ABUSE TRACKER

RHODE ISLAND
Daily Mail (UK)

By Associated Press and Dave Burke For Mailonline

‘Credible’ evidence of sex abuse at a Roman Catholic boarding school in Rhode Island have come to light, leaders have revealed.

A report has been released by the Portsmouth Abbey School apologizing to victims of Father Bede Gorman and Father Geoffrey Chase.

The alleged abuse happened between 1959 and the early 1980s, it reveals.

Gorman died in 1885, while Chase, who left the school in 2002, is in his 80s and ill, the report reveals.

A letter from leaders at the school states: ‘We stand by those who were wronged, and are committed to helping past victims, providing therapy for them as needed.’

And it continued: ‘Our hearts break for these victims and their families. Their trust and faith in the sacred mission of Portsmouth was violated.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 25, 2017

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood on Fridayoffered the use of a sitting federal judge to mediate the proposed settlement of nearly 100 clergy sex abuse cases, at no cost to the parties. She said the parties should consider reaching a global settlement — one that resolves all of the cases.

It costs $10,000 a day in fees to hire a private mediator, Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s counsel, Jacqueline Terlaje, told the chief judge during a status hearing Friday.

Nearly 100 lawsuits have been filed, accusing Guam clergy members, Boy Scouts leaders and others associated with the Catholic Church of sexually abusing children decades ago. All of the lawsuits name the church as a defendant, and 77 of the lawsuits were filed in federal court.

Retired Saipan Bishop Tomas A. Camacho’s counsel, William Fitzgerald, told the judge that the 86-year-old bishop won’t be able to contribute toward paying a private mediator in any settlement. Fitzgerald is representing Camacho without charge.

Mediation for the cases is scheduled for early October, and attorneys in the federal and local cases are scheduled to meet in Honolulu Sept. 4 and Sept. 5 with retired judge Michael Hogan to discuss mediation protocols.

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SCOTLAND
The Courier

by Claire Warrender
August 24 2017

An abuse survivor has become the first person in Scotland to secure compensation from the notorious Christian Brothers.

Dave Sharp was awarded a five figure sum after a 40 year fight for justice.

The 59-year-old, who was repeatedly beaten and raped when he was a pupil at St Ninian’s residential school in Falkland, hopes his case will pave the way for hundreds of other victims to come forward.

“This is not about money and it’s not a story about Dave Sharp,” he said.

“It’s about every child who has been abused in Scotland and about making these institutions accept liability.”

Dave was awarded compensation despite his abuser, former headteacher Brother Gerry Ryan, never being charged with any offence.

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ITALY
Crux

Claire Giangravè
August 25, 2017

A lay Catholic association in southern Italy, under scrutiny after its leader was arrested on charges of sexually abusing up to six underage girls during a span of 25 years, managed to avoid being subjected to the authority of the local diocese — raising concerns about Church oversight over such groups.

ROME – As a controversy in southern Italy surrounding a lay association whose leadership has been accused of sexual abuse continues to unfold, one question that won’t go away is how the group was able to act with basic independence from the diocese in which it’s located over several decades.

“Do we obey the Gospel or the bishop?” members of the group asked in an article published in a local newspaper back in January of 1978 – and, by all evidence, they chose their interpretation of the Gospel, spurning attempts at ecclesiastical oversight.

As practices in the group, known as the “Catholic Culture and Environment Association” (ACCA), drifted further away from official Church teaching – which would later lead, allegedly, to the sexual abuse of multiple young girls – the local diocese, Acireale on the Italian island of Sicily, seems to have allowed it to drop off its radar.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former Catholic priest and principal of a Salesian school in Victoria is fighting charges he sexually abused three students during the 1970s and 80s.

Frank Klep, 74, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court via video link on Friday charged with four counts of indecent assault against a male, which allegedly occurred while he was a priest and teacher at Salesian College Rupertswood at Sunbury.

Counsel for Klep plan to cross examine police and the complainants during a two-day committal hearing due to begin on November 28.

The hearing will determine if Klep should stand trial.

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INDIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Siddhartha Rai

The right-wing in India is taking its fight to re-create India in its own image even further afield.

The battle for the RSS and its many affiliated groups has moved away from the major metropolitan areas and towards the far-flung regions of the North East that are sometimes overlooked.

In anger over the alleged cases of so-called religious discrimination, domination and the rape of women by the Christian missionaries in the North East, an RSS-affiliated legal rights body has written an angry letter to none other than the religious leader of worldwide Catholic Church, Pope Francis in the Vatican.

Pope Francis, full-name – His Holiness Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the Vatican City State, Servant of the servants of God – has yet to acknowledge the letter.

The right-wing legal body has threatened Pope Francis with legal action in India if he fails to condemn the acts of his community members in India, it would sue the Indian leadership of the Church in a court of law.

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NEW JERSEY
Paramus Daily Voice

Cecilia Levine

ORADELL, N.J. — A picketer carrying a sign accusing Bergen Catholic High School of ignoring sex abuse victims has been lingering outside of the Oradell school Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

The man carried signs at the corner of Oradell and Forest avenues saying “BCHS IGNORES VICTIMS” and “TEN SEX VICTIMS AWAIT JUSTICE.”

NOTE: It is unclear if the man is claiming he is a victim. Daily Voice is gathering more information.

Nearly one year ago to the day, the all-boys high school reached a settlement with 21 men who accused staff of sex abuse in the 1960s and 1970s. The victims shared the $1.9 million settlement money, NJ.com reported.

The following October, eight more men came forward also claiming sex abuse at the school.

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VIRGINIA
CBS Evening News

[with video]

FAIRFAX, Va. — A priest in Virginia made a very public and shocking confession this week about his earlier life as a cross-burning member of the Ku Klux Klan.

William Aitcheson, 62, made a confession in an essay published Monday, writing, “My actions were despicable … while 40 years have passed, I must say this: ‘I’m sorry.'”

He wrote that “images from Charlottesville brought back memories of a bleak period in my life that I would have preferred to forget.”

CBS News’ Errol Barnett reports a spokesman for the Arlington diocese said Thursday: “At the time he began ministry here in 1993, the diocese learned of his past as well as his sincere conversion of heart.”

The spokesman also said Aitcheson’s “past was not common knowledge to current staff 24 years later.”

Philip and Barbara Butler have been reluctantly recalling the night they were terrorized by the KKK as newlyweds.

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ILLINOIS
Aurora Beacon-News

Dan Campana
Aurora Beacon-News

Former Aurora priest Alfredo Pedraza-Arias asked a federal judge in June for a “voluntary removal” from the United States, a decision Kane County prosecutors suggest he made to evade a trial on charges of sexually abusing two young girls.

That allegation by prosecutors is contained in a third motion seeking to have 51-year-old Arias’ bail revoked in order to delay his deportation until after he stands trial beginning Sept. 18.

Arias has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from an investigation that authorities said revealed he fondled the girls — who were under the age of 6 — at Aurora’s Sacred Heart Church between 2012 and 2014.

Arias, charged in 2016, returns to court Friday for a third hearing on his bail.

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UNITED STATES
GetReligion

Terry Mattingly

When you hear the term “breaking news,” what do you think of?

I think news consumers, at this point, are pretty skeptical about this term. They know, of course, that there really is such a thing as breaking news. Major decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court are breaking news. The attack on the GOP softball team was breaking news. Another van mowing down citizens on London Bridge would be breaking news.

Also, there are @POTUS tweets that justify the “breaking news” label. There are, in my opinion, many more that do not. And have we reached the point where “Game of Thrones” developments are truly “breaking news”? If not, I’m sure that’s just around the corner.

Anyway, like a few religion-news consumers, I received the USA Today email push product that pinned the “breaking news” label on a long, long news feature with this headline: “Across the nation, priest sexual abuse cases haunt Catholic parishes.”

Now, I have followed clergy-abuse cases since 1982 or thereabouts – press coverage exploded in 1985 with the Gilbert Gauthe case in Louisiana. Here at GetReligion, we have poured out oceans of digital ink discussing the many waves of this story. It’s a horrifying scandal and, along with the ghastly cover-ups by some bishops, totally deserves the word that Catholic conservative Leon J. Podles used as the title of his brutal, horrifying book — “Sacrilege.”

But when I saw this “breaking news” label, I immediately wondered: “Really? What has happened now?” Let me stress that I think there are angles of the scandal worthy of new and in-depth coverage (along with the massive and largely uncovered scandals in other major institutions, such as public schools).

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NEW YORK
Democrat & Chronicle

Sean Lahman, @seanlahman Aug. 24, 2017

In June, a 41-year old man sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse, claiming that one of its priests had molested him years earlier, beginning when he was 12 years old.

It’s a story that has been repeated across the state during the last few years, as new victims have come forward to say that priests had sexually abused them as children. Since 2014, there have been new cases reported in almost every diocese in New York state, including Albany, Buffalo, Long Island, New York City, and the Hudson Valley.

But not in Rochester.

In June of 2012, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester published a list of priests who had been the subject of “credible allegations” of sexual abuse within the previous ten years.

In a column that accompanied the list’s publication, then-Bishop Matthew Clark apologized to abuse victims and praised the efforts of the diocese to stamp out sexual abuse.

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OHIO
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained in 1957 for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Lawrence “Larry” Strittmatter was a parish priest and long-time principal of Elder High School. The archdiocese began to receive allegations in at least 1979 that Strittmatter was sexually abusing his students. In 1981 he was sent to counseling and transferred for a short while to a parish on the other side of the city. In 1982 he was named pastor of Our Lady of Victory parish. He was removed from the parish in 1988 after more allegations, sent to treatment, then reassigned to St. Albert the Great in Dayton OH, which is in the northern reaches of the archdiocese.

In the Spring of 2002 a man reported to law enforcement and the archdiocese that Strittmatter molested him on three occasions in 1979 and 1980, when the man was an Elder student. Strittmatter’s accuser said that the priest invited him to join him in games of racquetball at the club, and that the abuse happened afterwards, in the shower. In June 2002 Strittmatter was suspended from ministry. Subsequently, more former Elder students came forward with similar allegations of abuse by Strittmatter. By September 2003, twenty-eight men had accused Strittmatter in lawsuits. At least one claimed the priest abused him as a fourth-grader at Our Lady of Victory. It has been estimated that Strittmatter may have had nearly 100 victims.

The archdiocese was convicted in November 2003 on five counts of misdemeanor cover-up of sexual abuse of children by its priests. Strittmatter was laicized in 2006.

Ordained: May 25, 1957
Laicized: 2006

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

By Daniel Tepfer

MILFORD – The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut agreed Thursday to pay a settlement to a local woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted at St. Peter’s Church when she was 12 by the pastor’s adult son.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The settlement was reached as the case was to go to trial before a jury in Superior Court here against the diocese, the church and its former pastor, Andrew Osmun.

The pastor’s son, Jesse Osmun, is serving a 15-year federal prison sentence for sexually assaulting young girls at a school in South Africa where he was working while in the Peace Corps.

“This case clearly shows why it is so important for those charged with watching our children to follow the policies and procedures that are put in place for their protection,” said Douglas Mahoney, of the Bridgeport law firm Tremont Sheldon Robinson and Mahoney, who represented the woman. “If those policies that were in place had been followed by Reverend Osmun, Jesse Osmun would never have been able to assault other young girls.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

STAFF REPORT / PUBLISHED: AUGUST 24, 2017

A Roman Catholic priest from New Jersey caught up in a Wayne County child pornography probe went before a judge Thursday to learn his fate.

The Rev. Kevin A. Gugliotta, 55, of Mahwah, was sentenced by President Judge Raymond L. Hamill to 11½ to 23½ months in the Wayne County Correctional Facility, District Attorney Janine Edwards said.

The sentence includes the more than 300 days Gugliotta has already spent in jail, meaning he could be eligible for parole in about 1½ months, his attorney, James Swetz, said.

Gugliotta had pleaded guilty in March to one count of dissemination of child pornography. In October, Wayne County detectives filed more than 40 felony counts of possessing and disseminating child pornography against him for uploading files from a Lehigh Twp. apartment he referred to as his “day off place,” investigators said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WNEP

AUGUST 24, 2017, BY JIM HAMILL

HONESDALE — A priest from New Jersey was sentenced Thursday for having child pornography at his home in Wayne County.

Kevin Gugliotta was sentenced to 11 and a half to 23 and a half months in prison and must register as a sex offender.

He pleaded guilty earlier this year to having child porn on a computer at his apartment in Gouldsboro.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Dino Nocivelli

Thursday 24 August 2017

What has consent got to do with child abuse? A simple question, which should have a simple answer. A child under the age of 16 is in law unable to consent to sexual acts. The age of consent exists for a reason: to protect vulnerable members of society who have not yet developed the emotional or physical maturity to engage in sexual relationships.

Yet years of revelations about child sexual abuse have shown that this is not a settled question even within trusted institutions that should know better. The independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham found police officers believed girls as young as 11 could consent to sex. In Rochdale, council employees said they thought victims of child sex abuse were “making their own choices”. And in my own work as a lawyer representing survivors of child sexual abuse, I’ve seen how the Catholic church, when dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, often looks to place blame straight at the feet of a victim.

Two years ago, the Catholic church was swift to publicly condemn Father Gino Flaim, a priest in northern Italy, who in the context of discussing paedophilia said some children seek attention from priests that they do not receive at home, and some priests give in to this.

But I have received court documents and legal correspondence from the Catholic church’s lawyers that seem to support the idea children can consent to sex. This includes allegations of consent in child abuse cases (where my teenage client had been raped by his family priest, who was in his 60s), a priest who alleged one of my clients was a “child prostitute”, and a priest who felt sexual relations with children caused them no harm.

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JAMAICA
Loop

The Corporate Area pastor who has been charged for allegedly raping and impregnating a 12-year-old girl, has consented to do a DNA test to help clear his name.

Kenneth Blake, 56, of Harbour View in St Andrew, appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on several charges on Wednesday, and signed an order authorising the DNA test after his attorney indicated to the court that Blake was prepared to take the step in a bid to establish innocence on his part.

The churchman, who heads the Harvest Temple Apostolic Church on Slipe Pen Road in the Corporate Area, faces charges of rape, grievous sexual assault, forcible abduction, sexual touching, and sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 years old.

The allegations are that he had sex with the child on several occasions in 2015, resulting in her getting pregnant.

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INDIA
Gulf News

New Delhi: The trial of an Indian spiritual leader accused of rape has triggered a security lockdown, with police closing schools and converting a cricket stadium into a jail in case his followers erupt into violence if he is found guilty.

Thousands of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s supporters have begun assembling close to the court in the state of Punjab, where he is on trial for raping two women in cases that date back to 2002.

A verdict is expected on Friday.

“The verdict could lead to potential large-scale unrest and violence,” Ajay Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, in Panchkula city, told journalists.

Singh, a burly, bearded man who has scripted and starred in his own films, commands a near-devotional following — he claims in the millions — in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, where his Dera Sacha Sauda group is based.

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MARYLAND
WJLA

by Richard Reeve/ABC7

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (ABC7) —
For Phillip Butler and his wife Barbara, it began with a neighbor’s phone call.

“Told me there was a cross,” he recalls. “I don’t know if it was smoking or burning, I don’t know which one it was, in our front yard.”

The Butlers say since that summer night in 1977, they’ve never forgotten the sight of the 6-to-7 foot cross, wrapped in rags, reeking of flammable fluid.

“I’d never seen a cross,” Barbara Butler told reporters. “You see something like on television or something like that, but to really have one in your yard… is there that much hatred in your heart?”

Her husband says as he took down the cross, before calling the police, his mind was ticking.

“Someone is against us,” he remembers thinking. “What did we do to put the cross in our yard?”

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MARYLAND
NBC Washington

The African-American couple who had a cross burned on their front lawn by a Ku Klux Klan leader who is now a Catholic priest in Virginia said the priest’s actions were “almost unforgivable” and refused to meet with him until he named other members of the hate group.

Father William Aitcheson, a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, burned a cross in 1977 on the couple’s lawn in College Park, Maryland, News4 reported.

Philip and Barbara Butler spoke out Tuesday and said that even though the priest was criminally convicted, he never apologized or paid them $23,000 in court-ordered restitution. The priest also never identified other KKK members, which Philip Butler urged him to do.

“He needed help to put that cross up,” Philip Butler said.

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JAMAICA
The Star

Andre Williams
August 24, 2017

The pastor charged with sexual assault involving a teenage girl has been granted $1.5 million bail, and was told that he is not to be left alone with anyone under the age of 18.

Pastor Kenneth Blake of the Harvest Temple Apostolic Church, who is accused of sexually assaulting and impregnating a 14-year-old, was offered bail yesterday when he appeared before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

Blake, 56, was charged by the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse recently, following allegations that he had been molesting the child since 2015, when she was just 12.

He is charged with rape, sexual touching, having sexual intercourse with a minor, grievous sexual assault of a minor under the age of 16, and forcible abduction.

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CHILE
Variety

Anna Marie de la Fuente

‘Perdona Nuestros Pecados’ (‘Forgive Us Our Sins’) and other telenovelas rule Chile’s airwaves

SANTIAGO DE CHILE – Thanks to six hours a day of telenovelas, stripped Mondays to Fridays, Chilean broadcaster Mega TV has dominated the country’s television landscape over the past three years. But one particular telenovela has gripped this country of some 17 million inhabitants, driving Mega TV’s ratings to historical levels.

“Perdona Nuestros Pecados” (“Forgive Us Our Sins”) has generated average ratings of 27.4 in its 10 p.m. time slot, nearly triple that of competing programs on its next biggest rival, Canal 13. Credit also goes to a newish executive team, led by CEO Patricio Hernandez, who joined the company in 2013; head of content Patricia Bazan; production and operations chief Andrea Dell’Orto; and Juan Ignacio Vicente, head of content and international Business. Before the new team took over, Mega TV’s average rating was 4.3 in 2013, compared to its current average of 11.2, said Vicente.

In June 2016, Discovery Communications acquired a 27.5% stake in the channel, which now airs four hours a week of Discovery programs and is partnering with Discovery on the Chilean version of the global TV giant’s reality show “Say Yes to the Dress,” (“Vestido de Novia”). …

Stripped Monday to Thursday, the 1950s-set “Perdona Nuestros Pecados” centers on a priest who seeks to avenge his sister’s suicide after she’s abandoned by the man who impregnates her. However, the priest falls in love with the culprit’s daughter, complicating matters even more. In a staunchly catholic country, the idea of a priest seeking vengeance and engaging in a forbidden romance makes for compelling viewing. Mega TV had to build a village and a church as it knew no church would allow the program to film within their hallowed walls.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By GREG MASON / gmason@uticaod.com

A defrocked Utica-area priest has joined the Syracuse Catholic Diocese in seeking to dismiss a lawsuit stemming from claims that he sexually abused a child several decades ago.

Felix Colosimo filed a motion earlier this month to dismiss a lawsuit making its way through federal district court in Connecticut. The suit, submitted by California resident Matthew Strzepek, alleges Colosimo abused the plaintiff between 1987 to 1990.

Strzepek, who lived in Marcy, was then 12 to 15 years old. He is seeking $25 million in damages, each, from Colosimo and the Syracuse Catholic Diocese, the latter of which Strzepek accuses of being liable and failing to respond appropriately to Colosimo’s abusive actions.

The diocese, finding Strzepek’s allegations credible, removed Colosimo from priestly ministry in 2014.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Janela Carrera – August 24, 2017

Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s canonical trial is still pending in Rome.

Guam – Dethroned Archbishop Anthony Apuron, through his legal counsel Atty. Jacque Terlaje, is continuing his fight against four lawsuits filed against him in federal court for civil damages related to sex abuse allegations.

Terlaje responded to the alleged victims’ attempts to keep the cases alive, arguing that the passage of the law in 2016 does not apply retroactively. In 2016, the statute of limitations for civil claims of sex abuse was lifted, giving way for victims of sexual abuse to seek damages against their perpetrators and the institutions they either worked or volunteered for.

But Terlaje once again argues that the law is ambiguous in its detail surrounding the timeframe for filing these civil claims. She believes the law does not apply retroactively.

Terlaje points to a line in the statute that states “at any time,” which she says is not a sufficient expression of legislative intent for the statute to be applied retroactively.

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UNITED STATES
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

AUGUST 23, 2017
ASHER LOVY

There’s this nutty idea people have that being involved in anti abuse activism somehow means that I haven’t moved on from what happened to me, that somehow the efforts I undertake to organize actions against organizations and people who enable abuse are indicative of some underlying unhealthiness, and an unwillingness to heal. I hear it all the time from people. They couch it in sympathy, as if they’re only concerned with my wellbeing when they wonder aloud why I ‘obsess’ over this topic so much.

I have moved on. Quite literally. I moved on from my abusive home. Then I moved on again to a community I now feel a part of. I moved on to a well-paying job that I actually enjoy (most days, anyway). I’ve got a good, reasonably comfortable life here. I’ve got nothing to do with my abusive family anymore, and haven’t for years. I’ve found people who accept me the way I am, and care about me unconditionally. I’ve got everything one needs for a good, peaceful life.

But what about the thousand of kids who don’t have that? What about the ones who are still being abused, still living in communities that enable their abuse, blame them for it, throw them out for talking about it? What about them? I understand that for a lot of people speaking up publicly is dangerous, precisely because of the oppressive nature of these communities and their power structures, but why do people think that concern for the people left behind somehow indicates an inability to move on?

It’s precisely because I was able to so thoroughly move on that I’m even able to engage in this kind of activism. I don’t have a family to lose because I’ve already lost it. I have a job outside the community, so I don’t have to worry about getting fired for my activism. I’ve rejected the shidduch system already, so I don’t have to worry about being disqualified by shadchanim. I’ve built a life for myself outside of the community that abused me, which gives me the luxury of being able to criticize it without fear of reprisal.

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TEXAS
WTVR

BY VERNON FREEMAN JR.

FORT WORTH, Tx. — The appeal of child molestation convictions by former Richmond pastor Geronimo Aguilar was denied Wednesday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Aguilar, also known as Pastor G, is severing a 40 year sentence after being convicted in 2015 of seven charges related to sexually abusing multiple minors.

The former pastor and founder of the Richmond Outreach Center (ROC) church, was convicted on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under fourteen years of age, three counts of sexual assault of a child under seventeen years of age, and two counts of indecency with a child by contact.

A Texas jury found Aguilar guilty of sex crimes against two sisters who he started to abuse when they were 11 and 13 years old. The girls, now women, said they were abused in the 1990s while Aguilar was a pastor at their church in Texas.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Press

By MATTHEW BARAKAT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Phillip and Barbara Butler hadn’t given much thought to the man who burned a cross on their front lawn 40 years ago.

Then they heard the startling news Tuesday that the perpetrator had become a priest and was ministering to Catholics not far from their home.

“I didn’t know what to say. It was unbelievable,” Phillip Butler said Wednesday at a news conference.

The priest, the Rev. William Aitcheson, went public with his old Klan affiliation Monday, writing a column in the diocesan newspaper.

He said his past was not a secret, but he felt compelled to make it more public after seeing images of violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

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NEW MEXICO
KVIA

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A judge has ordered that a leader of a New Mexico paramilitary Christian sect who is facing child sex abuse charges be held on $5 million secured bond.

Cibola County Magistrate Court Judge Larry Diaz set bond Tuesday for Peter Green following a raid of the armed compound of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps.

Peter Green, also known as Mike Brandon, faces 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child on suspicion of raping a girl from the time she was 7.

Sect co-leader Deborah Green, who also is facing child sex abuse charges, was ordered held on a $500,000 secured bond. Deborah Green was arrested on charges ranging from failure to report a birth to child abuse and sexual penetration of a minor.

The group, founded in California, says the allegations are “totally false.” James Green is strongly denying his wife and other members hurt children, telling KOAT-TV of Albuquerque the allegations were a surprise.

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

Caleb James
August 23, 2017

CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. — There are 11 children possibly in danger inside a secretive religious militia compound hidden deep in rural western New Mexico, and law enforcement tells KOB they aren’t being allowed inside.

It is the latest development in a troubling saga that began to unfold Sunday with the arrest of one of the commune’s members on 100 counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

From the air, the rural Fence Lake compound appears fortified. The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps — the organization behind the mountain commune — is referred to as a religious militia by law enforcement. Classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the sect on the fringe of society is now the focus of a child abuse investigation into two crimes.

After a raid on the compound Sunday, member Peter Green is accused of 100 counts of sexual abuse of a minor — a girl investigators say was raped at least four times a week since she was 7. Group member Stacey Miller was also arrested in Truth or Consequences in connection with the 2014 death of her son on the property. Sect leader Deborah Green was also arrested in that case.

According to Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace, the commune’s cooperation with investigators ended Wednesday. James Green, the group’s founder, had agreed to allow FBI investigators to interview children still living on the compound.

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NEW MEXICO
Palm Beach Post

Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
A paramilitary Christian sect with members facing child sex abuse charges evaded law enforcement authorities for years by hiding births, physically punishing followers and quietly operating in isolated areas of New Mexico, former members say.

In interviews with The Associated Press and in court documents, the ex-members also alleged that leaders of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps exercised control over followers by forcing them into hard labor and refusing to give their children medical care.

When members complained, sect co-leader Deborah Green would hold “trials” against them for questioning her authority, which Green said came directly from God, former members Maura Alana Schmierer and Julie Gudino said.

The trials led to banishment to isolated sheds without toilets and from the sect’s compound without being allowed to take their children, the women said.

“It was a form of brain-washing,” Schmierer, who left the group in the late 1980s and sued, winning a $1 million award when it was based in Sacramento, California, told the AP.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Donita Naylor
Journal Staff Writer

Posted Aug 23, 2017

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — Leaders of the Portsmouth Abbey School and Monastery have released a report that contains “shameful news” of “credible allegations of sexual abuse” between 1959 and the early 1980s, and of corporal punishment in the ’60s and ’70s.

A letter emailed Wednesday to members of the Portsmouth Abbey community contained an apology to the victims of Father Bede Gorman, who died in 1985, and Father Geoffrey Chase, who is in his late 80s and is ill. He left the school in 2002, the letter said.

“We stand by those who were wronged, and are committed to helping past victims, providing therapy for them as needed.”

The letter — from Regents chairman W. Christopher Behnke ’81, Abbot Matthew Stark for the monks and Headmaster Daniel McDonough — also promised that Gorman’s name would be removed from the athletic fields, squash center and two annual prizes that had been named in his honor, and that the review of policies, safety protocols and training programs at the school would continue.

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RHODE ISLAND
US News

[Letter to the Portsmouth Abbey Community]

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (AP) — A Catholic boarding school in Rhode Island says an investigation has found credible new allegations of sexual abuse committed decades ago by two monks.

The Portsmouth Abbey School sent a letter Wednesday summarizing the allegations and apologizing to any victims. The abuse is alleged to have occurred between 1959 and the early 1980s. The school says one of the accused monks has since died, and the other is critically ill.

The school hired a law firm to investigate after the sudden resignation of its chancellor last year. Last August, the firm reported no findings that he did anything illegal, but responses to that report surfaced new allegations against the two monks, who had been previously accused of abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Michael Inman

A former Canberra school teacher was sacked from St. Edmund’s College after allegations of improper conduct with a student, a court has heard.

The alleged victim did not go into detail with the school headmaster at the time and then kept his silence after Garry Leslie Marsh’s termination.

The ACT Supreme Court has heard that coverage of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse stirred memories and prompted the alleged victim to report the matter to police 35 years on.

But the defence says this passage of time disadvantaged the accused as it made it harder to challenge the allegations.

Marsh, 72, of Sydney, is on trial before Justice John Burns accused of indecent assault and buggery.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Brian MacQuarrie and Travis Andersen GLOBE STAFF AUGUST 23, 2017

Spurred by growing allegations of sexual misconduct at private schools, two groups that represent more than 1,000 of the institutions released recommendations Wednesday for preventing the abuse of students by teachers and other staff members.

The draft report is believed to be the first comprehensive review of procedures to curb sexual misconduct at the schools, many of them boarding facilities whose missions often encourage close interaction among students, faculty, and staff.

Many proposals focus on boundaries between students and adults, such as refraining from the exchange of personal information, and the scope and duration of off-campus trips. The recommendations would bar teachers and students from shared sleeping accommodations during outings and set clear guidelines on physical contact.

The draft also urges strict background checks on all hires at the private schools, regardless of position, in an effort to keep sexual offenders from finding new jobs that could put them in close proximity with students.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY JAMES MONCUR
24 AUG 2017

An abuse victim has won a 40-year fight to secure compensation from the ­notorious Christian Brothers monks.

Dave Sharp was awarded a “significant five-figure sum” decades after he was repeatedly raped and beaten at St Ninian’s residential school in Fife.

He is the first person in Scotland to win a payout from the Catholic order, who ran residential schools for children across the world.

The payment is likely to allow hundreds of other Scottish victims to win compensation for historical abuse at various organisations.

Dave, 59, said: “I hope my payment is the first of many the Christian Brothers are forced to make to those men whose lives have been wrecked because of the treatment they received as children in ­Scotland’s residential homes and schools.

“There are dozens of victims out there who have far stronger cases than mine.

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UTAH
Daily Herald

Kurt Hanson Daily Herald

An LDS bishop charged with sexually abusing two underage males in his ward pleaded guilty to his crimes Wednesday in Fourth District Court.

The defendant, Erik Hughes of Mapleton, entered guilty pleas to two second-degree felonies of forcible sexual abuse and one third-degree felony of tampering with a witness. Hughes, 51, pleaded to what he was originally charged with. No charges were reduced as a part of his plea arrangement.

Hughes’ attorney, John Allan, told Judge Thomas Low that as a part of the agreement, no other charges in relation to the allegations of abuse can be leveled against Hughes.

Allan said the alleged victims approve of the agreement.

Police reports state a now 18-year-old man told police in April that Hughes had drugged him and sexually assaulted him several times about three years ago.

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FLORIDA
Bay News 9

By Saundra Weathers, Reporter
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 23, 2017

TAMPA —
A Tampa man had sex with a 12-year-old girl inside a church Aug. 20, police investigators say.

Le’Angelo Wilkerson, 27, is accused of having sex with the girl in a bathroom and then a classroom at Rehoboth Faith Cathedral Church on N. 40th St., Tampa Police said.

Tushara Jones said the girl was her 14-year-old daughter’s friend and that girl was visiting the church for the first time. She said her daughter walked in on the act.

“My daughter walked in the bathroom with the girl that was missing. She said she was going to the bathroom,” Jones said. “My daughter walked in the bathroom and caught them having sexual intercourse, and he groped my daughter’s butt and told my daughter to come and show her how it was supposed to be done.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Elizabeth Byrne

A former Marist College teacher accused of indecently assaulting a student in the early 1980s has said he struggled to even remember the boy.

David Kisun, 71, is facing three charges of indecent assault.

Kisun was charged after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings in Canberra.

The alleged victim, who was aged nine at the time, told the ACT Supreme Court he was given a seat in the back row of the class.

He said Kisun would stand behind him and put his hands inside his clothing while the rest of the class was working.

He said at other times Kisun kept him inside at lunch and recess and assaulted him.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Aug 23, 2017
by Joshua J. McElwee

ROME — Pope Francis’ commission on clergy sexual abuse is considering whether to restructure itself so that it no longer includes the direct participation of abuse survivors. It is evaluating the possibility of creating instead a separate advisory panel of individuals who have been abused by clergy.

A member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors revealed the group’s consideration of the idea in an NCR interview Aug. 14, saying that one of the commission’s work groups has been tasked with weighing the pros and cons of such a change.

The commission appears likely to discuss the possible restructuring at its next plenary meeting in Rome in mid-September, when the original three-year terms of its members are set to expire.

“I think that may be a more productive [way] of ensuring the voice of survivors in the work of the commission,” Krysten Winter-Green, the commission member, said of the potential change. “I do not know that it’s critical that a survivor needs to be actually on the commission.”

“No decision has been made about this,” she stressed, adding: “I think the voice of survivors needs to be heard by this commission. They need to have input into every facet of the operation. How that is accomplished remains to be seen, but it will be accomplished.”

Consideration of a change in structure for the papal commission comes as the group has in recent months faced public questioning of its effectiveness in stopping future abuse of children and vulnerable people in the Catholic Church. The group now appears to be in the midst of a significant phase of transition.

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NEW MEXICO
International Business Times

BY JULIANA ROSE PIGNATARO

Four members of a religious group based in New Mexico were arrested this weekend and charged with more than 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and child abuse. Deborah Green, Peter Green, Joshua Green and Stacey Miller, all part of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps were arrested Sunday morning, the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

The group, based out of Cibola County, purports to be “aggressive and revolutionary for Jesus.” Photos on the website show members dressed in military garb and contain references to “spiritual ammo” and “holy war.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, however, lists the sect as a hate group.

The sheriff’s office began its investigation last year after two members who allegedly escaped the commune told authorities that Deborah Green and Stacey Miller allowed Miller’s 12-year-old son to die of the flu. Miller later told investigators “she wanted to trust God.” She was charged with child abuse after authorities arrested her. Deborah was charged with neglect resulting in the death of a child, as well as sexual assault of a minor and child abuse. Authorities alleged that Deborah had sexually assaulted her daughter’s 5-year-old daughter in 2001 after the child was smuggled in from Uganda.

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CALIFORNIA
KCRA

Tom Miller
Reporter

A Sacramento woman is speaking out after four members of a military-style Christian group were arrested.

Maura Schmierer left the sect in 1989 but still remembers the horrors she endured. The group started in Sacramento before ending up in New Mexico.

Now, nearly 35 years later, the leader of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps has been arrested, along with three others.

Schmierer said she is happy to see that the sect could finally shut down.

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NEW MEXICO
Vice

JOSIAH HESSE
Aug 23 2017

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps is known for its eccentric, militaristic brand of religion. This week, cops accused key leaders of horrific acts, including some that resulted in a child’s death.

On Sunday, police arrested current and former members of a Christian group in New Mexico for a litany of alleged crimes. According to a report on Monday by ABC affiliate KOAT-7 Action News, one member was charged with 100 counts of sexual penetration of a girl who was allegedly smuggled into this country from Uganda. The warrant used to make the arrest, which was viewed by VICE, further claims the group concealed the births of multiple children and the death of at least one boy, whose remains were buried on the group’s private property.

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps (ACMTC) of Fence Lake is an isolated, militaristic religious organization. In 1981, Deborah and James Green formed the group in Sacramento, California. Previously, they have been accused of familiar cult-like tactics of controlling member’s finances, limiting contact with the outside world, and isolating members without proper food, water, or hygiene. Since their inception, they’ve been listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

The investigation leading to Sunday’s arrest began last year, when two female members of the group claimed to have escaped—and told the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office of almost unspeakable horrors.

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NEW MEXICO
Washington Post

By Associated Press August 22

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Latest on a New Mexico military-style Christian sect facing child abuse charges (all times local):

2:15 p.m.

A sheriff says authorities carefully planned a raid of a New Mexico paramilitary Christian sect amid a child sexual abuse investigation to avoid potential violence.

Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace told The Associated Press on Tuesday deputies surprised the sect’s Fence Lake, New Mexico, compound during church services to make sure everyone was located in one place.

Mace says authorities were concerned armed sect members might try to stop deputies’ attempt to arrest leaders on child abuse and child sexual abuse charges.

During the Sunday raid, authorities arrested three members in connection with a child abuse and child sex abuse investigation. A former member was arrested in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

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NEW MEXICO
Associated Press

BY RUSSELL CONTRERAS AND MORGAN LEE
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities investigating a paramilitary Christian sect for child sexual abuse say they looking into whether the New Mexico group brought children into the country illegally. Former group members say leaders kept them and the children living at sect’s compound in “slavery.”

Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace told The Associated Press Tuesday that investigators found numerous children during a Sunday raid of the armed Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in remote Fence Lake.

Exactly where the children came from is unknown because the sect apparently kept members from reporting births to state officials, Mace said. A former sect member says the group illegally brought at least one child to the United States from one of its foreign missions, which according to its website were operated in Africa, India and the Philippines.

“The children were trained not to talk to law enforcement or to hide from law enforcement,” Mace said.

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NEW MEXICO
New York Post

By Tamar Lapin

Members of a military-style Christian group in New Mexico have been arrested for what authorities are calling horrific crimes against children.

Peter Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in Fence Lake was arrested Sunday morning and faces 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child, local station KOAT reported.

Deborah Green and her husband James Green are the “Generals” of the sect, according to their website and are responsible for commanding their army to spread Christian ideals throughout the world. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the organization as a hate group.

Deborah Green and members Stacey Miller and Joshua Green also face charges including child abuse, bribery of a witness and not reporting a birth.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

The Catholic Church in Australia observes Child Protection Sunday on 10 September 2017.

The Australian Catholic Church’s Child Protection Sunday runs in conjunction with National Child Protection Week. This year we are focusing on a Royal Commission’s key element that when children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously an institution is better prepared to be child safe. Our theme is: “See Me, Hear Me”.

In the first reading for Child Protection Sunday the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of “being a sentry to the House of Israel’. That image captures well one element of the role each of us has in regard to Children.

As Pope Francis outlined before leading the crowds in the Angelus prayer in March last year it is important to “Listen: this is the key word. Do not forget, listen to the sick and marginalised, or among families.” As a sentry, each of us plays a part in listening to what the children have to say, making sure that every child is safe and protected from abuse and harm.

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ILLINOIS
Herald-Tribune

By Pete Spitler
Editor@heraldtrib.com
updated: 8/22/2017

Perhaps lost in the noise of the school funding fight was news that Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation on Aug. 11 that removes the statutes of limitation for sexual abuse crimes.

The bill, Senate Bill 189, now allows for the prosecution of those crimes at any time. Previously, victims had to report crimes within 20 years after they turned 18.

SB 189 took effect as soon as it was signed and applies to future felony child sex crime cases, as well as current criminal cases in which the previous statute of limitations has not expired.

According to sponsor State Sen. Michael Hastings (D-Tinley Park), the legislation puts in place “best practices for dealing with sexual assault cases statewide and puts in place a system that will encourage survivors to come forward and receive justice when they are ready.”

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UNITED STATES
USA Today

In May 2003, Thomas O’Brien, then bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix, admitted to sheltering at least 50 priests accused of sexual abuse, often shuffling them around to parishes across the state.

O’Brien’s admission, released under an agreement with the county attorney, acknowledged he “allowed Roman Catholic priests under my supervision to work with minors after becoming aware of allegations of sexual misconduct.” He also waived his own immunity should sexual misconduct allegations against him surface.

Thirteen years later, in a lawsuit filed last September, O’Brien — now bishop emeritus — was accused of sexually abusing a grade-school boy.

In recent months, USA TODAY Network reporters at the Pacific Daily News have uncovered scores of allegations involving 14 Catholic priests on Guam, where a former altar boy’s accusation last summer that Archbishop Anthony Apuron sexually abused him in the 1970s has prompted other revelations.

Abuse cases also have roiled Catholic parishes elsewhere the nation, sometimes decades after evidence of the crimes first emerged.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post Aug 22, 2017

Suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron believes every citizen should be afforded due process and the right to defend against a cause of action that has long expired, according to court documents filed in four civil suits filed against the leader of Guam’s Catholic Church.

In a motion filed by his attorney, Jacqueline Taitano Terlaje, Apuron contends the District Court of Guam must dismiss the lawsuits filed against him and the Archdiocese of Agana because the victims’ claims are time-barred and Public Law 33-187 is “inorganic and unconstitutional.”

Apuron and his attorney maintain that the law that amended Guam’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse did not “retrospectively revive” the plaintiffs’ time-barred and lapsed claims to file suit against him.

Terlaje wrote, “Every person who cannot defend him or herself due to the passage of time and loss of evidence suffers extreme hardship and oppression.”

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IRELAND
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Bishops in Ireland have created detailed guidelines to address an issue the Roman Catholic Church has tried to keep under wraps for centuries: the plight of children born to Catholic priests and the women who bear them.

The policy, approved in May and made public recently, states that the wellbeing of the child is paramount. It says the mother must be respected and involved in decision-making, and that the priest “should face up to his responsibilities – personal, legal, moral and financial.”

The guidelines are believed to represent the first comprehensive public policy by a national bishops’ conference on the issue, which has long been shrouded in secrecy given the perceived scandal of priests having sex. While eastern rite Catholic priests can be married before ordination, Roman Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy.

The policy is, in many ways, the fruit of a campaign by an Irish psychotherapist, Vincent Doyle, who discovered late in life that his father was a priest.

With the strong backing of the archbishop of Dublin, Doyle launched Coping International, an online self-help resource for the children of priests and their mothers. The aim, he said, was to help eliminate the stigma he and others like him have faced, and educate them and the church about the emotional and psychological problems that can be associated with the secrecy often imposed on them.

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NEW MEXICO
KOAT

Megan Cruz
General Assignment Reporter

CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. —
The leader and three members of a religious group based in Cibola County were arrested over the weekend for what investigators called horrific crimes against children.

Charges include over 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and child abuse.

The Cibola County Sheriff’s Office says deputies arrested Deborah Green, Peter Green, Joshua Green, and Stacey Miller of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps Sunday morning. According to the group’s website, Deborah and her husband James are the “Generals” and command their army to spread Christian ideals throughout the world. They’re based out of Fence Lake in western Cibola County.

Sheriff Tony Mace says his office first started investigating the group last year when two members claimed they just escaped the commune. They told deputies Deborah and another member Stacey Miller allowed Miller’s 12-year-old son to die of the flu in 2014.

“It was a horrible situation,” said Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace.

According to arrest warrants, no one took the boy to the hospital. Puss started leaking from his forehead and he lost his ability to speak and move his right side. He was buried on the property and no one reported his death.

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NEW MEXICO
Associated Press

GRANTS, N.M. (AP) — The Latest on a New Mexico military-style Christian sect facing child abuse charges (all times local):

1:30 p.m.

A New Mexico military-style Christian sect says claims of child abuse and child sexual abuse by leaders are false.

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in Fence Lake, New Mexico, said in a statement that allegations “are totally false” and similar to others the group has faced over the years.

A criminal complaint says sect leader Peter Green is facing 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child.

Court records show three other members of the group also were charged with child abuse crimes.

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NEW MEXICO
Associated Press

BY RUSSELL CONTRERAS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former member of a military-style Christian sect says that for years she’s been trying to draw attention to the New Mexico group whose leader has been charged with dozens of counts of child sexual abuse.

Maura Alana Schmierer told The Associated Press on Monday that she had been interviewed by investigators recently about the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps.

Schmierer left the sect in the late 1980s. She said she’s “been trying to expose them for years” and appeared in a National Geographic Television show documenting her experience.

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NEW MEXICO
Daily Mail

AP

A leader of a New Mexico military-style Christian sect is facing dozens of child sexual abuse charges in a case that authorities say is connected to widespread abuse by the religious commune.

Peter Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in the remote community of Fence Lake was charged with 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child.

Sect members Deborah Green, Joshua Green and Stacey Miller also face various charges ranging from child abuse, bribery and not reporting a birth.

All four were arrested on Sunday.

A former member, Maura Alana Schmierer, said on Monday that she’s been trying to draw attention to the New Mexico group for years. Schmierer added that she had been interviewed by investigators recently about the group.

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VIRGINIA
Washington Post

By Dana Hedgpeth and Michelle Boorstein August 22

A Catholic priest in Arlington, Va., is temporarily stepping down after revealing he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and burned crosses more than 40 years ago before joining the clergy.

In an editorial published Monday in the Arlington Catholic Herald, the Rev. William Aitcheson described himself as “an impressionable young man” when he became a member of the hate group. He wrote that images from the deadly white-supremacist and white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville “brought back memories of a bleak period in my life that I would have preferred to forget.”

“My actions were despicable,” wrote Aitcheson, 62. “When I think back on burning crosses, a threatening letter, and so on, I feel as though I am speaking of somebody else. It’s hard to believe that was me.”

In a statement, Catholic Diocese of Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge called Aitcheson’s past with the Ku Klux Klan “sad and deeply troubling.”

Aitcheson served with the Catholic church in Nevada before being transferred to Arlington, where he is originally from, church officials said in a statement. He was ordained in 1988 and has served in a variety of positions at parishes in Nevada; Arlington; Fredericksburg, Va.; and Woodstock, Md. His latest assignment was as parochial vicar, or assistant to the pastor, at St. Leo the Great in Fairfax City.

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TEXAS
KFOX14

by Adriana Candelaria | Jessica Gonzalez

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) —
A priest who once served at El Paso churches has admitted to sexual misconduct with a teenage girl during the 1980s.

Miguel Luna, 67, who served at eight El Paso parishes, was ordained for the Diocese of El Paso on July 1, 1982.

In 2013, Bishop Mark Seitz removed Luna from the ministry upon the recommendation of the Diocesan Review Board.

A spokesperson for the diocese said the recommendation was made because allegations of sexual harassment had been made but not involving a minor.

It wasn’t until last year that a woman who asked to remain anonymous, came forward, saying that Luna had sexually abused her years ago when she was a teenager.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 22, 2017

The Boy Scouts of America, which faces 54 lawsuits accusing former Scouts leaders of sexually abusing children on Guam, recently filed a “friend of the court” brief in one of the abuse cases filed against Archbishop Anthony Apuron and the Catholic Church on Guam.

District Court of Guam Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan on Tuesday rejected the brief, stating the Boy Scouts are not a party to the Apuron case, and their brief does not provide unique or relevant information.

The Boy Scouts, which wants the cases dismissed, had asked the court to separately address some of the arguments related to the abuse cases. That’s because the Boy Scouts have presented a different set of arguments as to why the cases should be dismissed.

A 2016 law retroactively removed the statute of limitations on civil cases related to child sex abuse, prompting nearly 100 lawsuits to be filed against the Catholic Church and clergy members. More than half of those lawsuits also accuse the Boy Scouts — primarily because of abuse allegations against former Guam priest Louis Brouillard, who also was a Scoutmaster here. He is accused of sexually abusing boys on church grounds and during outings with the Boy Scouts.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Metro

Georgia Diebelius for Metro.co.uk
Tuesday 22 Aug 2017

A pastor who blindfolded children and whipped them with belts, has been spared jail.

Rose Amadasun was reported to the police by South Norwood Leisure Centre after she was seen hitting youngsters with wires and not feeding them for days on end.

According to witnesses, the pastor of the Shine Forth Evangelistic Ministry in central London, shouted ‘Jesus’ as she beat the children.

If they screamed she would ‘force them to fast’ for several days as punishment.

Amadasun, 49, of South Norwood, South London was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily hard on June 30 2016.

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AUSTRALIA
Shepparton News

by TARA WHITSED AUGUST 22, 2017

Coinciding with Child Protection Week (September 4 to 10), the Tatura Sacred Heart Parish will show its support by taking part in the Loud Fences initiative next month.

The parish will hand out coloured ribbons at Mass on September 3 and 10 when parishioners will be invited to tie them to the fence afterwards.

Parishioner Judith Steele said ribbons would also be available in the foyer of the Church.

‘‘So we invite everyone in the community to join with Sacred Heart parishioners in tying a coloured ribbon on our fence throughout the month of September to express support and solidarity for the victims of abuse of any kind,’’ she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Jorge Branco

A Queensland boarding school failed to properly care for a student after she was allegedly gang-raped by older boys while boarding there in 2006, a royal commission has been urged to find.

Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, David Lloyd, made submissions harshly criticising Townsville’s Uniting Church-run Shalom Christian College’s response to the trauma.

He said, 10 years on, the school still did not have enough money to provide a safe environment for its students.

During hearings in Sydney in November last year, the young woman’s tearful parents said they were pressured not to press charges against the four men involved because they came from “well known and influential families” and that former principal Christopher Shirley was “trying to paint a bad picture of my daughter”.

Mr Shirley gave evidence that he did not try to blame the student, referred to as CLF, and that he did not tell her parents not to report the matter to police.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Isobel Roe and David Chen

A north Queensland Indigenous boarding school did not have the money to properly care for a student after she was indecently assaulted by older boys, according to the findings of a lawyer assisting a child sex abuse inquiry.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard in November last year that the 14-year-old girl was assaulted by four boys behind a classroom at Shalom Christian College near Townsville in 2006, when the students were supposed to be in the boarding house.

The victim’s parents told the royal commission that after the incident, the boys were put into lockdown at the school, and their daughter sent to another school campus and offered no counselling or care.

The findings, by counsel assisting the royal commission David Lloyd, were released on Monday

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By David Hurst
dhurst@tribdem.com

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is overhauling the Diocesan Review Board initially established 15 years ago to help internally investigate abuse allegations.

In line with a multistep reform plan outlined in March by the diocese and the United States Attorney’s Office, Bishop Mark Bartchak announced the appointment of an all-new, seven-member review board that will now be comprised of area professionals, one Catholic priest and at least two people representing other Christian faiths – a first for the board.

“In the interest of providing objectivity and transparency, two of the review board members are from other Christian churches,” diocese spokesman Tony DeGol wrote in a release to media.

“All of the newly-appointed members were recommended to the bishop because of their personal integrity, expertise and experience,” he added.

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TEXAS
KXAN

Daniel Marin/KTSM
Published: August 21, 2017

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – A former El Paso priest accused of committing sexual abuse decades ago served at eight local parishes, the Catholic Diocese of El Paso said Monday.

At a news conference, El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz said the ex-priest, Miguel Luna, 67, admitted to sexual misconduct with a “young female adolescent” in the 1980s. Luna has since been removed from the ministry.

The allegation came to light last November, according to Seitz who declined to say which parish was involved to protect the identity of the accuser.

The diocese said it has contacted El Paso police but the victim, now an adult, wishes to remain anonymous and no criminal charges have been filed.

The state of Texas has no statute of limitations for felony criminal cases involving sexual assault of a minor or indecency with a child. There is a limitation of 15 years from the victim’s 18th birthday for civil cases.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Nottingham Post

BY HANNAH MITCHELL
21 AUG 2017

A Nottinghamshire MP has been named as a “core participant” in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Nottinghamshire.

The inquiry will look into claims of abuse over a 60 year period in Notitinghamshire after it was announced in 2015 that Nottinghamshire’s councils would be among the first to be investigated by the independent inquiry.

John Mann, Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw, first applied to be a core participant in March but was declined by the chairman Professor Alexis Jay on the grounds that he had not played a significant role in relation to the matters.

However, Prof Jay announced in May that she had reconsidered her view and the MP would play an important role in the inquiry.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

Aug 22, 2017

Ryan Brown
Staff Writer
rbrown@altoonamirror.com

Bishop Mark Bartchak named a new slate of members for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown’s Dio­cesan Review Board, fulfilling a plan he first publicly detailed in March.

The new membership sweeps out past members of the board, which the state attorney general once described as a tool for concealing sexual abuse allegations. The revamped board is part of a series of changes Bartchak promised at a March press conference alongside federal prosecutors.

The Review Board’s seven new members are the Rev. Leo F. Arnone, Joyce Cunningham, Joseph Grappone, Todd Mahalko, Robert Skelly, Brent Stoltzfus and the Rev. Miles Zdinak. They are set to review sexual abuse allegations and determine clergymen’s suitability for the ministry.

Diocese Secretary for Communications Tony DeGol said he was unable to immediately provide further biographical information on the new members Monday. Searches online, however, suggest the new board includes a licensed social worker, a former state police trooper and a Carpatho-Russian Orthodox priest, among others.

“(Bartchak) feels that each of them brings a great deal of expertise in their respective fields,” DeGol said. “You have some who have backgrounds in law enforcement, in pastoral care, some in psychological treatment.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Aug 21, 2017
by Patricia Lefevere

No one knows the number of sons and daughters of Catholic priests in the United States or in the world, but what is known is that hundreds — perhaps thousands — of these offspring have lived in secret, hiding their fathers’ past from the world, frequently even from family members.

Still other children of clergy dads have grown up not knowing who their real father was, often mistaking him for an uncle, godfather or some other male friend or relative whom they have known from their youth. In many instances, the children of Catholic priests have failed to have their emotional, legal and financial needs met.

When they have discovered who their real father is — often later in life — some of these daughters and sons have undergone spiritual disillusionment, unable to separate themselves from the faith they love and have been raised in, and the man who did not, or could not, come forward and be a genuine dad to them. Some have experienced psychological trauma from having to carry a secret — a lie — for life.

These are among disclosures presented in a two-part series on the progeny of priests published by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team Aug. 19 and 20 and written by Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Michael Rezendes. In interviews over many months, the investigative news team found that children of Catholic priests “form an invisible legion of secrecy and neglect.”

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LOUISIANA
The Advocate

BY JOE GYAN JR. | JGYAN@THEADVOCATE.COM AUG 21, 2017

A state judge refused Monday to dismiss the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge and a priest from a 2009 lawsuit by a woman who says that when she was a teenager she told the priest she was being sexually abused by a church parishioner, but he did not stop the alleged abuse or report it.

A legal battle over whether a Louisiana priest should have reported a teenager’s claims of s…
District Judge Mike Caldwell said it will be up to an East Baton Rouge Parish jury to decide whether what Rebecca Mayeux allegedly told the Rev. Jeff Bayhi in the confessional was in fact a confession as defined by the Catholic Church, and therefore confidential, or whether she was merely seeking support and guidance instead of confessing sins.

Caldwell and a state appeals court both ruled last year that Mayeux can tell a jury what she allegedly told Bayhi in the confessional.

The Louisiana Supreme Court also ruled last fall in the long-running case that a priest has no duty to report confidential information heard during the sacrament of confession.

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TEXAS
KVIA

EL PASO, Texas – The Diocese of El Paso announced on Monday Miguel Luna, a former priest, allegedly admitted to sexual misconduct with a young girl in the 1980s.

The victim reached out to the diocese in November of 2016, and the Diocese conducted an investigation.

“It is directly contradictory to the sacrificial love to which a priest has committed himself before God,” Bishop Mark Seitz said. “I am deeply sorry for the pain caused by these actions of Miguel Luna, and ask those who know of other situations of misconduct or abuse to please inform law enforcement and the Diocese.”

Luna was removed from ministry back in 2013.

“There had been some accusations against him that would probably be labeled sexual harassment,” Seitz said. “We determined after an investigation from the review board that he needed simply to be removed from ministry.”

The Diocese said Luna was ordained July 1, 1982. Here is where Luna has served:

Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi
Our Lady of Assumption
Our Lady of Peace — Alpine
San Antonio De Padua
San Lorenzo
St. Joseph Mission — Fort Davis
St. Mary Mission — Marathon
St. Matthew
St. Pius X
St. Thomas Aquina
St. Thomas/St. Joseph — Kermit

The Diocese of El Paso said it is reaching out to all of its parishes to learn if there any more potential victims. The victim who came forward in 2016 wishes to stay anonymous and is not pressing charges.

“We have informed the El Paso Police about this case, about Luna. They’re ready with their Crimes Against Children, that respond and would help any victims who come forward to them after this notification.” Seitz said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Hollidaysburgh, Blair County, Pa – Bishop Mark Bartchak has announced the appointment of an entirely new membership for the Diocesan Review Board. The group assists in the assessment of allegations of sexual abuse of minors and if a cleric is suitable for ministry.

The members of the review board are as follows: Rev. Leo F. Arnone, Joyce Cunningham, Joseph Grappone, Todd Mahalko, Robert Skelly, Brent Stoltzfus and Rev. Miles Zdinak.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth, every diocese is to have a review board. The majority of the members must be Catholic lay persons not employed by the diocese. The board is a confidential consultative body.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

by Matthew Stevens

HOLLIDAYSBURG – The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has named the members of its new review board.

The objective of the board is to assess allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

The board consists of Catholic members not employed by the diocese and two members of other Christian members.

The new members are Rev. Leo Arnone, Joyce Cunningham, Joseph Grappone, Todd Mahalko, Robert Skelly, Brent Stoltzfus and Rev. Miles Zdinak.

The newly-appointed members were recommended to Bishop Mark Bartchak and have experience in pastoral care, education of children, safe environment for children, psychological care and treatment of sexual abuse of minors and law enforcement.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Philadelphia Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero, who was falsely convicted in 2013 along with the late Rev. Charles Engelhardt in a high-profile trial for child sex abuse that never occurred, is finally going to be a free man.

After being falsely accused of sex abuse by a lying drug addict named Danny Gallagher, Shero will exit prison after serving four-and-a-half years of a maximum 16-year sentence.

The news was first reported by journalist Ralph Cipriano at BigTrial.net.

An insider blows the lid off

Regular readers of this site have long known that Gallagher’s claims of abuse are wildly false (see this and this for background). It is now an incontrovertible fact that the Philadelphia D.A.’s office – spearheaded by D.A. Seth Williams, who now sits in solitary confinement on multiple charges of corruption and bribery – orchestrated a malicious scheme against innocent men and the Catholic Church based on Gallagher’s bogus stories.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

Alexandra Patrikios, The Courier-Mail
August 21, 2017

A CATHOLIC brother who inflicted “sheer terror” on vulnerable boys at a Queensland orphanage, sexually abusing nine of them, has been jailed for his historical crimes.

“Your legacy disgusts me and every right-minded member of society,” Brisbane District Court Judge William Everson told Francis Brophy today.

The 87-year-old, who was found guilty by a jury of five offences and sentenced for more than 30 counts in total, sexually abused the orphans at BoysTown, near Beaudesert, between 1978 and 1983.

Judge Everson denounced him as “a cowardly, evil paedophile” who masqueraded as a follower of God while inflicting lifelong damage on the children who were meant to be in his care.

He said Brophy presided over a “Gulag right in our midst” that left some of his victims ravaged by nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder as adults.

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TEXAS
El Paso Proud

[with video]

EL PASO, TEXAS – The El Paso Catholic Diocese says a former local priest has been removed for sexual misconduct.

Bishop Mark Seitz is expected to hold a news conference at the Diocese of El Paso Pastoral Center’s Flores Conference room at 10 a.m. on Monday to inform the public.

The Diocese tells us the priest in question is named Miguel Luna and that the case goes back to the 1980s.

The Diocese says Luna recently admitted to sexual misconduct with someone, who they only describe as a ‘young female adolescent.’

According to the Diocese Luna has since been removed from the ministry and all parishes have been given notice of Luna’s removal.

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IRELAND
Crux

The bishops of Ireland say that in the case of a child fathered by a Catholic priest, the priest should not walk away from his responsibilities – legal, moral and financial. The guidelines written by the Irish Bishops’ Conference were written as the Vatican faces a deadline to respond to UN recommendations to “assess the number of children fathered by Catholic priests, find out who they are and take all necessary measures to ensure that the rights of those children to know and to be cared for by their fathers is respected.”

If a priest father’s a child, the needs of the child should be given the first consideration, according to guidelines agreed to in May by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The guidelines have not been published on the conference website, nor on any individual diocesan website, but were obtained by The Irish Times newspaper.

The document – called “Principles of Responsibility Regarding Priests who Father Children While in Ministry” – was written in consultation with Vincent Doyle, an Irish psychotherapist whose own father was a diocesan priest.

Doyle helped found Coping International, which seeks to protect the rights of the children of priests. (Doyle’s story was the subject of a feature last week in The Boston Globe.)

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

21 August, 2017

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published written submissions for the public hearing into children with problematic or harmful sexual behaviours in schools (Case Study 45).

The public hearing was held in October-November 2016 and inquired into the response of Trinity Grammar School, Summer Hill NSW, The King’s School, Parramatta NSW and Shalom Christian College, Condon QLD to incidents of problematic or harmful sexual behaviours by students which occurred at those schools.

It also inquired into the systems, policies, procedures and practices for responding to allegations of problematic or harmful sexual behaviours of children within educational institutions promoted and implemented by the schools listed above as well as St Ignatius’ College, Riverview NSW, the NSW Department of Education, the Association of Independent Schools NSW and the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.

Read the submissions.

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Saturday, August 19, 2017
GoLocal News Team

The bankruptcy of St. Joseph Health Services pension fund will hit between 3,600 and 3,800 existing or future pensioners — and the loss of pension payments may be 40 percent, according to the court appointed receiver Steven Del Sesto, a partner at Donoghue Barrett & Singal. But, DelSesto said the plan for winding down the pension fund is only in the preliminary phase.

The loss of benefits and the total number of beneficiaries impacted may both be records for Rhode Island. The now pending plan before the court, the draft documents would treat all existing and future retirees the same and both classes would take a 40 percent cut to their existing and future benefits, according to court documents. That plan is not final said DelSesto in an interview with GoLocal on Friday afternoon.

Del Sesto was appointed by the court late Thursday afternoon and is yet to talk to many of the players in the collapse. He is scheduled to talk to the Attorney General’s office on Monday.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

[Pope Francis wrote the foreword to the book. Papst bittet Missbrauchsopfer um Vergebung – Bild]

[For four years Daniel Pittet was raped as a young boy by a Capuchin monk and even forced to view porno films. Pittet has written a book on this martyrdom.]

Vier Jahre lang wurde Daniel Pittet als kleiner Junge von einem Kapuzinermönch vergewaltigt und sogar zu Porno-Aufnahmen gezwungen. Pittet hat ein Buch über dieses Martyrium geschrieben. Das Ende des Buches bildet ein Interview mit Pittets Peiniger. FOCUS Online veröffentlicht das Gespräch in Auszügen.

Daniel Pittet war der Überzeugung, dass eine Aussage seines Schänders einen interessanten Beitrag zur Aufklärung leisten könne, heißt es in seinem Buch. Ihn persönlich zu treffen lehnt er aber ab. Das Gespräch führte die Co-Autorin des Buches, Micheline Repond.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

JOHN FERGUSON
21 AUG 2017

A Catholic priest at the centre of gay mafia accusations is set to return to a Scottish parish.

Father Matthew Despard, 52, was forced to quit after being rapped by the church over explosive claims in his book Priesthood in Crisis.

He wrote that a “powerful gay mafia” was operating at the top of the Catholic hierarchy and was responsible for sexual ­bullying.

Despard was forced to stand down from his post at St John Ogilvie’s Parish in Blantyre, Lanarkshire.

But he could now return after a Vatican court “partly reversed” the decision of a Scottish church tribunal.

Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal said: “Fr Despard has requested he be allowed to return to public priestly ministry by being given a new pastoral assignment.”

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AUSTRALIA
Deniliquin Pastoral Times

A Catholic brother who inflicted “sheer terror” on vulnerable boys at a Queensland orphanage, sexually abusing nine of them, has been jailed for his historical crimes.

“Your legacy disgusts me and every right-minded member of society,” Brisbane District Court Judge William Everson told Francis Brophy on Monday.

The 87-year-old, who was found guilty by a jury of five offences and sentenced for more than 30 counts in total, sexually abused the orphans at BoysTown, near Beaudesert, between 1978 and 1983.

Judge Everson denounced him as “a cowardly, evil pedophile” who masqueraded as a follower of God while inflicting lifelong damage on the children who were meant to be in his care.

He said Brophy presided over a “Gulag right in our midst” that left some of his victims ravaged by nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder as adults.

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AUSTRALIA
Bunbury Mail

Bunbury Detectives have charged a 64-year-old man of Bicton with sexual offences against two children at homes in Bunbury and Willetton.

The charges are a result of ongoing investigations stemming from the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual offences.

It will be alleged that between 1979 and 1983 the man, who was a teacher at the Bunbury Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, sexually abused a student at his home.

The child was aged between five and 10 years of age at the time.

It is further alleged that between 1987 and 1988 the man sexually abused a second student from the school at his home in Willetton.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

The King’s School in Sydney demonstrated a “catastrophic failure” in its handling of a child-sexual assault allegation, a submission to a royal commission states.

The submission by David Lloyd, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, stated that the school was advised to report the allegation to police but failed to do so.

The claim relates to a 2013 incident at a cadet camp in which one student was alleged to have masturbated on another student’s sleeping bag.

In a public hearing into harmful sexual behaviour in schools, the royal commission was told the Parramatta school sought advice from a police officer who wrote an email saying a formal report should be made.

The commission heard The King’s School’s then headmaster Timothy Hawkes did not make a report to police.

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AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

Nadine Morton
@nadine_morton

21 Aug 2017

HISTORIC cases of sexual abuse, and the subsequent Royal Commission inquiry, has impacted the number of believers, Bathurst’s religious leaders say.

The number of Bathurst people who say they are not religious has tripled compared to 15 years ago, recently-released 2016 Census data shows.

In Bathurst, 22.4 per cent (9532 people) of the population said they have ‘no religion’ on the form, this has spiked dramatically compared to the 9.6 per cent (3435 people) who selected this answer in the 2001 Census.

Catholicism has recorded the biggest fall in Bathurst believers – from 35.4 per cent in 2001 to 31.1 per cent last year.

The percentage of Anglicans in Bathurst has also dropped – from 26.3 per cent to 19.2; while Presbyterian and Reformed has fallen from 5.2 to 4.2 per cent.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

As I watch the growing protest in the Catholic Church against the call for priests to be required to report child abuse confessions, my mind goes to Islam’s Sharia law. Forgive me, I can’t help it.

The church is fighting, as you have read in this paper, the call by the child abuse royal commission for priests to face criminal charges when they fail to report child sexual abuse that has become known to them in the confessional.

Confession is a cornerstone of Catholic religious practice, a regular event, often weekly, for practising Catholics.

The person confessing to a priest who may be seated behind a partition opens with the words “Forgive me, father, for I have sinned”, discusses those sins with the priest, is given a penance that may be a prayer to recite a certain number of times, and is absolved of those sins.

Catholics believe, or are supposed to believe, that the priest in the confessional is channelling God, that they are talking with God through the priest, although I suspect the godliness of priests has been reduced more than a modicum in the past decade.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

MIKE MATHER

A former Catholic priest jailed for molesting boys in the 1970s and 80s has again been jailed for 26 months, on charges against three new historic victims.

Before Mark Mannix Brown was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court on Monday, one of his victims revealed harrowing details of the consequences of his abuse.

Brown, 74, had earlier plead guilty to four charges of indecent assault and attempted sodomy. Some of those charges were representative, meaning they cover a variety of incidents.

He had been jailed for 15 months in 1990 for sexual offending against altar boys.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

Two sex abuse victims of former priest Mark Mannix Brown say his jail sentence brings them closure but say anything less would have belittled his actions.

It is now the second prison term Brown, 74, will have served for molesting young boys while he worked as a priest in the Catholic Church around Hamilton and Auckland in the 1970s and 80s.

Brown pleaded guilty to four representative charges after a sentence indication in the Hamilton District Court in May this year.

Today, Judge Simon Menzies sentenced Brown to 26 months’ jail.

He was first jailed for 15 months in March 1990 for indecently assaulting two altar boys in the 1980s when he was at St Mary’s Church, Hamilton.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Aug 21, 2017
by Tom Roberts

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — SNAP, the organization that has become synonymous with uncovering the clergy sex abuse scandal, may be outpacing its acronym.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, established in 1988, has been at the forefront of advocating for victims of clergy abuse and at pressing for accountability by church leadership. However, it was evident at a gathering of 300 victims, advocates and supporters Aug. 11-13 in Alexandria, Virginia, that the organization is in the midst of change.

“We’re in transition,” said Barbara Dorris, who took over as president when the group was left leaderless when founder Barbara Blaine and longtime national director David Clohessy, resigned within weeks of each other. Both longtime leaders said their resignations has been in the works for months and were not connected to a lawsuit filed in January in which both were named.

“We’ve gone from founder-led into an organization that is going to work more trying to build partnerships with other organizations, to build a stronger voice to protect children and do more outreach,” said Dorris. She also expressed a willingness to discuss a suggestion advanced by an expert that SNAP do more to connect victims with professional counselors.

The outreach is evidently underway. Dorris said this year’s conference included representatives of a number of other denominations as well as organizations such as the Boy Scouts.

“So, where we were focused on Catholics, we feel we’ll be stronger and have a better chance of accomplishing our goals if we become more inclusive,” she said.

If there is a natural expansion to the project — Joelle Casteix, a western regional leader for SNAP, reports that the vast majority of calls she now receives are not related to church abuse — the Catholic Church remains a central component of the group’s work. Survivors of abuse by priests are still predominant in its membership, the preponderant conversation is about elements of the church scandal and the new areas of the globe where reports of priest abuse are now beginning to surface.

Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle and former Benedictine priest Richard Sipe both took the main stage at different times to recount their personal history in the struggle and to exhort survivors to work together in support of each other and the pursuit of justice.

The back page of the conference program was further evidence that the Catholic piece of the problem is still prominent. Bishopaccountability.org, an extensive digital repository of information and data about the scandal, lists 59 new names of those considered credibly accused that made it into the organization’s database in the past year. The database, which contains voluminous documentation, including legal transcripts and depositions as well as correspondence, currently lists as credibly accused of sexual abuse 27 bishops, 3,774 priests, 59 deacons, 23 seminarians, 290 brothers and 95 women religious. Not included, according to those managing the website, are 2,645 priests counted as credibly accused by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops but not yet identified.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Jolene Toves – August 21, 2017

The alleged victim is represented by Attorney David Lujan.

Guam – Over 90 sexual abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Guam and its agents, last Friday, another suit was filed seeking $10 million in punitive damages against retired Catholic priest Louis Broulliard.

Retired priest Louis Broulliard has been named as the perpetrator in a majority of the sex abuse cases filed against the Archdiocese. Last Friday, another alleged victim identified as V.Q. came forward sharing his recollections of sexual abuse that occurred at the hands of Louis Broulliard when V.Q. was just 14 years old. Broulliard served as a priest on Guam for over four decades, holding many positions within the church as well as serving as a Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America.

According to court documents, V.Q. joined the Mongmong Troop 18 Boy Scouts in 1977, when Broulliard was scoutmaster. As part of the requirements, the boy scouts met several times a week at the Mongmong parish to study the Scout Oaths, Laws and practice marching, drills and map reading. The Boy Scouts of America also encouraged their scouts to be faithful in their religious duties and as a result V.Q.’s participation revolved around the church in order to fulfill the Scout oath and laws.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post

A new survey shows a strong decline in trust for religious institutions in Guam. The decline is attributed to the filing of more than 100 sex abuse cases against former and current members of the clergy and the loss of trust in the Catholic Church.

The poll was conducted by a private entity at the request of attorney David Lujan who represents dozens of child sex abuse victims. The results are expected to be released to the Archdiocese of Agana in the coming weeks.

During the last status conference before District Court Judge Joaquin Manibusan Jr., Lujan mentioned that the poll found an unfavorable attitude toward the church from those surveyed.

Three hundred Guam voters were surveyed over the telephone in May. The average age of those polled was 40. Individuals between ages 18 and 90 participated in the poll and surveyors noted a sample error of +/- 3 percent

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MEXICO
Concentrado

[Organizations called for investigation into cases such as the “Ciudad de los Niños” in the state of Guanajuato to continue. They also ask that the ecclesial structure and the code of canon law be modified “in order to eliminate the cover-up of crimes of clerical pederasty”. Among the plaintiffs are Catholics for the Right to Decide.]

Organizaciones pidieron que las investigaciones por casos como la “Ciudad de los Niños” en el estado de Guanajuato, continúen, y se entreguen responsabilidades penales. También que sea modificada la estructura eclesial y el código de derecho canónico “a fin de eliminar el encubrimiento de los crímenes de pederastia clerical”. Entre los demandantes está Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir.

Ciudad de México, 18 de agosto (EFE).- Organizaciones de la sociedad civil exigieron ayer la reapertura de la investigación con el fin de atribuir responsabilidades penales a los supuestos autores de abusos sexuales perpetrados en el refugio juvenil “Ciudad de los Niños” en el estado de Guanajuato, entre otros albergues.

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PERU
El Nacional

[Seven months imprisonment of a Spanish priest for sexual abuse in Peru. The Catholic priest abused the four students of the John Paul II Minor Seminary between 2014 and 2017. The newspaper La Republica says that the clergyman used his spiritual guidance to infiltrate the students’ rooms and assault them sexually.]

Un tribunal peruano de justicia dictó siete meses de prisión preventiva al sacerdote español Santiago Martínez Valentín-Gamazo, acusado de presuntos tocamientos indebidos a cuatro menores de edad alumnos de un seminario religioso en Perú, informó el sábado el diario limeño La República.

El fallo de la Sala Penal de Apelaciones de Moyobamba (nororiente) revocó la decisión de un juez instructor de primera instancia, quien semanas atrás desestimó el pedido de prisión preventiva que presentó la fiscalía alegando falta de pruebas. Ello le permitía al denunciado afrontar el proceso en libertad.

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ARGENTINE
Ambito

[The director of the traditional Marist School Champagnat, located in the microcenter of Buenos Aires, Angel Duples, admitted having abused a student 38 years ago, according to a statement issued by that institution. The accused was removed from office and transferred to a geriatric hospital.]

El director del tradicional Colegio Marista Champagnat, situado en el microcentro porteño, Ángel Duples, admitió haber abusado de un alumno hace 38 años, según se aseguró en un comunicado difundido por esa institución. El acusado fue removido del cargo y trasladado a un geriátrico.

“El Instituto de los Hermanos Maristas tomó conocimiento de un hecho ocurrido hace aproximadamente 38 años en el que un exalumno del colegio marista de Morón padeció un manoseo agraviante, por parte de un Hermano, en el contexto de un campamento”, expresó el colegio en el comunicado.

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NEW MEXICO
Las Cruces Sun-News

LAS CRUCES — A Vado man was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a child, according to the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Jesus Luna-Armenta, 29, pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal sexual penetration of child (between 13 and 16 years old) and one count of selling or giving alcoholic beverages to a minor.

According to prosecutors, Luna-Armenta had sought a relationship with the 14-year-old victim through Facebook. His advances escalated, and on at least three occasions, he picked the victim up from her house with the intent to have sex, according to police reports.

On one occasion, Luna-Armenta took the girl to his house while his fiancée was not at home and forced her to engage in sexual activity, despite her objections, prosecutors said. In another instance, he took her to a motel room in Anthony, Texas, intending to force her to perform a sexual act.

At his sentencing, Luna-Armenta told the court that he teaches confirmation classes to teens at his church in Del Cerro, according to prosecutors. He also said he hopes to pursue a career in youth counseling one day.

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NEW MEXICO
El Diario de El Paso

[A teacher who taught confirmation classes at a Catholic church in New Mexico was sentenced to 18 months in jail for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Jesús Luna Armenta, 29, pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal sexual penetration of one minor and one for giving or selling liquor to a minor.]

Karla Valdez
El Diario de El Paso

Un maestro que impartía clases de confirmación en una iglesia católica de Nuevo México, fue sentenciado a 18 meses de cárcel por sostener relaciones sexuales con una adolescente de 14 años.

Jesús Luna Armenta, de 29 años, se declaró culpable de tres cargos por penetración sexual criminal de una menor y otro por dar o vender bebidas alcohólicas a un menor de edad.

Luna Armenta dijo haber conocido a la víctima por Facebook y admitió tener relaciones sexuales con ella por lo menos en tres ocasiones.

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PEROU
kath.ch

[Peru: Spanish priest detained for sexual abuse of minors.The Moyobamba Criminal Appeals Chamber in Peru ordered the seven-month pre-trial detention of a Spanish priest accused of sexual abuse of four minors committed between 2014 and 2017 at the John Paul II seminary which is located in the region of San Martín.]

19.08.2017 par Maurice Page

La Chambre d’appel pénale de Moyobamba, au Pérou, a ordonné la mise en détention préventive pour sept mois d’un prêtre espagnol accusé d’abus sexuels sur quatre mineurs commis entre 2014 et 2017 au petit séminaire Jean-Paul II, situé dans cette localité de la région de San Martín.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday Telegraph

Olivia Rudgard, social and religious affairs correspondent
19 AUGUST 2017

The Catholic Church and local authorities have been criticised after trying to claim child sex abuse victims “consented” in a bid to avoid compensation payouts.

Lawyers who represent some of the victims have told the Sunday Telegraph that the defence is more frequently being used by private schools, religious groups and local authorities when trying to defend compensation claims.

The revelation comes after news that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, a Government agency, was denying some children compensation because it said they had “consented” to abuse – even if they were of an age where they could not do so legally.

Siobhán Crawford, of London-based firm Bolt Burdon Kemp, one of the largest firms in the field, said the defence is normally used where a child turns 16 during the abuse.

She said the firm had dealt with ten such cases, and there had been an increase in the past two years as authorities became aware that it was an option.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Today

Lorraine Caballero 20 August, 2017

Mormon church leaders are now facing several lawsuits over their alleged failure to protect children from sexual abuse under a now-defunct foster program which ran from the 1940s to 2000.

Five lawsuits have been filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2016 on behalf of Navajo tribal members who alleged that the Mormon church failed to protect children from sexual abuse at the hands of foster families. Three other similar lawsuits were recently filed in Navajo Nation court and Washington state, The Associated Press detailed.

During a news conference in Phoenix on Aug. 15, a new Navajo plaintiff identified as A.H. said she told her local bishop that her foster father was abusing her. However, the bishop told her not to talk about it and that the matter would be addressed.

According to A.H., the abuse continued and the Church did not report it to authorities. She sought legal advice after she observed that the same thing was happening to other Navajos such as a woman identified only as J.C.

The attorneys of the plaintiffs said the Church leaders failed to report the abuse to authorities or to other church members even though they knew about what was happening. They also allege that the Mormon church did not properly monitor foster families.

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IRELAND
The Times

Lynne Kelleher
August 19 2017
The Times

A Leitrim priest had a local doctor murdered in 1923 because he knew the priest had fathered a child with his teenage housekeeper, the GP’s relatives have claimed.

An RTÉ radio documentary reveals that the priest was never charged with the murder but did go on trial for abandoning a two-week-old girl a month before the shooting.

Father Edward Ryans, 37, and Kate Brown, his 19-year-old housekeeper, were caught leaving the baby, Rose Brown, opposite the Black Church in Dublin in February 1923.

A month later, Paddy Muldoon, 32, was shot dead in the town of Mohill, Co Leitrim, when walking out on to the street after a card game during the final months of the Civil War. He had treated the housekeeper during the early stages of her pregnancy, and, asked by her family to arrange an illegal abortion, had refused.

The story of an IRA-supporting rebel priest allegedly arranging the execution of the local doctor and the efforts by the state, church and rebel forces to keep it under wraps will be aired on RTÉ Radio 1 at 1pm today.

Newly discovered archive material from sources, including the Muldoon family, are used to piece together the events surrounding the murder and the maverick priest who once used his car to ferry escaped IRA convicts.

In archive footage, Thomas William Muldoon, a nephew of the doctor, tells how his father was told who killed the GP by a canon at the funeral.

“On the day of the funeral, a priest, he was a Canon Pitman, told my father, ‘I believe it was Father Ryans who shot him’.”

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Fr Edward Ryans was the prime suspect in the killing of a GP, Paddy Muldoon, in Dublin, but the crime was never solved. A new documentary, however, claims there may have been a conspiracy of silence. Kim Bielenberg looks at the evidence

August 19 2017

In February 1923, as the Irish civil war was drawing to a close, a Catholic priest was arrested with his housekeeper on a charge of abandoning a baby on the doorstep of a house in Dublin’s north inner city.

Three local women had noticed the curate, Fr Edward Ryans, and the teenage girl acting suspiciously before they left the infant and a package wrapped in brown paper near the Black Church in Broadstone.

The vigilant women apprehended the couple from Leitrim as they tried to hurry away, before reporting them to police.

A month later, Paddy Muldoon, a young doctor from the same area in Leitrim, was walking late at night down the street in Mohill with a friend, Edward Geelan, when suddenly three men appeared in trenchcoats.

Muldoon and his friend were just saying goodbye near the bridge, when one of the men opened fire at Dr Muldoon.

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