ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
The Week

March 9, 2018

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse says there have been ‘a considerable number’ of complaints against the group

Jehovah’s Witnesses are facing the possibility of an independent investigation into allegations of child sex abuse in the church.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which is investigating the extent to which institutions in England and Wales failed to protect children from abuse, said it is considering whether to open a separate inquiry after receiving a “considerable number” of reports about the religious group.

It is believed both MPs and members of the public have come forward to raise concerns about the sect and, while the inquiry team has so far refused to give an exact number, one solicitor representing abuse victims told The Guardian she believed it ran to thousands.

“The Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to recognise the issue of child abuse in their organisation or to create robust safeguarding procedures to protect children,” said Kathleen Hallisey, senior solicitor in the abuse team at Bolt Burdon Kemp. “An investigation by IICSA into the Jehovah’s Witnesses is an opportunity for the inquiry to effect real change in an organisation that refuses to shine a light on child abuse and protect children.”

Numerous sources have told The Guardian that “alleged child abuse victims within the faith have been told not to report it to the police” and those who have face the threat of exclusion, or ‘disfellowship’, and being cut off from family and friends.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Newsweek

March 8, 2018

By Ryan Sit

Independent investigators in the United Kingdom are weighing whether to launch a new investigation into the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the U.K. after receiving a “considerable number” of abuse allegations.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, or IICSA, a government-sanctioned investigative panel in England and Wales, told Newsweek that it had gotten a “considerable number” of reports from both the public and elected officials about the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the U.K. A spokesperson told the newspaper the panel would “consider calls for a Jehovah’s Witnesses–specific investigation carefully.”

It was unclear how many reports the watchdog group had received. When contacted by Newsweek, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ public information office did not immediately comment.

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SEOUL (SOUTH KOREA)
The Associated Press

March 9, 2018

A veteran South Korean actor who was under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of his students was found dead Friday.

Police and fire officials confirmed that Jo Min-ki, 53, was found dead in Seoul Friday afternoon.

Yonhap News agency said the death is being treated as a suicide, but police would not confirm that.

Police were investigating multiple claims that Jo sexually abused his students when he was a professor at Cheongju University in central South Korea.

Jo initially insisted on his innocence but reportedly later apologized. He resigned from teaching following the allegations.

Police were to question him next week but the case will be dropped because of his death.

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ENGLAND
Christian Today

March 9, 2018

By Harry Farley

A bishop had a habit of ‘filleting’ key information about potential abusing priests from their files, making it harder to trace previous offending, an inquiry heard.

Roger Meekings, who carried out an independent review into past cases of abuse in Chichester in 2009, said he was not shown documents that may have shed light on abusive clergy. He added that information about priests who were later jailed, including former bishop of Gloucester, Peter Ball, had not been in their personel files.

‘I remember being told that a previous bishop may have had a habit of “filleting” the blue files’ which contain background information on all clergy, he told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which is holding three weeks of hearings into the Church of England.

He added that Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check data was often missing from clergy’s files.

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AUSTRALIA
The Newcastle Herald

March 9, 2018

By Monique Patterson

THE stages of grief have been many and varied for sexual abuse victim Paul Levey.

Now, nearly four decades later, he hopes a law change will allow him to finally get the apology he has been fighting for.

At age 14, Mr Levey was sent to live with Gerard Ridsdale at the Mortlake presbytery.

His Catholic parents put their faith in the priest to care for their son after the breakdown of their marriage.

What ensued for Mr Levey was a living hell in which he was subjected to daily sexual abuse by Ridsdale.

His abuser ensured his victim kept quiet for the eight months he resided with the priest.

“He scared me into not telling,” Mr Levey said.

“He’s an evil man – I’m glad he’s in jail and I’m glad he won’t get out of jail.”

Mr Levey, 50, didn’t tell anyone about his abuse until age 22.

His father heard a report about Ridsdale sexually abusing another young boy.

“My father straight away rang me and asked ‘what happened at Mortlake?’”

“He virtually marched me down to the Sunbury police station.”

But his day in court to face the man stole his innocence and “broke him” didn’t provide the closure he needed.

Mr Levey decided to sue the Catholic church in the early 90s, but at that time taking on a religious organisation was a legal minefield.

He hopes a second attempt to secure a settlement and an acknowledgement of guilt from the Catholic church will be successful.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
The Santiago Times

March 9, 2018

A week after assuming the leadership of the Chilean Government, President-elect Sebastián Piñera addressed different issues, including allegations of sexual abuse of religious. In that line, the next president criticized the Chilean Catholic Church and the Vatican.

Piñera was responding to the events that have triggered a strong controversy since the case of the pastor Fernando Karadima, who was again at the center of debate for the visit of Pope Francis to Chile and the initial support he gave to the Bishop of Osorno , Juan Barros.

When asked in an interview with Univisión about the way in which the Vatican has dealt with the accusations against Barros, accused of witnessing and covering up the abuses of Karadima, Piñera said: “I am a Catholic. I know the case of that priest (Karadima) who was effectively condemned by justice and the church itself as a priest who abused many children and young people.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Associated Press

March 8, 2018

The Latest on International Women’s Day:

Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon says the Time’s Up campaign launched by women in Hollywood to combat sexual harassment raised $20 million in 10 days and has helped 1,500 women with harassment suits against their employers.

Witherspoon spoke at an event marking International Women’s Day on Thursday at U.N. headquarters.

She says the response to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund is “incredible” and shows “how many more people are going to need these services.”

The “Big Little Lies” star, who told the audience that she was assaulted by a director when she was 16-years-old, says that women deserve 50 percent of the representation and 50 percent of the salaries. She says women “will no longer continue to do work without being paid properly for it.”

___

Tens of thousands of people marched in Argentina’s capital on International Women’s Day to condemn violence against women and to demand equal rights and legalized abortion.

The demonstrators Thursday banged on drums, chanted slogans and carried flags and banners along the streets of Buenos Aires, marching in front of the Congress building. Many women wore green handkerchiefs symbolizing the abortion rights movement.

Argentina allows abortion only in cases of rape or risk to a woman’s health. But dozens of Argentine lawmakers from several political parties presented a bill Tuesday that would legalize elective abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Some demonstrators lay on the streets motionless while wearing white shirts stained with red paint to look like blood. The banners next to them read: “While you debate, we die.”

___

Hundreds of Brazilian women are marching to demand equal rights and protest gender-based violence to mark International Women’s Day.

Marchers in Sao Paulo on Thursday were drawing attention to issues as varied as the wage gap, abortion rights, sexual harassment in the workplace and sexual assault on the streets. Groups are also marching in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil has one of the world’s highest homicide rates for women, and stories of sexual assault against women on public transport frequently made news in the past year.

Christiane Correia de Souza derided the fact that many stores were handing out flowers to their female customers on Thursday. The 31-year-old factory worker said the practice glossed over the serious issues facing women, like unequal salaries and sexual assault on buses.

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SEOUL (SOUTH KOREA)
Yonhap News Agency

March 9, 2018

South Korea’s Catholic Church said Friday it will form a special committee to fight sexual assault within the church amid a controversy over a priest’s alleged attempt to rape a female volunteer worker in the past.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK) announced that it reached a decision to form a committee addressing sexual violence within the church at the conference’s five-day spring general meeting, which started on Monday.

The committee will be comprised of around 10 members ranging from clergy to rank-and-file Catholic devotees and will include women. The body will try to study the context behind assault cases within the church and propose measures to prevent sexual violence.

The decision was made in light of a priest at the Catholic Diocese of Suwon, only identified by his surname Han, who was accused of attempting to rape a female worker multiple times during his stay in South Sudan in 2011. He admitted to most of the charges and was suspended from his duties, according to the Suwon diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Financial Review (AFR)

March 9, 2018

By Tom McIlroy

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has put churches, charities and state governments on notice over the national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse in Australia, saying justice and love demand full participation.

Victoria and NSW became the first jurisdictions to join the $4.3 billion scheme on Friday, set to provide maximum compensation payouts of $150,000 as well as offering survivors access to counselling and the opportunity for a direct personal apology from the offending institution or church.

The Catholic Church has already committed to joining the scheme, where institutions and churches will foot the bill for compensation.

“If a church or a charity or an institution doesn’t sign up, I hope they will be shamed,” Mr Turnbull said after meeting with survivors and advocates on Friday.

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ROME
LifeSiteNews

March 7, 2018

By Diane Montagna

A high spending auxiliary bishop in Honduras accused of “abusing seminarians, having a string of male lovers, and terrorizing those who cross him,” has been left in charge of the archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, while its cardinal archbishop, Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, undergoes prostate cancer treatment in Houston, Texas.

According to an investigation carried out by the National Catholic Register, the decision to leave auxiliary bishop Juan José Pineda Fasquelle in charge of the archdiocese since January was made despite a papal investigation that obtained “extremely grave testimonies” regarding Pineda’s alleged financial and sexual misconduct.

The decision is therefore raising questions about why Pope Francis and the Holy See have taken no action in response to the papal investigator’s report, which was reportedly hand-delivered to the Holy Father last May.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

March 9, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron has asked the court to dismiss the remaining claims in a $2 million defamation lawsuit filed against him by former altar boys.

Superior Court of Guam Judge Michael J. Bordallo had dismissed the slander claims against Apuron in the case, but not the libel claims.

Slander is spoken defamation, while libel is written defamation.

Apuron, through attorney Jacqueline Terlaje, said the plaintiffs have failed to show there was defamation and have failed to establish malice.

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MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

March 9, 2018

By Kyra Gurney

A seventh-grade student at Miami Arts Charter School had a funny feeling about her math teacher, so she went home and Googled him.

It didn’t take her long to find a 2007 newspaper article from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune detailing troubling allegations against Scott Manas.

While he was teaching at a middle school in Hillsborough County in the mid-1990s, the article said, Manas had allegedly taped a photo of a female student inside a cabinet and collected mementos from her — including a lock of her hair and a tissue she had used to blot lipstick — in a desk drawer.

Investigators later discovered that Manas had also written “inappropriate” notes to other girls and that he’d told one student he loved her, according to the article. As a result, Manas had been sanctioned by Florida’s Education Practices Commission, the body that evaluates allegations of teacher misconduct, but had kept his teaching license. No criminal charges were filed.

Manas could not be reached for comment. He told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2007 that he was “unfairly singled out and made an example of for other teachers.”

“The School Board took what she said and just ran with it, despite her reputation at school and the way she dressed and presented herself to others,” he told the newspaper.

The Miami Arts Charter School student posted the results of her sleuthing on Snapchat on Feb. 7. By the time she got to school the next morning, everyone was talking about the allegations. And by Monday morning, Feb. 12, the teacher had been fired.

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SALEM (OR)
Statesman Journal

March 8, 2018

By Lauren Hernandez and Capi Lynn

Warning: Some of the testimonies found in this story contain graphic details that some may find triggering or disturbing.

“Sexual immorality” was the reason cited when longtime Pastor Ken Engelking resigned in January from Morning Star Community Church in Salem.

Four women had come forward the previous spring with allegations against Engelking, two other former church staff members and a member of an affiliated church.

In a 23-page annotated letter to the Morning Star board of directors, the women chronicled accusations of an abusive, adulterous relationship involving Engelking, and sexual assault and rape by three other men over more than 20 years, including as recently as 2010.

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SALEM (OR)
Statesman Journal

March 8, 2018

From the former pastor
Morning Star Community Church Senior Pastor Scott Nelson read the following statement during services Jan. 14, 2018, attributing it to former pastor Ken Engelking:

Morning Star Family. As difficult as this is for myself, Lori and our family, we believe God’s promises for us and hope going forward. I love and support Pastor Scott and the leadership at Morning Star. I am deeply grateful for the chance to have served Jesus and minister the family at Morning Star for the past 31 years, and we’re very sad to have this chapter of our lives to end. I’m so sorry for the pain of my past sins have caused anyone and as I have in the past, take full responsibility for those sins. I ask forgiveness if I have caused you or someone pain because of my past actions. We are so thankful for God’s continued grace and mercy in mine and my family’s lives, and we will continue to trust and serve him. While there is much more I can say, there is hope for you that you will all continue to trust the lord no matter what. And I will do the same.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

March 9, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

A now deceased priest has been accused of sexually abusing a boy who had been ordered to stand in prayer with his eyes closed, according to a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Agana Friday in federal court.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as J.M.R. to protect his privacy, said in his lawsuit that Father Ray Techaira sexually abused him in about 1984 at the Asan parish office after the boy asked a question that upset the priest.

J.M.R., now 49, was around 15 years old at the time and was attending confirmation classes at the Nino Perdido y Sagrada Familia Catholic Church in Asan, the lawsuit says. Techaira was a priest at the parish and was in charge of the confirmation classes.

The lawsuit says the boy asked the priest, “If you (Techaira) have been preaching to us that there is only one God the father, can you please explain to me why is it that we address you (Techaira) as father?”

The priest told the boy he would talk to him at the office after confirmation class.

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SAGINAW (MI)
The Associated Press

March 8, 2018

The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw’s bishop is encouraging sexual abuse victims to come forward after a priest who served for decades in Michigan was charged with sex crimes.

Bishop Joseph Cistone recently spoke to parishioners at St. Agnes Church in Freeland, where 71-year-old Rev. Robert DeLand served as pastor. Cistone told parishioners the allegations against DeLand were “the first indication we had of this issue.”

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SAGINAW (MI)
Michigan Radio Newsroom

March 8, 2018

By Catherine Shaffer

Saginaw County Prosecutor John McColgan Jr. assigned the investigation of sexual abuse involving officials in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw to a special team that will work with Saginaw and Tittabawassee police and the Michigan State Police, as well as state and federal agencies. The move follows sexual assault charges against Rev. Robert DeLand, Jr. filed last month.

DeLand has been charged with assaulting a 21-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy at his home in Saginaw Township. Since then, the prosecutor’s office has received numerous tips related to alleged abuse going back to the 1970s. DeLand is pastor of St. Agnes Church in Freeland, Michigan. He has since been placed on administrative leave.

In remarks to the congregation of St. Agnes, Bishop Joseph Cistone said that the recent allegations against DeLand were “the first indication we had of this issue.” The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw is encouraging victims to come forward.

The prosecutor’s office has established several channels for victims and others with information about abuse to contact authorities.

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GUAM
KUAM News

March 9, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Just when we thought the clergy sexual abuse lawsuits had come to an end, another filing was made in the District Court of Guam today. Only identified by his initials to protect his identity, 49-year-old J.M.R. alleges he was molested and abused by now deceased Father Ray Techaira who, at the time, was assigned to the Asan Parish and in charge of confirmation classes.

J.M.R. alleges the priest was upset by one of his questions and told him to wait after class.

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AUSTRALIA
The Sydney Morning Herald

March 8, 2018

By David Crowe

Victims of child sexual abuse are a step closer to a national scheme that could help them gain justice for past wrongs, as the NSW and Victorian governments sign up to new laws that offer practical services as well as compensation up to a $150,000 cap.

The new pact intensifies pressure on churches and other groups to submit to the scheme and help victims recover from abuse that dates back decades, putting the primary responsibility on the institutions to fund the payments and support services.

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AUSTRALIA
AAP/The Sydney Morning Herald

March 9, 2018

Malcolm Turnbull wants institutions and charities to be shamed if they refuse to join the national redress scheme for child sex abuse survivors.

Thousands of survivors are set to gain access to compensation after Victoria and NSW signed on to the federal government’s $3.8 billion scheme.

The Prime Minister on Friday hailed the two states for opting in and urged others to follow their lead.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

March 9, 2018

By Lou Michel

When Janet and Frank Larango moved from North Tonawanda to an Atlanta suburb, they were happy the Catholic priest they considered part of their family also made the move.

The Rev. Stanley Idziak, who had celebrated Masses at Our Lady of Czestochowa parish in the 1960s and 1970s, arranged to have himself transferred in 1978 to the Larangos’ new parish 900 miles away.

The Larangos did not suspect anything beyond friendship was motivating Idziak’s move.

But they discovered later Idziak had begun secretly molesting her two sons when they were children in North Tonawanda and he resumed the abuse after relocating, according Janet Larango.

The Larangos did not discover the betrayal until a decade later, in 1988, after another couple in the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta accused Idziak of sexually abusing their sons, said Janet Larango.

It was a dark secret that had filled their sons with shame, said Janet Larango, 79.

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FREELAND (MI)
MLive

March 9, 2018

By Michael Kransz

The Diocese of Saginaw now says the Freeland priest accused of sexually assaulting a teen and a man was once concerned about “rumors” and had been investigated on suspicions of sexual abuse.

The announcement March 8 comes a week after diocese officials previously stated that, “to the best of their knowledge,” 71-year-old Rev. Robert DeLand Jr. was not investigated nor accused before of “priestly misconduct.”

In the statement, diocese officials say DeLand was investigated in 2005 after a woman asked whether her brother, who committed suicide in 1993, was sexually abused by DeLand in the 1970s.

The sexual abuse probe was handled by an “independent professional investigator,” and the suspicions were later deemed unfounded by the Rev. Robert Carlson, who was bishop of Saginaw at the time, the Diocesan Review Board and the family of the man, according to the statement.

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SAGINAW (MI)
MLive

March 8, 2018

By Bob Johnson

A taskforce has been formed to investigate allegations of abuse involving the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

Saginaw County Prosecutor John McColgan Jr. announced on Thursday, March 8, the formation of a taskforce after officials charged the Rev. Robert DeLand Jr. with one count of attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct/personal injury, one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and a count of gross indecency between male persons — all felonies.

The investigation of DeLand, 71, known as Father Bob, stems from an investigation by the Saginaw Township and Tittabawassee Township police departments.

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SOUTH KOREA
Global Post

March 9, 2018

By Ann Babe

On International Women’s Day in South Korea, where gender inequality is deeply entrenched, the government announced new measures to combat sexual assault in the workplace — increasing maximum prison terms and extending statutes of limitations.

The initiative, a joint effort of five ministries, comes as the country continues to reel from Tuesday’s news of a prominent politician’s resignation after his secretary accused him of rape.

The politician, the former governor of South Chungcheong Province, Ahn Hee-jung, issued an apology in a Facebook post, saying, “It’s all my fault,” and retracting an earlier statement of denial.

Ahn is the latest in a string of high-profile men to be toppled by South Korea’s #MeToo movement that in the past several weeks has quickly spread through the country’s political, religious, educational, business and arts and entertainment sectors. This reckoning is considered by many to be not just a movement — which had previously been confined to “radical” feminist outliers — but a broad people’s revolution.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

March 8, 2018

By Joel Shannon

Pennsylvania leads the nation in investigating child sexual abuse. It started when one woman wouldn’t take “no” for an answer while looking into priest abuse.

The document she was about to present to the press was historic: More than 400 pages that described sex crimes against children in horrendous, relentless detail.

More than a decade later, activists credit the report for setting a precedent in Pennsylvania: This state — more than anywhere else in the nation — exposes the truth of child sexual abuse, even if convictions aren’t possible.

The 2005 report received national attention in a recent Newsweek article. It is the subject of a forthcoming documentary entitled Dark Secret. And it is credited as a major influence in an ongoing statewide investigation into sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church.

But as she unveiled the report, Lynne Abraham also likely disappointed many victims.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum Local News

March 1, 2018

By Rochelle Alleyne

The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo is hoping to right a major wrong for victims of sexual abuse.

“We are so very, very sorry for the pain of the abuse that has happened to you. We’re sorry. I’m sorry and want to do everything we can going forward, reaching out to you who have to come to us in the past,” said Most Rev. Bishop J. Malone of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

The church announced Thursday they’ve created the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) to pay those who have previously made claims of abuse.

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ISRAEL and AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcast Corporation

March 8, 2018

By James Oaten

The alleged sexual abuse victims of Malka Leifer have slammed a senior Israeli rabbi for “betraying” them, after he helped the former Melbourne school principal secure release from custody.

Ms Leifer has been in an Israeli prison since February and is fighting extradition back to Victoria where she is wanted on 74 charges of child sexual abuse, including rape.

But she is set to be released into home detention on Friday after senior Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, who is a recipient of the prestigious 2004 Israel Prize, told court that prison was “humiliating”.

In Melbourne, alleged victim Dassi Erlich said she felt “absolute outrage” that Ms Leifer’s “humiliation” trumped the feelings of the alleged victims.

“As a religious person myself, I find it quite a betrayal,” Ms Erlich said.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

March 8, 2018

By Julia Carpenter

In the opening pages of her new book, reporter Bernice Yeung quotes feminist writer Audre Lorde.

The woman’s place of power within each of us is neither white or surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep.

Yeung’s “In a Day’s Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Among America’s Most Vulnerable Workers” comes out on March 20, and in it, she writes about spending time in some of these “dark” places where women have found strength despite grappling with sexual assault amid grinding poverty. As a reporter for the Center for Investigative Reporting’s online platform, Reveal, Yeung has covered stories in immigrant communities and vulnerable populations — those people often omitted from the recent nationwide reckoning on sexual harassment.

Yeung is among the many journalists who have covered sexual harassment in the workplace long before the #MeToo movement swept the country. For “In a Day’s Work,” Yeung followed the lives of “invisible workers” — the women who pick our food, mop our floors and clean our bathrooms.

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COVINGTON (TN)
The Associated Press

March 7, 2018

A Tennessee pastor has been indicted on 47 charges related to sexual abuse of minors.

Tipton County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Billy Daugherty told WREG-TV in Memphis that 39-year-old Ronnie Gorton has been accused by three people, including one under the age of 13.

Gorton was indicted Monday and jailed Tuesday. He declined to answer questions from reporters as he entered jail.

He is the former pastor of Awakening Church in Atoka.

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SAGINAW COUNTY (MI)
WNEM

March 8, 2018

By Carrie Laine

The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw has clarified previous statements regarding Father Robert (Bob) DeLand. This as the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s office announced the formation of a special investigative team that will look into allegations of abuse involving officials in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

The 71-year-old pastor was arrested in February and charged with two counts of attempt to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct and gross indecency between males; following an undercover investigation.

Immediately following his arrest, the Diocese issued the following information regarding DeLand.

“To the best of our knowledge, Father DeLand has not been subject to disciplinary action or accusations of priestly misconduct.”

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UNITED STATES
Psychology Today

February 27, 2018

By JoAnn Stevelos, MS, MPH

Safety First When Reporting Child Sexual Abuse

I was thinking about the issue of child sexual abuse (CSA) as a whole, and in the context of keeping children safe during disclosure. It caused me to evaluate my intentions in writing this post. My intentions turned into a keen interest, as well as felt paralyzing. I froze. What was I doing? Why I am trying to write this blog? Will anyone care? Does it matter what happened to me over forty years ago? Who am I to tell this story—another story—there are so many now with #metoo and #timesup? The capacity to feel apathetic, cut off from one’s own feelings about significant trauma, betrayal, collusion, and abandonment is the defense of ego, of self. It is the coping mechanism I have learned to use when feeling vulnerable and at risk for exploitation.

There are moral and ethical concerns I have had when writing about my experience of sexual abuse. Deep moral questions bothered me when I set words to paper. What is my moral obligation to share my story? What is our obligation, and what is the obligation of others to protect future children? It is easier to say nothing, or do so quietly, involving as few people as possible. This is what the organizational cultures of many patriarchal institutions have constructed as an acceptable practice in handling claims of crimes against children. Where are the witnesses to these crimes? Who is bearing witness? And why don’t they speak up? It has been my experience that their silence is imposed from above, and or internalized. And what lies underneath the silence are complex relationships—typically family relationships— because children are most often sexually abused by someone they know.

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JERUSALEM (ISRAEL)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

March 9, 2018

By Sophie McNeill

Former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer will remain in custody until an Israeli Supreme Court judge considers an appeal to stop her being released to home detention.

On Wednesday, the Jerusalem district court ruled that Ms Leifer could be released from police custody on Friday March 9 at 10:00am, after influential Israeli Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman argued it was “humiliating” and bad for her mental health to stay in jail.

The former principal of the ultra-orthodox Addas girls school in Melbourne has been in custody since February 12 when Israeli police rearrested the 54-year-old, accusing her of faking mental illness for the past three years in order to avoid extradition to Australia.

Ms Leifer is wanted by Victorian police on 74 charges of child sexual abuse, including rape.

On Thursday afternoon in the Israel Supreme Court, Israeli state attorney Matan Akiva argued Ms Leifer’s release to home arrest could harm the chance of her appearing at future extradition proceedings.

“We have to take into consideration that Israel gave Australia full guarantees to cooperate on an international level,” Mr Akiva told the court.

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JERUSALEM (ISRAEL)
The Sydney Morning Herald

March 9, 2018

By Gabrielle Weiniger

Alleged child abuser Malka Leifer will remain in custody in a psychiatric ward after prosecutors appealed to stop her release to house arrest.

At the hearing in Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday, Leifer’s defence lawyer Yehuda Fried argued that the former Melbourne school principal was not a flight risk, and that while recent evidence may show her living a normal life, Leifer was unfit to stand trial and was still having psychotic episodes – a claim that saw her extradition trial abandoned three years ago.

Despite Fried’s efforts, Leifer will remain in custody in the medical facility for the next few days, until the Supreme Court judge evaluates the evidence and makes a final ruling next week.

The decision to keep her in remand comes a day after the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered Leifer to be released from custody. She had been held in prison-like conditions at the Eitanim psychiatric hospital since her re-arrest on February 12.

New evidence showing Leifer living a seemingly normal life prompted authorities to re-arrest her last month, three years after charges were dropped due to mental illness.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

March 8, 2018

By Brendan Hughes

THE priest temporarily in charge of the Dromore diocese following the resignation of its bishop over the Fr Malachy Finegan scandal was involved in a parish service with the paedophile cleric – years after the Church learned of allegations against him.

Canon Liam Stevenson, parish priest of St Peter’s and St Paul’s in Lurgan, has taken responsibility for administration of the diocese following Dr John McAreavey’s resignation last week.

Dr McAreavey stood down after it emerged he celebrated Mass alongside Finegan in 2000 despite knowing he was a paedophile.

Finegan, who died in 2002, has been accused of sexual and physical abuse against boys on church premises and at St Colman’s College in Newry, where he was a teacher and later president. He was never questioned by police or prosecuted.

Canon Stevenson, Vicar General of the diocese, is also a former head of St Colman’s.

He and the diocese have not addressed questions about his former role, including when he first became aware of allegations against Finegan.

It has now emerged that Finegan took part in a service to mark Canon Stevenson moving to Seapatrick parish.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
USA TODAY

March 8, 2018

By Tom Vanden Brook

A Marine colonel who investigated a sexual harassment claim at a troubled program inside the Corps’ Quantico headquarters was later counseled for allegedly harassing the wife of the unit’s chaplain, referring to her as “eye candy.”

A Marine inspector general’s report in 2015 called out a toxic work environment at the Marine and Family Programs Division at Quantico. The report says the program struggled with complaints of sexual harassment, racial bias and bad management, including a secret settlement reached with one official to get her to leave quietly from the base known as the “Crossroads of the Marine Corps.” The Marines have not released the report, but USA TODAY obtained a copy.

Two civilian employees renewed complaints dating to 2013 about an officer they said made overt sexual overtures to them at the base. The women maintained in interviews and documents that the Marine Corps did not take their complaints seriously.

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LONDON (ONTARIO, CANADA)
The London Free Press

March 8, 2018

By Jane Sims

All she wanted was a positive male role model for her nine-year-old son.

Instead, the single mother got parish priest David Norton, a sexual predator.

The facts supporting the sexual interference conviction of Norton, 72, a retired Anglican priest and former instructor at King’s University College, describe mentoring, grooming and then assaults.

Norton pleaded guilty a week ago to sexual interference involving the boy, now 34, who kept the abuse a secret until other charges involving children were laid against Norton in 2015.

While those charges are heading to trial in April, Norton has admitted to the abuse of his young charge from St. Mark’s church in London, where Norton had served as priest.

Assistant Crown attorney Chris Heron told Superior Court Justice Lynne Leitch the relationship between priest and boy, whose identity is protected by court order, began in 1991. The boy’s mother saw Norton as “a role model.”

For the next four years, Norton and the boy were often alone at the priest’s house, the boy’s house, in Norton’s camping trailer or his 1986 grey Mazda truck.

Norton took the boy on countless camping trips across Ontario, including Collingwood, Manitoulin Island, Sudbury, Gravenhurst, Aylmer conservation area, Hawk’s Cliff, Port Stanley and Port Bruce.

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DEVON (ENGLAND)
Teignmouth Post

March 6, 2018

By Paul James

HISTORIC sex abuse allegations at a South Devon hospital dating back more than 40 years are being probed by police.

Investigating officers want to hear from anyone who was a patient or worked at Ivybridge’s former Moorhaven Hospital in 1976.

The inquiries have been launched after a woman came forward with claims she was raped in the grounds of the hospital which has since closed and been redeveloped.

Det Con Josie Haines from the Sexual Offence and Domestic Abuse Investigation Team, said on Tuesday: ‘We have been supporting a woman who has suffered in silence for many years – and we are turning to the public for their help in this matter.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Evening Standard

March 5, 2018

By Nicholas Cecil

The scale of the sex abuse scandal engulfing Britain’s aid charities emerged today after they admitted to 80 cases where victims were harmed or put at risk.

Twenty-six out of 179 organisations told the Government that since mid-February they had identified “safeguarding” cases.

Seven said these had been reported in the current financial year, with the rest more “historic”. The cases include the sexual abuse of people receiving aid as well as volunteers and staff, with children among the alleged victims.

The incidents were across a “wide spectrum”, including where measures to ensure individuals were not put at risk were lacking. Charity chiefs had been kept in the dark by junior staff about some claims.

The International Development Secretary, Penny Mordaunt announced that her department would enforce new standards by refusing to fund charities which failed to meet them.

At a safeguarding summit in Westminster, she said: “Unless we do all we can to prevent wrongdoing, and unless we can hold all those who do wrong to account, we will have failed in our duty to protect the most vulnerable.”

She warned predators exploiting the aid sector that there was “no hiding place”, adding: “We will find you, we will bring you to justice. Your time is up.”

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SOUTH AFRICA
Times LIVE

March 7, 2018

By Mathew Savides

South African author Ishtiyaq Shukri has lashed out at Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu over his decision last month to step down as an ambassador for international aid organisation Oxfam in the wake of a sex scandal.

Shukri lambasted Tutu for not speaking out against sex abuses in the church – abuses that he says he was a victim of. Tutu‚ as chancellor of the University of the Western Cape‚ capped Shukri in 1990 when he graduated.

“The day Archbishop Tutu conferred my degree was not the first time I was touched by a clergyman from the Church of England in South Africa. In the years leading up to my graduation ceremony‚ I was being sexually abused by priests from the Church of England in South Africa. So far as I am aware‚ the Archbishop has never fully addressed such systematic and institutionalised sexual abuse happening in his own organization‚” he said.

In early February it was reported that Oxfam staff paid for sex with prostitutes in Haiti while in the country after a devastating 2010 earthquake. It is alleged that the organisation’s money was used for this purpose.

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FREELAND (MI)
MLive

March 8, 2018

By Michael Kransz

In the wake of a Freeland priest charged with sexual assault, the bishop for the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw has encouraged victims to come forward, and he expressed his solidarity with the parish where the priest ministered.

“I have publicly expressed my commitment, on behalf of the Diocese of Saginaw, to cooperate fully with law enforcement in this most serious matter,” Bishop Joseph Cistone said. “In the meantime, we encourage any victims to come forward to the civil authorities in charge of this investigation.”

Cistone gave those remarks over the weekend at St. Agnes church, where 71-year-old Rev. Robert DeLand Jr. preached until he was charged last week with sexually assaulting a man and a teen.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
The Associated Press

March 6, 2018

Two men who say they were sexually abused by a leader at Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations in San Diego in the 1990s have settled their lawsuits against the church’s governing body.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Tuesday that the settlements were finalized last week. Both sides say they aren’t authorized to discuss the terms.

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ROME
The Irish Times

March 7, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

Ex-president says ban on women priests is ‘codology dressed up as theology’

Former president Mary McAleese has said she fears the Catholic Church’s hierarchy has “reduced Christ to this rather unattractive politician who is just misogynistic and homophobic and anti-abortion”.

She described Vatican opposition to women priests as “misogynist codology dressed up as theology” and criticised “the patronising platitudes that women have heard from a succession of popes and cardinals”.

Speaking at a press conference in Rome on Wednesday, Ms McAleese also said Pope Francis should visit Newry, Co Down, if he comes to Ireland next August, in the wake of clerical child sex abuse revelations there which led to the recent resignation of the Bishop of Dromore.

Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey resigned last week amid controversy over his decision to concelebrate a Mass with abuser Fr Malachy Finnegan in 2000 and to say the priest’s funeral Mass in 2002. Bishop McAreavey first became aware that Fr Finnegan, the former president of St Colman’s College Newry, was an abuser in 1994.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

March 5 2018

By Greg Hurst

Overseas development charities have reported 80 new incidents of sexual misconduct or abuse involving their staff.

The Charity Commission said that since The Times reported that seven Oxfam staff had paid for prostitutes or bullied colleagues in Haiti after its earthquake in 2011 a further 26 aid organisations had come forward to report cases of sexual misbehaviour or malpractice.

Of these, seven charities reported serious incidents that arose during the last financial year and 19 notified the regulator of historic cases of abuse that they had not reported at the time. It total 80 new incidents were reported.

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SAGINAW TOWNSHIP (MI)
Church Militant

March 7, 2018

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D.

In Philadelphia, Bp. Joseph Cistone was intimately involved in protecting abusive priests

The head of a Michigan diocese wracked with scandal has himself been implicated in sex abuse cover-up.

After Fr. Robert DeLand, judicial vicar and a judge on the marriage tribunal, was arrested for gay sex assault in February, Bp. Joseph Cistone told parishioners he was “heartbroken” over the allegations.

“[M]y thoughts, prayers and empathy go out to anyone who may have been victimized,” Cistone told a weekend gathering at St. Agnes parish in Freeland, where DeLand was pastor. “We know that the trauma runs deep and long not only for the victims but for their family and loved ones as well. We stand ready to assist them.”

Reliable inside sources have told Church Militant, however, that the diocese has been aware of DeLand’s behavior for years and did nothing to rein him in.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

March 7, 2018

By Lizzie Dearden

Charity Commission to pass any evidence on to National Crime Agency

New allegations of aid workers sexually abusing children and other beneficiaries in countries hit by conflict and disaster are being assessed by a watchdog as the number of serious reports double.

The Charity Commission said it had received reports of 80 incidents involving safeguarding in the wake of the scandal over Oxfam staff using prostitutes in Haiti.

It said the unconfirmed allegations cover a wide spectrum, from risks or a lack of due process through to “actual incidents of abuse, including sexual abuse of staff, volunteers and beneficiaries, including children”.

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DEVON (ENGLAND)
Devon Live

March 6, 2018

By Rom Preston-Ellis

Officers want to speak people who were either employees or patients at Moorhaven Hospital in 1976

An investigation is taking place into allegations of historic sexual abuse at a former psychiatric hospital in Devon.

Police have asked people who were either employees or patients at Moorhaven Hospital near Ivybridge in 1976 to come forward.

It is alleged that a woman was raped in the grounds of the hospital during that year.

Detective Constable Josie Haines from Devon and Cornwall Police’s sexual offence and domestic abuse investigation team, said: “We have been supporting a woman who has suffered in silence for many years, and we are turning to the public for their help in this matter.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Today

March 7, 2018

By Kate Shellnutt

Following Rachael Denhollander’s Sovereign Grace claims, the former SGM president once again says he wants to avoid distracting from the biennial conference.

C. J. Mahaney announced today that he will back out of next month’s Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference to keep the controversy over Sovereign Grace Churches (SGC) away from the event.

“Given the recent, renewed controversy surrounding Sovereign Grace Churches and me individually, I have decided to withdraw from the 2018 T4G conference,” Mahaney wrote.

Over the past several weeks, Rachael Denhollander, the former gymnast whose Larry Nassar testimony went viral, has used her platform to address abuse in the church, particularly years-old allegations of abuse at Covenant Life Church, where Mahaney—the former president of Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM)—had served as senior pastor.

Though the 2012 case against SGM was dismissed in court, Denhollander has repeatedly challenged the church network’s claims, most recently in a 7,800-word statement posted on Facebook last Thursday.

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IRELAND
Newsweek

March 8, 2018

By David Brennan

The Catholic Church is “an empire of misogyny” and must reform its traditionalist outlook if it wants to stay relevant, former Irish President Mary McAleese has claimed.

McAleese, who led Ireland from 1997 to 2011, was speaking in Rome, Italy, ahead of the Voices of Faith conference, the BBC reported.

The meeting—taking place on International Women’s Day—invites prominent Catholic women from around the world to speak at the conference, and campaigns for greater inclusion of the church’s female members within its leadership.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
The Associated Press/Daily Mail

March 7, 2018

By Iain Burns

– Both sides say that the two settlements, finalized last week, cannot be discussed
– The church was fined $4,000-a-day for failing to provide documents to a court
– Both plaintiffs say church elders knew of abuse as early as 1982 but covered it up

Two men who say they were sexually abused by a leader at Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations in San Diego in the 1980s and 1990s have settled lawsuits against the church’s governing body.

Both sides say the settlements, which were finalized last week, cannot be discussed.

A New York state appeals court in November upheld a $4,000-a-day penalty against Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York for failing to comply with a court order to hand over internal documents about knowledge of church leaders who had been accused of sexually abusing children.

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PORTLAND (OR)
Yahoo Sports

March 7, 2018

By Dan Devine

Police in Portland, Oregon, investigated an allegation of sexual assault against Mark Cuban in April of 2011, according to a report published Tuesday by the Portland alternative weekly Willamette Week. A woman claimed that, while taking a picture at a nightclub, the Dallas Mavericks owner “thrust his hand down the back of her jeans and penetrated her vagina with his finger.”

After an investigation into the claim, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office “determined there was insufficient evidence to press criminal charges,” according to reporter Nigel Jacquiss, who obtained the police report through a public records request. Cuban was never charged, the case was never previously reported, and Cuban’s lawyer told Willamette Week that “her accusations are false.”

“It didn’t happen,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News via email on Tuesday night. Cuban also forwarded along the memo written by the prosecutors announcing their decision not to move forward with the case “because the complainant does not want to proceed and I have concluded no crime can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The woman who went to police back in 2011, however — whom Willamette Week did not name because she’s the alleged victim of sexual assault — maintains that Cuban crossed a line on that night at the Barrel Room in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood.

“I filed the report because what he did was wrong,” the woman, now married and in her mid-30s, told Willamette Week in a brief interview. “I stand behind that report 1,000 percent.”

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LANSING (MI)
The Huffington Post

March 6, 2018

By Alanna Vagianos

Gymnast Jacob Moore is the first male to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual abuse.

Jacob Moore, the first male to publicly accuse former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse, said he hopes his story encourages other male survivors to come forward.

“I hope he rots in hell,” Moore, 18, said of Nassar on NBC News’ “Today” show on Tuesday.

Nassar has been accused of abusing over 260 young girls and women during decades as team doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. He’s now serving three concurrent sentences of up to 175 years on child sexual abuse and child pornography charges. Moore became the first male to accuse Nassar in a federal lawsuit filed last week alleging the former doctor molested him in 2016.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

February 16, 2018

By James Fielding

– Peter Newell was a leading children’s rights campaigner who worked for UNICEF
– The 77-year-old, from London, led the UK’s anti smacking campaign in a long and distinguished career
– Newell also helped prepare UNICEF’s Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child
– But now he is facing six years and eight months in jail for the abuse of a young boy
– The ‘horrific’ sexual assaults took place over a three-year period in the 1960s
– A UNICEF spokesman said today: ‘We are deeply shocked to hear of the arrest of Peter Newell.’
– He was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court and has been put on the sex offenders register

A leading children’s rights campaigner, who helped governments around the world tackle the issue of abuse, has been jailed for raping a 13-year-old boy.

Former UNICEF consultant Peter Newell admitted three counts of indecent assault and two counts of buggery and was sentenced to six years, eight months in prison.

He has also been placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

The ‘horrific’ sexual assaults took place over a three-year period in the 1960s but have only come to light following a police investigation last year.

Newell, 77, of Wood Green, North London, who has led the campaign to ban the smacking of children in Britain, was sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court on January 3.

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JERUSALEM (ISRAEL)
The Jerusalem Post

March 7, 2018

By Tamara Zieve

Rabbi Grossman testified in favor of Malka Leifer´s release from custody.

Australian suspected child sex abuser Malka Leifer will be released to house arrest, the Jerusalem District Court decided on Wednesday, after Migdal Ha’emek Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Dovid Grossman testified on her behalf.

The judge set bail at NIS 100,000 and ruled that Leifer may be released on Friday morning to her home where she will be under round-theclock supervision by two supervisors, as well as “spiritual supervision” by Grossman.

Leifer is accused of 74 charges of sexual abuse against at least eight pupils, who were minors at the time, at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne where she served as a teacher and principal from 2003 to 2008.

Grossman argued that Leifer was not in a condition to be held in jail and vowed that if she left the house for even a minute, he would inform the police immediately.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Jewish Week

March 6, 2018

By Asher Lovy

A response to Rabbi Broyde’s call for “nuance and complexity” in dealing with allegations.

While I’m not entirely sure what prompted Rabbi Michael Broyde to write the article he published in the Jewish Week last Tuesday offering six policy suggestions to address sexual abuse, there were a few things that struck me as odd about it. First, it coincided with the legislative day at the state capitol of the New York Coalition to Pass the Child Victims Act. That, coupled with the points he makes later in the article about the irrelevance of “ancient” cases, was enough to give me pause. But as I read through the article, it seemed increasingly like a policy statement written by an institution trying to hedge its bets on sexual abuse.

I’d like to offer some commentary and rebuttal to his six points.

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JERUSALEM (ISRAEL)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

March 8, 2018

By Sophie McNeill

There were angry scenes outside a Jerusalem court after an Israeli judge ruled former Melbourne principal Malka Leifer could be freed from police custody to home detention.

Ms Leifer is wanted by Victorian police on 74 charges of child sexual abuse, including rape.

The former principal of the Addas ultra orthodox girls school in Melbourne has been in custody since February 12 after Israeli police rearrested the 54-year-old, accusing her of faking mental illness for the past three years in order to avoid extradition to Australia.

The court was delayed by nearly an hour to wait for the arrival of senior Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman.

Rabbi Grossman, who has never previously been associated with the case, argued to the Judge Ram Winograd that it was a “humiliation” for Ms Leifer to remain in custody and it would be bad for her mental health.

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CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Chronicle of Higher Education

March 6, 2018

By Tom Bartlett and Nell Gluckman

Updated (3/6/2018, 7:26 p.m.) with comments from Harvard’s president.

A prominent Harvard professor and former vice provost accused of groping, kissing, and other inappropriate behavior by close to 20 women announced on Tuesday that he would retire on June 30. Jorge Domínguez, a professor of government, was placed on administrative leave pending a review after a Chronicle investigation published last week.

“I am retiring from my job at Harvard at the end of this semester,” Domínguez wrote in an email to colleagues. “It has been a privilege to serve the university.” He also noted that he is not teaching this semester and has stepped down from his administrative roles.

Domínguez’s administrative leave forbids him to set foot on Harvard’s campus without formally requesting permission from university officials. Under the sexual-harassment policy in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, penalties for professors found guilty “may range from reprimand to dismissal.”

“I want to be very clear that Domínguez’s forthcoming retirement does not change the full and fair process of review that is currently underway,” Michael D. Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in a written statement. “He remains on administrative leave until it is concluded.”

Harvard’s president, Drew G. Faust, weighed in on the fallout from the Domínguez revelations during a meeting on Tuesday of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In her remarks, she acknowledged the “real sense of hurt, disappointment, and upset that has been expressed about the situation and about Harvard’s response.”

Faust, who in 2007 became the first woman to lead the university, cited its progress in dealing with sexual harassment but said there was more to be done. “We need to foster an environment where those who look to us for leadership and guidance feel comfortable coming forward when lines have been crossed,” she said.

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CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Boston Globe

March 6, 2018

By Deirdre Fernandes

Jorge Dominguez, the well-known Harvard University government professor accused of sexual misconduct spanning more than three decades, announced his sudden retirement on Tuesday.

But undergraduates, graduates, and alumni of the university’s government department vowed to keep the pressure on Harvard, demanding that the university apologize for its handling of this case and ensure that its future practices protect students from sexual harassment.

“This is only the beginning,” said Elena Sokoloski, 20, a senior at Harvard who started the #DominguezMustGo social media drive and is one of several dozen students in the government department who have mobilized around this case in recent days. “The problem neither starts nor stops with Dominguez, and we need to use this moment to address the deep structural issues of which this case is one symptom. That process must begin immediately.”

At a faculty meeting Tuesday, Harvard president Drew Faust noted what a difficult period it has been for the university. “I want to start by acknowledging the real sense of hurt, disappointment, and upset that has been expressed about the situation about Harvard’s response,” she said in prepared remarks. “Sexual harassment has no place at Harvard, and the community can rightly expect that Harvard will do all that it can to address this serious and enduring problem.”

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LANSING (MI)
Detroit Free Press

March 7, 2018

By David Jesse

Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees, under fire for its lack of action during the Larry Nassar case, has hired a high-powered law firm to represent the eight members of the board.

The firm, Akin Gump, will represent just the board, not the general university. MSU Interim President John Engler has hired several firms to represent the university.

“The university retained Akin Gump to represent and provide separate counsel to the Board with respect to its obligations and fiduciary duties as the Board of Trustees in connection with the Nassar matter and related issues,” MSU board chairman Brian Breslin said in a statement issued to the Free Press through the university’s public relations office. “Akin Gump is coordinating its work with MSU’s internal legal team and the external law firms that the university has retained to address the various inquiries and legal matters associated with the actions of Nassar.”

The board drew heavy fire late last month during a closed-door meeting with MSU representatives and members of Congress.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

March 6, 2018

By Emily Bazelon

A FALSE REPORT
A True Story of Rape in America
By T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong
291 pp. Crown Publishers. $28.

In 2008, an 18-year-old named Marie reported that she’d been raped. A stranger with a knife entered her apartment in Lynnwood, Wash., while she was sleeping, she told the police, tied her up with one of her shoestrings and blindfolded and gagged her. He then took photographs that he threatened to post online if she went to the police.

It was a story out of a horror movie or a “Law & Order” script. Indeed, Marie’s foster mother, Peggy, thought of the TV show when she heard Marie recount her ordeal with, Peggy thought, an odd degree of emotional detachment. Peggy knew Marie to have a flair for drama, and she started to nurse doubt about whether her attention-getting tale was true. Another woman close to Marie, a second foster mother, was also uncertain. Peggy relayed her misgivings to the police, setting in motion a chain of disastrous decisions by the Lynnwood investigators that unraveled the life Marie was just beginning to make for herself, and gave T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong the title for their new book, “A False Report.”

Interrogated as if she were a suspect and pressured to recant, Marie wound up facing criminal charges for lying to the police. She was a teenager coming out of foster care and her sense of self and her support system was tentative and fragile. She lost her subsidized apartment and many of her friends. Her plans to get a driver’s license and go to college floated away in a sea of despair.

The John Grisham-worthy twist comes from the investigation of three rapes 1,300 miles away, in two suburbs and a city outside of Denver. The Police Departments in the three places in Colorado (Aurora, Golden and Westminster) pooled their clues and figured out they were probably looking for the same attacker. They found him — the break in the case came from a single detail about the spotting of a white truck. On the rapist’s computer, they found the photos he took of Marie. Years later, here was incontrovertible proof that she had told the truth.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

March 7, 2018

By Brendan Hughes

THE priest temporarily in charge of the Diocese of Dromore following the resignation of its bishop over the Malachy Finegan scandal is a former head of the school where the cleric sexually abused pupils.

Canon Liam Stevenson and the Catholic Church last night did not address questions about his role, including when he first became aware of allegations against Finegan.

The parish priest of St Peter’s and St Paul’s in Lurgan has taken responsibility for the day-to-day administration of the diocese until a permanent replacement for Dr John McAreavey is selected.

Dr McAreavey announced his resignation last week after it emerged he celebrated Mass alongside Finegan despite knowing he was a paedophile. He had previously admitted making an “error of judgment” by officiating at his funeral Mass.

Finegan, who died in 2002, has been accused of a catalogue of sexual and physical abuse against boys on church premises and at St Colman’s College in Newry. He was never questioned by police or prosecuted.

He worked in St Colman’s from 1967 and was president of the college from 1976 to 1987.

Canon Stevenson, Vicar General of the diocese, also worked at the college from the 1970s, teaching maths, physics and religion.

He was appointed vice-principal in 1993 and president the following year, working in this role until September 2000.

The Dromore diocese has said the first allegation against Finegan arose in 1994, seven years after the priest left St Colman’s.

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ENGLAND
The Telegraph

March 6, 2018

By Olivia Rudgard

A criminal case against Lord Carey would be an attack on us all, conservative Church of England figures have said.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, 10 signatories including the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, former bishop of Rochester, suggested that the former Archbishop of Canterbury was being targeted for his involvement in the Bishop Peter Ball case because of “what he represents of biblically faithful Christianity”.

The letter, also signed by Simon Rufus Isaacs, Marquess of Reading, who is a friend of Prince Charles, former bishop of Woolwich Colin Buchanan, and campaigner Andrea Williams of Christian Concern, says that similar high-profile cases have not resulted in prosecutions for misconduct in public office.

On Monday this newspaper reported that police and prosecutors were considering a criminal investigation following the publication of the Gibb report last year, which found that Lord Carey, 82, was among senior figures who had “colluded” with convicted sex offender Ball.

The letter says that investigations into child sexual abuse, Operation Yewtree and Operation Hydrant, “have investigated hundreds of cases of suspected misconduct in public office and have yet to bring a case to trial.”

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ATOKA (TN)
WREG

March 6, 2018

By Luke Jones

A Tipton County pastor was booked into jail Tuesday afternoon, one day after a grand jury indicted him on 47 charges related to sexually abusing minors.
Ronnie Gorton, the former pastor of Awakening Church in Atoka, has been accused by three people so far, Tipton County Sheriff Chief Deputy Billy Daugherty confirmed.

One of Gorton’s alleged victims was under the age of 13, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Walking into jail Tuesday, 39-year-old Gorton kept his head down and wouldn’t answer reporters’ questions.

Gorton’s former Drummonds neighbors said he was known for keeping to himself, but they also couldn’t help but notice all of the young people who frequented the home he shared with his wife.

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ONTARIO (CANADA)
Insurance Business Magazine

March 7, 2018

By Lyle Adriano

Experts believe that the result of a legal battle between a major insurer and an Ontario Catholic diocese could have further consequences and implications for similar cases in the near future.

In 2008, the Catholic Diocese of London filed a lawsuit against AXA Insurance Canada claiming a breach of policy when the company refused to pay for claims related to settlements between the religious organization and the sexual abuse victims of two priests associated with the church.

The church maintained that it had liability insurance in the 1960s and early 1970s, when the alleged abuse took place, which meant it was entitled to coverage from AXA.

In its statement of defense, AXA said that the diocese’s policy is void because church officials not only knew of the sexual abuse accusations against one of their priests before the insurance policy was enacted, but also failed to disclose such information to the insurer. The insurer is additionally demanding the church return the $10 million it had paid out under the insurance policy.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

March 4, 2018

By Edward Pentin

The testimonies, submitted by former Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa seminarians to a Vatican investigation, reinforce existing concerns about the archdiocesan auxiliary bishop’s conduct.

The Register has obtained the text of two testimonies, submitted by former seminarians to a Vatican investigator, detailing allegations of serious sexual misconduct by Auxiliary Bishop Juan José Pineda Fasquelle of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The content of the testimonies, along with previously known allegations of sexual misconduct by the bishop and additional information provided to the Register by sources within Honduras, has reinforced widespread existing concerns about the conduct of Bishop Pineda.

These concerns are heightened by the fact that Bishop Pineda has been in charge of the archdiocese since early January, while its archbishop, top papal adviser Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, undergoes chemotherapy treatment in Houston, Texas, for prostate cancer.

The new information has also renewed questions about why Pope Francis has not taken any action with respect to a report submitted by the Vatican investigator, which reportedly has been in the Holy Father’s hands since May of last year.

Some of the findings of the apostolic visit to the archdiocese were disclosed Dec. 21 by Italy’s L’Espresso newspaper. The investigation was carried out at the Pope’s request by retired Argentine Bishop Alcides Jorge Pedro Casaretto in May 2017 and addressed allegations of serious financial mismanagement within the archdiocese, as well as sexual misconduct allegations involving Bishop Pineda.

L’Espresso reported that Cardinal Maradiaga may have been involved in mismanaging Church funds and may also have accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Catholic University of Tegucigalpa. The article said that Cardinal Maradiaga is being accused of investing more than $1.2 million in some London financial companies, including Leman Wealth Management. Some of that money has now vanished, it said. Bishop Pineda is also tied to some, but not all, of the alleged financial irregularities within the archdiocese.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

March 5, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

Saipan’s Bishop Emeritus Tomas A. Camacho died Monday morning, according to Father James Balajadia of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa. Camacho was 84.

Camacho was the first bishop of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa on Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, from 1984 until his retirement in April 2010, at the age of 76. He has since served as bishop emeritus.

Camacho was also a former priest for the Archdiocese of Agana on Guam.

Bishop Ryan Jimenez, who succeeded Camacho as head of the Catholic Church in the CNMI, said the late bishop died after a long bout of illness.

“He has left us, but he will always be remembered for his warm smile and his dedicated service to our church and to the whole of the CNMI,” Jimenez said in a statement.

Jimenez said Mass will be celebrated for Camacho beginning Monday night followed by the rosary, until next Monday.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

March 7, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

Former Capuchin brother Vernon T. Kamiaz has asked the federal court to dismiss three clergy sex abuse claims filed against him over failure to timely serve him with the summons and complaints. His accusers separately said the service of process on Kamiaz was timely.

Plaintiffs identified in court documents only as C.J.I., R.I.C. and J.C.M.P. said Kamiaz’s motion to dismiss must be denied because he was timely served legal documents.

Kamiaz, representing himself in his motion to dismiss, said the plaintiffs failed to perfect service within 90 days pursuant to Federal Rules of Procedure. He said the complaints were filed on Sept. 8, Sept. 15 and Oct. 6 in 2017 but he was personally served with the summons and complaints on Jan. 29, which were more than 100 days after the complaints were filed.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

March 7, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee

ROME — Pope Francis’ clergy sexual abuse commission could be more effective in protecting children if the group were granted more time to work directly with the pope and given resources to hold more in-person meetings each year, a former member has suggested.

French child psychiatrist Catherine Bonnet, who was among a group of six founding members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors not reappointed by Francis last month, said the “most important thing” is that the group does not have adequate time to explain its proposals directly to the pontiff.

“We never worked with Pope Francis,” Bonnet said in an NCR interview Feb. 19. “We only said hello, two minutes, and good-bye, two minutes.”

“The most important thing for the next commission … would be that there are times where Pope Francis can come and the proposals are explained to him, why they are so important,” she said.

Francis renewed the mandate of the abuse commission Feb. 17, reappointing eight of its previous members and adding nine new people to its ranks. The renewal came two months after the remit of the commission had lapsed Dec. 17, when the three-year terms of its founding members had expired.

Francis is not known to have held a working meeting with the abuse commission, which was established at the advice of his advisory Council of Cardinals in December 2013.

In July 2014, the pope celebrated Mass with abuse survivors and spent over three hours in private meetings with them, in an effort organized by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the head of the commission.

In September 2017, Francis held his first formal meeting with commission members, during which he admitted that the Catholic Church waited too long before taking reports of clergy sexual abuse seriously. While two members addressed the pope at that encounter, there was no discussion on issues their group is trying to tackle.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Syracuse.com

March 7, 2018

To the Editor:

Bishop Robert Cunningham’s sympathy for the victims, Kevin Braney’s credibility and District Attorney William Fitzpatrick’s attack on Braney should not distract us from the larger picture of justice for credible survivors and protecting children from victimization by predatory, former priests still at large.

The credibility of Braney’s allegations aside, there is no shortage of credible victims who were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests. Indeed, sexual child abuse by priests was not a scandal, but a crime wave. Nor do I wish to put the focus on the sincerity of the Bishop’s sympathy. Regardless of Braney’s credibility or the Bishop’s sympathies, the fact is that the Catholic Church has vigorously opposed legislation that would allow the survivors of sexual child abuse, whose cases are past the statute of limitations, to file lawsuits seeking compensation. Why? Because as an institution, it is in the church’s financial and public relations interests to do so. If the church, as an institution, had the interests of these survivors at heart, they would not by opposition to such legislation interfere with their pursuit of just recompense in a court of law. Undoubtedly, payments made in response to such lawsuits would be very costly for the church. Settlements paid under the church’s compensation program are a far less costly alternative. In light of this, their strategy appears to be more like damage control than a desire to make a just and healing offer to survivors.

More importantly, the still living clergy of the Syracuse Diocese who perpetrated these crimes are not registered sex offenders and are free to victimize more children. The well-documented psychological and behavioral profiles of sex offenders tells us it is highly probable they will offend again, given the opportunity. Even elderly offenders are likely to seek new victims or will do so vicariously by consuming child pornography. Concealing the identities of 11 former priests who committed such crimes only compounds the injustice and their anonymity might further facilitate their sexual predation of other children. This is not to diminish the importance of protecting the identities of victims from public disclosure to every extent possible. But these days, for obvious public safety reasons, no one would consider concealing the identity of a serial rapist regardless of the pleadings of victims to so.

I would urge the church to stand aside and let the survivors have their day in court and be as transparent as possible regarding the identities and whereabouts of offending (former) priests, assuming these unidentified priests have indeed been defrocked.

Wayne Palmeter
Fayetteville

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CHICAGO (IL)
People’s World

March 6, 2018

By Al Neal

What do former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar and the Catholic Church have in common? Both are well-known sexual predators.

After a chilling reveal of the widespread criminal sex acts committed against children by depraved Catholic priests, thanks to the investigative reporting of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team in 2002, you would think that such a guilty institution would shy away from involving itself in a separate sex abuse scandal. Apparently not.

Recently, a Michigan legislative bill introduced after the Larry Nassar scandal, which would retroactively extend the amount of time child victims of abuse have to sue their abusers, has drawn the concerns of the Catholic Church.

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ENGLAND
The Times

March 6, 2018

By Kaya Burgess

The extent of the Church of England’s failure to identify, expose and punish child abusers within its ranks is set to be laid bare by a major inquiry, which heard of a “widespread culture of denial” yesterday.

Abusers were in some cases able to work unchallenged in the church for decades and evidence from witnesses will point to a catalogue of potential failures, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was told.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

March 6, 2018

Soca group wants to know why Catholic orders have not paid out more in compensation

Survivors of sexual and physical abuse in schools run by the Catholic Church in Ireland have demanded a meeting with Pope Francis to discuss compensation during his visit to the island in the summer.

The Irish Catholic Church has invited the pontiff to a religious conference in August. It will be the first papal visit to Ireland since John Paul II’s tour in 1979.

The Guardian has seen a letter from the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Soca), in which the campaign group calls for a meeting with Pope Francis during the visit to ask why Catholic religious orders have not paid out more in compensation to abuse victims.

The group sent the letter to Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and asked him to pass on their request to the Vatican.

Soca is angry about a deal between the Catholic Church and the then Irish government in 2002 that resulted in the taxpayer footing most of the bill for compensating those abused in religious institutions.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

March 3, 2018

By Dan Herbeck

For the past 22 years, Judith Burns-Quinn has listened to the shocking and heartbreaking stories of people who were sexually abused by priests.

Most of them, she said, are adult men who were molested as young boys and teenagers.

“Every victim I’ve talked to has their own story, but for every one, the experience of being molested by a priest has had a profound impact on their life,” said Burns-Quinn, 74.

Burns-Quinn said she has spoken to about 40 such victims since 2002, when she became Buffalo coordinator for a national organization called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

“Every one I’ve talked to has had trouble with either drugs, alcohol, anger issues, parental issues, divorces, or all those things,” she said. “They have problems with trusting people, especially people in authority. Their lives have been devastated…because a priest was someone they thought they could be trust.”

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VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

March 7, 2018

By Georgie Moore

Victoria will abolish the so-called Ellis defence, an “unfair legal loophole” which has prevented child sexual abuse survivors from suing organisations like the Catholic Church.

Under proposed laws introduced to parliament on Tuesday, unincorporated associations such as churches, would have to nominate an entity able to pay damages.

“This deals with what is something that I think has re-traumatised victims and survivors for too long, something that has made a terrible set of circumstances even harder,” Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
The Associated Press

March 6, 2018

Two men who say they were sexually abused by a leader at Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations in San Diego in the 1990s have settled their lawsuits against the church’s governing body.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Tuesday that the settlements were finalized last week. Both sides say they aren’t authorized to discuss the terms.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
WJZ/CBS Baltimore

March 5, 2018

By Denise Koch

For some time now, WJZ has been investigating a dirty secret: child sex abuse at the hands of priests, police and a teacher back in the 1960s and 1970s. Many asked how it was possible that no one noticed.

Multiple sources have told WJZ’s Denise Koch that many people, including some nuns in positions of authority, did know about the abuse but instead of reporting it, they looked the other way.

It’s a dark chapter for Baltimore’s Catholic schools. Father Joseph Maskell, a counselor at Archbishop Keough High School, is accused of molesting dozens of students.

“I had a gun held to my head on several occasions. I was threatened with ‘I’ll kill your father, I’ll kill your grandparents, I’ll kill your dog, I’ll kill you,” Linda Tiburzi said.

She tells WJZ in the ’70s, John Merzbacher sexually abused her while she was a student at Catholic Community Middle School. Tiburzi was not alone. The Catholic school teacher, armed with a gun, blatantly assaulted other girls and boys.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
Catholic News Service

March 5, 2018

The court hearing will decide whether he should formally stand trial

A Melbourne court began a monthlong hearing to see if a top Vatican official would stand trial on decades-old charges of sexual abuse, which he consistently denied.

Cardinal George Pell, head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court March 5 for a committal hearing scheduled to conclude by March 30. The cardinal has taken a leave of absence from his position to face the charges in Melbourne, where he served as archbishop from 1996 to 2001.

No charges have been announced against the cardinal, but his lawyer told the court he believed Victoria police investigated the abuse claims presuming he was guilty, instead of presuming he was innocent. The lawyer said some witnesses’ written testimony could help clear the cardinal of some of the charges.

Up to 50 witnesses could be called during the committal hearing; much of the hearing will be conducted in private.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

March 1, 2018

By Edward Pentin

The former prefect at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith speaks to the Register about the Vatican’s handling of clergy sexual abuse and controversial interference by some prelates in individual cases.

For five years until July 2017, Cardinal Gerhard Müller oversaw the handling of cases of priests accused or found guilty of clerical sex abuse.

In the following exclusive comments to the Register via email, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith discusses how the Vatican has dealt with the tragic issue, responds to criticism of Pope Francis’ handling of some individual cases (referred to in my recent article here), and shares insights on what could be done better.

The German cardinal is certain that Pope Francis fully accepts the zero tolerance policy toward proven cases of clergy sexual abuse. But he also believes it is imperative that canonical processes by carried out “according to the current discipline,” that this area of the CDF be staffed by “canonically well-educated priests,” and that interference in abuse cases by third parties — which has happened a number of times during this pontificate — must be avoided “as much as possible” as “it causes great harm to the Church and is an injustice to the victims.”

Another key point the Cardinal makes is that the often excessive length of time in dealing with cases can be resolved by employing well qualified and able officials. Three of Cardinal Müller’s staff, two of whom dealt with abuse cases and who he considered very able, were dismissed by the Pope. The then-prefect wasn’t given a reason. “You cannot part with your best horses and at the same time demand the carriage goes at a higher speed,” the cardinal says.

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VATICAN CITY
Euro News

March 3, 2018

By Emma Beswick

Testimonies from three sisters detailed the arduous daily household tasks they carried out for “often modest” pay.

A group of nuns have spoken out about the exploitation they say they face at the hands of men for whom they do housework in the Roman Catholic Church.

Sister Marie, Sister Paule and Sister Cécile told their story in the Vatican magazine “Women Church World” and said they are often treated like servants by cardinals and bishops, carrying out chores for very little pay.

The monthly women’s magazine from the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano ran an exposé Thursday denouncing the unfair treatment of nuns and the “real abuse of power” in the Catholic Church.

Testimonies from the sisters detailed the large amount of arduous daily household tasks they were to carry out for “often modest” pay and the abuse of power sometimes shown by men of the cloth.

“Some sisters… get up at dawn to prepare breakfast and go to sleep once dinner has been served, the house has been put in order and the laundry washed and ironed,” said Sister Marie.

“The nuns have no precise and regulated schedule, like in the secular world, and their financial rewards are uncertain,” she continued.

Sister Paule described the moment a nun, who had a PhD in theology, was ordered to go to the kitchen and wash the dishes, adding that sisters were asked to complete tasks that had “no relationship to their intellectual formation”.

According to Sister Cécilein, nuns are seen as expendable in many dioceses: “The sisters are seen as volunteers who can be disposed of as you want, which gives rise to genuine abuse of power.”

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GUAM
Radio NZ

March 6, 2018

The Archdiocese of Guam is seeking solutions to turn around a reported decline in its congregation.

According to the Guam Daily Post the Archbishop Michael Byrnes raised concern about fewer Catholic baptisms, weddings and school enrolments in the territory in recent years.

Less than half of Guam’s population is registered as Catholic.

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OLEAN (NY)
Olean Times Herald

March 2, 2018

By Tom Dinki

Diocese says clergyman was assigned to treatment after allegation

OLEAN — A retired priest, who admitted this week to sexually abusing dozens of teenage boys decades ago, served in Olean and Portville during the 1980s.

The Rev. Norbert Orsolits admitted to The Buffalo News Tuesday he sexually abused “probably dozens” of teenage boys during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Orsolits, now 78 and living in Ashford, was assigned to St. Mary of the Angels Church in Olean from 1982 to 1983 and Sacred Heart Church in Portville from 1984 to 1988, during which time he also taught at Archbishop Walsh High School in Olean.

According to Orsolits, he was assigned to Sacred Heart after the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo received a complaint he sexually abused a child and ordered him to receive psychological treatment at a Canadian facility.

“I am learning about this as the general public is,” the Very Rev. Gregory Dobson, the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels pastor, wrote in an email to the Olean Times Herald Thursday morning. Sacred Heart merged with St. Mary’s as an oratory in 2007.

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HAGÅTÑA (GUAM)
USA Today Network/Pacific Daily News

March 5, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

Saipan’s Bishop Emeritus Tomas A. Camacho, one of several Catholic clergy members accused of sexually abusing altar boys on Guam, died Monday after a long illness, church leaders said.

Camacho was 84 and had been Saipan’s highest-ranking Catholic Church leader for some 25 years, from 1984 until his retirement in April 2010, according to Father James Balajadia of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

“He has left us, but he will always be remembered for his warm smile and his dedicated service to our church and to the whole of the CNMI,” said Bishop Ryan Jimenez, who succeeded Camacho as head of the Catholic Church in the Marianas.

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes expressed sorrow on behalf of the Catholic Church on Guam.

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ENGLAND
Church Times

March 6, 2018

By Hattie Williams

HARROWING details of child sex abuse carried out by Church of England clerics were described at a public hearing conducted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), on Tuesday.

Two witnesses, both survivors of clerical sex abuse when they were children, were questioned by the Counsel to the Anglican investigation, Fiona Scolding QC.

The first witness, known only as AN-A15, a woman, confirmed that she had been sexually abused at the age of nine by Canon Gordon Rideout, who was the army chaplain and a commissioned officer on the army base where her father, a sergeant, was stationed. Rideout was jailed for ten years in 2013 for 36 separate counts of sex abuses against 16 children in Hampshire and Sussex in the 1960s and 1970s (News, 24 May 2013).

The abuse and subsequent events affected her education and her ability to form relationships with others as an adult, the witness said. “I became very withdrawn and moody; I didn’t want to engage with anyone; I didn’t trust anyone; I was very much on my own; so I stopped taking an interest in my education. I think I am intelligent enough that I could have gone on and gone to college.”

The letter of apology that she had received 30 years later from the current Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, was “too little too late”, she said.

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ENGLAND
Anglican Communion News Service

March 5, 2018

The statutory inquiry investigating institutional responses to child abuse in England and Wales has begun a public hearing into the Church of England’s Diocese of Chichester. The Diocese is being investigated as a case-study in the “Anglican Church” strand of the inquiry’s investigation into the Church of England and the Church in Wales. Today, Senior Counsel for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Fiona Scolding QC, began the hearing by setting out the structures of the Church of England and a history of cases involving the diocese, from the 1950s onwards.

“A series of allegations came to light from the late 1990s onwards, and then engulfed the diocese in the first decade of the 21st Century,” she told the inquiry. “The role of this hearing is to examine what happened and what it demonstrates about the response of the Church to child sexual abuse.

“It is also to ask about the Church’s ability to learn lessons and implement change from that which it has already largely acknowledged were mistakes. This hearing will also seek to examine how the Church dealt with those who, having been abused as children, came to speak to the Church as adults, to tell their stories, and of the inadequacy of the response by the Church to those disclosures.”

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ENGLAND
The Telegraph

March 5, 2018

By Olivia Rudgard

Clergy are resigning from the Church of England rather than face criminal record checks for child abuse, the inquiry into child sexual abuse has heard.

Opening three weeks of hearings into abuse in the Chuch, lead counsel Fiona Scolding said that priests in some parishes resigned their roles rather than face “criminal records and vetting and barring checks”.

“You will hear of parishes where individuals resign rather than face such checks, not because they have perpetrated any criminal offending, but because they consider that it is a slur on their character to even be asked such questions,” she told the inquiry.

The hearing also detailed a series of concerns about the Church’s past handling of abuse claims, including naivety, amateurism and an “excessive emphasis” on forgiving predators.

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IRELAND
The Guardian

March 6, 2018

By Henry McDonald

Men hope to use visit by Pope Francis to ask why church has not paid out agreed compensation

Survivors of sexual and physical abuse in schools run by the Catholic church in Ireland have demanded a meeting with Pope Francis during his visit to the country in the summer to discuss compensation.

The Irish Catholic church has invited the pontiff to a religious conference in August. It will be the first papal visit to Ireland since John Paul II’s tour in 1979.

The Guardian has seen a letter from the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Soca), in which the campaign group calls for a meeting with Francis to ask why Catholic religious orders have not paid out more in compensation. The letter has been sent to archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, asking him to pass on their request to the Vatican.

Soca is angry about a deal between the Catholic church and the Irish government in 2002 that resulted in the taxpayer footing most of the bill for compensating those abused in religious institutions.

The deal resulted in the church having to pay out €128m of a €1.3bn compensation bill.

Last year, Ireland’s comptroller and auditor general found that only €85m had been paid out of church funds. On top of its criticism of the deal, Soca said the church should at least be forced to pay out in full the agreed €128m.

In the letter to Martin, one of the co-founders of Soca said survivors also wanted Pope Francis to hear about what they described as the “Violence R Us” culture in religious orders such as the Christian Brothers, which ran Ireland’s notorious industrial schools.

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VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
The Guardian

March 5, 2018

By Melissa Davey

Legislation to facilitate compensation claims widely expected to pass

Victoria has introduced a bill that would make it the first jurisdiction in Australia to abolish a legal defence used by churches to prevent child sexual abuse victims from targeting their assets in compensation claims.

Known as “the Ellis defence”, it is based on a 2007 court case brought by abuse survivor John Ellis against the Catholic church. The New South Wales court of appeal found church assets could not be targeted by Ellis in pursuing compensation for the crimes he endured within the church, because church trustees could not be held to account for the crimes of individuals.

Associate Prof Elizabeth Curran from the Australian National University’s school of law said the Ellis defence “has been used by the church to obfuscate, and to avoid accountability”.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

March 5, 2018

By Harriet Sherwood

Independent inquiry hears survivors faced years of institutional cover-up and denial

The Church of England prioritised its reputation over the safety of children, born from an “arrogance which equates the church with God”, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse has heard.

Speaking on the first day of three weeks of hearings into the C of E’s handling of abuse cases stretching back decades, the specialist abuse lawyer Richard Scorer said survivors had faced years of institutional cover-up and denial.

The C of E could not be trusted to put its own house in order, said Scorer. “As the established church, [it] claims to offer moral guidance and moral leadership to the country. Yet clerical sex abuse cases and the scandals associated with them powerfully undermine that claim.”

Scorer, who represents 21 survivors, said: “It must be clear now that if you want to abuse children, there is no more effective way of terrifying and silencing your victims than to claim to have God on your side.

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ENGLAND
BBC News

March 5, 2018

Senior figures in the Church of England may have conspired to enable the sexual abuse of children, an inquiry has heard.

A lawyer representing victims suggested the Church ignored abuse convictions and allowed records to be burnt.

The solicitor, David Greenwood, said victims were “silenced” by the Church.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has begun hearing evidence about how the Anglican Church dealt with complaints over many years.

The current phase has begun with an investigation of alleged abuse in the Diocese of Chichester in Sussex.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

March 6, 2018

A former altar boy has told a jury how a priest sexually abused him twice on a beach.

The man, now aged 49, said Father Francis Moore attacked him as they dried off after swimming in the sea at Irvine in North Ayrshire.

The care worker said the priest also patted him “in the groin area” as he covered him in sand.

The 82-year-old retired priest denies abusing three boys and a student priest at various locations in Ayrshire.

The High Court in Glasgow heard the offences are alleged to have been committed between 1977 and 1996.

The former altar boy said the abuse took place when he was 11 and Fr Moore was his parish priest.

Prosecutor Shanti Maguire asked the witness: “Did you do any activities with Fr Moore,” and he replied: “We used to do activities as altar boys. Sometimes we would go down the beach, go for a meal or go to the cinema.”

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GLASGOW (SCOTLAND)
The Evening Times

March 6, 2018

A FORMER altar boy told a jury that a priest sexually abused him twice on a beach.

The 49-year-old was giving evidence at the trial of 82-year-old Father Francis Moore who denies sexually abusing three boys and a student priest.

The offences are alleged to have been committed between 1977 and 1996.

Yesterday at the High Court, the witness said that the abuse took place when he was 11 and Moore was his parish priest.

The witness said that Moore and a group of altar boys would go to Irvine beach and that he had been there twice alone with the priest.

He said: “After we finished with the swimming he would take an interest in drying me.”

The witness was asked if he was wearing his swimming trunks and replied: “Not when he was interested in drying me.”

The man told the jury that the priest went behind him and sexually abused him.

The witness said that he told no-one what happened until he was 17 or 18 and told a school friend.

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SAGINAW TOWNSHIP (MI)
Church Militant

March 3, 2018

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D.

Police department “inundated” by calls from victims

A Michigan diocese is reeling after reports that a number of its active priests may be sex abusers.

Father Robert DeLand, judicial vicar and a judge on the marriage tribunal in Saginaw, was arrested Monday after a months-long undercover investigation revealed he was grooming young men for sexual abuse. One victim, a 17-year-old male, cooperated with police in the covert operation, which resulted in the arrest for sexual assault. DeLand is being charged with attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct and gross indecency. In another case in Tittabawassee Township involving a 21-year-old male victim, the priest is being charged with one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries 15 years in prison.

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TULARE (CA)
KFSN

March 5, 2018

On Monday morning, Tulare County Presiding Judge Gary Paden made it perfectly clear to Ignacio Villafan that he wants him to start making some money immediately.

He wants Villafan to repay St. Rita’s Catholic Church in Tulare, where he was pastor from 2005 to 2012. Father Villafan is charged with stealing more than $300,000 from the church during that time.

Villafan’s attorney says his client’s no contest plea on Monday was a way to avoid a possibly stiffer sentence at trial but is not an admission of guilt.

“I know the allegation is that he took much from the church but I think what’s been overlooked here is that he put much into the church,” said attorney Victor Perez.

Monday was supposed to be another segment of Villafan’s ongoing preliminary hearing, which has been spread out over several months. The case is complex and has required a review of thousands of pages of documents.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

March 6, 2018

Capping compensation payments to child sexual abuse survivors means the Catholic Church and other institutions are getting off scot-free, an inquiry has heard.

A number of abuse survivors and their advocates want the $150,000 maximum payment under the national redress scheme increased or the cap removed altogether.

The entire concept of capping payments and requiring victims to sign a deed releasing the responsible institution from further claims was “utterly disgusting and insulting”, survivor Matt Jones said.

“People need to realise that for any survivors it is about putting a price on their lives, so I say scrap the cap,” Mr Jones told a Senate inquiry.

Long-time victims’ advocate Chrissie Foster also strongly criticised the limit.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

March 5, 2018

By Charlie Specht

Child Victims Act pending in Albany

Erie County District Attorney John Flynn had a lot to say when sexual abuse allegations at Nichols School emerged in January.

“When I read through it, I was obviously disgusted,” Flynn said back then of the private school’s investigative report.

The DA is just as sick reading about recent abuse allegations surrounding local priests in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo — and Flynn is a practicing Catholic.

Charlie Specht, Reporter: “Do you feel as strongly about what happened there?”

Flynn: “Absolutely. My resolve in getting this passed has never wavered.”

If anything, he said the allegations against former priest Norbert Orsolits — and a rare admission of guilt by the priest published last week in The Buffalo News — make the matter even more pressing.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ

March 5, 2018

By Claudine Ewing

A 52-year-old man living in Pennsylvania is speaking out for the first time about a case of sexual abuse. The man says he was 18 when he was allegedly sexually abused by a priest he met at St. Columban’s Retreat House in Derby.

“I’m coming forth now because I think there are a number of other people who need to know they are not alone,” said a 52-year old man who asked that his identity not be revealed.

The man said he was 18-years-old when he lost his virginity to a now deceased Catholic priest. He met the Columban Father at the Columban Retreat House in Derby in the 1980’s. They are a missionary society, they are not Diocesan priests, but are often stationed and working in a Diocese.

Now as an adult, he reflects on how wrong it was for the priest to befriend him and then sexually abuse him. “How could an 18-year-old boy, child, who was intoxicated be able to give any kind of consent to anything by a priest who was at least old enough to be his father if not grandfather,” said the alleged victim in an interview with 2 On Your Side’s Claudine Ewing. “I visited him at that time in Chicago and after being given alcohol, and the two of us drinking, I fell asleep on the floor in the living room of his apartment.” He said he was then sexually abused.

The priest died in 1995. The Buffalo Diocese will not say if the priest is on a list of clergy accused of sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
PEW Research Center

March 6, 2018

Five years after his election, pope draws growing number of negative assessments, especially from Catholic Republicans

Five years into Francis’ papacy, the vast majority of U.S. Catholics continue to have a favorable opinion of the Argentinian pontiff, and most say he represents a major – and positive – change for the Roman Catholic Church. At the same time, a new Pew Research Center survey finds signs of growing discontent with Francis among Catholics on the political right, with increasing shares of Catholic Republicans saying they view Francis unfavorably, and that they think he is too liberal and naïve.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

March 6, 2018

By Michael J. O’Loughlin

American Catholics still love Pope Francis as he approaches the fifth anniversary of his election next week—though Catholic Republicans increasingly describe him as “too liberal” and less than half of U.S. Catholics believe he is adequately handling clerical sexual abuse.

According to a new Pew Research Center poll released on Tuesday, 84 percent of U.S. Catholics hold a “favorable” view of Pope Francis, a number nearly unchanged from the early days of his pontificate. Huge majorities of U.S. Catholics also agree that the pope is humble (91 percent) and compassionate (94 percent).

The percentage of U.S. Catholics who rate Pope Francis favorably has been consistently about five to 10 points higher than in similar polls taken during the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, who retired in 2013. Pope John Paul II regularly received higher favorable ratings than both of his successors, with more than nine in 10 U.S. Catholics rating him favorably. (Pew notes in its report, however, that its polls during John Paul’s papacy were conducted before widespread reporting about sexual abuse by Catholic priests.)

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
ACI Prensa

March 5, 2018

The Diocese of St. Cloud has announced that it will declare bankruptcy as it faces 74 civil claims alleging the sexual abuse of minors.

St. Cloud is the fourth diocese in Minnesota to declare bankruptcy after the passage of the Minnesota Child Victims Act in 2013, which lifted the civil statute of limitations for child abuse allegations until May 2016, giving alleged victims three years in which to file claims for abuse alleged to have occurred decades ago.

“I am committed to openness and transparency about how we are working to resolve these lawsuits. We will keep pastors and parishes informed about the process as it moves forward. I ask you to please continue to pray for healing for all victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse,” Bishop Donald Kettler said in a statement issued by the diocese on Feb. 28.

During the three-year window provided for by the Minnesota Child Victims Act, more than six hundred claims were filed against Catholic dioceses in Minnesota leading to bankruptcy announcements from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Diocese of New Ulm, and Diocese of Duluth.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS News via AAP

March 6, 2018

The Victorian government wants to abolish a legal loophole which has been used by organisations such as churches to avoid being sued by abuse survivors.

Victoria will abolish the so-called Ellis defence, an “unfair legal loophole” which has prevented child sexual abuse survivors from suing organisations like the Catholic Church.

Under proposed laws introduced to parliament on Tuesday, unincorporated associations such as churches, would have to nominate an entity able to pay damages.

“This deals with what is something that I think has re-traumatised victims and survivors for too long, something that has made a terrible set of circumstances even harder,” Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.

For too long “there’s been this veil, this fiction, that in the case of, say, the Catholic Church” there is nobody who can be sued, Mr Andrews said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Newsweek

March 5, 2018

By Tufayel Ahmed

The 90th Academy Awards broke away from tradition in a major way Sunday night—and a lot of people noticed the absence of one particular actor.

It is customary for the previous year’s best actor and actress winners to present the opposite categories at the Oscars, but by all accounts Casey Affleck—who won best actor for Manchester by the Sea—wasn’t even in attendance at last night’s ceremony. Instead, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) paired up previous best actress winners Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster to hand Frances McDormand her award. (Best actor was presented to Gary Oldman by Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren, rather than last year’s best actress Emma Stone, it’s worth noting.)

With the theme of Time’s Up permeating through Oscars season this year, Affleck’s absence stood out. When he was awarded the best actor prize in February last year, it was amid renewed focus on past accusations of sexual harassment. According to Variety, he withdrew to “avoid becoming a distraction.”

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