Why Is A Jewish Group Fighting Against Sexual Abuse Survivors?

Survivors and activists of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), a new international organization against the child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church pose with pictures of clergy members during a press conference on June 7, 2018 in Geneva. - Ending Clergy Abuse aims to challenge the Catholic Church to punish bishops implicated on child sexual abuse and cover up around the globe. In fewer than 6 months, God willing, I will be ordained as an Orthodox rabbi. I am becoming a rabbi because I believe that rabbis play an important role in empowering and building strong Jewish communities.

https://forward.com/scribe/417579/why-is-a-jewish-group-fighting-against-sexual-abuse-survivors/ 

Abuse survivor Marie Collins wants Vatican summit to increase accountability

A prominent survivor and advocate for those affected by clerical abuse has urged Pope Francis to publicly name bishops who have been found guilty of negligence by church tribunals. Marie Collins — who was a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors from 2014 to 2017 — also said that, during the Vatican summit on safeguarding in February, the pope should set out comprehensive procedures to hold bishops accountable.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/irish-abuse-survivor-wants-vatican-summit-increase-accountability 

Dear Ma: I'm Lutheran now - Catholic Church scandals did me in

For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel." I guess this quote from my new homeboy Martin Luther is as good a place as any to break the news to my parents that I’ve left the Roman Catholic Church, at the ripe old age of 52, in favor of a faith often nicknamed “Catholic lite.”

https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/lutheran-converted-catholic-church-abuse 

Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa expresses ‘grief, shame, raging anger’ toward Catholic clergy accused of sex abuse

Addressing the long history of sexual abuse by clergy in the local Catholic Church, Santa Rosa Bishop Robert F. Vasa told reporters Monday that it was a source of “tremendous sadness and grief and shame and, honestly, a raging anger that these men did what they did.”

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/9166454-181/santa-rosa-bishop-robert-vasa?artslide=9 

Women Speak Of Nuns Allegedly Sexually Abusing Them When They Were Kids

A new report says that it is not only some Catholic priests who have targeted children in pedophilic activities, but various nuns have allegedly engaged in pedophilic actions with children as well. CBS News broadcast a segment with reporter Nikki Battiste in which Battiste detailed instances of nuns abusing children. The segment began by noting an organization titled The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

https://www.dailywire.com/news/39911/report-women-speak-nuns-allegedly-sexually-abusing-hank-berrien 

Woman claims nun plied her with booze, drugs and taught her to have sex with women

An American woman is alleging she was sexually abused by a group of nuns from a New Jersey convent – including an incident where she was given booze and drugs while being taught how to have sex with another woman. Trisha Cahill told CBS News she was 15 when she revealed to a nun that she was reportedly abused by her uncle, who was a priest. The woman claimed she confided in Sister Eileen Shaw, telling her that her now dead uncle had sexually abused her starting at age 5.

https://www.thewhig.com/news/world/woman-claims-nun-plied-her-with-booze-drugs-and-taught-her-to-have-sex-with-women/wcm/80919437-96ce-489d-b657-9f662b847663 

Central Nebraska priest, 62, charged with sexual assault after meeting with woman in rectory

The 62-year-old Catholic priest in central Nebraska insisted that a woman conduct a business meeting on Thanksgiving Day at his place, a church rectory where he lived in Ord. He insisted on pouring her an alcoholic drink. And when she awoke hours later with his face in her genitals, the priest she hardly knew but still trusted, a man three decades older, insisted on this: that he loved her.

https://www.omaha.com/news/crime/central-nebraska-priest-charged-with-sexual-assault-after-meeting-with/article_193ebbb1-8c77-5608-bbbd-4faabce6ac4f.html 

The Epiphany of Celibacy

COMMENTARY: Until Jesus Christ, celibacy was virtually unknown. Our Lord’s celibacy revealed the essence of his mission, and manifested him as the Bridegroom of the Church. Father Paul Scalia Over the past six months the Church has suffered horrid revelations of clergy sexual abuse, homosexual activity, and attendant cover-up. These scandals have understandably prompted some to call for an end to celibacy in the Catholic Church.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-epiphany-of-celibacy 

Pope vows justice for victims of vile sex abuse

Pope Francis vowed justice for victims of clerical sex abuse Monday, describing paedophilia as one of the ‘vilest’ crimes ahead of a historic global meet on the crisis roiling the church. ‘I cannot refrain from speaking of one of the plagues of our time, which sadly has also involved some members of the clergy,’ he said in his annual address to ambassadors to the Holy See.

http://www.newagebd.net/article/61129/pope-vows-justice-for-victims-of-vile-sex-abuse

Sioux City Catholic diocese responds to ‘cover up’ claim

SIOUX CITY — The Diocese of Sioux City on Friday issued a statement of apology to victims of sexual abuse by members of its clergy, including George McFadden, who served at Storm Lake St. Mary’s in the 1950s and faced a litany of abuse allegations. Much of the statement responded to allegations made at a recent small rally by a victim’s organization, and defended the diocese’s record in dealing with abuse allegations.

https://www.spencerdailyreporter.com/story/2578722.html 

4 more allege sexual abuse at Marrero youth homes in new church abuse lawsuit

Four more men have come forward with detailed claims of being abused both sexually and physically while living at two troubled Catholic-run youth homes in Marrero in the 1970s and ’80s, according to a new lawsuit filed Tuesday. The 24-page suit appears to be the first aimed at the Archdiocese of New Orleans since, earlier this month, it revealed the names of 57 clergy members considered to have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children within the last 50 years.

https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/courts/article_bfd5f64a-e6d5-11e8-bd6b-9f0910941c33.html 

Three of Britain's biggest childcare charities including Barnardo's are at heart of police probes into claims of historic child abuse

Three of Britain’s biggest childcare charities are at the centre of police investigations into allegations of child abuse, the Mail can reveal. Detectives are probing claims that children were abused while in the care of Barnardo’s, Quarriers, and the Aberlour Child Care Trust. Barnardo’s is the UK’s largest childcare charity, but has faced a series of allegations that children in its homes were beaten and raped.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6507083/Three-Britains-biggest-childcare-charities-face-child-abuse-probe.html 

Bishops from New Zealand and Polynesia issue joint protest on West Papua abuses

Bishops from the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (ANZP) have expressed their “deep disappointment” at what they say is the continued suppression of the first people of West Papua. The political status of West Papua is disputed. In the 1940s, with the collapse of the Netherlands East Indies, Indonesia claimed sovereignty over all of the former colony but the Dutch retained control over West Papua. In the 1960s, Indonesia invaded the island and a later UN-brokered peace deal resulted in 1,000 “elders” voting to become part of Indonesia in a disputed election.

https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2018/12/bishops-from-new-zealand-and-polynesia-issue-joint-protest-on-west-papua-abuses.aspx

Investigative team unmasks Gonzaga University as retirement spot for predator priests

This has not been a good week for the Jesuits, what with two U.S. Jesuit provinces releasing a list of 84 clergy credibly accused of sex abuse. Including those on another list released Dec. 7, that’s about 230 Jesuits credibly accused of abusing a child since the 1950s. Where did some of these Jesuits go once they were accused? To a Catholic university in Spokane, we learned on Monday. A team of three reporters from Reveal, from The Center for Investigative Reporting tell us that Gonzaga University served as a retirement center for 20-some priests who were accused of sexual misconduct in Alaska or on Indian reservations.

https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2018/12/18/investigative-team-unmasks-gonzagu-u-as-retirement-spot-for-predator-priests 

Catholic Church abuse scandal named top Era story

It was an earth-shattering scandal, the likes of which hadn’t been seen before in the U.S. Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro investigated six Catholic dioceses simultaneously. Before the report was made public, Bishop Lawrence Persico of the Erie Diocese released a list of names of priests and church personnel who had credible accusations of abuse lodged against them.

http://www.bradfordera.com/news/catholic-church-abuse-scandal-named-top-era-story/article_22dbfaca-0d5d-11e9-8af3-4b9775a242f4.html 

Abuse professional: Catholic bishops threat dropping all credibility

The Catholic Church has set up a new body to liaise with the Royal Commission’s abuse inquiry, but its make-up has raised questions over its capacity to deliver truth. A leading world expert on clerical child sex abuse told RNZ that if Te Rōpū Tautoko remained top-heavy with Church officials it would “only do the bidding of the bishops” and would have no credibility.

http://infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/xhtml/en_GB/news/abuse-professional-catholic-bishops-threat-dropping-all-credibility/ 

‘Like Cleaning a Sphinx with a Toothbrush’

The abrupt resignation of Greg Burke as director of the Holy See Press Office is one more disturbing sign that the Vatican is not up to the task of responding to the Catholic Church’s crisis over clergy sexual abuse and its cover-up. Burke, a St. Louis native and an alumnus of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, brought an American way of doing business to a press office that not so long ago closed for the day at 1 o’clock p.m.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/-cleaning-sphinx-toothbrush

Cardinal Said He Would Support Legislation to ‘Help Victim Heal’

Cardinal Dolan addressed the state’s Child Victims Act and abuse allegations against a retired priest of the archdiocese as well as the upcoming retreat of the nation’s bishops in an interview this week with Catholic New York. One subject the cardinal stressed in the early-morning interview Dec. 31, which took place at his residence in Manhattan, matched the topic of his op-ed about the Child Victims Act published the same day in the Daily News.

http://cny.org/stories/cardinal-said-he-would-support-legislation-to-help-victim-heal,18421 

Church of England priests should call in social workers or police officers before they carry out an exorcism on a child,

Priests should call in social workers or police before they carry out an exorcism on a child who is believed to be possessed by evil spirits, new Church of England guidance states. It means that secular State officials will be involved for the first time in the religious process of casting out devils.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6549261/Priests-call-social-workers-police-officers-carry-exorcism.html 

'I was with my friends during the day, and a pedophile nun in the evening':

Two women have come forward to allege that they suffered sexual abuse at the hands of nuns, including one nun who allegedly plied her victim with alcohol and drugs while teaching her how to have sex. Trish Cahill said she was 15 years old when she reported alleged abuse by her uncle, a priest, to Sister Eileen Shaw at a convent in New Jersey. Cahill told Shaw that her uncle abused her when she was just five years old, according to CBS News.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6550643/Woman-says-nun-plied-alcohol-drugs-taught-sex-just-15.html 

#MeToo's 2018: Congress, Church and Silicon Valley

Since it was first popularized more than a year ago by actress Alyssa Milano, the #MeToo hashtag has been used over 19 million times, and 75% of public officials accused in the U.S. of sexual misconduct will be out of office by the new year. The big picture: #MeToo has rocked a number of institutions previously resistant to believing victims of sexual misconduct, with more expected to come.

https://www.axios.com/metoo-2018-congress-church-silicon-valley-sexual-assault-5b2b112e-1882-4ee3-95ee-c4bc4b53d909.html