The girl's mother noticed in April that she was pregnant.
When asked about the pregnancy the girl apparently told her mother that the priest was the father of the baby, Ntepe said.
Police said the mother allegedly confronted the priest but he denied the allegations.
Ntepe said a DNA test would be conducted as part of the investigation into the latest case. - Sapa #
• Church memos called proof; Group criticizes prosecutors' action
The Enquirer (Cincinnati, USA), By Dan Horn, Wednesday, October 13, 2004
A victim-advocacy group accused Hamilton County prosecutors Tuesday of ignoring documents that prove the Archdiocese of Cincinnati protected sexually abusive priests.
Leaders of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said memos written by church officials in 1986 show they were aware of abuse allegations and concealed them from the public.
"It's catastrophic that they would have put more children in harm's way," said Christy Miller, president of SNAP in Cincinnati. "They were lying then and they're still lying now."
Miller said the documents, which were discussed Monday at a court hearing in Xenia, raise questions about a plea agreement last year between the archdiocese and Hamilton County prosecutors.
In that agreement, the archdiocese was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of failing to report abuse from 1978 to 1982.
Prosecutors defended the agreement Tuesday, saying the deal was the best they could do because all of the allegations they found were too old.
"Had we charged them for these offenses, they would have been dismissed," said Mark Piepmeier, the first assistant prosecutor who helped negotiate the deal.
• Man alleges Anglican priest made him a prostitute [1979] -- Anglican.
ABC News Online, Wednesday, October 13, 2004.
ADELAIDE, S. Australia: A 41-year-old Adelaide man is suing the Anglican Church, alleging one of its priests turned him into a male prostitute.
As District Court documents reveal, the man claims the priest took advantage of him at a homeless shelter run by the Anglican Church 25 years ago.
When he was 16, the man stayed at a homeless shelter in the city, where he says an Anglican priest enticed him into performing sexual acts for money and gifts.
The man says he spent the next three years as a male prostitute, with the priest taking him to various locations across Adelaide to give sexual favours to other men.
Now 41, the man claims he suffers continuing psychological problems, displaying symptoms such as scrubbing his body with steel wool because of feelings of uncleanliness.
The Anglican Church has lodged its statement of defence, saying it did not owe the man any duty of care, and would be prejudiced by the 25-year time lapse since the alleged offences occurred.
• Virginia convict faces charges in sex-abuse scam
The Oregonian, Wednesday, October 13, 2004
PORTLAND: A former fugitive who authorities say sought more than $1 million from the Archdiocese of Portland by falsely accusing a clergyman was back in federal court in Portland on Tuesday after being sentenced in Virginia on fraud charges.
Thomas Edward Smolka, 57, has been indicted on 18 counts related to an alleged scheme to defraud the Roman Catholic Church of $1 million by claiming he had been molested by the Rev. Maurice Grammond.
According to authorities, Smolka met with a prominent Portland attorney in mid-March to discuss his allegations. Smolka had convincing knowledge of Grammond, even though he hadn't lived in Oregon as a boy.
Smolka had researched Oregon's most notorious priest pedophile by reading newspaper articles and making extensive use of court records, authorities said.
In late March, the U.S. Marshals Service tracked Smolka to his Pearl District apartment and arrested him on a warrant from Virginia, where he had pleaded guilty last year to bilking 17 clients and their families out of at least $110,000.
He was sent back to Virginia and was sentenced to 78 months in connection with that scheme.
At the time of his arrest in Portland, authorities seized documents that led investigators to the Grammond case and a bank fraud. Smolka was arraigned Tuesday and entered a not guilty plea. His trial is set for Nov. 23. -- Noelle Crombie
• Toledo seminarian accused of having child pornography [Tynan] -- RCC. Child pornography.
Toledo Blade, By DAVID YONKE, yonke@theblade.com , BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, Oct 13, 2004
TOLEDO: A Toledo diocese seminarian who dropped out two days before his ordination on June 12 was charged yesterday with possession of child pornography.
Deacon J. Michael Tynan, 45, of Lakeview, Ohio, withdrew his petition for the priesthood on June 10 after federal authorities informed him and diocesan officials that he was being investigated.
Mr. Tynan, who served as a pastoral intern at St. Aloysius Parish in Bowling Green during the 2001-02 academic year, had been suspended from ministry effective June 10, Bishop Leonard Blair said yesterday.
"For some months, I have carried in my heart the sorrow of knowing the reason why Deacon J. Michael Tynan was not ordained to the priesthood," Bishop Blair said in a statement.
"As tragic and painful as this situation is, it is by far better for both the church and for him that this matter came to the attention of the diocese before he could be ordained a priest," Bishop Blair said.
Though Mr. Tynan remains an ordained deacon, last week he requested that the Vatican return him to a position of layman.
The child-pornography investigation was conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio and U.S. Customs officials over a period of several months, assistant U.S. attorney Thomas Secor said last night.
The Rev. Michael Billian, episcopal vicar for the Toledo diocese, said he was told that authorities began investigating Mr. Tynan when the deacon's name appeared on a child-porn Web site based in a foreign country.
Both Father Billian and Mr. Secor said they were unaware of any previous incidents or allegations against Mr. Tynan.
• Alleged Shanley victim testifies on repressed memory [Shanley] -- RCC.
Daily News Tribune, www.dailynewstribune. com/localRegional/ view.bg?articleid=42647 , By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, Wednesday, October 13, 2004
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- An alleged victim of Paul Shanley said yesterday that he began to recover memories of his abuse by the defrocked priest in late 2001 and early 2002, after seeing media coverage of the growing sex abuse crisis in the Boston Archdiocese.
The 35-year-old man said Shanley, a central figure in the sex scandal that began in Boston before spreading to Catholic dioceses nationwide, molested him at St. Jean's Parish in Newton when he was a child.
He testified in Middlesex Superior Court yesterday during a pretrial hearing to determine whether prosecutors can introduce evidence on repressed memory during Shanley's criminal trial, which is scheduled to begin on Jan. 18. It is Associated Press policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual abuse.
• Priests' work files may become public -- RCC.
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington State), By TOM VERDIN, Associated Press, October 13, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO - A judge indicated Tuesday he intends to make public the employment files of Roman Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sabraw said he will hear arguments Wednesday on his tentative order, then issue a final decision affecting documents in 160 consolidated civil cases against northern California dioceses.
The documents had been sought by media organizations that had argued for public access to the internal church files of alleged pedophile priests.
Sabraw said the content of the employment files "is a matter of public concern and interest and outweighs privacy interests of the defendants."
Defendants' names and names of alleged victims would also be released. Medical and psychiatric records would remain confidential.
"The most important documents for us were documents concerning the individual defendants, and it appears to me that those documents will be made available to us," said lawyer Judy Alexander, who represents The New York Times Co., publisher of The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa.
Releasing the personnel records means the public will get "both sides of the story," said Rick Simons, the lead plaintiffs' attorney.
Telephone messages left for two church attorneys were not immediately returned. The judge's ruling applies to personnel files of about 40 priests who are targeted in the civil suits.
Last month, a Southern California judge ordered the Los Angeles Archdiocese to surrender the confidential records of two former priests being investigated by a grand jury.
He said the archdiocese cannot withhold potential evidence or proof of clerical sexual abuse by claiming communications between priests and bishops are confidential.
• Relief greets Worcester diocese's new code of ministerial conduct
Telegram & Gazette [Only available if pay 60 cents for one day's access. -- 17 Oct 04]
• Plaintiffs vow to continue church lawsuit [McHugh] -- Altar boys.
Santa Cruz Sentinel, By CATHY REDFERN, October 13, 2004
SANTA CRUZ - Four men who filed a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a former Felton priest vow to appeal a recent decision by an Alameda County judge who threw their suit out of court.
Judge Ronald Sabraw ruled last week that attorneys for the four men and two others who later joined the suit, all former altar boys, failed to present evidence that the Catholic Diocese of Monterey knew of the alleged abuse and failed to stop it.
The plaintiffs will file a motion for reconsideration within days, said one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Robert Tobin of San Jose.
The motion includes documents obtained Monday from a retired priest who once worked with the late Rev. Patrick McHugh - the priest who served at St. John’s Catholic Church in Felton in the 1960s and 1970s and is alleged to have sexually molested at least half a dozen boys. The new documents, Tobin said, provide more evidence for their case.
In February 2003, four area men filed a $10 million lawsuit claiming they were abused by McHugh while serving as altar boys at St. John’s in the 1960s. Other victims have since come forth. McHugh died in 1979 of a heart attack, at age 65.
The church has denied knowledge of the abuse, but a church spokesman Tuesday, citing pending litigation, declined to detail the extent of McHugh’s past contact with the young boys.
Plaintiff Kim Allyn, who works as a sheriff’s deputy, said Thursday’s decision feels as if he is being victimized by the church for a second time.
• Website can help abuse victims, says Church
Online.ie, 13:20:04+01, Oct 13, 2004
IRELAND: A new child protection website proves the Catholic Church is determined to support victims of abuse and safeguard children in the future, it was claimed today.
The site, www.cpo.ie, provides resources and contacts for priests and volunteers working with children in parishes across Ireland. It will also advise anyone with fears over abuse.
Primate of All Ireland Archbishop Sean Brady said the website would assist the Church's promise to support, protect and advise priests and lay people.
"The Child Protection Office's website is a testimony to the Church's commitment to protecting children and young people in our parishes," he said.
"The material available on the site will provide great support to all those, both lay and ordained, involved in ministries with children."
[DETAILS: Child Protection Office, Irish Bishops' Conference, Columba Centre, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Republic of Ireland. Telephone: + 353 (0)1 505 3031, Facsimile: + 353 (0)1 601 6411, Email: info@cpo.ie . DETAILS END.]
• Local Lawyer's Faith In Church Shattered by Client's Death -- RCC.
New York Lawyer (for lawyers on the verge), www.nylawyer.com/ news/04/10/1013 04c.html , By Ray B. Burton III, The Connecticut Law Tribune, http://www.law.com/jsp/ct/index.jsp , October 13, 2004
UNITED STATES: John J. Stobierski didn't just attend mass at St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church in South Deerfield. In his youth, he served as an altar boy. In his early 40s, he was a member of the church's parish council.
Certainly, the Greenfield lawyer never envisioned himself being the lead attorney for dozens of plaintiffs leveling sexual abuse charges against the Diocese of Springfield. This summer, the church agreed to settle the claims for more than $7 million.
A Polish-American Catholic, Stobierski said his prominent role in bringing the scandal to light has both affirmed his belief in justice and destroyed his faith in the church. He still regularly attends mass, but no longer describes himself as a devout Catholic. His children go to Sunday School, but "I haven't encouraged them to be altar servers," Stobierski acknowledged in a recent interview.
Chance Encounter
A fourth-generation Franklin County resident - and only the second member of his family to attend college - it didn't take Stobierski long to figure out he wouldn't be happy in a big-firm world. One summer internship in a Portland, Maine, law firm made that clear.
So after graduation, he returned home, hoping to land a job in the local District Attorney's office.
"I was a Truman scholar, and part of that charge was to do public service," Stobierski explained. But a position in the DA's office never opened up, so he went into private practice. "I needed a job, so I did minor legal work," he said. "Within a month, I had plenty of business."
That was 1986. Four years later, he and his wife, Pamela, formed their own firm, Stobierski & Stobierski. The Greenfield firm now has four lawyers.
For all the publicity he's received, Stobierski only got involved in the litigation against the Springfield Diocese through a chance encounter, he said.
As the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Boston spread across the country in 2002, Bishop Thomas Dupre announced the local diocese would report to the authorities any instances of sexual abuse by its priests that it knew of. For Stobierski, the announcement brought back memories of a decade-old case he had handled.
Shortly after Rev. Richard R. Lavigne was found guilty of molesting two altar boys in 1992, a woman had called Stobierski. She feared her son had been molested too, and wanted counseling for him. Stobierski took the case and approached church officials, who agreed to a settlement. Stobierski stashed the file away.
"It is the type of case that haunts you," Stobierski recalled. "I would periodically think about it. You know this kid was molested, but you can't do anything."
But with the bishop's announcement, Stobierski wondered if the diocese reported the incident they settled with his client. He later bumped into a prosecutor on the case and asked, obliquely, if a certain set of initials was among those of Lavigne's reported victims.
"The diocese told [the prosecutor] they didn't need to send any of Lavigne's victim's names because they had already prosecuted him," said Stobierski, who was outraged by the news, and called his former client. "The son was just a mess with psychological problems and the mother wanted to come see me," Stobierski said.
"It is not often when you are a lawyer that you see psychosis occurring before you eyes. It was clear as day and very ugly."
The mother and son wanted to file suit. Lavigne had a house and they went after it, filing a lien and a lawsuit in less than a month. That broke the dam.
"It was clear the problem that had occurred in Boston had happened out here," he said. "Our phone was literally ringing off the hook" with local abuse victims looking for legal representation.
Called To Duty
For the next two-and-a-half years, Stobierski and his firm lived with their clients' nightmares on a daily basis. "We listened to stories that, for some, many, we were the first people they had ever told," Stobierski said. "Our biggest fear became letting them down. That is a tremendous responsibility so we just bore down and worked like hell."
The challenge was "trying to make sure, whatever you do, it benefits the clients' mental health because you knew the money would never do it, nor would it ever be enough."
As a lawyer, he added, "when you have the chance to change the world as a result of your case, it really motivates you. We ran for quite a while on adrenaline," he said. "It is your call to duty, if you can do it. I knew I could do it. I wasn't just a Catholic. I had been on the parish council. I was a part of the system."
That's where Stobierski admits he made a mistake.
"I came to this with a bad misconception," he said. "I figured, let's not follow Boston's example and be litigious."
Instead, he went to the diocese's attorneys with an offer to quickly resolve the case. "Unfortunately it fell on deaf ears," Stobierski said.
That set the tone for what Stobierski believes was a nastier fight than the one against the Roman Catholic Church in Boston. The Springfield Diocese, he said, filed motions to dismiss, arguing that the First Amendment precluded the government from intervening in how the church ran itself. It also invoked a state law that limits liability for a charity's employee to $20,000.
"If we lost those motions, not only were we done, I feared some of my clients would take their own lives," Stobierski said.
Beyond simply counseling clients, the matter required the law firm to become media savvy. "Usually lawyers speak for their clients because they want to control everything," he said. "I noticed pretty early on [that] it would be beneficial for [his clients] to speak on their own. As a lawyer, I can never tell their stories as well."
Loss Of Faith
Even with the sizeable settlement - which on a per-plaintiff basis is higher than the amount the Boston Diocese settled for - it is only a first step for many of the firm's clients. And for some, it was too late.
After years of struggling with mental health problems, 36-year-old plaintiff Shawn M. Dobbert was found dead in his home just days after the settlement was reached in August. Stobierski and others who knew Dobbert assume it was a suicide.
"That was the darkest day of this entire ordeal," Stobierski proclaimed.
Most of his clients, as with Dobbert, rejected the church after their abuse, Stobierski said. Dobbert's mother, who remains a faithful member of the church, refused to have Catholic rites given to her son.
For Stobierski, "The hard part was dealing with an institution that claims to be the moral authority - to have perpetrated the most grievous catastrophes to Massachusetts's children ever," he said. "I [have] no faith in the hierarchy."
A second wave of people have come forward since the settlement to press their own claims of abuse against the church.
"I think they wanted to see if the diocese was serious about addressing this," said Stobierski, who believes there is another epidemic waiting to emerge, one that will be harder to handle legally, and more difficult for those who come forward: the abuse of adult women by supposedly celibate Catholic priests.
He's already filed suit on behalf of a Lee woman who claims she was fired from her job as a rectory housekeeper after allegedly having two sexual encounters with a local priest.
Stobierski said the difficulty in getting other adult women to come forward likely is because they tend to blame themselves. Also, they are confronted by "the societal view that they must have seduced the man," he said.
Stobierski has repeatedly declined to say how much in legal fees his firm received under the settlement.
In September, however, he used part of the money to take the entire firm and their families to Martha's Vineyard for a long weekend in a show of appreciation for their efforts.
"The last three years have been tough on everyone in the office," he said. "Even if they weren't directly on the case, they saw and dealt with the clients and heard things they couldn't discuss with anyone. They had to bring home the horror of what they learned here."
Though the firm isn't about to shop around for more upscale digs [= office premises], the fees earned in the case will ensure it a solid future, Stobierski said.
"It's allowed us to invest heavily in technology and will let us really go toe-to-toe with insurance companies," he maintained. "We can pour six figures into cases. That's why we can now take the bigger, more complicated cases and wait it out." # [Emphasis added.]
• Claremore Priest Denies Sex Abuse Allegations [1979 Eichhoff] -- RCC.
KTUL (Oklahoma), AP, 7:43pm, Tuesday October 12, 2004
TULSA (AP) - A Claremore priest accused of molesting two boys 25 years ago denied the allegations today in court.
The Reverend Paul Eichhoff testified in the first day of trial in his slander lawsuit against his accusers. One of his alleged victims is countersuing for emotional damages.
Kirk Kelly says Eichhoff molested him and another boy twice in the late 1970s when he was a student at Saint Mary's Church in Tulsa. Eichhoff was associate pastor at the church until 1978.
Kelly, now 36, says the memory was repressed until therapy in 2000.
Eichhoff says Kirk's allegations have damaged his reputation and life.
The reverend was suspended from his duties as pastor of Saint Cecelia Church in Claremore in 2002 when the allegations surfaced. He was reinstated after a church review board ruled the allegations were baseless.
• Priest Testifies in Okla. Slander Lawsuit [1979 Eichhoff] -- RCC.
The Telegraph, By CLAYTON BELLAMY, Associated Press, Tue, Oct. 12, 2004
TULSA, Okla. - A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting two boys 25 years ago denied the allegations Tuesday as testimony began in his slander lawsuit against his accusers.
"I have never, ever in my life sexually abused any person, any child, adult, infant," the Rev. Paul Eichhoff testified.
Kelly Kirk, 36, accused Eichhoff of molesting him and an unnamed boy twice in the late 1970s when they were students at the Catholic school in St. Mary's parish, where Eichhoff was associate pastor.
Kirk claims the molestation, which he says was a repressed memory that resurfaced in 2000, has led to a life riddled with unstable relationships and alcohol and drug abuse.
Eichhoff sued Kirk and his father, Gordon Kirk, for libel and slander in August 2002 when the allegations led the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa to suspend Eichhoff as pastor of a Claremore church. Kirk filed a counter lawsuit more than a month later.
Eichhoff was reinstated in November 2002 after a diocese review board determined the allegations were groundless. He said the widely reported allegations, however, damaged his life and reputation.
• U.S. Charter Review Process Under Way -- RCC.
ZENIT (The World Seen From Rome), www.zenit.org/ english/visualizza. phtml?sid=60282 , Code: ZE04101227, OCT. 12, 2004
WASHINGTON, D.C., - Archbishop Harry Flynn announced the start of the review process for the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that the U.S. bishops adopted in June 2002.
Archbishop Flynn, of St. Paul and Minneapolis, chairs the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse.
At the time of the charter's adoption, the bishops called for it to be reviewed in two years to ensure its effectiveness.
In a letter to U.S. bishops, Archbishop Flynn asks the prelates to discuss the revision of the charter at meetings in their regions.
The Ad Hoc Committee is also requesting the bishops to hold discussions in dioceses that include the priests' council, the diocesan pastoral council, the diocesan review board, child protection personnel, and educators.
The committee will also consult with the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. The charter states that the revision is to take place with the advice of the National Review Board.
In his letter, Archbishop Flynn said that the bishops' Administrative Committee has set the June 2005 General Assembly of the episcopal conference to conclude the review. Results of the discussions called for in the letter are to be returned to the Ad Hoc Committee by Jan. 15. #
• Priests' employment files should be public, tentative ruling says -- RCC. 160 cases.
Herald Tribune (South-west Florida), By TOM VERDIN, Associated Press Writer, October 12. 2004
SAN FRANCISCO -- The employment files of Roman Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse should be made public, a judge said Tuesday in a tentative ruling.
The order applies to the 160 consolidated civil cases against Northern California dioceses and will be the subject of a hearing Wednesday in Oakland.
The documents had been sought by media organizations that had argued for public access to the internal church files of accused pedophile priests.
In his tentative order, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sabraw said the content of the employment files "is a matter of public concern and interest and outweighs privacy interests of the defendants." Medical and psychiatric records would remain confidential.
"The most important documents for us were documents concerning the individual defendants, and it appears to me that those documents will be made available to us," said lawyer Judy Alexander, who represents The New York Times Co., publisher of The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa.
A final ruling will be issued after Sabraw hears arguments by church, media and plaintiffs' attorneys. Telephone messages left for two church attorneys were not immediately returned.
The tentative ruling marked the second time in two months a California judge has issued a decision related to internal priest documents. [A very full newsitem continues]
• 3 priests who face trials identified; 2 are now on leave; 3rd is inactive cleric [Fraser, Kinane, Schmaltz] -- RCC.
The Times-Picayune, By Martha Carr, Wednesday, October 13, 2004
NEW ORLEANS, In a sharp reversal, the Archdiocese of New Orleans announced Tuesday the names of three local priests whom the Vatican has ordered to stand trial on sex abuse charges.
The Revs. Michael Fraser, Gerard Kinane and Bernard Schmaltz are expected to undergo secret church trials in the coming months to determine the validity of charges that they molested boys while acting as priests.
Fraser, of Visitation of Our Lady Church in Marrero, and Kinane, of St. Luke Church in Slidell, were placed on leave earlier this year after the archdiocese revealed the accusations.
Schmaltz, who last served at St. Clement of Rome in Metairie, had already left the priesthood when the most recent sex abuse claim was lodged in January.
He stopped working as a priest in 1993 to devote himself full time to fending off a molestation lawsuit. Though still technically a priest, he now works as a real estate agent in Pass Christian, Miss.
Archdiocesan spokesman the Rev. William Maestri said he "misspoke" last week when he said Archbishop Alfred Hughes would not release the identities of the priests for fear that such a disclosure could compromise the rights of the accused and the complainants.
On Tuesday, Maestri said it was always Hughes' intention to reveal their names. ...
• Cincinnati Archdiocese Faces New Allegations Of Sex Abuse Cover-up
WCPO-TV, Reported by: Deb Haas; Web produced by: Neil Relyea; Photographed by: 9News; 6:23:19 PM, Oct/12/04
CINCINNATI: The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is defending itself against new claims that it covered up allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
There are new allegations that Cincinnati's archdiocese purposely covered-up sex abuse by priests.
A Cincinnati lawyer says he's seen documents, some written by Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk decades ago, discussing abuse cases.
The attorney saw these documents while working on a lawsuit against a priest.
The tribunal in charge of a $3 million fund setup for victims of abuse by priests allowed the lawyer to see the documents because of a civil case he is currently working on.
That attorney is Konrad Kircher, who says the documents he saw prove people in the church knew much more about priests and sexual abuse than they've ever admitted.
"These documents show there was a conspiracy at the highest levels of the Archdiocese, including and involving the archbishop, to mislead victims, to mislead their own priests, about the extent of the abuse," said Kircher.
"The majority of documents Kircher quotes are from the Reverend David Kelley's personnel file.
Kelley was banned by the archbishop from practicing as a priest in 2003.
Kircher says there's a 1985 memo to Archbishop Pilarczyyk alleging Kelley had "inappropriate behavior with students" at Elder High School.
He says Pilarczyk wrote a letter to a treatment center saying students reported Kelley "touched their genitals."
There are other letters between other priests that, according to Kircher, deal with keeping matters within the church to avoid potential prosecution.
"The person who's saying that is an attorney who is suing us and he is pulling out what he thinks are the juiciest parts and the context of the document is not evident," said Dan Adriacco, spokesperson for the archdiocese.
Whatever is in the documents, victims of priest abuse want to see them, all of them.
"We've seen a little portion of them and that proves a lot, but what else is out there?," asked Christy Miller, an abuse victim. "How many more children did they put at risk? How many did they willingly and knowingly put in harm's way?"
During his court case Monday, Kircher told a magistrate what was in the documents he saw.
The magistrate issued a court order telling the archdiocese to give Kircher all files related to accused priests.
According to an exclusive 9News Survey USA poll, a vast majority of people indicated that they feel the Archdiocese of Cincinnati could do more to assist in the investigation of alleged sexual abuse by priests.
Of a sample of 500 people interviewed in the Tri-state, 72% said that they think the Archdiocese has not done everything it can.
Fourteen percent said they thought it has, while another 14 percent said they aren't sure. The poll has a four percent margin of error. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:59 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed October 13, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont100.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu October 14, 2004 edition follows:-
• Columbus bishop to retire; says pleased with handling of abuse -- RCC. $US1.4 m, 26 abusers.
Duluth News Tribune, www.duluthsuperior. com/mld/duluthtribune/ 9918414.htm , By CARRIE SPENCER, Associated Press, Posted on Thu, Oct. 14, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Bishop James Griffin announced his retirement Thursday from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus and said the 23-county diocese weathered the priest sex abuse scandal of recent years better than some others.
The pope appointed an auxiliary bishop from Minnesota to replace Griffin, 70, who said age and arthritis pain are forcing him to step down.
"If we compare our diocese with others, I think there are few that got through the difficulties of the last 10 years as well as the church of Columbus," Griffin said. "That's due to the people I work with."
The Columbus diocese paid about $1.4 million in recent years to settle abuse claims against 26 of its 1,000 priests. The diocese covers the largest area of nine dioceses and eparchies in the state, but serves the fourth-largest number of Catholics, about 234,000 in central and southeast Ohio. Eparchies are geographic districts for Catholics who accept the authority of the pope, but follow different rituals. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:31 PM]
• Lawyer for church asks judge not to release priests' data
San Francisco Chronicle by Henry K. Lee, Thursday, October 14, 2004
CALIFORNIA: The employment records of priests accused of sexual abuse should not be made public before a trial, an attorney for the Roman Catholic Church told an Alameda County judge Wednesday.
James Sweeney, an attorney representing the bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento, said that documents not yet formally admitted as evidence should not be made available to reporters under the First Amendment.
The case against priests is based on law and justice, Sweeney told Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw. "This is not a forum for doing investigative reporting," Sweeney said.
Sweeney's comments came a day after Sabraw issued a tentative ruling stating that the content of priests' employment files "is a matter of public concern and interest and outweighs privacy interests of the defendants."
Sweeney urged the judge not to allow "raw information" concerning priests into the hands of reporters in "pell-mell fashion." "Turn on CNN and watch their hourly news update," Sweeney said. "You'll see what we mean." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:29 PM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu October 14, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont100.htm
or click Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse for current on-line
The Boston Globe Spotlight http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse
The Needle periodically, and books: pbpress@iinet.net.au W. Australia
References at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Overview at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/minilist.htm
Books: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/carnalbooks.htm
Buy Fidelity magazine www.j23.com.au Australia
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