The fearless journalism of Mary Raftery

But it is for the ground-breaking three-part documentary series States of Fear that Raftery will be most remembered. Aired by RTÉ in April and May 1999 the series laid bare the neglect, physical and sexual abuse perpetrated in religious-run industrial schools around the country. The in-depth research and powerful testimony of the victims ensured that the programmes received substantial media coverage.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-fearless-journalism-of-mary-raftery-1.3864999 

Recognising Jesus Christ's crucifixion as sexual abuse would help Catholic Church change – expert

The crisis of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, and the institutional denial and cover up, has left many people of faith shocked by the lack of appropriate response toward survivors. Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, the president of the Australian bishops' conference, has called for a Copernican revolution on sexual abuse in the church and a shift in Catholic culture so that abuse survivors, not clergy, shape the church response

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2019/04/recognising-jesus-christ-s-crucifixion-as-sexual-abuse-would-help-catholic-church-change-expert.html 

Strong church turnout for message of love

The nation's church leaders have reported strong gatherings as they spruik love, joy and peace in the face of hate and grief in their annual Easter messages. In light of the New Zealand mosque attacks in March, Deidre Palmer, president of the Uniting Church in Australia, chose to focus on peace and reconciliation in her address.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/christians-reject-racism-hate-speech-173019549--spt.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKwe2BuEL90b3OZ1qy-hnDRI8WlX895y6-zASiIJX9cs-zjZ6ZOr_k-2wKjsCv6LLfNnhrwuK6bAiqFrx5ckjFuQqWEuJO-MxNu-A6628J1kfer3XhWKZC0heBohTinAK1gNCVXQ7xfyfvFkOGQefUgIy9VOwLWjdKiObI13FWQg

Catholic in 2019: 'Some cardinals and clerics appear trapped within a medieval mindset - but Pope Francis provides a glimmer of hope'

ON 14 JUNE 1970, a beautiful sunny day, thirty of us young men were ordained as priests at All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin to provide ministry to people in America, Canada, Australia, England and South Africa. A class picture was taken in front of the main door of the seminary. We were sent forth from under the following motto which remains carved over that main door:

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/catholic-in-2019-some-cardinals-and-clerics-appear-trapped-within-a-medieval-mindset-but-pope-francis-provides-a-glimmer-of-hope-4597895-Apr2019/ 

Religion Dublin Catholic archbishop says Irish Church must adapt or die

The Irish Church must adapt and reform if it is survive the clerical sex abuse scandal and other challenges that lie ahead, said the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Diarmuid Martin, 74, the most influential Catholic prelate in Ireland, said in an interview with The Irish Times on April 22 that there's still "a lot of anger" about the way the Church has handled the abuse crisis "but you can't whitewash it."

https://international.la-croix.com/news/dublin-catholic-archbishop-says-irish-church-must-adapt-or-die/9946 

If we don't protect the children, who will?

As an activist,who witnessed and experienced child abuse in an orphanage, I must take a stand for those who have no voice. The Bible says " It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones" which I think applies to anyone who is helpless, such as children, the elderly or those who are mentally challenged.

https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/opinion/2019/04/21/if-we-dont-protect-children-who-will/3512287002/ 

‘Struggling of youngsters speaks volumes of contempt for many susceptible’ – Eire

The interim report by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was released last week and it makes for uncomfortable reading. It has found that the burial sites for hundreds of children who died while in the care of the homes is still unknown and has rejected the notion that underground structures where the bodies of children were put after their deaths were ever designed to be burial chambers. It has said these places were likely to have been part of the homes’ sewage systems.

http://infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/xhtml/en_GB/news/ciara-kelly-struggling-of-youngsters-speaks-volumes-of-contempt-for-many-susceptible-eire/

The Departure of Margaret Shank

My mother used to tell us stories about the housekeeper who worked for her family when she was a child– an unholy terror named Margaret Shank. This doesn’t sound like a story for Easter Week, but it is, because my mother would often talk about Margaret Shank during the Easter preparations. Easter was the only time Ms. Shank had eaten junk food, as a child– her parents visited her in the orphanage once a year, on Easter Sunday, bringing with them a small bag of chocolate. Other than that, she ate what the orphanage served, which was healthy and bland.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2019/04/the-departure-of-margaret-shank/ 

Defiled by their fathers: Meru girls in fear as KSh 700m orphanage risk collapse

Anna and Linda, not their real names, are twins aged six years whose case is ongoing at a court in Meru county, after they were defiled by their stepfather who is not remorseful of the act. In fact, he challenged the court to inquire from the mother who is laborer at a tea farm what she expected him to do when she goes out to toil all day and comes home tired leaving him behind.

https://www.tuko.co.ke/303854-defiled-by-fathers-meru-girls-fear-ksh-700m-orphanage-risk-collapse.html#303854

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Gospel of Rape and Redemption

“Won’t people get mad if we criticize religion in our presentation?” my student asked. She was referring to the prevalence of sexual abuse allegations against religious leaders and my recommendation that we talk about them in our Women’s Leadership Project trainings at her high school. When it comes to reckoning with sexual violence in the #MeToo era, the veil of silence around the faith community remains a toxic deterrent that destroys lives.

https://thehumanist.com/magazine/may-june-2019/up-front/the-southern-baptist-conventions-gospel-of-rape-and-redemption

Report: Dutch Catholic Church Accused of Covering up Child Sex Abuse

More than half of the senior figures in the Dutch Catholic Church have been accused of covering up or engaging in the sexual abuse of children, according to a report by the Netherlands’ leading newspaper. Out of the 39 cardinals, bishops, and auxiliary bishops, four have been accused of abusing children whilst another 16 have been accused of transferring known paedophile priests to other parishes where they may have gone on to abuse more children, the Dutch newspaper of record NRC Handelsblad.

https://claytoncaller.com/report-dutch-catholic-church-accused-of-covering-up-child-sex-abuse/19508/ 

'A Spiritual Rape': Female Survivors Say Sex Abuse by Nuns Has Been Overlooked by Public

Female victims says nuns may also be predators whose sexual abuse of minors has been overshadowed by scandals focused on priests. Two women who have been sexually abused by nuns are speaking out, saying that amidst the well-documented scandal of widespread abuse of boys by priests, their traumas have been overlooked.

https://people.com/crime/nun-sex-abuse-survivors-speak-out-say-they-are-overshadowed/

'Invisible' Victims: Survivors Of Sexual Abuse By Nuns Demand To Be Counted

When Patricia Cahill was 15, a nun who taught at a nearby Catholic high school invited her to perform at a hootenanny mass. “This was the '60s, you know, Peter Paul and Mary and all that,” said Cahill, now 67. “I didn’t really play guitar, but a nun — a nun! — asked me to come to mass and play guitar.”

https://www.wesa.fm/post/invisible-victims-survivors-sexual-abuse-nuns-demand-be-counted 

Nuns sexually abusing minors could become next Catholic Church scandal, experts say

It wasn’t until Rev. Cait Finnegan gave birth to a baby girl more than three decades ago that the full trauma of all she had withstood was fully unleashed. “It was my protective instinct, I just didn’t want my daughter to be alone. I stayed with her from the day she was born,” Finnegan, 67, a Catholic school student in 1960s New York and once an aspiring nun, told Fox News. “Because I had been abused in many places to many degrees. This was every day in school, weekends, she would come to my home.”

https://www.foxnews.com/us/the-dark-silent-history-of-nuns-sexually-abusing-minors-set-to-become-the-next-church-scandal 

Women Sexually Abused By Catholic Nuns Speak Up: She Told Me It Was ‘God’s Love’

The predator nun walked into Trish Cahill’s life straight out of the blue, on a busy summer day in the late 1960s. Cahill was a teenager back then, wire thin with long, chestnut brown hair framing her face. She was babysitting her cousins in Glen Rock, New Jersey, and there were eight of them to look after ― a big Catholic family, much like her own.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nuns-sexual-abuse-catholic-church_n_5c76f9bae4b0d3a48b563001 

america's real 'savages' were presidents, generals, priests, and, yes, even nuns

How Native Americans were systematically stripped of their culture, and why it's invaluable that the youth reconnect. American history is riddled with fanatical, foaming-at-the-mouth monsters and wretched child abductors, and they’re not all named John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. No. Many have names like Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Richard H. Pratt.

https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/j5wex3/how-native-americans-were-stripped-of-their-culture

Namibia: Forgotten Sex Workers' Shelter Rebirth

Many sex workers are often shunned by society, but this small house, situated in the heart of Katutura, was the one place where they felt safe and accepted. NEAR the Single Quarters section of Katutura is a small house that sits tightly between two houses, neighbouring rowdy shebeens. For many astray sex workers, this small house was a place of refuge that was started by the late Catholic father Herman Klein-Hitpass.

https://allafrica.com/stories/201904120748.html 

How Doctors And The Church Conspired To Stop An 11-Year-Old Girl From Having An Abortion After Rape

Lucía was raped at 11. Her family’s demands for a legal abortion became the center of a global firestorm — and she still doesn’t know the whole story. Lucía sat up in her hospital bed as the priest made the sign of the cross on her forehead, the 11-year-old’s bulging belly visible underneath her pajama shirt. “Think long and hard about what you’re considering doing,” Lucía’s mother remembered the priest telling them. “Save both lives,” he said.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/karlazabludovsky/argentina-lucia-catholic-church-abortion 

139 sex charges: new abuse allegations levelled at former priest

A FORMER Catholic priest now stands accused of sexually abusing or molesting 37 children while he was working in the New England, after detectives laid more charges. David Joseph Perrett is behind bars and now faces 139 separate historical child abuse allegations from when he was a priest in the Armidale, Walcha, Guyra and wider New England area, in the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

https://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/5973660/139-sex-charges-new-abuse-allegations-levelled-at-former-priest/ 

Perrett bailed, months to live

Former Catholic priest David Joseph Perrett, 82, facing trial on more than 130 sexual abuse charges has been bailed after being described as a "spent volcano" who may have only six months to live. Wheelchair-bound with a walking stick across his lap, Perrett faced the NSW Supreme Court via audio-visual link from Long Bay prison hospital last week after being charged with abusing 37 children over more than 20 years.

https://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/6047944/perrett-bailed-months-to-live/?cs=1514 

Senate takes up fight over sexual abuse victims' lawsuits

On the same day the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a pair of bills aimed at reforming the state's statute of limitations law for childhood sexual abuse victims, Senate Democrats unveiled their own bill. Senate Bill 540, unveiled at the Capitol on Wednesday, would eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse, assault and misconduct. It would apply to both childhood and adult victims. The bill would also provide a two-year window for past victims of abuse to

https://www.abc27.com/news/local/fight-over-sexual-abuse-victims-lawsuits-returns-to-senate/1914033394 

Bishop Malone wants Buffalo to ‘move on.’ But he’s hiding the names of 25 accused priests.

Bishop Richard J. Malone in a recent interview called for Catholics “to see where we've failed, turn to God for forgiveness and mercy, and move on.” But a group of influential Catholics at Canisius College say there’s no moving on until the diocese comes clean about the true scope of abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/i-team/bishop-malone-wants-buffalo-to-move-on-but-hes-hiding-the-names-of-25-accused-priests 

Spain’s Supreme Court upholds priest’s sex abuse conviction

Child psychologist and founding member of the Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) organization, Miguel Hurtado from Spain, center, shows an open letter to the Benedictine order before delivering it, outside the St. Anselm on the Aventine Benedictine complex in Rome on the second day of a summit called by Pope Francis at the Vatican on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Friday,

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2019/04/11/spains-supreme-court-upholds-priests-sex-abuse-conviction/ 

In DC Archdiocese, the truth is a good starting point

Archbishop Wilton Gregory speaks during a news conference in the pastoral center of the Washington Archdiocese April 4 after Pope Francis named him to head the archdiocese. Seated at left, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, retired archbishop of Washington, who has served as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, looks on. (CNS/Bob Roller) "I will always tell you the truth," said Wilton Gregory during his introductory news conference as newly appointed archbishop of Washington, D.C. "I believe the only way I can serve the local archdiocese is by telling you the truth."

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/editorial-dc-archdiocese-truth-good-starting-point 

Jesuits quietly sent abusive Alaska priests to retire with others on a Washington college campus

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the nonprofit news outlet Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. This Oct. 22, 2018 photo shows the marker for where the remains of Rev. James Poole are interned at Mount St. Michael in , Wash. Over the course of his life, Poole was accused of sexually abusing at least 20 women.

https://clarksburgcaller.com/jesuits-quietly-sent-abusive-alaska-priests-to-retire-with-others-on-a-washington-college-campus/61868/

Can redevelopment purge the demons of an older orphanage?

An imposing Italianate-style construction that looms over a portion of Vermont’s biggest town had such a troubled past which plans to redevelop some mysticism was called for by it. Dee Bright Star, an Abenaki woman who originally opposed the undertaking, has been brought in to run a spiritual cleansing.

https://pressoracle.com/news/2019/04/08/can-redevelopment-purge-the-demons-of-an-older-orphanage.html 

Nuns sexually abusing minors could become next Catholic Church scandal, experts say

A cross sits on top of a church in Berlin, Germany. Pope Francis' high-stakes sex abuse prevention summit is meant to call attention to the crisis as a global problem that requires a global response. It wasn’t until Rev. Cait Finnegan gave birth to a baby girl more than three decades ago that the full trauma of all she had withstood was fully unleashed.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/the-dark-silent-history-of-nuns-sexually-abusing-minors-set-to-become-the-next-church-scandal 

'A spent volcano': 'old, ill' former priest bailed on 131 charges

A former Catholic priest facing trial on more than 130 sexual abuse charges has been bailed after being described as a "spent volcano" who may have only six months to live. With a walking stick across his lap, a wheelchair-bound David Joseph Perrett, 82, faced the NSW Supreme Court via audio-visual link from Long Bay prison hospital after being charged with abusing 37 children over more than 20 years.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-spent-volcano-old-ill-former-priest-bailed-on-131-charges-20190409-p51cip.html 

What Do the Church’s Victims Deserve?

Some time before Brooklyn was incorporated into New York City, in 1898, it was dubbed the City of Churches. Houses of worship remain thick on the ground in the borough. In the part of Brooklyn where I live, churches outnumber grocery stores, pet shops, and nail salons together. There’s the Institutional Church of God in Christ (red brick, stained glass) and the Revelation Church of God in Christ (a converted movie theatre); the French-Speaking Baptist Church, founded by Haitian immigrants; the Zion Shiloh Baptist Church, whose members come from all over the metropolitan area, parking their cars in a long row; and the Ileri Oluwa Parish, where congregants of Nigerian descent worship shoeless and in long white robes.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/15/what-do-the-churchs-victims-deserve 

Should an institution that presided over child abuse control most schools?

“Despite two decades of horrific revelations of systematic cover-up of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy, the Catholic Church remains a central part of Irish life.” Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, like most of my peers, I had a thoroughly Catholic upbringing. From birth to death the Church was an integral part of our lives. I was educated by nuns in a Catholic convent, went to First Fridays, feasts of St Blaize and Brigid, benedictions and novenas.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/should-an-institution-that-presided-over-child-abuse-control-most-schools-1.3853571 

Nine Lincoln priests are accused of substantiated sexual abuse of kids NTV

The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln released a list Tuesday of nine priests accused of substantiated sexual abuse of kids. Three more on the list are currently being investigated. The diocese said it’s part of Bishop Conley’s Task Force on Child Sexual Abuse.

https://nebraska.tv/news/local/nine-lincoln-priests-are-accused-of-substantiated-sexual-abuse-of-kids 

Defeat clerical abuse with ‘spiritual combat’, Pope urges

To fight clerical sexual abuse, the Catholic Church must have clear laws and procedures, but it also must engage in “spiritual combat”, because it is obvious the devil is at work, Pope Francis said. Speaking to reporters on March 31 on his way back to Rome from Morocco, the Pope said stopping abuse requires a multi-pronged approach, including prayer and penance.

https://www.irishcatholic.com/defeat-clerical-abuse-with-spiritual-combat-pope-urges/ 

Pope names first African-American to highest church post in the US

Archbishop Wilton Gregory promised Catholics he would "rebuild your trust" after Pope Francis on Thursday named him the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., the archdiocese that has become the epicenter of the clergy sex abuse crisis in the U.S.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/04/04/pope-names-first-african-american-highest-church-post-us/

German Cardinal Reveals that Catholic Church Destroyed and Manipulated Evidence of Sexual Abuse

High-ranking Catholic Church official Cardinal Reinhard Marx recently admitted that the Catholic Church routinely manipulated or destroyed evidence of clergy sexual abuse. In a presentation given at the February abuse summit at the Vatican, German Cardinal Marx stated that documents that could have contained proof of the abuse were destroyed or never created.

https://pittsburgh.legalexaminer.com/home-family/german-cardinal-reveals-that-catholic-church-destroyed-and-manipulated-evidence-of-sexual-abuse/

Sex Parties, Drugs and Gay Escorts at the Pope's Residence: Undercover in the Vatican

“We’ll have enough time for the interview,” the writer and journalist Frédéric Martel assures me. “Let’s go to a movie.” Friday evening. I’d arrived here two hours earlier in order to interview Martel about his new book, “In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy” (Bloomsbury, translated by Shaun Whiteside).

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium.MAGAZINE-sex-parties-drugs-and-closeted-clergy-undercover-in-the-vatican-1.7087409

The abuse crisis and the ‘tribunalisation’ of the Church

There is a grey area between ‘the bad ones’ and ‘the good ones’ that the entire Church must address, a work it cannot relegate to others If Vatican officials thought that they could regain control of the narrative concerning the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse crisis by defrocking Theodore McCarrick just days before the recent abuse summit in Rome, they failed to take into account the cases of Cardinals George Pell and Philippe Barbarin.

https://catholicoutlook.org/the-abuse-crisis-and-the-tribunalisation-of-the-church/ 

Survivor: Catholic sex abuse was ‘a test from God’

ELON – Joan Sullivan raises her hand. “Excuse me,” she says. “I’m very well into years and I have found, this last 10 years in my life, I have lost my faith and it’s been based on this.” The “this” she refers to is sexual abuse by clergymen in the Roman Catholic Church, and she’s addressing Robert Orsi, a prominent historian of U.S. Catholicism who’s just delivered a lecture titled, “Violence, Memory and Religion among Survivors of Clerical Sexual Abuse” in Elon University’s LaRose Digital Theatre Wednesday, April 3.

https://www.thetimesnews.com/news/20190404/survivor-catholic-sex-abuse-was-a-test-from-god 

Nuns ‘told girl that her parents had died‘, woman tells abuse inquiry

A child migrant has told how she was shipped off to Australia and told she had no family – despite her parents and five siblings being alive. Yvonne Radzevicius was moved to the country from care at Nazereth House in Cardonald, Glasgow, in 1953, where she had been from nine months old until 10 years old.

https://milbankmonitor.com/nuns-told-girl-that-her-parents-had-died-woman-tells-abuse-inquiry/26/03/2019/ 

A nun fell on the floor screaming… the baby came out… we knew it was a priest

The official documents from an oral history project for the Justice for Magadalene Research group, confirms the woman, then 72, has since died. The woman – who the newspaper has chosen not to name as they have been unable to contact her family – told researchers about her life in a number of institutions in the late Fifties and early Sixties.

https://extra.ie/2019/03/31/news/nun-fell-on-floor-screaming-bishop-eamonn-casey 

Child migrant sent to WA Christian Brothers home from Scotland was wrongly told he was an orphan for 40 years

A Western Australia man sent to Australia from Scotland as a child migrant was told he was an orphan for 40 years - only to find his family were alive. James McGregor, 78, also told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry he was sexually assaulted by a priest a Christian Brothers religious order home in Clontarf, WA, according to the Scotsman.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/wa-news-child-migrants-christian-brothers-scottish-child-abuse-inquiry/fa4cbfbd-b31e-4d7b-afef-31af2a680cad