The Sisters of Charity presided over abuse. They must not run a maternity hospital

In 2009 the Ryan report into child sexual abuse in state-funded, church-run institutions was published, costing the Irish taxpayer €82m. It uncovered decades of abuse endured by children in the ostensible care of Catholic organisations including the Sisters of Charity. This is the order of nuns that will be given ownership of the €300m state-of-the-art new National Maternity Hospital by the Irish government, They will be the “sole owners” of the taxpayer-funded facility.
The Sisters of Charity were once involved in the operation of five residential schools. I will tell you some of what happened at just one of them.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/20/sisters-of-charity-abuse-maternity-hospital-irish-state 

Is is time for progressive women like me to quit the Catholic Church?

I doubted much of what went on in Catholic churches early on in my life. I told my dad it was creepy that we had to kneel in front of an old guy in a robe at mass when I was 10 or 11. I weaseled out of my confirmation at 15 and thought I was skipping into a sacrament-free future as a young modern feminist.

Yet, years later I found myself having ‘words’ with the avid church lady in Galway who was leading a confirmation prep class that I had to attend in order to receive confirmation at St. John’s in Galway so I could marry my Irish fiance in the Church, but I felt like I was prostrating myself again in a front of a man in a robe.

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/is-is-time-for-progressive-women-like-me-to-quit-the-catholic-church 

Woman alleges abuse by priest when she was 14

"I can't imagine I was the only one who Father Camacho abused. I was a little girl and he didn't stop until I started crying." – "T.G." A woman has come forward alleging she was sexually abused by Father Juan Camacho in the early 1970s when she served as a receptionist at the Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo.

The lawsuit, which identified the accuser as "T.G." to protect her identity and privacy, alleges that while working at the church when she was 14, Camacho took her into his office, locked the door and sexually abused her until she resisted and began to cry.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/woman-files-lawsuit-alleging-sex-abuse-by-priest/article_82bf180c-2310-11e7-9d03-43a1062cce20.html 

Don’t lie

That’s today’s lesson for Claretian priest Fr. Tony Diaz.
He’s the organizer of San Gabriel Mission’s May 25 Build the Dreams Scholarship Fundraising Dinner. His fatal error was deciding to honor admitted child molester Bruce Wellems along with actor Edward James Olmos. Wellems is a priest of questionable standing who has been banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, removed from ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago, and told he may not act as a priest by his own order, the Claretians.
In fact, he couldn’t even answer a reporter’s question as to whether he is still a priest at all.

http://theworthyadversary.com/4478-dont-lie 

Was Darlington priest at the centre of a paedophile ring?

DISGRACED Catholic priest Michael Higginbottom was at the centre of a wider paedophile ring involving other clergymen, it has been alleged.
As former Darlington parish priest Higginbottom is jailed for 17 years over the abuse of a teenager, allegations have been uncovered suggesting that boys at St Joseph’s seminary were preyed upon by perverted priests.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/15227464.Was_priest_at_the_centre_of_a_paedophile_ring_/ 

Case alleges priest abused boy with disability

A new civil complaint filed in the District Court of Guam alleges a former priest sexually abused a boy – who had a mental illness – while the boy was an altar boy and a Boy Scout.
The lawsuit, filed by Public Guardian Marcelene C. Santos, on behalf of an individual using the initials "G.B.," alleges when the boy was 12, he was sexually molested and abused by Louis Brouillard, who was the parish priest at the time at the Nuestra Señora de las Aguas Catholic Church in Mongmong.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/case-alleges-priest-abused-boy-with-disability/article_650bc57e-2425-11e7-8d37-77f8ee097aea.html 

Lujan: Program for church sex-abuse victims 'a scam'

The archdiocese’s recent announcement of the establishment of a Hope and Healing program has come under criticism by attorney David Lujan, who represents several dozen victims of clergy sexual abuse.
"It’s a scam. The institution that knows about scams, there’s no greater institution than the Catholic Church. They’ve mastered the art of deception and deceit," Lujan told The Guam Daily Post.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/lujan-program-for-church-sex-abuse-victims-a-scam/article_7f49304a-2423-11e7-91ca-f3984634f526.html 

Abuse survivors angry at order getting ownership of hospital

Survivors of child abuse in residential institutions have expressed shock at the fact that the sole owner of the new National Maternity Hospital in south Dublin will be the the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, of which the Sisters of Charity are the shareholders.

The Sisters of Charity have yet to fulfil their commitments under the 2002 indemnity agreement, under which they and 17 other congregations that ran residential institutions for children agreed to pay the State €128 million towards redress costs.

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/abuse-survivors-angry-at-order-getting-ownership-of-hospital-1.3053192?mode=amp#.WPZvhtzwqH0.twitter 

New call for mandatory reporting after Catholic Church in Australia admits “devastating” scale of child abuse

Five secularist organisations, including the NSS, have called for the Catholic Church to take real action to ensure justice for victims of clerical child abuse.

They signed an open letter to Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council of the Australian Catholic Church, which coordinates the Church's response to the Australian Royal Commission on institutional child abuse.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2017/04/new-call-for-mandatory-reporting-after-catholic-church-in-australia-admits-devastating-scale-of-child-abuse 

Silence around Seattle mayor’s rape allegations

This was going to be a story about how far we’ve come in talking about victims of sexual abuse. It was a few days after a man, age 46, initials D.H., filed a lawsuit saying Seattle Mayor Ed Murray had paid him for sex when he was 15.

It turned out similar allegations against Murray had surfaced a decade ago but were never shared with the public – a lawyer withdrew and reporters balked. That made me wonder if we as a society had evolved since 2008 in how we treat victims.

http://kuow.org/post/silence-around-seattle-mayor-s-rape-allegations 

Call it Denny Hastert's legacy: End the statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes

At his sentencing hearing a year ago, former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert apologized for sexually abusing boys he'd mentored decades before as a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School. "For 11 months, I have been struggling to come to terms with events that occurred almost four decades ago," he said at the emotional Chicago hearing in which a federal judge called him a "serial child molester."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-sexual-abuse-statute-limitations-hastert-edit-20170425-story.html 

The church provided a perfect cover for child-abuser Father Kevin Glover

This Broken Rites article reveals how the Catholic Church harboured a paedophile priest (Father Kevin Glover) for many years, in parishes around Australia, while he committed sexual crimes against children. When his crimes became known in one parish, the church merely transferred him to another parish. Now, in 2017, lawyers are preparing to tackle the Catholic Church authorities for compensation on behalf of three people who say they were sexually abused by Father Glover in Western Australia in the 1960s and 1970s.
The priest's full name was William Kevin Glover but he was always known by his middle name, Kevin.

http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/269 

Prep school Choate owns up to decades of abuse allegations

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now an investigation that uncovered decades of sexual abuse at one of the nation’s elite private preparatory schools, and the extent to which the school hushed it up.  Hari Sreenivasan has that story from our New York studios.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The report released last night focused on a dozen former teachers at the prestigious boarding school in Connecticut, Choate Rosemary Hall. It recounts the experiences of 24 adult alumni who were allegedly abused between 1963 and 2010. Investigators said the offenses ranged from kissing to groping to rape.

http://netnebraska.org/node/1072399 

Choate Rosemary Hall, a Very Private School, Publicly Catalogs Its Sins

For so many years, when schools learned that teachers were sexually abusing students, the strategy was to keep it quiet. Handle it in-house. Make it go away.

On Thursday, Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite boarding school in Connecticut, turned that method on its head. At 4:30 p.m., nearly 14,000 members of the Choate community, including alumni, parents and faculty, received an email with a sterile title, “Message to the Choate Rosemary Hall Community,” and a link to a searing report describing decades of sexual abuse at the school.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/nyregion/choate-school-sex-abuse-connecticut.html?emc=edit_tnt_20170414&nlid=63876270&tntemail0=y&_r=0 

Sexual Abuse Affects Everyone

In response to Vagina Monologues, California State University,Monterey Bay put on its annual performance of The Mending Monologues. The show was originally brought to CSUMB over 5 years ago; it is present at many college campuses, and even internationally present.
This production, directed by Malcolm Tunnell and hosted by the World Theater on March 30 and April 1, is the students’ way of helping to spread awareness on the problems and forms of abuse. The cast as a whole stresses the fact that everyone is affected by sexual abuse. The show helped to highlight that anyone, even your best friend and classmate, could be suffering through these horrific events.

http://otterrealm.com/mending-monologues-sexual-abuse-affects-everyone/ 

Married Priesthood and the face of the New Church

Recently the Pope himself said that maybe he won’t visit some countries as by that time there would be a new Pope! This is no new news. Many priests are very old. Will they live beyond 100 years? Most of them will surely die before reaching 90 years, maybe 80. It’s a time bomb that we knew about it a long time ago. Most of the priests serving today are over 60. So some mathematics will help us to get to know the future. Who will serve the parishes then?
We never had any doubts that married priests will form part of the future church. This is simply because of one reason: there won’t be enough priests. Even the most dogmatic and anti-married priesthood supporter will accept the fact that most parishes will become priest-less!!!

https://maltesemarriedcatholicpriest.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/married-priesthood-and-the-face-of-the-new-church/ 

Father Thomas Doyle tells royal commission Vatican failed sex abuse victims

The Vatican has failed to support survivors of sexual abuse in the church for decades, with prominent Catholics demanding action at a royal commission.
A whistleblower priest who was one of the first to report allegations of sexual abuse to the Vatican in the 1980s told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he was punished for speaking out.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/father-thomas-doyle-tells-royal-commission-vatican-failed-sex-abuse-victims-20170206-gu6zs7.html 

Pedophile priest admits more offending

The harm caused by Australia's worst pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale is still being felt, a victims' advocate says.
The former Victorian Catholic priest has admitted to abusing more than 60 children, but the true number could be as high as 1000.  Ridsdale, 82, on Thursday pleaded guilty to 20 new charges including rape, buggery and indecent assault against another 11 victims between 1962 to 1988.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/04/13/10/31/ridsdale-pleads-guilty-to-more-child-abuse

Catholic priest jailed for St Joseph's College sex abuse - BBC News

The victim of a former priest who has been jailed for sex abuse at a Catholic boarding school said he cried so often "I could have drowned in my own tears".

Father Michael Higginbottom was found guilty of the "cruel and sadistic" abuse of a teenage boy at St Joseph's College in Upholland, Lancashire. He was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court of four counts each of a serious sexual offence and indecent assault.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-39587444# 

17 years for UK priest who abused teenage boy at boarding school

A Catholic priest has been jailed for 17 years for repeatedly sexually abusing a teenage boy when he worked as a teacher in the 1970s.
Father Michael Higginbottom, 74, was working at St Joseph's College, a boarding school in Upholland, Lancashire, when the sexual abuse took place.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/17-years-for-uk-priest-who-abused-teenage-boy-at-boarding-school-785633.html

Good Friday: Why are so many of us still Catholic?

I denied myself three times. I stood at the altar, denounced their image of Satan and promised to raise my godchildren in the Catholic faith.

These were three lies. Like many of my friends who have gone through the same charade, I lied because I loved those children and their parents and knew that what I was really promising was to be a good person and source of support for that child. I lied because everyone around me expected me to lie.

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/good-friday-why-are-so-many-of-us-still-catholic-1.3039180 

Former Darlington priest Father Michael Higginbottom tells sex abuse trial he does not even remember his accuser

A CATHOLIC priest accused of sexually abusing a young boy nearly 40 year ago has strenuously denied the allegations.
Father Michael Higginbottom told a jury on Friday that none of the allegations against him were true. He also told Liverpool Crown Court that he did not even remember the alleged victim, who is now aged 52.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/15211339.Priest_tells_sex_abuse_trial_he_does_not_remember_boy/ 

Archbishop Coleridge says God “will not fail” to raise men for the priesthood despite Royal Commission sorrow

PRIESTLY vocations might be fewer in number and “chastened” by the Royal Commission’s hearings into abuse in the Catholic Church but “the gift of priesthood will remain”, Archbishop Mark Coleridge said.
The Archbishop reiterated the anointed call of men to the priesthood during the Chrism Mass at St Stephen’s Cathedral on April 6, where priests of Brisbane archdiocese renewed their vows publicly and oils used throughout the liturgical year were blessed.

http://catholicleader.com.au/news/chrism-mass-archbishop-coleridge-says-god-will-not-fail-to-raise-men-for-the-priesthood-despite-royal-commission-sorrow 

Former NH Catholic church leader removed from priesthood

Edward J. Arsenault III, a former monsignor and the face of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester in the early 2000s when it was rocked by a sexual abuse scandal involving priests and children, has been formally dismissed from the priesthood.
On Friday, the diocese announced that Pope Francis has stripped Arsenault of his clerical duties. “By virtue of this decree, Edward J. Arsenault has no faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest,” the diocese stated. The action also dispenses him “from all obligations subsequent to sacred ordination, including that of celibacy.”

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20170408/NEWS08/170409412/-1/mobile?template=mobileart 

Splinter Catholic group based in Kent 'welcomed priests accused of child abuse'

An ultra-conservative Catholic splinter group based in Kent has been accused of welcoming priests accused of child abuse.  The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) Resistance order is led by convicted holocaust denier ‘Bishop’ Richard Williamson, who heads the organisation from a property in Broadstairs, South England.
He has allowed two priests accused of molesting children to become part of his group, a Swedish documentary alleged. SSPX Resistance is not officially associated with the Catholic Church but there is speculation the Vatican may welcome the group back into the faith. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/sspx-respice-stellam-resistance-splinter-catholic-group-kent-priests-child-abuse-accuse-roman-a7670591.html 

Colombia’s Catholic church shuns responsibility in potential child abuse cases

A controversial document stipulating that priests are solely responsible in child abuse cases and not the church, has been circulated by the Catholic Church in Colombia, reported local media.
So far only the archdiocese of the southwestern city of Cali has made its priests sign a document absolving their employer of all responsibility, which has once again opened the debate on liability in church pedophilia cases.

http://colombiareports.com/colombias-catholic-church-shuns-responsibility-potential-child-abuse-cases/ 

Catholic Church must reform confession, abuse survivor says

An Australian child abuse survivor has called on the Catholic Church to reform its laws on confession to ensure crimes are reported to police. Peter Gogarty said perpetrators knew anything disclosed in confession would not be revealed to authorities.
He told the BBC it was effectively a "get-out-of-jail-free card". It follows the final public hearings in an Australian inquiry, which has heard evidence of abusers confessing knowing their actions would not be divulged.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-39475959?SThisFB 

Jesus wept: There were 12 reported incidents of Christian pastors molesting kids — in just the last month

The arrest of a Christian school principal in Port Angeles, Washington for sexually assaulting two pre-teen girls brings to light, once again, what appears to be an epidemic of sexual predators in Christian churches and schools.
According to the Crimes Against Children Research Center, 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse. The exact number of actual sexual assaults is unknown since many victims never speak up or, in some cases like Florida, the sexual assault is hushed up.

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/jesus-wept-there-were-12-reported-incidents-of-christian-pastors-molesting-kids-in-just-the-last-month/#.VwDBRV88_Vk.facebook 

Guam Catholic Church sees a "perfect storm" of controversy.

The Catholic Church on the Pacific island of Guam has been devastated by allegations that its longtime archbishop sexually abused altar boys. But even before the scandal broke, Guam's church was divided over another issue - the presence of a controversial European lay movement that became so toxic that a community of nuns fled to the mainland U.S. in despair.
The battle on the tiny tropical U.S. territory pits the Neocatechumenal Way lay group against critics on a majority Catholic island that was colonized by Spanish missionaries in the 17th century. The Way was founded in the 1960s in Madrid and is best known for sending families out on missions to evangelize in places where Catholics are a either a minority or have fallen away from the church.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-4372554/Guam-Catholic-Church-sees-perfect-storm-controversy.html 

Royal commission into child sex abuse about restoring faith

I can only remember four words of a conversation with Justice Peter McClellan after the final day of evidence in Newcastle about the Hunter region's tragic history of child sexual abuse involving churches.
It was September 8 last year, and we were standing outside Newcastle Courthouse. For more than a month the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard devastating evidence of abuse in the Catholic and Anglican churches, of cover-ups and the appalling treatment of survivors.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/royal-commission-into-child-sex-abuse-about-restoring-faith-20170331-gvatfb.html 

British campaigner who was ousted from Vatican child abuse commission accuses Catholic church of treating victims with 'contempt'

A British campaigner who has been ousted from a Vatican child abuse commission has accused the Catholic Church of treating child sex abuse victims with contempt. Peter Saunders, who was abused by two priests as a child, said he had lost faith in Pope Francis after learning that the only other abuse victim on the commission had resigned because of a lack of progress.
The father of two, who was last year forced to take ‘leave of absence’ from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, believes that he will shortly be officially dismissed from his role after clashing with other members of the inquiry.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4371648/Campaigner-s-fury-Vatican-contempt-abuse-victims.html

Judge grants retired bishop’s 2nd request in abuse case

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Joaquin V.E. Manibusan granted a second request from retired Saipan Bishop Tomas A. Camacho to have more time to respond to a former altar boy’s lawsuit, alleging the former Guam priest raped and sexually abused him from about 1971 to 1974.
The judge gave Camacho, represented by Attorney William M. Fitzgerald, until April 10 to respond to Melvin Duenas' lawsuit. The deadline was supposed to be March 31.

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/04/01/judge-grants-retired-bishops-2nd-request-abuse-case/99813580/ 

Child abuse inquiry will quiz charities and church groups will be asked to admit abuses

CHARITIES and faith-based groups will be asked whether they admit overseeing the abuse of children, during the first public hearings of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.
The Inquiry has announced 10 Christian organisations and three charities will appear during seven weeks of hearings, beginning on May 31 as it takes evidence in public for the first time.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15196988.Child_abuse_inquiry_will_quiz_charities_and_church_groups_will_be_asked_to_admit_abuses/ 

Letters need humble response, say abuse survivors

In this Feb. 7, 2012 file photo, Marie Collins, right, who was assaulted as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain in her native Ireland, attends a press conference at a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sex abuse, in Rome. Collins quit in frustration her post on a Vatican commission advising Pope Francis about how to fight abuse of minors.

After the controversy following Marie Collins stepping down from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, other survivors of clergy sex abuse urge the Vatican to acknowledge and answer letters and treat victims with respect. 

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/03/27/letters-need-humble-response-say-abuse-survivors/ 

Francis’s words about women: What does he really think?

“When ordination is rightly understood, according to Pope Francis, women’s gifts for leadership can be shared within the church. Women can engage in decision-making for the church. He seems to be saying that ordination is simply less important than baptism in the grand scheme of things. And in any clerically-dominated church, that is saying a mouthful—for women and for men.”
 The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers some sage advice on how to take someone else’s words. In article 2478, it says: “To avoid rash judgment, everyone ought to be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbors’ thoughts, words, and deeds, in a favorable way.

https://voicefaithful.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/franciss-words-about-women-what-does-he-really-think-commonweal/ 

Parishioners were left in the dark for years over reasons for Father Michael Higginbottom's absence

PARISHIONERS were left in the dark over why their priest had been suddenly suspended – and the wall of silence went on for several years.
In 1998, Father Michael Higginbottom arrived in Darlington and, as priest of St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, quickly became popular with parishioners, establishing a reputation as a respectable and hard-working man.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/15220805.Years_of_secrecy_and_silence_surrounded_reasons_for_Darlington_priest__39_s_suspension/ 

New lawsuit accuses Capuchin friar of sexual abuse

“The lawsuit against the Capuchins marks a new chapter in the Guam Catholic clergy abuse crisis." – Michael Pfau, attorney Allegations of sexual abuse have been raised against a former priest on Guam who is credited with having established the altar boy program at Mount Carmel Catholic Church in the early 1970s.

A civil lawsuit, filed by an individual with the initials “J.M.,” alleges Father Sigmund Hafemann sexually abused the plaintiff while he was a parishioner at the Agat church.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/new-lawsuit-accuses-capuchin-friar-of-sexual-abuse/article_020b6d2e-1f3b-11e7-8c26-1f99c72c36f7.html 

Chrism Mass: Archbishop Coleridge says God “will not fail” to raise men for the priesthood despite Royal Commission sorrow

PRIESTLY vocations might be fewer in number and “chastened” by the Royal Commission’s hearings into abuse in the Catholic Church but “the gift of priesthood will remain”, Archbishop Mark Coleridge said.
The Archbishop reiterated the anointed call of men to the priesthood during the Chrism Mass at St Stephen’s Cathedral on April 6, where priests of Brisbane archdiocese renewed their vows publicly and oils used throughout the liturgical year were blessed.

http://catholicleader.com.au/news/chrism-mass-archbishop-coleridge-says-god-will-not-fail-to-raise-men-for-the-priesthood-despite-royal-commission-sorrow 

‘We created the abuse’: Church official leading response to child sexual abuse tells priests its time to listen to the community

AN official leading the Church response to child sex abuse has told priests in Brisbane, “we created the abuse”, now it is time for parish priests to listen to their communities, including people who have been abused and are angry with the Church.
“We created the abuse. That is the harsh reality,” chief executive of the Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council Francis Sullivan said, addressing about 180 priests from the Archdiocese of Brisbane attending an annual convocation.

http://catholicleader.com.au/news/we-created-the-abuse-church-official-leading-response-to-child-sexual-abuse-tells-priests-its-time-to-listen-to-the-community 

Seares: Catholic Church will endure. But.

MAYBE President Duterte was sweeping and vague when last March 30, going into Lent, he said the Catholic Church would be irrelevant in 30 years. He used the word “passe” but that didn’t tell what he exactly meant. “Passe” may just mean “outdated” or “old-fashioned.” And what are the benchmarks of irrelevance? 

What he meant Did Duterte refer to a collapse of the church, not just in the Philippines but worldwide with its 1.2 billion members fleeing to other religions or abandoning faith altogether?

 

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/opinion/2017/04/10/seares-catholic-church-will-endure-536036 

Victim of Fr Brendan Smyth calls church changes ‘window dressing’

A woman who was sexually abused by serial paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth has criticised the Catholic Church for its “disturbing” failure to change its ways.

“It’s all nothing more than window-dressing to me. They haven’t taken real action. Release the files, prosecute the predators and compensate the victims.”  Helen McGonigle was raped and sexually assaulted by Smyth in Rhode Island in the US in the 1960s, when she was aged between six and nine years old

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/victim-of-fr-brendan-smyth-calls-church-changes-window-dressing-1.3037879 

Advocates for victims of clergy abuse say the church is focused on looking after itself

ADVOCATES for sexual assault victims say recent comments by the Catholic Bishop of Ballarat demonstrate the church’s focus is on protecting itself rather than the crimes committed on south-west children.
Bishop Paul Bird refuted calls to remove plaques which include the name of disgraced bishop Ronald Mulkearns. He told The Standard it was important to accurately record historical events where the community had gathered to celebrate with Bishop Mulkearns.

http://www.standard.net.au/story/4577668/church-priority-is-not-victims/

Priest left trail of abused and broken children’

A former priest who worked in Guam and Hawaii “left a trail of abused and broken children” everywhere the Church sent him, said attorneys representing two former altar boys who allege they were sexually abused between 1986 and 1987 by Father Andrew “Andy” Mannetta.
Mannetta, 61, is named for the first time in civil lawsuits filed in the Superior Court of Guam by a team of attorneys, including Attorney Anthony C. Perez, the James, Vernon and Weeks law firm in Washington, and Attorney Randall Rosenberg in Hawaii.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/attorneys-priest-left-trail-of-abused-and-broken-children/article_549cf370-19c1-11e7-833a-77f38d4d0e34.html 

Renegade Catholic order in UK 'harbours clergy accused of sexual abuse'

A British Catholic priest who has been excommunicated twice by different popes is allegedly harbouring clergy accused of sexual abuse in his renegade religious order.
Richard Williamson, who was illicitly ordained as a bishop in 1988 by an ultra-conservative group, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), and later convicted of Holocaust denial by a German court, is now head of the “SSPX Resistance”, based in Broadstairs, Kent.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/05/catholic-sspx-resistance-uk-harbours-clergy-accused-sexual-abuse-richard-williamson