Author Archive
COURAGEOUS JEWISH COMMUNITY SURVIVOR WINS ABUSE VERDICT
The Courage of survivors is again and again coming to the fore in the public mind. In a front page story The New York Times reported today that a 18 year old female survivor prevailed on all 59 clriminal counts of repeated sexual abuse brought against her prominent 54 year old ultra-Orthodox Jewish therapist in Brooklyn New York in a case which should impress on the Hasidic Jewish community the existence of childhood sexual abuse in its neighborhoods, as has been established in the Roman Catholic Church.
Australian Head Bishop Urges the Church To Stop Reliance on the Timeliness Defense
In a remarkable turn around, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported today that the head of all the Roman Catholic Bishops in Australia has publicly urged that legislation be enacted which prevents the church from using time limits to deny access to the courts by survivors of childhood sexual abuse by priests.
The full news story can be found at –
http://www.smh.com.au/national/scrap-time-limits-on-child-sex-abuse-cases-urges-head-of-bishops-20121126-2a3mm.html#ixzz2DLmb6w1A
The Archbishop of Melbourne, Australia, Denis Hart, the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, at a meeting is reported to have said that all states and territories should abolish the time limits known as the statute of limitations defense.
Australian Investigation of the Church Begins
The New York Times reported today that the Catholic Church throughout Australia is now being investigated for covering up child abuse by priests in that country. The short story can be found at -http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/world/asia/australian-prime-minister-orders-sexual-abuse-investigation.html?ref=todayspaper
That nation’s Prime Minister ordered a nationwide investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of children in religious institutions after accusations against priests and claims of a cover-up arose in various parts of that country.
Australia can now be added to the list of many countries including Ireland, Germany, the United States and Canada, among others, where the disease of priests abusing children has been covered up for decades.
Green Bay Diocese Ordered to Pay $500,000
The Associated Press reports that a jury in Nevada on November 2nd returned a verdict against the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the amount of $500,000 for negligently transferring to Nevada a priest with a known history of child sexual abuse.
The news story can be found at – http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Nev-jury-Wis-diocese-to-pay-500K-in-abuse-case-4003224.php
As reported, the plaintiff, known as John Doe 119, claimed to have been sexually assaulted in 1984 by Catholic priest John Patrick Feeney at a Las Vegas parish. When the victim reported the assault no one believed his assertions. After learning of other victims of this priest, the plaintiff then came forward with his lawsuit and apparently he was able to prove prior knowledge by the Catholic Church in Wisconsin of the dangerousness of this priest and that it did nothing to warn others of his crimes or to protect them from him.
An alarming book opens your eyes and fills them with tears over childhood sexual abuse.
What one reviewer has said about When Priests Become Predators: Profiles of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors by Thomas S. Neuberger (2012) –
An alarming book. It opens your eyes and fills them with tears over childhood sexual abuse.
Harry F. Themal, “Book Gives Voice to Delaware Child Victims of Priest Abuse” Wilmington News Journal (October 8, 2012) at A12, which can be found at – http://wilmingtonnewsjournal.de.newsmemory.com/ (10/8/12, Page A12).
Federal Judge Rejects Church Claims of Constitutional Immunity for Child Abuse
Federal Judge William K. Sessions III of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont on September 28, 2012 rejected claims by the Catholic Church which would have allowed it to excape facing lawsuits by vicims of childhood sexual abuse by one of its priests of a 13 year old boy in 1974. The case is Edward Colomb v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, Inc., Case No. 2:10-cv-254 (D.Vt. September 28, 2012).
The now 50 year old survivor plaintiff charged that the diocese employed his abuser and other priests and transferred them around despite known instances of sexual abuse of children in their histories. As recently as 2003, allegedly the diocese continued covering up child abuse by its priests.
AS IN THE 1950s, CONVICTED BISHOP REFUSED TO TURN IN PEDOPHILE PRIEST IN 2011
I have always said that the policies put in place by the American bishops in the last decade to report or prevent childhood sexual abuse by their priests were simply insincere media ploys designed to deceive the general public and parents of young children into believing that children were safe in that church.
The conviction Thursday of bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City proves my point. The details of his trial were reported today by Laurie Goodstein in The New York Times and you can read the facts here at –
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/08/us/in-pedophile-case-church-failed-to-stop-priest.html?_r=1&hp
BISHOP CONVICTED OF PROTECTING CHILD ABUSER PRIESTS
The tide continues to turn as more and more church officials are beginning to be held accountable for the crimes in which they participated which affected countless survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
After a trial before a Kansas City judge, Roman Catholic bishop Robert Finn was convicted yesterday of one criminal charge of failing to report suspected child abuse by one of the priests under his command. The bishop was sentenced to two years of court supervised probation, ordered to create a fund of $10,000 to pay for victims’ counseling and to start a training program in his diocese to enable employees of the church to detect early signs of child abuse and understand what constitutes child pornography and obscenity.
New Jersey Editorial Demands Protection For Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse
The Times of Trenton editorial board on August 24th demanded that New Jersey legislators enact pending broad based legislation to give relief to past survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
The link can be found at: http://www.nj.com/times-opinion/index.ssf/2012/08/editorial_remove_nj_statute_of.html.
In part this prominent newspaper noted that
MAJOR STUDY RELEASED ON CHURCH FUNDS AVAILABLE FOR SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVORS
“The Economist” magazine has just released a detailed lengthy article on the finances of the Catholic Church and the devices it uses to hide money from survivors of childhood sexual abuse. You can find the well researched article at http://www.economist.com/node/21560536
The yearly spending of the Church in America is estimated to be around $170 billion for 2010 alone. The asset analysis did not include church real estate and other property holdings.
Interestingly the Delaware Church bankruptcy and others are analysed to show how the church manipulates funds to the detriment of survivors of childhood sexual abuse by its priests.