Release of 'blistering' priest sex abuse report blocked

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the expected release of a massive report examining sexual abuse and misconduct by priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses, including Scranton and Allentown. The state’s high court issued an order barring Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker, who supervised the grand jury that heard testimony over two years, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro from releasing the report until further order.

http://www.phillytrib.com/news/release-of-blistering-priest-sex-abuse-report-blocked/article_7fb35d79-52c6-53c6-bd95-74a90d351c66.html 

Expect more 'lie, deny and cover-up': Ex-Philly DA pessimistic ahead of report on church

A little over 15 years ago, right after The Boston Globe published a bombshell investigation exposing decades of widespread sexual abuse of children at the hands of hundreds of priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, Lynne Abraham hit upon the notion that if it was happening there it was surely happening in her hometown. Then Philadelphia's district attorney, Abraham launched what would become a legal benchmark in state history: She organized an investigation into child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It would be the longest-running investigation into clergy sex abuse and put Pennsylvania on the map of jurisdictions that most aggressively have gone after child sex predators.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/06/lynne_abraham_lethal_investiga.html 

Chile police raid Catholic Church offices amid sex abuse scandal

Police and prosecutors in Chile have raided offices and seized documents of the Roman Catholic Church amid a child sexual abuse and cover-up scandal. The surprise raids took place in the capital Santiago and in the city of Rancagua. They come as two Vatican envoys are in Chile to investigate the claims and advise dioceses how to respond. On Monday the Pope accepted the resignations of three Chilean bishops in the wake of the scandal. They included the controversial Juan Barros who was accused of covering up sexual abuse committed by priest Fernando Karadima in the 1980s and 1990s.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44477890 

Duterte's 'stupid God' quip is his 'personal opinion' - spokesman

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is entitled "not to believe in any faith" and express his views, his spokesman has said, addressing criticism following the 73-year-old leader's recent commentary describing God as "stupid" and a "son of a whore". In an interview on Monday with the Philippine television GMA-7, Harry Roque said the remarks were an expression of the president's "personal belief".

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/duterte-stupid-god-quip-personal-opinion-spokesman-180625082730103.html 

#MeToo Comes for the Archbishop

The first time I ever heard the truth about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., finally exposed as a sexual predator years into his retirement, I thought I was listening to a paranoiac rant. It was the early 2000s, I was attending some earnest panel on religion, and I was accosted by a type who haunts such events — gaunt, intense, with a litany of esoteric grievances. He was a traditionalist Catholic, a figure from the church’s fringes, and he had a lot to say, as I tried to disentangle from him, about corruption in the Catholic clergy. The scandals in Boston had broken, so some of what he said was familiar, but he kept going, into a rant about Cardinal McCarrick: Did you know he makes seminarians sleep with him? Invites them to his beach house, gets in bed with them …

https://catholiccitizens.org/views/79660/metoo-comes-archbishop/ 

Francis accepts two more Chilean bishops' resignations in continuing abuse fallout

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of two more Chilean Catholic bishops, bringing to five the number of prelates he has replaced so far as part of the continuing fallout from the country's clergy sexual abuse crisis. In a brief note June 28, the Vatican announced that Francis had effectively removed both Talca Bishop Horacio Valenzuela Abarca and Rancagua Bishop Alejandro Goić Karmelić. At age 78, Goić was well past the traditional retirement age of 75. But Valenzuela, at age 64, had an expected 11 years of service left to the church.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/francis-accepts-two-more-chilean-bishops-resignations-continuing-abuse-fallout

Church body warns of legal barriers to addressing abuse failings

The Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog has said legal barriers are preventing it from addressing “serious and widespread” failings in how some allegations of clerical sexual abuse are handled. Data protection concerns are preventing the National Board for Safeguarding Children from keeping a central database of priests who are facing child abuse allegations, with potentially “devastating consequences for children”, the organisation’s board told the Department of Justice in April.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/church-body-warns-of-legal-barriers-to-addressing-abuse-failings-1.3546118 

Lawmakers call for Matt Flynn to exit Wisconsin governor's race over priest abuse cases

Taylor and Sargent point to records released in 2013 as part of the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Those documents show while he represented the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from 1989-2004 as an attorney with Quarles & Brady, Flynn played a central role developing and administering a system where priests known to have abused children were kept in ministry, transferred to other parishes or paid off rather than reported to police.

https://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/election-matters/lawmakers-call-for-matt-flynn-to-exit-wisconsin-governor-s/article_a5d44532-8b87-57c2-9abe-94da286a542f.html 

Kathy Shaw, Watchdog on Clergy Sexual Abuse, Dies at 72

Kathy Shaw, a journalist who doggedly investigated allegations of sexual abuse by clergymen and compiled a national register of misconduct accusations so that the public could grasp the dimensions of the crisis, died on Sunday in a hospital in Worcester, Mass. She was 72. The cause was complications of pneumonia, her niece Renee Whitenett said. By surveying thousands of cases and posting them on a blog called Abuse Tracker, Ms. Shaw played a meaningful if largely unheralded role in helping fellow journalists and victims of abuse.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/obituaries/kathy-shaw-watchdog-on-clergy-sexual-abuse-dies-at-72.html 

'Shattered life' worth $30k: Sex abuse survivor releases book about attacks suffered in care

Darryl Smith says the abuse started on his first night at Marylands – a Christchurch school for children with learning difficulties – in 1971. Woken from his sleep, the 6-year-old was called to a Order of St John of God brother's office late in the evening and told one of the men responsible for his care wanted to speak about his grandmother. Instead, the man raped him. The abuse continued over the course of a year and came from other members of the order and older students, Smith said. He eventually told his parents what happened.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/104893016/sex-abuse-survivor-releases-book-about-attacks-suffered-in-care 

Sports on Sundays OK, except when used to skip Mass, says Vatican

VATICAN CITY — A new Vatican document cautions against the dangers of highly competitive children's sports, political and economic pressures on athletes to win '"at all costs" and the unsportsmanlike or violent behavior of fans. The document on sports also calls on every group or institution sponsoring sports programs to have expert-guided child protection policies in place and it urged bishops, parishes and lay Catholics to be proactive in helping "humanize" sports.

http://www.catholicsentinel.org/Content/Default/Homepage-Rotator/Article/Sports-on-Sundays-OK-except-when-used-to-skip-Mass-says-Vatican-/-3/382/35722 

Catholic boys' school settles 5 sex-abuse suits; former teacher admits he had sex with 50 boys

MORRISTOWN, N.J. - The Catholic order that runs an all-boys junior and senior high school with more than 500 students has settled lawsuits from five men who alleged that five monks, including a former headmaster, had sexually abused them. Six additional lawsuits are pending against the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey and St. Mary's Abbey, which runs Delbarton School in nearby Morris Township. Three were filed Tuesday. Details of the settlements, made over the past couple of months, were not disclosed.

http://www.cbs8.com/story/38330479/catholic-boys-school-settles-5-sex-abuse-suits-former-teacher-admits-he-had-sex-with-50-boys 

Sex Abuse Survivors Can Finally Sue the Catholic Church in Victoria, Australia

For the last 16 years, survivors of child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic Church officials in Victoria, Australia, had little to no legal recourse. But that has all changed now, as the government has closed a loophole that kept the church from being sued. That loophole, of course, is the infamous “Ellis defense,” which was inappropriately named after former altar boy and alleged abuse victim John Ellis. Ellis lost his case against the Catholic Church because its lawyers convinced a court it didn’t legally exist because its assets were held in a protected trust, and the court continued to use that defense for more than a decade.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/05/30/sex-abuse-survivors-can-finally-sue-the-catholic-church-in-victoria-australia/ 

AI inspired by the film Spotlight could track down child

JOURNALISTS at The Boston Globe searched for patterns in public records to uncover priests in the Catholic church who had sexually abused children. Now, researchers think artificial intelligence could do the same job faster, more accurately and on a much wider scale. The Boston Globe investigation, depicted in the film Spotlight, involved looking for clues like priests suddenly going on sick leave or moving around a lot. Joelle Casteix at the Zero Abuse Project, a non-profit … How we’re solving a mystery bigger than our minds Children seized at US border will face lasting health effects Horses remember if you smiled or frowned when they last saw you Advertisement

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23831802-700-ai-inspired-by-the-film-spotlight-could-track-down-child-abusers/ 

Timothy P. Carney: Men, women, and mother church

VATICAN CITY — Early every morning, in a beautiful domed room off to the side of St. Peter’s Basilica, you can see a charming scene that is at once a commotion yet also nearly silent. It’s dozens of priests rushing to find and don their vestments to say Mass, to pick up a cruet carrying holy water and wine to be turned into the blood of Christ. These are priests, aided by altar servers donning purple robes, preparing to say an early Mass in one of the basilica’s many chapels. And in this domed room, the sacristy, the occupants are all male.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/timothy-p-carney-men-women-and-mother-church 

Keep kids safe

Every bishop in Chile recently offered his resignation to Pope Francis after a meeting at the Vatican to discuss the clerical sexual abuse scandal in the South American country. While Pope Francis has a complicated and difficult task ahead of him — determining if he should accept all resignations, some or a few — it pales in comparison to the pain abused children experience. The psychological and spiritual damage inflicted by religious figures makes healing excruciating for some and impossible for others.

http://www.catholicsentinel.org/Content/Viewpoints/Viewpoints/Article/Keep-kids-safe/3/383/35706 

Albury churchmen don't approve of a Catholic bishop's proposal to stop protests outside places of worship in response to bill targeting abortion hubs

ALBURY’S two highest profile clergymen have rejected a Catholic bishop’s suggestion that safe zones be created around churches like those being considered for NSW abortion clinics. Bishop Peter Comensoli flagged the idea with politicians in the wake of the state’s Upper House MPs last week passing a bill to stop protests within 150 metres of reproductive rooms.

https://www.bordermail.com.au/story/5433545/we-dont-need-exclusion-zones/ 

Despite warnings, past Buffalo bishops returned abusive clergy to parishes

Despite warnings, past Buffalo bishops returnedWhen a mother complained that the Rev. Norbert F. Orsolits propositioned her teenage son in a bar, the Diocese of Buffalo quietly sent him away for mental health therapy and listed him as "on leave" in its official 1979 directory. Then, within months, the diocese reassigned him to a new parish, where he later was accused of molesting at least two boys. Orsolits isn't the only Buffalo priest accused of sexual abusing children who had been marked as "on leave" and then put back into a parish.

https://buffalonews.com/2018/05/27/despite-warnings-past-buffalo-bishops-returned-abusive-clergy-to-parishes/ 

Christians all in a huff about Thomas the Tank Engine, while real threat to children is ignored

There was a revealing meltdown on the fringes of Victorian politics during the week that you might have missed. A preposterous news story declared that based upon a university study into gender identification, local councils were about to ban Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie the Pooh as well as the words “boy” and “girl”. Of course none of this was right; not the interpretation of the study in question, not the response of local governments, not the impending abolition of Winnie and Thomas. No nouns were to be decommissioned.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/christians-all-in-a-huff-about-thomas-the-tank-engine-while-real-threat-to-children-is-ignored-20180525-p4zhlr.html?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed 

Cover Ups and Confessions: Pope Francis and Child Abuse

It is the season for exposures and exposes, and the Catholic Church has been making regular ripples of the wrong and undeniably crude sort. Globally, the church is finding itself being picked bare in terms of institutional malfeasance, not merely on the issue of having harboured abusive priests, but of placing a dark, impenetrable cover over them.

https://www.modernghana.com/news/856953/cover-ups-and-confessions-pope-francis-and-child-abuse.html 

UPDATE: Diocese of Steubenville reacts to sexual abuse allegations

The investigation continues into "credible allegations" of possible sexual abuse against a retired priest. Over the weekend, the Diocese of Steubenville removed Monsignor Mark Froelich from active ministry after sexual abuse allegations were made involving a minor during the late 80s, early 90s. Froelich retired in 2014, but still actively participates in church activities. Steubenville Diocese Director of Communications Dino Orsatti said Bishop Monforton decided to remove Froelich because of the seriousness of the case

http://www.wtrf.com/news/allegations-of-sexual-abuse-against-local-priest/1202510585 

Bishop steps down from anti-sex abuse board in Chile

Chile’s Catholic church took another blow on Saturday as the bishop leading the charge against sex abuse stepped down following more allegations of misconduct by priests. Rancagua Bishop Alejandro Goic presented his resignation as head of the Bishops’ Conference sex abuse prevention board, the latest episode in a Chilean abuse scandal which has rocked Pope Francis’s papacy. The church accepted Goic’s immediate resignation from the board set up in 2011 to investigate sexual abuse by clergy, following the case of Chilean priest Fernando Karadima.

https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2018/05/bishop-steps-anti-sex-abuse-board-chile/ 

On Chile, Pope Francis is way past the tip of the iceberg now

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series. Tomorrow’s conclusion will explore what Pope Francis means when he calls Chile to become once again a “prophetic church.” ROME - It’s a universally acknowledged reality of the sea that it’s never the tip of the iceberg that sinks a ship, but what lies under the water unseen. Yet, to the trained eye, the visible white mass usually is enough to warn of the dangers ahead and to change course.

https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2018/06/04/on-chile-pope-francis-is-way-past-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-now/ 

Sexually abusing children in the name of God

Rachel Denhollander became an unwilling victim of sexual abuse at age 7 at the hands of a college student attached to the ministry of Westwood Baptist Church in Kalamazoo, Mich. Often, the young man encouraged the girl to sit on his lap. He bought her gifts, including clothing. His actions caught the attention of Sandy Burdick, the licensed counselor who led the church’s sexual-abuse support group and he warned Denhollander’s parents, who turned to their closet friends, their Bible-study support group, for help.

https://www.blueridgemuse.com/node/47032 

Vatican replaces archbishop convicted of concealing child sex abuse

The Vatican on Sunday announced a temporary replacement for an Australian archbishop who was convicted of concealing child sex abuse by a fellow priest in the 1970s. Pope Francis said in a statement that Greg O'Kelly, the current Bishop of Port Pirie, in the state of South Australia, would temporarily replace Philip Wilson, the Archbishop of Adelaide, who stepped aside after being convicted of covering up abuses last month.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/03/australia/australian-archbishop-philip-wilson-replacement-intl/index.html 

Sexual abuse victims call for bishops' resignations, criminal investigation of Buffalo diocese

Summoning outrage at the results of a recent 7 Eyewitness News investigation into the covering up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, abuse victims Friday called for the resignation of two bishops and urged law enforcement to begin a criminal investigation of the church hierarchy in Buffalo.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/i-team/sexual-abuse-victims-call-for-bishops-resignations-criminal-investigation-of-buffalo-diocese 

Vatican orders ex-diplomat to face child sex abuse trial

VATICAN CITY: A monsignor who was a former adviser at the Vatican’s US embassy in Washington will face charges of possessing and exchanging child pornography, the Holy See announced on Saturday. In a statement it said that Carlo Alberto Capella was ordered to face trail on Thursday, with the first hearing set for June 22.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/327816-vatican-orders-ex-diplomat-to-face-child-sex-abuse-trial 

Pennsylvania: 884-page Catholic church sexual abuse report to be released

Mark Rozzi can remember the feeling of the tall grass brushing against his bare legs on the day he and a close friend desperately ran out of the rectory in Hyde Park, Pennsylvania. Rozzi, who was 13 at the time, had just been raped by his priest, the Rev Edward Graff, and remembers thinking in that moment, as he ran through a field, that he would take his terrible new secret to his grave.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/11/pennsylvania-catholic-church-abuse-allegations-report 

Victims launch organisation to fight abuse in Catholic Church

Survivors and activists involved in the fight against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have joined forces to launch an international organisation in Geneva to force the Church to end abuse and the impunity of bishops. "The Church has escaped with its crimes for too long," Peter Saunders, a British survivor of abuse and founder of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, told reporters in Geneva on Thursday, announcing the creation of the Ending Clerical Abuse (ECA) organisation external link .

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/accountability_victims-launch-organisation-to-fight-abuse-in-catholic-church/44175342