ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Ed Condon
posted Saturday, 4 Jun 2016

This morning, Pope Francis issued the motu proprio Come una madre amorevole, or As a loving mother. The letter establishes the long-awaited procedural norms for the removal of diocesan bishops for negligence in cases involving clerical sexual abuse, which were first announced last year.

Canon law, as the new norms acknowledge, already provides for the loss of any ecclesiastical office, including that of a diocesan bishop, for “grave cause” (cc. 192-193); Come una madre makes explicit that negligence in the exercise of their office is such a grave cause, especially when linked to cases of clerical sexual abuse.

According to the new norms, the appropriate Congregation of the Roman Curia will conduct the entire process of investigating a bishop themselves: they will determine which cases to investigate, gather evidence, meet other bishops from the relevant territory, and hear the defence of the accused before reaching their conclusion as part of the Congregation’s business when meeting in ordinary session. If they find in favour of removal, the decision must be approved by the Pope personally, who will be assisted by a special legal advisory group in these cases.

The new norms themselves are, as law, minimalistic, and I expect there will be further developments and clarifications. As an example, they establish that the process of investigating and removing a bishop is instigated and carried out by the “competent Congregation of the Roman Curia”, though which congregation is not explicitly clear in the legal text.

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VATICAN CITY
New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
JUNE 4, 2016

ROME — A year after approving the creation of a new tribunal to discipline bishops who covered up child sex abuse by priests, Pope Francis scrapped that plan on Saturday and issued new guidelines to oust those who have been “negligent” in handling such cases.

Under the new guidelines, issued in an apostolic letter, Roman Catholic bishops who have failed to properly handle sex abuse cases will be investigated by four Vatican offices. If the bishops are found to have betrayed their mission, they will be removed “to protect those who are the weakest among the persons entrusted to them.”

Canon law already provides for the removal of bishops “for serious causes,” the pope acknowledged, but he said his letter was meant to “clarify that the serious causes include the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their office,” in particular in the case of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

The decree sought to appease the growing frustrations of victims of abuse and their advocates who say that despite Francis’ promises of zero tolerance toward abuse and past pledges to hold bishops accountable, not enough has been done.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Bishops found to be “negligent” when dealing with cases of sexual abuse will be investigated and could be removed from office, a papal decree said on Saturday.

Pope Francis has pledged zero tolerance for anyone in the church who abuses children and likened such abuse to a “satanic mass”. In 2014 he established a Vatican commission intended to set best practices to root out abuse in parishes.

With the decree, he puts into action what he promised last year when he approved a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent abuse of minors.

Victims’ groups have repeatedly demanded that the Catholic Church do more to make bishops accountable for abuse in their dioceses, even if they were not directly responsible for it.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, remained skeptical about the Church’s response.

“Instead of just sacking bad bishops, or turning over abuse records to law enforcement, the Vatican is setting up yet another untested, internal church ‘process’ to purportedly deal with bishops who ignore or conceal child sex crimes,” he said in a statement. “A ‘process’ is helpful only if it’s used often enough to deter wrongdoing. We doubt this one will be.”

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.

VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

The Vatican is establishing a way to remove bishops for showing “negligence” in handling child abuse, according to a new decree by Pope Francis. Abuse victims have long accused bishops of covering up pedophilia cases.

The pope urged bishops to pay special care to protecting the “weakest among their flock” in a decree published on Saturday.

In the letter, Pope Francis announced new procedures to fire high-ranking priests “for serious reasons.”

“I intend to specify that among these so-called ‘serious reasons’ is the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their functions, especially in cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults,” Francis wrote in a letter titled “motu proprio” (“on his own impulse” in Latin). …

Victims criticize new rules

Commenting on the decree, victims’ groups said they were “extraordinarily skeptical” that the procedure would lead to a wave of bishops losing their jobs.

“Instead of just sacking bad bishops, or turning over abuse records to law enforcement, the Vatican is setting up yet another untested, internal church ‘process’ to purportedly deal with bishops who ignore or conceal child sex crimes,” said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“A ‘process’ is helpful only if it’s used often enough to deter wrongdoing. We doubt this one will be,” he added.

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KENTUCKY
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Gerald “Jerry” Baker was ordained for the Diocese of Owensboro KY in 1983. He assisted for several years at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, then at St. Mary of the Woods in Whitesville before being named pastor in 1987 of an Earlington parish. He went on to pastor parishes in Hopkinsville and Morganfield, returning in 2012 to St. Mary of the Woods as pastor in 2012. While still in that role, in 2013 Baker was made pastor of St. John the Baptist in Fordsville. He also served on the diocese’s Priest Personnel Committee and Priests Council, and as Dean of the Hopkinsville Deanery. In May 2016 Baker was placed on leave after the diocese received an allegation that he had engaged in inappropriate conduct “of a sexual nature” with a male minor from St. Mary of the Woods. The Kentucky State Police began an investigation.

Ordained: 1983

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Barry Roche

A retired priest (83) has been found not guilty on two counts of indecently assaulting a teenage boy in a Cork school during the 1970s.

The jury made the unanimous decision on Friday after a two day trial at the Cork Circuit Criminal court.

The cleric, who can not be named for legal reasons, had denied one count of indecently assaulting the boy between September 1975 and June 1976, and a second count of indecently assaulting the boy between November and December 1976.

The complainant told the court that the first assault happened when he was 14-years-old and had started second year.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

MEDIA RELEASE – JUNE 4, 2016

Leaders of the Salesian Priests and Brothers have refused to reasonably settle a childhood sexual abuse claim against one of its priests, Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, a serial pedophile, causing the victim, who was abused in Indiana, to be re-victimized

Fr. Timothy Zak, SDB, a leader of the Salesian Fathers and Brothers, based in New Rochelle, NY, inaccurately told advocate Dr. Robert M. Hoatson during a recent demonstration at a New Jersey church that the Salesians were settling the claim from a Salesian seminary in Indiana, but there has been no reasonable settlement and no reasonable settlement talks

At the Don Bosco Prep graduation exercises in Ramsey, NJ, the Salesian Priests and Brothers will have another opportunity to keep their promise by announcing to the 2016 graduates and their guests that they intend to do the right thing and reasonably settle the credible sexual abuse claim from Indiana against Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, a serial pedophile

What
A demonstration alerting high school graduates, their families, the general public, and the media that the Salesians of Don Bosco, a religious order of men, have refused to reasonably settle the credible claim of sexual abuse in Indiana by a man who was promised a timely and fair resolution. Thus far, it has not happened.

When
Saturday, June 4, 2016 from 3:30 pm until 5:30 pm before the commencement exercises of Don Bosco Prep, Ramsey, New Jersey which begin at 5:00 pm

Where
On the public sidewalk across from the main entrance of Don Bosco Prep School, 492 North Franklin Turnpike, Ramsey, New Jersey 07446

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, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
Several weeks ago, Fr. Timothy Zak, SDB, a member of the leadership team of the Salesian Priests and Brothers of Don Bosco, approached Dr. Robert M. Hoatson at a demonstration outside Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Orange, NJ, and told him that there was no need for a demonstration outside that parish or any Salesian parish or school because the Salesians were in “settlement talks” with a man who was sexually abused as a child by a Salesian priest, Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, in Indiana. Fr. Timothy Zak, SDB, and the Salesians have not fulfilled their promise by resolving the Indiana claim, and demonstrators will demand that the Salesian priests and brothers do what they promised

Contact
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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UNITED STATES
PBS Newshour

BY CORINNE SEGAL June 4, 2016

A papal decree issued on Saturday says bishops who are negligent in sexual abuse cases may be removed from their office.

Church law already allows bishops to be fired for “grave reasons,” but this action specifies that those reasons include failing to adequately address sexual abuse.

“I intend to specify that among these so-called ‘serious reasons’ is the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their functions, especially in cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults,” Pope Francis wrote in the decree.

The move is meant to address a long-running issue of sexual abuse committed by priests, which has been the focus of heightened scrutiny over the last fifteen years.

A UN investigation in February 2014 called for the immediate dismissal of all priests accused of sexual abuse and said “that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Nicole Winfield | AP June 4

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Saturday scrapped his proposed tribunal to prosecute bishops who covered up for pedophile priests after it ran into opposition and instead clarified legal procedures to remove them if the Vatican finds they were negligent.

The new procedures sought to answer long-standing demands by survivors of abuse that the Vatican hold bishops accountable for botching abuse cases. Victims have long accused bishops of covering up for pedophiles, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police — and suffering no consequences.

But the new law was immediately criticized by survivors of abuse as essentially window dressing since there were already ways to investigate and dismiss bishops for wrongdoing — they were just rarely used against bishops who failed to protect their flocks from pedophiles.

Analysts suggested the new law was much ado about very little.

“There is nothing breaking here: The congregations could already do that,” said Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America.

He said what is significant about the new law is that it makes no mention of the original proposal for the tribunal, which would have treated negligence as a crime and prosecuted it as such. …

The main U.S. victims’ group, SNAP, said it was “extraordinarily skeptical” that the new procedures would amount to any wave of dismissals since popes have always had the power to oust bishops but haven’t wielded it.

“A ‘process’ is helpful only if it’s used often enough to deter wrongdoing. We doubt this one will be,” SNAP’s David Clohessy said. …

Marie Collins, an abuse survivor who is a member of Francis’ abuse advisory board, said while it was “depressing” that the tribunal proposal had stalled for a year, the new procedures emphasizing negligence show that bishop accountability “has not been allowed to disappear into the sand.”

“As a survivor, I am hoping the congregations involved will implement these new procedures as speedily as possible, as the success or failure of any initiative can only be judged on visible results,” she said in an email to The Associated Press.

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UNITED STATES
Jezebel

Lauren Evans

Pope Francis has nixed his plan for a tribunal that would prosecute bishops who failed to treat pedophilic priests as criminals, opting instead only to strengthen existing statutes.

Survivors of abuse have long called for stricter accountability processes when it comes to holding bishops responsible for the despicable actions of priests. So when the pope approved the creation of the tribunal last year, it looked, to many, like progress.

Now, the Washington Post reports that the tribunal plan has vanished silently into the night, supplanted by a law that would merely“clarify legal procedures.”

The news comes as a grave disappointment to the abused, who were eager to see repercussions wrought upon the many criminals enjoying the boundless protection of one of history’s most powerful bodies, the Catholic church.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 4, 2016

ROME
Pope Francis has signed a new universal law for the global Catholic church specifying that a bishop’s negligence in response to clergy sexual abuse can lead to his removal from office.

The law also empowers several Vatican dicasteries to investigate such bishops and initiate processes of removal, subject to final papal approval.

The move, made by the pontiff in a formal document known as a motu proprio on Saturday, appears to represent a significant moment in the worldwide church’s decades-long clergy sexual abuse crisis.

In case after case in the past, the Vatican and church officials would dig in to protect bishops even when there was substantial documented evidence of negligence on their behalf. Now, the pope has formally mandated that the church’s offices in Rome must prosecute bishops who fail in protecting children.

“Canon law already foresees the possibility of removal from the ecclesial office ‘for grave causes,'” Francis states in a short preamble to the new law, given the Italian name Come una madre amorevole (“Like a loving mother.”)

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Ines San Martin
Vatican correspondent June 4, 2016

ROME—Never one to slow down on the weekend, Pope Francis on Saturday signed two documents designed to reflect progress on two battle fronts: The Catholic Church’s response to clerical sexual abuse, particularly bishops’ accountability, and reform of the Roman Curia, the global Church’s governing body.

The first document is a motu proprio, meaning a legal text, titled “As a loving mother,” which talks specifically about the causes that could merit removing a bishop or an eparch from his post.

In the document, Francis acknowledged that the church’s canon law already contemplates removing a bishop for “grave reasons,” but said he wanted to be more specific on the fact that negligence can cost a bishop his job.

One of the specifications added by the document is the fact that negligence of the bishop “in particular in relation to cases of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults” is now one of the “grave reasons” that would legitimize the removal of a bishop from his position.

For decades, survivors of clerical sexual abuse and their advocates have been demanding that the Church hold bishops accountable for failing to act in cases of child sexual abuse, either by ignoring accusations or for moving sexually abusive priests from one parish to another instead of reporting them.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bollettino

Vatican City, 4 June 2016 – Pope Francis today wrote an apostolic letter in the form of a Motu Proprio, in which he affirms that the Church, like a loving mother, loves all her children, but treats and protects with special affection the smallest and most helpless. This is a task that Christ Himself entrusts to all the Christian community as a whole. Although this care and protection is the responsibility of all the Church, the Holy Father emphasises that it is to be carried out in particular through her pastors. Therefore, diocesan bishops, eparchs and those who are responsible for a particular Church must act with special diligence in the protection of the weakest among those entrusted to them.

He goes on to note that canon law already provides the possibility of the removal from ecclesiastical office “for grave causes” and this refers also to diocesan bishops, eparchs and those of equivalent status by law. By this Motu Proprio, the Pope specifies that these “grave causes” include the negligence of a bishop in the exercise of his role, especially in relation to cases of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults, as referred to in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela, promulgated by St. John Paul II and amended by Benedict XVI, and establishes a series of procedures to be followed in these cases, as follows.

The diocesan bishop or eparch, or he who even on a temporary basis is responsible for a particular Church, or another community of faithful, may legitimately be removed from office for acts committed or omitted by negligence, resulting in the provocation of grave damage to others, either physical persons or a community as a whole. The damage may be physical, moral, spiritual or patrimonial. The diocesan bishop or eparch may be removed from office only if he may be shown objectively to have lacked the diligence required for his pastoral office, even without grave moral culpability on his part. In the case of abuse of minors or vulnerable adults, it is sufficient for the lack of diligence to be grave. Major superiors of religious institutes and societies of apostolic life of Pontifical right are to be considered equivalent to the diocesan bishop or eparch.

In the second article of the Motu Proprio, the Pope specifies that in all cases in which serious indications, as listed in the previous article, are present, the competent Congregation of the Roman Curia may initiate an investigation on the issue, notifying the interested party and providing him the possibility of producing documents and witnesses. The bishop will be given the opportunity to defend himself using the means provided by the law. He will receive communication of all phases of the investigation and will always be granted the possibility of meeting the Superiors of the Congregations. If the bishop does not take the initiative, such a meeting shall be proposed by the dicastery itself. Following the arguments presented by the bishop, the Congregation may decide whether to proceed with a further investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Jun 4, 2016 / 06:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday, Pope Francis issued an edict on the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, in which he said that negligence on the part of a bishop can constitute removal from office.

Entitled “Like a loving mother,” the edict — officially called a motu proprio – contributes to existing norms in place with regard to abuse cases. It particularly pertains to bishops, eparchs, or religious superiors who are deemed guilty of negligence in such cases.

In a statement, Holy See press office director, Fr. Federico Lombardi, drew attention to two points in the motu proprio. The first is that a bishop can be guilty of lacking in diligence even in the absence of “grave moral culpability on his part.”

The second point is, in cases pertaining to the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults, “it is sufficient for the lack of diligence be grave” for a bishop to be removed from office. In other cases, a “very grave” lack of diligence is necessary for a bishop’s removal.

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VATICAN CITY
news.va

(Vatican Radio) In a new Apostolic Letter, issued motu proprio, Pope Francis has established new norms providing for the removal of Bishops (or those equivalent to them in Canon Law) from their offices in cases where they have “through negligance, committed or omitted acts that have caused grave harm to others, either with regard to physical persons, or with regard to the community itself.”

The Apostolic Letter “Come una madre amorevole” (As a Loving Mother) also clarifies that, with regard “to abuse of minors or vulnerable adults, it is sufficient that the lack of diligence be grave.”

The full text of the Apostolic Letter, in Italian, can be found here.

In a note explaining the new procedures, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, said, “The Apostolic Letter insists on the importance of vigilant care for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, calling for a ‘particular diligence.” Therefore, he continued, “it clarifies that negligence regarding cases of sexual abuse committed against children or vulnerable adults are among the ‘grave causes’ that justify removal from ecclesiastical Offices, even of Bishops.”

The new Letter, according to Father Lombardi, establishes a procedure for carrying out a Canon already present in both the Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of Eastern Churches. It is not a penal procedure, he said, because it concerns cases of negligence, rather than with a crime that has been committed. For the same reason, the Dicasteries charged with following through on the procedures include the Congregations for Bishops, for the Evangelization of Peoples, for Oriental Churches, and for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, instead of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Father Lombardi drew attention especially to two points in the Apostolic Letter. First, the “lack of diligence” necessary for removal from office can exist even be “without grave moral fault” on the part of the Bishop.

Second, in cases concerning the abuse of minors “it is sufficient that the lack of diligence be ‘grave,’ while in other cases it is required that the lack of diligence be ‘very grave’.” This effectively lowers the standard necessary for a Bishop to be removed from office when there is negligence with regard to cases of sexual abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
The Local

Bishops guilty of “negligence” in dealing with sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church can be dismissed, Pope Francis decreed on Saturday.

The decree quoted the pontiff as saying that such cases would fall under an existing proviso in canon law allowing for prelates to be sacked for “serious reasons.”

“I intend to specify that among these so-called ‘serious reasons’ is the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their functions, especially in cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults,” Francis wrote.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope also set up a body of lawyers to assist him in decisions that could require the dismissal of a bishop.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Saturday, June 4

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)

Instead of just sacking bad bishops, or turning over abuse records to law enforcement, the Vatican is setting up yet another untested, internal church “process” to purportedly deal with bishops who ignore or conceal child sex crimes. We’re extraordinarily skeptical.

[BBC News]

A “process” isn’t needed. Discipline is what’s needed. A “process” doesn’t protect kids. Action protects kids.

A “process” is helpful only if it’s used often enough to deter wrongdoing. We doubt this one will be.

Popes and bishops have long had the power, but not the will, to oust those who protect predators and endanger kids. They refuse to do this, and the consequences are devastating.

When it’s advantageous to move quickly, Catholic officials move quickly. When they want to move slowly, or not at all, they set up commissions and “processes” and the like.

We’re reminded of the policy adopted by US bishops in November of 2002, pledging to “correct” prelates who ignore or conceal child sex crimes. It’s never happened. Not once. Not even close. Not even when they’re convicted of failing to report abuse to police (like Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City).

[BishopAccountability.org]

We fear the same will happen with this “new procedure.” We suspect it will be used once or twice soon and will then be ignored. And it will be “business as usual.”

In a clear, rigid monarchy like the church, the monarch calls the shots. He needs no “process.”

We’ll be called naïve. “Of course there must be a process,” some will say. But history and common sense prove otherwise. Look at how quickly popes act against bishops who even question celibacy or women priests or other “hot button” issues. Look at how quickly Francis sacked the German bishop caught extravagantly spending on his mansion (the so-called “bishop of bling”).

And we’ll be called “chronic complainers” by some. But for almost 30 years, we’ve see church policies and protocols and procedures drafted often and ignored just as often. It’s dreadfully disillusioning. (Look at the US bishops’ abuse policy that supposedly mandates “openness and transparency” while bishops continue to hide the names of at least 2,668 accused predator priests.)

[BishopAccounability.org]

In nearly every country on earth, there’s a “process” for dealing with those who hurt kids, directly or indirectly. It’s the justice system. But Catholic officials often and arrogantly and conveniently fixate on their own internal guidelines, and only in a minority of cases – when forced by brave victims or investigative journalists or irate parishioners or aggressive prosecutors – belatedly and reluctantly involve the independent professionals in law enforcement in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases. This latest untested internal “process” is, in reality, likely “more of the same” in a slightly new package. It’s more “let us deal with this ourselves” rather than what’s really needed – harsh punishment of dozens of bad bishops coupled with full disclosure of abuse files to secular authorities.

And it’s worth noting that while Vatican officials use words like “negligent,” that’s disingenuous. Bishops hide predators deliberately, for their own comfort, convenience and careers. These are intentional cover ups, not “botches” or “oversights.” Pretending otherwise is irresponsible and inaccurate.

Finally, no matter what church officials do or don’t do with this “new process,” we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Chris Johnston
@cajuk
Saturday 4 June 2016

Catholic bishops who fail to sack paedophile priests can be removed from office under new church laws announced by Pope Francis.

The move, announced by the pope on Saturday, answers a long-running demand by victims of abuse to make bishops responsible if they fail to stop clergy sexually abusing parishioners.

Many have long accused bishops of simply moving priests accused of abuse to another parish, rather than report them to police or church authorities. While acknowledging that church laws already allowed for a bishop to be removed for negligence, Francis said he wanted the “grave reasons” more precisely defined. However, doubts remain about the Vatican’s commitment to tackling the issue.

Juan Barros was appointed a bishop in Chile in March 2015. He had been accused of ignoring reports of abuse by Father Fernando Karadima, a Chilean priest who was found guilty of molestation by the Vatican in 2011. Victims claimed Barros not only helped cover up the crimes, but in some instances observed the abuse. Barros has denied the allegations and the Vatican said he had the church’s support.

Peter Saunders, a British abuse survivor who sits on a papal commission to protect children, said Francis had been vocal about the abuse scandals. However, he criticised the church’s handling of another case in Missouri, where bishop Robert Finn has remained in power even after being convicted of failing to report clerical child sex abuse.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bollettino

[Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio of Pope Francis “As a loving mother”, 04/06/2016]

Come una madre amorevole la Chiesa ama tutti i suoi figli, ma cura e protegge con un affetto particolarissimo quelli più piccoli e indifesi: si tratta di un compito che Cristo stesso affida a tutta la Comunità cristiana nel suo insieme. Consapevole di ciò, la Chiesa dedica una cura vigilante alla protezione dei bambini e degli adulti vulnerabili.

Tale compito di protezione e di cura spetta alla Chiesa tutta, ma è specialmente attraverso i suoi Pastori che esso deve essere esercitato. Pertanto i Vescovi diocesani, gli Eparchi e coloro che hanno la responsabilità di una Chiesa particolare, devono impiegare una particolare diligenza nel proteggere coloro che sono i più deboli tra le persone loro affidate.

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VATIKAN
kathpress

Vatikanstadt, 04.06.2016 (KAP) Katholischen Bischöfe droht bei nachlässigem Umgang mit Missbrauchsfällen künftig die Entlassung aus dem Amt. Ein am Samstag veröffentlichter Erlass von Papst Franziskus sieht die Absetzung vor, wenn sich ein Bischof einer schweren Sorgfaltspflichtverletzung beim Vorgehen gegen Missbrauch Minderjähriger oder schutzbedürftiger Erwachsener schuldig macht.

Solche Fälle werden schwerwiegender eingestuft als andere bischöfliche Amtspflichtverletzungen zum Schaden von einzelnen oder Gemeinschaften. Dort müssen “sehr schwere” Versäumnisse nachgewiesen werden, um einen Bischof oder gleichrangigen Verantwortlichen aus dem Amt zu entfernen. Die neue Regelung, veröffentlicht in Form eines sogenannten Motu Proprio mit dem Titel “Come una madre amrorevole” (“Wie eine liebende Mutter”) tritt am 5. September in Kraft.

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UNITED STATES
Salon

[with video]

Ken Starr is conveniently making the media rounds claiming he voluntarily resigned as the president of Baylor University after a damning report revealed that under his leadership the Texas college failed to investigate widespread allegations of campus sexual assault, now arguing he left in order to more freely discuss the issue. Unfortunately for his efforts to save the last remnants of his reputation, a pair of new interviews out this week actually reveal Starr to be either totally inept or an absolute liar.

First, Starr sat for an interview with ESPN on Wednesday where he announced that after being booted as Baylor’s president last week, he’d also given up his position as University chancellor “as a matter of conscience.”

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

[with video]

By Fiona Keating
June 4, 2016

In the new legal regulations, Pope Francis has responded to appeals from victims of sex abuse to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect their parishioners from paedophiles. A law published on 4 June acknowledged that the church’s canon law already allows a bishop to be removed for negligence, according to an AP report. However, the pope stated his desire to be more precise in determining the “grave reasons” that could result in bishops being removed from office.

Clergy in positions of high authority in the Catholic church have been accused by victims of moving alleged rapists to other parishes and of covering up sexual abuse of minors instead of handing them into the police.

In Minneapolis, Archbishop Bernard Hebda is working to reorganise the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis so that victims of clerical sex abuse can receive compensation.

“In other dioceses, that approval process has taken years. For example, in Milwaukee, the process took more than five years and only $21m [£14.47m] was available to compensate claimants. We are submitting our plan now in the hope of compensating victims/survivors and promoting healing sooner rather than later,” he wrote in a letter dated 26 May.

He added: “We will never be able to undo the harm caused, but, we will compensate those harmed, help in any way we can with their healing, and create and maintain safe environments for all children today and always.”

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VATICAN CITY
Manila Times

June 4, 2016

VATICAN CITY: Bishops guilty of “negligence” in dealing with sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church can be dismissed, Pope Francis decreed on Saturday.

The decree quoted the pontiff as saying that such cases would fall under an existing proviso in canon law allowing for prelates to be sacked for “serious reasons.”

“I intend to specify that among these so-called ‘serious reasons’ is the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their functions, especially in cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults,” Francis wrote.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope also set up a body of lawyers to assist him in decisions that could require the dismissal of a bishop.

In the decree—an apostolic letter with a status in Latin called “motu proprio” (“on his own impulse”)—the Pope emphasized that the Church “loves all its sons, but cares for and protects with special attention those who are weakest and defenseless.”

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VATICAN CITY
GMA News

Bishops found to be “negligent” in dealing with predator priests in “cases of sexual abuse of minors” can be recalled, a papal decree said on Saturday.

Pope Francis came to power promising a crackdown on cover-ups and a zero-tolerance approach to abuse itself, which he famously described as being akin to taking part in a Satanic mass. —Agence France-Presse

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Pope Francis has approved measures to sack bishops who mishandle child sexual abuse cases, a papal decree says.

Bishops who are “negligent” in dealing with priests committing abuse will be removed under the new legal procedures.

The decree comes in response to long-running demands by abuse victims and their supporters to hold bishops accountable if they fail to protect their flocks from paedophiles.

Existing laws relating to abuse cases would be tightened, the Pope said.

He acknowledged that canon law already allows for a bishop to be removed for negligence but says he wants a more precise definition of the “grave reasons” that could lead to dismissal.

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VATICAN CITY
KFGO

Saturday, June 04, 2016

MILAN (Reuters) – Bishops found to be “negligent” when dealing with priests accused of sexual abuse of minors will be investigated and could be removed from office, a papal decree said on Saturday.

Pope Francis in 2014 established a Vatican commission intended to establish best practices to root out abuse in parishes.

The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked for the past 15 years by scandals over priests who sexually abused children and were transferred from parish to parish instead of being turned over to authorities and being defrocked.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has established legal procedures to remove bishops who botch handling sex abuse cases, saying they can be kicked out of office if the Vatican finds they were negligent in doing their jobs.

In a law published Saturday, Francis answered a long-running demand by victims of abuse and their advocates to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles. Victims have long accused bishops of covering up for abuse, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police.

In the law, Francis acknowledged that the church’s canonical code already allows for a bishop to be removed for “grave reasons.” But he said he wanted to precisely state that negligence, especially negligence in handling abuse cases, can cost a bishop his job.

Bishops “must undertake a particular diligence in protecting those who are the weakest among their flock,” Francis wrote in the law, called a motu proprio.

The statute alters the original proposal approved by Francis last year to establish a tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to hear negligence cases. Francis’ sex abuse advisory board had recommended that the Congregation prosecute negligent bishops because it is already responsible for overseeing actual sex abuse cases against clergy.

But amid a host of legal and bureaucratic questions posed by that original proposal, Francis decided to streamline the procedure and task the Vatican offices that are already in charge of handling bishop issues to investigate and punish negligence cases.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 4, 2016

ALBANY — Making the fight for justice for child sex abuse victims even murkier, a Staten Island lawmaker wants to make it easier to bring criminal cases against predators — even though he admits his idea is likely unconstitutional.

Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), who has carried an alternate version of the Child Victims Act supported by the Church but opposed by advocates, said he would support a provision that would create a time frame for prosecutors to charge predators criminally even though the statute of limitations has run out on their cases.

“The criminal standard is beyond a reasonable doubt, which would afford defendants the strongest due process rights in the world,” Lanza said.

But he admits it’s legally dicey.

“It would need to be challenged in court in order for it to be struck down,” he said. “I’m not sure there isn’t some wiggle room there.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF JUNE 04, 2016

The experience of watching “Spotlight” was complicated for Martin Moran.

In 2004, the veteran Broadway actor wrote a one-person play, “The Tricky Part,” about being seduced by a much older counselor at a Catholic boys camp in Colorado, and the consequences that relationship would have on the rest of his life. (A year later, Boston’s Beacon Press published Moran’s memoir of the same name.)

So the themes of “Spotlight,” director Tom McCarthy’s Oscar-winning film about the sexual abuse of young parishioners by Catholic priests, were fraught and familiar.

“I don’t believe there’s any such thing as total closure,” Moran (inset) says. “Watching ‘Spotlight’ affected me quite a lot.”

Thursday, the actor, whose Broadway credits include roles in “Titanic,” “Cabaret,” and “Spamalot,” will be at the Calderwood Pavilion reading from his new memoir, “All the Rage: A Quest,” a sometimes funny book about trying to find the balance between anger and compassion. (It’s based on Moran’s one-person play, also called “All the Rage,” that opened off Broadway in 2013.) The event is sponsored by the Huntington Theatre, where Moran has acted periodically, most recently as Vanya in the comedy “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.”

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GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Jun. 3, 2016

Jesuit Fr. Klaus Mertes, the German whistleblower who published letters he had received from pupils at a Jesuit school in Berlin who had been abused by teachers for years, has called on all Catholics, “both homosexuals and heterosexuals” to make greater efforts to get the church to change its “deficient” mind-set on homosexuality.

“All of us [Catholics] — homosexuals and heterosexuals — must join together to get the church to give up its deficient mindset on homosexuality,” Mertes said in an interview in the German daily Taz May 25. “The reason why the Catholic church rejects homosexuality above all is because it [the church] combines sex with fertility, which means that the whole issue of sexual morality is connected with fertility.”

A change of attitude was called for, he underlined. Sexual morality must be seen more from the standpoint of unselfish neighborly love “and not purely from a concept of nature which views the sexual act in isolation.”

Mertes said that unfortunately, some of the worst homophobes in the church are Catholic priests who are themselves homosexual but deny their own homosexuality. That is one of the reasons why the church has such difficulties in dealing with the issue, Mertes said.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, June 3, 2016

Sister Claire Smith believes Catholic leaders have abandoned survivors of childhood sexual abuse — and the teachings of Jesus Christ — by opposing legislation that would make it easier for victims to seek justice.

Smith says a priest sexually abused her for years — beginning when she was just 11. Still, the 78-year-old social justice activist says she is reluctant to bash the Catholic Church.

“The church is not the buildings or the hierarchy,” Smith said during an interview near her City Island apartment. “The church is us — it is the people of God.”

Smith still sees a therapist to talk about the trauma she suffered more than 60 years ago. The wheelchair-bound Ursuline nun, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the 1970s, once even collected bottles and cans from dumpsters to pay for counseling before she began seeing a church-affiliated psychiatrist a few years ago.

“The memories never leave you,” said Smith, an educator and counselor. “You carry it around like a burden for the rest of your life.”

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UNITED KINGDOM/MALAYSIA
Shanghai Daily

Source: AFP | June 4, 2016, Saturday

CONFESSED British child molester Richard Huckle took Malaysian children with him to church and regularly roamed an impoverished Kuala Lumpur neighborhood to snap pictures of kids, those who met him said yesterday.

But several people said they had seen no reason to suspect Huckle of the sickening pattern of child sex abuse that could see him locked up for life.

Huckle, 30, will be sentenced on Monday, a judge said yesterday.

The sentencing for the prolific pedophile had been expected yesterday but the judge said he wanted to consider mitigating factors put before him by Huckle’s lawyers, notably a letter of remorse.

Judge Peter Rook said his sentencing would begin at England’s Old Bailey central criminal court in London at 10am on Monday.

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UNITED KINGDOM/MALAYSIA
Straits Times

LONDON/KUALA LUMPUR • Confessed British child sex-abuser Richard Huckle, who preyed on poor children in an impoverished Kuala Lumpur neighbourhood, will be sentenced on Monday, British judge Peter Rook told the court yesterday.

The sentencing for the serial paedophile had been expected yesterday, but the judge said he wanted to consider mitigating factors put before him by Huckle’s lawyers, notably a letter of remorse.

The paedophile took Malaysian children with him to church and regularly roamed a Kuala Lumpur neighbourhood to snap pictures of kids, those who met him said yesterday.

But several people interviewed by Agence France-Presse said they had seen no reason to suspect Huckle, 30, of the sickening pattern of child sex abuse that could see him locked up for life.

Huckle was facing in a London court 91 charges, including the rape or sexual assault of children as young as six months old, committed during his several years living in Malaysia.

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INDIA/MALAYSIA
The Star

BY ASHLEY TANG

PETALING JAYA: A pastor in India revealed how serial paedophile Richard Huckle targeted his orphanage in Bangalore when he received an email volunteering his services.

George Fernandes, 37, told The Daily Mail that Huckle enquired whether he could volunteer at the New Hope for Children Orphanage as he would be travelling to India.

Fernandes said he had accepted Huckle’s offer but at that time was unaware of the crimes that he was capable of.

He said he later realised that Huckle just wanted access to the children and was shocked to read what he had done.

In the email dated in June 2013, Huckle said he “is originally from UK but am studying an IT degree in Malaysia.”

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INDIA
International Business Times

June 4, 2016

By Asmita Sarkar

British national Richard Huckle, who had confessed to 71 incidents of sexual crime against children in impoverished communities in Malaysia and Cambodia, had also visited an orphanage in India’s Bangalore city in 2013. Among Huckle’s crimes are 14 incidents of rape, five of digital penetration and 31 sexual assaults.

He had reportedly offered his photography and video editing skills to the orphanage. Fernandes had hosted Huckle at his home after Huckle sought leads about cheap hotels or a local family he could stay with during his visit to Bangalore.

“I am shocked to read about what he has done. In hindsight, I can see he just wanted to gain access our kids. He seemed nice on email and we were excited to host him as we thought he is keen to serve the orphan children,” Fernandes was quoted as saying by MailOnline.

Pastor George Fernandes, who runs New Hope for Children Orphanage, shared e-mails with MailOnline that Huckle had sent to him in 2013. Huckle, who confessed to committing sexual crimes against children aged between six months and 12 years during the period of 2006 to 2014, had visited India in 2013.

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UNITED KINGDOM/INDIA
Mo4ch

By
Sanjay Jha In Bangalore, India
and
Richard Shears In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, For Mailonline

Britain’s most prolific paedophile sent a series of chilling emails to gain the trust of a priest who runs a orphanages in India to get access to children living there.

In the disturbing emails, depraved Richard Huckle posed as a volunteer who wanted to visit the children’s home and bring his camera to take photos and videos of them.

Huckle, 30, a grammar schoolboy, raised by middle class parents in Ashford in Kent, faces life in jail for a sickening catalogue of sex crimes against children as young as two.

Posing as a freelance photographer and English teacher, he used his charisma to talk his way into communities of vulnerable children, primarily in Malaysia and Cambodia.

Huckle gained access to care homes, orphanages and other impoverished communities that were unprepared to cope with the infiltration of a monster.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By Becky Jacobs on Jun 3, 2016

Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks is joining a growing list of Minnesota Catholic entities sued for clergy accused of sexual abusing children.

A letter was sent to parishioners May 26 stating that Sacred Heart’s “parish and school, along with a number of parishes and schools in our diocese and other Minnesota dioceses have recently been sued under the Minnesota Child Victims Act.”

The act, put in place in 2013, changed the statute of limitations applied in civil legal claims for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to give them a window to file claims, even from abuses that took place decades earlier. The deadline to file these claims just passed on May 25.

The lawsuit against Sacred Heart alleges that the Rev. Stanley Bourassa, who died in 2004, committed abuse while assigned to the parish from 1965 to 1968.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 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)

Minnesota Catholic officials are writing parishioners saying their parish is being sued because of child sex crimes by Fr. Stanley Bourassa in the 1960s.

While we don’t know the specifics of this case, here’s what we DO know: Catholic officials should be more honest about these horrific cases. They should use parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements to beg every single individual with information or suspicions about abuse in Catholic entities to step forward and get help from independent sources, and report what they know or fear to the independent professionals in law enforcement, not the biased amateurs in church offices.

Instead of telling the flock “we know nothing,” staff at Sacred Heart should be aggressively seeking others who may have been hurt by this predator.

No matter what courts or church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

Child sex allegations against this priest first publicly in 2014 when, under pressure, the Crookston diocese released a list of accused pedophiles.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

A vicar who was the official chaplain for the British Olympic team sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl before the case was covered up by the Church for 20 years, a court heard.

Kevin McGarahan, who has also attended Remembrance Day services alongside the Prime Minister, was convicted of abusing the teenager at his home between 1992 and 1996.

A court heard the 64-year-old invited the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, into his home and quizzed her about her experience with boys before offering to teach her how to slow dance.

McGarahan, who was known as ‘Rev Kev’, then held her hips and forced his tongue into her mouth at the property in Telford, Shropshire.

She claimed the clergyman also told her he could rape her if he wanted to before saying that “nobody would ever know”.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

June 3 2016

Christopher Knaus

Anti-child-abuse campaigners have urged the ACT government to capitalise on the royal commission’s momentum and scrap time limits obstructing survivors from suing.

Legal time limits that obstruct significantly delayed civil claims can pose a major barrier for victims of child sexual abuse.

The vast majority of survivors are highly traumatised and can take many years to feel able to confront their past.

The royal commission last year urged states and territories to end their statute of limitation periods for such claims, a recommendation that prompted Victoria and NSW to act.

The commission described the statutes as “clearly inappropriate for survivors”, and recounted one victim’s evidence, heard in a private session:

“The statute is designed for someone who has tripped over in Kmart, it is not designed for victims of child sexual abuse,” the survivor said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Allegations that a man in a police uniform sexually abused a boy from Kincora have been heard by a public inquiry.

Graphic accounts of the litany of abuse carried out by three male staff members were also given to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry which is examining claims of a high ranking paedophile ring at the east Belfast boys home during the 1970s.

One victim, known only as KIN238, who was at Kincora for three weeks in 1977, claimed to have bee n taken to another property and abused by warden Joseph Mains, house master William McGrath and an unknown man in a police uniform.

After one incident he vomited, the inquiry was told.

The boy ran away and did not speak out until he told his girlfriend in 1999. He went to police after 2000, it emerged.

The HIA also heard about alleged violent gang rapes and of boys being pulled from their beds and returning drunk.

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | JUNE 3, 2016

As the Southern Baptist Convention prepares to gather for its annual meeting June 14-15 in St. Louis, leaders of a support group for survivors of institutional sex abuse called on denominational leaders to take action to prevent the next “Spotlight”-style exposé from targeting the nation’s second-largest Christian group.

Executive Director David Clohessy and Outreach Director Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released an open letter asking two top SBC officials to create a central “safe place” office to which Baptist clergy sex abuse survivors can file reports about their alleged perpetrators.

The SNAP leaders said “it is flat-out cruel” to tell clergy abuse survivors they must go to the church of the accused pastor if they want to report that pastor within the faith community.

“This is like telling abuse survivors that they must go to the den of the wolf who savaged them,” they said. “It is a response that inflicts additional harm on greatly wounded people and that turns a cold shoulder to those who seek only to protect others.”

Ten years ago SNAP asked SBC officials to establish an independent review board to receive and evaluate reports and keep a database of clergy credibly accused, confessed or convicted of sexual abuse. After study denominational leaders ruled the idea unfeasible, saying the convention lacked authority to investigate local congregations, which are free to call their own ministers.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

[with video]

Years before he even got there, Eric Ripert pictured the restaurant he’d own. A psychic told him he’d work in a restaurant in a city surrounded by water. That became a reality, along with much more, all documented in his new memoir, “32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line.”

Watching his mother and grandmother in the kitchen when he was growing up in France instilled an early passion for cooking in young Ripert. But it was in the kitchen of legendary French chef Jacques Pepin that nine-year-old Ripert felt “something different.” …

“He accepted the fact that I would come and observe in the kitchen and he would sit me next to the counter and I was fascinated by the moves, by what he was doing and by the smell and by the food that he was giving me, too,” Ripert recalled.

Ripert’s memoir is the latest addition to his growing book collection. He’s written five cookbooks and expects to write another, but wanted to write something to “inspire young people” to encourage them that “it will be tough but they will get to where they want if they have the will.” He gets personal about some of the painful ordeals he’s faced in his childhood, including his parents’ divorce, physical abuse from his stepfather and a predator priest.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

For more information:
David Clohessy (314) 566-9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Barbara Dorris (314) 503-0003,bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Victims beg Baptists for action on clergy sex cases
Denomination holds annual meeting soon in St. Louis
“It should make “safe place” for submitting abuse reports, SNAP says
SBC should start by logging allegations & asking victims to step forward
Group predicts: Next “Spotlight”-style exposé will be in largest Protestant denomination

In anticipation of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in St. Louis on June 14-15, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing to two of the SBC’s top officials, seeking the creation of a central “safe place” office to which Baptist clergy sex abuse survivors can file reports about their alleged perpetrators.

“Now, Baptist officials tell clergy abuse survivors that they must go to the church when the accused predatory pastor works or worked if they want to report his crimes within the faith community. That’s flat-out cruel,” states the letter. “This is like telling abuse survivors that they must go to the den of the wolf who savaged them.”

“At a bare minimum, the Southern Baptist Convention needs to provide a ‘safe place’ where abuse survivors may report their perpetrators to people who have the training and experience to receive those reports with compassion and care,” asserts SNAP’s Executive Director, David Clohessy. “Of course, we hope that SBC officials will eventually understand that the denomination needs to do a great deal more, but for now, what we are proposing is something small — receive reports and log allegations.”

“In our experience, even when a minister has not been criminally convicted, most people will agree that a pastor has repeated abuse allegations, then people should be warned,” stated Clohessy. “We in SNAP wonder what that number would be for SBC officials. For example, if a minister had 3 abuse allegations in 3 churches in 3 different states, would that be enough for SBC officials to conclude that a denominational assessment should be made and churches informed? What if the minister had 10 allegations? Whatever the number, the place to start is with at least receiving reports and systematically logging allegations. How else can the SBC have any hope of having any idea of how many allegations may have been made about any particular minister?”

SNAP points to data gathered by the Associated Press indicating that Protestants also have a huge problem with clergy sex abuse, and in its letter, predicts that the next “Spotlight”-style exposé will focus on the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

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

We urge Sioux City Catholic officials to quickly adopt the abuse prevention moves that a brave abuse victim is advocating.

[KTIV]

Tim Lennon was raped as a child by Fr. Peter B. Murphy in Iowa.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Lennon recently traveled from his California home to Sioux City, where he held a support group meeting for other victims and met with Bishop Walter Nickless, pushing for specific, proven measures that would better safeguard the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

We are grateful that Nickless has pledged to spread the word about Fr. Murphy. But much more needs to happen.

Lennon proposes that church officials

–post names of child molesting clerics – proven, admitted and credibly accused – on church web sites, for the safety of kids and the healing of victims, and

–turn every abuse report over to police, not just those deemed “credible” by biased, untrained diocesan staffers.

He’s absolutely right. These steps are “no-brainers.” They should have been taken long ago. We applaud Lennon for not only voicing his own pain but for seeking reforms that will help make other victims feel better and make other kids be safer.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The archdiocese is also responding to the allegations of sexual abuse, calling them nothing more than unsubstantiated allegations and rumors.

Guam – The Archdiocese of Agana is finally responding to Deacon Steve Martinez’s criticism of Archbishop Anthony Apuron, highlighting instead what they call Deacon Martinez’s incompetence.

They are also answering back at critics who say the archbishop intentionally kept the sex abuse policy weak to protect himself.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron has been publicly accused by two people so far of sexual abuse, the first was Roy Quintanilla, who says Apuron molested him at Mt. Carmel Catholic Church 40 years earlier and the second is Doris Concepcion who says her son revealed on his deathbed that Apuron molested him at the same church decades earlier.

The archdiocese calls these allegations unproven. “We are facing one allegation—contradicted by other testimonies—and some unsubstantiated rumors of sexual abuse. We are dealing with unproven allegations, not with proven crimes,” the release states.

However, while the archdiocese calls the allegations against the archbishop unsubstantiated and just rumors, they then go on point out that Archbishop Apuron “has always taken very seriously any allegations, and even rumors, of sexual abuse and acted on them.”

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IRELAND
Connacht Tribune

Galway Diocese has confirmed that a safeguarding issue is being investigated.

Bishop Martin Drennan has granted leave of absence of parochial duties to a priest while the investigation is ongoing.

In a statement, Galway Diocese says that the decision of the priest to step aside pending the outcome of the investigation ‘accords with diocesan policy in such matters.’

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NEW YORK
Times Ledger

State Assemblywoman Marge Markey refuses to give up. For a decade she has pushed the state Legislature in Albany to pass the Child Victims Act, which would remove the statute of limitations on underage sexual abuse cases.

Her bill made it through the Assembly this session for the fourth time, but it never has been brought up for a vote in the state Senate.

This time looked like it might be different. The Maspeth Democrat took her fight to the Legislature as “Spotlight” won the Oscar for Best Picture for its accurate portrayal of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the Catholic Church’s coverup of priests molesting children. The film aired the scandals that have plagued the church to an appalled national audience.

In May, the Democratic minority failed in its bid to force the state Senate to vote on the measure, which may mean that it’s moribund with only two weeks left in the current session. GOP senators blocked the bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, on the grounds it would unleash a flood of unverified claims of sex abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

HOLLIDAYSBURG – Three Franciscan priests charged in connection to the Brother Stephen Baker child sexual abuse scandal waived their formal arraignments Friday.

The Revs. Giles A. Schinelli, 73; Robert J. D’Aversa, 69; and Anthony M. Criscitelli, 62, are charged with conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
The Australian

Cameron Stewart
Associate Editor
Melbourne

Australia must step up pressure on Israel over the extradition of former school principal and ­accused sex offender Malka Leifer, one of the women’s alleged victims said yesterday.

She was speaking after a Jerusalem judge ruled Leifer was not mentally fit to face extradition proceedings to Australia and she would be set free from house ­detention.

The decision dashes the hopes of Leifer’s alleged victims that the former principal will face trial in Melbourne in the next few years and raises the possibility she may never be extradited.

“I am so angry, this is very ­unfair,” one of Leifer’s alleged victims told The Weekend Australian. “She has basically been set free to live her life.”

The alleged victim said the issue needed to be taken up more vigorously. “I would love the Australian government to put more pressure on Israel over this,” she said. “She needs to be bought back to face trial.”

Australia’s ambassador in Tel Aviv, Dave Sharma, said the ­embassy was liaising with the ­Israeli State Attorney’s office about the next step to take.

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UNITED STATES
The Mennonite

J. Ron Byler is the executive director of Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Photo by Lowell Brown.

As stories of harm within our faith communities increase, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is committed to speaking out against sexualized violence.

Sexualized violence is physical or psychological violence carried out through sexual means or by targeting a person’s sexuality. Examples include rape, sexual assault, psychological violence such as manipulation and coercion, and sexual harassment.

We acknowledge that MCC and the churches with which we work have been complicit in perpetuating violence through our silence and our inability to hold accountable those who have caused harm.

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VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

For more information: Barbra Graber 540-214-8874, mennonite@snapnetwork.org, David Clohessy 314 566 9790,davidgclohessy@gmail.com

Group wants investigation into church/college abuse case
“But it must be independent, not internal,” survivors insist
They challenge Mennonite officials to publicly pledge full cooperation
“And they should publicly oppose even discussion of an in-house probe,” group says

A support group for abuse victims is urging Mennonite Church officials to hire independent investigators to look into an abuse case at a Virginia church and university. The group also wants church leaders to pledge, in advance, their full cooperation with such an effort and their “vigorous opposition” to any proposed internal investigation.

The case involves Luke Hartman, well known church leader who was arrested on solicitation of prostitution charges while he was a vice president at Eastern Mennonite University and a member of Lindale Mennonite Church, both in Harrisonburg, VA. He is also accused of sexual abuse, stalking, verbal abuses, threats of violence and was allowed to remain in his position, the group says, long after credible accusations were made.

Leaders of SNAP Mennonite (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) are prodding staff at the national Mennonite headquarters, the Virginia Mennonite Conference, Eastern Mennonite University, and Lindale Mennonite Church to act on the church-appointed Sexual Abuse Prevention Panel’s recent recommendation of an independent investigation.

“Specifically, we call on MC USA Executive Director Ervin Stutzman, MC USA Moderator Patricia Shelly, Mennonite Education Agency Executive Director Carlos Romero, and Virginia Mennonite Conference Executive Conference Minister Clyde Kratz to publicly join with the Sexual Abuse Panel’s push for an outside investigation,” said Stephanie Krehbiel, researcher for the Mennonite Abuse Prevention List. “And these officials should publicly and vigorously fight any move towards an internal probe.”

Stutzman and Shelly recently wrote, “We wholeheartedly support the work of the Panel on Sexual Abuse Prevention. Our staff called for the formation of the panel, and we have asked them to develop policies and procedures for congregations and church organizations to follow when there are complaints of abuse.”

“We urge all church leaders, pastors, and Mennonite congregants to hold these leaders accountable for their statements of trust in their own Sexual Abuse Prevention Panel, to go beyond smooth words and take tangible action,” said Krehbiel.

“Mennonites have a history of attempting to handpick their own investigators in sexual abuse cases, from within their own circles of friends, acquaintances, and trusted institutional allies,” said Jeremy Yoder, Mennonite pastor in La Junta, CO and graduate of Eastern Mennonite Seminary. “When abusers and enablers are powerful and popular leaders, these internal processes leave survivors marginalized and voiceless.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Vulnerable children were sexually assaulted just weeks after arriving at Kincora Boys’ Home, a public inquiry has heard.

Detailed and graphic accounts of a litany of abuse by staff members during the 1970s were given to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) which is examining allegations of state sponsored child prostitution and cover up.

In statements, boys described how house master Raymond McGrath preyed on them as they watched television, while they were in bed and in the bathroom.

For some it was a frequent occurrence, the inquiry was told.

It was further claimed that after assaulting boys, McGrath would walk away laughing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Crux

By Jack Valero
Special to Crux June 3, 2016

A new front Pope Francis has opened in his bid to reform the Catholic Church may prove one of his toughest challenges yet. But it is also, unquestionably, one of the most important.

“I remember now the famous expression, ‘It is the hour of the laity’,” he said in a recent letter to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, “but it seems that the clock has stopped.”

A resurgence of clericalism, he warned, is stifling the possibility of lay people taking up their proper role in the Church – one of the key insights of the Second Vatican Council.

This isn’t a side issue for Francis; unless lay people assume responsibility for mission and evangelization, he says in the letter, “the prophetic fire that the Church is called to light in the hearts of her peoples will be extinguished.”

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Editor June 3, 2016

Elsewhere on the Crux site today, Jack Valero has a piece insisting that clericalism should be consigned to the dustbins of history and the Church should fully embrace the lay role. In effect, the suggestion is that lay people “represent” the Church every bit as much as clergy, if not in terms of its teaching authority then its evangelizing mission.

That’s an argument that doubtless will resonate with many Catholics, including Pope Francis, whose distaste for clericalism is well-documented. An exclusive Crux story yesterday, however, offers an important reminder that laity have to take the bitter with the sweet: If you want to be empowered, you also have to be accountable.

In a nutshell, Austen Ivereigh reported from Peru that the head of a Church court there has written a painstaking letter documenting efforts to inform the Vatican of charges of sexual and other forms of abuse against the founder of a powerful lay movement known as the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, and expressing palpably growing outrage at the lack of a response over four years.

It was just in May that the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious finally appointed a delegate to oversee a process of reform, and it still has not imposed any ecclesiastical punishment on the founder, Luis Fernando Figari.

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UNITED STATES
FaithTrust Institute

Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune

Jun 02, 2016

Dear Pope Francis:

I am sure that there must be some nights that you can’t sleep because you are carrying a load heavier than most of us can even imagine. But I can only assume that some nights are especially hard.

A few months ago, Monsignor Tony Anatrella told new Bishops that they did not have a duty to report allegations of the sexual abuse of children to law enforcement. Not only did this instruction contradict your current policy of requiring reporting, but your Commission for the Protection of Minors was not even involved in the training.

As soon as it hit the news, Cardinal O’Malley, who chairs your Pontifical Commission on the Protection of Minors, came out asserting strongly that Bishops have a moral obligation to report disclosures of the sexual abuse of children to law enforcement. It will not be a surprise to you that Cardinal O’Malley’s position is one that I strongly support for all clergy in all faith communities.

And then there’s Cardinal Pell, who is now one of your closest advisors at the Vatican. In March, asserting that he was too ill to leave the Vatican and travel to Australia, Pell gave four days of video-link testimony to the Australian Parliamentary Commission, which is investigating child abuse in institutions serving children. Pell acknowledged that he had dismissed allegations of “plausible” complaints of child sexual abuse when he served there, beginning in the 1970s. Pell’s hometown, Ballarat, has been scarred by a rash of suicides by abuse survivors, where at least five pedophiles clerics were working during Pell’s tenure there. In his testimony, Cardinal Pell finally acknowledging how wrong he got it. It will be interesting to see how he will respond to his people who are asking him to “Come Home” to Australia. They want to have a little chat.

Last week, Monsignor Tony Anatrella was back in the news. The consulter to the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers has been accused by at least four former seminarians of sexual abuse. There have been reports about Anatrella since at least 2001, and about his abuse going back as far as 1987. French seminaries and monasteries sent young men who appeared to have gay proclivities to Fr. Anatrella for “therapy.” His methods included telling them they weren’t gay and then engaging in mutual masturbation with them.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News June 3, 2016

The Archdiocese of Agana announced Friday it is working with a prominent U.S. law firm and an independent investigator to look into recent allegations made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

In a media release, the church responded to accusations made in recent days by a local deacon.

Deacon Steve Martinez, the former coordinator of a local church group charged with reviewing sexual abuse allegations involving clergy, said at a press conference Wednesday that Apuron purposely kept the archdiocese’s sexual abuse policy weak to protect himself.

On Friday, the church said that this allegation is a “calumny of such magnitude that the only avenue, which we are following, is recourse to the civil and canonical legal processes to address these intentional lies.”

The statement continues: “We are working with one of the most prominent U.S. legal firms to address these issues and with an independent investigator to inquire about this allegation and these rumors. These intentional lies oblige the Archbishop to take appropriate and immediate canonical measures in regard to Stephen Martinez.”

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Winona’s bishop has callously rubbed salt into the already-deep and still-fresh wounds of abuse victims by deliberately and disingenuously minimizing the pain and vulnerability of a teenaged girl who was repeatedly abused by a priest who was counseling her.

[Post-Bulletin]

Bishop John Quinn (jmquinn@dow.org) wrote that “Monsignor Richard Colletti’s resignation stems from recent media reports involving accusations of sexual misconduct with an adult female that dates back to 1986.”

First, Quinn uses the word “misconduct,” a deliberately vague word that minimizes the horror of what Colletti did. A powerful, well-educated priest abused his position, authority and trust by sexually manipulating, abusing and exploiting a devout teenaged girl who sought counseling because she was already suffering. She’d been raised since birth to consider priests holy, trustworthy, celibate men who could forgive her sins and get her into heaven. So Colletti’s actions were abusive and devastating.

Texting during a movie or being loud in a restaurant is “misconduct.” What Colletti did borders on criminal. And when powerful men like Catholic bishops insult victims and deceive parishioners when they put self-serving spin on this kind of horror. Shame on Quinn.

Second, the phrase “dates back to 1986” is essentially another way to minimize the monsignor’s wrongdoing. Quinn implies that since the devastating betrayal happened some years ago, it’s somehow less wrong or hurtful.

Third, Quinn implies that the “gag order” in this case was mutual. In only the most narrow, technical sense could this be true. For decades, Catholic officials insisted on such secrecy before they provided any real help to victims. We strongly suspect that Quinn’s predecessor demanded this gag order and a desperate, wounded and perhaps even suicidal victim felt she had no choice but to sign it.

Quinn should be more forthcoming about his troubling case. (Does he really think this victim will sue him if he ‘comes clean’ and admits which church officials covered up for one of their abusive colleagues?) Quinn should also disclose Colletti’s whereabouts and should aggressively prod others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or manipulations by the ex-chancellor to call law enforcement, using church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements. Quinn should also personally visit each parish where Colletti worked, begging those with information or suspicions about clergy wrongdoing to call independent sources of help, not church officials.

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IOWA
KTIV

[with video]

By Tommie Clark, Multimedia Journalist

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) –
It’s been more than 50 years, but one former Siouxlander is still trying to right a wrong he says was done to him when he was just 12-years-old.

We sat down with Tim Lennon, who claims he was raped by a Catholic priest in Sioux City.

KTIV’s Tommie Clark has been investigating the allegation for the past few months.

She has his story.

Tim Lennon met with the Diocese of Sioux City to have his allegations addressed.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

media kit
Previous Auxiliary Bishops of Boston
The Appointment of Bishops

June 3, 2016
www.BostonCatholic.org

Braintree, MA – The Holy See announced this morning that Pope Francis has named Rev. Robert P. Reed and Very Reverend Mark O’Connell, JCD as Auxiliary Bishops of the Archdiocese of Boston. Bishop-elect Reed is President and CEO of iCatholic Media and Cabinet Secretary for Catholic Media. Bishop-elect O’Connell currently serves as Judicial Vicar for the Archdiocese.

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley will present the Bishops-elect at a 10:00am press conference today (Friday, June 3, 2016) in the Medeiros Auditorium at St. John Seminary, 127 Lake Street, Brighton, MA.

Cardinal Seán said, “In Bishops-elect Reed and O’Connell the Holy Father has selected two gifted priests as Auxiliary Bishops. They exemplify the heart of a pastor and joyfully bring the Gospel to life in their daily ministry. These kind and humble priests bless us with their prayerful commitment to serve the faithful with grace and a deep and abiding love for Christ.”

Bishop-elect Reed said, “My gratitude goes to Pope Francis for this appointment and his example of a joyful life motivated by the Gospel. I am equally thankful to Cardinal Seán for his confidence in me as one of his priests. My life and work as a priest is one of service, not privilege. For me, today is a summons to an even deeper service in the name of Jesus, our only hope.”

Bishop-Elect O’Connell said, “I am very humbled, and overwhelmed by the Holy Father’s confidence in calling me to serve in this new role within the life of the Church. I have been an extremely blessed and happy priest for twenty-six years. I can only trust that God will continue to allow me to be happy serving as a bishop no matter what is His plan for me.”

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By: Marc Jayson Cayabyab
@MJcayabyabINQ

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday blasted anew the Catholic Church for being a hypocritical institution and said he could serve his office exposing and attacking abusive priests throughout his six-year term.

During his press conference at the presidential guesthouse on Thursday night, Duterte not only hit corruption within the media but also the hypocrisy in the church led by priests who abuse children while pretending to be the models of morality.

Duterte mentioned the bishops who were given luxury cars as charity by the state lottery and abusive priests who molest seminarians or children even as they lead their confession.

“Luxury cars for charity, mga bishops isa pang mga p***** ina (bishops who are sons of b******). What a hypocrite society,” Duterte, fuming with rage, said in his press briefing.

Duterte lashed at the Church for urging the Catholics not to vote for him for being a womanizer even when some from their ranks molest children and have families outside their vow of celibacy.

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MINNESOTA
Daily Bankruptcy Review

Tom Corrigan
June 02, 2016

A federal judge overseeing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s bankruptcy said clergy sexual abuse victims seeking greater access to the archdiocese’s assets may have to clear a number of potentially high legal hurdles, including the First Amendment.

During a hearing Thursday at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis, Judge Robert Kressel questioned whether victims’ recent request to force the archdiocese to pool assets from hundreds of related—but legally distinct—affiliates is inconsistent with the protections of religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution….

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By LEITH HUFFADINE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

The former principal of an elite ultra-orthodox Jewish school has been allowed to walk free despite being wanted on 74 child sex charges.

Malka Leifer is wanted by Victorian police for 74 charges of indecent assault and rape allegedly involving girls at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, but a judge in Israel, where she fled in 2008 after being accused, has ruled she’s not mentally fit to be extradited to Australia, the ABC reported.

According to the report, Leifer has avoided 10 extradition proceedings in the past two years, claiming she suffers panic attacks and is too unwell to face court.

After a psychiatrist’s report released on Thursday said she was mentally unwell and after a judge said she couldn’t face extradition, her house arrest in Israel will be lifted.

She doesn’t have to face an extradition hearing until after she’s completed psychiatric treatment – which could last years, according to the ABC.

The decision has stunned Australian authorities and those campaigning to seek justice for the alleged victims, including Australian-Israeli victim advocate Manny Waks.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
Herald Sun

June 3, 2016

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

MEMBERS of Victoria’s ultra orthodox Jewish community are helping fund fugitive principal Malka Leifer’s life on the run.

The mother of eight is in hiding in Israel while local authorities fight to have her returned to Australia to face allegations of serious child sexual abuse.

The Herald Sun can reveal a bank account linked to Ms Leifer is being topped up by Adass community members here.

Sources within the community say deposits are being made over the counter at a bank in Elsternwick.

They say they are outraged that some members of the community that helped Ms Leifer flee Australia are now supporting her while she evades justice.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer Posted Jun. 2, 2016

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An extensive seven-month investigation into alleged systemic sexual abuse at St. George’s School found “no prosecutable criminal conduct,” and has been closed, State Police Col. Steven G. O’Donnell and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said Thursday.

“Unfortunately for those who came forward, they will not be able to seek justice within the criminal justice system due to the applicable statutes defining conduct, and statute of limitations,” their joint statement said.

The investigation focused on allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct “by seven former faculty members;one current employee; and three former students upon students” at the elite private Episcopal boarding school in Middletown.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
GLENN BLAIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, June 2, 2016,

ALBANY — Finally, some good news for child sexual abuse victims in their fight to obtain justice.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said his chamber is working on new legislation that would eliminate or significantly extend New York’s statute of limitations for child abuse cases.

“I think we have been having good, productive, conversations,” Heastie said Thursday. “We may be looking to come up with a draft of a bill that would be acceptable to the conference that I think would accomplish a lot of the things that the victims are looking for.”

Heastie provided few details but said the new bill would likely include some sort of a lookback provision that gives victims a chance to revive old cases — a key component sought by survivors and advocates who want to change the law.

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RHODE ISLAND
WPRI

[with video]

by Annie Shalvey; Reporting by Perry Russom

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — Members of the Rhode Island State Police announced Thursday their investigation into allegations of sexual assault and misconduct at St. George’s School has concluded.

After dozens of interviews with former students and current and former faculty, state police concluded that the state cannot proceed with criminal charges at this time.

According to troopers, the investigation focused on allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by faculty members at the elite Middletown boarding school. Police said claims against seven former faculty members, one current employee and three former students were investigated.

Police also looked into claims that school administrators did not report alleged abuse to the Rhode Island Department of Youth and Families.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Editorial

With the days dwindling in Albany’s legislative session, two perniciously false arguments stand between victims of child sexual abuse and access to the legal system that could bring those who harmed them to justice.

The victims are seeking legislation that would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations on sex crimes, extend the statute of limitations on civil suits that now ends when a victim turns 23 and give victims who have been barred from the courts a fresh one year to file suits.

Although priests are by far a minority of those who commit sex crimes against minors, the Catholic Church has pressed the Legislature to squelch the so-called one-year look-back, while supporting the other measures.

The first perniciously false argument voiced by church representatives and like-thinking legislators was best expressed last month to the Daily News by Democratic Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle of Rochester:

“With each passing year, it gets harder and harder to reconstruct the truth.”

Republican Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco of Syracuse conveyed the second argument directly to victims:

Giving adults abused as kids the power to go back and press criminal charges or file lawsuits would invite fabricated claims of abuse against the innocent.

Neither knows what the hell he’s talking about — and Linda Fairstein does.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

An abuse survivors group says Guam has been used as a “way station for problematic priests”, and abuse within the Catholic Church on the island spreads far beyond its Archbishop.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron is denying accusations he molested two altar boys in the 1970s.

But a director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Joelle Casteix told Jo O’Brien rumours of abuse have been circulating for years and she has no reason not to believe the latest allegations

JOELLE CASTEIX: Nobody wants to accuse their Archbishop of sexual abuse. Nobody wants to sue their church. All any survivor wants is healing and to make sure their abuser is never around another kid. And so I have no reason to not believe those people who have come forward, the victim and the other victim’s mother because they have absolutely nothing to gain from this except their personal vindication, that’s it, and they are doing this just out of pure strength and bravery, in the face of an Archbishop who is threatening to sue and saying they are causing harm to the church. They have a lot of lose and they are still standing up for what’s right.

JO O’BRIEN: The Archdiocese is calling these claims a malicious lies, insinuating there’s other issues involved, and that’s why this campaign is being waged against the church. What’s your response to their attitude on this?

JC: It’s awful that there’s been no compassion what so ever for the survivors, and it would be very easy for the Archdiocese to make a statement saying, we are so sorry for any pain that these people may have suffered. When the mother of a survivor comes forward and tells her story of pain, it is very heart wrenching, and there’s been no compassion what so ever. I believe that they are really in a entirely defensive mode, and it’s terribly hurtful and it’s pretty eye opening for Catholics who are really expecting the Archdiocese to do the Christian thing to show compassion first, and then to defend the church second.

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MALAYSIA
Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: British paedophile Richard Huckle had wanted to “marry” one of the children he was abusing and set up a foster care service, so he would have a steady stream of children under his care to abuse, UK’s Daily Mail reported.

This is one of the sordid details that emerged during the 30-year-old’s ongoing trial.

He had posted on a paedophile website, where he also shared graphic images and videos: “My ambition once married would be for our family to be like foster carers for children, temporarily or long term… I would like a cycle of children to come through my house.”

Huckle’s parents had also asked the police to take him away while he was at their house in Ashford, Kent, under strict bail conditions, before he was charged with his horrific crimes.

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MALAYSIA
Malay Mail Online

BY BOO SU-LYN

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 ― British paedophile Richard Huckle met his victims at the Community of Praise church, but church leaders and parents were unaware of any sexual abuse involving the children, a source said.

The highly-placed source said Huckle, 30, had visited the Protestant church run by Pastor Paul Packianathan ― which has branches in Taman Medan, Petaling Jaya, and in Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur ― as a photographer, and met impoverished ethnic Indian families who came to the church for food handouts.

“The church leaders and parents were unaware of the abuse; they only became aware this year,” the source told Malay Mail Online.

The source added that Huckle did not volunteer teaching at the church and that the photographer’s victims were from the surrounding community, but were not technically members of the church.

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IRELAND
The Tablet

02 June 2016 | by Sarah Mac Donald

An Irish priest falsely accused of sexual abuse calls for the Church to rethink the way it treats clergy who are placed under investigation

The Church “cut me loose, hung me out to dry, and disowned me,” says Fr Tim Hazelwood, who has been a Catholic priest for 34 years. He has recently won a six-year struggle to clear his name after being falsely accused of sexual abuse. He is deeply concerned at the way in which the Church handled his case, and he warns that the Irish hierarchy must rethink its treatment of accused priests and its policy on anonymous accusations.

Fr Hazelwood says there is a climate in both church and society which presumes priests are guilty unless they prove their innocence. The 57-year-old parish priest of Killeagh in the Cloyne diocese, a qualified psychotherapist, believes it is time for priests in Ireland to establish a national body which will lobby the bishops and the current safeguarding structures on their behalf to ensure that natural justice is not undermined.

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MINNESOTA
Advocate Tribune

Posted Jun. 2, 2016

The Diocese of New Ulm engaged in a day of prayer Wednesday, May 25, the final day to make a civil sexual abuse claim under the Minnesota Child Victims Act. According to a press release from the Diocese of New Ulm, Bishop John LeVoir called on all local Catholics to pray for healing, reconciliation, and hope.

“Today is a day to remember in prayer all those harmed through abuse by priests or others in Church ministry,” said Bishop LeVoir. “It is a time to recommit to efforts to prevent the abuse of the vulnerable and to vow never to forget the lessons of this tragic chapter in church history.”

As of the end of the day on May 24, the Diocese of New Ulm and parishes within the Diocese had received claims from 98 victims and survivors under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which temporarily lifted the civil statute of limitations for historic claims of sexual abuse of a minor. Of the Diocese’s 75 parishes, 28 are named in claims.

A total of four of the 19 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse served in either pastoral or administrative capacities at area churches, including all four at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Granite Falls.

According to the release, The Diocese will continue to work closely with the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates and other representatives of victims and survivors as the aggrieved move forward in their healing journey. The Diocese and Jeff Anderson & Associates have committed to taking the time necessary, working together, to come to a fair resolution of claims that allows the work of the Church to continue while promoting healing.

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UNITED STATES
KTOO

By Rebecca Beitsch, Stateline
June 2, 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.

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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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

The Archdiocese of Agana claims years of attacks and recent allegations made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron are part of malicious smear campaign against him and a plot to take him down.

Following a press conference held by the former sex abuse response coordinator for the Archdiocese of Agana, Deacon Stephen Martinez, the archdiocese is firing back. Martinez claimed the sex abuse policy was flawed because the archbishop essentially has the final say in all complaints that are filed and investigated. Two people have come forward alleging allegations of sexual molestation against the archbishop when he was a priest at Mount Carmel Church in Agat decades ago.

The archdiocese says Martinez’s allegation that the policy was kept weak purposely by the archbishop to protect himself is slanderous and their only recourse is civil and canonical legal processes to address what they call are intentional lies. According to a media release the archdiocese is working with one of the most prominent US legal firms to address these issues and with an independent investigator to inquire about this allegation and these rumors.

The church meanwhile is also accusing Martinez of being part of a conspiracy or the “Rohr Group” to topple the archbishop. Tim Rohr operates the JungleWatch blog, which has been critical of the archbishop over the last several years.

The church further claims Martinez, who was the former archdiocesan financial officer was incompetent in his position and for six years in a row failed to submit required financial reports to the Vatican. The archdiocese alleges this finance council conspired to sell the Yona seminary property in order to cover their financial misdeeds. So where does Rohr fit in?

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Friday, June 03, 2016

Liam Heylin

A 83-year-old priest who was put on trial on charges of indecently assaulting a boy in a school sickbed in the 1970s was found not guilty on both charges yesterday.

The nine men and three women of the jury return to courtroom 2 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after an hour of deliberation to tell Judge Gerard O’Brien they had reached a unanimous verdict of not guilty on both charges.

Two past pupils from the 1970s and 1980s spoke yesterday in favour of the priest, who was on trial on two charges of indecently assaulting a pupil in the sickbay of the school.

One past pupil whose marriage ceremony was later performed by the priest said yesterday: “The school was a goldfish bowl. If there was a sniff of any inappropriate behaviour it would have gotten out.”

A student from the 1970s said: “He was very much part of our set-up. He was involved in collecting stamps for charity, he was always involved in things like that. I got on fine with him. He was passionate about teaching. He would drive you hard. He was a good teacher.”

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MALAYSIA
Malay Mail Online

BY BOO SU-LYN

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 ― A Petaling Jaya church said that Richard Huckle, the man dubbed in UK media as Britain’s “worst paedophile”, had visited it a few times, but denied any child sexual abuse in its congregation or the surrounding community.

Pastor Paul Packianathan, senior pastor of the Community of Praise Petaling Jaya Church located in Taman Medan, a Petaling Jaya neighbourhood comprising mostly hardcore poor Malays and Indians, also said Huckle never taught English tuition in the Protestant church.

“There was no abuse in our church,” Paul told Malay Mail Online.

“Those children supposedly affected by him are not from our church, or from the community where our church is,” he said. “He just came as a parishioner on and off”.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
Australian Jewish News

Alleged sex offender Malka Leifer will live in Israel as a free woman, a Jerusalem court has ruled, bringing the long-running case for her extradition to stand trial in Australia crashing down.

“It is the worst possible outcome,” Manny Waks, the Australian anti-abuse activist told The AJN shortly after the judge announced his decision. “I have spoken to some of the alleged victims and they are devastated, simple as that.”

Waks voiced alarm that former Melbourne Adass Israel school principal Leifer, who is supposed to stand trial in Victoria on 74 indecent acts committed against pupils before she fled Australia in 2008, will be allowed to be near Israeli children and youth. “There is no justice for the alleged victims and children in israel are endangered,” he said.

For the last two years, alleged victims, activists, and the Australian embassy of Tel Aviv have been pinning their hopes of a trial on extradition proceedings that could get her to the dock in Victoria. But proceedings never really got underway — she repeatedly failed to attend court and her legal team argued that was legitimate because the spectre of the courtroom brought on psychotic episodes.

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

June 3, 2016 by Henry Benjamin

A psychiatric report has found wanted fugitive Malka Leifer is not mentally fit to face an Israeli court to face proceedings to extradite her to Australia.

Leifer is facing prosecution in Melbourne for 74 alleged sexual abuse offences committed when she was employed as the principal of the Adass Yisroel School. Leifer had been brought to Melbourne from Israel to fill the position. She fled to Israel in 2008 ahead of allegations.

In Jerusalem’s District Court Judge Amnon Cohen directed that Leifer must attend regular clinical psychiatric treatment without hospitalisation.

Leifer has been banned from leaving Israel and must undergo five treatments over the next six months after which a further psychiatric report will be submitted to the court. She will undergo the first treatment next week.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

A former principal of a Jewish girls’ school in Australia will not face immediate extradition from Israel to Australia on 74 allegations of indecent assault and rape, reportedly involving girls at the Jewish school in Melbourne, because she is currently mentally incompetent to face extradition proceedings, a Jerusalem judge ruled on Thursday.

As reported by Australian Associated Press, Jerusalem District Court Judge Amnon Cohen ruled that any move to extradite Malka Leifer, the former principal at the Adass Israel School will wait until she has concluded psychiatric treatment, which “could go on for years,” the Australian news agency reported.

Based on a psychiatric evaluation, the judge reportedly ordered initial outpatient psychiatric treatment for Leifer for six months, but the Australian Associated Press added that can will be reevaluated periodically in a process that could last up to ten years.

The mother of eight ran the Adass Israel girls’ school from 2001 to 2008, until she was fired amid accusations that she molested students. She fled to Israel some 24 hours after the allegations became public.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 2, 2016

For more information: Dan Frondorf 513-706-7403, danielfrondorf@gmail.com, David Clohessy 314-566-9790 cell,davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Barbara Dorris 314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org

In rare move, archbishop sues parishioners
Child sex victims welcome “more aggressive action”
But they blast Catholic officials for ignoring abuse “enablers”
SNAP: Prelate should sue or discipline those who hid child sex crimes
“Why is church money more important than our kids?” support group asks
Organization writes to head of Cincinnati archdiocese urging pursuit of “enablers”

In what’s being called “an unprecedented move,” Cincinnati’s Catholic archbishop is suing local parishioners and parish staff because they allegedly kept silent about their pastor’s theft of $1.5 million. And a victims group is urging the prelate to file similar suits against church employees who ignored or hid child sex crimes.

In March, Fr. Earl Simone pleaded guilty to aggravated theft of $1.5 million from St. Peter Church in Huber Heights. On Sunday, an apology from him was read at the parish.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/former-st-peters-priest-expected-to-plea-in-theft-/nqgwN/

And on Monday, a local television station disclosed that Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr is suing ten “John Does” at the parish who reportedly knew of or were involved in the theft but kept silent.

[WDTN]

[WHIO]

Leaders of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests say they have never seen Catholic officials defrock, demote, discipline – much less sue – a single church official or member for hiding child sex crimes. (In Cincinnati, there are almost 30 publicly accused predator priests, SNAP says, which likely means that dozens or even hundreds of church staff might be guilty of ignoring or concealing abuse and should, if the archbishop’s new approach is consistently applied, be sued.)

“We’ve long said bishops refuse to punish church staff who hurt others. So at one level, we’re glad to see a tougher approach by Archbishop Schnurr,” said Dan Frondorf, SNAP’s volunteer Cincinnati leader. “But this aggressive approach should be applied to those involved in child sexual abuse, not just theft.”

“When our kids are at risk, Cincinnati Catholic officials ignore, tolerate or ‘forgive’ wrongdoers. But when it’s their money at risk, Cincinnati Catholic sue wrongdoers,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s executive director. “If the archbishop wants to get tough, he should do so against those who hid child sex crimes.”

At the very least, SNAP says, Schnurr should hire independent investigators to determine exactly which church employees should be disciplined or sued.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

Monsignor Richard Colletti has resigned his positions with the Diocese of Winona as Vicar General and Chancellor.

The announcement of the resignation was contained in a Wednesday evening email from Bishop John Quinn to diocesan clergy.

“Monsignor Colletti’s resignation stems from recent media reports involving accusations of sexual misconduct with an adult female that dates back to 1986,” Quinn’s email said.

The bishop’s announcement coincided with a Rochester Post-Bulletin story published Thursday morning detailing a personal injury lawsuit filed in 1992 against Colletti, the Diocese, Saint Mary’s University and others.

Colletti admitted in court documents to having a sexual relationship with a female student he was counseling while on staff at Saint Mary’s. The lawsuit was closed in December 1993. Terms of the settlement are confidential.

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Thursday, June 02, 2016
GoLocalProv News Team

The Rhode Island State Police and the Rhode Island Department of the Attorney General have determined that there is no prosecutable criminal conduct and have closed the St. George’s School Investigation.
The Investigation

Starting in November 2015, the Rhode Island State Police conducted an extensive investigation into all allegations it received, some of which dated back to as early as 1970.

The investigation focused on allegation of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by 7 former faculty members, one current employee and 3 former students at the school. The investigation also looked at allegations that the current and prior school administrations did not properly report instances of alleged assault to the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF).

Rhode Island State Police as well as the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office interviewed approximately 40 witnesses, including alleged victims of sexual assault. The State Police and Attorney General’s Office were also in contact with attorneys representing former students and reported victims of the incidents.

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CALIFORNIA
JDSupra

6/2/2016
by Christopher Kendrick, Valerie Moore | Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

In Doe v. Roman Catholic Archbishop etc. (No. B264947, filed 5/26/16), a California appeals court held that gifts lavished on victims by a molesting priest did not constitute advance or partial payment of damages sufficient to toll the statute of limitations on a civil lawsuit for damages under Insurance Code section 11583.

The plaintiffs in Doe v. Roman Catholic Archbishop were adult victims of childhood sexual abuse by a Catholic priest dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. The priest had died in 1985, but in 2014 the victims sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles alleging claims for childhood sexual abuse and negligence. The trial court sustained the Church’s demurrer without leave to amend on the ground that the lawsuit was barred by the applicable statute of limitations, since it was filed more than 30 years after the last act of abuse had occurred.

Plaintiffs argued that the statute of limitations was tolled by actions of the priest under Insurance Code section 11583. Section 11583 provides that any “advance payment or partial payment of damages made by any person” (1) may not “be construed as an admission of liability” and (2) shall be credited against any final settlement or judgment. However, if the person making that “advance payment or partial payment of damages” does not give the recipient written notice of the applicable statute of limitations, the statute will be tolled until written notice is given or until the person retains an attorney, whichever happens first.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Jun. 2, 2016

The U.S. bishops’ conference issued today an update and correction to its annual report on local churches’ compliance with the Dallas Charter, the set of guidelines and standards that are to govern the dioceses’ response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The 2015 report was released May 20. That report contained an error: it called the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter an eparchy, which is the Orthodox church’s equivalent of a diocese. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is not an eparchy; it is the diocese-like structure created by the Vatican in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy in the United States seeking to become Catholic.

The report — which covers the period July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015 — also said that the ordinariate was not in compliance with the Dallas Charter. Today’s release clarifies that the ordinariate did not participate with the audit process ” due to its new ecclesiastical structure in the United States.” Its first bishop was not installed until February of this year.

Check out all the great products NCR has to offer! Visit our online store now.
The release today says that the ordinariate, which has headquarters in Houston, will participate in data collection for the the 2016 audit (which covers the period July 2015 to June 2016) and will have an onsite audit for the 2017 audit period.

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NEW YORK
Linked In

Nancy Levine
Author, The Tao of Pug (Penguin/Skyhorse). Executive Recruiter. Activist Blogger

un 2, 201678 views2 Likes0 CommentsShare on LinkedInShare on FacebookShare on Twitter
I am curious about why The New York Times has not reported on developments related to the Child Victims Act in New York State. The proposed legislation, authored and long-championed by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey would eliminate civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse.

The New York Daily News has been reporting news related to the proposed legislation. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he is backing the bill. The Catholic Church paid lobby firms $2 million to block the legislation. Supporters of the legislation are planning to march across the Brooklyn Bridge this Sunday, June 3.

The Times has published items related to the Child Victims Act in the past. Why isn’t the newspaper following up on news related to its previously published 2014 opinion piece authored by the Editorial Board, and a 2009 story about the embattled legislation?

Given the spate of news items about sexual abuse, e.g., Sandusky, Cosby, Hastert, Baylor University, etc., why isn’t news about the Child Victims Act the focus of a “coverage cluster” about sexual abuse, as part of The Times’ new editorial strategy?

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

What happens to all these suspended predator priests? Prepared to be disgusted or at least worried. Look at a dozen of these guys:

Fr. Thomas J. Cronin of Kansas City, accused of assaulting a teenaged girl, is trying to set up a women’s shelter in Nevada.

A Superior Wisconsin priest, Fr. Thomas E. Ericksen, worked with the Special Olympics in Missouri.

Another accused Kansas City priest, Fr. Michael E. Brewer, works with “disadvantaged youth” in Colorado.

An accused Miami priest, Fr. Ronaldo J. Castillo, lived above a day care center.

An accused Chicago priest, Fr. John M. Furdek, lived in a building with a day care center.

An accused Connecticut priest, Fr. Richard McGann, lived at an in-home day care center.

An accused Spokane priest, Fr. Patrick G. O’Donnell, became a counselor.

So did an accused Rockville Centre priest, Fr. Robert Huneke.

And so did an accused Twin Cities priest, Fr. Michael Charland. (He’s still practicing.)

An accused Steubenville, Ohio priest, Fr. Gary Zalenski, became a college professor.

So did an accused Orange County Catholic school teacher, Thomas Hodgman, who admitted his child sex crimes. (He’s now at Adrian College in Michigan).

This is a painfully common pattern: Bishops suspend predator priests, largely because their lawyers, insurers, and public relations officials insist on it. But they refuse to house or monitor these dangerous clerics. They refuse to help police and prosecutors pursue them. They refuse to aggressively reach out to other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers.

And these priests, who abused their authority and positions, get more authority and new positions, becoming coaches, teachers, counselors and other similar positions that enable them be around and over kids.

Why bring this up now?

Because it’s still happening. And because last year, reports of abuse by priests jumped by about 35%.

And because the number of accused US priest is now somewhere between 6,500 and 6,900.

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UNITED STATES
Charlotte Parent

BY SETH LANGSON

Published: May 31, 2016

Hardly a day goes by without there being another news story about a child who was sexually abused by a teacher, coach, clergy or another person in a position of trust. These incidents reinforce the need for parents to be proactive by asking questions before entrusting their child to others.

Background Checks

Thorough background checks are essential for anyone that might work with your child. Most organizations perform criminal background checks. However, if a person was not convicted of sexual misconduct, the person could still have abused children and have not been caught. Frequent changes in employment and/or residence can be indicators of a person who has had prior accusations of behaving inappropriately with children. Since criminal background checks are so limited, they should be just a starting point.

An organization should require potential employees to give written permission so that the hiring organization can freely communicate with the person’s former employer. This is important because without it, the reference will only provide confirmation of employment but will not disclose job performance.

Questions you should ask:

What was the scope of the background checks for employees?

Did the organization talk with anyone other than the references supplied by the employees?

Did the organization speak to the direct supervisor at former places of employment to find out about his/her job performance?

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill and Fouad Abu-Ghosh

The former principal of an ultra-Orthodox girls school in Melbourne has been ruled mentally unfit to face extradition and had her home detention lifted in a move that has shocked and deeply concerned Australian officials.

A Jerusalem judge has ruled that Malka Leifer is not mentally fit to face extradition proceedings to Australia.

Leifer is wanted by Victorian police on 74 charges of indecent assault and rape allegedly involving girls at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne.

In 2008, after accusations were first raised against her, the former principal fled to Israel with her family in the middle of the night, allegedly with the help of senior members of Melbourne’s secretive Adass community.

For two years, she has managed to evade 10 extradition proceedings, claiming that she faces panic attacks whenever scheduled court dates arise and that she is too unwell to attend court.

On Thursday, a long-awaited report from the district psychiatrist agreed she was mentally unwell and Judge Amnon Cohen ruled she would not face an extradition hearing until she had completed psychiatric treatment that could go on for years.

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RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island State Police

Colonel Steven G. O’Donnell, Superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police and Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, and Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announce the investigation regarding allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by former faculty and students at St. George’s School has concluded.

The investigation by the Rhode Island State Police was initiated in November 2015. The Rhode Island State Police Detective Bureau conducted an extensive investigation into all allegations it received, some dating back as early as 1970.

The investigation focused on allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by seven (7) former faculty members, one (1) current employee and three (3) former students upon students at the school. In addition, the investigation examined allegations that the current and prior school administrations did not properly report instances of alleged assault to the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF).

Numerous interviews were conducted with former students as well as current and former faculty. Throughout the investigation, anyone with information regarding the reported allegations or any alleged criminal misconduct at the school, was encouraged to contact investigators with the State Police. Through the course of the investigation, detectives also received information of past instances of alleged sexual assault and misconduct involving students as well as faculty at the school as recent as 2005 and thoroughly investigated all received information. In addition, numerous documents and files were reviewed as a result of executing a court-authorized search warrant at the school. Throughout the investigation, members of the Rhode Island State Police worked closely with the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office.

In total, the Rhode Island State Police and Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office interviewed approximately 40 witnesses, including alleged victims of sexual assault. The Rhode Island State Police and the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office were also in contact with attorneys representing former students and reported victims of these incidents.

Each allegation brought forward was thoroughly reviewed and investigated. After a careful review of the allegations, evidence and applicable statutes by members of the Rhode Island State Police and the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, it has been determined that the State cannot proceed with criminal charges at this time. The determination was based on existing Rhode Island General Laws, as well as the laws which defined the alleged conduct at the time it occurred.

In determining what criminal laws were applicable to the allegations, factors considered were the date of the offense, the age and sex of the victim, the nature of the act, and the willingness of the victim to come forward and prosecute. The statute of limitations applicable to the enforcement of these was carefully examined.

The laws on sexual assault are much different today than existed at the time many of the reported incidents took place. For example, the statutes defining first degree sexual assault were not enacted until 1979, and common law rape required the sexual assault to take place between man and woman.

The investigation also centered upon allegations of failure by the school administration to report the abuse or neglect to DCYF. In 1979, the legislature provided for misdemeanor penalties for those who failed to report abuse or neglect. In 1984, the legislature expanded the definition of abuse and neglect to include sexual assault. These allegations of failure to report could not be charged due to that fact that in some instances the alleged failure to report was not defined as a criminal offense until 1979, and in other instances, the prosecution of any allegations would be time barred by the three year statute of limitations that existed for the specific crime. While some states have a tolling provision for the statute of limitations for failure to report, Rhode Island’s statute does not include such a provision. Therefore, the alleged criminal conduct must have been charged within three years of an individual learning of the alleged sexual abuse.

Unfortunately for those who came forward, they will not be able to seek justice within the criminal justice system due to the applicable statutes defining conduct and statute of limitations.

We encourage any victims who have not reported to date to come forward, and if allegations are made, they will be thoroughly investigated.

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RHODE ISLAND
ABC News

By MICHELLE R. SMITH AND DENISE LAVOIE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Jun 2, 2016

A state police investigation into dozens of sexual abuse allegations at a prestigious boarding school has concluded with no criminal charges, authorities announced on Thursday.

Police looked at allegations of abuse of students at St. George’s School by seven former faculty members, one current employee and three former students and at allegations that current and prior administrators did not report abuse to the proper authorities.

Police and the attorney general’s office determined they cannot proceed with criminal charges for a variety of reasons, including the statute of limitations and changes in the laws since some of the abuse occurred, as far back as the 1970s. The most recent allegation of abuse police investigated was in 2005, they said.

“Unfortunately for those who came forward, they will not be able to seek justice within the criminal justice system due to the applicable statutes defining conduct and statute of limitations,” police said in a statement.

Representatives for the Episcopal school, located in Middletown, near Newport, did not immediately comment. But the school apologized months ago for how it handled abuse cases.

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ARKANSAS
Arkansas Matters

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A former substitute teacher at Catholic High School has pleaded guilty to indecent exposure following her arrest earlier this year for incidents involving a student.

Erica Suskie, 44, was then sentenced in Pulaski County Circuit Court Thursday morning to one year of probation. She was also ordered to register as a sex offender and pay a $2,500 fine. The judge also instructed her not to discuss the case with the media.

In pleading guilty to indecent exposure, Suskie admitted to exposing her breast to the victim in the case. She was also ordered to undergo counseling throughout her probation period.

Suskie had turned herself in back in February to face original charges of sexual assault and entered a plea of not guilty in North Little Rock District Court before the case was transferred to Pulaski County Circuit Court.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Statements given to the RUC in the 1980s by former residents of the Kincora Boys’ Home have been mentioned at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Banbridge.

The inquiry is now examining what happened at the home.

Some of the former residents indicated that some level of sexual abuse by members of staff was “almost a daily occurrence.”

There have been claims that a vice ring operated in the home.

‘Surprised’ by abuse claims

In their statements some of the other men said that when they were at the home, they had never seen any evidence of politicians, police officers, Justices of the Peace, civil servants and businessmen coming to abuse residents.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Social workers were told of child sex abuse allegations at the former Kincora Boys’ Home as early as 1967, a public inquiry has heard.

The Historical Institutional (HIA) Abuse Inquiry was shown a handwritten letter sent to the Belfast Welfare Authority in which it was claimed boys were being regularly assaulted by the house warden Joseph Mains.

The letter, dated September 1967 also described how one boy, known only as R5, was sent to bed early, made to scrub floors and work in the garden for rejecting Mains’ advances.

R5 wrote: “I first realised something was wrong as far as Mr Mains was concerned.

“Very often when boys were washing he would come into the washroom and put his arms around our chests and hold us tightly to him.

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CANADA
National Post

Jason Magder, Postmedia News | June 1, 2016

Police raided an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Montreal’s Rosemont—La-Petite-Patrie borough Wednesday.

In the early afternoon, police and youth protection officials were at the school, which might have been operating without a permit, according to reports.

Two police officers escorted a group of 11 women and one man, several of whom are Batshaw Youth Services social workers, from the building around 1 p.m. One of them was holding a cardboard box, another a plastic shopping bag, and another had a red folder. They walked to an adjacent parking lot and left in several cars.

“I can’t tell you much, because the Youth Protection Act has very strict rules regarding confidentiality,” said Claire Roy, a spokesperson for the West Island Centre Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre. “We can’t comment on a precise case, but information may follow when it is available.”

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CANADA
CBC News

An illegal school in the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough was the target of a youth protection operation on Wednesday, led by Batshaw Youth and Family Centres with the help of the Montreal police.

The school is operated by the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, apparently operating without an Education Ministry permit.

About 60 students attend the school, a three-storey brick building featuring a storefront with covered windows on Parc Avenue at the corner of Beaubien Street.

There was a heavy police presence at the school on Wednesday.

Dozens of Hasidic boys were seen exiting the school, using their hats to cover their faces.

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NEW YORK
Church Militant

by Joseph Pelletier

NEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) – The New York Catholic Conference is spending millions fighting state reforms to the current statute of limitations requirements.

According to a report by the New York Daily News, the state’s Catholic Conference, under the direction of Cdl. Timothy Dolan, has employed some of New York’s most prominent lobbying firms to assist in blocking the passage of the proposed Child Victims Act, legislation that would seek to eliminate “both criminal and civil statutes of limitation for child sexual abuse, preventing predators and their protectors from escaping responsibility for their crimes by waiting out the clock.”

The proposed legislation would additionally offer a one-year window in which to file a lawsuit to those who can no longer sue per current law.

State records reveal in the church’s fight against both the Child Victims Act and various similar pieces of legislation, it spent over $2.1 million between 2007 and 2015 solely on various lobbyists, separate from the conference’s own personal lobbying team. The four firms contracted by the New York church are Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Mark Behan Communications and Hank Sheinkopf, who purportedly has close relations with multiple Albany politicians including Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Mark Weiner | mweiner@syracuse.com
Follow on Twitter

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The New York Catholic Conference hired some of the state’s most influential lobbying firms to block a bill that would have made it easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue abusers decades later, according to a report by the New York Daily News.

The Catholic Conference headed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, spent more than $2.1 million on lobbyists from 2007 through last year, the Daily News reported, citing state lobbying records.

The lobbyists disclosed one of their responsibilities was to work on issues regarding civil actions related to sex offenses.

The New York State Senate last week rejected an effort to force a vote on the Child Victims Act, which would have given people sexually abused as children a new one-year window to sue over incidents that occurred decades ago.

The Senate voted 30-29 to block Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, in his attempt to eliminate the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse. People who were sexually abused as children in New York must initiate criminal charges or a civil suit by the time they reach age 23.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News June 2, 2016

Deacon Steve Martinez, the former coordinator of a group in the local Catholic Church charged with reviewing sexual abuse allegations involving the clergy, said Thursday he’s aware of “three other victims that have made contact but they are still not ready or willing to move forward with filing a formal complaint.”

The highest leader of the Catholic Church in Guam, Archbishop Anthony Apuron, has twice been accused publicly in recent weeks of sexual abuse.

Apuron and the Archdiocese of Agana have denied the two allegations and announced plans to file lawsuits against those whom it said have been perpetrating “malicious lies” about the archbishop and the Catholic Church.

There still is no investigation by the local church conducted in relation to the sexual abuse complaints, Martinez said.

The first public accusation against Apuron was by a former altar boy in Agat, Roy Quintanilla. He said he was molested by Apuron when the latter was parish priest at Mount Carmel Church in Agat in the 1970s.

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