Australian Baptist Church apologizes for failure to care for domestic violence victims

The Baptist Church in Australia has issued a formal apology to domestic violence victims for churches' failure to care for their members who experienced abuse. At the same time, it also called on leaders to recognize the issue as a serious problem which spans across several denominations.

http://www.christiandaily.com/article/australian-baptist-church-apologizes-for-failure-to-care-for-domestic-violence-victims/61550.htm 

End secrecy of confessionals 'to protect Catholic children'

Mandatory reporting of sexual misconduct and abolishing the secrecy of the priest’s confessional box are needed to protect children at Catholic schools, the national inquiry into child sexual abuse has been told.
At the opening of a three-week hearing into Benedictine schools, lawyers representing scores of victims have called for fundamental changes to the way the church handles complaints and deals with suspected offenders.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/27/end-secrecy-of-confessionals-to-protect-catholic-children 

Former Catholic priest accused of child sex offences against Marist Brothers' school students in 1980s

The victims of an alleged paedophile priest who was extradited to Sydney from New Zealand, are disappointed he has been granted bail but say they are looking forward to the case finally proceeding through the courts.

Former Catholic priest James Joseph Cunneen is accused of sex offences against seven teenage boys from a Marist Brothers school in Sydney's west in the late 1980s.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-23/former-catholic-priest-in-court-over-child-sex-offences/9186228 

Dubbo sex offender: Third victim says she was raped as child

A THIRD victim has come forward revealing she was also raped as a child by a sex monster controversially spared jail because of his high cholesterol and sleeping problems.

The woman said she was sexually assaulted by the Dubbo offender — who can only be identified as TM because of court suppression orders — over a three-year period starting when she was 12 years old in 1987.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/dubbo-sex-offender-third-victim-says-she-was-raped-as-child/news-story/f3382f355a8587f18ef854f3b2aeab58 

Australia Royal Commission itemises a ‘national tragedy’

Sexual abuse of children has occurred in almost every type of institution in Australia where children lived or attended  Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is to have a final public sitting in Sydney next month, on the eve of delivering its final report to Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove on 15 December, to thank the community for its support.

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/8125/0/australia-royal-commission-itemises-a-national-tragedy- 

Minnesota Abuse Victim Claims Bishop Bullied Him Into Silence

CROOKSTON, Minn. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A practicing Catholic is accusing his diocese of trying to cover up priestly sex abuse.
Ron Vasek was on the way to becoming a permanent deacon in 2011 when he started opening up about his victimization as a child. The abuse incident occurred in 1971, but Vasek had mostly been quiet about it — as sex abuse victims often are — until his time in seminary training for the permanent diaconate.

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/minnesota-victim-sues-bishop-diocese

Jehovah's Witnesses claim they were told not to report child sex abuse, as organisation is accused of sheltering abusers

The recently elected New Zealand government has committed to establishing an inquiry into the abuse of children in state care during its first 100 days of office. The Maori Women’s Welfare League is urging ministers setting up the inquiry to consult widely, including with victim and survivor groups and organisations with a history of involvement in state ‘care’. As they have stated, such consultation is essential to ensuring the inquiry leads to systemic change that will prevent abuse in the future.

http://www.findandconnectwrblog.info/2017/11/are-we-in-an-age-of-inquiry-into-institutional-child-abuse/ 

Chrissie Foster says the Federal Government must implement all royal commission recommendations.

IT’S been a tough year at the end of several decades of tough years for Chrissie Foster, who campaigned for a royal commission into child sexual abuse after two of her daughters were raped by a Catholic priest.
Her husband, Anthony, died suddenly in June, a decade after the overdose death of one of their daughters who was five when she was raped

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/5055097/grieving-widow-wants-action-after-the-speech-that-shamed-police/?cs=12#slide=1

The priest who shattered my faith in the Catholic Church

Other than its also being a revelation of cataclysmic proportions, my road-to-Damascus moment was very different from St Paul’s. I was not on a horse, galloping along some dusty road in the Middle East. I was at a pre-Christmas drinks party in south Co Dublin. I was not a persecutor of Christians; I was one of them myself – a practising Catholic to boot. Nor was God the recriminating injured party on this occasion. (“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”) Instead it was the distressed voices of suffering children that I came to hear

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/the-priest-who-shattered-my-faith-in-the-catholic-church-1.3293062 

Abuse by priests is not due to celibacy, says Vatican expert

Here is where i say eyes wide SHUT... Thee are NONE so  BLIND as though who CAN NOT SEE...  or DO NOT WANT to SEE... Ann

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Celibacy cannot be blamed for clerical sex abuse because the average perpetrator does not commit the crime for up to 20 years after entering the priesthood, according to a top Vatican expert.

Professor Hans Zollner, a member of the Vatican's Commission for the Protection of Minors, said "celibacy as such is not the problem" because the average age of clerical paedophiles is 39. If were a problem, the age would be closer to that when priests take their vows, which is usually in their twenties.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/abuse-by-priests-is-not-due-to-celibacy-says-vatican-expert-36331006.html 

Trial again postponed for Aurora priest accused of sex abuse of girls

The trial for an Aurora priest charged with sexually abusing girls at their Catholic church has been pushed back again, from November to February, while lawyers figure out whether the lead investigator on the case destroyed or withheld notes that could affect its outcome.
The investigator's resignation from the Kane County Child Advocacy Center has complicated legal proceedings involving his work, including that of Alfredo Pedraza Arias, a Colombia national whose lost his temporary religious worker visa after he was charged with sexually abusing two young girls at Sacred Heart Church in Aurora and one of the girls' homes between 2012 and 2014. Arias, 50, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-aurora-priest-sex-abuse-trial-delayed-st-1117-20171117-story.html 

Mike Kelly: Chris Christie's fading voice

Gov. Christie voted Tuesday for Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno as his successor and traded sharp words with a voter in Mendham Township, Morris County where they both voted. Peggy In the end, he couldn’t stop himself.  

Chris Christie cast his vote Tuesday – for Kim Guadagno, he said. Nothing unusual there. Then, as he walked from a polling station in Mendham, he met Victoria Giambra, a constituent with a bone to pick. This is when Christie couldn’t hold back.

http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/mike-kelly/2017/11/11/mike-kelly-chris-christies-fading-voice/846288001/ 

Phillips Exeter Deans Failed to Report Sex Assault Case, Police Say

A New Hampshire State Police investigator sought the arrests last year of two deans at Phillips Exeter Academy, one of the nation’s elite prep schools, on a charge that they failed to report the alleged sexual assault of a student to the authorities, newly obtained records show.

But the deans were not arrested or prosecuted, and a year after that police investigation, they remain in their posts at the school.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/us/phillips-exeter-sex-assault.html?emc=edit_tnt_20171114&nlid=63876270&tntemail0=y 

Mitch McConnell Believes the Women. Good for Him.

“I believe the women, yes.” With that statement, about accounts of lecherous behavior and child molestation by the Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said words that thousands of victims of sexual harassment and assault have waited in vain to hear.

Perhaps nobody should hold her breath expecting this will bring real, lasting change. Mr. Moore is too much of an extremist, making him already unpopular for even Republican leaders. But the flood of accusations against famous men in entertainment, the news media and politics has raised hope that women can come forward without fear to seek justice.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/opinion/roy-moore-women-mcconnell-alabama.html?emc=edit_tnt_20171114&nlid=63876270&tntemail0=y 

Frightening realities of sex and young people

Prominent Tauranga sexual abuse counsellor Denise McEnteer talks to Carly Gibbs about the frightening realities of sex and our children.

Warning: Graphic content.
She's gone to bed. Lights are out. Someone is keeping her up though. Under the sheets a blue light flickers. Should she send it? She pauses. She sends. It's a deep breath that follows. Time is endless. There's no reply. In the morning; at school, everything's not okay.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11942340