News Story of the Day

By Prof Chris Fitzpatrick, November 18, 2017, The Irish Times

Prof Chris Fitzpatrick, a Catholic, on how a revelation of sex abuse changed firmly held beliefs

Other than its also being a revelation of cataclysmic proportions, my road-to-Damascus moment was very different from St Paul’s. I was not on a horse, galloping along some dusty road in the Middle East. I was at a pre-Christmas drinks party in south Co Dublin.

 I was not a persecutor of Christians; I was one of them myself – a practising Catholic to boot. Nor was God the recriminating injured party on this occasion. (“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”) Instead it was the distressed voices of suffering children that I came to hear.

By Danielle Waugh, November 16, 2017, New England Cable News - NECN.com

A former Massachusetts priest who spent a decade in prison for raping an altar boy has pleaded not guilty to 31 sex abuse charges in Maine. 

Two men have accused Ronald Paquin of sexually abusing them at a trailer in Kennebunkport, Maine in the late 1980s. Both accusers were children at the time of the abuse. 

Keith Townsend of Seabrook, New Hampshire, has identified himself as one of the accusers. 

By Kathryn Brightbill, Chicago Tribune

We need to talk about the segment of American culture that probably doesn't think the allegations against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore are particularly damning, the segment that will blanch at only two accusations in the Washington Post expose: He pursued a 14-year-old-girl without first getting her parents' permission, and he initiated sexual contact outside of marriage. That segment is evangelicalism. In that world, which Moore travels in and I grew up in, 14-year-old girls courting adult men isn't uncommon.

By Melodie Edwards, November 15, 2017, NPR 

One morning earlier this year, Northern Arapaho member Rose was sitting at the table with her 14-year-old daughter, Latoya.

"I told her to move her hair because she had her hair like this," said Rose, showing how Latoya pulled her hair over to hide her neck and cheek. "Because I noticed something ... she had marks, hickeys, just completely covering her, even almost on her face."

By Danny Tran, November 14, 2017, ABC News Au

Police forces failed in their duty to protect Australian children because they often refused to believe their complaints about sexual abuse, the royal commission's chairman says.

Child protection agencies also failed to listen to children, leaving them in situations of danger, Justice Peter McClellan said in some of his final remarks before the commission's final sitting.

By MICHELLE MARK, November 11, 2017, AOL.com

• Rachel Jeffs, the daughter of polygamist cult leader Warren Jeffs, spoke out on "Megyn Kelly Today" about the sexual abuse she endured at her father's hands when she was a child.

• Warren Jeffs is the self-described "prophet" of the FLDS Church, a Mormon fundamentalist cult that has been disavowed by mainstream Mormons.

• He was convicted in 2011 of child sexual assault and is serving a life sentence, though he continues to control the church to this day.

• Rachel Jeffs, who escaped the church in 2015, said her father began sexually abusing her when she was eight years old.

By Ross Douthat, November 11, 2017, New York Times

Lately we have been given an extended education in the different varieties of liberal pigs. There’s the industrial-scale predator who buys indulgences from Planned Parenthood. And the male feminist who respects women so very much — especially when they’re too drunk to resist him. And the Great Man of Letters creeping on his co-workers. And the let-it-all-hang-out artist who thinks it can’t be assault if the only person you’re touching is yourself.

But this week our era of exposure has reminded us that cultural conservatism has its own distinctive swine.

By By Vicky Nguyen and Michael Bott, November 9, 2017, NBC Bay Area

The group of teachers and staff accused of sexually assaulting or harassing students at a Catholic high school for girls in San Jose is growing after an explosive essay published in the Washington Post last month described the sexual assault of two students by a former Spanish teacher nearly three decades ago.

Since Presentation High School graduate Kathryn Leehane published that essay, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has learned of accusations against several other teachers or staff members, including at least one that’s still employed at the school.

By Vicki Tidwell Palmer, LCSW, November 10, 2017, Huffington Post

By Tom Nugent, The Crime Report

It was the kind of moment that an investigative reporter never forgets.

Harsh accusations were told to WJZ by many of [Father] Maskell’s victims. We have spoken with two of these women, and now a third is coming forward with a real bombshell. She told WJZ she was abused not only by Father Maskell, but also by police officers. . . .