ECA GLOBAL NEWS
SUMMER 2022
SNAP CONFERENCE JULY 22-24
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JULY 2022: Join SNAP for a weekend of learning, healing, and camaraderie with fellow survivors and others who care about protecting the vulnerable, healing the wounded, and preventing future cases of clergy abuse. One of the highlights will the viewing of the movie PROCESSION and a Panel Discussion with the survivors featured in the movie. Reserve your spot for the SNAP Conference today! REGISTER HERE
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THE SECRET WORLD OF POWER AND COVER UP IN NEW ZEALAND SCHOOLS
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JULY 3, 2022. NEW ZEALAND.
Dr Murray Heasley ECA Member and spokesperson for the Network for Survivors of Abuse in Faith-based Institutions, says the Network is at the root of articles exposing Marist abuse in New Zealand.
Over the next few weeks they will expose 8 articles highlighting Marist abuse in New Zealand. Their work shows the important link between advocacy and journalism in a deep investigation into systemic abuse. Murray Heasley says, "Without this link we fail to engage the public and influence the politicians that make policy."
The Marist Brothers and Fathers have educated influential individuals at their prestigious Catholic high schools. But their record of sexual abuse is horrific. Worse still was their handling of the abuse when it was exposed. In this series,
THE SECRET HISTORY, Steve Kilgallon investigates the power, abuse and cover-ups at the heart of two highly-influential and wealthy religious groups. MORE HERE.
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FBI INVESTIGATING DECADES OF ALLEGED SEX ABUSE IN NEW ORLEANS CATHOLIC CHURCH
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JUNE 29, 2022. NEW ORLEANS.
Federal investigators have reportedly launched an expansive investigation into allegations of sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans going back decades.
The probe reportedly focuses on whether priests traveled with children across state lines in order to assault them.
According to an Associated Press report, more than a dozen victims of alleged abuse have been interviewed this year in connection with the investigation. Some of the cases involve abuse that allegedly took place during trips to Mississippi, Texas, and Florida. More here.
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POPE FRANCIS HAS NOT BEEN AN ADVOCATE OF NEEDED REFORM
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JUNE 26, 2022. VATICAN CITY.
"On the most pressing challenge facing the Roman Catholic Church, Francis has, alas, been a defender of the dysfunctional status quo, not an advocate of urgently needed reform," said James Carroll, former priest and author of eleven novels and eight works of nonfiction, including the most recent, The Truth at the Heart of the Lie: How the Catholic Church Lost its
Soul.
In a recent Politico article James Carroll reveals a tragic irony that what the world most needed from Jorge Mario Bergoglio when he donned the fabled white cassock nine years ago, was not his empathetic intervention in secular matters, however urgent that may seem, but his firm advancing of reforms within the Catholic Church. Read full article here.
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THE CRIMINAL TRIAL OF NAASON JOAQUIN GARCIA IN LA LUZ DEL MULDO
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JUNE 10, 2022. MEXICO.
Naasón Joaquín García, leader of the Light of the World Church, pleaded guilty to at least three counts of sexual abuse of minors, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday.
A last-minute confession by the religious leader spared him from spending the rest of his life in jail, but did not save him from hearing the testimony of his victims as to his horrific behavior. More
here.
Una confesión del líder religioso en el último minuto evitó que pasara el resto de su vida en la cárcel, pero no lo salvó de escuchar el terrible testimonio de sus víctimas. Mas Informacion.
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CONFRONTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN UGANDA
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MAY 18, 2022. UGANDA. ECA Founding and Board Member Tim Law traveled to Mpigi Town, Uganda and spent two days with Janet Aguti and her team at the Totya Platform.
The Totya Platform (TP), a non-profit started in 2018, may be unique to Africa in its multifaceted approach to challenging sexual violence. Totya means ‘don’t be afraid’ in Luganda and was inspired by Janet’s brave journey as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Totya Platform
is helping to change a culture where open discussion about sex is still a taboo topic and the group have made speaking out loud about sexual violence their trademark.
The heart of Totya Platform is the 15 ‘para social workers’ specially trained to go out into the villages to engage with the people and victims directly. They have become trusted and welcome advocates. They organize ‘door to door’ community awareness campaigns educating
villagers about sexual violence and what to do if one is at-risk or a victim. As part of their education program TP partners with various Health Centers where it is given the opportunity to speak to visitors in their Out-Patient Department about sexual violence.
They utilize social media posts, radio talk shows, and local community radio announcements. They have a toll-free hotline where an individual can call and speak to a counsellor, request emergency support under TP’s Hope after Rape project and request general information on
sexual abuse. Last year TP handled over 1800 calls and provided post-abuse counseling to 623 survivors either virtually or by in- home visits.
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ITALY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH AT CROSSROADS OVER SEXUAL ABUSE INVESTIGATION
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Pedro Salinas, Francois Devaux, Francesco Zanardi and Peter Isley, survivors of sexual abuse, talk to reporters outside the Vatican in Rome, Italy February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
MAY 27, 2022. SAVONA.
Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, the 66-year-old Archbishop of Bologna, has been elected new president of the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI). With this election, Francesco Zanardi who runs Rete l'Abuso (The Abuse Network), which has one of the largest digital archives on clerical sexual abuse in Italy, he is hoping to see the start of a long overdue reckoning for the Church, where he hopes leaders will discuss
whether to commission an independent investigation of abuse similar to those carried out in France and Germany.
In February, 2022 Zanardi and eight other groups formed a consortium called "Beyond the Great Silence" and launched the hashtag #ItalyChurchToo to put pressure on Italy's Church to
agree to an impartial investigation.
The choice of its next president for a five-year term is crucial because bishops are divided over whether an eventual full-scale investigation should be internal, using existing resources such as diocesan anti-abuse committees, or by an outside group, potentially comprising academics, lawyers and abuse experts. We will see if Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi lives up to expectations.
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ABUSE IN ITALY'S CHURCHES TOO
AUDIT ON ABUSE COMMISSIONED BY BISHOPS CONSIDERED "OF LITTLE USE"
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MAY 18, 2022. MADRID.
Prosecutor's office considers "partial" and "of little use" the audit on abuse commissioned by the bishops to a law firm. In a report sent to the Ombudsman, the Public Prosecutor's Office considers that the commissions to investigate clerical pederasty must be independent
and considers it "essential" to be part of the official initiative.
La Fiscalía General del Estado desdeña que la propia Iglesia católica se investigue a sí misma sobre los casos de abusos a menores cometidos en su seno y su encubrimiento. Califica, además, “de escasa utilidad” el encargo de la Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE) al despacho Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo para que lleve a cabo este cometido: “Deben descartarse y considerarse de escasa utilidad las auditorías o
investigaciones parciales encomendadas por parte de la Iglesia a despachos de juristas privados, donde ... más aquí
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MANUFACTURING THE SEXUAL PREDATOR
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MAY 10, 2022. USA.
The Catholic Church has overseen the world's longest lasting and most widespread campaign of institutional sexual abuse.
Why is it that after sixteen centuries of documented evidence and decades of continuous international public exposure, new revelations of the scope and magnitude of the crisis continue to shock the public?
Film Director Sarah Pearson and a panel of activists and experts from Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and Bishop Accountability explored the issues during a film screening and virtual panel discussion on Tuesday, May 10th from 4-6pm ET. If you missed the film screening, Sign up to receive updates from Nate's Mission
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DOMINICANS URGE SEX ABUSE VICTIMS TO COME FORWARD
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MAY 6, 2022. FRANCE.
The Dominican Province of Toulouse in Southern France has taken a proactive approach to helping people who may have been sexually abused by its priests and brothers. The province announced that some of its members "have been accused of serious acts of a sexual nature against minors, facts which have unfortunately been confirmed". More here.
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JUNE 17, 2022. Released on June 17, 2022 in the USA, THE NEW RATLINE is a documentary feature film chronicling John Carlos Frey’s investigation into the global crisis of criminal Catholic priests deliberately moved internationally to evade prosecution
and conviction of sex crime -- all the while supported and funded by the church.
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JUNE 30, 2022. Trailer is released to the feature length film TRINITY, which is about a man who accidentally bumps into the priest who abused him when he was a child at a local coffeeshop. This random encounter triggered a dissociative experience and Trinity explores the devastating impact this trauma and abuse of
power can have within a brilliantly conceived and surreal narrative. More here.
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RELIGIOUS NUNS ABUSED TOO
30% of religious nuns have experienced sexual abuse at the hands of priests
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BE AN ECA SOCIAL MEDIA AMBASSADOR
ECA’s Social Media Ambassadors Program is an exciting and easy way FOR YOU to get involved with ECA and to encourage existing members who know and love the mission of ECA to spread the word about ECA globally.
ECA will utilize Social Media Ambassadors to direct strong social media campaigns and ECA messages to target specific regions and issues relating to the sexual abuse of children by clergy.
ECA has a number of campaigns in the pipeline and we need you to get involved. Together we will #EnditNOW!
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Signing up is easy!
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1. Visit smile.amazon.com
2. Sign in with your Amazon.com credentials
3. Choose a charitable organization to receive donations,
4. Select your charity (Ending Clergy Abuse USA)
4. Start shopping!
5. Add a bookmark for smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile!
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While scouring the many deals of Amazon, if you shop via smile.amazon.com, you get the exact same Amazon products you'd normally use, except that 0.5 percent of your purchase goes to a charity of your choice.
Choose ECA and while You shop, Amazon gives.
Go to https://smile.amazon.com/ and choose Ending Clergy Abuse USA as your charity.
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