News Story of the Day

By Ivey DeJesus, May 29, 2018, PennLive

In the mid-2000s, when then-Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham launched an investigation into clergy sex abuse and cover-up in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, she was assailed for waging a campaign against the Roman Catholic Church.

It was a virtual repeat of what had played out just a few years prior in 2002 in Boston. That year, officials at the Archdiocese of Boston accused The Boston Globe of mounting an anti-Catholic agenda after the paper published a series of scathing reports detailing decades of molestation of thousands of children by priests and its systemic cover up by church officials.

WTRF.com, May 28, 2018

The Diocese of Steubenville has received what it considers to be credible allegations of sexual abuse against retired diocesan priest Msgr. Mark J. Froehlich.

Due to the allegations, he has been removed from active ministry. 

The "Chapter for the Protection of Children and Young People," which are special laws approved by the Holy Father to deal with child abuse, are handling the case.

By Ivey DeJesus, May 23, 2018, PennLive

He has been here before; several times. Each time he has come close to achieving his goal.

Now Pennsylvania's most recognizable advocate for victims of child sexual abuse says the time has come to once and for all reform the law so that all victims can seek legal recourse.

State Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat, on Wednesday laid out a case as to why his legislative agenda to reform the statute of limitations may finally make it all the way to the governor's desk.

Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports, May 23, 2018

WASHINGTON — The new post-Nassar leadership of the U.S. Olympic movement was on full display for all to see Wednesday morning at a Congressional hearing focused on the terrible sex abuse scandals in the nation’s Olympic sports.

Everyone was so calm, so measured, so lawyerly, so sorry — and so full of excuses about how they weren’t around when all the bad stuff happened, but now care very much about what has become the worst scandal in U.S. Olympic history and are doing their best to try to put a stop to it.

BECCA ANDREWS, MAY. 25, 2018, Mother Jones Magazine

#ChurchToo has opened the floodgates.

The #MeToo stories that were flooding Emily Joy’s social feeds for weeks had been nagging at her. Last November, as her own story played on a loop in her mind, she finally texted a group of close friends: “Do I out my high school abuser? Probably, huh?” 

Joy’s story is familiar in all the ways we’ve become intimately acquainted with over the last six-plus months. But while the accused was a man in a position of power over his victim, her story also had a key difference: Joy’s abuser was a trusted member of her evangelical church. 

By Ivey DeJesus, May 23, 2018, PennLive

Late last week, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie added six names to the list of clergy and staff that have been credibly accused of child sex molestation.

The names joined the list of 51 other names that in April were first made public by the head of the diocese, Bishop Lawrence Persico.

It's become the modus operandi for a cleric fast earning the moniker of a reformer: the idea, that is, of a bishop who offers up a measure of transparency from within an institution known for its historically secretive and guarded confines.

By Sam Rigney, 22 May 2018, The Sydney Morning Herald

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has been put on notice that he could expect a jail term after he was found guilty on Tuesday of concealing historical child abuse allegations against another priest.

In a landmark decision that could have wide-reaching implications for other high-ranking clergy members, Magistrate Robert Stone found Archbishop Wilson had been told by a 15-year-old boy in 1976 that he had been indecently assaulted by notorious Hunter paedophile priest Father James Fletcher, but chose not to go to the authorities despite believing the allegations were true.

By Nader Issa, Chicago Sun Times, May 21, 2018

A former Catholic priest with Chicago ties is facing criminal charges for the first time, nearly two decades after he resigned from his post amid several allegations of child sex abuse.

The case that eventually landed 56-year-old Kenneth Lewis in the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Saturday in Chicago stems from a decade-old allegation of child molestation in an Evanston hotel room, according to a police source in the northern suburb.

In that incident, “Father Ken,” a former pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy on a trip in late July 2001, in a hotel at 1501 Sherman Ave., the Evanston police source told the Chicago Sun-Times. The hotel at that address is now the Holiday Inn Chicago North.

CHILE--Rio Bueno Noticias (RBN)  May 19, 2018

[Juan Carlos Cruz on the Resignation Of Bishops: "Let Them Pack Their Suitcases"]  Translation follows

Juan Carlos Cruz, denunciante de los abusos sexuales al interior de la iglesia Católica, conversó con 24 Tarde para entregar sus impresiones respecto a la decisión de los obispos que este viernes pusieron su cargo a disposición del Papa Francisco.

. . .

By Agence France-Presse, Manila Bulletin, May 19, 2018

All of Chile’s bishops offered to resign Friday over child sex cover-up claims dating back decades, the latest in a series of abuse scandals facing the Catholic Church globally.

Here is a rundown of other notable cases:

 Australia

The third-highest member of the Vatican hierarchy, Australian George Pell was ordered in May to stand trial on “multiple” historical sex charges, which he denies.

His case coincided with an Australian public enquiry that found that seven percent of priests were accused of paedophilic acts between 1950 and 2010.