ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Motifri

Michael is a troubled artist whose fragile psyche begins to crack after a chance run-in with the priest who abused him as a child. What follows is a walking dream state in which Michael attempts to rationalize and cope with his trauma, his emotions and his actions.

Skip Shea’s Trinity is a powerful drama with psychological horror overtones and is filled with a tense anxiety and strong performances. The cast overall holds their own while Sean Carmichael really stands out as Michael; his performance has a believable nervous confusion about it that adds an unexpected energy to the film.

Trinity is a very effective film in the way that it takes the viewer along Michael’s quest for inner peace and closure. The film’s intentionally awkward pacing and repetition of scenes and dialogue within scenes solidifies the surreal feeling that Shea accomplishes so well.

If you were looking for a stand-out independent feature that tackles some tough subjects, then I’d highly recommend Trinity. Trinity can be seen this Sunday, October 16, at 6:15pm at the Pawtucket Film Festival. For more info on screening time check out Pawtucketfilmfest.com.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WGAL

LEBANON, Pa. —A Lebanon County teacher has been charged with sexually assaulting a student over a period of several months.

Police say 27-year-old Jesus Omar Sandoval, a Spanish teacher at Lebanon Catholic High School, engaged in sexual activity with a teen on school property and at his residence in West Lebanon Township.

It happened between Oct. 2013 and April 2014 when the teen was 15 and 16-years-old. At that time, Sandoval was 24-years-old.

According to the criminal complaint filed by police, Sandoval obtained the teen’s cell phone number and began texting about school-related items. Eventually, the conversation turned into flirtations, according to police.

The teen told police about visiting Sandoval’s classroom after school hours and said they would kiss.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

An update for you on a story we have discussed here in the past: as I told you this past May (here, here, and here), news reports surfaced in late April and early May in Dutch and French media of new allegations made against the Vatican’s “expert” on homosexuality, Monsignor Tony Anatrella. Anatrella has a history of characterizing homosexuality as a psychological disorder that can be “cured” through “reparative” or “conversion” therapy. He was invited to the Vatican’s Synod on the Family to advise the synod about the topic of homosexuality, and when a Vatican document instructing new bishops that they need not report allegations of sexual abuse by clergy to criminal authorities came to light and caused consternation, it was revealed that the document was citing Tony Anatrella in giving this advice.

The news reports to which the links above will point you indicate that, though rumors about inappropriate sexual behavior by Anatrella in a therapeutic context have floated around for a long time now, new allegations had begun to be made in the first part of this year — allegations that, in a therapeutic context and with claims that his behavior would “cure” young men sent to him for a “cure” of homosexuality, Anatrella crossed boundary lines and inappropriately touched these clients.

And here’s the update I want to share with you now: several days ago, a group supporting survivors of childhood sexual abuse in Lyons, Parole libérée, published an appeal to anyone who might have been molested by Anatrella to come forward. This appeal notes that the diocese of Paris has established a special commission to investigate complaints about Anatrella, to be chaired by Eric de Moulin Beaufort, auxiliary bishop of Paris et vicar general of the archdiocese of Paris.

As Malo Tresca notes for La Croix, the Paris archdiocesan commission to look into complaints about Anatrella’s activities was set up in September. It has apparently been established because more victims have come forward with allegations similar to those previously made by former clients of Anatrella, of sexual “touching” in a therapeutic context, with claims that such “touching” has a curative effect on homosexuality. And as the Parole libérée announcement states, the hope is that, now that a commission has been set up to look into Anatrella’s activities and as more people alleging inappropriate behavior by him in the context of therapy are coming forward, it may be expected that even more former clients will now feel free to speak out.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
October 15 2016
The Times

The national inquiry into child abuse is to be scaled back next week in a desperate attempt to keep it on track.

Alexis Jay, chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), is expected to announce the results of a wide-ranging review of how it will work in the future that will see a shift away from public evidence sessions.

An inquiry insider said: “We need to make this inquiry manageable and deliverable within a reasonable timescale and without excessive costs.”

More than two years after it was set up the inquiry has spent more than £20 million, recruited 167 staff, and amassed millions of pages of documents but has yet to hear any evidence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill | Andrew Norfolk
October 15 2016
The Times

Dame Lowell Goddard said yesterday that she was put under pressure by Theresa May and her officials to accept the job as chairwoman of Britain’s largest and most ambitious public inquiry.

The New Zealand High Court judge, who resigned in August and has this week denied accusations of serious misconduct, said that in the weeks before she accepted the post in February last year she was still not sure that the role was right for her. She said that talks on her £500,000-a-year package began after she agreed to become the third chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

Dame Lowell was picked because she had conducted an inquiry into police handling of child abuse cases in New Zealand. However, a Privy Council judgment in 2005 criticised her management of a murder trial that some judges said had “gone off the rails”.

In a statement issued through her lawyers Dame Lowell, 67, said that she was approached by the British High Commission in November 2014 and spoke to John O’Brien, a senior Home Office official, by telephone just before Christmas that year.

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UNITED KINGDOM
TVNZ (New Zealand)

Emma Keeling

The chief reporter from The Times in Britain is standing by allegations the newspaper has made about former New Zealand High Court judge Dame Lowell Goddard.

Yesterday Dame Goddard released a statement strongly denying all the allegations of misconduct, including derogatory remarks the newspaper says she made when she was head of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Britain.

The Times alleges Whitehall officials close to British Prime Minister Theresa May have covered up the allegations against Dame Goddard.

Despite the threat of legal action, The Times chief reporter Sean O’Neill who wrote the articles, is confident they are accurate.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter | Oliver Wright, Policy Editor
October 15 2016
The Times

Dame Lowell Goddard faces official censure by parliament for refusing to answer questions about her tenure as chairwoman of the investigation.

The home affairs select committee is to warn her that she has one last chance to co-operate with its inquiry into the workings of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. If she fails to answer MPs’ questions — either in person or by video link from home in New Zealand — she will be officially and publicly censured by the committee.

“She is still a sitting high court judge in New Zealand and to be censured for wilfully refusing to co-operate with an official House of Commons investigation will present serious reputational issues for her,” one member said.

The committee is expected to point out that Dame Lowell received a £90,000 payoff from public funds. Another source added: “She has not even been prepared to have a Skype call with us.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

What a deplorable fiasco the child sex abuse inquiry has become. Allegations of racism and misconduct against former chairman, Justice Lowell Goddard – coming shortly after the abrupt departure of the inquiry’s lead counsel Ben Emmerson and his junior – are just the latest in a catalogue of disasters.

Before mysteriously resigning, claiming it had been difficult to leave behind her family in New Zealand, Dame Lowell is said to have told colleagues that the growth of paedophilia in Britain was a result of the large number of Asian men living here, and complained of having to travel 50 miles from London to see a white face – all of which she denies.

She is also alleged to have thrown frequent tantrums, treated her staff with contempt and struggled to grasp key points of English law.

Disturbingly, the Home Office is accused of knowing about her shortcomings – but covering them up to avoid embarrassment. Two chairmen had already quit since the then Home Secretary Theresa May set up the inquiry in July 2014.

Certainly Dame Lowell was deeply unimpressive. In her first year in the £500,000-a-year job, she spent three months on holiday or overseas.

But unsuitable as she undoubtedly was, there is a much bigger problem with this inquiry. Its brief is so impossibly wide that in its present form it is doomed to failure.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Oct. 14, 2016

BANGOR, Maine — An organization that advocates for the victims of clergy abuse has called for the removal of the Greek Orthodox chancellor in Boston who oversaw a former Bangor priest now serving a prison sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage altar server.

Adam Metropoulos, 54, is incarcerated at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. He was sentenced in March 2015 on four felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor following a jury-waived trial to 12 years in prison with all but 6½ years suspended. The charges stemmed from Metropoulos’ sexual assaults on a 15-year-old altar server at the church rectory in 2006 and 2007.

A press release issued by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, this week called for the removal of the Rev. Theodore J. Barbas, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston. Barbas was responsible for oversight of Metropoulos, according to SNAP.

Metropoulos was suspended as pastor of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor the day after he was arrested.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

October 15, 2016

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

The unprecedented move by the Catholic Church in this country is a response to a request by Pope Francis to bishops worldwide.

Abuse survivor, Marie Collins, who also sits on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Vatican, said the day “will make a difference to some victims as a gesture of acknowledgement of their hurt, and less so to others”.

Ms Collins said the day of prayer was the brainchild of a Canadian abuse survivor who asked her local church to include a prayer for survivors in its liturgy. The local priest refused. She then made a similar suggestion to the Commission for the Protection of Minors and Pope Francis liked the idea.

Last month, a new era of accountability began when it was decided by the Pope that the congregation of bishops and congregations of religious leaders in Rome will be able to discipline “deficient” bishops who have failed in safeguarding children. Up to now, such inquiries were carried out by the highly-secretive Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

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OREGON
The Register-Guard

By Jack Moran
The Register-Guard
OCT. 15, 2016

A Eugene priest charged with paying for sex with an underage girl and also using her to traffic cocaine said Friday that he and his supporters are saying their prayers “for everybody involved” in the case.

Daniel James MacKay, 42, ­declined to discuss the allegations during a brief telephone conversation with a reporter. But he did offer a few general comments about the case, which authorities are continuing to investigate following his arrest on Wednesday.

“What I can say right now is that we’re very concerned, and we’re praying for everybody ­involved,” MacKay said.

He called the situation “deeply unfortunate.”

MacKay serves as priest at the St. John the Wonderworker Orthodox Church in ­Eugene’s Whiteaker neighborhood. He also works as a part-time ­instructor at Lane Community College, where officials ­canceled his classes on Thursday and Friday but haven’t yet taken any formal employment action against him.

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GHANA
Ghana Web

A 25-year-old self-styled herbalist and fetish priest is in the grips of the Awutu Breku Police for allegedly defiling a 14-year old pregnant girl 25 times.

Chris Bonney, also known as Atongo who is a known fetish priest in the area was arrested after the 14-year old girl, who is one his numerous victims reported him to the police.

The pregnant minor found herself in the custody of Atongo after his 16-year old boyfriend Meshach Abbbam who he has dated for the past three years dragged her to the residence of the fetish priest to help abort a pregnancy.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
15/10/2016

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has warned that ostracising and “cutting off” those guilty of child sexual abuse increases the danger of them reoffending.

Archbishop Eamon Martin told child-safeguarding delegates from dioceses and religious orders: “In a society which demonises and clamours for permanent exclusion of such offenders, one wonders how to strike the balance between mercy and justice.”

He made the remarks in an address to the National Child Safeguarding Conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly. The conference focused on some of the complex areas of child safeguarding and was addressed by abuse survivor ‘Pauline’, who told delegates how she felt the church’s response to survivors could be improved.

Survivors

The Archbishop stressed that those clerics guilty of the sexual abuse of minors “cannot minister again as priests” and he cited Pope John Paul II, who said in 2002: “There is no place in the priesthood for those who would harm the young.”

Conference delegates were told that part of the dilemma for the church was how to seek redemption for the offender while not compounding the “lifelong trauma” of survivors.

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FRANCE
The Local

French churches have announced plans for a day of prayer for victims of sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

France’s Conference of Bishops made the decision to hold the day of prayer in churches across the country, Le Parisien reported on Friday.

At Lourdes – a major Catholic pilgrimage site – bishops will take part in a morning mass asking for the “forgiveness of sins”. In the afternoon there will be talks on the fight against paedophilia, and a prayer for the victims. Some will also observe a 24-hour fast.

As well as the events at Lourdes, priests all over the country have been invited to participate by holding special masses and prayers.

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CONNECTICUT
WNPR

[with audio]

By RAY HARDMAN

The Archdiocese of Hartford has agreed to settle a 16-year-old sexual abuse claim against one of its priests.

According to a press release issued by the plaintiff ‘s lawyers, “John Doe” as he was known in court documents was repeatedly abused, battered, and sexually assaulted over a six month period by Edward Warnakulasuriya, also known as Edward Tissera, a Sri Lankan priest who at the time was the associate pastor at St. John the Evangelist Church in Watertown.

The abuse started in October 2000 when the plaintiff was 13 years old.

The plaintiff’s attorneys did not disclose the dollar amount of the settlement, which was mediated by Hartford Superior Court Judge Antonio Robaina.

“We settled this matter without a single deposition being taken, which saved our client the extreme emotional distress and burden that would have come with being deposed and reliving his painful experiences,” said “John Doe’s” attorney, Ernie Teitell. “In fact, pleadings were not even closed and limited discovery was exchanged when the case was settled.”

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Before I wrote a book on Trump, I wrote one about the Catholic priest abuse scandals. And I see a heck of a lot of similarities.

MICHAEL D’ANTONIO
10.14.16

Although they have never been recognized as a constituency, millions of American voters—men as well as women—have been sexually abused, and for them, the presidential campaign has become a riveting drama and a source of fresh pain. They recognize themselves in the women who have come forward to report gross encounters with Donald Trump, and they see in the much of the response to their charges a familiar kind of deflection and denial.

Before I published a current biography of Donald Trump called The Truth About Trump, I authored a history of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. This work required me to research the behaviors of sexual predators, to learn the lifelong effects of the wounds they inflict, and to understand the dynamics that prevent so many victims from coming forward to speak the truth for years, and even decades.

They stay silent out of shame, a false sense that they are responsible for what happened to them, and because they fear being ostracized, scorned, and worse if they speak up. (Catholic institutions have actually counter-sued victims who lose in court, demanding payment to cover legal costs.) Predatory men, and almost all the cases I studied involved men, understand the fears that keep people quiet and play on them to escape accountability.

Because sexual predators are generally compulsive and fixated on certain kinds of victims, they tend to repeat their aggression in the same manner. They may age, but the people they victimize are often roughly the same age. The need they seek to satisfy is so ingrained that they use the same methods every time. And if they are not caught, they continue to offend. One predator priest in Louisiana had hundreds of documented victims. …

So far the Trump scandal is playing out in a way consistent with what was seen in literally thousands of Catholic parishes around the world, where first one, then two, and then a torrent of complaints were lodged against specific priests. In no case did the mere volume, or the consistency of the stories, constitute proof beyond a reasonable doubt. However, in all but a tiny percentage, victims have been found to be telling the truth, and the result has been settlements running into the billions of dollars and prison terms for more than a hundred priests.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk, Sean O’Neill, Oliver Wright
October 14 2016
The Times

It would have been “inconceivable” for Theresa May to be unaware of concerns about the behaviour of the chairman of the child sexual abuse inquiry, a former minister claimed as MPs prepared to launch an investigation into the allegations.

The Times revealed today that Home Office staff and advisers received warnings about Dame Lowell Goddard’s allegedly offensive behaviour in her role as chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) but did not end her “catastrophic” leadership.

It is claimed that her aggressive and abusive conduct at times reduced the inquiry’s operation to “near paralysis” while she was also heard to make “racist” remarks.

One former minister, who worked closely with Mrs May when she was home secretary, said the way in which she ran her department meant it was “not plausible” that the concerns had not crossed her desk as she demanded to be kept abreast of all developments.

“It is inconceivable that she did not know,” the former minister said. “The level of detail she demanded and the way in which she micromanaged the department would make that impossible.”

Next week the home affairs select committee is due to hear from Alexis Jay, who replaced Dame Lowell as chairwoman. She was an adviser to the committee while Dame Lowell was in charge.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By SAM GREENHILL FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Dame Lowell Goddard ruled her inquiry like a ‘monstrous tyrant’ and finally quit in a fit of petulance before going out for lunch, it was claimed yesterday.

Her doomed reign was allegedly peppered with expletive-ridden tantrums and racist diatribes that left horrified staff feeling ‘totally paralysed’.

But last night, the New Zealand judge issued a stinging rebuttal of the claims against her, adding that the lunch on the day she resigned was ‘simply sandwiches’ with her husband on his birthday.

She rejected accusations that she flew into rages at junior staff, insisting relations were so warm she even greeted the cleaner by name every day.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

Tom Parmenter
News Correspondent

During her 18-month stint leading the Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry, Dame Lowell Goddard said many of the things you would expect.

She talked about building trust with survivors, respecting their rights, and her inquiry adopting a rigorous unflinching pursuit of the truth.

She quit in August complaining the inquiry was just too big, but now faces unseemly allegations of being “aggressive”, “abusive,” and even “racist,” behind closed doors.

Now, one person’s “aggressive” is another person’s “forthright.”

Though it is the alleged racist remarks that make the story so staggering.

Is it really possible this highly educated, massively experienced judge uttered to colleagues some ugly and plainly untrue ideas that stigmatised Britain’s Asian community?

New Zealander Lowell Goddard has Maori heritage, has overseen many high profile cases and has sat on a UN committee on the prevention of torture.

People within the inquiry tell me they have struggled to find anyone who identifies with the idea of her as the closet racist.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sandra Laville
Friday 14 October 2016

The Home Office admitted for the first time on Friday that concerns about the conduct and professionalism of Dame Lowell Goddard had been raised with it six days before she resigned as chair of the national public inquiry into child abuse.

Goddard had earlier branded the claims made in the Times, including the suggestion that she linked Britain’s child abuse problem to its population of Asian men, “totally false”.

In a statement, the Home Office said that concerns were raised about Goddard by people within the inquiry on 29 July. They were advised to take their worries up with the chair. Six days later, Goddard resigned.

The admission that there were issues of concern that led to the resignation raised questions about the evidence given by the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to MPs on the matter. Rudd told the home affairs select committee last month that Goddard had quit in August because she was lonely. She made no mention of her department being made aware of concerns about the conduct of the New Zealand judge.

Making her debut appearance in front of the influential home affairs select committee in Westminster, Rudd, citing a letter from Goddard, said: “I think she went … because she found it too much for her, and although she could contribute to it and there was some good work done in the past year, ultimately she found it too lonely.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Editorial

The torrent of revelations in recent years about child sexual abuse – by celebrities, by institutions, by grooming gangs – has shocked the British public. As each new outrage presented itself, it became apparent that for decades children in this country were preyed upon by a range of repugnant individuals. Even worse, the discovery of systemic grooming of children by gangs from Rochdale to Oxford and Rotherham to Derby made it plain that young people were still being failed by those whose responsibility it was to keep them safe.

The establishment of a wide-ranging inquiry into the complex and unsettling issues raised by these and other cases was supposed to provide some answers, to be a means by which new evidence of abuse could be assessed and perhaps help victims get some justice – insofar as that can ever be possible. As things stand, however, the inquiry has been nothing short of a shambles.

Even before it was officially opened, two chairwomen had been and gone, with Lady Butler-Sloss and Dame Fiona Woolf both quitting after questions were raised about possible conflicts of interest. Then-Home Secretary Theresa May, who had appointed both women, announced that the inquiry would be placed on a statutory footing and led by the highly respected New Zealander Dame Lowell Goddard, whose long experience as a judge and lack of direct connection to the British establishment raised hopes that it would be third time lucky.

As she opened the inquiry in July last year, Dame Lowell made clear that its broad remit would necessitate a lengthy period for the assessment of evidence. She anticipated that a report might be achievable in five years’ time. But little more than 12 months on and Dame Lowell herself departed the scene, citing her career and family life, amid criticism of the amount of time she had spent on holiday or working outside the UK. She had become Britain’s highest paid civil servant when she was appointed chair of the inquiry, yet left it rudderless once again.

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AUSTRALIA
The Weekend Australian

October 15, 2016

JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw

Cardinal George Pell has sought the advice of one of Australia’s leading criminal barristers and is considering legal action for defamation as police sift through ­historical sex abuse claims against one of the Vatican’s most senior figures.

The Weekend Australian can reveal that Cardinal Pell engaged Robert Richter QC for advice after contested claims surfaced this year that he had assaulted children in his former home in the city of Ballarat nearly 40 years ago, where his career began.

Mr Richter, who represented gangland figure Mick Gatto when he was charged with murder but later acquitted in 2005, is considered the standout criminal barrister in Victoria and possibly Australia.

The church did not detail the extent to which Cardinal Pell had sought Mr Richter’s ­advice but said the cardinal would continue to defend his position.

Mr Richter is believed to have been one of several legal figures consulted over the allegations.

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: William F. Hough was ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Paul in 1963. He assisted at parishes in the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, then pastored in Minneapolis and Marystown. He retired in 1991 and died in 1994. In September 2016 the archdiocese announced that there was a substantiated claim that Hough sexually abused a minor 1963-1966. He was an assistant at St. Mary’s in St. Paul during that time.

Ordained: 1963
Died: August 15, 1994

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Rep. Mark Rozzi October 14, 2016

The Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight” showcases what is now recognized as the global tragedy of childhood sexual abuse. The opening scene captures the central conflict as it played out in the Archdiocese of Boston.

The film begins with a late-night scene at a neighborhood police station. A local priest has been brought in for questioning as a distressed single mother and a livid uncle are in the back room complaining that a priest has molested the family’s children. They are there to press criminal charges.

But, with help from the assistant district attorney, the bishop is summoned to the station to quietly assure the family that the priest will be taken out of the parish, and they’re told, “This will never happen again.”

A rookie cop asks a veteran cop what the press will do when the charges are read at the arraignment. He’s told, “What arraignment?” The older cop has seen this before. He knows the priest will walk.

The bishop and priest then quietly slip out of the station, into the back seat of a black sedan and into the dark night.

The priest being portrayed is the notorious Father John Geoghan. With over 150 victims, he is one of the worst serial molesters in the history of the Catholic Church.

Geoghan was murdered in prison by his cellmate in 2003. Most predators, however, having never been even arrested for their crimes, are still out there. And they could be your neighbor.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Liam Croy and Nick Butterly – The West Australian on October 15, 2016

The Catholic Church in WA has paid a woman $100,000 in compensation and pulled down and destroyed a memorial honouring the once-revered priest who abused her.

The Church has acknowledged former Floreat priest Father Peter McCudden abused Tasmanian woman Wendy Holder when she was visiting relatives in Perth in 1965. She was 13 at the time.

The Church paid Mrs Holder $75,000 in 2003 and offered her another $25,000 this year as a “gesture of goodwill”.

At the time of the 2002 compensation agreement, the Church promised to remove a plaque memorialising McCudden from the wall of his former parish church, St Cecilia’s in Floreat.

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OHIO
Sandusky Register

COURTNEY ASTOLFI • UPDATED OCT 7, 2016

A Sandusky pastor was convicted of child rape and sentenced to life in prison Friday at the conclusion of a tumultuous trial.

A jury found Richard Mick, 55, of Lighthouse Baptist Church, guilty on four felony counts, two of which carried a mandatory life sentence.

Mick raped a young girl on two occasions, and fondled a young boy multiple times. Both were members of his church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Nick Hopkins

The allegations of racism levelled at Lowell Goddard – which she has denied – represent the latest dispiriting episode in the soap opera known as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

The investigation has certainly, and in some instances rightly, become a piñata for critics who say it is too big, too unwieldy and too shambolic. As it has lost three chairs, its senior legal team and any dignity it once had, they have a point.

Not easy, then, for the new chair, Prof Alexis Jay, who is expected to address some of these issues when she gives evidence to the home affairs select committee next week; sources suggest she is likely to accept she cannot oversee all 13 elements of the inquiry, instead appointing heads for each one and retaining an overarching role.

That will not be enough to stop the snipers who want the inquiry abandoned, and it may infuriate some survivors’ groups, who risk being stripped of “core participant” status as part of Jay’s rationalisation. So expect more argument – the inquiry will remain a mess for the time being.

But it is important to disentangle the myriad problems of process from the clear higher goal – to investigate the extent and causes of child abuse in Britain, however difficult and uncomfortable that might prove.

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DEUTSCHLAND
katholisch

[According to the Bavarian Rundfunks (BR), the former Regensburg bishop and current Prefect of the Congregation for the Congregation for the Congregation of the Holy Father, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, will not comment on the new developments in the ill-treatment and abuse pf boys at the Regensburg Cathedral. The congregation said the cardinal is no longer concerned with the matter. As a bishop of Regenburg, he had initiated enlightenment on the issue with a pastoral letter in 2010 and left all his documents to his successor when he was summoned to Rome in 2012.]

Am Mittwoch wurde ein Zwischenbericht zur Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle bei den Domspatzen vorgestellt. Dazu will sich der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Kardinal Müller offenbar nicht mehr äußern.

Missbrauch | Regensburg/Vatikanstadt – 13.10.2016

Nach Angaben des Bayerischen Rundfunks (BR) will sich der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof und jetzige Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan, Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, nicht zu den neuen Entwicklungen bei der Aufklärung von Misshandlungen und Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen äußern. Die Angelegenheit betreffe Müller heute nicht mehr, ließ die Kongregation den BR nach dessen Angaben am Donnerstag wissen. Als Bischof von Regensburg habe er 2010 mit einem Hirtenbrief die Aufklärung in die Wege geleitet und bei seiner Berufung nach Rom 2012 sämtliche Unterlagen seinem Nachfolger hinterlassen, berichtete der BR weiter unter Berufung auf die Antwort der Glaubenskongregation.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Oct. 5, 2016

Gallup Diocese bankruptcy costs top $4.1 million

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

ALBUQUERQUE – The Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy costs have surpassed $4.1 million as attorneys, accountants and other professionals in the case are submitting their final compensation applications for approval to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma.

According to the court file, the following professionals have submitted payment applications totaling $4,110,970. Under the Gallup Diocese’s plan of reorganization, a trust of approximately $22,975,000 was funded by the diocese, seven other Catholic entities and three insurers, with the bulk of the funds going to compensate clergy abuse claimants.

* Quarles & Brady LLP: The Diocese of Gallup’s general reorganization and restructuring legal counsel submitted a final application totaling $2,343,917. That figure includes $2,234,013 for professional fees and $109,904 for expenses. However, the law firm voluntarily wrote off and reduced its legal fees by $324,376. Quarles & Brady’s application for payment was filed Aug. 26 and was approved by Thuma on Sept. 21.

* Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP: This California law firm served as the legal counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represented the interests of clergy sex abuse claimants in the bankruptcy case. Although the law firm requested fees of $1,168,031 and expenses of $98,203 for a total of $1,266,234, the firm wrote off $240,481 and also agreed to a voluntary reduction of $245,394, bringing the final total down to $1,020,839. The firm’s application for payment, filed Sept. 23, is pending with the court.

* Keegan, Linscott & Kenon P.C: This Tucson accounting firm oversaw the Gallup Diocese’s finance office. The firm submitted an application for $486,081, which includes $475,925 in fees and $10,155 in expenses. However, the application, which was filed Sept. 2, states the firm “will ultimately be paid a lesser amount” based on a professional charges cap outlined in the plan of reorganization. The specific reduction amount is not stated.

* Walker & Associates P.C.: The diocese’s Albuquerque bankruptcy law firm filed a final fee application Aug. 26. The firm requested payment of $145,675, which includes professional fees, expenses and New Mexico gross receipts taxes. The court approved the request Sept. 26.

* Insurance Archaeology Group: On Sept. 1, a final application for professional compensation was formally submitted to the court on behalf of this insurance research firm. However, court records indicate the Gallup Diocese has already paid the total amount of fees and expenses of $48,819.

* Unknown claims representatives: This official’s responsibility is to represent the interests of any clergy sex abuse claimant who might come forward in the future. The first unknown claims representative was Michael P. Murphy, who resigned earlier in the year. Upon his resignation, Murphy waived his professional fee but was paid $7,291 for expenses. The current representative is Michael R. Hogan, a retired judge. On Aug. 31, Hogan submitted an application for payment of $45,363, which includes $40,232 for fees and $5,130 for expenses.

* Stelzner, Winter, Warburton, Flores, Sanchez & Dawes P.A.: Also on Aug. 31, the diocese’s special counsel law firm in Albuquerque submitted a final application for $12,985. That figure includes $12,478 in legal fees and $507 in expenses and New Mexico gross receipts taxes.

These costs comprise most of the professional fees and expenses in the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case. However, the diocese has also paid $45,000 in fees for property auctions in Phoenix and Albuquerque; $22,100 for property appraisals; and a number of smaller bankruptcy-related fees and expenses to other professionals and diocesan employees. In addition, the diocese has been paying quarterly fees of $5,200 to the U.S. Trustee Program, which oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY KATIE O’TOOLE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12TH 2016

NEW PARIS – The former youth pastor of Faith Brethren Bible Church is facing indecent assault charges after he admitted to having a sexual relationship and impregnating a 15-year-old girl.

Jim Espenshade, senior pastor, said that Wesley Blackburn’s wife called him in tears, and told him about the affair, adding that the girl was now pregnant.

“(I feel) disappointed, betrayed, stabbed in the back. I have a 14-year-old granddaughter. When I heard what he did – upset is a good word for it,” Espenshade said.

Espenshade said Blackburn told his wife he did not love her anymore, and wanted a divorce.

“She said ‘I don’t know what to do,’ and I said ‘I do,'” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Daily News

BY
TOBIAS SALINGER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, October 13, 2016

A Pennsylvania pastor faces charges he impregnated a 15-year-old girl from his youth group during a seven-month sexual relationship, according to reports.

The wife of Wesley Blackburn, youth pastor at Faith Brethren Bible Church, told the New Paris church’s head pastor he had confessed to the relationship and asked for a divorce, senior pastor Jim Espenshade told WJAC-TV on Wednesday.

Espenshade and other church leaders immediately fired Blackburn, a 35-year-old father of five, and alerted police last week. He was charged Oct. 6 on hundreds of counts of statutory sexual assault and indecent assault.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Inside Edition

A Pennsylvania pastor faces nearly 170 criminal charges after he allegedly impregnated a 15-year-old girl from his youth group during a seven-month sexual relationship, authorities said.

Wesley Blackburn, 35, was arrested after his wife told Faith Brethren Bible Church’s head pastor last Thursday that her husband had confessed to what was called an “affair,” WJAC-TV reported.

Blackburn allegedly told his wife that he no longer loved her anymore, that he wanted a divorce and that the teen was pregnant.

“She said, ‘I don’t know what to do,’ and I said, ‘I do,’” Senior Pastor Jim Espenshade, told the television station, saying that within minutes he and the rest of the church leaders met, fired Blackburn and called the police.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Antoni Nerestant, CBC News Posted: Oct 14, 2016

At least 15 people have come forward alleging they were sexually abused at a boarding school in Granby in the 1970s, according to the lawyer representing a plaintiff.

A 56-year-old man filed a class-action request Wednesday, alleging he was sexually abused more than 300 hundred times by a priest, Father Claude Lebeau, at Mont-Sacré-Coeur College between 1973 and 1975.

The request was filed against Les Frères Du Sacré-Coeur congregation, which owns the now-secular school.

Robert Kugler, the lawyer for the alleged victim, said over the last 24 hours, he has been getting non-stop calls from other people who say they were sexually assaulted at the same school.

Although many of the people who have come forward claimed they were sexually abused by Lebeau, Kugler says other priests have been accused as well.

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RHODE ISLAND
WPRO

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — An ethics complaint filed against a Rhode Island Supreme Court justice says he failed to disclose his service on the board of a Catholic lawyers’ group.

The complaint says Judge Francis Flaherty headed the St. Thomas More Society of Rhode Island but didn’t disclose it in filings with the state ethics commission.

The commission is scheduled to consider the complaint Tuesday. It was filed by a woman who sued the Diocese of Providence after saying she was abused by Brendan Smyth, a notorious pedophile priest.

The woman’s lawsuit was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. Flaherty wrote a Supreme Court decision in June rejecting her appeal.

The woman says Flaherty should have recused himself because diocesan officials are involved in the group.

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CANADA
Le Devoir

[Lawyers who filed a class action against the Brothers of the Sacred Heart Wednesday were inundated with calls from other potential victims of those who were at Mount Sacred Heart College of Granby.]

13 octobre 2016 |Philippe Orfali

Les avocats ayant intenté une action collective contre les Frères du Sacré-Coeur étaient mercredi submergés d’appels provenant d’autres victimes potentielles de ceux qui géraient autrefois le collège Mont Sacré-Coeur de Granby, éclaboussé par des allégations d’agressions sexuelles envers d’ex-pensionnaires.

Quarante ans après les agressions sexuelles alléguées par une victime identifiée par la seule lettre « A » dans une demande d’autorisation d’action collective, les langues se délient. Mercredi, « plusieurs dizaines » d’hommes affirmant avoir eux aussi été agressés sexuellement par le frère Claude Lebeau pendant leur passage au collège sont entrés en communication avec les avocats chargés du dossier.

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FRANCE
franceinfo

[The day of prayer in France for the victims of sexual abuse will be held on November 7.]

Une des réponses de l’Eglise aux scandales de pédophilie. La Conférence des évêques de France (CEF) organisera une “journée de prière et de pénitence” pour les victimes d’abus sexuels le 7 novembre. Cette annonce intervient après des mois de révélations d’affaires de pédophilie dans plusieurs diocèses français, dont celui de Lyon. Parmi ces affaires, celle du père Bernard Preynat, prêtre lyonnais soupçonné d’avoir abusé plus de 60 jeunes scouts, a terni l’image du cardinal Philippe Barbarin, primat des Gaules.

Le principe de cette journée mondiale avait été annoncé le 12 septembre par le Vatican, à l’initiative du pape François, qui a confié à chaque conférence épiscopale le choix de la date et des modalités.

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FRANCE
Le Devoir

[Paris – The Paris diocese of the Catholic Church, once again struggling with suspicion of sexual assault within it, said Monday it has established a commission to hear from former patients denouncing the practices of Tony Anatrella, a psychoanalyst priest.]

Paris — Le diocèse de Paris de l’Église catholique, une nouvelle fois aux prises avec des soupçons d’agressions sexuelles en son sein, a annoncé lundi avoir créé une commission pour entendre d’anciens patients dénonçant les pratiques d’un prêtre psychanalyste.

Cette commission, dont l’existence a d’abord été rendue publique par une association lyonnaise de victimes à l’origine de la révélation de scandales de pédophilie ces derniers mois, est active depuis septembre, a confirmé à l’AFP le diocèse.

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OSTERREICH
religion@orf

[A documentary has been produced showing the lives of nine Austrians who were abused by priests and nuns.]

Ein Dokumentarfilm zeigt das Leben von neun Österreichern, die von Priestern und Nonnen missbraucht wurden. In dem Film „Die Kinder lassen grüßen“ von Patricia Marchart sprechen die Betroffenen offen über das, was ihnen angetan wurde.

Es ist das erste Mal, dass sich Frauen und Männer, die von österreichischen Kirchenangehörigen sexuell missbraucht wurden, in einem Film zeigen und ihre Erlebnisse schildern. „Begleitet von der Kamera suchen die Betroffenen die Tatorte von damals auf, viele machen ihre Geschichten erstmals öffentlich, ihre Familien erfahren mitunter zum ersten Mal von diesem verschwiegenen Schmerz“, heißt es in einer Aussendung über den Film.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg Digital

[After eight months, diocese and victims of violence and abuse at the Domspatzen have agreed on a way of working. “A peace is within reach,” says ex-Domspatz student Alexander Probst.]

Von Stefan Aigner in Nachrichten

Nach acht Monaten haben sich Bistum und Betroffene von Gewalt und Missbrauch bei den Domspatzen auf einen Weg der Aufarbeitung geeinigt. „Eine Befriedung ist zum Greifen nah“, sagt Ex-Domspatz Alexander Probst. Der Bischof ruft auch Betroffene aus anderen Einrichtungen auf, sich zu melden.

So viel Medienrummel war selten. Es ist mehr als sechs Jahre her, seit sich das letzte Mal Fernsehsender von ARD und ZDF bis hin zu RTL bei einer Pressekonferenz des Bistums Regensburg eingefunden haben.

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DEUTCHSLAND
Mittelbayerische

[Chronology of an incredible scandal at the Regensburg cathedral school.]

Seit 2010 ist bekannt, dass bei den Domspatzen Buben misshandelt wurden. Die Aufarbeitung kommt nur sehr langsam voran.

30.08.2007: Pfarrer von Riekofen verhaftet

Der Pfarrer von Riekofen gesteht 22 sexuelle Übergriffe auf einen Ministranten und wird 2008 dafür verurteilt. Das Bistum muss sich den Vorwurf der Mitschuld gefallen lassen. Bereits 1999 hatte sich der damalige Kaplan in Viechtach an Jungen vergangen. Als vorbestrafter Sexualstraftäter hätte er nicht mehr mit Kindern arbeiten dürfen.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

The board of directors of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, represented by Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, spoke out about perceived biases they said were in a Visitation ad hoc Committee report.

The report was released to the media late last month by Rev. Jeff San Nicolas.

On Sept. 20, San Nicolas, acting in his capacity as delegate to the apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana, held a press conference and he revealed, among other things, the apparent disconnect in leadership between the archdiocese and the RMS, and released to the media a report that he was expressly told not to release.

“I was also instructed not to release the seminary visitation report,” San Nicolas said in a Sept. 20 press statement. “I will do just that soon after this press briefing.”

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FRANCE
France Soir

[The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of priest Bernard Preynat, indicted for sexual abuse of minors between 1986 and 1991.]

Le père Preynat va de voir se justifier des accusations de pédophilie qui pèsent sur lui devant la justice. Selon 20 Minutes, la Cour de cassation a rejeté mardi 11 son pourvoi. Mi-juin, la chambre de l’instruction de la cour d’appel de Lyon avaient décidé de considérer que les faits reprochés n’étaient pas prescrits.

Bernard Preynat a été mis en examen le 27 janvier pour des agressions sexuelles commises sur des scouts de la région lyonnaise entre 1986 et 1991 sur d’ex-scouts de Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon. Quatre plaintes ont été retenues à son encontre, le juge d’instruction ayant déjà estimé, dans une ordonnance rendue fin mars, qu’elles étaient non-prescrites.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

The story of Dame Lowell Goddard’s leadership of the child sex abuse inquiry will be seen as proof that the establishment cannot police itself

Abusive. Racist. Appalling. Intolerable. Catastrophic. The adjectives allegedly used by insiders to describe Dame Lowell Goddard speak volumes of the frustration that she engendered among colleagues. The New Zealand judge hired last year to run the £100 million national child sex abuse inquiry has been branded a bigot who was out of her depth on some questions of English law.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk | Sean O’Neill
October 14 2016
The Times

On a summer afternoon this year Dame Lowell Goddard stood at the doorway of her Westminster office and shouted in anger. Unless she got her own way, she is said to have declared, “I’m going to pack my bags, go back to New Zealand and take this inquiry down with me.”

A visitor to the headquarters of the national child sex abuse inquiry might have been shocked, not least because the threat was made by the judge paid £500,000 a year to lead an investigation forecast to run for a decade at a cost of £100 million.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
October 14 2016
The Times

For almost two months the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has been falling apart in public. The Times investigation reveals it has been in a dysfunctional state for more than a year.

It was hoped the departure in August of Dame Lowell Goddard would solve the inquiry’s problems and set it back on course. Instead other problems came to the surface. Chief among them was discord in the legal team which led to the departure last month of the two senior barristers, Elizabeth Prochaska and Ben Emmerson.

Sadly the inquiry is no longer fit for purpose.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter | Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
October 14 2016
The Times

Whitehall officials close to Theresa May were accused last night of covering up allegations of misconduct, including racist remarks, made against the judge in charge of Britain’s biggest public inquiry.

Home Office staff and advisers received warnings about Dame Lowell Goddard’s offensive behaviour in her role as chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) but did not end her “catastrophic” leadership.

Dame Lowell, 67, finally quit in August after 18 months. It is claimed that her aggressive and abusive conduct at times reduced the inquiry’s operation to “near paralysis”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Rob Merrick Deputy Political Editor @Rob_Merrick

Regular warnings about Dame Lowell Goddard’s allegedly offensive behaviour were ignored by Home Office staff and advisers, it is claimed.

The growing concerns were being passed to both Theresa May’s special adviser, Liz Sanderson, and to Mark Sedwill, the most senior civil servant at the Home Office, insiders told The Times.

Under the terms of Dame Lowell’s appointment in February last year to chair the inquiry, on a £500,000 salary package, only the Home Secretary had the power to sack her.

Criticism is also focused on the explanation given by Amber Rudd, Ms May’s successor in the post, when she was asked to explain Dame Lowell’s resignation in August.

Quizzed by the Home Affairs Select Committee last month, Ms Rudd said Dame Lowell had quit because she was “a long way from home” and “found it too lonely”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Matthew Weaver
Friday 14 October 2016

MPs are to question the head of the troubled inquiry into allegations of institutional child abuse, Prof Alexis Jay, over allegations that her predecessor Dame Lowell Goddard made racist remarks and acted aggressively.

Goddard, a New Zealand judge, has rejected claims in the Times that officials warned her about offensive remarks, including a claim that she had said high rates of child abuse in the UK were “because it has so many Asian men”.

In a statement issued on Friday, Goddard said the accusations were false and malicious.

The home affairs select committee will raise the claims next Tuesday when it questions Jay – who has been involved in the inquiry since it was set up.

Speaking to the Guardian, the Labour MP Chuka Umunna, a member of the committee who is campaigning to be the its new chairman, said: “I will certainly be asking questions about this.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The former head of the child sexual abuse inquiry has strenuously denied a newspaper report of allegations of misconduct and racism made against her.

Dame Lowell Goddard is alleged to have said Britain had so many paedophiles “because it has so many Asian men”, according to a report in the Times.

The senior New Zealand judge has now hit back at the claims, calling them “false” and “malicious”.

Dame Lowell quit as head of the inquiry after 18 months in the role.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Andrew O’Connor

The WA Premier has accused Labor and a former Cabinet colleague of degrading debate on a bill to remove time limits on sexual abuse victims seeking compensation.

The private members bill was introduced by Liberal MP Graham Jacobs last year and was brought on for debate in the Legislative Assembly late yesterday.

But with sexual assault victims in the public gallery, debate was adjourned after acrimonious exchanges between shadow attorney-general John Quigley and Premier Colin Barnett.

The Premier was also targeted by former Cabinet colleague Rob Johnson.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By REBECCA CAMBER, CRIME CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL

The Home Office was accused of a cover-up last night amid contested claims that the former head of the beleaguered child sexual abuse inquiry made shocking comments about ethnic minorities.

Dame Justice Lowell Goddard, who resigned as head of the national public inquiry into child abuse in August, was facing toxic claims last night that she made racist remarks about multicultural Britain.

The allegations reported by The Times were strenuously denied by the judge, amid suggestions that she was the victim of false slurs.

It raised questions for Prime Minister Theresa May who set up the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse when she was Home Secretary and appointed New Zealander Dame Lowell as chairman.

Home Office officials knew of the judge’s allegedly offensive remarks yet failed to act, it was alleged. Dame Lowell is accused of saying Britain had so many paedophiles ‘because it has so many Asian men’.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Claire Phipps and Matthew Weaver
Friday 14 October 2016

Dame Lowell Goddard, who resigned as chair of the UK’s public inquiry into institutional child abuse in August, has rejected as “a vicious campaign” reports that she made racist remarks and acted aggressively in the role.

The Times reported on Friday that Goddard, a New Zealand judge who was appointed in February 2015 as the third person to head the troubled independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, was allegedly warned by officials about offensive remarks, including a claim that she had said high rates of child abuse in the UK were “because it has so many Asian men”.

In a statement issued on Friday, Goddard said the accusations were false and malicious. She said she had, through lawyers in London, informed the Times of “the falsity of the matters raised, and the malicious background to them”.

She added: “I await the advice of my London lawyers on these articles, which I have only just seen. I confirm my absolute rejection of this attack. I am confident that in New Zealand my known reputation from my work over many years will provide its own refutation of these falsities.

“I will be making no further statement and will not engage with those conducting this vicious campaign.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Antoinette Lattouf

Notorious paedophile priest Vincent Gerard Ryan has been given a 15-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to sex offences in the New South Wales Hunter region from the 1980s.

The former Catholic priest pleaded guilty to acts of gross indecency and attempting sexual intercourse with a boy at a church in Gresford near Dungong, when he was parish priest.

His victim was an altar boy in training, aged between 13 and 15, when the abuse occurred.

The acts include Ryan forcing his penis into the boy’s mouth, masturbating him and attempting to penetrate him.

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OREGON
KVAL

EUGENE, Ore. – A Eugene man who works as an English instructor and serves as a priest at a local church faces prostitution and drug charges after police conducted a sting operation posing as a juvenile.

The investigation started with the arrest of the juvenile for prostitution, Eugene Police said.

Investigators determined that Daniel James Mackay, 42, had contact with the juvenile on more than one occasion.

“Police conducted a sting operation and exchanged information with Mackay, posing as the minor and arranged to meet him on October 12,” police said.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Margaret Scheikowski – AAP on October 14, 2016

Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop has failed again to stop criminal proceedings against him over claims he concealed a colleague’s sexual abuse of a young boy.

Archbishop Philip Wilson is charged with concealing information about the 1971 sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy by the now-dead pedophile priest James Fletcher in the NSW town of Maitland.

The prosecution claims Wilson knew or had information that might have helped to secure a prosecution of the priest between 2004-2006.

The archbishop, who has pleaded not guilty to the charge in the Newcastle Local Court, is the most senior Catholic official worldwide to be charged with such an offence.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Bianca Hall Timna Jacks

Xavier College’s administrators have taken the almost-unprecedented step of trying to force the psychologist of a man who claims he was sexually abused while a student at the school more than 40 years ago to give evidence against his patient.

Janusz Skarbek alleges he was raped when he was a student at the exclusive, Jesuit-run school between 1971 and 1974.

According to his lawyer, Mr Skarbek had his first “realisation” he had been abused about six months after he had been seeing Dr Geoff Pearce, a Queensland psychologist, for unrelated matters more than 40 years later.

Mr Skarbek has launched a Supreme Court lawsuit against his former school, claiming it was negligent in its treatment of him and seeking compensation for his pain and suffering.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

By Daniel Tepfer
Thursday, October 13, 2016

HARTFORD – The Archdiocese of Hartford has agreed to settle a 17-year-old sexual abuse claim against one of its priests.

Stamford lawyers Ernest Teitell and Marco Allocca , who represented the alleged victim, said the settlement was reached following mediation before Superior Court Judge Antonio Robaina.

“We settled this matter without a single deposition being taken, which saved our client the extreme emotional distress and burden that would have come with being deposed and reliving his painful experiences,” said Teitell. “However, we are not celebrating this outcome because when you represent a victim of childhood sexual abuse, there are no true victories, but only important steps in the road to the victim’s recovery,” he continued. “By bringing this case the plaintiff wanted to show other abuse survivors that they do not have to keep their own victimizations secret.”

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OKLAHOMA
The Duncan Banner

By Andy Morphew The Duncan Banner

Former Duncan assistant pastor Jody Hilliard was supposed to be arraigned in court Thursday, but a continuance has been granted and arraignment for his two alleged charges of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 12 has been moved to 9 a.m. on Nov. 3, according to District Attorney Jason Hicks.

Hilliard was arrested in April 2016 when detectives with the Duncan Police Department received a report from the Department of Social Services in the state where the victim resides advising them about an ongoing sexual abuse while the minor was in Duncan.

The report stated Hilliard allegedly touched the victim in her private parts without clothes on and made the victim touch Hilliard in his genital area.

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

AAP and staff writers, The Advertiser
October 13, 2016

ADELAIDE’S Catholic Archbishop has failed to stop criminal proceedings against him over claims he concealed a colleague’s sexual abuse of a young boy.

Archbishop Philip Wilson is charged with concealing information about the 1971 sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy by paedophile priest James Fletcher in the NSW town of Maitland.

At the time, Archbishop Wilson was a young priest who lived with Fletcher, but he has denied any wrongdoing.

In the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Monika Schmidt dismissed his appeal against a decision rejecting his bid to permanently halt the case.

Archbishop Wilson returned to his post in January after he voluntarily stepped down from his role when charges were filed in March 2015.

The prosecution claims Archbishop Wilson knew or had information that might have helped to secure a prosecution of Fletcher — who died in prison in 2006 — between 2004 to 2006.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson has lost his appeal against a magistrate’s refusal to quash a charge of concealing child abuse at the hands of a New South Wales priest.

Wilson is the most senior Catholic clergyman to be charged with covering up child sexual abuse.

Earlier this year, the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson asked the New South Wales Supreme Court to dismiss a criminal prosecution alleging he failed to report child abuse allegations.

The abuse was alleged to have been carried out by Father Jim Fletcher during the 1970s in the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By NELSON GROOM FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Infamous paedophile priest Vincent Gerard Ryan has gotten off with a suspended sentence for the sickening sexual abuse of a boy, 13, in the 1980s.

The disgraced Catholic priest forced his penis into the victim’s mouth, masturbated him and attempted to sexually penetrate him in a church in Gresford, in the Hunter Region of NSW.

Ryan, who has already served 15 years jail for abusing dozens of schoolboys, was on Friday handed a 15-month suspended sentence in the Darlinghurst Courthouse, reports ABC.

The court heard his victim for this case was an altar boy aged between 13 and 15 during the abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Cambs Times

3 October 2016 John Elworthy

Councillors rejected cutting £75,000 per year from staffing the county archives centre once it moves to Ely for fear it could jeopardise ongoing research into allegations of historic child sexual abuse.

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The proposal to reduce staffing costs was put to the county council highways and infrastructure committee on Tuesday.

The council’s executive director Graham Hughes said after the meeting: “Councillors decided they didn’t want to make the saving.”

Officers had warned the committee that the ability to provide “timely responses to demands from statutory public inquiries” could no longer be guaranteed.

The report said: “For example, archives staff are currently engaged in major work to identify all the records we hold which are expected to be of interest to the Jay inquiry on historic child sexual abuse.

“This work is possible with the current staffing establishment but not on reduced levels of staffing.”

The independent inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay into child sexual abuse is investigating whether public bodies and other non-state institutions have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

THE new Yeshivah Centre has been officially reborn more than 18 months after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) accepted the new structure of the Yeshivah Centre last week, and as a result membership is now open for two new organisations, Yeshivah-Beth Rivkah (YBR) Schools Limited and Chabad Institutions of Victoria Limited (CIVL).

Every YBR parent is entitled to become a member and nominate for the first board.

Members of Yeshivah Shule, Kollel Minyan, Young Yeshivah, Daminyan and all Chabad adherent community members can nominate for the CIVL board.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express & Star

A Black Country Imam found guilty of indecently assaulting two young girls at his mosque is believed to have gone on the run to Bangladesh.

Police believe father-of-seven Hafiz Rahman, from Netherton, boarded a flight to Bangladesh on Saturday, after claiming to be too ill to attend Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday where he was found guilty of five charges of indecent assault.

Rahman had been the Imam at Queens Cross mosque in Cradley Heath when the assaults took place in the 1980s.

Confirming that the religious leader had fled, a spokesman for West Midlands Police said: “Hifiz Rahman absconded from the UK on Saturday, October 8 when it is believed he boarded a flight to Bangladesh.

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BELGIUM
Breitbart

by NICK HALLETT
13 Oct 201610

One of Pope’s Francis’s new cardinals has been accused of appointing a known paedophile as a parish priest in Belgium.

Jozef de Kesel, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, was named as one of 17 new cardinals on Sunday, but has a controversial history and is known for expressing liberal views.

While serving as Bishop of Bruges, he appointed a man who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy as a parish priest.

The mayor of the town of Middelkerke, where the man was to have served, wrote to Bishop de Kesel expressing her shock.

“The municipal cabinet would like to stress that it doesn’t want to put this person on trial, but the character of the new priest does not meet up to our expectations for someone that is meant to set an example,” she said.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • October 13, 2016

t finally hit me what all these conservatives — especially conservative Christians — defending Trump, despite more and more evidence of his propensity for sexual assault, remind me of: apologists for the Catholic Church during the abuse scandal.

We have to vote for Trump because if Hillary wins, things will be worse! they say. The enemies of the faith will have a field day.

And you know what? If Hillary wins, things will be terrible. The enemies of faith will in fact have a field day.

Yet this is the same argument I heard personally many times from fellow Catholics — including priests — during the abuse scandal. We have to keep it quiet because enemies of the Church would use that information to discredit it. It will give those who would destroy us ammunition.

Yeah, it would, and it did. But that puts us in the position of the bishop of a large diocese (now retired) who was very blunt when he met with an abuse victim, her lawyer, and the psychiatrist who was treating her (a faithful conservative Catholic, by the way). The victim had not been a child when she was abused by her priest. She was an adult who, in a sacramental confession, admitted that she had cheated on her husband. The priest used that information to blackmail her into a sexual affair. She finally had a nervous breakdown, and sought psychiatric help. Once the bishop found out about it, he sent the priest to Ireland, then met with the victim and her team.

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MINNESOTA
The Catholic Spirit

Tom Mertens | October 12, 2016

Bankruptcy is complicated and expensive. A Sept. 21 article in the Minneapolis StarTribune about the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Reorganization efforts and how much it has cost since we filed in January 2015 painted an incomplete picture, and there are some items that need attention and clarification.

First, it is true that attorneys’ fees have topped $11 million since we filed for Reorganization, but that’s not just for lawyers representing the archdiocese. Under U.S. Bankruptcy Court rules, the organization that files for Chapter 11 is responsible for paying for all of the attorneys involved in representing court-approved committees. That means that the archdiocese also has to pay for lawyers and professionals for the Unsecured Creditors Committee (which represents sexual abuse claimants and others who have filed claims against the archdiocese) and for the Official Parish Committee (which represents all of the parishes in the archdiocese). The figure also includes costs of the court-appointed federal mediator, and court fees and expenses incurred by the official committees.

We are confident that the fees we are paying the attorneys representing the archdiocese are an investment toward a successful outcome of the Reorganization process. Our attorneys continue working with the insurance carriers that have provided coverage over the past 70 years in order to make sure that those who have been harmed receive compensation. Their efforts are bearing fruit.

You may remember that when we filed our plan for Reorganization in May, the proposed trust for victims of clergy sexual abuse was at $65 million. Thanks to ongoing mediation efforts with insurance carriers and the efforts of legal counsel, that number has substantially increased, and by an amount far exceeding any fees that have been paid for their services.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

Two civil lawsuits by childhood sexual abuse victims, one a female and one a male, filed in Essex County, New Jersey Superior Court against Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey; St. Cassian’s Church and School, Upper Montclair, New Jersey; and the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey

David Ohlmuller (D.O.) and Danielle Polemeni (D.P.) claim that Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters sexually abused them approximately during the years 1982 – 1983 when they were parishioners and students of St. Cassian’s Parish and School in Upper Montclair, New Jersey

David Ohlmuller(D.O.) and Danielle Polemeni (D.P.) seek justice through the civil courts of New Jersey. They are two of six known childhood sexual abuse victims of Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters

What
A press conference announcing the filing of two civil lawsuits in Essex County, New Jersey, Superior Court, on behalf of two childhood sexual abuse victims of Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters, David Ohlmuller (D.O.) and Danielle Polemeni (D.P.)

When
Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 1:00 pm

Where
On the public sidewalk outside St. Cassian’s Roman Catholic Church, 187 Bellevue Avenue, Upper Montclair, New Jersey 07043

Who
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

Why
Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters’ was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in approximately1981. From approximately 1982 until 1989, he was assigned to St. Cassian’s Parish, Upper Montclair, New Jersey. Six childhood sexual abuse victims of Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters (one woman and five men) have come forward to report that they were sexually abused by Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters while he was assigned to St. Cassian’s Parish, Upper Montclair, New Jersey (5 victims between approximately 1982 and 1985) and St. John Nepomucene Parish in Guttenberg, New Jersey (1 victim in approximately 1994). Recently, two of the alleged victims of Fr. Walters, David Ohlmuller (D.O.) and Danielle Polemeni (D.P.), filed separate civil lawsuits in Essex County, New Jersey, Superior Court, alleging that between approximately 1982 and 1983, Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters sexually abused them while they were parishioners and students at St. Cassian’s Parish in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. Copies of the lawsuits will be available.

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

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Jessica Mazzola | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

NEWARK — Two more sex abuse lawsuits were filed this month accusing a New Jersey priest of sexually abusing children when they attended a Catholic school in the 1980s.

That brings the total lawsuits lodged against the Archdiocese of Newark and the Rev. Mitch Walters to three.

And more may be coming, according to Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-area attorney who was portrayed by Stanley Tucci in the 2015 film “Spotlight.”

Garabedian said he is representing six clients who say they were abused by Walters.

The latest two lawsuits were filed separately in Essex County Superior Court on Oct. 5 by Danielle Polemeni and David Ohlmuller. Both attended St. Cassian’s Parish and the church’s associated school in Upper Montclair when they were children while Walters was a priest and deacon.

Jim Goodness, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark, declined to comment on the lawsuits. Goodness said earlier this year that Walters denies the allegations against him. Walters was removed from the ministry in January after the allegations arose.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Timothy Mchenry

The RMS board is disputing a report put out by an Ad Hoc committee formed at the behest of Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai.

Guam – Divine Providence—that’s what the leaders of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary say they will rely on from now to continue their operations.

Members of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary addressed the media today to respond to a seminary report released by an ad hoc committee put together by temporary archdiocese administrator Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai. The committee report confirmed some of the suspicions many have had about the Yona seminary’s practices such as creating priests who aren’t ready for religious life, that they aren’t US accredited or that they’re taking in more money than the archdiocese can afford. But the RMS is disputing this, saying that they work with a program approved by the Lateran University that includes 2 years of philosophy and four years of theology. They also dispute the amount they receive from the archdiocese in subsidies.

“In the financial year 2016, the Archdiocese of Agana listed… 92450… of these 64800 was remuneration to the clergy which every diocese is obliged to pay, ” says Eusabio. “Therefore the real subsidy for the rms is only 26,100 during fy 2016, the priests related to the RMS donated to this institution 46150 out of their salary, the real amount therefore is only 5 percent of the total budget.”

And with that, RMS board member Dr. Ricardo Eusebio announced that they will discontinue their dependence on the Archdiocese of Agana for their subsidies.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jacob Kagi

Time restrictions on when victims of child sexual abuse can launch civil action seeking damages in Western Australia look set to be removed, with the Government and Opposition backing a private members bill introduced by a backbench Liberal MP.

The legislation introduced by Eyre MP Graham Jacobs, which would remove the six-year statute of limitations for child sexual abuse civil cases in WA, is set to be debated in State Parliament.

If the legislation passes, it will allow people who suffered physical or mental injuries as a result of abuse to take civil action seeking compensation, regardless of how long ago it occurred.

Mr Jacobs first introduced the bill last year and it has since lagged for the past 12 months, but the Government is set to allocate its parliamentary time to allow debate on the legislation.

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UNITED STATES
Verdict

13 OCT 2016

MARCI A. HAMILTON

Herculean efforts across the United States have been undertaken to eliminate the threshold legal barrier for most sex abuse victims: the statute of limitations. Some states have been very successful like Delaware and Minnesota while others remain mired in a system that blocks the vast majority of survivors like New York. To their credit, advocates, survivors, and their supporters continue to press even in the most backward states.

While a legislative push can be empowering for many survivors, it can also be traumatic when legislators irrationally reject the survivors’ pleas for justice. For example, Pennsylvania senators have professed allegiance to a non-existent Pennsylvania constitutional doctrine to avoid passing a bill that would revive expired SOLs for those who were shut out of the system. It is a cruel position that was captured beautifully in this political cartoon.

The bad news—or at least the news that is needed to put the SOL reform movement in context—is that once the SOLs are pushed back and a survivor is permitted to cross the moat surrounding the courthouse, there are too many other laws that, like short SOLs, make access to justice difficult. They are in effect predator friendly and child-endangering.

What is needed is a child-centered approach in the legal system, which takes into account the science of child sex abuse that is being built by pediatricians, child psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociologists, and traumatologists. Ignorance fueled by denial has been responsible for crafting a predator-friendly system, but we now have enough science to intelligently craft public policy so that it no longer actively aids and abets the wrong side in this war. The current gauntlet sex abuse victims face needs to be de-constructed, and reforms are needed in numerous contexts. In other words, if our children are to be protected, the SOLs are just the beginning.

SOL Reform for Two Distinct Populations

The SOL reform movement has progressed to the point where it is quite clear that there are two distinct groups of survivors in need of legal reform. First, there are those who were unintentionally, but definitely, deprived of justice: the ones who were abused in the past, failed to meet the short SOLs, and who need a legislative fix now. The legal system has frozen them in their pain. This is a finite set of individuals, and for those who seek justice, the only legal solution is to revive their expired civil SOLs. They typically have no options to press charges (although it is in their interest to report their abuser to the authorities so that serial predators can be identified).

Second, there are the children abused now and those victims not yet beyond the state’s SOL. For this group, the good news is that roughly two-thirds of the states have eliminated the criminal SOL, at least for felonies. (http://sol-reform.com/silos.pdf ) The bad news is that in many states, civil SOLs remain short, and so they cannot sue for damages. They need the elimination or at least extension of the civil SOLs to shift the cost of their abuse onto those who caused it.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Oct 13, 2016

By Krystal Paco

“Fierce bias and prejudice” is how members of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary’s board of directors would describe a recent report released by the visitation ad hoc committee on the RMS. That report recommended that the Yona seminary be closed for the good of the Archdiocese of Agana – unless they could clarify the seminary’s purpose, seek formal accreditation to ensure the quality of its priest formation program, and ensure financial independence.

A press conference was held today in the seminary’s library. “The report on the seminary prepared by the visitation ad hoc committee shows a lack of knowledge on the seminary’s reality but most of all, what we feel very strongly was there was a fierce bias and prejudice in the report,” he said. “This report recommending the elimination of the RMS and the theological institute is highly damaging for our archdiocese and for the spiritual and economic capability of forming priests not only for Guam, but for all of the Pacific,” he noted.

Point-by-point, members of the RMS board of directors, led by Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, defended the RMS despite the September visitation ad hoc committee report. In a press conference held on Thursday, the board maintains that the RMS is a diocesan seminary backed by the Holy Father and by more than one hundred cardinals, archbishops, and bishops; that the priests being formed are monitored by the Lateran University of Rome, the University of the Pope, and by the Congregation for Catholic Education in the Vatican; and that those priests serve in the local parishes, and often where no other priest wants to go.

While critics, like members of the Laity Forward Movement, demand they be allowed to visit the seminary because its “what they paid for” as demonstrated on Wednesday, Dr. Eusebio clarifies the RMS is only receiving an average of 5-8% from mass collection baskets. Effective immediately, he said, they’ll be relying on divine providence to provide for their needs.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Heart

A Black Country Imam – found guilty last week of sexually abusing two young pupils – is thought to have fled abroad.

The girls were being taught at Queens Cross Mosque in the 1980s when they were assaulted by 57-year-old Hifiz Rahman from Dudley.

Police say he’s flown to Bangladesh before he could face sentence.

As part of his bail condition’s he was supposed to stay at his home in Ballard Road, in Netherton, Dudley. Officers had visited him at the address following his conviction but he disappeared soon afterwards.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

München (AFP) Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, hat die Form des Dialogs der Diözese Regensburg mit Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs und Gewalt als “Meilenstein der Aufarbeitung” und “vorbildlich für die katholische Kirche” bezeichnet. Im Bayerischen Fernsehen sagte Rörig am Mittwochabend, gegenseitiger Respekt und ein Dialog auf Augenhöhe stünden im Mittelpunkt der Aufarbeitung in Regensburg.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutche Welle

[Compensation for abuse victims at the Domspatzen]

Allein die Zahlen, die der Zwischenbericht zu den sexuellen und körperlichen Misshandlungen auflistet, sind erschreckend. 422 Opfer haben sich bislang aus den Reihen des Regensburger Knabenchors gemeldet.

Die Vorgänge gehörten zu den “bedrückendsten Erfahrungen und schwersten Lasten meiner Amtszeit”, sagte der Bischof von Regensburg, Rudolf Voderholzer, bei der Vorstellung eines ersten Zwischenberichts des Aufarbeitungsgremiums. Die Vorfälle täten ihm in der Seele weh, aber er könne sie nicht ungeschehen machen. “Ich kann nur um Vergebung bitten.” Das Aufarbeitungsgremium, dem neben dem Bischof auch der Domspatzen-Internatsdirektor Rainer Schinko sowie die Vertreter der Betroffenen angehören, hatte sich laut Voderholzer seit dem Frühjahr acht Mal getroffen. Seitdem hätten sich 129 weitere Opfer gemeldet. Insgesamt seien es nun 422.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutche

[A diocese wants to repent.]

Von Andreas Glas, Regensburg

Nach Jahren der Eiszeit kommen sich die katholische Kirche und die Opfer des Missbrauchsskandals bei den Regensburger Domspatzen näher. “Wir haben etwas erreicht, von dem wir jahrelang geträumt haben”, sagte der frühere Domspatz Alexander Probst am Mittwoch bei einer Pressekonferenz des Aufarbeitungsgremiums aus Kirchen- und Opfervertretern.

Seit Februar hatte das Gremium über Konsequenzen der jahrzehntelangen Übergriffe verhandelt, nun kündigte Regensburgs Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer an, die Opfer bis Ende 2017 finanziell zu entschädigen. Je nach Schwere der körperlichen und sexuellen Übergriffe erhält jeder Betroffene zwischen 5000 und 20 000 Euro. “Es ist ein Zeichen, dass wir es ernst meinen”, sagte Voderholzer.

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GERMANY
Deutche Welle

Compensation will be paid to at least 422 people who were sexually and physically abused over several decades as part of a Catholic choir in Bavaria. A church and victims’ representatives panel is addressing the abuse.

Hundreds of children who were sexually and physically abused over several decades at the Domspatzen, a world-famous Catholic choir in Bavaria, will be financially compensated, Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer said on Wednesday.

The 1,000-year-old choir in Bavaria’s Regensburg was first shaken by the massive sexual abuse scandal in 2010, when former pupils alleged abuse by adults in the Catholic Church. To date, 422 former singers have registered complaints of abuse, including at least 65 cases of sexual abuse, from teachers and priests between 1945 and the 1990’s. The actual number of victims is believed to be much higher.

The Catholic Church and victims’ representatives have led a panel to address the tragedy.

Voderholzer announced on Wednesday the results of an interim report and progress on addressing the abuse as part of the panel that includes victims’ representatives. Describing the investigation as the “most depressing experience” of his religious service, the bishop said the panel had agreed on a four-pillar approach to addressing the abuse.

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ZIMBABWE
AllAfrica

The Herald

Apostolic Faith Mission Ruwa pastor Oliver Makomo, who is accused of raping a congregant, was yesterday remanded to November 3 for a trial date.Makomo (49) yesterday appeared before Harare magistrate Ms Bianca Makwande facing rape charges and is out on $100 bail.The prosecutor Ms Audrey Chogumaira told the court that the docket was sent back to the police station for further management.It is alleged that sometime in 2012, Makomo visited the complainant (22) at her workplace.

The court heard that he asked for her phone number and they started communicating before asking if she was still virgin. Sometime in 2013, the complainant contacted the pastor to get help with her nose bleeding problem.Makomo allegedly invited her to his church office located at No.2 Gallowway Estate in Ruwa and prayed for her.

After the prayer session, Makomo reportedly locked the door and proceeded to hug, kiss and insert his fingers into the complainant’s private parts.

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UNITED STATES
NJ.com

By The Washington Post
on October 12, 2016

By Joy Beth Smith

When I hear Donald Trump talk about grabbing a woman by the p–y, I can feel his hand on my vagina. I can feel the weight of his body against my breasts. I can see his sickly smile, the “thank you” he throws my way when he’s finished. I can imagine it — quite vividly – because it happened to me at the hands of a co-worker.

Every day it happens to countless women. It’s been happening to me for 20 years.

The first time, I was a naïve 9-year-old girl. It was my first year riding the school bus and my first week in a new public school. With the residue of South Carolina summer still warming the air, I got off my bus and started walking the sticky, humid half-mile home.

Trump’s bragging about sexual assault went too far, the lapdog governor says. But he snuggles back in to say he endorses the Donald anyway.

With my house in sight, I heard a truck barreling up behind me. Then the yelling started. I was already just over 5 feet tall, and I looked to be at least 13 years old. For these men, that was old enough. Their first pass was a blur of crude shouts I could barely hear above the blood pulsing in my ears. I felt my face flame with shame.

I ducked my head and shuffled faster toward my front door, where I’d arrive more world-weary than when I’d left that morning. The truck turned around to head back in my direction. This time, the men were hungry, almost feral in their need to remind me, a prepubescent girl, that I was theirs to harass. The shouts increased in volume as my feet picked up speed. I slammed the door with their laughter still ringing in my ears.

That was the day I learned that I existed for the sport or pleasure of others, that my body was not my own.

In the years to follow, this message has been reinforced time and again — including by my church. Perhaps especially by the church. While the world taught me my body was not my own, it was the church that taught me my body was shameful, inherently inviting aggression, seduction and sin.

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GERMANY
The Local

Victims of child abuse at the hands of Regensburg cathedral choir priests and teachers are set to receive compensation ranging between €5,000 to €20,000 by the end of next year.

A scandal that first emerged into the public light in 2010 will soon see some good news for hundreds of victims, as the Regensburg diocese announced on Wednesday it would be offering them each between €5,000 and €20,000 in compensation.

“This is a sign that we take this very seriously,” Regensburg bishop Rudolf Voderholzer said at a joint press conference with victims groups, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

“You should believe that this causes me pain, that every single case hurts my soul… I cannot undo what was done, and can only ask those affected for forgiveness.”

As of this month, 422 former singers in the cathedral’s boys’ choir have come forward to report abuse to an investigative team, which began examining the reports last year in cooperation with the diocese.

The church and victims’ groups also plan to set up an independent counseling centre for those affected. This was something the victim advocacy groups had strongly requested, so that those who were abused would not have to turn to someone from the Catholic church, or someone related to it, for help.

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UNITED STATES
Compliance Week

Bill Coffin | October 12, 2016

When I was a child, my brothers and I served as altar boys at our local Catholic church. We were some of the longest-running altar boys in the church’s history in fact and, at one point, we had become such an institution that our pastor asked my brother and I if we were interested in pursuing theology, seeing as most kids our age quit serving years before.

One of the interesting aspects of serving the church was being behind the scenes of mass. We spent a lot of time, over the years, with various priests in the sacristy—a side room where the priest and we altar servers would prepare for mass—and it occurs to me now that we were very, very vulnerable there. Away from any other adults, the priests with whom we worked could have easily taken vile liberties with myself or my brothers. None ever did. The priests we worked with—like the overwhelming majority of clerical workers, I imagine—were good, decent people who would never think of hurting a child.

And yet, we have seen that it happens within the Church. We have seen it quite a lot, in fact, usually after extensive efforts to cover it up or to pretend that it never happened. In the United States, there have already been various high-profile cases of widespread sexual abuse by priests, and these cases have cost the Church dearly in terms of money and in terms of reputation and, most of all, in terms of trust. Trust, we all know, takes many years to build, and only one wrong moment to destroy.

Sadly, we have seen this happen yet again, this time in Germany, where the Catholic Church has agreed to pay settlements to some 422 individuals who have alleged having been sexually and physically abused while they were pupils at a choir school in Regensburg. The alleged abuses took place between 1953 and the 1990s, and the Church is offering to pay each of these victims between €5,000 and €20,000. All of the perpetrators, save one, are dead. Pope Benedict’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, ran the choir from 1964 to 1994, when most of the abuses were supposed to have occurred, yet Ratzinger says he knew nothing of any abuse.

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CANADA
Regina Leader-Post

GRAEME HAMILTON 10.12.2016

MONTREAL – After Jean-Paul Néashish, a former First Nations police chief, was convicted of sexual assault, his lawyer argued for a lenient sentence because the man had been sexually abused at a residential school.

But in a decision this week, Quebec Court Judge Jacques Lacoursière rejected the request, jailing Néashish for six years and noting he was not the only one in the case to have suffered because of his aboriginal status.

“We cannot neglect to take into account the particular situation of the victims, who are also aboriginal,” the judge said.

“They also suffered from historical factors and years of upheaval and the economic development of this community. In addition to being victims of the accused’s actions, they are victims of a direct and systemic discrimination.”

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INDONESIA
The Jakarta Post

Sarah Steffen
The Jakarta Post

Jakarta | Thu, October 13 2016

Brutal punishments: Wolfgang (Louis Hofmann) (left) and his friend Anton (Langston Uibel) try to get away from their own personal hell in Freistatt (Sanctuary). (Courtesy of Zum goldenen Lamm/Boris Laewen)

H ow well do you really know someone, even after decades? Faced with the choice to take the easy route or to follow your conscience, do you do what is expected of you or will you do what is right?

That is what Jakob (Sebastian Blomberg), a German priest, is grappling with in Verfehlung (The Culpable) after his best friend and fellow priest Dominik (Kai Schumann) is arrested for sexually abusing a young boy in his parish. Jakob, at first in utter disbelief, starts to dig deeper and what he discovers leaves him horrified.

The character study of the alleged perpetrator, his friends and how the Catholic Church is dealing with sexual abuse amid its priests is well worth watching.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague Daily Monitor

Prague, Oct 12 (CTK) – Erik Tvrdon, former priest from Havlickuv Brod, east Bohemia, will spend three years in prison for sexual abuse of four women and an underage girl, Nova TV reported yesterday, referring to the appeals court verdict reducing his original five-year sentence.

The appeals court upheld the lower-lever court’s previous decision to ban Tvrdon from working with children for five years.

The police started to investigate Tvrdon based on a report from one of the abused women, who said he had exerted psychological pressure on her from mid-2012 and repeatedly raped her in late 2013.

The police subsequently found the other victims.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

By Neil Pang | Post News Staff

Members of the Catholic lay organization the Laity Forward Movement (LFM) were turned away from the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona when they made a surprise visit to the property late yesterday morning.

Lou Klitzkie, who heads the group of self-described “old ladies,” told the Post that their intention was to visit the property in order to see the facilities that are funded, in part, by contributions from the Catholic laity. Additionally, Klitzkie reported that a reliable source had told the group of the presence of Archbishop Anthony Apuron and Rev. Pius Sammut, formerly the secretary of the Blessed Deigo Louis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute, at the seminary. Klitzkie said they wanted to confront Apuron and ask him why he gave the Yona property away.

Upon arrival at the seminary property, Klitzkie and roughly a dozen LFM protestors walked up to the front doors along with media reporters and photographers. Klitzkie indicated the gate leading to the seminary was unlocked – in contrast to the scene they met last month when they attempted a similar visit.

Earlier attempts

According to Klitzkie, the group had organized a visit to the property in September. They had gone through Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana, and had received permission for their planned visit. When they showed up at the front gates yesterday, however, they were met with a sign indicating that no tour or visit had been approved, and that any future visits would need to be authorized by the proper authority. Klitzkie said the sign named RMS acting-rector David Quitugua as that authority.

Yesterday’s denial marks the third time this year that the lay group had been turned back by RMS representatives.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Episcopal Church in Central Pennsylvania

Author:
Diocesan staff
Published:
Tuesday, October 11, 2016

HARRISBURG, October 11–Bishop Audrey Scanlan of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania yesterday removed the Rev. Howard White from the priesthood.

White, 75, was among several adults who sexually abused students at St. George’s School in Middleton, Rhode Island in the 1970s and 80s, according to a report released recently by independent investigators on behalf of the school.

In the wake of media reports about sexual abuse at St. George’s, several people from other Episcopal dioceses in which White had worked said that he sexually abused them when they were young.

“We are committed to keeping God’s children safe, and we are heartbroken when we fail,” Scanlan said. “My hope is that the appalling events documented at St. George’s School will lead our church to intensify its efforts to protect young people in every setting, and continue our commitment to preventing abuse with thorough training for clergy, staff and volunteers who work with children.”

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WISCONSIN
YouTube

Peter Isely is a founding member and longtime Midwest Director of SNAP (as seen in the movie Spotlight) , The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the world’s oldest organization of survivors of childhood rape and sexual assault by clergy, with over 18,000 survivors in hundreds of chapters worldwide.

A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Peter is a psychotherapist in private practice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he established the nation’s only inpatient hospital program for victims of clergy sexual trauma.

A frequent spokesperson and media guest, Peter’s story and work has been featured nationally and internationally, including in several award winning documentary films. His current project is the Milwaukee based Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance or SCLA, an innovative partnership of survivors and clergy working to end sexual violence in the church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday

ONE of the young boys who suffered terrible abuse at Shefford boys’ home has said he believes the ‘evil’ environment led him into a life of crime.

Trevor Hercules lived at the Catholic St Francis Boys’ Home – dubbed the ‘orphanage from hell’ – for three years between 1966 and 1969.

He went on to spend nine years in jail for armed robbery before turning his life around and establishing his own programme, which he calls Social Deprivation Mindset, to help other youths divert away from life behind bars.

Trevor, who now lives in London, said: “I don’t know how many guys who were in that home have been in trouble, but it’s my belief that as an abusive environment, how we were treated there would make you abusive.

“It changes how you relate to other people. I was very aggressive when I left that place. I didn’t want anyone to put their hands on me.

“I have been in a lot of trouble but I have turned my life around and not been in any trouble since 2000.

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GERMANY
euronews

The Catholic Church has agreed to pay compensation to victims of physical and sexual abuse which took place while they were pupils at a famous boys’ choir school in Regensburg, Germany.

Rudolf Volderholzer, the Bishop of the Regensburger Cathedral in Bavaria, has formally apologised. He says the Church will pay between 5,000 and 20,000 euros to each of the affected former students for abuses between 1953 and the 1990s.

Pope Benedict’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, ran the choir for 30 years from 1964 to 1994, when the majority of the abuses reportedly occurred. He told Italian daily La Repubblica that he knew nothing about the alleged abuse of boys in the choir.

Some 422 possible victims have come forward, including former chorister Alexander Probst.

“An acknowledgment has been made,” he said. “Now I know: I’m no longer the one who is damaging the reputation of this bishophood, but I am an equal partner who is being respected. So, it doesn’t matter what the outcome is. It’s much more important that this acknowledgment has been made.”

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MAINE/MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Travis Andersen GLOBE STAFF OCTOBER 12, 2016

Advocates for sexual abuse victims on Tuesday called for the removal of a top official in the Greek Orthodox church in New England, alleging he was “at least grossly negligent” in supervising a priest who was convicted last year of assaulting a boy in Maine.

Verne E. Paradie, a lawyer for the victim in the Maine case, said in a statement that Rev. Father Theodore J. Barbas, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston, had an “ethical duty to ensure that this [convicted] priest … was not a predator.”

“Barbas failed categorically in this capacity, resulting in lifelong physical, psychological and spiritual damage” to the victim in Maine, Paradie said.

Attempts to reach Barbas, and the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston, which oversees Greek churches throughout most of New England, were unsuccessful on Tuesday evening.

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UNITED STATES
America

Oct 12 2016

Gerard O’Connell

Has there been a power shift in the Vatican under Pope Francis? Has the Secretariat of State lost its traditional role as the pope’s main adviser, being replaced by the council of cardinals that Francis established soon after his election? Where will power lie once the reform of the Roman Curia has been completed?

These questions are being asked in the Vatican today as the council of cardinal advisers plays a highly significant role in advising, offering suggestions or making proposals to the Argentine pope.

On March 17, 2013, four days after his election, Francis invited Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga to lunch and informed him of his decision to establish this council. He had already decided on its membership and asked Maradiaga to be its coordinator.

He then informed the secretary of state of his decision and asked that it be made public. But that did not happen until April 13, when the Vatican issued a press communique and published the names of the eight cardinals Francis had chosen as advisers.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

[Bishop Voderholzer speaks of 422 victims of abuse at the Regensburg choir school. There is also a new independent confidential helpline for victims.]

REGENSBURG.Sechs Jahre hat es gedauert, nun haben das Bistum Regensburg und die Opfer des Missbrauchsskandals bei den Regensburger Domspatzen einen gemeinsamen Weg der Aufarbeitung eingeschlagen. Gestern stellte Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer gemeinsam mit Opfern das auf vier Säulen basierende Konzept vor. Für die Opfer sprachen Peter Schmitt und Alexander Probst von einer „Lösung, die vielen, vielen helfen wird“.

An Ettaler Konzept orientiert

Seit acht Monaten hatte das sogenannte Aufarbeitungsgremium an einem gemeinsamen Konzept gearbeitet. Es beinhaltet das Angebot einer unabhängigen Anlaufstelle mit therapeutischer Hilfeleistung beim Münchner Informationszentrum für Männer, eine soziologische sowie eine historische Studie und eine Anerkennungsleistung für die Opfer, die von 5000 bis 20 000 Euro reicht. Mit dem Konzept hatte sich das Bistum Regensburg am Entschädigungskonzept für Opfer von Missbrauchsfällen im Kloster Ettal orientiert, das bereits 2012 auf den Weg gebracht worden war. „Erlittenes Leid kann nicht mit Geld aufgewogen werden. Es ist eine Anerkennung, aber keinesfalls ein Schmerzensgeld“, betonte Domspatzen-Internatsdirektor Rainer Schinko.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Plattlinger Zeitung

[A 52-year-old former priest, who worked in a parish in the district of Deggendorf, is suspected of sexual abuse of children and he is now in detention.]

Ein 52-jähriger ehemaliger Priester, der in einer Pfarrei im Landkreis Deggendorf tätig war, befindet sich seit Ende September wegen des dringenden Verdachts des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern in Untersuchungshaft. Am 23. September hatte die Mutter eines schulpflichtigen Kindes gegen ihn Anzeige erstattet. Es soll, so teilt die Staatsanwaltschaft Deggendorf mit, nach Angaben des Opfers bereits im Frühjahr dieses Jahres zu sexuellen Handlungen vor und an dem Kind gekommen sein.

Schon 2008 war der ehemalige Priester aus dem Raum Mainz aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen worden. Mehrere Bistümer hatten seitdem Warnmeldungen vor dem als falscher Pater auftretenden ehemaligen Priester veröffentlicht. Am 13. März 2014 warnte die Diözese Regensburg vor dem Mann, der trotz seiner Laisierung immer noch als Priester auftrat. Im Oktober 2015 wurden auch durch die Diözese Regensburg alle Pfarrämter vor dem offenbar im süddeutschen Raum und an der österreichisch-ungarischen Grenze pastoralen Aktivitäten nachgehenden ehemaligen Priester gewarnt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutche Welle

Allein die Zahlen, die der Zwischenbericht zu den sexuellen und körperlichen Misshandlungen auflistet, sind erschreckend. 422 Opfer haben sich bislang aus den Reihen des Regensburger Knabenchors gemeldet.

Die Vorgänge gehörten zu den “bedrückendsten Erfahrungen und schwersten Lasten meiner Amtszeit”, sagte der Bischof von Regensburg, Rudolf Voderholzer, bei der Vorstellung eines ersten Zwischenberichts des Aufarbeitungsgremiums. Die Vorfälle täten ihm in der Seele weh, aber er könne sie nicht ungeschehen machen. “Ich kann nur um Vergebung bitten.” Das Aufarbeitungsgremium, dem neben dem Bischof auch der Domspatzen-Internatsdirektor Rainer Schinko sowie die Vertreter der Betroffenen angehören, hatte sich laut Voderholzer seit dem Frühjahr acht Mal getroffen. Seitdem hätten sich 129 weitere Opfer gemeldet. Insgesamt seien es nun 422.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandfunk

[The extent of physical and sexual violence at the Domspatzen in Regensburg is higher than previously thought. A total of 422 alleged victims have been reported as having been abused at the Regensburg choir school.]

Das Ausmaß körperlicher und sexueller Gewalt bei den Domspatzen in Regensburg ist höher als bisher angenommen.

Wie der Bischof von Regensburg, Voderholzer, mitteilte, meldeten sich 422 mögliche Opfer. Der Bischof bat sie um Vergebung und kündigte bis Ende 2017 finanzielle Entschädigung an. Die Opfervertreter würdigten den Einsatz des Bischofs. Bei dem Knabenchor war es zwischen 1953 und 1992 immer wieder zu Fällen von körperlicher und sexueller Gewalt gekommen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wochenblatt

[Ex-priest, suspected of child abuse, is in custody.]

Ein aus dem Klerikerstand entlassener ehemaliger Priester sitzt wegen des Verdachts des Kindesmissbrauchs in Untersuchungshaft.

Am Freitag, 23. September 2016, zeigte die Mutter eines schulpflichtigen Kindes dessen sexuellen Missbrauch durch einen ehemaligen Priester an. Nach Angaben des Opfers soll es bereits im Frühjahr dieses Jahres zu sexuellen Handlungen vor und an dem Kind gekommen sein.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News October 12, 2016

A group of women Catholics held a protest at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona Wednesday, saying they believe Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron and the Rev. Pius Sammut, the highest official in the Neocatechumenal Way hierarchy on Guam, are back on island and staying there.

Sammut on Wednesday said he is back on island, but said Apuron is not here as far as he knows.

Apuron, who has not been seen in public on Guam since late May, faces a canonical trial at the Vatican for allegedly sexually abusing altar boys in the 1970s in Agat.

Pope Francis placed Apuron on leave on June 6 and sent Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai to temporarily administer the local Catholic church.

Lou Klitzkie, president of the Laity Forward Movement, led more than a dozen Catholics, some of them holding “Defrock Apuron” signs.

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VATICAN CITY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Rome, October 11 – Pope Francis has yet to respond to a request to pardon for Vatileaks culprit Bishop Lucio Vallejo Balda, sources said Tuesday.

The Spanish prelate is serving 18 months in a Vatican prison after being found guilty in July of leaking confidential Holy See documents to reporters in the so-called Vatileaks 2 scandal.

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