ABUSE TRACKER

DEUTSCHLAND
Correctiv

[For decades overseers in North Rhine-Westphalian Protestant children’s and youth homes systematically deceived the people entrusted to them. They beat, abused and forced the children to swallow medication for testing purposes. Even today the victims suffer from the consequences.]

Ann-Kathrin Seidel

Über Jahrzehnte misshandelten Aufsichtspersonen in nordrhein-westfälischen Kinder- und Jugendheimen systematisch die ihnen Anvertrauten. Sie prügelten, missbrauchten und zwangen die Kinder, zu Testzwecken Medikamente zu schlucken. Noch heute leiden die Betroffenen unter den Folgen.

Im Sommer 1969 ist Reiner Gläser neun Jahre alt. Bis dahin hat er mit seinen Brüdern bei seinen Eltern in Bliesheim gelebt, vor den Toren Kölns. Jetzt soll er eine Schule für besonders intelligente Kinder besuchen. Er darf sich selbst aussuchen, in welche er möchte. Reiner sieht sich Fotos genau an. Das Gut an der Linde in Moitzfeld, einem Stadtteil von Bergisch Gladbach, fällt ihm gleich ins Auge: Das schwarz-weiße Fachwerkhaus steht inmitten von Wiesen und Feldern. Harmonisch wirkt das auf ihn. Friedlich. Da möchte er hin.

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ITALIA
La Repubblica

[Florence: A former priest convicted of “enslaving” the followers of a sect.]

di FRANCA SELVATICI

La riduzione in schiavitù – uno dei delitti più gravi previsti dal nostro codice – non riguarda solo giovani donne disperate costrette a mendicare o gettate sui marciapiedi, non solo gli immigrati inchiodati per ore nei campi o nei laboratori in condizioni impossibili, né solo le spose bambine. Possono essere ridotti in schiavitù anche uomini e donne con una buona cultura, benestanti, con un lavoro. Può accadere se diventano membri di una setta. E’ quel che ha affermato la corte di assise di Arezzo, che il 12 dicembre scorso, accogliendo la richiesta del pm distrettuale Angela Pietroiusti, ha condannato a 15 anni per riduzione in schiavitù e violenza sessuale l’ex sacerdote Mauro Cioni , 72 anni, e che nelle motivazioni spiega ora le ragioni della condanna, la prima nel suo genere in Toscana.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[The former rector of the seminary of Rubano is on trial for sexual assault of a former student: for the judges there was a “lack of motivation” and the process returns to Court of Appeal.]

L’ex rettore del Seminario di Rubano è a giudizio per violenza sessuale verso un ex allievo: per i giudici c’è stata una «mancanza di motivazioni» e il processo ritorna in Corte d’Appello

di Carlo Bellotto

PADOVA. Doveva essere l’ultimo atto che metteva la parola fine ad anni di accuse infamanti per l’allora rettore del Seminario di Rubano: violenza sessuale verso un suo allievo. Non è stato così.

La Corte di Cassazione ha annullato la sentenza della Corte d’Appello che assolveva don Gino Temporin, rinviandola ad una nuova sezione della Corte d’Appello. Sia la procura generale che l’avvocato Emanuele Fragasso Jr (che tutela la parte offesa, un ragazzo veneziano ora maggiorenne) avevano sostenuto c’era stata una mancanza di motivazioni nella sentenza della Corte d’Appello e che c’era una motivazione manifestamente illogica: ossia veniva riportato che c’erano dubbi sulle accuse mosse dal ragazzo all’epoca tredicenne perchè raccolte quando lo stesso era ricoverato in ospedale e quindi in condizioni psocofisiche provate.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Provolo: Chains and sexual abuse scandal between Verona and Argentina.]

Il direttore dell’istituto per sordomuti ai domiciliari. Mandato di cattura per la suora

VERONA Don Nicola Corradi. Per tentare di sbrogliare la matassa di uno scandalo destinato a rimbalzare per migliaia e migliaia di chilometri, è impossibile prescindere dalla storia di questo sacerdote veronese di 82 anni, ai domiciliari in Argentina. È lui, provato dall’età avanzata e costretto su una sedia a rotelle, la figura cardine della maxi-inchiesta deflagrata lo scorso autunno nel Paese natale di Papa Bergoglio. Un’indagine su una serie di abusi ai danni di una sessantina di alunni che frequentavano la sede di Lujàn dell’Istituto per sordomuti «Antonio Provolo».

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Ceprano – Shocking testimony in court from the boy who accuses the priest of having abused him from an early age, even in the sacristy.]

Ceprano – Sconvolgente deposizione in aula da parte del ragazzo che accusa il sacerdote di avere abusato di lui fin dalla tenera età, anche in sagrestia

Una deposizione fiume. Un atto d’accusa durato due ore e mezza. Nel processo a don Gianni Bekiaris, accusato di violenza sessuale nei confronti di un parrocchiano, sin da quando era in tenera età, è stata sentita la persona offesa, che ora ha 32 anni, ed è rappresentata dall’avvocato Carla Corsetti. Il ragazzo, davanti al tribunale di Frosinone, ha raccontato di aver subito le attenzioni sessuali del sacerdote, sin da quando aveva otto anni fino a 23. Teatro dei fatti, la chiesa di Ceprano.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Civil Society News

David Ainsworth

A judge has dismissed an appeal by trustees of a Jehovah’s Witness charity against a Charity Commission decision to launch a statutory inquiry into safeguarding.

The regulator launched an inquiry into two charities, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain, and the Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in May 2014 to investigate if adequate safeguarding procedures were in place, following revelations that trustees of the charity had allowed a convicted child abuser to question his victims.

Jonathan Rose, an elder of the New Moston congregation, was jailed for nine months for abusing two women when they were young girls.

When he was released, a series of “disfellowship” meetings were held to decide whether Rose should remain a member of the organisation, and the women were asked to recount their ordeal.

At one meeting, Rose was allowed to ask the women questions. Since then the New Moston charity has launched a series of appeals challenging the right of the regulator to launch the inquiry.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

April 6, 2017

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

Four former Salvation Army offic­ers and one soldier have been charged with dozens of physical or sexual assault offences, leading to two of the men being recently convicted while the others are due to face court next month.

That follows the revelation of horrific evidence to the Royal Commission into Institu­tional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about the treatment of children at boys’ homes run by the church across NSW and Queensland.

The Salvation Army said yesterday it was “deeply sorry for the profound impact this abuse and trauma has had on their lives. We also acknowledge we have broken the trust placed in us, which we must now seek to rebuild”.

A spokesman for the church’s eastern territory said it had “implemented significant changes to our protection policies and procedures” since the commission’s hearings and was “not aware” of any other officers or staff current­ly facing criminal charges.

The commission heard 19 Salvation Army officers and employees had allegedly abused children over decades. A dedicated strike force, run by the NSW police Sex Crimes Squad and which has charged two of the men currently before the courts, is ongoing.

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UNITED STATES
Forward

Brocha ShanesCOMMUNITY CONTRIBUTOR

My first confrontation with sexual harassment was not on the streets but within my small Modern Orthodox high school. As I walked down the hallways, its walls decorated with quotes from prominent rabbinical figures and pictures of students bent over Judaic texts, I heard my name being called alongside whistles and jeers, crude language and gestures, and comments on my body and clothes. The harassment even followed me into the classroom, where I had such difficulty concentrating that my grades slipped. Yet while I certainly felt hurt, and scared enough that I avoided interaction with a number of perpetrators as often as possible, I had no language to describe the crimes being committed against me. I had never been given an opportunity to learn about consent; the closest thing to sex-education my high school offered was a three-day series of “kallah classes,” (bridal classes) two of which were spent learning the Jewish laws concerning a married woman’s menstruation and the last of which was spent on a field trip to the mikveh (ritual bath). I had never heard the term sexual harassment, and perhaps more importantly, I had never learned that I had a right to be uncomfortable with it and stand up for myself. Without this understanding, I remained a victim of harassment for years.

An appreciation of both the severity of the sexual crimes one may be committing and that of the crimes committed against them is dependent upon comprehension of bodily autonomy and the constant relevancy of consent. When institutions responsible for educating young people neglect to ensure that they recognize consent or a lack thereof, they indirectly facilitate sexual transgressions. The importance of actively protecting against such ignorance is particularly relevant in light of these students’ age-appropriate vulnerability. Yet my Orthodox school is only one of many that toss the subject out of their curriculum with the rest of sex-ed.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

Clare Quirk
5 Apr 2017

ADVOCATES for sexual assault victims say recent comments by the Catholic Bishop of Ballarat demonstrate the church’s focus is on protecting itself rather than the crimes committed on south-west children.

Bishop Paul Bird refuted calls to remove plaques which include the name of disgraced bishop Ronald Mulkearns. He told The Standard it was important to accurately record historical events where the community had gathered to celebrate with Bishop Mulkearns.

South West Centre Against Sexual Assault manager Mary Clapham said the bishop’s comments had illustrated the difficulty the church had in acknowledging the harm the clergy had done over many decades. She said part of the problem of sexual abuse within institutions was that the hierarchy was much more focused on protecting the church rather than acknowledging the harm and criminality done.

“There is no mention of the children, and many who are now adults, who have been impacted by the sexual offending that has occurred and what’s particularly disappointing is the comments about ‘lets look at the whole person here and remember the good’. I would think that people who have been impacted by sexual abuse would find that quite disturbing.”

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IRELAND
RTE News

Three of the four religious orders, whose reviews of child safeguarding have been published, have not really changed their performance in dealing with abuse, according to the Catholic Church’s abuse watchdog.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Church 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 last year the De La Salle Brothers and Nazareth Sisters have engaged more fully with the NBSCCI to improve the situation.

While the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity the Good Shepherd recently sent a member of staff to learn how to improve individual nuns’ understanding of child safeguarding.

The reviews were carried out last year and in 2015 but publication was deferred because the orders concerned were being investigated by Northern Ireland’s Historical Abuse Inquiry.

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church

Overview of Safeguarding Practice Arising from Four Child Safeguarding

Reviews.

The final four Child Safeguarding Reviews, assessed against the Church’s 2009 Safeguarding Children Standards were conducted in 2015/6, but publication of the resulting Review Reports was deferred due to the statutory Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) taking place in Northern Ireland. The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) agreed not to release the four reports back to the religious orders in question until the HIA had reported.

The four Church Bodies are:

* Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Brothers)
* Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (Norbertines)
* Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd
* Sisters of Nazareth (Irish Region)

Information about the four Orders is already in the public domain through the publication of the HIA Report in January 2017. The Review Reports produced by the NBSCCCI do not seek to replicate or reference the information or findings contained within the HIA Report.

They are instead assessments of practice at the time of each review against the Church’s Child Safeguarding Standards.

Three of the four reports highlight concerns relating to weak or, on occasion, poor practice which require urgent corrective action. In the three Church bodies that those reports cover – the De La Salle Brothers, Norbertines and Nazareth Sisters – the records relied on were not well maintained, making the work of the reviewers difficult.

However, all four Church bodies, have now adopted the revised Safeguarding Children Policy and Standards for the Catholic Church in Ireland 2016; and three have signed a memorandum of understanding with the NBSCCCI, which commits them to complying with the Church’s policy and standards; while the fourth, Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, is in process of doing so.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

“Urgent corrective action” is needed in three religious congregations where the protection of children is concerned, the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children has said.

Its reviews of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Brothers), the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (Norbertines), Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, and the Sisters of Nazareth (Irish Region) were conducted in 2015/16 but publication was held over pending completion of the statutory Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland.

The latter published its final report last January.

The board reviews are assessments of practice at each congregation against the Catholic Church’s child safeguarding standards. These are its remaining reviews of child protection in Catholic institutions on the island of Ireland which assess practices in each against the Church’s child safeguarding standards.

It found that 512 allegations of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse had been made against 146 priests, brothers, and sisters belonging to the four congregations, five of whom were convicted in the courts.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Published April 5, 2017 | Updated 3 hours ago

Guam’s clergy sex abuse cases increased to 45 on Wednesday, with former priest Andrew Manetta named as a defendant in the two latest filings.

Two men, identified only with their initials — “M.B.” and “G.G.” — to protect their privacy, alleged Manetta sexually molested them during sleepovers at the rectory of Santa Teresita Church in Mangilao, around 1986 to 1987, when they were altar boys, ages 13 and 14, respectively.

One of their attorneys, Randall Rosenberg, of Hawaii, described Manetta in the lawsuit as a “notorious pedophile” who was shifted from parish to parish within Guam before being transferred to Hawaii.

Originally from New York, Manetta first came to Guam in 1980 as a seminarian and was ordained into the priesthood at the Archdiocese of Agana in May 1983, according to Pacific Daily News files. Manetta was accused of sexually abusing a minor in Hawaii, from 1997 to 2001, but the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu settled with the accuser for $375,000 to avoid trial, PDN news files state. The priest later was transferred to New York.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 05, 2017

By Krystal Paco

A new priest is named in two additional lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Agana. Father Andrew Mannetta was a priest at Santa Teresita Church in Mangilao when he allegedly molested former altar boys M.B. and G.G. in the late 1980s.

M.B. alleges the priest hosted sleepovers at the rectory where he would serve the boys alcohol and make them watch sexual movies. That’s when the priest would isolate M.B. and sexually assault him.

G.G. was subject to abuse after the priest convinced his parents to move into the rectory. There he alleges he was sexually molested by Father Andy.

Both plaintiffs are represented by Attorney Anthony Perez who has teamed with Hawaii and mainland firms. In a release from attorney Perez’s office, he states Father Andy is still at large and a risk to children and was moved from Guam to Hawaii and later New York. He’s believed to presently reside in Connecticut.

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ISRAEL
JTA

April 4, 2017

(JTA) — A rabbi who was extradited to Israel from South Africa after years on the run to face sexual abuse charges was released early to undergo cancer treatment.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland, 80, had been sentenced to 18 months in prison in November after being convicted of two counts of indecent assault and one count of assault as part of a plea bargain.

The Israel Prisons Service Parole Board on Monday accepted Berland’s request for an early release in order to receive medical treatment for advanced cancer. He will observe the rest of his sentence under house arrest, according to Ynet.

Berland, a leader of one of the main factions of Breslov Hasidism and founder of the Shuvu Bonim religious seminary in Israel, fled Israel in 2013 for Morocco when allegations that he molested two female followers, one of them a minor, were first published in the Israeli media. Berland also lived in the Netherlands and Zimbabwe with followers.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Caitlyn Rintoul

Lawyers are gathering information to launch a class action against the Catholic Diocese of Bunbury for sex crimes allegedly committed by a former Esperance priest.

Porters Lawyers are preparing the lawsuit on behalf of three people who say they were victims of institutionalised sexual abuse by Father William “Kevin” Glover, who died in 1999.

Porters Lawyers principle Jason Parkinson said Father Glover was never convicted, but betrayed the Esperance community.

“They were harbouring a viper to their breast,” Mr Parkinson said.

“He was loved by all and that’s what upset so many people. He hoodwinked the Esperance population.

“These paedophiles always cultivate the halo effect. In the dark, they’re committing the most serious crimes.”

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ILLINOIS
The Journal

For more information on the following bills, and many more, please visit the Illinois General Assembly website at ilga.gov. There you will find details of the bills, where each is at in the procedural process, and information on which state representatives support them.

SB 189

Introduced by State Senator Scott Bennett of Champaign, the bill seeks to eliminate the statute of limitations for felony child abuse and sexual assault crimes.

Many experts agree that this extension would greatly benefit victims, as many are not mentally or emotionally ready to deal with the abuse they suffered as a child until later in adulthood.
The current statute on child abuse and sexual assault crimes is 20 years after the victim turns 18. Compared to most states, this time period is gracious; the standard is usually no more than 10 years.

Murder, arson, treason, forgery, and child pornography have no statutes of limitations in the state of Illinois.

Previously, in 2013, then-Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation that removed the statute of limitations in certain cases, particularly those with corroborating physical evidence or a failure on the part of a mandatory reporter.

SB 189 passed in the state senate on March 29, and has since moved into a house rules committee.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 05, 2017

By Krystal Paco

It was almost a year ago the first survivors of clergy sex abuse went public. They are former Agat altar boys Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, Roland Sondia, and Joseph “Sonny” Quinata who reportedly told his mother on his death bed he was sexually abused by beloved priest Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

Their stories sparked a change in local law that provided an avenue for other survivors to sue their predators. The same law is under fire by Apuron’s legal counsel who this week filed her motion for dismissal in the federal court.

Defense attorney Jacqueline Terlaje is calling local law that lifts the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse unconstitutional and inorganic. She’s referring to Bill 326 which passed unanimously in the 33rd Guam legislature and signed off by Governor Eddie Calvo last year.

Attorney Terlaje represents Archbishop Anthony Apuron who’s a named defendant in federal complaints by Quintanilla, Denton, Sondia, and Mary Jane Quinata Cruz on behalf of the deceased Quinata. According to attorney Terlaje’s motions to dismiss filed in the District Court of Guam this week, the Guam legislature “unconstitutionally impaired vested rights, opened the door to unverifiable and potentially undefendable claims, and creates a prejudicial environment for defendant Apuron’s defense.”

That argument is up to the courts to decide. Former senator Frank Blas, Jr., who authored Public Law 33-187, told KUAM News, “It’s quite amazing that we’re going to do this in an unincorporated territory where not all of the constitution applies to us and whether or not that organic act was actually legal. So, I think that question needs to be answered first. If it’s not constitutional, does the constitution apply?”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by Janela Carrera

Apuron says the cases are so old that he would not have the benefit of witnesses, memory, physical evidence or records to be able to effective defend himself from the allegations of sexual abuse.

Guam – Still hiding from plain view in California, ousted Archbishop Anthony Apuron broke his silence in federal court, responding to the allegations of sexual abuse filed against him.

Through his attorney Jacque Terlaje, Archbishop Apuron filed a motion for the cases against him to be dismissed. Apuron cites the recently passed Guam law that lifted the statute of limitations for filing civil claims against institutions for cases of sexual abuse but says that the law does not quote retroactively revive a decades old statute.

He further says in court papers “the attempt to revive a more than 30-year-old time-barred cause of action is impermissibly inorganic.”

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Archbishop Anthony Apuron, whose administrative authority has been removed in light of decades-old sex-abuse allegations, today filed court papers asking for some of the cases to be dismissed.

Apuron’s motion to dismiss states, in part, that the allegations of sex abuse filed by former altar boys against Apuron are past the legal time limit to file cases.

Apuron filed his motion in his personal capacity. The motion was filed on his behalf by Attorney Jacqueline Terlaje.

The passage of Guam Public Law 33-187 last year cannot be applied to allegations that occurred before the law was passed, the motion to dismiss states, in part.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Catholic priest who sexually abused a teenage student breached his position of trust in a “spectacular and horrific” way, a court has heard.

Father Michael Higginbottom, 74, is accused of abusing the boy while he was a teacher at St Joseph’s College in Upholland, Lancashire, in the 1970s.

It was a venue for “mental, physical and sexual abuse’, Liverpool Crown Court was told.

He denies four counts of a serious sexual offence and indecent assault.

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IRELAND
Offaly Express

Justin Kelly
4 Apr 2017
Email: justin.kelly@iconicnews.ie

Daingean native, William Gorry, has opened to the Offaly Express up about his horrifying experiences at the Mount Carmel Industrial School in Moate, Co. Westmeath in the 1970s.

The Offaly man now lives in Kilmainham, Dublin, and says, “I owe it to others and the public to admit what went on in Mount Carmel, which left many children like me facing many difficulties in our adult lives.”

William was born into a large family in Daingean, Co. Offaly, and had seven brothers and five sisters. He told the Offaly Express that with such a large family, his mother and father were ‘under financial pressure as they tried to look after us all’. He says a social worker was involved but insisted that there was no assistance given by the Midland Health Board.

“We had no running water, electricity, toilet facilities or heating, and we had to carry water from a well, use tilly lamps for lighting and open fire places for heat,” he recalled.

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VIRGINIA
Fairfax County Times

By Trevor Baratko/Loudoun Times-Mirror

Federal authorities conducted a raid Friday at a Sterling apartment owned by the controversial Calvary Temple church.

A neighbor reported seeing multiple firearms and computers seized from the apartment located at 125 Westwick Court, which land records show is owned by Calvary.

According to Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kraig Troxell, the local sheriff’s office was assisting the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in executing the federal warrant.

Calls to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were not returned Monday morning.

“Multiple sheriffs’ [deputies] and many ATF agents seized hunting rifles, assault rifles and computers along with many other smaller items,” an eyewitness said.

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TEXAS
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

By GABRIEL MONTE A-J Media

A Lubbock mother told her daughters’ abuser he used his role as a youth minister to get close to her children and sexually abuse them.

“I hate that you used God to get close to children to hurt them,” she told Rogelio Pena, 51, who was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years in prison in exchange for a plea of guilty to a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Pena admitted to sexually abusing an 8-year-old family member in August 2015. However, the girl’s mother accused Pena of also sexually abusing a younger daughter.

“I know God will make you pay for the sins you committed,” she told Pena in her victim impact statement in court.

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MARYLAND
WJZ

[with video]

By Ava-joye Burnett

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — A Maryland delegate’s personal story of being abused as a child is helping to push through new legislation that may make it easier for victims to sue abusers.

Ava-joye Burnett tells us the bill which had opposition for years, finally received majority support in Annapolis.

Victims of child sex abuse will now have up to the age of 38 to file a lawsuit against an abuser the bill finally passed this year after a consensus was reached with the catholic church.

The stigma of being sexually abused as a child is a battle this Maryland lawmaker says he knows all too well.

Shuffled from foster home to foster home delegate C.T. Wilson said he was abused from about seven all the way till he was 16.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Record

BY ADAM BENNETT
5 APR 2017

A pervert bishop forced a teenager to undress before pouring oil over her in a “private prayer session”.

Evil bishop Benjamin Egbujor, 55, took the girl, who was under 16, to his private office for an individual prayer session where she was forced to strip before she was assaulted.

After police began investigating the attack another victim, a woman in her 30s, came forward and said she had been abused in the same way by Egbujor and his secretary Rose Nwenwu, 43.

The pair were jailed Inner London Crown Court for the offences, which took place at a south London Christian Centre between March 2011 and January 2013.

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GEORGIA
WOKV

By: Stephanie Brown @SBrownReports
April 4, 2017

Three of the eleven counts he was indicted on were dropped before the proceedings formally started, but now the child molestation trial for controversial pastor Ken Adkins is underway.

Adkins was initially arrested in August 2016 for child molestation and aggravated child molestation. He turned himself in, and has been in the Glynn County, Georgia Jail since.

In November 2016, Adkins was formally indicted on a total of eleven charges, including child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, aggravated child molestation, and influencing a witness. Just ahead of the formal start of the trial, two counts of child molestation and the count of influencing a witness were dropped.

A jury of eleven women and three men- including two alternates- has been seated for this trial.

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MARYLAND
Washington Post

By Ovetta Wiggins and Josh Hicks April 4

Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) testified for three straight years before his fellow Maryland lawmakers about how his adoptive father repeatedly raped him, pleading with them to increase the amount of time sexually abused children have to sue their abusers.

And each year that his bill died in committee, Wilson vowed to sponsor it again.

On Tuesday, he was cheered as he joined Gov. Larry Hogan (R) to watch him sign the bill, approved by the legislature, into law. It increases the window of time a victim of child sexual abuse has to file a lawsuit from age 25 to 38.

“I never wanted to share my personal business on this level, but I did it because I thought it would help people,” Wilson said shortly after the bill signing. “I wanted the victims of sexual abuse to know they are not alone and that we care about them.”

Wilson’s bill was one of seven measures signed by Hogan on Tuesday, with a week to go in the annual legislative session.

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IOWA
Dallas County News

By Clint Cole – Editor

The trial for Randy Johnson, the former pastor for the Dallas Center Church of the Bretheren accused of multiple charges of sexual abuse, has been canceled and a new trial date will be set at a later time. The trial was originally supposed to start on April 24 at 9:30 a.m.

An order for continuance of pre-trial conference to May 25 at 9 a.m. was filed by District Judge Randy V. Hefner on Friday, March 31. Court records state that the trial date will be reset at the next pretrial conference.

On March 27, an order for extending the deadline for filing pre-trial motions to May 15 was filed by District Judge Paul R. Huscher.

Johnson was arrested on Jan. 25, 2017, without incident, and charged with the following crimes:

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MARYLAND
WTOP

By Kate Ryan | @KateRyanWTOP
April 5, 2017 12:33 am

WASHINGTON — A Maryland lawmaker didn’t want to share his story of being sexually abused as a child — ever. And he didn’t want to have to do it for a third year in a row.

But Del. C.T. Wilson said he was willing to go through it all again if it meant he could get a bill passed so victims of child sexual abuse get more time to bring civil suits against their abusers.

Since Wilson first brought the bill to Annapolis two years ago, he said he has heard from hundreds of abuse survivors.

“The thing that they all have in common is they feel that nobody’s listening and that nobody cares,” said the Democrat representing the state’s 28th District.

But on Tuesday, Wilson stood alongside Gov. Larry Hogan as the governor signed HB 642 into law. It extends the time that survivors of child sexual abuse have to file civil cases against their abusers. They now have until they are 38 years old. The prior statute of limitations ran out when a survivor turned 25.

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PENNSYLVANIA
GoErie

By the Editorial Board

Two years.

That is all state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks County, is asking for in his renewed push to expand the statute of limitations to allow victims of child sexual abuse to reach into the past and sue their attackers in court.

The state House of Representatives and Senate have each supported important legislation that would extend the statute of limitations for criminal and civil child sexual abuse cases moving forward.

Rozzi wants to open a two-year window to allow victims up to the age of 50 — for whom the current statute of limitations has expired — to retroactively seek civil remedy in court for past child sexual abuse.

The Legislature should not waste any more time on spurious objections and throw open that window.

This fight has been going on for more than a decade as grand jury investigations, including most recently in the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, have exposed decades of child sexual abuse and cover-ups by church officials. Prosecutors overseeing those probes have repeatedly recommended that victims be allowed to sue retroactively. The issue grows more urgent as state grand jury investigations of at least six other Pennsylvania dioceses, including the Diocese of Erie, are underway.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Item

By John Finnerty CNHI Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG — Legislation to change the statute of limitations for child sex crimes is going to the floor of the House without a provision that would allow victims of old crimes to sue the Catholic church and other institutions that allegedly covered up for predators.

The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that passed the Senate unanimously, making a number of changes but without discussing a proposal long sought by victims of child sex abuse to allow them to sue now even if the statute of limitations in their cases has expired.

State Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks County, who has led the campaign to get the law changed to allow victims of old child sex crimes to sue, said he plans to amend the bill on the floor of the House.

While victims have been assured that the measure will get voted upon when the legislation gets to the House floor, Shaun Dougherty, a Johnstown native who has disclosed he was molested by a priest, said he was disappointed by the House panel’s vote.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post Apr 5, 2017

The newest child sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Guam today 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 lives 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 court documents and Guam Daily 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.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Published April 5, 2017

A man who filed the latest Guam clergy sexual abuse lawsuit said Wednesday he feared, as a child, that his devout Catholic parents wouldn’t believe him if he told them a priest he only knew as “Father Louis” was sexually abusing him during Boy Scout camping trips around 1972.

Now 58, the man identified in court documents only as “R.B.” in order to protect his privacy, said he’s not sure if he will ever forgive former priest Louis Brouillard for what he did to him and his fellow scouts.

“How can I forgive if I can’t forget about it?” R.B. said in a phone interview from Hawaii, where he now lives.

He said he has only one thing to say about Brouillard at this time: “May God have mercy on his soul.”

R.B. is the 43rd person to file a Guam clergy sex abuse lawsuit in local and federal court, alleging that Brouillard entered his camping tent on at least two separate occasions and sexually abused him, along with another scout he was sharing his tent with.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

By Liam Migdail-Smith
HARRISBURG, PA

A state House panel advanced a measure Tuesday that would give victims of child sexual abuse more time to press charges or sue.

But the measure – as written now – stops short of doing what many victims and their advocates have called for: Giving victims for whom the limits have already expired a chance to file lawsuits.

Tuesday’s vote by the House Judiciary Committee forwards the bill to the full chamber for consideration, which will likely happen later this month. The plan cleared the Senate earlier this year.

State Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Muhlenberg Township Democrat who’s pushed to overhaul the limits, said he plans to amend the bill on the House floor to include a retroactive provision that would allow victims to sue regardless of when they were abused.

That’s the route he took with a similar measure last year that cleared the House 180-15. Rozzi said he expects the House would show similar support for a retroactive element this session.

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ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín April 5, 2017
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

An explosive report airing tonight on Swedish television charges that the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X knew about at least three cases of its priests being accused of sexually abusing minors, but failed to enforce a ‘zero tolerance’ policy. An alleged victim told Crux he believes the Vatican should have done more to hold the society accountable.
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ROME – A major report airing tonight on Swedish television documents four clerical sexual abuse cases, with previously unknown details on three of them, within the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist breakaway group founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.

At the center of the report are four different men. Three are priests, who remain in active ministry, and one is a former seminarian and volunteer at a church run by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) in Idaho who’s been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of abusing seven boys over the course of a decade.

They allegedly have abused at least 12 minors over the span of three decades, in France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, the United States and the United Kingdom

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 05, 2017

By Krystal Paco

It’s the first time we’ve heard a response to the child sex abuse lawsuits filed against Archbishop Anthony Apuron. His attorney, Jacqueline Terlaje has filed motions to dismiss the cases filed by Roland Sondia, Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, and Mary Jane Quinata Cruz (filed on behalf of deceased Joseph “Sonny” Quinata).

The victims allege they were sexually abused by Apuron when he was a priest at Mt. Carmel Church in Agat several decades ago. According to the motions to dismiss Apuron’s attorney argues that the local law that lifted the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases is “inorganic”. Bill 326 was passed by the 32nd Guam legislature and was signed into law by Governor Eddie Baza Calvo.

“A blanket retrospective removal of all statutes of limitations is unconstitutional and inorganic,” court documents state.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by Donna De Jesus

This week’s complaints also mark the first female to file a complaint, and the naming of new priests.

Guam – Forty-five: that’s how many people have come forward, accusing the church of sexual abuse. Five victims have filed a lawsuit recently: Donald San Agustin, and four more individuals using the initials B.T., R.B., M.B. and G.G. Aside from former priest Father Louis Brouillard, new priests have been named as well.

Donald San Agustin, represented by Atty. David Lujan, claims he was abused as an altar boy and as a boy scout. He was 10 years old when he was serving at St. Jude Catholic Church in Sinajana, where Brouillard frequently stopped by the parish to drop off or pick up documents. San Agustin says that, while he was cleaning the rectory or the church, Brouillard would grope his private parts and try to downplay his actions by saying he was “just playing” when San Agustin would tell him to stop. As a Boy Scout, court documents say San Agustin had a different scoutmaster for his troop, but had to learn how to swim with Brouillard to earn his merit badge. In the complaint, San Agustin says he had a hard time learning the swimming techniques because Brouillard would touch him inappropriately while they were in the water. Because of this, San Agustin quit both the Boy Scouts and serving as an altar boy.

B.T., represented by David Lujan and Gloria Lujan Rudolph, is the first female to file a child sex abuse complaint against the Archdiocese. She is a resident of Saipan, now 65 years old, but says she was abused in 1963 when she was 12 years old. She named Guam priest Joe R. San Agustin, also known as Andrew San Agustin, who worked for the Archdiocese of Agana but was temporarily assigned to Mt. Carmel Catholic School in Saipan as a teacher. There, San Agustin earned the trust of B.T.’s parents, who were devout Catholics. The complaint states that he convinced B.T.’s parents to allow her and her younger sister to travel with him to Guam for a vacation. B.T. states that all throughout the trip, San Agustin would molest her in the bedroom whenever her sister was away. She was traumatized from the experience and was afraid her parents wouldn’t believe her, so she suffered in silence.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

ASHLEY MARTIN, REGINA LEADER-POST

On a Tuesday afternoon in Cupar, the main doors to the two-tone brick St. Patrick’s Catholic Church are locked up. The white-on-black sign lists the next service as Saturday.

The rectory is similarly quiet. Its resident, retired priest Robert MacKenzie, has been moved to a retirement home in Regina in light of allegations of sexual abuse in Scotland dating back 36 years.

“He claims he’s innocent,” said Archdiocese of Regina Archbishop Don Bolen, who met with MacKenzie on Monday morning, just hours after returning home from Rome.

“Even when he gets to the priest retirement place, he tells them why he’s there, because there’s this accusation. He’s not hiding the fact that there is an accusation and he talks openly about it.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Jack Kennington was ordained for the Baltimore Province of the Redemptorist Order in 1959. He spent his first nearly two decades of priesthood in Brazil, in the states of Mato Grosso and Paraná. In 1979 he returned to Baltimore, residing at Sacred Heart parish until 1981, when he moved to the Catholic Information Center at Woodstock Theological Center – Georgetown University in Washington DC. In 1983 Kennington was assigned to Most Holy Redeemer parish in New York City, where he assisted until 1990. The Directories show a gap in his assignments 1990-1993. He appears to have been assigned during 1993-1994 to a parish in Opa Locka, Florida, under the name “John Kenning, C.S.s.R.” He reappears as Kennington in 1995 at the Redemptorists’ Mount Alphonsus Monastery in Esopus, New York. There he was assigned the task of archiving a research collection regarding the Shroud of Turin.

In 1989 a woman was told by her teenage daughter that Kennington had sexually abused her and her younger brother from 1984 to 1987, beginning when the two were ages 8 and 11. Kennington, who was a close family friend, had stepped in to help the newly divorced mother, including with childcare. The family were Most Holy Redeemer parishioners. The abuse was said to have occurred in the family’s apartment, on vacations in the Hamptons and during visits to the mother’s parents home in Florida. Kennington allegedly would play strip poker to the point of nakedness with the children, would molest one child while having the other watch, and would masturbate in the children’s presence while viewing pornography. Kennington admitted to playing strip poker with the children, but denied abusing them.

The brother filed suit in 1993 against the Redemptorists and the Archdiocese of New York. The sister was unable to sue due to New York’s statute of limitations. The suit was settled in 2001, after eight years, and included a confidentiality agreement.

Ordained: 1959

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Khaleda Rahman For Daily Mail Australia

A woman who was raised inside a notorious ‘cult-like’ yoga ashram has revealed horrific details of her traumatic childhood.

The woman, identified only as Sandra although that is not her real name, opened up about how her upbringing inside the Satyananda Ashram – now known as Mangrove Yoga Ashram – left her broken in a heart-breaking piece published on news.com.au.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found children in the ashram – located in the foothills of Mangrove Mountain on the NSW central coast were raped, sexually assaulted and threatened with violence.

Although Sandra was not sexually abused, she revealed the brutal treatment she endured there from the age of four in the 1970s and 1980s left her traumatised for life.

‘I did not receive the nurturing tha
t is needed as a child so that I could grow up to be a normal functioning person,’ she wrote.
‘Instead, my upbringing broke me. I might even go so far as to say that it fragmented me.’

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alice Ross

A Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Manchester has lost a legal attempt to block an investigation into its handling of sexual abuse allegations, after failing to convince a judge that the inquiry amounted to religious discrimination.

Organisations linked to the religion have fought legally to prevent the Charity Commission from launching two inquiries into allegations that survivors of sexual abuse were being forced to face their attackers in so-called judicial committees. The organisation’s efforts have been described by the commission as unprecedented.

The Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry into the Manchester New Moston congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2014, after reports surfaced that a convicted paedophile, Jonathan Rose, was brought face-to-face with survivors of his abuse in a judicial committee.

After Rose served nine months in prison for child sex offences, the New Moston congregation held a meeting attended by senior members, Rose and three of his victims – now adults – to see if he would be “disfellowshipped”, or expelled from of the congregation, the judgment notes. This would have involved “the elders of the charity (its trustees) and Mr Rose interviewing his victims, in an apparently intrusive way”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

Tony Romeo

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) — A state House committee has advanced a Senate passed bill that would allow more time for victims of child sex abuse to seek justice.

Although, it appears that the state’s House and Senate are headed for the same stand-off that prevented a bill from going to the governor in the legislature’s last two year session.

Advocates want those adult victims of child sex abuse for whom the statute of limitations has already expired to be able to file lawsuits. But the state Senate, believing that to be unconstitutional, insists that legislation to lengthen the statutes of limitations apply only going forward.

The House Judiciary Committee Tuesday advanced the Senate bill without a retroactive provision. But the chairman says he expects that language will be amended into the bill on the House floor.

Berks County House Democrat and child sex abuse victim Mark Rozzi believes the pending results of a another investigation by a statewide grand jury could break the stalemate.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Maria Panaritis & Karen Langley – Staff Writers

HARRISBURG — In a move that ultimately could doom the measure, a key state House committee Tuesday broadened a child sex abuse bill to allow victims who sue to pursue potentially limitless damages from both private and governmental institutions, including public-school districts.

Under the amended bill, which sparked some debate among members, government entities would lose elements of sovereign immunity, exposing them to large liability awards. It is attached to a new version of a controversial bill that died last year amid battles waged by victim advocates, the Catholic Church, and the insurance lobby.

Tuesday’s vote to lift caps on the amount of money sex abuse litigants can collect in lawsuits against governmental entities is viewed by some supporters of expanding child sex-abuse victims’ rights as a “poison pill.”

That is because in at least one other state, Colorado, legislation to expose government institutions to lawsuits unleashed the opposition of the powerful school boards association and failed. Archibishop Charles Chaput, then archbishop in Denver, was key in defeating that Colorado effort.

The issue of capping public civic payouts was not part of last year’s legislative fight in Harrisburg. That bill died over a different controversial provision: One that sought to let adult victims of decades-old abuse to sue private institutions. That provision is expected to be added to the House bill in the weeks ahead.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com

Legislation aimed at tipping the scale of justice in favor of future victims of child sex abuse is back on the table and won approval of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday by a 22-5 vote.

Missing from the Senate-passed bill, however, is a provision that would afford past child sex abuse victims the same opportunity to seek justice as future ones. A similar measure the House passed last year but it died in the Senate.

The current bill would give child victims until age 50 to file a civil lawsuit against abusers and employers who were allegedly negligent in failing to stop them. Currently, that window to sue closes at age 30. It also eliminates a legal time limit on when child abusers can be criminally prosecuted for future crimes.

The committee amended the bill to remove the limit on damages that can be awarded in civil cases involving governmental entities.

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ROME
U.S. News

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) – Italy put the Vatican on its “white list” of states with cooperative financial institutions on Tuesday, ending years of mistrust and providing an endorsement of efforts by Pope Francis to clean up the city state’s banking sector.

The list includes countries with which Italy has agreements on the exchange of financial and tax information, such as other EU member states.

The upgrade was formalized in a decree published in the government’s Official Gazette.

The Vatican is a sovereign state in the middle of Rome whose financial activities the Bank of Italy had for decades viewed with suspicion.

Last July the BOI and Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), signed a cooperation agreement allowing authorities to monitor transactions between Italian financial entities and the Vatican.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

An Irish priest, Msgr John Kennedy, has been appointed by Pope Francis to head the Vatican’s disciplinary office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). It is one of the four separate sections at the CDF which include the doctrinal office, the matrimonial office, that for priests, and the disciplinary office.

The disciplinary office includes among its responsibilities dealing with credible allegations of clerical child sexual abuse submitted by bishops across the world.

From Clontarf

A priest of the Dublin archdiocese, Msgr Kennedy is from Clontarf and has been working with the CDF since 2003, beginning his service there under then CDF prefect cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

He was ordained in 1993 and worked in Crumlin and Francis Street parishes before undertaking postgraduate studies in Canon Law in Rome in 1998. He entered the service of the Holy See in September 2002.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has appointed as head official of the Disciplinary Section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Rev. Msgr. John Joseph Kennedy, incardinated in the diocese of Dublin, Ireland, and currently study assistant in the same dicastery.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday named a new official to oversee the Vatican office that processes clerical sex abuse cases amid mounting criticism over a yearslong backlog of cases and Francis’ handling of the problem.

The promotion of Monsignor John Kennedy to head of the discipline section of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith was the second abuse-related appointment in recent days. Francis named the Rev. Hans Zollner, one of the Catholic Church’s top experts on fighting abuse and protecting children, as an adviser to the Vatican’s office for clergy on Saturday.

Francis and the Vatican have come under fresh scrutiny over their response to the abuse crisis since Irish survivor Marie Collins resigned from the pope’s sex abuse advisory commission on March 1, citing “unacceptable” resistance to the commission’s proposals from the Vatican’s doctrine office.

Collins’ departure laid bare the cultural chasm between the commission’s outside experts, who proposed best-in-class ideas for protecting children, and the reality of the Vatican bureaucracy and its legal and administrative limitations.

Kennedy was an assistant to the previous discipline section chief, the Rev. Miguel Funes Diaz, one of three congregation officials who recently left. The Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke, said Francis had approved their replacements as well as additional staff to handle cases, which by some estimates take two to three years to process.

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MISSOURI
Lincoln County Journal

By Megan Myers
Staff Writer

A civil trial began last week in which a Lincoln County family is suing the St. Louis Archdiocese and Archbishop Robert Carlson for failing to protect their daughter from a priest who they say molested her while she was a teen.

The alleged sexual abuse by Father Xui Hui “Joseph” Jiang, who is also being sued, occurred while the woman was 16 years old and was living with her family in Old Monroe in 2012.

The civil suit was filed in 2013, after criminal charges against Jiang were dismissed.

At the time of the alleged abuse, the priest was working at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis, where the family was attending church.

According to court documents, Jiang “became close to the family” and “would regularly visit their home in Lincoln County.”

During one such visit, Jiang, who was 25 at the time, allegedly groped the teen’s breasts and genital area while the two were sitting next to each other underneath a blanket on the family’s couch. The plaintiff alleges that Jiang also made her touch his genital area.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com

OWOSSO, MI — A retired priest wanted on suspicion of embezzling nearly $500,000 from a Catholic church in Shiawassee County is expected to be back in Michigan this week to appear in front of a judge.

The Rev. David Fisher was in charge of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Owosso for 23 years and retired to North Dakota in June 2015.

A new pastor was brought in and noticed some figures were off with the parish’s finances, according to officials with the Catholic Diocese of Lansing. The Diocese contacted the Michigan State Police and it was recommended a forensic audit, Diebold said.

The audit revealed there was at least $450,000 missing, diocese officials said.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue

This is the “President’s Desk” article that appears in the April edition of the
Catholic League journal, “Catalyst”:

When it comes to women, men have learned to be careful not to sound sexist or condescending. If they are perceived as such, they will be stigmatized. There is one exception: they can speak about traditional nuns in a vile way with impunity. This is not limited to men. Most importantly, it includes feminists.

It is a sad truism that not a single champion of women’s rights ever defends traditional nuns against vile comments and portrayals. Indeed, it is considered appropriate that those sisters who are not at war with the Church’s teachings on women and sexuality pay a price for their traditionalism.

For example, feminists never protest when these nuns, many of whom are in habit, are cruelly caricatured by Hollywood, artists, academics, and the media. Yet these nuns are precisely the ones who have given of themselves selflessly to the Church.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For the Guam Daily Post

Donald Vincent San Agustin was 10 years old when he served as an altar boy at Saint Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church in Sinajana.

Every day he would go to the Sinajana parish to help clean up and set up the church for evening Mass and clean the church office and rectory.

Now 58 years old, San Agustin filed a civil complaint in the District Court of Guam yesterday against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and Louis Brouillard.

The lawsuit, filed on his behalf by attorney David Lujan, alleges that in 1969, Brouillard would frequently stop by the Sinajana parish to pick up or drop off documents and grope and fondle San Agustin. Brouillard would downplay his actions by saying that he was “just playing,” court documents state.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A Catholic priest who repeatedly sexually abused a teenage student breached his position of trust in a “spectacular and horrific” way, a court has heard.

Father Michael Higginbottom, 74, is accused of subjecting the teenage boy to repeated sexual abuse when he worked as a teacher at St Joseph’s College in Upholland, Lancashire, in the late 1970s.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the boy, aged between 13 and 14 at the time of the allegations, said he would be struck with a strap if he did not attend Higginbottom’s living quarters, where much of the abuse was alleged to have happened, at appointed times.

The boarding school, which has now closed, was attended by boys aged 11 to 18, many of whom were considering a career in the priesthood.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Echo

BY LYNDA ROUGHLEY
4 APR 2017

A catholic priest repeatedly sexually abused a young boy in his care “breaching that trust in a spectacular and horrific way,” a court heard.

The boy was just 13 and 14 years old when Father Michael Higginbottom allegedly began seriously abusing him at a seminary in West Lancashire, according to prosecutors.

David Temkin, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that the complainant “recalls the college as a cold, dark and forbidding place” and told police that for him it was the venue for “mental, physical and sexual abuse”.

Fr Higginbottom, now aged 74, of West Farm Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, denies eight offences – four of buggery and four of indecent assault, alleged to have taken place between September 1978 and March 20, 1979.

Mr Temkin told the jury of six men and six women that Higginbottom had been a priest and teacher at St Joseph’s College, Upholland, although he had not trained as a teacher.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Megan Palin
news.com.au
@megan_palin

A CONVICTED paedophile and self-professed “sex witch” who enslaved, drugged, raped and prostituted teenage girls has been found living three doors away from a Melbourne primary school.

Notorious child sex offender Robin Angus Fletcher’s new home is about 100 metres from Le Page Primary School, in Cheltenham, Seven News reports.

The majority of residents living on the street are reportedly young families.

Fletcher, 60, was working as a drug abuse and sexual guidance youth counsellor, when he used hypnotism and mind-altering techniques to abuse two 15-year-old girls in the 1990s.

The Wiccan also told the young girls it was necessary to fulfil their destiny as “high priestesses of the dark covenant” and forced them into sex work.

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

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 04, 2017

By Krystal Paco

The first woman files suit against the Church for clergy sex abuse. 65-year-old B.T. lives in Saipan, but filed her complaint in the District Court of Guam on Tuesday. B.T. alleges she was sexually molested by Father Joe R. San Agustin also known as Andrew San Agustin when she and her younger sister came with the priest to Guam for vacation. San Agustin was employed by the Archdiocese of Agana, but temporarily assigned to Mt. Carmel School in Saipan where he was B.T.’s teacher. While on Guam, she alleges the priest kissed her and touched her privates as well as digitally penetrated her when she was 12-years-old. B.T. is suing for $5 million.

KUAM News has learned that San Agustin is a member of the Concerned Catholics of Guam, but no longer a priest for the Archdiocese of Agana.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The latest allegations comes from a man who claims a former Guam priest molested him during a camping trip.

Guam – More and more alleged victims of church sex abuse are using initials to hide their identity in lawsuits being filed against the Archdiocese of Agana.

The latest lawsuit was filed by a man who goes by the initials J.C.T., marking the 40th lawsuit to be filed against the church. This claim also names former Guam priest Father Louis Brouillard who’s also accused in the majority of the lawsuits filed in recent months.

Now 58 years old, J.C.T. says he was around 15 years old when Brouillard molested him during a camping trip they took as part of the Boy Scouts while Brouillard served as the scout master.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

[with video]

By: Jordan Tracy
Posted: Apr 03, 2017

Harrisburg, Pa – Thousands of blue flags and signs decorated the Pennsylvania State Capitol. The demonstration is not just to honor survivors of child sex abuse, but urge lawmakers to change the statute of limitations bill.

“Any bill that passes without a retroactive provision for victims of childhood sex abuse is a raw deal,” shouted Rep. Mark Rozzi.

Rozzi, who is abused by a priest in his church, was among the people who led Monday’s rally in Harrisburg. The current Senate bill would eliminate the statute of limitations for child abuse crimes, but it does not include a retroactive provision to include past victims.

“We all represent different sides on this bill. Anyone who supports this bill represents victims. If you don’t represent, if you don’t support retroactivity, then you are supporting perpetrators, institutions, insurance companies, so you have to pick your side here,” said Rozzi.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WFMZ

[with video]

By: Megan Park
Posted: Apr 03, 2017

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A state lawmaker from Berks County is rallying before an important vote.

Rep. Mark Rozzi and other survivors of child sex abuse gathered on the steps of the state Capitol in Harrisburg on Monday in support of changing Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations laws.

Rozzi called on lawmakers to support his new measure, which would allow victims of child sex abuse over the age of 30 to sue their abusers..

He’s also asking lawmakers to reject a measure in the Pennsylvania Senate that does not include the same provision.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 27

By Dennis Owens
Published: April 3, 2017

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – The daffodils were in full bloom on a sun-splashed day at the Capitol.

But encroaching on that beautiful scene was an ugly topic on the Capitol steps.

Dozens of victims of childhood sexual abuse rallied at noon. They brought signs. They brought their stories, intensely personal stories, that they bravely shared on the microphone.

“I watched my daughter struggle and suffer and shake because of the trauma she experienced,” one heartbroken mother said.

“I battled bouts of depression as I kept my secret and trusted no one,” said a 50-something-year-old man.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

By Jim Lewis

HARRISBURG — She did not speak. Could not, not so soon after her son’s death.

Judy Deaven stood at a rally at the state Capitol here in 2015 for changes in the law for victims of childhood sexual abuse, but could not address the crowd. Her son’s death simply was too fresh.

Joe Behe, a 46-year-old Reading Central Catholic alumnus, had died of a drug overdose on April 3, 2015, after spending his life tormented by the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of a Catholic priest in Berks County, Deaven said. He lived as a recluse, unable to hold a job, unable to sleep at night because of fear sparked by his memories of the abuse.

It took him 20 years before he told anyone about the abuse by the priest, who has since died, she recalled, long after the state’s statute of limitations had expired on his case.

But Deaven had a second chance Monday, during a rally on the Capitol steps organized by state Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Muhlenberg Township Democrat and abuse survivor. She was there to persuade the General Assembly to allow victims of sexual abuse as children to press criminal charges and file civil lawsuits even after they turn 30.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Joel Currier St. Louis Post-Dispatch

TROY, MO. • St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson testified Monday he told the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang to counsel a Lincoln County family about their participation in a rogue nun’s religious rituals but that he didn’t know the priest sometimes slept overnight at the family’s home.

“I certainly would be concerned about it,” Carlson said, if he had known about Jiang’s sleepovers at the time.

Carlson was the first to testify in the second week of a civil trial accusing Jiang of molesting a teenager at her family’s Old Monroe home in June 2012 and leaving a $20,000 check as hush money. Carlson said Jiang called him from the airport awaiting a flight home and said he kissed the girl but did not have sex with her.

“He was hysterical,” Carlson said. “He said, ‘They’re trying to take my priesthood away from me.’” Carlson told Jiang not to flee to China if all he did was kiss her.

Last week, Jiang, 31, denied all allegations of inappropriate contact with the teen.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The late bishop allegedly turned a blind eye to the institutional sexual abuse that ran rampant during his tenure as bishop.

Guam – Should the name for Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School be changed in light of the controversy surrounding the individual for whom the namesake was given?

The matter was brought up during a press briefing held by Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes yesterday. A school parent reportedly called for the removal of Bishop Apollinaris Baumgartner’s name from the catholic school since he has been named in several sex abuse lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Agana.

Although the late bishop has not been named as an alleged perpetrator, several former altar boys and boy scouts members allege that Baumgartner knew about the institutional abuse but turned a blind eye and refused to take action.

Archbishop Byrnes says he’s aware of the parent’s complaint.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Fox 43

APRIL 3, 2017, BY MATT MAISEL

HARRISBURG, Pa. — More than 4,000 blue flags line State Street and the steps leading up to the Pennsylvania State Capitol, planted in the dirt and flying to honor survivors of child sex abuse.

April in Child Abuse Prevention Month. On Monday, one of its biggest supporters, State Representative Mark Rozzi, was picking up where he left off last session: advocating for stronger reforms in Pennsylvania’s statute of limitation laws.

Rozzi (D-Berks) was a victim of sexual abuse when he was a child. Now, an outspoken critic of the state’s current laws, Rozzi was joined Monday by dozens of fellow child sex abuse victims; mothers, fathers, and adults who shared their stories on the Capitol steps of how they, or their children, were victimized years ago.

On Tuesday, the State House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear and vote on Senate Bill 261. The legislation, sponsored by President Senator Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson), would eliminate the statute of limitations on criminal prosecution of child sex abuse cases. SB261 would also give child victims until age 50 to bring a civil lawsuit against institutions, such as the church, or a school.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com April 3, 2017

A Sartell man who volunteered at a local church pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing a teenager who was an altar boy at a St. Cloud church.

Douglas Gerard Kleinsmith, 55, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony criminal sexual conduct on the day when his trial was supposed to begin. Prosecutors will ask a Stearns County judge to sentence Kleinsmith to seven years in prison when he’s sentenced June 15.

Kleinsmith volunteered to train altar boys and trained the teenage boy he would abuse, according to a criminal complaint charging him. The complaint says the boy met Kleinsmith at church when he was 15 years old, and that year also began working for Kleinsmith outside church hours.

Kleinsmith was part of a Latin Mass group that met at St. John Cantius Church, according to the Diocese of St. Cloud.

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FIJI
Fiji Times

Luisa Qiolevu
Tuesday, April 04, 2017

THE Catholic Church has in place a policy on misconduct and sexual abuse, says Roman Catholic Church Archbishop of Suva Peter Loy Chong.

He stated this during an interview by this newspaper after being questioned on few cases where Catholic priests were reported to have molested women in the past.

“We have dealt with some cases in the past, but we will not reveal more on that.

“We have a very strict policy for any misconduct in our ministry so we have a very clear policy where we don’t condone such actions,” he said.

He said a professional standard resource group would deal with the case if reported.

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AUSTRALIA
Goulburn Post

Louise Thrower
@ThrowerLouise

4 Apr 2017

The Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra/Goulburn has paid out $1.82 million in compensation to victims of sexual abuse.

The figures, tendered to the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, relate to the period 1950 to 2010.

The Archdiocese’s Institute for Professional Standards and Safeguarding director Matt Casey said 73 people made a claim of sexual abuse by over the 60 years. Forty-four of these were leveled against clergy and 28 against lay people.

Half of all the claims were made against two priests, Father Pat Cusack and Father Lloyd Reynolds. The former served in Canberra and Goulburn was the target of 23 claims, Mr Casey said. He died in 1977 and the church only became aware of the allegations in 1993.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Judge Joaquin Manibusan denied the parties’ request to extend the deadline by about a month.

Guam – You’ve had more than enough time to respond to all these sexual abuse allegations. That’s what US Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan told attorneys today in denying their request to once again extend the deadline for the church to answer to the complaints.

Both Attorney David Lujan, for the plaintiffs, and Attorney John Terlaje, for the defense, made a joint request to extend the deadline to respond to the first 26 of the 34 cases filed so far by about a month.

But Judge Manibusan denied their request saying, “the court does not find good cause to grant another extension to respond to the complaint to further delay the scheduling conference.” This means that the archdiocese will have until next Monday, April 10 to file a reply.

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UNITED KINGDOM
News Shopper

Tom Bull, Trainee Reporter

A bishop from Belvedere has been jailed after forcing a teenage girl to undress and pouring oil over her during a “private prayer session”.

Benjamin Egbujor, 55, of Harold Avenue, was also sentenced for sexually assaulting a woman in her 30s who he abused in the same way.

He was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court to three years and four months.

Police started investigating Egbujor in 2014 after the girl, who was under the age of 16, reported to family she had been abused by him after being taken into his private office for an individual prayer session.

During interviews the woman also revealed Egbujor had assaulted her too.

Rose Nwenwu, 43, of Thurlestone Road, West Norwood, was Egbujor’s secretary and took part in the abuse of the older victim.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Maria Panaritis, Staff Writer @panaritism | mpanaritis@phillynews.com

HARRISBURG — Six months after seeing it collapse under pressure from both the pulpit and political lobbies, lawmakers are poised to revisit a controversial proposal to expand the statute of limitations for victims of child sex abuse.

On Tuesday, a House committee plans to consider a new bill passed by the Senate that would eliminate criminal and civil statutes of limitations for all future cases of child sex abuse — moves long sought by prosecutors and victims.

But that bill, sponsored by Senate Republican leader Joe Scarnati, the president pro tempore from Jefferson County, excludes what was at the core of the debate that raged for months last year in the Capitol: a provision that would let victims of abuse dating to roughly the 1980s sue their attackers and the institutions that oversaw them.

That clause was included in the original version of the bill that the House adopted by a 180-15 vote last year at the height of a clergy abuse scandal in the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. But it was removed from the legislation in the Senate, after an intense push by advocates for the church and insurance industry, who questioned its constitutionality and warned that it could unfairly punish struggling congregations for decades-old misconduct by long-gone clergy.

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BELGIUM
Brussels Times

The bishops of Belgium have declared this coming Saturday, April 8th, as the “National Day for Victims of Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church”.

A ceremony will take place, on the day, at 11 a.m. in the Basilique Nationale de Sacré-Coeur (the Roman Catholic Minor Basilica and parish church). This is located in the Koekelberg district of Brussels.

During the Service the Primate of Belgium, Cardinal Jozef De Kesel, the Bishop of Antwerp, Mgr Johan Bonny and the Bishop of Tournai, Mgr Guy Harpigny will all speak. Other senior clerics will also have the chance to say a few words.

Ingrid Rosschaert’s work, entitled “Esse est Percipi” (which translates as “Existence is a form of acknowledgement”, editor’s note), dedicated to the memory of all sexual abuse victims within the Catholic Church, will be unveiled on this occasion.

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CANADA
Lexology

Chris T.J Blom
Canada April 1 2017

In the October 3, 2016 edition of the Lloyd’s Brief I addressed the challenges of limitations in sexual abuse claims. The article discussed coverage issues including difficulties associated with proving policies of insurance in historical sexual abuse claims, the interpretation of the grant of coverage and exclusions for intentional acts. In this article we consider the further issue which arises when the employer is aware of the historical acts of sexual abuse but does not inform the insurer.

To provide some background to the discussion, we consider an institutional framework where an employee committed acts of sexual abuse in the past, as late as the mid-1980s. There is sufficient historical evidence in the employment records to suggest that the employer was aware of the abuse. The employer was insured under a commercial general liability policy with occurrence-based coverage. The employer did not advise the insurer of the abuse, nor did the insurer ask the employer if it was aware of any acts of abuse.

As discussed in the earlier article, the Supreme Court of Canada liberalized the limitation period for sexual abuse claims to the point where the limitation period does not begin until the plaintiff is reasonably capable of discovering the wrongful nature of the defendant’s acts.[1] Typically, that is not until he or she has received counselling. More recently, in Ontario, legislation has been passed to eliminate entirely the limitation period in cases of sexual abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Item

By John Finnerty CNHI Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG — Adults who were victimized by sexual predators as children and advocates for crime victims took to the steps of the state Capitol on Monday to share horrific tales of abuse and express anger that lawmakers have been unwilling to open a window to allow civil lawsuits in cases where the statute of limitations has expired.

The rally came a day ahead of a Tuesday committee vote on whether the state House will seek to change the law moving forward without including a clause to include victims who didn’t seek justice before the statute of limitations ran out.

“We can compromise on pension reform, on liquor and on the budget,” said state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks County, who has been leading the fight at the Capitol to get the law changed. “We should never compromise on protecting our children.”

Rozzi said the right to sue in old child sex cases “is not about the money.”

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon |For The Guam Daily Post Apr 4, 2017

A Saipan woman has filed a civil lawsuit against an ordained priest who previously served at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, accusing him of sexually abusing her during a trip to Guam when she was 12.

The woman, identified as “B.T.” in court documents to protect her identity, accuses Joe R. San Agustin, also known as Andrew San Agustin, of embarking on a scheme to lure her and her sister to Guam where he could “engage in sexually predatory conduct”.

The lawsuit, that seeks a minimum of $5 million in damages, alleges that San Agustin met “B.T.” and her sister when he was temporarily assigned to work as a priest and teacher at Mount Carmel School in Saipan from his assignment at the Cathedral-Basilica.

The victim, who is now 65, said San Agustin became a trusted mentor and was a regular at her home for social purposes and dinner with her family.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wigan Today

LYNDA ROUGHLEY
04 April 2017

A catholic priest repeatedly sexually abused a young boy in his care “breaching that trust in a spectacular and horrific way,” it has been claimed.

The boy was just 13 and 14 years old when Father Michael Higginbottom allegedly began seriously abusing him in varied ways at a seminary in Up Holland.

The alleged victim “recalls the college as a cold, dark and forbidding place. He told police that for him it was the venue for ‘mental, physical and sexual abuse’,” claimed David Temkin, prosecuting.

Fr Higginbottom, now aged 74, of West Farm Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

He denies eight offences – four of buggery and four of indecent assault, alleged to have taken place between September 1978 and March 20, 1979.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Echo

BY LYNDA ROUGHLEY
21:55, 3 APR 2017

A Catholic priest has gone on trial accused of sexually abusing boys at a former seminary in Upholland.

Father Michael Higginbottom is accused of eight offences against a boy aged 13 and 14 almost 40 years ago.

The alleged offences, four of buggery and four of indecent assault, are said to have taken place at St Joseph’s College between September 1978 and March 20, 1979.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

by Kody Leibowitz
Monday, April 3rd 2017

HARRISBURG — Survivors of child sex abuse and their supporters took to the steps of the state capitol to ask lawmakers to pass their bill, one they are calling the “real deal.”

With his back to a row of reporters now facing his supporters, Rep. Mark Rozzi summed up why those wanting a statute of limitations reform stood together outside the Capitol Building on Monday.

“Two-year window,” Rozzi (D-Berks) shouted to cheers.

The two-year window Rozzi mentioned is the push to open up a civil retroactive window, which he said would help past victims of child sex abuse.

“Everybody that supports the bill I say represents victims. If you don’t support retroactivity, then you support perpetrators and the institutions and the insurance companies,” said Rozzi. “So you’ll have to pick your side here.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

by Kody Leibowitz and Lauren Petrelli

HARRISBURG – The statute of limitations reform will be in the spotlight again on Monday.

Survivors of child sex abuse and other supporters will be in Harrisburg to ask lawmakers to push a bill that would include a retroactive window for past victims of child sex abuse.

A local group boarded a bus in Richland Township and headed for a rally in Harrisburg.

Sex abuse survivors and other advocates are expected to meet on the front steps of the Capitol building in order to have their voices heard.

The rally will be held by Rep. Mark Rozzi, who has been pushing for the statute of limitations change since the release of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown grand jury report last March.

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MONTANA
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Apr. 3, 2017

Are parish assets immune from liquidation?

That was a dominant question among those that pastors and others posed to Great Falls-Billings Bishop Michael Warfel leading up to the Montana diocese’s March 31 filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, brought on by financial pressures from sex abuse lawsuits.

The diocese embraces the concept that parish assets are held “in trust,” Warfel told NCR March 31, but attorneys for the currently 72 claimants caution otherwise.

“It is my understanding that the diocese will assert that some of its real estate holdings, investments and cash assets are held ‘in trust’ for the benefit of parishes, and are thus not available to fund a settlement or jury verdict should any case proceed to trial,” Bryan Smith, an attorney representing nearly half of current plaintiffs, told NCR in an email.

“However, there does not appear to be any evidence that the parishes are separately incorporated. If the cases do not resolve in mediation, the issue of which assets are reachable in bankruptcy could be the subject of litigation,” said Smith, who works for the Tamaki Law firm, which is based in Washington state.

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ROME
Commonweal

Letter from Rome

By Robert Mickens
April 3, 2017

Pope Francis has spent his four years as Bishop of Rome steadily and tenaciously waging a campaign to change the mentality of individual Catholics and the ethos of the entire church, which he dreams of being an outward-looking, accident-prone and getting-its-hands-dirty community that is “on the move”.

In fact, the pope’s “attitude adjustment program” is gradually reshaping the very identity of global Catholicism, even though it’s not to everyone’s liking.

Just as he hinted he would do when he addressed fellow cardinals just four days before they elected him, Francis has been trying to liberate Jesus Christ from a church that, increasingly in the past three or so decades, had become a sick, self-referential, and theologically narcissistic institution living only for itself.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

HARRISBURG – Hundreds of small blue flags signifying Child Abuse Prevention Month fluttered near Shaun Dougherty as he spoke from the state Capitol steps on Monday.

The Westmont resident offered his support for a bill that would eliminate the criminal and civil statutes of limitations in cases of future child sexual abuse, while also providing a one-time, two-year window of retroactivity for past victims, such as Dougherty, to bring civil claims against perpetrators.

Dougherty, during his brief comments, pointed to the area where the flags were located behind a wall.

“I don’t want any other children in this state to live the way I live,” said Dougherty, who was allegedly abused by a local priest.

“I want them to be happy. I don’t want any more of those blue flags anywhere, anywhere around here. No more. I want to burn all those damn flags.”

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FRANCE
Religion News Service

By Tom Heneghan

PARIS (RNS) Holding a colloquium to discuss dethroning an erring Roman Catholic pontiff sounds like a call to battle at a time when prominent cardinals say Pope Francis is leading the faithful astray.

Its title, “The Deposition of a Heretical Pope,” added a provocative touch after a rare challenge by four cardinals who last September urged Francis to clarify parts of “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love), a papal document they said wrongly opened the door to allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist.

So when plans for a conference were reported a few weeks ago, it created quite a buzz on the far right of the Catholic blogosphere.

As the original U.S. report was picked up and translated around Europe, it looked as if the two-day meeting in Paris could be the place where the next steps in the campaign against the pope were being worked out.

It turned out to be nothing of the sort.

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INDIA
The Hindu

The man sexually assaulted the girl

A 29-year-old man who works as a priest at various temples was arrested by the Karunagapally police on Tuesday on charges of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and abetting her suicide. The victim’s 49-year-old mother has also been arrested.

The police said the priest, an active member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was the woman’s paramour and he exploited that relationship to sexually assault the woman’s daughter, a Class-7 student. The police identified the accused as Renju, residing at Alumkadavu, near Karunagapally.

Unable to bear the sexual assault by the priest, the girl committed suicide. The police said the girl was subjected to unnatural sex. Though the woman had objected to it, she did not make a complaint to the police or other authorities concerned.

The probe was directly supervised by City Police Commissioner S. Satheesh Bino.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes said yesterday a parent of a child who attends Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School has asked that the school drop the bishop’s name.

The former Guam bishop is named in numerous child sexual abuse cases as being aware of certain abuses of altar boys, and allegedly did little to stop or investigate the abuse.

During a press conference held yesterday afternoon concerning developments in the Task Force for the Protection of Minors’ efforts to educate archdiocesan schools and parishes, Byrnes fielded questions from the media which included mention of a complaint made to Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School.

“I’m aware of that particular (request), and as far as I know right now it’s simply from one person,” he said. “(It’s) taken seriously, but it’s one of those situations that’s going to take a while for us to discern the way forward because there’s going to be at least two sides to the story.”

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MONTANA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Darren Eultgen, Chancellor
Diocese of Great Falls-Billings
PO Box 1399
Great Falls, MT 59403-1399
(406 727-6683
chancellor@diocesegfb.org

Diocese of Great Falls-Billings moves toward settlement in abuse claims

The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings has taken a major step toward bringing resolution to 72 current claims of abuse of minors by diocesan priests, religious community priests, women religious and lay workers who have served in the diocese.

On March 31, 2017, the Diocese is filing a chapter 11 reorganization case before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Montana to fulfill a pre-bankruptcy mediated negotiated agreement with known abuse survivors and the Diocese’s liability insurance carrier.

Bishop Michael W. Warfel and the Diocese have chosen a pastoral approach which provided the basis for its having entered this confidential mediation process. The recent mediation resulted in the beginning stages of general parameters of proposed settlements with the victims and the insurance carrier. The details of that comprehensive agreement are still being worked on by the parties. Under the supervision and ultimate approval of the Bankruptcy Court, the diocese and its insurance carrier would both contribute to that comprehensive settlement, which would compensate the currently identified victims. There will be additional settlement funds for additional and unknown victims. The process of obtaining Bankruptcy Court approval included the opportunity for victims and creditors to vote on the proposed settlement. The Diocese expects that its reorganization will be expedited by the pre-bankruptcy negotiations with all the affected parties.

“On behalf of the entire Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, I express my profound sorrow and sincere apologies to anyone who was abused by a priest, a sister, or a lay Church worker,” said Bishop, Warfel. “No child should experience harm from anyone who serves in the Church.”

Bishop Warfel also indicated: “I want to assure you that none of those who have been credibly accused remain active in parish ministry at this time. In fact, nearly all of those accused are deceased.”

For over two decades, the diocese has had abuse prevention programs in place, including screening and training for employees, volunteers, priests and seminarians. The diocese has an independent board to review claims of abuse, whose members include several parents, a judge, two former law enforcement officers, a social worker, and a counselor. Anyone wishing to report sexual abuse of a minor may contact the Victim’s Advocate for the diocese at (406) 750-2373 or victimassistancecoord@gmail.com.
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Bishop Warfel indicated: “We remain unwaveringly committed to promoting the Good News of Jesus Christ. Once the reorganization proceedings conclude, we will be able to plan confidently for future ministry for the people of the Church of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings.”

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MONTANA
Tamaki Law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:
TAMAKI LAW OFFICES 509-248-8338
Vito de la Cruz vito@tamakilaw.com cell (509) 952-7271
Blaine L. Tamaki btamaki@tamakilaw.com cell (509) 307-5804
Bryan G. Smith bsmith@tamakilaw.com (509) 307-7197

On March 31, 2017, just a few months before the first of many clergy sex abuse trials were scheduled to begin, the Diocese of Great Falls/Billings (covering most of Eastern Montana) filed for bankruptcy protection. Since 2012, the Great Falls Diocese has been defending 72 lawsuits, alleging childhood sexual abuse at the hands of clergy and nuns. The abuse took place over several decades from the 1950s through the 1990s.

This is the 15th bankruptcy filed by a Catholic Diocese in the U.S., and follows a bankruptcy filed by the Diocese of Helena (covering Western Montana) in 2012.

This bankruptcy will result in an automatic “stay” of all pending lawsuits, as the parties shift their focus to calculating the assets available to fund a potential settlement of these claims and any additional verified claims presented after the bankruptcy is filed.

According to Tamaki Law attorney Vito de la Cruz, who represents 34 of the 72 abuse survivors with pending lawsuits, “the abuse my clients suffered at the hands of Diocesan and religious order priests and nuns has caused profound suffering, hardship, and despair over their entire lives. However, with the Diocese filing bankruptcy instead of fighting each case individually, which would have taken years if not decades, abuse survivors hope that they will receive a measure of justice and accountability within a reasonable period of time.”

It is anticipated that the Diocese, its liability insurer, and the abuse survivors will participate in settlement discussions later in 2017.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

A camping trip at Manenggon in Yona in 1973 turned into a nightmare for a former Boy Scout who recounted the horrific night in a lawsuit filed Monday in the District Court of Guam.

An individual with the initials “J.C.T.,” through attorney David Lujan, filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and former priest and Boy Scout master, Louis Brouillard.

When he was 15, “J.C.T.” and his tent mate were getting ready to sleep during a camping outing when he smelled tobacco and saw Brouillard enter his tent. The former Boy Scout accused the priest of fondling him and sexually abusing him while repeatedly telling him, “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.”

The victim recalls when Brouillard was finished molesting and abusing him, he did the same to his tent mate. “J.C.T.” was very disturbed, exited the tent and hid in the bamboo area, court documents state.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 03, 2017
By Krystal Paco
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A 40th victim has filed suit against the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts of America Aloha Council. Plaintiff J.T.C. alleges he was 15-years-old in the early 1970s when he was sexually molested by his Boy Scout troop leader, Father Louis Brouillard.

On a camping trip in Manenngon, Yona, the priest came into his tent and performed oral sex on him, all while assuring the teen boy “it’s okay.” Using his free hand, J.T.C. alleges Brouillard fondled his tentmate too. When he was done with J.T.C, Brouillard also performed oral sex on the second boy.

Although he would continue to go on camping trips, the plaintiff states he would fight his way out of letting the priest into his tent. J.T.C. is represented by Attorney David Lujan. He is suing for $10 million.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Paul Toohey, News Corp Australia Network
April 3, 2017

Islamic organisations have dodged scrutiny by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which has spent four years probing numerous religious organisations but made no inquiries into Islam.

The commission, now in its fourth year, has diligently investigated Catholics, Anglicans, Pentecostals, Jewish, Jehovah’s Witnesses and obscure cults — along with sporting groups and the entertainment industry.

But it has published no information on sexual abuses against children within Islam, the third largest religion in Australia, raising questions as to whether the commission, which has proactively investigated even small religious sects, has failed Islamic children.

Lawyer Peter Kelso, who has represented 15 survivors of Christian institutions, recently wrote to the commission asking if it had looked at abuse from within Islam, particularly relating to forced child marriage, female genital mutilation and child sex.

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CANADA
CBC News

Valerie Waboose, an assistant law professor from the University of Windsor, is adding her voice to the growing chorus of Indigenous people calling on Senator Lynn Beyak to educate herself on the legacy of residential schools in Canada.

Earlier this month, Beyak criticized the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for “not focusing on the good” of the “well-intentioned” institutions.

The senator continues to face criticism for her comments, but said she does not need any more education about the schools and that she has “suffered” with Canada’s Indigenous people.

“The best way to heal is to move forward together, not to blame, not to point fingers, not to live in the past,” she said. “Recognize the atrocities, but move forward.”

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FRANCE
France 24

[A journalistic inquiry denounces the exfiltration by the Catholic Church of French priests suspected of sexual abuse of young Africans. They are thus excluded from local justice.The investigation focuses in particular on Africa, which has nearly 200 million Catholics, especially Guinea and Cameroon where religious who have been convicted of sexual abuse by local authorities have been repatriated to Europe by their congregations. The findings were revealed between Monday 20 and Wednesday 22 March by a group of independent journalists.]

Une enquête journalistique dénonce l’exfiltration par l’Église catholique de prêtres français soupçonnés d’abus sexuels sur de jeunes africains. Ils sont ainsi soustraits à la justice locale.

L’investigation se concentre notamment sur l’Afrique, qui compte près de 200 millions de baptisés catholiques, et en particulier sur la Guinée et le Cameroun, d’où des religieux reconnus coupables d’abus sexuels par les autorités locales ont été rapatriés en Europe par leurs congrégations. Les constats ont été révélés entre le lundi 20 et le mercredi 22 mars par un collectif de journalistes indépendants, We report, associés à Mediapart, et l’émission de France 2 Cash Investigation.

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URUGUAY
Subrayado

[Investigation continues into an allegation of alleged abuse by a priest of a 14-year-old boy. The priest was school director. The incident was first made known in November 16 by the alleged victim who is now 22.]

La jueza penal de 13° Turno, Ana Claudia Ruibal, tiene a su cargo un caso sobre presunto abuso sexual de un sacerdote hacia un menor de edad.

Según informó Telenoche, la denuncia fue presentada en noviembre de 2016 por un joven de 22 años, quien aseguró que el abuso ocurrió cuando él tenía 14 años.

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FRANCE
Slate

[The struggle against pedophilia of the clergy must be made a real priority.]

Henri Tincq — 02.04.2017

Quand en finira-t-on avec ce cancer de la pédophilie du clergé? Avec cette honte inscrite au front d’une institution de deux mille ans, une Église tenue pour sacrée par plus d’un milliard de fidèles dans le monde entier? On croyait à une sorte de «rémission» après les efforts de contrition, de transparence, de «tolérance zéro», le dialogue ouvert avec les victimes, les gestes et paroles de «repentance», le déblocage de sommes considérables pour dédommager les victimes d’abus sexuels par des prêtres. Rompant avec des années de silence, d’immobilisme et de contournement de la loi, tant canonique que civile, la politique mise en œuvre par les papes Benoit XVI (2005-2013) et François a conduit à nombre de signalements à la justice et à des condamnations fermes de prêtres abuseurs.

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AUSTRALIA
BBC News

By Hywel Griffith
BBC News, Sydney

An Australian child abuse survivor has called on the Catholic Church to reform its laws on confession to ensure crimes are reported to police.

Peter Gogarty said perpetrators knew anything disclosed in confession would not be revealed to authorities.

He told the BBC it was effectively a “get-out-of-jail-free card”.

It follows the final public hearings in an Australian inquiry, which has heard evidence of abusers confessing knowing their actions would not be divulged.

The issue of mandatory reporting has split Australia’s Catholic Church, with archbishops differing on whether information given by a child victim during confession should be relayed to police.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com April 3, 2017

Guam’s clergy sex abuse lawsuits reached 40 on Monday, April 3, when a man alleged former priest Louis Brouillard sexually abused him.

An accuser with the initials J.C.T., represented by attorney David Lujan, filed suit to demand a jury trial and $10 million in minimum damage, according to court documents. Since last week, some plaintiffs have chosen to use their initials to protect their identity, their lawyers said.

The latest lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Guam, named the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and Brouillard as defendants, along with up to 50 others who may have aided, abetted, concealed or covered up the alleged abuse.

Brouillard was also a scout master in the Boy Scouts of America while he was a priest on Guam. Most of the 40 lawsuits filed so far in local and federal courts accuse Brouillard, who has admitted to abusing at least 20 boys on Guam when he was a priest here.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Pressure by politicians on religious congregations to pay half the €1.5 billion cost of compensating those abused in Catholic institutions “is immoral and should stop”, one of the congregations has said.

The Oblates (Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate), who were severely criticised by the Ryan Commission report which investigated institutional abuse, dismissed the notion they were under “moral pressure” to pay more towards the compensation bill.

Nor do any of the 18 congregations involved “have a moral obligation to pay a share of the administration and ancillary costs of the Commission of Investigation and the redress board. Such a demand has never been made in all the history of the State,” it said.

Further, in a challenge to findings in the Ryan Commission report, it refers to “the huge gap between the way the congregations have understood their own history and the way it is presented in the report”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

Rachael Houlihan
@rachaelhoulihan

3 Apr 2017

CLERGY sexual abuse survivor Andrew Collins has called on Ballarat Diocese Bishop Paul Bird to resign after he refuted calls to remove plaques which include the name of disgraced bishop Ronald Mulkearns.

Mr Collins, who went to Rome last year to hear Cardinal George Pell’s evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, called on the Vatican to remove Bishop Bird if he would not resign. Bishop Bird told The Standard it was important to accurately record historical events where the community had gathered to celebrate with Bishop Mulkearns.

He said each school or church council had to make its own decision in regards to the removal of plaques and called on those making such decisions to also recognise the good work done by Bishop Mulkearns.

Bishop Mulkearns, who died last year, was known as the “keeper of secrets” and headed the Ballarat Diocese while paedophile members of the clergy abused children.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

Updated: Apr 03, 2017

By Krystal Paco

We can expect more transparency from the Archdiocese of Agana, who today launched the first of a monthly series called Updating the Faithful. Today’s update was on efforts to educate and prevent child sex abuse in the Catholic school system.

Faculty and staff at all 14 of Guam’s Catholic schools know what to do should they suspect a child is a victim of abuse. The efforts were spearheaded by the Task Force for the Protection of Minors led by longtime social work professional Sarah Thomas-Nededog, who said, “The schools know much better what the mandatory reporting law was all about to understanding the issues of boundaries and the importance of setting those boundaries and respecting them and teaching and supporting children to be more empowered to protect themselves, as well.”

The task force was created in September shortly after allegations of clergy sex abuse went public. To date, 39 plaintiffs have filed suit alleging members of the church knew of the ongoing abuse decades ago, but failed to do anything about it. The group’s mission is now expanded to educate the parishes.

Today’s press conference is the first of a monthly series. Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes chose this month’s topic to highlight ongoing Child Abuse Prevention Month, as he announced, “My main role here is to say thanks to you all for really taking the lead and providing some really effective measures through the training.”

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