The end of our Innocence

On Friday March 15, 2019, a gunman walked into two Christchurch mosques and killed 49 people. It was a shocking, brutal assault, the kind New Zealanders had told themselves happened only in other countries. But the terror of a hate-filled mass murder had visited our nation now too.
This was the end of our innocence. Friday prayers at the Masjid Al Noor were scheduled to start at 1:30pm and run for about 40 minutes, but there were still a few cars pulling into the carpark as prayers began. There were about 300 worshippers gathering – New Zealanders whose places of birth included Afghanistan, India, Syria, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, the Philippines, Jordan, Turkey, Malaysia – but also some visitors from abroad, including Bangladeshi cricketers who were due to play the Black Caps at the Hagley Oval the next day.
Shoes were lined up on shelves at the door, and those inside were wearing socks, or were barefoot. At Linwood Masjid, 5km to the west, more than 100 more worshippers were also coming together.
A couple of minutes after prayers began, a man got into his car in an industrial park just a couple of hundred metres to the west of the mosque, and launched a Facebook livestream. He’d just published internet links to a document outlining his murderous racist ideology; now he was going to broadcast a video of the atrocities he would commit in their name.

https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/03/end-of-our-innocence/

Church officials shielded priest suspected of murder for decades

A "48 Hours" investigation has uncovered new details in a former priest's 57-year journey from murder to justice. Father John Feit was shielded by church officials from prosecution in the 1960 murder of a former Texas beauty queen, and allowed to rise to a position of authority overseeing troubled priests, according to dozens of interviews and hundreds of pages of public records and documents obtained by "48 Hours." By "48 Hours" producer Josh Gaynor, with additional reporting by producer Lourdes Aguiar and field producer Alicia Tejada

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/church-officials-shielded-priest-suspected-of-murder-for-decades/

The priest and the schoolgirl — and an abortion

Broken Rites is doing further research about a Sydney Catholic priest, Father Kevin Cox, who sexually abused vulnerable girls. For example, one victim (Broken Rites will refer to her as "Mandy") has revealed that Father Cox sexually abused her for six years from the age of eleven. Furthermore, the sexual abuse resulted in a pregnancy at age 17 — and then the priest paid for an abortion.
But the church continued to protect Father Cox. Church leaders and fellow-priests continued to regard Father Cox as a church hero. After abusing "Mandy" for six years, Father Cox reluctantly apologised to the family for his sexual abuse of the girl. He also reluctantly admitted the sexual abuse to his bishop. However, the diocese granted him a transfer to another parish and allowed him to continue working as a priest for the next 15 years, until Mandy finally reported the sexual abuse to the police when she was nearly 32.

http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/181 

Inside the trial of former priest charged with 1960 murder of Texas schoolteacher

After 57 years, a former priest is on trial for murdering a young woman who had gone to him for confession -- did the church conspire with authorities to cover it up? It was April 1960 in McAllen, Texas, when Irene Garza, 25, told her family she was going to church for confession. She never returned. Five days later, her body was found dumped in a canal. Police say she was beaten, sexually assaulted and suffocated. Investigators kept turning to one person – Father John Feit, then 27, who admitted hearing Garza's last confession in the church rectory. Investigators grew more suspicious when they learned that three weeks before Irene's murder, another young woman had been attacked in a nearby church. That woman later identified Feit as her attacker.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-the-trial-of-former-priest-charged-with-1960-murder-of-texas-schoolteacher

Eleven children aged 11 to 17 known to the FACS committed suicide in 2016

THERE has been a dramatic rise in the number of children committing suicide after coming into contact with the NSW child safety system, according to a shocking new report.

The government has been alerted to the horror statistic that, in 2016, 11 children aged between 13 and 17 and known by the Department of Families and Community Services committed suicide. In the three years prior, that number had been steady at around five deaths per year. Family Services Minister Pru Goward declared the government must “continuously improve its child safety systems to keep vulnerable children and young people safe”.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/eleven-children-aged-11-to-17-known-to-the-facs-committed-suicide-in-2016/news-story/f586ed887a147d2238dac4e7a8634eb2 

Ex-priest on trial in slaying of South Texas beauty queen who vanished after confessing her sins to him

Details shared with a South Texas jury Friday portrayed a former priest who was anything but priest-like in the ongoing trial of John Feit, accused of murdering a 25-year-old beauty queen over a half-century ago.

Irene Garza had been raped and bludgeoned to death when she was found in a McAllen canal in 1960, five days after she vanished from church on Easter weekend. A portable photographic slide viewer belonging to Feit was found near the body.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/12/02/witnesses-describe-odd-behavior-former-hidalgo-county-priest-accused-beauty-queen-murder

Twenty-year fight for justice for male survivors of sexual abuse continues

An advocate working with male survivors of sexual abuse is still pleading with the Government for a formal inquiry into the abuse of children in state care – 20 years after the campaign was launched.
Over the last two decades, Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust (MSSAT) manager Ken Clearwater has supported over 1000 men who have been sexually abused. The trust's Christchurch branch has seen 30 new clients this year alone.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/90595798/twentyyear-fight-for-justice-for-male-survivors-of-sexual-abuse-continues 

Renewed calls for Royal Commission into abuse of people in state care

When Judge Carolyn Henwood chaired the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service, she did not think an independent inquiry into state care abuse was needed. Now she does.

Government departments could be "sheltering" child abuse perpetrators as calls for a Royal Commission into historical state care abuse remain unanswered, a judge says.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/98657938/renewed-calls-for-royal-commission-into-abuse-of-people-in-state-care 

Elizabeth Stanley: Reasons for vetoing inquiry into historic abuse don't stand up

OPINION: The Open Letter to Prime Minister Bill English, calling for an independent inquiry to deal with abuse of children under state care, has been steadfastly downplayed by the Government. 'E Kore Ano, Never Again!' is the rallying call from the Human Rights Commission and its supporters. 'Nah' came the reply.
Elizabeth Stanley tackles the Government's reasons for refusal.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/89607868/elizabeth-stanley-reasons-for-vetoing-inquiry-into-historic-abuse-dont-stand-up 

Government must not limit child abuse inquiry to state care, victim advocates and experts say

A senior member of the Catholic Church has thrown his support behind a strengthening bid for a royal commission into child abuse, but will not pledge the same from the institution as a whole.
Bill Kilgallon wants his own church – and all other faith-based institutions – to be included in the Government's inquiry into the abuse of children in state care before 1992.
Will you be affected by the Government's inquiry? Email joel.ineson@fairfaxmedia.co.nz

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/98799043/government-must-not-limit-child-abuse-inquiry-to-state-care-victim-advocates-and-experts-say 

15 Stories About Orphanages From Around The World

 And Christchurch New Zealand... as this photo is from and it is one of my photos... this order of nuns were the cruelest witches that ever lived... they enslaved innocent children... who they ripped from their mother's arms... as tiny little babies... I was one of those stolen babies... Ann

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The Nazareth House orphanages were run by the Sisters of Nazareth beginning in the middle of the 19th century. The first institution began in London, but they expanded to include houses in Britain, Australia, South Africa, the United States and Ireland. The sisters ran a tight ship, enforcing their own brand of discipline which often crossed the line into the worst kind of abuse. Over 500 former residents from different countries have come forward to recount their tales of horror and trauma.

http://www.babygaga.com/15-stories-about-orphanages-from-around-the-world/2/?view=lista 

Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Seven: Sister Cathy Turns Baltimore into a Troll

Netflix’s recent documentary, The Keepers, has been a blockbuster for true crime and documentary fans (it was the talk of CrimeCon).
A gripping tale of abuse, cover-up, and murder, the series tells the story of how a group of former students are trying to find justice for their teacher Sister Cathy Cesnik, a murdered nun from Baltimore.

http://theworthyadversary.com/4547-4547 

Who Killed Sister Cathy?

In November 1969, Sister Catherine Cesnik, a popular, twenty-six-year-old teacher at an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore, disappeared. Two months later her frozen body was found in a nearby landfill, her skull fractured and her clothes partly removed.
No one was ever charged in her murder, which is now the subject of The Keepers, Netflix’s latest foray into true-crime original programming. The Keepers follows a pair of Cesnik’s former students who have devoted their retirement years to pursuing the case. The two women have amassed vast quantities of evidence, apparently more than the police know, but the drama of the documentary lies in the tantalizing possibility that Cesnik was killed just as she was about to expose the most outrageous and bizarre case of clergy sexual abuse I have ever heard of.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/who-killed-sister-cathy 

Why Is Keough High School Closing? 'The Keepers' Institution Is Shutting Its Doors This Year

Nearly five decades after Sister Cathy Cesnik's tragic murder in Baltimore, the unsolved case is receiving the national attention it deserves. But Netflix's new docuseries The Keepers simultaneously places an extremely strong focus on the allegations of sexual abuse at Archbishop Keough High School, where Sister Cathy was a beloved English teacher.
The series presents a theory that Sister Cathy's murder was linked to her attempts to help the teenage girls who confided in her about the alleged abuse they suffered at the hands of Father Joseph Maskell, the school's chaplain. (The Baltimore Sun reported that Maskell denied the accusations until his death in 2001, and he was never charged with any crime.) Keough has recently received a flurry of attention due to the series — but its doors will close for good very soon. However, the reason for Keough High School's closing is unrelated to The Keepers and its content.

https://www.bustle.com/p/why-is-keough-high-school-closing-the-keepers-institution-is-shutting-its-doors-this-year-59752 

American priest from The Keepers ‘counselled Irish sex abuse victims’

An American priest and psychologist at the centre of suspected murder scandal was hired as a child psychologist in Ireland after a series of sexual abuse cases, the former chief executive of the southeastern health board has said.
John Cooney said that Joseph Maskell, the subject of the Netflix documentary The Keepers, almost certainly counselled child sexual abuse victims. Mr Cooney said he believed that Maskell may have been hired without a job interview because he had adequate qualifications and experience and because the health board was chronically short of child psychologists to deal with the huge growth in sexual abuse cases that came to light in the 1990s.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/american-priest-linked-to-murder-counselled-irish-sex-abuse-victims-grmkkcs9v 

Before ‘The Keepers,’ My Mother Was One Of Father Maskell’s Victims

Note: This post contains details regarding sexual abuse.

In the late Cathy Cesnik’s English class at Archbishop Keough High School, my mother and her friend giggled uncontrollably at the cackling of the Three Witches, or the Wayward Sisters, in the recording of “MacBeth.” Sister Cathy (who at that time went by Sister Joanita) devised a punishment to fit the crime: each time the recording approached the cackling, she lowered the volume on the record player and required the girls to perform the cackling themselves. She was the kind of teacher who created with her students memories that last a lifetime.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-very-dangerous-woman-the-keepers-my-family-and_us_59357235e4b0649fff211b42 

Netflix's The Keepers highlights harrowing sexual abuse in a 1960s US Catholic school

NETFLIX’S NEW TRUE crime documentary The Keepers is sparking fresh interest in a 48-year-old murder case.  
The seven-part series opens with the story of 26-year-old Sister Cathy Cesnik, a beloved nun and teacher at the all-girls Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sister Cathy went missing on 7 November 1969 and nearly two months later her body was found.
To this day, her murder remains unsolved.

http://www.thejournal.ie/netflixs-the-keepers-reveals-harrowing-sexual-abuse-in-a-1960s-us-catholic-school-3416780-Jun2017/

'The Keepers': Inside Netflix's Compelling New True-Crime Docuseries

On January 3rd, 1970, the frozen, decomposing body of Sister Catherine Cesnik was found lying in a field near a garbage dump in the Baltimore County suburb of Landsdowne, Maryland. The 26-year-old had disappeared the previous November, when she went out one evening to buy her sister an engagement present and never came home. Her car was found late that night, parked a few blocks away from her home and at an odd angle, leading investigators to suspect that her killer was someone she knew and who knew where she lived. And yet, the case went cold quickly, and Sister Cathy's murder remains unsolved.

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/the-keepers-inside-compelling-new-true-crime-docuseries-w483230 

True-crime documentary The Keepers reveals the legacy of clergy abuse

The power of television to shine a light into the dark recesses of our inhumanity is impressively evident in The Keepers, a new documentary TV series investigating the unsolved murder of a Baltimore nun.
It uncovers horrific secrets and reveals pain that lingers in the community nearly five decades later. The compelling seven-part series, which debuted on Friday on Netflix, is the latest in an increasingly popular true-crime genre that has included Making a Murderer, Amanda Knox and the podcast Serial.

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-life/television/true-crime-documentary-the-keepers-reveals-the-legacy-of-clergy-abuse 

7-Year-Old Boy Starved, Abused and Tortured For Months Before Being Fed to PIGS — At a Home Child Protective Services Sent Him To

Many details in a shocking abuse and murder case in Kansas City — the ended with the discovery of a little boy’s body in a pig pen — remain under wraps, as the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) has not released records about the years Adrian Jones was allegedly held captive under the guise of homeschooling by the couple who later admitted to murdering him.
In 2012, according to 41 Action News, the DCF removed Adrian Jones and his six sisters from his mother’s home and placed him in the care of his biological father, Michael Jones, and stepmother, Heather Jones — although the children’s maternal grandmother had asked for custody. Three years later, authorities would find the little boy’s decomposed body in a livestock pen near the home.

http://www.dailypresser.com/2017/05/7-year-old-boy-starved/