’s permission, the Archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will now conduct an internal investigation focused on Father Dolan’s fitness for ministry.

At the completion of the internal investigation, this matter will be reviewed by the Ministerial Review Board (MRB). That board and the Director of the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will then make recommendations to me regarding Father Dolan’s fitness for ministry. The investigative and review processes are thorough and it is uncertain how long these processes will take.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Karen Zamora Star Tribune MAY 18, 2016

The priest who served a Catholic church in Fridley and was investigated by Edina police for possibly possessing child pornography will not be charged, according to a statement posted on the The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ website.

However, in the statement, the Archdiocese said they are continuing their investigation to determine the priest’s fate. He is currently on “required leave from ministry” and has since resigned from the Church of St. William in Fridley.

“In accordance with our protocols and with law enforcement’s permission, the Archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will now conduct an internal investigation focused on [the priest’s] fitness for ministry,” the statement says.

Because the priest has not been arrested or charged, the Star Tribune is not naming him.

Neighbors at his Edina apartment complex called police four times in the past few years about what they said were the sounds of a child crying and “in distress” coming from his apartment. The most recent report was Feb. 8.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

May 18, 2016

WASHINGTON—Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) named two new members to the National Review Board and reappointed its chairman for the next four-year term, 2016-2020, beginning in June.

The new members are Ernest Stark, a long time Catholic school educator and administrator, and Garry Hall, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, and CEO and president of the Association of the United States Navy. Francesco C. Cesareo, Ph.D., president of Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts, was reappointed as chairman of the board.

Ernest Stark currently serves as chair of the review boards for several religious communities including the Augustinians, Carmelites, Passionists, and Benedictines and is a member of the review board of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. He has served as a teacher and administrator in Catholic secondary schools and colleges for fifty years. He was a member of the review board of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, for ten years, serving as chair for eight of those years. He holds a master’s degree in education from St. Mary’s University, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in theology from Manhattan College, New York. He has pursued additional studies at Northern Illinois University, and he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for summer study at the University of Notre Dame.

Garry E. Hall is a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who currently chairs the review board of the Archdiocese of the Military Service and is an active member of the Knights of Columbus. He is also the CEO and president of the Association of the United States Navy, in Washington. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, and an MBA from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He was designated a naval aviator and served 35 years on active duty. Operating in helicopter squadrons throughout the Pacific, he commanded two squadrons, the capital ship USS Tarawa, an expeditionary strike group, and was commandant of the Eisenhower College of National Security and Resource Strategy at National Defense University. He spent his entire Navy career operating in and managing risk.

Cesareo is president of Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts. He holds a doctorate in Late Medieval/Early Modern European History from Fordham University. He also was a Fulbright Scholar and studied at the University of Rome and Gregorian University in Rome. He has been president of Assumption College since 2007, and has held both faculty and administrative positions at several Catholic colleges and universities, including Duquesne University, Pittsburgh; John Carroll University, Cleveland; Albertus Magnus College, New Haven, Connecticut; and St. John’s University, Jamaica, New York. He serves on several boards including the Board of Visitors of Worcester Academy, the New England Center for Children, and the Adopt a Student Committee for the Diocese of Worcester. He also served on the Seminary Advisory Board for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. He became a member of the National Review Board in 2012 and was appointed chairman in 2013.

The USCCB established the National Review Board in 2002 as a consultative body of lay individuals tasked with reviewing the annual report of the Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection on the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It is part of the church’s ongoing efforts to prevent and combat clergy sexual abuse of minors.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

An admitted child molesting cleric will NOT be put back on the job in Chicago, his victim was told today via email by an archdiocesan official. (A copy of the email is below.)

[Chicago Tribune]

Fr. Bruce Wellems admits having repeatedly sexually abused Eric Johnson when Wellems was 15 and Johnson was seven. The Chicago Archdiocese temporarily suspended Fr. Wellems but dragged their feet for months while pondering whether to let the priest work again in Chicago again.

When confronted about his abusive acts, Fr. Wellems attacked the messenger, saying reports of his abusive acts had “no factual basis.”

In a bizarre twist, when our group warned parents and parishioners about Fr. Wellems, he attacked us, saying we’re guilty of “poor judgment” and “victimizing the thousands of families in the parishes where I have worked.”

[Pasadena Star-News]

Now, Archbishop Blasé Cupich should hold a news conference, explain his irresponsible and secretive behavior with this admitted predator and announce this decision to keep Fr. Wellems out of ministry in Chicago.

Fr. Wellems’ backers try to spin this as a story of sin and redemption. That’s disingenuous at best and downright dangerous at worst. This is a story of crime, not sin, and of recklessness, not redemption.

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NEW YORK
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Editor May 18, 2016

There are plenty of tough jobs in the Catholic Church, but whenever the issue flares up, Dennis Poust of the New York State Catholic Conference faces an especially daunting challenge – trying to bridge the gap between logic and emotion when it comes to suing over clerical sexual abuse.

Rationally speaking, it’s easy enough to make the case that allowing people to sue for alleged crimes from, say, fifty or sixty years ago, when by now the alleged perpetrator is dead, the supervisors are all dead, and there are no witnesses or any other evidence, simply violates common sense.

On the other hand, who wants to be the person who tells an abuse survivor that there’s no way to get justice?

“Nobody wants to be the ‘bad guy’ when it comes to sex abuse,” said Poust, who serves as director of communications for the conference, the lobbying arm of the New York bishops, which is currently fighting a proposal in the state legislature to open a window to file lawsuits over abuse otherwise barred by the statute of limitations.

“I’m a parent too, and I have children,” Poust told Crux on Monday. “I’m as disgusted as anybody by what happened, in the Church and elsewhere.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Fox 25

HAVERHILL, Mass. —
A senior priest from a Haverhill church has been accused of sexual abuse.

According to the lawsuit, the unnamed Massachusetts man accused Fr. Arnold Kelley of sexually abusing him for around three years when he was a child.

The man accused Fr. Kelley of abusing him from approximately 1973-1976, when the priest was working in Jamaica Plain at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. The man said he was around 10 to 13 years old when the abuse happened.

The man was active in the church as a parishioner, band member, and religious education student at the time of the abuse, the lawsuit says.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Altoona Mirror

May 18, 2016

By Sean Sauro (ssauro@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

More than an hour before a prayer service began Tuesday inside the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, a crowd of people gathered outside holding signs, which displayed different messages.

“Protect the children,” read one.

“No more apologies. We want justice,” read another.

The Tuesday evening service was one of three set up by the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese to pray for victims of sexual abuse.

The services came a few months after a grand jury report was released by the state Attorney General’s Office in early March.

The report detailed the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by at least 50 priests or religious leaders during a 40-year period, as well as an alleged decadeslong cover-up by diocesan leaders.

Among those outside the Cathedral was Robert Mizic, who said he traveled an hour and a half to be there.

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UNITED STATES
PBS Newshour

BY REBECCA BEITSCH, STATELINE May 18, 2016

Fueled by sexual abuse allegations against comedian Bill Cosby and the Catholic Church, and other high-profile cases dating back decades, state legislators across the country are considering lengthening or eliminating statutes of limitations on rape.

Statutes of limitations, which exist for most crimes besides murder, are intended to encourage the timely reporting of crimes. As time passes, evidence deteriorates or gets lost, memories fade and witnesses die.

But it can take years for sexual abuse victims to find the courage to come forward. Advocates for victims say statutes of limitations for rape and sexual assaults are arbitrary and outdated, and note that police departments across the country are still digging through a backlog of rape kits, some of which are three decades old.

Advocates for victims say statutes of limitations for rape and sexual assaults are arbitrary and outdated, and note that police departments across the country are still digging through a backlog of rape kits, some of which are three decades old.

Forty-three states have statutes of limitations for sex crimes, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Of the states with statutes, 27 include an exception that allows prosecutors to file charges when there is DNA evidence. State statutes of limitations often range from three years to 12 years, but in some states, accusers have more time to come forward when they say they were abused as children — until they are 21 in some states or as old as 50 in others. Some states don’t start the clock until the victim turns 18.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

[with video]

Exclusive report by Joe Holden

HARRISBURG, Pa (CBS) – Priests gathered in Montgomery County for a private meeting on Tuesday, May 17.

The meeting dealt with how the church might be confronting significant revisions to the statute of limitations.

In what the archdiocese billed as a private gathering between Archbishop Charles Chaput and scores of priests, sources inside St. Helena in Blue Bell say Chaput, the leader of the church and its 1.4 million Catholics addressed statute of limitations reform in Harrisburg.

“We’ve had so many secret meetings in secret agendas, all we are asking for is transparency,” said Karen Polesir of SNAP.

Outside the archbishop’s meeting – with police patrolling the property – protesters from victims advocacy organizations called fouls on the church over the perceived opposition to House Bill 1947.

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GUAM
San Diego Union-Tribune

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — An archbishop in Guam is defending himself against claims that he sexually abused an altar boy 40 years ago.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron released a video Tuesday, in which he denied the allegations brought by Roy Taitague Quintanilla, of Hawaii. Quintanilla has accused Apuron of sexually abusing him when he was an altar boy and the archbishop was a priest at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Agat, The Pacific Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/24WQuhA).

“To be absolutely clear and to avoid any misinterpretations of my statement, I deny all allegations of sexual abuse by Roy Quintanilla,” Apuron said in the video.

The archbishop also referred to “malicious ads” recently featured in local newspapers, including the Pacific Daily News. In a previous news release, the archdiocese said the advertisements insinuated sexual abuse by Apuron.

“As predicted just four days ago, these malicious ads have resulted in a false accusation of sexual abuse,” Apuron said in the video.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

16 May

Following a formal tender process, LimeCulture has been awarded a contract by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to provide support services for victims and survivors attending the Inquiry’s Truth Project in the north west.

LimeCulture will use the resources of RASA (Rape and Sexual Abuse) Merseyside to provide support workers and counsellors for the Truth Project which is due to start in the region later this month.

In accordance with our terms of reference, the Truth Project will give victims and survivors of child sexual abuse a chance to share their experiences with the Inquiry. It will also provide the Inquiry with a clearer picture of the nature, scope and scale of child sexual abuse in England and Wales.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

18 MAY 2016
BY NEAL KEELING

An investigation which will give a voice to victims of child sexual abuse is coming to Manchester.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse will investigate whether police, councils, and other non-state institutions shirked their duty to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales.

The wide-scale inquiry aims to identify institutional failings and make practical recommendations to protect youngsters from abuse.

The inquiry team will be in Manchester on Thursday, May 19.

It is led by judge Dame Lowell Goddard supported by an independent panel and child experts.

There have already been a number of high-profile investigations into abuse in Greater Manchester, including the grooming of children in Rochdale and specifically abuse at the town’s notorious Knowl View school.

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CANADA
The Canadian Jewish News

By Sheri Shefa, Staff Reporter – May 16, 2016

There are two questions New York-based child psychologist David Pelcovitz is often asked by child protective service professionals about the Orthodox community that makes him cringe.

“The first question they usually ask me, is, ‘What is it about you guys that you care more about the perpetrator than the victim?… This is when I want to take my yarmulke off,” said Pelcovitz, who spoke Sunday to roughly 100 educators and concerned parents at Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation about the impact of sexual abuse on children and how to protect them from it.

“The second question they ask… is, ‘What is it about you guys that you seem to have a higher rate of sibling sexual abuse? Older brothers with younger sisters? We’re seeing this as an epidemic in the New York community, and I know it happens here… we have to be aware of that. Part of it is that we need to do better sexual education with our kids. We don’t talk to our kids about sexuality.”

The presentation by Pelcovitz, a highly regarded clinical psychologist who specializes in childhood trauma and abuse, and is co-editor of Breaking the Silence: Child Abuse in the Jewish Community, came just a few months after Stephen Joseph Schacter, who taught at Eitz Chaim Schools between 1986 and 2004 and what is now Robbins Hebrew Academy from 2004 to 2006, was charged with possession of child pornography, gross indecency, sexual interference, sexual exploitation and sexual assault.

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NEW YORK
News 12

KIRYAS JOEL – A longtime Hasidic activist is speaking out against an alleged child sex abuse cover-up involving the principal of United Talmudical Academy and young boys in Kiryas Joel.

Outspoken Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg has been a voice for what he says are otherwise silenced, sexually abused Hasidic children for nearly two decades.

The 66-year-old’s activism has shunned him from his own community in Brooklyn. He also says there are parents in Kiryas Joel who have reached out to him who are scared to send their kids to school but have no other option.

While the yeshiva and parents themselves are defending the principal, Rosenberg says what’s happening here is clear.

“People know what this is all about so the pattern goes that he’s giving grandfatherly love,” he says.

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FLORIDA
Forward

Josh Nathan-Kazis
May 17, 2016

A wealthy and politically connected leader of the Williamsburg-based Satmar Hasidic sect drowned May 17 in Miami Beach, Florida.

Yitzchak Rosenberg, 67, was the president of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, the central religious organization in Brooklyn of the followers of the Kiryas Joel, New York-based Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, and a founder of the sect’s yeshiva system in Brooklyn. Rosenberg was also a major Brooklyn real estate developer and the owner of a building supply wholesaler.

Rosenberg was one of five Hasidic men pulled to sea by rip currents off of Miami Beach’s Haulover Beach on Tuesday morning, according to Miami television station Local 10. Three of the men were retrieved by jet ski, while two others reached shore on their own.

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VATICAN CITY
Premier

Wed 18 May 2016
By Hannah Tooley

The Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin will not be testifying during the Vati-leaks scandal that has embroiled the heart of Catholicism in recent months.

It had been that he may have testified on behalf of Francesca Chaouqui.

She was a Vatican public relations expert and has been charged with leaking confidential documents, a crime under Vatican law, and faces up to eight years behind bars.

She denies the charges.

The court ruled earlier in May that three witnesses – Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state; Cardinal Santos Abril Castello, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major; and Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner – would not be testifying on behalf of Ms Chaouqui.

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AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

Melissa Cunningham
May 18, 2016

Corey Artz made a harrowing journey back to his hometown with one purpose: To end the cycle of child sexual abuse which has crippled Ballarat and protect future generations of children.

His visit follows the reignition of the debate about whether abuse victims are at risk of becoming abusers.

While experts argue it is a rare exception, Mr Artz’s abuser David Ridsdale was himself an abuse victim.

Mr Artz has returned to Ballarat a broken man, vindicated by the truth.

He is now calling on the man who abused him, high profile Ballarat clergy sexual abuse victim David Ridsdale, to be equally open about what happened.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

[“There are children even killed on camera”]

Die Welt: Herr Rörig, Sie sind seit Ende 2011 Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Bundesregierung. Warum braucht es einen Job wie Ihren?

Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig: Mein Amt braucht es, um dafür zu sorgen, dass die Empfehlungen des Runden Tisches “Sexueller Missbrauch”, der von 2010 bis 2011 getagt hat, Realität werden. Dabei geht es vor allem um verbesserten Schutz für Kinder. Ich muss die Verantwortlichen immer wieder daran erinnern und fragen: Tut ihr wirklich genug angesichts des tausendfachen Missbrauchs von Kindern in Deutschland jedes Jahr?

Die Welt: Nach der Aufdeckung verschiedener Missbrauchsskandale in kirchlichen Einrichtungen und Internatsschulen kochte die öffentliche Erregung hoch. Jetzt redet keiner mehr von dem Thema. Warum?

Rörig: Es gibt bei sexueller Gewalt an Kindern in jedem Menschen den Wunsch zu verdrängen – sich nicht vorstellen zu wollen, was hinter dem Wort sexueller Kindesmissbrauch tatsächlich an schrecklichem Leid stattfindet. Die Politik denkt wohl, dass das kein Gewinnerthema ist und möchte es immer wieder gerne schnell abräumen.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Gavin Jones

Pope Francis has voiced support for a French cardinal who has faced allegations of covering up cases of paedophile priests in his Lyon parish, saying he should not resign.

Francis said in an interview with French Catholic daily La Croix that a resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin “would be a mistake, an imprudence”.

“Based on the information I have, I think in Lyon, Cardinal Barbarin has taken the necessary measures and has taken things well in hand,” the pope said. “He is a brave and creative man, a missionary.”

Francis said “we must now wait for the result of the proceedings before the civil courts,” but resigning now “would amount to admitting guilt.”

Barbarin, one of the most high-ranking officials in the French Catholic Church, has been targetted by two investigations for not reporting cases of child abuses by priests to judicial authorities.

The cardinal has denied any cover-ups, but acknowledged “some mistakes in handling and appointing some priests” last month. Other church officials have been also investigated.

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NEW YORK
JTA

By Uriel Heilman
May 17, 2016

NEW YORK (JTA) – Even before FBI investigators descended last week on the Satmar Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel, there was a growing sense in this insular community that it and its unique way of life were under attack.

Two months earlier, the FBI had been in the village investigating alleged fraud of a government program, and community leaders also have been facing a mounting campaign by dissidents to increase state oversight of yeshiva curricula.

“We need to know what kind of danger we’re in,” the Satmar rebbe in Kiryas Joel, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, said in a widely publicized May 4 speech about the threat of closer state supervision of yeshiva curricula. “These are bad times for us Jews, terrible. We need to pray to God that they should not interfere with the upbringing of our children.”

In last week’s FBI raid, investigators confiscated computer equipment and boxes of documents from the village’s Department of Public Safety and its main yeshiva, United Talmudical Academy. An unnamed law enforcement source interviewed by a local newspaper, the Journal News, said the raid was related to the publication on social media two weeks ago of a leaked hidden-camera video that appeared to show a principal of the yeshiva kissing and grasping young boys in his office. Some 6,000 students are enrolled in the school.

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ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest and campaigner for Christian IDF enlistment, said on Tuesday that he is innocent of the allegations of sexual harassment and indecent assault made against him in recent days.

Last week Channel 2 reported an investigation into the priest, including audio interviews with men and women with whom Naddaf had interacted, who accused him of making sexual references and allusions in conversations with them, as well as in Facebook messages in which Naddaf allegedly made similar such inappropriate remarks.

Two days later, a sexual harassment charge was filed against the priest by a discharged Christian IDF soldier.

On Friday, a second complainant filed charges of indecent assault against Naddaf.

Speaking to Army Radio on Tuesday, Naddaf said that opposition to his efforts to promote enlistment to the IDF among the Christian Arab community are behind the allegations against him.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By John Hill
Journal Staff Writer

Posted May. 17, 2016

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The disgraced Catholic order that successfully fended off a challenge to its control of a deceased woman’s multi-million estate last year is facing a new threat from a national anti-abortion group.

Americans United for Life is asking a Superior Court judge to overturn a Smithfield Probate Court ruling that found AUL waited too long to challenge changes Gabrielle Mee made in her 1991 will, which would have left a tenth of her approximately $60 million estate to the organization. The new version, drawn up in 2000, left all her estate to a religious order called the Legion of Christ. She died in 2008.

AUL wants its day in court to argue that the Legion used fraud and undue influence to induce Mee to change her will in the Legion’s favor.

Mary Lou Dauray, a niece of Mee, made similar arguments in a 2012 lawsuit. She lost when Associate Justice Michael Silverstein ruled that, though Dauray produced significant evidence of fraud and undue influence, because she wasn’t named in the will she didn’t have legal standing to challenge it. That ruling was upheld by the state Supreme Court in January, 2015.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

By James Reynolds
BBC News, Vatican City

Next to St Peter’s Basilica, two Swiss Guards stood underneath an arch. One carried a sword, the other a spear. The Vatican had evidently calculated that two guards familiar with medieval weaponry would be enough to deter a raid.

At the very least, they might be able to duel assailants into a standoff until reinforcements arrived.

The guards allowed us into the heart of Vatican City, for a trial that has gripped Italians for weeks.

We walked past the Casa Santa Marta, the anonymous-looking guesthouse which doubles as Pope Francis’s home. A single Swiss Guard stood at the front door. The Vatican’s tribunal building is in the same square.

“No mobile phones, no satellite phones, no transmitters,” a Vatican official joked – as if we might try to smuggle them in.

He led us towards two rows of plastic chairs at the back of a wood-panelled courtroom on the ground floor. The coat of arms of Pope Pius XI was engraved on to the ceiling, flanked by four chandeliers.

A crucifix hung on a panel behind the judges’ bench – a coincidental reminder for the devout that Jesus Christ was himself condemned by a questionable judicial verdict.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

[with video]

Part 1

Altoona, Blair County

New allegations of priest abuse in the Altoona/ Johnstown Catholic diocese surfaced Monday when a letter sent to Bishop Mark Bartchak was released to the media. In it “Whistleblower” George Foster calls for 5 priests and 1 sister to be removed from their posts and investigated.

For one victim – we call him “John” – it’s the action that he wants to see now.

“How many victims are out there, afraid to talk, because they know there ain’t going to be any help,” explains “John”.

“John” was repeatedly raped when he was a teen by a priest who he says bribed him with alcohol, money, cars and made him dress as a women. He’s still battling the trauma today.

“I feel so much better talking about it. I kept the shit inside me so damn long, when I finally exploded, I ended up in 3G,” explains “John”.

That was the mental ward of the UPMC Altoona.

“Maybe that was God’s blessing for me, you know making me snap,” adds “John.

Today, John is sober and in treatment for PTSD.

As “John” tells it, “Life’s getting better for me. I still believe in church. I do get upset with the diocese – not doing enough for the victims.”

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Weekly

By Sara Bernard Tue., May 17 2016

A law firm representing sexual abuse survivors filed six more lawsuits against the Seattle Archdiocese on Tuesday, alleging that Archdiocese knew or should have known about the crimes, yet did nothing.

Five out of the six cases involve abusive priests outed on the list of 77 names that the Archdiocese released in January. And all six plaintiffs called the law firm after the list was made public, according to Seattle attorneys Michael T. Pfau and Jason P. Amala, who’ve filed hundreds of such cases over the years. (One case settled with the Seattle Archdiocese in late March for $9.15 million.)

The six victims whose cases were filed this week “all saw the names [of their alleged perpetrators] on the list and called with questions, many of them thinking that they were the only one,” says Pfau. That fact alone is worth noting, he says. The Archdiocese had, in its files, credible accusations of sexual abuse — enough to publish each priest’s name on a list — but none of the survivors who called Pfau’s law firm had spoken out previously, or had any idea that their perpetrators may have abused other children. “To see that they weren’t the people who had called the Archdiocese to complain,” says Pfau, makes it “obvious that there are other victims.”

Still, the breadth of the six alleged crimes is astonishing, and points, once again, to the culture of abuse and secrecy that many claim dominates the Catholic Church — both in Seattle and across the world. “It’s not six abuse survivors saying one notorious pedophile abused them during a limited time,” Pfau says. “It’s six different people accusing six different pedophiles spanning 30 years at parishes all over the [Seattle] Archdiocese.” As a result, thanks to today’s news and all of the news that came before it, “You can’t really say it’s just a few bad apples.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

[with video]

By Carolyn Donaldson | cdonaldson@wtajtv.com
Published 05/18 2016

Altoona, Blair County

The second of three prayer services of healing for victims of child sex abuse took place at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona Tuesday night.

About a dozen protesters greeted church-goers as they entered for that service. They carried posters showing pictures of children who had been sexually abused. One protester – a victim when he was a child of priest sexual abuse – handed out his “call to action”.

As Robert Mizic says, “I’m here because I want justice for victims of childhood sexual abuse – not only by priests – by other adults too. We’re looking for reform and we’re looking to tell the Catholic church we’re tired of empty apologies.”

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NEW YORK
New York Times

By JOSEPH BERGER
MAY 17, 2016

KIRYAS JOEL, N.Y. — In a place where young boys spend their days hunched over volumes of Torah and Talmud, delving into timeless stories and precepts in an ancient singsong, the scene was incongruous.

Dozens of agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and county law enforcement officers — more than 50 by the count of officials in this Hasidic village about 50 miles northwest of Manhattan — converged on a four-story brick yeshiva here on Thursday, some armed with guns, others carrying crowbars, as helicopters whirred overhead. According to parents of children at the school, the authorities took away boxes filled with computers, office files and security-camera videos.

“They scared all the kids,” said Yoel Weiss, whose three sons, Moishe, 12, Shloime, 8, and Pinchas, 7, attend the yeshiva that was targeted, United Talmudical Academy of Kiryas Joel.

“They made a big commotion.”

The United Talmudical Academy. Local residents believe a recent law enforcement action is linked to video filmed in an office at the school. Credit Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times
The motivation for the operation, according to parents who learned of the questions being asked of yeshiva officials by the law enforcement authorities, was a suspicion that a longtime principal had sexually abused students. At least one episode of possible abuse was captured on video, portions of which have been shared on social media.

The parents did not want to be identified because they were wary of being drawn into the investigation. The video was filmed from overhead in the office of the principal, Rabbi Moshe Hersh Klein. One snippet shows Rabbi Klein, the gray-bearded principal of the yeshiva’s third, fourth and fifth grades, his legs around a pupil who appears to be about 8, patting the boy and kissing his cheeks, and rocking him for several seconds.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

May 17, 2016

by Tony Romeo

HARRISBURG (CBS) — The chairman of a key state Senate committee says he’s aiming for a vote next month on a House bill that would give child sex abuse victims more time to seek justice, but also insists he won’t be rushed.

The state House last month sent the Senate a bill that would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations in future cases, and would give victims of child sex abuse more time to bring civil cases.

Republican Jake Corman, the Senate majority leader, says he favors Senate action on the House-passed bill, but defers to the chairman of the committee where the bill now sits.

“We’d like to get it done. You know, look — I don’t get in front of my chairmen, that’s the worst thing I can do,” said Corman.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY DAN RIVOLI STEPHEN REX BROWN

It’s time to take a stand, governor.

Advocates lashed out at Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday for failing to back proposed legislation that would extend the state’s statute of limitations regarding child sex abuse.

“Any passivity on this issue effectively defends child sexual predators,” said Kathryn Robb, an advocate who says she endured sexual abuse as a child. “It is very simple, the governor has a choice — stand with child sexual predators, defending them by supporting (the present statute of limitations), or stand with the children of New York, and defend them. It is that simple.”

Her withering words came in response to Cuomo’s mealy-mouthed answer to a simple question — why hasn’t he met with victims of sexual abuse advocating reform of state law governing charges against child-sex abusers?

“I don’t believe that I’m not meeting with them,” he said. “And it’s a very important issue. I’m talking to the Legislature about it from a variety of opinions and perspectives.”

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MALTA
Times of Malta

May 18, 2016, 07:15 by Kim Dalli

A child abuse victim is calling for sex crimes against minors not to be time-barred and for the prescription period to come into effect, at minimum, when the abused party turns 18.

Christina, 21, opened up to this newspaper in an effort to get policymakers to rethink the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of minors.

As the law stands, the defilement of minors is time-barred after five years, meaning no criminal action can be taken if the case is reported more than five years after it took place. The rape of minors is time-barred after 15 years.

For cases of participation in sexual activity with a minor, as opposed to forced sexual activity – for example, intercourse for which the minor gave his or her ‘consent’ – the 10-year prescription period is suspended until the victim turns 18.

Ready to go by her first name but still hesitant to show her face and full identity due to the psychological trauma she has suffered, Christina explains that, as a child, she could not quite understand what was being done to her, although she instinctively felt it was “wrong”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By Patti Mengers, Delaware County Daily Times
POSTED: 05/17/16

Nearly 24 hours after priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia convened for meetings with Archbishop Charles Chaput, a state representative who claims he was abused as a child by a priest is hosting a panel for legislators on a bill that would expand the statute of limitations for filing lawsuits against suspected abusers and institutions that allegedly protected them.

Phil Saviano, whose efforts to help Boston Globe reporters expose suspected child sex abuse by nearly 90 priests in 2002 were included in the Academy Award-winning film, “Spotlight,” will be among five panelists featured in East Wing Senate Hearing Room 8 A at 12:30 this afternoon. Host is state Rep. Mark Rozzi of Berks County, D-126, who has identified himself as a survivor of Catholic clergy abuse.

“I think the panel is important because it puts a human face on an issue which can be discussed in legalese endlessly,” John Salveson, president and founder of the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse, said on Tuesday.

The 60-year-old Radnor resident, who claims he was abused as an adolescent by a Long Island priest but was ignored when he brought it to the attention of the Diocese of Rockville Centre bishop in 1980, has called the passage of House Bill 1947 “a major step forward in our battle to find justice for the victims of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania.”

Tuesday, Chaput called all priests who serve the approximately 2.5 million Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to attend meetings at St. Helena’s Church in Montgomery County. It was rumored he would be talking with them about House Bill 1947 proposed last month by state Rep. Ron Marsico, R-105, of Dauphin County that would expand from age 30 to 50 the statute of limitations for the filing of lawsuits against alleged abusers and institutions entrusted with the victims’ protection.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Intelligencer

By Jo Ciavaglia, staff writer

On a November day in 2014, Carole Trickett had just spent an hour testifying before a grand jury about a part of her childhood she spent most of her 79 years trying to put out of her mind, when a Bucks County prosecutor posed one last question to the 1954 Solebury School graduate.

How did she think the alleged sex abuse she experienced as a child at the hands of one of the school’s founders affected her life?

The Maine resident answered, but only after she took two minutes to compose herself, she said during a recent phone interview. She doesn’t recall her exact answer, but does remember the question left her astonished.

“They need to understand this is not just having your appendix out. It’s affected me in many ways,” said Trickett. “It doesn’t go away.”

While the painful memories of child sex abuse don’t expire, time limits for victims to take court action against their abusers does.

For example, only one of the reportedly dozens of alleged sex abuse victims over decades at Solebury School, a private boarding school, falls within the legal time frames for pursuing criminal and civil action, according to sources close to the now 18-month-old grand jury investigation.

Trickett and others want to see that changed. It’s why she will appear, along with other alleged Solebury School sex abuse victims and statute of limitations reform supporters, at the Pennsylvania Capitol on Wednesday for an event to bring attention to proposed legislation that would extend — in some cases eliminate — those time limits.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Voice

WEDNESDAY, 18 MAY 2016

ARIELLA HAVIV

An interview with Mark Meyer Appel, the founder of Voice of Justice

There is no doubt to anyone who has eyes to see and ears that hear that the myriad headlines that dominate the media reveal egregious corruption amongst trusted officials and the kind of moral turpitude that causes a collective cringe.

For decades, the seemingly at peace Orthodox Jewish world has had its share of shocking publicity when facts emerged about horrific child sexual abuse; perpetrated not by circumspect types in the outside world but by respected adult members of the community.

Raising one’s voice in outrage and indignation and thusly confronting the dense wall of silence that has been erected by the Orthodox Community in shielding perpetrators has been a most daunting venture. Given the community’s resistance to speaking openly about this terrifying phenomenon, those who would entertain the notion of crossing this invisible line are readily shunned; threatened and even ostracized.

Enter Mark Meyer Appel, founder of the Voice of Justice. Mr. Appel’s name has come to personify those victims of abuse whose voices have been drowned out in this continuing and painful conversation. Mr. Appel , however, cannot claim neophyte status in terms of acquiring knowledge on child sexual abuse.

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IOWA
Daily Nonpareil

By Derek Sullivan
dsullivan@nonpareilonline.com

An Oakland man will stand trial on sexual abuse charges after his motion to dismiss charges was denied Monday.

James Raborn, 26, has been charged with two felony counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, two misdemeanor counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist as well as single misdemeanor counts of dissemination or exhibition of obscene materials to minors and purchase or possession of a depiction of a minor in a sex act.

If convicted of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, a Class D felony, Raborn could receive up to five years in prison on each count.

On March 23, Raborn’s attorney, Jordan Glaser, filed a motion to dismiss the charges. In April, Fourth Judicial District Chief Judge Jeffrey Larson heard arguments from Glaser and prosecutor Shelly Sudmann on the motion.

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OHIO
Portsmouth Daily Times

By Frank Lewis – flewis@civitasmedia.com

A former Jackson County, Ohio pastor has been found guilty of 14 of the 15 counts against him in a sexual abuse trial. Dennis V. Wright, 67, who was convicted on the charges involving three victims, reportedly abused a teenage girl numerous times and a mentally challenged adult while he was pastor of the Old Emory Church in Madison Township. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting his own son back in 1989 and 1990 when his son was only 10.

“They convicted him on all counts except count 5, which was illegal use of a minor in a nudity-oriented material,” Defense Attorney Gene Meadows said. “We tried the bulk of the case to the jury. There were several charges in the indictment that had sexual violent predator specifications attached to them. We tried those to the bench today (Tuesday) and we come back for sentencing Thursday.”

The investigation was conducted by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI)

According to a story in the Jackson County Times-Journal, the unnamed female was 13 when the first incident occurred. The story said the girl’s father found out about the situation and reported it to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in February 2015.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

An Archbishop in Guam is denying an allegation he molested an altar boy 40 years ago.

52-year-old Roy Quintanilla said the abuse occurred when Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who was then a pastor, asked him to stay the night at his house when he was just 12-years-old.

Mr Quintanilla said he wanted closure and was worried there may be others like him who had pushed the experience of abuse into the back of their minds.

But in a video statement on the website of the Catholic Archdiocese of Agana in Guam, the Archbishop rejected the accusation.

“To be absolutely clear and to avoid any misinterpretations of my statement, I deny all allegations of sexual abuse by Roy Quintanilla.”

Mr Quintanilla, who was then an altar boy, said it felt like the abuse just happened yesterday.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE

Stephen Jimenez returned to Windsor Terrace for the first time in 25 years Tuesday and was bombarded by warm memories — and raw, gut-wrenching emotional wounds.

Jimenez grew up in a three-story home in this leafy Brooklyn neighborhood surrounded by a loving extended family.

This was also where a Holy Name of Jesus Elementary School teacher named Brother Romanus repeatedly sexually abused Jimenez for nearly four years in the 1960s. Jimenez said Brother Romanus, a member of the Xaverian order who died in 1992, assaulted him dozens of times between the ages of 10 and 13 in a classroom closet, bathhouse locker rooms and swimming pool changing rooms, even under the boardwalk at Coney Island.

“I love this place,” Jimenez, 62, said as he sat on a park bench and wiped tears from his face. “But it is really difficult to come back. I feel like a piece of my life has been stolen from me.”

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Ines San Martin
Vatican correspondent May 16, 2016

ROME— In a new interview with a French newspaper Pope Francis stirred the waters once again, saying there must be no limit on the Church’s prosecution of sex abuse by priests, defending both secular states and religious freedom, and saying that it’s often a mistake to “clericalize” talented laity by turning them into deacons.

“It’s true that it’s not easy to judge the facts after decades, in another context,” Francis told La Croix when asked about a series of sex abuse scandals currently shaking the French church.

“Reality is not always clear,” he said.

“But for the Church, in this area, there can be no prescription,” he continued, referring to a term in the Code of Canon Law for a statute of limitations against prosecuting crimes after a certain period of time.

“With these abuses, a priest who has the vocation to lead [people] to God destroys a child,” Francis said. “[He] spreads evil, resentment, pain.”

“As Benedict XVI said, there must be zero tolerance,” Francis said.

Questioned about the specific case of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who has admitted to making mistakes in the handling of clerical sexual abuse in his diocese of Lyon, Francis said that based on the information he has, he believes Barbarin took the necessary measures.

“He’s courageous, creative, [and a] missionary,” Francis said. “We must now wait for the result of the proceedings before the civil courts.”

The pope rejected calls for Barbarin to resign.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY SARA SMALL TUESDAY, MAY 17TH 2016

ALTOONA — The faithful of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown gathered Tuesday night to continue the process of healing.

This is the second of three prayer services the Diocese is holding to pray for victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of religious leaders.

Victims, as well as their families, attended the service at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona.

“There are no words to express the sorrow and the hurt for those who have been harmed in our church,” says Tony DeGol, Diocese spokesman.

While there are few words that may help in the healing process, Bishop Mark Bartchak is trying to assure the faithful.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Part 2

[with video]

Altoona, Blair County

This victim says he’s been scarred for life over years of sexual abuse and being forced to dress as a woman during sexual encounters with a priest.

He’s still worried about the toll it takes on his family and wanted to remain anonymous.

We’ll call him “John”.

John’s story is shocking. Raised as a Catholic, he attended Catholic elementary schools in Altoona before heading to Bishop Guilfoyle as a teen.

As “John” recalls, “That’s where I got to meet Fr. Raymond – Fr. Raymond Waldruff. He was my teacher at Bishop Guilfoyle.”

When he was 15 – “John” said the grooming began.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY STEPHEN REX BROWN

New York’s statute of limitations on misdemeanor sexual abuse would prevent a now-suspended Catholic priest from being criminally prosecuted — the latest example of how current laws work against victims.

A church-run inquiry determined that accusations lodged against the Rev. James Williams, former president of Chaminade High School in Mineola, L.I., of sexually abusing a former student had been deemed “credible.”

Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas revealed her office was also aware of the accusations, but that her hands were tied.

“The victim alleged conduct constituting misdemeanor sexual abuse by Father Williams in 2011. The victim, who was legally an adult at the time of the alleged abuse, did not wish to pursue criminal charges. The two-year statute of limitations for misdemeanor sexual abuse expired in 2013, two years before the alleged abuse was reported by the diocese,” said Brendan Brosh, a spokesman for Singas.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Editorial

The Nassau County district attorney was legally barred from filing a sex abuse charge against a priest who served as president of a prominent Long Island boys high school — demonstrating once more that New York’s statute of limitations can be a predator’s best friend.

A former student told the DA in 2015 that Father James Williams, ex-president of Chaminade High School, had abused him in 2011. Since the alleged conduct — denied by Williams — occurred more than two years earlier, the statute ruled out a criminal case.

The unidentified student, who is said to have been 18 at the time of the incident or incidents, reportedly preferred not to file a criminal complaint even if the law had given him the power. The point is that he and other alleged victims should have the opportunity to do so if they wish.

According to the district attorney, Williams’ reputed actions amounted to misdemeanor sex abuse. New York’s Penal Law includes only three relevant sexually related misdemeanors.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

[with video]

Written by Janela Carrera

Roy Quintanilla says he’s offended that the archbishop would deny the allegations of sexual abuse.

Guam – Roy Taitague Quintanilla says he’s offended that Archbishop Anthony Apuron would deny that he sexually abused Quintanilla when Quintanilla was an altar boy. He also explains what motivated him to end his 40-year silence.

It was the first time anyone has publicly come out with allegations that they were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Archbishop Anthony Apuron. Hours after Roy Quintanilla made the announcement yesterday, Archbishop Apuron released his own video statement, denying all the allegations.

“When I first became aware of his response, obviously my first response was absolutely offended because I know what he did, he knows what he did and he knows that he’s lying,” says Quintanilla. “I am not lying.”

Quintanilla says he has no intention of taking the archbishop to court. All he wants is for the archbishop to admit what he did wrong. He also says his public statements are aimed at Archbishop Apuron and not at the Church.

“I want it to be clear that I’m not confronting the catholic church, I’m not confronting the faith, I’m confronting the person: Anthony Sablan Apuron. And I’m offended that in his response he hides behind the church and he hides behind the cloth and implies that I am slandering the church when that could not be further from the truth. I am not slandering the church, I love my faith and I love the catholic church,” he says.

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GUAM
Times Live (South Africa)

[with video]

AFP

The head of the Catholic Church in Guam was forced to publicly defend himself from accusations of sexual abuse, describing the allegation as part of an ongoing “malicious” attack.

“To be absolutely clear and to avoid any misinterpretations of my statement I deny all allegations of sexual abuse,” Archbishop Anthony Apuron said in a televised statement.

The accusation was made by 52-year-old Roy Taitague Quintanilla who said he was molested 40 years ago when he was an altar boy at a church where Apuron was the parish priest in the western Pacific US territory.

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WASHINGTON
Chinook Observer

Published on May 17, 2016

SEATTLE (AP) — Six new child sex abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Seattle Archdiocese.

The Seattle attorneys who filed the lawsuits say more abuse survivors came forward after the Catholic church released the names of 77 people against which credible allegations have been made.

They allege they were abused at various parishes and schools across the Seattle Archdiocese from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. In each lawsuit, they claim the Archdiocese knew or should have known that the abuse posed a danger to children, but did not protect them.

In January of this year, the Seattle Archdiocese identified each of the six priests identified in the complaints as being the subject of “credible” sexual abuse allegations involving children.

Each of the plaintiffs filed their claims under pseudonym to protect their identity because they allege they were sexually abused as children.

At least three Roman Catholic priests stationed in Pacific County from 1958 to 1971 were identified as being among 77 Catholic clergy believed to have sexually abused Washington state children.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA CITIZEN EDITORIAL BOARD

The act of penance, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, requires “the sinner to endure all things willingly, be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practise complete humility and fruitful satisfaction.” It is abhorrent to read these words while learning new details of the abuse of young people in Ottawa by Catholic priests.

Contrition and confession. Both appear in short supply, based on Citizen reporter Andrew Duffy’s findings about the Archdiocese of Ottawa suing its insurance companies over the costs of lawsuits from victims of sexual abuse. Based on Duffy’s scouring of court records and the online database Sylvia’s Site, there have been at least 41 victims in the Ottawa diocese. The archdiocese won’t provide an exact number.

Sadly, the abuse of children by priests is not news in Ottawa: The scandal began to surface in the mid-1980s.

But the archdiocese has declined to answer a number of detailed questions put to it in writing last week by the Citizen. There may be more victims; we know only of those for whom there is a legal paper trail. And how many priests were involved? Silence from the church, though the Citizen’s analysis counts at least 11. So much for confession.

One priest has spoken, at least. Rev. Barry McGrory admitted to assaulting two girls and one boy at Ottawa’s Holy Cross Parish. He says then-archbishop Joseph-Aurèle Plourde (now deceased) knew about it, but that instead of being treated – or imprisoned – he, McGrory, was moved to Toronto, where four years later he was charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

ANDREW DUFFY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

The Archdiocese of Ottawa will not say how many victims of clergy sex abuse it has recognized or how much it has paid them. But, as Andrew Duffy reports in this series, documents filed in a recent lawsuit begin to answer those questions, while also revealing details of never-before-known cases — such as that of Rev. Barry McGrory. Read Part 1 of this series below. Read Part 2: “Priest admits to sexual abuse for first time in Citizen interview” here. Read Part 3: “Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy’s most notorious abuser” tomorrow.

Documents filed by the Archdiocese of Ottawa as part of an insurance lawsuit disclose substantial new information about the history and scope of Ottawa’s clergy sex abuse scandal.

The scandal began to unfold in the mid-1980s, but the number of victims in this city has remained a closely guarded secret.

The diocese will reveal neither how many sexual abuse victims it has compensated, nor how much it has paid them.

Documents filed in the recent insurance suit, however, make credible estimates possible.

A Citizen analysis of court records, newspaper files and Sylvia’s Site — a website devoted to tracking the church sex abuse scandal in Canada — reveals there have been at least 41 acknowledged victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Ottawa diocese.

Eleven priests who worked in the diocese have been connected to sexual abuse through criminal and civil actions, the Citizen’s analysis shows. That total includes three previously unreported cases.

The diocese’s historic silence has meant that understanding the full scope of the sex abuse scandal in the Ottawa diocese is difficult since some cases have been prosecuted in criminal courts, while others have been settled privately in civil actions.

The Archdiocese of Ottawa was asked to produce its own victim numbers, but it declined.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

ANDREW DUFFY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

The Archdiocese of Ottawa will not say how many victims of clergy sex abuse it has recognized or how much it has paid them. But, as Andrew Duffy reports in this series, documents filed in a recent lawsuit begin to answer those questions, while also revealing details of never-before-known cases — such as that of Rev. Barry McGrory. Read Part 1 of this series: “Insurance lawsuit reveals secrets of Ottawa’s clergy abuse scandal” here. Read Part 2 below. Read Part 3: “Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy’s most notorious abuser” Wednesday.

A retired Catholic priest admitted, in an interview with the Citizen, that he sexually abused three young parishioners at Ottawa’s Holy Cross Parish in the 1970s and 80s.

Rev. Barry McGrory said he was a sex addict who suffered from a powerful attraction to adolescents, both male and female.

Then Archbishop Joseph-Aurèle Plourde, he said, knew of his sexual problems before moving him to a Toronto-based organization dedicated to assisting remote Catholic missions.

Many of the missions were in native communities in Canada’s north.

Four years after leaving Ottawa, in 1991, McGrory was charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old native youth.

McGrory told the Citizen he was a victim of his illness, a sexual disorder from which he’s now cured.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune

HAVERHILL — Another Catholic priest with Haverhill ties has been accused of sexually abusing a child.

Mitchell Garabedian, lawyer who has brought civil suits against several priests and the Archdiocese of Boston, has filed a civil suit against the Rev. Arnold Kelley, an elderly priest who lived and served at All Saints Parish in Haverhill for several years.

The suit says Kelley abused a boy who was 10 to 13 years old from approximately 1973 to 1976 at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Jamaica Plain.

The suit asks that the Archdiocese recognize Kelley as a sexual predator and make a settlement with the victim.

Kelley is the second All Saints priest accused of abusing a child. Former priest Kelvin Iguabita served 12 years in jail after being convicted in 2000 with raping a 15-year-old girl at the church. He is also accused in a recent civil suit of abusing a 5-year-old girl from the parish 15 years ago. That suit also names officials from the Archdiocese of Boston as defendants.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Kyle Daly, kjdaly@guampdn.com May 17, 2016

Archbishop Anthony Apuron released a recorded video Tuesday evening in which he denied allegations that he sexually abused an altar boy about 40 years ago.

On Tuesday morning, Roy Taitague Quintanilla, 52, of Hawaii, gave a detailed account to the media, alleging that he was sexually abused by the archbishop when he was an altar boy and the archbishop was a priest.

Apuron hasn’t been charged with a crime and no lawsuit has been filed against the archbishop.

“To be absolutely clear and to avoid any misinterpretations of my statement, I deny all allegations of sexual abuse by Roy Quintanilla,” Apuron said in the video.

In his video statement, the archbishop referred to what he called “malicious ads” that were placed in local newspapers, including the Pacific Daily News, in recent days. The Concerned Catholics of Guam, a group that has been critical of the archbishop, paid for the ads, which called for victims of sexual abuse to come forward.

In a previous news release, the archdiocese stated the advertisements insinuated criminal sexual abuse by Apuron.

“As predicted just four days ago, these malicious ads have resulted in a false accusation of sexual abuse,” Apuron said in the video.

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MISSISSIPPI
Washington Times

By JEFF AMY – Associated Press – Tuesday, May 17, 2016

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to fondling a boy has been sentenced to 10 years in a Mississippi prison, followed by deportation to Mexico.

The Rev. Jose Vazquez was ordered to serve the sentence without possibility of parole. Jones County Circuit Judge Dal Williamson also ordered that Vazquez serve an additional five years in prison if he is caught re-entering the United States after he’s deported.

Vazquez, 37, was arrested in September after a man reported inappropriate behavior between his 12-year-old son and the priest.

“This behavior is reprehensible and will not be tolerated. We continue to be saddened by his actions and for his victim,” the Biloxi diocese said in a statement. “When first notified about the accusation, diocesan officials cooperated fully with civil authorities, and the priest was immediately suspended from all ministry and removed as a pastor.”

Diocesan spokesman Terry Dixon declined comment when asked if Vazquez has been removed from the priesthood, or if the diocese faces any civil lawsuits because of Vazquez.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Road to Recovery

Boston Archdiocesan senior priest, Fr. Arnold E. Kelley, currently in residence at All Saints Parish, Haverhill, MA, is accused of sexually abusing a minor child from approximately 1973-1976 according to a lawsuit filed recently in Essex County, Superior Court, Salem, MA

“John Doe” of Massachusetts has accused Fr. Arnold E. Kelley of sexually abusing him from approximately 1973-1976 when he was approximately 10-13 years of age at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Jamaica Plain, MA

What
A press conference alerting parishioners, the general public, and the media of the recent filing of a lawsuit in Essex County, Superior Court, Salem, MA, against Fr. Arnold E. Kelley by a man who claims to have been sexually abused as a minor child for approximately three years by Fr. Arnold E. Kelley at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Jamaica Plain, MA

When
Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at 11:00 am

Where
On the public sidewalk outside All Saints Roman Catholic Church, 120 Bellevue Avenue, Haverhill, MA 01832

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey, that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, former Catholic priest Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
As early as 1997, the Archdiocese of Boston was made aware of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor child by Fr. Arnold E. Kelley at St. Rita’ s Parish in Lowell, MA. It is believed that Fr. Arnold E. Kelley arrived at St. Rita’s Parish in approximately 1980. Recently, a man came forward to report that he was sexually abused as a minor child from approximately 1973-1976 when he was approximately 10-13 years of age by Fr. Arnold E. Kelley at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Jamaica Plain, MA. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of this man in Essex County Superior Court in Salem, MA, against Fr. Arnold E. Kelley for sexual abuse. “John Doe” was active in St. Thomas Aquinas Parish as a parishioner, band member, and religious education student. “John Doe” alleges that he was sexually abused as a minor child by Fr. Arnold E. Kelley at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish School and St. Thomas Aquinas High School. Demonstrators will demand that Fr. Arnold E. Kelley be recognized by Cardinal O’Malley as a sexual predator, and that John Doe’s claim be validated and settled fairly by the Archdiocese of Boston.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800

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NEW ZEALAND
Manawatu Standard

KARL DU FRESNE
May 18 2016

OPINION: On a recent Monday morning I sat at the press desk in the Wellington District Court and watched as a former Catholic priest was sentenced to six years and seven months in prison for historical sex offences.

Peter Joseph Hercock left the priesthood in the 1980s. He is 72 now, and married with a son. But in the 1970s he was a chaplain and counsellor at Sacred Heart Girls’ College in Lower Hutt.

The four women who pursued complaints against him were then pupils in their early teens. They were grappling with personal problems or came from troubled home environments – sometimes both.

hey went to Hercock thinking he would help them. Instead he groomed them for his sexual gratification. He raped and indecently assaulted them in his bedroom in the Catholic presbytery and at a Kapiti Coast bach used by nuns.

One victim, then aged 14, vividly recalled a “wretched” Leonard Cohen record playing in the background as she was raped. Another was given two glasses of whisky and carried to bed.

Much as we have become accustomed to sordid stories of sexual abuse by priests, the women’s victim impact statements were painful to sit through.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Jacqueline Perry Guzman | Post News Staff

A man has come forward and publicly accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting him 40 years ago, when he was a 12-year-old altar boy.

Roy Taitague Quintanilla gathered with family members and friends and read a letter addressed to the archbishop to members of the media just below the Archdiocese of Hagåtña Chancery Office in Agana Heights on Tuesday, May 17.

Quintanilla, 52, alleged the archbishop molested him while he was an altar server at Mount Carmel Church in Agat when the archbishop served as the parish priest.

The letter details the incident beginning with a trip to the movies with all the altar boys of the parish and then each of them being dropped off at their home. “I was the last of the altar boys in the van. I thought you were going to take me home like the others, but instead, you asked if I could sleep at your house,” he said, reading the letter.

He alleged that at the archbishop’s house, he was told to sleep in the same room as Apuron and that Apuron grabbed his private parts.

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FRANKREICH
kathpress

Paris-Vatikanstadt, 17.05.2016 (KAP) Papst Franziska hat sich gegen einen Rücktritt des französischen Primas, Erzbischof Philippe Barbarin von Lyon, ausgesprochen. Dies wäre “unklug” und müsste wie ein Schuldeingeständnis ausgelegt werden, sagte er im Interview der französischen Zeitung “La Croix” (Montag). Stattdessen müsse man die Ergebnisse der staatlichen Ermittlungen abwarten. Nach seinen Erkenntnissen habe Barbarin die notwendigen Maßnahmen zur Aufklärung der Fälle ergriffen, so Franziskus.

Barbarin wird beschuldigt, von Missbrauchsfällen gewusst und nicht angemessen reagiert zu haben. Mitglieder der französischen Regierung forderten seinen Rücktritt.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

May 18 2016

Christopher Knaus

Fresh claims have emerged against a former headmaster of St Edmund’s College, who was accused last year of molesting a student repeatedly over two years.

The late Brother Noel Landener served his first stint as a headmaster at St Edmund’s between 1960 and 1965, following a long career in the Catholic Christian Brothers order.

He was celebrated in the decades after he left the school, and rose through the ranks of Christian Brothers to become a member of Queensland’s provincial council and then a school inspector in the same state, according to his obituary.

He was praised for driving up student numbers, cultivating “self-discipline”, and having a “talent for organisation, abundant energy, and a clear view of the school he wanted St Edmund’s to become”.

One of the school’s six houses was named in his honour.

But, following his death in 1982, disturbing allegations began to emerge about his five years in Canberra.

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WASHINGTON
KIRO

by: David Wagner Updated: May 17, 2016

Six new lawsuits against the Seattle Archdiocese detail three decades of alleged abuse by six priests and a youth minister. The lawsuits are being filed this morning in King County Superior Court.

Among those accused:

* Father James Gandrau, St. Mark Parish in Shoreline
* Father Dennis Muehe, St. Anne Parish in Seattle
* Father Theodore Marmo, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Edward Hall
* Father Harold Quigg, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Edward Hall
* Father Jerome Dooley, Sacred Heart Catholic Church and School in Tacoma
* Father David Jaeger, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and School in Everett

All six priests were on the list of 77 church pedophiles released by the Seattle Archdiocese in January.

“After the Archdiocese released the list of names our office received dozens of calls from abuse survivors, including many people who thought they were the only one. These cases represent the first group of abuse victims who decided they wanted to take action, but I would be surprised if more claims are not filed,” said attorney Michael Pfau.

There is also a church worker, named in one of the lawsuits, not included on the list of pedophiles released by the Seattle Archdiocese. Jim Funnell was a youth minister at St. John Vianney in Kirkland.

According to the lawsuit, “Funnell groomed and sexually abused” a boy. It goes on to say that the parents of “another boy who was molested by Funnell” talked with parish priest, Ted Marmo, but Marmo never confronted Funnell and didn’t restrict his access to children. Father Marmo is among those previously named by the archdiocese as a pedophile priest.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
5.17.2016

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Governments work best when they are secular, not confessional, but they must give ample space for people to express their religious beliefs, including by respecting the right of conscientious objection, Pope Francis told the French Catholic newspaper La Croix.

While legislatures must “discuss, argue, explain (and) reason” about legal solutions to complex issues, including euthanasia and same-sex marriage, “once a law has been adopted, the state must also respect consciences,” the pope said in the interview published May 16. “The right to conscientious objection must be recognized within each legal structure because it is a human right — including for a government official, who is a human person.”

National governments, he said, “must be secular. Confessional states end badly.” …

The journalists also asked Pope Francis about a case of clerical sexual abuse that has “shattered” Catholics in the Archdiocese of Lyon where a priest, who ran a large Catholic school, has been charged with “sexual aggression and rape of minors” between 1986 and 1991.

“It is not easy to judge the facts decades later in a different context,” Pope Francis said, but “there can be no statute of limitations for the church in this field. … As Benedict XVI said, there must be zero tolerance.”

An association of the priest’s victims have filed a lawsuit against Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, accusing him of failing to act to stop the abusive priest. “Based on the information that I have, I believe that Cardinal Barbarin in Lyon took the necessary measures and that he has matters under control,” Pope Francis said.

The pope said he believed that Cardinal Barbarin resigning would be “a contradiction, imprudent” while the case is still under study because “would amount to an admission of guilt.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

May 17, 2016 By Mark Abrams

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput will conduct two private, closed door meetings today with priests from the archdiocese.

There is a pressing issue on his agenda.

Sources tell KYW Newsradio the archbishop will review the status of legislation which would allow victims of clerical sex abuse to sue their perpetrators, as well as the church that employs them.

That legislation passed the state House several weeks ago and is now in the Senate.

Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a Montgomery County Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee where the bill has been referred, has told advocates some kind of action could come on the bill before lawmakers recess in June.

The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference claims the legislation would prompt lawsuits that could eventually bankrupt parishes.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on remarks made by Pope Francis in an interview with the French media:

“Pope Rules Out Early Resignation for Cardinal in Paedophilia Storm”

“Pope Rules out Early Resignation for French Cardinal”

“Pope Shows Support for Cardinal Accused of Covering Up Abuse”

“Pope Backing Cardinal Accused of Covering Up ‘Abuse’”

These are some of today’s headlines regarding Pope Francis’ comments on the status of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon. The headlines smack of Catholic baiting: the cardinal has not been found guilty of anything, and there never was a cover-up. Therefore, it was entirely defensible of the pope to say, “Based on the information that I have, I believe that Cardinal Barbarin in Lyon took the necessary measures and that he has matters under control.” Here’s what happened.

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NEW YORK
Crux

By Ed Wilkinson
Catholic News Service May 17, 2016

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Although Pope Francis has succeeded in rebranding the public profile of the Church, according to a Vatican PR aide, his positive tone isn’t always reflected when Catholics themselves take to the use of social media.

On the contrary, to hear Father Thomas Rosica tell it, sometimes Catholic conversation on-line is more “culture of death” than “culture of life.”

“Many of my non-Christian and non-believing friends have remarked to me that we ‘Catholics’ have turned the Internet into a cesspool of hatred, venom and vitriol, all in the name of defending the faith!” he said.

“The character assassination on the Internet by those claiming to be Catholic and Christian has turned it into a graveyard of corpses strewn all around,” said Rosica, who assists the Vatican Press Office with English-speaking media, on May 11 as he delivered the keynote address at the Brooklyn Diocese’s observance of World Communications Day.

“Often times the obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices are very disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners!” Rosica said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Further details have emerged concerning the so called “Vatileaks II” trial, investigating how various confidential documents were leaked to Italian journalists in the year 2015.

The Holy See Press office issued a six page summary of the court proceedings, where particular focus was given to contents of mobile phone messages and emails from Mons. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, one of the accused parties. At the time of the leaks, Mons. Vallejo was an official working in the Organisation for Ecomonic-Administrative structure of the Holy See (COSEA).

Much of the Monday 16th May’s testimony came from Gianluca Guazzi, Commissioner of the Vatican Gendarmes corps. The Commissioner told the court about 110 thousand Euro being spent on a computer server to hold all of COSEA’s documents. He also pointed out that the computer systems consultant was Corrado Lanino, husband of the accused Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, and that until recently, no superior in the Vatican had known the location of the server.

Accounts were also heard of how the accused believed they were being spied on, and had began to use the “Whatsapp” messaging service on their mobile phones because they believed that the service was immune to phone taping and interception.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

The so called “Vatileaks II” trial continues in the Vatican courtroom. The trial is investigating how various confidential papers from the Vatican were leaked to Italian journalists in the year 2015.

The session on Monday 16th May began at about 15:30 pm. A panel of Vatican lawyers continued to investigate the accused parties, Mons. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui and Nicola Maio.

The accused journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi were not present at the court session. They were instead represented by their lawyers.

Two other men, Mario Benotti and Paulo Mondani, were also requested to give testimony, but they did not appear at the court session.

(due to their respective absences, both the Prosecution and Defence lawyers requested that their testimony not be used during the trial.)

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bollettino

Vatican City, 17 May 2016 – This morning, at around 11 a.m., a further hearing was held in the Vatican City State Tribunal in the ongoing trial for the dissemination of reserved information and documents, according to information provided by the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J. It was attended by the members of the Tribunal (Professors Giuseppe Dalla Torre, Piero Antonio Bonnet, Paolo Papanti-Pelletier and Venerando Marano), the Promoter of Justice (Professor Roberto Zannotti), and the defendants, Ángel Lucio Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui and Nicola Maio. The defendants Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi were absent but were represented by their lawyers. Therefore, all five respective legal representatives were present: Emanuela Bellardini, Laura Sgrò, Rita Claudia Baffioni, Lucia Teresa Musso and Roberto Palombi.

At the beginning of the session, the president read the following Order of the Court: “Considering the deposition of the deputy commissioner Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti during the hearing of 16 May 2016; given that outcomes emerged that, although present in the seized information and computer appliances, were not known by the Promoter of Justice and the defendants; that Article 400 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for the acquisition for the proceedings of the documentation shown by the witness during his testimony; the Promoter of Justice and the counsels for the defence may present requests exclusively in relation to the aforementioned documentation during the hearing of 24 May 2016 at 3.30 p.m.; the session shall be dedicated to the examination of the witnesses Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti and Stefano De Santis, and expert witnesses (17.5.2016)”.

The report of the declaration made yesterday afternoon by the witness Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti was read and approved. The session was concluded shortly after 11.30 a.m. and, as indicated in the order, the next hearing will take place on 24 May at 3.30 p.m.

Note: Article 400 paragraph 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to situations in which manifestly influential evidence emerges during the discussion.

The session held yesterday afternoon, starting at 3.30 p.m. and attended by those named above and by the Promoter of Justice Professor Giampiero Milano, was dedicated to the further interrogation of witnesses. Although summoned, Mario Benotti and Paolo Mondani were not present, and the President asked the counsels for the defence of Msgr. Vallejo Balda and the Promoter of Justice whether to continue with further summons. They answered that they were willing to renounce their testimony for reasons of procedural economy.

The four witnesses present were therefore examined: Fabio Schiaffi, official of the Protocol of the Prefecture of Economic Affairs, requested by the Promoter of Justice; Professor Lucia Ercoli, health official of Vatican City State and Msgr. Vittorio Trani, chaplain of the Regina Coeli prison, requested by the defence for Chaouqui; and Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti, commissioner of the Gendarme Corps Vatican City State Gendarme Corps, who performed the forensic analysis of information and computer appliances seized during investigations, requested by the Promoter of Justice. The witnesses responded to questioning by the Promoter of Justice, the counsels for the defence and the panel of judges.

Following the interrogation of each witness, the respective report was read and approved. Since the deposition of the witness Gauzzi was prolonged and needed more time, at 7.15 p.m. the President of the Tribunal adjourned the hearing until 11 a.m. the following day, for the continuation of the examination of witnesses.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Christopher Knaus

Catholic officials knowingly allowed two suspected paedophiles, including one of NSW’s worst, to continue teaching unpunished, eventually putting St Edmund’s College students at risk for a decade.

One cover-up involved a Marist Brothers principal in Sydney, who was aware that now-notorious child predator Brother Francis “Romuald” Cable was abusing boys, but failed to report him to police.

Cable instead went to Newcastle, where he molested another 11 children before leaving the order to teach at St Edmund’s between 1979 and 1989.

Fairfax Media has also established that the Christian Brothers, who then ran St Edmund’s, became aware of a complaint against one of their NSW brothers, but sent him to Canberra regardless, allowing him to allegedly abuse another boy.

The Christian Brothers concede their past handling of such cases was flawed and that “what happened 25 years ago is not what the community or we would accept today”.

The Marist Brothers say the Sydney principal never reported Cable’s abuse to his superiors, and that the order’s leadership did not become aware of any complaint until 1993, when his teaching career was over.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY GRAHAM RAYMAN
HELLA WINSTON
REUVEN BLAU
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, May 17, 2016

The three Orthodox Jewish men accused of brutally beating a gay black man and leaving him partially blind will likely not serve prison time under an expected plea deal, the Daily News has learned.

The case largely crumbled once at least two witnesses to the December 2013 beatdown changed their version of events after initially implicating the members of the Shomrim volunteer Jewish security patrol, sources said.

Also, surveillance video from the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, scene is limited, people familiar with the case told The News.

Taj Patterson, 25, was walking down Flushing Ave. in Williamsburg in December 2013 when he was set upon by a gang of men shouting anti-gay slurs, prosecutors said. Patterson suffered severe injuries including a broken eye socket and a torn retina that has left him permanently blind in one eye.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

EDITORIAL

It seems counterintuitive, but every time you hear about a financial scandal in the Vatican, that is good news, not bad. It is good news because it shows — to quote the Vatican’s financial watchdog — that the regulatory system is working.

For too long, the church has been racked by financial mismanagement. Now, some will say the basic problem is that clerics shouldn’t be put in charge of finances. Because their training is in theology, they lack either the training or the interest in finances to develop the expertise necessary to run multimillion-dollar, multinational organizations and are too easily compromised by incompetent but devout lay advisers or duped by those with nefarious intent.

A second cause of Vatican financial woes, according to many observers, is geography: The Holy See may be a sovereign nation, but it is culturally Italian, and in Italy nepotism and financial corruption are common. Getting a job or a contract in the Vatican could depend on whom you know more than what skills you bring.

Pope John Paul II clearly had concerns about Italian practices and at the beginning of his papacy gave all the top financial jobs to non-Italians. He appointed Cardinal Edmund Szoka of Detroit to head the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See in 1990. Szoka imposed the first unified chart of accounts for the Vatican, computerized the books and published detailed financial statements.

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FRANCE
La Depeche

[Monsignor Tony Antarella, an influential priest of the Diocese of Paris, is accused of sexual abuse.]

L’Eglise catholique est de nouveau entachée par un scandale d’agression sexuelle. Monseigneur Tony Anatrella, prêtre du diocèse de Paris, conseiller au Vatican et psychanalyste, est accusé d’abus sexuels par au moins sept hommes adultes au moment des faits, selon des informations notamment rapportées par Mediapart, France 3 et TF1.

Le prêtre incriminé est un membre influent de l’Eglise catholique. Honoré du titre de « Monseigneur », équivalent à celui d’évêque, il a aussi été nommé conseiller pontifical pour la famille par le pape Jean-Paul II. En parallèle de ses activités de prêtre, il est également psychothérapeute à Paris. Celui qui se présente comme « psychanalyste et spécialiste en psychiatrie sociale » avait été associé à la rédaction de la brochure de la CEF « Lutter contre la pédophilie », publiée en 2003 et rééditée en 2010.

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ESPANA
Mundo

[19 years in prison for an evangelical pastor in Spain who molested two children]

La Sección Octava de la Audiencia Provincial de Asturias ha condenado a 19 años y medio de prisión al edio al pastor evangélico acusado de abusar de dos menores, a una de las cuales dejó embarazada cuando tenía 15 años.

La sentencia le condena a ocho años y medio de cárcel por un delito continuado de abusos en el caso de la menor a la que dejó embarazada, al tener más de 13 años en el momento de los hechos, mientras que en el de la otra niña de le aplica una condena de once años de cárcel.

Además, deberá pagar una indemnización de 30.000 euros a la primera y de 15.000 a la segunda, y tampoco podrá aproximarse a las víctimas o a sus progenitores durante 10 años. Respecto al niño que nació fruto de los abusos, la Audiencia le condena al pago de una pensión alimenticia de 300 euros mensuales.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Editorial

As victims put faces, voices and tears to the campaign to extend or eliminate the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse, the true force behind opposition in Albany came to the fore: money.

Those who traveled to the capital to tell their stories did so in the hope that conveying the horror, agony and scarring of their experiences would be an enlightening impetus for legislative reforms.

Only one important player met personally with the survivors: After snubbing them to attend a pizza party of May 4, Republican Deputy Senate Majority Leader John DeFrancisco gave the victims an audience in full view of the press.

Although he remained opposed to changing the law, DeFrancisco had the courtesy to tell the supplicants no to their faces. Gov. Cuomo, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie relegated the victims to speaking with aides.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Jasmine Stole, Pacific Daily News May 17, 2016

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is calling for the resignation of Archbishop Anthony Apuron following a public accusation of sexual abuse made against him.

The Illinois-based group commended Roy Taitague Quintanilla for coming forward Tuesday and naming Apuron as the man who he said molested him as a 12-year-old altar boy serving at the local Catholic church in Agat.

Apuron hasn’t been charged with any crime, and no lawsuit has been filed.

Quintanilla said the abuse reportedly happened about 40 years ago when Apuron was a priest at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Agat.

Joelle Casteix, SNAP’s Western regional director, issued a statement about 20 minutes after Quintanilla’s story went public.

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