"Give me the boy at seven", and now we know what that has meant for so many boys!

The Jesuits say, "give me the boy at seven", and now we know what that has meant for so many boys. The Vatican newspaper, worried that indoctrination at seven is not producing sufficient life-time allegiance, has been arguing that the age of first communions and confession be reduced to five.

Ending clergy abuse

As the world absorbs the news of the appointment of the new pope, it is time to ask how the new Supreme Leader of the Catholic Church can meet its most urgent challenge, of stopping its priests from sexually molesting small boys.

There have been, on a realistic estimate, over 100,000 such victims since 1981, when Joseph Ratzinger became head of the Vatican office which declined to defrock paedophiles and instead approved their removal to other parishes and other countries.

These widespread and systematic sexual assaults can collectively be described as a crime against humanity. The church cannot atone just by paying compensation. Unless the new pope installs a policy that minimises danger to children, he, like pope Benedict, will become complicit in ongoing but avoidable abuse.

First, and most obviously, there must be zero tolerance for paedophile priests. They must be automatically defrocked as soon as their bishop learns of their crime. There must be no delay, and certainly no appeal to the Vatican _ it was there that Rev Ratzinger's preference for avoiding scandal permitted so many paedophiles to be forgiven, and then to re-offend. There is ample evidence now, from Ireland, America and Europe, that the Vatican has conspired to thwart prosecutors and protect clerical criminals.

The pope is the source of canon law, which directs that allegations of child molestation be investigated in utter secrecy, by a "trial" loaded in favour of clerics who if found guilty are "punished" for the most part by orders for prayer and penitence. This must be changed, by recognition that child molestation is a serious offence which cannot be dealt with in a secret ecclesiastical procedure.

Allegations must be reported to the police. The Vatican pretends that it made this change in 2011, when new "guidelines" were issued reminding bishops to co-operate with law enforcement authorities, but only when local law requires it (and many countries still do not have laws compelling the reporting of child abuse). These "guidelines" are not incorporated into canon law.

Bishops are not told to hand evidence over to the police, and priests are not required to inform on brothers whom they know (often through confession) to be molesting children.

There is no duty to suspend a suspected priest.

Even in countries where local bishops have bowed to political pressure and announced that public prosecutors will be told of sex abuse allegations, there is always a qualification: "Only if the victim consents." It is all too easy for young victims and trusting parents to be counselled that the victim's best interests lie in allowing the church to deal with the matter "in its own way"without involving the police.

So criminal priests escape prosecution because officials, in order to protect the reputation of their church, pressure and persuade families to have complaints dealt with in secret under canon law processes.

Abolishing the role of the Vatican and of canon law in covering up for paedophile priests will take some papal courage, but will be relatively easy beside the radical changes necessary to stop the abuse from happening in the first place.

The reform most often suggested is to abandon celibacy. This would not be doctrinally difficult _ Christ's disciples appear to have been married, and the rule was a dogma introduced in the 11th century and almost abolished by 16th century reformers.

But marriage does not "cure" paedophilia. Moreover, many abusive priests are not paedophiles. Their disordered personality can often be ascribed to conditions that would prevent them from forming satisfactory heterosexual relationships. Essentially, abuse happens because they are too weak or emotionally immature to resist the temptation.

That temptation arises because the church indoctrinates children at their earliest rational age _ usually at seven _ that the priest is the agent of God. Communion is an awesome miracle performed by the God-priest, and then the impressionable and nervous child is made to confess his sins and seek forgiveness from God, represented again by the priest.

Father Tom Doyle explains the phenomenon of children's unflinching obedience to priests' sexual requests as induced by "reverential fear" _ the victims have such emotional and psychological dependence on the abuser that they unquestioningly obey _ and do not tell for many years afterwards.

It follows that the only reform that would tackle the evil of clerical sexual abuse at its source would be to raise the age, from seven to, say, 13, at which children are first given communion and confession, which inculcates their reverence for the priesthood.

If the new pope cannot bring himself to deliver small children from the spiritual hold of the priest, then parliaments may have to step in to protect children of tender age from immersion in religious rituals.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/340548/ending-child-sexual-abuse-a-papal-necessity

Victims of clergy sexual abuse say millions of children remain at risk!

Millions of children still at risk while Church fails to deal with the problem, activists say

Victims of clergy sexual abuse urged newly-elected Pope Francis to reform the Catholic Church and declare "zero tolerance" for sex crimes as his first official act.

"St Francis was the greatest reformer in the history of the church, Pope Francis must do the same," the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or Snap, said in a statement.

US-based Snap warned that millions of children remained at risk from paedophile priests because the Church had not yet reversed long-standing policies of covering up reports of sexual abuse by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.

Insisting that the Jesuit order from which he hailed had a "troubled" track record on paedophilia, Snap said Francis "has both an enormous opportunity and duty to help prevent heinous assaults against kids by this crucial and relatively secretive segment of the Catholic clergy".

"Very little about this crisis has been exposed in South and Central America. We worry about the safety of children in the church there," the group added.

"For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, we hope he starts by exposing the names of predator priests - current and former, living and deceased - in his home archdiocese."

The sex abuse scandal cast its shadow over the conclave of cardinals that elected Francis after two days of votes.

Snap had called for more than a dozen cardinals they said had covered up abuses or made tactless remarks about the scandals to be left out of the deliberations.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi defended the cardinals and accused Snap and other activists of showing "negative prejudices".

Catholics United spokesman Christopher Hale also acknowledged that when it came to sex abuse in the Church, "apologies are not enough".

"Priests who sexually abuse children have to end up in jail and not in our parishes," he said.

The election of Francis came in the same week that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, its former leader Cardinal Roger Mahony and an ex-priest agreed to pay a total of nearly US$10 million to settle four child sex abuse cases brought against them. It was the latest in a string of such settlements around the world.

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1190954/victims-clergy-sexual-abuse-say-millions-children-remain-risk

Organizations join to stop child sexual abuse in sports!

The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation is co-hosting a summit to discuss best practices

Following a string of recent cases in which coaches used their positions to sexually abuse children, the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation says it is trying to help sports organizations better screen people who work with young athletes.

The foundation has created an online resource that offers training for employees and volunteers. The site also directs sports organization leaders to a legal research website where they can search potential staff members' criminal histories at a minimal cost.

"Most organizations serving kids do the bare minimum to protect them" because they feel overwhelmed just managing their day-to-day operations, and screening volunteers can be expensive, said Steve Salem, CEO of the foundation.

 The online resource is one step the foundation has taken to help end abuse amid growing concerns about sexual abuse in the sports realm. Next week, the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation is partnering with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to hold a summit about child sexual abuse in sports.

Event organizers saw a need for a conference after the sexual abuse scandal surrounding Jerry Sandusky and the Pennsylvania State University football program.

"Although this was a wake-up call for many in America to learn about the scope and type of abuse children encounter in youth sports activities, it was an issue we were very familiar with and that our staff, frankly, deals with every day," said John Ryan, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Maryland has also seen recent cases of alleged child sexual abuse in sports. In October 2011, a coach with Michael Phelps' former swim club, the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, resigned following allegations of inappropriate conduct with a female swimmer in 1975.

A year later, Rick Curl, who founded the Washington Curl-Burke Swim Club, turned himself in to Montgomery County police on a charge of abusing one of his students in the 1980s. Curl pleaded guilty in February to one count of child sexual abuse and faces up to 15 years in prison.

In September 2012, ice dancer and coach Genrikh Sretenski was arrested in Howard County on New York charges of sexual abuse and endangering a child. He was released from jail a few days later on the condition he turn himself in to New York police.

Ryan said there's no data tracking the scope of child sexual abuse as it relates to sports but said the center's tip line has received about 1.8 million reports of children being exploited since 1998.

Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL defensive lineman who is speaking at the summit, said sports has paved the way for social change before with issues such as segregation and women's rights and that it could do the same for child sexual abuse.

"I think this could be a pivotal moment in the history of youth sports," he said.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-sexual-abuse-20130312,0,5441871.story

While clergy abuse of children has received worldwide attention from media and legal authorities, little has been written about the more widespread phenomenon of clergy abuse of adult women, said Batchelor. Think Tendler Trinity Of Human Garbage!

READ TENDLER POST: http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2007/07/seeking-additional-victims-of-rabbi.html

READ MORE:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201303131200.html

Mahony is in Rome helping select the next pope!

LA archdiocese settles 4 clergy abuse cases for $10M; priest had admitted past abuse to Mahony

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay nearly $10 million to settle four clergy sex abuse cases.

Church attorney J. Michael Hennigan confirmed the $9.9 million settlement Tuesday for the cases, which alleged abuse by former priest Michael Baker.

Two cases were to go to trial soon and a judge had said attorneys for the alleged victims could also pursue punitive damages.

Recently released files show Baker met with Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1986 and confessed to molesting two brothers for nearly seven years.

Mahony sent Baker for psychological treatment but eventually put him back in ministry, where he molested again.

Baker was convicted of molesting one boy in 2007. Two of the latest plaintiffs are that boy's brothers.

Mahony is in Rome helping select the next pope.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/12/la-archdiocese-settles-4-clergy-abuse-cases-for-10m-priest-had-admitted-past/#ixzz2NOa0RUpE

‘NO REASONABLE EXCUSE’

Finaldi, however, disputed the notion that Mahony should be absolved of any obligation to alert authorities.

“You have a priest who is confessing that he sexually molested two kids, and you don’t pick up the phone and call police? There’s no reasonable excuse for not doing that,” he said.

READ ARTICLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/03/13/us/13reuters-usa-church-abuse.html

Child sexual abuse happens because of the choices adults make!

Stewards of Children initiative fights child sexual abuse

Program trains workers to spot, report the signs

Parents in Hall County can rest just a little bit easier knowing that several community organizations are watching out for their children.

More than 25 organizations that work closely with children have joined the Hall County Prevention Initiative and are training their staffs to prevent and recognize the signs of child sexual abuse.

Steve Collins, president of Adults Protecting Children, said the goal of the initiative is to train 5 percent of the adults in Hall County.

Collins calls the 5 percent goal the “tipping point” to enacting a cultural change. Currently, the initiative has trained about 11 percent of its goal. He anticipates it taking another three to four years to reach about 9,000 people.

But the initiative is closer to reaching its goal because of organizations such as Gainesville Parks and Recreation, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, INK, Westminster Presbyterian Church and The Boys & Girls Clubs of Hall County. Each organization has trained its entire staff and earned a Partners in Prevention designation from Darkness to Light, the developers of the Stewards of Children training program.

Melvin Cooper, director of Gainesville Parks and Recreation, said the goal is to continue to train everyone who works with children through the organization’s programs, including full- and part-time staff and volunteer youth coaches.

“Our main focus is the safety and well-being of every child in our programs,” Cooper said in an email. “Parents trust us with their children and we want to make sure that we are doing everything possible to protect them while in our care.”

Andi Harmon, division manager at Frances Meadows Aquatic Center, is certified to train the city’s employees. She’s teaching all the new lifeguards to recognize signs of abuse as the center gears up for the busy summer months where the lifeguards are sure to interact with many children.

Harmon said she thinks the program will help adults know how to better address the topic of sexual abuse, not just with children but with other adults.

“I think it sheds a light on it,” Harmon said. “It’s unfortunate that we even have to do it. But we need to put a focus on it so it’s not a hidden topic. The first part of solving the problem is opening that dialogue.”

Ignoring or not reporting a suspicion of abuse isn’t an option.

 A Georgia law passed last year requires doctors, nurses, teachers, volunteers, clergy and others who work with children to report suspected child abuse to authorities within 24 hours, or face criminal charges.

Cooper said the program gives volunteers and staff the confidence to act responsibly.

“It’ll take an entire community of people to stop child abuse,” Cooper said. “The more people who are conscious of the issue and understand how to avoid a certain situation or react in a situation, the better.”

The training takes about two hours and costs $15 per person. Those who are interested in training can email adultsprotectingchildren@gmail.com or visit the initiative’s website at www.preventnow.org.

Other county initiatives like the ones in Lumpkin and Rabun, have already reached their tipping point.

“You can see how, in Lumpkin County, there is much more of a community impact because there are so many more of those in the areas where children are (who) have been trained,” Collins said.

Signs like the establishment of a new child advocacy center and more frequent calls to law enforcement indicate that a cultural change is taking place in the community.

Collins said he envisions a community in Hall County that can protect children from abuse by educating adults.

“Child sexual abuse happens because of the choices adults make,” Collins said.

Adults can ensure the organizations their children participate in have policies in place that will protect children.

Adults can do a lot by simply learning to listen to the kids.

“We’re reducing the opportunities for child abuse,” Collins said. “We’ll never eliminate it, but we can certainly change the structure of these organizations and make them safer so the numbers will eventually be down. And perpetrators will know that Hall County is not a safe place for them to engage in any kind of abusive activity because there are too many adults looking out for children.”

Contact: 770-789-3879, adultsprotectingchildren@gmail.com

sking@gainesvilletimes.com

Way To Go Michael Dowd!

Gov. Andrew Cuomo Meets With Leading Activist To Extend Clergy Abuse Statute Of Limitations

A leading advocate for a bill to expand the statute of limitations for clergy sex abuse cases got an unexpected meeting with Cuomo last week.

Michael Dowd, who was campaign manager for Cuomo’s father’s 1977 mayoral run, was meeting with Cuomo’s chief counsel to discuss the bill when the governor popped in with out warning, insiders said.

Dowd made his case, but received no promises from Cuomo on the controversial measure, which is vehemently opposed by the Catholic Church, a source said.

A Cuomo spokesman confirmed the meeting but said the governor has not taken a position on the bill.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/03/gov-andrew-cuomo-meets-with-leading-activist-to-extend-clergy-abuse-statute-of
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My Brother Was A Victim Of Clergy Sexual Abuse!

It is time to ring down the curtain on the old men who cared more for the institution they ran and for the perks and privileges they enjoyed, than for the children under their care. Their tender mercies turned out to be a holocaust of abuse.

 In 1983, at the age of 38, my brother hanged himself with his belt in a hospital ward and his once promising life was over, stolen away by years of abuse at a Catholic school. Over the past two decades, the vast clergy sex abuse scandal has left the Catholic Church morally and economically devastated. It left my family devastated as well and caused more pain than I ever could have imagined.

In the 1960s, my brother went off to a high school run by the Christian Brothers. He emerged four years later terribly damaged and depressed. Along with dozens of other boys in the school, he was abused over the entire course of his time there by one of the priests, and he was warned not to tell anyone about it.

It is time to ring down the curtain on the old men who cared more for the institution they ran and for the perks and privileges they enjoyed, than for the children under their care. For years, he did not. Then, in his early 20s, he had a major mental breakdown from which he never recovered. A psychiatrist told my mother “I have never seen such ego destruction as what happened to your son in that school.”

A bright, caring, handsome young man, my brother struggled mightily to overcome his abuse, but he did not succeed. Although he married and had a child, his demons ultimately got the best of him. In 1983, at the age of 38, he hanged himself with his belt in a hospital ward and his once promising life was over, stolen away by years of abuse at a Catholic school.

As a journalist and as the family member of a victim, I have been astonished by the sheer scope of this scandal. I have interviewed countless clergy abuse victims, many of whom suffer from depression, alcoholism and other addictions. Many are not able to maintain close relationships or marriages. And some, like my brother, took their own lives.

As Joanna Moorhead wrote recently in The Guardian, “How could an organization that professes a direct link to Christ … have gone so far off the rails that it now seems a power-crazed, untrustworthy and corrupt institution, out to save its own skin at almost any cost?”

During the 60s and 70s, Rev. James P. Porter, a priest in Fall River, molested scores of children.

In spite of this, Catholic Church officials continued to move Porter from parish to parish before he left the priesthood in 1974. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to molesting 28 children, but he had previously admitted to abusing at least 100 boys and girls.

Porter is merely one example. But he represents many other abusive priests who were handled in the same way.

Cardinal Bernard Law, who was archbishop of Boston when the allegations against Porter began to gain momentum in the early 90s, was not only aware of rampant sexual misconduct in the priesthood but also apparently attempted to sweep the abuse under the rug.

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick wrote in 2002:

“Law was apparently engaged in elaborate efforts to cover up incident after incident of child rape. Worse yet, he breezily reassigned clergy known for sexually abusing children to work with more children — conduct not all that distinguishable from leaving a loaded gun in a playground.”

When the Boston media began to write stories about Porter, Law thundered, “By all means we call down God’s power on the media, particularly the [Boston] Globe.”

The wrath of God, I suspect, was moving in another direction entirely, but Law was hardly reprimanded by Rome. In fact, he was given a cushy job in the Vatican, where he remains to this day.

Of course I got to thinking about all this — my brother, the clergy sexual abuse scandal, and Bernard Law — because soon the leaders of the Catholic Church will gather together to elect a new pope.

During the last conclave, protesters objected to Cardinal Law’s participation. He took his place anyway. Though at age 81, he is too old to vote in the coming conclave, he is eligible to participate in the general congregation meetings that precede it.

Vote or no vote, it is a travesty that Law should have any involvement in any of the ceremonies associated with selecting a new pope.

It is time to ring down the curtain on the old men who cared more for the institution they ran and for the perks and privileges they enjoyed, than for the children under their care. Their tender mercies turned out to be a holocaust of abuse.

It is not a time for old crimes to be forgotten. Let them be remembered, always...

http://cognoscenti.wbur.org/2013/03/08/bernard-law-catholic-church-caryl-rivers

New York May Ease Statute of Limitations for Decades-Old Child Sex Abuse Claims!

All agreed that New York State’s current statute of limitations allowed individual abusers and institutions to run out the clock, and avoid taking responsibility. “People who abuse children do not retire from molesting,” said Christopher Anderson, Executive Director of MaleSurvivor, who was abused by a neighbor as a child. Richard Gartner, a psychologist and psychoanalyst who specializes in male sexual abuse, explained that often, the trauma is too great for a child to face. “I have seen over a thousand patients since the 1980s,” he said. “ I can only think of two who came [to me] before the New York statute of limitations was reach by age 23. I have known men to come forward in their 60s and beyond who had never told a single person.” When the state denies abuse survivors justice because of a time limit, Gartner added, “the state is re-victimizing these people yet again.”

Testify at N.Y. Hearing on Lifting Statute of Limitations

The hearing was presided over by two Democrats, Assembly members Joseph Lentol and Margaret Markey, the bill’s sponsor, and a Republican, Assemblyman Alfred Graf.

Two Yeshiva University staffers Friday urged passage of a bill that could potentially harm their own school, which is currently under scrutiny because of allegations it failed to address child sexual abuse over several decades at its high school affiliate.

Professor Marci Hamilton and Rabbi Yosef Blau testified at a New York Assembly hearing in support of the Child Victims Act, which would make it easier for adults who were abused as children to file suits against institutions that they believe were negligent in protecting them.

Currently, any victim of child sexual abuse who fails to file such a suit by his or her 23rd birthday is barred from doing so by New York State’s statute of limitations on such crimes. The Child Victims Act would abolish those limits for cases going forward and open up a limited, one-year window during which those abused in the past could file civil law suits against their abusers, and against institutions that knew or should have known about such abuse committed by members of their staffs.

The bill, versions of which have been offered four times in previous years, is expected to pass the state assembly easily but faces a tough test in the state senate.

Both the Catholic Church and the ultra-Orthodox umbrella group, Agudath Israel of America, have publicly opposed the bill in the past. Many experts on child sexual abuse say it can take far longer than the current statute allows for victims of abuse to understand and confront what was done to them as children, and then go to court for redress, which can exacerbate already existing trauma.

In a series of stories starting last December, the Forward found more than 20 former students at Yeshiva University High School for Boys’ Manhattan campus who said they had been abused by two senior staff members over a period ranging from the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s. Several of the former students say they or their families alerted Y.U. officials to what was going on at the time but got no response. One of the senior staff members, high school principal George Finkelstein, left Y.U. for a school in Miami, Fla., where a student has told the Forward he, too, was abused by this administrator.

At the Friday hearing, held in Manhattan, Blau told members of the Assembly’s Codes Committee, “I know that there are members in my own community…fighting this bill. I think that’s a mistake.”....

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/172593/yeshiva-staffers-back-easing-restrictions-on-child/?p=all#ixzz2N3tlRu8z

I am only one of many!

Survivors of childhood sexual abuse are no different from anyone who has survived sexual violence, in terms of what we do to rebuild ourselves. But we are experts in two areas: We’ve taken a master class in the toxicity of silence and secret-keeping, and we have doctorates in our understanding of the importance of consent. It can take abuse survivors, like rape survivors of either gender, years to reclaim a sense of ownership over their bodies. The body is the site of so many violations, starting with the chief one: Our abusers did not ask us for permission to use our bodies as they pleased.

The man who was my abuser was a fine host, a good husband, a caring father, a respected elder whose generosity and kindness were as genuine as the fact of the abuse. These qualities were important, because they helped him conceal the abuse he carried out over a period of four years.

As a much-loved older relative, a close friend of my parents, he had unrestricted access to our house, and we visited him often. It was only at 12 that I began to feel uncomfortable. Not about the abuse — I didn’t know the term “child sexual abuse” at 9 or at 12, and had no words with which to describe my discomfort with the “games” he played — but about the silence that he demanded. When I was 13, I left Delhi for Calcutta, to study in that city, and left my abuser behind. But he didn’t forget, and when I came back to Delhi as a 17-year-old, he was there.

At 17, I knew that he had no right to do this to me. When he sent poems, said that despite the four decades that separated us, we were supposed to “be together,” I finally broke my own silence — but only partly. I told my mother and my sister, and they formed a fierce, protective barrier between me and my abuser.

But the man who had started his abuse when I was a 9-year-old was still invited to my wedding, because we were keeping secrets, trying to protect one family member or another.

Years later, when my abuser was dying of old age and diabetes, I visited him. There was no space for a long conversation, but I did tell him that I could not forget what he had done, even if forgiveness was possible. The silence around the abuse, as much as the abuse itself, festered and caused damage for years, until finally, in my thirties, the difficult but ultimately liberating process of healing began.

In December 2012, a violent gang rape in Delhi took the life of a young woman and set off a raging debate over women’s freedoms and rape laws. In all the complex arguments we’ve heard in the past few months in India on rape, violence against women and the even less often discussed experiences of men who have gone through either sexual violence or childhood sexual abuse, we have not discussed consent as much as we need to. In the area of rape, women’s bodies in particular are often discussed as though they were property: How much freedom should the Indian family allow its daughters, wives, sisters, mothers?

This way of thinking almost always reinforces curbs on women’s freedoms, by heightening the idea that a woman’s honor — rather than her well-being — must be safeguarded, because she is someone else’s possession. This used to be, until very recently, underlined by most Indian government and legal documents, in which we were asked for the name of the father (not the mother), the husband (not the wife), as though the terms “parent” and “partner” were alien to the notion of the Indian family.

If my story saddens you, please think about this: It is neither new nor rare, nor was the man who abused me a monster, or in any way out of the ordinary. According to a 2007 survey (the largest of its kind in India) conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, over 53 percent of Indian children have experienced some form of sexual abuse — including a slightly higher percentage of boys than girls.

I am only one of many. And I was luckier than most; my abuser was not excessively violent. As I learned to acknowledge the abuse and to cope with the fallout, I made some unexpected connections, found good friends, found strong mentors, found help, found my voice again and built a happier, more free life. I’m breaking my silence today to make a point, not about abuse, but about the importance of consent in the present debate over women’s rights and gender equality in India.

Survivors of childhood sexual abuse are no different from anyone who has survived sexual violence, in terms of what we do to rebuild ourselves. But we are experts in two areas: We’ve taken a master class in the toxicity of silence and secret-keeping, and we have doctorates in our understanding of the importance of consent. It can take abuse survivors, like rape survivors of either gender, years to reclaim a sense of ownership over their bodies. The body is the site of so many violations, starting with the chief one: Our abusers did not ask us for permission to use our bodies as they pleased.

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE OP-ED ARTICLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/opinion/global/saying-yes-matters-as-much-as-no.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=1&

I Would Have Sworn She Was Raised An Ultra-Orthodox Jew! Go Figger!

Brainwashed. Manipulated. Controlled.

Those are the words former Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) member Lauren Drain used to describe her time as part of the controversial organization during an interview Monday on "Piers Morgan Tonight."

Drain, now 27, was thrown out of the WBC at the age of 22. She has recently written a memoir about her experiences.

On Monday, Drain told Morgan about the control WBC members wield, especially over children in the group.

"They control what you believe, what you say, what you do, what friends you have," Drain said. "They say everyone on the outside's evil. And they don't allow any outside influence at all."

WBC members claim to speak for God, Drain said, which is how they dismiss outsiders who criticize the group for its virulently hateful rhetoric.

"It's unfortunate and it's atrocity, the things that they do and say -- horrible things they do and say," Drain told Morgan. "But yeah, they claim that they're speaking for God."

In her book, Drain writes that she ultimately began to question some of the group's core teachings, which she believed contradicted God's message. That's when the group, as well as her entire family, cast her out forever.

But Drain still has three siblings "still stuck" inside the church, and that's what still scares and saddens her.

"They have no opportunity to see any type of outside influence, any type of other perspective on God, any other type of knowledge of a good life or good people," Drain told Morgan. "They have no idea there is happiness, and life and forgiveness on the outside."

Since leaving the WBC, Drain has worked to distance herself from the group's stigma. She's appeared in a NOH8 campaign ad and participated in candid Reddit Ask Me Anything.

Perhaps spurred on by Drain's example, two other former members, Megan Phelps-Roper and her younger sister, Grace, publicly announced in February that they had fled the church. They also apologized for their actions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/lauren-drain-westboro-baptist-brainwashed-piers-morgan_n_2823093.html

Sex, lies & abuse: Suppressing sex scandal only further taints the innocent

A Catholic today (and their cousins) cannot avoid paying some attention to the priest sexual abuse scandal. Who were the priest abusers? How did they come to commit such acts? Why did it take so long for their behaviors to be revealed and then confronted? Have the scandals been stopped? Are things finally different now in the church and if so, how are they different?

Instead of facing the scandals and trying to understand the scandalous acts, some Catholics just left the church. They already had complaints and discomforts. The priest scandal was a final straw. Others took the priest scandals as another challenge to their faith, managed by blocking it out. They refused to read about it or think about it. The errant reactions of both groups will cause more pain and further loss. Child sexual abuse is certainly repulsive and nauseating. Most people prefer not to think about it or talk about it. Sadly, escape seems easier than confrontation.

Child sexual abuse has gone on forever and it is extensive in some cultures. After long periods of inattention even in professional literature, there is now literature on the topic; in psychology/psychiatry, sociology, and childhood education. Even in the academic literature, however, the topic is often treated superficially.

News about child sexual abuse is now everywhere in the press and serious attention must be paid both to the offenders and to the contexts which contribute to their offenses. One essential aspect of all offenders is their sexual and psychological immaturity. No matter their age or their accomplishments, sexually and psychologically the abusers are adolescents. Sex with a woman is not an option. For this reason, sexual acts, when they occur, take place with children.

Looking at priest pedophiles, one has to consider the context of their priestly formation — the seminary context. Sexuality was not a subject addressed in seminaries in the 20th century. Not even in moral theology classes was sexual abuse or sexual maturity addressed. If sexuality was mentioned it had to do with the structure of sex organs and why contraception was a violation of their purpose and design.

Touching was not mentioned. There was no mention of child sexual abuse or the development of sexual maturity. Violation of priestly celibacy meant having sex with a woman. This inadequate and distorted moral education certainly was a contributing factor in the child sexual abuse of some priests.

The extensive work of Sigmund Freud had no place in seminary education. It was as if Freud’s works and the work of many others on sexuality simply did not exist. Existential philosophers and their works on the human person, and the maturity of an inner person, also were ignored.

The focus on sexuality in the seminary was on homosexuality. Any expression of homosexuality resulted in immediate expulsion from the seminary. Priests from the outside, brought in to hear confessions, were instructed to respond to any homosexual sins by requiring that the sinner leave the seminary immediately, that very evening.

Notice how quickly the Vatican responded to accusations of homosexual expressions by Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland. The accusations were made by several priests. They had not yet been subject to any legal examination and will be contested by the cardinal. The cardinal, however, resigned his post and his resignation was immediately accepted. How different this was from the endless delays in dealing with pedophile priests. Continued...

In the 1970s, a study of sexual and psychological maturity in the clergy showed the need for better sexual and psychological education. Even the Vatican insisted that more attention be given to these issues. But not much changed. The same old professors taught their same old material. This inadequate education contributed to the continuing priest sexual scandals. Finally, however, changes are taking place but all too late for many victims and the many scandalized Catholics who simply left the church.

I talked to a friend recently who is a retired chief of police. He mentioned police officers who took advantage of their respected public image in order to commit sexual violations of young people. As with priest offenders, a public image of power and respect was taken advantage of by psychologically and sexually immature persons. In both cases, the sexual behaviors, once revealed, caused scandal and smeared the public image of formerly respected persons in a community.

In both police departments and diocesan offices, the first reaction was to keep the scandalous acts secret. But this didn’t work. Now that certain background contexts and influences have been identified, education and cultural changes are being made. Not only are dangerous priests and policemen being removed, but efforts are being made to return respect to the decent priests and policemen who have been smeared by the personal failures of a few.

JAMES F. DRANE

James F. Drane Bioethics Institute

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

Edinboro, PA

A new shocking investigation revealed that more than 400 children are sexually abused every week in Britain, one every 20 minutes

Britain has more than 18,000 profiled paedophiles/child abusers, a majority of whom are being leniently released into the society to repeat their crimes, according to latest statistics compiled by local media.

A new shocking investigation revealed that more than 400 children are sexually abused every week in Britain, one every 20 minutes.

According to data collected for 2011 as part of the probe, the 43 police forces in England and Wales recorded 23,097 child sex offences in 2011, including rape, incest, child prostitution and pornography.

The annual figure is equivalent to 444 attacks a week - or one kiddie abused every 20 minutes, the probe found.

This is while that of all these recorded crimes only 2,135 of those reported - ten percent - led to someone actually being convicted and sentenced. It means that thousands of child abusers escape scot-free.

Thames Valley Police, covering Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, had the second highest child abuse figures, with 1,264 offences, according to the nationwide study.

Last month, the police force smashed an alleged child sex ring in the university city of Oxford. It is claimed 24 victims - some as young as 11 - were groomed, drugged and raped over a period of six years.

More than 1,470 of the national total were aged five and under, 4,973 were ten to five and 14,819 were between 11 and 17. Six times as many girls (19,790) were abused as boys (3,218), authorities said.

They also revealed that one percent of children aged under 16 experienced sexual abuse by a parent or carer, and a further 3 percent by another relative during childhood.

Based on the unveiled statistics, 11 percent of children aged under 16 experienced sexual abuse during childhood by people known but unrelated to them, while, 5 percent aged under 16 experienced sexual abuse during childhood by an adult stranger or someone they had just met.

The majority of children who experienced sexual abuse had more than one sexually abusive experience; only indecent exposure was likely to be a single incident. More than one third (36 percent) of all rapes recorded by the police are committed against children under 16 years of age.

A separate study which examined police data on rapes committed against children found that children under the age of 12 were the most likely of all those aged 16 and under to have reported being raped by someone they knew well.

Children under the age of 12 were least likely to have been raped by a stranger. Children between 13 and 15 years of age were the most likely to have reported being raped by an ‘acquaintance.

This comes as almost half of all sex offenders were spared jail in 2011. And lenient judges let 2,497 - or 43 percent - of the 5,784 convicted walk free from court.

Recent figures show the number of sex criminals allowed straight back into the community has increased by 20 percent over the past five years. Separate figures showed sex assaults on boys and girls under 13 have more than doubled since 2004.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/03/291641/child-abuse/

Miss America Joins Brooklyn DA’s Campaign To Help Fight Child Sex Abuse « CBS New York

Miss America Gets It.... The So-Called Wise Men - Perlow....Kaminetzky...Salomon... Do NOT! NO WORDS!

CLICK ON LINK FOR STORY:
Miss America Joins Brooklyn DA’s Campaign To Help Fight Child Sex Abuse « CBS New York

According to CCR estimates, up to 100,000 individuals have been the victims of sexual violence by clergy between 1981 and 2005.

United Nations February 28, 2013 Clergy Abuse Victims Hand Vatican Damning Report On Human Rights Violations. Victims groups allege Vatican sovereignty and secretive internal courts shield the church from accountability in abuse cases.

UNITED NATIONS (TRNS) – The legal team representing thousands of individuals abused by Catholic priests has published a new report in response to comments made by the Vatican to the United Nations last year.

The latest report by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) comes on the heels of an appeal to the International Court of Justice earlier this month to take the Vatican to trial over its alleged complicity in cases of child sexual abuse worldwide.

According to CCR estimates, up to 100,000 individuals have been the victims of sexual violence by clergy between 1981 and 2005.

With the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI now underway, and the selection of a new pontiff in the coming weeks, the issue of criminal behavior by the Catholic clergy is poised to dog the church for years to come.

According to the CCR report, the Vatican overlooked its gravest abuses when it provided a 2011 report assessing its compliance with the U.N.’s Convention of the Rights of the Child human rights treaty.

Contained within the Vatican’s 37 page assessment are only brief references to the ongoing clergy abuse scandal. In outlining its internal process for handling perpetrators of abuse, the Vatican trumpeted its system of canon law, which, “addresses disturbances to the public order of the Church, [and] therefore, briefly treats the subject matter of delicts (e.g. homicide, theft, aggression, and sexual abuse).

The CCR report lodged today zeroed in on the Vatican’s own handling of disciplinary matters, saying that the church sacrifices the wellbeing of children in order to preserve its institutional reputation.

“This conclusion was perhaps most succinctly expressed by a grand jury in the United States when it observed that Church authorities ‘continued and/or established policies that made the protection of the Church from ‘scandal’ more important than the protection of children from sexual predators.’”

When the Vatican does investigate members of the clergy, it has consistently done so in private hearings closed to the public. The following selection from the 2011 Vatican report presents the church’s argument for maintaining the secrecy of its internal justice system:

Despite citing the protection of witnesses for this privacy, the CCR maintains that the Vatican should follow the lead of many national courts, which allow victims to optionally seek confidentiality in otherwise public trials.

Another prominent element of the Vatican’s report was repeated emphasis of the Church’s national sovereignty and the complicated intersection of canon law and civil law.

In accusing the Vatican of five specific violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child — Articles 3, 6, 34, 37, and 39 — the CCR repeatedly took the Vatican to task over its characterization of its place within the realm of international justice.

“The Holy See inhabits a unique and hybrid space in the world unlike any other country or entity,” the CCR report said. ”The Holy See will use the fact of its statehood and associated immunities to shield against efforts to hold it and its high-ranking officials accountable in national courts for their role in forming and implementing policies and practices that have enabled and facilitated acts of rape and sexual violence.”

Through 1) resisting cooperation with local and national law enforcement, 2) the destruction of evidence, 3) the process of shifting embattled priests between parishes, 4) punishing whistleblowers, and 5) blaming the victims of abuse, the CCR concluded that “both within the confines of the Vatican City and beyond in the realm of the universal Church, the Holy See has failed in its obligation under the Convention and OPSC to take all legal, administrative, and other measures to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence by clergy.”

Offering specific recommendations to prevent further abuse, the CCR pushes the Vatican to implement background checks on clergy in close contact with children and to make public its ecclesiastical court proceedings.

http://www.talkradionews.com/united-nations/2013/02/28/clergy-abuse-victims-un-crc-report.html

Child Sexual Abuse: It's Not Just a Catholic Issue

As Catholic cardinals from around the world gather to elect a new pope, they face the growing ire of an international community that has lost confidence in the moral integrity of the Church. New details are emerging every day about Catholic priests who have committed acts of child sexual abuse and a Church hierarchy that has for decades worked to protect them.

Amid all the names, the one that has attracted the most anger in the U.S. is Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles. Last month, a court ordered the release of files relating to more than 120 priests accused of child sex abuse which showed that Mahony, along with other officials, had protected the clerics. He was publicly reprimanded by his successor and stripped of his public and administrative duties.

The Catholic Church is in crisis, no doubt. The next pope will be bogged down for years in ongoing worldwide investigations, civil litigation and criminal prosecutions of Church officials. He faces the even tougher job of regaining the diminishing trust of many Catholics who have left the Church out of frustration and disgust.

While the media has chosen to focus on the wrongdoings of the Catholic Church, the problem of child sexual abuse -- and its cover up -- is by no means unique to this one religion. Over the past year, we have seen evidence of several other organizations where moral integrity is a given (including the Boy Scouts of America, Penn State University and an Orthodox Jewish community in London) fall prey to widespread child sexual abuse. Like the Catholic Church, these institutions chose to protect themselves and their own image rather than the lives of innocent victims.

In 2012, internal documents from the Boy Scouts of America revealed more than 125 cases in which men suspected of molestation allegedly continued to abuse Boy Scouts, despite a blacklist meant to protect boys from sexual predators. Similar to the Catholic Church's lists of pedophile priests, the Boy Scouts of America kept a list of "perversion files," which listed the names of Scout leaders suspected of abuse. In at least 50 cases, the Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to discover they had re-entered the organization and were accused of molesting again.

In 2011, a conspiracy of silence that protected longtime Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was broken when Sandusky was accused of sexually assaulting at least eight underage boys. An investigation commissioned by the school board, and conducted by former FBI head Louis Freeh, found that university president Graham Spanier, head football coach Joe Paterno and athletic director Tim Curley had known about allegations of child abuse on Sandusky's part as early as 1998, and were complicit in failing to disclose them.

Just last month, British TV aired a documentary titled "Britain's Hidden Child Abuse," which showed a video of a senior rabbi in an Orthodox Jewish community north of London warning an alleged victim of child sex abuse not to go to the police. Rabbi Ephraim Padwa was secretly filmed telling the victim that going the police is an act of mesira -- a Jewish law forbidding reporting a Jew to a non-Jewish authority. The documentary uncovers 19 different alleged cases of child sex abuse across England- not one reported to the police.

A common theme in all of these cases is that the institutions involved chose to deal with the sexual abuse "in house" rather than going to law enforcement. The result? Lies, cover ups and an ongoing trail of abuse that continued far longer than it ever should have.

To regain trust and moral authority, these organizations need to handle child sexual abuse with transparency and honesty, instead of secrecy and deception. Secrecy is toxic, and in it, child abuse flourishes. They need to follow the mandatory child abuse reporting law, which requires adults working with children -- in the role of teacher, coach, clergy and more -- to report allegations of sexual abuse of minors to law enforcement. This includes abuse that is suspected, not confirmed.

Penn State instituted such a law in October, which holds universities and individuals financially and criminally liable for failure to report suspected abuse. Under the law, colleges and universities that "knowingly and willfully" fail to report known or suspected child abuse or prevent another person from doing so will be slapped with a $1 million fine for each failure.

Whoever the Catholic Church elects as its new pope, his first order of business should be to tackle the child sexual abuse problem head-on. First and foremost, he needs to revise Church law and Vatican protocols so that secrecy no longer surrounds child sex abuse. Secondly, he needs to follow the law of the land and require church officials to report clergy accused of sexual abuse of minors to law enforcement. And third, he needs to retain independent and outside professionals -- non-clerics -- who do not have a requirement of obedience to the pope and bishops, to conduct investigations into child sex crimes by clergy.

Then and only then will the Church and its leader regain the trust of its people and be able to move in a positive direction.

Samantha Parent Walravens is the author of 'TORN: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood,' chosen by the New York Times as the first pick for the Motherlode Book Club. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a crisis counselor at a rape crisis center where she did outreach and education on child sexual abuse.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samantha-parent-walravens/child-sexual-abuse-its-not-just-a-catholic-issue_b_2775024.html

Wanted --- More Horrified Judges!

'Horrified' judge sentences 'depraved' Kaysville child sex abuser to prison

FARMINGTON — A judge on Monday blasted a woman who admitted to sexually abusing two children, calling her “a danger to society”

“I was so horrified by what one person would do to a child,” Judge Michael G. Allphin said at the sentencing hearing of Stanna Page Marlene Sulimowicz, 29.

Allphin sentenced Sulimowicz to serve up to 15 years in Utah State Prison.

Sulimowicz entered the guilty plea to one count of second-degree felony sexual abuse of a child in November. She was originally charged in May 2012 with two counts of object rape of a child and one count of sodomy upon a child.

“What you did to those children sickened me,” Allphin said. “Tears came to my eyes when I read the report. How could anyone do this to any child, I don’t understand.”

Allphin said Sulimowicz’s actions were “depraved.”

According to the arrest warrant, Sulimowicz was living in a Kaysville home with “multiple children” and “engaged in sexual contact with the children.”

Prosecutors said two children, both younger than 8 years old, were victimized.

The children told investigators that Sulimowicz used vibrators or sex toys on them, according to the arrest warrant.

The abuse happened from September 2011 to October 2011.

http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/02/25/horrified-judge-sentences-depraved-kaysville-child-sex-abuser-prison

“Among bishops and cardinals, certainly the old guys who have been involved for so long, sure they’re going to have blood on their hands,” said Thomas G. Plante, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara University, who has served on the American bishops’ national abuse advisory board and has written three books on sexual abuse...... “There’s so many of them,” said Justice Anne Burke, a judge in Illinois who served on the American bishops’ first advisory board 10 years ago. “They all have participated in one way or another in having actual information about criminal conduct, and not doing anything about it.

READ MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/world/europe/now-gathering-in-rome-a-conclave-of-fallible-cardinals.html?hp&_r=0

Ratzinger - One Of The Great Despicable Criminals Of This Century - Pope Emeritus!

Benedict XVI to Keep His Name and Become Pope Emeritus

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI will keep the name Benedict XVI and become the Roman pontiff emeritus or pope emeritus, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, putting an end to days of speculation on how the pope will be addressed once he ceases to be the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics on Thursday.

Benedict, the first pope to resign voluntarily in six centuries, will dress in a simple white cassock, forgoing the mozzetta, the elbow-length cape worn by some Catholic clergymen, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters at a news briefing.

And he will no longer wear the red shoes typically worn by popes, symbolizing the blood of the martyrs, Father Lombardi said, opting instead for a more quotidian brown. “Mexicans will be happy to know that the pope very much appreciated the shoes” he received as a gift last year in León, Mexico, he added. “He finds them very comfortable.” It was after the grueling trip in March 2012 that the pope began to seriously consider resigning, the Vatican said after the pope announced his resignation on Feb. 11.

Father Lombardi said the pope had decided on his couture in consultation with other Vatican officials. Benedict will also stop using the so-called fisherman’s ring to seal documents. It will be destroyed by the cardinal camerlengo, the acting head of state of Vatican City during the “sede vacante,” the canon law term used when the papacy is vacant.

As his staff finishes packing up his personal belongings, the pope will hold his scheduled weekly audience Wednesday — to which 50,000 tickets have already been requested — and then meet with several dignitaries, including the presidents of Slovakia and of the German region of Bavaria, who have traveled to Rome to pay their respects. The pope grew up in Bavaria.

Thursday will be a day of goodbyes, to the cardinals already present in Rome, and later to some members of the Curia. In the afternoon, he will depart for Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of popes, where he will remain until restorations are complete on the convent inside the Vatican where he will live out his days.

Father Lombardi said the College of Cardinals would probably begin meeting next Monday to discuss various issues, like the problems facing the church and the qualities required of its next leader, and determine the date of the start of the conclave to choose Benedict’s successor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/world/europe/benedict-xvi-to-keep-his-name-and-become-pope-emeritus.html?hp

Another "relatively unflappable" Criminal in Clergy Garb!

Mahony answers questions under oath about clergy sex abuse cases

The former leader of the Los Angeles Archdiocese was reported to be 'calm and seemingly collected' throughout the 3 1/2 hour session stemming from a lawsuit involving a fugitive priest.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, shown in 2010, has been deposed many times, but Saturday’s session was the first time he had been asked about recently released internal church records that show he shielded abusers from law enforcement. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times)

A "relatively unflappable" Cardinal Roger Mahony answered questions under oath for more than 3 1/2 hours Saturday about his handling of clergy sex abuse cases, according to the lawyer who questioned the former archbishop.

"He remained calm and seemingly collected at all times," said attorney Anthony De Marco, who represents a man suing the Los Angeles Archdiocese over abuse he alleges he suffered at the hands of a priest who visited his parish in 1987.

Mahony has been deposed many times in the past, but Saturday's session was the first time he had been asked about recently released internal church records that show he shielded abusers from law enforcement.

De Marco declined to detail the questions he asked or the answers the cardinal provided, citing a judge's protective order.

The deposition occurred just before Mahony was to board a plane for Italy to vote in the conclave that will elect the next pope. In a Twitter post Friday, Mahony wrote that it was "just a few short hours before my departure for Rome."

Church officials did not return requests for comment.

The case, set for trial in April, concerns a Mexican priest, Nicholas Aguilar Rivera. Authorities believe he molested at least 26 children during a nine-month stay in Los Angeles.

Recently released church files show Aguilar Rivera fled to Mexico after a top Mahony aide, Thomas Curry, warned him that parents were likely to go the police and that he was in "a good deal of danger." Aguilar Rivera remains a fugitive in Mexico.

The archdiocese had agreed that Mahony could be questioned for four hours about the Aguilar Rivera case and 25 other priests accused in the same period. De Marco said he did not get to ask everything he wanted and would seek additional time after the cardinal returned from the Vatican.

Past depositions of Mahony have eventually become public, and De Marco said he would follow court procedures to seek the release of a transcript of Saturday's deposition.

Meanwhile, a Catholic organization Saturday delivered a petition with thousands of signatures asking that Mahony recuse himself from the conclave in Rome.

The group, Catholics United, collected nearly 10,000 signatures making "a simple request" that the former archbishop of Los Angeles not participate in the process because of the priest abuse scandals that happened under his watch, said Chris Pumpelly, communications director for Catholics United.

The petition was delivered Saturday to St. Charles Borromeo in North Hollywood, where the cardinal resides. It was accepted by a church staff member.

After delivering the petition, organizers attended Mass at the parish to pray for healing and for the future of the church.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0225-mahony-20130225,0,3567462.story

Oh Brother!

Dozens more in US claim abuse by clergy

ABOUT 50 more people have come forward to say they were sexually abused at Catholic schools in Pennsylvania and Ohio by a Franciscan brother who killed himself in January.

Brother Stephen Baker, 62, killed himself at a Pennsylvania monastery on January 26, a little over a week after the disclosure of financial settlements in alleged abuse cases in Warren, Ohio. A coroner told the Altoona Mirror newspaper that Baker left a short note apologising for his actions.

The new accusers have alleged in recent weeks that they were abused between 1982 and 2007, lawyer Mitchell Garabedian said on Sunday. Some said Baker abused them even after he left teaching in 2000 when he would attend school events in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Garabedian said.

The latest allegations come from people in 12 states who went to school in Warren or were either middle school or high school students in Johnstown, where Baker taught and coached, Garabedian said.

The Boston lawyer said he's also heard from four people who say they were abused while Baker was at a high school in Orchard Lake, Michigan.

Baker was named in legal settlements in January involving 11 men who alleged he had sexually abused them at a Catholic high school in northeast Ohio three decades ago. The undisclosed financial settlements involved his contact with students at John F Kennedy High School in Warren from 1986 to 1990.

Baker taught and coached at John F Kennedy High School in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was at Bishop McCort in Johnstown from 1992 to 2000. He taught in Michigan in the mid-1980s.

Catholic Bishop George Murry of Youngstown said this month that he sent letters asking for information from about 1,200 adults who attended Kennedy High School while Baker taught and coached there.

The Youngstown diocese has said it was unaware of the allegations until nearly 20 years after the alleged abuse.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/dozens-more-in-us-claim-abuse-by-clergy/story-e6freoo6-1226584793224

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING - FRIDAY MARCH 8, 2013

Please save this date!

This is a crucial hearing on a measure to help protect kids and expose predators by reforming NY's archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations. Thanks to Assemblywoman Marge Markey for championing this important proposal and letting us know about this hearing!

ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON CODES

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

ORAL TESTIMONY WILL BE BY INVITATION ONLY

SUBJECT: The Statute of Limitations Applicable to Sexual Abuse against Minors

PURPOSE: To examine whether the statute of limitations for sexual abuse against a minor as contained in existing law warrants amendment, to allow additional time for prosecution of criminal and/or civil actions against those liable for the commission of such acts.

New York, New York

Friday, March 8, 2013

10:00 A.M.

Assembly Hearing Room

250 Broadway, 19th Floor, Room 1923

Oral testimony will be accepted by invitation only and limited to ten (10) minutes' duration. In preparing the order of witnesses, the Committee will attempt to accommodate individual requests to speak at particular times in view of special circumstances. These requests should be made on the attached reply form or communicated to the Committee staff as early as possible.

Twenty (20) copies of any prepared testimony should be submitted at the hearing registration desk. The Committee would appreciate advance receipt of prepared statements. In order to further publicize these hearings, please inform interested parties and organizations of the Committees' hearing.

In order to meet the needs of those who may have a disability, the Assembly, in accordance with its policy of non-discrimination on the basis of disability, as well as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has made its facilities and services available to all individuals with disabilities. For individuals with disabilities, accommodations will be provided, upon reasonable request, to afford such individuals access and admission to Assembly facilities and activities.

Joseph R. Lentol
Member of Assembly
Chair
Committee on Codes

Statute of Limitation dropped on child sex crimes!

 Child sexual abuse is horrific, yet a common crime. Many times it takes years for the victim to come forward and it can be too late because of statute of limitation law, but that's changing. This week, state lawmakers voted unanimously to end the statute of limitations of certain sex crimes involving minors.

The Smith brothers, Marc and Matt would have missed their chance at justice, to put the man who sexually molested them behind bars. It happened in the 80's, the predator was their youth baseball coach. But because the coach, Richard Roberts took kids across state lines, he could be tried in federal court. Now the brothers want to help others.

It's a painful secret two brothers never spoke about until last year. Matt says, "Marc called and asked if it had happened to me, I confirmed it and then I said I'd come forward as well."

That conversation got started because Marc saw the coach he had as a child on the same baseball field as his son. A man who sexually molested him and other kids.

Fast forward and in 2012, Walter Richard Roberts, 62, pleaded guilty to molesting boys over 10-years. It played out in federal court; otherwise, the Smith's would have missed their chance at justice, because the law states a child victim's age limitation is 28 to come forward.

But with the brothers help, the age limitation has been amended.

Matt says, "I think it's huge. There is something to be said obviously for bringing the abuser to justice, but in a bigger sense the thing that scared me, a motivating factor for me to come forward was to protect other kids out there."

Marc says it should never be too late and victims should not be ashamed. "It's not just about putting someone in jail, it's not just about getting someone away from kids so they can't do it to more kids. A lot of it is about yourself too." Marc continues, "When victims see it on TV and they read about it and they see people constantly talking about sexual abuse, and coming forward, the kids are going to feel comfortable talking about it."

Opponents of changing the age limitation say victims might get more justice, but fear it could also lead to more fraudulent claims.

SB92 has been signed into law by Governor Beebe. To read it, click below.

http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2013/2013R/Bills/SB92.pdf

http://www.katv.com/story/21310684/statute-of-limitation-dropped-on-child-sex-crimes

Do You Know Your Child's School Bus Driver?

Ex-bus driver gets 160 years in child abuse

Former special needs school bus driver John Allen Wright will serve 160 years in federal prison for raping three "voiceless and vulnerable" autistic young boys onboard his bus while videotaping his exploits, the state's top federal prosecutor said Friday in asking for the maximum sentence.

"Rather than be their custodian, he was their predator. He was their pornographer and their tormentor," U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire John P. Kacavas said.

Wright, 47, formerly of Milton, parked his bus on the side of roads and in parking lots, then raped the boys - ages 4, 4½ and 8 - while wearing sunglasses equipped with a battery-operated digital camera, Kacavas said in U.S. District Court.

While the victims - who also are developmentally disabled - are seen on his videotapes "screaming, crying out and trying to resist" Wright's assaults, their disabilities made the unable to communicate with their parents or teachers, Kacavas said.

"These children were prisoners of their disabilities and the defendant knew it," the prosecutor added of Wright, who he said drove a special needs school bus from 2008 until his arrest in 2011.

"I classify it as torture," Kacavas said after the one-hour sentencing hearing.

Two boys were assaulted in New Hampshire between Nov. 1, 2010, and April 30, 2011. One was assaulted in New Hampshire and Maine between July 1 and July 31, 2011.

None of the victims or their families were in court, Kacavas said.

Defense attorney Harry N. Starbranch immediately appealed the sentence to the First Circuit Court in Boston.

Starbranch pressed Judge Steven J. McAuliffe to impose a 25-year sentence with mental health treatment to be followed by full supervision upon release.

Wright suffers from an unspecified psychotic disorder and schizophrenia, he said.

"He had a horrific childhood. (There was) both physical and sexual abuse in his household," Starbranch said.

Wright, he added, was unable to hold down a job, was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army and has no criminal record.

While McAuliffe agreed Wright likely suffers from major mental illnesses, he imposed the maximum 160-year penalty and ordered him to undergo sexual offender treatment.

"These crimes are terribly destructive," McAuliffe said.

"The primary issue for me is the need to protect the public, and the need to protect the public warrants a life sentence," the judge explained.

Wright's wife, Charlotte, wept quietly in her front row seat behind her husband. Wright cast a slight smile at his wife and blew her a kiss as U.S. marshals led him from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Wright's school bus exploits were discovered by members of the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in 2011 when they found him downloading and trading child pornography, Kacavas said.

Upon executing a search warrant at his Milton home, authorities found thousands of child sexual assault images. A subsequent federal search warrant revealed evidence linking Wright to the production of the videos. Wright was has been in custody since his indictment in October 2011.

Cases pending against Wright by the states of New Hampshire and Maine likely won't be prosecuted given the lengthy prison sentence he received, Kacavas said.

Rochester, New London, Dover and Kittery, Maine, police departments, the FBI, and Strafford County Attorney's office also investigated the case.

Wright was prosecuted under Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130222/NEWS03/130229630

The Disgraced And Exiled Rabbi Is Back In Business!

Leib Tropper is teaching and lecturing in Staten Island

By Allison Hoffman

February 21, 2013 3:17 PM

The last time we heard from Rabbi Leib Tropper, the ultra-Orthodox rabbi and conversion specialist, he was caught up in both a sex scandal and a multi-million-dollar court battle between the billionaire Thomas Kaplan, chair of the 92nd Street Y board, and his nephew, Guma Aguiar, the former owner of the controversial Beitar Jerusalem soccer team who disappeared off his yacht last year in Florida. Tropper, accused of trading Jewish conversion papers for sexual favors, was forced to leave the Rockland County enclave of Monsey in disgrace.

But that was 2010. Now, Tropper is back, apparently lecturing and teaching at a Staten Island yeshiva headed by Reuven Feinstein, who declined to condemn Tropper at the height of the controversy and who, perhaps not coincidentally, was the beneficiary of a $3 million donation from Tropper’s sponsors Kaplan and Aguiar. (Tropper’s father, Yehuda Tropper, also taught at the school for three decades.)

He’s also been busy building a robust online presence: Tropper now has a Twitter account, a Tumblr, a Flickr feed, a Vimeo page, a Google+ page, and both his own .org and .net domains. He also has a blog, where he advertises his latest appearances and writes about his travels, including a trip to Paris, where he visited an exhibit on Algerian Jews as well as the “must-see” galleries at the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay and the Grand Palais.

In January, Tropper also blogged about a lecture he gave on the pursuit of happiness. “Happiness is not the ecstacy [sic] expected by the feel Good culture in America,” he wrote. “It is a more Benign feeling of inner gratification by doing the Right thing.” Indeed.

READ MUCH MORE:
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/124946/george-galloway-channels-sir-robin

Peter Turkson Has My Vote For Pope - I Need New Material!

Pope Contender Cardinal Peter Turkson Says No Priest Sex Abuse In Africa Because Of Anti-Gay Laws

The Cardinal heralded as the man who could be the first black Pope has said sex abuse could not happen in Africa, on the same scale as Europe, because of tough anti-homosexuality laws.

Ghana's Cardinal Peter Turkson caused outrage among former victims of sexual abuse by priests for linking progressive attitudes to homosexuality and child abuse.

Survivors of abuse by priests say they "fear for the safety of kids in Turkson's diocese if he denies there are predatory priests there".

Ghanean Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson (C) gives the sign of peace to another cardinal during a mass led by Pope Benedict XVI

Cardinal Turkson is currently the second favourite to be the next pontiff, and had been championed by progressives who have urged the Vatican to elect the first African pope.

Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan is currently favourite to succeed Benedict XVI.

In an interview with CNN, when asked about whether it was possible the Catholic sex abuse scandal could happen in Africa, the cardinal said it would not happen, "to the same extent or proportion as we have seen in Europe"

He continued: "African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency.

“Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa homosexuality or for that matter any affair between two sexes of the same kind, are not countenanced in our society.

"So that cultural taboo, that tradition has been there. It has served to keep it out.”

He also defended the ban on any women ministry in the Church, saying: "If one does not have access to ordination, it is not discrimination. It is just how the church has understood this order of ministry to be.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said in a statement: “To say that Cardinal Peter Turkson’s claims about clergy abuse in Africa are uninformed would be far too kind. We hope this awful comment disqualifies him from consideration as the next pope.

"We hear less about clergy sex crimes and cover ups in Africa for the same reasons we do throughout the developing world: there tends to be lesser funding for law enforcement, less vigorous civil justice systems, less independent journalism, and an even greater power and wealth difference between church officials and their congregants."

The group continued: " Not only is the link between homosexuality and child abuse a fallacy, but it is a weak shield to hide behind.

"It's hard to address a crisis you don't think exists. So we fear for the safety of kids in Turkson's diocese if he denies there are predatory priests there.

"It’s far more likely that Turkson’s brother bishops in Africa have been involved in covering up clergy sex abuse crimes just like their colleagues across the globe. To pretend that Turkson’s home is devoid of the problem is erroneous, and offensive to still-suffering victims in Africa.”

Homosexuality is a crime in 37 countries in Africa. Most high profile is Uganda, where members of parliament are still fighting to introduce the death penalty for gay people.

Cardinal Turkson said he believed it was certainly possible for a non-European pope to be chosen: "It is certainly possible to have a Cardinal come from the Southern part of the globe.

"There are churchmen from there certainly capable of exercising leadership.

Asked by CNN's Christaine Amanpour about how the church could stay relevant in the modern world if it remained anti-homosexual and rejected women priests, he said: "We need to be true and faithful to the faith, and we need to be relevant to the society to which we preach our faith.

"We may not sacrifice one for the other. We seek to be relevant to society and meet the needs of humankind, we also need to be mindful of what it is that a church believes.

"Do you know where I am going? Otherwise we cease to be a church."

It is not the first time the Cardinal has voiced controversial views about homosexuality. Last year, the National Catholic Register reported the Cardinal saying it is important people understand the ‘reasons’ why some African governments have created legislation against homosexuality.

Turkson argues the ‘intensity of the reaction is probably commensurate with tradition’, saying the African culture needs to be respected.

‘When you’re talking about what’s called “an alternative lifestyle”, are those human rights?’ he said.

‘There’s a subtle distinction between morality and human rights, and that’s what needs to be clarified.’

The other Pope potential from Africa, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze likened homosexuality with pornography, infanticide and adultery in a 2003 speech at Georgetown University.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/02/20/black-pope-contender-peter-turkson-gay-abuse-africa_n_2723040.html?utm_hp_ref=uk