ABUSE TRACKER

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Kevin Magee
BBC News NI investigations reporter

A serial child sex abuser who admitted his crimes to police has never been brought to justice.

Henry Clarke, 75, confessed to abusing three different boys at care homes in Northern Ireland.

A retired church pastor, he has been living in Canada since he made the admissions in 1985.

At the time, the director of public prosecutions ordered no prosecution, and police failed to act on a further confession.

The Canadian authorities were never informed.

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FRANCE
Le Monde

C’est un fait rare. L’évêque de Dax (Landes), Mgr Hervé Gaschignard, a dû démissionner en raison d’« attitudes pastorales inappropriées ». Une démission acceptée jeudi 6 avril par le pape François, annonce la Conférence des évêques de France dans un communiqué.

Mgr Hervé Gaschignard, âgé de 57 ans et originaire de Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), a présenté sa démission sur suggestion du nonce apostolique, l’archevêque italien Luigi Ventura, représentant du Vatican auprès de l’Eglise catholique française, précise la Conférence des évêques de France dans son communiqué signé par son président, Mgr Georges Pontier, archevêque de Marseille.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 06, 2017

By Krystal Paco

It was earlier this week the first female filed suit against the Church. B.T. was a student at Mt. Carmel School in Saipan when she alleges she was sexually molested by Father Joe R. San Agustin during a trip to Guam. According to Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes, the named defendant is no longer with the Archdiocese as he was laicized at his request in the 1970s.

“He’s been long laicized, I was just looking into that case yesterday trying to figure out where he was, when,” Byrnes confirmed.

KUAM confirmed that San Agustin is a member of the Concerned Catholics of Guam.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

James Macintyre 06 April 2017

A monk who is said to have run a weekly ‘sex club’ for young boys was allowed to remain at the country’s leading Catholic school after multiple misconduct allegations against him, The Times has reported.

Former pupils of the Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, a £30,000-per-year private school, told police that they were summoned in their pyjamas to the study of Father Jeremy Sierla, where they were given alcohol and said to have performed sex acts.

A criminal inquiry began in 2004 resulting in no charges, but police were so concerned by the risk the monk posed that they wrote to the Department for Education the following year, asking that he be denied access to children.

Detectives believed that he should not be allowed ‘anywhere near a school’. But, with the approval of child protection professionals, he lived at Ampleforth and worked at its shop until 2012.

During this time he was in proximity to pupils before being removed when education officials ruled that his presence was ‘incompatible with good safeguarding practice’.

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CANADA
APTN National News

Robert MacBain wants nothing to do with the Senator Lynn Beyak and the controversy surrounding her.

Beyak quoted the Toronto author at length during her controversial remarks on residential schools on March 7 in the Senate.

She referred to his latest book – Their Home and Native Land – when discussing residential schools and some people wanting to rename Langevin block, the Prime Minister’s Office.

During that speech she also said there was “an abundance of good” in residential schools.

“There is absolutely nothing in Their Home and Native Land, in any op-eds I have written, in radio interviews, or in the material that I provided to her office at the beginning of February that would support her position,” said MacBain in a statement released Thursday.

“Whatever good there might have been was the exception that proved the rule.”

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CANADA
Huffington Post

[with video]

By Zi-Ann Lum

A Conservative senator called two CBC reporters “parasites” for asking Sen. Lynn Beyak questions ahead of a committee meeting Thursday.

Sen. Kelvin Ogilvie denied making the remark when confronted by reporters Katie Simpson and John Paul Tasker. His comment, “I see the parasites are still following you,” was recorded on camera and elicited a laugh from Beyak.

“I don’t recall that. Did you hear that?” he said later when confronted about his remark. “Why don’t you folks go away and find somebody else to bother.”

Earlier, Beyak was asked if she thought the Conservative caucus was wrong to remove her from the committee on Aboriginal peoples over comments she made about residential schools last month. She did not respond to the question.

The Ontario senator issued a statement saying her removal from the committee signifies a threat to freedom of speech.

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ITALIA
La Repubblica

[Abuse of seminarians: Don Carlos is hiding in a church in Genoa.]

di GIULIA DESTEFANIS e MARCO PREVE

In una delle sue ultime, numerose, video prediche caricate sul suo sito internet, padre Carlos Buela parla di educazione sessuale. Non ci sarebbe nulla di strano se don Carlos nel 2010 non fosse stato ritenuto “colpevole” di abusi sessuali nei confronti di giovani seminaristi (non si parla di pedofilia) dalla Santa Sede che lo aveva rimosso dai suoi incarichi e trasferito oltre oceano, e se in questo momento non si trovasse a 11 mila chilometri di distanza, ospite di un rifugio blindato a Genova, in via Venezia, in un appartamento del complesso della chiesa di San Teodoro.

Il caso viene sollevato da Francesco Zanardi della “Rete L’abuso” che da anni si batte per denunciare le coperture di cui hanno goduto molti sacerdoti accusati o condannati per pedofilia e altri reati di natura sessuale.

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FRANCE
La Croix

Céline Hoyeau and Nicolas Senèze

This is a bold move by Pope Francis. While the French bishops themselves were still pondering this thorny dossier, on Thursday the pope accepted the resignation of Bishop Hervé Gaschignard of Aire and Dax in France’s southern Landes region.

“The French bishops welcome this decision in faith and confidence in the successor of Peter and are conscious of its gravity,” French Bishops Conference president, Archbishop Georges Pontier said in a statement.

“For several weeks, there have been persistent rumors in the Diocese of Dax concerning inappropriate pastoral attitudes by the bishop.”

A report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the FaithAccording to information received by La Croix, a family in Landes made a report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in the Vatican.

The CDF, which deals with offenses against the faith as well as “delicta graviora” or “very grave offenses”, particularly sexual abuse, asked the nuncio in France to investigate the issue.

The task of gathering the testimony from the family involved on January 14, 2017, fell to Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, metropolitan archbishop of Bordeaux, who is also a member of the CDF.

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FRANCE
ABC News (US)

By PHILIPPE SOTTO
PARIS — Apr 6, 2017

In an unusually swift move, the Vatican on Thursday decided to dismiss a French bishop days after Catholic officials in the country were informed of alleged “inappropriate” gestures and words from the prelate with young people.

The bishop’s superior, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, announced in a statement that the Holy See had asked Monsignor Herve Gaschignard “to submit his resignation.”

The French Conference of Bishops said in a separate statement that Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Gaschignard, bishop of Aire and Dax in southwest France, and that French bishops understand the “gravity” of the pontiff’s decision.

Cardinal Ricard, the archbishop for the region, said he reported the bishop’s alleged doings to the local prosecutor but that no complaints have been filed so far, making the pope’s decision even more notable.

The French bishops’ statement said concerns about Gaschignard made it difficult for him to continue in his duties and that the papal nuncio in France “suggested” that he resign.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

CHRISSIE FOSTER
The Australian
April 7, 2017

It is difficult to stop crying.

A child sexual abuse expert from the US, Bruce Perry, simply picked a random example. He spoke via video link to the Royal Commission into Institutional ­Responses to Child Sexual Abuse; he was one of 36 experts in the field who gave evidence last week at the final public hearing of the royal commission, titled Case Study 57: Nature, Cause and Impact of Child Sexual Abuse. Perry’s example was of “a little five-year-old child and somebody is raping you”, and he talked of what it does to the young mind.

They were painful words to hear because that is what happened to our little five-year-old Emma and, not long after, to our six-year-old Katie. To hear what their infant minds had to deal with was crushing — a dreadful add-on to the vision of rape by the priest, which already haunts us.

It was like a knife to the heart.

That priest was Kevin O’Donnell; he was 66 years older than Emma; he was our parish priest, with access to the primary school and its 300 children where I, as a Catholic, sent our girls. He went to prison in 1995 for 14 months for sexually assaulting children (rape charges were dropped in a plea bargain). I ­believe that from 1958 until he was arrested, he sex­ually assaulted at least 100 children.

Memories haunted our girls. Emma took her life aged 26 after a traumatic teenage and young adult life filled with despair, self-harming and drug addiction. Katie began binge drinking and was hit by a car while drunk. She spent 12 months in hospital and now, 18 years later, still receives 24-hour care, as she always will. Childhood sexual abuse was the cause and self-destructive behaviour was the impact.

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FRANCE
7 News

by Julie Ducourau with Benoit Fauchet in Paris – AFP on April 7, 2017

Dax (France) (AFP) – A French bishop resigned Thursday over “inappropriate behaviour” towards youths after a rare initiative by the Vatican just weeks after complaints came to the attention of his diocese.

Herve Gaschignard, 57, bishop of the southwest diocese of Dax, tendered his resignation at the suggestion of the Vatican’s envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the French Catholic Church said in a statement. …

Gaschignard’s deputy Denis Cazeaux said at a news conference that three young people had come forward with allegations, but “it is not about paedophile acts.”

A 14-year-old boy said the bishop asked him about his sexual habits, while a girl, also aged 14, said he had stroked her thigh, kissed her on the cheek, and whispered “a lot of inappropriate things” to her.

The Catholic daily La Croix reported that Gaschignard raised concerns in 2011 in nearby Toulouse where he was auxiliary bishop with duties that included instructing young people.

Four chaperones on a youth pilgrimage trip wrote to Toulouse Archbishop Robert Le Gall expressing alarm over Gaschignard’s behaviour.

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MEXICO
Zocalo

[Piedras Negras, Coah.- The Investigative police began searching the priest Juan Manuel Riojas Martínez, once the criminal judge granted an arrest warrant against the priest, ex-rector the diocesan seminary of the Diocese of Piedras Negras. He is accused of sexual abuse of a seminarian, confirmed sources close to the case.]

Piedras Negras, Coah.- La Policía Investigadora de la Delegación Norte 1 de la PGJE inició la búsqueda del sacerdote Juan Manuel Riojas Martínez, una vez que la jueza penal otorgó una orden de aprehensión en contra del sacerdote, exrector del Seminario de la Diócesis de Piedras Negras acusado de abuso sexual en contra de un seminarista, confirmaron fuentes cercanas al caso.

El hecho ocurre a 24 horas de que una solicitud de orden de aprehensión previa había sido negada por diversos motivos, los cuales fueron adecuados y ahora sí se emitió la orden de captura.

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FRANCE
France 24

A bishop in southwestern France resigned Thursday at the behest of the Vatican over “inappropriate behaviour” towards youths, the French Catholic Church said.

Herve Gaschignard, 57, bishop of the diocese of Dax, tendered his resignation at the suggestion of the Vatican’s envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the church said in a statement.

A separate statement from the Dax diocese said the resignation was over the bishop’s behaviour with young people.

Pope Francis accepted Gaschignard’s resignation, the church statement said, noting the “gravity” of the situation.

A spokesman for the diocese, Paul Perromat, said the resignation followed “possibly inappropriate comments and behaviour” by the bishop but that “it is in no case a question of sexual aggression or acts”.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
7 Apr 2017

FORMER Newcastle Anglican Bishop Roger Herft’s response to child sexual abuse allegations was “weak, ineffectual and showed no regard for the need to protect children from the risk that they would be preyed upon,” counsel assisting the royal commission has found in a final submission.

“It was a failure of leadership,” said counsel assisting Naomi Sharp, in a 276-page submission released on Thursday.

Ms Sharp named defrocked former Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, business manager Peter Mitchell, diocese solicitor and trustee Keith Allen and diocesan deputy chancellor Paul Rosser, QC, as part of a “network of long term diocesan ‘insiders’” during Bishop Herft’s tenure from 1993 to 2005.

They “worked together to frustrate efforts by other leaders, including the bishop, to deal with the sexual abuse of children by priests and others within the diocese”, Ms Sharp said.

Bishop Herft, who went on to become Archbishop of Perth, “mishandled the allegations of child sexual abuse made against two of the most senior and domineering priests in the diocese”, Mr Lawrence and Archdeacon of Maitland, Peter Rushton.

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MISSOURI
The Catholic Kay – Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph

In an effort to care for others in need

The diocese has received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by Vincentian Father Phillip J. Coury. This allegation was deemed credible by the Ombudsman, following diocesan policy for response to allegations. The allegation stems from the time Fr. Coury served on staff at St. John Minor Seminary. The seminary closed in 1983. Fr. Coury was on staff there from 1975 to 1978. When the diocese learned of the allegation, Fr. Coury had already been restricted from public ministry by his Vincentian superiors. Fr. Coury does not live in this diocese and he has had no other assignments here outside of his time at St. John. Authorities were contacted in this case.

The diocese will attempt to contact students who attended St. John during the relevant years in the desire of reaching out to any other person who may have been harmed by Fr. Coury. If you were harmed by Fr. Coury or any other person who has worked or volunteered in the diocese, no matter how long ago, diocesan Victim Services is eager to provide care and healing resources. Please contact Ombudsman Jenifer Valenti at 816-812-2500 or JeniferValenti@att.net.

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FRANCE
The Sun Daily

DAX, France: A French bishop resigned Thursday over “inappropriate behaviour” towards youths after a rare initiative by the Vatican just weeks after complaints came to the attention of his diocese.

Herve Gaschignard, 57, bishop of the southwest diocese of Dax, tendered his resignation at the suggestion of the Vatican’s envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the French Catholic Church said in a statement.

Gaschignard’s deputy Denis Cazeaux said at a news conference that three young people had come forward with allegations, but “it is not about paedophile acts.”

Instead, it was about the bishop getting too close to young parishioners. “Anyone involved in teaching youths should find the right distance,” he said.

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MEXICO
Mexico News Daily

Thursday, April 6, 2017

The Catholic Church called them martyrs Tuesday but two of them rejected the label, calling themselves “victims of priests” instead.

Joaquín Aguilar and Jesús Romero Colín declared that rather than being martyrs they are the victims of clergymen whose crimes have been covered up by Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera.

The two said their own history of sexual abuse has been repeated in recent cases of sexual assault by priests in the cities of Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí and León, and that bishops have opted to protect the Catholic Church’s image instead of supporting the victims and seeking justice.

Three new cases of priests being accused of sexual abuse have come to light since last September.

Victims were referred to as “present-day martyrs” during a special “day of prayer” organized Tuesday by the church. It was the first time the Mexican Episcopal Conference, the church’s official leadership body, has publicly acknowledged irregularities in the follow-up of cases of pedophilia.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Phoebe Wearne
Thursday, 6 April 2017

Retiring Perth Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft’s response to child sexual abuse allegations in his former diocese was “weak, ineffectual and showed no regard for the need to protect children from the risk that they would be preyed upon”, a counsel assisting the royal commission into child sexual abuse has said.

In a 276-page submission published yesterday, Naomi Sharp said it was remiss of then-Bishop Herft to not make his successor, Brian Farran, aware of claims of abuse against senior priests in the Diocese of Newcastle in NSW.

“Bishop Herft mishandled the allegations of child sexual abuse made against two of the most senior and domineering priests in the diocese — the Dean of the Cathedral, Mr (Graeme) Lawrence, and the one-time Archdeacon of Maitland, (Peter) Rushton,” Ms Sharp said. “It was a failure of leadership.”

Archbishop Herft, who is on leave until he is due to retire on July 7, stood aside from his duties last year after he admitted to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in August he had let victims down during his time as Bishop of Newcastle between 1993 and 2005.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

April 7, 2017

JACK THE INSIDER
ColumnistCanberra
@JacktheInsider

It is a talent found only among the finest obituarists, the ability to transcend the shortcomings of an individual recently gone to God where by the judicious use of euphemism and ambiguity, a glimmer of virtue can be found in a life stained by poor intentions and outrageous behaviour.

For example, an obituary to a much unloved journalist at The Australian who died many years ago featured the sublime phrase, “Surprisingly, he was rarely assaulted.”

The ultimate expression of vagueness and incertitude, often used by obituarists reads, “Mercifully he died.” It is an open-ended expression which at one level appears to imply the recently deceased has been delivered from mortal concerns but in the discrete language of obituarists, more often it indicates we have all been mercifully discharged from the ghastliness of his or her existence.

There are other instances when the obituarists are so roused, they drop any pretence of even the faintest praise. …

Which brings me to Ronald Austin Mulkearns, the Bishop of Ballarat between 1971 and 1997.

Mulkearns died in April last year, just weeks after giving evidence to the Royal Commission. His evidence was shambolic. He stammered out replies and expressions of regret in an unconvincing manner.

The truth of it is Mulkearns was a criminal. He conspired with corrupt senior members of the Victoria Police Force, Detective Superintendent John O’Connor and Detective Chief Inspector Harvey Child to ensure a prolific child sex offender, Monsignor John Day, would not be prosecuted. O’Connor and Child met with Mulkearns at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat on January 31, 1972 where the officers convinced the bishop of Day’s offending and instructed him to remove Day from Mildura.

Mulkearns did as he was told, transferring Day to the tiny parish of Timboon, near Warrnambool where Day offended against children again. Day died unrepentant and unpunished in 1978. Day’s victims who had come forward and made their statements alleging horrific sexual abuse, were discarded in the rush to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church.

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SWEDEN
SVT

[Priest confessed sexual abuse – led pilgrims hikers in Scandinavia.]

UPPDRAG GRANSKNING · Prästen har erkänt och dömts i kyrkliga rättegångar för sexuella övergrepp mot barn. Straffet blev att aldrig mer få jobba med minderåriga. Men under en pilgrimsvandring i Norden syns den ultrakonservative katolske prästen på bild med flera barn. Han höll även mässor i flera svenska kyrkor.

2005 åkte en samling tyskar, fransmän och belgare på en pilgrimsvandring i Norden. Resan kallades ”Pilgrimsfärd i det katolska Sverige” och gick ut på att besöka kyrkor som byggts av katoliker men som i dag är lutherska. Sällskapet leddes av en fransk präst från det katolska brödraskapet St. Pius den 10:e, mer känt som SSPX. Prästen, som vi här valt att kalla fader P, har under åren beskyllts för och erkänt flera fall av sexuella övergrepp mot barn.

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SWEDEN
STV

UPPDRAG GRANSKNING · Priests accused of sexual assault on children are transferred to other parishes and allowed to keep working with children. Uppdrag granskning met with a man whose story of assaults and cover-up reveal a hidden world, in which church leaders protect priests at the expense of the victims.

Priests in the Society of Saint Pius X, commonly referred to as SSPX, have been transferred to new parishes after accusations of child sexual abuse. ”Andre”, who is an adult today, was abused at 11 years of age. The priest who molested him has continued to work with children for several decades.

“Shocking and irresponsible,” Andre says. “It’s a terrifying thought, really. How long will this travesty go on? This is a scandal that has gone on for 35 years. It’s completely repulsive.”

Andre grew up in a family with strong ties to SSPX. Nearly 30 years ago this extremely conservative congregation broke with the Catholic Church. The Pope responded by excommunicating the group. Not long after that, Andre met “Father P” for the first time.

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SWEDEB
SVT

[Priest Father P was accused of sexual assault but was nevertheless continue its work with children. When UG’s reporters seek out Father P to call him to account, there is uproar. Someone cut the tires on the car and the team parishioners destroyed the photographer’s camera.].

UPPDRAG GRANSKNING · Prästen fader P anklagades för sexuella övergrepp men fick ändå fortsätta sitt arbete med barn. När UG:s reportrar söker upp fader P för att ställa honom till svars, uppstår det tumult. Någon skär sönder däcken på teamets bil och församlingsmedlemmar förstör fotografens kamera. Polisen tvingar teamet att radera delar av det filmade materialet.

– Försvinn, försvinn ni har inget här att göra. Försvinn från huset. Försvinn dit bort. Det här är privat mark! Stick!, säger fader P då Uppdrag gransknings team söker upp honom på landsbygden utanför Bordeaux.

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SWEDEN
SVT

UPPDRAG GRANSKNING · Uppdrag granskning can now reveal previously unpublished letters that Pope Francis wrote to keep SSPX from being thrown out of Argentina in the wake of the Williamson affair.

In 2009, Uppdrag granskning published an interview in which SSPX’s then bishop Richard Williamson denied the Holocaust and claimed that there were never any gas chambers. Inspite of this, the former Pope Benedictus announced just a few days later, that he was to lift the excommunication of SSPX. An excommunication that had lasted for 20 years.

It created huge shockwaves and has been called the biggest crisis between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community in the modern era.

Williamson’s visa revoked

During the tumult, Bishop Williamson locked himself in the Society’s seminary outside Buenos Aires in Argentina, of which he was rector at the time. But the backlash was strong in Argentina as well, and the government reacted by revoking Bishop Williamson’s visa so that he had to leave the country.

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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Peter Kihm was ordained in 1981 for the Archdiocese of New York. He assisted in parishes in Brooklyn, Fishkill, Ossining and Nyak then, beginning in 1999, was lead priest in Poughkeepsie, Rhinebeck and Rhinecliff. From 1987-1992 he was an Our Lady of Lourdes High School faculty member in Poughkeepsie.

In January 2015 the archdiocese suspended Kihm, saying they had had “concerns” for several months after receiving an allegation that the priest had “committed acts of sexual abuse” against a male minor approximately 30 years previously. The allegation was found to be credible by both the archdiocese and law enforcement. At least one other person subsequently came forward alleging the same. Kihm could not be prosecuted due to New York’s statute of limitations.

The archdiocese announced in March 2016 that Kihm had requested and was granted laicization, and that he had moved away from New York state.

Ordained: 1981
Laicized: 2016

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Harry Farley JOURNALIST 06 April 2017

Clergy accused of sex abuse are finding refuge with a breakaway order run by a traditionalist British priest in Kent.

Richard Williamson was automatically excommunicated after he was illicitly ordained as a bishop by the late Marcel Lefebvre of the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X (SSPX). He was expelled from the society after appealed unsuccessfully against his conviction for holocaust denial in a German court.

In a Swedish TV broadcast, he had denied gas chambers were used in the Holocaust and also claimed the number of Jewish people killed was far fewer than the six million figure usually cited.

According to a new Swedish television documentary broadcast yesterday, Williamson now leads the SSPX Resistance in Kent, a new breakaway group.

Two former SSPX priests accused of sex abuse have found a home in his order, the Swedish broadcast claimed.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

This announcement provides information about the second phase of Inquiry hearings.

The second phase of hearings will investigate residential child care establishments run by organisations within the Roman Catholic Church.

The first part of this phase will look at residential child care establishments run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. The Inquiry will thereafter look at residential child care stablishments run by the Sisters of Nazareth. Further parts of the second phase of hearings will be announced in due course.

The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul

In autumn 2017 the Inquiry will start the second phase of hearings.

The Inquiry will start the second phase by looking at residential child care establishments run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, including establishments such as Smyllum Park in Lanark, Bellevue House in Rutherglen, St Joseph’s Hospital in Rosewell, St Vincent’s School for the Deaf/Blind in Glasgow and Roseangle Orphanage (St Vincent’s) in Dundee.

The Sisters of Nazareth

In early 2018, the Inquiry will look at residential child care establishments run by the Sisters of Nazareth and will look at Nazareth House in Aberdeen, Nazareth House in Cardonald, Nazareth House in Kilmarnock and Nazareth House in Lasswade.

Talk to us

It is important for the Inquiry to have as much information as possible before starting these parts of the second phase of hearings.

If you have information or experiences which you would like the inquiry to consider as part of the hearings looking at establishments run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul or the Sisters of Nazareth, please contact our witness support team as soon as possible.

You can phone them on 0800 0929 300, or email them at talktous@childabuseinquiry.scot. You can also write to us by post at SCAI, PO Box 24085, Edinburgh EH7 9EA.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

The second phase of the Scottish child abuse inquiry will investigate children’s homes run by the Catholic Church.

The inquiry is examining historical allegations of the abuse of children in care and has been taking statements from witnesses since last spring.

Officials said the first part of the second phase starting in autumn will focus on homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, such as Smyllum Park in Lanark, Bellevue House in Rutherglen, St Joseph’s Hospital in Rosewell, St Vincent’s School for the Deaf/Blind in Glasgow and Roseangle Orphanage (St Vincent’s) in Dundee.

In early 2018, the inquiry will examine homes run by Sisters of Nazareth, investigating Nazareth House sites in Aberdeen, Cardonald, Kilmarnock and Lasswade.

A statement released on behalf of the inquiry said: “Evidence given at hearings will supplement written statements taken from witnesses in advance and documents which have been recovered by the inquiry team during the course of investigations.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The Scottish child abuse inquiry will investigate care establishments run by Catholic organisations as part of the second phase of its hearings.

The inquiry will begin its investigation in the autumn of five homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.

In 2018, it will look into a further four children’s homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

It has asked people with experience of the homes to contact them.

The inquiry is continuing to privately take statements from abuse survivors in Scotland, and will hold its first public sessions in May.

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MICHIGAN
ABC 12

Owosso (WJRT) – (04/06/17) – A priest, accused of stealing from his former congregation, has been formally charged with embezzlement.

Father David Fisher appeared before a judge in Shiawassee County Thursday morning after being extradited from North Dakota.

He’s accused of stealing nearly half a million dollars from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Owosso.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Joel Currier St. Louis Post-Dispatch

TROY, MO. • A woman says a Roman Catholic priest fondled her five years ago under a blanket on the couch while nearly all of her family were in the room. Her parents say that after they found out, he knelt down before them to confess, and offered to give up his collar and marry their oldest daughter.

The priest, originally from China, insists none of that is true. He says the fervently Catholic family he once called his own and who offered to adopt him after he escaped religious persecution by the Chinese Communist government is trying to steal his dream of being a priest in America. He has been suspended since the accusation was first made in 2012.

A Lincoln County jury sided with the priest Thursday afternoon after a two-week civil trial in which the alleged victim and her family accused the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang of molesting her as a teen in June 2012. The jury also sided with the St. Louis Archdiocese, rejecting claims it should have known he was dangerous to children and failed to protect her.

Lawyers for the accuser, Jiang and the archdiocese delivered closing arguments Thursday morning. The jury was given the case about 12:30 p.m. but broke for lunch before beginning deliberations. They returned a verdict about 3 p.m., with 10 of 12 jurors siding with the defendants.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Matthew Gambino Catholic News Service | Apr. 6, 2017

PHILADELPHIA

A priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia responsible for a retirement home for priests faces federal charges of embezzling more than $535,000 from that same home.

Msgr. William Dombrow, 77, was charged by the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia April 5 with four counts of wire fraud in a scheme he is alleged to have devised to siphon off funds intended for care of retired archdiocesan priests at Villa St. Joseph, Darby, where he has served as the rector since 2005.

Catholic Human Services of the archdiocese operates the nursing care and residence for retired and ill priests.

The U.S. district attorney alleges that Dombrow set up an account at Sharon Savings Bank in Darby unbeknown to the archdiocese, directed money from the estates of retired or deceased priests as well as bequests of lay donors to Villa St. Joseph, and transferred money electronically for his personal use.

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MISSOURI
U.S. News

TROY, Mo. (AP) — An eastern Missouri jury has sided with a Roman Catholic priest and the Archdiocese of St. Louis in a lawsuit over alleged molestation.

The Lincoln County jury ruled Thursday in favor of the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang and rejected claims that the archdiocese should have known the priest was a danger to children and failed to protect the alleged victim.

The lawsuit alleged that the girl was a teenager when she was fondled five years ago at her home in Old Monroe, Missouri, 40 miles northwest of St. Louis.

Jiang was criminally charged in 2012, but those charges were eventually dismissed.

The archdiocese says in a statement that both it and Jiang have “steadfastly” denied the allegations, and he will enter a process for the return to active ministry.

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COLOMBIA
El Tiempo

Por: CALI 05 de abril 2017

Un documento, dictado por Iglesia católica y que fue asumido por la Arquidiócesis de Cali, en el que los sacerdotes firman y asumen la responsabilidad personal en casos de delitos, abrió una nueva polémica.

Esa circular, inscrita en el decreto arquicioseano para la Protección de Menores de marzo de 2014, incluye una cláusula según la cual los sacerdotes serán los responsables y no las Arquidiócesis.

El documento dice que la responsabilidad “recae exclusivamente en mi personal y no en la Arquidiócesis de Cali o en la entidad eclesiástica en la que presto mis servicios. Asumo por tanto mi responsabilidad ante los hechos que pudieran imputárseme por el incumplimiento de estas directivas así como las funciones civiles y canónicas”.

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

written by Jamie Vaughan Johnson April 5, 2017

A controversial document stipulating that priests are solely responsible in child abuse cases and not the church, has been circulated by the Catholic Church in Colombia, reported local media.

So far only the archdiocese of the southwestern city of Cali has made its priests sign a document absolving their employer of all responsibility, which has once again opened the debate on liability in church pedophilia cases.

“The responsibility for complying with the norms established in the decree of the Archdiocese for the protection of minors rests solely on my person and not on the archdiocese of Cali or the ecclesiastical entity in which I render my services. I therefore assume total responsibility,” says an excerpt of the document obtained by Blu Radio.

The document also implies that all compensation for sexually abused minors must be paid by the priest themselves.

The president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia and current Archbishop of the Andean city of Tunja, Monsignor Luis Augusto Castro, said that the document was drafted and presented at the national level but that each diocese decides whether to implement it or not.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Aire et Dax, France, presented by His Excellency Msgr. Hervé Gaschignard.

The Holy Father has appointed His Excellency Msgr. Bernard Charrier, bishop emeritus of Tulle, as apostolic administrator sede vacante of the diocese of Aire et Dax, France, with faculties of diocesan bishop.

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CANADA
APTN National News

Senator Lynn Beyak says her removal from the Senate’s Aboriginal Peoples committee for complimenting the work of nurses and teachers who did an “abundance of good” in residential schools is a serious threat against freedom of speech.

“For me to lose my position on the Aboriginal Peoples Committee for complimenting the work of nurses, teachers, foster families and legions of other decent, caring Canadians – along with highlighting inspiring stories spoken by Aboriginal people themselves – is a serious threat to freedom of speech,” said the Conservative senator in a statement Thursday, a day after she was removed on the committee.

Beyak sparked outrage when she spoke in the Senate on March 7 to defend the good work of residential schools that forced over 100,000 Indigenous children into schools where it’s documented many suffered sexual assaults, physical abuse for speaking their language and death.

This is a portion of what Beyak said in the Senate: “I speak partly for the record, but mostly in memory of the kindly and well-intentioned men and women and their descendants — perhaps some of us here in this chamber — whose remarkable works, good deeds and historical tales in the residential schools go unacknowledged for the most part and are overshadowed by negative reports. Obviously, the negative issues must be addressed, but it is unfortunate that they are sometimes magnified and considered more newsworthy than the abundance of good.”

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CANADA
Metro News

OTTAWA — Conservative Sen. Lynn Beyak says her party’s decision to sanction her for comments about Canada’s residential school history amounts to a threat to freedom of speech.

In a statement released Thursday, Beyak — who was removed Wednesday from the Senate committee on Aboriginal Peoples — says political correctness is “stifling opinion and thoughtful conversation.”

She also says a silent majority of Canadians agree with what she said — that there were “good deeds” and other positive elements that emerged from the country’s residential school system.

“For me to lose my position on the Aboriginal Peoples Committee for complimenting the work of nurses, teachers, foster families and legions of other decent, caring Canadians — along with highlighting inspiring stories spoken by aboriginal people themselves — is a serious threat to freedom of speech,” Beyak writes.

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FRANCE
Eglise Catholique en France

Le pape François a accepté aujourd’hui la démission de Mgr Hervé Gaschignard, évêque d’Aire et Dax.

Les évêques de France accueillent cette décision dans la foi et la confiance au successeur de Pierre et en mesurent la gravité.

Depuis plusieurs semaines, dans le diocèse de Dax, des rumeurs persistaient sur des attitudes pastorales inappropriées de l’évêque. Elles ont été portées à la connaissance du Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, archevêque métropolitain de Bordeaux, et du Nonce apostolique.

Cette ambiance avait rendu difficile le gouvernement du diocèse. C’est pourquoi, depuis le vendredi 31 mars, Monseigneur Hervé Gaschignard, avait pris un temps d’éloignement et de repos. Sur la suggestion du Nonce apostolique, il avait proposé sa démission au Pape quelques jours avant.

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FRANCE
La Croix

Gauthier Vaillant, le 02/04/2017

Dans un communiqué, Mgr Hervé Gaschignard a indiqué, vendredi 31 mars, avoir « besoin de repos pour quelque temps hors du diocèse », invoquant « une fatigue liée à diverses causes ».

Surprise générale dans le diocèse d’Aire et Dax, à deux semaines de Pâques : Mgr Hervé Gaschignard a annoncé vendredi 31 mars qu’il quittait le diocèse pour une durée indéterminée. Dans un communiqué bref, l’évêque des Landes, âgé de 57 ans, indique avoir « besoin de repos pour quelque temps hors du diocèse », invoquant « une fatigue liée à diverses causes ». Il se confie à la prière des fidèles du diocèse, sans indiquer où il se rend.

« C’est une décision de dernière minute », indique Paul Perromat, responsable de la communication du diocèse landais, qui s’avoue lui-même « un peu surpris ». Mgr Gaschignard semble avoir pris sa décision au cours de l’assemblée plénière de printemps de la Conférence des évêques de France, qui s’est achevée vendredi 31 mars à Lourdes. Pour Paul Perromat, la santé physique de l’évêque n’est pas en question. « Je l’ai vu juste avant son départ pour Lourdes, il avait l’air d’aller bien, raconte-t-il. C’est un homme qui se porte bien physiquement, et sportif », souligne-t-il à propos de l’évêque de 57 ans.

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FRANCE
Lapeche

Le pape a accepté la démission de l’évêque d’Aire et de Dax, Monseigneur Hervé Gaschignard, qui s’était mis « en vacances » du diocèse le 21 mars après que le cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard ait reçu deux paroissiens landais.

Des familles ont évoqué des « paroles » et « des attitudes » équivoques de l’évêque des Landes vis-à-vis de jeunes. L’archevêque Georges Pontier a publié hier un communiqué de la Conférence des évêques de France qui s’était réunie à Lourdes, où les hommes de foi avaient notamment évoqué l’attitude de l’Église face à la pédophilie.

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FRANCE
NDTV

APF

DAX: A French bishop resigned on Thursday at the behest of the Vatican over “inappropriate behaviour” towards youths, just weeks after complaints came to the attention of his diocese. Herve Gaschignard, 57, bishop of the southwest diocese of Dax, tendered his resignation at the suggestion of the Vatican’s envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the French Catholic Church said in a statement.

A separate statement from the Dax diocese said the resignation was over the bishop’s behaviour with young people.

“For several weeks in the Dax diocese, rumours persisted over the bishop’s inappropriate pastoral behaviour,” the church statement said, adding that that they had been brought to the attention of church authorities.

Pope Francis accepted Gaschignard’s resignation, it added.

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FRANCE
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — The French Catholic Church says that a French bishop has resigned at the Vatican’s suggestion because of accusations of an “inappropriate pastoral attitude.”

The French Conference of Bishops said in a statement that Pope Francis accepted Monsignor Herve Gaschignard’s resignation Thursday, noting the “gravity” of the situation.

It said concerns about the bishop had been reported to the archbishop for the region, making it difficult for him to continue in his duties. The statement did not elaborate on the accusations against Gaschignard, bishop of Aire and Dax in southwest France.

Catholic newspaper La Croix reported that teen parishioners expressed concern about Gashignard’s behavior and language.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

Gerry O’Shea @IrishCentral April 04, 2017

I recall clearly a shocking conversation that I had about 20 years ago, with a fine man from Tralee, Co. Kerry about the Christian Brothers Industrial School in that town. He recalled that some of the boys confined in the industrial school attended classes with him in The Green, the brothers’ local high school. He remembered that when the final bell rang to end the school day they would bolt for their living quarters because if they tarried at all they claimed they would be beaten.

My other memory of that conversation is much more disturbing. He told me that local people would sometimes hear screams at night from the school. As a teenager, he was surprised by this and asked his father, who worked as a laborer in the town, what was going on to cause such nocturnal cries.

His father replied that such matters were beyond his ability to deal with and that his son was better not talking about them — a very understandable response in those times.

The scene of boys crying out for help to a deaf and seemingly uncaring community in my own county 50 or so years ago, is seared in my memory. The men in clerical robes were paid by the state and honored for their work by the local clergy and dignitaries.

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NEW YORK
Catholic New York

Kevin Gallagher, who had served as a priest of the archdiocese since his ordination in 1998, has been granted a dispensation from the obligations of the clerical state by the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy. This return to the lay state, often referred to as “laicization,” means that Gallagher may not function or present himself as a priest, and he is dispensed from his priestly obligations.

Gallagher was removed from his assignment in 2015 following accusations that he had an improper relationship with a 19-year-old man. The individual who brought the allegation against Gallagher further charged that Gallagher had given him money to purchase heroin.

With his laicization, Gallagher will never again be permitted to serve as a priest in New York or elsewhere.

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OKLAHOMA
News on 6

TULSA, Oklahoma – The Holy See has announced the appointment of Reverend Monsignor Daniel H. Mueggenborg, a pastor of the Parish of Christ the King in the Diocese of Tulsa as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese in Seattle.

Msgr. Mueggenborg, 54, who was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Tulsa in 1989 is the second priest from the Diocese to be appointed bishop.

In 2016, Oklahoma native Msgr. Peter Wells was named Archbishop and appointed Apostolic Nuncio to South Africa.

Monsignor Mueggenborg was born in Okarche. After earning a Geology degree at OSU in 1984, he attended St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana and the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

In a news release, the Tulsa Diocese says following his ordination, Msgr. Mueggenborg has held several assignments in the Tulsa area including Associate Pastor to St. John Before the Latin Gate in Bartlesville and St.Bernard of Clairvaux in Tulsa; teacher and chaplain at Bishop Kelley High School; Parish Administrator at St. Pius X; Pastor of the Church of the Madalene; and Pastor of St.Clement in Bixby.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has appointed as auxiliary bishop of Seattle, United States of America, Msgr. Daniel H. Mueggenborg, of the clergy of Tulsa, currently pastor of the “Christ the King” parish in Tulsa, assigning him the titular see of Tullia.

Msgr. Daniel H. Mueggenborg

Msgr. Daniel H. Mueggenborg was born on 15 April 1962 in Okarche, Oklahoma, in the diocese of Tulsa. After attending the Holy Trinity School in Okarche, and the St. Francis Xavier School, the Stillwater Middle School and the C.E. Donart High School in Stillwater, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in geology from the Oklahoma State University in 1984. He then studied philosophy at the St. Meinrad Seminary in St. Meinrad, Indiana (1984-1985) and theology at the Pontifical North American College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he obtained a licentiate in biblical theology in 1994.

He was ordained a priest on 14 July 1989 for the diocese of Tulsa.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

edited by the Central Office of Church Statistics of the Secretariat of State

The Pontifical Yearbook 2017 and the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2015, compiled and edited by the Central Office of Church Statistics, are currently being distributed in bookstores.

Both volumes were printed by the Vatican Press.

The data shown in the Pontifical Yearbook enable some new developments to be inferred in relation to the life of the Catholic Church in the world, from 2016.

During this period four new Episcopal sees, one Eparchy, two Apostolic Exarchates and one Ordinariate were erected, and an Apostolic Exarchate was elevated to an Eparchy.

The statistical data of the Annuarium Statisticum, which refer to the year 2015, provide a summary overview of the main trends affecting the development of the Catholic Church in the world.

The following describes the evolving trends in the five year period just ended, both of baptized Catholics and of the clergy, professed men religious other than priests, professed women religious and the number of priestly vocations. In order to facilitate an appreciation of the genuine granularity of the data, the information is provided on a global level as well as for the single geographical area. On the contrary, to filter for effects attributable solely to demographic trends, the time series are related to the number of inhabitants in the area. In this paper, the data of 2015, as well as being systematically compared to those of the previous year, are also compared with those of the five-year period that began in 2010, with the aim of extrapolating the evolutionary dynamics prevalent in the medium term. The time frame considered covers a total of the last two years of the pontificate of Pope Benedict and the first three years of the pontificate of Pope Francis, with important information about the Catholic Church in the new millennium.

The number of baptized Catholics has continued to grow globally, from 1,272 million in 2014 to 1,285 million in 2015, with a relative increase of 1 %. This represents a total of 17.7% of the total population. If a medium term perspective is adopted, for example with reference to 2010, a more robust growth of 7.4% is shown. The dynamic of this increase varies from continent to continent: while, indeed, in Africa there is an increase of 19.4%, with the number of Catholics passing from 186 to 222 million in the same period, in Europe there is instead a situation of stability (in 2015 Catholics amounted to almost 286 million, whereas in 2019 there were just over 800 thousand fewer, and 1.3 million fewer compared to 2014). This stasis is due to the well-noted demographic situation, in which the population is in slight increase and is expected to decline sharply in the coming years. Intermediate situations with respect to the two described above are found in America and Asia, where the growth of Catholics is certainly important (respectively + 6.7% and 9.1%), but in line with the demographic trend of these two continents. Stagnation, obviously with lower values, is also typical of Oceania.

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AUSTRALIA
Richard Sipe

17. The plaintiff met Fr. Knowles in 1973 when she was just 19 years old. He is seven years older than she. He was working as a priest at the church where she worshipped. Fr. Knowles gradually cultivated and promoted a friendship with Ms. Herrick. An initial incident occurred in 1973 while she was driving Fr. Knowles at his behest as a chaplain to a youth retreat. He stroked her leg in the car. During the incident she stated that she was surprised and it made her jump.

The next, overt sexual incident took place in 1976. She was involved in an auto accident and was recuperating at her parents’ home. Knowles went to visit her. They were alone and he pushed himself against her and kissed her. After the incident she stated that she was confused and startled. The next incident happened in 1977 when Ms Herrick was living in Harrington. On this occasion Knowles went to visit her at her small cottage and ended up staying the night. She at first thought he would stay in a guest room to which she directed him. He ended up entering her bedroom in the early morning, got into bed with her and attempted to have sexual intercourse.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisches

von Ferdinand Boischot

In den letzten 50 Jahren wurde die katholische Kirche verheert durch eine gewaltige Welle von pädophilem und ephebophilem Mißbrauch durch kirchliche Angestellten und Würdenträger.

Es wurden über lange Zeit, und teils sehr intensiv, unglaubliche Abscheulichkeiten begangen, die im totalen Gegensatz zu den Worten Unseres Herrn Jesus Christus stehen. Besonders kraß ist dabei die Einbettung der Täter in große Netzwerke und der Schutz der Täter durch Obstruktion auf vielen Ebenen der kirchlichen Hierarchie.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Stadt Zeitung

[Twenty-seven allegations of child abuse. Now the prosecutor brings charges against Zen priests from the district of Augsburg.]

Nach neun Monaten Untersuchungshaft hat die Staatsanwaltschaft nun Anklage erhoben gegen einen 61-jährigen Zen-Priester aus dem Landkreis Augsburg. Es geht um insgesamt 27 Fälle von Kindesmissbrauch. Zudem soll der Mann Kinderpornos besessen haben. Er hat die Taten teilweise eingeräumt.

Im Detail hat die Staatsanwaltschaft Anklage unter anderem wegen schweren sexuellen Missbrauchs in fünf Fällen, wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs in 22 Fällen und wegen Besitzes kinder- und jugendpornographischer Schriften zum Landgericht Augsburg – Jugendkammer als Jugendschutzgericht – erhoben.

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CHILE
Welt

[A nun is raped in the monastery and nine months later she brings a child into the world. Now she complains. The young woman from Chile also makes a serious complaint to her former fellow-sisters.]

Von Tobias Käufer, Bogota | Stand: 05.04.2017

Es war nur eine Nacht, die das Leben von Schwester Franziska, 35, für immer verändern sollte. Die junge Ordensschwester verbrachte sie im Kloster Santísima Trinidad (zu Deutsch: Heilige Dreifaltigkeit) der Klarissen-Kapuzinerinnen im Herzen von Santiago de Chile. Vier Jahre ist das nun her. Schwester Franziska war damals zu krank, um das Gebäude zu verlassen, und sie entschied sich, im Kloster zu übernachten.

Dort waren auch einige Handwerker untergebracht, deren Aufgabe es war, die in die Jahre gekommene Elektrik des Bauwerks zu reparieren. Franziska sollte die Männer während der Arbeiten tagsüber verpflegen. Doch aus der Zusammenarbeit wurde ein Albtraum.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue

To the media in Ireland and England, and to some outlets in the United States, Catherine Corless is an Irish hero, a brave woman who uncovered a “mass grave” outside a Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland. She has been lavishly praised for her painstaking research, making her the most celebrated historian in Ireland today. But before she is canonized St. Catherine of Tuam by her faithful fans, it behooves us to examine her bona fides, and her story.

The first myth concerns her expertise. Contrary to what virtually all news reports have said, Corless is not a historian: she not only does not have a Ph.D. in history, she doesn’t have an undergraduate degree. She is a typist. Her part-time course on historical research may impress some, but to those who know better, a high school equivalency diploma carries more weight.

This does not mean she is dumb—many secretaries are brighter than the professors they serve. Nor does this disqualify her from making a contribution to historical events. But she is no historian.

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CANADA
Yahoo! News

The Canadian Press
April 5, 2017

OTTAWA — Conservative Sen. Lynn Beyak, who famously declared “some good” came out of Canada’s residential schools, has been kicked off the Senate’s committee on Aboriginal Peoples.

Jake Enwright, a spokesperson for interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, confirmed the decision in a statement late Wednesday.

“Ms. Ambrose has been clear that Sen. Beyak’s views do not reflect the Conservative party’s position on residential schools,” Enwright said.

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission spent six years examining the legacy of the government-funded, church-operated schools, infamous hotbeds of abuse and mistreatment that operated from the 1870s to 1996.

The Conservatives were in power in 2008 when the federal government delivered an abject apology in the House of Commons to families and survivors, a fact not lost on Enwright.

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NEBRASKA
3 News Now

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A bill that would lift the statute of limitations for child abuse sex victims to sue perpetrators has won first-round approval in the Nebraska Legislature.

Lawmakers advanced the measure with a 29-3 vote.

Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha says ending the statute of limitations is important because child sex abuse victims sometimes repress their memories or feel too ashamed to talk about what they experienced until later in life.

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ROME
Crux

Austen Ivereigh April 6, 2017
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

The breakaway traditionalist group the Society of St. Pius X is rumored to be closer than ever to coming back into full communion with the Catholic Church. But recent revelations on how the SSPX has handled sex abuse allegations should cause the Vatican to put a halt to any proposed reconciliation, until there can be a guarantee that child safety norms are followed.

In the will-they-won’t-they saga of the traditionalist breakaway group SSPX reconciling with Rome, there always seems to be a last-minute snag or ugly revelation that scuppers the deal.

The most recent was in March 2012, when the Society of Pius X, a wealthy schismatic group with 600 priests in 37 countries, rejected Benedict XVI’s offer of an Opus Dei-type personal prelature in exchange for accepting certain criteria for the interpretation of Catholic doctrine.

SSPX, which regards as heresy the Second Vatican Council’s teachings on religious freedom and other faiths, demanded, as it always does, that if Rome wanted them back, they would have to take them as they were. And to make clear this wasn’t just an argument about the 1960s, they cited Benedict’s hosting of an inter-religious summit in Assisi and even his beatification of Pope John Paul II as additional stumbling blocks.

The traditionalists’ current leader, Archbishop Bernard Fellay, declared at the time that “it is our duty to continuously go [to Rome], knock at the door, and not beg that we may enter – because we are in – but beg that they may convert; that they may change and come back to what makes the Church.”

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NEW ZEALAND
NZ Catholic

By Michael Otto – April 6, 2017

A New Zealand Catholic Church official has suggested that priests accused of sex abuse would be better dealt with regionally, rather than their cases being referred to Rome.

Bill Kilgallon, the national director of the National Office for Professional Standards in New Zealand, was one of several members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to appear before a hearing of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on February 23 in Sydney.

Mr Kilgallon responded to an invitation to comment on how well the process of referring accused Catholic priests to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith works.

He described the process as “slow”, adding that “there are systems that could be improved considerably”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

REBEKAH ISON AND JAMIE MCKINNELL
Australian Associated Press
April 6, 2017

The response of Perth’s outgoing Anglican Archbishop to child sexual abuse allegations was “weak, ineffectual, and showed no regard for the need to protect children”, the royal commission has been told.

In submissions published on Thursday, counsel assisting Naomi Sharp said Archbishop Roger Herft had mishandled complaints about senior and domineering priests Graeme Lawrence and Peter Rushton when he was head of the Newcastle diocese between 1993 and 2005.

“His response was weak, ineffectual and showed no regard for the need to protect children from the risk that they would be preyed upon,” she told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the submissions.

“It was a failure of leadership.”

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held hearings into the Newcastle Anglican diocese last year.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Of the four reviews published by the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children that of the Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd congregation is far and away the best.

Conducted in December 2015, it was found to be almost totally compliant with the board’s child safeguarding standards.

The congregation was found to have partially met two requirements out of six under the board’s “Communicating the Church’s Safeguarding Message” standard.

Authorities

Five abuse allegations, which include complaints, expressions of concern and one allegation of emotional abuse, were made against five members of the congregation between January 1st, 1975 and December 2015. Two of those sisters are still living. All allegations had been reported to relevant authorities.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Freya McClements

A woman who was sexually abused by serial paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth in the United States has condemned the Catholic Church for its “disturbing” failure to change its ways.

“It’s all nothing more than window dressing to me. They haven’t taken real action. Release the files, prosecute the predators, and compensate the victims,” said Helen McGonigle, reacting to the latest Irish inquiry reports.

She was raped and sexually assaulted by Fr Smyth in the 1960s in Rhode Island in the US, in a school, a church basement and his car, when she was aged between six and nine-years-old. He also assaulted her mother after he was sent back to the Rhode Island parish following church-ordered treatment in hospital in Ireland.

A review of four institutions by the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children carried out in 2015/16 was published on Wednesday.

It found that in regard to the De La Salle Brothers, the Norbertines and the Nazareth Sisters “their performance in the recent past does not demonstrate any real change from their historical behaviour in terms of ensuring good safeguarding practice or putting in place effective pastoral responses to complainants who have made allegations of abuse”.

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IRELAND
The Times (UK)

Seán McCárthaigh
April 6 2017
The Times

Three religious orders whose members were linked to more than 500 allegations of child abuse have been criticised by a church oversight body for showing no discernible change in attitude to child protection until very recently.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) said in a review published yesterday that the De La Salle Brothers, the Norbertines and the Sisters of Nazareth had demonstrated weak and occasionally poor practice in the implementation of child protection standards introduced in 2009. “Their performance in the recent past does not demonstrate any real change from their historical behaviour in terms of ensuring good safeguarding practice or putting in place effective pastoral responses to complainants who have made allegations of abuse,” the board said.

It said that the records used by the three congregations were not well maintained which had made the task of reviewing their compliance with child protection standards more difficult.

Publication of the review had been postponed by two years due to the historical institutional abuse inquiry in Northern Ireland which completed its work in January. Among the issues investigated by the inquiry was the case of Brendan Smyth, a Norbertine priest, who was one of the most notorious paedophile priests in recent decades until his arrest in 1994.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Catholic Church-backed watchdog on child sexual abuse has said the global leadership of the Norbertine order, of which the paedophile priest Brendan Smyth was a member, has failed to respond to its correspondence over the past three years.

Speaking after the publication of reviews of child safeguarding which found that three of four religious orders investigated have not really changed their performance in dealing with abuse, Teresa Devlin, chair of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, said she will be writing to the Abbot Superior of the order again.

The NBSCCCI criticises the De La Salle Brothers, the Norbertine order of priests and the Nazareth Sisters for failing to put in place effective pastoral responses to people who have alleged they were abused by members of the congregations.

However, it says that in the past year the De La Salle Brothers and Nazareth Sisters have engaged more fully with the NBSCCCIto improve the situation.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, April 06, 2017

Three religious orders, including notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth’s Norbertines, have shown no “real change from their historical behaviour” in terms of safeguarding children, writes Conall Ó Fatharta.

A series of reports by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCI) severely criticises three of the four orders reviewed.

The performances in the recent past of the De La Salle Brothers, the Norbertine order of priests, and the Nazareth Sisters are criticised for failing to “demonstrate any real change from their historical behaviour, in terms of ensuring good safeguarding practice or putting in place effective pastoral responses to complainants who have made allegations of abuse”.

The NBSCCI notes that, across the three orders, the case management records were “poor or non-existent” and responses to allegations of abuse were driven by legal advisers and lacked any pastoral approach.

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR

As a professor, I like to use Facebook as an extension of my classroom, a place where I can offer interesting articles and challenging discussions. Because the Facebook Live rape case and other events have put sexual assault and predatory behavior all over the news lately, I recently posted this question:

“What do you wish people knew/understood about experiencing sexual assault?”

Given the private nature of the question and the public nature of the medium, I anticipated only a handful of responses. I was astonished that dozens and dozens of people responded, whether directly on the thread or in private messages. (I should also note that I know most of the respondents in real life, including many who have been my students.) Their comments altogether filled up 60 pages.

I was surprised—and yet not surprised. A few years ago, I conducted a similar informal survey on Twitter by sharing the story of being stalked by my high school teacher and using the hashtag #howoldwereyou. It generated an equally tremendous response. In my research for a related essay, I learned the sobering statistics about childhood sexual abuse: 7 percent of girls in grades 5–8 and 12 percent of girls in grades 9–12 report having been sexually abused, along with 3 percent of boys grades 5–8 and 5 percent of boys in grades 9–12. The numbers for sexual assault are only worse for adults, and college students are particularly vulnerable. The University of Texas at Austin recently released a report indicating that 15 percent of its female undergraduate students have been raped.

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OKLAHOMA
Duncan Banner

By Charlene Belew The Duncan Banner

On Wednesday, April 5, Jody Hilliard, a former assistant pastor from Duncan, waived his right to a speedy trial in a case which Hilliard allegedly committed lewd or indecent acts to a child under age 12.

According to court documents obtained from the Stephens County Courthouse, Hilliard, the defendant, requested and was met without objection on continuing his case and waiving speedy trial. His court date is set for Sept. 18, 2017. Docket call will be Aug. 28, 2017.

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 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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GEORGIA
Golden Isles News

By WES WOLFE wwolfe@goldenisles.news

Wednesday at the Glynn County Courthouse, A.J. testified he and his girlfriend T.V. began being openly flirty at church after they had been romantically intimate for the first time. He said the Rev. Kenneth Adkins noticed this behavior, and that was when Adkins asked the then-15-year-old whether the two were having sex, and whether they were being careful not to get her pregnant.

A.J., whose is not being identified because he is allegedly a sexual abuse victim, testified that not long after, Adkins offered up his office as a venue and offered to observe the couple, making sure that “they were doing it right.”

“It was awkward,” A.J. said, “but I felt it was the right thing at the time.”

Adkins is on trial on child molestation charges regarding alleged illegal acts conducted between him, A.J. and T.V. between 2009 and 2010.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Kevin Magee
BBC News NI investigations reporter

Police and prosecution services have been criticised for not bringing a paedophile to justice when he confessed to his crimes in the 80s.

Retired church pastor Henry Clarke, 75, confessed to abusing three different boys at care homes in Northern Ireland.

One of his victims has said his abuser should stand trial now.

A child protection expert has said he should not have been allowed to get away with the crimes, and that police had enough to pursue a prosecution.

“In this incidence you had an admission, so you didn’t have… to worry that the allegation was old, and the evidence may be stale,” said Jim Gamble, a former senior officer with the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
6 Apr 2017

FORMER Newcastle Anglican Bishop Roger Herft’s response to child sexual abuse allegations was “weak, ineffectual and showed no regard for the need to protect children from the risk that they would be preyed upon,” counsel assisting the royal commission has found in a final submission.

“It was a failure of leadership,” said counsel assisting Naomi Sharp, in a 276-page submission released on Thursday.

Ms Sharp named defrocked former Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, business manager Peter Mitchell, diocese solicitor and trustee Keith Allen and diocesan deputy chancellor Paul Rosser, QC, as part of a “network of long term diocesan ‘insiders’” during Bishop Herft’s tenure from 1993 to 2005.

They “worked together to frustrate efforts by other leaders, including the bishop, to deal with the sexual abuse of children by priests and others within the diocese”, Ms Sharp said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

A counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has taken aim at several former Newcastle Anglican bishops, concluding one was “weak and ineffectual on child sexual abuse”.

In its Newcastle and Sydney hearings in 2016, the royal commission heard claims of paedophile networks and cover ups during its probe into Newcastle’s Anglican Diocese.

The royal commission today published the written submissions for the public hearings into the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.

In her submission, counsel assisting the royal commission, Naomi Sharp, made nearly 150 observations known as ‘available findings’ in the report.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

6 Apr 2017

ON June 25 the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle will mark its 170th anniversary.

On that day in 1847 the church – almost certainly with high hopes for the future – established a base in the Hunter region, and became one of its most influential players.

Christchurch Cathedral’s dominance on the Newcastle skyline attests to the significance of the church in the region, and the esteem in which it has been held.

If there were plans to mark the 170th anniversary in a celebratory mood, they’ve probably been quietly shelved. The day should be marked because the Anglican Church has contributed much to the Hunter, but not with a celebration. By June the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will have published its final report into how Newcastle Anglican Diocese responded to child sex allegations.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
April 6 2017

Three religious congregations have been severely criticised for their child-safeguarding practices by the child protection watchdog.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children found the Norbertine order, the De La Salle brothers and the Sisters of Nazareth required “urgent corrective action” in their protection of children.

Notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth was a member of the Norbertines. The audit of the Norbertines, who were formerly based at Kilnacrott Abbey in Co Cavan, was published by the National Board (NBSCCCI) on Tuesday. Reviewers refer to the order as “notorious” for its “mismanagement” of Smyth, who died in prison in 1997.

Criticising the Nobertines’ “significant history of poor child-safeguarding practice”, the child protection watchdog reveals it looked at a total of 103 child safeguarding concerns or allegations in relation to four Norbertine priests.

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CALIFORNIA
Your Central Valley

[with video]

By: Eric Luttrell

Fresno State Athletic director Jim Bartko is sharing his own story of childhood sexual abuse. Bartko is speaking at a “sexual assault awareness month” event. It’s his first public appearance since he spoke with the media back in january.

Bartko sat down with Eyewitness News before he took the stage. He told us he’ll be talking about his guilt, and what suppressing those feelings did to him. Bartko did seek help, something he says, he’ll be urging the students to do.Bartko’s own story has already resonated with many. He says, he still gets letters from around the country.

Bartko says, he was abused by a childhood priest and coach at age 7. He says that abuse continued two years. The priest involved was based out of Oakland and was convicted and served time for lewd and lascivious acts. Still, Bartko says the guilt and shame stayed with him, for 44 years. ” Hopefully people can say, if he can talk about it, we can talk about it and hopefully it will save someone and their emotions, whether it’s sexual assault, rape, what I went through with the priest, or whatever it might be, hopefully, there’s all different forms of it, and tonight it’s all about that, and that’s what it should be about”, according to Bartko.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

Updated: Apr 06, 2017

By Krystal Paco

The numbers are climbing. “I don’t know when the end is for the number of suits coming forward,” said Archbishop Michael Byrnes. “We’ll deal with them as they come. And our prayers multiply.” The coadjutor notes the litany of lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana, both in local and federal courts.

The archbishop attended today’s Child Abuse Prevention and Sexual Assault Awareness Month resolution and proclamation signing, where it was evident – this is an islandwide problem. “I was encouraged today by seeing a community-wide awareness to this,” His Excellency shared with KUAM News. “We’ve become very aware in the church and just knowing that we’re not alone in that awareness is a big help.”

Yet another filing was made on Thursday in the Superior Court of Guam, this time from a former altar boy at the Nuestra Senora de las Aguas Church in Mongmong. Only identified by his initials “D.C.”, he alleges he was sexually molested by his priest, Father Antonio Cruz in the late 1950s when he was 13 or 14 years old. The plaintiff alleges the priest groomed him for the sexual assault to come – complimenting him and allowing him to drink communion wine.

He alleges the priest took him on a car ride, but parked hidden in the jungle stating “I want something from you.” He alleges the priest asked him about his experiences with girls and performed oral sex on him. The priest would later bribe him not to tell anyone. D.C. quit as an altar boy and stopped attending mass. Cruz passed away in 1986.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon |For The Guam Daily Post Apr 6, 2017

A former altar boy alleges his was sexually abused by a priest in the late 1950s and then bribed to keep quiet.

A lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Superior Court by an individual with the initials, “D.C.” to protect his identity, accuses Father Antonio Cruz of sexual abuse when he was the parish priest at Nuestra Senora De Las Aguas Church in Mongmong.

He is represented by a team of attorneys including Attorney Anthony C. Perez, the James, Vernon and Weeks law firm in Washington, and Attorney Randall Rosenberg in Hawaii.

“D.C.” was raised as a devout Catholic and had been serving as an altar boy since he was six years old. He was one of two altar boys serving along with Anthony Sablan Apuron before he became an ordained priest on Guam and later the Archbishop of the Agana Archdicoese.

The lawsuit alleges Cruz “groomed” the plaintiff by pretending to have a good relationship with him by complimenting him, permitting him to drink communion wine and fully trusting in him.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
6 Apr 2017

SYSTEMIC issues in Newcastle Anglican diocese allowed a network of child sex perpetrators to operate within the diocese for more than 30 years, counsel assisting the royal commission, Naomi Sharp, said in a final submission released on Thursday.

Central figures during that period included child sex offender priest Peter Rushton and defrocked former Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence, who enlisted the support of senior diocese clergy and lay members to remain dominant.

People who reported allegations of child sexual abuse to senior clergy were treated as if they had fabricated the allegations, and were sometimes threatened with legal action, Ms Sharp said.

Child sex allegations were not reported to police; there was “permissive and timid leadership by successive bishops”, and there was an “over-reliance on the perceived honesty of alleged perpetrators when confronted with allegations.

“There was a lack of turnover of those in positions of governance within the diocese, leading to entrenched positions, conflicts of interest and a narrowed pool of expertise,” Ms Sharp said.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com April 6, 2017

A man who was an altar boy with Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron in Mongmong in the late 1950s became the 46th person to file a Guam clergy sex abuse lawsuit.

A man identified in court documents only by his initials, “D.C.,” to protect his privacy, alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the late Father Antonio Cruz sexually abused him in 1957 or 1958, when he and Apuron were the only two altar boys at Nuestra Senora De Las Aguas in Mongmong. D.C. was only 13 or 14 years old at the time.

While D.C. quit being an altar boy after Cruz allegedly sexually abused him, Apuron went on to become an ordained priest and Guam’s archbishop for nearly 31 years.

Apuron, who’s identified Cruz as his mentor, is undergoing a Vatican canonical penal trial and is facing civil lawsuits allegedly for raping or sexually abusing four altar boys in the 1970s when he was a parish priest in Agat.

D.C., represented attorney Anthony C. Perez, filed the case in the Superior Court of Guam against the Archdiocese of Agana and up to 20 others who may have helped conceal or cover up the sexual abuse. Cruz, who died in 1986 at the age of 62, is one of eight Guam clergy who were named in the 46 lawsuits filed so far in local and federal court.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The donations were to be used to assist in the litigation of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary dispute.

Guam – The Concerned Catholics of Guam has announced that it will give its donors a refund of their donations.

In a release, CCOG said that it no longer needs the money donated to them for the purpose of litigating the return of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary. The grassroots catholic organization received over $52,000 in donations from over 300 donors to cover legal expenses in “researching the clandestine transaction and determining the legal options CCOG had to secure the return of the property.”

Of that amount, less than $40,000 was spent. The savings was realized when Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes stepped in and abolished the RMS boards, amended the articles of incorporation and got rid of a controversial deed restriction that gave the property away.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published the written submissions for the public hearing into the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle today.

The public hearing was held in Newcastle in August 2016 and in Sydney in November 2016.

It inquired into the experiences of survivors of child sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and lay people involved in or associated with the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.

Read the submissions.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

Archbishop Anthony Apuron, whose administrative authority has been removed in light of decades-old sex-abuse allegations, filed court papers yesterday asking for the dismissal of cases filed against him.

Apuron was accused of child sexual abuse which allegedly took place in the 1970s when he was the parish priest for Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Agat. His accusers are four former altar boys from the Agat parish, including Walter Denton, Roland Sonia and Roy Quintanilla. Mary Jane Quinata Cruz also sued Apuron in her capacity as the administrator of alleged abuse victim Joseph Quinata’s estate.

Apuron’s motions to dismiss states, in part, that the allegations of sex abuse filed by former altar boys against him are past the legal time limit to file cases, and further states that the law which granted the filing of the cases in the first place is “inorganic,” or unlawful under the Organic Act of Guam.

The motions in the four cases were filed on behalf of Apuron in his personal capacity. Attorney Jacqueline Terlaje filed the motions for Apuron.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
Ottawa Bureau
Wed., April 5, 2017

OTTAWA—Sen. Lynn Beyak, who stirred controversy for saying there was an “abundance of good” in the residential school system has been removed from the Senate committee that oversees aboriginal issues.

Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose made the move Wednesday after continued pressure from critics who wanted Beyak, a Conservative senator, off the committee, even out of the Senate entirely.

“Ms. Ambrose has been clear that Sen. Beyak’s views do not reflect the Conservative Party’s position on residential schools,” Jake Enwright, press secretary for Ambrose, said in a statement that tried to distance the party from the controversy.

“It was prime minister Stephen Harper who made an historic apology to the victims of residential schools and launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” Enwright said.

In a speech on March 7, Beyak highlighted what she called the “somewhat different side of the residential school story.”

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CANADA
Global News

OTTAWA – Conservative Sen. Lynn Beyak, who famously declared “some good” came out of Canada’s residential schools, has been removed from the Senate’s committee on aboriginal peoples.

A spokesperson for interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose says the senator’s controversial comments do not reflect the party’s position on residential schools.

Earlier this week, an indigenous senator who sits on the committee said she would boycott its meetings as long as Beyak was still a member.

Sen. Sandra Lovelace Nicholas says she was “shocked and dismayed” by her Senate colleague’s remarks

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., March 30, 2017

Once again Bishop James S. Wall and Diocese of Gallup officials have stumbled in their efforts to demonstrate to survivors of clergy sexual abuse that they are genuinely remorseful about the trauma these survivors endured as children and are sincerely interested in helping them find emotional, mental and spiritual healing.

To those not familiar with the vulnerability many clergy sex abuse survivors struggle with, the latest misstep of the Gallup bishop and his chancery officials may not seem like a big deal. The bishop postponed eight healing services for abuse survivors — originally scheduled for January, February and July — and postponed them all to March 2018. So what’s the problem with that?

Events get canceled and postponed all the time. That’s life.

Actually, there are a lot of problems with that, and it is disheartening that diocesan officials are oblivious to them.

Someone who has worked with many clergy abuse survivors offered this insight: Although canceling and rescheduling healing services may seem like a simple administrative function for the bishop and his staff, it oftentimes carries much more meaning for survivors of abuse. Survivors often struggle with trusting others, especially the Catholic Church, so when Wall unilaterally cancels healing services and fails to fulfill his promise, it is a reminder that bishops and priests cannot be trusted. Another way to think about the lengthy postponements is to reframe them in personal terms. Suppose you have deeply hurt a family member and come to the realization that a face-to-face apology is necessary. You contact that family member, tell them you would like to meet them in person to apologize and then set up an appointment. However, something interferes with that date and you have to reschedule. Wouldn’t you reschedule as soon as possible to demonstrate your sincerity? On the other hand, if you told them you couldn’t meet until the following year, what would be the message you are giving them?

That is the same message many abuse survivors received loud and clear from Wall’s postponements.

So what should Wall have done differently?

First, he shouldn’t have canceled the healing service in St. Johns, Arizona, when it was scheduled the same evening as his Mardi Gras fundraiser celebration in Gallup. Yes, the Mardi Gras event raises a lot of money for the diocese each year. But by canceling the healing service, Wall chose money over people. What if Wall had instead asked a fellow bishop to be his stand-in at the Mardi Gras fundraiser so he could minister to the needs of abuse survivors in St. Johns? Had Wall done that, he would have garnered both good publicity and goodwill.

Secondly, Wall shouldn’t have postponed his upcoming healing services in Overgaard and Snowflake, Arizona, originally set for July, just so he can deliver a speech at the annual Tekakwitha Conference. Wall’s opportunity to live up to his promise to abuse survivors shouldn’t have been easily pushed aside for a conference that is held each year. One local abuse survivor contacted the Independent and raised the following question: Why it is so important for Wall to deliver a speech to Native Americans in South Dakota, but it is not so important for him to deliver a promise to local abuse survivors, some of whom are Native American?

Thirdly, Wall and his chancery staff should have rescheduled the eight postponed healing services sooner and in a more sensibly paced way. According to the healing services schedule, the bishop is not offering any services this month, he is only holding one in April, and for the remaining months he has only one to three services per month. Yet he has scheduled the eight postponed services all into a 17-day period in March 2018? Couldn’t those eight services been rescheduled in a more evenly spaced way over the upcoming months?

Those eight services now appear to be simply an inconvenience to the bishop’s important schedule — something to push aside, cram together and hurriedly get through.

It should be noted that during the healing services Wall has held thus far, he has offered this apology: “I apologize in the name of the church for failing to minister to you in a way that was respectful to your human dignity.”

In light of the sloppy and inconsiderate way these eight healing services have been canceled and postponed, the bishop’s apology to abuse survivors rings hollow.

In this space only does the opinion of the Gallup Independent Editorial Board appear.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Magazine

By Victor Fiorillo | April 5, 2017

It’s not every day that a person charged with a federal crime picks up the phone, so Wednesday was a bit unusual in that regard. We called Villa St. Joseph, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s retirement home in Delaware County, to find out whether administrators there had any comment about the charges against the home’s rector — and the rector himself picked up the phone.

“I don’t have any comment about that,” Monsignor William Dombrow told us before ending the call.

On Wednesday, the United States Attorney for Philadelphia charged Dombrow, 77, with four counts of wire fraud, alleging that he fraudulently diverted $535,258 in funds to an account at Sharon Savings Bank under his control. The scheme allegedly took place between 2007 and 2016, all while Dombrow was a monsignor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the rector for Villa St. Joseph, where good priests go to retire and priests who have admitted to committing sexual abuse have been sent for a “prayer and penance” program.

According to prosecutors, the funds in question came primarily from estates and life-insurance policies. They were supposed to be directed to accounts under the control of the Archdiocese and Catholic Human Services, but instead, Dombrow allegedly took them for his personal use.

The charging documents point to four specific transactions in which Dombrow is said to have diverted checks for his own purposes: In 2013, a $10,000 from Beneficial Bank; in 2014, a $25,000 check from Wells Fargo Bank; in 2015, a $14,410 check from Citizens Bank, and, most recently, a 2016 check from the Bank of America for $10,000.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

by Jeremy Roebuck, STAFF WRITER @jeremyrroebuck | jroebuck@phillynews.com

The rector of an Archdiocesan retirement home for aging priests was charged Wednesday with embezzling more than a half million dollars from the facility to cover his tastes for fancy dinners, Philadelphia Pops concerts, and local casinos.

Federal prosecutors accused Msgr. William A. Dombrow, 77, of siphoning funds for nearly nine years from a private account set up to support the Villa St. Joseph, the facility in Darby that also houses priests that have been accused of sexual abuse.

Much of the money that flowed into that account came from the life insurance payouts of priests who had died while residing there or bequests from the estates of parishioners who intended to support the facility.

The theft was discovered, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella said, after the bank which administered the account flagged several suspicious payments and deductions at Harrah’s Casino in Chester and notified the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PhillyVoice

BY JERRY GAUL
PhillyVoice Staff

A monsignor with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is facing fraud charges for allegedly embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from retired priests, federal prosecutors said.

Monsignor William Dombrow, 77, of Darby, was charged Wednesday with four counts of wire fraud, Acting U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen announced.

According to court documents, Dombrow was the rector of Villa Saint Joseph, a Delaware County facility which serves as a retirement home for retired priests. From December 2007 through May 2016, Dombrow allegedly directed $535,258.11 in donations from wills and life insurance policies to a bank account that only he controlled. The funds were intended for the Archdiocese.

Dombrow is currently on administrative leave by the Archdiocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The rector of a church-owned retirement home for Roman Catholic priests has been charged with embezzling $535,000 to pay for casino visits, high-end dinners and Philadelphia Pops concerts.

Federal prosecutors have charged Msgr. William A. Dombrow with skimming money for nearly nine years from an account meant to support Villa St. Joseph.

The Philadelphia archdiocese runs the facility to house aging priests and those accused of sexual abuse. Much of the stolen money came from insurance payments for priests who died and from parishioners who left the facility money.

Authorities say the 77-year-old Dombrow had sole access to the account.

Dombrow has been charged by way of a criminal information, which often means a defendant is cooperating. His attorney hasn’t returned a phone message left Wednesday seeking comment.

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GUAM
James, Vernon & Weeks

CONTACT:
Anthony Perez, sex-abuse attorney, acp@perezlawguam.com; (671) 475-5055 Leander James, sex-abuse attorney, ljames@jvwlaw.net; (208) 667-0683 (cell)
Craig Vernon, sex-abuse attorney, cvernon@jvwlaw.net; (208)-691-2768(cell)
Randal Rosenberg, sex-abuse attorney, randall@rmhlawhawaii.com; (808)536-4270

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MANNETTA STILL AT LARGE AND A RISK TO CHILDREN

As documented at bishop-accountability.org,
http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-M.html, Mannetta continued to abuse children after leaving Guam for Hawaii. He was later transferred to New York.

Mannetta has escaped criminal prosecution for his crimes against children. He is believed to currently reside in Connecticut.

Hagatna, Guam This morning, Attorneys representing two Plaintiffs, M.B and G.G., filed suit against the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Agana seeking justice for sexual abuse occurring in approximately 1986-87. Both Plaintiffs served as altar boys at the Santa Teresita Church, Mangilao, Guam, where Andrew Mannetta (“Father Andy”) was assigned as the Priest. Both say Fr. Mannetta molested them.

According to the Complaints, when Plaintiff M.B. was 13 years old, Father Andy would host “sleep overs” at the rectory for the Santa Teresita altar boys, including M.B.. At these “sleep overs”, Father Andy would commonly ply M.B. and other altar boys with alcohol and have them watch sexual movies. In this setting, Father Andy isolated and sexually abused M.B..

Plaintiff G.G., was approximately 14 years old when Father Andy, under the guise of training G.G. to be a Priest, convinced G.G.’s parents to allow him to move into the rectory. There, in the rectory, Father Andy sexually abused G.G.

Plaintiffs are represented by a team of attorneys, including Anthony C. Perez of Hagatna, Guam, a Hawai’i firm and a Mainland Firm. “I chose a team approach to provide powerful advocacy and resources for clients,” Perez explains. In addition to this lawsuit, this attorney team has previously filed other claims for survivors of sexual abuse under a new law in Guam. Perez commends lawmakers, including Governor Eddie Calvo, for passing this law last September. “Our lawmakers have sent a clear message of zero tolerance for those who prey on the most innocent and vulnerable, and for the institutions that protect these predators and conceal the evidence of their monstrous crimes”, says Perez.

Attorneys Leander James and Craig Vernon of James, Vernon and Weeks, P.A., have represented many hundreds of survivors of clergy abuse across the United States. “M.B.’s and G.G.’s courage to come forward is an example to all those abused by Fr. Andy and other predators,” says James. “Abuse survivors can seek justice and healing. They are not alone. It was not their fault.”

“Father Andy was trusted by Plaintiffs and their parents,” adds Vernon. “He was a Priest. He was supposed to be a holy man of God. For him to commit horrendous acts that destroyed the innocence of young altar boys is the ultimate betrayal of trust.”

Another team attorney, Randall Rosenberg of Honolulu, who has represented many survivors of clergy abuse in Hawaii, notes that Mannetta’s assignment history shows a familiar and disturbing pattern: “This notorious pedophile was shifted from Parish to Parish within Guam, before being transferred to Hawaii. He left a trail of abused and broken children everywhere the Church sent hini, until he was finally defrocked as a Priest around 2002.”

Download the Complaints here:

Download the Complaints here:

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

It is practice when reviews of child protection standards are published by the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children that these are followed by many apologies from the institutions concerned.

These follow a usual formula welcoming the review, apologising for what was uncovered, and assurances that such will never, ever happen again.

Yesterday, the De La Salle Brothers, the Norbertines, the Nazareth Sisters and the Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd congregations followed suit.

The only one worth considering was from the Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd congregation. Their review proved they are serious about child protection.

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IRELAND
The Journal

A REVIEW INTO some religious orders that ran schools in Ireland has found “substantial wrongdoing” with poor reporting practices, poor record keeping, and opportunities missed when it came to safeguarding children.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) similar to the Historical Abuse Inquiry (HIA), had waited until after the HIA had published its report.

The HIA found “unspeakable cruelty and vicious abuse”, and the NBSCCCI found said that their results were in line with the HIA’s.

The report looked at the De la Salle Brothers, Norbertines, Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd and the Sisters of Nazareth.

Teresa Devlin, CEO of the NBSCCCI, said: “Our goal here was not to replicate the work of the HIA, though of course there is some overlap.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A total of 294 physical and emotional abuse allegations were made against 61 Nazareth Sisters, 40 now deceased. None was convicted in the courts. Just 115 were reported to police and health authorities.

Eight of the accused sisters remain in ministry, 13 accused are retired and one has left the congregation.

The Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children was “unable to assess the extent to which the Sisters of Nazareth have dealt with the allegations and concerns that have arisen, due to the unavailability of any contemporaneous case file records”.

Accept severe criticism

Further, the sisters had been “exceptionally slow to take up their responsibility for child safeguarding, and they have to accept severe criticism for this. The first Church guidelines were published in Ireland in 1996, but it was 2015 before the congregation appeared to take any real action; this is completely unacceptable”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children was unequivocal following its review of child protection standards where the De La Salle Brothers were concerned.

“Something has gone badly wrong in relation to how some members of the De La Salle Brothers in Ireland have interpreted their mission to teach and witness to children and so to lead them to God,” it said.

The congregation had been “incomprehensively late for a large religious congregation involved in the provision of schools to produce its first written policy and procedures in 2011. It is noteworthy that the Church in Ireland first iterated guidance on child protection in 1996.”

Child protection policy

It said that “of the 14 schools in which the De La Salle Brothers still have an involvement, four do not have a child protection policy available on their school websites”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

The Sisters of Nazareth and the De La Salle Brothers again issued apologies to those who suffered abuse in their care homes after the latest safeguarding report was published on Wednesday, but the expressions of contrition didn’t wash with some of the people who spent time in these institutions.

Margaret McGuckin says she suffered physical abuse over an eight-year period from 1958 while at a home run by the Sisters of Nazareth on the Ormeau Road in south Belfast. She and her sister and two brothers were taken into care after her mother, as she says, “went walkabout” and a parish priest and welfare officials decided her father could not cope.

One of her brothers, who she says suffered sexual abuse at the De La Salle Rubane House in Kircubbin in Co Down, is still in state care.

As chief spokeswoman for Savia – Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse – and after being heavily involved in the recently concluded Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, she has been very busy for several years. But now she has more time to think.

Before the report was published on Wednesday morning, Ms McGuckin spent time with her therapist, where she learned why all her life she has had an anxious tendency to hold her breath.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent

A British Catholic priest who has been excommunicated twice by different popes is allegedly harbouring clergy accused of sexual abuse in his renegade religious order.

Richard Williamson, who was illicitly ordained as a bishop in 1988 by an ultra-conservative group, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), and later convicted of Holocaust denial by a German court, is now head of the “SSPX Resistance”, based in Broadstairs, Kent.

Two Catholic SSPX priests who have been accused of sexual abuse have found a refuge in Williamson’s breakaway movement, according to an investigative documentary to be aired on Swedish television on Wednesday.

The Golden Jail, made by Ali Fegan, a Swedish journalist whose interview with Williamson about his Holocaust denial was broadcast in 2009, claims that the SSPX protected priests and failed to report claims of abuse to the police or civil authorities. Internal canonical trials of two men – one French, one English – were allegedly conducted with Vatican approval.

The English priest, referred to as Father S, left the SSPX before the conclusion of the trial to join the SSPX Resistance in 2014, going to live in Broadstairs. He declined to speak to the documentary team.

The French priest, Father P, was found guilty and banned from working with children. He joined the SSPX Resistance, and was filmed celebrating mass at a church in Bordeaux last November. He also refused to discuss allegations against him with the TV journalists.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

One of the newest child sexual abuse lawsuits filed yesterday alleges a former Guam priest used his position within the church to molest altar boys from his own parish, and used his post as a Boy Scout troop leader to abuse children from other parishes.

The complaint identifies the plaintiff only as “R.B.” and states the man’s initials are being used “in order to protect his privacy.”

In his complaint, R.B., who currently resides in Hawaii, alleges that in the early 1970s, he and his family were parishioners at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Inarajan, Guam. Because St. Joseph Catholic Church did not have a Boy Scout Troop of its own, R.B. claims that he joined Boy Scout Troop 24, which he alleges was sponsored by San Isidro Parish in Malojloj where former Guam priest Louis Brouillard served as parish priest.

According to Post files, Brouillard served at the Malojloj parish between the late 1960s into the 1970s where he is alleged to have abused at least 16 boys who were either altar servers or members of Boy Scout Troop 24.

R.B. alleges that Brouillard was the Troop leader of Troop 24 and that he used his position as the troop leader to sexually abuse him. For example, R.B. alleges Brouillard would take him and other Boy Scouts on camping trips, and during some of those trips Brouillard would enter R.B.’s tent and sexually abuse him. R.B. claims the abuse occurred in approximately 1972 or 1973, when he was 13 or 14.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

A former priest who worked in Guam and Hawaii “left a trail of abused and broken children” everywhere the Church sent him, said attorneys representing two former altar boys who allege they were sexually abused between 1986 and 1987 by Father Andrew “Andy” Mannetta.

Mannetta, 61, is named for the first time in civil lawsuits filed in the Superior Court of Guam by a team of attorneys, including Attorney Anthony C. Perez, the James, Vernon and Weeks law firm in Washington, and Attorney Randall Rosenberg in Hawaii.

The alleged abuse occurred while the victims were altar boys and Mannetta was the parish priest at Santa Teresita Catholic Church in Mangilao.

One lawsuit, filed by “M.B.,” to protect his identity, alleges that Mannetta hosted “sleep overs” for the altar boys at the Mangilao parish rectory and required the boys to only wear their underwear. The lawsuit alleges that Mannetta would provide alcohol such as communion wine to the boys, display sexually explicit movies and command the boys to give him a group massage.

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By Ken Daley, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

A New Orleans man who is a nationally known Wiccan high priest, musician and author suggested through his attorney Wednesday (April 5) that a bitter ex-wife is responsible for the trove of child pornography videos found on his computer three years ago by Louisiana State Police.

In opening arguments in the child porn case of Kenneth “Kenny” Klein, defense attorney Bradley Phillips told jurors his client’s ex-wife was a software expert and Wiccan high priestess, who with Klein established the nature-worshipping Blue Star tradition of Wicca. Phillips said Klein and Dr. Tzipora Katz, who in the 1980s performed folk music at Pagan festivals and Renaissance fairs under the moniker Kenny and Tzipora, divorced in 1992. Allegations that Klein had sexually molested children and shared child pornography began after their divorce, Phillips said.

“You can’t imagine the hell that this woman has put Kenny Klein through for the last 30 years,” Phillips told the jury. “And remember, computers are not some Fort Knox. They’re not impenetrable.”

He added: “We’re not contesting that these were found on the computer belonging to Kenny Klein. It will horrify you, but you will learn it also horrifies Mr. Klein.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wigan Today

A man who alleges he was sexually abused by a catholic priest nearly 40 years ago has denied that he invented the claims to get compensation.

“No compensation was on my mind – justice was on my mind,” he told a jury today. (Wed)

The alleged victim has claimed that while he was a pupil at St Joseph’s College, a seminary for prospective priests, in Upholland, Father Michael Higginbottom repeatedly seriously sexually assaulted him.

Fr Higginbottom, now aged 74, of West Farm Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court. He denies eight offences alleged to have taken place between September 1978 and March 20, 1979.

The alleged victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told police that for him it was the venue for ‘mental, physical and sexual abuse’, claimed David Temkin, prosecuting.

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SCOTLAND
Holyrood

By examining the current issues and the extent of child abuse in Scotland this event, chaired by Jacquie Roberts OBE, Former Chief Executive, Care Commission, subsequently the Care Inspectorate, will help delegates learn about and discuss the part we must all play in protecting our children and how we can make this a safer place for them to grow up.

Context

With the uncovering of each new scandal of historic child abuse rocking some of the institutions at the heart of our communities and society, the sheer scale of its reach has become horrifyingly clear. What remains to be seen is how we can ensure that the most vulnerable are protected, especially when with those charged with their care.

The Scottish Government is taking their role in this process seriously, having launched the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in 2015 to look at the abuse of children in care. This inquiry is one of the widest ranging inquiries ever held in Scotland.

Following successive high profile cases, victims of child abuse have had the confidence to come forward and ensure the perpetrators pay for their actions, even if that is decades later. This is now showing that the victims will be listened to by authorities and have nothing to fear in coming forward.

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SCHWEIZ
kath.ch

[The Capuchin Joël Allaz was employed in the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva, Freiburg (LGF) at the time when his sexual assaults against Daniel Pittet happened. So far the Capuchins have been the focus of the media. But what role did the bishopric play?]

Zürich, 5.4.17 (kath.ch) Der Kapuziner Joël Allaz war zum Zeitpunkt, als dessen sexuelle Übergriffe gegenüber Daniel Pittet geschahen, im Bistum Lausanne, Genf, Freiburg (LGF) angestellt. Im medialen Fokus standen bisher die Kapuziner. Doch welche Rolle spielte das Bistum nach Bekanntwerden der Übergriffe? Eine Rekonstruktion der Ereignisse.

Sylvia Stam

Wir sprechen vom Jahr 1989. Zu dieser Zeit war Pierre Mamie (+ 2008) Bischof im Bistum LGF, wo der Kapuziner Joël Allaz angestellt war. Jean-Claude Périsset, der heute als Priester im Ruhestand wieder im Bistum LGF lebt, war damals Offizial (Gerichtsvikar) im Bistum und somit für die innerkirchliche Rechtssprechung zuständig. In diesem Jahr, 21 Jahre nach den ersten Übergriffen, informierte Daniel Pittet Périsset über die sexuellen Übergriffe durch Joël Allaz.

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