NEW YORK
News 12

SPRING VALLEY -
A former youth minister in Spring Valley was arraigned yesterday and charged with two misdemeanors for allegedly giving alcohol to a teenager.

Police say Earnest Zalamea has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and unlawfully providing alcohol to a 16-year-old from the St. Joseph's parish. He was released on $200 bail and ordered to avoid contact with the victim.

Robert Hoaston, a former priest and now an advocate who assists victims of church abuse, tells News 12 that he feels like there is too much secrecy surrounding this case, and he doesn't like how the church is handling it.

"If he's giving alcohol to minors, he is a predator," Hoaston says. "When the church doesn't talk about things, like this guy getting fired, there is trouble."

NEW YORK
The Journal News

Steve Lieberman, slieberm@lohud.com Sept. 20, 2017

SPRING VALLEY - A 26-year-old Yonkers man faces misdemeanor charges of providing an underage parishioner of St. Joseph's Church with alcohol after he was fired as the church's youth minister.

Ernest Zalamea faces counts of endangering the welfare of a child and first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child for giving alcohol to a person under 21, the legal age to drink in New York state.

Zalamea was arraigned Tuesday in Spring Valley Justice Court and released after posting $200 bail pending future appearances in court.

Zalamea is accused of buying a six pack of beer at the 7-11 store at 63 Kennedy Dr. on July 19 and sharing the alcohol with a 16-year-old boy he knew from the church.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Jasmine Stole , jstole@guampdn.com Sept. 20, 2017

A Superior Court of Guam grand jury this week handed up a true bill, indicting a Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School physical education teacher on charges of criminal sexual conduct and child abuse.

The indictment was filed Monday.

Peregrine Corpuz San Nicolas, 53, is accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old female student.

The girl told police that, between January and March this year, after her classmates were allowed to leave, San Nicolas asked her to stay back, walked with her and put his hand on her breast area, court documents state.

She said San Nicolas never touched her under her shirt, according a court complaint.

PENNSYLVANIA
TRIB Live

CHUCK BIEDKA | Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017

A former Lower Burrell priest accused of molesting a Catholic school student 25 years ago waived the charge to court Wednesday but his attorney is the insisting that the case will end because the legal statute of limitation has expired.

The former Rev. John Thomas Sweeney ,

denies that he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old boy, who attended St. Margaret Mary Church school between September 1991 and June 1992. Sweeney was church pastor.

Court documents state the alleged victim didn't report the abuse until last year after he watched a “Spotlight,” the Academy Award winning movie about sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

Sweeney, now 74, is charged with one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Former youth minister at St. Joseph Parish, Spring Valley, New York, Ernest Zalamea, was arraigned in Spring Valley, New York court on September 19, 2017 on charges involving children

The Archdiocese of New York and St. Joseph Parish, Spring Valley, New York have yet to inform parishioners, neighbors, and the general public about the August, 2017 arrest of Ernest Zalamea, and his arraignment on September 19, 2017 in Spring Valley, New York municipal court

According to reports, the Salesians of Don Bosco at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw, New York hired Ernest Zalamea as youth minister after he was fired from St. Joseph Parish, Spring Valley

What
A press conference alerting the media, parishioners, and the general public of the arrest and arraignment of Ernest Zalamea, former youth minister at St. Joseph Parish, Spring Valley, New York on reported charges involving children

When
Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at Noon

Where
On the public sidewalk in front of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, 245 North Main Street, Spring Valley, New York 10977

Who
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

Why
In July, 2017, Ernest Zalamea, youth minister of St. Joseph Parish, Spring Valley, New York was fired by the parish as director of the parish summer camp and director of youth ministry. Shortly afterward, he was arrested on charges involving children. At his arraignment in Spring Valley, New York municipal court, Ernest Zalamea posted $200.00 bail and was released. He was ordered by the judge not to come within 1,000 feet of an alleged victim and have no contact with that victim. He was advised to hire an attorney or accept the services of a court-appointed attorney. Ernest Zalamea has worked in other New York Archdiocesan schools and parishes, and those schools and parishes should be informed of Mr. Zalamea’s arrest and arraignment. Any victims of Ernest Zalamea are urged to come forward and begin their healing. They may contact Road to Recovery, Inc. at the information provided.

Contact
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com

MICHIGAN
The Macomb Daily

By Jameson Cook, The Macomb Daily
POSTED: 09/18/17

A high school administrator was convicted of two counts and acquitted of two counts related to sending explicit electronic messages to a student at the school.

Joseph P. Sturza, 50, the former admissions officer at Austin Catholic High School when it was located in Ray Township, was found guilty of child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime following a four-day trial in Macomb County Circuit Court, according to court records. The school has since relocated to a new site in Chesterfield Township.

Each charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Sturza, a Macomb Township resident, was acquitted of the lesser charges of accosting a child for immoral purposes, punishable by up to four years behind bars, and using a computer to commit a crime, punishable by up to seven years in prison, records say.

ROME
Crux

John L. Allen Jr. EDITOR

ROME - Let’s be clear. If anyone thinks a Vatican criminal trial is like an episode of “Law and Order,” with dramatic courtroom confessions, barbed verbal crossfires between attorneys, and surprise bombshell revelations, here’s a news flash: This is a different animal altogether.

For the most part, the Vatican follows rules established by a 19th century Italian version of criminal procedure, which does not envision trial by jury but instead a more active role for judges. They aren’t just referees, like in American trials, but they conduct their own examinations of witnesses. Since the main point of a trial is building an evidentiary record to serve as the basis for a decision, the presiding judge spends a painstaking amount of time repeating back witnesses’ answers to questions, trying to get consensus on pretty much every word.

In other words, it’s about as scintillating most of the time as watching paint dry.

On what amounted to the first full day of the Vatican’s latest major criminal trial, after a preliminary motions hearing in July and an opening day Sept. 7 that was quickly suspended due to the emergence of new evidence, Tuesday’s hearing was consumed by the testimony of the defendant ostensibly at the heart of the case: Giuseppe Profiti, a lay Italian financier and academic who served as both the president of the papally-sponsored Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital and the president of a foundation directing the hospital from 2008 to 2017.

KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo Sept. 19, 2017

A Meade County judge has denied a probation request by a Roman Catholic priest found guilty of molesting a boy at a summer camp in the 1970s.

Joseph Hemmerle, 75, was found guilty at trial in November 2016 of a single count of immoral or indecent practice with a child and was sentenced to seven years in prison in February.

His accuser, Michael Norris, had testified that at Camp Tall Trees in 1973, Hemmerle told him to report to his cabin one night to treat poison ivy. The priest told him to strip and stand on a stool before touching him sexually with his hands and mouth, Norris testified.

Camp Tall Trees at Otter Creek Park in Meade County was run by the Archdiocese of Louisville until 2002. Hemmerle was a director there from 1970 until about 2001.

CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By MATTHIAS GAFNI | mgafni@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: September 19, 2017

SONOMA — A San Leandro teen sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa and an embattled school for traumatized boys Tuesday, claiming employees failed to prevent his sexual abuse by a counselor who took advantage of his troubled past.

Last fall, school officials discovered 22-year-old school counselor Angelica Malinski hiding inside the boy’s Sonoma dorm room. Malinski was arrested a short time later and charged with misdemeanor unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, as the boy was 17 at the time. Weeks earlier, Hanna Boys Center officials were put “on notice” about the pair meeting at night but did little about it, the lawsuit alleges.

“It’s absolutely appalling that Hanna Boys Center and its executive director had actual knowledge of an inappropriate relationship between an adult employee and one of its students in its treatment center and didn’t stop it,” said attorney Micha Liberty, who is representing the San Leandro student, who is now 18.

NORTH DAKOTA
WDAZ

By Scott Cook on Sep 19, 2017

GRAND FORKS, ND (WDAZ)—Two more priests from the Crookston Diocese have been added to a list of 21 priests and monks who attorneys say sexually assaulted minors throughout the state of Minnesota.

Casimir Plakut and Augustine John Strub, both deceased, served the Crookston Diocese during the 1940s and 1950s. But despite the fact that it was so long ago, he says it's important to raise awareness about the issue of sexual abuse in the church, to stop it from happening in the future, and to shine a spot light on what he said happened specifically at the diocese of Crookston, acc

“It's so important to get the painful truth of the past out. Both the names of the offenders, where they offended and their histories because there are so many survivors who think they are the only ones and are blaming themselves. Suffering in secrecy and silence, and by revealing what has been will protect kids in the future because there is a nuisance we believe being maintained by the Bishop in Minnesota and in the diocese of Crookston,” said attorney Jeff Anderson.

The release of these names and information is timely because tomorrow Anderson will be in Thief River Falls arguing a different issue against the diocese of Crookston.

NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

If confession is good for the soul, then the Archdiocese of Santa Fe recently took a significant – and past-due – step toward cleansing the soul of the Roman Catholic Church here. For the first time, the archdiocese last week published a list of 74 clergy members who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children in New Mexico. Archbishop John C. Wester also issued an apology to the survivors “for the pain and suffering you have endured.”

In a statement accompanying the list of accused priests, deacons and religious brothers, Wester wrote: “It is my deepest hope that our publication of this list will serve as an important step in healing for survivors, their families, and our Church and communities.” He also pledged “to support and assist you on your road to recovery.”

The public cleansing opens the gates for healing and closure, validating the claims of the then-children and teens who reported they were abused at the hands of men they once revered.

The archdiocese’s list contains the names of the clergy, their order or diocese and whether they are alive or deceased. Of the 74 named, 38 were reported as deceased. The archdiocese says it will be updating its list with names of the parishes where the 74 worked; when it does it should include when they were there as well.

VATICAN CITY
The Sun Daily

VATICAN CITY: A luxury penthouse occupied by a top cardinal was given a costly renovation so it could hold fundraising dinners, a Vatican corruption trial heard Tuesday.

In a case set to refocus attention on the kind of clerical extravagance that Pope Francis has vowed to eradicate, two former directors of a Foundation linked to the Vatican-run Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) children's hospital in Rome are charged with embezzling €422,000 (RM2.1 million).

The majority of the cash was allegedly used to revamp the spectacular flat occupied by the retired Italian cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a former number two in the Holy See hierarchy.

Spread across hundreds of square metres at the top of the Palazzo San Carlo, the residence boasts a huge terrace with magnificent views over Rome.

VATICAN CITY
The Local

A luxury penthouse occupied by a top cardinal was given a costly renovation so it could hold fundraising dinners, a Vatican corruption trial heard on Tuesday.

In a case set to refocus attention on the kind of clerical extravagance that Pope Francis has vowed to eradicate, two former directors of a Foundation linked to the Vatican-run Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) children's hospital in Rome are charged with embezzling 422,000 euros ($506,500).

The majority of the cash was allegedly used to revamp the spectacular flat occupied by the retired Italian cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a former number two in the Holy See hierarchy.

NEW MEXICO
KSFR

[audio]

By TOM TROWBRIDGE

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe last week shocked the state by releasing -- for the first time -- a list of 74 names of priests, deacons and brothers that it says have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children.

In a statement, Archbishop John Wester said he hopes the publication of the list will help victims and their communities to heal, and help rebuild trust in the Church.

It’s a move that other dioceses around the country have turned to after media pressure or after filing for bankruptcy. Victims’ advocates like the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests-or SNAP_-have called for more transparency from the Church for years. They , call this a step in the right direction but say: "The Archbishop and Archdiocse are not making the names public because .. of a desire for transparency or pastoral care.. They are doing so because of a new law in New Mexico that allows victims of child sexual abuse to make these names public through the civil courts.”

But the Church’s sexual abuse crisis in New Mexico - and its responsibility to the public - does not begin and end with this list. For months, a team of reporters for KSFR has been looking into an epidemic perpetrated by an institution deeply embedded in our state’s culture and history.

Today we bring you the first in a special series “Dark Canyon: Sexual Abuse and Secrecy in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.” Ellen Berkovitch has the story.

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post

While mediation discussions in more than 100 child sexual abuse cases was expected to begin as early as next month, the parties have agreed that it will take additional time to complete the discovery and prepare for that to happen.

A stipulation was filed in the District Court of Guam yesterday by attorneys John Terlaje and David Lujan, on behalf of the Archdicoese of Agana and plaintiffs, respectively.

'More realistic' time frame

They informed the judge that the parties are discussing a "more realistic" mediation time frame of March 2018.

The parties are also still discussing and evaluating who they will choose as the mediator.

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon |The Guam Daily Post

A new sex abuse lawsuit alleges a priest took nude photos of altar boys and sexually molested them in the 1960s.

M.S.B., who used initials to protect his identity, filed a civil complaint against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and Father Louis Brouillard, alleging he was sexually molested and abused by the priest and scoutmaster when he was 11 years old.

According to court documents, Brouillard allegedly approached M.S.B. after Eskuela Pale at the Mangilao parish, and told him he needed to take pictures of the boy because he was "studying growth of young boys."

The priest allegedly took the boy to the back room of the parish and took nude photos of him.

FRANCE
Independent (UK)

Will Worley @willrworley

A senior French cardinal, Philippe Barbarin, is to be tried on charges of not reporting historical child abuse, according to reports.

The clergyman, who is also the Archbishop of Lyon, was once tipped as a successor to Pope Francis.

But he and six other priests have been ordered to appear in court for allegedly not speaking out against abuse said to be committed by another clergyman, Bernard Preynat, in the 1980s.

Mr Preynat was dismissed in 2015 and prosecutors say he has admitted charges of child abuse.

His alleged victims have now accused Father Barbarin and others of not reporting the crimes to the authorities.

FRANCE
Business Standard

French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and a senior Vatican official were today ordered to stand trial for allegedly covering up for a paedophile priest accused of abusing several boy scouts in Lyon in the 1980s.

The most senior French Catholic official to be tried for failing to report a predator priest will go on trial on April 4 next year along with six co-defendants, a court in Lyon said.

Barbarin, who is archbishop of Lyon, is accused of having shielded priest Bernard Preynat from claims of abuse involving scouts in his Lyon parish.

The head of the Vatican's powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Spanish Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, is accused of complicity in the alleged cover-up.

In correspondence with Barbarin about the priest the Vatican's number three had advised the cardinal to take "necessary disciplinary measures while avoiding public scandal" -- seen as a warning to keep the abuse quiet.

ROME
Catholic Culture

September 18, 2017

An Italian newspaper has published a sensational story claiming that Vatican officials played a role in the abduction of Emanuela Orlandi, the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee, who disappeared mysteriously in 1983.

La Repubblica has posted a report based on what is said to be a Vatican document, typed on plain paper, promising to help pay for the abduction of Emanuela Orlandi and to keep her in convents. The document is dated March 1983: several weeks before the girl’s disappearance in June of that year.

However, there is no evidence that the document—which is not signed, includes incorrect names and improper salutations, and is not typed on Vatican stationery—is authentic. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Rei, to whom the document was allegedly addressed, told a reporter that he had never seen it. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke called the report “false and ridiculous.”

The disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, which has never been explained, has been the focus of several conspiracy theories, with some investigators claiming Mafia involvement and others charging that Vatican officials have not revealed what they know about the case.

KENTUCKY
WDRB

BRANDENBURG, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville priest convicted on child molestation charges is denied shock probation.

Meade County Circuit Court says the motion was denied for Father Joseph Hemmerle. There was no additional explanation for the judge's decision.

Attorneys for Hemmerle argued in court on September 7 for him to be released early from prison. Hemmerle did not appear at the hearing.

Earlier this year, a judge sentenced Hemmerle to two years in prison for sexually abusing a boy more than 40-years ago at summer camp.
In 2016, a jury convicted him of abusing a different boy in the 1970's.

FRANCE
The Local

19 September 2017

A French Cardinal will go on trial in April accused of covering up the sexual abuse of children by a paedophile priest in his Lyon diocese over 25 years ago, a court ruled Tuesday.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the most senior French Catholic leader to be tried for allegedly failing to report a predator priest, will go on trial on April 4 next year, a court in Lyon said.

The Cardinal, who has been the archbishop of Lyon since 2002, and six other defendants are suspected of having covered up a priest's child abuse in the 1980s by failing to inform the authorities.

Barbarin has always denied the allegations but last year he came under immense pressure when the sex abuse scandal first emerged.

The then Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged Barbarin to "take responsibility" for the scandal.

FRANCE
La Croix

Marie Boëton et Marie Malzac, le 18/09/2017

Cité à comparaître pour ne pas avoir dénoncé des agressions pédophiles, l’archevêque de Lyon devrait savoir mardi 19 septembre quand sera audiencée l’affaire. Parallèlement, la procédure canonique visant le père Bernard Preynat a été suspendue pour laisser le temps à la procédure civile de suivre son cours.

Pourquoi une citation directe ?

Il y a un an, l’enquête pour non-dénonciation d’abus sexuels visant sept membres du clergé – dont l’archevêque de Lyon, le cardinal Barbarin – était classée sans suite par le parquet de Lyon. Refusant d’en rester là, les victimes ont choisi une voie de recours peu usitée : celle de la citation directe. Les mis en cause seront donc amenés à s’expliquer, comme lors d’une audience pénale classique, sur leur gestion du dossier Preynat (1). Et ce à une date qui devrait être arrêtée aujourd’hui même.

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

September 18, 2017 Joelle Casteix

A Vatican priest and diplomat under suspicion for violating US child pornography laws wrote his 2003 doctoral dissertation on church laws addressing how the Holy See deals with clerics accused of molesting children.

Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, recalled by the Vatican last week, wrote The criminal protection of ecclesiastical celibacy in the canonical laws of 1917 and 1983: historical-juridical study to complete his studies in Canon Law. I took screenshots, in case the link “disappears.”

He finished his degree in 2004 and entered the diplomatic service soon after.

For people not up-to-speed on the importance of this dissertation topic, here’s a primer:

In 1917, Pope Benedict XV wanted to consolidate his problem-solving. Some of his biggest problems had to do with child sexual abuse. He put the jurisdiction of these crimes, or “delicts,” under its own tribunal.

The laws on dealing with the “delicts against the Sixth Commandment,” as they were called (that’s adultery, for those of us who had to look it up), were streamlined into a single code in 1917 and then again in 1983.

JTA

(JTA) — Rabbinic leaders of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement have signed a proclamation calling for the immediate reporting of child sexual abuse and other kinds of abuse to secular authorities.

“We recognize in light of past experiences that our communities could have responded in more responsible and sensitive ways to help victims and to hold perpetrators accountable,” reads the document released Monday.

The proclamation outlines policies that all Lubavitch institutions, including schools and synagogues, should adopt immediately. They include educating staff in identifying, responding and reporting sexual abuse, and teaching “body safety” to students. The document also states that members of communities must be made aware when a sex offender moves in to a community.

In addition to child sexual abuse and other forms of child abuse, the document includes domestic abuse, elder abuse and abuse of the disabled.

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

A man allegedly subjected to "sadistic" beatings by a nun at a children's home in Derry is to received undisclosed damages.

Karl Roberts will receive the pay-out as part of a settlement reached in a legal action against the Sisters of Nazareth, according to his lawyer.

He claimed that he endured regular violent punishment for failing to collect enough fluff from floors and furniture in the residence.

Proceedings were resolved at the High Court in Belfast today, with no admission of liability by the defendant.

FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

Stephen Hudak
Orlando Sentinel

The newly appointed music director for the Catholic Diocese of Orlando withdrew from the job before his background check was completed and while the FBI was conducting a child-exploitation investigation in Long Island, N.Y., where he directed youth choirs.

Michael Wustrow was supposed to begin his new job Nov. 1 at St. James Cathedral in downtown Orlando.

Wustrow, 55, who could not be reached for comment, was co-music director for St. Agnes Cathedral in the Diocese of Rockville Centre and had directed adult and children choirs when the FBI seized his work computer, the New York diocese announced Friday on its website.

The diocese relieved him of all duties, and a spokesman said the diocese was cooperating with law enforcement.

Marci Hamilton, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and chief executive of Child USA, an organization that advocates for victims of sexual abuse by religious organizations, was troubled that the Orlando dioceses conducted a background check after hiring Wustrow.

NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Aug. 16, 2017

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP — Three more sex abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on behalf of Native Americans who allege they were sexually molested as children in the Indian Student Placement Program.

Two of the lawsuits were filed Friday in Window Rock District Court on behalf of two Navajo women, one of whom was identified as a Gallup resident. The third lawsuit was filed in Chelan County Superior Court in Wenatchee, Washington, on behalf of a member of the Crow Tribe of Montana.

Attorneys Billy Keeler, of Gallup, and Craig Vernon, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, held a news conference announcing these latest lawsuits in Phoenix Tuesday. Keeler and Vernon , along with co-counsel Patrick Noaker, of Minneapolis, have previously filed four other lawsuits against the LDS church.

The first lawsuit was filed in March 2016 on behalf of two adult siblings, a brother and sister, from the Navajo Nation. With these latest lawsuits, a total of six women and two men allege they were sexually abused as children while residing in Mormon foster homes during their participation in the now-defunct Indian Student Placement Program. Seven of the eight plaintiffs are Navajo.

Some of the plaintiffs have alleged they reported their abuse to church or placement program officials at the time of the abuse, but those reports were not forwarded to law enforcement officials.

Alleged disclosure

One of the latest plaintiffs, a Navajo woman identified in court documents as “AH” claims she reported her abuse as a teenager to church authorities. In her lawsuit, AH, who lives in Gallup, states she was taken from her home on the Navajo Nation in August 1978, when she was 15 years old, and placed with a Mormon foster family in Mesa, Arizona.

AH alleges she was sexually molested several times by her foster father, who is named in the complaint.

“AH disclosed the sexual abuse she suffered her sophomore year in high school to agents of LDS defendants while at church,” the lawsuit alleges. “AH was urged to stay silent and not discuss the abuse. She was told that it would be handled. Despite this disclosure, the LDS defendants never contacted the authorities, or inquired on AH’s well-being.” The lawsuit claims AH continued to suffer sexual abuse after this disclosure.

AH, who attended Tuesday’s news conference, issued “a message of hope” for other survivors of sexual abuse in her attorneys’ news release: “Understand that you are not alone. It is not your fault. The shame is not yours, rather the shame belongs to those who abuse, as well as those who allowed the abuse to happen.” AH said she sought legal representation after learning other Navajo individuals had similar experiences.

“I think that’s an important step in healing,” Vernon said. “For some it might not be, but for most people, it is.”

Seeking change

The second Navajo plaintiff in this latest round of lawsuits is identified as “JC.” In her lawsuit, JC states she participated in the placement program during sixth grade with no incident. However, she alleges that in August 1970, at the beginning of her seventh grade year, she was placed in a Mormon foster home in Enterprise, Utah. JC claims she was sexually molested several times by the foster father, who is identified in the legal complaint.

The third plaintiff, from the Crow Tribe, is identified as “Jane Doe 1.” She states she participated in the placement program from third through 10th grade and lived with two different families. In her first foster home in Wenatchee, Washington, Doe alleges she was sexually molested by the foster grandfather three times when she was 9 years old and once when she was 13.

In addition to seeking monetary damages, the lawsuits against the LDS church are seeking a change in church policy regarding the reporting of abuse allegations. They are also seeking the implementation of measures to bring healing to Native people harmed by the placement program.

Eric Hawkins, an LDS church spokesman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When responding to previous sex abuse lawsuits, church officials have stated the LDS church has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind and works actively to prevent abuse.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Aug. 31, 2017

Since James S. Wall was installed as bishop of the Diocese of Gallup more than eight years ago, his lackluster tenure here has been marked by poor leadership and misplaced priorities.

Although his arrival in 2009 was widely welcomed and celebrated, it soon became clear that the leadership sorely needed by the Gallup Diocese was not to be found in Bishop Wall. Instead, Bishop Wall quickly became known particularly among his own priests — not for his leadership qualities — but rather for his lack of communication skills and his frequent absences. Bishop Wall was the bishop who would not answer letters or emails, would not return phone calls, would not meet with people, and would not answer questions from concerned priests or parishioners. Bishop Wall was the bishop who was frequently absent from the diocese. Quite often Bishop Wall was away in Phoenix, the city where he was ordained a priest, where he grew up, where his family lives. The people of the Diocese of Gallup did not seem to be a big priority to him.

Bishop Wall’s poor sense of priorities has become a common theme for the past eight years. To many clergy sex abuse victims and their families, he is “Bishop Stonewall” — the bishop who used lawyers and legal maneuvers to battle them for years. And to many Catholics in the pews, such as the members of Gallup’s St. John Vianney Parish, Bishop Wall is the aloof autocratic bishop who refused to meet with them when it appeared he was trying to shut down their parish in 2015.

This year, Bishop Wall has once again demonstrated his upside- down, skewed priorities by postponing eight healing services for clergy abuse survivors that were mandated by the terms of the diocese’s Chapter 11 reorganization.

One service in February was postponed for more than a year because of an “oversight” by the bishop’s staff, which scheduled the service on the same evening as the bishop’s Mardi Gras fundraiser. The fundraising party was a top priority, and clergy abuse survivors were a low priority.

Two more healing services in July were pushed back to 2018 so Bishop Wall could make an appearance at the national Tekakwitha Conference for Native American Catholics. That was another scheduling oversight by the bishop’s staff. According to the bishop’s spokeswoman, Bishop Wall needed to attend the conference because he “has the responsibility of listening to the voices of Indigenous Catholics” and the conference “provides Native People with a major platform to voice their needs and concerns on a national scale.” So once again, Bishop Wall’s priorities were clear: a national conference was high priority, clergy abuse survivors were low priority. That decision was also steeped in irony since Bishop Wall is not known for “listening to the voices” and the “needs and concerns” of everyday Catholics in his own diocese, some of whom are Native American.

But in this case, Bishop Wall ended up canceling his appearance at the Tekakwitha Conference also. Bishop Wall has postponed five healing services and canceled his attendance at the Tekakwitha event because of illness. Certainly, we are not criticizing Bishop Wall for being ill with vertigo, the medical condition that is causing him to struggle with balance issues. It is apparently a permanent condition, and Bishop Wall has no control over it.

However, Bishop Wall can take practical steps to manage his condition, and he has done this. On at least two occasions, Bishop Wall has had others drive him to healing services. And during some Masses and healing services, Bishop Wall has remained seated. Had Bishop Wall not postponed the July healing services, he could have had someone drive him to the services and he could have remained seated while he conducted the services. His presence — in the face of his illness — would have shown respect to clergy sex abuse survivors and their families by making them his priority.

And what about his two trips to Europe this year? How is it that his symptoms of vertigo haven’t led the Gallup bishop to cancel his trip to Spain and Portugal in March or his trip to Ireland in September? Perhaps Bishop Wall has found a way to manage his symptoms while traveling in Europe? Are European trips a high priority? Can you pretend this diocese is a foreign country and travel to it?

Understand, Bishop Wall, that people watch your example, people pay attention to your priorities. Bishop Wall, after eight years, you have an obligation to step up to the plate and become an authentic moral leader. Bishop Wall, reorder your priorities and place the needs of clergy sex abuse survivors and faithful Catholics in the pews as your top priorities. Trips to Phoenix, trips to national conventions and trips to Europe should be low priorities or non-existent.

If Bishop Wall can’t provide real leadership in the Gallup Diocese, he should request permission to be transferred to another church position like Pinehaven or Chichiltah. Certainly Pope Francis could find someone else whose priorities are in proper order and who has an authentic sympathetic heart for the people of the Diocese of Gallup.

NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Aug. 18, 2017

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP — Bishop James S. Wall, of the Diocese of Gallup, canceled an appearance at last month’s national Tekakwitha Conference for Native American Catholics due to illness, his spokeswoman confirmed this week.

Suzanne Hammons, the director of communications for the Gallup Diocese, declined to answer specific questions about Wall’s cancellation, but indicated it was related to vertigo and problems with balance, a condition the bishop was diagnosed with last year.

Wall had been scheduled to be the principal celebrant for the morning liturgy July 21. This year’s conference was held in Rapid City, South Dakota, July 19-22. The annual conference draws Native Catholics from across the country, along with Catholic clergy and religious order members who serve Native communities.

Earlier this year, Wall’s decision to postpone two healing services for local survivors of clergy sexual abuse in order to attend the Tekakwitha Conference raised the ire of some abuse survivors. Wall postponed the healing services in Overgaard and Snowflake, Arizona, which had been scheduled for July 21 and July 22. Those services have been rescheduled in March 2018.

Hammons later issued an apology on behalf of the diocese, describing the double booked dates as a scheduling oversight.

Vestibular damage

Wall’s ill health in July is the latest in a series of illnesses that have impacted his public schedule. In January, Wall postponed all five of the healing services that had been scheduled for clergy sex abuse survivors that month.

In response to questions about Wall’s cancellation in South Dakota and his vertigo, Hammons referenced an online podcast interview she conducted with Wall in March about coping with illness and suffering. In the interview, the Gallup bishop discussed the two “health scares” he said he has experienced in the past four years.

Wall said he underwent surgery and radiation therapy in 2013 after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Annual checkups have since determined he continues to be cancer free, he said.

However, Wall explained in the March interview, he began experiencing problems with his balance about six months before. Last year, Wall said, he had been hospitalized for an infection and given an antibiotic. That antibiotic turned out to be “ototoxic,” which means the drug can be toxic to the ear, specifically the cochlea, auditory nerve or sometimes the vestibular system. The side effects can be reversible and temporary or irreversible and permanent.

In Wall’s case, he said a neurotologist has determined he has suffered 80-90 percent vestibular damage, which has affected his balance.

As part of a published column to local Catholics at the beginning of Lent, Wall offered the following explanation about his health problems: “If you are unaware, I have been quietly struggling with an imbalance (vertigo) issue for the past year, thinking it to be something that would simply pass. However, it didn’t go away and only seemed to increase, especially toward the end of 2016. Thankfully, through the good care of doctors, I was diagnosed with bilateral vestibular damage, which was caused by antibiotics I had to take for a nasal infection a year ago. The damage is permanent, but the effects are not, as I have been working closely with physical therapists who have helped me get back to some sense of normalcy. It’s a slow process, but if I stay up on my exercises I’ll be back to normal in a month or so.”

Since Wall’s diagnosis, he has sometimes needed to remain seated while celebrating Mass, conducting a healing service or attending an event.

However, as a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Wall travels twice a year to attend biannual conferences, and he frequently travels to meet with fellow bishops in Arizona and New Mexico. This year Wall also led a 10-day pilgrimage tour to Spain and Portugal, and he is scheduled to co-lead a similar tour to Ireland next month.

In an email Thursday, Hammons declined to comment on the current level of Wall’s vertigo symptoms, about how often he is affected by the symptoms and how he manages his symptoms while traveling. Hammons referred to the information released in the March podcast, adding “if there is ever a reason to issue an update on the status of Bishop Wall’s health publicly, he will do so at a time of his choosing.”

“An issue such as vertigo is not cause for any kind of vacation from a leadership role; rather, it is a legitimate and ongoing medical condition which is likely to interrupt the Bishop’s schedule from time to time,” she said. “He will still continue to carry out pastoral activities and care of the diocese.”

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Sep 18, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Another clergy sex abuse lawsuit filed in the District Court of Guam. 48-year-old "M.I.Q." alleges he was sexually molested and raped by Father Louis Brouillard.

Like other Brouillard accusers, M.I.Q. alleges the priest would make the boys swim naked at Lonfit River and reward them with McDonald's.

On another occasion, M.I.Q. alleges the priest raped him in the rectory.

As he was putting his clothes on and about to run home scared, he recalls seeing the priest rape another boy too.

NEW YORK
News 12

MOUNT PLEASANT -
A Mount Pleasant Zoning Board meeting turned into a heated battle over a proposed housing development Monday night, as residents gave local officials an earful on a project they say will change the neighborhood for the worse.

Residents tell News 12 Westchester that their main concerns about the proposed housing complex on Columbus Avenue are traffic and taxes.

News 12 is told the property is currently owned by religious organization Legion of Christ and that developer Barker Residential has applied to buy the land between 582 and 590 Columbus Ave.

A representative of Barker Residential has confirmed the pursuit of a 73-lot cluster subdivision, along with two additional proposed lots.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By SARAH HORNER | shorner@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: September 18, 2017

More than two and a half years after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy following a torrent of sexual abuse claims made against its clergy, the legal costs are mounting into the tens of millions.

Details on the compensation earned to date by law firms representing parties involved in the bankruptcy proceedings were revealed Friday after the federal judge overseeing the case ordered the disclosures.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel requested financial information on the amounts owed through the end of August to lawyers representing the archdiocese, the committee of parishes and the creditors, including sexual-abuse survivors, which make up the largest class of creditors in the case.

Combined, the legal costs are estimated to be approximately $16 million.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Survivors of mother and baby homes whose children were forcibly put up for adoption have called for the establishment of an all Ireland body to help reunite families.

A campaign group of mothers and adults born in the homes is seeking support from the authorities across the north and south of Ireland to help them find redress.

The group - Birth Mothers And Their Children for Justice NI - warned that mothers and their children are continuing to die before getting the chance to meet up with each other.

Eunan Duffy, who was born in the Marian Vale mother and baby home in Newry before being taken from his mother against her will and put up for adoption, said the system for family tracing needs to be overhauled.

"Only one part-time person currently exists that traces family for two charities and the health and social care trusts (in Northern Ireland)," he said.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former Church of England priest has been jailed for 12 years for torturing and sexually abusing two schoolboys in the 1980s and 90s.

Jonathan Graves, 60, of Eastbourne, East Sussex, restrained the children, who were aged between 12 and 14, using belts and chains, and then beat them.

At the time, he was the vicar at St Luke's Church in Stone Cross.

He was convicted on Thursday at Hove Crown Court of 12 offences dating between 1987 and 1992.

MASSACHUSETTS
NBC Boston

[video]

Brian Ward said he was sexually abused by the altar boy coordinator at St. Brenda's Parish in Dorchester, Massachusetts for two years while he was growing up. Twenty-seven years later, Michael Walsh - who pleaded guilty to the abuse - had been living down the road from Ward's young relatives. Realizing that proximity is what pushed him to come forward.

COLive

By COLlive reporter

A group of Chabad rabbis signed a proclamation addressing abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community, alluding to its effects that have resulted in multiple deaths due to drug overdoses and suicides over the past year alone in Jewish communities.

"The existence of child sexual abuse and other forms of child abuse which occurs in some of our communities, resulting in a number of tragic suicides as well as other physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual consequences," they wrote.

The rabbis admitted that not enough was done in the past to tackle the issue. "We recognize that in light of past experiences our communities could have responded in more responsible and sensitive ways to help victims and hold perpetrators accountable."

The signatories are Rabbis Yehoram Ulman and Moshe Gutnick, Senior Dayanim, Sydney Beth Din, Australia; Rabbi Yosef Feigelstock, Senior Dayan, Beth Din, Argentina; Rabbi Baruch Hertz, Rabbi of Congregation Bnei Ruven in Chicago, Illinois; Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, Dean, Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, PA; Rabbi Yosef Shusterman, Senior Dayan and Director, Chabad of Beverly Hills, CA, Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick, Av Beth Din, Melbourne Beth Din, Australia, and Rabbi Sholom Shuchat, Dayan, Bais Din Agudas HaRabanim.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, September 18, 2017

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

The religious order which ran an orphanage in Scotland where hundreds of children are believed to have died also ran Ireland’s largest mother and baby home.

Research by the BBC and the Sunday Post in the UK revealed that at least 400 children from Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark in Scotland are thought to be buried in an unmarked grave at the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery.

Smyllum Park Orphanage is one of the institutions being examined by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry into historical allegations of the abuse of children in care.

It was run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul and was home to more than 10,000 children between opening in 1864 and closing in 1981.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Sept. 18, 2017

Former Guam priest Louis Brouillard sexually abused multiple boys at the same time and repeatedly, offering them food as a reward, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.

The lawsuit, which is among dozens accusing Brouillard of child sexual abuse, was filed by 48-year-old "M.I.Q." who, like most plaintiffs, used his initials to protect his privacy.

M.I.Q. alleged in his lawsuit that while Brouillard was swimming naked with him and other boys at the Lonfit River in 1978 or 1979, the priest groped and touched his private parts. M.I.Q. was 9 years old at the time.

The lawsuit says before going into the water, Brouillard instructed the boys to remove their clothes and swim naked, and promised to reward them with McDonald's afterwards. They went to McDonald's after M.I.Q.'s first outing with Brouillard, the lawsuit states.

OHIO
Ohio.com

By Arthur McCaffrey
WALTHAM, MASS.: The Beacon Journal recently reported on the formal installation of the new Catholic bishop of Cleveland, Nelson Perez (“ Cleveland rocks,’ new ‘bishop tells the faithful,” Sept. 6). The story highlighted his personal appeal to the laity for forgiveness for the church’s “horrendous” history of child abuse, as if this was a novel gesture after the dour administration of his predecessor Bishop Lennon.

Earlier this year Beacon Journal also published a column, “An innocent man still looks for justice,” about two men spending 16 years in prison for a murder they did not commit. Their $4.9 million settlement from the state didn’t “come close to just compensation for what they lost.”

And when an innocent child looks for justice? What is just compensation for innocence lost after being raped by a priest? Surely it must be more than just a gratuitous plea for forgiveness by the new guy on the job? What compensates for an abuse victim’s lifetime of suffering and PTSD dysfunction, while criminal priests walk free and the bishops and cardinals who colluded and covered up the crimes still get to keep their jobs, titles and privileges?

Instead of cost-free calls for blanket forgiveness, perhaps a more genuine gesture of sympathy and sorrow would be for bishops like Perez to resign out of shame for being associated with such criminality. Another bishop, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, teaches us a more honest lesson about how to respond to abuse and injustice. After President Mandela appointed him to chair South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1994, Tutu said decades of institutional injustice against victims of apartheid needed to be remedied in four ways: Apology, Punishment, Compensation and Reconciliation.

How does the Catholic Church’s response to its “horrendous” history of child abuse stack up against Tutu’s metrics of reparation? Well, we are knee-deep in church apologies and cash, with billions of dollars paid out for victim compensation, nationally and internationally — compensation not usually freely offered but litigated out of church coffers by civil lawsuits initiated by victims and their attorneys!

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon |The Guam Daily Post Sep 18, 2017

The parties in nearly 100 clergy sex abuse cases filed in the local and federal courts in Guam have until Tuesday afternoon to advise the court how they intend to proceed with mediation and settlement talks.

Many of the attorneys for childhood sex abuse victims, the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and other defendants met in Hawaii on Sept. 5 to try to come to an agreement on how to proceed with mediation and a possible global settlement for all of the cases.

The parties had hoped to begin those settlement discussions on Guam at the end of October or early November.

But negotiations are ongoing regarding the terms of the mediation protocol, according to an order handed down last Friday by District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood.