DENVER (CO)
Crux

May 26, 2018

By Inés San Martín

An ongoing crisis in Chile’s Catholic Church continues to develop, with new allegations, accusations and compromising media reports arising almost daily. Last week, most of the country’s bishops handed their resignations to Pope Francis, who had summoned them to Rome and presented them with a document accusing the Chilean hierarchy of destroying evidence and of a systematic cover up of sexual abuse.

The man registering allegations reports himself

A Chilean priest who was tasked with receiving allegations of clerical sexual abuse against minors was removed from his position in early January, after he reported himself for having abused someone.

Father Óscar Muñoz Toledo, former chancellor of the archdiocese of Santiago, was removed from that position on Jan. 2, days before Francis’s visit to the country.

The information was first reported by Chile’s El Mercurio, and the Chilean newspaper La Tercera received confirmation from the archdiocese through a statement that says that on that date, the priest “reported himself for abuse. After this, cautionary measures were implemented, he was relieved from his position of chancellor in the curia and parish priest.”

TRURO (ENGLAND)
Diocese of Truro
Church of England

May 25, 2018

The Diocese of Truro today (May 25, 2018) published the findings of a review that looked at the selection and employment of Jeremy Dowling within the diocese.

In June 2015, Jeremy Dowling pleaded guilty at Truro Crown Court to a number of charges of indecent assaults on boys between 1959 and 1971 while working as a teacher in a Cornish school.

In September 2016 he was further found guilty of indecent assault on one boy over the period of 1973-1977.

In addition, the Crown Prosecution Service left on file matters concerning the possession of indecent images of children on a computer.

Jeremy Dowling was closely involved with the church during these periods, and latterly employed by the diocese.

This case review was commissioned by the Safeguarding Committee of the Diocese of Truro and was researched and written by academic and magistrate, Dr Andy Thompson.

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

May 25, 2018

By Harriet Sherwood

Jeremy Dowling was jailed in 2015 over abuse carried out in the 1960s and 70s

Four former Church of England bishops failed to act over sexual abuse carried out by a former member of the church’s ruling body, the General Synod, in a catalogue of missed opportunities, a review has found.

Among the four was Michael Ball, the bishop of Truro between 1990 and 1997 and the identical twin brother of Peter Ball, the former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, who was jailed in October 2015 for abusing vulnerable young men over a 15-year period.

The review examined the church’s response to disclosures of abuse against Jeremy Dowling, who was jailed in 2015 for indecently assaulting boys while a teacher at a school in Cornwall in the 1960s and 70s.

Dowling, who was also a lay preacher at St Michael’s, Bude, was elected to the General Synod in 1977, and was employed by the diocese of Truro as a communications officer from 2003 to 2009.

McLEAN (VA)
USA Today

May 25, 2018

bY Brent Schrotenboer

The diving coach at the University of Idaho was suspended for a sexual misconduct allegation less than a week before being named co-diving coach of the year in the Western Athletic Conference, according to records reviewed by USA TODAY Sports.

Jim Southerland, who joined the Idaho staff in 2015, was issued an interim suspension in February by the U.S. Center for SafeSport and USA Diving, the sport’s national governing body. Six days later, the WAC honored his accomplishments, unaware of the case against him as misconduct allegations continue to rock Olympic sports and now have added to similar issues at Idaho, where the athletic director last month was placed on leave.

In this case, the allegation involves an improper sexual relationship between Southerland and a female diver who had been under his tutelage near Seattle prior to 2010. It since has led to him being placed on leave at Idaho in April, enraging a fellow diving coach who said Southerland has fallen victim to “political witch-hunting” after major sex abuse scandals in gymnastics and other sports.

More: U.S. Olympic leaders need to walk the talk after showing zero sense of urgency

“There comes a point where the law swings too far one way,” said Bob Ketrick, a longtime colleague of Southerland who recently bought Southerland's diving club business. “Before, there were no protections for kids. A lot of stuff was unreported. OK, so we made the system better, but (also created) … opportunity for people with vendettas to take advantage of a new system.”

COLORADO (CO)
Crux

May 23, 2018

By Inés San Martín

[Note: This article quotes from a Letter to the Editor by Cardinal Errázuriz.]

Chile’s ongoing Catholic crisis remains fluid, with Pope Francis summoning another group of victims of clerical abuse to Rome, a cardinal accused of covering up those abuses continuing to claim he’s innocent, and yet another Prince of the Church who risks losing Chilean citizenship.

Here’s a rundown of the latest developments, after the Chilean bishops offered Francis their resignations en masse. During a summit meeting in Rome last week, the pontiff didn’t name names, but he did say there’s evidence that at least some covered up cases of clerical sexual abuse, mishandled accusations, failed to protect children, and destroyed damaging evidence.

* * *

A cardinal tries to defend himself [again]

Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, emeritus Archbishop of Santiago and a member of Pope Francis’s “C9” council of cardinal advisers, published a letter in one of Chile’s newspapers, La Segunda, on Tuesday. In it, he responded to a story from last week, the headline of which was “What to do with Errázuriz, [Cardinal Ricardo] Ezzati and [Archbishop Ivo] Scapolo.”

The three clerics have been accused by victims of Chile’s most notorious pedophile priest of not providing Francis with accurate information.

Furthermore, both Errázuriz and Ezzati, currently the archbishop of Santiago, have been accused of covering up for Karadima, and his victims want to see both cardinals stand trial for it.

According to Errázuriz, the story from Friday the 18th spreads “falsehoods and defamations,” which led him to write a letter to the editor of the paper, in “respect of the truth and the readers.”

Regarding the accusations that he misinformed the pope on the case of Bishop Juan Barros, whom Francis transferred to the southern diocese of Osorno in 2015, the cardinal said that it hadn’t been him. Accusations arose in April, when the pope sent a letter to Chile’s bishops saying that he’d made grave errors of judgement, in part because he didn’t have accurate information.

DENVER (CO)
Crux

May 22, 2018

By John L. Allen Jr.

NOTE: Use caution in visiting the link to Costanza Miriano’s blog, which is cited in this article as a source. McAfee Antivirus flags the blog as a potential problem.

In the wake of the May 17 World Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the Vatican’s former top doctrinal official, German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, has declared that homophobia “simply doesn’t exist” and is “an invention, an instrument of totalitarian dominion over the minds of others.”

“The homosexual movement doesn’t have scientific arguments, so it’s constructed an ideology that wants to dominate, seeking to construct its own reality. It’s the Marxist scheme, according to which it’s not reality that builds thought, it’s thought that builds reality,” Müller said.

* * *

In the interview, Miriano asked Müller for his reaction to bishops who promote prayer vigils or other events around the World Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

“Some bishops today don’t have the courage to speak the truth, and allow themselves to be intimidated,” he said. “They don’t understand that homophobia is a hoax that serves to threaten people.”

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

May 25, 2018

By Kristin E. Holmes

Juan Carlos Cruz risked upending his life as a Philadelphia executive to speak out about the trauma he had spent decades trying to forget. He went so far as to write an eight-page letter to Pope Francis in 2015 recounting the alleged sexual crimes against him as a teenager and the cover-up that ensued — only to have the pontiff disbelieve him.

The abuse that he claimed he endured while growing up in Chile at the hands of a then-respected cleric, the Rev. Fernando Karadima, was dismissed as “slander” by the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. What hope was there for change in the church, a disheartened Cruz wondered, if the most powerful figure in Christendom refused to listen?

Earlier this year, however, the Vatican dispatched investigators to look into not only Cruz’ accusations but other reports of sexual misconduct roiling the Chilean church. They found even the worst to be true.

So on April 29, in the private papal living room at Casa Santa Marta in Vatican City, Cruz sat face-to-face with Francis, as the pontiff pleaded for forgiveness.

STOCKTON (CA)
Stockton Record

May 25, 2018

An accusation of sexual misconduct with a minor in 1973, involving the Rev. Louie Ladenburger at Stockton’s St. Mary of the Assumption Church, has been reported to the Diocese of Stockton.

Ladenburger, a member of the Franciscan Friars of California, was at St. Mary’s from 1972 to 1974.

In accordance with diocesan policy, the matter was reported to the Stockton Police Department and the diocese is cooperating with law enforcement. The policy regarding allegations of sexual abuse of minors may be found on the diocesan website, stocktondiocese.org, under Protecting Our Children.

Anyone with information regarding this matter or any sexual abuse of a minor by a church leader should notify Connie Jacob, the diocesan victim assistance coordinator, at (209) 466-0636.

AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

May 25, 2018

By Danny Tran and Matt Neal

It was only years later, long after he had been admitted to practise as a lawyer, that John Ellis decided to exercise his legal right to sue the Catholic Church.

As a altar boy, he'd been abused by a paedophile priest. Now an adult, he sought damages.

But Mr Ellis ultimately failed because the church successfully argued it did not legally exist as its assets were held in a trust, and that was protected from legal action.

And in a galling circumstance of fate, Mr Ellis's name was unwittingly shackled to the method the church had used to avoid the legal action. Since then it's been known as "the Ellis defence".

But last night, more than 16 years after the fact, the Victorian Government passed a law closing the legal loophole.

CORNWALL (ENGLAND)
BBC News

May 25, 2018

The Church of England ignored child sex abuse carried out by a former member of the general synod, a review has found.

Jeremy Dowling, a lay preacher, teacher and church employee, abused young boys in the 1970s and was jailed in 2015.

A review by the Diocese of Truro said several bishops were told about the abuse and did not take action.

It found there was a "probable misunderstanding" by church leaders over a decision not to prosecute him.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

May 25, 2018

By Melissa Davey

Adelaide archdiocese says standing aside ‘doesn’t necessarily mean it’s forever’

The disgraced archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, officially stood aside from his duties on Friday but has not resigned.

On Tuesday Wilson, 67, was found guilty of concealing child sexual abuse, becoming the most senior Catholic in the world to be convicted of the crime.

He was found to have covered up the child abuse perpetrated by paedophile priest Jim Fletcher, whose crimes date back to the 1970s while he was working in the Maitland/Newcastle diocese in NSW.

“Standing aside doesn’t necessarily mean it’s forever,” the archdiocese spokeswoman, Jenny Brinkworth, said. “He’s standing aside until process has run its course.”

NEW ZEALAND
Stock News Caller

May 25, 2018

Church abuse survivors have resigned themselves to being excluded from the upcoming Royal Commission of Inquiry.

The public consultation period about how the inquiry should run wrapped up a week ago and its chair Sir Anand Satyanand has begun going through the 300 submissions.

“At this stage I have not formed any final views or recommendations,” he said in a statement last night.

However, Liz Tonks of the Network of Survivors of Faith-based Institutional Abuse said she got a very different impression from meeting with Sir Anand.

“I asked him who he had received submissions from when he suggested there wasn‘t anyone else except us asking for all survivors to be included,” she said.

“I asked him had they been proactive in the inquiry and approached other churches, had they considered approaching sportsclubs. His response to that was that he didn‘t see it as his job, that the inquiry was public and people knew they could make submissions.”

The commission launched a major public awareness campaign at the start of April, two months into the three-month public consultation period on the inquiry‘s terms of reference which closed last week.

Ms Tonks said her group had trouble getting to see Sir Anand, but he said he had met a wide range of people and groups and canvassed many issues.

“The issues have involved things like clarity of expression, appropriate placement of the Treaty of Waitangi, coverage of Pacific people as well as Māori, and as well the matter of a parallel inquiry financed by the Churches,” he said.

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

May 25, 2018

A further complaint has been received in connection with a 90-year-old former monk who sexually abused three boys, the Court of Appeal heard today.

Judges were also told Vincent Lewis made financial contributions towards compensation paid to victims.

The prosecution wants his sentence increased, arguing his nine-and-a-half-year term was unduly lenient.

Lewis was formerly Brother Ambrose of Our Lady of Bethlehem Monastery in Portglenone, Co Antrim.

He pleaded guilty to more than 50 offences committed over a 10-year period up to 1983.

ENGLAND
The Northern Echo

May 24, 2018

By Julia Breen

A CAMPAIGNER who wants to overturn a two-witness rule over child abuse within a major religious organisation has enlisted the support of his MP.

Steve Rose, from Hartlepool, a former Jehovah’s Witness, has been protesting against the rule, which stops senior figures in the church from acting against wrongdoing unless there are two witnesses.

Now he has contacted Hartlepool MP Mike Hill, who is raising the issue with Cheltenham MP Alex Chalk, who in turn is bringing the debate to Parliament, saying it was an ongoing child safety concern.

Mr Rose, who was once a member of Hartlepool’s Kingdom Hall, said the two-witness rule makes it nearly impossible for action to be taken against perpetrators within the church who are brought to the attention of elders. And he claims anyone who reports the abuse faces being shunned by the congregation.

The church says the two-witness rule does not stop victims reporting allegations to the police. A safeguarding inquiry by the Charity Commission is ongoing.

PEORIA (IL)
Mother Jones

May 25, 2018

By Becca Andrews

#ChurchToo has opened the floodgates.

The #MeToo stories that were flooding Emily Joy’s social feeds for weeks had been nagging at her. Last November, as her own story played on a loop in her mind, she finally texted a group of close friends: “Do I out my high school abuser? Probably, huh?”

Joy’s story is familiar in all the ways we’ve become intimately acquainted with over the last six-plus months. But while the accused was a man in a position of power over his victim, her story also had a key difference: Joy’s abuser was a trusted member of her evangelical church. After talking it over with her friends, the 27-year-old poet decided to post to Twitter her story about Ty Sïlzer, the then-thirtysomething man in her mega-church in Peoria, Illinois, who she says manipulated her into a romantic relationship when she was still a teenager.

“When you’re 16, sometimes you fancy yourself an adult,” Joy tells Mother Jones. “It took me a long time and therapy even to understand, ‘Oh, that’s because I didn’t have an understanding of consent—my church community didn’t have an understanding of consent.'”

UNITED STATES
The Week

May 25, 2018

Women who have accused former movie producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse and harassment reacted strongly to his surrender to New York police on Friday. A few of the more than 50 women who have alleged misconduct took to social media to address his arrest.

Rose McGowan, who alleges that Weinstein raped her in 1997, appeared on Megyn Kelly Today and Good Morning America and described how his criminal charges made her feel. "We got you," she said in a message to Weinstein. "I have to admit I didn't think I would see the day that he would have handcuffs on him. I have a visceral need for him to have handcuffs on."

ENGLAND
Cornwall Live

May 25, 2018

By Martin Freeman

The diocese failed to investigate the accusations against Jeremy Dowling

A leading figure in the Church of England in Cornwall went on to commit child sex offences for several years after allegations about his behaviour with young boys were raised with the diocese and not acted upon, an official investigation has revealed.

The diocese failed to investigate the accusations against Jeremy Dowling, a lay preacher, allowing him to rise to influential positions including communications officer to the bishop, an independent review for the church concludes.

The report, released today, says there were “historic failings” within the diocese in dealing with the allegations, first raised in 1972. There was “ongoing knowledge” of the situation among senior figures in the diocese “well into the 1980s” with references to “a big fat file” on Dowling.

FORT WASHINGTON (MD)
Patch

May 25, 2018

By Cameron Luttrell

A Fort Washington pastor, minister and church member were charged for the sexual abuse of members of a church program for at-risk youth.

Police have charged three Prince George's County church leaders for the alleged sexual abuse of four girls who were members of a church program for at-risk youth.

The suspects are a church pastor, his son and his son-in-law. Joshua William Wright, 67, of Brandywine is the Head Pastor of the Oxon Hill Assembly of Jesus Christ. Wright's son is a minister at the church, identified as William Joshua Wright, 46, of White Plains. Wright's son-in-law is a leading member at the church named Donald Jackson, 40, of White Plains.

Court records state William Wright is a U.S. Capitol Police officer.

Police said the suspects allegedly sexually assaulted the girls between 2001-2008, when the girls were between the ages of 15 and 18.

FORT WORTH (TX)
National Public Radio

May 23, 2018

By Tom Gjelten

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has removed its president over past advice he gave women regarding sexual abuse. He advised women to pray for their abuses and not report them to authorities.

MARYLAND
The Huffington Post

May 23, 2018

By Carol Kuruvilla

The victims, who are now adults, were enrolled in a church-run program designed to give troubled teens a safe place to live.

Police in Maryland have charged three church leaders with sexually abusing four teenage girls over a decade ago who were enrolled in a faith-based program meant to help at-risk youth.

Prince George’s County detectives have identified the suspects on Wednesday as Oxon Hill Assembly of Jesus Christ head pastor Joshua Wright, his son and church minister William Wright, and the elder Wright’s son-in-law and church member Donald Jackson. All three men have been charged with child abuse and various other sex offenses.

The men allegedly abused the teens between 2001 and 2008, when the victims were between 15 and 18 years old. The women took their stories of abuse to police as adults.

The victims were placed under the suspects’ care as part of a church-run program called Children Having Overcoming Power (CHOP) that dissolved in 2011. It was designed to provide troubled teens with safe living accommodations in church members’ houses.

The police report alleges that the suspects abused the victims in different locations, including the suspects’ homes, various parks and the church itself.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
WisPolitics.com via Waunakee Tribune

May 25, 2018

Milwaukee attorney Matt Flynn will remain among the field of candidates for Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, despite calls for him to drop out because of his role defending the Milwaukee Archdiocese in sexual abuse lawsuits.

Women’s March Wisconsin recently called on Flynn to withdraw from the race, but Flynn’s campaign manager, Bryan Kennedy, said the criticism amounts to an attempt “to take someone who is a likely frontrunner out of this race, and to attack him for priest sex abuse when he’s the one who actually cleaned up the problem.”

Flynn is one of nine top Democratic candidates looking to take on GOP Gov. Scott Walker in the Nov. 6 general election. The Democratic primary is Aug. 14.

When Flynn, a retired partner with the Quarles & Brady law firm in Milwaukee, first launched his campaign last fall, he fielded hits from the state GOP regarding his work on behalf of the archdiocese. The party labeled Flynn as a “dirty defense attorney” guilty of “putting Wisconsin families at risk.”

The issue was again brought up again after The Wisconsin Gazette published an article quoting abuse victims who said they were “appalled” by Flynn’s bid.

Then, in a statement on May 6, Women’s March Wisconsin said Flynn should bow out of the race. The call came after Sarah Pearson, the group’s co-chair, approached Flynn following a Democratic debate in Madison. In an encounter filmed live on the group’s facebook page, she asked Flynn about his “involvement in the cover-up and transfer of pedophile priests.”

Pearson pointed to a series of church documents released in 2014 that the group said revealed he “directed and knew of secret transfers of dozens of child-molesting clergy, many of which went on to abuse more children.”

ENGLAND
The Guardian

May 25, 2018

By Harriet Sherwood

Jeremy Dowling was jailed in 2015 over abuse carried out in the 1960s and 70s

Four former Church of England bishops failed to act over sexual abuse carried out by a former member of the church’s ruling body, the General Synod, in a catalogue of missed opportunities, a review has found.

Among the four was Michael Ball, the bishop of Truro between 1990 and 1997 and the identical twin brother of Peter Ball, the former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, who was jailed in October 2015 for abusing vulnerable young men over a 15-year period.

The review examined the church’s response to disclosures of abuse against Jeremy Dowling, who was jailed in 2015 for indecently assaulting boys while a teacher at a school in Cornwall in the 1960s and 70s.

AUSTRALIA
The Advocate

May 25, 2018

The quaint country church Patricia Stewart attends is one of her small community’s lasting landmarks.

But now a cloud hangs over its future.

St George’s Anglican Church sits within Moriarty’s fertile farming landscape.

The pretty weatherboard place of worship is one of the properties earmarked for sale by the Anglican diocese to help pay redress to victims of child sexual abuse.

AUSTRALIA
Eternity News

May 25, 2018

By Kylie Beach

It’s time for churches to act

“Men need to speak to other men about what a respectful marriage looks like,” a survivor of seven years of verbal, emotional, spiritual, sexual and physical abuse told about 300 people who gathered on Wednesday night to talk about how church communities can take action on domestic violence.

Attendees at Time to Act held at North Sydney’s Independent Theatre heard journalist Julia Baird and an expert panel discuss the action churches need to take in the wake of a sold-out forum last year, called Time to Listen.

Between the two “Time to” events, much has occurred, notably the #MeToo movement, described by Julia as a “global reckoning” that had begun in the entertainment industry and reached even the church.

Asked what she believes are the most important things for Time to Act attendees to know, the DV survivor stressed the need for men to talk to other men about respecting their wives because she suspected that, even if her husband had heard a sermon denouncing domestic violence, he “wouldn’t have thought it was referring to him.”

AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

May 23, 2018

By Julia Baird

The white Styrofoam heads stand on shelves in neat, solemn rows in a little-used backroom of the ABC. Their faces are devoid of colour; blank, anonymous, unknown.

These mannequin skulls hold the national broadcaster's collection of wigs; long blonde bobs, smooth brunette locks, ginger beehives, afros, mullets, perms, and shaggy manes.

Over the decades, these wigs have been fixed to the heads of Australian actors and comedians for skits and dramas and children's shows.

Sometimes TV producers also borrow them for stories where interviewees need to keep their identities hidden, for legal, safety or other reasons.

Which is what we did when reporting on women in church communities who experienced decades of domestic violence, and wanted to speak to us but needed their identities protected. They didn't want violent ex-husbands to hunt them down and seek revenge, or to expose their children to shame or suffering.

PENNSYLVANIA
TribLive

May 25, 2018

By Debra Erdley

Mark Rozzi's phone rang relentlessly after an Erie newspaper reported Thursday that a judge released copies of a statewide grand jury report on sexual abuse in six Catholic dioceses to church officials more than a month before it is to be released publicly.

Rozzi, a Democratic state representative from Berks County, has been a lightning rod for victims since publicly accusing a priest of molesting him more than 30 years ago and then testifying before the grand jury, which completed its investigation last month.

“To myself and other victims, it's that feeling of outrage again,” Rozzi told the Tribune-Review on Friday. “Why do we always cater to them? They are the ones who committed these crimes, and we're still giving them special treatment.”

Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Monday said he expects to release the report that examined allegations of abuse going back decades in six Catholic dioceses in late June. The probe included the dioceses in Allentown, Scranton, Erie, Greensburg, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.

The same week the Greensburg diocese publicly agreed that the report should be made public, church officials on Friday wouldn't say whether they already have a copy.

UNITED STATES
The Week

May 25, 2018

By Peter Weber

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein turned himself in to police Friday morning. "Today, at the NYPD's 1st Precinct, Harvey Weinstein was arrested, processed, and charged with rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse, and sexual misconduct for incidents involving two separate women," the New York Police Department said. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are in the final stages of an investigation into allegations of sexual assault from actresses Paz de la Huerta and Lucia Evans. Weinstein, accused of wide-ranging abuse by more than 50 women, has denied all wrongdoing. After being booked and charged, NBC News reports, Weinstein is expected to be moved to New York County Criminal Court, then likely released on $1 million bail and fitted with an ankle monitor.

UNITED STATES
Chicago Sun Times

May 24, 2018

By Jon Seidel and Michael O'Brien

The controversy swirling around suburban youth volleyball coach Rick Butler reached the nation’s capital this week, where a local congresswoman declared Butler “should have been in jail” after sexual abuse allegations first surfaced in the 1990s.

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky made her comment during a hearing Wednesday held to examine the Olympic community’s ability to protect athletes from sexual abuse. The hearing took place across the street from the U.S. Capitol.

Among those to testify was Jamie Davis, CEO of USA Volleyball, who recounted the lifetime ban his organization recently handed Butler based on allegations Butler sexually abused players in the 1980s. Butler has denied the accusations.

But USA Volleyball had banned Butler once before — in 1995 — only to rescind the ban conditionally five years later. Schakowsky called his reinstatement “just shocking.”

“This really underscores the problem that has occurred over so many years,” Schakowsky said Wednesday. “Anyone in this room, I think certainly the women, know if someone has abused underage girls, reinstating him is so unacceptable. He should have been in jail. And now, in today’s world, I think he would have. I hope he would have.”

Schakowsky, a Democrat whose district spans Chicago’s North Side and several north suburbs, made her comment during the hearing held by the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee.

NEW YORK
Reuters

May 25, 2018

By Alice Popovici, Karen Freifeld

Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein appeared in handcuffs in a New York court on Friday to face charges of rape and other sex crimes against two of the scores of women who have accused him of misconduct, ending his reign as a Hollywood kingpin.

Weinstein, the 66-year-old co-founder of the Miramax film studio and the Weinstein Co, intends to plead not guilty to the charges, his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, told reporters outside the Manhattan courthouse.

Prosecutors charged him with two counts of rape and one count of a criminal sexual act following a months-long investigation with the New York Police Department. They did not identify the two women, but said the crimes took place in 2004 and 2013. If convicted on the most serious charges, Weinstein could face between five and 25 years in prison.

Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 70 women, with some of the allegations dating back decades. He has denied ever having nonconsensual sex.

The accusations, first reported last year by the New York Times and the New Yorker, gave rise to the #MeToo movement, in which hundreds of women have publicly accused powerful men in business, government and entertainment of sexual misconduct.

WASHINGTON (DC)
USA TODAY Sports

May 23, 2018

By Rachel Axon

Under pointed questioning before a House subcommittee, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s acting CEO acknowledged the organization had not exercised its authority enough to enforce policies and procedures to prevent sexual abuse.

Before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sport leaders – including the USOC’s Susanne Lyons – on Wednesday explained their efforts to protect young athletes in the wake of sexual abuse scandals in several sports.

Over nearly three hours, the representatives pressed Lyons and the heads of the national governing bodies for gymnastics, swimming, taekwondo and volleyball on the Olympic movement’s failure to prevent abuse.

It also focused on the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a year-old entity set up by the USOC, and its ability to address misconduct with limited resources.

UNITED STATES
CNN

May 25, 2018

By An Phung and Chloe Melas

A young production assistant thought she had landed the job of her dreams when, in the summer of 2015, she started work on "Going In Style," a bank heist comedy starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.

But the job quickly devolved into several months of harassment, she told CNN. She alleges that Freeman subjected her to unwanted touching and comments about her figure and clothing on a near-daily basis. Freeman would rest his hand on her lower back or rub her lower back, she said.

In one incident, she said, Freeman "kept trying to lift up my skirt and asking if I was wearing underwear." He never successfully lifted her skirt, she said -- he would touch it and try to lift it, she would move away, and then he'd try again. Eventually, she said, "Alan [Arkin] made a comment telling him to stop. Morgan got freaked out and didn't know what to say."

Freeman's alleged inappropriate behavior was not limited to that one movie set, according to other sources who spoke to CNN. A woman who was a senior member of the production staff of the movie "Now You See Me" in 2012 told CNN that Freeman sexually harassed her and her female assistant on numerous occasions by making comments about their bodies.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Inside Edition

May 22, 2018

A gynecologist at the University of Southern California is accused of sexually abusing his young patients for years.

A lawsuit filed Monday by four alleged victims accuses Dr. George Tyndall of "forcing [them] to strip naked... groping [their] breasts" and using techniques that have "no legitimate medical purpose and for no other reason than to satisfy his own prurient sexual desires."

Tyndall practiced at the student health clinic at USC for nearly three decades. Now, the university says 200 calls have come in to a hotline set up for any patients who may have experienced inappropriate conduct.

One lawyer says the total number of victims could be "staggering."

At a news conference in Los Angeles Tuesday, another alleged victim held a news conference with her lawyer Gloria Allred.

Daniella Mohazab claimed the doctor watched and smiled as she undressed from the bottom down.

UNITED STATES
Brit+Co

May 22, 2018

By Kylie Cheung

On Friday, tragedy struck yet again in the form of the 22nd school shooting this year. 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the alleged shooter, killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School in Texas with a firearm he stole from his father. One of his possible motives, according to the mother of one of the victims, sounds all too familiar: Pagourtzis had been rejected by one of his female classmates. He had allegedly been “harassing” the victim, Shana Fisher, to be in a relationship with him.

“I know he had pestered her to go out with him,” Fisher’s father told the Daily Mail last week. “She kept telling him no. For one, he supposedly already had a girlfriend. And two, she just didn’t have feelings for the boy.”

BOSTON (MA)
VOX

May 23, 2018

By Jen Kirby

Roland Fryer is accused of creating a hostile work environment at his Harvard lab.

An influential Harvard economics professor is under investigation by the university and the state of Massachusetts for allegations of creating a hostile work environment through “sexually inappropriate” comments.

A report in the Harvard Crimson said the investigation into Roland Fryer, who founded the university’s Education Innovation Labs (EdLabs), is based on at least one complaint under Title IX, which forbids sex-based discrimination in education; two people claim to have filed such complaints with the university. According to the Crimson, Fryer has not been allowed to enter the research lab he runs since March.

Fryer is one of the most prominent economics researchers working today, conducting studies on the racial achievement gap, the effects of charter schools, and racial disparities in police shootings (a somewhat disputed study). The allegations, part of a broader #MeToo reckoning, are likely to reverberate through academia and the field of economics.

MICHIGAN
Pop Sugar

May 25, 2018

by Lindsay Miller

Twenty years ago, former Michigan State University softball star Tiffany Lopez told three of her trainers that she was being sexually abused by one of the university's team physicians. His name was Larry Nassar.

It would be 19 years before Nassar — who has been accused by at least 265 women with sexually abusing them in his role as a doctor to young athletes at MSU and USA Gymnastics — would be arrested for his crimes.

Lopez says she stopped playing the sport she loved and left MSU after her claims went unheard.

MONTROUGE (FRANCE)
La Croix International

May 23, 2018

By Isabelle de Gaulmyn, Deputy Editor

It is rare to hear church leaders thanking journalists and even rarer when it involves cases of clergy sex abuse of minors

In a sign of change in the church, Chilean bishops have thanked journalists for their contribution to exposing cases of pedophilia.

“We thank members of the press for their contribution to serving the truth,” the Chilean bishops wrote in their collective resignation letter last week.

It is rare to hear church leaders thanking journalists and even rarer when it involves cases of pedophilia.

So this is a sure sign that things are changing seriously in the Catholic Church.

MONTROUGE (FRANCE)
La Croix International

May 25, 2018

By Robert Mickens

The stakes are high and we should hope and pray that the pope gets this right

Vatican City - The deeply disturbing scandal of clergy sex abuse in Chile and its cover-up by Church leaders in the country continues to go from bad to worse.

After a Vatican-led investigation in February, which led Pope Francis to call an emergency summit in Rome of the entire Chilean hierarchy, there has been a seemingly non-stop flow of newly revealed cases of sexual crimes against young people.

First, there was a news report of an organized pedophilia (or at least ephebophilia) ring in a diocese north of the capital Santiago where priests have been involved in exchanging pornographic images of minors and information on how to sexually engage with these adolescents.

Now, there are those in the South American country who claim that this abuse cartel is not limited to one diocese, but involves several other dioceses.

Then this past Thursday the Archdiocese of Santiago publicly admitted that its chancellor, Fr. Óscar Muñoz Toledo, turned himself in to church authorities last January for sexually abusing youths.

What makes this case even more dramatic is the fact that the 56-year-old priest was in charge of handling clergy sex abuse complaints in Santiago – including those against the serial predator Fernando Karadima, who has been the central figure in Chile’s abuse crisis.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

May 25, 2018

By Erin Heffernan

Parents at a St. Louis Catholic grade school are speaking out after learning a priest twice accused of misconduct involving children will be joining their parish.

The Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang was recently appointed associate pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish. The priest had been charged with statutory sodomy in St. Louis and child endangerment in a Lincoln County case, but charges in both were dropped several years ago. Jiang denied the allegations, and a jury sided with him last year in a civil suit tied to the Lincoln County case.

Jiang is set to begin work at St. Gabriel, which is in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood and includes a K-8 school.

Katie Schmitt, a parent of two St. Gabriel students and a graduate of the school herself, said she feels the Archdiocese of St. Louis has made the wrong decision both for the students’ safety and Jiang himself.

STAUNTON (VA)
News Leader

May 24, 2018

On May 8, 2018, William Kerr, a former Sunday school teacher and member of the Knights of Columbus at St. Francis Catholic Church, was sentenced in Staunton Circuit Court to 17 years and 11 months for maliciously sexually abusing children within the congregation for over 2 decades.

The victims submitted Victim Impact Statements and one of the victims courageously took the stand to give a verbal statement. They all described how the trauma from the abuse had negatively impacted their lives. Although most of them have had years of therapy to cope with the trauma, their lives will never be the same. Someone who they knew and trusted had sexually abused them. Someone who was highly respected within the church had robbed them of their youth. Among the people who came to the sentencing hearing was another member of the Knights of Columbus and who is also well known and respected at the church. He took the stand in support of the defendant. Who was there from the church in support of the victims?

DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

May 24, 2018

By Beth LeBlanc

Lansing -- The Michigan House approved on Thursday more than two dozen bills tailored to address the failings that allowed former sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar to sexually abuse hundreds of women and girls over two decades.

Emotions were high as lawmakers debated parts of the scaled-back legislation, but the House eventually passed all of the 27 bills by wide margins. Rep. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, grew emotional as she defended the legislation before the full House.

"I believe that we are taking critical steps to address sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse," Chang said as she fought back tears. "And the legislation that we pass today will make a difference in the lives of countless Michiganders in the years to come."

The legislation, some of which originated in the Senate, has been the subject of hours of testimony in the House Law and Justice Committee over the past six weeks. The panel advanced the legislation Wednesday to the full House.

CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

May 23, 2018

By Archbishop Mark Coleridge

Archbishop Philip Wilson has today decided to stand down as Archbishop of Adelaide, following yesterday’s verdict in a New South Wales court. We, his brother bishops, believe Archbishop Wilson’s decision, though difficult, was appropriate under the circumstances.

Our prayers are with all those who have felt the impact of this long legal process, including the survivors who shared their stories, as well as with the Archdiocese of Adelaide and with Archbishop Wilson himself.

ADELAIDE (AUSTRALIA)
Archdiocese of Adelaide

May 23, 2018

By Archbishop Philip Wilson

I have taken the opportunity overnight to consider His Honour’s reasons.

I am still considering those reasons together with my legal advisors. While I do so, it is appropriate that, in the light of some of his Honour’s findings, I stand aside from my duties as Archbishop.

I am now putting in place the necessary administrative arrangements to ensure that the affairs of the Archdiocese are managed responsibly. I therefore intend to step aside as of Friday this week once those arrangements are in place.

ULTIMO (AUSTRALIA)
ABC

May 24, 2018

By Camron Slessor

A letter from the Archbishop of Adelaide, who has been convicted of covering up child sexual abuse, has asked families to "please continue to pray" for him.

The closing line was sent in a letter written by Philip Wilson which was sent out to children and parents across Adelaide following his decision to step down from his duties as Archbishop earlier this week.

Wilson is facing up to two years in jail for covering up child sexual abuse — after being found guilty by a New South Wales court in a landmark ruling earlier this week.

The 67-year-old was accused of covering up abuse by priest Jim Fletcher in the NSW Hunter Region in the 1970s.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide released a statement on Friday announcing that Adelaide Vicar General Father Philip Marshall will take responsibility for the affairs of the Catholic Archdiocese in Wilson's absence.

HANOVER (PA)
Evening Sun

May 24, 2018

By Kaitlin Greenockle

A former Delone Catholic High School teacher allegedly exchanged thousands of texts, which included explicit messages and images, with a female student and gave the student underwear while she was at school, according to police.

Gary Jon Hatez Jr., 31, of the 300 block of Penn Street, Hanover, was arrested and charged May 24 with two counts of sexual abuse of children, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors and criminal use of a communication facility, according to a news release from the Adams County District Attorney's Office.

Delone Catholic High School officials contacted McSherrystown Borough Police Chief Michael Woods on March 27 to inform him of alleged inappropriate contact and communication between a 16-year-old student and Hatez, according to an affidavit filed with District Judge Daniel Bowman.

MECHANICSBURG (PA)
Penn Live

May 24, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

The six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses at the center of a grand jury investigation into the potential child sex abuse of children by priests have received a copy of the findings.

Mark Rush, an attorney working with the Diocese of Erie, on Thursday confirmed his office had received the report. The 884-page report covers the findings across the six dioceses, which, in addition to Erie, include: Harrisburg, Allentown, Pittsburgh, Scranton and Greensburg.

Rush indicated the other dioceses had also received the report, which remains sealed until otherwise ordered by a judge.

Rush, of the Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates law firm, said Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico will now review the findings. By law entities investigated by a grand jury have the opportunity to respond to the findings of any investigation. Responding is not mandatory, however.

TORONTO (ONTARIO)
Basilian Fathers

May 22, 2018

As an update to our April 27, 2018 statement, the Basilian Fathers will be pursuing an appeal of the judgment rendered April 26 in favour of Mr. Rod MacLeod in relation to the punitive damages awarded and the damages awarded for economic loss. It is believed that those two awards are not legally sound or justified. The Basilian Fathers are not appealing the awards for general and aggravated damages, nor for the amount awarded for counselling costs. Those amounts will be paid to Mr. MacLeod shortly.

When Mr. MacLeod first brought forward his claim in 2012, the Basilian Fathers accepted full responsibility for the actions of Hodgson Marshall, and continue to be committed to providing support to the victims of abuse, as well as ensuring that policies and protocols are in place that support the eradication of sexual abuse.

As Mr. MacLeod made his circumstances known throughout the course of his lawsuit, the Basilian Fathers focused on efforts to fairly compensate Mr. MacLeod. They think the appellate court can best make a final determination of this compensation.

For further information contact:

Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
Media Spokesperson
Basilian Fathers
(416) 879-5766

SAULT STE. MARIE (ONTARIO)
Sault Star

May 25, 2018

The legal saga of a now dead, predatory pedophile priest who victimized a young Sudbury student more than 50 years ago is not quite over.

In a release posted to its website, the Basilian Fathers said they are appealing certain aspects of a judgment in favour of the student, Rod MacLeod, issued just last month.

The order, which employed Father William Hodgson Marshall, said it will challenge the punitive and the economic loss damages awarded to MacLeod, who now lives in Toronto.

"It is believed that those two awards are not legally sound or justified," the statement said. "The Basilian Fathers are not appealing the awards for general and aggravated damages, nor for the amount awarded for counselling costs. Those amounts will be paid to Mr. MacLeod shortly."

LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald

May 24, 2018

By Junno Arocho Esteves

Pope Francis will meet five priests who suffered abuse by Chilean Fr Fernando Karadima or his followers, the Vatican said.

Two priests who have accompanied the survivors “in their juridical and spiritual journey” and “two laypeople involved in this suffering” also were invited by Pope Francis, the Vatican said. They will all be guests at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Vatican residence where Pope Francis lives.

The Pope will celebrate a private Mass with the group June 2 and will meet members of the group together and individually, the statement said. In late April, Pope Francis had hosted three laymen who were sexually abused by Fr Karadima.

“With this new meeting, planned a month ago, Pope Francis wants to show his closeness to abused priests, accompany them in their pain and listen to their valuable opinion to improve the current preventative measures and the fight against abuses in the Church,” the statement said.

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

May 24, 2018

By Peter Smith

Six Roman Catholic dioceses have copies of a Pennsylvania grand jury report critical of their handling of sexual abuse by priests and others over the past seven decades, an attorney for one of the dioceses said Thursday.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office provided the mammoth report based on an investigation by the 40th statewide grand jury of sexual abuse in the church.

Pittsburgh attorney Mark Rush, representing the Erie diocese, said that under court order he could only confirm the receipt of the 800-plus-page report by the dioceses. Officials of the Pittsburgh and Greensburg dioceses would not confirm receipt of the report.

The action followed several days of meetings and behind-closed-doors legal maneuvers in which some dioceses, including Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Greensburg, called for due process in how the report was disseminated. Other dioceses under investigation include Erie, Allentown and Scranton.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

May 25, 2018

By Haidee V Eugenio

The Archdiocese of Agana instructed Father Adrian Cristobal, who has been accused of sexually abusing three boys, to return to Guam by June 15 or sanctions would be imposed on him.

The sanctions would be in addition to precautionary measures imposed on Cristobal when the first allegation was filed on April 10, such as temporarily banning the priest from celebrating Mass publicly or hearing confession while investigations are ongoing.

Cristobal is believed to be in the vicinity of New York, after leaving the Diocese of Phoenix in Arizona in April.

Tony Diaz, director of communications for the archdiocese, on Friday said the archdiocese has repeatedly communicated to Cristobal, via e-mail, that he is to return to Guam immediately.

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
IndyStar

May 24, 2018

By Tim Evans and Marisa Kwiatkowski

USA Gymnastics officials agreed to provide what Larry Nassar's attorney called "false excuses" for his absence from major gymnastics events in 2015, rather than disclose to parents and gymnasts that Nassar was under investigation for child sexual abuse.

Emails obtained by The Indianapolis Star reveal that on two separate occasions, Nassar and a USA Gymnastics attorney negotiated cover stories — first that Nassar was sick and later that he was focusing on his private practice — to explain why the longtime team physician was not attending two major events in the run-up to the 2016 Olympics.

In one of the emails, Indianapolis attorney Scott D. Himsel told Nassar his medical techniques were under investigation, and "it is in everyone's best interest" that Nassar not attend a gymnastics event that weekend.

Himsel said USA Gymnastics would tell people Nassar was not attending for "personal reasons."

Nassar replied: "Can we just say that i am sick? That would make more sense to everyone. Would that be ok?"

Himsel agreed to have USA Gymnastics use that story.

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
The Associated Press

May 24, 2018

USA Gymnastics agreed to use false excuses in 2015 to account for the absence of sports doctor Larry Nassar, who had been accused of sexually abusing female athletes, according to emails obtained by a newspaper.

Nassar suggested that USA Gymnastics tell people that he couldn’t attend two major events that summer because he was sick or needed to focus on his work at Michigan State University, the Indianapolis Star reported Thursday.

“We’ll let Ron know to advise people that you weren’t feeling well and decided to stay home,” Scott Himsel, an attorney hired by USA Gymnastics, replied, referring to Ron Galimore, chief operating officer.

USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians, is accused of covering up assault allegations against Nassar. The group didn’t tell Michigan State or elite gymnastics clubs about complaints against him in 2015.

NEW YORK (NY)
The Wrap

May 24, 2018

By Thom Geier and Jeremy Fuster

Indie mogul has suffered a rapid reversal after accusations of misconduct first emerged last October

Harvey Weinstein is expected to be served with criminal charges by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and will turn himself in to authorities on Friday, according to the New York Daily News.

The news of an arrest comes after a months-long investigation by New York law enforcement into accusations of sexual misconduct. According to the Daily News, Weinstein faces charges in connection with accusations made by aspiring actress Lucia Evans, who said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in his Manhattan office in 2004.

A grand jury convened several weeks ago was also presented evidence related to crimes of financial fraud, the paper reported, though it is unclear if he will also be charged for any financial crimes.

NEW YORK (NY)
The Week

May 25, 2018

By Summer Meza

Former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein will surrender to authorities and face charges of sexual abuse on Friday, NBC News reports.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are in the final stages of an investigation into allegations of sexual assault from actresses Paz de la Huerta and Lucia Evans. Weinstein has been accused of wide-ranging abuse by more than 50 women.

Weinstein has denied ever engaging in nonconsensual sex acts, but the New York Daily News reports that he will turn himself in to New York City police. The charges are expected to be brought in state court in Manhattan. A lawyer for Weinstein declined to comment.

UNITED STATES
Reuters

May 22, 2018

USA Gymnastics CEO Kerry Perry plans to apologize to the victims of Larry Nassar in her opening statement of a testimony she will give before a House subcommittee on Wednesday.

The testimony will be her first public comments since taking over her position in December. The subcommittee released Perry’s five-page opening statement on Tuesday.

“First, I want to apologize to all who were harmed by the horrific acts of Larry Nassar,” Perry’s statement reads in part. “I was in the courtroom to listen to the incredibly courageous women explain in vivid and painful detail the damage he did to their lives. Their powerful voices will not be forgotten. I commit to you that I will keep their words and experiences at the core of every decision I make, every day, as the leader of this organization. Their stories have broken my heart, but also strengthened my resolve.

“Let there be no mistake; those days are over. USA Gymnastics is on a new path, with new leadership, and a commitment to ensure this never happens again.”

Perry’s statement goes on to detail the changes that USA Gymnastics has made since her hiring in order to “regain the trust and confidence of our athletes, their families, and all who are a part of the gymnastics community.”

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Associated Press

May 23, 2018

By Eddie Pells 

The tears and anger this time came from lawmakers who spent the day fuming over a growing sex-abuse problem in Olympic sports that leaders have taken too much time to solve while devoting too little money for the fixes.

“I just hope everyone here realizes the time to talk is over, and you need to walk your talk,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said Wednesday shortly after choking back tears while questioning leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

The hearing of the House subcommittee was filled with both substance and spectacle — the latter coming mostly courtesy of a five-minute burst from Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., who told the USOC’s acting CEO, Susanne Lyons, “you should resign your position now,” and tore into USA Gymnastics CEO Kerry Perry and the rest of the panel for not uttering the exact words: “I’m sorry.”

“If you don’t want to say you’re sorry, I don’t want to talk to you,” said Carter, who represents the district where a lawsuit that triggered the mushrooming scandal in gymnastics was filed.

WASHINGTON (DC)
USA TODAY

May 23, 2018

By Christine Brennan

The new post-Nassar leadership of the U.S. Olympic movement was on full display for all to see Wednesday morning at a Congressional hearing focused on the terrible sex abuse scandals in the nation’s Olympic sports.

Everyone was so calm, so measured, so lawyerly, so sorry — and so full of excuses about how they weren’t around when all the bad stuff happened, but now care very much about what has become the worst scandal in U.S. Olympic history and are doing their best to try to put a stop to it.

It was enough to make a normal person scream. One blast-furnace of a politician, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), did just that, verbally lambasting two of the Olympic leaders even though he got more of his facts wrong than right, seriously weakening an otherwise fascinating performance.

But Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), getting her turn near the end after having absorbed about two hours of the conversation, said it just right.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Think Progress

May 23, 2018

By Lindsay Gibbs

"I thought the witnesses got off pretty easy."

About two hours into the House Commerce Committee’s hearing on sexual abuse in Olympic sports, decorum was finally thrown out the window.

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) had five minutes to ask questions of the heads of the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, USA Taekwondo, USA Swimming, USA Volleyball, and the U.S. Center for SafeSport. He did not waste that time with pleasantries.

Carter began by going directly after USA Gymnastics (USAG) CEO Kerry Perry, demanding to know whether William McCabe, a convicted sex offender from Carter’s home state who served as a coach for USAG despite the cloud of suspicion that followed him throughout his career, had ever been subjected to a background check. When Perry tried to evade the question by saying that she’d only started working with USAG in December 2017, Carter wasn’t having it.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

May 23, 2018

By Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton

After an appointment with Dr. George Tyndall in 1995, USC undergraduate Alexis Rodriguez wrote a letter of complaint on a typewriter in the English department. The gynecologist, she recalled writing, had a Playboy magazine on his desk, used a scalpel on a vaginal abscess without anesthetic and, when she objected, marked her chart with the word "difficult."

A student health clinic administrator sent back a letter, apologizing and pledging to remove the notation from her chart, Rodriguez said. It would be 21 years before the university forced Tyndall out of the clinic.

"They missed an opportunity to save a lot of other women from his mistreatment," said Rodriguez, now 46 and a federal probation officer in Los Angeles.

The USC Board of Trustees' executive committee announced Wednesday that outside attorneys would conduct an independent investigation into the Tyndall matter. The inquiry is to examine not only the physician's behavior, but also what the trustees called "reporting failures" that allowed Tyndall to remain at the clinic for 27 years and treat tens of thousands of students.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS NEWS

May 23, 2018

The president of the University of Southern California is facing calls to resign in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against a former doctor at the school. Two-hundred faculty members signed a letter Tuesday saying president Max Nikias has "lost the moral authority" to lead USC. That comes as several women filed lawsuits accusing USC of not properly responding to complaints against campus gynecologist George Tyndall.

The university said over the last few days it has received around 200 reports about Dr. Tyndall. Some of his alleged victims are now represented by the same lawyers who represented the victims of disgraced MSU doctor Larry Nassar. Like in that case, there are now questions about who knew what and when, reports CBS News' Bianna Golodryga.

USC master's student Daniella Mohazab said that during an STD test in 2016, Tyndall sexually harassed and molested her.

FORT WORTH (TX)
Fox News

May 23, 2018

By Kaitlyn Schallhorn

Paige Patterson, a prominent Southern Baptist leader, has been removed from his position as president of a Texas seminary following allegations that he made abusive and demeaning comments to women.

Patterson, 75, has been heavily criticized over his past comments about women. According to The Washington Post, he encouraged abused women to stay with their husbands, implored female seminarians to look more attractive and commented on an “attractive” teenage girl’s appearance.

Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, also allegedly told a rape victim to forgive her assailant and not report the assault to police, a woman told The Washington Post earlier this week.

Patterson was removed from his position as president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) in Fort Worth, Texas, by its board of trustees, according to an online statement.

The SWBTS board of trustees said it has appointed Patterson to the position of president emeritus, which includes compensation, after a 14-hour meeting. He and his wife will still be allowed to live on campus at the Baptist Heritage Center as “theologians-in-residence,” the statement added.

FORT WORTH (TX)
The Associated Press

May 23, 2018

A former head of the Southern Baptist Convention was removed Wednesday as president of a Texas seminary following allegations of "unbiblical teaching" through sexist and demeaning comments to women who he suggests should tolerate abuse.

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary board of trustees said in a statement that 75-year-old Paige Patterson was dismissed following a 13-hour meeting "to move in the direction of new leadership for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary."

The board named Patterson president emeritus with unspecified pay and will allow him and his wife to continue to live on campus as theologians-in-residence.

The statement does not directly address Patterson's alleged comments. He's accused of remarking on a teenage girl's body, saying female seminarians should work hard to look attractive and that abused women should almost always stay with their husbands.

FORT WORTH (TX)
The Huffington Post

May 23, 2018

By Willa Frej

Paige Patterson was demoted to president emeritus after thousands of evangelical women signed a petition calling for his ouster.

A prominent Southern Baptist Church leader who is known to have made inappropriate comments about abuse and women’s bodies was removed from his position early Wednesday after thousands of evangelical women signed a petition calling for his ouster.

Paige Patterson, formerly the head of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was demoted to president emeritus of the church after a 13-hour board meeting on Tuesday, according to a statement.

He will receive compensation for the position. The statement didn’t refer specifically to his comments about women, but said the discussion about the new leadership direction focused on “challenges facing the institution, including those of enrollment, financial, leadership and institutional identity.”

Dr. D. Jeffrey Bingham, dean of the School of Theology, was appointed as interim president. He currently serves as the vice president of the North American Patristics Society.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Magazine

May 23, 2018

by Lisa Weidenfeld

The move comes after a series of tweets about McGrory written by former staffer Hilary Sargent.

Executives at the Boston Globe are investigating misconduct allegations against the publication’s top editor, Brian McGrory. The move comes after former Boston.com staffer Hilary Sargent sent a series of tweets on Sunday and Monday that included a screenshot of a text exchange that appeared to show McGrory flirting with her in response to a question seeking writing advice.

Sargent initially wrote the tweets in response to a recent 60 Minutes exposé on sexual harassment, discussing how dehumanizing it can feel when young women realize they’re not being seen as professionals. Later that day, she shared the screenshot of the text exchange, and then followed up the next day, saying, “It never occurs to men like @GlobeMcGrory (see text) that maybe we actually *are* looking for advice about WRITING, that maybe we don’t want to be asked what we are wearing while we write, that maybe we want to work, to be journalists.”

The allegations come as the Globe strives to find ways to cover the #MeToo movement, publishing impactful stories about harassment on Beacon Hill. Sargent included the hashtag in one of her tweets about McGrory. It’s only the latest in a series of Twitter broadsides she’s sent in recent months suggesting the Globe was failing to contend with its own harassment issues.

SAN VICENTE (ECUADOR)
El Universo

May 23, 2018

Spanish priest investigates alleged cases of abuse

El vicario judicial de la Arquidiócesis de Santiago de Chile, Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano, llegó ayer a la ciudad para reunirse con familiares de supuestas víctimas de abuso sexual atacadas presuntamente por el sacerdote César C. M., con el cual también prevé un encuentro.

El religioso de origen español investigó en Chile los casos Karadima y Precht.

El arzobispo Marcos Pérez cedió a la presión de parientes que pidieron saber qué labores cumpliría Ortiz de Lazcano. Refirió que escuchará versiones y determinará si “existen o no indicios de culpabilidad para continuar con un juicio canónico en el Vaticano”.

En la Arquidiócesis existe un tribunal eclesiástico que podría tomar las versiones, pero Pérez dijo que se prefirió llamar a un delegado externo para que analice el caso con la mayor imparcialidad y confianza posible.

UNITED STATES
Yahoo Sports

May 21, 2018

By Ryan Young

Olympic swimmer and former world-record holder Ariana Kukors filed a lawsuit on Monday against USA Swimming, alleging that officials knew her coach Sean Hutchinson sexually assaulted her while she was a minor.

The lawsuit, filed in Orange County, California, alleges that USA Swimming covered up the abuse and manipulated its background check system so that Hutchinson wouldn’t fail the test.

“We are here today to force USA Swimming, the national governing body of the sport of swimming in America, to accept responsibility for allowing, and in fact, enabling a known predator coach to sexually molest for almost a decade, my client Ariana beginning when she was just a young child,” Kukors’ attorney Robert Allard told the Seattle Times on Monday.

Kukors, 28, accused Hutchinson of sexually assaulting her starting when she was 16 and continuing to have sexual contact with her until she was 24. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Kukors alleges that he took nude photos of her when she was a teenager. Kukors told police that Hutchinson sexually assaulted her both on trips and while training in Seattle, and that he used his position as her coach at the Seattle club to “groom her” for sexual assault starting when she was 13.

Kukors said that in 2005, when she was 15 or 16, USA Swimming officials — including former director Chuck Wielgus — knew that she was involved in an inappropriate relationship with Hutchinson, according to USA Today.

UNITED STATES
CNN

May 22, 2018

By Emanuella Grinberg

Former world champion swimmer Ariana Kukors Smith says it was an "open secret" among USA Swimming's leadership that her coach sexually abused her as a teen.

The former Olympian says in a lawsuit that Sean Hutchison sexually molested her for the first time in 2006 when she was 16. Hutchison has previously denied the allegations.

Instead of acting on the information, the lawsuit says, officials engaged in a cover-up to shield Hutchison from consequences.

Hutchison and USA Swimming, the governing body for competitive swimming in the United States, are among those named in a lawsuit filed Monday in California alleging sexual abuse of a minor, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. USA Swimming declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Smith, 28, first went public with her account in January. In the lawsuit, she says Hutchison of kissed, fondled and performed oral sex on her when she was a minor, before they had intercourse for the first time when she was 18. She also accuses him of taking nude photos of her as a minor.

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Associated Press

May 22, 2018

Two-time Olympic champion Steven Lopez complained to the U.S. Olympic Committee that he was subject to an "institutionalized witch hunt" designed to undermine his success -- a piece of Congressional testimony offered by USA Taekwondo to undercut the notion that the organization was unwilling to discipline its top athletes for sexual abuse and other cases.

Lopez is currently under suspension while the U.S. Center for SafeSport investigates a case against him. His brother and coach, Jean, has been permanently banned for sexual misconduct.

Lopez wrote a letter last June to then-CEO Scott Blackmun of the USOC referencing three attempts by USA Taekwondo from 2013 to 2015, all overturned in arbitration, to ban Jean Lopez for actions that weren't related to the sex abuse cases.

Lopez said the attempts were designed "to create the best possible conditions for my failure."

UNITED STATES
ESPNW

May 24, 2018

By Dan Murphy

USA Gymnastics CEO Kerry Perry plans to offer an apology Wednesday to the gymnasts whom Larry Nassar abused when she addresses a House subcommittee tasked with examining the Olympic community's role in recent sexual assault scandals.

In her first public comments since taking over in December, Perry plans to update the representatives on the changes that USA Gymnastics has made in 2018 to repair a culture in which warning signs of abuse went unheeded for years.

The subcommittee started its probe in the wake of a sentencing hearing for Nassar, the former national medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics who admitted to using his position to molest his patients -- most of whom were young female gymnasts. Nassar is serving 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges before he begins a sentence of up to 175 years for sexual assault charges.

"I want to apologize to all who were harmed by the horrific acts of Larry Nassar," Perry wrote in an opening statement that she plans to read at Wednesday's hearing, which was first reported by USA Today. "... Let there be no mistake; those days are over. USA Gymnastics is on a new path, with new leadership, and a commitment to ensure this will never happen again."

Perry says in her statement that the organization hopes to resume settlement talks in August for the hundreds of civil lawsuits it faces from women who say Nassar abused them. USA Gymnastics is one of several defendants in those lawsuits, along with the U.S. Olympic Committee, Michigan State University and Twistars, a Michigan gym where Nassar treated patients on a weekly basis for many years.

NEW YORK (NY)
The Daily Beast

May 22, 2018

By Amy Zimmerman

In the new A&E series ‘Cults and Extreme Beliefs,’ ex-NXIVM member Sarah Edmondson opens up about a horrific branding ceremony at ex-‘Smallville’ star Allison Mack’s house.

NXIVM, the star-studded sex cult that recently landed actress Allison Mack under house arrest, is already getting the TV treatment. The new A&E series Cults and Extreme Belief is premiering next Monday with an episode on the controversial self-help group. Led by Keith Raniere, NXIVM has been accused of vile crimes within a sub-sorority known as “Dominus Obsequious Sororium,” which loosely translates to “master over slave women.”

The indictment against Mack and Raniere charge the leader and his second in command with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy. In a statement, United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue claimed that, “Allison Mack recruited women to join what was purported to be a female mentorship group that was, in fact, created and led by Keith Raniere… The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants’ benefit. This Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to prosecuting predators who victimize others through sex trafficking and forced labor.”

In a letter on the NXIVM website, Keith Raniere insisted that the sorority “is not part of NXIVM” and denied any association with the group.

PENNSYLVANIA
GoErie

May 24, 2018

By Ed Palattella

The 884-page document covers investigation of Erie, five other Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. Public release is set for late June.

The Catholic Diocese of Erie on Thursday received a copy of a statewide grand jury’s investigative report on clergy sexual abuse, giving Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico an opportunity to review and respond to the 884-page document before its expected public release in late June.

The court order authorizing the advanced release of the report to the Erie diocese and others allows for general comments but prohibits the recipients from commenting on the contents of the report until it is made public, said Mark Rush, a lawyer for the diocese, who said he received the report on behalf of the diocese.

With a judge’s authorization, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Thursday also provided copies of the report to the other five Roman Catholic dioceses that the office has been investigating since mid-2016 by presenting evidence and testimony to the grand jury, Rush said.

The report covers all six dioceses, Rush said. The other dioceses are those for Allentown, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton. The 40th Statewide Investigative Grand Jury, which met in Pittsburgh, ended its term on April 30, signaling the release of its report would come soon.

BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

May 24, 2018

By Ruth Brown

[See also the article as it appeared on the front page of the Idaho Statesman.]

For two decades, Mark Holden kept the secret of the man who abused him: a man he believed was next to God, a man he thought was untouchable.

Holden met the Rev. James McSorley in 1971 at Boise’s Sacred Heart parish. In public, Holden served McSorley as an altar boy. In private, Holden said, the 50-year-old priest soon became exploitive, using secluded time with the children to fondle Holden — and possibly others — on multiple occasions over the course of a year.

McSorley bought Holden's silence with beer, cigars and money. Holden knew the priest's behavior was wrong — he just wasn't sure how to end it.

The 12-year-old couldn't tell his parents, he thought at the time, in part because he'd been drinking beer. Calling police didn’t even occur to him. Only some of the other altar boys knew of the priest's actions, including his older brother.

“They robbed my faith — and everyone’s faith,” said Holden, now 58. “...That person was supposed to be the person I could turn to when I feel in trouble. Yet, he was causing my trouble.”

BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

May 24, 2018

By Ruth Brown

The following is a list of people named in the Statesman's May 2018 report on alleged child abuse committed by former Catholic Rev. James McSorley.

Bishops of the Diocese of Boise

Bishop Peter Christensen: Bishop since 2014.

Bishop Michael Driscoll: Bishop from 1999-2014. Died Oct. 24, 2017.

Bishop Tod Brown: Bishop from 1989-1998, now age 81 and a retired bishop in the Diocese of Orange in California.

Bishop Sylvester Treinen: Bishop from 1962-1988. Died in 1996.

Priests

Rev. James McSorley, priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church from 1971-1975. Abused Mark Holden in 1971-2. He died in 2005.

Rev. John Donoghue, priest at Sacred Heart in the early 1970s. He died in 2009.

Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, a priest at Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s in Boise, as well as several other churches across the world. Faucher knew Mark Holden and knew about Father McSorley’s abuse. He’s currently in the Ada County Jail on suspected child porn possession and distribution charges.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
La Segunda

They all arrived young at the parish in El Bosque: The lived experience of the former disciples of Karadima who will now be received by the Pope

Priests were victims of the "abusive system": invitation of the Pontiff is a "consolation"

May 23, 2018

Javier Barros B., Eugenio de la Fuente, Sergio Cobo y Alejandro Vial han declarado contra el ex párroco de El Bosque.

Cuatro de los cinco sacerdotes que serán recibidos por el Papa conocieron de cerca de Fernando Karadima, el religioso condenado y recluido por abuso sexual y de poder perpetrado mientras era párroco del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús en Providencia. Javier Barros Bascuñán, Eugenio de la Fuente, Sergio Cobo Montalva y Alejandro Vial Amunátegui encontraron su vocación religiosa mientras eran feligreses en El Bosque. Francisco Astaburuaga, en cambio, jugó un rol clave al apoyar a James Hamilton, una de las víctimas de Karadima, a proseguir con su acusación y lo volvió a conectar con Juan Carlos Cruz para que éste diera su testimonio.

De todos ellos, quizás el que presenció actos de forma más reiterada fue De la Fuente. Actual párroco de Nuestra Señora de la Medalla Milagrosa (Quinta Normal), entre 2001 y 2009 fue vicario de El Bosque y dormía en la pieza contigua a la de Karadima. Más aún, cuando estalló el escándalo en 2010, según aparece en el libro «Los secretos del Imperio de Karadima», de Mónica González, Juan Andrés Guzmán y Gustavo Villarrubia, visitó al empresario Jorge Said a fin de que apoyara económicamente la defensa del acusado sacerdote. Claro que ese mismo año, en agosto, firmó la carta que marcó el quiebre del círculo de Karadima. De la Fuente apoyó ahí a los denunciantes.

Un poco antes de esa carta, en julio, De la Fuente declaró ante el fiscal Xavier Armendáriz - el primer instructor del caso en los tribunales ordinarios - y ahí le contó que "el padre (Karadima) tenía gestos con los jóvenes que íbamos a la parroquia como, por ejemplo, tocar los genitales. Y a veces, al acercarse para dar un beso, como se haría con un padre, él sacaba la lengua y se la pasaba por la mejilla. Y también había un vocabulario ambiguo, como de contenido sexual latente o implícito, como la palabra cueto".

Google Translation: Javier Barros B., Eugenio de la Fuente, Sergio Cobo and Alejandro Vial have testified against the former parish priest of El Bosque.

Four of the five priests to be received by the Pope met closely Fernando Karadima, the religious convicted and held for sexual abuse and power perpetrated while he was pastor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Providence. Javier Barros Bascuñán, Eugenio de la Fuente, Sergio Cobo Montalva and Alejandro Vial Amunátegui found their religious vocation while they were parishioners in El Bosque. Francisco Astaburuaga, on the other hand, played a key role in supporting James Hamilton, one of the victims of Karadima, to continue with his accusation and reconnected him with Juan Carlos Cruz so that he could give his testimony.

Of all of them, perhaps the one who witnessed acts more consistently was De la Fuente. Current parish priest of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (Quinta Normal), between 2001 and 2009 he was vicar of El Bosque and slept in the room next to Karadima's. Moreover, when the scandal erupted in 2010, according to the book "The Secrets of the Empire of Karadima" by Mónica González, Juan Andrés Guzmán and Gustavo Villarrubia, he visited the businessman Jorge Said so that he would financially support the defense of the accused priest. Of course, that same year, in August, he signed the letter that marked the break of the Karadima circle. De la Fuente supported the complainants there.

A little before that letter, in July, De la Fuente declared before the prosecutor Xavier Armendáriz - the first instructor of the case in the ordinary courts - and there he told him that "the father (Karadima) had gestures with the young people who were going to the parish, for example, touching the genitals, and sometimes, when approaching to give a kiss, as would be done with a father, he would stick out his tongue and rub it across his cheek, and there was also an ambiguous vocabulary, latent or implicit sex, like the word cueto ".

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Ciper

Karadima: the history of his abuse of priests and seminarians

May 23, 2018

By Mónica González, Juan Andrés Guzmán y Gustavo Villarrubia

Full text of Chapter VI of the book Los secretos del imperio de Karadima (The Secrets of the Karadima Empire)

A propósito de la invitación extendida por el Papa Francisco a tres sacerdotes que sufrieron los abusos de Fernando Karadima en la parroquia de El Bosque, CIPER reproduce el capítulo VI del libro “Los secretos del imperio de Karadima” (editado por CIPER en alianza con la UDP y Catalonia)­. El capítulo, titulado “La iglesia de Karadima”, cuenta en detalle cómo el ex párroco aprovechó su condición de guía espiritual para manipular a decenas de sacerdotes y seminaristas. Además de los abusos sexuales a los que sometió a aspirantes al sacerdocio, Karadima utilizó a los miembros de la Pía Unión Sacerdotal para extender sus tentáculos hasta el seminario, promovió el nombramiento de sus leales en diversos puestos de poder, desprestigió a sus críticos y pulverizó -mediante verdaderos linchamientos de imagen en juicios secretos- a aquellos que se apartaban de su influencia.

LA IGLESIA DE KARADIMA

La primera semana de julio de 2011, Juan Carlos Cruz recibió un email de su abogado Juan Pablo Hermosilla en el que le anunciaba que el 18 de ese mes tenía que estar en Santiago. El motivo: carearse con Fernando Karadima. Juan Carlos sintió vértigo. El momento por el que tanto había batallado estaba al alcance de la mano. Se imaginó al cura en el tribunal, acusado, solo. Se imaginó diciéndole «aquí estoy, no me destruiste, cura de mierda», y tantas cosas más que había planeado desde que en agosto de 2009 lo denunció ante la justicia eclesiástica, e incluso desde antes, tal vez desde las mismas noches en que Karadima lo forzaba a besarlo y Juan Carlos se sentía indefenso, atemorizado y se aferraba a la idea de que algo pasara, de que alguien interviniera para que eso se acabara de una vez.

Desde que se inició el juicio civil, Karadima se había negado terminantemente a ese careo diciéndole al fiscal Xavier Armendáriz que su salud no le permitía enfrentar a los denunciantes a quienes, sin embargo, perdonaba. Su abogado, Luis Ortiz Quiroga, en un escrito al tribunal, argumentó además que el sacerdote había sido demasiado maltratado por una prensa sesgada que «ha logrado hacer trizas el prestigio y reputación de un sacerdote que ha dado su vida por la Iglesia». Exponerlo a un careo, aseguraba Luis Ortiz ante el primer juez del caso, Leonardo Valdivieso, «constituye una oportunidad inmejorable para transformar una diligencia judicial reservada en una actuación de carácter público y noticioso, ajena al control del tribunal y sometida a presiones propias de una noticia. El tratamiento público de la diligencia solo ocasionará la humillación de nuestro representado». El juez acogió ese planteamiento en noviembre de 2010 y acto seguido, sorpresivamente, cerró la investigación sin acceder al careo, argumentando que «ya se encontraba extinguida la responsabilidad penal del sacerdote».

NEW YORK CITY (NY)
New York Times

May 21, 2018

By Adam Baidawi

Melbourne, Australia - An Australian archbishop was convicted on Tuesday of covering up a claim of sexual abuse dating back decades, and now faces a prison sentence of up to two years.

Philip Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide, is the highest-ranking Catholic official in the world to be convicted of concealing such crimes.

The decision comes in the midst of a global reckoning for the Roman Catholic Church, as it grapples with a history of child sexual abuse and cover-ups. Cardinal George Pell, also an Australian and the Vatican’s de facto finance chief, was ordered last month to stand trial on charges of “historical sexual abuse.”

Archbishop Wilson, 67, was accused of covering up abuse by a priest, Jim Fletcher, in the state of New South Wales in the 1970s.

The case against the archbishop was especially surprising, given his reputation for acknowledging and apologizing to the victims of pedophile priests.

NEW YORK CITY (NY)
New York Times

May 23, 2018

The abuse of minors by pedophile priests has been among the most painful sagas of our time, the horror compounded by the knowledge that hierarchs could have stopped the predators if only they had not chosen, for so long, to cover up their actions. Now, at long last, Pope Francis seems to have glimpsed the depth of the global crisis.

The catalyst was a scandal in Chile, one of Latin America’s most staunchly Catholic countries, where for years the church establishment failed to act on multiple complaints of sexual abuse against an influential priest, Fernando Karadima. On a trip to Chile in January, the pope condemned Father Karadima’s actions but then refused to meet with his victims and dismissed allegations of inaction by bishops as “slander.”

In the outrage that followed, the pope appointed two investigators who produced a damning report confirming systematic efforts by the Chilean Catholic hierarchy to conceal clerical sexual abuse. That led to an apology by Pope Francis for the “grave errors” in Chile and an emergency meeting last week with Chile’s bishops at which all 34 submitted their resignations and asked forgiveness for the “pain they caused the victims, the pope, the people of God and our country.”

SURRY HILLS (AUSTRALIA)
news.com.au

May 23, 2018

By Ally Foster

South Australia’s highest ranking Catholic Church official, Philip Wilson, will stand down from his duties after being convicted of covering up sexual abuse.THE highest ranking official in South Australia’s Catholic Church will stand aside from his duties after being found guilty of landmark charges that he covered up a priest's sexual abuse of altar boys.

The Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Edward Wilson, 67, was convicted yesterday in a Newcastle Local Court for the cover up of child sex abuse during the 1970s in NSW Hunter region.

Magistrate Robert Stone handed down the verdict following a magistrate-only trial, finding him guilty of concealing a serious indictable offence of another person.

In a statement issued by the Catholic Church on Wednesday, Wilson said it was appropriate for him to stand aside in light of Magistrate Stone’s findings against him.

WILKES BARRE (PA)
The Citizen's Voice

May 24, 2018

Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera and bishops of five other Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania will not attempt to block the impending public release of a statewide grand jury’s report on an investigation into sexual abuse among clergy and their dioceses’ handling of it.

The grand jury, which met in Pittsburgh and has been investigating since former Attorney General Kathleen Kane launched it in 2016, ended its term in April. Its report could be released in June. It subpoenaed records and interviewed witnesses from all of the dioceses — Scranton, Erie, Allentown, Harrisburg, Greensburg and Pittsburgh. Investigations of the two other dioceses in the state, Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown, were handled individually.

According to state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic and Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer recently changed their minds about filing legal challenges to the report’s release. The other bishops already had agreed.

The report will not be a purely historical document.

LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

May 24, 2018

The Catholic Church faces legal action from multiple child sex abuse victims after one of its most senior Australian leaders was found to have swept past transgressions under the rug.

Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Edward Wilson, 67, was found guilty on Tuesday of covering up priest James 'Jim' Fletcher's sexual abuse of altar boys throughout the 1970s and 80s.

On Wednesday, Wilson announced that he would be stepping down - thought not resigning - from his role.

Now the victims of Fletcher's abuse are seeking to launch legal action against the Church and seek compensation for their trauma, Adelaide Now reports.

BLACKPOOL (CORK, IRELAND)
Irish Examiner

May 24, 2018

As well as being a likeable and accessible Church leader, Pope Francis exhibits all the characteristics of an exemplary human being.

Unlike Benedict, his immediate predecessor, Francis comes across as warm, gracious and truly humble, with a capacity for empathy than not even John Paul II displayed.

Yet his papacy continues to be haunted by clerical sex abuse scandals, largely because he is still unable to grasp the enormity of the problem.

He has yet to respond in any meaningful way to the criminal conviction in Australia of the archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, the most senior Catholic in the world to be found guilty of concealing child sex abuse.

NEW YORK CITY (NY)
New York Times

May 22, 2018

By Sam Roberts

[See also the 9/8/01 letter from Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos to Bishop Pican.]

Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, a vigorous conservative voice in the Vatican and influential figure in the Latin American church who drew attention for seemingly playing down the church’s sexual abuse scandal, died on Friday in Rome. He was 88.

* * *

Before a worldwide reckoning with sexual abuse within the clergy erupted in Boston in 2002, Cardinal Castrillón had suggested as early as 2000 that such abuse was generally an unavoidable fact of life, and that it was being unfairly focused on by lawyers and the media. Was it not contradictory, he asked at a meeting requested by English-speaking bishops, for people to be so outraged by sexual abuse when society also promotes sexual liberation?

A decade later, it was revealed that he had sent a letter in 2001, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, praising a French bishop for facing prison rather than delivering a pedophile priest to civil courts. The priest was later sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment, and the bishop received a three-month suspended sentence.

Cardinal Castrillón also opposed the zero-tolerance standard toward abusive priests embraced by bishops in the United States because, he said, it disregarded a fundamental principle of forgiveness. He described the rapport between a bishop and his priests as “not professional but a sacramental relationship which forges very special bonds of spiritual paternity.”

DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

May 23, 2018

By Jonathan Oosting

Lansing – House panel changes to a measure allowing retroactive lawsuits in sexual assault cases amounts to a “pedophile priest loophole,” a state lawmaker said Wednesday as the legislation advanced to the floor.

Rep. Tim Griemel, D-Auburn Hills, blasted the scaled-back proposal in a statement released by his campaign for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District. Rep. Klint Kesto, R-Commerce Township, is also running for the post and chairs the committee that spent weeks debating bills inspired by the Larry Nassar sexual assault crisis at Michigan State University.

One measure in the 28-bill package would extend the window for childhood sexual assault victims to file lawsuits over future abuse. But the House shortened a window approved by the Senate and virtually eliminated a provision allowing retroactive lawsuits for abuse dating back to 1997 by limiting it to cases involving physicians like Nassar who tried to pass off assault as medical treatment.

“All victims of sexual assault deserve the protections of this bill,” Greimel said, accusing Kesto of caving to Michigan Catholic Conference lobbyists and “putting the interests of priests who’ve been criminally convicted of sexually abusing children over the victims’ ability to seek justice.”

SAULT STE. MARIE (ONTARIO)
SooToday

May 23, 2018

By Darren MacDonald

Father William Hodgson Marshall was former principal at St. Mary's College

Less than a month after a Toronto judge awarded a Sudbury man $2.5 million for compensation for the abuse he endured at the hands of a Catholic priest, lawyers for the church announced they were appealing the verdict.

In a statement on their website, the Basilian Fathers write they don't believe the monetary award is “legally sound or justified.”

Specifically, they are appealing the $500,000 awarded in punitive damages and $1.58 million in lost income.

“The Basilian Fathers are not appealing the awards for general and aggravated damages, nor for the amount awarded for counselling costs,” the statement said.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

May 23, 2018

Several parents of students at St. Gabriel the Archangel School are angry over the re-assignment of Father Joseph Jiang.

“It has a lot of parents very upset,” said a parent of a St. Gabriel the Archangel School student.In 2013, the 32-year-old was accused of touching a 16-year-old.

According to police, the victim says the 32-year-old fondled her on four different occasions at her home in Old Monroe, Missouri. In 2015, a woman claimed Jiang sexually abused her son in a bathroom at St. Louis the King Elementary School.

“He’s obviously exhibited horrible judgment," said a parent of a St. Gabriel the Archangel School student.

Criminal charges were eventually dropped in both cases and soon, Father Jiang will be walking the halls of St. Gabriel.

“I absolutely don’t think he belongs here," said a parent of a St. Gabriel the Archangel School student. "He should be assigned a duty that has no children anywhere near it and the Catholic church should know that.”

ERIE (PA)
Erie Times-News

May 24, 2018

I have been a subscriber to the Erie Times-News for more than 50 years, but I am thinking about canceling my subscription. I realize that the local priest abuse scandal is an important story that has to be covered. I have been a Roman Catholic all of my life and the story is very difficult for me and my family. It also brings shame to my church as well as all of the Catholics in our country.

I believe Bishop Lawrence Persico is doing his best to give full disclosure with a complete list of all priests and laypeople who have been involved. The Times-News is doing its job, also going far beyond that to a high degree. For the last week, you have run constant articles, most of which begin with front-page, above-the-fold leads instead of more important stories. On May 19, for example, there was a story about the our bishop adding six new names to the credibly accused list. Yes, that is a story, but not worthy of front-page, above-the-fold treatment when an article about a gunman killing 10 children in a Texas school was on the same page. The school shooting got three paragraphs and the abuse story got a heavy bold headline with a sad-looking photo of Persico and copy running all the way across the top of the page.

There are thousands of good Catholic people in the Erie area who are very hurt by what is happening in their church, but it’s very unfair, and even cruel, that the Times-News keeps overdoing this awful story.

I recently posted some of these thoughts on social media because I felt that my letter to the editor would never be used. I hope I’m wrong.

— Paul Jenkins, Harborcreek

Crime Victim Center offers services to abuse victims

In light of the recent letter to the editor expressing concern for victims of clergy sexual abuse and also the increasing visibility of the #MeToo movement, we at the Crime Victim Center wish to reassure Erie County residents that we are here for all victims of crime, including sexual violence, with free and confidential counseling.

Whether a crime happened yesterday or decades ago, in Erie County or somewhere else, our counselors provide supportive, trauma-focused counseling to help victims work toward recovery. CVC has been Erie County’s rape crisis center for 45 years and as a nonprofit agency, we are dedicated to providing help freely to all who need it.

Our professional counselors and advocates meet victims in local police stations and emergency rooms and accompany them during forensic exams. We provide crisis counseling, restitution and Crime Victim Compensation information, and assistance with filing claims. When victims participate in adult or juvenile court proceedings, our court advocates and counselors accompany them through every step of the court process.

Through partnerships with Gaudenzia Erie Inc., Safe Harbor Behavioral Health of UPMC Hamot, Hope on Horseback, yoga instructor Terry Flynn Henry, and Northwestern Legal Services, CVC is also able to connect victims with programs and civil legal aid directly related to reported crimes. Victims can come to our main offices at 125 W. 18th St., Erie, or schedule appointments at one of our five satellite offices in Corry, Edinboro, Girard, North East or Union City.

Victims of crimes and their loved ones deserve help. They can call our hotline anytime at 814-455-9414 or visit our website at www.cvcerie.org. We are here to listen, to help, and to work with all victims on their paths toward hope, health and healing.

— Paul A. Lukach, executive director, Crime Victim Center

BERLIN (GERMANY)
Associated Press via National Post

May 24, 2018

Swiss authorities say they have arrested a Catholic priest under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct that was brought to their attention by church leaders.

Maurus Eckert, a spokesman for canton (state) prosecutors in Graubuenden, said Thursday that the priest was taken into custody amid an ongoing investigation of alleged sexual abuse of an adult victim. He declined to provide any further details.

The Chur diocese, in eastern Switzerland, said in a statement on its website that it had itself filed a complaint against the priest, who was an administrator based in Tujetsch.

Further details were not immediately available.

BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

May 24, 2018

By Ruth Brown

The Catholic Church's former habit of moving priests suspected of child abuse apparently stymied a 1990s investigation in Boise.

The account of the Boise Police detective who pursued the case offers an example of how the church's former policies complicated even police efforts to investigate abuse claims.

The Rev. James Worsley was accused of molesting altar boys in the 1970s.

In 1993, Boise Police Detective Bob Mack spoke with one of those boys, who claimed he was abused at St. Paul’s Catholic Center. The victim, by then 27, told Mack of “approximately 100 episodes of genital fondling and fellatio” between 1975 and 1980, according to a copy of the police report.

BELFAST (NORTHERN IRELAND)
BBC

May 23, 2018

By David Thompson

The Catholic Diocese of Dromore left Canon Francis Brown in ministry for six weeks after it was informed about a serious sexual abuse allegation against him, the BBC understands.

The Nolan Show has spoken to the alleged victim and confirms the allegation relates to a period when the priest was in St Colman's College, a boys' school in Newry.

Canon Brown vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

A police investigation is ongoing.

A Nolan Show investigation has established that when the allegation was brought to a member of the diocese, they failed to record even basic details, as diocesan child safeguarding protocols required.

The complaint was then passed to the Diocese of Dromore's child safeguarding officer, Pat Carville, who informed the police immediately.

However, she could not do anything about the other member of the diocese's earlier failure to record basic details of the allegation, which meant she was only able to pass scant information onto the PSNI.

LANSING (MI)
Associated Press via Ottumwa Courier

May 23, 2018

Michigan lawmakers are at odds over a decision to scale back the proposed expansion of the state's mandatory reporter law after the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal.

A House committee on Wednesday is expected to pass a bill that would add physical therapists and physical therapist assistants to the list of professionals who must report suspected child abuse or neglect. House legislators backed away from adding youth coaches, athletic trainers and university employees due to costs and other concerns.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

May 22, 2018

The Baltimore Archdiocese said May 22 it has removed a 77-year-old priest from ministry after learning of allegations of child sexual abuse against him dating to the 1970s.

Fr. Luigi Esposito, pastor at Our Lady of Pompei Church in Baltimore, was serving as associate pastor at Our Lady of Pompei when the alleged abuse occurred.

The alleged victim claims the abuse began at age 14 and occurred multiple times while the minor was at Our Lady of Pompei. The priest has denied the abuse occurred.

The archdiocese said in a news release it has been cooperating with the civil authorities.

"On May 17, after receiving permission from civil authorities to make contact with Father Esposito, representatives of the archdiocese met with him to discuss the allegations," the archdiocese said in a statement. "He denied all the allegations against him. The archdiocese spoke a number of times with the alleged victim and the allegations were consistent."

LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald

May 21, 2018

By Francis Phillips

If Humanae Vitae was a 20th Century watershed moment in the Catholic laity’s response towards unchanging Church teaching on contraception, the sex abuse scandals which have battered the institution in recent decades have been an occasion for painful self-examination within it. They have brought about heart-searching, shame and humiliation. News that Cardinal George Pell, the most senior member of the hierarchy in Australia, is to stand trial for alleged sex abuse or that the entire Chilean episcopacy has offered its resignation to the Pope over scandals involving the church in Chile indicates that cover-ups and accusations still continue in this long-running explosive area.

I have just been reading The Burden of Betrayal: Non-Offending Priests and the Clergy Child Sexual Abuse Scandals by Barry O’Sullivan, published by Gracewing, a book that reveals another aspect to this painful saga: how the fall-out from the scandals has affected innocent members of the clergy. Ever since the news first broke of criminality and concealment in the Church, my thoughts and sympathy have gone not only to the young victims but to those affected by the collateral damage: all those conscientious, loyal, faithful men who have given their lives to their vocation only to see the priesthood torn to shreds by the media and in the eyes of the public.

Fr O’Sullivan, a priest in the Salford diocese, with long experience as the Salford diocesan child protection coordinator as well as ministering to priests in prison for sexual offences, has tried to address this aspect. Starting in 2012 he conducted lengthy interviews with six randomly selected priests, asking questions such as “Can you tell me about the experience of being a priest in the shadow of the child abuse scandal? And “How do you think the hierarchy dealt with this issue?”

BONN (GERMANY)
Deutsche Welle

May 23, 2018

A Chilean bishop's office in Rancagua has dismissed 14 priests suspected of covering up cases of child abuse by pedophile priest Fernando Karadima in the 1980s and '90s. The scandal has rocked Pope Francis' papacy.

ourteen priests engulfed in Chile's Catholic church sex abuse scandal were stripped of their priestly duties Tuesday, the bishop's office in the city of Rancagua announced Tuesday.

"Fourteen priests no longer are allowed to carry out their duties... These priests have taken part in actions that may be civilian crimes as well as within the church," the bishop's office said in a statement.

The moves comes after 34 bishops offered on Friday to resign en masse over the child sex abuse scandal after being summoned to meet with Pope Francis in the Vatican — the first time a country's entire senior Roman Catholic prelate has offered step aside all at once.

TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

May 23, 2018

[With link to docket and several court documents.]

A former Catholic priest ordained in Tulsa has been charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in a suburban Chicago hotel in 2001 after police reopened an investigation that had been dormant for more than a decade.

Kenneth Lewis, 56, of Arvada, Colorado, is charged with felony criminal predatory sexual assault. He posted bail after a court hearing in Chicago on Saturday.

Evanston Police Commander Ryan Glew says the alleged assault occurred when the then-priest accompanied the boy and his family on a trip from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Evanston, Illinois. He says the family reported the incident in 2004 but prosecutors declined to charge Lewis.

GLASGOW (SCOTLAND)
Scottish Sun

May 22, 2018

By David Meikle

A beast priest who abused a 12-year-old girl in Lanarkshire while her mum was moments away is living in isolation after being forced to move three times.

Father Michael Maher, 74, resigned as parish priest at St Isidore’s in Biggar after confessing his guilt over the sickening crimes.

He is now living in the cottage of an acquaintance in Stobo, Peeblesshire, after being driven away from three previous addresses.

Maher was close friends with the his victim’s parents and regularly called at their Lanarkshire home.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly Voice

May 22, 2018

By Daniel Craig

The results of a nearly two-year long investigation into alleged sex abuse within six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses will be made public this summer, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday.

Shapiro said that church officials in the Greensburg and Harrisburg dioceses reversed their previous positions and will no longer try to stop the results from being made public.

“Now all of the dioceses support the release of the investigation’s findings and results," Shapiro said. "The only thing that could stop these findings from becoming public at that time is if one of the bishops or dioceses would seek to delay or prevent this public accounting.”

The grand jury investigation, which began in 2016, has also probed the dioceses of Allentown, Scranton, Pittsburgh and Erie. Shapiro said he expects to speak publicly about the investigation’s findings around the end of June.

The investigation has already led to the arrests of two priests. Most recently, Rev. David Poulson, a priest in the Diocese of Erie, was charged with indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.

HILVERSUM (NETHERLANDS)
RTL Nieuws

​No independent investigation into sexual abuse at Jehovah's Witnesses

May 22, 2018

​Geen onafhankelijk onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik bij Jehovah's Getuigen

Er komt geen onafhankelijk onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik bij de Jehovah's Getuigen in Nederland. Dat heeft de geloofsgemeenschap laten weten aan minister Sander Dekker van Rechtsbescherming. Dekker die op een onafhankelijk onderzoek had aangedrongen toen RTL Nieuws meldde dat er meer dan 150 meldingen waren binnengkomen over misbruik, noemt dat 'teleurstellend'.

Bij een meldpunt voor slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik binnen de gemeenschap van de Jehovah's Getuigen kwamen in twee maanden tijd 151 meldingen binnen, meldde RTL Nieuws in januari.

Voorbij aan belang erkenning

Dekker laat vandaag weten niet blij te zijn met de reactie van de Jehovah's Getuigen. "Door het afwijzen van een onafhankelijk onderzoek gaat het bestuur van de Jehova’s Getuigen ook voorbij aan het belang van erkenning voor slachtoffers, dat uit een dergelijk onderzoek kan volgen. Deze slachtoffers willen nu juist worden gehoord door de gemeenschap."

Minister Dekker heeft geen wettelijke mogelijkheid om ze te verplichten mee te werken aan onafhankelijk onderzoek. De Rooms-Katholieke en de sportverenigingen deden na meldingen wel onafhankelijk onderzoek. Slachtoffers kunnen wel gewoon aangifte doen van het misbruik bij de politie, onderstreept Dekker.

HOLY SEE
Vatican News

May 23, 2018

By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, FSP

The Holy See’s Press Office announces that Pope Francis will meet with a second group of Fr Fernando Karadima’s victims from June 1-3 2018.

In a communication issued on Wednesday by the Holy See’s Press Office, other victims of Fr Fernando Karadima’s abuse, or that of his followers, at the parish of Sagrado Corazón de Providencia (“El Bosque”) in Chile will meet with Pope Francis at the beginning of June.

Members of the group

Among the group are 5 priests who were victims of “abuse of power, of conscience and sexual abuse”, as well as another 2 priests who “have assisted the victims throughout the juridical and spiritual process, and 2 lay people involved in this suffering”. The group will be provided hospitality in the same Casa Santa Marta where the Pope lives

The communique reported that most of those coming also took part in the meetings that took place in Chile with Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Bishop Jordi Bertomeu in February. Others collaborated in the weeks after their visit.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Tele 13 Radio 103.3 FM

Priest who defended Karadima acknowledges that he was wrong: "I am a victim of abuse of power"

May 23, 2018

Samuel Fernández conversó con Tele13 Radio sobre la invitación que hizo el Vaticano a cinco sacerdotes, quienes fueron víctimas del ex párroco de El Bosque.

El Vaticano dio a conocer ayer martes que cinco sacerdotes de la Iglesia de El Bosque ligados a Fernando Karadima, y que son víctimas de él, van a ir a Roma para encontrarse con el Papa Francisco, en un formato parecido al que los denunciantes de Karadima tuvieron a mediados del mes pasado.

Samuel Fernández fue uno de los sacerdotes del círculo cercano de Fernando Karadima en El Bosque, quien terminó apoyando y validando los testimonios de las víctimas de abusos sexuales de su ex formador.

Este miércoles afirmó en Tele13 Radio que la invitación del Papa es "una gran oportunidad para visibilizar la gravedad del abuso de poder, la manipulación de consciencia, porque efectivamente, dentro de las personas que van, algunos habrán sido objeto de abusos sexuales, pero otros fueron por sufrir de abuso de poder y abuso de consciencia y no abusos sexuales", agregando que el abuso de poder "de una u otra manera, siempre" es la puerta de entrada del abuso sexual.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
El Dínamo

Auxiliary Bishop [Galo Fernández] of Santiago: "Karadima leads a very hard and painful existence"

May 22, 2018

A raíz de la reunión que sostuvo el Papa con los obispos chilenos para tratar los casos de abuso sexual al interior de la Iglesia Católica, el obispo auxiliar de Santiago, Galo Fernández, se refirió al hecho que resultó ser la hebra de una práctica sistemática dentro del clero chileno.

En conversación con Radio Cooperativa, Fernández aseguró que “Fernando Karadima ha sido condenado y lleva una existencia muy dura y dolorosa. Que la Iglesia no lo haya suspendido absolutamente del Ministerio tiene también una cosa estratégica, porque es para asegurar detenerlo”.

El obispo reiteró que “la Iglesia no tiene cárceles, eso le corresponde al Estado y sin embargo al mantenerlo como sacerdote lo ha mantenido prácticamente recluido en una existencia muy dolorosa, una vida de penitencia y oración por los graves daños que él ha cometido. Tengo certeza de lo dura y amarga que es la vida que tiene hoy día Karadima”.

Hay “miembros de la Iglesia que han dañado a quienes buscaron en ella la palabra de Dios y de algún modo encontraron abuso, encontraron cosas que los dañaron a ellos (…) la asamblea estaba muy conmovida por todo lo que ha aparecido en la prensa”.

Con respecto a la cita con Francisco I en el Vaticano, indicó que “habían muchas preguntas, hacían suyo el dolor, también la rabia (…) El papa nos ha invitado a un proceso, en que todos y cada uno pueda asumir su propia responsabilidad. Ciertamente el papa tiene esta visión de que no basta buscar quien es el chivo expiatorio, quien es el que concentra toda la responsabilidad”.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
ADN 91.7

Chilean Catholic Church was unaware of Vatican invitation to [priests] abused by Karadima

May 22, 2018

Conferencia Episcopal señaló en conferencia de prensa "nosotros nos acabamos de enterar ahora".

La Conferencia Episcopal de Chile realizó una conferencia de prensa para volver a pedir perdón por su responsabilidad en materia de abusos por parte de sacerdotes como Fernando Karadima, señalando que "no recuperaremos la confianza de un día para otro. Lo tendremos que demostrar con concretas acciones reparatorias".

Cuando le preguntaron al presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal, monseñor Santiago Silva, sobre la nueva invitación del Papa Francisco al Vaticano a víctimas de abusos, el sacerdote respondió que no sabían: "no tenemos antecedentes, nosotros nos acabamos de enterar ahora".

Por su parte el obispo de San Bernardo, Juan Ignacio González, explicó que los obispos pese a poner sus cargos a disposición del Papa, "seguimos todos en plenas funciones en nuestras diócesis" hasta que se conozca la decisión de Bergoglio.

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

May 22, 2018

By Paula Reed Ward

An expert in grand jury proceedings testified Tuesday that former Penn State University general counsel Cynthia Baldwin violated attorney-client privilege and failed to competently represent three top officials at the school during the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse investigation.

Philadelphia-area attorney David Rudovsky was the first witness called Tuesday as part of the Office of Disciplinary Counsel’s case before the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board against Ms. Baldwin for professional misconduct. The case is being heard in an Allegheny County Orphans’ Court courtroom in the Frick Building Downtown.

If the panel finds that Ms. Baldwin violated the rules, it can recommend to the state Supreme Court discipline ranging from reprimand to disbarment. The court can then accept the recommendation, reject it or change it.

ALLENTOWN (pa)
Morning Call

May 23, 2018

By Steve Esack and Tim Darragh

The Allentown and Scranton Catholic dioceses will not attempt to stall publication of a statewide grand jury report expected to detail decades of clergy sex abuse.

Officials at the two dioceses made the announcements Thursday, two days after Erie’s bishop said he would not try to prevent the report’s pending release.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office is finishing the report of a grand jury investigation started in 2016 into six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses: Allentown, Harrisburg, Scranton, Erie, Greensburg and Pittsburgh. It has not said when it will be released.

“The Diocese of Allentown continues to cooperate fully with the Office of the Attorney General,” spokesman Matt Kerr said in a statement Thursday. “We will not challenge the release of the grand jury report.”

Scranton Diocese spokesman William Genello issued a similar statement.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

May 23, 2018

By Marie Rohde

As former Milwaukee Archdiocese attorney, prominent Democrat had role in cover-up, critics say

Matt Flynn, a prominent Wisconsin Democrat running for governor, has come under attack by critics who say he participated in allowing abusive priests to continue in ministry and for aggressively pursuing legal fees against their victims who sued the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

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Flynn was the chief counsel handling sex abuse matters for the archdiocese from 1989 until 2004.

Flynn joined the archdiocesan team shortly after some abuse cases made headlines in the late 1980s. Several were settled in civil court before going to trial. But in 1992, eight former students of the St. Lawrence Seminary preparatory school told The Milwaukee Journal about widespread abuse at the school. Although the school is operated by the Capuchins, a number of priests from the order had served in archdiocesan parishes. One of those abused was Peter Isely, a therapist who went on to become one of the founders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. SNAP kept the matter in the headlines across the country.

A number of lawsuits were in the courts in 1995 when the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed with Flynn's arguments that the archdiocese was not responsible for the actions of its priests. That resulted in a number of cases being dismissed, even though the archdiocese had been earlier made aware of allegations and had not removed the priests from ministry.

MADISON (WI)
WISC-TV

May 22, 2018

By Jenna Middaugh

People who attend St. John Vianney in Janesville were shocked to hear accusations against a former priest.

Janesville - People who attend St. John Vianney in Janesville were shocked to hear accusations against a former priest.

William Nolan is facing six charges of second-degree sexual assault of a child in Jefferson County after accusations that he assaulted a Fort Atkinson altar boy more than 100 times.

On Monday, the Diocese of Madison released a statement saying the church is investigatingan additional allegation against Nolan that’s reported to have happened in Janesville in 2009.

Nolan served at St. John Vianney in Janesville from 1989 to 1994.

Matthew McDonald said his family has attended the parish for more than 40 years. His siblings went to the Catholic school while Nolan was the priest, McDonald said.

“I really liked him,” McDonald said. “He has always been kind and worked really hard to promote the gospel message of Jesus, love and mercy toward others -- toward everyone.”

According to the diocese, a third party raised concerns about Nolan in 2009. When an official with the diocese contacted the alleged victim, the man said he did not accuse Nolan of any sexual misconduct. The man reached out to the diocese again five years later but still did not accuse the priest.

MECHANICSBURG (PA)
PennLive

May 23, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

Late last week, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie added six names to the list of clergy and staff that have been credibly accused of child sex molestation.

The names joined the list of 51 other names that in April were first made public by the head of the diocese, Bishop Lawrence Persico.

It's become the modus operandi for a cleric fast earning the moniker of a reformer: the idea, that is, of a bishop who offers up a measure of transparency from within an institution known for its historically secretive and guarded confines.

"His philosophy is 'We are going to protect the children of the diocese,'" said Mark Rush, an attorney with Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates law firm, who has been working with the diocese throughout the ongoing grand jury investigation into clergy sex abuse.

WATERTOWN (NY)
Watertown Daily Times

May 23, 2018

By Jaime Cook

Alexandria Bay - After receiving an offer of funds from the Diocese of Ogdensburg intended “to assist victims of clergy sex abuse in their healing process,” one recipient says that the Catholic Church must either change or cease to be.

“When I opened it, I thought it was a joke, a cruel joke,” said Jim Cummings, a 58-year-old man who lives in Alexandria Bay with his family. “Prior to me receiving this letter, I was coping quite well, and so was the other victim I know. Occasionally something would remind me, but now, since that letter, every day I cry because they do not get it. The bishop does not get it — at all.”

The letters follow the creation of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program at the Diocese of Ogdensburg March 1. Its two-person panel, Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, will determine if the 38 victims claiming sexual abuse by priests in the diocese should be financially compensated.

Mr. Cummings said he was sexually abused by the Rev. Paul F. Worczak in the early 1970s. The incidents took place when Worczak was a priest at Holy Family Church, Watertown.

LANCASTER (PA)
Lancaster Online

May 23, 2018

By Jeff Hawkes

The bishop for a Catholic diocese that includes Lancaster County says a Pennsylvania grand jury’s findings about sexual abuse by priests and lay leaders should be made public.

The Diocese of Harrisburg has joined five other Pennsylvania dioceses under investigation in saying they won’t challenge the release of the report sometime next month.

A grand jury investigation into widespread abuse began in 2016. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday that he expects to announce the findings by the end of June, now that all six dioceses support making a report public.