ABUSE TRACKER

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

May 31, 2016

Ex-EWTN priest, TV host not guilty of child sexual abuse, jury says

ALABAMA
AL.com

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

A Jefferson County jury today found a former EWTN priest and TV personality not guilty of child sexual abuse.

David Stone, 55, hosted a talk show for youth from 2001-2007 on EWTN. While working at EWTN he fathered a child with an EWTN employee, Christina Presnell. The child was born in 2008.

Stone had been charged with sexually abusing his son.

“I think the jury reached the correct decision,” said Stone’s attorney, Chip Bradford. “Hopefully he can move ahead with his life and in his relationship with his son.”

Stone has not had visitation with his son for several years, Bradford said. He is now eligible for supervised visitation, based on a previous order in Jefferson County Family Court, Bradford said. His visitation rights were put on hold as a condition of his bond.

A former EWTN priest and TV personality who hosted a talk show for youth from 2001-2007 called the allegations that he sexually abused his son a “scheme” by the mother, who denied him further visitation after saying the child told her of improper touching.

Stone, formerly known as Father Francis Mary Stone when he hosted the TV show “Life on the Rock,” was suspended from his religious order and placed on long-term leave of absence at EWTN after it became known he had fathered the child. Presnell was fired from EWTN.

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.

St. Paul archdiocese hopes for quick payments to sex abuse victims

MINNESOTA
Headlines from the Catholic World

St. Paul, Minn., May 31, 2016 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is eager to see a quick end to its reorganization plan so that victims and survivors of clerical sex abuse can see more compensation sooner, according to its bishop.

The plan of reorganization is part of the bankruptcy process, for which the archdiocese filed in January 2015.

“Victims/survivors cannot be compensated until a Plan of Reorganization is finalized and approved. The longer the process lasts, more money is spent on attorneys’ fees and bankruptcy expenses; and, in turn, less money is available for victims/survivors,” Archbishop Bernard Hebda wrote in a May 26 letter to the faithful of the archdiocese.

“In other dioceses, that approval process has taken years. For example, in Milwaukee, the process took more than five years and only $21 million was available to compensate claimants. We are submitting our Plan now in the hope of compensating victims/survivors and promoting healing sooner rather than later.”

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.

MO–Victims prod new Springfield bishop

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 31, 2016

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)

Tomorrow, the diocese once headed by the disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law will be headed by Bishop Edward Rice. We are disappointed by Rice’s promotion. But we hope he’ll take quick action against three predator priests.

Rice comes from the St. Louis archdiocese, which has a troubling track record on abuse. An admitted predator priest (Fr. Vincent Bryce) is still on the job in St. Louis, along with a priest who’s faced three accusers (Fr. Alex Anderson).

It’s an archdiocese that has, for years, quietly let bishops from across the US to send their predator priests here where those priests have sometimes molested again.

It’s an archdiocese that is letting a twice accused predator priest (Fr. Joseph Jiang) live with virtually no supervision near the parish where he allegedly molested a boy just a few years ago.

Throughout all of this, Rice has been conspicuously and irresponsibly silent.

So we are not confident he’ll be any more honest or proactive in Springfield than he’s been in St. Louis. In a worldwide institution, surely Francis could have found a more courageous and compassionate man for this job.

There’s a ton of work Rice must do in Springfield to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

—Last year, three priests who worked in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic diocese were publicly identified for the first time as credibly accused child molesters. They are Fr. Thomas Meyer, Fr. James Vincent Fitzgerald and Fr. Michael Charland.

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.

Catholic Priest Drafted Vatican’s Anti-Gay Policies While Having Tons and Tons of Pro-Gay Sex

UNITED STATES
The Stranger

by Dan Savage

No one could’ve predicted:

A French priest who has written disparagingly about gay people and acted as a counselor to student and novice priests struggling with their sexuality has been accused of having sex with male clients. Monsignor Tony Anatrella — who earlier this year told new Bishops they are not obligated to report a suspected abuser to authorities — is still regularly consulted on matters of sexuality by the Vatican. One of his accusers said that Anatrella engaged in various sex acts with him in the Monsignor’s Paris office, with the activity allegedly occurring up until a few years ago. Daniel Lamarca claims Anatrella said he could rid him of his “pseudo-homosexuality” by performing sex acts.

I’m shocked — shocked — that someone who described homosexuality as “a profound immaturity of human sexuality” and called on the Catholic Church to ordain only “men mature in their masculine identity” would be having lots and lots and lots of gay sex.

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.

Archdiocese responds to new allegation

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Jacqueline Perry Guzman | Post News Staff

New allegations of sex abuse leveled by the mother of an alleged victim of Archbishop Anthony Apuron prompted responses from the Archdiocese of Agana and by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

In a statement, Joelle Casteix, western regional director of SNAP, said, “Our hearts ache for Doris Concepcion, who has so bravely spoken out about the abuse her son endured.”

In its response, the Archdiocese of Agana stated: “Another malicious and calumnious accusation against the archbishop has surfaced; this time from the mother of a man who has been deceased for 11 years. The archbishop strongly denies this accusation as he had done so before.”

On May 17, former Guam resident Roy Quintanilla alleged he had been molested by the archbishop 40 years ago when Apuron was a priest at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Agat and Quintanilla was a 12-year-old altar boy.

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.

MI5 ‘blackmailed pedophile politicians’ over Belfast boys’ home abuse, inquiry hears

NORTHERN IRELAND
RT

An inquiry into allegations of mistreatment – including sexual abuse – at a Belfast boys’ home has restarted amid claims MI5 agents knew about the alleged abuses but chose to use them to blackmail pedophile public figures.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry reconvened on Tuesday to examine allegations dating as far back as the 1970s. It is alleged boys at the Kincora care home in Belfast were subject to vicious abuse.

The inquiry will hear from claimants who allege a VIP pedophile ring preyed on those who lived there.

In August 2014 former intelligence officer Captain Brian Gemmell claimed that his attempts to investigate at the time were cut short by his superiors.

He told the Independent that before he was told to leave the Kincora case alone in the mid-1970s “on the grounds that the service didn’t involve itself with homosexual matters, I had a meeting at a hotel on Buckingham Palace Road.”

He said three members of MI5 had spoken to him about “a known Protestant terrorist, John McKeague of the Red Hand Commandos, being homosexual, and they asked me if I thought he could be blackmailed over his homosexuality, because they had film of him.”

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.

Top-secret documents handed to historic abuse inquiry

NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

Hundreds of top secret police documents about a former care home in Belfast have been declassified and handed over to a public inquiry, a lawyer has revealed.

Twenty-six boxes of material have been retrieved from PSNI archives and given to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

The HIA inquiry is examining allegations of child prostitution, vice rings and blackmail plots at the Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast.

It has long been claimed a high ranking paedophile ring preyed on vulnerable young boys in Kincora during the 1970s.

It is further alleged the UK security services knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it, instead using the information to blackmail and extract intelligence from the influential men, including senior politicians and establishment figures, who were the perpetrators.

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.

Top secret Kincora Boys’ Home documents handed over to abuse inquiry

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Hundreds of top secret police documents about the former Kincora Boys’ Home have been declassified and handed over to a public inquiry, a lawyer has revealed.

Some 26 boxes of material have been retrieved from Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) archives and given to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry which is examining allegations of child prostitution, vice rings and blackmail plots at the notorious east Belfast facility.

Barrister Joseph Aiken, counsel to the HIA, said: “When the inquiry began this was all marked secret. At the request of the inquiry it has all been declassified by the PSNI and made available to the inquiry.”

It has long been claimed a high ranking paedophile ring preyed on vulnerable young boys in Kincora during the 1970s.

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.

Priest accused of having sex with young seminarians

FRANCE
The Freethinker

Monsignor Tony Anatrella, above, a consultant with the Vatican on issues of sexuality and an outspoken homophobe, has been accused of having sex with novice priests … in a bid to cure them of homosexuality.

The senior French priest, according to this report, routinely counseled novices sent to him by seminaries and monasteries across France. But at least four have claimed that he engaged in sexual acts with them during sessions in his office in Paris.

Anatrella reportedly claimed that having sex with them would cure them of:

Pseudo-homosexuality.

Daniel Lamarca, who was a 23-year-old seminarian when he first went to Anatrella in 1987 said he was told by Anatrella:

You’re not gay, you just think that you are.

Lamarca added:

I know details about Anatrella’s body that could only be known to someone who has seen him naked.

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.

Gallup diocese nears $25 million in abuse settlement

NEW MEXICO
San Antonion Express-News

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — As its bankruptcy case wraps up, the Diocese of Gallup has allocated millions of dollars to compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The Gallup Independent reports (http://bit.ly/1jl8YBA) that the diocese’s bankruptcy confirmation hearing is scheduled for June 21.

It is creating a fund of between $21 million and $25 million to be used for professional fees and settlements with the 57 abuse survivors who led claims in bankruptcy court. Professional fees are now listed at more than $3.6 million and some settlements for abuse claimants are expected to approach $300,000.

There are also several non-monetary provisions in the settlement, including letters of apology to be sent to abuse claimants.

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.

Thema Missbrauch auf dem Katholikentag

DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

[Abuse as a topic in the Catholic Church.]

Christine Jeske
29. Mai 2016

Die Farbe Grün leuchtete Besuchern überall entgegen: auf Plakaten, Banderolen, Bändchen, Schals. Grün war das äußere Erkennungszeichen des am Sonntag zu Ende gegangenen 100. Katholikentags in Leipzig. Grün gilt unter anderem als die Farbe des Lebens und der Hoffnung.

Manche sind auch mit der Hoffnung nach Leipzig gekommen, dass ihr Anliegen dort Beachtung findet. Etwa der Themenkreis „Sexueller Missbrauch“, zu dem es zwölf Programmpunkte gab. Insgesamt gab es nach Angaben des Zentralkomitees der deutschen Katholiken (ZdK) über 1000 Veranstaltungen.

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.

Archdiocese plans to sue for ‘malicious lies’ again

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News June 1, 2016

For the second time in two weeks, the Archdiocese of Agana announced plans to file lawsuits against those whom it said have been perpetrating “malicious lies” about Archbishop Anthony Apuron and the Catholic Church. It also plans to bring the case through the church’s own court system.

The archdiocese’s statement comes on the heels of the latest allegation against the highest Catholic leader in Guam.

Doris Y. Concepcion, of Prescott, Arizona, recently told Pacific Daily News her deceased son, when he was serving as an altar boy, was molested by Apuron when the latter was the parish priest at Mount Carmel Church in Agat in the late 1970s.

Concepcion said her son, Joseph A. Quinata, revealed his secret shortly before he died 11 years ago. …

This time around, the archdiocese’s statement has named at least one specific person and his “associates.”

“Tim Rohr and his associates launched a vicious and calumnious attack on the Archbishop and the Church,” the Archdiocese of Agana said. “They demanded that the Archbishop return to the former ways of financial administration, when the archdiocese was increasing debts every year because of mismanagement. They wanted to sell the seminary in Yona to cover the substantial debt accumulated by the previous administration of these three entities. The Archbishop was adamantly opposed to the idea of selling the seminary to cover these debts. Thus began a malicious campaign to denounce and attack the Archbishop at whatever cost to get him out of the way.”

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.

DAILY NEWS SPINS NYS ABUSE BILL

NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on two articles posted yesterday by the New York Daily News on pending bills that lift the statute of limitations on offenses involving the sexual abuse of minors:

The big news, as determined by the Daily News, is that the New York State Catholic Conference hires lobbyists to push for desired legislative outcomes. Of course, it has been doing so all along.

Moreover, it hardly has a monopoly on lobbying: virtually every secular and sectarian organization in New York State that is in any way impacted by Albany lawmakers hires lobbyists. However, it is rarely headline news when they do so. There is a veiled message here: Just how kosher is it for the Catholic Church to lobby Albany?

One of the articles, “Child-Abuse Law Reform Died in 2009 Senate Power Struggle,” is startling for its grand omission: it never mentions that in 2009 the teachers’ unions spent a small fortune trying to kill a bill that included public entities; it would have made it easier for kids raped by public school employees to sue, no matter how long ago it occurred. Usually, these bills on the sexual abuse of minors never blanket the public schools, so it was interesting to see the public school establishment jack up its efforts once it was included in the legislation.

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 Catholic Church Spent $2M Lobbying Against Child Sex Abuse Accountability Laws

NEW YORK
International Business Times

[with video]

BY ABIGAIL ABRAMS @ABBYABRAMS ON 05/31/16

The Catholic Church in New York has spent millions of dollars in recent years to stop a law that would make it easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue their attackers, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

The state’s Catholic Conference has hired some of New York’s most influential lobbying firms, including Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Hank Sheinkopf, and Mark Behan Communications. They spent more than $2.1 million from 2007 through 2015 lobbying against the Child Victims Act as well as for or against other bills, according to state records.

The Child Victims Act, introduced by Democratic Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, would eliminate the statute of limitations that currently requires victims to file civil lawsuits by age 23. It would also give those who can no longer sue under current law a one-year window to file a civil suit.

The bill has been gaining bipartisan support in the New York Legislature, but it does not yet have enough votes and time is running out as the legislative session is set to end June 16.

The New York Catholic Conference filings show they hired lobbyists to work on issues of “statute of limitations” and “timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses,” among other topics. These reports come after Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the New York Archdiocese, has been criticized for not wanting to talk about the allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church or the Child Victims Act, the New York Daily News reported in a separate story earlier this month.

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.

Other Pontifical Acts

VATICAN CITY
news.va

Vatican City, 31 May 2016 – The Holy Father has appointed: …

– Msgr. Edward M. Deliman as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Philadelphia (area 5,652, population 4,063,958, Catholics 1,446,508, priests 779, permanent deacons 283, religious 3,050), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in 1947 in Lorain, Ohio, U.S.A., and was ordained a priest in 1973. He has served in a number of roles including pastor of several parishes in Philadelphia, and associate director of the archdiocesan office of youth pastoral ministry, defender of the bond at the Metropolitan Tribunal of Philadelphia, spiritual director of the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, mentor of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Leadership Institute, coordinator of priestly vocations for the county of Chester in Pennsylvania, member of the Diocesan Priest Continuing Formation Committee, and member of the presbyteral council. He was named Prelate of Honour of His Holiness in 1991. He is currently pastor of the St. Charles Borromeo parish.

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.

Pope appoints pastor as new auxiliary bishop for Philadelphia Archdiocese

PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic Herald (UK)

Mgr Edward Deliman’s appointment was announced by the apostolic nuncio to the United States

Pope Francis has named Mgr Edward Deliman, who is a priest of the Philadelphia Archdiocese and is currently a pastor in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, as an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese.

The 69-year-old priest, ordained in 1973, has been pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bensalem since 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.

Politicians and media accused of trying to destroy Catholic Church

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A Catholic bishop has accused politicians and media in Ireland of seeking the destruction of the church and its elimination from public debate.

“Ireland through its political and media establishments seems determined to eliminate the engagement of the Catholic Church in the public sphere,” said Bishop of Cloyne William Crean.

“There are many in these systems who have developed a gratuitous cynicism towards the Catholic Church and desire its destruction, believing that it stands between the people and Ireland becoming a progressive society,” he said. He advised “our response ought always to be positive”.

Bishop Crean was speaking at the ordination of nine seminarians as deacons in Maynooth. This ceremony usually takes place a year before ordination to the priesthood.

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.

Inquiry told of British state ‘collusion’ in sex abuse at Belfast boys’ home

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

The North’s Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry on Tuesday began investigating the “extraordinary allegations” that elements of the British state colluded in the abuse of children at Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast.

The inquiry, among a number of matters, is trying to determine whether there is any truth to allegations that elements of the British secret services were implicated in facilitating a paedophile ring to operate at the boys’ home during the Troubles.

It is claimed that up to 30 boys were abused at the home between the late 1950s and the early 1980s.

In 1981 three senior staff — William McGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains – were imprisoned for abusing 11 boys. Now the inquiry is investigating allegations that organisations such as MI5 and/or MI6 may have facilitated the abuse of children for blackmail purposes during the Troubles in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Junior counsel to the inquiry, Joseph Aiken, in providing an overview of the Kincora allegations said that the inquiry would also examine allegations that the late and former head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield abused boys at Kincora.

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.

Kincora module of historical institutional abuse inquiry begins

NORTHERN IRELAND
Guardian

Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
Tuesday 31 May 2016

The judge heading up a new inquiry into the Kincora boys’ home in which it is alleged that MI5 blackmailed a paedophile ring that operated there during the Troubles has stated he is satisfied all government departments have handed over files relating to the scandal.

On day one of the historical institutional abuse inquiry’s examination of Kincora, Mr Justice Anthony Hart told Banbridge courthouse that he was reassured that the hearing had full access to documents, including those related to the Official Secrets Act.

Critics of the way the inquiry into Kincora has been framed expressed fears the government would use the Official Secrets Act to prevent the Banbridge-based investigation gaining access to files from MI5 and MI6 relating to the alleged use of sex abusers as spies on fellow hardline Ulster loyalists.

At least 29 boys were sexually abused by Kincora housemaster and prominent Orange Order member William McGrath and others at the east Belfast home. One boy is said to have killed himself by jumping off a ferry into the Irish Sea in the late 1970s, following years of 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.

Catholic Church spends $2.1 million lobbying New York politicians to block law changes for historical clerical sex abuse cases to dodge compensation claims

NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

By DARREN BOYLE FOR MAILONLINE

The Catholic Church in New York has spent $2.1 million lobbying New York politicians to block legislation aimed at allowing victims of historic child sex abuse to get justice.

The church is strongly opposed to efforts to remove the statute of limitations, which would allow victims of clerical sex abuse to seek compensation.

Under the current New York law, victims of child sex abuse have five years to lodge a claim once they turn 18.

According to the New York Daily News, the church in New York spent $2.1 million employing external lobbyists to press their case against changing the current legislation.

One proposal would see the current limit extended from 18 to when the victim is 23. A further proposal would introduce a one-year window where any victim would be entitled to make their claim, regardless to the length of time since the abuse happened.

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.

Another allegation surfaces of molestation by archbishop

GUAM
KUAM

By Krystal Paco

It’s the latest of accusations against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, as an Agat woman now residing in Arizona says she’s been harboring her son’s secret for far too long.

Doris Concepcion was blinded by her faith, telling KUAM News, “You do not question the priest. I was one of those parents you don’t question the priest.” as a young boy, her son Joseph Anthony Quinata, better known as “Sonny” or “Chico” was an altar boy at Mount Carmel Church in Agat. For years, she couldn’t explain his rebellious behavior towards then-priest Anthony Apuron.

She continued, “Apuron called me up and told me that Sonny had kicked him in the groin and tried to attack him with a knife and even tried to burn the rectory down. And so my son comes home and I would spank him. And he does not want to go with Apuron because Apruon would say, ‘I need Sonny to spend the night at the house. My house with me so he can help me do some stuff.’ And so I figured, ‘OK, Father.’ And I would get mad at my son.”

It wasn’t until Sonny was on his deathbed did he tell his mother his big secret. “He said, ‘I can’t take this with me, Mama.’ I said what? Take what? ‘Father Apuron molested me when I was an altar boy in Agat and he was a priest.”

Sonny was 38-years-old. Those were his final words to his mother who has kept his secret for the last eleven years. She tells KUAM News she finally understands her son’s rough life – as a student his grades dropped and as an adult he struggled with drug addiction and suicidal thoughts. Although she believed Sonny was the only victim, it was Roy Quintanilla also from Agat who she credits for giving her courage to speak out. Just weeks ago, Quintanilla publicly accused Apuron of molesting him as a child.

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.

St. Peter priest issues apology amid civil suit

OHIO
WDTN

[with copy of the letter]

By Kelley King
Published: May 31, 2016

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio (WDTN) — A Huber Heights priest has issued a letter of apology for stealing more than a million dollars from his own parishioners.

The letter was inserted in the St. Peter church bulletin over the weekend from former pastor Father Earl Simone. He pleaded guilty in March to aggravated theft after millions of dollars came up missing over a period of 20 years from St. Peter Church.

In the letter, Simone addresses the members of the parish accepting responsibility for his actions, but blatantly stating he couldn’t explain the reasons for his wrongdoing.

Father Earl Simone wrote, “What went wrong? I cannot honestly answer that question at this time. I know what I did was wrong, but I am struggling to explain it to myself, yet alone to anyone else.”

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.

Catholic Bishops Committed to Obstructing Zika Funding

UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Betty Clermont

“Zika Does Not Justify Abortion or Contraception” declared the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Three powerful cardinals – from New York, Washington DC and Boston – plus five archbishops – including those of Los Angeles and Philadelphia – are among the board of directors.

“Republicans’ fears about the use of taxpayer money for abortion and possible increased use of contraception” are “lurking beneath the surface” of their opposition to legislation to fight the Zika virus.

Because the virus can cause severe birth defects in babies of infected mothers, Republicans have had concerns that taxpayer funds might somehow be used to help provide abortions.
As a precaution, Senate Republicans insisted on writing language into their measure on Zika financing that reiterated the Hyde Amendment – a provision named for the longtime Illinois congressman Henry Hyde that bans the use of government money for abortions…

There has also been debate about whether the government should stress contraception or abstinence in public education campaigns about how the Zika virus can be transmitted even more readily by sexual intercourse than by mosquitoes.

The Senate measure includes money for community health programs that might stress the effectiveness and importance of contraception.

By making contraception their bludgeon against Obamacare and the foundation of their “religious freedom” campaigns, the US bishops have boxed themselves into a corner. “Even though the Zika virus can be transmitted even more readily by sexual intercourse than by mosquitoes,” the bishops have no choice but to use their considerable political muscle to make sure no government funding provides for any program “stressing the effectiveness and importance of contraception.”

The administration and Democrats in Congress know that, at enormous taxpayer expense, as of October 2015 over 100 lawsuits had been filed in federal courts challenging the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit. The vast majority were brought by Catholic bishops and their affiliated institutions.

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.

Corey Feldman’s Claims Show Why Sex Crimes Should Have No Statute of Limitations

UNITED STATES
Time

Jill Filipovic @JillFilipovic May 26, 2016

Jill Filipovic is a lawyer and writer

Bill Cosby stands accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women. Woody Allen, now married to his adopted step-daughter, faces accusations of molestation from his biological daughter. (Both men have denied the charges.) The Hollywood Reporter recently published an interview with actor Corey Feldman in which Feldman says that he and now-deceased actor Corey Haim were routinely raped (Haim), molested (Feldman) and abused (both, among other children) by Hollywood predators. In his interview with THR, Feldman said that despite knowing “every single person” who targeted Haim—a man who died at 38 after decades of drug abuse—he couldn’t name them.

“I’m not able to name names,” Feldman said. “People are frustrated, people are angry, they want to know how is this happening and they want answers and they turn to me and they say, ‘Why don’t you be a man and stand up and name names and stop hiding and being a coward?’ I have to deal with that, which is not pleasant, especially given the fact that I would love to name names. I’d love to be the first to do it. But unfortunately California conveniently enough has a statute of limitations that prevents that from happening. Because if I were to go and mention anybody’s name I would be the one that would be in legal problems and I’m the one that would be sued.”

I have written that, in light of the Cosby accusations, there should be no statute of limitations for rape. With ever public allegation—every child who was assaulted and never said anything until adulthood, every woman who assumed no one would believe her until she heard so many other women accuse the same man—the case for removing statutes of limitation for rape gets stronger.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF
Monday, May 30, 2016

ALBANY — Not leaving it to divine chance, the state Catholic Conference has turned in recent years to some of Albany’s most well-connected and influential lobby firms to help block a bill that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice.

The Catholic Conference, headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, has used Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Hank Sheinkopf, and Mark Behan Communications to lobby against the Child Victims Act as well as for or against other measures.

All told, the conference spent more than $2.1 million on lobbying from 2007 through the end of 2015, state records show. That does not include the conference’s own internal lobbying team.

Filings show the lobbyists were retained, in part, to work on issues associated with “statute of limitations” and “timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses.” Other issues included parochial school funding and investment tax credits.

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New York Senate’s power struggle in 2009 may have doomed child-abuse law reform

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF
Monday, May 30, 2016

ALBANY — The best chance in recent years to pass legislation to help child sex abuse survivors may have fallen victim to a 2009 state Senate leadership coup that threw the chamber into chaos.

Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson (D-Westchester) was carrying a bill to make it easier for victims to bring lawsuits and wanted then-Senate Democratic Majority Conference Leader John Sampson to move the bill to the floor through the Rules Committee he controlled before the legislative session ended in late June.

But on June 8, 2009, Democratic Sens. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) and Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) — who were convicted years later on federal corruption charges — shockingly joined with Republicans to give the GOP control of the chamber. Monserrate quickly jumped back to the Dems, leaving the Senate gridlocked for a month, with both sides having 31 members.

By the time the matter was resolved and Espada rejoined the Dems, the Child Victims Act was no longer in play as lawmakers just wanted to get done and leave Albany for the year.

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Sex Abuse Victim Sues Former Priest Metropoulos, Church Leaders, Community

MAINE
The National Herald

By Andy Dabilis – May 26, 2016

BANGOR, Maine – Adam Metropoulos, a 53-year-old former Greek Orthodox Priest, who in March was convicted on four felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor, and in April was sentenced to 12 years in prison, is now being sued by the victim, the Bangor Daily News reported.

The name of the plaintiff, now 24, is not being released publicly because he was the victim of sexual abuse, the News reported.

The lawsuit also names as co-defendants Metropoulos’ supervisors and the Greek-American community in Bangor, although it does not specifically name St. George Greek Orthodox Church, where Metropoulos served.

The victim claimed to have sustained severe and permanent physical injury, emotional distress, mental anguish and future and past medical expenses because of Metropoulos’ sexual abuse, which occurred in 2006 and 2007, and he claimed, the News reported, that the Boston Metropolis, its leader Metropolitan Methodios, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and the Greek Orthodox community in Bangor were negligent in their supervision of Metropoulos.

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Premier apologizes for residential schools

CANADA
Brantford Expositor

By Michael-Allan Marion, Brantford Expositor
Monday, May 30, 2016

Area First Nations are applauding an official apology and statement of reconciliation issued by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne on how the province will establish policies to correct wrongs that linger from the Indian residential schools period.

“The Province of Ontario is leading the way in this country with this statement of reconciliation,” Six Nations elected Chief Ava Hill said Monday shortly after Wynne issued an apology in the legislature and explained the government’s reconciliation policy.

“The statement has set the bar for the rest of the provinces,” said Hill, noting that Ontario should be commended.

“On behalf of Six Nations elected council, I would also like to acknowledge and thank all of those residential school survivors who had the courage to tell their stories. Without them, there would not have been any Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

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Ontario premier officially apologizes for ‘silence’ on residential schools

CANADA
APTN

APTN National News

Premier Kathleen Wynne apologized Monday for Ontario’s role in residential schools that forced Indigenous children into state sponsored, church-ran schools for generations.

“I apologize for the policies and practices supported by past Ontario governments and for the harm they caused. I apologize for the province’s silence in the face of abuses and deaths at residential schools,” said Wynne. “And I apologize for the fact that the residential schools are only one example of systemic, intergenerational injustices inflicted upon Indigenous communities throughout Canada.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s statement to Queen’s Park.

Wynne made the statement in Queen’s Park before Indigenous leaders, such as Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day, Dawn Lavell-Harvard, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada and residential school survivor Andrew Wesley.

“Canada’s residential schools are closed, but they have been closed for not even one generation,” said Wynne. “Echoes of their racist, colonial attitudes can still be heard. And the echoes of a society-wide, intergenerational effort of cultural genocide continue to reverberate loudly and painfully in the lives of Indigenous people today.”

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National support network demands Vatican remove Apuron

GUAM
KUAM

By Krystal Paco

Now that two alleged victims have surfaced against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests is calling on the Vatican and Pope Francis to adhere to their promises of child safety. In a statement from SNAP western regional director Joelle Casteix, the organization urges that the Vatican and Pope Francis step in and publicly remove Apuron from his office until a complete and independent investigation is complete.

SNAP also offered consoling words to Doris Concepcion:

“Parents of sexual abuse victims carry an awful and painful burden. Ms. Concepcion only wanted the best for her son. She had no idea that she was possibly putting her child in the path of a predator. We hope that Ms. Concepcion finds the peace and healing she so deeply deserves. Her powerful words and story have made is safer for victims of abuse everywhere-no matter the predator-to come forward and find healing and justice.”

Two brave people have now come forward to allege child sexual abuse at the hands of Archbishop Apuron. The time for “internal investigations,” bullying parishioners, and maintaining the status quo is over.

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Victims speak out about alleged abuse by French priests

FRANCE
France 24

After decades of silence, the many victims of alleged sexual abuse by French priests are beginning to speak out. The decision to come forward and share their painful experiences comes amid the Catholic Church’s recent statements condemning paedophile behaviour. FRANCE 24’s reporters have met with some of the victims.

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MI5 ‘used sexual abuse of children at Kincora to blackmail the politician paedophiles’

NORTHERN IRELAND
Independent

Lesley-Anne McKeown

Allegations of abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home will be examined when a long-running public inquiry reconvenes later.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry will hear evidence from former residents of the notorious east Belfast facility where it is claimed a high-ranking paedophile ring preyed on vulnerable boys during the 1970s.

There have also been claims the UK security services knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it, instead using the information to blackmail and extract intelligence from the influential men, including senior politicians, who were the perpetrators.

The HIA inquiry was set up by the Northern Ireland Executive in 2013 to examine harrowing allegations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at state and church run residential institutions between 1922 and 1995.

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Oprah Winfrey ready to accept backlash over scandalous megachurch drama ‘Greenleaf’

UNITED STATES
Christian Daily

Lorraine Caballero 31 May, 2016

Oprah Winfrey says she will accept the backlash that will come with her upcoming megachurch drama, “Greenleaf,” when it airs next month.

A month ahead of the debut of “Greenleaf” on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), the executive producer is already expecting negative feedback on the show’s scandalous megachurch drama. The story will center on a wealthy and unfaithful family managing a corporate black megachurch in Memphis, Tennessee.

During the advance screening of “Greenleaf” for industry and media on Wednesday, Oprah Winfrey was asked about her thoughts on the comparison of her series to the ’80s cult soap opera. The rest of the main characters in the series also seem prepared to receive the backlash on the story, The Wrap notes.

“We’ll take it,” said Winfrey.

The first hour of the screening covers various scandals that hound churches of different faiths. These issues include sexual abuse, religious leaders’ personal gains, church leaders’ marital infidelity, and the preferential tax status of huge corporate churches.

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Pope rules out retiring like his predecessor

VATICAN CITY
CNS News

By the Associated Press | May 29, 2016

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis says he has no intention of quitting the papacy — a possibility opened up by his predecessor Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

The pope, responding to a question from a young person at a Vatican event, said on Sunday “I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities.”

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Guam–Mother of second alleged victim of archbishop speaks, Victims respond

GUAM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, May 30, 2016

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, CA, Western Regional Director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org) (jcasteix@gmail.com, 949-322-7434 cell)

Our hearts ache for Doris Concepcion, who has so bravely spoken out about the abuse her son endured.

[Pacific Daily News]

Parents of sexual abuse victims carry an awful and painful burden. Ms. Concepcion only wanted the best for her son. She had no idea that she was possibly putting her child in the path of a predator. We hope that Ms. Concepcion finds the peace and healing she so deeply deserves. Her powerful words and story have made is safer for victims of abuse everywhere—no matter the predator—to come forward and find healing and justice.

Two brave people have now come forward to allege child sexual abuse at the hands of Archbishop Apuron. The time for “internal investigations,” bullying parishioners, and maintaining the status quo is over.

It is time for the Vatican and Pope Francis to adhere to their promises of child safety. They must immediately step in and publicly remove Apuron from his office until a complete and independent investigation is complete.

In the meantime, Apuron should and must do the right thing and voluntarily step aside. No cleric, especially an archbishop, should remain in ministry when he has two credible allegations of abuse that have not been investigated.

We implore other victims to come forward to law enforcement and civil authorities. As Roy Quintanilla and Doris Concepcion have shown Guam’s victims of abuse, help and support are available.

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Group calls on Vatican to ‘publicly remove Apuron’ until investigation is complete

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News May 31, 2016

The world’s largest support group for clergy abuse victims on Tuesday called on Archbishop Anthony Apuron to step aside, as well as for the Vatican and Pope Francis to remove him in light of the most recent allegation of molestation against the highest Catholic leader in Guam.

“The time for ‘internal investigations,’ bullying parishioners and maintaining the status quo is over,” Joelle Casteix, Western Regional Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said in a statement.

“Two brave people have now come forward to allege child sexual abuse at the hands of Archbishop Apuron,” Casteix said.

Doris Y. Concepcion, of Prescott, Ariz., recently told Pacific Daily News her deceased son, when he was serving as an altar boy, was molested by Apuron when the latter was the parish priest at Mount Carmel Church in Agat in the late 1970s.

Concepcion said her son, Joseph A. Quinata, revealed his secret shortly before he died 11 years ago.

The mother said she decided to come forward after seeing the news that another former altar boy, Roy Quintanilla, on May 17, said Apuron molested him during a sleepover at Apuron’s home in the 1970s.

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Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale’s name scratched from St Patrick’s College honour board

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A black line has been put through the name of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale on the board of ordained collegians at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat to acknowledge the victims of abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy.

It has also placed a plaque beneath it, which says: “The black line above stands both as a symbol of respect to the bravery of victims and survivors, and for the college’s deep remorse.”

Ridsdale’s abuse spanned decades from the 1960s to the 1980s, as he was moved from parish to parish in western Victoria by the Catholic Church despite many in authority being aware of his actions.

He was first convicted and jailed in 1994 and again in 2006, and gave evidence at last year’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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May 30, 2016

Miami priest forced to quit after angry parishioners tar him with ‘slanderous gossip’

FLORIDA
Raw Story

ARTURO GARCIA
30 MAY 2016

A dispute between a Miami priest and his parishioners culminated in the priest resigning after churchgoers undertook an investigation into alleged improprieties on his part, the Miami Herald reported.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski announced in a letter late last week that Father Pedro Corces was asked to step down from his position at St. Rose of Lima. But Wenski also criticized the group behind the probe, accusing them of engaging in “slanderous gossip, calumny, [and] detraction — all sinful behaviors — [which] have fomented division in the parish and school communities.”

The group of parishioners, which is calling itself Christifidelis, hired a private investigator to look into Corces’ activities after the priest announced that a group of nuns from the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary would be leaving St. Rose next month.

The investigator’s findings were presented to Wenski in a 129-page report accusing Corces of replacing St. Rose’s maintenance staff with “a felon and prostitute, Santeria practitioners, promiscuous gay practitioners and people who openly mock the Catholic faith.”

The report also accused Corces of engaging in “frequent, lavish trips and dinners” with a maintenance worker.

“Much of the material which the group has chosen to circulate via emails and the media is old, long since discredited gossip,” Wenski wrote in his letter. “Some is false, such as allegations that background checks were not done or waived; or some is misleading, such as the speculation about reasons for increases in [school] tuition.”

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Child abuse inquiry turns to Kincora home and claims of MI5 blackmail

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Guardian

Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
Monday 30 May 2016

An inquiry into child abuse across a range of institutions in Northern Ireland will focus on Tuesday on the Kincora boys home scandal including allegations that MI5 blackmailed a paedophile ring which operated there in the 1970s.

The historical institutional abuse inquiry will hear evidence from men who were abused at Kincora when they were children and their allegations that the perpetrators were protected because they were state agents spying on fellow Ulster loyalists.

A number of Kincora abuse victims have tried through the courts to force the scandal to be included in the national investigation into allegations of establishment paedophile rings operating in Westminster.

Gary Hoy tried and failed last month to force the home secretary to include Kincora in the Westminster inquiry. Hoy and others fear that the Kincora inquiry, which is based in Northern Ireland and taking hearings at the court in Banbridge, County Down, will not have access to sensitive MI5 intelligence files on the people who ran Kincora.

Amnesty International has described the Kincora scandal as one of the most disturbing to emerge from the Ulster Troubles.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty’s director in Northern Ireland, said: “Nothing less than a full public inquiry – with all the powers of compulsion which that brings – can finally reveal what happened and the role that the security services may have played in the abuse of these vulnerable boys.”

At least 29 boys were sexually abused by Kincora housemaster and prominent Orange Order member William McGrath and others at the east Belfast home. One boy is said to have committed suicide following years of abuse by jumping off a ferry into the Irish Sea in the late 1970s.

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Mother of second alleged victim of archbishop speaks, Victims respond

GUAM
The Worthy Adversary

May 30, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, CA, Western Regional Director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org)

Our hearts ache for Doris Concepcion, who has so bravely spoken out about the abuse her son endured.

Parents of sexual abuse victims carry an awful and painful burden. Ms. Concepcion only wanted the best for her son. She had no idea that she was possibly putting her child in the path of a predator. We hope that Ms. Concepcion finds the peace and healing she so deeply deserves. Her powerful words and story have made is safer for victims of abuse everywhere—no matter the predator—to come forward and find healing and justice.

Two brave people have now come forward to allege child sexual abuse at the hands of Archbishop Apuron. The time for “internal investigations,” bullying parishioners, and maintaining the status quo is over.

It is time for the Vatican and Pope Francis to adhere to their promises of child safety. They must immediately step in and publicly remove Apuron from his office until a complete and independent investigation is complete.

In the meantime, Apuron should and must do the right thing and voluntarily step aside. No cleric, especially an archbishop, should remain in ministry when he has two credible allegations of abuse that have not been investigated.

We implore other victims to come forward to law enforcement and civil authorities. As Roy Quintanilla and Doris Concepcion have shown Guam’s victims of abuse, help and support are available.

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Applications for core participant status

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

27 May

Individuals and organisations that wish to be designated as a core participant in relation to the investigations listed below are asked to submit their application by 4pm on 24 June 2016:

* The Roman Catholic Church

* Child Migration Programmes, a case study in the Protection of Children Outside the United Kingdom investigation (applications are not being sought at this stage in relation to the wider aspects of this investigation)

Preliminary hearings in relation to these investigations will be held as follows:

* The Roman Catholic Church – 10.30 on Thursday 28 July at the Royal Courts of Justice

* Child Migration Programmes, a case study in the Protection of Children Outside the United Kingdom investigation – 14.30 on Thursday 28 July at the Royal Courts of Justice

A core participant has a formal role as defined by legislation. Core participants have special rights in the Inquiry process. These include receiving disclosure of documentation, being represented and making legal submissions, suggesting questions and receiving advance notice of the Inquiry’s report. It is not necessary to be a core participant in order to provide evidence to the Inquiry.

Applicants should read the guidance for potential core participants and the Inquiry’s FAQs. In particular applicants should note that applications should be set out in writing on no more than 4 sides of A4 paper and as a minimum should include the information set out at paragraph 14 of the guidance.

It will not be necessary for victims and survivors who attend a Truth Project session to be designated as core participants, as the Inquiry will not make individual factual finding on the basis of what is said during the private Truth Project Hearings. They will however enable the Inquiry to piece together a broader picture of the scale and nature of institutional child sexual abuse in England and Wales.

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Mother of second alleged victim of Guam archbishop speaks

GUAM
The Worthy Adversary

May 30, 2016 Joelle Casteix

From the Pacific Daily News:

An Agat youth who served as an altar boy in the village church was molested in the late 1970s by Father Anthony Apuron, according to his mother, Doris Concepcion, who said her son, Joseph A. Quinata, revealed his secret shortly before he died 11 years ago.

My heart aches for Doris Concepcion. I can’t image the scope of the pain she has carried for so many years.

I hope that her strength only inspires other victims to stand up and demand justice.

It’s time for Apuron to step down. In fact, it’s past time.

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The Hasidic School District That Was Created in Secret

NEW YORK
New York Times

By SAM ROBERTS MAY 27, 2016

Even most New Yorkers have forgotten that Congress passed the Bill of Rights in New York. According to “The Curious Case of Kiryas Joel: The Rise of a Village Theocracy and the Battle to Defend the Separation of Church and State” (Chicago Review Press, $27.99), New York State is also where the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment’s freedom of religion protections was cynically abridged exactly two centuries later.

Written by Louis Grumet with John Caher, the book recounts the political and constitutional maneuvering behind a state law passed in 1989 empowering the Satmar Hasidic enclave in Orange County to establish its own public school system.

The insular, muscularly politically incorrect Satmars in the village of Kiryas Joel wanted, as the authors write, to have their cake and eat it, too — that is, to segregate the village from secular society while wringing every public service it might be entitled to from government.

That presented a predicament: How to pay for the education of students with special needs who were ostracized because of their religious reclusiveness when they were assigned to classes in the secular school district.

The State Constitution bars direct aid to parochial schools; the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits government from passing any legislation that establishes a religion or prefers one to another.

The authors recount how Democrats in Brooklyn, where the Satmar sect is based; George E. Pataki, then a Republican assemblyman in the Hudson Valley who was wooing the Hasidim, who vote as a bloc; and Gov. Mario M. Cuomo worked to establish “the first governmental unit in American history that was created solely to serve the needs and interests of only one religious group” — certain that the courts would overturn their largess.

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Mother of deceased man accuses Apuron of molesting son

GUAM/ARIZONA
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News May 31, 2016

An Agat youth who served as an altar boy in the village church was molested in the late 1970s by Father Anthony Apuron, according to his mother, Doris Concepcion, who said her son, Joseph A. Quinata, revealed his secret shortly before he died 11 years ago.

Concepcion is the latest person to accuse Apuron, who is now the island’s archbishop, of sexually assaulting a child under his care. Concepcion said she decided to come forward after another former Agat altar boy, Roy Quintanilla, on May 17 said Apuron molested him during a sleepover at Apuron’s home in the 1970s.

Apuron has denied Quintanilla’s allegation. The Archdiocese of Agana has also denied the allegation by Concepcion.

When asked about the newest accusation, the archdiocese provided the following written response.

“In the past days, malicious and calumnious accusations against the Archbishop have surfaced, even from a deceased person,” Father Adrian L.F. Cristobal, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Agana, said in a statement. “The Archbishop strongly denies this accusation as he had done so before.”

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FRANCIS A. [Art] AUSTIN 1948-2016

BRAINTREE (MA)
Boston Globe

[See Austin’s Good Friday Speech (3/29/02); and Survivor’s Lullaby (6/4/02).

AUSTIN, Francis A. Of Braintree, MA, born March 22, 1948, beloved brother and friend, died May 21, 2016 at Lahey Hospital in Burlington MA from complications of a long illness. Both his parents, Francis Austin of Braintree and Laura (Farrar) Austin of Norwell and Braintree predeceased him.

He is survived by his sisters Lorraine Austin of Braintree, Massachusetts and Mary Preckwinkle of Colorado Springs, Colorado, his brother Lawrence from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and his aunt, Madeline Farrar of Norwell, as well as many dear friends, among whom, Judy Ferdella of Auburn MA, Randy Testa of Cambridge, John and Lucia Mudd of Cambridge, Charles Felsenthal of Natick and Joan Van Heerden of Boston.

Art will be cherished in the heart of those who knew and loved him for his infectious sense of humor and his probing intelligence, as well as for his talent as a poet and his love of music, gardening, and old movies.

He will also be remembered by many for the battles he fought alone and with others to obtain justice for victims of clerical abuse.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston, at 10:00 AM, June 8, 2016, followed by interment at Plain Street Cemetery in Braintree, MA. Friends and relations are invited to a celebration of Art’s life June 4, 2016, from noon to 9:00 P.M. at the family home in Braintree, MA. Donations to the American Liver Foundation may be made, in lieu of flowers 188 Needham Street, Suite 240, Newton, MA 02464.

To be published in The Boston Globe on June 1, 2016.

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Breaking the silence

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Melissa Cunningham
May 30, 2016

When Maureen Hatcher tied a ribbon to the gates of the old St Alipius Christian Brothers Boys School a year ago, she never could have imagined how much her simple gesture would grow.

The single red ribbon was tied in honour of her friend’s brother. He’d taken his own life following years of torment after he was sexually abused by Catholic clergy as child. Ms Hatcher said a black cloud was left hanging over Ballarat during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings as years of pain were brought to the surface.

But as the darkness emerged out of the abuse inquiry something profound unfolded. Ribbons began being tied outside institutions as an overt response to traumas long held silent and a symbol of solidarity with sexual abuse victims.

“At the crux of this whole disaster is that children weren’t listened to,” Ms Hatcher said. “As a community we needed to open up conversations about child sexual abuse and get rid of the stigma and fear surrounding it.”

It became known as Loud Fence. A grass roots movement depicting Ballarat fearlessly facing up to its harrowing past. It was also catalyst for change which saw public support continue to mount for survivors leading them on a plight for truth in Rome.

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Al Sacerdote Leopoldo Nevarez se le quito el oficio de párroco

MEXICO
El Heraldo de Chiapas

[The Bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad Juarez said the priest Leopoldo Nevarez Erives must answer to the public prosecutor over allegations of sexual abuse.]

Angélica Bustamante / El Mexicano

Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.-El Obispo de la Diócesis de Ciudad Juárez dijo que el sacerdote Leopoldo Nevarez Erives tendrá que responder ante el Ministerio Público por las acusaciones que tiene en su contra por abuso sexual porque el Clero es respetuoso de la Ley.

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St. Frances has final service; parishioners plan new church

MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Scituate

By Kristi Funderburk
kfunderburk@wickedlocal.com

Posted May. 29, 2016 at 1:33 PM

SCITUATE
Parishioners, both young and old, trickled into the St. Frances X. Cabrini Church for its final service on Sunday, May 29.

Some of the service was like any other Sunday, with prayers, readings and songs, but on this Sunday, many parishioners greeted each other with tears.

After more than 11 years, a vigil they began in the wake of an Archdiocese of Boston closure plan was ending. Attempts to appeal the archdiocese’s plan, including a plea before the U.S. Supreme Court, came and went without success.

“This has been an epic journey, a historic journey,” said Jon Rogers, spokesman of the Friends of St. Frances, the group that ran the 24-7 vigil. “Eleven years ago, we started a revolution of faith. It continued to this day. That’s because of you that that happened.”

He thanked the parishioners and other supporters for helping the Friends keep the vigil going.
Someone stayed within the church walls at all times to keep the archdiocese from closing it while the Friends appealed, but the Friends group promised once its appeals ran out, they would leave.

For some, Sunday’s service was regarded as a sad end, but others considered it a new beginning, as the parishioners plan to continue meeting. The group will meet at The Satuit Lodge/Masonic Temple, 344 Country Way, for 10 a.m. Sunday services.

“We’re going to keep the people we have and we’re going to continue until we can build our own church, even if it’s a barn,” said Nancy Shilts, a parishioner and Friends member. “It’s the beginning.”

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Müller Out, Schönborn In. The Pope Has Changed Doctrine Teachers

VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

by Sandro Magister

ROME, May 30, 2016 – The prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith is still the same, German cardinal Gerhard L. Müller.

Who diligently continues to carry out his task, most recently with the monumental address he gave in Oviedo on May 4 for a correct understanding of “Amoris Laetitia,” in harmony with the previous magisterium of the Church on the family:

But it is increasingly evident that for Pope Francis, it is not Müller but another cardinal who is the teacher of doctrine authorized to shed light on the post-synodal exhortation: Cardinal Christoph Schönborn.

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Former student claims ‘monster’ abused him in Bronx high school, supports Child Victims Act

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 30, 2016

He was the dean of discipline, and Kirk Balay remembers how he would always be lurking as students got off the train on their way to Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx.

Brother John Justin O’Connor, a large, heavyset friar, was on the prowl for any behavior — shouting, cursing, horsing around — he deemed worthy of punishment.

For Balay, who seemed to run afoul of O’Connor at least once a week throughout the fall of 1985 and into 1986, discipline often consisted of being sexually and physically abused.

Sometimes O’Connor had him stand facing a classroom wall for two or three hours with two dozen other disciplined students, Balay said.

More frequently, he would bring Balay to his office, where he would beat and molest him.

“It started out with him groping my buttocks as he paddled me and it evolved into him trying to rip my clothes off as he fondled himself,” said Balay, 45, who claims he first received “jug” — “justice under God” — from O’Connor about three weeks into his freshman year.

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Committed To Protecting Our Children

ARKANSAS
Booneville Democrat

By Sen. John Boozman

As a father to three daughters and grandfather two granddaughters, I believe that protecting our children needs to be a priority. This includes improving laws to bring justice to children victimized by predators and strengthening punishment for offenders.

Our children deserve justice. We need to provide law enforcement with the tools they need to solve crimes committed against our children. That’s why Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. Named for a six-year-old Florida boy who was kidnapped and murdered in 1981, the law established nationwide notification and registration standards for convicted sex offenders, improved information sharing capabilities between law enforcement agencies, boosted resources to help law enforcement arrest the fugitives who commit these crimes and increased public safety through awareness.

This was an important step in protecting our children and helping communities prevent future abuses by registered sex offenders.

I was proud to support the reauthorization of this law in May and take child protection measures even further by providing additional rights and safeguards for victims of sexual assault and human trafficking crimes.

This legislation extends the statute of limitations for child survivors of sexual abuse or human trafficking offenses from three to 10 years after turning 18, establishes free medical forensic examinations for survivors, and ensures the preservation of sexual assault evidence collection kits free of charge.

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Parishioners say farewell to Scituate church

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Astead W. Herndon GLOBE STAFF MAY 29, 2016

SCITUATE — Hundreds of solemn parishioners crowded St. Frances X. Cabrini church for a final service Sunday morning — but by nightfall, the church was strangely quiet, the dismantling begun.

By midnight Monday, St. Frances will be empty for the first time in 4,235 consecutive days, no vigilers sleeping on shabby cots in tight quarters, some using boiling water from an electric teapot to wash in the morning. Gone are the legal advisers consulting with parishioners on ways to block the Boston Archdiocese from forcing them out of the church they have defiantly occupied since 2004.

In the end, legal appeals ran out. When the Supreme Court refused to hear the parishioners’ case against the archdiocese on May 16, the nearly 12-year, round-the-clock vigil to save St. Frances from being closed down was over, as was the congregation’s relationship with the archdiocese.

At Sunday’s service, longtime churchgoers officially said a reluctant goodbye to their beloved spiritual home, with bitter words for the Catholic hierarchy. Legally, the congregation has been ordered by a court to vacate the church by 11:59 p.m. Monday.

“In war, there are casualties, and unfortunately our church will be one,” said Jon Rogers who, along with his wife, Maryellen, have spoken for the vigilers. The church gave Rogers a whooping ovation for his reflections on the group’s “revolution of faith.”

“This is not a death, but the birth of a new church and a new way of thinking,” he said. “We are the bright light our world needs, and I pray that we burn forever.”

Vigilers announced plans to form a new “Catholic community” church in Scituate. It would operate outside the Boston Archdiocese and be partly led by the Rev. Terry McDonough, a married Massachusetts priest who has long been at odds with Catholic leadership.

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Support in Assembly growing for Child Victims Act

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KEN LOVETT

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, May 30, 2016

Here is an expanded version of the lead item of my “Albany Insider” column from Monday’s editions:

Bipartisan support continues to grow in the state Assembly for a bill that would make it easier for kids who were sexually abused to seek justice as adults.

But it may not be enough if there aren’t 76 Democrats ready to vote for the measure.

A bill long sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) that would give child sex abuse victims more time to bring civil cases could bring civil cases now has 64 sponsors-just 12 shy of the 76 votes that would be needed for passage.

Of the 64 sponsors, 46 are Democrats and 18 are Republicans.

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Church members support convicted child molester

VERMONT
Rutland Herald

By Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli

STAFF WRITER | May 30,2016

It’s been 22 years since Joseph Angelo Pasquariello was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child. And in a petition to have his record expunged, the 71-year-old Rutland man said he has turned his life around.

“I am a member of Fellowship Bible Church in Castleton … I have also completed three years of sex offender treatment,” he said in his request to have his felony record removed. “I have contributed to the community in a positive manner.”

On Tuesday in Rutland criminal court, about 30 members of Pasquariello’s church came to his hearing to support his request.

“His filing has been supported by numerous letters attesting to the defendant’s positive character and how he has turned his life around,” Judge Thomas A. Zonay said. “Defendant is now 71 years old and has not sustained any further convictions.”

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In Reorganization plan, archdiocese offers $65 million for abuse victim remuneration

MINNESOTA
Catholic Spirit

Maria Wiering | May 26, 2016

Sixteen months after entering Reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed a plan for Reorganization May 26. The plan identifies more than $65 million in assets the archdiocese anticipates will be available to compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse, with the potential for that amount to grow.

The plan outlines specific sources for funds available for victim remuneration, including at least $8.7 million from the sale of archdiocesan properties, including three chancery buildings on Cathedral Hill, as well as more than $33 million from insurance settlements. It establishes a trust for victim remuneration funds, with a court-approved allocation protocol.

The plan also includes settlements from parish insurers of approximately $13.7 million with the potential for future settlements from archdiocesan insurers that are not currently entering into agreements with the archdiocese. The archdiocese is seeking to transfer the rights of recovery for those policies to the trustee of the trust for victims.

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Diocese confirms number of new sexual abuse claims

MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

Stephanie Dickrell, sdickrell@stcloudtimes.com May 29, 2016

Bishop Donald Kettler asked for the prayers of area Catholics on Sunday as the Diocese of St. Cloud issued a statement confirming the number of sexual abuse claims made against it.

On Wednesday, May 25, a three-year window closed that temporarily lifted the civil statute of limitations on allegations of sexual abuse of minors in Minnesota.

A total of 74 claims were made against the diocese, according to the statement.

The statements name 31 members of the clergy who served in the diocese. Out of the 131 parishes in the diocese, 30 were named in the claims.

The diocese had been served with less than a dozen cases in the Child Victims Act window before Monday.

The claims are related to abuse alleged to have happened many years ago, according to the statement. In most cases, it was several decades ago.

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St. Cloud Diocese: 74 Sexual Abuse Claims Made Under Child Victims Act

MINNESOTA
WJON

By Jim Maurice May 29, 2016

ST. CLOUD – The Diocese of St. Cloud says a total of 74 claims were made against the diocese under the Minnesota Child Victims Act. The Act created by the State Legislature lifted for three years the civil statute of limitations for allegations of past sexual abuse of minors. The window for filing claims ended on Wednesday.

The claims name 31 members of the clergy who served in the diocese. Thirty parishes are named in the claims; the diocese has 131 parishes.

The claims are related to abuse alleged to have happened many years ago — several decades ago in most cases. The claims do not involve anyone who is currently in parish ministry.

Pastors and parishioners are being informed about the claims. It is not expected that the claims will affect the normal operations of parishes or Catholic schools in the diocese. Diocesan and parish staff are working with attorneys to identify insurance coverage that could go toward resolution of these lawsuits.

Victims and survivors are urged to contact the diocesan victim assistance coordinator at (320) 248-1563.

Allegations of abuse were made against the following clergy members in the lawsuits against the Diocese of St. Cloud during the three-year window of the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which expired May 25, 2016.

Cosmas Dahlheimer, OSB
Hubert Dahlheimer, OSB
John Eccleston
Richard Eckroth, OSB
Sylvester Gall
Raoul Gauthier
Thomas Gillespie, OSB
Philibert Harrer, OSB
Othmar Hohmann, OSB
Matthew Kiess, OSB
Val Klimek
Joseph Kremer
Henry Lutgen
Brennan Maiers, OSB
Antonio Marfori
James Mohm
Jerome Reisinger
David Rieder
Donald Rieder
David Sheldon
Paul Shurek
Robert Smith
Peter Snyers
Allan Speiser
James Thoennes
Thomas Thole, OSB
Roger Vaughn, OSC
William Wey
Joseph Wiersgalla
Mark Willenbring
Vincent Yzermans

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High time Catholic Church came clean on role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi

RWANDA
New Times

By: VINCENT GASANA
PUBLISHED: May 30, 2016

As the Month of May comes to an end, events to commemorate the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi will be tapering off.

Throughout the commemorative month of April, most Rwandans will have flocked to their respective places of worship, in the hope that their faith might pour some balm on the unfathomable pain, and anguish, from the loss of individual lives, multiplied over a million times, in a mere hundred days.

Spare a thought then, for the overwhelming majority, who profess the Christian faith, particularly the three out every five Rwandans, who follow the Catholic Church.

What added trauma must these believers be forced to endure, when the institution to which they naturally turn for solace at their most bereft, is the very same institution that betrayed them, abandoning them to stand instead, with their tormentors.

There can no longer be any argument, or debate that the Catholic Church was complicit in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The only question that remains is whether, deplorably, shamelessly, the Church will continue to attempt to wash its hands of the blood of the innocents it could have saved, but chose not to, condemning them to slow, painful deaths.

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After 12 Years of Defiance, a Massachusetts Congregation Goes in Peace

MASSACHUSETTS
New York Times

By JESS BIDGOOD

MAY 29, 2016

SCITUATE, Mass. — For almost 12 years, the parishioners of St. Frances X. Cabrini have prayed, eaten meals, watched the Super Bowl and even slept in the church, holding a round-the-clock vigil to protest the Archdiocese of Boston’s decision to close it.

They have used detailed sign-up sheets to ensure that at least one person was in the church at all times, had communion wafers secretly consecrated by sympathetic priests, and held weekly services led entirely by lay members of the congregation.

On Sunday, having exhausted their options in Vatican and American courts, the parishioners held their last service, but not without a final act of defiance. A man who was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, but was later married, stood at the altar of the deconsecrated church and led services for parishioners who said they intended to break away from the archdiocesan hierarchy and form an independent Catholic church.

“In every revolution, obviously, there are collateral damage and there are casualties,” said Jon Rogers, an organizer of the vigil with his wife, Maryellen. “Our beloved church is one of those casualties.”

The parishioners plan to leave the church by 11:59 p.m. Monday and hold a service next Sunday in a Masonic lodge, a temporary stop while they try to raise money for a building of their own.

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May 29, 2016

El cardenal Suárez Inda es un hipócrita; protegió a los sacerdotes que me violaron

MORELIA (MEXICO)
La Jornada [Mexico City, Mexico]

May 29, 2016

By Sanjuana Martínez

Read original article

Víctima de curas pederastas censura al purpurado por criticar el matrimonio homosexual

Javier Castellanos Martínez no puede contener la indignación que le provoca la crítica y condena del cardenal Alberto Suárez Inda contra la legalización del matrimonio igualitario para todo el país propuesta por el presidente Enrique Peña Nieto:

El cardenal es un hipócrita, encubrió a los sacerdotes pederastas que abusaron de mí y mis hermanos. Conozco al clero. La mayoría de los sacerdotes son homosexuales, otros tienen mujeres y casi nadie respeta el famoso celibato, que no sirve para nada. Eso me consta, yo lo viví en carne propia. Los obispos y cardenales en público condenan algo que ellos viven en privado, porque casi todos tienen amantes. Son una bola de hipócritas, dice en entrevista con La Jornada.

Javier cuenta que cuando tenía 13 años, en la parroquia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, en Gabriel Zamora, Michoacán, el sacerdote Eugenio Sánchez Malagón abusó de él y de otros dos hermanos menores, durante varios años, abusos que luego continuaron con el sacerdote Noé Pérez Cortés.

Ambos curas fueron denunciados por ellos y otros niños abusados y sólo se les cambió de parroquia. Así, Javier, en marzo de 2007, denunció a los agresores sexuales ante la jerarquía católica de Michoacán, al entonces obispo de Apatzingán, Miguel Patiño Velázquez, y al arzobispo de Morelia, Alberto Suárez Inda, según consta en cartas, cuyas copias están en poder de La Jornada.

En una carta membretada de la diócesis de Apatzingán, fechada en 2007, el obispo Patiño Velázquez se disculpa por el mal que le causaron estos dos hermanos sacerdotes. Le informa que decidió solamente moverlos de parroquia, pero no denunciarlos ante la policía: En aquel momento y en aquellas circunstancias juzgué conveniente cambiarlos a diferente lugar, al cura le quité la responsabilidad de la parroquia y lo envié de vicario, dice en la misiva firmada por él.

Indignado, Javier le escribió otra carta donde lamenta que el sacerdote pederasta Eugenio Sánchez Malagón fuera nombrado vicario en la catedral de Apatzingán y el otro agresor sexual, Noé Pérez Cortés, solamente haya sido enviado al extranjero, en lugar de que ambos estuvieran en prisión: Los sacerdotes mencionados posiblemente están causando mayor daño a otros menores, aún como representantes de Cris­to en el ministerio. Siento, en cierta manera, que mi testimonio no fue validado por sus acciones… La dignidad de cada uno de estos menores está bajo su cuidado al igual que la de sus sacerdotes.

Javier asegura que Suárez Inda fue informado de todo y recibió las cartas de denuncia, según consta en los comprobantes firmados emitidos por el servicio postal de San Marcos, California, en Estados Unidos, a donde decidió irse a vivir, luego de la persecución que sufrió por atreverse a denunciar.

El infierno

El padre de Javier –quien tiene ocho hermanos– fue asesinado y su madre se refugió en la religión. Cuando llegó el sacerdote Eugenio, su madrina de primera comunión, también viuda, era ministra de la comunión y lo llevaba al catecismo con otros niños: El padre ponía una casa de campaña en su casa, en la parte trasera de su jardín y allí llevaba a los niños y abusaba de nosotros. Luego me enteré de que a varios de mis hermanos también los había violado en el mismo lugar. Yo no sabía, sólo lo vi tocar a mis hermanos. Primero usando ungüento Vic que les ponía en los ojos y mientras ellos intentaban quitarse la molestia, él los manoseaba, les bajaba el pantalón en juego y los tocaba.

El sacerdote elegía a los niños de familias con problemas, de madres solteras o viudas: Este padre se empezó a aprovechar de todos mis sufrimientos. Cada 15 días ponía su famosa casa de campaña y allí nos violaba; había niños de dos años y yo era el más grande. La primera vez me sacó de la casa de campaña. Me desnudó y empezó a hacerme sexo oral, mientras él se masturbaba hasta que eyaculaba. Todo era muy confuso para mí, porque me asustaba, pero me estimulaba sexualmente y me empezó a despertar otras cosas.

Torturado por la situación, un día reclamó al sacerdote durante una confesión y éste le hizo sentir que todo era su culpa: “Era una tortura, yo me sentía el más sucio del mundo porque era muy religioso y sentía que vivía en pecado, pero él me dijo: ‘No te preocupes, Dios te perdona, jamás va a volver a pasar’, y me dio la absolución. Pero esa noche volvió a hacerme lo mismo, me empezó a desnudar y a tocar, y volvió a pasar. Mi cuerpo reaccionaba teniendo erecciones. Y a partir de entonces ya no me dejó en paz y los abusos duraron varios años”.

Por las denuncias de los padres de los niños víctimas de abuso el sacerdote fue transferido por orden del obispo Patiño Velázquez a Apat­zingán, pero volvía a la parroquia para seguir sus ataques: Una vez me llevó de viaje a Pátzcuaro con el hijo de mi madrina; nosotros nunca habíamos salido del rancho y él se aprovechaba de nuestra ignorancia y pobreza. Y una noche dormía con cada uno. Él llegaba a tener hasta cinco niños de diferentes edades en una noche“.

Javier sufría fuertes depresiones y se hizo más religioso participando en actividades de la parroquia. Recuerda que la sacristana salió embarazada y dio a luz un bebé cuyo padre era otro sacerdote. La mujer fue despedida y llegó el sacerdote Noé Pérez Cortés. Fue cuando Javier se convirtió en sacristán a los 17 años, con derecho a alojamiento en la casa parroquial.

Al poco tiempo le hablé al padre Noé de mis problemas con el padre Eugenio: traía tanto sufrimiento y estaba tan deprimido por mi confusión tan grande por mi homosexualidad que me empecé a golpear en las paredes, me jalaba el cabello. Un día llegaron unos sicólogos al pueblo y le conté a uno lo que me había hecho el sacerdote y me dijo que lo platicara con el cura. Le cuento al padre Noé que soy homosexual y que no sabía si eso era bueno o pecado.

Un día, el cura Noé, quien era alcohólico y fumador, me envió a traerle unas bebidas: “Él siempre estaba rodeado de jóvenes y se quedaban a dormir en su cuarto, incluso tenía un amante, y ese día me invitó a tomar con otros tres jóvenes. Me tomé dos cervezas y me sentí muy mareado. Y él me cargó literalmente, me llevó a la azotea y me acostó en una colchoneta, me empezó a quitar la ropa; yo le decía que no y él me respondía: ‘¡Cállate!’ y me hizo sexo oral hasta que eyaculé. Él tenía un plan”.

Cuando le reclamaron al sacerdote los abusos, él dijo que el joven era joto con actitudes de amaneramiento y que si lo habían violado más de una vez, eso era porque le gustaba.

A partir de entonces, el sacerdote lo empezó a maltratar. Luego decidió denunciarlo ante el vicario, quien literalmente le dijo: Esta es una cueva de perros, vete de aquí, y por eso decidió viajar a Estados Unidos, donde viven sus hermanos.

Allí continuaron las depresiones, pero muy unido ahora a la Iglesia católica estadunidense, donde supuestamente le iban a curar su homosexualidadMe llevaron con unas mujeres carismáticas para que me quitaran la homosexualidad, pero me dijeron que tenía metido el demonio y fue peor que antes.

Luego encontró al sacerdote Gerardo Lecome, quien finalmente le dijo que era normal ser homosexual. Fue cuando decidió iniciar un proceso terapéutico durante ocho años lo cual le ayudó a cambiar asumiendo su homosexualidad e intentando llevar una nueva vida.

La homofobia

Tras recibir cartas del obispo Patiño Velázquez, Javier empezó a tener llamadas del sacerdote pederasta Noé, quien lo amenazaba con divulgar a su mamá su homosexualidad y hacerlo público en su pueblo, mientras él vivía en Estados Unidos.

“Era 2009 y tenía mucho miedo. Me amenazó: ‘Si no te callas voy a empezar a divulgar que eres homosexual y que fuiste tú quien abusó de mí’. Yo era homosexual de clóset en ese entonces y me espanté. Luego amenazaba con llamar al servicio de Migración porque yo no tenía documentos. Me dijo: ‘Deja de chingar; si no te callas, te va a ir peor’.”

Javier empezó a sufrir de insomnio y a pensar en el suicidio: Me odiaba a mí mismo, detestaba el mundo y me quería morir. En la diócesis de California usaron toda la información para atacarlo y le decían que él fue el culpable de los abusos. Pensaba, si esto es de Dios, no quiero saber qué es el infierno.

Javier ha seguido la vida de la jerarquía católica que protegió a los sacerdotes pederastas, en particular las declaraciones que considera homofóbicas del cardenal Suárez Inda sobre el matrimonio igualitario, quien dijo que un tornillo, lo que necesita es una tuerca, no otro tornilloMe siento ofendido por las declaraciones del cardenal. Él supo de mi caso, recibió la carta; tenemos la firma, el documento que lo demuestra, y no hizo nada. Él tenía la obligación de actuar contra los sacerdotes pederastas. Me parecen hipócritas sus críticas contra el matrimonio gay y cuando dicen que los homosexuales somos los peores, cuando ellos no son lo que dicen, son unos fariseos hipócritas. ¿Por qué salen a condenarnos diciendo que un tornillo necesita una tuerca, si ellos se dedican a solapar los abusos sexuales y a callar todo?

Javier tiene ahora 35 años; tras un largo proceso terapéutico su vida cambió. Hace dos meses se casó con el estadunidense Robin Owen, en San Diego, California, donde vive feliz trabajando en su propia empresa de bienes raíces: Todos tenemos los mismos derechos. Yo caí en manos de sacerdotes criminales. Todos deben ser denunciados, los curas pederastas y quienes los protegen.



            

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Archdiocese investigates priest after scandalous allegations

FLORIDA
Local 10

By Andrea Torres – Digital Reporter/Producer

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Father Pedro M. Corces was asked to resign and was under investigation, after allegations that he sustained a sexual relationship with a man he hired as a maintenance worker surfaced. Corces has denied the allegations.

A group of families at St. Rose of Lima, a Catholic church and school, in Miami Shores, hired a private investigator to follow Corces, after a group of nuns from the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary left the school.

The families presented the private investigator’s findings to Archbishop Thomas Wenski on May 16. There were pictures that showed Corces with a maintenance worker who is openly gay on social media and has a criminal record.

On Friday, Wenski issued a letter to the families of the students at St. Rose of Lima to report that some of the allegations were under investigation including the “hiring of friends and improper socializing with employees.”

From 1996 to 2006, Corces was the vocations director for the Archdiocese of Miami. The post required screening priesthood applicants.

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State ‘failed’ alleged Christian Brothers abuse victims

UNITED KINGDOM
The Sunday Times

Niall Brady
May 29 2016
The Sunday Times

A High Court judge has criticised the state for threatening five men with legal bills running to “many thousands of euros” unless they dropped a legal action alleging sexual abuse at Christian Brothers schools but has ruled it is not legally possible for them to resume their lawsuit.

The men, now in their fifties and sixties, dropped their cases after the state threatened to pursue them for costs if they lost. They tried to resume the lawsuit, however, following the landmark Louise O’Keeffe case in 2014, when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that her rights had been

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Pädophilie in der Piusbruderschaft: Vertraue deinem Priester

DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel Online

[Little is known about sexual offenses in the ranks of the ultra-conservative Catholic SSPX. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with victims and their relatives – their experience of the Church’s “reclamation” is staggering.]

Von Annette Langer

Wenig ist bekannt über Sexualdelikte in den Reihen der erzkonservativen katholischen Piusbruderschaft. SPIEGEL ONLINE hat mit Opfern und Angehörigen gesprochen – ihre Erfahrung der kirchlichen “Aufarbeitung” ist erschütternd.

Die Piusbruderschaft tut viel, um sich vom angeblich modernistischen katholischen Mainstream abzugrenzen. In einem aber sind sich Traditionalisten und offizielle kirchliche Würdenträger erstaunlich ähnlich: im Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch.

“Ich muss ihm verzeihen”, sagt der heute 13-jährige Joey* über einen Priester, der ihn im Schlafsaal eines Brüsseler Internats unter der Bettdecke betatschte. Der “schmutzige Dinge” mit ihm tat, ihn so berührte, wie es kein Erwachsener bei einem Kind tun sollte. Der ihn vor sich knien ließ, ihn bestrafte und erniedrigte. So berichtete es der Junge seinen Eltern und Geschwistern.

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Local authorities favor lifting time constraints on prosecuting child abusers

ILLINOIS
The Southern

MOLLY PARKER THE SOUTHERN

Several Southern Illinois officials on the front lines of combating child sexual assault and seeking justice for victims say they agree with legislation introduced in Springfield that would lift time constraints on prosecuting alleged offenders.

“I’m for that because I think we have a seen a lot of cases where people come forward years later, in some cases even 30 years after the alleged incident,” said Williamson County State’s Attorney Brandon Zanotti. In situations where victims come forward with credible stories but after the clock has run out, Zanotti said justice isn’t being served. “It’s sad,” he said.

Current Illinois law says that prosecutors have the ability to file charges in cases where a person who was the victim of sexual abuse as a child comes forward with allegations within 20 years of his or her 18th birthday. In other words, the abuse must be reported to authorities before the victim turns 38.

Most crimes, as well as civil claims, have a statute of limitations — or the amount of time that can pass from the alleged incident to when charges can be filed or a valid lawsuit brought — with the idea that, over time, the memories’ of witnesses fade, evidence can lose value with passing years, and to establish a level of fairness for the accused.

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Lawyers who recommended Starr’s ouster at Baylor are former Philadelphia sex-crimes prosecutors

PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Craig R. McCoy and Chris Mondics, STAFF WRITERS

The two Philadelphia lawyers whose investigation led to the ouster of former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr as president of Baylor University are former veteran sex-crimes prosecutors who have built a practice helping institutions respond to allegations of sexual abuse.

After a 10-month probe and 65 interviews, Gina Maisto Smith and Leslie Gomez produced a damning report that said the university did not take seriously the complaints of women who had been assaulted by university football players – and even actively discouraged victims from filing complaints.

Their investigation led the Texas university on Thursday to demote Starr, whose investigation of President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment in 1998. Baylor also fired the school football coach and suspended its athletic director.

Smith and Gomez declined comment but issued a statement saying they were hopeful that their work would spur further reform at Baylor.

“We are deeply committed to improving campus policies and practices nationally, and have devoted our careers to confronting sexual and interpersonal violence,” they said.

Smith, 55, and Gomez, 45, have been working together since their days in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Smith, a graduate of Temple law school, joined that office in 1986. Gomez, a Yale law school graduate, joined in 1994.

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A Twin Cities Catholic’s open letter to the new archbishop

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Zach Czaia MAY 27, 2016

Dear Archbishop Bernard Hebda:

I am a Minnesota Catholic. I was baptized in a Twin Cities parish. I received my first communion at a Twin Cities parish. I took the oils of confirmation on my forehead at the cathedral in St. Paul. I have gratitude for the work that you do and your fellow priests do — the marrying and burying, the listening and absolving, the steady presence in the lives of those you pastor. You have a difficult job, a challenging vocation, and the present environment here has not made it any easier. So, before I say anything else, I want you to know that I value your work. At its best, I believe it is God’s own work.

I’m writing because I would like to see a radical change in the way our local church approaches victims of clergy sexual abuse. I believe our current approach is not nearly honest or generous enough to provide real healing to those who have been harmed. We need to do more. We need to give more.

At my home parish, every Sunday at the offertory, the ushers walk up the aisles and pass the baskets down the pews. I put my money in like many others. I hope you can understand that over these past two years, in light of what has been revealed through the witness of Jennifer Haselberger and the reporting of local news outlets, I have lost confidence that this money is doing much good for the community. Nevertheless, I give. I give because I was taught it was right to tithe, to give back to the church, to support it.

Sometimes your priests present “second collections” — on behalf of missions the local church in St. Paul and Minneapolis supports in other parts of the world. Sometimes they are on behalf of retired members of religious communities or food shelters or homeless shelters or any number of praiseworthy purposes. But I have never once heard a second collection taken up for the victims of sexual abuse, many of whom were victimized in the very spaces where we sit. I have never once heard a financial appeal for support of victims, whose lives have been uprooted at the hands of abusive priests. Good therapy is not cheap, but I have never once seen the collection basket passed around for good therapy so a victim of sexual abuse could heal. Never once, not in 33 years sitting in the pews.

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Secrecy surrounds call for sex abuse complaints at St. Andrew’s School

FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

By Andrew Marra – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

BOCA RATON — St. Andrew’s School, a private Episcopal school in Boca Raton, has been rocked by the abrupt departure of its headmaster and the hiring of two law firms to investigate whether any students have been sexually abused there.

Whether the two events are related is unknown, but the timing of the announcements less than a month apart has rattled parents and fueled rampant speculation in school circles.

Parents learned of both events via emails from the school’s board of trustees, whose members include Bishop Peter Eaton of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida. But parents say the school has refused to provide key details or respond to questions.

The lack of information has jarred them, particularly after the school’s May 17 announcement that it had retained the prominent law firm Holland & Knight to “investigate any reports of sexual abuse of Saint Andrew’s students.”

The message from trustees did not say whether the school had any evidence of sexual abuse or whether it was investigating any allegations. A Boca Raton police spokeswoman said the department was not investigating any sex abuse complaints at the school.

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Breaking the Silence

MINNESOTA
The Journal

May 29, 2016
The Journal

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles The Journal is publishing on the issue of sexual abuse of children by priests in the New Ulm Diocese. Today’s article tells the story of Leon, who doesn’t wish his last name to be used, who was abused in Glencoe by Fr. Michael Skoblik.

Next Sunday: The church faces the future.

By Kevin Sweeney
Journal Editor

Leon remembers trying never to be the last altar boy out of the sacristy after mass in St. George Parish in Glencoe.

That’s usually when Fr. Michael Skoblik would molest him.

“I would show up one minute before mass, and try to be out of there as soon as possible afterward so as not to be the last one,” said Leon, who has asked that his last name not be used. “The other altar boys also rushed to get out of there, so I wonder if maybe they had been approached, too.”

Being an altar boy was a natural for Leon, who grew up in a devout Catholic family. Born in 1951, Leon was about 12 or 13 when the molestation began. It lasted two years. Leon said he couldn’t avoid Skoblik entirely, in part because of his family’s devotion to the church.

Leon liked to earn money to supplement his allowance, he said. He worked odd jobs mowing lawns and shoveling show, and took a paper route to help raise some money. Skoblik was one of his customers.

Skoblik would give altar boys a nickel for serving mass on weekdays, and a dime on Sundays.

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Sex abuse victim, 81, starts anew | Turkeys and Trophies

PENNSYLVANIA
Express-Times

By Express-Times opinion staff
on May 28, 2016

TROPHIES

Robert Corby Sr. is making up for lost time — and for the theft of childhood innocence many years ago. Corby, 81, of Bethlehem, is attending Northampton Community College after getting over the fear of taking classes and thinking he wouldn’t be accepted. Before that, though, he took another leap — seeking therapy to deal with the memories of sexual abuse by a priest at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in West Bethlehem in 1947, when he was an altar boy. He said his life was changed by the Boston Globe’s investigation into the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. One of his regrets was never going to college, something is he now fulfilling through NCC’s offer of free tuition for those 65 and over; he’s indulging his love of philosophy and world geography. “I have opportunities to speak up for victims of sexual abuse,” he says. “If I can even help one other victim to know I can understand their pain and suffering, I consider that a success.”

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National support group comes to area

PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Ebensburg, Cambria County, Pa.

A national support group is heading to our area to help victims of the alleged sexual abuse within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

The “Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests” or “SNAP” will be in Ebensburg on Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The self-help group will be at the Cottage Restaurant, located at 4554 Admiral Peary Hwy.

Anyone who has been impacted by the alleged priest sex abuse within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese is welcomed to attend.

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May 28, 2016

Priest Who Wrote Vatican’s Anti-Gay Guidelines Accused of Sex With Male Seminarians

UNITED STATES
Towleroad

by Michael Fitzgerald
May 28, 2016

A French priest who has written disparagingly about gay people and acted as a counselor to student and novice priests struggling with their sexuality has been accused of having sex with male clients.

Monsignor Tony Anatrella – who earlier this year told new Bishops they are not obligated to report a suspected abuser to authorities – is still regularly consulted on matters of sexuality by the Vatican.

One of his accusers said that Anatrella engaged in various sex acts with him in the Monsignor’s Paris office, with the activity allegedly occurring up until a few years ago. Daniel Lamarca claims Anatrella said he could rid him of his “pseudo-homosexuality” by performing sex acts.

According to Religion News Service, Lamarca added that although he reported Anatrella to the archbishop of Paris in 2001, nothing was done.

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Monsignor Accused Of Having Sex With Young Priests Looking To Be “Cured” Of Homosexuality

FRANCE
NewNowNext

by Dan Avery

A French priest who worked to “cure” young seminary students of their homosexuality has been accused of having sexual relations with a number of the men in his care.

Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a consultant with the Vatican on issues of sexuality, routinely counseled novices sent to him by seminaries and monasteries across France. But at least four men claim Anatrella engaged in sexual acts with them during sessions in his office in Paris.

Anatrella reportedly claimed having sex with them would cure the men of their “pseudo-homosexuality.”

“You’re not gay, you just think that you are,” he reportedly told Daniel Lamarca, who was a 23-year-old seminarian when he first went to Anatrella in 1987.

“I know details about Anatrella’s body that could only be known to someone who has seen him naked,” Lamarca told the Dutch paper Nederlands Dagblad.

In 2001 he reported Anatrella to the archbishop of Paris but nothing was done. Five years later, after Lamarca went to the media and more victims surfaced, church officials expressed support for Anatrella and said the accusers were part of a “gay lobby” out to discredit the Church.

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Laicos de Osorno protagonizaron nueva manifestación en contra de obispo Juan Barros

CHILE
Bio Bio

[The laity of Osorno staged another demonstration against Bishop Juan Barros.]

El Movimiento de Laicos y Laicas de Osorno se manifestó este viernes frente a la Catedral de esa ciudad por la falta de respuesta desde el Vaticano ante el exhorto enviado por la Corte Suprema.

Lo anterior, en relación a los dichos del Papa Francisco contra los opositores del obispo Juan Barros, cuestionado por su estrecho vínculo con el sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

El pontífice realizó el año pasado una polémica defensa a Barros, criticando en duros términos a sus detractores: “La única acusación que hubo contra ese obispo fue desacreditada por una Corte Judicial. Entonces por favor, no pierdan la serenidad. Osorno sufre sí… pero por tonta. Porque no abre su corazón a lo que Dios dice y se deja llevar por las macanas que dice toda esa gente”.

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Amid ‘slanderous gossip,’ pastor at St. Rose in Miami Shores asked to resign

FLORIDA
Miami Herald

BY ANA VECIANA SUAREZ
aveciana-suarez@MiamiHerald.com

The pastor of St. Rose of Lima has been asked to step down after a group from the parish presented a 129-page report to the Archdiocese of Miami filled with allegations of sexual impropriety against Father Pedro Corces.

“This unfortunate chain of events has fractured the spirit and unity at this long established parish and school,” wrote Archbishop Thomas Wenski in a May 26 letter emailed to parents Thursday afternoon. A printed copy of the letter was being sent home in students’ communication folder Friday.

But far from calming parents’ concerns, the letter angered the group, which calls itself Christifidelis. The Wenski letter blames the fracturing of the parish on a small group. “Slanderous gossip, calumny, detraction — all sinful behaviors — have fomented division in the parish and school communities,” he wrote.

Miami attorney Rosa Armesto, who has children at the parish school in Miami Shores, is representing Christifidelis. She met with Wenski on May 16.

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Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests starts Tucson meetings

ARIZONA
Arizona Daily Star

Johanna Willett Arizona Daily Star

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, will launch Tucson support group meetings 6:30 p.m., Wednesday June 1.

Attending the confidential meeting at Martha Cooper Library, 1377 N. Catalina Ave., does not require reservations, according to press materials.

Email snaptucsonvickie@gmail.com for more information.

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Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh says church employee stole $220K in donations

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

BY AARON AUPPERLEE | Friday, May 27, 2016

A former employee of Good Samaritan Parish in Ambridge who ran up a six-figure casino gambling loss admitted to stealing more than $220,000 from donations for votive candles and the collection plate, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and Beaver County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.

Thomas P. Ross, 62, known in the church as the Rev. Ambrose Ross, was arraigned Friday on three counts of theft and three charges of receiving stolen property. A phone call to a number listed for Ross was not returned.

Records from Rivers Casino showed Ross had gambling transactions totaling $2.7 million from 2010 to 2015, including more than $331,000 in losses, according to the district attorney’s office.

He made $28,000 a year working for the parish.

Bishop David A. Zubik of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said he was “deeply grieved” that someone would take money given to the church.

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LOCALS RALLY AT CHURCH FOR PA. CHILD SEX ABUSE BILL

PENNSYLVANIA
6 ABC

WYNNEWOOD (WPVI) — About a dozen people showed up in front of Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood Friday night to rally in support of a bill to remove the statute of limitations for child sex abuse in Pennsylvania.

The legislation is opposed by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, which fears parishes would have to defend cases where perpetrators may even be dead.

Bill 1947 would drop the 30-year statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes.

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Scathing Report Accuses Miami Shores Priest Of Unholy Acts

FLORIDA
CBS Miami

[with video]

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A salacious scandal at a South Florida church where the parishioners hired a P.I. to tail their priest. And a scathing report accuses him of all kinds of unholy acts.

Armed with a book of evidence filled with pictures, receipts and police reports, a group of parents have proven that when it comes to their kids they don’t play.

“Parents gathered and pooled their money together to hire a private investigator,” said Rosa Armesto.

That investigator was charged with following a pastor at St. Rose of Lima in Miami Shores.

Armesto is an attorney who has children at the parish school, and is working with the parents.

They claim that Father Pedro Corces fired the previous maintenance crew and replaced them with his friends.

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Church daycare employee facing multiple child sexual assault charges

TEXAS
Fox 7

By: Marcus Officer

A Gillespie County Grand Jury has indicted 31-year-old Seth Batterton with more than 12 counts of sexual assault involving a child. He is accused of sexually abusing as many as four young children since 2009 including a child from the Fredericksburg United Methodist Church Child Development Center, the place he worked prior to his arrest.

In April, a local middle school contacted Fredericksburg Police after a young girl, the daughter of Batterton’s close friend, told them she was abused. She was not the only one.

According to court paperwork, Batterton is accused of abusing at least four young girls, one of the victims was under the age of 14. People we talked to were shocked.

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Day care employee accused of sexually assaulting children

TEXAS
KXAN

[with video]

By Calily Bien and Leslie Rangel
Published: May 27, 2016

FREDERICKSBURG, Texas (KXAN) — A man who worked at a church day care in Fredericksburg is charged with 12 counts of sexual assault, one count of indecency with a child and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Fredericksburg police say they originally started investigating Seth Batterton, 31, when a child made an outcry to her school on April 19, 2016. The child says Batterton touched her inappropriately.

During the investigation, Batterton denied touching the child, but he did admit to working at the Methodist Church Day Care. It is not known what his position was with the church.

The church pastor, George Lumpkin, says as soon as he heard about the allegations, he fired Batterton and reported the incident to officials.

“We self-reported that and then in turn contacted the police and we terminated him immediately and took away his keys and banned him from any access to the campus,” Lumpkin says. “We also put in place kind of a safety plan to let the parents know what was going on.”

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Prelate responds to newspapers series on sexual abuse

CANADA
The B.C. Catholic

By Deborah Gyapong
OTTAWA (CCN)

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, SJ, of Ottawa responded to a series of clerical sexual abuse news stories in the archdiocese by acknowledging the great evil and pledging vigilance.

“This shocking moment can become a moment of purification for us in the Catholic community and serve to remind us to keep vigilant in protecting the vulnerable, especially children,” said Archbishop Prendergast in a statement released to CCN as well as to the Ottawa Sun. “We will continue to commit to making sure that our protocols for safety and security are being followed and are effective.”

“We Catholics may see in this reminder of our past failures a call from God to our Church to let go of all that does not come from the teaching and life of Jesus Christ, the Lord who loves, forgives, heals, and above all is merciful,” he said.

Beginning May 17, the Postmedia’s Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun ran several days of front page coverage tracing historical abuses back to the 1950s. Using court records and the archives amassed at Sylvia MacEachern’s blog “Sylvia’s Site,” Postmedia documented 41 victims of 11 priests.

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NOT WORDS OF ENEMIES, SILENCE OF FRIENDS

IOWA
Catholic Globe

This article is a reprint of a Virtus monthly bulletin written by Sharon Doty, a frequent author and contributor to the Virtus ongoing training program. Doty has a master’s degree in human relations and a diploma from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics in Interdisciplinary Training in Child Abuse and Neglect, and she graduated with distinction with a juris doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Doty has 10 years experience as a litigator and approximately 20 years as a staff person and volunteer in agencies advocating for victims of abuse and neglect in court.

“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In our Protecting God’s Children for Adults sessions, we discuss two aspects of bystander engagement. First is the failure to speak up when an adult observer has a concern about the behavior of an adult toward a child. Second is engaging in gossip about the concern with no regard for the damage these conversations can cause.

In potentially abusive relationships, there is a range of behaviors – with elements that could be healthy and age-appropriate – and other elements that are child sexual abuse. There are many ways one could intervene. The difficulty is identifying the right circumstances to interrupt and the right action to take.

When we talk about the failure of adult observers to speak up, we recognize several factors that enter into the decision. There is a fear of retaliation, a concern that intervention will seem to be an accusation, the fear of “being wrong” about what’s happening, the fear of being sued for speaking up and not wanting to upset someone we know and/or with whom we work or volunteer. These concerns are universal.

Researchers considered what it takes for a bystander to overcome these concerns and take action. They found there are five steps to the process:

1. Notice the event along a continuum of actions
2. Consider whether the situation demands your action
3. Decide if you have a responsibility to act
4. Choose what form of assistance to use
5. Understand how to implement your actions safely

Confronting the enormity of these questions often leaves people with a decision to do nothing. The decision to “communicate your concerns” demands we be among those who chose an action(s) that creates a safe environment and protects potential victims from harm.

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May 27, 2016

A Mennonite pastor is suspended and a denomination is splintered

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

By Meghan Florian

(RNS) The Virginia Mennonite Conference suspended a pastor’s ministerial credentials Wednesday (May 25) because he officiated at a same-sex wedding.

The Rev. Isaac Villegas of the Chapel Hill (N.C.) Mennonite Fellowship and my pastor, is “at variance” with the conference, which belongs to the Mennonite Church USA. The denomination, with some 100,000 members, holds that marriage is “a covenant between one man and one woman for life.”

The conference was aware of Villegas’ plan to officiate the wedding well in advance, as the congregation has been in dialogue with it for years over the matter of fully welcoming LGBT people in the congregation.

But the conference went one step beyond an immediate suspension of the minister’s credentials. It shifted the tone of the conversation, not to mention the power dynamic, from “variance” to “misconduct.”

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State Senate Republicans holding up child-sex abuse victims bill slammed by Democratic opponents

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

GLENN BLAIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, May 27, 2016

ALBANY — State Senate Republicans are beginning to feel political heat for preventing a vote on legislation that would help victims of child sexual abuse obtain justice.

At least four Democratic candidates for Senate issued statements this week attacking GOP incumbents for opposing the Child Victims Act, which would eliminate the statute of limitations for cases of child sexual abuse and allow a one-year window for victims to revive old civil cases.

“It is outrageous that Carl Marcellino voted against the Child Victims Act and is defending the criminals who abused these defenseless children,” James Gaughran, who is taking on the senator from Nassau County, said in a statement.

Similar statements were issued by Democrats Sara Niccoli, who is challenging Sen. George Amedore of Schenectady County; Christopher Eachus, who’s challenging Sen. Bill Larkin of Orange County; and Ryan Cronin, who is taking on Sen. Kemp Hannon of Nassau County.

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Closing arguments wrap up in sexual abuse trial of former priest

ALABAMA
WVTM

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —Closing arguments wrapped up Friday afternoon in the trial of a former Catholic priest and EWTN television host charged with sexual abuse of a child under 12.

The judge gave the jury the option of starting deliberations Friday or waiting until Tuesday. The jury said they wanted to start on Friday, but deliberations have not yet begun.

During closing arguments, the prosecution argued this case is solely about the child under the age of 12 that David Stone is accused of sexually abusing.

Prosecutors said Stone inappropriately touched the victim on his bottom on multiple occasions.

The defense was quick to point out that the prosecution never called DHR to testify, an agency in charge of protecting children.

The defense also argued the victim may have somehow been persuaded to make the allegations against Stone.

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Archdiocese, creditors clash over bankruptcy assets

MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | May. 27, 2016

Starkly conflicting views of total assets have placed the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese and its creditors at dramatic odds, with the latter claiming that the archdiocese’s just-released reorganization plan represents 1 percent of total assets they say approach $2 billion.

On Thursday, May 26, the archdiocese filed its reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the District of Minnesota. The plan proposes $65 million to establish an independent trust through which it would settle the 440 claims made by survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The trust is to be funded by a combination of archdiocesan cash, property sales, insurance settlement proceeds, and contributions from parish insurance settlements.

The archdiocese said that the $65 million figure surpasses what has been proposed in a majority of already diocesan bankruptcies. In a statement, newly installed Archbishop Bernard Hebda urged for fast approval of the plan.

“The longer the process lasts, more money is spent on attorneys’ fees and bankruptcy expenses; and, in turn, less money is available for victims/survivors,” he said.

“While we believe that this Plan is fair, we also know that some well-intentioned people may raise objections,” said Hebda, who before his May 13 installation served as apostolic administrator of St. Paul-Minneapolis following Archbishop John Nienstedt’s resignation last June.

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Spanish bishop demands staff get ‘anti-paedo certificate’

SPAIN
The Local

The Bishop of Lleida has requested all staff, including priests and monks, prove they are not paedophiles.

Priests working within the parish of Lleida in Catalonia must present an “anti-paedophile certificate” the parish’s bishop, Juan Piris Frígola, has announced.

Anyone in Spain can apply for the certificate – officially called the Certificate of Sexual Offences – a document which proves the holder has never committed a sexual crime.

The certificate can be obtained via a government website and must be carried by those working with children.

The request from the Bishop of Lleida will affect at least 80 priests and around 100 monks as well as at least 400 volunteers who work with children – a number which, the bishop’s office admitted, could be much higher, as it wasn’t sure how many volunteers works on activities in every church, Spanish newspaper El Periódico reported.

The final number will be known in September, the deadline for people to present the relevant documents to obtain the anti-paedophile certificate but parish insiders estimate that “at least 600 people” will be required to obtain the certificate.

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Wealthy sex assault survivor pledges to defeat GOP lawmaker who won’t let victims sue their abusers

NEW YORK
Raw Story

TRAVIS GETTYS
27 MAY 2016

A wealthy New York businessman has made it his personal mission to defeat state lawmakers who won’t pass a bill to allow child sex abuse survivors to sue their abusers.

Gary Greenberg, a minority owner of the Vernon Downs racetrack, has pledged $100,000 of his own money to unseat state Sen. John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse) and other lawmakers who oppose a bill that would eliminate the civil and criminal statute of limitations for child sex abuse crimes, reported The Post-Standard.

DeFrancisco is the Senate deputy majority leader and an attorney who specializes in malpractice litigation, said he won’t bow to political pressure and back a bill that would grant victims a one-year window to sue abusers and their employer for abuse that happened decades ago.

“To go back forever, witnesses die, recollections get worse as time goes on,” DeFrancisco said. “I think it’s something that should not be done because statute of limitations have a purpose. The purpose is to make sure there is a proceeding based upon fact.”

The 57-year-old Greenberg, who is the victim of childhood sexual abuse himself, has formed the new Fighting for Children PAC seeded by his own six-figure contribution.

He said DeFrancisco’s argument against lawsuits involving decades-old claims ignore the fact that victims must still prove their claims to win their cases.

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Former EWTN priest calls sex abuse allegations a ‘scheme’ by mother of his child

ALABAMA
AL.com

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

A former EWTN priest and TV personality who hosted a talk show for youth from 2001-2007 called the allegations that he sexually abused his son a “scheme” by the mother, who denied him further visitation after saying the child told her of improper touching.

“I know absolutely that this was not true,” David Stone testified today about claims he sexually abused his son. “It was some kind of scheme going on.”

Stone, 55, said he moved to Birmingham in 1990 and lived at the Annunciation Friary in Irondale as he served as a Franciscan friar and studied to become a priest. He was ordained as a priest in 1998, he said.

Stone met the mother of his child, Christina Presnell, in 1998. She began work at EWTN in about 2002 and attended Mass at the EWTN chapel with her children. Stone said under questioning he may have invited Presnell to his ordination service; he was not sure.

The two of them gradually become close friends, he testified. “It was organic, natural,” he said. “We had a good friendship.”

By 2006 or 2007, that relationship had become sexual, although they had been “passionate” before that, he said.

“We would be passionate with one another, but every time we would be passionate it wasn’t a conjugal act,” Stone said.

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Ex-Playboy model daughter of famed CIA operative comes forward as victim who sparked sexual abuse investigation at elite Manhattan Catholic school

NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

By ASHLEY COLLMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The former Playboy model daughter of a South American dictator and CIA operative has identified herself as the victim behind a sexual abuse investigation at an exclusive Manhattan Catholic school.

Monica Perez Jimenez, 54, was a student at Loyola School in the mlate-1970s and says she was molested by popular history teacher and basketball coach Louis Tambini six times.
Jimenez says she told administrators about the abuse just before leaving the school, but that they never took action.

It wasn’t until she complained about the alleged sexual assaults in a post on the school’s Facebook page last year that authorities first started investigating the school for covering up the abuse.

The investigation found that Tambini molested seven girls at the school in the 1970s and 1980s, but thanks to New York state’s strict laws, none of the victims can sue the school.

According to state law, child sex abuse survivors can’t file criminal charges against their attackers or sue for civil damages after their 23rd birthday.

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MEDIA RELEASE – MAY 27, 2016

NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

CARDINAL TIMOTHY DOLAN IS GIVING POOR MORAL EXAMPLE TO THE 14 MEN WHOM HE WILL ORDAIN TO THE PRIESTHOOD BY CONTINUING TO LOBBY AGAINST LEGISLATION THAT WILL GIVE CHILDHOOD VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE THE OPPORTUNITY TO HOLD THEIR ABUSERS AND ENABLERS ACCOUNTABLE

Cardinal Timothy Dolan will ordain 14 more men to the priesthood on May 28, 2016. How can the newly ordained priests expect to treat childhood victims of sexual abuse with compassion and fairness when their supervisor, Cardinal Dolan, continues by poor example to fight legislation that will give those victims their day in court?

Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York should expect better example from Cardinal Dolan by demanding that he stop fighting against legislation in New York State that will give childhood sexual abuse victims a pathway to healing and justice.

What
A public demonstration alerting Catholics, the general public, and the media about Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s poor example to newly ordained priests and Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York State through his opposition to the Child Victims Act of New York State

When
Saturday, May 28, 2016 from 11:00 am until 12:30 pm (during and at the end of the ordination of 14 men to the priesthood which begins at 9:30 am)

Where
On the public sidewalk outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue at East 50th Street, Manhattan

Who
Victim/survivors of sexual abuse, including members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey, led by its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., who is a victim/survivor of multiple acts of sexual abuse in five counties of New York State

Why
Cardinal Timothy Dolan has led and continues to lead the Catholic Church’s fight in New York State against the Child Victims Act which would allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to have their day in court. Cardinal Dolan and his New York State bishop-colleagues have poured millions of parishioners’ dollars into an all-out effort to prevent the healing of thousands of innocent victims of sexual abuse. Recently, at a rally for farm workers’ rights, Dolan refused to even comment on New York State legislation that would change one of the worst statute of limitations laws in the country that continues to bar victims from justice and healing. Cardinal Dolan will ordain 14 men to the priesthood, and demonstrators will call on Cardinal Dolan to lead by example and do the right thing by supporting the Child Victims Act in New York State which will allow childhood sexual abuse victims to be heard and heal.

Contact
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Co-founder and President, Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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Sexual abuse in seven words

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Arthur McCaffrey

I hope the good people of southwestern Pennsylvania have enough patience left to tolerate further commentary on their recent shock and sorrow: the state grand jury report on sexual abuse by clergy in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese, which justifiably labeled decades of child abuse as “soul murder.”

I know the wounds. As an outsider and a New England Catholic who suffered through the meltdown of the Boston Archdiocese in 2002, perhaps I can bring a fresh perspective to this well-worn story. I certainly could do no worse than the current Altoona-Johnstown bishop, Mark Bartchak, who wrote to his parishioners that the grand jury evidence was “filled with the darkness of sin.”

What, no acknowledgement of criminality?

I’m afraid that Bishop Bartchak wears the cope of history on his shoulders: FBI data show that, going back almost three-quarters of a century to the 1940s, he is the heir to four bishops, at least 46 abusive priests and hundreds of child victims.

The grand jury report’s 147 pages have many lessons to teach us, but its main message can be summarized in seven words: deference spawns collusion spawns cover-up spawns victims.

This reduction to essentials is not a slight to the gravity or complexity of the grand jury narrative. Rather, it is a thoughtful attempt to identify the major diagnostic markers which can help us better understand the cause-effect dynamics that drive this kind of long-running crime spree.

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Spanish bishop tells monks & priests to get ‘anti-pedophile certificate’

SPAIN
RT

A Spanish bishop in the city of Lleida has told all parish staff, including priests and monks, to get a special “anti-pedophile certificate” to prove they have never committed a sexual crime.

Bishop Juan Piris Frígola said staff working within the parish of Lleida in Catalonia must present the special certificate, which is officially called the “Certificate of Sexual Offences” as proof they are not pedophiles, according to The Local.

he certificate is widely available throughout Spain and is issued through a government website.

Though it is usually obtained by those working with children, this new step from Bishop Frígola will affect some 80 priests, 100 monks and hundreds of volunteers who work with children in churches.

A September deadline has been set for staff to obtain the anti-paedophile certificate, with an estimated 600 people expected to apply.

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MIAMI PARISHIONERS DEMAND ABP. WENSKI REMOVE REPORTEDLY HOMOSEXUAL PRIEST

FLORIDA
Church Militant

by Rodney Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • May 26, 2016

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. (ChurchMilitant.com) – Miami parishioners are joining up with a private investigator to follow their pastor and what they discovered is shocking.

The parishioners of St. Rose of Lima parish in Miami Shores are asking for the Archdiocese to remove their pastor, Fr. Pedro Corces, and investigate his financial dealings.

Miami attorney Rosa Armesto has children enrolled in the parish school and is representing the group of concerned parishioners, calling themselves Christifidelis — a Latin word meaning “Christ’s faithful.” Other parishioners approached her, knowing she practices law and would be able to assist them.

Armesto related to ChurchMilitant.com that she and a group of parishioners met with Abp. Wenski, an auxiliary bishop, and the diocesan attorney on May 16. They submitted a 128-page document titled “Dossier on the Improprieties of Father Pedro M. Corces And an Appeal to His Excellency Archbishop Thomas Wenski For Urgent Action.”

The document is a result of several weeks of investigation by a private investigator and various members of the parish and outlines the sordid relationship between Fr. Corces and his gay prostitute “boyfriend” whom he hired as a maintenance worker at the parish.

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Tal Landsman found not guilty of cruelty in LL Camps trial

UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

Tal Landsman, the co-founder of LL Camps, has been found not guilty of cruelty.

The 26-year-old was cleared at St Albans Crown Court today.

Mr Landsman,of Crambus Court, Admiral Drive, Stevenage, had been accused of a single charge of cruelty to a person under 16 between 31 July and 7 August 2015 at LL Camps in Borehamwood after indecent images were found on the mobile phone of Ben Lewis, also a co-founder of the summer camp.

The jury took just under an hour to acquit Mr Landsman, whose family and supporters were present to see him walk free.

The prosecution had claimed that Mr Landsman had not acted after he had learned that Lewis possessed the images.

Lewis, 26, of Lullington Garth, Borehamwood, who was not in court, had earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of making (downloading) indecent photographs of a child and one of taking an indecent photograph of a child.

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Baylor Demotes President Kenneth Starr Over Handling of Sex Assault Cases

TEXAS
New York Times

By MARC TRACY MAY 26, 2016

Kenneth W. Starr, the former independent counsel who delivered a report that served as the basis for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998, was removed as president of Baylor University on Thursday after an investigation found the university mishandled accusations of sexual assault against football players.

The university also fired the football coach, Art Briles, whose ascendant program brought in millions of dollars in revenue but was dogged by accusations of sexual assault committed by its players — an increasingly familiar combination in big-time college sports.

Mr. Starr was stripped of his title as university president but will remain Baylor’s chancellor and a professor at the law school. The chancellor position is “centered around development and religious liberty,” a regent said on a conference call Thursday afternoon, adding that Mr. Starr’s “operational responsibilities have been removed.”

Mr. Starr’s demotion delivered a twist to the biography of a man whose reputation was built on what many considered an overzealous pursuit of allegations of sexual transgressions by Mr. Clinton. Now he is being punished for leading an administration that, according to a report by an outside law firm commissioned by the university’s governing board, looked the other way when Baylor football players were accused of sex crimes, and sometimes convicted of them.

“We were horrified by the extent of these acts of sexual violence on our campus,” Richard Willis, chairman of Baylor’s Board of Regents, said in a statement. “This investigation revealed the University’s mishandling of reports in what should have been a supportive, responsive and caring environment for students.”

Mr. Starr said in a statement to news organizations: “I join the Board of Regents and the Senior Administration of the University in expressing heartfelt contrition for the tragedy and sadness that has unfolded. To those victims who were not treated with the care, concern, and support they deserve, I am profoundly sorry.”

Violence against women on college campuses has risen as a national conversation in recent years, and one particular thread has been whether athletes in big-time sports like football and basketball are afforded favorable treatment by universities and communities that come together to support and protect successful teams.

Document
Baylor Findings of Fact and Recommendations

An investigation found “fundamental failure” by the university in its handling of accusations of sexual assault against football players.

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At Baylor, Charity Toward Kenneth Starr Follows Outrage

TEXAS
New York Times

By MICHAEL POWELL MAY 26, 2016

The Baylor University Regents were outraged Thursday, and saddened, too. They could not fathom how this could happen to a fine Christian university.

Faced with a report that detailed horrible cover-ups of rape and sexual harassment by players on the university’s nationally ranked football team, faced with evidence that administrators created a hostile environment for women, and that athletic leaders “posed a risk to campus safety,” the Regents stripped Kenneth W. Starr of his university presidency.

Asterisk: In a profound act of Christian charity, the Regents nonetheless allowed Starr to retain his law school professorship and to remain as chancellor for an as-yet-to-be-determined but perhaps munificent salary.

To a secular layman such as me that sounds like cashiering a general while allowing him to keep his epaulets and continue to run your war. A Baylor representative offered a more elegant shine, telling reporters Thursday that Chancellor Starr would focus on “development and religious liberty.”

Translation: Starr will raise great bags of money for the university, and he will pray.

So many grand universities have toppled headfirst into the Big Sport ditch that Baylor’s fall registers as almost unremarkable. The University of North Carolina turned its African and Afro-American Studies Department into a grade machine for athletes; Syracuse University engaged in decade-long academic misconduct; Larry Brown, the coach at Southern Methodist in Dallas, oversaw the recruiting of a top player with frankly fraudulent grades.

And to all of this, que sera sera.

Alumni protest that pinhead reporters don’t know the whole story, that these coaches and presidents and chancellors are princely men. They always know of a university worse than their own.

Baylor takes much pride in its Baptist traditions. Its website notes that brother and sister colleges in Christ have beaten “a relentless retreat from their Christian heritage.” Not Baylor, which “holds firm” to the idea that “the world needs” a great university that is “unambiguously Christian.”

Its sports programs occasionally fall into perdition. The basketball program came undone some years back after a young forward was murdered and the coach, in an un-Christlike act, falsely accused the dead man of being a drug dealer. The football program presumably is careening toward sanctions.

But no worries: Starr was known to kneel in prayer in the locker room with his football coach, Art Briles.

When Briles recruited a troubled player, Sam Ukwuachu, from Boise State, a student publication advised that the football player was known as a fine gentleman.

That fine gentleman was later convicted of a brutal sexual assault of a female soccer player.

We in the news media are not blameless. We love finding down-home pleasures such as Coach Briles, whom we described as a turnaround specialist. “Given the timbre of his magnificent voice and his knack for telling a story, a more apt comparison for the coach might be Johnny Cash,” Sports Illustrated noted a few years ago.

That same coach took no action to protect young women even when top officials were “aware of a potential pattern of sexual violence by multiple football players.” The coach and his staff “affirmatively chose not to report” – that is, to cover up – “sexual violence and dating violence” to college administrators.

The report is delicate as to what Starr knew, or not. He is, however, central to this narrative. When he walked into Waco, he proclaimed himself a new man. He didn’t like to talk much about his time as a federal judge and special prosecutor in Washington.

He did talk endlessly about football and the joy of amateur athletics.

Early last season, my colleague Marc Tracy noted, Starr fixed his hand into the shape of a bear claw and led thousands of freshmen on a raucous charge across the football field. And he raised hundreds of millions of dollars needed to build a new stadium that calls to mind the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

Long ago, I was a political writer for The Washington Post’s Style section, and I covered the Roman circus that was Starr, Monica, the libidinous Bubba and an impeachment trial.

I recall sitting there as Starr, his blue eyes owlish, his skin pink and dimpled, sat before Congress and in a sonorous I-say-this-more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger tone, pounced light as a cat on a scalawag president.

“The evidence suggests that the president made a series of premeditated false statements under oath. … The president, acting in a premeditated and calculated fashion, deceived the American people.”

He strove to sound morally correct, a Thomas More for the modern age taking on a reckless liege. I thought he more often called to mind a fellow who notes the lipstick on a man’s collar and files that detail away for future use.

Now I’m compelled to rethink my ungenerous appraisal. It appears that Starr notices very little.

The Baylor report found a culture of widespread and willful naïveté at Starr’s university. There was, the firm’s investigators wrote, a “belief by many administrators that sexual violence doesn’t happen here.”

Confronted with evidence to the contrary, too many administrators offered a disapproving sniff about sins such as drinking, drug use or, God forbid, extramarital sex. Administrators, the report found, engaged in “victim blaming,” focusing on a young woman’s choices rather than “robustly investigating the allegations and the alleged abuser.”

All of this Starr oversaw.

Late Thursday, the defrocked president issued a statement professing “profound contrition.” As for the Baylor University administration, it promised to “foster an even more Christ-centered culture on campus.”

And isn’t that grand?

Email: powellm@nytimes.com

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Kincora Boys’ Home: Abuse victim fails in appeal over HIA inquiry

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A victim of abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home has failed in his appeal to overturn a ruling that investigations into the home be conducted by the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry.
Gary Hoy was sexually abused by two men who were subsequently convicted.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan ruled that “the HIA is entitled to proceed along the route mapped by it”.

There have been allegations that a paedophile ring at Kincora was linked to the British intelligence services.

Sir Declan said: “There is a suggestion in this case that children in Kincora were abused and prostituted in order to satisfy the interests of national security.

“If that is true it must be exposed.

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Vatican accuses woman at heart of leaks trial of ‘calumny’

VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Ines San Martin
Vatican correspondent May 27, 2016

ROME—As the soap-opera of a Vatican trial against three former members of a papal commission and two journalists accused of leaking secret documents continues to unravel, the pope’s spokesman on Thursday said that statements made by one of the defendants during the trial may be “subject to legal action.”

On Tuesday, Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian lay PR expert who worked at the Vatican on a now-defunct papal panel studying financial reform, and who is one of the five people being prosecuted, accused a high-ranking Vatican official of “waging a war against her” during testimony.

Chaouqui, who’s almost nine months pregnant, amplified that charge on her Facebook page, where she wrote that Italian Archbishop Angelo Giovanni Becciu, the number two official at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, has staked his credibility on her going to prison, so she’ll be “condemned without evidence.”

She also wrote that she’s “not afraid of four feet of pure evil,” in reference to Becciu’s diminutive height, and that she stands by her accusations.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s spokesman, released a statement Thursday responding both to her sworn testimony and her subsequent Facebook post.

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Miami Archbishop Asks Priest to Resign, Laments “Adults Behaving Badly”

FLORIDA
New Times

BY DEIRDRA FUNCHEON

Thomas Wenski, Archbishop of Miami, has put an end to a salacious Catholic school scandal by asking a controversial priest to resign.

Since January, there has been turmoil at St. Rose of Lima, a Catholic church and school in Miami Shores. After it was announced in January that several nuns who work at the school would be leaving this June, parents upset at the change began focusing on the pastor, Father Pedro Corces, who, some believed, had orchestrated the nuns’ ouster.

Several families pooled money to hire a private investigator to tail Corces, photograph and videotape his movements, and sift through garbage at the rectory. The surveillance resulted in preparation of a “dossier” on the priest. It accused him of having an intimate relationship with a maintenance man he hired, as well as two other maintenance men and a deacon. The families presented their findings to Wenski on May 16 and asked him to remove Corces from the parish.

Archbishop Wenski yesterday sent a letter to parents of children at St. Rose’s K-8 school. He dismissed some of the accusations against Corces as gossip, but said that other allegations such as Facebook postings, hiring of friends, and “improper socializing with employees” were still being investigated. He asked Corces to step down.

Wenski said that St. Rose’s principal, Sister Bernadette Keane, has also been relieved of her duties as and that Dr. Donald Edwards, associate superintendent of the archdiocese, would serve as principal for the remainder of the school year. St. Rose in March announced that it had hired Mrs. Brenda Cummings, currently an employee of St. Anthony School in Fort Lauderdale, as principal for the coming year. Cummings did not return a call and email for comment from New Times.

The nuns are part of an order called The Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which is headquartered in Pennsylvania. Wenski wrote that “their decision to leave the parish is irreversible.”

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