ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: November 26, 2014

Terms were not disclosed, but former teacher’s lawyer says case was settled for $1.

A lawsuit alleging negligence by Cretin-Derham Hall for hiring a substitute teacher who sexually assaulted a student in 2008 has been settled, according to court records.

The suit, filed by a former student in Ramsey County District Court, claimed that the private Catholic high school in St. Paul failed to supervise the teacher, Gail E. Gagne, failed to prevent her misconduct and is liable for her actions.

The school’s attorney, Teri Bentson, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Jeff Anderson, who is representing the student, said the settlement, reached Tuesday, hasn’t been written up, and that he would leave it up to his client to choose whether or not to disclose the details. The school did not admit liability in the settlement.

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

by Kristi Belcamino
kbelcamino@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 11/30/2014

A settlement was reached last week between a St. Paul high school and a former student who claimed the school didn’t protect him from sexual abuse by a teacher when he was a teen.

It was the second settlement in as many weeks in connection with the abuse. Two weeks ago, the teacher, Gail Gagne, settled a lawsuit with the student for a dollar, according to Gagne’s attorney.

Cameron Clarkson, now 22, and in college, sued Cretin-Derham Hall, a private Catholic high school, claiming that he was sexually abused in 2008 by Gagne while he was 16.

Gagne was later was fired and convicted in 2011 of having sex with a student and ordered to register as a sex offender.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

Created: 11/30/2014 KSTP.com

A private Catholic high school in St. Paul has settled a lawsuit filed by a former student who was sexually assaulted by a weight room instructor six years ago.

Cameron Clarkson’s lawsuit alleged Cretin-Derham Hall was negligent because it failed to supervise Gail E. Gagne, failed to prevent her misconduct and failed to protect him.

The Star Tribune reports terms of the settlement haven’t been finalized. An attorney for Gagne, who also is named as a plaintiff in the filing, told the newspaper she settled with the student for $1.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Pope Francis, a modern media master, has mostly garnered public adulation for almost two years. That may be changing, for example, with an important new Hollywood film, “Spotlight”, about the Boston Globe’s massive investigation of the Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal. The Boston Globe’s award winning efforts to investigate clerical child abuse had led to the current critical juncture in the Catholic Church’s, and even in world religious, history.

* The Globe began documenting extensive child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the related cover-up by Catholic bishops, especially Cardinal Bernard Law, in January 2002. Law and Pope Francis have an extended history, including serving together on a standing papal commission on the family after Law fled Boston.

* Since 2002, this abuse story has sadly exploded, first in Boston, then nationally and now in many countries around the world. The escalating disclosures continue, and have shaken the very foundation of the Catholic Church, even leading last year to the first papal resignation in 600 years.

* As Pope Francis struggles to contain this explosion through secretive Vatican proceedings, Francis is currently facing, as discussed below, an ongoing and thorough governmental investigation in Australia and will likely soon face a similar investigation in the UK. Now Hollywood will soon amplify and likely exacerbate Pope Francis’ child abuse scandal woes.

* In September, a cast of Hollywood stars, including Film Critics’ Best Actor award winner Michael Keaton (who reportedly was raised in Pennsylvania as an Irish American Catholic), Liev Schreiber,Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Stanley Tucci, began shooting the movie titled “Spotlight,’’ about the Globe’s earlier Pulitzer Prize winning investigation of Boston Cardinal Law’s massive priest child abuse cover-up. Keaton, famous for his Batman role, had been raised in Pennsylvania, a state with a reportedly high incidence of priest child abuse of children. Will Batman tame the Catholic hierarchy?

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

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney from Tuesday 2 December 2014 at 10:00am AEST.

The hearing will examine the response of Satyananda Yoga Ashram to allegations of child sexual by the Ashram’s former spiritual leader in the 1970s and 1980s.

Live streaming times
The public hearing will be streamed live via this website between 10am and 4pm (local time), with the following breaks:

11:30am – 11:50am morning break
1:00pm – 2:00pm lunch break

Join us on Twitter and Facebook for regular updates.

Please be aware that the content of the public hearings can be distressing for viewers. Visit support services to find services near you, or for immediate support call the Royal Commission on 1800 099 340 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Location
The hearing will be held at Level 17, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The response between 1974 and 2014 of the Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain, 3. New South Wales, to allegations or reports of child sexual abuse made against Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.

2. The operation of the Ashram between 1974 and 1989 in relation to matters of child sexual abuse.

3. The systems, policies and procedures in place at the Ashram between 1974 and 1989, and currently, in relation to raising and responding to allegations of or concerns about child sexual abuse.

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

NEW MEXICO
Daily Reporter

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: November 30, 2014

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — An attorney for victims who claim they were sexually abused by priests in the Diocese of Gallup in New Mexico wants insurance and financial records from the Franciscan Friars, the Albuquerque Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1pwYoxx).

Claimants attorney James Stang filed motions asking U.S. bankruptcy Judge David Thuma to force two Franciscan provinces to hand over the records.

An attorney for one of the provinces filed a motion Monday, saying the action shouldn’t be required because the alleged abuses happened years before the province was established.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in November 2013 because of mounting claims of clergy sex abuse. According to court records, 12 abuse claims filed as part of the bankruptcy proceedings name seven Franciscan priests as alleged abusers. Many of the alleged claims happened when Bishop Bernard Espelage, a Franciscan priest, was serving the Gallup diocese from 1939 and 1970, according to records.

The diocese includes parishes in six counties in New Mexico, three counties in Arizona and seven American Indian reservations.

The provinces where Stang is seeking records include Ohio-based Province of St. John the Baptist and Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is based in Arizona and New Mexico. Court records indicate that before 1985, Franciscan priests serving the Diocese of Gallup were members of the Province of St. John the Baptist.

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Shawn Raymundo
Pacific Daily News

Archbishop Anthony Apuron responded this weekend to an allegation that he molested a former co-seminarian and relative, stating in a press release that the accusation is “a horrible calumny.”

Apuron said because of the allegation, he is “obliged to defend not my person but the Church.”

The archbishop said he intends to file a lawsuit for defamation and that any damages received will be given to charitable causes of the church.

John Toves, a Guamanian who lives in California, has stated in recent letters to the archdiocese that while he was an altar boy for then-Agat parish priest Anthony Apuron, he had personal knowledge that Apuron sexually molested a former co-seminarian.

Toves sent one letter to officials at the Vatican and the Vatican’s delegate to the Pacific islands, Archbishop Martin Krebs.

“I come forward now as I realized that no one else has, and I believe the Archbishop must be held accountable for his actions,” Toves wrote.

Apuron said in the press release that he has dedicated his life to spread the Catholic faith through his words and actions.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Express

Sun, November 30, 2014
By PAULA MURRAY

Willie McRae was said to have discovered child abuse by cabinet ministers and other leading members of the establishment on both sides of the Border. Shortly before his death he was seen photocopying a dossier of names in case something should happen to him.

The copies are understood to have been posted to a number of close associates. Despite a lengthy inquiry, the Sunday Express has been unable to establish whether any copies of the alleged dossier are still in existence.

McRae never went public with his allegations as he was found shot dead in his car off a remote road in Wester Ross on April 6, 1985.

Some maintain he was murdered by the security services over his opposition to plans to dump nuclear waste in Scotland, while others have said he was silenced by drug smugglers.
Significantly, however, his death also fits the timeline of recent claims about Westminster perverts and a massive police cover-up of child abuse and murder in the early 1980s.

His death also came just months after the late Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens handed his own infamous paedophile dossier to then Home Secretary Leon Brittan – only for it to be lost or destroyed by Home Office officials.

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

ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[On Sept. 8, 11 days before being found dead in her house, Luisa Bonello wrote a post on Facebook. The prosecutor of Savona has no doubt it was suicide. The text was never published in its complete drafts. The content of the post raises many questions. She said she is a practicing Catholic who is against leaders of the Savona diocese.]

Marco Raffa La Stampa

L’8 settembre scorso, undici giorni prima di essere trovata senza vita in casa sua in seguito a quello che la Procura di Savona non ha dubbi sia stato un suicidio, Luisa Bonello aveva scritto un «post» su Facebook che finora, per motivi di riservatezza nei confronti della persona citata nel testo, non era mai stato pubblicato nella sua stesura completa.

Un testo che, scorrendo il profilo di Facebook del medico, non è visibile semplicemente perché, arrivati alla metà di settembre, occorre cliccare su «tutte le notizie» e scorrere all’indietro l’elenco delle notizie. Un testo che, però, è stato condiviso da oltre una novantina di «contatti» di Luisa Bonello e che quindi, scatenando un effetto-domino, ha avuto una diffusione notevole.

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

UNITED STATES
Winona Daily News

Leslie Hittner

While columnist Charlotte Allen (Nov. 23 Daily News) seems to accept the reality that both conservative and liberal Catholics agree that the church is headed toward a schism, she argues that a schism is unlikely. She cites the politics and political behaviors of those in attendance at the recently completed first session of the “synod on the family” to support her conclusion.

I don’t know. I think Allen is missing an important point about the Catholic Church; its belief system is driven by the underlying assumption that it can do no wrong. Most Catholics believe that actions of the institutional church are guided by the Holy Spirit. While there are differing interpretations of what is meant by “guided,” that underlying assumption is quite universal in the Universal Church.

Such an underlying assumption does not leave much room for compromise in doctrinal discussions. Thus, major changes in the Roman Catholic Church often have been driven by schismatics.

I would argue that the Catholic Church is already in the midst of a schism. One of the earliest schisms, and certainly the one with which we are most familiar, is the Protestant Reformation. This schism started in 1517 with Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses and probably did not end until about 1750. …

Why do I assert that a schism has begun?

* Conservative priests have been promoted to bishop. Beginning with Paul VI and ending with Benedict XVI, the conservative movement within the church began to systematically dissemble the structures put in place by Vatican II by changing the church’s leadership. More recently, this new leadership began to act. The language of worship — changed by Vatican II from Latin to the language spoken by the people — was “re-translated” from Latin texts. I cannot speak for all translations but the English translation of the Mass text is an abomination that takes the church back to pre-Vatican II times. Since 1970, the Society of St. Pius X has celebrated only the Tridentine Mass and opposed other tenants of Vatican II. Originally excommunicated, Pope Benedict lifted that excommunication edict. At the same time, the Tridentine Mass — complete with an array of grand vestments and the original Latin text — was being encouraged.

* Secrecy within the hierarchy — enforced by Canon Law — increased. This cult of secrecy increased opportunities for the abuse of power and encouraged such abuses to be covered up. The sexual abuse cover-up comes to mind. Issues with the Vatican Bank also come to mind. Eight dioceses in this country have filed for bankruptcy in order to protect themselves from abuse cover-up lawsuits, and others, such as the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are close. Even now, some members of the hierarchy are beginning to push back against this veil of secrecy.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Sunday Times

The head of the Catholic Church in England said compassion, not guilt, was behind a support centre, writes George Arbuthnott

George Arbuthnott
Published: 30 November 2014

THE abuse of children by Catholic priests represents a “minor part” of child abuse, according to the leader of the church in England and Wales.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols was speaking before a conference on sex trafficking, which he is hosting in London this week as part of a worldwide initiative, ordered by Pope Francis, to tackle modern slavery.

Asked if a Catholic church funded victim support centre due to be set up in London was motivated by a desire to atone for the church’s history of abuse of children by priests and subsequent cover-ups, Nichols said it was driven by compassion, not guilt.

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

MALTA
Times of Malta

Sunday, November 30, 2014 by Fr Joe Borg

What’s in a name?

There is a lot. The significance of the announcement by Apostolic Administrator Bishop Charles Scicluna that the Church in Malta will be setting up a Safeguarding Commission instead of the Response Teams lies partly in the title of the commission.

To face the monstrosity called sex abuse of minors or vulnerable adults, the Church in Malta had set up a Response Team in the 1990s. When the structure was set up it was quite a radical set-up. Unfortunately things did not work out as well as one would have hoped.

The idea behind the setting up of a Response Team was for the Church to get a quick response indicating that something untoward could have happened and to take immediate steps to protect the vulnerable persons that could have been abused. Following that, a full blown investigation would be done. Instead the Response Team started doing the investigation itself. Thus things got complicated with the result that such investigations tended to be almost ever-lasting.

For the sake of doing justice to the people involved one should note that the procrastination was due to the working methods of the Chairman of one of the Response Teams and not due to its members. This was unjust to both the alleged victims and the alleged perpetrators. It was also unjust to these members of the Response Team that did their work diligently and who complained to the bishops about the situation. These persons should be thanked for their service. Had it been up to them things would have progressed well.

Unfortunately the chairman of this particular Response Team thwarted their efforts to move on efficiently and effectively. The responsibility of the egg on the face of the ecclesiastical community lies with whoever had power to remove the chairman and didn’t.

But now one hopes that this is all history.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

For months in late 2001, the Globe’s Spotlight Team chipped away in secret at a story that at first seemed unimaginable — that a succession of cardinals and bishops in the Boston Catholic Archdiocese had for decades covered up the sexual abuse of countless children by priests. In many cases, Church leaders took no action to deny their Roman-collared child molesters access to children.

When the Globe began documenting the extensive abuse and the cover-up in January 2002, the story exploded, first in Boston, then nationally and in countries around the world. In the Boston Archdiocese alone, an estimated 200 priests abused children. Nationally, it is at least 7,000 priests. The escalating disclosures continue, and have shaken the very foundation of the Church.

In September, director Tom McCarthy (“The Station Agent,” “Win Win”) and a cast of Hollywood names including Liev Schreiber, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Stanley Tucci began shooting a movie titled “Spotlight,’’ about the Globe’s investigation. The filmmakers used locations in Boston and in Toronto, where they re-created the Globe newsroom and the Spotlight Team’s offices. With camerawork expected to wrap in the Bay State on Sunday, the film is scheduled for release late next year.

For three members of that Spotlight Team — reporters Sacha Pfeiffer and Michael Rezendes and editor Walter V. Robinson — the movie is a constant reminder of the courage of the many victims of sexual abuse whose willingness to tell their stories in 2001 made the Globe’s investigative stories possible.

And the film is also something else for those three journalists: It’s surreal. The “Spotlight” stars have all but assumed the identities of the characters they play, in ways the real reporters have found both humorous and, at times, a little unsettling.

They share their experiences in Boston and Toronto.

Read Walter V. Robinson’s essay
Read to Michael Rezendes’s essay
Read to Sacha Pfeiffer’s essay

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

MALTA
The Malta Independent on Sunday

Andrew Azzopardi, who currently heads the English Football Association’s Safeguarding Team, is touted to head the Curia’s revamped Response Team, The Malta Independent on Sunday has learnt.

The Curia announced yesterday new procedures for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and said investigations will be concluded in a shorter timeframe. It also announced the appointment of a Safeguarding Commission, which will be staffed by professionals.

The Curia said the members of the commission will be announced by the end of January but this paper is reliably informed that Mgr Charles Scicluna has asked Mr Azzopardi to lead it and the former is expected to accept the offer.

When contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday, Mr Azzopardi said he could not confirm or deny that he will take up the post or if he has been offered it.

Mr Azzopardi specialises in safeguarding child development and sport. He manages the FA’s team responsible for dealing with the concerns of safeguarding in football. Mr Azzopardi has 15 years’ experience of working with children as a professional or volunteer. He previously worked with the NSPCC, where he completed risk assessments and offered therapy in child abuse cases, and in frontline child protection teams in various local authorities in London, and has worked with asylum-seeking minors in Malta.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Liz Zemba
Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014

The attorney for a Somerset County priest accused of sexually abusing an orphaned boy in Honduras in 2009 wants jurors to be barred from hearing evidence that a grand jury either never heard or rejected.

Altoona attorney Steven Passarello filed the pretrial motion in U.S. District Court in Johnstown on behalf of the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., former pastor at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Central City.

In a separate motion, Passarello is seeking to sever the two criminal charges against Maurizio, which could force separate trials.

Maurizio is charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor. A federal indictment accuses Maurizio of traveling to Honduras between Feb. 26 and March 13, 2009, to have sex with an underage boy.

Maurizio, who has pleaded not guilty, has been held in the Cambria County Jail since Sept. 24.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

For your weekend reading on what’s a long weekend for many American workers, I’d like to recommend to you Jerry Slevin’s new essay at his Christian Catholicism site entitled “Thanksgiving, Catholic Hope and Pope Francis.” As with everything Jerry writes, this posting is actually an essay, and it bears very careful reading. In offering you some excerpts and framing remarks about the essay, I don’t want to give you the impression that I’m summarizing it.

I can’t do so, in a few words. My hope is that the excerpts and framing remarks will tempt you to read the essay in its entirety.

Jerry frames his argument by noting that, a year ago at the time of the American Thanksgiving holiday, Catholics around the world appeared to have more hope than many Catholics now have that the new pope could effect significant reform of the Catholic church. The obstacle of which many of us are increasingly aware: the “entrenched and self-interested” managers of the church in Rome, who want Catholics to imagine that the way the church is presently governed is part of its “unchanging and unchangeable” essence.

And so Jerry sees the church plunging into deeper and deeper crisis, a crisis of which the laity are fully aware, but which eludes the self-interested managerial elite governing the church, and who are seeking to thwart any reforms Pope Francis wishes to initiate. As in several of his previous essays about the new pope and his potential to reform the church, Jerry argues that the crisis now facing the church is the most serious since the Reformation:

The Catholic Church is in the throes of its worst crisis since the Reformation. Vatican leaders in the 16th Century, aided by powerful outside military protectors, had mainly evaded making overdue structural changes, and their successors also managed with outside protection to avoid such changes mostly during the four centuries since.

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

MALTA
Maltese Episcopal Conference

PREFACE

The Maltese Episcopal Conference and representatives of the Major Superiors’ Conference took the initiative to meet to evaluate the activity of the team responsible for the investigation of sexual abuse which they had set up in March 1999. It resulted that a thorough investigation was being held, instead of a preliminary inquiry as contemplated in the 1999 policy document. In fact, such detailed investigations were protracting the process. As a result, a decision was taken to review the structure and procedures of the way cases of alleged sexual abuse are managed by the Curia.

The need for a revision of the policy adopted since 1999 has also been felt in the light of the Protection of Minors (Registration) Act (2011) and the two documents issued by the Holy See, referring to:

i) Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (2001)

ii) Letter to the Bishops and to Ordinaries regarding the modifications introduced in the Normae de gravioribus delictis (2010).

In fact, the amendments proposed in this policy have taken into consideration the new norms promulgated by all three documents.

The Maltese Episcopal Conference and the representatives of the Major Superiors Conference asked me to establish a small reviewing commission which they approved. This commission was made up of the following members besides myself as chairperson:

 Msgr. Joseph Bajada, Judicial Vicar, Regional Tribunal (2nd Instance);
 Msgr. Carmel Zammit, Adjunct Judicial Vicar;
 Fr. Paul Pace SJ, former Jesuit Provincial;
 Fr. Paul Galea, Lecturer Faculty of Theology and Psychologist;
 Dr. Joseph Sammut, Lawyer.5

The commission’s workings were presented to the Maltese Episcopal Conference and the Major Superiors Conference. After discussions were held about proposals, the final version of the document was approved.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

By Don Hale

Tory Geoffrey Dickens was so afraid for his life that he hid copies of his damning files in a “safe place”

An MP feared he was on a ‘hit list’ after drawing up a dossier that threatened to expose a suspected Westminster paedophile ring, a close friend has claimed

Tory Geoffrey Dickens was so afraid he hid copies of his damning files – naming eight public figures suspected of child abuse – in a “safe place”.

The MP also told Geoff Hope he had a secret alliance with former Labour minister Barbara Castle, who had her own dossier naming 16 MPs and Lords. …

Mr Hope ran a service station near Mr Dickens’ constituency home and was a family friend. He said the MP came in with his dossier in the 80s.

“He used to pop in on Saturdays for a chat,” said Mr Hope. “This time he had a document case. I jokingly asked if it was full of money but he said it was his research into paedophiles.

“He said MPs, people in the church, and in other high places were involved.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Dierk Schaefers Blog

Fazit zum sexuellen Missbrauch durch katholische Geistliche Zusammenfassung der Erkenntnisse aus den KFN-Befragungen

[A recent study of sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church shows abuse by priests often took place in homes or boarding schools. In many cases the perpetrators exploited their religious power position. Many people in the immediate vicinity knew of the abuse or guessed it.]

In acht Punkten sind die Ergebnisse zusammengefaßt. Wie manchmal bei wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen: Nun wissen wir, was schon bekannt war. Aber nun wissen wir es .

Aus der Presseerklärung

»1. Der sexuelle Missbrauch durch Priester fand oft in Heimen oder Internaten statt. Dort hat-ten die Betroffenen besonders wenige Möglichkeiten, sich dem Zugriff der Täter zu entzie-hen und waren den Missbrauchshandlungen besonders häufig ausgesetzt.

2. Vielfach haben die geistlichen Täter bei der Annäherung an die Betroffenen und bei der Tat-begehung ihre religiöse Machtposition ausgenutzt.

3. Viele Personen im direkten Umfeld der Betroffenen haben von dem Missbrauch gewusst oder ihn zumindest erahnt. Die besondere soziale Stellung der geistlichen Täter hat mit dazu beigetragen, dass viele Betroffene sich nie oder erst sehr spät offenbart haben.

4. Die im kirchlichen Rahmen erlittenen Missbrauchserfahrungen sind für einen Großteil der Betroffenen auch noch nach Jahrzehnten mit starken psychischen Beeinträchtigungen ver-bunden.

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

MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

11/28/2014

Jennifer Haselburger

Today, the online version of the National Catholic Reporter published a commentary by Father Thomas Reese, SJ, titled ‘Judging and Firing Bishops and Due Process in the Church’. You can read it here. In his commentary (prompted, no doubt, by the recent rescript clarifying the resignation process for bishops), Father Reese expresses concern that ‘When people do not like their bishop, they often call for the pope to fire him and appoint another’. Reminding us that bishops are not CEOs but rather the vicars of Christ (not to mention the successors to the Apostles), Father Reese argues that such removals should not result from caprice but rather follow an established process with recognized procedural protections in place. While I agree with many of the points that Father Reese makes, including his general call for due process protections, I disagree with his assessment that the absence of the protections that he lists indicate a ‘paternalistic church that believes it always knows what is best for its children’. I would respectfully argue that Father Reese’s position on ‘people who do not like their bishops’ is equally paternalistic, especially considering the very serious issues that have led to some of the removals that have occurred in recent times.

Let me be the first to admit that at this time last year, I would have (and did) articulate the same skepticism towards removing bishops that Father Reese expresses in his article. It is very difficult to reconcile Catholic theology with the idea of removing a bishop when he has earned, rightly or wrongly, the disfavor of his people. One only has to think of the situation of Archbishop Joseph Rummel and his desegregation of the Archdiocese of New Orleans to understand why bishops ought not to be subject to removal based on popular opinion.

Yet, there are certainly times when a bishop cannot be permitted to continue in office. Father Reese offers a number of examples of bishops who have resigned or been forced to resign, including Cardinal Bernard Law, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg (the so-called ‘Bishop of Bling’), Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano, Bishop Thomas O’Brien (involved in a fatal hit-and-run), and Bishop William Morris of Australia (theological positions). I put together a similar list, exclusively of American bishops, that included Bishop James Sullivan of Fargo, Bishop Donald Pelotte of Gallup, and Bishop Fernando Isern of Pueblo. Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times reminded me of Bishop Robert Sanchez of Albuquerque, Bishop Anthony O’Connell of Palm Beach, Bishop Kendrick Williams of Lexington, and Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee.

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

GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Clynt Ridgell

Archbishop Says He Was “Received Warmly” by Pope Francis During Recent Meeting
According to a press release from the Archdiocese of Agana, Archbishop Anthony Apuron met with Pope Francis on Friday the 21st in a private audience at the Vatican. The meeting was at the request of the Archbishop and according to the release the Archbishop was received warmly. Archbishop Apuron is quoted in the release saying in part “I wanted to speak with the Holy Father about the situation of the Church in Guam, and the critical role we play in the evangelization of the Pacific; We spoke of the challenges and the joys of our local Church.”

The release also addressed “allegations appearing here in the media”. The Archbishop is quoted as saying “it is a horrible calumny and I am obliged to defend not my person but the Church. On the advice of legal counsel I will not answer any questions. However, defending the Church compels me to file a suit for defamation; any damages that I receive I will not keep for myself, but will be given to the charitable causes of our Church.” The release does not indicate who the defamation suit will be filed against. The release ends with the Archbishop saying “I trust that the members of our Guam Catholic family who have observed my actions and leadership for the last thirty years will know in their hearts and spirit that these allegations are false.”

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

SPAIN
The Olive Press

EXCLUSIVE By Jacqueline Fanchini

A BRITISH vicar has told the Olive Press how he spent family holidays with a trio of priests involved in an alleged Granada sex ring.

The Dorset-based clergyman explained that the group seemed ‘so nice, open and hospitable’ during holidays with his wife and children in the city.

The holy man, who asked for his identity to be protected, insisted the group of priests arrested ‘acted like a family’ and were ‘very supportive of each other’.

While three priests have so far been arrested, up to a dozen more are still under investigation.

The probe in the Zaidin parish was launched after one victim, abused from the age of 13, wrote to Pope Francis, who encouraged him to go to the police in Spain.

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

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Dominguez on Thursday flew to Warsaw and then to the Vatican to gather evidence in the pedophilia cases against the Pope’s former envoy Józef Wesolowski and Catholic priest Wojciech Waldemar Gil (Padre Alberto) in the Dominican Republic.

In a statement the official said he plans to reaffirm the charges against the Polish prelates in his country.

Dominguez is slated to meet separately with Polish Attorney General Andrzy Seremet, as well as the prosecutor fpr the case against Gil, Malgorzata Adamjtys.

He will also meet with prosecutors Radolsaw Domalerowski and Marta Chmielewska, who represent two Dominican minors allegedly victims abused by Gil.

The priest, who also faces charges in Poland , is accuse of sexually abusing at least seven boys in the highland village of Juncalito near Janico, Santiago province (north).

Domínguez will then travel to Vatican City where he has meetings planned relating to the case against Wesolowski.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Gazette

PARENTS of sick children have been hearing how a doctor sexually abused them metres from where they stood.

Children’s doctor Myles Bradbury, 41, of Herringswell, Suffolk, is due to be sentenced on Monday after the full extent of his betrayal was revealed today at Cambridge Crown Court.

Bradbury, who was based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital but ran clinics at Colchester General Hospital, has already admitted 25 offences against children. …

Some of the victims, abused by the married man who was also involved in Scout and church groups, spoke out in court about being betrayed by a man who was supposed to help them with their serious medical problems.

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

MALTA
Malta Today

Jurgen Balzan 29 November 2014

Bishop Charles Scicluna has begged for forgiveness and promised that cases of sexual abuse by clergy members will be they will be investigated and judged within the shortest time possible.

While announcing new procedures, Scicluna told the faithful “I need the cooperation of each and every one of you, in order that abuses may be reported and stopped, and in order that any dangerous situations may be detected and averted.”

In his pastoral letter to mark advent, the Apostolic Administrator of Malta said “several people have expressed their heartache when they see signs of frailty in priests. Their heartache is also the heartache of the Church.”

He also announced that the Church has approved a new policy on how it should deal with cases of sexual abuse involving its members.

“In all humility, I beg forgiveness for all those things which could have wounded some of our brothers and sisters, and I commit myself to do my part in order that, together with the other Bishops and Religious Superiors, we may uphold our duty to safeguard our flock to the best of our abilities, and as far as we are able to.”

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

MALTA
Gozo News

The Curia has said in a statement today that it is publishing its new procedures for the protection of children and vulnerable adults, including the procedure to be followed when sexual abuse is reported.

“It will be known as the ‘Safeguarding Commission,’ with new members and new procedures, with emphasis on building a community and an environment where we will all do our utmost to prevent abuse; in cases where abuses occur, they will be investigated and judged within the shortest time possible, according to our country’s legislation and Church law.”

“The new procedures consolidate the Church’s commitment to offer any psychological and spiritual assistance which the victims may require,” the Curia said.

The revision was made at the request of the Bishops and heads of religious orders.

Details on the Safeguarding Commission are available in Maltese to download here

In a Pastoral Letter for Advent 2014 by Charles Jude Scicluna. Titular Bishop of San Leone and Apostolic Administrator of Malta: ‘Welcoming the Light of Jesus’ he explains some of the details of the new procedure.

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

MALTA
Times of Malta

the guidelines
pastoral letter

The Church has announced a new procedure for the immediate investigation of sexual abuse allegations and to determine the probability of such abuse having taken place.

In a statement, the Curia said it was publishing its new procedures for the protection of children and vulnerable adults, including the procedure to be followed when sexual abuse is reported.

The emphasis of the procedure is on education and prevention of abuse as well as ensuring that when abuse takes place, it is investigated in the fastest possible time. The procedure also reiterates the Church’s commitment to offer psychological and spiritual help to the victims of abuse, whether children or vulnerable adults

The revision was made at the request of the Bishops and heads of religious orders. It provides for the setting up of a Safeguarding Commission formed of professionals whose duties would include risk assessment in each case,

The procedure provides for an investigator to collect information on alleged abuse in the shortest possible time. He will determine the facts and determine whether the probability that abuse had taken place by a member of the church or somebody else involved in the Church.

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

MALTA
Malta Independent

Curia announces new process to deal with cases of sexual abuse, says investigations will be quicker

The Archbishop’s Curia this morning announced new procedures for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. These include the procedure for cases of sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

The Curia said the emphasis is on education and preventing abuse and investigating it in a short time if it occurs, according to the national and church laws.

The revision of the procedures was carried out at the request of the Maltese Bishops and religious superiors. “These new procedures strengthen the Church’s resolve to offer psychological and spiritual help to victims of sexual abuse, whether they are minors or adults.

The church said it is launching a Safeguarding Commission made up of competent professionals. Among other things, the commission will have a duty to make risk evaluations in every case.

The new structure will allow investigators to gather all information related to an abuse case in the shortest possible time. They will establish the facts and determine whether abuse was carried out by members of the clergy as well as laymen and members of organisations related to the church.

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

MALTA
Malta Independent

MUT survey shows teachers living in fear of false abuse allegations, fear affecting their work

More than two thirds of teachers who took part in an MUT survey said they feel that their work is being affected b reports of alleged cases of abuse by educators and the debate that follows.

A quarter said this was keeping them from participating in or organising extracurricular activities with students and 84% of educators believe that the identity of people charged with child abuse should not be exposed until the court finds them guilty.

The results of the survey, which was carried out over the past two months, were presented by MUT Senior Vice President Mario Bonnici at a national conference this morning. Mr Bonnici said there were 450 respondents and the survey findings will be presented to the Education Ministry.

Mr Bonnici said four main cases occurred before the survey was carried out: an LSA who was charged with abusing a child in Gozo, a man cleared of abusing a girl after seven years, the ongoing case of a Gozitan priest accused of abusing three girls and the case of a MUSEUM catechist charged with defiling a 10-year-old while swimming.

The MUT official said nearly all respondents said they were avoiding being alone with one pupil after these cases emerged. More than half said they had avoided online communication. Two in five suggested CCTV cameras in school to reduce the risk of allegations.

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

MICHIGAN
WOOD

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — In a court document discussing the sentencing of a former Christian radio host who admitted to sexually assaulting children, federal prosecutors call John Balyo a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and describe a series of disturbing photographs found in his storage unit.

In July, Balyo pleaded guilty to federal charges of child pornography possession and sexual exploitation of a child after raping and taking explicit photographs of a 12-year-old boy in Kalamazoo County in April. He is expected to be sentenced next month.

In a memorandum filed with the U.S. District Court on Wednesday, federal prosecutors laid out their reasoning for their sentencing recommendations.The document starts by describing Balyo’s positive reputation as a Christian radio host with WCSG whose “voice filled the cars of families commuting to work and school with their children,” a recently married man, a wedding photographer, a volunteer with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, a former camp counselor, and a missionary who worked with children.

“No on ever reported any misgivings or indiscretions about Balyo,” the memo reads. “But he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

The document then takes a sharp turn to describe the items federal investigators found in Balyo’s Plainfield Township storage unit.

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

MICHIGAN
WWMT

[with video]

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Prosecutors offered harsh words in a sentencing memorandum regarding a former Christian radio host.

In a newly filed sentencing memorandum, prosecutors call John Balyo a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Right now, Balyo is awaiting sentencing on federal charges related to child porn and sexual exploitation of a child.

In the memorandum, photos show a bondage kit recovered from a storage unit Balyo kept–the same bondage kit prosecutors say that Balyo brought to hotels in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek to sexually assault a little boy.

They say Balyo’s storage unit also had children’s obituaries, news clippings detailing sexual abuse involving kids, and child pornography.

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

MICHIGAN
MLive

By John Agar | jagar@mlive.com
on November 28, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The government says John Balyo, the former Christian radio host who was fired when he was arrested for sexually assaulting a young boy, had an anatomically correct child-sized male mannequin seized by federal investigators, records show.

He kept the mannequin, tied up and in a dog crate and a federal prosecutor said he would point a pistol at it before masturbating.

Balyo, 35, a former host at WCSG, will be sentenced Dec. 11 on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child and possessing child pornography. He’s already serving 25 to 50 years in prison on child sexual abuse convictions from state courts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tessa Hessmiller filed a sentencing memorandum this week that outlined the allegations against Balyo as well as disturbing items seized by investigators.

Here are some items of evidence police seized:

• A bondage kit, which included four pairs of handcuffs, rolls of duct tape, a parachute cord, nylon rope, 107 zip ties, rubber gloves, two 18-inch chains and a padlock. He brought the kit with him when he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy at hotels in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo.

• Photos that Balyo took in 2008 of a then-16-year-old boy who was bound but not nude.

• A thumb drive that included encrypted files titled: “hostage1” and “hostage2.”

• Newspaper clippings related to the kidnapping, death and sexual abuse of children.

•A collection of children’s obituaries.

• A notebook with many boys’ names and phrases such as “swimming,” “photo shoot,” “sleeping/napping,” “strapped down,” “boy/cub scout,” “headlock,” “abuse” and “swim lessons.”

• Articles about BTK (bind, torture, kill) serial killer Dennis Rader, who killed 10 in Kansas between 1974 and 1991.

• Photographs of naked children.

• DVDs, a camera, a camcorder

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

MICHIGAN
MLive

By John Agar | jagar@mlive.com
on November 28, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Photos discovered in the child sex assault investigation of former Christian radio host John Balyo show him pointing a handgun at a boy-sized mannequin tied to a post before he used the mannequin’s feet to masturbate, the government said in court records.

He kept the anatomically correct mannequin, with a blond wig, tied up in a dog crate, authorities said.

“The series of photographs ended with Balyo wrapping the mannequin in a carpet or tarpaulin, as if to bury it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Tessa Hessmiller wrote in court documents.

Hessmiller filed a memorandum in advance of Balyo’s Dec. 11 sentencing in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

Balyo, 35, of Caledonia, is serving 25 to 50 years in state prison for molesting a boy in May at a Battle Creek hotel. He pleaded guilty in Calhoun County Circuit Court to first-degree criminal-sexual conduct.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Morning Star

Saturday 29TH

As the former head of a children’s home at the centre of the MPs’ child abuse scandal is jailed, evidence emerges that children may have been murdered by paedophile politicians. Steven Walker reports.

The recent reports that children may have been murdered by paedophiles — including MPs known to have visited the notorious Elm Guest House — has followed a relentless pattern of allegations that the Establishment has been sitting on one of the biggest scandals in modern times.

On Wednesday the first conviction under the Operation Pallial investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at the Bryn Alyn Community in Wrexham saw John Allen, the former head of the children’s homes, jailed for 26 offences committed over several decades against children placed in his care.

Wrexham is the area where local MP and paedophile Peter Morrison, a former top aide to Margaret Thatcher, preyed on vulnerable children. It seems that the testimony of historic victims of child sexual abuse, the various campaigns to obtain evidence and other efforts to force the government to act, have begun to take effect.

Week after week it seems that more news emerges to confirm the suspicion that the Establishment is working hard to disguise the actions of MI5, Special Branch, Scotland Yard and Parliament in covering up some of the most heinous crimes against vulnerable children. …

Two years ago it was revealed that at the inquest into the death of Carole Kasir, who ran the Elm Guest House and died in 1990, evidence was submitted at the coroner’s court that MPs including members of the right-wing Monday Club, judges, a bishop, a local authority children’s services director and a prominent businessman all used the Elm Guest House to rape children who had been procured from Grafton Close children’s home in Richmond.

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

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

THE UN wants the Abbott government to take on the Vatican over documents relating to child abuse by Catholic clergy.

In a report handed down in Geneva on Friday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture welcomed the work of the national royal commission into child sexual abuse.

However, the Australian government should take “all appropriate measures” to get “all evidence” from the Vatican to ensure meaningful investigations can be carried out.

Cardinal George Pell has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse such a request is unreasonable because some documents are private and internal to a sovereign state — the Vatican.

Earlier in November, a delegation from Canberra told the UN the royal commission was independent and it was up to it to pursue the Vatican.

However, the committee said Australia “has the responsibility to ensure that all reports of breaches of the convention are promptly and impartially investigated”, and it should seek help from the Vatican when it was necessary to do this.

It also “remains concerned as to whether the outcome of its (the royal commission’s) work will result in criminal investigations, prosecutions and redress and compensation for victims”.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

On Tuesday (11/25), Pope Francis rebuked legislators in an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg as follows: “As the European Union has expanded, there has been growing mistrust on the part of citizens towards institutions considered to be aloof, engaged in laying down rules perceived as insensitive to individual peoples, if not downright harmful …” Ironically, his remarks reminded some of criticisms of the Vatican.

On the papal return flight from France, Francis responded as follows to a reporter’s question about a newly reported ongoing priest abuse scandal in Grenada, Spain:

“I received this news with great pain, very great pain, but the truth is the truth and we should not hide it.”

But, of course, unless Pope Francis is committed to an independent and transparent abuse investigation process, which he does not appear to be yet, he and his Vatican staff are, in effect, “hiding it”, at least in some respects, no?

Three days after the pope’s nice sounding “no hiding” remark, in a report issued in Geneva on Friday (11/28), the United Nations Committee Against Torture reportedly directed that the Australian national government under Prime Minister Tony Abbott should take on the Vatican over documents, requested by the Australian Royal Commission into institutional child abuse, that the Vatican has refused to produce.

The documents relate to, among other matters, the cases of several priests who allegedly abused over 100 Australian children. The UN Committee, acting under the so-called Torture Treaty that both the Vatican and Australia have agreed to follow, indicated that the Australian government should take “all appropriate measures” to get “all evidence” from the Vatican to ensure meaningful investigations can be carried out.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, now Pope Francis’ economic czar, had told the Royal Commission that such a request is unreasonable because some documents are private and internal to a sovereign state – the Vatican. The Vatican’s local ambassador, UK Archbishop Paul Gallagher, had refused to produce these documents when requested to do so by the Royal Commission. Gallagher was just promoted to be the Vatican’s new foreign minister. Coincidences? Perhaps.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 28 November 2014)

In Sydney District Court on 25 November 2014, Marist Brother John Dennis Maguire was convicted on child-sex charges. Maguire had been charged with multiple incidents of committing an act of indecency. The victim was a student at a Catholic boys’ boarding school in Sydney (St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill) in the early 1980s.

A jury spent several days hearing evidence. The jury then found Maguire guilty on six of the incidents and not guilty on two other alleged incidents.

The case was heard by Judge P. Witford.

Pre-sentence proceedings are scheduled to be held on 27 February 2015. At this hearing, the prosecutor and the defence lawyer can tell the judge what kind of sentence should be imposed. Later, the judge would announce the sentence.

The court’s case number is 201300295587.

Brother John Dennis Maguire (born on 13 December 1943) has spent his career in the Catholic order of Marist Brothers in Australia.

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

PORTUGAL
SAPO

[A priest at Santa Eulalia, Fafe, has been suspended after being accused to sexual abuse.]

O padre de Santa Eulália, em Fafe, suspeito de abusos sexuais foi suspenso. A Arquidiocese de Braga confirma estar a colaborar com a justiça para esclarecer o caso, que foi denunciado às autoridades pelo Bispo do Porto.

“Por razões de prudência pastoral, de serenidade na investigação e até que todas as dúvidas se dissipem, a arquidiocese ordenou [ao padre em questão] a suspensão da actividade pastoral que vinha exercendo em favor da comunidade de Sta. Eulália de Fafe e não deixará de colaborar com as instâncias judiciais”, lê-se num comunicado divulgado esta quinta-feira.

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

REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
El Diario

[Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito, has travelled officially to Poland and Rome to assistant in the prosecution of ex nuncio Jozef Wesolowski and priest Wojciech Waldemar Gil who allegedly abusing children while serving in the Dominican Republic.]

Por: Panky Corcino / Corresponsal
PUBLICADO: NOV, 27, 2014

Santo Domingo.-El procurador general, Francisco Domínguez Brito, partió en un viaje oficial Polonia y a Roma para fijar la posición del Estado en los procesos por violación sexual de menores dominicanos que se siguen al exnuncio Józef Wesolowski y el sacerdote Wojciech Waldemar Gil (padre Alberto Gil).

La Procuraduría informó que Domínguez Brito visitará primero a Polonia, en donde sostendrá reuniones por separado con su homólogo polaco, Andrzy Seremet, así como con la fiscal que lleva el caso contra el padre Alberto Gil.

También se reunirá con la juez Malgorzata Adamjtys y los procuradores Radoslaw Domalerowski y Marta Chmielewska, quienes tienen la responsabilidad de representar judicialmente a dos de los menores de edad dominicanos, víctimas de violación sexual en la comunidad de Juncalito, Santiago (Noroeste).

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

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Dominguez on Thursday flew to Warsaw and then to the Vatican to gather evidence in the pedophilia cases against the Pope’s former envoy Józef Wesolowski and Catholic priest Wojciech Waldemar Gil (Padre Alberto) in the Dominican Republic.

In a statement the official said he plans to reaffirm the charges against the Polish prelates in his country.

Dominguez is slated to meet separately with Polish Attorney General Andrzy Seremet, as well as the prosecutor fpr the case against Gil, Malgorzata Adamjtys.

He will also meet with prosecutors Radolsaw Domalerowski and Marta Chmielewska, who represent two Dominican minors allegedly victims abused by Gil.

The priest, who also faces charges in Poland , is accuse of sexually abusing at least seven boys in the highland village of Juncalito near Janico, Santiago province (north).

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

WATYKAN
Natemat

URSZULA SCHWARZENBERG-CZERNY

Były nuncjusz apostolski na Dominikanie czeka na proces przed watykańskim trybunałem – w areszcie domowym jest od września. O tym, że może opuszczać swoje miejsce pobytu, poinformowała włoska agencja Ansa. W sobotę widziany był na spacerze.

Wesołowski został aresztowany 23 września. Ze względu na zły stan zdrowia nie został osadzony w areszcie, ale powinien przebywać w watykańskim Kolegium Penitencjarzy. Watykan na razie nie złożył wyjaśnień w tej sprawie. Arcybiskupowi grozi 7 lat więzienia.

Na terytorium Watykanu spotkało go kilka osób, nie kryjąc zaskoczenia – donosi agencja Ansa. Nie jest jasne, czy to oznacza, że duchowny odzyskał wolność, czy też może zapadła jakaś nowa decyzja w jego sprawie. Nie było oficjalnego komunikatu na ten temat, a przez ostatnie kilka tygodni trudno było dotrzeć do informacji na temat losu arcybiskupa. Nieoficjalne doniesienia mówią tylko, że jest zdeterminowany, by odbierać wszelkie zarzuty.

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

CITTA’ SEL VATICANO
Blitz Quotidiano

24 novembre 2014

[Former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was seen recently walking quietly inside Vatican City. As of Sept. 23 he is under house arrest at the Vatican for allegations of abusing children when he was apostolic nuncio to the Domincan Republic. Vatican sources are unwilling to specify whether Wesolowski has returned to freedom or is at least supervised. The former archbishop, who has been defrocked, will continue to live at the College of Penitentiaries, the structure on the top floor of the where where the Vatican court is located.]

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO – Accusato di aver violentato bambini quando era nunzio apostolico a Santo Domingo, Jozef Wesolowski è stato visto girare tranquillamente all’interno della Città del Vaticano. Wesolowski dal 23 settembre scorso è agli arresti domiciliari in Vaticano nell’ambito di un procedimento per abusi sessuali sui minori ma da sabato è stato visto nuovamente circolare, in apparente libertà, nella Città Leonina.

Più persone lo hanno incontrato con una certa sorpresa, non essendo stato comunicato alcun provvedimento sulla cessazione o la conversione della misura restrittiva a suo carico. Interpellate sull’argomento, le fonti ufficiali vaticane non hanno voluto finora precisare se Wesolowski sia tornato in libertà, quanto meno vigilata, per la scadenza dei termini di custodia o per un nuovo provvedimento emesso dal magistrato.

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

ESPANA
Diario de Soria

[A priest – who answered to initials JST, who taught religion classes in Medinaceli denied yesterday that he touched students. He is on trial in the provincial court. He was removed temporarily from teaching in March 2013.]

El sacerdote que impartía clases de Religión en Medinaceli, y al que la Fiscalía acusa de tres delitos de abusos sexuales a menores, negó ayer en la segunda sesión del juicio que se celebra en la Audiencia Provincial que realizara tocamientos a alumnas durante los cursos 2011/12 y 2012/13.

El acusado, que responde a las iniciales J.S.T. y que fue apartado temporalmente de la docencia en marzo de 2013, prestó declaración por espacio de unos 15 minutos, como continuación de una primera sesión celebrada el martes, en la que declararon, entre otras personas, las menores que supuestamente sufrieron los abusos sexuales.

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

ESPANA
El Pais

[A priest convicted of pedophilia is working in the Cordoba diocese. Jose Domingo Rey Godoy was sentenced in May 2003 to 11 years is prison for sexually abusing eight children ages 8 and 9. He was paroled in 2010. During October 2000 to June 2001 he used the confessional to molest several girls who were preparing to receive First Communion in the Church of El Salvardor Penarroya-Turblonuevo (Cordoba).]

MANUEL ALBERT Córdoba 27 NOV 2014

La Iglesia de Córdoba mantiene a un cura condenado por pederastia trabajando en la diócesis. Se trata de José Domingo Rey Godoy, religioso sentenciado en mayo de 2003 a 11 años de cárcel por abusar sexualmente de ocho menores de entre ocho y nueve años. El hombre obtuvo la libertad condicional en 2010. Durante los meses de octubre de 2000 a junio de 2001 abusó en el confesionario de varias niñas que se estaban preparando para recibir la primera comunión en la iglesia de El Salvador de Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo (Córdoba). Las agresiones —fundamentalmente tocamientos— se produjeron siendo obispo Francisco Javier Martínez, actual arzobispo de Granada. Allí se ha vuelto a vivir otro presunto caso de violencia sexual a menores por parte de tres curas y un profesor de religión que ha obligado a Martínez a pedir perdón públicamente.

Como ha ocurrido en Granada, donde los religiosos han seguido en activo con permiso de la diócesis, el obispo Martínez tampoco relevó nunca de su puesto de párroco a Rey Godoy. Y eso, a pesar de las gravísimas acusaciones que se le hacían por parte de las familias de las menores. “Queríamos que el obispo supiera lo que estaba pasando con él y que le sacara lejos de nuestro pueblo. Queríamos evitar el calvario que suponíamos que iba a suponer para nuestra hija si el caso se judicializaba”, explicaba en 2010 una de las madres de las menores. Pero Martínez se mantuvo inamovible y dejó al cura al frente de una parroquia completamente polarizada entre quienes creían al religioso y quienes defendían a las niñas. No fue su único apoyo. Antonio Jurado Torrero, entonces vicario de la zona, representante del Obispado de Córdoba, respaldó plenamente “la buena conducta” y la moral de Rey Godoy.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 29, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

When Sanatan Saraswati first arrived at the Satyananda Yoga Ashram more than three decades ago he thought he had found paradise.

Set at the foot of Mangrove Mountain in the lush NSW Central Coast hinterland, the retreat was a place of serenity and spirituality.

Then in his early 30s and disillusioned with mainstream society, he was looking for something more and thought he had finally discovered it among the small community of yoga devotees led by a charismatic director, Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.

“It was something almost magical,” he recalled from his home on Queensland’s Gold Coast. “It was so far removed from the rest of society and a lot of really good things happened there. It’s just that on the inside, at the core, something really rotten happened.”

The exact nature of what happened in those rolling green hills is the subject of a public hearing by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, starting on Tuesday.

The hearing will examine the Satyananda Yoga Ashram, which changed its name to Mangrove Yoga Ashram in 2012, and its founding director Swami Akhandananda Saraswati, who established the centre in 1974 and was later charged with more than 35 sex offences against four teenage girls.

Found guilty on lesser charges of indecency, he was jailed in 1989 but his conviction was overturned six years before his death in 1997.

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

AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Annette Blackwell
November 29, 2014

The UN wants the Abbott government to take on the Vatican over documents relating to child abuse by Catholic clergy.

In a report handed down in Geneva on Friday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture welcomed the work of the national royal commission into child sexual abuse.

However, the Australian government should take “all appropriate measures” to get “all evidence” from the Vatican to ensure meaningful investigations can be carried out.

Cardinal George Pell has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse such a request is unreasonable because some documents are private and internal to a sovereign state – the Vatican.

Earlier in November, a delegation from Canberra told the UN the royal commission was independent and it was up to it to pursue the Vatican.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Conversation

Donna Peach
Lecturer in Social Work at University of Salford

The Home Office’s planned inquiry into child sexual abuse across all areas of British public life has had a troubled start to say the least. While its panel has at last begun to meet and hear evidence, its terms of reference and geographical scope are still under review, and the hunt for a suitable chair has been a major embarrassment.

Yet still, the inquiry is a vital attempt to challenge the vast scale of child abuse across the UK. The need for it has only been driven home since the inquiry was mooted; just recently, 13 men were jailed for a running a grooming operation in Bristol that sexually exploited teenage girls for financial gain.

As other huge cases in Rotherham and Northern Ireland have shown, one of the most challenging aspects of confronting the sexual abuse of children is that it is concertedly hidden. Those who purposefully use children for sexual gratification deploy power, fear and silence to protect their behaviour.

It is precisely our reluctance to think about the reality of child abuse and how it is able to persist that allows it to continue. If we want to eradicate it from our society, we all need to contribute to changing that.

Of course, based on what we do already know, the challenge is immense.

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

ESPANA
El Economista

[Sergio, 45, a former seminarian has now reported he was sexually abused at age 11 at the Seminario Mercedario Reus.]

Un antiguo seminarista catalán -Sergio, de 45 años- ha denunciado ahora abusos sexuales cuando tenía 11 años y estaba interno en el Seminario Mercedario de Reus.

Según publica Diari de Tarragona, el antiguo seminarista se ha decidido a desvelar su historia, pasados 34 años, “para quitarme un peso que he llevado encima durante demasiado tiempo”, animado por la investigación policial y las detenciones de los presuntos autores de abusos en Granada.

El Seminario de Reus estuvo activo entre los años 1941 y 1995, hasta que fue derruido en el año 2007 y Sergio ingresó como interno en 1982 por circunstancias familiares. Su estancia era plácida hasta que cogió la gripe y le llevaron a la enfermería para pasar la noche y, allí, un padre llamado Javier le sometió, presuntamente, a abusos hasta que el niño rompió a llorar cuando el religioso le intentó quitar la ropa interior.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

When I was a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer and had a story to pitch, I used to go editor shopping.

Back in the 1990s when the newspaper had 600 journalists, there were so many departments to shop in — news, features, sports, the projects desk where they did long, investigative stories, and the Sunday magazine. And so many different editors to pitch a story to. If one editor said no it was on to the next one until I made a sale.

Sadly, one rule applied to too many editors I dealt with. If you told them something they already knew, something that squared with the prevailing wisdom, you were in good shape. But if you told those same editors something new, especially something that might challenge the prevailing wisdom, that’s when the trouble started.

On this blog for the past two years, we’ve been dealing with the ultimate contrarian story. A junkie criminal scheming to get out of prison poses as a victim of clerical sex abuse. A politically ambitious district attorney drafts that junkie criminal as his star witness to put men in collars behind bars while the media and public cheer him on. Even though people in the D.A.’s own office privately agreed with defense lawyer Michael J. McGovern’s characterization of star witness Billy Doe as a “lying sack of shit.”

It’s the story nobody wants to hear because it runs counter to the cult of victimology and current, pervasive prejudices against Catholic clerics. But in Philadelphia, with three courts prying into the local district attorney’s self-described “historic” prosecution of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the truth is lurking out there. Especially in the civil case beginning next month when certain current and former members of the district attorney’s office are placed under oath and have to answer some tough questions about a bogus investigation rigged from day one.

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

IRELAND
Newstalk

New research into the sexual lives of Irish Catholic priests shows many are sexually active or have been in the past, and that there is a gay scene within the church.

‘Thirty-Three Good Men: Celibacy, Obedience and Identity’ publishes new analysis of priests’ views from a series of interviews conducted by Dr John Weafer, a former seminarian who is now married with children.

The book also reveals that the bishops are often aware of the situation.

Dr Weafer says one priest he spoke to told about his struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality:

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Dr Weafer says “if a priest was to say in the morning ‘I am gay’, he would be fired. Priests have learned to keep their heads down”.

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Nov. 28, 2014 Faith and Justice

When people do not like their bishop, they often call for the pope to fire him and appoint another. Such requests have come from the right and the left in the church. The right has asked for the removal of bishops it considers unorthodox while the left has wanted to remove bishops who lack pastoral qualities. In recent years, many have demanded the removal of bishops who have not responded adequately to the sexual abuse crisis.

In Catholic theology, a bishop is considered the vicar of Christ in his diocese. He is not the vicar of the pope or simply a branch manager in the multinational corporation called the Catholic church. As a result, theologians and canon lawyers get nervous when Catholics talk about the pope firing bishops.

In ancient times, bishops were sometimes judged by provincial or regional councils of bishops who could depose them. As time went on, these judgments were appealed to Rome, which acted as an appeals court rather than a corporate central office.

Civil authorities (emperors, kings and nobles) might also intervene against a bishop, although the church usually fought such interference.

On the other hand, people sometimes complain when bishops are removed. Most recently, conservative Catholics have objected to the removal of Cardinal Raymond Burke as head of the Apostolic Signatura and the removal of Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano from his diocese in Paraguay. Earlier, liberals complained about the removal of Bishop William Morris from his Australian diocese.

It is important, however, to distinguish between the firing of a bishop from an office in the Roman Curia and removing a bishop from his diocese.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

David Brown
November 28 2014

A priest and a retired children’s home manager yesterday denied sexually abusing and taking indecent photographs of boys as young as ten in the first prosecution into an alleged establishment paedophile network.

John Stingemore is accused of abusing six boys. Father Tony McSweeney allegedly indecently assaulted two of the youngsters and a third alleged victim, and made child abuse images judged to be in the worst category

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
28/11/2014

Ground-breaking new research into the sexual lives of Irish Catholic priests has revealed many of them are or have been sexually active, that the bishops are aware of the situation, and that there is a gay scene within the church.

‘Thirty-Three Good Men: Celibacy, Obedience and Identity’ publishes new analysis of priests’ views from a series of interviews conducted by Dr John Weafer, a former seminarian who is now married with children.

The book, which has just been published by Columba Books, reveals that one parish priest interviewed confidentially by Weafer is in a long term gay relationship.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the author said ‘Fr C’ was “very happy with his life as a priest and a person”.

Another priest interviewed, ‘Fr L’ was ordained in the 1990s. It was only when he was ordained that he finally ended up ‘sleeping’ with another priest.

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

GUAM
KUAM

by Jolene Toves

Guam – The archbishop of the Archdiocese of Agana is, by nature of the position, the highest-ranking Catholic locally – and as such, the person who takes the cloth in that role is usually the biggest target for scrutiny. But while it’s taught to turn the other cheek and solve disputes through reason and prayer, it seems the leader of the Guam’s Catholic faithful is intending to file a defamation lawsuit amid recent controversies involving the church.

t’s been long and rough road for the island’s Catholic church. This year, for example, the removal of Father John Wadeson stemming from allegation of child molestation prior to coming to Guam. Then there was the sudden removal of Monsignor James Benavente as rector of the Archdiocese of Agana, which was received with outrage and disappointment. Then just recently media reports about a man accusing the archbishop of sexual molestation, and then talks about why Archbishop Anthony Apuron really met with Pope Francis in the Vatican last week.

The head of the island’s Catholic Church, is back on island and issued a statement exclusively to KUAM – Apuron requested to meeting with the pope and he was granted an audience on November 21.

“I wanted to speak with the Holy Father about the situation of the church in Guam and the critical role we play in the evangelization of the Pacific, we spoke of the challenges and the joys of our church. Pope Francis showed interest to know about Guam and the Pacific,” stated his Excellency.

Apuron says that he also invited the pope to visit our island on his way to the Philippines. As for recent allegations of sexual molestation Apuron says nothing could be further from the truth. “It is a horribly calumny and I am obliged to defend not my person but the church. On the advice of legal counsel I will not answer any questions. However defending the church compels me to a suit – a defamation suit – any damages that I receive I will not keep for myself but will be given to the charitable causes of our church.”

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

KerkNet

[The trial of a German e-learning project on preventing child abuse in the Catholic Church has been competed, according to Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising and Father Hans Zollner, president of the Center for Child Protection. Results were positive, they said.]

BRUSSEL (KerkNet/RadVat) – De proefperiode van het e-learningproject ‘Preventie van seksueel misbruik’ van het Centrum voor Kinderbescherming is voltooid. Vanaf 1 januari verhuist het centrum naar Rome. Dat hebben de Duitse kardinaal Reinhard Marx, de aartsbisschop van München en Freising, en pater Hans Zollner, de voorzitter van het centrum en het Instituut voor Psychologie van de Gregoriaanse Universiteit, bekendgemaakt.

De jezuïet Hans Zollner is bijzonder tevreden met het geleverde werk: “De eindbalans is zeer positief. Wij hebben een e-learningprogramma, een via internet ondersteund leerplatform, gestart in samenwerking met het universitair ziekenhuis van Ulm en met de steun van het aartsbisdom München en Freising. Het werd uitgeprobeerd met deelnemers uit tien landen en elf projectpartners. De respons was zeer positief. Daarom wordt dit project voortgezet. Vanaf 1 januari verhuizen wij naar de Gregoriaanse Universiteit in Rome, waar het project wordt verdiept.” De leiding van het centrum in Rome is in handen van de Vlaamse theologe Karlijn Demasure.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
EADT

Colin Adwent Crime Correspondent
Friday, November 28, 2014

Two more children have made allegations against paedophile Suffolk cancer specialist Dr Myles Bradbury, bringing the total number of complainants to 20.

Cambridgeshire Police confirmed they have received the additional complaints alleging abuse following the paediatric oncologist’s guilty pleas in September to a raft of sex offences against young cancer sufferers in his care, and child pornography charges.

Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where Bradbury, of Herringswell, near Bury St Edmunds, worked has also said it has now received more than 200 calls to its helpline for patients set up following the case being made public.

In addition it has emerged that in November 2012 Bradbury flew out to an African orphanage in Swaziland on a church mission to help children with Aids. This was months after the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in Britain was warned he was a possible suspect in a worldwide child pornography inquiry.

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

NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: Friday, November 28, 2014

An attorney representing alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Diocese of Gallup bankruptcy case is seeking insurance and financial records from the Franciscan Friars, which for years posted members at parishes in New Mexico and Arizona.

Twelve sexual abuse claims filed as part of the bankruptcy identify seven Franciscan priests as the alleged abusers, according to court records.

In addition, many of the sexual abuse claims allegedly took place during the tenure of Bishop Bernard Espelage, a Franciscan priest who served as the first bishop of the Gallup diocese from 1939 until 1970, records said.

The Diocese of Gallup filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in November 2013, making it the ninth U.S. diocese to file for bankruptcy in response to sexual abuse lawsuits.

James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney representing 56 alleged abuse victims who filed claims in the case, filed motions asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma to order two Franciscan provinces to provide records in the case.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

As millions of US Catholics celebrate their second Thanksgiving holiday of Pope Francis’ papacy, the almost blind hope that permeated the first holiday a year ago in now tempered with watchful caution. After 20 months with this cryptic pope, many Catholics are becoming less optimistic he will make a real difference in updating the Catholic Church and cleaning up the “holy mess”, especially the child abuse scandal.

Many Catholics realize Pope Francis’ papacy faces a unique situation — both an unprecedented crisis and an unexpected opportunity. This crisis (A) erodes Catholic trust in light of the longstanding gap between the Vatican’s words and deeds, (B) invites outside governmental intervention at a time when the Vatican lacks powerful international protectors like it had for centuries, and (C) underscores the urgent need for key changes in the Church’s unworkable top down structure and misinformed moral teachings. The crisis has also contributed, as indicated below, to one pope’s unanticipated resignation and to the replacement pope’s unpredictable revolution.

Significantly, the Catholic majority appears intuitively to understand that these risks generated by the present crisis, especially from building governmental pressures on the Vatican, have paradoxically also generated an unprecedented opportunity to restore the Church to an earlier condition — to a Church that Jesus’ first disciples would have recognized as completely consistent with Jesus’ Gospel message of love of God and of neighbors, even of enemies. This is an opportunity for a welcoming Church again that satisfies the needs of both conservative and progressive Catholics.

Before his 80th birthday in barely two years, Pope Francis can successfully seize the opportunity, follow his conscience and apply his unique status, forceful temperament and popular appeal. Most importantly, he can declare “infallibly” key changes. By then, he will have received new input from his two advisory Synods of Bishops. He has already been enlightened by his valuable almost two years of experience as pope. He now also is unhampered by his prior pastoral positions and unfettered by his earlier ideological constraints as an obedient cardinal, bishop and Jesuit.

If Pope Francis fails to act effectively soon, the consequences will likely be quite negative for the leadership of the Catholic Church. Some senior Church officials are increasingly facing risks of governmental, even criminal, investigations that the Vatican currently lacks the political power to prevent.

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

SPAIN
El Pais

JOSÉ ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ / VALME CORTÉS Granada 27 NOV 2014

Three clergymen and a religion teacher suspected of sexually abusing at least one minor in Granada were spared preventive prison following their court arraignment on Wednesday.

Román Martínez, considered the leader of a ring that may have abused a number of youngsters over several years, was granted bail of €10,000, which the accused has already deposited.

The other three suspects were released after the charges were read out to them, and forbidden to go near the two former altar boys who have filed complaints against them.

The first alleged victim sent a letter to Pope Francis before the summer, detailing his ordeal. To his surprise, the pontiff personally phoned him to apologize in the name of the Catholic Church and assure him that he had ordered an internal investigation into the case.

A second individual, who was named in that letter as another possible victim, has since stepped forward to confirm the abuse and file a police complaint against Los Romanones, as the ring was widely referred to locally.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

A De La Salle Brother who held senior positions at a residential home in Co Down has been giving evidence to Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

The Brother, who is in his 70s, was interviewed by police seven times over a 20-year period but never charged or prosecuted.

He told the inquiry that dealing with charges he denies has controlled his life for the past 20 years.

The inquiry allows all witnesses giving evidence to retain or waive their anonymity.

The chairman, retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart, has warned a number of times about reporting that might allow the identification of witnesses who opt to remain anonymous.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Police deemed rape allegations against a number of religious brothers at Rubane boys’ home County Down were “fabricated”, an inquiry has heard.

A former member of the De La Salle Order has been giving evidence at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

A boy had accused him of being taking part in a “gang rape” in the 1990s.

But counsel to the inquiry said that police regarded the claim as “not believable enough” to question him about.

He said a superintendent had concluded that the complaints made against the former brother were fabricated.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) directed there should be no prosecution.

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

POLSKA/POLAND
Ocaleni

POLSKI KOŚCIÓŁ CHCE OTWORZYĆ PUNKTY KONTAKTOWE DLA OFIAR NADUŻYĆ SEKSUALNYCH. KOMENTARZ OCALONYCH / POLISH CHURCH WANTS TO OPEN CONTACT POINTS FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE. A COMMENTARY FROM POLISH SURVIVORS

Ojciec Adam Żak, od 2013 roku koordynator episkopatu ds. ochrony dzieci i młodzieży, przedstawił plan finansowania przez Kościół w Polsce 4-5 punktów kontaktowych dla ofiar nadużyć seksualnych ze strony osób duchownych. Pierwsze z nich miałyby się pojawić „do końca wakacji 2015 roku”, jak podaje KAI. Sama decyzja o utworzeniu punktów kontaktowych pojawiła się już w Kościele w sierpniu 2014 roku.

/Father Adam Żak, since 2013 a coordinator of episcopate for children and youth protection, introduced the Church’s plan of financing of 4-5 contact points for the victims of clergy abuse . First points should be opened “until the end of summer 2015”, according to KAI (Catholic Information Agency). The decision about establishing contact points was made in August 2014.

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

POLSKA/POLAND
Ocaleni

Precedensowa sprawa z powództwa ofiary księdza pedofila – Marcina K. z Kołobrzegu – to nie tylko pierwsza w Polsce rozprawa o odszkodowanie od Kościoła, ale także pierwszy raz, kiedy sąd w Polsce wzywa hierarchów do tłumaczenia się ws. zaniedbań dotyczących ich podwładnego – księdza.

KOLEJNA ROZPRAWA: 28 listopada 2014 roku, godz. 11.00 SO w Koszalinie.

/The precedent case brought by Marcin K. – the victim of a pedophile priest, is not only the first compensation case against the Chuch, but also the first time when hierarchs will be asked to explain their negligence regarding their subordinate’s acts.

NEXT HEARING: November 28th, 2014 11 am, Regional Court in Koszalin

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Merkur

[Catholic priests have sexually abused children and adolescents and this scandal has shaken the entire church. A new prevention project aims to raise awareness in the worldwide church to the problem of child sexual abuse.]

München – Die katholische Kirche kämpft mit der Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle. Ein Präventionsprojekt soll verhindern, dass es künftig wieder solche Probleme gibt.

Der Skandal hatte die gesamte katholische Kirche erschüttert: Priester sollen Kinder und Jugendliche sexuell missbraucht haben. Jetzt gibt es ein Präventionsprojekt, das kirchliche Mitarbeiter weltweit für die Probleme des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs sensibilisieren soll.

Das Konzept wurde in einer dreijährigen Pilotphase bereits in München getestet und soll jetzt in Rom an der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana mehr Aufmerksamkeit erhalten. „Kinder und Jugendliche sollen in der Kirche einen geschützten Raum haben, um ihre Persönlichkeit zu entwickeln“, sagte Münchens Erzbischof Reinhard Marx am Mittwoch.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[The German Bishops’ Conference has come up with guidelines for handling sexual abuse allegations.]

t 61 Jahren ist einem schon so Einiges untergekommen. Doch über 2010, als die deutsche Kirche über Monate von immer neuen Missbrauchsfällen erschüttert wurde, sagt der Münchner Kardinal Reinhard Marx noch heute: “Das war das schlimmste Jahr, das ich erlebt habe. Es war aber auch eine Wende.”

In der Folge wurden Runde Tische eingerichtet, die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz einigte sich auf neue gemeinsame Richtlinien und das Erzbistum München-Freising hob 2012 in der bayerischen Landeshauptstadt das Zentrum für Kinderschutz aus der Taufe.

Dafür entwickelten das Institut für Psychologie der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom und die Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie/Psychotherapie Ulm ein weltweit einsetzbares E-Learning-Projekt “Prävention von sexuellem Kindesmissbrauch”.

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

GUAM
Marianas Variety

THURSDAY, 27 NOV 2014

JOHN Toves, who recently accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting his cousin in the 1980s, has called on the archbishop to step down.

In a letter to Apuron, Toves wrote: “Dear Archbishop, I now most respectfully, graciously, humbly and lovingly must beseech you to step down.”

Toves wrote about Apuron’s legacy and said Apuron has divided the church for too long. “You must stop and step down. If you continue, would you really want this to be your legacy? Archbishop (Felixberto Flores) would never have done this to his children,” Toves wrote. “I can no longer remain silent.”

Toves said his letter was signed and stamped received at the Chancery Office.

In another letter dated Nov. 21, Toves wrote to Deacon Larry Claros alleging that Apuron molested Toves’ cousin. Claros was appointed the sexual abuse response coordinator for the archdiocese effective Oct. 24, according to the archdiocesan website.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY CLAIRE WILLIAMSON – 27 NOVEMBER 2014

A former teacher described as “full of demonic evil” at a children’s care home has denied sexually assaulting a pupil in the shower.

He was giving evidence at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) in Banbridge, which is currently examining alleged ill-treatment and sex abuse at Rubane House, Co Down.

He was questioned about the discipline procedures in the school.

“There was a reward and debit system. If they behaved well they got points. That was the essence of it,” he said.

The inquiry was set up in 2013 to investigate child abuse at 13 residential institutions over a 73-year period up until 1995.

When asked had he ever heard the boys discussing any sexual abuse allegations, he said he only heard them “slagging each other off about having different orientations”.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By court reporter Jamelle Wells

A Christian Brother has been jailed for at least two years for indecently assaulting boys in New South Wales schools.

Desmond Richards, also known as brother Neil, was arrested after returning to Australia from the Vatican in 2013.

The 76-year-old previously taught at schools run by the Christian Brothers Catholic order across NSW.

District Court judge Peter Zahra sentenced him to at least two years’ jail for indecently assaulting four boys aged between 11 and 13 in the 1970s and 1980s.

The court heard the offences were committed at schools in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Sydney and at a school camp near Sydney.

Richards unlikely to reoffend: court told

Judge Zahra said Richards took advantage of the power he could assert as a teacher, but is now a frail 76-year-old who is unlikely to reoffend.

The court heard the victims were vulnerable or problem students.

The judge said the parents of one victim did not believe him when he reported the abuse and another victim banged on a dormitory wall during a school camp in Sydney to warn other students Richards was approaching.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 27, 2014

Paul Bibby

A former Christian Brothers headmaster who abused his position to indecently assault students in the 1970s and ’80s, but says he now has no memory of doing so, has been sentenced to at least two years’ jail.

Desmond Eric Richards, 73, assaulted four boys aged between 11 and 13 while working at Christian Brothers schools in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Strathfield between 1971 and 1989.

The Downing Centre District Court heard on Thursday that Richards would use his authority as a headmaster or teacher to order the boys into his office or an empty classroom, and then molest them.

In 1976, one victim, “GB”, was called into a classroom by Richards and told: “Mate, you have been in
He then kissed and molested the boy while holding him so he could not get away.

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

AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
27 NOV 2014

Angry scenes erupted in a Sydney court after an ex-Christian Brother was sentenced to at least two years in jail for indecently assaulting boys at NSW schools more than 30 years ago.

Desmond Eric Richards, 76, pleaded guilty earlier this month to abusing four boys between 1972 and 1982 in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west.

District Court Judge Peter Zahra on Thursday sentenced him to a non-parole period of two years after imposing a maximum sentence of three years and three months for the offences.

Shortly after the sentence was handed down and as Richards was escorted from the court, one of his victims shouted “you piece of f***g s**t, I’m going to drag you back in here and see you do 30 years.”

Others vocalised their disappointment with the sentence while some could be heard to say “hear hear”.

During each of the attacks in 1972, 1976 and 1982 Richards would isolate one of the boys and molest him, before subjecting his victim to weeks of physical punishment for minor transgressions.

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

INDIANA
The Journal Gazette

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

A Roman Catholic priest sued in Allen County in 2007 by a man who claimed he’d been sexually abused as a child is at the center of two new lawsuits in Minnesota, where attorneys allege he has left a trail of abuse around the nation.

Gerald Funcheon, 76, was ordained in the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese in 1965 and belonged to the Crosier Fathers & Brothers, a religious order headquartered in Phoenix. He left that order in 1987 and has not served as a priest since 1992, when he was determined “unassignable” and was removed from ministry by the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana.

The Allen County suit, which was dismissed, involved alleged abuse at a Catholic Youth Organization camp at Lake Wawasee in 1965.

Funcheon has faced sexual abuse lawsuits in Minnesota, Hawaii and California beginning in 2003. He was named in 2009 in a $1.7 million settlement involving four Crosier priests with a total of nine victims, three of whom had accused Funcheon. In an $18 million settlement in 2013 against the Irish Christian Brothers, seven of that case’s 400 plaintiffs had accused Funcheon. The order is affiliated with schools where he taught.

Now, Funcheon stands accused of sexually abusing four boys, ages 11 to 14, from 1970 to 1974 while they attended St. Odilia Catholic Church and School in Shoreview, Minnesota; and of abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1984 on a camping trip while Funcheon served at Palma High School in Salinas, California, one site of abuse alleged in the Irish Christian Brothers suit.

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

MISSISSIPPI
Fox Memphis

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – – The state Court of Appeals has upheld the 2013 conviction of a Mississippi pastor for sexual battery of a child.

Larry Gene Singleton, now 72, was convicted in Tate County on two counts of fondling and one count of sexual battery. He is serving a 30-year sentence.

Singleton, the former pastor of Bay Springs Baptist Church in Abbeville, was arrested in December of 2013 after sheriff’s investigators received a complaint from the victim, who accused Singleton of forcing him to have sex.

Authorities say the sexual abuse allegedly began when the victim was 11 years old and continued for several years.

The Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected Singleton’s argument that he was coerced into confessing to the crimes. The court said Singleton waived his rights and agreed to the interrogation.

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

AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily

Rumours of sexual abuse at Hobart boys’ school Hutchins were so rife in the 1960s there was a commonly recounted verse around the city.

‘Get a woman, get a woman, get a woman if you can. If you can’t get a woman get a Hutchins man.’

It was a ditty that stuck in the mind of one former student, now aged 60, who has recounted to a royal commission his abuse at the hands of three Hutchins teachers.

Giving evidence under the pseudonym AOE, the man told how music teacher Ron Thomas touched and rubbed against him while the pair sat at a piano.

‘I would try to get up and run away but Thomas would catch me and hold me on the floor face down,’ AOE said.

It was just one of many stories told to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which heard five days of evidence in Hobart, closing on Tuesday.

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

CANADA
CBC News

Former Saint John city councillor and former youth pastor Donnie Snook has lost the appeal of his 18-year sentence on child sex abuse charges.

​A cross-appeal by the Crown on Snook’s credit for time served while awaiting trial and parole eligibility was also dismissed Wednesday by a three-judge New Brunswick Court of Appeal panel.

Snook, 42, had filed a notice of appeal with the Court of Appeal last November, calling his sentence “unreasonable and in excess of the appropriate range in all the circumstances.”

Snook is in prison in Mission, B.C., and did not attend Wednesday’s hearing, but his lawyer, James Matheson, argued on his behalf.

He said the trial judge had stated the range of sentence for similar crimes in Canada had been from nine to 18 years.

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

NEW YORK
Rochester Homepage

Amy Young

We’re learning new disturbing details about a Livingston County pastor who admitted to inappropriately touching his five year old foster child. Alan Fox, 60, was originially charged with sexual abuse. Wednesday he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge to avoid a trial. Fox and his wife, Cathy, have been raising foster children for more than 30 years. Now Fox is forbidden to be near children and will have to register with New York State as a sex offender.

Fox is a Methodist pastor at a church in Dansville. He also plays and sings with a Christian music group known as “Band of Brothers.” Livingston County prosecutors say Fox admitted he inappropriately touched the five year old girl in his backyard in Sparta more than a year ago.

“The wife left for a weekend. The defendant was out looking at the stars one night. Invited the child out there. And at that time he had the child touch his private parts. And then after he did that, he touched the victim’s private parts,” said Justin Hill, Livingston County Assistant District Attorney.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Newsburyport Daily News

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — A retired Roman Catholic priest who once headed the Salesian Society religious order in North America will spend the next eight to 10 years in state prison for repeatedly raping a boy attending an Ipswich summer camp more than 30 years ago, a judge ruled yesterday.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, who at one time was the “provincial” of the order, a position equivalent to that of a bishop, was found guilty earlier this month of five counts of child rape, incidents that took place at a summer camp operated by the order on the grounds of the former Sacred Heart Retreat during the early 1980s.

McCormick “preyed on and exploited the vulnerability of a young boy who was in his care,” leaving him with lifelong scars, said Lawrence Superior Court Judge Mary Lou Rup,

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

ESPANA
El Observador

[Judge Antonio Moreno on Wednesday ordered the release of three men – two priests and a religion teacher – and release on bail of Father Roman, considered to be the leader of the clan called “The Romanones.” The judge imposed measures to restrain and prohibit communication with the two people who have reported being sexually abused by these men.]

El juez del Tribunal de Instrucción de Granada, Antonio Moreno, dispuso este miércoles la puesta en libertad con cargos de tres de los acusados por abuso sexual en España, dos sacerdotes y un profesor de religión, y la liberación bajo fianza del padre Román.Considerado cabecilla del denominado clan de “Los Romanones”, acusado de abusos sexuales de al menos a un menor, el padre Román, obtuvo hoy la libertad tras el pago de una fianza de 10.000 euros, según informó EFE.A los tres sacerdotes y al laico, el juez les ha impuesto medidas de alejamiento y prohibición de comunicación respecto a las dos personas que han denunciado haber sufrido abusos sexuales.

La liberación sucedió en el mismo día en que un juzgado español recibió una segunda denuncia por los presuntos abusos sexuales a menores por parte de sacerdotes, informaron fuentes judiciales, en un caso en el que el Papa Francisco ha ordenado personalmente una investigación.

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

NEW YORK
Genesee Sun

LIVINGSTON COUNTY — It’s the end of the line for Pastor Alan Fox, 60, who has delayed and ducked charges that he molested his foster child, now that he has finally admitted to his guilt in court.

Fox pled guilty in a special-term court appearance on Wednesday to touching his five-year-old foster daughter’s private parts in Sparta more than a year ago. The pastor, who also moonlights as a member of the Christian Music Group, Band of Brothers, is now looking at one and a half years in state prison after pleading guilty to Attempted Sex Abuse in the 1st degree, an E Felony. The sly Fox even continued his deception as he unsuccessfully tried to dodge reporters by slipping out the back door of the courthouse.

The case has been very quiet until now, with a lot of odd proceedings and hush-hush adjournments surrounding his court appearances. However, the prosecutor in this case, Justin Hill, brought many of the disturbing details of this case to light.

“Mr. Fox was a foster parent to the victim and her brother,” said Hill. “They (Fox and the child) were out for a weekend looking at the stars, and he asked if she would touch his private area, which she did. He also touched her private area. She was five years old at the time.”

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

NEW YORK
WHAM

Geneseo, N.Y. – 13 WHAM reporting that a Livingston County pastor has admitted to touching the private parts of his five year old foster daughter, then forcing her to do the same to him.

60 year old Alan Fox pleaded guilty to a charge of Attempted Sexual Abuse in the First Degree. Prosecutors say the incident occurred in the back yard of his Sparta home.

Fox was allowed to plea to a lesser charge to avoid a trial for the victim – who is now six. Fox will spend 1 1/2 years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender. He is scheduled to be sentenced on January 29, 2015. .

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

MICHIGAN
The Macomb Daily

By Frank DeFrank, The Macomb Daily

POSTED: 11/26/14

A Macomb Township man with ties to a local Catholic high school and a church faces multiple felony charges for inappropriate communication with a child that police characterize as child sexual-abuse activity.

Joseph Peter Sturza, 47, was arraigned Wednesday on four counts, including child sexual abuse activity, a 20-year felony. He also is charged with two counts of communicating with another person to commit a crime and accosting children for immoral purposes.

During an arraignment via video link between the Macomb County Jail and Romeo’s 42-2 District Court, bond for Sturza was set at $50,000. He was ordered to return to court at 9 a.m. Dec. 9.

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

UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

November 27, 2014 Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers and friends

Last April, when Pope John Paul II was speedily canonized by Pope Francis (which was part of his Opus Dei Beast’s puppet contract), photos of nuns –who waved their flags and danced while holding banners of huge photos of the new pope saints – and who braved the rainy weather and even camped outside at St. Peter’s Square were shown all over the media. Believe it or not – Our Lord Jesus Christ and St. Michael the Archangel inspired us to write about these as “STUPID NUNS because they empower the Vatican only-male misogynists gays oligarchy that control the Vatican Mammon Beast”. But we refused to obey that small voice because those nuns are “holy” and “sacred” set apart “consecrated” women.

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

SPAIN
CNN

By Al Goodman, CNN

Madrid (CNN) — In a case that Pope Francis says he’s taken an interest in after speaking to one of the alleged victims, a Spanish judge on Wednesday filed preliminary charges of sexual abuse against three Catholic priests and a religious teacher.

Investigating magistrate Antonio Moreno, in the southern city of Granada, ordered the suspected ringleader, a priest, to post a $12,500 bond in order to leave jail, according to a court statement and spokeswoman. The suspect posted the bond, and Moreno released the others from custody without bond, the statement said.

The four must report regularly to authorities and can’t have any contact or communication with two alleged male victims, the court statement said.

The judge’s decision came two days after the four were arrested, and just a day after Pope Francis told reporters that he called an alleged victim in August and urged him to come forward to authorities in Spain.

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

INDIANA
NWI Times

Sarah Reese sarah.reese@nwi.com, (219) 933-3351

A priest who allegedly sexually abused a boy from the Salesian Preparatory School in Cedar Lake in the 1970s was sentenced Wednesday to eight to 10 years in prison for raping a different boy in Massachusetts, officials said.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, was convicted by a jury Nov. 12 of five counts alleging he sexually assaulted a boy attending a summer camp in 1981 and 1982 at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich, Mass., according to the Essex district attorney’s office.

McCormick, who was once head of the Catholic order of priests and brothers, worked at the Massachusetts retreat at the time of the abuse. The victim, who is now 44, was between 10 and 12 years old at the time, prosecutors said.

In 1975, McCormick took a then 14-year-old boy from Cedar Lake on a trip to Rome, where McCormick sexually abused the victim, said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents both victims.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Essex County District Attorney’s Office

A New York priest will serve 8 to 10 years in state prison for raping a boy at an Ipswich summer camp over 30 years ago. Judge Mary-Lou Rup imposed the sentence on Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, today in Lawrence Superior Court and also ordered him to serve 10 years of probation upon release. A jury convicted McCormick of 5 counts of child rape on November 12th.

Essex Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall recommended 12 to 15 years due to the traumatic effect the crime had on the victim. “The defendant didn’t just violate his body, he stole his faith and betrayed this young man, his family and all who believe,” ADA MacDougall said.

The jury found that Rev. McCormick raped a boy on multiple occasions between 1981 and 1982. The rapes occurred while the boy attended a summer camp at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich where Rev. McCormick worked. The victim, who is 44, was between age 10 and 12 years old the rapes took place.

McCormick is charged with another count of child rape in connection with allegations made by another male victim who attended the same summer camp during the same period. The trial date for this case has not been scheduled.

McCormick was represented by Attorney Steve Neyman.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

Wed, Nov 26, 2014

A former lay teacher has described as a “fabrication” and “totally untrue” allegations that he physically assaulted a number of former residents of Rubane House in Kircubbin in Co Down.

He also denied an allegation that he sexually abused one of the boys who attended the care home. The teacher told the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down, that he was involved in one “wrestling match” physical altercation with one of the boys in the residential home, but vehemently rejected other allegations including a claim that he broke the jaw and nose of a boy.

The witness, who has anonymity, was giving evidence at the inquiry which is investigating alleged child abuse at a total of 13 Northern Ireland institutions from 1922 to 1995.

This current module is investigating alleged abuse at Rubane House where just over 1,000 boys were placed in the care of the De La Salle brothers for varying periods of time between 1951 and 1985.

The teacher, who taught at the school for five years more than 30 years ago, denied the overall allegations, describing the claim that he sexually abused one boy as untrue and disgusting.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

Northern Ireland’s Institutional Abuse Inquiry has heard more claims of physical and sexual abuse at a residential home run by the De La Salle Brothers in Co Down.

Around 1,000 boys were placed in care at Rubane House in the Ards Peninsula between 1951 and 1985.

Some of the brothers and lay staff who worked at the home have been giving evidence to the inquiry, which is sitting in Banbridge courthouse.

One lay worker had convictions for sexual assault and a brother was convicted on three counts of assault for incidents at the home.

One resident claimed he had been raped by a lay staff member at the home, who threatened he would throw him off the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge if he spoke about the incident.

That allegation was denied this morning.

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

UNITED STATES
The Salt Lake Tribune

By DAVID GIBSON Religion News Service

When Benedict XVI stunned Catholics by announcing that he would become the first pope in six centuries to resign, it immediately raised concerns — which were dismissed just as quickly — that an ex-pope around could undermine the legitimacy of the new pontiff.

Now, nearly two years later, those fears are emerging again, fueled by the growing discontent of conservative Catholics with Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, and by Benedict’s presence, if not quite as a player, in church debates Francis has sparked.

“Benedict is hanging back for now, but there’s no doubt that he could easily become a figurehead for traditionalists hearkening back to the good old days,” Notre Dame New Testament professor Candida Moss and Joel Baden, Old Testament professor at Yale Divinity School, warned in a Daily Beast column earlier this month.

Hubert Wolf, a church historian at the University of Münster, echoed those thoughts in comments reported by a leading German newspaper last week, when he said there were worries that “around Francis and Benedict XVI, two competing power centers could come into being in the [Roman] Curia, with pope and anti-pope at the top of each.”

What’s fueling these fears? They seem outlandish, almost medieval. But there are at least four factors at work:

1. “There is another pope still living.”

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, a Catholic who has become something of a spokesman for conservatives, made that point in a widely circulated column warning that Francis could provoke a schism on the right.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Ipswich

IPSWICH

A New York priest will serve eight to 10 years in state prison for raping a boy at an Ipswich summer camp over 30 years ago.

Judge Mary-Lou Rup imposed the sentence on Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, today, Wednesday, Nov. 26, in Lawrence Superior Court and also ordered him to serve 10 years of probation upon release.

A jury convicted McCormick on five counts of child rape on Nov. 12.

The victim, who is 44, was between 10 and 12 when the rapes took place.

“A clear message has been sent to pedophiles, supervisors and institutions that sexual abuse victims, such as my client, are fighting back and criminal and civil laws will be used to create much needed social change with regard to sexual abuse,” said Mitchell Garabedian, attorney for the victim in this case.

Essex Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall recommended 12 to 15 years due to the traumatic effect the crime had on the victim.

“The defendant didn’t just violate his body, he stole his faith and betrayed this young man, his family and all who believe,” MacDougall said.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Parents should consider carefully the following horrible scenario. Your find out that your child has been raped by a government employee in the course of his work activities. You call the employee’s boss, say, UK Prime Minister Cameron or USA President Obama and tell him this. He tells you he is unhappy to hear that and for you to report it to his senior staff. He does NOT tell you to report this alleged crime to, or to cooperate with, appropriate law enforcement who are trained to deal with such allegations, independently and transparently.

In modern constitutional democracies worldwide, for over a century now, even top leaders generally are subject to the rule of law. So this scenario is very unlikely to occur. Indeed, right now the UK’s Cameron faces a crisis over finding an independent and transparent investigator of government employees’ alleged sex abuse of children. And even President Obama is facing threats of public impeachment proceedings over some of his executive actions. The principal accountability exceptions among world leaders today include popes, who appear to purport to be above any constitutional legal oversight even though their powerful European imperial protectors have been gone for a century now.

A similar scenario, to the above hypothetical one, recently happened according to Pope Francis. He indicated with his Jesuit press agent, Fr. Lombardi, to a group of reporters on the papal plane on Tuesday (11/25) that Francis told an abuse survivor he had called in Grenada, Spain to tell his bishop about the alleged crimes against the survivor. Three alleged Grenada priest perpetrators had been arrested the day before by Spanish police, so a Spanish reporter asked him about this in the plane press conference. Apparently, Francis omitted telling the abuse victim to contact, and to cooperate with, Spanish police. Interestingly, Lombardi had less than 48 hours earlier tried to spin past other reporters’ troubling related questions about the Vatican’s new “top cop”, Jesuit Fr. Robert Geisinger.

Of course, the local Spanish bishop under the Vatican’s current procedures is, in effect, subject to two Francis’ staffers, Fr. Geisinger, and Fr. Robert Oliver, who had earlier been infamous Cardinal Law’s canon lawyer. These two Americans reportedly have questionable records on diligently assisting past, and protecting potential, priest abuse survivors, especially when the interests of protecting accused priest predators is also involved.

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

MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Wednesday, November 26

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org )

A Ray Township teacher at Austin Catholic Academy faces allegations that he sent sexually graphic emails to a child. We call on Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron to personally visit the school where the alleged predator worked, begging victims, witnesses, employees, former employees, alumni, students, staff and whistleblowers to call law enforcement if they have any information or suspicions about the alleged crimes.

All too often, child molesters get expensive lawyers, exploit loopholes, and escape responsibility for their crimes. Even when they’re found guilty or plead guilty, they often rally their friends, pressure public officials and end up with little or no jail time. That’s irresponsible. That endangers kids.

The way to prevent this is simple: every person who has even a scintilla of information about Joseph Sturza’s crimes or misdeeds must call 911. This is no time to be complacent. Each one of us has a moral and civic duty to protect children by helping law enforcement catch and convict predators.

And all too often, Catholic officials passively sit back in criminal cases and do nothing. Vigneron has a moral and civic duty too: to use his vast resources (church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements) to reach out to others who may have been hurt by Sturza and prod them to get help.

We commend the parents who had the wisdom to work with law enforcement and not church officials. That is a brave and responsible course of action. And we beg anyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Sturza or cover ups by church officials to step forward too.

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

MICHIGAN
ClickonDetroit

A 47-year-old Macomb Township man has been arrested and charged in connection to the sexual abuse of a child.

Joseph Sturza was the director of admissions at the Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township. He has been removed from that position while he faces accusations that he was sending sexually graphic emails to a child. The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office says the emails were “indicative of child sexual-abuse activity.”

The Sheriff’s Computer-Crimes Team received copies of the emails which were intercepted by the child’s parents. The parents had contacted the Austin Catholic Academy.

Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said the Archdiocese of Detroit immediately removed Sturza from his position upon learning of the allegations.

“They immediately took steps to remove the man from his position and they secured evidence,” said Wickersham in a statement.

The Archdiocese released this statement, saying Sturza also worked as a youth minister at St. Isidore Church in Macomb Township:

“The Archdiocese of Detroit has been informed of the arrest of Mr. Joe Sturza, who was employed as director of admissions at Austin Catholic High School and as youth minister at St. Isidore Parish in Macomb Township. The Archdiocese was recently made aware of alleged inappropriate communications between Mr. Sturza and a minor. The information was immediately shared with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Sturza is no longer employed by the school or parish. The Archdiocese of Detroit is fully cooperating with law enforcement authorities. Due to the ongoing law enforcement and legal processes, we are unable to give further details about the matter at this time.

Families at Austin Catholic High School and St. Isidore are being informed of this situation. Mr. Sturza had been employed at the high school since October 2012 and part-time at the parish since this past summer. Also being informed are the communities of St. Francis of Assisi-St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in New Haven, where Mr. Sturza volunteered between 2006 and 2008, and worked as a youth minister from the fall of 2008 until the summer of 2014; and St. Mary Mystical Rose Parish in Armada, where Mr. Sturza worked as a youth minister from July 2011 until June 2014.”

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

MICHIGAN
The Oakland Press

The director of admissions for Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township was charged Wednesday with child sexual-abuse activity involving the use of a computer, authorities said.

Joseph Peter Sturza, 47, a resident of Macomb Township, is charged with:

• Child sexual-abuse activity, a 20-year felony;

• Two counts of using a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime, one a 15-year felony and the other a four-year felony;

• Accosting children for immoral purposes, a four-year felony.

Sturza was arraigned Wednesday via video link between the Macomb County Jail and 42-2 District Court in Romeo. Bond was set at $50,000. He is scheduled to return to court for a hearing Dec. 9.

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said the Archdiocese of Detroit, which operates the Austin Academy, prompted the investigation when officials notified police as soon as they became aware of the allegations.

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

MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

Charles E. Ramirez, The Detroit News November 26, 2014

Ray Township — Authorities have charged a Catholic school official with child sex abuse, officials said Wednesday.

Joseph Peter Sturza, 47, of Macomb Township was arrested on several charges Wednesday, Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said in a statement.

Sturza has been charged with child sexual abuse activity, using a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime and accosting a child for immoral purposes. The sexual abuse activity charge is a 20-year felony. The computer charge carries a 15-year prison sentence.

He was formally arraigned in the 42nd District Court in Romeo. A judge set his bond at $50,000 and he is being held at the Macomb County Jail. He is next scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 9.

Wickersham said police started an investigation into Sturza on Nov. 19 after receiving copies of email intercepted by the parents of the child. The victim’s parents alerted the school, the Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township, where Sturza is employed as admissions director.

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

MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

By Katrease Stafford, Detroit Free Press November 26, 2014

The admissions director at a Catholic preparatory high school in Macomb County was arrested today on charges of child sexual abuse, authorities said.

Joseph Peter Sturza, 47, of Macomb Township, was arraigned this morning on several felony charges that were authorized after parents of a student at the Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township intercepted emails sent by Sturza to their child, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The sheriff’s office said the emails were sexually graphic and indicative of child sexual-abuse.

After finding the emails, the student’s parents alerted the school and the Archdiocese of Detroit, which called in the sheriff’s department. The investigation was launched Nov. 19 and an arrest warrant was authorized Tuesday by the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

At 7 a.m. this morning, detectives served the arrest warrant and searched Sturza’s home.

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

TENNESSE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priets

For immediate release Wednesday, November 26

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org )

We are grateful that Freed-Hardmann University has canceled Bill Cosby’s appearance. Honoring credibly accused sex offenders hurts victims and deters reporting of sex crimes, thus endangering the public. We hope other venues where Cosby may appear also find the courage to do what is right and disinvite him.

We commend Memphis SNAP leader, David Brown, for speaking out and for his compassionate advocacy for crime victims.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: November 26, 2014

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts — A former high-ranking member of a Roman Catholic religious order has been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for raping a boy at a Massachusetts summer camp in the 1980s.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, of New York, was also sentenced Wednesday in Lawrence Superior Court to 10 years of probation.

The 73-year-old former member Salesian Society of North America was convicted Nov. 12 of five counts of child rape that prosecutors said occurred between 1981 and 1982 at a youth camp in Ipswich run by the order.

The now 44-year-old victim testified that McCormick took him out of activities or woke him late at night to force him into sexual acts.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Luton on Sunday

LUTON vicar James Ogley, who was convicted of child sex offences in October, has been sacked by the Church of England.

Today, The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith, finalised steps to remove James Ogley from office and prohibit him from exercising any ministry as a priest in the Church of England for the rest of his life

The Diocese of St Albans said it was the ‘maximum penalty’ that could be imposed.

Ogley is currently serving a two year prison sentence as a result of the conviction.

On his arrest in January 2013, Ogley was suspended from exercising any of the functions of a priest.

The penalty follows James Ogley’s conviction on 30 September for nine offences under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. James Ogley was jailed for 2 years for these offences. The Church’s disciplinary process begins automatically on conviction of a criminal offence involving a custodial sentence.

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

WISCONSIN
LaCrosse Tribune

Matt Johnson matt.johnson@lee.net

A Madison Catholic bishop left a speaking engagement at public venue on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s campus, Wednesday, Nov. 19, because a reporter in the audience refused to leave.

Bishop Robert Morlino had been invited by students to speak at the university’s Doudna Hall.

Morlino may have been distracted before the speech because he was confronted by a group of protesters who are unhappy with changes the Madison diocese has made with a Platteville parish.

Although faced by protestors, the bishop was speaking in a public place. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy. In fact, Morlino’s request that no photos or recordings be taken during his speech was improper.

Reporters should have access to public spaces during public events. They should be allowed to cover these events for the public.

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

MINNESOTA
Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal

Mark Reilly
Managing Editor-
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is suing eight insurance companies that it says are improperly rejecting claims to cover the cost of the church’s settlement with victims of clergy sex abuse.

Church leaders were counting on insurance to help pay victims of sex abuse, the Star Tribune reports, but the companies have told the Archdiocese that the incidents are not “accidents” and aren’t covered.

The insurers named in the suit, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court, are Continental, Firemen’s Fund, National Fire of Hartford, TIG, Continental Casualty, Hartford Accident and Indemnity, American Home Assurance and Aetna Casualty and Surety. They haven’t responded to the lawsuit yet.

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

MICHIGAN
WXYZ

MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) – An employee at the Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township has been arrested and charged in a child-sex abuse case.

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham says 47-year-old Joseph Peter Sturza, a director of admissions at the school, was involved in child sex abuse activity.

According to the Sheriff, the computer-crimes unit started investigating on Nov. 19, after being contacted by the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Deputies received copies of e-mail that were found by a parents of a child. The e-mails were sexually graphic and indicated there was child sexual-abuse activity.

Wickersham says Sturza was arrested this morning and charged with four different counts counts.

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