ABUSE TRACKER

KENTUCKY
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Freddie Byrd was ordained a priest of the Owensboro KY diocese in 1988. He worked in a number of parishes and, beginning in 1997, pastored several. He was a faculty member in the late 1980s at Owensboro Catholic High School, and at St. Meinrad Seminary in IN during the 1990s. In 2008 a 23-year-old man shot and killed himself outside of Blessed Mother parish, where Byrd was pastor. The man left a suicide note in which he said he experienced “pain and torment” because of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. He mentioned Byrd, and said of him, “I forgive you.” He did not name Byrd as an abuser. In June 2016 Byrd was suspended from ministry due to allegations that he had sexually abused a 17-year-old boy in 1983, prior to ordination.

Ordained: 1988

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

[The judge’s ruling]

BY SCOTT DOLAN STAFF WRITER
sdolan@pressherald.com | @scottddolan | 207-791-6304

In a sharp turn of events, a federal judge dismissed a complex defamation case against Paul Kendrick of Freeport on Monday, nearly a year after a jury awarded a $14.5 million verdict against him.

Kendrick lost at trial in U.S. District Court in Portland last summer, but an appellate court in Boston issued a ruling in February that put the entire case in question by asking whether the case ever belonged in federal court.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock Jr. answered that question by backtracking through more than three years of litigation to rule that the plaintiff in the defamation lawsuit, Michael Geilenfeld, wasn’t living in the United States when he filed his claim against Kendrick and therefore the case had no grounds to be heard in a U.S. court.

The ruling dismissing the case doesn’t mean that either side necessarily wins, but more likely that the case will continue on through appeal, further arguments and possibly another trial.

Kendrick was accused of defamation after he began a widely disseminated email campaign in January 2011 accusing Geilenfeld, the American founder of an orphanage in Haiti, of sexually abusing the boys in his care. Kendrick later widened the campaign to include Hearts with Haiti, the North Carolina charity that raised donations to fund the orphanage. Kendrick declined to comment Monday other than to point out that authorities in Haiti have closed Geilenfeld’s orphanage and brought new child abuse allegations against him based on statements by more former orphans.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By PennLive Editorial Board

on June 20, 2016

The fate of a state House bill that would allow victims of sexual abuse to seek expanded civil and criminal redress could now rise or fall on language in the Pennsylvania Constitution that appears to bar the General Assembly from retroactively altering the statute of limitations in such cases.

The language in the bill, prompted in large part by the Catholic Church’s child sexual abuse scandal, was the topic of a three-hour hearing before the state Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

As PennLive’s Ivey DeJesus reported, lawmakers heard from five expert witnesses, only one of whom testified in support of the bill sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Ron Marsico, R-Lower Paxton Twp.

The bill would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations in such cases and expand the look-back in civil actions by an additional 20 years.

That’s hardly a balanced perspective. And it appeared to suggest – fairly or unfairly – that the Senate panel had its mind made up even before the badly needed legislation landed on its side of the Capitol.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 20, 2016

Sexual abuse they suffered at Mount Cashel broke one man and created a house of cards for another, a forensic psychologist told the Mount Cashel civil trial Monday.

Alan M. Goldstein of New York is the second such expert called by lawyers on behalf of four John Does who are test cases in the lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s.

The men represent about 60 claimants who say the Episcopal Corp. should be held liable for the physical and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of certain members of the lay order Irish Christian Brothers during the late 1940s to early 1960s.

The church says it did not oversee the orphanage.

Goldstein’s testimony differs from New Mexico forensic psychologist William Foote in that by the time he got involved, there was more information for him to review. Foote evaluated three of the John Does in 2000, and Goldstein evaluated all four men in 2009 and spoke to them again this year.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

More than 13,000 files from St Patrick’s Guild adoption agency have transferred to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency — almost three years after the agency ceased to operate.

The agency held approximately 13,500 adoption files — one quarter of all adoption files in the country. It closed in 2013, with the transfer expected to take between 12 to 18 months.

The Irish Examiner understands that issues around indemnity against any legal action taken by people seeking their records was a significant factor in the transfer delay.

Tusla declined to confirm it had been indemnified in respect of the records but it had “obtained the appropriate protection in respect of known potential issues”.

St Patrick’s Guild has been excluded from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission, despite the Irish Examiner revealing that the government was in 2013 informed that the agency had knowledge of “several hundred” illegal birth registrations.

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UNITED STATES/ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

Meir Pogrow has taught at Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles, the Michlahlah seminary in Jerusalem, and was head of the Kollel of Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem and Austin, Texas.

Rabbi Meir Pogrow, a prominent rabbi and educator living in Beit Shemesh, has been accused of misusing his authority and position for his sexual gratification by an ad hoc rabbinical court of senior rabbis in Israel and the US, which issued a warning notice instructing women to avoid all contact with the individual.

Pogrow is the founder of a website and study program called Master Torah, designed to aide the study of religious texts and retain the knowledge acquired.

According to the Master Torah website, Pogrow has rabbinical ordination from several authorities, including from the Chief Rabbinate and is qualified as a rabbinical judge.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Caitlin Guilfoyle – AAP on June 21, 2016

A predatory ex-Catholic priest has been jailed for drugging and raping a student after inviting the boy to play computer games in his office.

Michael Scott Aulsebrook, 60, was the boarders’ co-ordinator at Salesian College Rupertswood when he attacked the boy in the 1980s.

He lured the boy to play on his computer after lights-out and gave his victim a soft drink spiked with a sedative.

After raping him, Aulsebrook said: “Get out of my sight. You disgust me”.

He was found guilty of the rape, but also pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault against two other victims, one male and one female.

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MALAWI
Nyasa Times

June 21, 2016

Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM), an umbrella mother body of 122 Christian denominations and organizations in Malawi, was amongst the few stakeholders that were awarded on Monday in Lilongwe for their steadfast and resilient efforts in strengthening child protection in Malawi under the Eye of the Child Annual Award.

The Church mother body was awarded the Eye of the Child Annual Award alongside other religious bodies like Muslim Association of Malawi, Malawi Council of Churches, Quadria Muslim Association and the Seventh Day Adventist by the Eye of the Child Annual alongside other religious bodies like Malawi Council of Churches.

“We would like to thank the Eye of the Child, the Ministry of Gender, FAWEMA, and other partners for recognizing us for our great work in child protection. This is an encouragement to us, and it gives us the energies and an opportunity to do more so that the child is protected both spiritually and socially.

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UNITED STATES
Raw Story

BRAD REED
20 JUN 2016

Catholic League President Bill Donohue on Monday gloated after he successfully helped kill a bill in the New York legislature that would have made it easier for sex abuse victims to bring cases against their accusers.

As The New York Daily News reports, Donohue sent out an email to supporters after the defeat of the Child Victims Act, an act that he said was designed “to rape the Catholic Church.” The bill would have extended the timeframe that victims can bring forward cases by five years and would have opened up a six-month period for victims to revive older cases.

“The bill was sold as justice for the victims of sexual abuse, when, in fact, it was a sham,” Donohue wrote in an email obtained by The New York Daily News. “[It was] a vindictive bill pushed by lawyers and activists out to rape the Catholic Church.”

Donohue’s accusation that the bill would have “raped” the church certainly seems in poor taste given that the bill was meant to help people who had been raped by Catholic priests.

Then again, Donohue is used to being intentionally provocative, such as when he suggested both Islamist radicals and murdered cartoonists both bore equal blame for the Charlie Hebdo massacre, or when he ripped Pope Francis for the grave sin of accepting the science behind climate change.

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UTAH
AOL.com

SALT LAKE CITY (KSTU) — Polygamist leader Lyle Jeffs has escaped custody, federal authorities confirmed to FOX 13.

A warrant was been issued for the Fundamentalist LDS Church leader’s arrest, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah said Monday.

Jeffs was released from jail on June 9 while he was awaiting trial on food stamp fraud and money laundering charges. His lawyers successfully argued that with a delay in his trial sought by federal prosecutors, he should be released. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah argued that Jeffs should remain in jail because he is a flight risk.

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CALIFORNIA
The Union Democrat

Published Jun 20, 2016

A district court judge on Monday postponed setting a new trial date for a woman whose conviction on charges of unlawful sex with a boy in her church youth group was overturned on appeal.

Ember Dawn Schlensker, 32, appeared before Judge Donald Segerstrom with her attorney, Michael Chastaine, of the Sacramento area.

Chastaine said he only recently became Schlensker’s attorney and asked for more time before a trial date is set.

Segerstrom rescheduled the hearing for 1:30 p.m. July 18 in Department 1.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Cathal Barry
May 26, 2016

EXCLUSIVE

Maynooth has insisted that robust procedures are in place to handle complaints against seminarians after allegations of a gay culture in the seminary were made in an anonymous letter to the Irish bishops.

The letter – which allegedly named seven seminarians and two staff members – claimed that members of the seminary community had allegedly been involved in inappropriate behaviour of a homosexual nature.

The letter claimed that there was a gay subculture within the seminary and allegedly urged members of the Irish hierarchy to intervene as a matter of urgency to address the complaints made in the anonymous missive.

The correspondence – sent to the hierarchy’s executive secretary Msgr Gearóid Dullea – is said to have caused extreme divisions in the seminary community with one person using the word “poisonous” to describe the atmosphere in Maynooth as the academic year comes to an end.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Dara Kelly @irishcentral June 21,2016

Ireland’s national seminary, St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, has strongly denied its president’s just announced sabbatical is in any way connected to recent anonymous claims of a gay subculture in the Catholic seminary.

A statement published on the college’s website last week that said Monsignor Hugh Connolly “has advised the staff of his plans to take sabbatical leave for the academic year 2016-2017,” raised eyebrows because it coincides with the last year of his tenure as president of the national seminary, which currently has more than 60 men studying for the priesthood.

The statement continued, explaining that Connolly would remain as president until the completion of his term in the summer of 2017 and he would continue to exercise certain administrative duties throughout the year.

Connolly’s departure comes in the wake of controversial allegations made about life in the seminary. The Irish Catholic reported that an anonymous source had claimed in a letter to college authorities last year that some seminarians had been guilty of misconduct of a homosexual nature.

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ARIZONA
AZ Family

Updated: Jun 20, 2016

Posted by Phil Benson

PHOENIX (KPHO/KTVK) –
A former after-school care assistant has pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor

Lawrence Amaral appeared in Maricopa County Superior Court Monday. He originally faced 10 counts after he was arrested in October 2014.

A judge set sentencing for Thursday, Sept. 8 at 8:30 a.m.

Amaral worked as an after-school care assistant at St. Louis the King Catholic School.

He was taken into custody after deputies say several hundred images of child pornography were found on his home computer.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

POMPTON LAKES – A former pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church has been suspended by church leaders in Virginia, where he most recently served, over an allegation of child sexual abuse that predates his 15-year tenure in Pompton Lakes.

Rev. Kevin Downey was placed on administrative leave two weeks ago by the Diocese of Arlington, Va. In a statement, the diocese said Downey had recently been accused of abusing a boy in 1990, while he was vice president of development at Quincy University in Illinois.

Downey denies the accusation, the statement said.

Downey was an assistant priest at St. Mary’s in Pompton Lakes from 1993 to 1999, and he served as the parish pastor from 2002 to 2011.

Before he left New Jersey to become a pastor in Triangle, Va. in 2011, the staff of the Pompton Avenue church renamed part of the building Downey Hall in his honor.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priestso

For immediate release: Monday, May 16, 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)

We are thrilled that a judge has set a $15 million bail for the head of a religious sect who’s accused of child sex crimes.

[Fox News]

Victor Barnard was extradited from Brazil. We share the judge’s concern that a lesser bond might have enabled him to abscond again.

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered crimes or cover ups by Barnard or others in his sect will call police, protect others, deter wrongdoing and start healing.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Magazine

For decades, the people of Hinsdale gave little thought to the mysterious brick building in town. Then came a scandal.

BY BRYAN SMITH

The building, red bricked, colonnaded, crowned with a white cupola, sits on a grassy knoll in northwest Hinsdale. Unmarked, unremarkable, it barely registers as anything more than a garden-variety administrative headquarters of unknown provenance.

That isn’t to say that the decades-old property, situated on 223 acres in this Shangri-la of a western suburb of multimillion-dollar estates and country club splendor, has escaped notice over the years.

The sight of teenage girls walking arm in arm in a nearby park, identically dressed in chaste ankle-length skirts, red scarves knotted around their necks, and modest Mary Janes, and of teen boys seemingly stamped out on a Wonder Bread assembly line—always in dark suits, white shirts, and ties—drew the occasional stare.

“Everyone kind of thought it was very strange. Like, what do they really do there?” says one longtime Hinsdale resident. “They always seemed very secretive.”

Then, in 2014, came a scandal. Some of those same red-scarfed girls accused Bill Gothard, the charismatic leader of the Institute in Basic Life Principles—the ultraconservative Christian organization operating out of that Hinsdale building—of inappropriately touching them. Gothard stepped down after an internal probe. But since then, 18 former staffers, interns, and volunteers have joined in a lawsuit accusing him of “sexually, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and/or psychologically [abusing]” them. In many cases, the plaintiffs were underage at the time and had been recruited to work for the organization by Gothard himself. The suit also takes on IBLP, accusing it of initially covering up Gothard’s actions, which the plaintiffs claim took place “over the course of several decades.”

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

Dave Aeikens
Updated: 06/20/2016

Bail was set Monday for a man accused of sexually abusing girls who were followers in his alleged cult.
A Pine County District Court judge set conditional bail for 54-year-old Victor Barnard at $1.5 million and unconditional bail at $3 million.

The conditions include wearing a GPS, forfeiting his passport and not leaving Minnesota.

Barnard was extradited to Minnesota Saturday. He was arrested in Brazil about a year ago and is charged with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Prosecutors say Barnard was the leader of the River Road Fellowship in Finlayson, Minnesota. He is accused of molesting female minors during a 10-year period.

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MINNESOTA
Fox News

Associated Press

PINE CITY, Minn. – A judge set bail at $1.5 million Monday for a religious sect leader who’s charged with sexually abusing girls at a secluded compound in rural Minnesota.

Victor Barnard, 54, made his first state court appearance since his extradition from Brazil. U.S. marshals delivered him to the Pine County Jail on Saturday.

Pine County prosecutors charged Barnard in April 2014 with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct for allegedly having sexual relationships with two girls in his “Maidens Group” at his River Road Fellowship compound near Finlayson, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

The U.S. Marshals Service put him on its most wanted fugitives list, and authorities finally caught up with him in a Brazilian resort town in February 2015. Brazilian authorities said he had arrived in Brazil in March 2012.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Associated Press JUNE 20, 2016

HIBBING, Minn. — A jury has acquitted a Hibbing priest accused of molesting four girls.

Jurors deliberated about two hours Monday before finding 30-year-old Brian Lederer not guilty on all counts.

Lederer was facing four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, all felonies.

The alleged incidents happened during the 2014-2015 school year after hours at Assumption Catholic School. Prosecutors said another incident happened at a home and others on a school bus.

Lederer took the witness stand Friday to deny the allegations. The Hibbing Daily Tribune (http://bit.ly/28JuSxh ) reports he had no comment after his acquittal.

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FRANCE
L’Express

[The Lyon prosecutor on Monday gave Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and his accusers one month to make any requests for action or to comment on the record before deciding what action is to be taken regarding the investigation of the cardinal.]

Lyon – Le parquet de Lyon a donné un mois au cardinal Philippe Barbarin et à ses accusateurs pour formuler d’éventuelles demandes d’actes ou observations sur le dossier, avant de décider des suites à donner à l’enquête visant l’archevêque, a-t-on appris lundi de source judiciaire.

Cette décision a été signifiée vendredi aux avocats des mis en cause – le cardinal et d’autres responsables du diocèse – et des plaignants – des victimes d’un prêtre pédophile lyonnais – qui ont reçu copie intégrale de la procédure à cette occasion. Le délai court jusqu’au 18 juillet.

Le 8 juin, le cardinal Barbarin avait été entendu durant dix heures dans un commissariat lyonnais par les policiers de la Brigade départementale de protection de la famille, dans le cadre d’une enquête préliminaire pour “non-dénonciation” d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs et “non-assistance à personne en danger” (et non “mise en danger de la vie d’autrui” comme évoqué jusqu’alors).

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

By Ramona Marozas

Hibbing, MN (NNCNOW.com) — An Iron Range Catholic priest was cleared of all criminal sexual conduct charges in St. Louis County court in Hibbing, Minn., Monday.

In a multi-day trial, three girls testified against Father Brian Lederer, regarding six charges of criminal sexual misconduct, plus one count of possession of child pornography.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

June 20, 2016

At an ordinary consistory on June 20, Pope Francis raised four cardinals from the rank of cardinal-deacon to that of cardinal-priest.

Each of the new cardinal-priests has been a cardinal-deacon for ten years, having received their red hats from Pope Benedict XVI in March 2006; and each is above the age of 80 and thus ineligible to participate in a papal conclave. They are:

* Cardinal William Levada, the retired prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and, prior to that, Archbishop of San Francisco;
* Cardinal Franc Rodé, the retired prefect of the Congregation for Religious and, prior to that, Archbishop of Ljubljana, Slovenia;
* Cardinal Andrea Cordero di Montezemolo, the former archpriest of the Roman basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls and a veteran Vatican diplomat; and
* Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, the French Jesuit who is former rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 20, 2016

Becoming an orphan doesn’t have to mark a person for life, a forensic psychologist told the Mount Cashel civil trial in Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Alan Goldstein of New York said the loss of a parent is unforgettable, but he said if a child — who loses both parents or is unable to be cared for by the surviving parent — is placed in a facility that is safe, they can thrive.

Goldstein was called to testify — as an expert on the impact of child sexual abuse among causes of impairment — by lawyers for a group of former residents of the Mount Cashel orphanage during the 1940s to early ’60s.

They say the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. should be held liable for physical and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of certain members of the lay order Christian Brothers at Mount Cashel.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, June 20, 2016

ALBANY — The gloating head of the Catholic League on Monday ripped into the “victims’ lobby” he says is out to “rape” the Catholic Church over the issue of child sex abuse.

In a vitriolic message emailed to his supporters, Catholic League President Bill Donohue celebrated the defeat of the Child Victims Act that would have made it easier for kid sex abuse victims to seek justice.

“The bill was sold as justice for the victims of sexual abuse, when, in fact, it was a sham,” Donohue wrote.

He blasted the legislation as ”a vindictive bill pushed by lawyers and activists out to rape the Catholic Church.”

And he described bill’s sponsor Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) as “the principal enemy of the Church.” He gleefully pointed out that Markey was wrong when she previously told the Daily News, which he also ripped for its campaign on the issue, that the measure would come to the floor for a vote before the end of the legislative session.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By John Myers

HIBBING — Catholic Priest Brian Lederer was found not guilty Monday of all six charges against him of inappropriately touching young girls.

A jury of six men and six women deliberated less than two hours before returning the verdict in State District Court after a four-day trial.

Lederer, 30, the former priest at Blessed Sacrament Parish and Assumption Catholic School in Hibbing, was charged in May, 2015 with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. The charges stem from allegations by four girls, age 11-13 at the time, that Lederer touched them inappropriately.

The most serious charges against Lederer carried a potential penalty of up to 25 years in prison.

Lederer had been on administrative leave by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth pending the outcome of the legal process.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Louella Losinio | Post News Staff

An undisclosed number of individuals have contacted the Concerned Catholics of Guam since the group’s advertisements soliciting victims of sex abuse by members of the clergy came out last month.

More alleged victims have been contacting CCOG since the appearance of the ads in local media. Dee Reyes Peredo, one of the points of contact named in the ads, said: “There are victims who are not readily willing to come forward because of pain, embarrassment.”

She added that some of those who have contacted the organization would talk about others that they know have been abused or whom they have witnessed being abused.

The names are different but the stories are the same all over, she said.

Peredo confirmed that calls have been coming from different villages across the island. “There’s numbers,” she said, adding that there are those who are trying to come forward but still trying to gather the strength to do so from people who support them.

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KYRGYZSTAN
Radio Free Europe

By RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service
June 20, 2016

A Kyrgyz imam has been detained for questioning in southern Kyrgyzstan after being accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy.

The Jalal-Abad regional police department’s spokesman, Myktybek Turdubekov, told RFE/RL on June 20 that the 58-year-old imam was detained after a woman from the village of At-Basar filed a complaint alleging that her son had been regularly raped by the imam.

Authorities did not release the name of the imam and did not immediately file charges against him.

Turdubekov said the detained imam could face rape charges in the case.

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a New York abuse bill that failed:

The bill was sold as justice for the victims of sexual abuse, when, in fact, it was a sham: the proposed legislation that failed to make it to the floor of the New York State legislature in the wee hours of Saturday (the session that began on Friday ended at 5:00 a.m. the next day), was a vindictive bill pushed by lawyers and activists out to rape the Catholic Church.

The principal enemy of the Church, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, was confident that her bill would pass. On May 30, she told her allies at the discredited Daily News—the paper broke every tenet of journalism in its war on Catholicism—that “there is a strong movement in our house to bring [the bill] to a vote in the next few weeks.” On June 5, she told her buddies, “I really think we have a chance of getting this bill passed.”

If the statute of limitations were lifted on offenses involving the sexual abuse of minors, the only winners would be greedy and bigoted lawyers out to line their pockets in a rash of settlements. The big losers would be the poor, about whom the attorneys and activists care little: When money is funneled from parishioners to lawyers, services to the needy suffer.

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INDIA/AUSTRALIA
The Wire

BY MASOOMA RANALVI ON 18/06/2016

Khatna has been practiced by generations of Bohra families in secrecy and silence but now women are speaking up.

On June 9, Judge Johnson of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Australia passed a landmark judgment. Shabbir Vaziri, a senior Bohra priest, was sentenced to 11 months in jail for promoting, perpetuating and enforcing the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the community. This was the first case in history in which Bohras, including a mother and a nurse, were prosecuted for conducting FGM on two small girls. The four-year-long trial concluded with the sentencing verdict, at which jail time was handed out to the priest, while a much more lenient sentence of home detention was enforced on the mother of the two girls and the 80-year-old nurse who performed the procedure. Clearly, the judge differentiated between the mother and nurse, who were forced to perpetuate the practice and the priest – a representative of the clergy – who actively enforced the continuation of FGM in the community.

Just over a month before the verdict, on April 15, the community’s religious head, the Syedna Muffadal, spoke about a subject that had never before been spoken about openly. In a public sermon in Mumbai, he said:

“It must be done. If it is a man, it can be done openly and if it is a woman it must be discreet. But the act must be done. Do you understand what I am saying? Let people say what they want… What do they say? That this is harmful? Let them say it, we are not scared of anyone.”

Those who attended the sermon were certain that this was a reference to khatna, or female genital mutilation (FGM), even though the term was not used. This is because FGM is the only practice that is practiced secretly on women. The sermon was a crystal clear exhortation to the community to practice khatna, even if there is opposition to it.

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UNITED STATES
Frum Follies

An Israeli rabbinical court issued a ruling (6/14/16; 8 Sivan 5776) denouncing 46-year-old Rabbi Meir Pogrow for sexual misconduct with women (see image below). The court ruling which I hope to translate in full was signed by Rabbis Menachem Mendel Shafran (Bnei Brak, Israel; a Hasidic posek on the Bais Din of R. Karelitz), Chaim Zev Malinowitz (Beit Shemesh, Israel; the dominant Yeshivish rav in Beit Shemesh), and Gershon Bess (Los Angeles, CA; a product of the Lakewood BMG constellation of yeshivas). The ruling was written as a set of directives to Meir Pogrow about restrictions the Beit Din is imposing on him.

The ruling was followed by a Public Danger Warning with a synopsis of the ruling in Hebrew and English telling the public to avoid Pogrow in all sorts of roles. The advisory to females focused on any sort of interaction. The advisory section addressed to males spoke of not using his website or learning from him. He was explicitly called a rasha (evil person), a status with halachic implications. For example, one does not console a rasha in mourning.

The danger warning is undated but was in circulation by 6/20/16, within about a week of the original ruling.The warning was signed by two members of the rabbinical court (Rabbis Malinowitz and Bess) and three additional signers:

* Rabbi Mordechai Willig (a prominent member of the faculty of the RIETS rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University),
* Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits (Sanhedria, Jerusalem and Previously with Aish Hatorah as Rosh Kollel), and,
* Rabbi Elimelech Kornfeld (Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, the son-in-law of the Ner Israel Rosh Yeshiva, R. Aaron Feldman).

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

PICKET LINE: About three dozen protestors walk a picket line in front of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica yesterday just before the 9:30 a.m. Mass. The protestors continue to demand the resignation of Archbishop Anthony Apuron, particularly in light of recent accusations that the archbishop sexually abused altar boys when he was a parish priest in Agat four decades ago. Frank Whitman/Post

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising on Monday provided detailed information on its financial situation. Accordingly, the assets at the end of 2015 were just over 5.52 billion euros. This is the highest amount that has been released in a German Catholic diocese.]

München – 20.06.2016

Das Erzbistum München und Freising hat am Montag erstmals umfassend Auskunft über seine Finanzsituation gegeben. Demnach belief sich das Vermögen seiner sechs größten Rechtsträger Ende 2015 auf gut 5,52 Milliarden Euro. Das ist die höchste Summe, die ein deutsches katholisches Bistum bisher veröffentlicht hat.

Das Erzbistum Köln hat ein Vermögen von 3,42 Milliarden Euro (2014) ausgewiesen, die Erzdiözese Paderborn eines von rund 4 Milliarden Euro, wobei der Erzbischöfliche Stuhl und das Domkapitel noch nicht erfasst sind.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Jun 20, 2016

By Krystal Paco

Now four individuals have surfaced in recent weeks accusing Archbishop Anthony Apuron of rape or molestation. While decades have passed since the alleged incidents, many have questioned why the victims waited so long to come forward. Here’s what medical professionals have to say.

Experts call the condition “delayed disclosure”. Maresa Aguon explained, “We get people who come in decades after the abuse has occurred. Something prompts them to come forward. Something prompts them to tell somebody.” As program manager for Healing Hearts Crisis Center, Guam’s only crisis center since 1993, in light of recent accusations made against the archbishop, she says victims will often wait before reporting, especially because Guam is such a small island community.

“A lot of times these children are abused by somebody in power or by somebody that they love and trust. They understand these complexities. Even as children as young as 10 to 12 years old, they understand certain things such as if I come forward, people may not believe me. Sometimes they’re told explicitly that nobody’s going to believe them,” she explained.

This appears to be the case for most of Apuron’s accusers: Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, and Roland Sondia. They are joined by Doris Concepcion, whose son Joseph “Sonny” Quinata who was on his deathbed over a decade ago when he confided in his mother he, too, was a victim. Each of the surviving victims reported trusting Apuron, who was a priest at Mount Carmel Church in Agat at the time of the alleged incidents.

Each of the men has expressed no interest in prosecuting Apuron, but instead have demanded he step down as head of the Agana archdiocese as well as make a public apology.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Greg Harkin
PUBLISHED
20/06/2016

A Catholic bishop has said the Church has probably gone too far in its apologies but is in a better place because of it.

Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran (62) also says the Church is one of the safest places in society as a result of the abuse scandals.

And he says there are still some priests who avoid children altogether as a result.

Dr Doran also spoke of how he believes Ireland has lost some of its spirit of volunteerism because of State intervention.

The Dubliner was appointed to his diocese – which covers parts of counties Sligo, Roscommon, Galway and Westmeath – two years ago.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Altoona Mirror

June 19, 2016

While the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese should not resort to poorly thought-out, knee-jerk reactions regarding concerns brought to its attention, there are significant matters – such as current concerns over the status of two parochial school leaders – that should not be hanging unresolved.

In light of the rampant, decades-long child sex abuse scandal and cover-up exposed earlier this year, parents of children enrolled in Catholic schools of the diocese, as well as other diocese parishioners, are right in expecting expeditious diocesan response to new issues having tentacles construed as relating to the scandal, as well as issues perceived as having an indirect tie.

The fact that parents and parishioners haven’t gotten a response regarding the two school leaders in question is cause for dismay and raises questions about the pace at which the diocese is trying to heal from the sordid scandal revelations that seriously damaged its reputation.

That pace does not qualify as only a local concern. It deserves interest all the way up to the Vatican.

The scandal has caused many Catholics to question their faith and their clergy and has negatively impacted financial support from some loyal parishioners, who during their adult lives, have opened their wallets and pocketbooks generously on behalf of their church and diocese.

Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark L. Bartchak ought to be sticking to his pledges of transparency and about cleaning up remaining issues directly or indirectly related to the scandal. Regarding the two school officials, his onging silence is contrary to that promise, duty and expectation.

It came as a shock to Altoona-Johnstown parishioners that past diocesan leaders had used millions of dollars of their contributions for payments to abuse victims, with the intent of ensuring their silence. Now, the non-reaction of the diocese regarding the two school leaders at the center of the current concerns has again raised the issue of silence.

Parishioners and school students’ parents are justified in being disturbed about that.

The two school leaders, Sister Donna Marie Leiden and the Rev. Brian Saylor, have been labeled “unwelcome” at Johnstown’s Bishop McCort Catholic High School and Altoona’s Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School.

Leiden, currently the diocese’s education director, was principal when two child molesters – one a priest and one a teacher who was studying to become a church deacon – preyed on more than 80 McCort students.

Saylor, pastor of the diocese’s new Altoona middle school, a member of the school’s board of trustees and former teacher, is the subject of concern for recent social media activity contrary to the prohibition of school-affiliated adults contacting students on a personal social media account.

Saylor also is involved with the diocese’s youth summer camp.

Guilfoyle and McCort currently are independent of the diocese and its bishop, but Bartchak is a member of the board of trustees for both Catholic educational facilities. As a trustee, he was party to the decision to ban Saylor, according to BG President Joe Adams.

Although the Leiden-Saylor issue wasn’t in the public spotlight until recent days, Altoona area parochial school parents reportedly have been waiting for weeks for a statement from Bartchak on Saylor’s status, and the Bishop McCort community has been waiting for the same about Leiden.

It’s important that the bishop’s silence end quickly.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunshine Coast Daily

Rae Wilson | 20th Jun 2016

A FORMER Anglican priest must serve three more months in jail after pleading guilty to molesting a fourth altar boy while acting for the church.

Barry John Greaves, 79, was jailed in 2009 for sexually abusing three altar boys when he was working as an Anglican rector for the Boonah and Harrisville districts in the early 1980s.

Judge Gilbert Trafford-Walker heard those boys, aged between 11 and 16 at the time, were forced to engage in mutual oral sex and masturbation with Greaves.

Today, Brisbane District Court heard Greaves encouraged a 13-year-old boy to get his mother’s permission to travel from Cunnamulla to Thargomindah to be his altar boy during a mass between December 11, 1969, and December 20, 1970.

Judge Tony Moynihan said Greaves indecently dealt with the teen in a shower in a granny flat behind the church and it was fortunate the boy refused to get into a sleeping bag him afterwards.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, June 20, 2016

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

People who lived or worked in 27 County Homes will not be able to give evidence to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

The Commission has been tasked with examining the treatment of unmarried mothers and their babies between 1922 and 1998 in 14 Mother and Baby Homes, as well as “a representative sample of County Homes”.

The Commission has now settled on four County Homes for this sample — St Kevin’s Institution (Dublin Union), Stranorlar County Home, Co Donegal (St Joseph’s), Cork City County Home (St Finbarr’s) and Thomastown County Home, Co Kilkenny (St Columba’s).

The Commission said the four homes selected “best met the criteria” of serving a similar function to Mother and Baby Homes, “having regard to factors such as the number of relevant births, the duration of such operations, and the typical length of accommodation period of these mothers and children”.

However, with regard to people who lived or worked in Ireland’s approximately 27 other County Homes, the Commission said that, “at present”, it “does not intend to take evidence from people who were resident in other County Homes.”

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Reporter

ODESSA – A youth pastor has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a juvenile member of his church, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Samuel Armand Sutter, 26, of 11506 Fountainhead Drive, Tampa, was charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious behavior with a victim aged 12 to 16 and five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, according to deputies and Hillsborough jail records.

Deputies said that, Sutter began a sexual relationship with the female minor in October, when he was the youth pastor at the church the victim attends. The relationship escalated to numerous sexual encounters. The victim admitted the relationship after her mother found sexual pictures, videos and text messages exchanged between Sutter and the girl. The girl’s mother contacted deputies. The sexual encounters occurred primarily at Sutter’s home, but also happened twice in the ladies restroom at Openwater Church, 15612 Race Track Road, Odessa, deputies said.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

TAMPA — A youth pastor at Openwater Church in Odessa was arrested Saturday and charged with sexual battery on a juvenile, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Samuel Armand Sutter, 26, of Tampa faces five counts of lewd and lascivious behavior with a victim aged 12 to 16, and five counts of sexual battery.

Sutter “began a sexual relationship” with a girl who attends Openwater Church in October 2015, deputies said in a news release. Their relationship “escalated to numerous sexual encounters,” mostly at Sutter’s home but twice in the women’s bathroom at the church on Race Track Road, deputies said.

The victim’s mother found photos, videos and texts of a sexual nature on her daughter’s phone, deputies said, and the daughter told her mother about the relationship. The mother then called the Sheriff’s Office.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, June 19, 2016

ALBANY – A political action committee created by an upstate investor and child sex abuse survivor has its first target – state Sen. Kemp Hannon.

Gary Greenberg said his Fighting for Children PAC is endorsing Democrat Ryan Cronin’s challenge to Hannon (R-Nassau County).

Greenberg said he chose to target Hannon first for his stated opposition to a bill to make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice.

“It’s black and white; if you’re not going to support the bill, then you’re for the predators,” Greenberg said.

The PAC will donate a maximum $11,000 to Cronin’s campaign, recruit volunteers to help him, and organize protests in the district against Hannon’s opposition to the Child Victims Act.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

A bogus hearing staged by the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee last week suggested some members are determined to protect the Catholic Church and insurance companies instead of securing justice for the victims of pedophiles and the institutions that protect them.

Considering a bill passed by the House that would give abuse victims more time to file criminal and civil claims, the committee limited testimony to the question of the measure’s constitutionality. That was interesting given that committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf’s law firm represented the Norbertine Fathers, a religious order that was sued by abuse victims, and opposed a similar statute-of-limitations bill in Delaware on constitutional grounds. Greenleaf (R., Montgomery) says he had nothing to do with the case, but he didn’t disclose the potential conflict before it was revealed by the Inquirer’s Maria Panaritis.

Greenleaf and the rest of the committee heard testimony from four lawyers who argued that the bill would run afoul of the state constitution and one who disagreed. Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s top aide, Bruce Castor, the former Montgomery County district attorney who made a secret deal not to prosecute Bill Cosby for sexual assault, was among those arguing that it’s unconstitutional. Making the spectacle more bizarre, Kane herself – who was stripped of her law license amid criminal charges that she leaked confidential grand jury information – urged the Senate to pass the bill anyway.

Kane has sanctimoniously declared war on child abusers, but when she had a chance to make a lasting impact on the problem, she took a dive by presenting this confounding dual opinion. If the bill isn’t constitutional, Kane’s office should be working with the Senate to help it pass constitutional muster.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Conor Lally

The convicted paedophile Eamon Cooke helped a woman to launch a campaign against the Catholic Church seeking compensation over clerical child sex abuse while he himself was abusing children.

The Irish Times understands Cooke then used his relationship with the woman, without her knowledge, to get access to children so he could abuse them.

The woman was abused for years as a child and Cooke befriended her and assisted her campaign for justice when she believed the church had promised to assist her but then failed to do so.

Cooke died earlier this month after being linked by a witness to the disappearance, presumed murder, of Dublin schoolboy Philip Cairns, who went missing in 1986.

Gardaí have identified a number of sites that may be searched in a bid to find the remains of the boy, who was 13 when he disappeared. One of the sites is in Co Sligo at a house Cooke was linked to, and there are at least four other sites in south Dublin and north Wicklow.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Sam Kestenbaum
Matt H. Wade

Barring an eleventh hour deal, New York’s legislature prepared to end its session without passing a bill that will make it easier for child sex abuse survivors to seek justice as adults — legislation that advocates have been pushing for a decade.

By June 17, the bill’s backers were still pushing for a vote in the State Assembly on a modified version of the bill. But the Senate hadn’t scheduled a vote, leaving little chance that Governor Andrew Cuomo would be signing a bill into law.

This comes after months of campaigning to reform New York’s sexual abuse statute of limitations, which is among the shortest in the nation. A coalition of activists and survivors, many from Jewish communities who say they were molested at yeshivas and Jewish day schools, support a bill to give child sex abuse survivors more time to file charges. The governor had publicly announced his support for reform in broad terms, but did not back a specific bill.

“The bill is dead,” said Gary Greenbatt, a New York investor and sex abuse survivor who had been supported the legislation.

Under New York law, someone who is abused as a child has until the age of 23 to bring a civil lawsuit to court. The Child Victims Act, as this legislation is known, seeks to both lift time limits for victims to file civil suits and provide a one-year “look back” window during which past victims who have already exceeded the statute of limitations could go to court. Assemblywoman Margaret Markey introduced the Child Victims Act a decade ago.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

Editorial

THE ISSUE

Earlier this month, Lancaster County religious leaders from a mix of Christian denominations added their names to a letter to the state Senate Judiciary Committee. They urged quick passage in the Senate of House Bill 1947, which was approved overwhelmingly in the state House in April. The bill would abolish the statute of limitations for future criminal cases of child sexual abuse, and extend by 20 years the time for victims to bring civil suits against their assailants and an agency whose negligence enabled the abuse. Victims would have until age 50 to initiate civil cases under the bill. The proposed law would be retroactive, meaning victims now 30 to 50 years old could still bring civil suits. The retroactive provision in the bill is strongly opposed by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference — the public affairs arm of the Catholic dioceses in this state — and the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill last Monday.

We applaud the more than two dozen local Christian leaders who have taken a public stand on the side of victims of childhood sexual abuse.

They include the Rev. Dr. Carol Lytch, president of the Lancaster Theological Seminary; Beth Kuttab, president of Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness; and ministers and deacons from Brethren, Episcopal, Mennonite, United Methodist, Lutheran and United Church of Christ churches.

The letter they signed, which was circulated by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, called the sexual abuse of a child “a great sin, as well as a crime,” and asserted that “survivors deserve the opportunity to seek justice and hold those who harmed them accountable.”

We hold this view, too.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea | Jun. 20, 2016

Editor’s note: This is Part 4, the conclusion of “Hell, hope and healing,” an NCR four-part series on sexual abuse. You can read the series introduction, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, which are also available at the feature series page Hell, hope and healing.

When someone decides to embark on healing from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and/or when concerned loved ones of a survivor want to help that person begin to heal, it can be confusing to know how to start. This last article in the series focuses on finding the best healing resources.

It is a slice of all the resources available to someone and does not represent either endorsement or rejection of any particular source. Many of the resources listed here provide links to still other sources of information or help.

Best first responders

The sad truth is that abusive families or institutions are unlikely ever to consistently put the interests of children before their own, no matter how many laws are passed or promises made. We are the best hope of preventing child abuse and responding to it quickly when it occurs.

If enough of us believe that every child is our child, that we are responsible for the safety of every child we know, we can be the most effective instruments of change.

If we believe, with Pope Francis, that churches are field hospitals, then we are the nurses, paramedics, doctors and, of course, the patients in our own communities. Any one of us can pick up the phone at any time if we know or suspect a child is being abused or neglected. It’s anonymous and it is the right thing to do. Here’s how to do it:

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-Child). This is a number every one of us should memorize. Although each state has its own laws regarding child abuse reporting, any person can anonymously report known or suspected child abuse to the hotline and they will contact appropriate local investigative authorities within 24 hours. It is easy. Use it. Use it if you know or suspect that a priest, a teacher, a bus driver, your best friend’s husband, your next-door neighbor or, yes, your own Uncle Louie is abusing or neglecting a child.

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UNITED STATES
Emes Ve-Emunah

I am not inclined to dwell on stories of sexual abuse. Not because I don’t think they are serious issues. Of course I do. They are perhaps among the most serious issues affecting Orthodox world. Sex abuse is as much a part of Orthodoxy as it is in the rest of the world. Experts in the field generally testify to that effect.

The argument against such thinking has always been that a Torah based life will preclude such behavior… that our sense of ethics and morality will hold sway over us. While that may generally be true, we are not the only ones that have a moral code or lead lives based on biblical values.

The reason the statistics are likely be the same is because being a sexual predator has nothing to do with the moral code of the community from which a predator comes. I believe it is a mental illness known as obsessive-compulsive disorder combined with the desire to satisfy abnormal sexual urges.

In the case of sexual predators it is the inability to control impulses of a sexual nature. So that someone that might otherwise be an exemplary individual – even a pillar of the community – will act on those impulses when no one is looking. They develop patterns of behavior that seek out victims to satisfy those urges and find ways to keep their victims quiet. Thus they can be walkinh around in a community for years, getting tons of respect and accolades galore while they secretly satisfy their abnormal sexual urges in private. Until they are caught.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Jojo Santo Tomas, jsantotoma@guampdn.com June 20, 2016

Protesters filled the walkway in front of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica on Sunday morning, marching as they have at different locations around Guam for the last few months.

The protests have called for Archbishop Anthony Apuron to resign as head of Guam’s Catholic church. And while the initial protesters mostly accused Apuron of mismanagement, the last few weeks have been all about sexual abuse accusations stemming from incidents more than 30 years ago.

The protesters have usually been members of organized church groups such as the Concerned Catholics of Guam and Laity Forward Movement, but many people have joined the protests on personal accord – such as Jose Okada of Dededo.

Okada said that although he’s not a member of any group, he came to Hagåtña Sunday because he wanted to show that he too, wanted Apuron’s resignation. His words were spiked with Chamorro inflection as he shared the thoughts that were once restricted to family.

“Before, I was just … you know, his attitude, nai? And then, things started coming out that he was abusing kids!” Okada said. “So that’s why I’m really here, for him to just get out, adai, step down, ‘sa we don’t need a bishop that is in there that is molesting kids.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Jasmine Stole , jstole@guampdn.com June 19, 2016

After a fourth person came forward Wednesday accusing Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting him almost 40 years ago, apostolic administrator Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai said that necessary steps would be taken to present the matter to the Holy See.

But what those steps are have not been made public. A canon lawyer also said there’s little known about how bishops accused of abusing minors are investigated.

Roland Sondia, 54, said Wednesday that Apuron molested him one night when he was a 15-year-old altar boy and Apuron was then a parish priest, both serving for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Agat.

The Agat resident recited the alleged events of the night in 1977 at a press conference last week, standing before his family and the media on the steps of the pastoral center at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagåtña. He said he told Apuron to stop when Apuron rubbed his private parts, but Apuron persisted. Sondia said he then broke away from Apuron and left the rectory in Agat in the middle of the night.

In recent weeks, two other men, Roy Quintanilla and Walter Denton, have publicly and directly accused Apuron of sexually abusing them when they were altar boys. Doris Y. Concepcion, mother of a former Agat altar boy, also has accused Apuron of abusing her now deceased son.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Bill Pesch June 19, 2016

We, as a community, are finally having a conversation that we should have had years, if not decades, ago. That conversation centers around child sexual abuse within a religious setting. Because of recent events, we are currently focused on the Catholic church and more specifically on the allegations pending against Guam’s top Catholic leader, Archbishop Anthony Apuron. I am hopeful, as are others, that over the next few weeks and months this conversation will be broadened to include what legal action can be taken against any and all child sexual abusers who hold religious positions and those in leadership positions who did little or nothing to stop the abuse.

In approaching this topic, let’s be honest with ourselves. The allegations of sexual abuse within the Catholic church on Guam should come as no surprise to most of us, especially those of us over the age of 50. In a private setting, most of us will admit that we know one or more minors who were allegedly abused by priests or deacons. Many of the alleged abuses occurred years ago and almost all went unreported and unpunished.

Cultural, familial and religious constraints often prevented the minors from telling family and friends about the abuse. Unfortunately, often when they did confide in an adult, the adult insisted the matter remain secret. Seemingly, in the few cases of abuse that were brought to the attention of church officials, the alleged offender was simply transferred away from Guam to another unsuspecting parish. As a result, the abuse continued.

A famous paraphrase aptly summarizes this situation: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” We certainly aren’t alone in this dilemma. This pattern of abuse, silence, and cover up has frequently been repeated in Catholic parishes throughout the United States, and many other countries as well.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegram

Polly Dunbar
19 JUNE 2016

For more than 60 years, Sylvia Woosley kept a terrible secret. When she finally spoke publicly last week about the sexual abuse she suffered from the age of 10 at the hands of the late Sir Clement Freud, her words hinted at the corrosive guilt and shame she had carried with her all that time: “I want to die clean.”

Now in her late seventies, Sylvia decided to break her silence in an ITV Exposure programme, aired last Wednesday. She watched it at the home of David Henshaw, its executive producer. “Afterwards, I asked her how she felt, and she said, ‘I just feel very happy’,” he says. “She looked 10 years younger. She was very eloquent, talking about how it was the child in her who wanted to be heard and believed, and when that finally happened, she felt a huge sense of relief and peace.”

Many watching may have wondered, why now? But strikingly sad as Sylvia’s story is, it is not uncommon for abuse victims appear to wait until their twilight years to reveal their experiences – the thought of taking their suffering to their grave finally outweighing the pain incumbent in unburdening themselves.

“We get calls from people as old as 90, some of whom have never told anybody about what they went through as children – not even their closest family members,” says Pete Saunders, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC). “The average time for a victim to speak out is 22 years after the last incidence of abuse, but it can be much, much longer.

“Towards the end of people’s lives, they often reflect back and feel a need to address unresolved issues. Victims can realise what happened to them was an absolute disaster which clouded everything in their lives.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelisch

Antragsstau beim Fonds Sexueller Missbrauch: Von mehr als 4.500 Anträgen von Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs bis Ende März seien erst 66 komplett abgearbeitet worden, berichtet das Hamburger Nachrichtenmagazin “Der Spiegel”.

Antragsstau beim Fonds Sexueller Missbrauch: Von mehr als 4.500 Anträgen von Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs bis Ende März seien erst 66 komplett abgearbeitet worden, berichtet das Hamburger Nachrichtenmagazin “Der Spiegel”. “Die derzeitige Bearbeitungsdauer beträgt circa 13 Monate”, heiße es in einer Antwort des Familienministeriums auf eine kleine Anfrage der Linksfraktion.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Das Verfahren wurde von der Staatsanwaltschaft wegen Verjährung eingestellt. Aber die Staatsanwaltschaft informierte auch das Bistum über die Ermittlungen. So eine Information ist vorgesehen, wenn eine Tat zwar nicht strafrechtlich geahndet wird, aber disziplinarrechtliche Schritte gegen den Beschuldigten denkbar sind. In der bischöflichen Personalkommission, in der die Meldung der Staatsanwaltschaft bekannt gegeben wurde, saß auch der damalige Trierer Bischof Reinhard Marx. Das bestätigt die Pressestelle des Erzbistums München-Freising, wohin Marx 2008 gewechselt ist.

Vom Bistum Trier will niemand zu dem Fall ein Interview geben. Schriftlich lässt man wissen: “Das Bistum Trier hat seinerzeit nach den damals gültigen Leitlinien gehandelt. Diese haben noch nicht, wie dies die späteren Leitlinien von 2010 bzw. 2013 tun, vorgesehen, dass in den Fällen, da die staatlichen Ermittlungsbehörden einen Fall nicht aufklären können, die Kirche eigene Ermittlungen anstellt.” – Kirchenrechtler Bier widerspricht: Schon die ersten Leitlinien der Bischofskonferenz zum Vorgehen bei Missbrauch durch Geistliche hätten ein anderes Vorgehen erfordert: “Es heißt konkret in den Leitlinien von 2002: ‘Jede Verdachtsäußerung wird umgehend geprüft.’

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DEUTSCHLAND
WDR

[Abuse allegations disappear in secret archives. The diocese of Trier has initiated a canonical preliminary investigation against a priest on suspicion of sexual abuse. Apparently very late: The allegations were in the diocese in 2006.]

Von Christoph Fleischmann

Das Bistum Trier hat wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauch eine kirchenrechtliche Voruntersuchung gegen einen Priester eingeleitet. Offenbar reichlich spät: Die Vorwürfe waren im Bistum schon 2006 aktenkundig – und auch der Bistumsspitze bekannt.

“Er hat mich am Wochenende eingeladen zu sich. Da hatte ich nichts dagegen – wusste ja nicht, was der vorhat. Bin halt mit zu ihm, freitags abgeholt, 16 Uhr, und sonntags wiedergebracht in das Heim.” Was Michael W. – nennen wir ihn so – erzählt, hätte man im Bistum Trier schon 2006 zur Kenntnis nehmen können. Vorausgesetzt, man hätte sich an die eigenen Regeln gehalten und sich schon damals für eine Akte der Staatsanwaltschaft Saarbrücken interessiert. Denn die hatte damals gegen einen Priester im Bistum ermittelt und das Verfahren wegen Verjährung eingestellt. Darüber wurde das Bistum, dem damals Reinhard Marx vorstand, heute Vorsitzender der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, auch informiert. Aber es geschah nichts.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Sagamore

Chloe Jepsen, Staff writer
June 18, 2016

The movie “Spotlight,” which was directed by Tom McCarthy, won the Academy Award for Best Picture this past year. It follows “The Boston Globe’s investigative journalism team,” as it investigated and reported on widespread sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The team, known as “Spotlight,” was led by editor Walter Robinson and included reporters Michael Rezendes, Matt Carroll and Sacha Pfeiffer, who were played by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Brian d’Arcy James and Rachel McAdams, respectively.

The Sagamore conducted a Q&A with Robinson about the original investigation and his thoughts on the movie interpretation of it:

Q: How close was the Spotlight movie to what you actually did?

A: It was very close. It’s not a documentary, and, obviously, it’s not a transcript. It’s a dramatization. Here’s the best way I can explain it: you and I are having a conversation right now, and if we weren’t taping it, but it was an important conversation, and somebody came to us and said ‘I’m doing a movie and one of the scenes is going to be that conversation,’ you would tell the person what transpired. It might be thirty seconds of your recollection, and then the person would call me and say, ‘Tell me what happened when you two talked,’ and I would recall what happened. Then, the person writing the movie would go off and write a scene. None of the words coming out of the mouth of the actor playing you or the actor playing me would be what we actually said because even we don’t remember the exact words. But the question is would it faithfully capture what actually happened? The film very accurately captured what happened in real life.

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RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10

BY MARIO HILARIO; NBC 10 NEWS SATURDAY, JUNE 18TH 2016

Providence, RI — Rhode Island lawmakers burned the midnight oil, and then some, to wrap up the 2016 legislative session.

The General Assembly officially wrapped up the year after 6:00 a.m. Saturday.

The Senate passed the State’s nearly nine billion dollar budget just after 1:30 a.m., and there were still many pieces of legislation left to tackle for both Senators and Representatives. …

One piece of legislation that also passed related to schools, would add educational institutions to the State’s mandatory reporting requirements to ensure schools report allegations of abuse to the Department of Children Youth and Families. The bill’s sponsors say it closed a loophole that came to light with the revelation that decades of alleged abuse at St. George’s school in Middletown was not reported to authorities and there was no law requiring the school to do so.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF
Saturday, June 18, 2016

ALBANY — In the end, state lawmakers protected the predators.

The state Legislature ended the 2016 legislative session about 5 a.m. Saturday without acting on legislation to help survivors of child sex abuse.

An all-night session to wrap up up the legislative year did not lead to a last-minute miracle that victims and advocates were hoping for.

“The survivors were thrown a tattered raft in this stormy session,” said Kathryn Robb, an advocate and sexual abuse survivor.

Gary Greenberg, an upstate investor who was sexually abused as a child in 1966, said survivors won’t forget when every seat in the Legislature is up for election.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By ALEX BOUTILIER
Ottawa Bureau Reporter
Sat., June 18, 2016

OTTAWA—The federal government is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a decision that gives residential school survivors the ultimate say in what happens to their testimony.

Ottawa has asked the Supreme Court to determine if residential school survivors’ testimony count as “government documents” and should remain archived with the federal government.

If the court agrees, it would overturn a recent decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which agreed survivors should have the opportunity to archive their testimony with the arm’s-length National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, a hub at the University of Manitoba that serves as the permanent repository for records related to the residential school system.

It would also mean the fate of the documents will rest with the government, not the survivors.

If survivors do not decide to have their testimony archived, the Ontario Superior Court ruled the testimony should be destroyed within 15 years.

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UNITED STATES
Church Militant

By Juliana Freitag

Read Part I and Part II of this series.

Earlier in May a third cleric from Brindisi was sentenced to four years of incarceration: Fr. Francesco Legrottaglie, 67, was convicted for possession of child pornography. The sentence also included a 1,600-euro fine, a five-year ban from public office, and a perpetual ban from schools and any other institutions attended by minors.

In November 2015, Legrottaglie was arrested “in flagrante” during a police visit to his house, where they found thousands of files named after Catholic saints containing images and videos of explicit child-related sexual material. The prosecution claims the priest often looked for online interaction with the youngsters and secretly recorded the video chats.

The route that led the magistracy to Legrottaglie has been kept secret, but it’s likely linked to all of the other recent scandals in the Brindisi archdiocese, owing to the fact that all cases have been conducted by state’s attorney Milton Stefano di Nozza, who ordered Legrottaglie’s arrest.

This isn’t the first time the priest has been taken in by the authorities. In 1991, when he was the priest of a parish in Ostuni, the parents of two little girls pressed charges against him, and in 1992 he was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months for “violent libidinous act”. At the time of the condemnation he had already been transferred to a military parish in the city of Bari. After the conviction Legrottaglie was sent to mission in Congo, and when the priest returned in 2010, the Curia of Brindisi-Ostuni, under the discerning guidance of Archbishop RoccoTalucci, nominated him a chaplain at Brindisi’s hospital. He later returned to his hometown Ostuni, where he was allowed to be an assistant in a local parish, which is where he was last arrested.

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KENTUCKY
News-Dispatch

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — An Indiana pastor has been arrested in Kentucky after authorities say he traveled to Frankfort to meet a minor for sex.

Local news outlets report that officials arrested 46-year-old David James Brown Wednesday on a charge of prohibited use of an electronic communication system for the purpose of procuring a minor for a sex offense.

Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office said in a news release that Brown used an online messaging application to communicate with an undercover investigator posing as a minor. Brown asked the undercover investigator to have sexual relations with him.

Officials say Brown traveled to Frankfort to meet the minor and was arrested by investigators there.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Editorial

The fight is not over, because this is a fight for morality over money, for justice in daylight over sins buried with the force of law.

New York’s Legislature closed the 2016 session without enacting a law that would empower childhood victims of sexual abuse to bring alleged predators into courts now closed to them.

Gov. Cuomo washed his hands of the bill. He will not be able to do so forever, because the hurt he accepts is too real, too severe.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan as much as told those of lost innocence and scarred lives to go to hell. The public will be reminded that Flanagan and his GOP forces stand with predators and their protectors.

Democratic Speaker Carl Heastie inched ever so close to letting the Assembly pass a reform bill — then lost his nerve on even okaying a vote that would have been but a symbolic statement. He and his members will be called to account for failing to do what they knew was right.

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GUAM
Guam Synday Post

A Shot of Jac | Jacqueline Perry Guzman

If you have ever been a victim of sexual abuse you would understand the confusion, hurt, humiliation, shame, disgust and immeasurable other emotions and feelings you cannot explain. There is a part of you that wonders if you somehow asked for this or if you deserve it in some way. This is the reason I can understand victims not coming forward for decades, especially when their abusers are a part of the church— a place where they are taught to follow directions of the leaders because they are stewards of god himself.

Imagine the confusion of being hurt by someone your mother and father told you to listen to and respect regardless of the way they treat you behind closed doors.

After the 2016 Academy Awards announced its winner for Best Picture I was convinced I had to see “Spotlight” as soon as possible. The trailer was an already easy marker for me to know it was an incredible film but winning the Academy’s top bill made it a no-brainer.

The preface of hidden secret sex abuse in the church hit a gut-wrenching place in me. It was all too familiar in a dark, secret cloudy memory where in the schoolyard boys and girls would tease little boys for being touched on their privates by priests. Although none of it ever came about or to the attention of grown-ups, all the kids knew these things sometimes happened and the men of the cloth who we were taught to respect and listen to were doing all the time. To the point of schoolyard bullying? Twice the victimization?

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KENTUCKY
Lexington Herald-Leader

JACOB DICK
jdick@herald-leader.com

Kentucky state Rep. Jim Wayne has made a career of writing professionally as a veteran legislator and contributor to publications like The National Catholic Reporter and America, but Wayne’s latest work is a departure from explanations of social policy or bill proposals.

The Louisville Democrat published his first book this month, a novel called The Unfinished Man.

In Wayne’s fiction debut, Father Justin Zapp is a self-exiled priest in an Indiana parish who is forced to face his own psychological wounds from sexual abuse when he learns of a systematic cover-up of abuse within the church.

Wayne said he had been interested in writing for a long time but had only written pieces on social and political policy until he took a graduate course at the University of Louisville.

His professor encouraged him to continue and in 2008, Wayne enrolled at Spalding University in Louisville. Taking time between legislative sessions and elections, Wayne received a Master of Fine Arts in fiction in 2012.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By Becky Jacobs on Jun 18, 2016

A Twin Cities attorney and Diocese of Crookston monsignor say they want the same thing: healing and justice for survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

But where attorney Mike Finnegan and Monsignor Mike Foltz differ is who should be sued in the latest wave of lawsuits related to the recent May 25 deadline of the Minnesota Child Victims Act.

Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks was one of the parishes sued before the deadline with claims that the Rev. Stanley Bourassa, who died in 2004, committed sexual abuse of a minor while assigned to the parish from 1965 to 1968.

It’s not that parishes weren’t sued before in clergy sexual abuse cases, but there has been a conscious decision to include both parishes and the diocese more recently, Finnegan said.

“They were sued in all the Minnesota cases across the state right now to protect the survivors’ rights,” said Finnegan, who works with Jeff Anderson & Associates, which is known for its role in pursuing cases involving clergy abuse. “It was kind of a mixed bag historically of whether the parish has been sued or not.”

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GUAM
Guam Sunday Post

Cover story

Tony Azios

Announcements following Sunday Mass typically focus on matters important to a healthy, functioning community, but mundane to the outside world – reminders of an upcoming fundraiser, a change of schedule for the weekly men’s meeting, details of a rosary in honor of a parishioner’s mother. But last Sunday night, as the 6 p.m. Mass wrapped up at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Yigo, Rev. Patrick Garcia took the opportunity to lead the congregation in a drill.

“Members of the media may come up to you and ask who the archbishop is,” he reportedly said. “Don’t embarrass yourself. Say Savio Tai Fai Hon, not Anthony Apuron.”

Garcia instructed the congregation to repeat Hon’s full name after him several times aloud. As dusk fell, Our Lady of Lourdes echoed with the chorus of the name of a man sent by the Vatican to remedy a church in crisis.

One way or another

Before the recent allegations of sexual abuse against Archbishop Apuron (who currently retains the title but none of the administrative authority of the office), a series of diverse scandals has steadily rocked the foundations of the Archdiocese of Agaña. Much of the conflict is rooted in a perceived power struggle between mainstream Catholics and the Neocatechumenal Way – an organization within the Catholic Church with practices outside traditional Catholic custom. Far beyond a theological disagreement, the situation has devolved into allegations of fiscal mismanagement and the appropriation of community assets; open accusations of corrupt, self-serving relationships among some archdiocesan leadership; the transfer of control of a valuable piece of real estate functioning as a seminary from archdiocesan control to a board controlled by Neocatechumenal officials; the removal of two popular priests; and, the perceived neglect of some parishes in favor of others.

Many devout Catholics on Guam now refuse to attend services held by priests adherent to the Neocatechumenal Way, also known as the NCW. Many “Neos” return the sense of distrust toward the island’s traditional Catholics, claiming persecution by slander.

“The [local] Church is divided. That is a fact,” said David Sablan, vice president of Concerned Catholics of Guam (CCOG), a nonprofit organization formed to give voice and direction to concerns regarding the NCW on Guam and Apuron’s alleged misconduct.

“Apuron has basically abdicated his office to support one particular organization within the archdiocese when he really should be at the head of all of the organization,” said Sablan. “He’s not doing that, and as a result we’re basically without a shepherd and are in a confused state.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Cairns Post

June 18, 2016

Kimberley Vlasic
The Cairns Post

FENCES across the Far North are being adorned with brightly coloured ribbons as Catholic schoolchildren show their support for the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.

Mount St Bernard College at Herberton and Cairns’ St Monica’s College and St Andrew’s Catholic College are among schools participating in the Loud Fence movement.

It started in May last year when residents were invited to tie ribbons to the front fence of St Alipius Parish School in Ballarat, Victoria, where a Royal Commission uncovered a history of child sexual abuse.

St Monica’s Assistant Principal of Religious Education Adrien Innes said the school’s 660 students had responded very positively to the Catholic Education initiative.

“Even students on block exams have come in to tie a ribbon on the fence,” she said.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Jasmine Stole , Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno and Shawn Raymundo, sraymundo@guampdn.com
June 18, 2016

When Archbishop Anthony Apuron was publicly accused in 2014 of having allegedly molested a boy while Apuron was a parish priest almost 30 years ago, accuser John Toves’ calls for an investigation went unheard.

After days of failed efforts to seek an audience with Apuron, and after having exhausted media interviews and sending letters to officials of the Catholic church locally and to Pacific representatives of the Vatican, then 50-year-old Toves left Guam and returned to his life in California. The Archdiocese of Agana threatened Toves with a lawsuit if he didn’t stop accusing the archbishop.

“They were communicated through all the proper channels, but they weren’t forwarded beyond certain points,” Toves said Thursday. “My documents never reached that far.”

At the time, Toves said when he was a 16-year-old altar boy, Toves’ cousin and co-seminarian at a high school seminary in Guam, was allegedly sexually abused. The alleged victim also was an altar boy, in the parish in Agat where Apuron was a priest, according to Toves’ allegation.

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MINNESOTA
Mesabi Daily News

Tony Potter | Hibbing Daily Tribune

HIBBING — The former Hibbing priest accused of criminal sexual misconduct took the stand Friday afternoon in St. Louis County District Court in Hibbing.

Brian M. Lederer, 30, is facing four counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.

Defense Attorney Peter Wold began by asking Lederer if he knew the girls who are accusing him of the sexual criminal misconduct to which he confirmed.

Wold asked Lederer a series of questions relating to whether or not the accusations against him are truthful. Lederer denied all accusations.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
ARTHUR MCCAFFREY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 18, 2016

Does a verdict without a sentence distort justice? Such a verdict was reached in Pennsylvania recently when the grand jury report on sexual abuse by clergy in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown — where hundreds of boys were abused by dozens of priests over a 70-year span — found “the acts of the predator priests and their enabling bishops . . . to be criminal.”

“However,” the report continued, “they cannot be prosecuted at this time. The statute of limitations for many of the loathsome and criminal actions detailed in this report has expired. In some limited cases the unnamed victim or victims are too deeply traumatized to testify in a court of law.”

Yet such hard evidence of real crimes proven but not prosecutable has yet to change the hearts and minds of political leaders in Pennsylvania or New York. Despite a valiant effort by this newspaper to shame them into action, Albany politicians once again chose safety over bravery, snubbing serious legislation to advantage victims of childhood sexual abuse.

Faced with this kind of legal impotence in at least two states, where do we turn for justice? Not to the Catholic Church. A year ago, Pope Francis raised our hopes when he proposed establishing a new Vatican tribunal to hold bishops accountable for complicity in criminal abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 18, 2016

Michael Bachelard
Investigations Editor, The Age

Known for its obsession with privacy and its silencing tactics, the Exclusive Brethren has managed to avoid any scrutiny over alleged child sex abuse. Until now.

LATE ONE night, a frightened girl whispered a terrible secret into her mother’s ear. It was about the man in whose house she was living – an elder of the Christian sect to which they all belonged.

But if the girl thought telling her mum would make it stop, she had not reckoned on the power of the Exclusive Brethren.

Just days after her disclosure in mid-2002, the girl’s mother brought her back to the man’s house in a NSW regional town. The elder’s wife took the child into the room where it had happened. Then the interrogation began. For hours the woman questioned the little girl. She made her act out the attacks.

“She wanted me to show her what [her husband] had done to me, she wanted me to demonstrate,” the girl later told a judge.

So long did it go on that the child’s own mother left the room to sleep.

Later still, the perpetrator himself, Lindsay Jensen – nearly two metres tall, weighing 100 kilograms, rich, pious, respected in his religious community – came in and confronted the girl himself.

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | JUNE 17, 2016

Advocates for survivors of clergy sex abuse say they are disappointed the Southern Baptist Convention has elected a new president once accused of shielding a child molester.

“We’re disappointed that the Southern Baptist Convention just elected Bellevue Baptist pastor Steve Gaines as president,” said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “He covered up abuse by minister Paul Williams for at least six months.”

Gaines, elected by acclamation June 15 as president of the nation’s largest faith group behind Roman Catholics, nearly lost his pulpit 10 years ago for not telling his church that a longtime staff member had confessed in counseling to sexually abusing a family member 17 years earlier.

Gaines kept the secret for six months until details of the incident appeared in a blog.

Bellevue Baptist Church fired Paul Williams, minister of prayer and special projects who served at the church 34 years, in January 2007 after an investigation into a “moral failure” he had confessed to Gaines six months earlier.

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IOWA
WQAD

JUNE 17, 2016, BY SARAH TISINGER

DAVENPORT, Iowa — A former chaplain at Mercy Medical Center in Clinton has been cleared by the Catholic Church after being accused of molestation. He will be reassigned to ministry and service to the Diocese of Davenport.

In 2013, Father John Stack was accused of touching minors inappropriately in the 1980s. The Diocese reported the accusations to the Scott County Attorney and Stack was removed from ministry. The case went through a trial process through the Doctrine of Faith at the Vatican, where three judges found that the accusations of sexual abuse could not be proven, reports the Diocese.

“There was not a finding of innocence or guilt,” stated the press release.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas P. Doyle | Jun. 17, 2016

When it comes to holding bishops and religious superiors responsible for the cover up of clergy sex abuse, Pope Francis’ June 4 apostolic letter on ecclesial accountability is not only a distinct improvement over the proposal made a year ago to establish a tribunal to hold bishops accountable, it is possibly the most positive and hopeful signal to come out of the Vatican to date.

Canon lawyer Kurt Martens — among others — told NCR, “Everyone seems to be excited about the new [aposotlic letter] but there is really no change.” However, there is something breaking with this pronouncement — the official recognition by the church’s highest authority of hierarchical negligence in dealing with sex abuse by clerics. It is not only acknowledged but named as a crime.

The apostolic letter, or motu proprio known by its Italian title, Come una madre amorevole (“As a loving mother”), has some remarkable positive points that deserve mention:

* Negligence can be punished if it has hurt individuals and/or the community. It is vital that the disastrous impact on the Christian communities because of the bishops’ actions of lack thereof be acknowledged for what it is.

* The norms for removal do not demand that the pope have “moral certitude” of the culpability of the bishop. He can be removed or forced to resign for failure in the diligence required of him. This is a far cry from having to prove “grave moral culpability.” These factors can go a long way in eliminating the possibility of lengthy litigation or protracted appeals which many feared would be the undoing of a tribunal process.

* The U.S. bishops were criticized for not including superiors of religious communities under the Dallas Charter and Essential Norms. The pope plugged that hole in his Apostolic Letter by making it clear that major religious superiors, that is, provincials and superiors general, can also be subjected to this process.

* Unilateral removal is now a distinct reality and distinguishes between removal and an “invited” resignation. Victims, survivors and others have rightly criticized this pope because, rather than removing several U.S. bishops who were blatantly guilty of dereliction of duty, he allowed them to resign or retire. Everyone knew what was really happening yet it served as an insult to the victims and others so gravely wounded by these prelates’ intentional actions. …

What is so special about this latest development is the acknowledgement that the negligent and irresponsible actions of many bishops was not based on their ignorance about the nature of sex abuse or advice given by medical experts — two of the many silly excuses offered — but that their actions and inactions were willful and potentially criminal. This is a mind-blowing change from the past where every effort was made to protect and exonerate the bishops above every other consideration.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 17, 2016

A forensic psychologist acknowledged in Newfoundland Supreme Court the effect on memory of the passage of time – decades since a group of men say they were physically and sexually abused at Mount Cashel.

William Foote of New Mexico, said while specific details can be affected, people will remember the essence of abuse and experts like him take it for what it is.

Chris Blom, lawyer for the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s in the Mount Cashel civil trial, noted it was 40-plus years since the boys were at the orphanage by the time Foote interviewed five former residents in 2000.

Three of those men are among four test case John Does who say that the church should be held liable for the physical and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of certain members of the lay order Christian Brothers from the late 1940s to early 1960s. They represent about 60 claimants.

Blom also suggested Foote, called by lawyers on behalf of the orphanage boys, unfairly depicted to the court that Mount Cashel was a cruel and sadistic experience for all boys over that time period.

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MINNESOTA
Hibbing Daily Tribune

By Kelly Grinsteinner Editor kgrinsteinner@hibbingdailytribune.net

HIBBING — The fourth and eldest accuser alleging a former Hibbing priest of sexual misconduct testified Friday during the third day of trial in St. Louis County District Court in Hibbing.

Brian M. Lederer, 30, is charged with four counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.

Three of the juvenile accusers testified Wednesday, recounting how Lederer touched them inappropriately on more than one occasion. Three parents have also testified, including the mother of two of the girls.

He is accused of snapping bras while massaging shoulders, grabbing two of the girls’ breasts, touching them in the buttocks, and touching and lifting two of them in the groin area.

The incidents took place during the 2014-2015 school year after school hours at Assumption School. One incident took place in a residence, and other actions occurred on a school bus.

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IOWA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport – The Catholic Messenger

Diocese of Davenport Press Release about Rev. John Stack

FROM: Deacon David Montgomery
Director of Communication
montgomery@davenportdiocese.org
Diocese of Davenport

PHONE: 563-888-4222

RE: Rev. John Stack

In 2013, the Diocese of Davenport received a report which stated that Father John Stack, Chaplain at Mercy Medical Center in Clinton, inappropriately touched minors in approximately the 1980s. The Diocese reported this to the Scott County Attorney in compliance with the Memorandum of Understanding between the Diocese and the County Attorney. Father Stack was removed from ministry while this matter was investigated.

As a result of the investigation and with the recommendation of the Diocesan Review Board, Bishop Martin Amos petitioned the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, requesting the case be brought to trial. The trial process could result in one of three judgements: innocent, guilty or that the accusations of sexual abuse of minors were not proven. The three judges, all from outside of the Diocese of Davenport, found that the accusations of sexual abuse of minors by Father Stack were not proven. There was not a finding of innocence or guilt. In order to assure the rights of all, the decision was appealed for further review. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith concurred with the finding of the judges.

After receiving the conclusion from the Vatican, Bishop Amos will assign Father Stack to priestly ministry and service to the Diocese.

To report child sexual abuse Contact the Iowa Department of Human Services Child Abuse Hotline: 800‐362‐2178 If the abuse involves clergy or church personnel, also notify Alicia Owens, Victim Assistance Coordinator: 563‐349‐ 5002 PO Box 232 Bettendorf, IA 52722‐0004 vacdav@diodav.org We apologize for all those who have been abused and continue to pray for them. Information regarding this process can be found at: http://www.usccb.org/upload/FAQs-canonicalprocess-sexual-abuse.pdf.

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IOWA
Quad-City Times

Deirdre Cox Baker dbaker@qctimes.com

Three years after charges of clergy abuse were brought against him, the Rev. John Stack has been cleared by the Vatican and will work again in the Diocese of Davenport.

The findings were announced Friday by Deacon David Montgomery, the diocese’s spokesman.

Stack was accused in 2013 of inappropriately touching minors in the 1980s. The charge was reported to the Scott County Attorney’s Office, the process the diocese now uses in abuse cases. Stack was removed from his ministry at Mercy Medical Center in Clinton while the investigation went forward.

Bishop Martin Amos petitioned the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, requesting that Stack’s case be brought to trial before three judges, none of whom is from the Davenport diocese.

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ROME
Catholic Register

BY CAROL GLATZ, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
June 16, 2016

The Catholic Church has launched a new kind of “special forces” in the fight against child abuse.

Nineteen men and women from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas became the first graduates awarded special certification in the safeguarding of minors — an initiative begun in Rome in 2016 to help dioceses, bishops’ conferences, religious orders and other Church bodies excel in child protection.

The graduates — who are psychiatrists, theologians, canon lawyers, educators and child protection officers — were honoured June 14 during a graduation ceremony at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.

Pope Francis sent a personal letter for the occasion, praising the new graduates and telling them, “I wish you courage and patience; be brave and committed.”

The five-month, intensive program is run by the Center for Child Protection at the university’s Institute of Psychology and grew out of an e-learning program, but offers more active discussion and group work with onsite, face-to-face instruction by experts in a variety of fields.

The diploma course includes six in-depth interdisciplinary seminars on: defining the problem of sex abuse; children’s rights; the importance of sacred and safe spaces; the abuse of faith in abuse scandals; the liberating force of truth and justice; and how to help survivors and their families.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

17 June 2016 | by Christopher Lamb

Financial reforms that have already been put in place are irreversible, claims Pope Francis’ treasurer

The financial reforms of the Holy See are “irreversible” and have ensured there are no more “pools of darkness in the Vatican”, the papal treasurer has said.

Cardinal George Pell, who is Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, told The Tablet: “The Vatican is committed to transparency, international cooperation and the use of contemporary international standards in financial reporting.”

He pointed out, however, that the “full implementation of such changes will take time” and that work needed to be done to bring expenditure under control.

Last week, the Holy See announced that an audit by PricewaterhouseCooopers (PwC) would no longer take place and they would instead assist an internal Auditor General with the work.

Cardinal Pell, who helped commission the original audit from PwC, said the new arrangement “is not a rejection of financial reform” but instead “a recognition that the many challenges in transitioning to full implementation must fit the context and a way forward is being found.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Thomas Garrido
June 17, 2016

The recent news on the accusations against Archbishop Apuron is tragic in many respects.

First to Mr. Roy T. Quintanilla: No one is impeccable. Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I am a sinner and I still disappoint God and loved ones to this day. We stand alone accountable before God for our own deeds. God is the original authorized judge, jury and executioner. Roy, you have taken it upon yourself to take this tragic incident to the public light. However, the burden of proof is upon you to substantiate your charges. Your burden is great. Without a confession or proof, we expose the accused to incarceration or acts of revenge and injury to family, friends, career, employer and church.

I am not unsympathetic with you, Roy. I too was sexually abused as a minor more than 55 years ago. … You and I likely shared most of the same emotions. There are several points I am trying to make to you regarding our experiences.

One: I wished that my love for God and my parents was much, much stronger. I speak of a love that does not share with shame or fear and does not need to sum up courage to speak out to the proper people. I do not blame my parents or anyone for the lack of such a love. God had a wonderful plan for me in the future.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
DAILY NEWS ALBANY
BUREAU CHIEF
Thursday, June 16, 2016

ALBANY — While state leaders appear ready to turn their backs on child sex abuse victims again this year, they found time to shower love on female hunters, brunch-goers and pet lovers.

Barring a last-minute miracle, the state Legislature was preparing to end its session on Friday with no deal on a bill to make it easier for child sex abuse survivors to seek justice — something victims and advocates have pushed for a decade.

But lawmakers this year did manage to pass an array of apparently more pressing legislation.

Among them is a bill to allow the use of fluorescent pink, instead of just orange, hunting attire in order to attract more women and young people into the woods.

Kathryn Robb, a child sex abuse survivor and advocate, was flabbergasted.

“It’s more important to fashionably dress female hunters than it is to protect children from sexual abuse and give victims of sexual abuse justice?” Robb said. “Wow. That is something much greater than outrageous.”

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY PETER DIAMOND

Bishop Bill Nolan will ask the Holy See to appoint a tribunal to investigate Father Bell’s conduct after he was jailed for 10 months after previously pleading guilty to embezzling the money.

The Diocese of Galloway have confirmed Father Graeme Bell’s future in the church is to be considered.

The parishioners of St Mary’s – and St John’s in Stevenston – who have endured a difficult year were also praised by the church who will now hold a ‘church tribunal’ to decide Mr Bell’s fate.

A spokesperson said: “This is a sad day for the Diocese of Galloway as Father Graeme Bell is sentenced.

“However, given amounts involved it is not surprising he has received a custodial sentence and we hope that in prison he will continue to receive the support he needs and which the diocese has offered him over the past year.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bollettino

Vatican City, 16 June 2016 – The Holy Father has appointed: …

– Fr. Emmanuel Gobilliard as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Lyon (area 5,087, population 1,960,898, Catholics 1,255,000, priests 546, permanent deacons 68, religious 1,817), France. The bishop-elect was born in Saumur, France in 1968 and was ordained a priest in 1997. He holds a degree in moral theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University, and has served in a number of pastoral roles including diocesan head of student chaplaincy, diocesan co-ordinator of youth pastoral ministry, member of the Episcopal Council, and missionary in Madagascar as teacher in the interdiocesan seminary of Fianaransoa. He is currently rector of the Cathedral of Le Puy-en-Velay.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 16, 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)

In a new court filing, a Kansas City church is trying to force two girls who were abused by a now-imprisoned child molester to publicly reveal their names. We are appalled.

http://www.jococourts.org/civroa.aspx?which=16CV03415

This mean-spirited move will deter others who see, suspect or suffer child sex crimes into staying silent, enabling more predators to hurt more kids. It will also rub more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of this suffering family. It is a shameful move by officials who profess to be “Christians.”

Last week, in public, Westside Family Church officials played “good cop.” This week, in court, Westside is playing “bad cop.” This week is what counts, because now, they’re not just talking, they’re acting. And they’re acting like cold-hearted CEOs, not caring shepherds.

If Westside pastor Dan Chaverin gets his way, two little girls who belonged to his church and sexually abused and exploited by a twice-convicted, admitted predator, may have to publicly reveal their identities. How stunningly callous is that?

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UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

Christa Brown

At its June 14-15 annual meeting in St. Louis, the Southern Baptist Convention elected Steve Gaines as SBC president. Gaines, who is the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, was implicated in a widely-publicized clergy child molestation cover-up about nine years ago.

Here’s what was uncovered at the time: Gaines knew for at least six months that a Bellevue staff minister, Paul Williams, had molested a child, and Gaines simply kept quiet. He did not report the crime to the police, and he also kept Williams’ conduct a secret from the congregation. If a blogger had not made the news public, there’s no telling how long Gaines would have persisted in keeping Williams’ dangerous conduct under wraps.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that Gaines had obviously chosen to prioritize the protection of his staff minister rather than the protection of kids, and despite Gaines’ secrecy, the church chose to retain Gaines as its senior pastor. Gaines faced virtually no consequences.

Furthermore, not only did Gaines keep quiet about the fact that a staff minister had admitted to molesting a child, thereby leaving other kids at greater risk, but he also allowed Williams to continue to serve as a counselor for congregants who had been sexually abused as children. Can you imagine how those people felt when they learned that the very minister who had been counseling them was someone who himself had molested a kid? As one woman later explained her pain: “That a suspected pedophile might have been titillated by the story of her abuse at the hands of a since-deceased relative — the thought turns her stomach.”

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AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

Louise Thrower
@ThrowerLouise

June 17, 2016

INDECENT assault victims of Brother William Standen are seeking compensation from the Christian Brothers Oceania in the wake of his conviction and sentencing.

A Canberra law firm has also revealed it acted in past civil matters for other victims of Brother Standen, who were “beaten like a dog.”

The 67-year-old Standen, known as Brother Dave, was sentenced to nine years two months’ jail with a non-parole period of four years, seven months in Sydney District Court last Friday.

He had pleaded guilty to 17 charges of indecent assault on boys aged 12 to 14, and one act of indecency on a boy, while he was a teacher and dormitory master at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn between 1978 and 1981.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 16, 2016

A lawyer’s cross-examination of a forensic psychologist Thursday in Newfoundland Supreme Court challenged the expert with other potential causes of some Mount Cashel survivors’ life problems, including anger over corporal punishment, accepted by society in the 1950s as a form of disciplining children.

Chris Blom, one of the lawyers representing the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s at the civil trial, pointed out to William Foote — an expert from New Mexico brought into the case by lawyers for a group of former orphanage residents — that one of the John Does was physically abused by certain Christian Brothers for several years before he was sexual abused, suggesting the physical trauma was more likely to blame for his anger issues.

Blom also questioned Foote about the likelihood of a child of alcoholic parents developing their own substance abuse issues — the John Doe who went into the military had parents with drinking problems and the atmosphere of soldiering in his day was also hard drinking.

After court Thursday, that John Doe told The Telegram the lawyer was off-base about why his military career, though long, earned him a retirement with a low rank. He said later in his career, he learned to be a good soldier, but by then it was too late to rise through the ranks and he attributes his anger to Mount Cashel.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Gazette-Mail

Ryan Quinn , Staff Writer

A lawsuit is ongoing against a now-closed Kanawha County Christian boys boarding school and its leaders over allegations that a student was starved and physically abused and — because of alleged lax supervision — sexually abused by another student, and the minor’s lawyer expects the litigation to expand.

“We certainly have had other people reach out to us who are victims of that organization, and we would anticipate filing suit on their behalf,” said Charleston-based attorney Troy Giatras, the lawyer representing the minor and his guardian ad litem in the case against Blue Creek Academy, which Giatras said was in the Clendenin area, near the border of Clay and Kanawha counties.

The lawsuit also names Bible Baptist, a Belva church sponsoring the school, as a defendant, along with James Waldeck and J.R. Thompson, Blue Creek Academy’s former director who, according to The Daily Beast, has started a new religious school in Montana. In answers to the lawsuit, the defendants have denied the allegations.

In an extensive article published online Sunday — titled “Rapes, Daily Beatings, and No Escape: Christian School Was Hell For These Boys” — The Daily Beast reported on the allegations of child abuse and educational neglect at Blue Creek Academy, fitting it into a larger trend of problems at Christian schools that have less oversight, or nearly no oversight, compared to public schools.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Jun 17, 2016

By Krystal Paco

The attorney representing most of Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s alleged victims wants answers.

Attorney David Lujan has now twice addressed Archdiocese of Agana sexual abuse response coordinator Deacon Larry Claros on his role as the SARC and whether Claros can properly and objectively investigate if the alleged perpetrator is his boss.

Last month the archdiocese announced plans to convene the archdiocesan review board in response to the allegations made against Apuron. Soon after however, many of the board’s members resigned or recused themselves. No update has been provided on the board’s status and Deacon Claros did not respond to KUAM’s multiple inquiries as of news time.

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KENTUCKY
LEX 18

[with video]

CASEY COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) – According to the Casey County News, a pastor has been indicted and arrested after he was accused of a sex crime against a minor.

George Wayne Cole, 55, was arrested on June 10th, the newspaper reports.

He is charged with two counts of unlawful imprisonment and first degree sexual abuse.

Cole was taken to the Clinton County Jail and later posted bond.

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MISSOURI
KTTN

Allegations of sexual abuse against a Queen City, Missouri pastor have landed a man behind bars.

Multiple sources reveal the pastor of the Queen City Christian Church, George Bradburn, 68, was arrested on Tuesday, June 14at his home in Queen City on a charge of first-degree sodomy involving a teen.

A lengthy investigation by the State Technical Assistance Team, from the Missouri Department of Social Services, resulted in the minister admitting that fondling of the victim began at age 13.

The allegation was first reported to the Kirksville Police Department, who then forwarded information to Schuyler County Sheriff Joe Wueker on May 12, 2016.

The victim stated at approximately age 9 he began spending time at the church assisting in various duties such as cleaning or helping out, when he and Bradburn became good friends. When he was approximately age 12, Bradburn began touching his private parts, both over and under the clothing, with his hands. The teen recalled this happening “several times per week” until the age of approximately 15, at which time the boy went to live in another part of Missouri. He stated Bradburn would come pick him up once per month and bring him back to Queen City for visits, at which time the victim reported the encounters continued by Bradburn. This cycle continued until the victim turned 18.

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MISSOURI
Kirksville Daily Express

Posted Jun. 16, 2016

Queen City, Mo.

A Queen City, Mo., minister faces a felony charge after being accused of sexually abusing a minor for more than five years.

George Bradburn, 69, of Queen City, was recently charged with statutory sodomy in the first degree by the Schuyler County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

According to a press release, the Schuyler County Sheriff’s Office received a tip from the Kirksville Police Department in April about the alleged sexual abuse.

In an interview with law enforcement, the victim stated when he was about 9 years old he was introduced to the suspect as the pastor of a local church. The victim later began spending time around the church and became good friends with the suspect.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jun. 16, 2016

A number of states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, are considering extending the statute of limitations dealing with the sexual abuse of minors. It is a well-documented fact that many victims of abuse do not come forward until long after their abuse occurred.

While a statute of limitations serves a reasonable purpose by preventing prosecution and litigation over actions in the distant past where witnesses, evidence, and alibis are missing and memories are foggy, it is galling to see criminals escape justice on a technicality.

For criminal prosecutions, modifying the statute of limitations is only constitutional for future crimes. In the United States, we cannot extend the statute of limitations for crimes committed in the past.

Civil suits are a different matter. States like California, Virginia, Minnesota, and Delaware have extended the statute of limitations for civil suits against the church when church officials did not protect children from abuse by priests. Often the legislation provides a one- or two-year window during which victims can sue the church for cases that under current law would have been disallowed under the statute of limitations.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Review

Safe Touch, a curriculum offered annually to all children enrolled in archdiocesan schools and PSR programs, teaches children about healthy boundaries and personal safety. The curriculum was updated in 2016 to include resources for adults and children regarding safety and responsibility when using technology and social media.

Predators gain access to children and teens through social media and gaming sites where they can immediately begin the grooming process. Predators can remain anonymous and no longer have to leave their homes in order to abuse a child or a teen. A predator no longer needs physical access to make contact with a child or teen. It is important to educate children on technology safety and monitor their usage regardless of age or gender. Children and teens must be taught to identify and report inappropriate electronic contact in the same way they are taught about inappropriate in person contact.

The Safe Environment Program also recommends NetSmartz, a program of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which provides age-appropriate resources for staying safe online. For more information, see www.netsmartz.org.

For more information on Safe Touch and the Safe Environment Program, contact director Sandra Price at (314) 792-7271 or email sandraprice@archstl.org, or visit www.archstl.org/sep.

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MINNESOTA
Mesabi Daily News

Kelly Grinsteinner | Hibbing Daily Tribune

HIBBING — The mother with a set of daughters both accusing a former Hibbing priest of sexual misconduct took the stand Thursday during trial day two in St. Louis County District Court in Hibbing.

Brian M. Lederer, 30, is facing four counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.

Three of the juvenile accusers testified Wednesday, recounting how Lederer touched them inappropriately on more than one occasion.

He is accused of snapping bras while massaging shoulders, grabbing two of the girls’ breasts, touching one in the buttocks and lifting another by her groin area.

The incidents took place during the 2014-2015 school year after school hours at Assumption School. One incident took place in a residence, and other actions occurred on a school bus. Lederer was arrested and charged on May 7, 2015.

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

June 17, 2016

Keith Moor
Insight Editor
Herald Sun

VICTORIA’s top cop has revealed detectives might go to Italy to interview Cardinal George Pell about child sex abuse allegations.

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton was this week reluctant to talk about the Cardinal Pell probe during a wideranging interview with the Herald Sun to mark his first year in the job.

“We don’t give running commentary on ongoing investigations,” he said.

But comments Mr Ashton made when pressed by the Herald Sun confirmed Sano taskforce detectives are investigating multiple sexual abuse allegations made against Cardinal Pell.

The Herald Sun asked Mr Ashton if the Cardinal Pell investigation might result in Sano sex crime specialists being sent to the Vatican to speak to Cardinal Pell if he didn’t return to Australia.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Guardian (UK)

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in New York
Friday 17 June 2016

The Catholic church in Pennsylvania has been accused of employing “mafia-like” tactics in a campaign to put pressure on individual Catholic lawmakers who support state legislation that would give victims of sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers.

The lobbying campaign against the legislation is being led by Philadelphia archbishop Charles Chaput, a staunch conservative who recently created a stir after inadvertently sending an email to a state representative Jamie Santora, in which he accused the lawmaker of “betraying” the church and said Santora would suffer “consequences” for his support of the legislation. The email was also sent to a senior staff member in Chaput’s office, who was apparently the only intended recipient.

The email has infuriated some Catholic lawmakers, who say they voted their conscience in support of the legislation on behalf of sexual abuse victims. One Republican legislator, Mike Vareb, accused the archbishop of using mafia-style tactics.

“This mob boss approach of having legislators called out, he really went right up to the line,” Vareb told the Guardian. “He is going down a road that is frankly dangerous for the status of the church in terms of it being a non-profit.”

Under US tax laws, organisations like churches that are classified as non-profit groups are not supposed to be engaged in political activity, though they are allowed to publish legislators’ voting records in some cases.

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston Globe

By Bella English GLOBE STAFF JUNE 16, 2016

A committee charged with finding the next headmaster of St. George’s School is already coming under fire for not including any victims of alleged sexual abuse at the school, the scandal that many believe led to Eric Peterson’s recent decision not to seek renewal of his contract after next year.

Two weeks ago, Peterson, 50, informed trustees that he will leave by the end of the 2016-2017 school year. St. George’s has been embroiled in controversy since December, after Anne Scott and two other alumnae told of being molested or raped by athletic trainer Al Gibbs in the late 1970s.

In a letter to the school community on Thursday, Tad Van Norden, a St. George’s alumnus and trustee, introduced himself as chair of the new search committee, which is made up of trustees, parents, faculty and alumni. Nine of the 12 search committee members are trustees, who have also been criticized by victims for their handling of the scandal. Of the remaining three, two are faculty members and the other is co-chair of the school’s Parents’ Committee.

Van Norden said the committee, aided by the executive search firm Spencer Stuart, hopes to identify candidates in the early fall, and a head of school by year’s end.

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OREGON
Dalles Chronicle

By Neita Cecil
As of Thursday, June 16, 2016

A police interview with the senior pastor of First Christian Church showed that church officials had “expressed concerns” about the behavior of a youth leader who was eventually convicted of sexually abusing teen girls.

Michael Cele Stephens, 20, was sentenced to 15 years in prison early this year for sexually abusing six teen girls. He met his victims through the church youth group and 4-H.

One of his victims has sued First Christian Church for $5 million, alleging the church was negligent in not heeding and investigating warning signs that Stephens was grooming girls for sexual abuse.

Stephens befriended his victims, eventually exchanging sexual texts and photos.

He abused them at their homes, their relative’s homes or his relative’s homes, and in a parking lot.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 16, 2016

Angela Thompson

Boys at Wollongong’s Edmund Rice College in the 1980s knew sexual predators moved freely among them, and would share advice about who to avoid being alone with, Throsby MP Stephen Jones — a former school captain — has revealed.

Following another teacher’s admission of guilt over historic child sex crimes at the West Wollongong all-boys college, Mr Jones said the school had felt like a “dumping ground” for paedophiles whose crimes were overlooked by those who could have ended the abuse.

“There was a whole bunch of them [paedophiles] at the time I was there,” said Mr Jones, who graduated from the school in 1983.

“Boys would [avoid them] in all sorts of ways. We would just talk amongst ourselves about it — ‘don’t get caught with this person or that person’.”

Brother John Vincent Roberts was allowed to teach at the school despite at least one prior complaint of abuse at another NSW Christian Brothers School.

In Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday, Roberts, 73, admitted to 11 charges relating to the sexual abuse of a young male student at Edmund Rice in the late 1980s.

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