Catholic Priest Arrested After 11 y/o Girl
Recorded Herself Being Molested
(The AEGIS Alliance) – TRENTOLA DUCENTA, ITALY – An 11-year-old Italian girl is being praised as a hero after she used her smartphone to provide proof of being sexually abused by a Catholic priest.
59-year-old Father Michele Mottola was arrested this past week in Trentola Ducenta, Italy, which is near Naples. The arrest came after audio recordings of the priest and the girl were provided to local media.
Angello Spinillo, the bishop of Aversa, became aware of these allegations in May of 2018 at the earliest and Mottola had gottten suspended at the time. The bishop also reported the allegations to the Public Prosecutor of the Commissariat of Aversa. Unfortunately there was no further action against the priest at the time.
Nearly one and a half years later, action has now been taken only after the recording was aired on the political TV show Le Lene. Orders were then given by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Naples to arrest the priest.
There are several occasions that the audio was recorded, and there are several highly disturbing passages within it.
“Look, there’s nobody there. You are scared? Embrace me, kiss me.” Mottola’s voice is heard saying in one, translations were made by Church Militant.
“Do you know that I love you? Do you want a little kiss?” Mottola said in another.
A child is heard whimpering in one of the audio clips, and repeatedly tells the priest to stop.
“Take this to dry yourself,” Mottola is heard saying in another audio clip, the girl is in tears and her protests are heard.
The child recorded being repeatedly abused after attempts by her mother to inform local parishioners had failed. The recordings were the child’s last resort.
In one of the recordings, the innocent girl is heard pleading with the priest to stop abusing her. The child is heard telling the priest that she told people who work within the church, but the priest is heard telling her to not tell lies.
“You didn’t have to do it, because now they will understand other things. Things will get very bad. I will come to your home to talk to your parents.” Mottola said to the girl.
Mottola even tried to persuade and silence the girl by comparing her to ISIS DAESH suicide bombers.
“You can tell lies. Do you understand you can lie? You’re like Islamic suicide bombers, throwing a bomb, killing people and leaving. The mud ends up also on your family and on you,” Mottola is heard saying in the audio.
Mottola is heard taking a more gentle approach in another audio clip, “Can you say that you have invented everything to the limit? “Everything … that I took you to the bedroom … everything. So, we take this mess out of the way. We can pretend that it never happened. We don’t talk about it anymore, okay?”
Following the audio clips being released to the public by La Lene, the girl’s mother said she is proud of the willingness by her daughter.
“I am proud of my daughter, she was more cunning than the priest,” the girl’s mother said.
Trentola Ducenta, IT
'Evidence of a cover up': Woman wins bid to sue
London, Ont, diocese, again, over sexual abuse
Paola LoriggioThe Canadian Press
TORONTO, ONT -- An Ontario woman has won her bid to sue the London Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church for a second time over the sexual abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of a priest.
Irene Deschenes initially filed a lawsuit in 1996 alleging she was sexually abused by Father Charles Sylvestre in the early 1970s, and that the London diocese failed to prevent it.
She settled out of court in 2000 after the diocese maintained it didn't know of any concerns regarding Sylvestre or his behaviour until the late 1980s -- long after what happened to Deschenes.
Court documents show that in 2006, Sylvestre pleaded guilty to having sexually assaulted 47 girls under the age of 18, including Deschenes.
A motion judge ruled to allow the new legal action, but the diocese appealed -- a challenge that was unanimously dismissed by the province's top court this week.
Deschenes's lawyer praised her client's "strength and conviction" in pursuing the case, and said Deschenes is "thrilled" the Appeal Court upheld the decision to set aside the settlement.
"The court said that Irene relied on the church's false statements and they induced her to settle her case back in 2006," Loretta Merritt said in an email. "The court agreed that the overarching principles of justice and fairness trumped the finality of settlements and there was evidence of a cover up."
Court documents show Deschenes was a student at St. Ursula Catholic School and a member of St. Ursula's Parish in Chatham, Ont., when she was sexually assaulted. Sylvestre was ordained in the late 1940s and retired in 1993, the document say. Media reports indicate he died in jail in 2007.
Media reports don't say, he's been burning in Hell ever since!
While the motion judge at times used incorrect and confusing terminology, the court said, he applied the correct legal analysis in arriving at that conclusion.
The diocese "made a representation that was false when it stated repeatedly, including under oath, that no one knew that there was any reason to be concerned about Father Sylvestre's behaviour before Ms. Deschenes claimed to have been assaulted by him," it wrote.
"The motion judge's conclusions that there was a misrepresentation by the diocese, that it was material, and that it was relied on by Ms. Deschenes in concluding the settlement, as well as his conclusion that it would be fair and just to rescind the settlement agreement in the circumstances, reveal no error."
Evidence that the diocese had previously tried to cover up allegations of sexual assault was also "relevant to the consideration of fairness and justice," it said.
Polish archbishop calls for child sex abuse probe before Saint John Paul II centenary celebrations
By Danielle Wallace | Fox News
The 100th anniversary of the birth of Saint John Paul II has been somewhat marred in his native Poland after the country's most senior member of the Catholic Church asked the Vatican to investigate a Polish bishop accused of protecting priests known to have sexually abused children.
Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the most senior member of Poland’s Catholic Church, asked the Vatican on Saturday to “launch proceedings” into the findings of a new documentary. In March 2019, Pope Francis established a new reporting framework to prevent and counter abuses against minors and vulnerable persons.
The film “Hide and Seek," by brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski, was released earlier Saturday and explores how bishop Edward Janiak, based in the city of Kalisz, allegedly failed to take action against priests reported to have sexually abused children, according to Reuters.
Archbishop Wojciech Polak speaks with media representatives after extraordinary sitting of Polish bishops, to discuss steps the Catholic Church in Poland should take to tackle the problem of pedophilia, at the Polish Episcopate headquarters in Warsaw, Poland May 22, 2019. (Agencja Gazeta/Slawomir Kaminski/via Reuters)
The documentary, as of Sunday, has more than 1.9 million views on YouTube, the BBC reported.
In a video broadcast by the Catholic news agency KAI, Polak said the film “shows that protection standards for children and adolescents in the church were not respected,” The Guardian reported.
“I ask priests, nuns, parents and educators to not be led by the false logic of shielding the Church, effectively hiding sexual abusers,” Polak said in another statement published Saturday, according to Reuters. “There is no place among the clergy to sexually abuse minors. We do not allow for the hiding of these crimes.”
This comes as churches across Poland have scheduled Sunday Masses, as well as online events and concerts due to the coronavirus pandemic, to celebrate Saint John Paul II. The centenary of his birth is Monday.
Saint John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyła in Wadowice, southern Poland, on May 18, 1920.
BISHOP CHOSEN TO INVESTIGATE CHURCH SEX ABUSE IS HIMSELF ACCUSED
The first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years, he took the helm of the Catholic Church in 1978 until his death in 2005 and remains widely revered in his native Poland, where he’s credited to helping foster the belief in the 1980s that an end to the communist regime was possible, the BBC reported.
He was canonized, or officially became a saint, in 2014. The ruling nationalist Law and Justice party in Poland still has close ties to the church and promotes Catholic values.
“Tomorrow will be the centenary of the birth of Saint John Paul II, in Wadowice, Poland,” Pope Francis said Sunday in a livestream address to the Apostolic Library after praying the Regina Caeli.
“From Heaven, may he continue to intercede for the People of God and peace in the world,” the pope said, inviting Christians to remember Saint John Paul II "with great affection and gratitude."
(File photo from 1982) Close-up of Pope John Paul II sitting on a chair, wearing red robes with a portrait of the St. Theresa of Avila in the background during his visit to Avila, Spain.
Pope Francis announced that Masses could resume in person in Italy for the first time since the pandemic began starting Monday, Vatican News reported. He said he will host a Monday morning Mass broadcast by World Vision from the same altar where Saint John Paul II’s remains lie in rest in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
“I share in the joy of the communities that can finally reunite as liturgical assemblies, a sign of hope for all society,” the pope said.
Investigating a saint? Yikes!
The Sekielski brothers released a film last May titled “Tell No One,” which alleges that known pedophiles were deliberately shuffled between parishes. That documentary has more than 23 million views on YouTube.
Though the first two films do not explore Saint John Paul II’s involvement in alleged cover-up schemes, the filmmakers said they plan to release a third focused on the “role of John Paul II in the dissimulation of crimes committed by priests,” The Guardian reported.
It seems like the AB is trying to tamp down the celebrations on JP2s centennial. Wonder if he knows what's coming in the next film by the brothers.
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