News Story of the Day

By CHRIS MARSHALL, 24 June 2017, The Scotsman

The head of a religious order has expressed “sorrow” that monks abused boys at Fort Augustus Abbey School but said his congregation cannot be held responsible for what happened.

Dom Richard Yeo, abbot president of the English Benedictine Congregation, said he believed the allegations of former residents who say they were abused at the fee-paying Highland boarding school, which closed in 1993.

Kurt Hanson,  Daily Herald, June 22, 2017

Officers with the Mapleton Police Department arrested a man Wednesday on reports of sexually abusing two underage boys.

Police reports state on April 20, a now 18-year-old man told police he was sexually abused by a man about three years ago.

The young man said Erik Hughes, 51, was at first very friendly and provided him with what the male thought was melatonin to help him sleep. But it made him disoriented and Hughes told him he must’ve given him the wrong pill.

By Olivia Rudgard, June 22, 2017, The Telegraph

Senior Church of England figures "colluded" with a disgraced bishop to conceal evidence of his sex offences, a report has found.

The report, the result of an 18 month-long enquiry by Dame Moira Gibb, found that senior clergy "trivialised" the actions of the disgraced bishop and sought to protect its reputation by failing to pass on evidence of further abuse. 

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey was heavily criticised by the damning report which condemns the Church of England over its handling of the case of bishop Peter Ball, who was convicted of sex offences in 2015. 

By Glenn Blain, Kenneth Lovett, June 20, 2017, NY Daily News

ALBANY — State Senate Republicans once again turned their backs on child sex abuse victims.

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan responded “yes” when asked Tuesday afternoon if the Child Victims Act is done for the year.

By Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, June 19, 2017

BBC News, June 17, 2017

Sex abuse victims have been "utterly marginalised" by an inquiry set up to help them, one of the victims claimed.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is examining the extent to which religious groups and local authorities failed children.

Earlier this week a latest victims group - Survivors of Organised and Institutional Abuse (SOIA) - withdrew from the process.

The IICSA said it had "taken on board" a number of issues raised by SOIA.

SOIA said the group had taken the decision to withdraw "with regret" but said the inquiry was "not fit for purpose".

By DANYEL VANREENEN, June 17, 2017, The Journal

MARTINSBURG — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a 2015 Berkeley County Circuit Court on Wednesday, making it possible for the case against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to proceed to trial, according to counsel for the plaintiffs.

By Tom McCarthy   JUNE 15, 2017, Boston Globe

Editor’s note: When we heard that “Spotlight’’ director Tom McCarthy would be picking up a screenwriting award at the Nantucket Film Festival just days after the Globe had decamped from its longtime Dorchester digs for new quarters in downtown Boston, something clicked. Who better to write about this venerable building, immortalized by his cinematic vision? What had he expected when he first walked into our newsroom a few years ago? What surprised/delighted/vexed him about what he found? And how on Earth had he managed to capture this place and its people so accurately? This is his answer.

By Marci Hamilton, June 15, 2017, New York Daily News

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is currently holding its annual General Assembly in Indianapolis, where no doubt church leaders are discussing politics as much as doctrine.

June 14, 2017, Belfast Telegraph Digital 

Calls are growing for a public inquiry into Northern Ireland's former mother and baby homes after it has emerged that 43 babies died from severe malnutrition at two Belfast homes in a single year.