Ex-preacher molested girl for 3 years at church

the fight against child rape... and child abuse is very hard... but we must not... give up the fight for the children of today... keep your voice out there... that is what the children need... we had no voice... so now as adults... the children's fight is our fight... as long as the children of today... hear us victims - survivors... shouting on the airways... TV... and the papers... they too will come forward... and lets hope... seen that they are much younger that we were... when we came forward... they can heal their shame and pain... much sooner...  Ann

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A former Stone County preacher has been found guilty in the sexual battery of a girl at the church he previously led, District Attorney Joel Smith said.

Carlos Smith, 55, of Saucier, was pastor of Unity Baptist Church and the girl was 11 when the sexual abuse began in 2011 and continued for three years, said the DA, no relation to Carlos Smith. A Stone County jury delivered a guilty verdict Friday after deliberating about two hours.

http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/crime/article56144625.html

Catholics who stopped “sitting back and taking it”

There are two very amazing and interesting aspects of today’s news about disgraced Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt. After national media attention and huge (and righteous) push back from Michigan Catholics, Nienstedt has been forced to leave a temporary position in a Michigan parish.
If you’re just catching up to the story, Kalamazoo Catholic officials didn’t think it would be a big deal for Nienstedt to work in a Battle Creek parish, even though, according to MLive:

http://theworthyadversary.com/4056-catholics-arent-sitting-back-and-taking-it-with-nienstedt 

What Did Pope Benedict Know and When Did He Know It?

In the wake of the startling revelation that well over 200 boys were abused over a 40-year period in a Bavarian choir conducted for 30 of those years by the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, the brother of former Pope Benedict, many questions remain unanswered about exactly what the Ratzinger brothers knew and when.
The lawyer who disclosed the abuse after an investigation commissioned by the Diocese of Regensburg said he assumes that Georg Ratzinger was aware of what one survivor called “a system of sadistic punishments connected to sexual pleasure” meted out by Johann Meier, the head of the school that housed the choir. Less clear is what Joseph Ratzinger knew, either during his time as the Archbishop of Munich or after 1981, when he became Pope John Paul II’s right hand man as the head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

http://religiondispatches.org/what-did-pope-benedict-know-and-when-did-he-know-it/ 

State seeks protection from being sued by sex abuse victims

Court asked to strike out decision permitting it to be sued after ruling on Louise O’Keeffe case. The State has asked the High Court to strike out a decision permitting it to be sued, along with the Christian Brothers, by three alleged sexual abuse victims following a European court ruling in the landmark Louise O’Keeffe case.

In January 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Ms O’Keeffe’s rights under the European Convention of Human Rights had been breached by the failure of the State to protect her from abuse by her school teacher, Leo Hickey, in the 1970s.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/state-seeks-protection-from-being-sued-by-sex-abuse-victims-1.2505868 

MN--Secret records about abusive Duluth cleric are released

More than 900 pages of long-secret records about a child molesting cleric who worked in Duluth have been released and are now on-line, because abuse victims insisted on the disclosure as part of a legal settlement.
Duluth Catholic officials should tell parents, parishioners and the public about him and his crimes. Duluth parents and parishioners should read up about him and tell others about him. If he hurt even one child during his six years in northern Minnesota, we want that suffering person to know that he or she is not alone.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mn_secret_records_about_abusive_duluth_cleric_are_released

Sexual abuse at St. John's Abbey revealed in 15,000-page disclosure

St. John’s Abbey, one of the largest Benedictine monasteries in the U.S., released more than 15,000 pages of documents Tuesday related to 18 priests it said “likely offended” sexually against minors dating back to the 1960s.
The disclosure comes as the latest chapter in the jagged history for the Benedictine community in Collegeville, Minn., on the issue of clergy sexual abuse, one that at times has seen it attempt to lead in understanding the epidemic but at others fall ill to the plague of its horrors. Like many others before them, the disclosed documents provide a recounting of what the abbey knew when regarding each monk -- nearly half of whom have died -- and often the attempts to shuttle them from place to place to avoid possible lawsuits and scandal.

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/sexual-abuse-st-johns-abbey-revealed-15000-page-disclosure 

‘The roots of Ireland’s goodness are drawn from a deep Christian faith’

Delia Maguire tells Francis Phillips that, after the abuse crisis, the Church in Ireland will never be the same again

On Monday I blogged about an unusual new novel – unusual because, while not painting a sentimentalised picture of life in a small Irish country parish, it succeeds in breathing life, warmth and credibility into the personality of the main character: Fr Barnabas Salmon. As always with books that make one reflect, it posed questions in my mind so I was glad to make contact with Delia Maguire, author of the novel.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2016/01/22/the-roots-of-irelands-goodness-are-drawn-from-a-deep-christian-faith/ 

Decades-Old Abuse Claims Resurface

In a case likened to the pedophile cases that rocked the Catholic Church, 25 men now in their 40s and 50s sued Hawaii's Kamehameha Schools this week for turning a blind eye to 27 years of sexual abuse by its paid psychiatrist.
The abuse occurred between 1957 and 1985 while Dr. Robert McCormick Browne was the exclusive school psychiatrist for male students, according to the complaint filed Jan. 19 in Hawaii's First Circuit Court.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/01/21/decades-old-abuse-claims-resurface.htm 

Bronx Priest Accused of Sexually Abusing Male Youths

A longtime Bronx priest is under investigation for allegedly molesting several young boys. 
According to a statement released Thursday by the archdiocese of New York, the Rev. Richard Gorman has been accused of sexually abusing several minors nearly three decades ago. Archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling reports at least two purported victims have come forward, and investigators are planning on speaking with a possible third accuser.

http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/bronx-priest-accused-of-sexually-abusing-male-youths 

Go beyond sex scandals, internal rows, Church urged

Church leaders speaking in a forum in connection with the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) opening here on Sunday urged Catholics on Friday to go beyond the scandal of sex abuse and internal conflicts over doctrine and practice and focus on evangelization.
“We have to be careful that we do not become overly absorbed in the domestic life of the Church, but constantly face the world, address our place in it and our responsibility to it,”  said Basilian Fr. Thomas Rosica, head of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation of Canada.

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/220047/go-beyond-sex-scandals-internal-rows-church-urged 

How Sex Abuse By Irish Priests Helped Cripple The Catholic Church

An Irish Tragedy: How Sex Abuse By Irish Priests Helped Cripple The Catholic Church. The story of how Irish immigrants helped to build the American Catholic Church is well-known. 

But the sad tale of how Irish priests later undermined the Church has gone untold, until now. Investigative reporter Joe Rigert's search for the roots of the Catholic sex-abuse scandals led him to Ireland, where he found that rigid sexual repression in both society and the priest.

http://books.cheapstorebuy.co/3984044-an-irish-tragedy.html 

Call for inquiry into paedophile victim suicides

A HUNTER group wants an investigation into the deaths of more than 30 former Catholic high school students by suicide, drug overdoses or possible suicide, because of links to known or alleged child sex offenders.
A list with more than 30 names – all male – of boys, teenagers and men has been compiled for a submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, with the youngest aged just 13 when he took his life in his bedroom, and the most recent suicide early last year.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2811587/call-for-inquiry-into-paedophile-victim-suicides/ 

Death list reveals blood on the hands of the Catholic Church

A group in the Hunter has compiled a list of more than 30 former Catholic school boys all of whom have two things in common – they were raped by Catholic paedophiles and they died from suicide or drug-related deaths. The group have prepared submissions calling for an investigation by the Royal Commission.
The youngest boy on the list was only 13 when he took his own life in his bedroom in 1974. He was one of three students on the list who were from the same year at a Hunter Catholic high school during a period in which men who were later charged with child sex offences had regular contact with students.

http://royalcommission.com.au/death-list-reveals-blood-hands-catholic-church/