ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Louise Milligan

When you write a book which details allegations of paedophilia against a man who was once one of the nation’s most powerful people, curious things happen. One of the crazier things is a tiny circle of people who still unquestioningly defend this person, saying he could not possibly have committed acts they know nothing about and accuse you of leftist bias.

How on god’s green earth, you ask yourself, did the prospect that someone might have abused children suddenly become a matter of left and right?

Let this be known: George Pell’s politics are of zero interest to me. But this is Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric. He’s a man who for years was telling the rest of us how to live our lives – not least how to live our sex lives (a matter with which, as I document in Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell, he was somewhat preoccupied). He has been accused many times of abusing little kids.

Those accusations now form part of a comprehensive investigation by Victoria Police’s Taskforce SANO. I think that warrants a look. It often occurs to me that this band of defenders, who shrink with each day in number as the allegations pile up, have painted themselves into a corner and now flail about, trying to come up with something to throw back at those who would tumble down their rather shaky house of cards.

But it also strikes me that when you are someone, like they are, who interprets everything in the world from a single, unshakeable, ideological standpoint, you make the erroneous assumption that everyone else does too. Here’s the thing: I don’t. Journalists, unlike people who rant at clouds for a living, are constantly required to look into things that perhaps challenge our world view.

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AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

ANNIE YOUNG
1 Jun 2017

One story above all others which can reduce me to tears is the story of Anthony and Chrissie Foster.

What heartbreak after so many years of fighting the Catholic Church for justice for their daughters, two of whom were sexually assaulted by a priest, that Anthony Foster died unexpectedly last week.

This is a man who endured years of stonewalling to find justice for the survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, including two of his three daughters. As chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan said: “With dignity and grace, Anthony and Chrissie generously supported countless survivors and their families whilst also managing their own grief”.

Anthony Foster was a tireless advocate for the survivors of sexual assault by priests. He died following a stroke. It is such a tragic loss for those still seeking a way through the grief and anguish they have suffered at the hands of appalling out of control predatory priests. His wife Chrissie was by his side, as she has been through every step of this heartbreaking, tragic story. Their marriage only became stronger as they fought for justice for the survivors, where many other relationships broke down irretrievably.

It was years before their daughters could describe to their parents the sexual assaults they experienced at the hands of local priest Kevin O’Donnell, which then explained something of their own behaviours as teenagers.

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SCOTLAND
Premier

Wed 31 May 2017
By Craig Wakeling

An inquiry into allegations of abuse of children living in care in Scotland opens today, with the Church of Scotland among a number of bodies set to give evidence.

The first hearings take place in Edinburgh on Wednesday and are expected to last several weeks.

Faith based organizations as well residential and foster care providers are due to give evidence as well as expert witnesses, the Scottish Government and survivors.

It will cover a period within living memory of anyone who suffered such abuse, no later than 17th December 2014.

The inquiry aims to establish to what extent institutions and bodies with legal responsibility for the care of children failed in their duty to protect children in care in Scotland, as well as seek to identify any systemic failures in fulfilling that duty.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

CHARITIES and church groups queued up to apologise on the opening day of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) as the long-awaited investigation took evidence in public for the first time.

The chair of what is expected to be Scotland’s biggest and most expensive public inquiry, Lady Scott, had invited them to do so, using their opening statements to consider ‘retrospective acknowledgement’ if abuse had taken place.

Some were more forthcoming than others. Quarriers offered an “unreserved apology” to those abused while in the care of the charity, via Kate Dowdalls QC, while Laura Dunlop QC for the Church of Scotland’s social care arm Crossreach said it was “Inescapable that the church has provided the setting in which children were abused. That is profoundly regretted by all … connected with the Church of Scotland in any way.”

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SCOTLAND
News & Star

31 May 2017

Scotland’s national child abuse inquiry has heard a succession of apologies from organisations to survivors who say they were abused as youngsters in residential care.

Groups including Quarriers, Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, Sisters of Nazareth, De La Salle Brothers, the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland and Crossreach, the social care arm of the Church of Scotland, were among those voicing regret for past cases of abuse or alleged abuse.

The apologies were offered in opening statements from a range of bodies as the public hearing phase of the far-reaching inquiry into historical allegations of the abuse of children in care in Scotland got under way.

It followed remarks from chairwoman Lady Smith who said the process will be “painful” for many, but necessary to achieve “real, substantial and lasting change”.

In their opening remarks, representatives of Quarriers and the Marist Brothers offered “unreserved” apologies to anyone who was abused in their care.

Canon Boyle, representing the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, told the hearing in Edinburgh that Archbishop Philip Tartaglia had offered a “profound” apology in 2015 to those harmed as a result of the actions of anyone within the Catholic Church.

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UNITED STATES
Inverse

By Caitlin Busch on May 31, 2017

Father Joseph Maskell, a previous chaplain at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, is the key “villain” of Netflix’s recently released docu-series The Keepers. Maskell’s name is intrinsically tied to allegations of systematic sexual abuse at Keough, an all-girls high school, and the murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, both of which are large focuses of the series. Father Maskell died of a major stroke on May 7, 2001, at the age of 62, seven years after escaping the Archdiocese of Baltimore and fleeing to Ireland. He has never been officially charged with any of the accused crimes.

A controversial figure even before the premiere of The Keepers, Maskell had been accused of abuse many times over the years without any of the accusations sticking. A 2015 feature from Huffington Post did a deep-dive on the Cesnik case before The Keepers introduced the masses to the nun’s story, and reported on what Maskell’s fate entailed.

See, Maskell has never, to this day, been charged with any wrong-doing, though he’s been accused of abuse many times over the years. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests reports that “Baltimore City prosecutors have charged only three of the 37 Baltimore priests who have been accused of sexual abuse since 1980,” according to the Huff Post article. “Just two of those priests were convicted, and one of those convictions was overturned in 2005.” Charging a priest, it turns out, is a hard thing to do, especially when that priest is as well-connected as Maskell seemed to be.

Maskell in particular was a difficult target. At the time, he served as the chaplain for the Baltimore County police, the Maryland State Police and the Maryland National Guard. Maskell kept a police scanner and loaded handgun in his car, drank beer with the officers at a local dive bar, and often went on “ride-alongs” with his police friends at night to respond to petty crimes or catch teenagers making out in their cars.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hull Daily Mail

By Angus Young

A former Cottingham priest has appeared in court to face charges of historic child sex abuse.

Canon Terence Grigg, 83, is charged with nine offences of indecent assault and two charges of buggery.

The charges relate to incidents said to have taken place between 1975 and 1995 involving five different under-age boys.

Seven of the charges involve alleged assaults at his former rectory in the village. Two others are alleged to have been committed at the Liberal Club in London.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

CHRIS MARSHALL
Wednesday 31 May 2017

The abuse of children in care has been described as a source of “sorrow” and “overwhelming shame” as a series of organisations offered apologies to survivors. The national child abuse inquiry, which is being led by Lady Smith, held its first public hearing in Edinburgh today.

Lady Smith said is was a “tragedy” many survivors had died without accountability for what happened to them, including a leading campaigner who died just weeks ago.

In opening statements to the inquiry, a number of care providers and religious orders gave “unreserved apologies” for physical and sexual abuse that took place in the past.

Representing the Catholic Church, the Bishops Conference of Scotland said “red flags and warning signs” had been missed.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The first hearing in the Scottish child abuse inquiry has heard apologies from organisations which ran children’s homes around the country.

More than 60 institutions, including several top private schools and church bodies, are being investigated.

The inquiry, which is being chaired by Lady Smith, is looking in detail at historical abuse of children in residential care.

It is expected to report in late 2019 – four years after it was set up.

The opening session in Edinburgh heard apologies from groups who said they “deplored that physical sexual abuses could occur”.

They included Quarrier’s, Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, Sisters of Nazareth, Good Shepherd Sisters, De La Salle Brothers and Christian Brothers.

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NEW YORK
Fios 1

[with video]

Peter Marghella was just 12 years old in 1973 when he attended “Camp Spes Mundi” in Hope Falls, New York. It was there that Marghella was raped and sexually abused by Father Kenneth O’Connell, the Boy Scout Chaplain of the camp and pastor of Saints John and Paul Parish in Larchmont until his death in 1984.

“He raped me, he sodomized me. It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life,” Marghella told FiOS1 News.

Marghella is just one of hundreds of victims who have come forward, taking his claims to the Independent Reconciliation Compensation program, created by Timothy Cardinal Dolan in 2016, for victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

However, Marghella’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of victims of sex abuse, says that the program is simply a step in the right direction, not a solution to a much bigger issue within the Catholic Church.

“There isn’t one victim I’ve ever represented who wouldn’t give all the money back they’ve ever received in exchange for not being abused.” Garabedian told FiOS1. “They all want the truth, they all want to know what the Catholic Church knew about, for instance, Monsignor O’Connell? When did they know it? Why didn’t they stop him from abusing children?”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

Kitty Holland

The chief executive of Caranua, the independent statutory organisation charged with managing a fund to improve the lives of survivors of institutional abuse, should “step aside” an Oireachtas committee has heard.

Senator Lynn Ruane called on Mary Higgins to resign from her role, at the Education Committee on Tuesday. All committee members present said they had had significant complaints from survivors about their engagement with Caranua.

Ms Higgins said she was not aware of the complaints and it was difficult for Caranua to address them as a result.

Caranua, which means ‘new friend’, was established under the 2012 Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act, to manage a €110 million fund provided by the religious, to improve survivors’ lives. Survivors can apply to the fund for grants for such services as counselling, medical treatment, education or therapies.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

EDITORIAL

The Knights of Columbus have been a fixture in the American church for the past 135 years, the friendly uncle of the family who oversees the Friday fish fries, occasionally going off to secret ceremonies and, at a certain level of membership, breaking out odd costumes replete with cape, sword and plumed hat for special occasions that often involve members of the hierarchy.

But as our recent examination of the organization’s spending on the national and international levels shows, the Knights are far more than parish helpers and a ceremonial presence (See link below). The Knights of Columbus organization has moved well beyond its original mission of rescuing widows and children from penury and giving young Irish lads a path to assimilation into American culture.

Related: Knights of Columbus’ financial forms show wealth, influence (May 15, 2017)

The degree of wealth the organization has amassed from its insurance business and other ventures, and the influence it exerts within the church and in shaping the Catholic narrative in the public square raise serious questions for 21st-century Catholicism. Those questions should be pursued, from the highest levels of the Vatican to the Knights’ local chapters — about the nature of spending, about exorbitant salaries of Knights’ executives, about the increasingly political nature of the organization’s involvement in the culture and the influence of that ideological approach within the church.

Though the organization donates abundantly to charity, and members volunteer countless hours for good causes, its funds also fuel some of the most divisive agents in society and some of the most strident and acrimonious voices within the church. …

We cringe for the future of the Catholic community having arrived at the point where the leader of one of the most influential Catholic organizations in the world can describe as “pro-life” an administration that, among other regrettable anti-life initiatives:

* Brutalizes refugees and migrants, tearing families apart by deporting people who have no greater wish than safety, opportunity and hard work;
* Is willing to rip health care from tens of millions of people;
* Denies climate change and jeopardizes creation itself with retrograde policies on the environment;
* Intends to increase defense spending more than $50 billion while cutting social welfare programs for the most vulnerable;
* And whose leader, the president, boasts openly of sexual conquests that many would describe as assault.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Jorge Branco

A Queensland Catholic priest wrestled naked with an altar boy who had come to him for support and groped his genitals, police will allege.

Father Michael Joseph McKeaten’s case was mentioned in court on Wednesday, less than a month after he withdrew from the ministry and more than 25 years after the alleged sexual offence.

He ministered at more than half a dozen parishes and was still the parish priest at two schools west of the Gold Coast until earlier this month, when he was farewelled by students with a cake at his final mass.

The priest of 38 years was expected to take the helm of four parishes in Ipswich but last Tuesday, the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane revealed he had alerted them of the charge and withdrawn from “active ministry”.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Australian Associated Press

A Queensland priest charged with an historic sexual offence will appear in court in July.

Father Michael Joseph McKeaten withdrew from his duties earlier this month after notifying church authorities he had been charged over an alleged sexual offence believed to have occurred in the 1990s.

He was not required to appear at a hearing at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday with the matter adjourned to July 3.

He is charged with one count of procuring a sexual act by false pretence.

A lawyer representing McKeaten declined to comment.

The priest was ordained 38 years ago and has served in parishes and schools across south-east Queensland, most recently at the Beaudesert parish – south of Brisbane.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

30 May, 2017

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a new research report that finds children with problem or harmful sexual behaviours should have access to effective therapeutic services.

The Royal Commission contracted researchers from the University of Melbourne, the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody Research Institute to examine current best evidence on treatment for children with problem sexual behaviour (aged under 10 years), harmful sexual behaviour (aged 10-17 years), and children who have sexually offended (aged 10-17 years).

The research report, Rapid evidence assessment: Current best evidence in the therapeutic treatment of children with problem or harmful sexual behaviours, and children who have sexually offended, finds there are few rigorous, high-quality studies on this topic.

It finds information about the children who have received treatment is limited, particularly for children outside of the juvenile justice system and for children with problem sexual behaviour under the age of ten.

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TEXAS
Times Record

A Wichita Falls man has been accused of inappropriately touching a child several years ago.

Russell William Detwiler, 74, is charged with indecency with a child by sexual contact. He was booked into Wichita County Jail Thursday morning and was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit:

A licensed therapist reported to Wichita Falls police that a 14-year-old patient made an outcry of sexual abuse against Detwiler.

The girl was forensically interviewed at Patsy’s House Child Advocacy Center. During the interview, the girl said one time while she was at Detwiler’s house he placed his hand inside her pants and was “feeling around.” She said he touched her inappropriately but did not penetrate her digitally.

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TEXAS
Newschannel 6

By Danielle Malagarie, Reporter, Weekend Anchor

WICHITA FALLS, TX (KAUZ) –
A man is behind bars charged with Indecency with a child following a call to Wichita Falls Police.

On April 26 a licensed therapist reported that one of her patients, a 14-year-old girl, made an outcry of sexual abuse against Russell William Detwiler, 74.

The victim was interviewed about the outcry at Patsy’s House by a trained forensic interviewer.

During that interview, the victim said Detwiler had touched her inappropriately on more than one occasion.

The investigator spoke to the victim’s mother who said she had previously confronted Detwiler about these allegations. …

A check of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church website directory shows Detwiler listed as a deacon for the Parish.

Newschannel 6 is working to learn if Detwiler is still a deacon there.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Sun

By Matt Coyle
30th May 2017

THE Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry will focus on the abuse of children in care with the first hearings starting today.

The inquiry will raise public awareness of institutionalised abuse and reveal the reality of the suffering of child victims.

Senior judge Lady Smith is chair and will lead the inquiry. She has been a judge since 2001 and brings a wealth of experience.

The judge was appointed chair of the inquiry after lawyer Susan O’Brien QC quit the post along with another panel member, Prof Michael Lamb, last year.

When do the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry hearings start?

The first hearings of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry will start on Wednesday May 31, in Edinburgh.

It is one of the most far reaching public inquiries to take place in Scotland and the first round of hearings will see opening statements from the organisations asked to appear.

Expert witnesses will then discuss the laws governing children in care in Scotland up to 1968; the early development of care services in Scotland; attitudes towards children and the prevalence of child abuse in Scotland.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

A far-reaching inquiry into historical allegations of the abuse of children in care in Scotland will begin hearing evidence on Wednesday.

The first phase of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry will hear evidence from faith-based organisations and residential and foster care providers.

Expert witnesses, the Scottish Government and survivor groups will also give evidence at the hearings.

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

It covers the period within living memory of anyone who suffered such abuse, no later than December 17 2014.

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SCOTLAND
STV

Chris Foote

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry will hold its first hearings in Edinburgh.

It will hear evidence from faith organisations and carers regarding allegations of historical abuse in Scotland.

Expert witnesses and survivor groups will also speak at the hearings, which begin on Wednesday.

The inquiry has been taking statements from witnesses since last spring.

It will consider whether or not institutions failed in their duty to protect children in care from abuse and attempt to identify any systemic failures.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The first hearings in the Scottish child abuse inquiry are getting under way in Edinburgh.

More than 60 institutions, including several top private schools and church bodies, are being investigated.

The inquiry, which is being chaired by Lady Smith, will look in detail at historical abuse of children in residential care.

It is expected to report in late 2019 – more than four years after it was set up.

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CANADA
Calgary Herald

Allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with a student have led to the arrest of a teacher at a northeast high school.

The Calgary police child-abuse unit announced Tuesday that a 45-year-old Bishop McNally High School teacher, whose name has not yet been released, will be charged in connection with sexual offences dating back more than a decade.

Police began investigating in January 2017 after a former student at the high school reported that she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teacher between 2007 and 2009.

The alleged incidents occurred at several residences in Calgary, as well as at the school, according to a news release from police.

“Despite the age of consent in 2007 being 14, the suspect was in a position of trust and authority over the victim for the duration of alleged offences,” police said in the release.

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CANADA
Global News

By Phil Heidenreich

Calgary police said a teacher has been arrested in connection with an investigation into “inappropriate sexual contact with a student dating back more than a decade.”

On Tuesday evening, police said two charges are pending against a 45-year-old man: sexual contact with a youth by a person in authority and sexual assault.

In January, detectives began investigating a complaint from a former student at Bishop McNally High School in the city’s northeast. Police said she told them she “had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teacher” while she was a 16-year-old student at the school and alleged the encounters happened both at the school and at several different homes in the city.

On Tuesday, police said even though the age of consent is 14, they expect to lay charges because the suspect “was in a position of trust and authority over the victim for the duration of alleged offences.”

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CANADA
CBC News

By David Bell, CBC News Posted: May 30, 2017

A Calgary teacher is facing charges relating to incidents at Bishop McNally High School that began in 2007, police said in a release Tuesday.

“In January 2017, detectives began an investigation into a complaint from a woman who alleged she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teacher while she was a student at Bishop McNally High School between 2007 and 2009,” said police.

“The victim was 16 years old when the offences began. The incidents are alleged to have occurred at several residences in Calgary, as well as at the school.”

‘Position of trust’

A 45-year-old man was arrested Tuesday and charges of sexual contact with a youth by a person in authority and sexual assault are pending.

The suspect was in police custody Tuesday evening waiting to have the charges read.

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CANADA
Calgary Sun

BY MEGHAN POTKINS, POSTMEDIA
FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2017

Allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with a student have led to the arrest of a teacher at a northeast high school.

The Calgary police child-abuse unit announced Tuesday that a 45-year-old Bishop McNally High School teacher, whose name has not yet been released, will be charged in connection with sexual offences dating back more than a decade.

Police began investigating in January 2017 after a former student at the high school reported that she had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teacher between 2007 and 2009.

The alleged incidents occurred at several residences in Calgary, as well as at the school, according to a news release from police.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

A federal health watchdog is investigating a Catholic nun who has practised as a psychologist assessing candidates for the priesthood in Sydney for the past eight years despite allegedly being unregistered.

Sister Lydia Allen, who told a royal commission she conducts psychological assessments at the Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Homebush, is under investigation by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency which oversees the registration of health professionals.

Only psychologists registered with the Psychology Board of Australia, which works in partnership with AHPRA, can use the title psychologist.

Sister Allen appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse earlier this year where she was questioned about her role at the seminary, which is one of the largest in Australia with 50 seminarians.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

ANALYSIS
By Noel Debien

As Victoria Police deliberate whether or not to lay charges against Cardinal George Pell, they are also weighing up whether to prosecute a potential world leader. This bold notion is not purple media prose. It is simply stating the facts.

Cardinal Pell strenuously denies the allegations made against him.

The Ballarat-born 75-year-old is potentially the pope in waiting. All it takes is for Pope Francis to die suddenly, and one of the 120-odd Cardinals will be the next pope. It could be Cardinal Pell.

Cardinal Pell is the head of the Vatican secretariat for the economy. Effectively he is the third in charge of the 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church. The Cardinal has diplomatic immunity as a Vatican official, and Australia has no extradition treaty.

In the modern era, laying serious or criminal charges against a Cardinal-Archbishop has not been done in free and democratic nations where immunity could apply.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv
Bishop of Parramatta

It is with much sadness that we learned of the sudden death of Anthony Foster in Melbourne over the weekend.

Anthony and his wife Chrissie dedicated their lives to seeking justice for victims of child sex abuse.

In 2010, when I was still living in Rome, I read the book Hell on the Way to Heaven in which they told the harrowing story of the sexual abuse of their daughters by a Catholic priest. I was deeply moved by their suffering but also inspired by their determination, courage and resilience.

Back in Melbourne as an Auxiliary Bishop, I sought them out and eventually met them on a number of occasions. I was kindly received into their home a few times and offered hospitality – a privilege I treasure. Each time we met, the Fosters would share with me their pain and suffering. They would also challenge me to do all I could as a church leader to treat victims and their loved ones with the Christian justice we profess.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

By Joe Walker
joewalker@thekmgroup.co.uk

A priest has been convicted of abusing children across four decades as detectives urge other victims to come forward.

Eugene Fitzpatrick, 68, of Raymond Avenue, Canterbury, was jailed for 22 years after a jury convicted him of seven counts of indecent assault, four of indecency with a child and two of buggery.

All of the sex attacks took place in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

The indecent assault and indecency offences were committed against one victim in the Islington area, while a second child was victim to buggery offences at Our Lady St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hackney.

Fitzpatrick was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday and sentenced the following day.

DC Lorraine Simpson and DC Klementina Balint, the investigating officers, said: “Eugene Fitzpatrick is a predatory sex offender who abused his position of trust, preying on vulnerable youngsters and subjecting them to horrific sexual abuse over a period of years.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon , jfitzgib@lohud.com May 30, 2017

One of the worst panic attacks for Peter Marghella came during the Gulf War as he sat in a military tent in the sweltering heat of Bahrain.

For Marghella, a highly decorated U.S. Navy medical officer, the 17 years that had lapsed since his encounter with the Rev. Kenneth O’Connell at an upstate New York Boy Scout camp had done little to quell his nightmares.

“I took out the pistol and I cocked it and I put it in my mouth,” Marghella said. “I was literally just about to pull the trigger when the command surgeon, who was in the room next to me, divided by a partition so he couldn’t see me, just started talking to me.”

“I can’t remember what it was,” he said. “It was just kind of innocuous banter. He talked with this kind of South Carolina drawl. And I just started to concentrate on what he was saying and I took the gun out of my mouth.”

It was the second near-suicide for Marghella, and it came seven years before he finally sought help and opened up about his childhood nightmare.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT STEPHEN REX BROWN REUVEN BLAU
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 30, 2017

When Peter Marghella hurt his ribs wrestling with some friends at summer camp he had no idea it would change his life forever.

Marghella, who was 12 in 1973, was away at Camp Spes Mundi in Hope Falls, when, he says, a priest sodomized him inside a private house.

The priest, Kenneth F. O’Connell, suggested Marghella stay with him after the injury, away from the other campers, so he could keep an eye on him throughout the night.

“Sometime in middle of the night, I woke up and O’Connell had crawled into bed with me naked and sodomized me,” Marghella recalled Tuesday.

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RUSSIA
RAPSI

ST. PETERSBURG, May 31 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Investigators have completed a probe into the Russian priest Gleb Grozovsky, who stands charged with sexual abuse of children, RAPSI learnt in the St. Petersburg prosecutor’s office.

A prosecutor is to make a decision on the approval of indictment within 10 days, and then the case will be forwarded to court, a representative of the prosecutor’s office said.

According to investigators, Grozovsky committed several crimes against minors in 2011 and 2013.

In 2013, he fled to Israel and applied for citizenship. However, his application was dismissed.

In April 2014, Grozovsky was put on the international wanted list. Israeli police arrested him in September. In January 2015, a court in Jerusalem ruled that the priest should be extradited to Russia pursuant to the European Convention on Extradition. The ruling was appealed but rejected. In April 2016, the Justice Minister signed an order on Grozovsky’s extradition.

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SCOTLAND
Fife Today

LIZ ROUGVIE
Tuesday 30 May 2017

A man who suffered horrific sexual abuse at the hands of priests at a Fife school is staging a vigil tomorrow (Wednesday) as the Scottish child abuse inquiry gets under way.

Dave Sharp, now 58, spent six years at the then St Ninian’s School in Falkland, where from the age of 10 he says he was brutally raped, drugged, beaten, shut in a coffin with the lid closed and even taken to Ireland to be passed around men at sex parties.

His abuser, Father Gerry Ryan, has since died, but two men were jailed last year for abusing boys at St Ninian’s between 1977 and 1983.

Following his ordeal, Dave slept rough on the streets and succumbed to drink and drunk addiction.

But he’s now a campaigner for other abuse survivors and has set up a charity, SAFE – Seek and Find Everyone – with the aim of encouraging them to come forward and make their voices heard.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

BY AARON MOSELLE

The Philadelphia Courts website still lists Tuesday as the start of Monsignor William Lynn’s retrial, but an unresolved defense appeal means the former church official won’t face another jury for months, perhaps not until 2018.

Lynn, currently a free man, was convicted in 2012 of recommending the Archdiocese of Philadelphia transfer a known pedophile priest.

Much of Lynn’s three-month trial focused on clergy sex abuse allegedly committed by 21 priests over several decades. Some examples dated back to the 1940s — well before Lynn was a supervisor with the archdiocese.

Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn Bright, who is presiding over the case, has ruled that Lynn’s next trial will spend far less time on these “prior bad acts.”

In late April, Bright ruled that prosecutors could detail allegations against three priests, according to court documents. Lynn’s lawyer then filed an appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

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NORTH DAKOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By Archie Ingersoll on May 27, 2017

FARGO — The Catholic Diocese of Fargo has placed a priest on paid administrative leave after he told church officials about “concerns that had been brought to him regarding his interaction with youth,” Bishop John Folda said in a statement Saturday, May 27.

Father Thomas Feltman, pastor of St. John the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere, N.D., and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor, N.D., won’t be performing any priestly duties and won’t be living on diocesan property while the complaint is investigated, diocesan spokesman Paul Braun said.

Braun said the diocese has reported the matter to the Richland County Social Services. When asked to elaborate on Feltman’s “interaction with youth,” Braun declined to comment.

“The diocese is cooperating fully with authorities, but due to the ongoing investigation, the diocese is referring all questions to the Richland County Sheriff’s Office,” Braun said.

A phone message left Saturday for the sheriff’s office investigator handling the case was not returned.

On Saturday, Bishop Folda told members of the Milnor and Wyndmere parishes that it was the previous week when Feltman told the diocese of the concerns about his dealings with youth.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Evening Standard

JONATHAN MITCHELL

A former priest who subjected London children to decades of “horrific sexual abuse” including rape has been jailed for 22 years.

Eugene Fitzpatrick, 68, was found to have sexually assaulted one boy in Islington, as well as raping a boy at Our Lady St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hackney.

The offences were all committed in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s, police said.

But police fear that the “predatory sex offender” could have assaulted other children in that time, and have pleaded for survivors of his abuse to come forward.

Fitzpatrick, of Raymond Avenue, in Canterbury, was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday, May 25, of seven counts of indecent assault, four counts of indecency with a child and two counts of buggery.

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NORTH DAKOTA
KVRR

May 30, 2017 Joe Radske

WAHPETON, ND – Law enforcement officials are releasing few details about an investigation involving a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Fargo.

The Richland County Sheriff’s office is looking into allegations involving Fr. Thomas Feltman, the pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor.

Investigator Josh Beto says he can’t comment on the details of the case, but says it involves “inappropriate activities.”

Beto says the sheriff’s office became involved last week after the department was contacted by Richland County Social Services.

He says at this time, he considers the investigation “open-ended” and can’t discuss the number of potential victims.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Post

May 30, 2017, By Erica Doyle Higgins

FORMER priest Eugene Fitzpatrick has been jailed for 22 years for historical sex abuse, and detectives are urging any further victims to come forward.

Fitzpatrick, 68, of Raymond Avenue, Canterbury was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday, May 25 of seven counts of indecent assault, four counts of indecency with a child and two counts of buggery.

He was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment the following day.

The offences took place between the 1960s and 1990s.

The indecent assaults and indecency offences were committed against one victim in the Islington area throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The first assault took place in Tufnell Park in 1965 when Fitzpatrick was 17 years old and the boy was under the age of 8.

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MARYLAND
Huffington Post

By Laura Bassett

On a frigid day in November 1969, Father Joseph Maskell, the chaplain of Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, called a student into his office and suggested they go for a drive. When the final bell rang at 2:40 p.m., Jean Hargadon Wehner, a 16-year-old junior at the all-girls Catholic school, followed the priest to the parking lot and climbed into the passenger seat of his light blue Buick Roadmaster.

It was not unusual for Maskell to give students rides home or take them to doctor’s appointments during the school day. The burly, charismatic priest, then 30 years old, had been the chief spiritual and psychological counselor at Keough for two years and was well-known in the community. Annual tuition at Keough was just $200, which attracted working-class families in deeply Catholic southwest Baltimore who couldn’t afford to send their daughters to fancier private schools. Many Keough parents had attended Maskell’s Sunday masses. He’d baptized their babies, and they trusted him implicitly.

This time, though, Maskell didn’t bring Wehner home. He navigated his car past the Catholic hospital and industrial buildings that surrounded Keough’s campus and drove toward the outskirts of the city. Eventually, he stopped at a garbage dump, far from any homes or businesses. Maskell stepped out of the car, and the blonde, freckled teenager followed him across a vast expanse of dirt toward a dark green dumpster.

It was then that she saw the body crumpled on the ground.

The week prior, Sister Cathy Cesnik, a popular young nun who taught English and drama at Keough, had vanished while on a Friday-night shopping trip. Students, parents and the local media buzzed about the 26-year-old’s disappearance. People from all over Baltimore County helped the police comb local parks and wooded areas for any sign of her.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WSPA

RUTHERFORD Co., N.C. (WSPA) – Jury selection is expected to begin Tuesday in a trial connected to church abuse allegations.

Five members of Word of Faith Fellowship were charged in 2015 after a former member claimed he was attacked for being gay.

The church disputes the former member’s claims, as well as allegations of abuse that others say they also endured.

Justin Covington, 20, Brooke Covington, 56, and Adam Bartley, 25, all of Rutherfordton, along with Robert Walker Jr., 26, of Spindale, were indicted on charges of second-degree kidnapping and simple assault.

Sarah Covington Anderson, 27, of Rutherfordton, faces the same charge and one count of assault inflicting physical injury by strangulation

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NORTH CAROLINA
Blue Ridge Now

By MITCH WEISS and HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press

RUTHERFORDTON — Jury selection began Tuesday for a North Carolina church minister accused of beating a man to expel his “homosexual demons.”

Brooke Covington, 58, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, is the first of five church members to face trial in the case. Each defendant will be tried separately.

Covington has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and assaulting former church member Matthew Fenner in January 2013. If convicted, Covington faces up to two years in prison.

Fenner, 23, said he was leaving a prayer service Jan. 27, 2013, when nearly two dozen people surrounded him in the sanctuary. He said they slapped, punched, choked and blasted him — a church practice that involves intense screaming — for two hours as they tried to expel his “homosexual demons.”

As part of an ongoing, two-year investigation into abuse of Word of Faith Fellowship congregants by church leaders, The Associated Press interviewed four former church members who said they witnessed Fenner’s assault.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Stuttgarter Nachricten

[A clergyman is now focus of an investigation in the Korntal community.]

Von Franziska Kleiner 29. Mai 2017

Bei der Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchsskandals rückt nun ein Pfarrer in den Fokus, der die Brüdergemeinde seit den 1950er Jahren geprägt hat.

Ditzingen – Erzieher, Hausmeister, Lehrer – und nun sogar der Seelsorger der Gemeinde: Auch der inzwischen verstorbene Pfarrer der Pietistengemeinde in Korntal soll zu den Mitarbeitern gehören, die in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts in Einrichtungen der evangelischen Brüdergemeinde Korntal Kindern psychische und physische Gewalt angetan haben.

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AUSTRALIA
Aljazeera

Australia plans to ban convicted paedophiles from travelling overseas in what the government said is a world-first move to protect vulnerable children in Southeast Asia from exploitation.

Australian paedophiles are notorious for taking inexpensive vacations to nearby South-east Asian and Pacific island countries to abuse children there.

Australian officials said no country has such a travel ban.

They said 2,500 new convicted paedophiles would be added to the sex offender register each year and would also lose their passports.

The register contains 3,200 serious offenders who will be banned from travel for life.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hackney Gazette

A Catholic priest who repeatedly raped and assaulted boys has been jailed for 22 years.

Father Eugene Fitzpatrick, 68, was found guilty of the horrific attacks at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday and sentenced the next day.

He raped one boy multiple times between 1986 and 1992 while working at Our Lady and Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Balls Pond Road, Islington.

He also indecently assaulted another boy throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The first offence took place in Tufnell Park in 1965 when he was just 17 and the boy aged under eight.

Fitzpatrick was found guilty of 11 counts of indecent assault and indecency with a child relating to the first victim, for which he received a total of five years.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Sun

By Deborah McAleese
29th May 2017

A VICTIM of historic child abuse at a Catholic Church children’s home is to make an emotional return to her hometown in a bid to trace her long lost family.

Kate Walmsley, 60, was seven years old when she was taken from her home in Glasgow and placed in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth in Derry following the break-up of her parents’ marriage.

While there she was regularly sexually assaulted by a priest and beaten by the nuns.

After more than five decades away from home Ms Walmsley is to make her first trip back to Scotland on Wednesday where she hopes to trace some family members.

Ms Walmsley said: “I have always wanted to go back to the place where I remember being happy, before all the abuse. I finally feel it is time.”

“I just want to stand on the street I used to live with my parents. I have so many happy memories of there.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

MSGR. KENNETH F. O’CONNELL – PUBLICLY NAMED AS A SEXUAL ABUSER FOR THE FIRST TIME

SIX-FIGURE SETTLEMENT REACHED IN ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK INDEPENDENT RECONCILIATION AND COMPENSATION PROGRAM AGAINST MSGR. KENNETH F. O’CONNELL WHO WAS THE CHAPLAIN OF THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC COMMITTEE ON SCOUTING

Peter Marghella, formerly of the Bronx, New York, was approximately a 12 year-old child when he was sexually abused by then Fr. Kenneth F. O’Connell, a New York Archdiocesan priest and Boy Scout chaplain, when Peter Marghella attended Camp Spes Mundi (Latin for “hope for the world”) in Hope Falls, New York, as part of Troop #21 which was located in Mount Vernon, New York. Fr. Kenneth F. O’Connell, who eventually became Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell (hereinafter referred to as Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell), was chaplain of Troop #21.

Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell was Chaplain of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting (1973-1975). After Msgr. O’Connell’s death at the age of 54 in 1984, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting instituted an award (Spes Mundi Award), named after the camp Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell founded, honoring an adult who financially supports the promotion of the Catholic faith through scouting.

Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell was also executive director of the Catholic Youth Organization of the Archdiocese of New York. When he passed away, Msgr. Kenneth F. O’ Connell was Pastor of Sts. John and Paul Parish in Larchmont, New York.

Peter Marghella was also sexually abused as a child by Br. Damian Galligan, FMS, a Marist Brother.

Peter Marghella, his attorney, and advocate will be available by telephone to discuss the sexual assault by Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell, who has been named for the first time, and the recent settlement with the Archdiocese of New York Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

Contacts
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com (portrayed in “Spotlight”)

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY JAMES MONCUR

Historic abuse survivor Kate Walmsley fought back tears as she told of the heartbreaking moment she was ripped from Scotland more than 50 years ago.

The mother of two was shipped from her home in Glasgow to the “giant doors” of an infamous children’s home in Derry, Northern Ireland, aged eight.

Within minutes of arriving, she was stripped, scrubbed with Jeyes Fluid and had her beautiful long hair shorn off, as a matter of protocol.

And a seven-year nightmare of abuse at the hands of nuns and priests began.

Kate survived and waived her right to anonymity to give heart-wrenching testimony at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Belfast in 2014.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

MIKE MATHER
May 30 2017

A former Catholic priest jailed for molesting boys in the 1970s and 80s has admitted charges against three new victims.

Mark Mannix Brown, 74, appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to four charges of indecent assault and attempted sodomy.

Some of the charges are representative.

He was remanded on continuing bail by Judge Kim Saunders, to be sentenced on July 19, following the compiling of a pre-sentence assessment and a restorative justice conference with one of his victims.

Brown was jailed for 15 months in 1990 for sexual offending against altar boys.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Amanda Vanstone

The media frenzy surrounding Cardinal George Pell is the lowest point in civil discourse in my lifetime. I’m 64.

What we are seeing is no better than a lynch mob from the dark ages. Some in the media think they are above the law both overseas and at home. Deep pockets of your boss or lesser pockets on your victim, build bravado. If your assets aren’t on the line you can trash a reputation with gay abandon.

The systemic abuse of predominantly young boys in churches, government institutions and schools and the cover up is a stain on our past. It did irreparable harm to many young people and the Catholic Church was a chief perpetrator. Even the Victorian Police joined in the cover up.The career of a good and decent policeman who didn’t want to let sleeping dogs lie was ruined.

At least they’ve sought to right that wrong. Whether they have pursued everyone involved in ruining that career, and everyone who covered up, I don’t know. Throwing out principle, treating Pell as guilty from the start won’t right all the wrongs perpetrated on innocent children. It will simply perpetrate other evils.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
May 30 2017
The Times

An investigation into one of the worst scandals to afflict the Catholic Church in Britain is set to be dropped from the public inquiry into child abuse.

Next week lawyers for Alexis Jay, chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), will propose that no evidence be called about decades of abuse of pupils at Ealing Abbey and its adjoining independent school, St Benedict’s.

Victims were furious and accused Professor Jay of backtracking on her previous promise not to reduce the scope of the inquiry. They said the move undermined the credibility of the inquiry, which has lost three chairwomen, cost more than £20 million and shown little tangible progress since it was set up by Theresa May in 2014.

The 60-year history of abuse at the school and abbey in Ealing, west London, was exposed by The Times, leading to an independent review by a respected barrister, an emergency visit by the Independent Schools Inspectorate and intervention by the Vatican.

A report by Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC, concluded in 2011 that there had been a “lengthy and cumulative failure” by monks at the abbey to protect children in their care. He named five monks and three lay teachers as abusers. The report said that monks who had been banned from teaching because of abusive conduct had continued to live next door to St Benedict’s School and had access to children.

Lord Carlile’s report said “there were repeated acts of abuse committed by monks” and it was difficult to believe that “other monks were not suspicious of, or at least alerted to, the possibility of abusive or inappropriate behaviour by colleagues.” He recommended an overhaul of governance which would remove control of the school from monks.

A preliminary IICSA hearing will be told that it will focus on abuse allegations at three Benedictine institutions — Ampleforth, Downside and Worth — but will abandon its previous commitments to investigate Ealing and Fort Augustus in Scotland.

IICSA lawyers will say that proposed dates for hearings into the Benedictines in November and December clash with the criminal trial of a man previously connected with Ealing Abbey who has been charged with child abuse offences. Rather than delay the hearings, they will say Ealing should be removed from the inquiry. The examination of Fort Augustus is being dropped because the inquiry’s remit is to examine cases in England and Wales.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

Belinda Feek

A former Waikato Catholic priest convicted and jailed for molesting young boys in the 1970s and 80s has today admitted further historic offending.

Father Mark Mannix Brown pleaded guilty to four representative charges when he appeared today in Hamilton District Court.

The former priest was jailed for 15 months in March 1990 for indecently assaulting two altar boys in the 1980s.

The now 74-year-old was the parish priest at St Mary’s Church, Hamilton, at the time.

While he has not reoffended since being jailed, he hit the headlines 11 years ago when he took in serial child-molester Howard Vivian Kitching.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE RELIGIOUS SISTERS of Charity have stepped back from their involvement in the new National Maternity Hospital after a massive public backlash.

Although their statement yesterday said that they had been considering this option for the past two years, it’s clear to stakeholders that it was the outrage from the public that pushed them to give up ownership.

AIMS Ireland, the representative body of maternity service users in Ireland, praised both the Minister for Health Simon Harris, and the Sisters of Charity for achieving this result, which was “undoubtedly down to the people’s voices”.

National Maternity Hospital board member Mícheál Mac Donncha (Sinn Féin) said that “it was clear that public opinion influenced their decision”.

“I’ve no doubt that their withdrawal was caused by the controversy.”

Social Democrats leader Róisín Shorthall said that the decision showed that ”the wide-spread public outcry” in relation to the National Maternity Hospital “has been heard and heard loudly”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

The announcement by the Sisters of Charity that they are ending their involvement with St Vincent’s Hospital at Elm Park, Dublin, after 183 years is a major turning point in the history of religious involvement in Irish healthcare.

It also represents a huge victory for “people power”, much of it expressed online after controversy erupted last month over the fact that the nuns would, through their ownership of St Vincent’s, also take control of the new national maternity hospital to be built on the same campus.

The “people” who made the running on the issue were unhappy at the extent of religious involvement in healthcare, and incensed at the notion that this involvement might be increased further though the “gifting” of ownership of the maternity hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

In Dr Peter Boylan, former master of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH), this viewpoint found an unlikely, yet articulate and determined, hero. Now in retirement, Dr Boylan spoke out against the interests of his alma mater, which had already signed up to the deal mediated last November that would give the nuns ultimate ownership of the site.

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CANADA
CBC News

Edmonton’s Catholic archbishop says he has spoken with Pope Francis about calls for the church to consider formally apologizing for its role in Canada’s legacy of residential schools.

Over a breakfast with journalists Monday, Archbishop Richard Smith said during visits to the Vatican earlier this year he and other Canadian bishops spoke with the pope about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and calls for the pontiff to visit Canada to make an apology.

“He is a man with a very serious pastoral faith, so we trust he will do what is right and what is good,” Smith said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he asked Pope Francis during an official meeting to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the tragedy of residential schools.

The schools enlisted First Nations children into Catholic boarding schools with terrible living conditions. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the deaths of more than 6,000 residential school students as a result of their school experiences.

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

2017-05-29

“Morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“It’s a pleasure. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Holy Father.”

While evidently holding in his emotion, Catholic Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, respectfully met with Pope Francis Monday morning.

The two spoke with official translators about “issues of integration and reconciliation, along with religious freedom and current ethical issues.”

Trudeau asked Pope Francis for a public apology, on behalf of the Church, to Canada’s first indigenous communities, who suffered physical and sexual abuse by Catholic-run schools.

It is a drama that affected about 150,000 natives in the late nineteenth century, who were forced to abandon their customs and assimilate the rest of the population in schools belonging to federal authorities, Catholics or Protestants.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI apologized and “expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the Church.”

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NEW YORK
The Buffalo News

By Melanie Blow

I know where a dangerous sex offender lives. He’s not registered under Megan’s Law and can pass a background check. I believe he is still abusing kids. I know where he meets them and where he abuses them. There is nothing I can do to stop him.

I know this man is dangerous because when I was a child he sexually abused me. I didn’t tell anyone, because he’s a relative and I didn’t want to cause family strife.

When I heard he sexually abused another girl, I called the police hoping to protect other kids. However, I learned that at the tender age of 24, I was too old to press charges. New York’s statute of limitations had closed.

I’ve attended hundreds of support groups and met thousands of survivors. My story is common. One in five children are sexually abused. It takes them an average of 21 years to disclose their abuse. By the time most survivors can talk about their abuse, they can’t press charges. That’s wrong, and dangerous to children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Nottingham Post

By Laura Hammond | Posted: May 30, 2017

Thousands of Nottingham people who were abused as children could be suffering in silence, it has been claimed.

Professor Alexis Jay, the chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, has said she wants victims to speak about what happened to them – and has promised they won’t be judged or challenged.

The Inquiry has launched The Truth Project, which aims to listen to victims who suffered abuse in institutions such as children’s homes and schools. The findings will not be used as evidence, rather form recommendations for the nationwide inquiry.

Professor Jay said: “For generations, not facing up to child sexual abuse and its terrible consequences was a shameful blight on our national conscience. This has to change.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
NIKKI DUBOSE
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 29, 2017

When you’re a crook, there are no limits to the depths you will go to cover up your filth. Just ask most of the New York politicians, including former Senator Craig Johnson, who is a key ally and fundraising partner for the Independent Democratic Conference, led by Senator Jeff Klein.

Conveniently, Johnson is also a paid lobbyist, representing the Boy Scouts and opposing the Child Victims Act, the bill I have been advocating for since the start of the New York legislative session. The Child Victims Act seeks to eliminate the statute of limitations for children who have been sexually abused and provides a one year look back window in civil court for adult survivors.

Just as with the tremendous lobbying efforts of the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts appears to be covering up some major pedophile actions. Why else would they be opposing a bill to protect children from sexual abuse? The opposition have been relying on excuses to delay the passing of the bill for ages now. First, there is the “one year look back” defense. But let me just throw that one out of the window. Senate Bill 813, the Justice for Victims Act, passed in California last year, but adults still have to go through a due process; there have been no flooded jails or courts filled with frivolous lawsuits.

Then there was the “lack of public support,” made by Governor Cuomo’s spokesperson, Richard Azzopardi in a previous NY Daily News article. What a sham. Everyone from Reddit to the Women’s March NYC, to an outpouring of survivors, advocates, and organizations have been sending in letters, tweeting and calling the Governor and legislators, demanding that the bill be brought to the floor for a vote. We have the public’s support. What we lack is the moral backbone and decency in New York politics to protect children from sexual predators.

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CANADA
Global News

By Tania Kohut
Senior National Online Journalist, Breaking News Global News

Justin Trudeau has invited Pope Francis to travel to Canada and offer a formal apology for the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system.

The move, which the prime minister said the Pope seemed open to, would help strengthen the reconciliation process.

“The Catholic Church is unique in the sense that it’s really a global church,” said Reid Locklin, associate professor of Christianity at the University of Toronto.

“There have been lots of apologies issued, but really in terms of who speaks for the Catholic Church ultimately is the Pope.”

More than 150,000 indigenous children attended residential schools over more than 100 years. Sexual and physical abuse were “rampant” at many of the institutions, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) final report.

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UNITED STATES
IrishCentral

James Wilson @jameswilson1919 May 30, 2017

The release of Netflix’s documentary series about the unsolved murder of a Baltimore nun has generated such a level of interest that police have created an online submission form in relation to the case.

“The Keepers” tells the tale of Keough High School’s English teacher Sr Cathy Cesnik, whom many suspect was murdered because she knew too much about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

“We have been contacted by victims from the past who want to report the sex offenses that occurred to them,” the local police department said in a statement. “The murder investigation related to this Netflix series was handled by the Baltimore County Police Department.”

Decades have passed since the crime was committed, but local people are still desperate for police to get to the bottom of it.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Father Louis Brouillard is facing multiple allegations of sexual abuse.

Guam – Yet another lawsuit filed against the church but this time the complaint details sexual abuse not by one but by at least two other boy scout leaders during a camping trip at Ypao Beach in the 1970s.

The most recent case is now the 71st lawsuit to be filed against the Archdiocese of Agana for civil claims of sexual abuse. Like many of the other lawsuits filed, it dates back to the 1970s and details rape committed by former Guam priest and Boy Scout master Father Louis Brouillard.

The lawsuit was filed by a 54-year-old man with the initials A.N.D. who is represented by Atty. David Lujan. A.N.D. says he was just 11 years old at the time he was first raped. It happened in 1974 during a camping trip at Ypao Beach for a Boy Scout Jamboree session in which each village’s Boy Scout troop met at Ypao Beach during the summer for 2 weeks.

One night, according to the complaint, Brouillard went around the tents and handpicked 10 boys, including A.N.D., took them to a nearby building and sexually abused all the boys.

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NORTH CAROLINA
News & Record

AP

RUTHERFORDTON — It has been nearly 4½ years since Matthew Fenner said he was beaten in a church sanctuary by a group of congregants hell-bent on expelling his “homosexual demons.”

After countless twists and turns, the long-delayed, high-profile case finally appears ready to move forward in North Carolina Superior Court.

Jury selection could begin today for the first of five Word of Faith Fellowship members charged in the attack. Each defendant will be tried separately.

The first defendant, longtime minister Brooke Covington, 58, has pleaded innocent to one count each of kidnapping and assault. If convicted, she faces up to two years in prison.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video and audio]

ANALYSIS
By Paul Kennedy

Two weeks ago Chrissie Foster said to her husband Anthony: “You know, you are perfect.”

“No, no,” said the modest man with silver hair and kind eyes.

“Yes, you are,” she said. “You’re perfect.”

Chrissie and Anthony were married 36 years but never tired of telling each other how much they were adored.

Their love was stronger than anything; it helped them survive the terrible crimes against their family.

It is why Anthony’s sudden death was so unthinkable.

I met Chrissie and Anthony 21 years ago while covering a story of clergy sex abuse as a cadet newspaperman.

Two of the Fosters’ daughters, Emma and Katie, were among the many victims of jailed Father Kevin O’Donnell, who had been grooming and raping children since the 1950s.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Jason Warick, CBC News Posted: May 29, 2017

The Pope shouldn’t have to be asked to come to Canada and apologize for the harm inflicted by the residential school system, says one survivor.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Pope Francis Monday and asked for an apology on behalf of residential school survivors. Following the meeting, the Vatican issued a statement saying Pope Francis will consider the request. No timeline has been given.

That doesn’t sit well with Eugene Arcand. The Saskatchewan man has held a number of national positions representing survivors. In an interview Monday afternoon, Arcand emphasized he is stating his own views, and other survivors and their surviving children should be asked for theirs.

That said, the Vatican has long known about the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He said survivors deserve better.

“Surely, he could find it in his heart to come here and apologize,” Arcand said.

“We shouldn’t have to go on our hands and knees again to this particular church to seek some level of dignity and redress for the destruction of generations of the First Peoples of this country.”

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ROME
The Globe and Mail

ROBERT FIFE
ROME — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, May 29, 2017

Pope Francis has offered to work with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s bishops on a “path forward” to issuing a historic papal apology for the role the Catholic Church played in the dark legacy of residential schools.

The pontiff signalled to Mr. Trudeau during a 42-minute private audience that a formal apology would be forthcoming to Indigenous survivors for the sexual, mental and physical abuse they suffered at church-run schools.

“I told him about how important it is for Canadians that we move forward on real reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and highlighted how he could help by issuing an apology,” Mr. Trudeau later told reporters.

“He reminded me his entire life has been dedicated to supporting marginalized people in the world and fighting for them and he looked forward to working with me and the Canadian bishops to figure out a path forward together.”

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Sun

By Lisa Boyle
29th May 2017

BRAVE survivors of historic child abuse in Scotland will gather for a poignant vigil to remember victims who have lost their lives.

They will be joined by survivors from Northern Ireland as well as politicians from both Scotland and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The service will be held outside The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry building in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning.

At 1pm survivors will gather to take part in a minute’s silence to remember youngsters whose lives have been taken by abusers, and those who have died without gaining justice for the crimes committed against them.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

The mounting cases of abuse of children have turned even worse with the filing of a civil case alleging repeated sexual abuse of a very young boy, who was a Cub Scout, while attending mandatory Boy Scout jamborees decades ago.

That Cub Scout, now a 54-year-old man, with the initials A.N.D. to protect his identity, filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Guam against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and former Guam priest Louis Brouillard.

A.N.D. alleges he was 11 in the summer of 1974 when he was sexually abused and raped by Brouillard, who was a priest and scoutmaster during a jamboree at Ypao Beach. The lawsuit states Brouillard went around the different camps and selected several boys, including A.N.D., and took them to a small building near Ypao where he allegedly forced himself on the 10 boys, sexually molesting and raping them and forcing the boys to perform sexual acts on him.

The civil complaint states as Brouillard abused the boys, they were crying. This happened every night for seven nights during the jamboree, court documents state.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has appointed as bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, United States of America, His Excellency Mgsr. William A. Wack, C.S.C., of the U.S. “Moreau” province of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, currently pastor of the Saint Ignatius parish in Austin, Texas.

Mgsr. William A. Wack, C.S.C.

Mgsr. William A. Wack, C.S.C., was born on 28 June 1967 in South Bend, Indiana, in the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in political sciences and international relations from the “Notre Dame” University (1990), and subsequently entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies at the “Notre Dame” University (1993) and then obtained a diploma in executive management from the same university (2002).

He gave his solemn vows in the Congregation of the Holy Cross on 28 August 1993. He was ordained a priest on 9 April 1994 for the same congregation.

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AUSTRALIA
BBC News

By Jay Savage
BBC News, Sydney

Clutching a photo of two smiling girls, Anthony Foster last year delivered a powerful statement about what had become his life’s mission.

“These are my girls,” he said before television cameras in Rome.

“A Catholic priest was raping them when this photo was taken so that’s why we’ve been fighting for so long… This was my perfect family. We created that, the Catholic Church destroyed it.”

That fight occupied much of his final two decades. Mr Foster died in hospital at the weekend not long after suffering a fall at his home in Melbourne. He was 64.

Along with his wife, Chrissie, Mr Foster had relentlessly pursued the church for answers since his daughters, Emma and Katie, were abused at their primary school between 1988 and 1993.

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FLORIDA
WKRG

By Chris Best
Published: May 29, 2017

The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee announced Monday that it has a new Bishop-elect. William Wack with be the sixth bishop of the diocese. It was announced in a press release on the diocese website:

On May 29, 2017, it was announced that Pope Francis has appointed Bishop-elect William A. Wack the sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. Bishop-elect Wack comes to the diocese from the Diocese of Austin (TX), where he has been pastor of St. Ignatius Martyr Parish.The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee has been without a bishop since January 4, 2017, when Bishop Gregory Parkes was installed as Bishop of St. Petersburg. In the interim, the diocese has been under the guidance of Msgr. James Flaherty, diocesan administrator.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Register

BY CINDY WOODEN, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
May 29, 2017

VATICAN CITY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he asked Pope Francis to help Canadians “move forward on a real reconciliation” with the country’s indigenous people “by issuing an apology” on behalf of the Catholic Church for its role in harming their communities.

The Prime Minister spoke to a handful of reporters in Rome’s Villa Borghese Park May 29 following a 36-minute private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

“He reminded me that his entire life has been dedicated to supporting marginalized people in the world, fighting for them,” the Prime Minister said, adding the Pope said that “he looked forward to working with me and with the Canadian bishops to figure out a path forward together.”

The 2015 report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which focused on past treatment of the Indigenous communities and concrete steps for a future of greater inclusion, included a recommendation that the Pope come to Canada to apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church for its participation in the residential schools for indigenous children.

Pope Benedict formally apologized in 2009 for the Church’s complicity in residential schools in a meeting with Phil Fontaine, then National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and other Native leaders, who met with the Pope in the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
Sudbury.com

VATICAN CITY — Justin Trudeau says he told Pope Francis it’s important for all Canadians to move forward with reconciliation, and that the pontiff could help by issuing an apology for the role of the Catholic Church played in residential schools.

The prime minister says the Pope appeared to be open to it, noting that his entire life has been dedicated to supporting marginalized people in the world.

Following his visit to Vatican City, Trudeau says Pope Francis looked forward to working with the prime minister and the Canadian bishops on finding a way forward.

Trudeau says he also invited Pope Francis to visit Canada in the coming years.

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VATICAN CITY
eOntarioNow

May 29, 2017 by Beth Owens

Pope Francis received Monday in a seemingly relaxed atmosphere the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, come to speak to him about the aboriginal people of Canada victims of the policies of assimilation in which the Catholic Church has actively participated.

Trudeau was to ask the Pope to come to Canada to apologize to the aboriginal people, who had been victims of more than a century of abuse in residential schools governed mainly by the Church.

This was one of the end-2015 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which heard testimony from nearly 7,000 alumni over six years.

Visibly relaxed during the public minutes of the audience, the Pope and Mr. Trudeau exchanged smiles and jokes without mentioning their 36 minutes of private conversation.

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NEW YORK
Catholic Whistleblowers

From the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee

May 22, 2017

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
New York State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
Re.: Child Victims Act
Dear Governor Cuomo,

If you had been sexually abused when you were a child, what would you be doing today? Or if such sexual abuse had happened to a member of your family, what would be your response?

Sexual abuse of children is a reality in New York State just as it is throughout the United States and around the world. And the voice of each of these victims must be heard whenever the voice speaks out – no matter how long it takes for the victim’s voice to come forth.

For the good of the society, when sexual abuse of a child becomes known, the victim needs access to justice and the society needs to know the name of the culprit so as to protect other children.

Thus, looking forward New York State needs to remove all statutes of limitations in both criminal and civil cases of child sexual abuse, as well as adding clergy to the list of mandated reporters and requiring criminal background checks for all employees and volunteers who work with children in either public or private settings.

Moreover, to render justice in civil cases where the current statute of limitations bars victims from speaking up in a court of law, a ‘lookback window’ of at least one year is necessary so as to provide the victims of child sexual abuse an open door to justice. Of course, guilt and responsibility would need to be established in the court, but with a ‘lookback window’ the victims at least would have the chance to prove their allegation.

Actually, by his actions, Cardinal Timothy Dolan supports a ‘lookback window’ in that the Archdiocese of New York’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, imperfect as the program is, appropriately pays out millions of dollars to clergy sexual abuse victims whose claims exceed the New York State statute of limitations. In short, no matter when the sexual abuse occurred, Cardinal Dolan is willing to financially compensate the victim.

However, Cardinal Dolan’s plan limps severely in that it excludes compensation for victims of child sexual abuse perpetrated within the context of the Catholic Church by priests, sisters, and brothers who are members of religious orders, as well as for victims of abuse committed by lay employees or volunteers. His plan also does not provide for the public naming of priests against whom there is a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor as he did in 2004 while he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee.

In addition, even while doing right by a limited number of victim/survivors, Cardinal Dolan, using the expertise of lobbyists representing the New York State Catholic Conference, appears to spare no expense in opposing any proposed legislation that includes opening a civil ‘lookback window’ which would give those victim/survivors of childhood sexual abuse, by anyone, access to the justice they have been denied for so long.

Finally, it is disingenuous for the Catholic bishops in the United States to purport adherence to a zero tolerance policy for anyone credibly accused of sexually abusing a child. Their claim is off point. As a single yet very important example, the bishops prohibit their independent ‘Charter’ auditors (StoneBridge Business Partners located in Rochester, New York) to review the sexual abuse allegation files in the diocesan offices throughout the country to verity that each diocese is in compliance with the related civil and church laws. In short, no independent source verifies that the Catholic bishops actually handle allegations of clergy sexual abuse according to procedures required by civil and church laws.

Therefore, we members of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee urge you to do all in your power to bring about the enactment of the Child Victims Act.

Respectfully submitted,

Members of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee who submit this Open Letter are:
Sr. Sally Butler, OP (Brooklyn, NY); Sr. Claire Smith, OSU (Bronx, NY); Rev. Ronald D. Lemmert (Peekskill, NY); Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., (West Orange, NJ); Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN (New Castle, DE); Rev. Bruce Teague (Sheffield, MA); Rev. Patrick Winchester Collins, Ph.D. (Douglas, MI); Rev. Thomas Doyle, OP, J.C.D. (Vienna, VA); Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D. (Milwaukee, WI)

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., (West Orange, NJ) 862-368-2800 roberthoatson@gmail.com
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN (New Castle, DE) 610-212-2770 maturlishmdsnd@yahoo.com
Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D. (Milwaukee, WI) 414-940-8054 connell.james951@gmail.com

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VATICAN CITY
CBC News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived at the Vatican on Monday with plans to raise reconciliation with indigenous peoples, the global fight against climate change and the importance of religious and cultural diversity during a meeting with Pope Francis.

He will also ask the pontiff to issue a formal apology in Canada for the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission included the demand for a papal apology — to survivors, their families and communities — among the 94 recommendations in its report on the dark history and legacy of residential schools.

The Liberal government has promised to act on all of them.

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UNITED STATES
Variety

Sonia Saraiya
TV Critic
@soniasaraiya

The Netflix docuseries should be a model for others — it avoids the mistakes that “Serial,” “Making A Murderer,” and “The Jinx” made

One of the most distinctive characteristics of Netflix’s “The Keepers,” a seven-part docuseries that premiered May 19, is that nearly every speaking character is a middle-aged woman. This is rare enough that it begins to be surprising, and soon after that, it becomes one of the defining elements of the show — following an interviewee into her living room as she is accompanied by her five small dogs, or reminiscing with another about her loving husband, now deceased. The B-roll notices things like the decorations on the walls, the family photos on the mantle, and the niceties of small talk. These are no Hollywood-friendly million-dollar kitchens, or carefully composed sitcom living rooms. The subjects of “The Keepers” keep cozy homes, in an unassuming, uncontrived way that indicates much about them. In this largely Catholic, working-to-middle class community of Baltimore, “The Keepers” manages to convey a mindset and shared, accepted values by just following the interviewees home.

“The Keepers” tells the true story of the unsolved murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a young nun and high school teacher who disappeared in late 1969 only to be found dead two months later. Her disappearance was followed a few days later by another murder of another young woman named Joyce Malecki. Both cases remain unsolved. But Cesnik and Malecki had in common a connection to a powerful local priest, Father Joseph Maskell. As Cesnik’s former students started to ask questions about what happened, they began to uncover a shocking legacy of sexual abuse and coercion around Maskell and the high school he and Cesnik worked at: Archbishop Keough High School, an all-girls school with a primarily Catholic student body. Two former students of Sister Cathy’s, Abbie Schaub and Gemma Hoskins, started a Facebook page and a tip line. A third, who remained anonymous for years to protect her reputation, comes forward in “The Keepers” to identify herself as Jean Wehner, one of Maskell’s most-abused victims who had repressed much of what happened to her. Schaub, Hoskins, and Wehner work together to compile information, pursue leads, and corroborate Wehner’s own disturbing memories.

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IRELAND/SCOTLAND
Belfast Telegraph

May 29 2017

A victim of historic child abuse at a Catholic Church children’s home is to make an emotional return to her hometown in a bid to trace her long lost family.

Kate Walmsley, 60, was seven years old when she was taken from her home in Glasgow and placed in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth in Londonderry, following the break-up of her parents’ marriage.

While there she was regularly sexually assaulted by a priest and beaten by the nuns.

After more than five decades away from home Ms Walmsley is to make her first trip back to Scotland on Wednesday where she hopes to trace some family members.

“I have always wanted to go back to the place where I remember being happy, before all the abuse. I finally feel it is time,” said Ms Walmsley.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

LAKE FOREST (CBSLA.com) – A youth volunteer at an Orange County megachurch has been arrested on suspicion of having inappropriate relations with at least two boys.

Ruven Meulenberg, who volunteers as a junior high youth mentor with Saddleback Church, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child following a parent’s report, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

He was booked into Orange County Jail and is now being held on $100,000 bail.

Today was the first time Sunday services were held since the arrest.

CBS 2’s Greg Mills spoke to congregants who, suffice to say, were not happy hearing the news.

“It’s not acceptable,” said Lennard Cowans.

Many, like Cowans were hearing the news for the first time.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Margaret Madden
May 29 2017

Fiction: The American Girl
Rachael English, Hachette Ireland, €18.40

Boston-Irish Rose Moroney shocks her family when she finds herself pregnant at 17. It is 1968 and while Rose insists she will marry her boyfriend, her mother is having none of it. “There are ways of handling these things.”

The family’s hard-earned reputation is everything to them and Rose is dispatched to Ireland, where she can conceal her condition and place her baby up for adoption.

Young Rose is met by her aunt, a nun in Carrickbrack Mother and Baby Home, and is soon swallowed whole by the religious institution.

The girls are treated abysmally and their babies seen as commodities; sold with no emotional involvement.

Sister Agnes justifies the adoptions in the typical Catholic way: “Unfortunately, many modern girls have peculiar ideas. They think they can do whatever they like without considering the consequences. And, of course, they never pause to consider the pain and shame they’re visiting on their families.”

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY ANITA MCSORLEY
29 MAY 2017

Religious order Sister of Charity will have no involvement with the new National Maternity Hospital.

The order confirmed the news this morning as they announced they will part ways with the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG).

Sisters of Charity, which helped run the depraved Magdalene laundries, are stakeholders in SVHG, which incorporates St Vincent’s University Hospital, St Vincent’s Private and St Michael’s in Dublin.

The new €300m National Maternity Hospital is set to be built on the St Vincent’s University Hospital campus.

By relinquishing their ownership, the nuns will no longer be able to appoint directors to the board of the group.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, May 29, 2017

Update 11.21pm: The Sisters of Charity said they had spent the last two years trying to find the best way to give up their ownership of the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG).

“Just as our Founder Mary Aikenhead saw the need in 1834 to establish a hospital to meet the needs of the sick and poor, we believe that it is in the best interests of the patients and children born in the National Maternity Hospital today that they be provided with modern maternity and neonatal services that are women and infant centred and integrated within the Elm Park campus,” Sr Mary Christian, the leader of the order said.

“It is now time for us to relinquish completely our involvement in SVHG.

“We are confident that the board, management and staff of SVHG will continue to maintain a steadfast dedication to providing the best possible acute healthcare to patients and their families in line with the values espoused by Mary Aikenhead.”

The potential involvement of nuns in the running and governance of a maternity hospital had caused deep unease in some medical circles and among the public.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Religious Sisters of Charity are to relinquish ownership of three hospitals they are involved with, St Vincent’s University Hospital, St Vincent’s Private and St Michael’s.

A new company with charitable status is to be formed, called St Vincent’s.

It is to replace the Sisters of Charity as the shareholders in the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group.

The sisters will no longer have the right to appoint directors to the board of the group.

The moves follows controversy over the proposed ownership of the planned new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent’s Hospital campus.

The current requirement of the healthcare group to conduct and maintain SVHG facilities in accordance with the Catholic code will be amended, to reflect compliance with national and international best practice guidelines on medical ethics and the laws of the Republic of Ireland.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Cormac McQuinn
May 29 2017

THE Religious Sisters of Charity has said they will end their involvement in the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and won’t be involved in the ownership of the planned new National Maternity Hospital.

It comes after a row erupted over the plan to move the maternity hospital from Holles Street to the St Vincent’s campus, which is owned by the religious order.

Now they have confirmed that they “will not be involved in the ownership or management of the new National Maternity Hospital”.

There was concern that procedures to be carried out at the planned hospital, including fertility treatments like IVF, are against Catholic teachings and would not be allowed at the new site.
Health Minister Simon Harris said he wanted until the end of May to address the issue issue of ownership of the hospital.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

The Sisters of Charity are to end their involvement in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) and will have no involvement in the new national maternity hospital on its campus, the Catholic religious order has said.

Ownership of the St Vincent’s group is to be transferred to a newly-formed company with charitable status to be called “St Vincent’s”, according to a statement from the order.

It said the Sisters of Charity would have no involvement with this new company.

Existing codes governing medical ethics at the St Vincent’s would be amended and replaced to reflect compliance with national and international best practice guidelines and the laws of Ireland, the order continued.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 29, 2017

ALBANY — The Boy Scouts of America has hired a former state senator to lobby against legislation that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice as adults.

The Boy Scouts this year are paying Dentons US $12,500 a month to lobby on three bills, including against the Child Victims Act.

Former Sen. Craig Johnson, a Long Island Democrat, is a principal for Dentons’ public policy and regulatory practice and one of two people from the firm registered since February to represent the Boy Scouts in Albany, according to filings with the state ethics commission.

Johnson referred questions to the Boy Scouts.

In an email, a spokesman for the organization confirmed Johnson was hired to work “on a variety of legislative matters in New York that impact youth-serving organizations” — including the Child Victims Act.

The spokesman did not respond to a followup email asking why the scouts are fighting the legislation. The organization is said to oppose for financial reasons the push to create a one-year window to revive old sex abuse cases that can’t be pursued under current law.

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CANADA
CBC News

Inuit are opposed to the federal government’s position in the Supreme Court case which will decide whether to preserve or destroy “highly personal” accounts of residential school survivors.

The Government of Canada is arguing that the Federal Access and Privacy legislation mandates these records be preserved in national archives.

Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, which speaks for Inuit in Canada, says all Independent Assessment Process records should be destroyed, unless an individual survivor opts for theirs to be kept.

The Supreme Court started hearing arguments in the case on Thursday.

“The main issue is whether the 30,000 highly personal and descriptive, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse records by residential school survivors will be destroyed or not,” NTI’s Bruce Oviluk said.

He says the nature of small Northern communities means, even if names were redacted, making these stories public could expose Inuit residential school survivors.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com May 29, 2017

Guam is a great example of how changing the law can provide enormous but long-delayed benefits to clergy sex abuse victims, according to the publisher of one of the most comprehensive databases on Catholic clergy sex abuse of minors worldwide.

G.R. Pafumi, publisher of Victims Speak Database or VictimsSpeakDB.org, said Guam alone has 75 Catholic clergy sex abuse cases involving 70 unique victims and 15 clergy.

The bulk of the alleged abuses are contained in 69 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed so far in local and federal courts since Guam lifted on Sept. 23, 2016 the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse.

The law allows victims of child sex abuse to sue their abusers, and the institutions with which they are associated, at any time.

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UNITED STATES
Elle (UK)

BY LOUISE DONOVAN
MAY 29, 2017

Sick of the binge-watching shamers? If someone ever tries to discredit you inhaling several hundred hours of TV, simply roll out this titbit of news: after Netflix’s new true-crime series The Keepers premiered last Friday, the Baltimore police created an online form for those who want to report abuse related to the documentary.

The show delves into the unsolved murder of 26-year-old Baltimore nun and teacher Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik (aka Sister Cathy) who went missing in 1969.

Two months after she disappeared, her decomposing body was found in a field. The show suggests she was murdered after she was about to expose serious levels of sexual assault happening in the Archbishop Keough High School, an all-girls Catholic high school where Cesnik taught.

In the Netflix original documentary, six people claim they were repeatedly sexually abused by Father A. Joseph Maskell, a priest who worked at the school as a chaplain/guidance counselor throughout the 1960s and ’70s.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Published May 29, 2017

Former island priest Louis Brouillard allegedly raped and sexually molested a former boy scout every night during the Boy Scouts of America’s summer jamborees around 1974 and 1975, a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Guam Monday afternoon says.

The complaint, filed by a man identified in court documents only as A.N.D., also alleged that two older scout leaders took turns raping the boy in the 1975 summer jamboree.

That was after A.N.D. allegedly told Brouillard he was going to report what the priest was doing to him, the lawsuit says.

“During the period in which he was a boy scout, A.N.D. was sexually molested and raped by Brouillard,” the complaint says. “Brouillard was a Catholic priest for the Agana Archdiocese, and was also an employee, volunteer and/or agent of the Boy Scouts of America, who worked as a scoutmaster and performed duties for the Aloha Council.”

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ROME
The Globe and Mail

ROBERT FIFE – OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
ROME — The Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, May 28, 2017

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is hopeful Pope Francis will heed a personal call to make a formal apology to aboriginal survivors of sexual and physical abuse at Catholic-run residential schools during a private audience with his holiness at the Vatican on Monday.

Mr. Trudeau will use the one-on-one meeting in the Apostolic Palace to request a papal apology and an “open invitation” for the Pontiff to visit Canada to address victims of the residential school system.

“The Prime Minister is using this opportunity to talk to the Pope about Indigenous issues and reconciliation and one of the things aboriginal communities want is an apology,” a government official said.

Canadian and Vatican officials have been working behind the scenes to arrange the meeting, which officials say is an opportunity for Pope Francis to make amends for a dark chapter in the Catholic Church’s attempt to “Christianize” Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Metis people.

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ROME
Metro

By: Joanna Smith The Canadian Press Published on Sun May 28 2017

ROME — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to raise reconciliation with indigenous peoples, the global fight against climate change and the importance of religious and cultural diversity when he meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday.

There, he will also ask the pontiff to issue a formal apology in Canada for the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission included the demand for a papal apology — to survivors, their families and communities — among the 94 recommendations in its report on the dark history and legacy of residential schools.

The Liberal government has promised to act on all of them.

Trudeau, who is religious, is also expected to discuss the Catholic community in Canada.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

A former altar boy who was allegedly sexually abused when he was 9 years old said he reported the abuse decades later to Catholic Church officials.

G.J., who used his initials to protect his identity, filed a civil complaint in the District Court of Guam yesterday against the Archdiocese of Agana and former priest Andrew Mannetta.

The lawsuit states G.J. became an altar boy at the Mangilao parish in 1985 to learn about priesthood and considered the Mangilao church his “second home.”

Attorney David Lujan, who represents G.J., accuses Mannetta of developing an “evil campaign” to induce altar boys to spend the night at the rectory so they wouldn’t be late to serve at early morning Mass.

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NORTH DAKOTA
KFGO

Saturday, May 27, 2017 by Jim Monk

FARGO (KFGO) – The pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor has been placed on administrative leave for what the Diocese of Fargo calls “alleged conduct” involving his interaction with youth.

The Diocese says Father Thomas Feltman has been removed from his duties and will not be residing at the parish pending the outcome of an investigation.

Bishop John Folda says the report is being taken seriously and says “appropriate civil authorities” have been contacted.

Statement from Bishop Folda:

The Diocese of Fargo has placed Father Thomas Feltman, Pastor of St. John the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor, on administrative leave from his priestly duties pending the outcome of an investigation into his alleged conduct at the Parish.

In a statement, Bishop John Folda of the Diocese of Fargo told parishioners of the two parishes: “Late last week, Father Thomas Feltman came to the Diocese to inform us of concerns that had been brought to him regarding his interaction with youth. We take any such concerns very seriously. We have reported the concerns to appropriate civil authorities at Richland County Social Services for them to review and investigate as they deem appropriate; we have placed Father Feltman on administrative leave and have removed him from his priestly duties pending a complete investigation of this matter. Father Feltman will not be residing at the Parish during the period of this investigation.

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NORTH DAKOTA
KVRR

Nick Broadway

RICHLAND COUNTY, N.D. — A Richland County pastor was placed on administrative leave for alleged conduct with youth.

Officials with the Diocese of Fargo said Father Thomas Feltman is being investigated.

He was a pastor for churches in Wyndmere and Milnor.

They said Feltman told the Diocese last week about concerns regarding his interactions with youth.

Andrew Jasinski was chosen to be the Temporary Administrator of the parishes.

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NORTH DAKOTA
Valley News Live

Parishioners head back to church this morning a day after the Fargo diocese dropped a Memorial weekend bombshell that one one of their own was being investigated for his interactions with children.

Father Thomas Feltman, pastor of the St. John the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor is on administrative leave after concerns were brought to his attention regarding his interaction with children.

The Fargo Diocese says that Father Feltman approached the organization saying that there were “concerns that had been brought to him about regarding his interaction with youth.”

The Diocese then placed Father Feltman on administrative leave and reported the issue to investigators. He also won’t be living in the parish until the end of the investigation.

A Saturday evening press conference to address the media brought forward little new information. When asked about the nature of the accusations against Father Feltman, a Fargo Diocese spokesperson said that any of those questions would have to be directed towards the Richland County Sheriff’s office. The spokesperson also couldn’t say if there were similar claims made at Father Feltman’s previous parishes.

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NORTH DAKOTA
WDAY

[with video]

FARGO — A local pastor has been placed on administrative leave after possible inappropriate interactions with children.

According to the Diocese of Fargo, concerns were made against Father Thomas Feltman, Pastor of St. John and the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor.

The incident has been reported Richland County Social Services for a review and investigation.

Father Feltman has been removed from all priestly duties and will not be residing at the Parish during the investigation.

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NORTH DAKOTA
Valley News Live

May 27, 2017

UPDATE: A press conference to address the media was held tonight, but little new information came from the meeting.

When asked about the nature of the accusations against Father Feltman, a Fargo Diocese spokesperson said that any of those questions would have to be directed towards the Richland County Sheriff’s office.

The spokesperson also couldn’t say if there were similar claims made at Father Feltman’s previous parishes.

Currently, the Richland County Sheriff’s Office detective assigned to the case is out of the office.

ORIGINAL STORY: Father Thomas Feltman, pastor of the St. John the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor is on administrative leave after concerns were brought to his attention regarding his interaction with children.

The Fargo Diocese says that Father Feltman approached the organization saying that there were “concerns that had been brought to him about regarding his interaction with youth.”

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CANADA
CBC News

An artist who’s the son of a residential school survivor is urging the Supreme Court of Canada to rule to preserve the stories of more than 35,000 people like his father so future generations can learn from the tragic chapter in the country’s history.

Carey Newman founded the group Coalition to Preserve the Truth to save the testimony delivered to adjudicators as part of the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), which was set up to determine individual compensation for survivors who suffered as a result of being forced into residential schools.

But some, like the Assembly of First Nations, want those records destroyed to protect the privacy of survivors. The documents are now in the hands of the Supreme Court, which will decide their fate.

“I think that future generations do have some right to those stories, because we are also impacted,” said Newman, who came to Ottawa Thursday to argue his case to the Supreme Court.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

Attention surrounding the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown child sexual abuse scandal has not only affected the victims themselves, but also other individuals who have been assaulted at some point during their lives.

The issue has been prominently discussed from 2013, when allegations were first made that Brother Stephen Baker molested students at Bishop McCort High School, through the release of a grand jury report last year in which the diocese was accused of perpetrating a coverup to protect predator priests, until today.

Victim Services staff members believe it has played a role in the number of people coming to their organization for help.

When making a July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017, fiscal year budget, Victim Services anticipated seeing about 800 sexual assault clients throughout Cambria and Somerset counties. That expected total was already surpassed by the end of February.

“I think that, especially with the media attention that this particular scandal has gotten, this particular issue, we have seen a lot of survivors who aren’t even related to this issue who are struggling a lot more because it’s constantly brought up and they’re constantly being triggered,” said Erika Brosig, Victim Services clinical supervisor.

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