News Story of the Day

Brooklyn priest sexually abused woman who sought spiritual guidance: lawsuit

BY JAMES FANELLI, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, Monday, June 26, 2017

A Catholic priest preyed on a vulnerable Brooklyn parishioner by twisting church theology in order to pressure her into performing sex acts on him, a lawsuit charges.

Father Andre Bain is accused of sexually abusing the young woman, who came to him for counseling shortly after he became the head of St. Vincent Ferrer Church in East Flatbush in July 2014.


The Silence of the Lambs: Are Protestants concealing a Catholic-size sexual abuse scandal?

By KATHRYN JOYCE, June 20, 2017, The New Republic

It was a hot day in July, a Saturday afternoon, and Kim James was bored. Her older sisters had taken her to a church event in their small hometown in Indiana, where the girls were spending their summer. Her parents were back in Bangladesh, working at the remote Baptist missionary compound where the family had lived, on and off, for five years.

For an adventurous and high-spirited 13-year-old like Kim, Indiana seemed dull compared to Bangladesh. She missed her friends, the dozen or so missionary kids everybody called “MKs.” She missed the menagerie her parents let her keep: goats, cows, a parrot, a monkey. She missed the jackals that called in the distance at night, and the elephants that sometimes crashed through the compound fence.


Benedictines ‘can’t accept’ blame for child abuse at school

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.


LDS bishop arrested by Mapleton police on reports of sexually abusing two underage males

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.

       

Lord Carey criticised by damning report which finds Church 'colluded' with disgraced bishop Peter Ball to cover up sex offences

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


State Senate Republicans kill the Child Victims Act again as majority leader says bill won't get a vote this year

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.


Research identifies four dimensions of risk of child sexual abuse in institutional settings

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

Research identifies four dimensions of risk of child sexual abuse in institutional settings

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a new research report that identifies four dimensions of risk of child sexual abuse in institutional settings.

Professors Patrick Parkinson and Judy Cashmore from the University of Sydney were contracted by the Royal Commission to establish a means of differentiating between types of institutions in terms of level of risk of child sexual abuse according to their characteristics and the services they provide.


Victims pull out of Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

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".


Lawsuit against LDS church permitted to move forward

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.

The case against the church was initially investigated after a church leader and member was found guilty and sentenced in July 2013 to 35 to 75 years in prison for sexually abusing two minors — 4 and 3 years of age at the time of the abuse.


‘Spotlight’ director: Globe building was one of movie’s stars

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.


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