News Story of the Day

The Atlanta Journal Constitution, December 9, 2016

Linda Ammons was a law school dean in Delaware when she was tapped by the governor to answer a disturbing question: Why didn’t someone stop a pedophile pediatrician before he had abused hundreds of kids?

Police in Delaware arrested Dr. Earl Bradley in 2009. He is serving a life sentence for the sexual abuse of his patients, with no chance of parole. When the police found hours of videos Bradley had made of himself raping and molesting patients, it was almost impossible for those involved to imagine that a once-admired doctor was capable of such brutal, horrifying acts.

By Connie Leonard, December 9, 2016, WAVE News

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A week after a now suspended Louisville priest and former Trinity High School teacher is found guilty of inappropriately touching a child, SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is asking the Archdiocese of Louisville not to push for a light sentence for Father Joseph Hemmerle.

SNAP took its written concerns to the Office of the Archdiocese on Thursday. While SNAP representatives feel the archdiocese has improved education about abuse when it comes to adults around children in churches and schools, they still believe when it comes to priests, there's an instinct to protect at all costs.

By Betty Clermont, December 8, 2016, Open Tabernacle

At least 22 children were sexually abused by two priests at a school for youths with hearing disabilities in Argentina, an investigating prosecutor said Monday.

Police arrested 82-year old priest Nicola Corradi, 55-year-old priest Horacio Corbacho, and three other men last week. They are accused of sexual and physical child abuse at the Antonio Provolo Institute in northwestern Mendoza province ….

By Bob Mackin | Dec. 6, 2016, Business Vancouver

Trudeau government, Mounties accused of discrimination  

Six Northern British Columbia First Nations members are accusing the federal government and RCMP of racial and ethnic discrimination for bungling their allegations of abuse against Vancouver corporate director John Furlong.

Maurice Joseph, Emma Williams, Dorothy Williams, Richard Perry, Ann Tom and Cathy Woodgate filed a complaint Monday (December 5) with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

By Mark Freeman, December 5, 2016, Mail Tribune

A former Ashland youth pastor is facing felony sex-abuse charges for alleged contact over at least five years with a young girl he knew through his church, and a church leader said the youth pastor has confessed his crimes.

Kenneth Leo Baker, 44, of Ashland, faces four felony and two misdemeanor sex charges for alleged incidents involving a single victim between 2006 and 2011. At least four of the incidents allegedly occurred when the girl was younger than 14 years old, court records show.

1) Remain open-minded. 
The natural human instinct is to recoil from alleged horror, and to immediately assume that the allegations are false. But the overwhelming majority of abuse disclosures prove to be true.

In every case, the proper and Christian response is to remain open-minded.

2) Pray for all parties involved. 
Every person involved deserves and needs prayerful support.

Dec 2, 2016, NBC Washington 4,

A teacher and coach at Archbishop Carroll High School in Northeast D.C. has been fired after police arrested him on charges he sexually abused a student at the school.

Jimmy Augustin, 33, is accused of having "sexual contact" with a 17-year-old girl at least two separate times, once in early September and another time at the end of October. Both incidents happened at the Catholic school at 4300 Harewood Rd. NE, police said.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, DEC. 1, 2016, 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Advocates for clerical sex abuse victims expressed outrage Thursday that a priest accused of sexually abusing deaf children in Italy wasn't sanctioned by the Vatican and allegedly went on to abuse children in Pope Francis' native Argentina.

Argentine police arrested the priest, 82-year old Nicola Corradi, this week. Corradi, priest Horacio Corbacho, 55, and three other men are accused of abusing at least eight children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities in northwestern Mendoza province.

Associated Press, November 30, 2016, Yahoo News

A former Roman Catholic bishop of Pittsburgh who now heads the Washington archdiocese has apologized for initially voicing doubts about a seminarian's claims in 1988 that as a young boy he had been sexually abused by a priest.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl says Tim Bendig, who is now a businessman, "told the truth about a priest who was a terrible danger to children and without his action that priest might have continued in the ministry."

By Katrina Helmer, November 28, 2016, WDRB.com

Fr. Joseph Hemmerle is facing nine counts of sexual abuse and sodomy, and in court Monday, the victim explained to the jury the moment he says his life changed forever.

A victim, who is now 53 years old and lives in Texas, relived what he claims was a nightmare at camp.