Australian abuse survivors criticise NZ inquiry

New Zealand's plan to leave the Church and other non-state groups out of the Royal Commission of inquiry into abuse is getting some bad press in Australia today. The Newcastle Herald has gone big with a story of Australian survivors of abuse afraid their New Zealand counterparts won't get justice. Joanne McCarthy, the journalist who did in Australia what the Boston Globe's Spotlight team did in the US to break open the clerical sex abuse scandal, has interviewed them. The approach being taken here was "completely unacceptable", she said.

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/350980/australian-abuse-survivors-criticise-nz-inquiry 

Australia prelates criticise 'relentless' media campaign against Church

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney and Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen of Parramatta have both criticised as a "relentless" campaign a series of newspaper articles last week by Fairfax, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, about the Catholic Church, its purported wealth and its response to victims of child sexual abuse by Church personnel.

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/8589/australia-prelates-criticise-relentless-media-campaign-against-church- 

Sentence for paedophile not enough, victim says

A man who was sexually abused by a Catholic brother when he was six says a 33-year-jail sentence for the paedophile is not long enough. The convicted sex offender Bernard McGrath preyed on children in New Zealand and Australia where he's just been sentenced to decades in prison. Darryl Smith was just six years old when Bernard McGrath began sexually abusing him in the 1970s at Christchurch's Marylands school for boys.

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/350782/sentence-for-paedophile-not-enough-victim-says 

Former Port Pirie Catholic Church priest faces in court three boys he abused more than three decades ago

A JUDGE urged a former South Australian priest who used his power, influence and authority to sexually abuse teenage boys more than three decades ago to address his apology to his victims. Charles Alfred Barnett, 72, appeared in the District Court on Monday ahead of sentencing next month after admitting the persistent sexual exploitation of one boy, and indecent assault of two others.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/law-order/former-port-pirie-catholic-church-priest-faces-three-boys-he-abused-more-than-three-decades-ago-in-the-district-court/news-story/86cd47b77d6d4ccd0b4b1622ad12e5d4 

As we ended our hug, we kissed…

Hello my name is Maria. I apologize if my English is not very good. I bumped into your blog a few days ago and since then I have read a lot of stories that remind me of my own. I always thought I was a one in a million, but I found out that a lot of women know exactly like I feel after all. I am 44 years old and I met my priest 10 years ago when my girls went to the school where he was the Director. I started to attend mass at that parish where later I became a catechist for 6 years and a member of the church choir (still am).

https://maltesemarriedcatholicpriest.wordpress.com/2018/02/12/as-we-ended-our-hug-we-kissed/ 

Former care home volunteer found guilty of raping three children

A former children’s home volunteer was yesterday convicted of grooming and sexually abusing three children in care more than 30 years ago. Joe Duffy, 60, from Glasgow, who has been a civilian custody officer with Police Scotland for 20 years, was convicted of raping two young sisters and and sexually abusing a young boy at a Glasgow home run by nuns in the 1980s.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/former-policeman-care-home-volunteer-12039572 

Did an Australian Archbishop Call Pedophilia a 'Spiritual Encounter With God'?

In 2017, after a five-year investigation into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Australia, a specially-appointed Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse published their findings. The report included a section on criminal justice reform, including a recommendation that clergy members become legally-mandated reporters of abuse, even if they obtain the information during the rite of confession.

https://www.snopes.com/archbishop-pedophilia-spiritual-encounter/ 

Bernard McGrath is one of the most notorious members of one of the most notorious Catholic orders.

ONE of the most notorious members of one of the most notorious Catholic orders in Australia will sit in the dock of a court on Friday to be called to account for multiple child sex offences – for the fourth time. St John of God Brother Bernard McGrath was 18 when he joined the order in 1965 after his father – who once trained to be a Catholic priest – ordered him to, according to McGrath.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/5232197/crimes-of-the-brother-st-john-of-gods-bernard-mcgrath-to-be-sentenced/ 

Reform or die: money investigation shows church must open up the books

Confronted at the recent royal commission about the Catholic Church's habit of minimising compensation to victims of child sex abuse, officials pursed their lips and cried poor. Could the church not afford to pay more, its It would be difficult, they said; would require "adjustments" to programs the church offered.
Perhaps we could close some programs suggested another, redirect the money. senior money men from Sydney and Melbourne were asked?

https://www.theage.com.au/national/reform-or-die-money-investigation-shows-church-must-open-up-the-books-20180213-p4z063.html 

Evidence shows Pope Francis is a ‘principal in a cover-up’ of clergy sex-abuse in Chile: Expert

Those familiar with Jorge Bergoglio in Argentina before he became Pope Francis say it is a “classic” move of his to provide “mercy” to clergy who are sexual predators while asking everybody else to simply “move on,” said attorney and child advocate Elizabeth Yore on an EWTN show last week. “I think this is a misplaced mercy. It is mercy for the predator priests,” she told EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo on the February 8 episode of World Over.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/evidence-shows-pope-francis-is-a-principal-in-a-cover-up-of-clergy-sex-abus

Cardinal Sins

BLACK humour sets the tone for this one-man show, as comedian and child-sexual abuse survivor Frank Hampster delivers the second instalment of his Cardinal Sins series.
This is a man who went through what no child should have to suffer at the hands of a Ballarat Catholic priest, and much of the one-hour delivery is a take-no-prisoners slap down of the church, its convicted paedophiles and Cardinal George Pell, who currently faces multiple charges of historical sexual offences.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/adelaide-fringe/comedy/adelaide-fringe-review-2018-cardinal-sins/news-story/62bfef60e70130f72510e99ec46e6bb6 

Pennsylvania Catholics Plan Protest of Cdl. Roger Mahony

ChurchMilitant.com) - The Pope's decision to appoint as his envoy a leading California prelate known for covering up sex abuse is troubling Pennsylvania Catholics.
On January 13, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis appointed Cdl. Roger Mahony, former archbishop of Los Angeles, his special envoy at a 150th anniversary Mass for the diocese of Scranton. The Pontifical Mass will occur at 3 p.m. on March 4 in the Cathedral of St. Peter in Scranton.

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/cdl.-mahonys-appointment-worries-concerned-catholics 

What I learned from the survivors of child sex trafficking in Kenya

As I held her little hand walking to school in the African dusk, we kicked up the red dust around us. Even with the language barrier, it was hard not to instantly fall in love with little Sara,* her massive brown eyes and ear-to-ear smile.
We reached the school and she darted off with her teacher, purple princess backpack bouncing. It was nearly easy to forget the tragic circumstances that had lead her to the St. Bakhita’s Home for Girls.

https://www.shemazing.net/hope-for-tomorrow-what-kenyas-child-sex-trafficking-survivors-taught-me/