Clergy Child Molesters (105) — References/Chronology

• Irish dentist may face child abuse charges [1970s] -- School dentist and Roman Catholic priest. Girls. Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Sunday Times (Britain), www.timeson line.co.uk/ article/0,, 2091-136792 6,00.html , by Dearbhail McDonald, November 21, 2004
   IRELAND: A roaming school dentist may face charges of child abuse over allegations that he raped and indecently assaulted primary schoolgirls.
   A decision is expected within weeks from James Hamilton, the director of public prosecutions, in relation to a number of complaints by women who attended national schools almost three decades ago.
   The man, who retired on a state pension, and worked on behalf of a health board, operated as a "mobile dentist" inspecting children's teeth in national schools during the 1970s. ...
   The health authority is the latest to come under scrutiny in relation to allegations of abuse against children in its care.[More follows]
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INTENTION: A challenge to RELIGIONS to PROTECT CHILDREN
Series starts: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm   Visit http://www.ncrnews.org/abuse
Sources JavaScript Kit and www.aftinet.org.au/campaigns/signonconfirm.html
   INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs.
   The Ferns inquiry, a state investigation into abuse by priests in the diocese of Ferns, is also examining the South Eastern Health Board amid concerns that it knew about the alleged abuse but failed to remove the offending priest from a national school.
   Last week, it emerged that the Catholic diocese of Ferns may be forced to sell a bishop's house in Wexford town to finance compensation for clerical sex abuse claims.
   The terms of a state inquiry into clerical sex abuse in the Dublin diocese are currently being finalised. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:23 AM] (This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse , for Sun November 21, 2004)
• Priest eager to 're-establish trust' [2004 Traylor] -- RCC. Porn viewing; now back on the job. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Courier & Press, By PHILIP ELLIOTT, 461-0783, elliottp@courierpress.com , November 21, 2004
   EVANSVILLE (OH): The Rev. William A. Traylor said he is eager to return to his two Evansville parishes after four months of therapy, which Catholic Church officials mandated after Traylor was caught viewing pornographic material on a parish computer while a child was in the room.
   Traylor, 54, returned to Evansville to celebrate Mass for the first time since he was caught viewing an "inappropriate adult Web site" July 9, and to talk about the incident, his treatment and his future at St. Theresa and St. Joseph parishes.
   "I'm very embarrassed. I'm very sorry. I made a very stupid mistake to go online at an inappropriate adult Web site during a work day, and I'm very sorry about that," Traylor said.
   During St. Joseph's Summer Social, Traylor went to his office area behind a 6-foot partition. The cubicle walls shielded the computer screen from outsiders while he visited a pornographic Web site.
   Meanwhile, a child sat on the other side of the partition.
   "That's how out of balance I was at the time," Traylor said. "I've been a priest for 28 years. I served the church very well and I don't say that in a bragging fashion. I really think I have. Clearly, this behavior is not me. It doesn't correspond with who I am and what I'm about. That's why I've been in therapy for the last four months."
   Traylor said he now recognizes the sins of the incident, which he said was the first of its nature, and described the day in detail. [Emphasis added.]
• Settlement has broad impact on sex abuse lawsuits -- RCC. $US9m to 37 complainants.
   Sioux City Journal, www.sioux cityjournal. com/articles/ 2004/11/21/ news/local/ c99b0c46 cb79c07786256 f53001 7e745. txt , AP, Nov 21, 2004
   IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- When the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport settled 37 sexual abuse claims against three former priests last month, victims, church leaders and parishioners all hailed the deal.
   But while the $9 million settlement allowed the diocese to avoid bankruptcy, the court battles that led to it create a new milieu in Iowa for defending against such lawsuits.
   "I sense there is a change in the air," said Scott Rhinehart, the attorney overseeing 17 lawsuits filed recently against the Sioux City Diocese.
   Craig Levien successfully countered arguments that the alleged abuse had occurred too long ago, saying victims were too traumatized and intimidated to pursue allegations at the time. The court agreed, preventing the diocese from seeking protection under Iowa's statute of limitations.
   "The statute of limitations ruling will impact cases throughout the state," Levien said. "I think it also serves as a clear indication to all victims that they can come forward and assert their legal rights."
   Courts also sided with Levien to require the Davenport diocese to turn over five decades worth of documents related to church management of priests who were known to be abusers.
• Service to honor Sharon priest -- RC Fr Bullock funeral.
   Boston Globe, November 21, 2004
   SHARON (MA) -- Hundreds of Jews, Christians and Muslims will gather today in Sharon to honor the memory of the Rev. Robert W. Bullock, a popular Catholic priest who worked to bring together members of the community's diverse religions.
   Bullock, who also became known as a forceful critic of the way the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston handled its clergy sexual-abuse crisis, died in June of cancer. At his funeral, so many parishioners and friends came to pay their respects that the crowd spilled outside Our Lady of Sorrows Church onto the sidewalks.
   Today's interfaith service will begin at 6 p.m. at Temple Israel, which can easily hold the 400 to 500 people expected to attend, according to Rabbi Barry Starr, a longtime friend. The venue also emphasizes Bullock's efforts to unite people of different religions, Starr said.
• Whom will Skylstad serve? [1989 Welsh; O'Donnell] -- RCC. 30 boys.
   Seattle Times, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002096876_brodeur21m.html , by Nicole Brodeur, Sunday, November 21, 2004
   SPOKANE (WA): The Most Rev. William Skylstad was on retreat in Copenhagen in 1989 when he was called home to Washington.
   The then-bishop of Yakima soon found himself in a seedy tavern in Spokane. His assignment: to clean up the mess created by Lawrence Welsh, bishop of Spokane.
   Welsh had been arrested for drunken driving and was being investigated by police for behavior that, for a time, made him a low-level suspect in the Green River killings, according to recent court documents.
   Skylstad found his fellow bishop behind a beer at the Wagon Wheel Tavern. He shipped Welsh off to alcohol treatment - saying publicly that Welsh had "stomach problems."
   A year later, Skylstad would replace Welsh as bishop of Spokane.
   Now, Skylstad has been called to clean up an even bigger mess. As the newly elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, he has the job of reforming the church's response to accusations of sexual abuse by priests and restoring faith in the clergy.
   But he is a controversial choice. At a time when many Catholics want accountability, he is one of those who has a history of denying or dispatching problems that could hurt the church.
   Skylstad bailed Welsh out. And he allegedly did nothing when a priest he supervised molested at least 30 boys - some just a floor below his apartment in the rectory. The Rev. Patrick Gerald O'Donnell was eventually forced out of the ministry. He faces five lawsuits accusing him of molestation; the diocese is accused of neglect. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:04 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun November 21, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon November 22, 2004 edition follows:-
• Lanner Seeking New Trial; Appeal this week argues instructions to jury, second-degree charge were improper. [? 2000s Lanner] -- Judaism. 2 girls. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The Jewish Week, www.thejewish week.com/news/ newscontent.php 3?artid=10140 , by Stewart Ain, Nov/19/2004
   NEW JERSEY: The lawyer for Baruch Lanner, the Orthodox rabbi convicted of sexually abusing two girls in his New Jersey religious school, presented arguments to that state's Appellate Division of Superior Court this week that the verdict should be thrown out and a new trial ordered because the judge gave improper directions to the jury and should have separated the two cases.
   "The acts alleged and arguably proved - contact consisting of several brief touches over clothing and nothing more - was insufficient to rise to the level of conduct that considered in light of reasonable contemporary standards, would tend to impair the moral[s] of an average child," attorney Nathan Dershowitz contended in court papers.
   Dershowitz, who was slated to repeat his position during oral arguments before the court Wednesday, insisted that even if such conduct "might be considered sufficient," the judge's failure to "tell the jury that it must evaluate the proofs in light of reasonable contemporary standards" constituted reversible error. The girls were students at the Hillel High School in Ocean, N.J., where Rabbi Lanner served as principal.
   But Deputy Attorney General Analisa Sama Holmes maintained in court papers that the conviction must be upheld because Rabbi Lanner had "used Hillel as his personal kingdom to select vulnerable students and to victimize them at whim." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:09 PM]
• L.A. cardinal to be deposed in abuse cases -- RCC. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The News Tribune, By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer, Monday, November 22nd, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (AP) - Cardinal Roger Mahony, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, will be deposed Tuesday in clergy sex abuse lawsuits that date to his time in three Northern California dioceses, according to a source close to the litigation.
   Lawyers for alleged abuse victims are expected to question Mahony all day at an undisclosed location in downtown Los Angeles, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Los Angeles Times first reported on the deposition in Monday's editions.
   The deposition transcript could become public next month, unless Mahony's attorneys object in court. A judge has placed all attorneys in the case under a gag order.
   Mahony will be questioned about his handling of former Stockton priest Oliver Francis O'Grady, who pleaded guilty to child molestation in 1993. Mahony was bishop in Stockton from 1980 to 1985, during part of O'Grady's tenure there.
   O'Grady served seven years of a 14-year sentence and was deported to his native Ireland in 2000. [Emphasis added.]
• NY Attorney May Face Discipline for Saying He Faced Disciplinary Charges -- John Aretakis being pursued. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   New York Lawyer, By John Caher, New York Law Journal, November 22, 2004
   ALBANY, NEW YORK - Three attorneys formerly employed by the First Department disciplinary committee have come forward in defense of a controversial lawyer's right to publicly reveal disciplinary charges lodged against him in Albany.
   The affidavits submitted on behalf of the lawyer, John A. Aretakis, spotlight what is evidently a fundamental disagreement between the First and Third departments over how to interpret a Court of Appeals ruling on Judiciary Law §90 (10), which governs attorney discipline.
   More than 20 years ago, the Court of Appeals said in Matter of Capoccia, 59 NY2d 549 (1983), that the confidentiality provisions in §90 (10) were designed to protect attorneys and that those protections may be waived by the lawyer.
   But the First and Third departments apparently disagree over whether an attorney may unilaterally waive his or her §90 (10) protections, or whether permission is needed from a court before a disciplinary complaint can be made public.
   Mr. Aretakis is under investigation in both departments. His office is in Manhattan, but he regularly practices from his home near Albany.
   The investigations involve his conduct in representing alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse. He is facing more than a dozen ethics complaints lodged primarily by either individuals associated with Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany or the Third Department Committee on Professional Standards.  None of the complaints was brought by clients, according to Mr. Aretakis.
• Priest dismissed after anti-Semitic remarks [Zieba] -- RCC. Political remarks, abuse allegation. Poland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Baku Sun (Azerbaijan's English-language newspaper), www.bakusun. az:8101/cgi- bin/ayten/ bakusun/ show.cgi? code=6931 , Issue No. 47, Nov 19, 2004
   WARSAW, Poland - A prominent Polish Roman Catholic priest who was once barred from the pulpit for anti-Semitic remarks was dismissed by the church from his parish Wednesday following new anti-Jewish comments and amid a pedophilia investigation.
   The Rev. Stanislaw Zieba, who is chancellor of the Gdansk Metropolitan Curia, said in a statement he had decided to remove Rev. Henryk Jankowski as parish priest of the St. Brygida Church. Zieba did not give a reason for his decision.
   But the decision came two months after Gdansk Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski sent an open letter to the priests in his diocese in which he called on Jankowski, was once known for his support of the Solidarity movement, to quit his post and accused him of turning his pulpit into a "political tribune."
   During the summer, Jankowski lashed out in a sermon against authorities who were conducting an investigation into allegations he had sexually abused a minor, saying it was a slander campaign orchestrated by "Jews and Judeo-Communists."
   He also used his pulpit to rail against various Polish leaders, saying they were selling out the country by supporting membership in the European Union.
   Jankowski, who was prominent in the Solidarity freedom movement in the 1980s and is a close friend of Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, has vehemently denied the allegations of sexual abuse. No formal charges have been brought.
• Will public debriding bring private healing of the wounds at St. Thomas Aquinas? -- RCC. Seminary males. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   St. Louis Post-Dispatch, By JOHN R. GAYDOS, Nov/22/2004
   MISSOURI: A full picture of life at the seminary would include good as well as bad.
   It was another painful moment as the Post-Dispatch published a series on St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary and the sexual abuse scandal. It contained a lot of previously published facts with a few new details, but maybe it was necessary. You might be familiar with the term debriding - when the doctor takes a scalpel and cuts away all the dead tissue from a wound in order to prevent infection and promote growth. Perhaps, as a wounded church, this is our debriding. Perhaps we have to go through this agony in order to heal.
   The victims tell horrible stories of how they were manipulated and abused. I pray it's their debriding, too, ridding themselves of the necrotic events of their past, getting out the ugly and lifeless so that they can be regenerated. And we truly beg forgiveness for any ways in which the Church or her leadership failed them.
   We acknowledge that much of what was presented in the articles was accurate. It was not family reading, but it could have been a textbook description of relationships between abusers and their victims. Some of those descriptions might have been better left to the textbook, or to the tabloid press, but that would not change the sordid truth of what happened.
• Clergy abuse lawyer fighting disbarment [Hubbard] -- John Aretakis being pursued.
   Albany Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Monday, November 22, 2004
   ALBANY (NY) -- The state Committee on Professional Standards, which oversees lawyers, has asked a midlevel appeals court to disbar attorney John Aretakis.
   The Manhattan resident, who also maintains a North Greenbush home, says he faces close to 15 complaints that have been filed with the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court.
   More than half of them are from the Committee on Professional Standards, which made the disbarment request Sept. 30, he said.
   Aretakis, who has represented many alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, has waged a vitriolic two-year battle with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
   Among his claims are that Bishop Howard Hubbard and his predecessors knowingly protected pedophile priests at the expense of victims.
   Several of the complaints claiming unethical behavior were filed by Hubbard's top aide, the Rev. Kenneth Doyle; a Catholic nun, Sister Anne Bryan Smollin; and the Rev. Carl Urban of Schenectady, who most recently claimed Aretakis libeled him during a speech last fall.
• Committee asks for Aretakis disbar -- John Aretakis being pursued.
   WSTM, www.wstm.com/ Global/story. asp?S=2598126
   ALBANY, N.Y. There's a move to disbar a lawyer who has pursued sex abuse cases against the Albany-based Roman Catholic diocese.
   The state Committee on Professional Standards for lawyers has asked an appeals court to disbar attorney John Aretakis. He is accused of unethical behavior.
   Aretakis says he has done nothing wrong. He claims that the committee's chief counsel is "a tool of the bishop."
• Priest Speaks Publicly About Viewing Adult Website [Traylor] -- RCC. Viewed "adult" website; back on the job.
   WFIE, www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=2594517&nav=3w6oTO55 , Reporter Shannon Samson, Web Producer: Amber Griswold
   EVANSVILLE (OH): A Catholic priest, who was relieved of his duties this summer, returns to the pulpit over the weekend.
   Father William Traylor is presiding over 5:30 mass at Saint Theresa Saturday night.
   It's his first time back since July, when a parishioner caught him looking at an inappropriate adult website in his church office. Saturday, Father Traylor talked about that indiscretion with Newswatch.
   Father William Traylor has been in a St. Louis treatment facility for the last four months and is back for a visit over the weekend. He will celebrate five masses at Saint Theresa and Saint Joseph Churches where he plans on asking his parishioners for forgiveness.
   He held a news conference Saturday to get that message out to the public too.
   [COMMENT: What can one say? "Anyone who looks lustfully after a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart" Or, better, "To prevent fornication, every man ought to have his own wife, and every woman her own husband." (Hint: Look in a Bible Concordance. 2nd hint: A Concordance is a kind of index of every substantive word in a Bible. 3rd hint: After finding the above two quotes, look for the words celibate and celibacy in the Concordance. Too much looking for "celibacy" is a health hazard!) COMMENT ENDS.]
• Of dubious holy men and their murky ways [Saraswathi, Kujur] -- Hindu; RCC; Muslim. India flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   OnlyPunjab.com ; www.onlypun jab.com/full story1104- insight-Of+ dubious+holy+ men+and+ their+murky- status-24- newsID-3 403.html ; Nov/22/2004
   INDIA: The arrest of Hindu pontiff Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi on a murder charge renews the spotlight on the seamier side of religion where money, power and sex litter the path to god.
   In a deeply spiritual country with multiple faiths and sects, religion has over the years been a convenient hideout for criminal elements, with police records chronicling scores of murders, rapes and robberies by and for men in holy garbs. ...
   Police officers say similar crimes are rampant in other faiths too. For instance, Jesuit priest Father Clement Kujur was arrested on a sodomy charge in Orissa last year.
   According to Maulvi Muazzim Ahmed of the Fatehpuri mosque, there have also been instances in his own community.
• Diocese still supports priests on leave for allegations [Teczar, Kane, Battista, Inzerillo, O'Donoghue] -- RCC. Finances. Males; female. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20041122 /NEWS/111220 331/1116 , By Kathleen A. Shaw, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com
   WORCESTER(MA) - The Diocese of Worcester continues to support a number of priests placed on leave because of sexual misconduct allegations, including the Rev. Thomas A. Kane, director of the former House of Affirmation, who was fired amid fiscal irregularities at the Whitinsville facility.
   Bishop Robert J. McManus said in a statement Friday that the diocese is reviewing its policies on support for priests on leave because of sexual abuse allegations, but said canon law requires the diocese to continue support to priests who need help.
   Bishop Daniel P. Reilly, former head of the Worcester Diocese, said in a deposition and under questioning from lawyer Tahira Khan Merritt of Dallas that the money comes from the priest assistance fund. The priests are entitled by canon law to money to meet their needs, including medical insurance, he said. He did not say exactly how many priests are receiving money; Bishop Reilly reported in February that 45 priests have been accused of misconduct since 1950, although some have since died.
   The diocesan records for fiscal 2003 show more than $270,000 in the priest assistance fund. Bishop Reilly said this money does not go to retired priests, who are in a separate fund.
   Raymond L. Delisle, spokesman for the diocese, said the money in the priest assistance fund is also used for other things besides accused priests.
   He said priests in good standing with the church can be helped through that fund, when they are on leave because of health or other personal circumstances unrelated to allegations of misconduct. The financial help each priest gets is decided on a case-by-case basis, he said.
   Bishop Reilly testified at a deposition that started in April and concluded in September involving a lawsuit filed in Texas by two men who alleged they were sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas H. Teczar in that state when they were teenagers.
   Rev. Teczar was removed from priestly service in Worcester after allegations arose here, but found a new placement in 1988 in the Fort Worth (Texas) Diocese. He returned to Massachusetts in 1993 after the allegations of sexual misconduct arose there.
   Ms. Merritt asked the bishop where Rev. Kane is now. "I am not quite sure where he is. I would have to check the file. He has been in different places, but I am not sure where he is now." The depositions indicated that Rev. Teczar had been sent to the House of Affirmation for treatment after allegations arose in the Worcester Diocese.
   "Is he still being financially supported by the Worcester diocese?" she asked. "Yes," the bishop replied. Rev. Kane was last known to be living in Mexico, where he was running a teacher training institute and publicized the venture with a Web site.
   Rev. Kane was ousted from his position as director of the House of Affirmation in 1987 after 11 executives complained that he siphoned off money from the agency to support and increase his own extensive real estate holdings. The case was closed when he was removed, and he paid back an amount of money to the house. The amount was never disclosed.
   Bishop Reilly told Ms. Merritt, who represents one alleged victim, that Rev. Teczar, although he cannot function as a priest, receives $554 a month plus medical insurance. Bishop Reilly said he sees no reason to defrock Rev. Teczar. "I don't see the big difference that that makes," he said.
   "He is free, he is not in prison?" Ms. Merritt asked, to which the bishop replied "Yes."
   "So he could still be molesting children today, couldn't he?" she said.
   "Yes," the bishop replied. He added that Rev. Teczar could be molesting minors whether or not he was defrocked.
   "Well, but you wouldn't have any more responsibility for him, would you, economically and ecclesiastically?"
   "Right," the bishop answered.
   Bishop Reilly said the diocese has only attempted to defrock one priest, Monsignor Leo J. Battista. Monsignor Battista, a former director of Catholic Charities, was removed from ministry and is now retired after an allegation surfaced against him in a civil suit in the early 1990s.
   The bishop said he sent that case to Rome for action. Asked why he chose Monsignor Battista and none of the others, he replied, "Because the case was so strong and it was really something that this woman felt was necessary for her to achieve her fullness as a person again."
   The diocese produced computer records showing that it paid Rev. Teczar a total of $27,101 from January 2000 to April. The money was "something to help him live his daily life, and that is something we have to do according to canon law," the bishop said. Ms. Merritt asked how much he had paid to the two alleged victims, John Doe I and John Doe II, in the Texas lawsuit and he said he couldn't answer. Ms. Merritt represents the man identified as John Doe II while Daniel J. Shea of Houston represents John Doe I.
   Bishop McManus, who succeeded Bishop Reilly as Worcester bishop in May, said the diocese in conjunction with the Diocesan Review Board is conducting a final review of a new policy for liaison to those on leave because of allegations of sexual misconduct "and other issues related to their leave."
   Bishop McManus said as long as priests continue to have canonical rights as priests and while they are awaiting a church resolution to their situation, the diocese is obliged by Canon 281 of the church's canon law to provide financial help. Canon law states this remuneration "should enable them to provide for the needs of their own life and for the equitable payment of those whose services they need," the bishop said.
   He added, the "provision is likewise to be made so that they possess that social assistance by which their needs are suitably provided for if they suffer from illness, incapacity or old age.
   "As part of this policy review, procedures are being discussed which will respect the rights of those in need while assuring the diocese's continued ability to direct donations to their intended use, namely, support the mission of the church," Bishop McManus said.
   "The status of individual cases of support, including that of Father Kane, changes from time to time due to changes in their individual circumstances, and will be reviewed to assure that a demonstrated need justified continuing financial support," Bishop McManus said.
   Auxiliary Bishop George E. Rueger, who told lawyers in his April deposition that he expects to retire soon, said that Bishop Reilly about six months earlier appointed four priests to act as "monitors" of the priests who were removed for sexual misconduct allegations. He named Monsignor Thomas J. Sullivan, the chancellor and liaison to District Attorney John J. Conte; Monsignor F. Stephen Pedone, the judical [? judicial] vicar; and the Rev. Rocco Piccolomini, vicar for priests, but could not recall the name of the fourth monitor.
   Bishop Reilly said the diocese is not monitoring Rev. Teczar, who lives in Dudley, and said he is "pretty much on his own." He added this is "pretty much a concern. It would be the same thing if he was laicized."
   Bishop Reilly revealed that the Rev. Peter J. Inzerillo, who was placed into St. Leo's Parish, Leominster, after a suit had been settled naming him and the Rev. Brendan O'Donoghue as perpetrators of sexual misconduct, was not removed from the parish in 2002 because of any pressure from the parish. He said he was removed because another separate allegation not connected with the settled lawsuit came to his attention.
   Bishop Reilly said the issue of Rev. Inzerillo being named in that lawsuit was complicated because no proof was presented to show that Rev. Inzerillo had done anything wrong. He said the priest was named in the settlement "because the opposite side wanted his name included in the settlement."
   "So it was one of those things where it is not very clear that you are putting somebody who is guilty of a crime back into the parish," he said.
   "He was removed from the parish because an allegation came in that I thought had credence," he said.
• Congregation 'traumatized' by sex allegations [? 2000s Firth] -- Anglican. Boy. Canada flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Vancouver Sun, by Jonathan Fowlie, Monday, November 22, 2004
   DELTA, CANADA - A Tsawwassen youth pastor who has spent months in a Mexican prison facing charges of child sex abuse should be presumed innocent until it is proven otherwise, the congregation of his church was told Sunday.
   "I think it's fair to say we have been traumatized by the story," David Sanders, the rector's warden of St. David's Anglican Church in Tsawwassen, told about 60 parishioners before the start of the day's third regularly scheduled service.
   He was reading from a prepared statement relating to pastor Brad Firth, 36, who was arrested July 15 by Mexican authorities in Ensenada, on the Baja Peninsula. Firth is facing charges relating to the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old Mexican boy.
   At the time of his arrest, Firth was leading a trip of 12 teenagers who had travelled from B.C. to Mexico on a St. David's Anglican Church trip to help people in that country.
   Sanders later told a reporter the matter was raised at the church Sunday because of recent news stories about the case. He said the church members have been given almost weekly updates about the case.
• Mahony to Testify in Sex Abuse Cases [O'Grady] -- RCC. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Los Angeles Times, www.latimes. com/news/ local/state/ la-me-mahony22 nov22,1,43163 94.story?coll= la-news-state , By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
   CALIFORNIA: Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is preparing to again defend his handling of Roman Catholic priests accused of child molestation when he was bishop of Stockton nearly two decades ago.
   Mahony is set to answer questions Tuesday at an undisclosed downtown Los Angeles high-rise in a deposition in civil cases alleging that priests sexually abused several people. A judge ordered the time and location of the deposition kept secret for security reasons.
   Mahony's testimony, however, could become public next month unless his lawyers object in court.
   Mahony will be questioned about Oliver Francis O'Grady, a convicted child molester who served time in state prison before being deported to his native Ireland in 2000. Mahony had transferred O'Grady in 1984 after the cleric admitted to a therapist that he had fondled a 9-year-old boy.
   The cardinal has already testified that he did not know that O'Grady had twice admitted to fondling a child when Mahony transferred him, days after police closed an investigation into an unproved molestation claim. [Emphasis added.] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:19 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon November 22, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue November 23, 2004 edition follows:-
• Parole denied for ex-priest [1978 Feeney] -- RCC. 2 boys. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Duluth News Tribune, www.duluth superior.com/ mld/duluth tribune/10 254158.htm , Associated Press, Posted on Tue, Nov. 23, 2004
   APPLETON, Wis. - A parole application has been denied for a former Roman Catholic priest sentenced in April to 15 years in prison on sexual assault charges.
   The move Monday came in the case of John Patrick Feeney, 77, found guilty after a jury trial in February on three counts of sexual assault of a child and one of attempted sexual assault of a child.
   The charges stemmed from the 1978 assaults of two brothers, who were then 12 and 14, when Feeney was parish priest at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom.
   Because he was sentenced under the law as it existed in 1978, he became eligible for parole after serving only six months of his sentence.
   He will be eligible for parole again Nov. 4, 2006, said Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Clausius. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:37 PM]
• Ex-local priest gets 4 years in abuse case [1980s Behrel] -- Episcopal. Boy. 2nd conviction.
   Chicago Tribune, The Associated Press, November 23, 2004
   HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- A former Chicago-area priest has been sentenced to four years in prison for sexually abusing a male student at an Episcopal boarding school in Maryland in the 1980s.
   The plea agreement announced Monday in Washington County Circuit Court marks the second conviction for Kenneth K. Behrel, 55, of Grayslake, a northern suburb of Chicago.
   Behrel entered an Alford plea to a charge of sexual child abuse involving a Frederick man who was a student at St. James School during the 1980s. In an Alford plea, a defendant doesn't admit guilt but acknowledges that the state has enough evidence for a conviction. Judge Frederick C. Wright sentenced Behrel to four years.
• Church organist charged in sex case [Nelson] -- Girls.
   Republican-American, By Doug Dalena, Tuesday, November 23, 2004
   NAUGATUCK (CT) -- State police accused a church organist last week of sexually abusing several underage girls he met at his job.
   Police charged Robert Nelson, 50, of 111 Mallane Lane, Unit 2H, with five counts of sexual assault, employing a minor in obscene performance, possession of child pornography, providing alcohol to minors and risk of injury to a minor.
   State police would not release details about the accusers' ages or hometowns, citing their juvenile status.
• Cardinal May Be Questioned [1980s O'Grady] -- RCC. Minor.
   CBS News, Nov. 23, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA) (AP) - Cardinal Roger Mahony, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, will be deposed Tuesday in clergy sex abuse lawsuits that date to his time in three Northern California dioceses, according to a source close to the litigation.
   Lawyers for alleged abuse victims are expected to question Mahony all day at an undisclosed location in downtown Los Angeles, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Los Angeles Times first reported on the deposition in Monday's editions.
   The deposition transcript could become public next month, unless Mahony's attorneys object in court. A judge has placed all attorneys in the case under a gag order.
   Mahony will be questioned about his handling of former Stockton priest Oliver Francis O'Grady, who pleaded guilty to child molestation in 1993. Mahony was bishop in Stockton from 1980 to 1985, during part of O'Grady's tenure there.
• Ex-chaplain gets 4-year sentence for abuse [1980s Behrel] -- Episcopal. 2 boys.
   The Herald-Mail, www.herald-mail .com/?module= displaystory& story_id=96657& format=html , by PEPPER BALLARD, pepperb@herald-mail.com ,Tuesday November 23, 2004
   MARYLAND: Kenneth Kirk Behrel, a former St. James School chaplain convicted in 2002 of sexually abusing two students at the school in the 1980s, was sentenced to serve four years in prison Monday while in Washington County Circuit Court for a hearing scheduled about a retrial in one of the students' cases.
   In May 2003, The Maryland Court of Special Appeals, the state's second-highest court, remanded the case of one of the former students, a Frederick, Md., man, now in his late 30s, back to Circuit Court for a possible retrial.
   The court ruled that a Circuit judge erred when he allowed the other former student, a Virginia man also now in his late 30s, to testify about other incidents of abuse involving the Frederick man during the February 2002 trial, according to published reports. ...
   Both cases dated back to incidents in the 1980s while the men were 15-year-old students at the prep school near Hagerstown and Behrel, a former Episcopalian priest, was the school chaplain, according to published reports. Both former students testified at the trials, according to reports published in The Herald-Mail.
   The now defrocked priest left St. James in 1985 and was transferred to a parish in Illinois before he left the priesthood in 2001, according to published reports.
• Alleged victim, priest on panel -- RCC.
   The Republican, By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Tuesday, November 23, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA) - For the first time, a priest and an alleged victim of clergy sexual abuse have been named to the Review Board that investigates allegations of misconduct made against priests and other personnel in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.
   Previously the nine-member Review Board was composed solely of lay people. The change was announced yesterday by the diocese.
   "We feel the addition of both a victim and a priest adds balance to our Review Board and in turns adds to its credibility. This certainly has been the experience of other dioceses," said diocesan spokesman Mark E. Dupont.
   The Springfield diocese's bishop, the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, who made the appointments, was unavailable for comment late yesterday.
   The naming of alleged victim James Stankiewicz of Dalton fulfills a commitment McDonnell made several months ago to others who have said they were abused by clergy.
• Priest abuse victims target two churches -- RCC.
   New York Daily News, www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/255335p-218656c.html , BY BRIAN HARMON, LONG ISLAND BUREAU CHIEF, November 23, 2004
   LONG ISLAND (NY): An in-your-face approach to drawing out victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests is taking hold in Nassau County. Members of two victims' groups have waited outside Mass at churches in Farmingdale and East Meadow the last two weekends, handing out leaflets that urge other victims to come forward.
   So far, three victims who had never reported being abused have contacted Long Island Voice of the Faithful [VOTF] and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], members said.
   "Three victims talked to us for the first time, but were not yet ready to give personal information," said David Cerulli, executive director of the group's New York region. "Hopefully, they will call to attend a support group meeting. Like fishing, we just have to be patient."
• Two removed from priesthood [1950s-80s Miller, Clark] -- RCC. 31 children.
   The Courier-Journal, By Peter Smith, psmith@courier-journal.com , Nov 23, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): Two Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville priests, who were convicted of sexually abusing 31 children between the 1950s and 1980s, have been stripped of their clerical powers by the Vatican.
   Pope John Paul II has returned Louis E. Miller and Daniel C. Clark "to the lay state," or removed them from the priesthood, the archdiocese said yesterday.
   Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly informed both men earlier this month in a visit to the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange, where both men are serving sentences for sexual abuse.
   "Even though it was expected, it's important for the Catholic people and the community at large to know that the Holy See (Vatican) has followed through," said Brian Reynolds, the chancellor and chief administrative officer of the archdiocese.
• Lecturer: Don't give to church; Priest says money should go to victims -- RCC. Rev. Thomas Doyle speaks out. [2000s Bunse] -- RCC. $US226,000 gone, Bunse back at work.
   Belleville News-Democrat, www.belleville.com/mld/newsdemocrat/10243897.htm , BY MARICELLA MIRANDA, mmiranda@bnd.com , Posted on Mon, Nov. 22, 2004
   BELLEVILLE (IL) - A Catholic priest and advocate for sex abuse survivors in the Roman Catholic Church told a group Sunday to stop supporting the institutional church with donations.
   During the 10th annual John XXIII lecture for the Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity, the Rev. Thomas Doyle said Catholics should be independent of the Catholic Church to stop what he described as the church's abuse of power.
   "We've got to stop giving money to the institution," Doyle said. "That's the only act they'll understand."
   He suggests people donate instead to organizations that help victims of sexual abuse, such as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] and the Linkup.
   About 196 people attended the lecture. They questioned Doyle about how they could educate their children in Roman Catholicism independent of the church.
   They also discussed problems in metro-east churches, including allegations of theft and sexual abuse. For example, they talked about the Rev. Gerald Bunse, who resigned as pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Edwardsville in January after taking $226,000 to support a gambling habit. He has since been reassigned to Our Savior Church in Jacksonville as a priest in residence.
• Two clergy colleagues claim former priest admitted to 1960 murder. [1960 O'Brien] -- RCC. Woman.
   Kris TV, (and/or News-Journal) www.kristv. com/global/ story.asp? s=2594211& ClientType= Printable , Associated Press
   McALLEN, Texas - Two clergy colleagues of a former Catholic priest say the priest admitted killing a 25-year-old woman last seen going to confessional 44 years ago, an unsolved murder that still haunts this South Texas border town.
   A grand jury re-examined the case earlier this year, but neither the priest nor his colleagues were called to testify. The woman's family remains devoted to seeing someone prosecuted for her death, but the district attorney says he's done all the law will allow.
   Irene Garza, a school teacher and beauty queen, was found raped and bludgeoned to death in an irrigation canal in 1960. Her body was discovered five days after she disappeared; she was last seen going to the Sacred Heart Catholic Church to give an Easter eve confessional.
   The Rev. Joseph O'Brien, who left active ministry a few years ago and lives in San Antonio, and Dale Tacheny, a tax consultant in Oklahoma City, told The Dallas Morning News in a story for Sunday editions that John Feit, a priest working in McAllen in 1960, told them he killed a woman. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 02:48 AM]
• Vatican strips two Louisville priests of clerical powers [Miller, Clark] -- RCC.
   Kentucky.com ; www.kentucky. com/mld/ken tucky/news/ breaking_ news/102 51379.htm , Associated Press
   LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Vatican has taken away the clerical powers of two Louisville priests who were convicted of sexually abusing children and who had been removed from the ministry in 2002.
   Louisville Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly visited the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange earlier this month and informed the men that Pope John Paul II had returned them "to the lay state," or removed them from the priesthood.
   Kelly had removed Louis E. Miller and Daniel C. Clark permanently from the ministry, but only the Vatican can make the final decision on removing someone from the priesthood.
   "Even though it was expected, it's important for the Catholic people and the community at large to know that the Holy See (Vatican) has followed through," said Brian Reynolds, the chancellor and chief administrative officer of the archdiocese.
   "The Holy Father has said there's no place in the priesthood for anyone who abused a child," he said. "We now have a specific example for that statement in action."
• Archdiocese receives positive audit on implementing sexual abuse policies -- RCC.
   Kentucky.com ; www.kentucky. com/mld/ken tucky/news/ local/1025 1398.htm , Associated Press
   LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Archdiocese of Louisville was given a positive audit by an independent company investigating the nation's dioceses for compliance with stricter sexual-abuse policies adopted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002.
   The Gavin Group, made up largely of former agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is investigating the dioceses, the church told priests last week.
   The investigators rated such things as the church's response to victims, training of employees on sexual-abuse matters and other preventive steps.
• Church organist accused of sexual abuse [2000-04 Nelson] -- Girls.
   The Advocate, Associated Press, November 23, 2004
   NAUGATUCK, Conn. -- Authorities charged a church organist Monday with sexually abusing children, and said he used his church position to meet them.
   Robert Nelson, 50, of Naugatuck, was charged with five counts of sexual assault, employing a minor in an obscene performance, possession of child pornography, providing alcohol to minors and risk of injury to a minor.
   Police said the assaults began in 2000 and lasted through this year.
   "He met these individuals through the church where he is the organist," said State's Attorney John Connelly.
   Nelson also is a piano teacher known throughout the region. Connelly said the allegations do not involve any of his students.
   Nelson told the Republican-American of Waterbury he met some of the girls allegedly involved at Immanuel St. James Church. He said he did not have sexual contact with any girls but said he "may have taken one or two pictures."
• Second Vt. complaint filed against former city priest [1970s Paquette] -- RCC. > 12 boys.
   The Standard-Times, www.southcoast today.com/ daily/11-04/ 11-23-04/ a03lo024.htm , By STEVE URBON, Standard-Times senior correspondent, Nov 23, 2004
   NEW BEDFORD (MA) -- A second Vermont resident has filed a civil complaint of sexual assault against a former New Bedford priest, the Rev. Edward O. Paquette, 75, now retired and living in Westfield.
   The complaint, filed in early October but made public late last week, accused the priest and the diocese, of knowing that the priest had a history of molesting boys.
   Rev. Paquette has denied the allegations and refuses to speak with reporters without a lawyer. He is representing himself in the cases.
   Like the previous charge made earlier this year, the second complaint comes from another 37-year-old Burlington man, James E. Perras, also another former altar boy, who alleged he was attacked at Christ the King Church in that city in the late 1970s. Neither plaintiff has spoken with the press.
   Rev. Paquette served in Vermont during the last years before being stripped of his priestly duties and sent into forced retirement in 1980.
   In 1963, after serving first at St. Mary Church in Mansfield, the priest was removed from his post at St. Kilian's Church in New Bedford by Bishop James L. Connolly.
   The move followed a series of allegations brought to the bishop's attention that involved more than a dozen boys, according to a retired police sergeant, Clovis A. "Toby' Gauthier.
   He told The Standard-Times that his investigation into the priest's activities met a dead end when St. Kilian's parents refused to cooperate with police and finally when Rev. Paquette was suddenly removed.
• Diocese assailed over bankruptcy plan -- RCC.
   Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattle pi.nwsource.com/ local/200763_ diocese23.html , By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
   SPOKANE (WA) -- Lawyers for victims of sexual abuse by priests contend the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane is shirking its financial duty to the victims through its plan to file for bankruptcy protection.
   Attorneys Michael Pfau and Timothy Kosnoff, who represent dozens of victims, said in a letter to Spokane Bishop William Skylstad that victims of abuse have the same right to the financial resources of the diocese as parishes and schools.
   Skylstad has said that he wants to maintain the operation of parishes, schools and the church during the bankruptcy process.
   "Your public pronouncements to side with the parishes and schools in this impending dispute are a breach of your fiduciary duty," the letter said, citing bankruptcy court case law.
   But Shaun Cross, a lawyer for the diocese, said yesterday that the victims' lawyers are misapplying bankruptcy law.
• Funds of Ferns diocese almost exhausted by sex abuse payouts -- RCC. €2.8m wasted so far. Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Irish Independent, www.unison. ie/irish_indep endent/stor ies.php3? ca=9&si=1291808 &issue_id=11722
   IRELAND: The funds of the diocese of Ferns have been "almost exhausted" by sex abuse claims and in the future fixed assets may have to be sold to meet claims, the caretaker bishop of the diocese, Dr Eamonn Walsh, has confirmed.
   He confirmed that the Church in Ferns has paid out almost €2.8m in claims and legal costs to date, as reported in last Saturday's Irish Independent. Dr Walsh said that 90pc of this had been paid out using insurance money drawn from a Stewardship Fund run by the bishops but these funds had now almost been exhausted.
   Bishop Walsh reassured the diocese that settlements had not been paid from church plate collections.
   The Stewardship Fund was established with over €10m from Church & General insurers to help the bishops meet the cost of sex abuse claims. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 02:32 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue November 23, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed November 24, 2004 edition follows:-
• SJC upholds ruling allowing access to Jesuit priest's files
   Telegram and Gazette, www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20041124/ APN/411240765 , November 24, 2004 [Unable to access on 08 Jan 2005] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:34 PM]
• Former Grayslake priest gets 4 years for abuse
   Daily Herald, www.dailyherald .com/cook/main_ story.asp?int ID=383153 , ~ Nov 24, 2004 [Unable to access on 08 Jan 2005]
• Judge: Priests must comply with depositions [Goeke, Holtz] - RCC. Covington Diocese. Were refusing to give their names! > 100 complainants.
   The Cincinnati Post, www.cincypost.com/2004/11/24/dio112404.html , Nov 24, 2004
   A special judge has ruled that several priests and former priests may not refuse to answer all questions in depositions from lawyers alleging a decades-long cover-up of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Covington.
   The priests asked that their scheduled depositions be canceled because they intended to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Their attorney, Bob Carran, said he did not want videotapes of the priests refusing to answer questions about child sex-abuse becoming public.
   Carran said Kentucky has no statute of limitations on felony offenses, and several of the men he represents have been accused of -- although not criminally charged with -- molesting children.
   He argued the men planned to refuse to answer any questions -- including their names -- because it could lead to information that could be used against them in criminal proceedings. Thus, he said, the depositions would give no useful information and should be canceled. But Special Judge John Potter of Louisville, who is presiding over the class-action lawsuit after former Boone Circuit Judge Jay Bamberger stepped down, said the men are mere witnesses. As such, he said, they do not have the unlimited right a defendant has to refuse to answer questions.
   "Since (they) are not defendants in a criminal proceeding, they may not decline to testify, and the court should not order that their depositions be canceled," Potter wrote in a three-page order.
   "Similarly, since a witness can assert the privilege only as to a particular question, and since some questions may incriminate the witness and others may not, (they) are not entitled to have questioning cease as soon as they first assert the privilege."
   Carran's clients include a suspended priest, Father John Goeke, and a former priest, Louis Holtz. Both have been accused of abusing children, although Holtz has never been charged.
   Charges against Goeke were dropped in 1995, although in 1997 the diocese settled a lawsuit filed against him by a woman who said he took advantage of her while she sought marriage counseling.
   "We very much appreciate the court's consideration of our motion," Carran said. A number of attorneys -- including Stan Chesley and Robert Steinberg of Cincinnati and Ann Oldfather of Louisville -- filed the lawsuit in Boone County, alleging a 50-year cover-up by the diocese of sexual abuse by its priests and other workers. The attorneys claim to represent more than 100 victims, and say dozens of priests were abusers.
   While Bamberger was overseeing the case, he ordered it to proceed as a class-action lawsuit, the first of its kind in the nation.#
• Vermont bishop due to retire
   Times Argus (Barre Montpelier, USA), www.timesargus. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20041124/ NEWS/4112 40304/ 1003/NEWS02 , By Wilson Ring, Associated Press, November 24, 2004
   BURLINGTON - The bishop of Vermont's 148,000 Roman Catholics, who led the church through the debate about gay marriage and the priest child abuse scandal, is due to retire next summer.
   Under church law the Rev. Kenneth Angell of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, which includes all of Vermont, is required to submit his resignation on his 75th birthday, Aug. 3.
   It will be then up to the Vatican to accept or reject his resignation, said diocese Chancellor the Rev. Walter Miller.
   "At age 75 the letter has to be submitted. When it is taken up by the Holy See, it is anyone's guess," Miller said.
   If Angell's resignation is accepted it will be up to the Vatican to appoint a replacement.
   The bishops in the church's regional province, which includes Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, will nominate a replacement, but the Vatican does not have to choose from that list, Miller said.
   The candidate wouldn't know he was being considered until shortly before the appointment is announced publicly, making it impossible for priests to advocate for themselves, Miller said.
   But the new bishop would likely come from the region, a way to ensure the new bishop is familiar with the cultural norms of the area.
   Angell became Vermont's bishop in November 1992 after serving as the auxiliary bishop of Providence, R.I.
   He replaced Bishop John Marshall who moved to Springfield, Mass. Marshall has since died.
   During his 12 years in Vermont, Angell has led the church's opposition to such emotional issues as abortion rights and civil unions.
   For many Vermonters Angell gave the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States a personal face. Angell's brother David Angell and his wife Lynn were in one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center in New York.
   During Angell's 12 years as bishop he also helped lead the church through the scandal involving priests sexually abusing children and he has helped the church deal with the ongoing shortage of priests. Many parishes across the state have been closed or consolidated.
   Miller said the new bishop, whenever he is chosen, will have to deal with the same issues.
• REVIEW: Shanley's 'Doubt' a Terrific Play - RCC. PLAY
   WTOP radio network, www.wtopnews. com/index.php? nid=114&sid= 340910 , By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Critic, Updated 10:50 PM, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004
   NEW YORK (AP) - "What do you do when you are not sure?" The question is at the heart of "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's terrific new play, which opened Tuesday at off-Broadway's Manhattan Theatre Club. And it's arrived just in time.
   "Doubt" wakes up this slumbering theater season, jolting the audience with a tough, timely story, rich in character, language and ideas.
   In a fast 90 minutes, Shanley skillfully examines the uncertainty surrounding a priest and his relationship with a young male student in a Catholic grade school. Rumors swirl. But are they true?
   Shanley lays out the situation's ambiguity with astonishing theatricality. He's helped by a remarkable, four-person cast and the taut, tight direction of Doug Hughes, who doesn't allow a word to be wasted.
   And "Doubt" provides the wondrous Cherry Jones with her best role since her Tony-winning performance in "The Heiress" in 1995. Jones portrays Sister Aloysius, the authoritarian principal at St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx.
   The time is 1964 and Vatican II has sent winds of change blowing through the Catholic Church. But Sister Aloysius has standards to uphold, and she will not be swayed by what she perceives to be fashionable trends. [...]
   The prickly Sister Aloysius holds suspicion in the highest regard and when personable Father Flynn (Brian F. O'Byrne) is thought to have become too friendly with a newcomer to the school, a troubled, black teenager, she is quick to reach a certain conclusion. [...]
   The priest eventually goes head to head with Sister Aloysius, who's determined to bring him down. She interviews the boy's distraught mother (Adriane Lenox) to confirm what she thinks she already knows. Without giving too much away, let's just say the plot's resolution will surprise you. [...]
   The dialogue, despite the seriousness of the subject matter, is often quite funny, particularly in its depiction of parochial school education.
   "Doubt" is Shanley's best play in years, a high point in an up-and-down career that has included such successful stage works as "Italian-American Reconciliation" and "Four Dogs and a Bone" and such movie duds as "Joe Versus the Volcano" and "Congo." [...] (Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) # [COMMENT: Author Shanley is not to be confused with the Father Shanley who has been accused of child sex abuse. END.]
• Phone tapes sought in priest sex-abuse suit
   Suburban Chicago News, ~ Nov 24, 2004 [Can't display 08 Jan 05]
• Supreme Court to hear abuse case [1960-80 Nuedling] - RCC.
   Duluth News Tribune, www.duluth superior.com/ mld/duluth superior/news/ local/102 61052.htm , ASSOCIATED PRESS, Wed, Nov. 24, 2004
   MADISON, Wisconsin - The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a lawsuit filed by a group of people who say a Milwaukee priest sexually assaulted them decades ago.
   The decision creates the possibility the court will revisit a decision it issued in the 1990s that has been interpreted to give churches immunity from negligence lawsuits on First Amendment grounds.
   Ten people filed suit against the Milwaukee Archdiocese, St. John the Evangelist Church and two insurance companies, claiming they were abused by the Rev. George Nuedling, who is now dead, between 1960 and 1980.
   The group alleges the archdiocese and the church were negligent and committed fraud because they knew Nuedling was abusing them and didn't protect them from him.
   But the 1st District Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in July that the group had failed to file its lawsuit before the statute of limitations had expired.
   Former state law required victims to file suit within five years of an assault. Members of the group filed their first complaints in 2002, according to court records and the appeals court decision.
   Archdiocese spokeswoman Kathleen Hohl said, "We welcome the opportunity to present information to aid the court in its deliberation and review." She referred legal questions to archdiocese attorneys, who did not return messages from the Associated Press on Tuesday.
   Attorney Jim Smith, who represents the group that filed the suit, also did not return a message.
   In its decision, the appeals court noted the state Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment, which guarantees separation of church and state, prevents negligence claims against a religious body.
   The Supreme Court said in a previous case that such claims would excessively entangle the courts with religion, violating the First Amendment.
   Since the group filed its suit, new legislation has been signed into law extending Wisconsin's statute of limitations in civil child sexual assault cases by allowing accusers to file actions before age 35. The legislation, approved last year, was in response to the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church. # [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:37 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed November 24, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Listen to the Children; Review of Claims of Abuse from Adults in State Care as Children. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn.  Tasmania (Australia) flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
  Report by the Tasmanian Ombudsman, Jan O'Grady, www.justice.tas.gov.au/ombudsman/Child%20Abuse %20Report%20-%20Final. pdf , ISBN 0- 0-9757146-0-0, November 24, 2004
   HOBART (Tas) Australia: Most of the allegations relating to these institutions were of sustained physical and emotional abuse and, while they were established to cope with difficult boys which may help to explain the strictness and severity of the discipline regimes, there can be no excuse for the reports of sadistic and inhumane physical punishment that allegedly took place. (page 16 printed / p 27 PDF)
   .... Church authorities have been advised of the allegations made against them.
   ... 62 claimants (25 per cent of the total) reported abuse in church run Homes. Most of the complaints were made against the Catholic Church followed by the Salvation Army. (p 23 / 34)
   Two thirds (154) of the claimants alleged that they had been sexually abused at some time. Allegations ranged from vaginal and anal intercourse, ... Most of the allegations involved the more serious forms of sexual abuse. (p 25 / 36)
   It is evident that over the period covered by the Review, child protection systems in Tasmania, as elsewhere, have not adequately protected all of the children entrusted to the care of the State. ... The many shocking stories presented to the Review team of vulnerable children abused by the people legally responsible for their care suggest that the Government's decision to offer redress is warranted. (p 34 / 45)
   A disturbing finding to emerge from the Review which requires further examination relates to claims from 12 young adults, presently in the 20 to 30 age range, who have made allegations of abuse [in foster care] having commenced since 1990, in one case as recently as 1998. Nine of these claims related to foster care homes and eight of the claimants were young women. In most cases, the abuse was allegedly ongoing and involved more than one offender. Most of the sexual abuse cases were reported either to Police or to Child Protection. Where an investigation was undertaken, the most likely outcome was for the complaint not to be substantiated. (p 35 / 46)
   [COMMENT: [Acknowledgment to the Ombudsman. And to Barry Coldrey for alerting Faith Purification Programme to this important occurrence and reports. (There was an interim report, to be studied later.) - FPP ~ 09 Jan 05.] [Fuller summary below. Thanks to Barry Coldrey, Melbourne.] ENDS.]
Listen to the Children; Review of Claims of Abuse from Adults in State Care as Children.
  Report by the Tasmanian Ombudsman, Jan O'Grady, www.justice.tas.gov.au/ombudsman/Child%20 Abuse %20Rep ort%20-%20Final. pdf , November 24, 2004
   HOBART (Tas) Australia: Table 5.2 shows the institutions and homes that were specifically named in the Review and the number of claimants who reported incidents of abuse in them. It should be noted that there were many other facilities in the period of the Review that were not named by claimants. Also, a number of claimants had more than one placement. 
DHHS: 
Rochebank Hostel 
Abermere Hostel 
Casablanca 
Gilburn 
Malmesbury
Laroona
Omaru
Ashley Home for Boys 
Wybra Hall 
West Winds Boys' Home 
Weeroona Girls' Training Centre 

Salvation Army: 
Barrington Boys' Home
Maylands Girls' Home

Catholic Church: 
Mt St Canice (Magdalen Home)
Boys' Town (Savio College)
St Josephs Orphanage/
Aikenhead House (later St Josephs Child Care Centres)

Churches of Christ:
Bethany

Anglican Church:
Clarendon Children's Home

Community Board of Management:
Kennerley Boys Home (later Kennerley Children's Home)
Northern Tasmanian Home for Boys (also known as Glenara Children's Home
Glendel Children's Home
   Most of the allegations relating to these institutions were of sustained physical and emotional abuse and, while they were established to cope with difficult boys which may help to explain the strictness and severity of the discipline regimes, there can be no excuse for the reports of sadistic and inhumane physical punishment that allegedly took place.
   Allegations of sexual abuse were less common in the boys' homes and there is evidence to suggest that some of the reported sexual abuse was perpetrated by older boys on younger boys. (p 16 / 27)
   Several institutions for girls have also been named often, although to a lesser extent than the boys' homes. These are:
  • Weeroona – a departmental training Institution;
  • Maylands – an Approved Children's Home run by the Salvation Army;
  • The Mary Magdalen Home, also known as Mt St Canice – an Approved Children's Home run by the Catholic Church;
  • St. Josephs/Aikenhead House – an Approved Children's Home run by the Catholic Church.
       Female claimants mostly complained of sustained emotional and physical abuse, but there were also instances of sexual abuse reported. [...]
       During the 1960s in particular, it is apparent that corporal punishment was prevalent. Claimants indicated that cruel punishments were handed out irrationally and that they often did not know why they were being punished. According to claimants, corporal punishment was administered by a variety of instruments depending on the preference of the alleged perpetrator:
  • straps, belts and whips such as a donkey whip;
  • canes;
  • planks of wood;
  • bunches of keys;
  • Chinese burns, boxing of ears and tweaking of skin, “horse bites”. (p 17 / 28)
       Claimants have advised that Magadalen was commonly known as a home for ‘naughty girls', who were sometimes pregnant when they came into care. Magdalen Home was also used by Police when they picked up 'wayward girls' from the streets.
       One claimant described the institution as prison like, having bars on the windows, locked doors and nuns carrying keys on their belts.
       Examples of abuse cited by the claimants in Catholic run institutions included:
  • Enforced religious practices. Claimants advise that irrespective of their family religions, girls were forced to accept Catholic doctrines, such as 6.00am attendance at Mass, genuflection and changes to their Christian names. A claimant reported that the nuns were portrayed as ‘Brides of Christ' and any attack on a nun, verbal or otherwise, would result in a punishment from God and in an apparently ongoing burden of guilt (p 22 / 33) and fear. One claimant recounted how she had had personal tragedies in her life that, until recently, she had always believed were a punishment from God because she had physically assaulted a nun by pushing her whilst at the home.
  • Regular spiteful physical punishment by nuns, such as pinching and hair pulling.
  • Children were not provided with sufficient food and were punished if caught stealing from the fridges or scavenging food from the rubbish bins.
  • Several claims of sexual abuse in the cottages at Taroona.
       There were favourable comments made about Mt St Canice and the kindness of some nuns. In the course of the Review, two former residents of the home contacted the Ombudsman's office to describe how happy their time at Mt St Canice had been. There were no allegations of sexual abuse reported. (p 23 / 34)
    5.4 HOMES RUN BY CHURCH AUTHORITIES
       Reference has already been made above to a number of Approved Children's Homes run by churches. Further comment is provided here in deference to the high level of public interest and concern following recent disclosures in relation to sexual abuse by clergy. Church authorities have been advised of the allegations made against them.
       As Table 5.3 below indicates, 62 claimants (25 per cent of the total) reported abuse in church run Homes. Most of the complaints were made against the Catholic Church followed by the Salvation Army. Given that these were the largest homes, the number of abuse incidents reported is consistent.
       The allegations related mostly to serious physical and emotional abuse but there were 17 separate incidents of sexual abuse alleged, mostly at Barrington Boys' Home, Maylands Girls' Home, at Boys' Town and St Joseph's Orphanage/Aikenhead House. No sexual abuse claims were received in respect of Mt St Canice. One allegation of sexual abuse related to the Bethany Children's Home, run by the Churches of Christ. This abuse was allegedly committed by another child and not by a carer. There were no allegations of sexual abuse against the Anglican Church.
    Table 5.3: Approved Children's Homes run by Churches and named in the Review 
    						No of claimants
Salvation Army:
Barrington Boys Home 				16
Maylands Girl's Home 				7
Churches of Christ: 
Bethany Children's Home 			1
Anglican: 
Clarendon Children's Home 			2
Catholic: 
Mt St Canice (Convent of the Good
Shepherd; Magdalen Home) 			13
Boys Town (Savio College) 			9
St Joseph's Orphanage /Aikenhead
House						14
    (p 23 / 34)
    5.5 FOSTER CARE PLACEMENTS (p 24 / 35)
    5.6 ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE
       Two thirds (154) of the claimants alleged that they had been sexually abused at some time. Allegations ranged from vaginal and anal intercourse, often described as ‘rape' by claimants, through to inappropriate touching and fondling. Most of the allegations involved the more serious forms of sexual abuse. Table 5.5 below shows that one in four of all reported incidents of abuse was of a sexual nature. [192, 24%] (p 25 / 36)
    Her foster parents took her to a holiday house owned by their friend. She thinks they arrived about mid afternoon. The friend asked her to come with him to the tractor shed where he had sexual intercourse with her. She was crying and he told her not to say anything. She didn't complain to her foster parents because they were friends of the other man. She was about 12 years old at the time.
    She got on reasonably well with her foster parents in the beginning. Her foster father was very good to her and told her on a number of occasions that he loved her. When she was about 14 years old he started having sexual intercourse with her about twice a week. She used to cry and tell him that she didn't want to do it anymore. He would give her money each time he had sex with her.
    He (a religious) would come into the dormitory after the boys were asleep. He would place his hand over his mouth and wake him up. Then he would take off his pyjama trousers and stroke his penis. He was too scared to tell anyone. He knows that he did it to other boys too.     (p 26 / 37)
    6.1 FAILURE TO PROTECT ALL CHILDREN
       It is evident that over the period covered by the Review, child protection systems in Tasmania, as elsewhere, have not adequately protected all of the children entrusted to the care of the State. There is no reason to believe that systems prior to the Review period were any better. The Government has addressed the issue by initiating the Review and offering redress to victims of past abuse. The many shocking stories presented to the Review team of vulnerable children abused by the people legally responsible for their care suggest that the Government's decision to offer redress is warranted.
       The Review ran from 14 July 2003 to 31 March 2004. (p 34 / 45)
    6.3 CONCERN RELATED TO FOSTER CARE
       A disturbing finding to emerge from the Review which requires further examination relates to claims from 12 young adults, presently in the 20 to 30 age range, who have made allegations of abuse having commenced since 1990, in one case as recently as 1998. Nine of these claims related to foster care homes and eight of the claimants were young women. In most cases, the abuse was allegedly ongoing and involved more than one offender. (p 35 / 46)
    6.7 LOST OPPORTUNITIES
       Regret for lost opportunities was a recurring theme in the interviews. Many people, who are now mature adults, are still bitter about their lost childhoods; many have no photographs of their parents or siblings; no records of small achievements; and no memorabilia of happy holidays, birthdays, or other important events. (p 37 / 48)
    6.8 BREAKING THE CYCLE OF ABUSE
       A very disturbing finding from the Review was that in some families sexual abuse appears to have been accepted as ‘normal'. A total of 13 claims were made involving members of two separate families. The claims involved intergenerational abuse. Some of the claimants were apparently unaware that other family members had lodged separate claims. It was also apparent from the Review that the commonly held belief that people who were abused as children will often abuse their own children has substance. Numbers of claimants admitted to this.
    6.9 ABORIGINAL CLAIMANTS
       Forty people included in the Review claimed Aboriginality, comprising 16 per cent of the total. The proportion is higher than in the Tasmanian population as a whole, but consistent with the higher incidence of Aboriginals in care generally, which may reflect judgmental issues of the time as to the standards of care which were provided in Aboriginal families. Five family groups are represented involving 15 claimants. Many of the claimants have linked their claims to past practices associated with the ‘stolen generation' and lament what they regard as the deliberate alienation from their Aboriginal heritage. File records show that in each case the children were taken into care for stated reasons of ‘neglect' rather than for reasons associated with the precepts underpinning the stolen generation movement. (p 38 / 49)
    • http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm#listen
    [To save time, Tables have been greatly simplified.] [Nov 24, 04]
    • Former health chief in porn net. [Hulbert] -- No religion link reported. 265,000 porn pictures, some under 5. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn. 
       The West Australian, by Anne Calverley, p 15, Wednesday, November 24, 2004
       PERTH, W. Australia: A former WA senior health bureaucrat and respected air force serviceman has become one of the worst offenders swept up in an international crackdown on child pornography.
       Duncraig man Ernest Sydney Hulbert, 66, was jailed for two years and two months yesterday after being convicted of downloading 265,000 images of children engaged in sexual activity.
       His arrest in September followed a massive investigation targeting people accessing child pornography websites in Belarus run by the Russian mafia.
       But the District Court was told the pensioner was no cleanskin, having been fined $5500 three years ago for importing explicit child pornography. He stepped down from his post as general manager of the Kimberley Health Service a short time later.
       In the latest incident, police seized four computer discs containing pictures of children -- some younger than five years -- being forced to pose naked or perform sexual acts with each other or adults. They also found a movie depicting a naked teenage boy after raiding his home.
       A psychologist's report claimed Hulbert had not accessed the sites for his own gratification. Rather he had been exploring his own sexual identity in the wake of his marital breakdown years earlier.
       "His was a journey of enlightenment and understanding of his own sexuality and human sexual relationships," the report said.
       Defence lawyer Mark Andrews said Hulbert's fall from grace had caused him great shame and humiliation. He was estranged from his two adult children and forbidden to see his grandchild.
       Judge Allan Fenbury described the images as sickening and questioned how a man with children of his own could look at them.
       Det-Sen. Const. Graeme Barry said outside court the sentence sent a clear message that anyone involved in the disgusting activity would be punished harshly.
       [COMMENT: 6th paragraph: A psychologist's report said the accused had been exploring his own sexual identity. In the future will these raids and gaolings be declared persecution of people with variant "sexual identities" seeking "enlightenment"? Even so, did he need 265,000 images and a movie for this research? COMMENT ENDS.] [Nov 24, 04]
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    #### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu November 25, 2004 edition follows:-
    • Sex-abuse victims protest easing of diocese audit rules; Bishops said self-reports could replace outside audits. One group called it "back-pedaling." -- RCC. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly. com/mld/ inquirer/ news/nation/ 10269192.htm By Jim Remsen, Inquirer Faith Life Editor, Posted on Thu, Nov. 25, 2004
       UNITED STATES of AMERICA: A sex-abuse victims group has called on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to reverse its decision to allow most dioceses to submit annual self-reports about compliance with new child-protection rules.
       The shift - from the system under which outside auditors visited dioceses for a week of investigation and interviews with officials, victims and others - represents "a nearly total reversal of what bishops pledged," the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said in a letter released yesterday.
       At their semiannual meeting in Washington last week, the bishops voted 189-35 to alter the audit system adopted in the 2002 Dallas charter. Under the change, all but the handful of dioceses that have failed to implement "safe environment" training programs and background checks will be able to "self-audit" by filling out questionnaires and mailing them to the audit firm.
       The national victims group called on Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, the conference's new president, and Cardinal Francis George, the vice president, to "prod your brother bishops to reconsider this ill-fated and self-destructive back-pedaling."
       "We're basically back to square one, where we have no choice but to trust in many of the same men whose repeated deceit and misconduct led to the molestation of thousands of innocent Catholic youngsters," the protest letter stated.
       Skylstad and George were not available for comment yesterday. Nor were leaders of the bishops' ad hoc committee on sex abuse, which crafted the change.
       Kathleen McChesney, director of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, defended the new system.[...] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:37 AM]
    • 5 insurers sue Spokane diocese over settlements [O'Donnell] -- RCC. 30 victims.
       Seattle Times, By Janet I. Tu, jtu@seattletimes.com , Thursday, November 25, 2004
       SPOKANE (WA): Five commonly owned insurance companies for the Spokane Roman Catholic diocese filed a lawsuit Tuesday saying they should not have to pay for settlements in sex-abuse cases involving five former Spokane priests.
       In the lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court, the five insurers - all part of CNA insurance companies - said they shouldn't have to pay, in part because some policies couldn't be found and because church officials had been aware of warnings against the abusive priests but didn't stop them.
       "The diocese made conscious decisions not to protect children," said the lawsuit, which focused mainly on the case of the Rev. Patrick O'Donnell, a former Spokane priest who is the subject of a number of lawsuits facing the diocese.
       O'Donnell, who served as a priest in Spokane from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, has admitted in a deposition to abusing at least 30 boys during his priesthood.
       Triggered by the failure of mediation talks with 28 men who say they were abused by O'Donnell, the Spokane diocese announced earlier this month that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bishop William Skylstad said the diocese was facing a number of pending and potential lawsuits that would cost more than it could afford.[...]
    • Money raised for Anglican Settlement Fund earmarked for survivors of residential schools [Anglican] -- "Orphans". Canada flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, November 23, 2004
       TORONTO, Canada -- Eighteen months after committing itself to raising $25 million over five years to compensate former residential schools students, the Anglican Church of Canada, including the General Synod and 30 dioceses, is more than half-way there.
       "We are now past the $13 million mark," said Archdeacon Jim Boyles, General Secretary of the General Synod. "The dioceses have responded creatively, imaginatively and very effectively. They are to be commended."
       Mr. Boyles stressed that every penny that Anglicans contribute to the Settlement Fund goes exactly where the money is intended to go - as compensation to former students of the church-run schools whose claims of physical or sexual abuse are validated.
       "Our fund is administered by General Synod staff," Mr. Boyles said. "That means that the total of the $25 million fund will be available to victims of abuse whose claims have been validated."
       To date, the Anglican church has paid about $3.5 million to 130 claimants. The federal government has been criticized in recent weeks for the amount it spends on administration as compared to the money it pays to former students. Last year, the federal government spent about $61 million on administration, four times the $16.5 million paid to former students.
       The Anglican Church of Canada and the federal government signed an agreement in March, 2003, under which the church's liabilities in lawsuits by former residential schools students would be limited to $25 million. The Anglican General Synod and all 30 dioceses agreed to raise the $25 million within five years.
       For more information on the Settlement Fund and how Anglican dioceses met their commitment, see http://general synod.anglican. ca/pdf/New_ Beginnings_II.pdf and http://general synod.anglican. ca/pdf/settlement. pdf , and/or VIANNEY (SAM) CARRIERE, Director of Communications, 416 924 9199 EXT. 306; scarriere@national.anglican.ca
    • United States: Not-for-Profit Bankruptcies: Eleemosynary Corporations on the Brink United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       UNITED STATES: In the wake of controversial bankruptcy cases recently filed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, National Benevolent Association, Allegheny Health, Education, and Research Foundation and most recently, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tucson, Arizona, scrutiny has been increasingly brought to bear on the benefits and burdens that federal bankruptcy laws offer to eleemosynary corporations. [Difficult to obtain more of this article on 04 Dec 04.]
    • Church under siege: Trials in the media
       The Pittsburgh Catholic (Established in 1844: America's Oldest Catholic Newspaper In Continuous Publication), www.pittsburgh catholic.org/ newsarticles_ more.phtml? id=1295 , News & Features section, By TIM DRAKE, Friday December 03, 2004
       (Last of two parts)
       The following article is an overview of lawsuits filed against dioceses across the country in clerical sex abuse cases. While the Diocese of Pittsburgh has not been affected as dramatically as some other dioceses, the lawsuits filed here by two attorneys over the past several months are part of the national pattern in the similarities the lawsuits share.
       Last week, the issue of skirting statutes of limitation was raised. This week, the publicity campaigns undertaken by lawyers suing the church are discussed.
       PITTSBURGH (Pennsylvania): Another tactic being employed by tort lawyers in attacking the church is the practice of holding news conferences and media events to make such allegations public, often before notifying the diocese or the accused.
       When attorney Jeff Anderson brought a civil case against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in April 2002, he held a news conference on the downtown courthouse steps alongside two alleged victims and a dozen supporters. Afterward, he walked two blocks to deliver the suit at the cathedral. Two months later, Anderson repeated the same publicity tactic on the courthouse steps in St. Cloud, Minn., with two alleged victims who were suing St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minn.
       University of St. Thomas law professor Patrick Schiltz said such tactics are nothing new. Schiltz has defended churches from all major denominations in approximately 500 clergy sexual abuse cases.
       "Fifteen years ago, I used to get calls from a plaintiff's lawyer," Schiltz said. "They said they were going to file a suit. Unless we paid, they said they were going to hold a press conference the next day at a hotel.
       "This is very common," Schiltz said. "They want to punish the church with publicity and also generate further cases." The disadvantage, of course, is that once the allegation is in the media, great damage is already done.
       "There has been a suspension of, and disregard for the time-honored principle of innocence until proven guilt," said Steve Gottwalt, director of communications for the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minn. "How is justice carried out when an attorney, instead of notifying the accused, notifies the media first? Once that clergy member's name is in the media, they are all but convicted regardless of whether they are innocent or guilty."
    Presumptions have switched
       As a case in point, Gottwalt cited the example of retired Bishop Paul Dudley of Sioux Falls, S.D., who had wrongly been accused of sexual misconduct in 2002.
       "The accusation was all over the news that night," Gottwalt said. "A couple of months later, there was a footnote saying that he had been cleared. How much damage did that do to his name and integrity? I think a number of attorneys have been self-serving to get a conviction in the public forum rather than following the legal system which they are a part of."
       Schiltz also expressed his concern about possible false accusations.
       "In this day and age, the presumptions have switched," Schiltz said. "The abuse is assumed to have occurred. If a plaintiff doesn't have a valid claim, we won't know about it. If the 201st victim of John Geoghan comes forward, who is going to question him?"
       Gottwalt also faulted the attorneys for their failure to notify the diocese of their charges.
       "I've been in the position to get a call from media personnel who say they have a release of accusations and want to know what the church has to say," Gottwalt said. "Moments later, the news release crosses our fax machines. We cannot comment on what we haven't seen, so the church ends up looking like it's trying to hide something."
       In Pennsylvania, a recent Supreme Court ruling could put a damper on such tactics. Lawyers who send reporters copies of lawsuits by fax or e-mail could now lose their immunity from defamation suits.
       In the past, attorneys who filed lawsuits could not be sued for libel or defamation for anything said in court as this was considered part of the freedom to aggressively serve their clients.
       The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled, however, that once attorneys use means outside the courthouse to further their ends in cases, such as generating publicity through newspaper accounts by supplying media with copies of lawsuits, such immunity comes to an end.
    Follow the money
       Dioceses and parishioners are rightly concerned about what impact continued litigation will have upon the church. One concern is how the cost of litigation and settlements affect their charitable giving.
       "Dioceses settle because both parties find out what the evidence is and reach a settlement to save everyone the expense of a trial," Schiltz said.
       He added that there are additional inducements to settle because the sky is the limit when it comes to what a jury may come back with. "It could be $10,000 or $10 million," he said.
       Litigation attorney and former Minnesota Court of Appeals Justice Roger Nierengarten cautions dioceses against quick settlements. He likened them to "throwing priests to the dogs."
       "Just because they were ordained doesn't mean they give up their constitutional rights," Nierengarten said. "I preach due process to every bishop I can."
       Others wonder how many additional dioceses will declare bankruptcy, and whether doing so will give civil authorities governance over church property.
       Attorney Jeff Anderson doesn't think so.
       "In neither Portland nor Tucson will the settlements shut down or interrupt the good work of the church," Anderson said. He claimed that the money does not come from parish funds, but rather from insurance companies, investments and the divestment of property.
       "When you look at the layers of insurance and the financial ability of the diocese to pay, it is not the case that the parishioner is the one being punished," Anderson said.
       Schiltz disagreed. He said the story of who is paying the bills for clergy sexual abuse is one that has largely been ignored. According to Schiltz, a large and growing percentage of the litigation brought against churches is not covered by insurance, and as legislatures lengthen statutes of limitations and cases get older, insurance coverage becomes harder to find.
       Therefore, said Schiltz, "the people who are punished - are not the abusive priests or the negligent bishops. The people who pay those damages are the people in the pews or the people whom the diocese serves.
       "The problem with punitive damages," he added, "is that they are assessed based upon the wealth of the defendant."
    Impact on religious liberty
       Still, some question whether the attorneys' motives are pure.
       "No one has talked about who are these attorneys and what are their motivations," Gottwalt said. "With some of these attorneys receiving 40 percent, there is an unspoken profit motive. They may be champions of the downtrodden, but they are certainly making a lot of money doing it.
       "The church is under siege," Gottwalt said, "but we've had the white flag up for months. Name any other organization that is going through as much retooling to address this issue. We accept full responsibility for these things, but the attorneys and the media need to answer some questions. They have victimized justice."
       Perhaps the biggest unanswered question is what impact such litigation and dioceses declaring bankruptcy may have on religious liberty. Schiltz feels they pose a significant threat to religious freedom.
       "One reason why clergy sexual misconduct litigation is troubling - one reason why it burdens religious liberty - is that it gives hundreds of juries around the United States almost complete freedom to act against churches out of religious animus, even when that animus has nothing to do with the evidence in the case," Schiltz wrote in an article published in the Boston College Law Review. "I worry that, with the gun of clergy sexual misconduct litigation pointed at their heads, churches may stop acting like churches."
    Drake is a staff writer with the National Catholic Register and the author of "Young and Catholic: The Face of Tomorrow's Church" (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).
       [RESPONSE: To The Editor, The Pittsburgh Catholic, December 4, 2004
       Regarding the series "Church under siege: Trials in the media", my comment is that the Faithful (and some innocent clergy) are reaping the whirlwind of what has been sown for decades, or even centuries.
       Father Tom Doyle and others warned about it in the mid-1980s, I think -- and others must have been protesting for years before and since, I am sure. Child sex is NOT a perk of the celibate !!!
       Avoiding marriage is frowned on by most authentic Holy Scripture, by most Churches, by Natural Law, and by common sense. Child abuse of any kind is forbidden by Jesus.
       The Apostles were accompanied on their missions by their wives -- look it up in the Epistle [1 Corinthians 9:5]! They didn't abandon their wives and children PERMANENTLY to learn The Way.
       We have much UNLEARNING to do if we wish to scramble back into serious consideration in a world where violent alternative views (Islam with its "strike off the heads of disbelievers" teachings, and Fundamentalist Finance Capitalism) are vying for conquest.
       Use the Internet to find out about these things. RESPONSE ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: The article with its mention of a bishop wrongly accused "Presumptions have switched", its untruth "it is not the case that the parishioner is the one being punished", and the sneer "some of these attorneys receiving 40 percent", is the work of an unrepentent APOLOGIST. Real Christians would be beating their breasts and telling the bishops around the world that hiding clergy abuse ought never to have started, thus saving the Church the disgrace of the revelations that are still being made, not to mention the ruinous financial burdens, which will probably end in no insurer being willing to cover the Roman Church for personal failures of clergy and employees. Real followers of Jesus would be telling their bishops to insist that the Papal secrecy system of Crimen Sollicitationis, "The Crime of Solicitation," has to be abolished and reversed, and that the Jesus policy about "a millstone" be figuratively adopted by all Churches (Bible: Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2).
       Jesus-following bishops would remember that no earthly Church head can override the real Head of the Church. And, as the followers leave in droves, as during 2004 in Austria, the leaders look less and less impressive! And are less and less effective in spreading good family-friendly policies. COMMENT ENDS.]
    • Author Probes Dark Side of Catholic Church -- RCC. About Jason Berry.
       The Miami Herald, www.miami. com/mld/miami herald/enter tainment/ 10264333.htm , By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press, Posted on Wed, Nov. 24, 2004
       NEW ORLEANS - The stories, and faces, of molested altar boys and abused seminarians seem to dart and flicker like lightning bugs on a summer's night on the broad face of Jason Berry - the reluctant muckraker who took on the Vatican and his own faith.
       It all started 20 years ago when Berry, a freelance journalist, became one of the first writers to yank the cloak off one of the Roman Catholic Church's darkest secrets: That there were pedophiles in the ranks of priests.
       But despite the awards, TV appearances, talks at universities, praise and accolades heaped on his work, Berry is a victim of his success, of his journalistic scoops.
       "I would have been just as happy never to have written a word about the Catholic church," he said in a recent interview at his New Orleans home, a tidy place filled with African and New Orleans art work and books.
       "And I think in some ways I might have been - I don't want to say happier, but maybe an easier person," he added, thoughtfully.
       He calls himself "a reluctant muckraker." Investigative journalism was not his first choice. "I am much more interested in the life of the mind," he said. And culture is his passion. He's written extensively on jazz and jazz funerals, the blues, Louisiana writers, the civil rights movement, Mardi Gras Indians and on New Orleans' spiritual life. He writes book reviews and essays on a regular basis.
       Also to his name is a drama, "Earl Long in Purgatory," about the maverick and erratic former Louisiana governor. And if that were not enough, Berry is turning his attention to making documentaries.
       But Berry cannot escape the faces of abused altar boys and seminarians, and the minds of sexual predators.
       It began 20 years ago, when he was 35, a time before the doubt and stories of abuse, a time when Berry was an unquestioning Catholic. An unusual story bubbled up in the backwaters of Cajun country. A village pastor, Father Gilbert Gauthe, was accused of molesting a string of boys at his rectory and on overnight trips to the quiet Louisiana marsh.[...]
    • Judges set filing deadlines in diocesan bankruptcy cases -- RCC.
       Catholic News Service (Washington, DC), Nov-24-2004
       PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Federal bankruptcy judges in Portland and in Tucson, Ariz., have set April 2005 deadlines for victims of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in those dioceses to submit claims. Both judges approved media notice campaigns that would invite additional victims to come forward before the deadlines. In Portland, however, Judge Elizabeth Perris also ruled that victims who are aware of having been abused will not be limited by the court-set deadline if they have not yet recognized the personal damage caused by the abuse.
       The Portland Archdiocese, facing lawsuits by more than 60 plaintiffs seeking more than $300 million, filed for bankruptcy protection July 6 under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The Tucson Diocese made a similar filing Sept. 20. It faces lawsuits by 33 plaintiffs who seek millions of dollars for claims of childhood sexual abuse by church personnel. On Nov. 10 the Diocese of Spokane, Wash., announced plans to invoke Chapter 11 protection after attempts to mediate the claims of some 125 alleged victims broke down. In late November the diocese moved its target date for filing from Nov. 29 to Dec. 6.
       Chapter 11 sets out a procedure by which a federal bankruptcy judge oversees the reorganization of a corporation in a way that provides equitable settlement of debts and other claims against it within its financial means. One goal of a Chapter 11 proceeding is to let the corporation remain in business instead of liquidating all its assets and dissolving itself, as it would have to do if it declared bankruptcy. In a ruling Nov. 19, Judge Perris set April 29 as the date after which no new claims can be filed. She exempted those who are still minors, those who have blocked memory of the abuse and those who are aware of the abuse but have not realized a possible connection between the abuse and personal problems such as mental illness or substance addiction.
       A Portland archdiocesan insurer that refuses to pay settlements called the judge's inclusion of people who remember the abuse but have not yet connected it with personal damage a "radical departure" from usual court practice.[...]
    • Mildura abuse victims to launch action [Day] -- RCC. Attempt to investigate ended in dismissal from Police. Boys, girls. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn. 
       CathNews (from Church Resources, Australia), www.cathnews.com/news/411/147.php , Nov 25, 2004
       MILDURA (Victoria, Australia): An alleged victim of sexual abuse by the late Monsignor John Day who is thought to have abused hundreds of girls and boys in the Victorian city of Mildura decades ago, is to make a claim against the Diocese of Ballarat.
       Online Catholics reported yesterday that a letter of demand is expected to be sent to the Diocese before Christmas.
       The alleged victim's solicitor, Mr John Zigouris, confirmed that others will join in the action depending on information contained in a yet to be released Victorian Police file. The file is said to contain a confidential report by a police ethics review that corroborates the testimony of former senior detective Denis Ryan. Ryan raised the original allegations of sexual abuse against Day in the 1970s. His career was cut short as a result. Ryan has recently launched an action against the Victorian Police for wrongful dismissal.
       Ballarat's Bishop Peter Connors, in Sydney this week for the Plenary Meeting of the Bishops Conference, said that a number of similar complaints against Monsignor Day had been settled by the Diocese out of court. Bishop Connors said he had not read the reports regarding Denis Ryan and was unable to comment on his story. However, the Bishop said that such cases tended to bring new allegations of abuse to the surface.
       "These things that happened years ago, we did not understand them, the causes of these things," Bishop Connors told Online Catholics. "But we understand them better now, and are therefore better able to deal with them." Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, the Bishop of Ballarat at the time of these events, is retired and in poor health.
       SOURCE:Mildura Abuse Victims to launch action (Online Catholics 24/11/04)
       LINKS:
    Sins of the monsignor (The Australian 20/11/04)
    Catholic Diocese of Ballarat
    Broken Rites Victim Support Group
      HAVE YOUR SAY   Click here    [Nov 25, 2004]
    • Survivor shares his story [Birmingham] -- RCC. Altarboys. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       TownOnline.com ; http://www2. townonline. com/reading/ artsLifestyle/ view.bg?art icleid=134292 , Wednesday, November 24, 2004
       WINCHESTER, USA: On Monday, Nov. 8, the Winchester Area Voice of the Faithful welcomed Gary Bergeron to its weekly Monday night meeting at St. Eulalia's Church, Winchester. About 6 people were in attendance. Bergeron is the author of "Don't Call Me a Victim: Faith, Hope & Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church." He was one of the founding members of the group Survivors of Joe Birmingham, which was one of the only support groups formed for male survivors of clergy sexual abuse. In March 2003, Bergeron, traveled to the Vatican in an attempt to meet with Pope John Paul II. He was accompanied by his 77 year old father, Joseph Bergeron, who was also abused by a priest while he was an altar boy, and by Bernie McDade, another survivor and member of the Birmingham Survivors group.
       After securing a meeting with several Vatican officials, Bergeron and McDade met with Msgr. James Green, a senior official in the Vatican Secretariat of State, and became the first survivors of clergy abuse to be officially recognized by the Vatican. Msgr. Green said the Pope had also asked that Green bring messages from them to him that evening. According to Bergeron, Msgr. Green said that they, in the Vatican, don't know what is going over here.
       Gary Bergeron grew up in a large Catholic family in St. Michael's Parish in Lowell, and attended St. Michael's Grade School graduating in 1976. While in grade school, he was abused by the late Rev. Joe Birmingham, who abused dozens of children, including Gary's brother, Edward. Both Gary and Edward were altar boys.[...]
       On April 7, 2004, exactly two years to the day after he first publicly spoke of his abuse, Bergeron founded the TRUST Foundation, a nonprofit foundation established to aid survivors in Treatment, Recovery and Understanding Sexual Trauma. ( http://www.thetrustfoundation.com/ ). The Foundation helps to fund the support and care of victims of childhood sexual abuse, and much needed research into the effects and treatment of childhood sexual abuse, and also to protect future generations of children. Donations can be send to The T.R.U.S.T. Foundation, 175 Central Street #222, Lowell MA 01854.
       Gary has appeared on both televised and radio talk shows in the United States and abroad, telling his story in hopes of protecting future generations.
       Bergeron declared that our role is always to have hope. He said that if we give up on hope, you give up on your children's future Bergeron said that for VOTF and others, if we believe that this issue is important enough we must keep talking, and keep knocking on doors. He ended his talk with a quote of Winston Churchill "It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required."
       For more information, contact Bob Morris at 781-721-1399 or by e-mail at rmorrisvotf@aol.com . The group's Web site is www.votfwinchester.org .
    • Diocese insurers claim no liability; Lawsuit charges church kept priest on after it knew of sex abuse [1970s-80s O'Donnell] - RCC.
       Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattle pi.nwsource.com/ local/201091_ spokane25.html , By CLAUDIA ROWE, claudiarowe@seattlepi.com, Thursday, November 25, 2004
       SPOKANE: An insurance company handling liability for the Diocese of Spokane asserts that it does not have to pay sexual-abuse claims brought by victims of the Rev. Patrick O'Donnell because church officials knew the priest had molested minors, did nothing to safeguard children and so cannot argue that their injuries were accidental. "The diocese was aware, at the highest levels, of O'Donnell's propensities, pedophilia, actual misconduct, and inability to control his behavior," says a lawsuit filed yesterday on behalf of the American Casualty Co. in Spokane County Superior Court. "There is no coverage for the O'Donnell claims because the diocese expected the harm that O'Donnell would continue to cause to children." O'Donnell, who has admitted in depositions to molesting numerous boys, served in both Spokane and Seattle during the 1970s and 1980s. After receiving repeated complaints from parents about the cleric's behavior, Spokane's then-bishop, Lawrence Welsh, removed him from the priesthood in 1986. Four other insurance companies hired by the diocese also have joined the lawsuit, asserting that their policies -- some nearly three decades old -- either have been lost or include specific exclusions for sexual-abuse claims. The suit comes at a difficult time for Spokane, where Bishop William Skylstad announced earlier this month that the diocese would seek bankruptcy protection from creditors by filing for Chapter 11 because claims from sexual-abuse lawsuits -- in which attorneys have said they might ask juries for up to $57 million in damages -- could cripple the diocese. Steve Dublinski, a spokesman for the bishop, said a judge's ruling in favor of the insurance companies might further shrink the amount of money sexual-abuse victims will collect. But O'Donnell's accusers scoffed at that logic, noting that the diocese's assets include 81 parish churches and nearly 20 schools, as well as cemeteries, hospitals, orphanages and some $44 million in real estate bequeathed to the church. "My reaction is one of disgust," said Tim Kosnoff, a lawyer who has brought numerous suits against the Roman Catholic Church and is representing 28 people making sexual-abuse claims against O'Donnell. "If they've violated the terms of their coverage through their own negligent acts, they'll have to make up the shortfall through other assets," he said. "Bishop Skylstad has essentially accused the insurance companies of forcing him into bankruptcy, but it's his problem. It's his mess."[...]
    • Priests can't refuse to answer; Judge Rules In Sex Abuse Suit Against Covington Diocese - RCC.
       Lexington Herald-Leader, www.kentucky. com/mld/herald leader/news/ state/10268420. htm , ASSOCIATED PRESS, Posted on Thu, Nov. 25, 2004
       BURLINGTON, USA - A judge says priests or former priests reluctant to give depositions in a lawsuit against a Roman Catholic diocese cannot refuse to answer all questions from plaintiffs' lawyers. The priests asked that their depositions be canceled because they planned to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The class-action suit in Boone County alleges a 50-year cover-up by the Diocese of Covington of sexual abuse by its priests and other workers. Plaintiffs' attorneys claim to represent more than 100 victims, and say dozens of priests were abusers. Special Judge John Potter of Louisville, who is presiding over the suit, said the priests asked to give depositions are mere witnesses. As such, they do not have the unlimited right a defendant has to refuse to answer all questions, he said. "Since (they) are not defendants in a criminal proceeding, they may not decline to testify, and the court should not order that their depositions be canceled," Potter wrote in his order Monday. "Similarly, since a witness can assert the privilege only as to a particular question, and since some questions may incriminate the witness and others may not, (they) are not entitled to have questioning cease as soon as they first assert the privilege." The priests' attorney, Bob Carran, said he did not want videotapes of the priests refusing to answer questions about child sex-abuse becoming public. Carran said Kentucky has no statute of limitations on felony offenses, and several of the men he represents have been accused of -- although not criminally charged with -- molesting children.
    • SJC backs prosecutors' demand for Jesuit records [1970s Talbot, 2004 Jesuits] -- RCC.
       Boston Herald, http://news. bostonherald. com/localRegional /view.bg?art icleid=55757 By Jessica Heslam, Thursday, November 25, 2004
       BOSTON: The Supreme Judicial Court yesterday upheld an order allowing access to the personnel files of a Jesuit priest accused of molesting Boston College High School students in the 1970s. The ruling by the state's highest court "further strengthens victims' requests to have documents produced by the defendant priest or religious organization," said Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney for many victims of the church sexual abuse scandal. The court ruled the personnel files of the Rev. James Talbot aren't protected by the constitutional right of religious freedom. The SJC upheld an earlier decision by a single justice who ruled Talbot and the Jesuits must turn over documents demanded by Suffolk prosecutors. The documents include psychiatric records. Talbot, 66, taught and coached at BC High between 1972 and 1980 and is charged with molesting three students. He was transferred to a post in Maine in 1980, where a student there accused him of molestation in a civil suit. "Secrecy is what created the clergy sexual abuse problem and secrecy is what has allowed it to continue for decades," said Garabedian, who does not represent Talbot's alleged victims.#
    • Priest calls for Stokes to undergo evaluation; Blackwell says he may not be competent for trial [1970s Blackwell] -- RCC. [2002 Stokes]
       The Baltimore Sun, www.baltimore sun.com/news/ local/bal-md. blackwell25 nov25,1,4613005. story?coll=bal- local-headlines ; By Julie Bykowicz, November 25, 2004
       UNITED STATES: A priest scheduled for trial next month on charges of child sexual abuse asked this week that the man he is accused of molesting -- and who shot him years later -- submit to a psychological examination. The Rev. Maurice Blackwell, through his lawyer, filed a motion Monday seeking an evaluation of Dontee Stokes. It alleges that Stokes "may not be competent to testify and may suffer from a mental illness which may impact his ability to accurately recall facts." Judge John M. Glynn said in a hearing yesterday that he would hear arguments Dec. 7 on whether Stokes -- a key witness in Blackwell's trial -- should be evaluated by a defense psychiatrist. Blackwell's trial, which has been postponed four times, is scheduled to begin Dec. 13. Also at yesterday's hearing, Kenneth W. Ravenell, Blackwell's attorney, and Assistant State's Attorney Joanne Stanton said they would be ready to begin the trial next month. Ravenell said after the hearing that he is asking for an evaluation of Stokes because other medical records that he recently reviewed "indicate this is a man who has a big problem with distinguishing fantasy from reality." "We believe that's what happened in this case -- that this is all fantasy," Ravenell said. Blackwell, 58, is accused of molesting Stokes, 28, whom he baptized as a child and mentored as a teenager, more than a decade ago. Blackwell has denied the allegations. Blackwell was pastor at St. Edward Catholic Church in West Baltimore from 1979 until 1998, when he was stripped of his church authority after admitting to having a years-long sexual relationship with a different teenage boy in the early 1970s. The sexual abuse allegations that Stokes made against Blackwell were investigated in 1993, but no charges were brought at that time. In May 2002, Stokes spotted Blackwell outside the priest's home in Reservoir Hill and shot him three times with a .357 Magnum revolver. A jury later acquitted Stokes of attempted murder charges.
    • Church needs to stop flying blind - RCC.
       Daily News (New York), www.nydaily news.com/ news/ideas_ opinions/story/ 256159p-21 9339c.html , by Andrew Greeley (a Daily News columnist), Agreel@aol.com , November 24, 2004
       NEW YORK, USA: The Catholic Church is in deep trouble. The more immediate problems are the sex-abuse scandal - which has not gone away and won't for a long time - and the clumsy efforts of some bishops to deliver votes to the Republican Party. But there are three chronic problems in the church that it is not even trying to respond to: the decline in Mass attendance, the decline in the number of young men entering the priesthood and the decline in parochial school attendance. Ask what is causing the problems and you'll hear personal opinions and clichés, most of which blame the laity - they're materialistic, weak in the faith, caught in the grip of America's hypersexual culture, etc., etc. Having delivered themselves of that wisdom, the priests who prate such nonsense settle back complacently. There is nothing for them to do except turn on the TV. It is difficult to imagine that another large institution faced with similar difficulties would be satisfied with such easy and self-serving analysis in response to the apparent bad news. Why is there no research, no systematic inquiry into what is actually happening in the nation's parishes? We do studies of Catholic schools, of course, but the purpose is to figure out which ones to shut, not to ask why some are closing and others have waiting lists. Priests write petitions to Rome advocating the abolition of celibacy but they never ask themselves any serious questions about the quality of the preaching and liturgy in their parishes. Nor do they ask themselves when was the last time they tried to recruit young men into the priesthood. A cardinal back in the 1940s said to an expert who suggested routine research beyond counting noses on Sunday, "The Catholic Church doesn't need research, sir. We have the Holy Spirit." No one quite says that any more, but the presumption is the same - guesswork, strongly held opinions, faith in God and panic when the money is running low. That will have to serve for what in the secular world is called R&D. God help us all, though we don't deserve God's help because we're not able to do anything ourselves. I have my own opinions on the sources of the church's problems - homilies and liturgies are bad, no one recruits, no one promotes the schools. They are only opinions, although unlike the opinions of some other priests, they can be disproved by research. "The sexual revolution" or "secularism" or "consumerism" are explanations that cannot be falsified so cannot be proved, either. So if you're a priest or even a bishop, you make major decisions by wetting your finger and putting it in the air or guessing or talking to your stockbroker. I argue for research not because I intend to do it any more - my name on a research project causes priests immediately to reject the findings - but because I cannot imagine the CEO of any other institution operating without it. My longtime colleague William McCready once said to me, "The Catholic Church is in terrible trouble." I nodded. He went on, "All it has left are the Catholic schools and the Blessed Mother, and a lot of you guys don't believe in either any more." I fear he has something there. [Emphasis added]
    • Judge Warns Clergy Can't Refuse To Give Depositions - RCC. 50-year cover-up alleged.
       WCPO-TV, www.wcpo.com/ news/2004/ local/11/24/ church_sex abuse.html , Reported by A.P., Web produced by Neil Relyea, Photographed by 9News , 11:56:50 PM, Nov/24/04
       Judge: Priests can't refuse to answer all deposition questions
       KENTUCKY, USA: A Northern Kentucky judge is warning priests and former priests that they cannot refuse to answer all questions from plaintiffs' lawyers in a church abuse case. The priests have asked that their depositions be canceled because they planned to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights. Special Judge John Potter of Louisville says the priests that have been asked to give depositions are mere witnesses. The judge says since they aren't defendants in a criminal proceeding, they can not decline to testify. The class-action suit in Boone County alleges a 50-year cover-up by the Diocese of Covington. The suit alleges sexual abuse by dozens of priests and other workers.#
    • Diocese, Jane Doe settle suit [1990s-2000 Herrera] -- RCC. Fathering children, but no admission of wrongdoing!
       Amarillo Globe-News, www.amarillo. com/stories/ 112504/new_ 678063.shtml , By JIM McBRIDE, jim.mcbride@amarillo.com , Web-posted Thursday, November 25, 2004
       AMARILLO, USA: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Amarillo and an unidentified Gray County woman have settled a lawsuit that claimed a former priest harmed her by engaging in wrongful conduct. The suit was filed last year by Jane Doe against former priest Rosendo Herrera, Bishop John W. Yanta and former Bishop Leroy Matthiessen. William Wade, an attorney representing the diocese, said Wednesday he had no comment on the settlement. The Globe-News was unable to locate Herrera for comment. The woman's attorney, J.E. Sauseda of Amarillo, said the diocese and Herrera admitted no wrongdoing under the settlement, which was approved by Visiting District Judge H. Bryan Poff last week. The settlement, he said, involved an adult woman. "I would say that it's right around $50,000," Sauseda said of the settlement. "The parties settled their differences and you've got a motion to dismiss." The suit claimed that various times Herrera committed acts that were injurious, mentally and physically, to the plaintiff, and that he engaged in wrongful conduct while employed by the Catholic Church.[...] The suit alleged Herrera was removed from a Mexican seminary for having sexual relations with a young girl and was refused ordination by the Lubbock diocese because of a history of sexual problems in Mexico. Herrera eventually was ordained through the Amarillo diocese, but in 1996 he was sent to St. Louis for counseling related to sexual problems, the suit alleged. After returning to Amarillo, Herrera was installed as a priest at Our Lady of Guadulupe in Amarillo and later was transferred to St. Laurence Cathedral in Amarillo. In April 2000, the plaintiffs sought Herrera's assistance in counseling one of their daughters. Herrera developed improper relationships with all three of the family's daughters and impregnated a 17-year-old girl, who later bore a baby girl, according to the suit. The diocese and Herrera had denied the suit's claims in court documents. In September 2003, the diocese also announced that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown, Pa., and the Amarillo diocese reached a $275,000 settlement over allegations of sexual misconduct by another former priest against a Briscoe County boy.#
    • Alleged cult leader silent at plea hearing [2001-02 George] -- Cult. Girls.
       Reno Gazette-Journal, www.rgj.com/ news/stories/ html/2004/ 11/17/85544.php? sps=rgj.com& sch=Lo , by Martha Bellisle, mbellisl@rgj.com, Nov 17, 2004
       RENO, USA: Trial was set for April 25 for a Reno man who prosecutors say led a religious cult in which he molested and raped two teenage girls in his "fantasy room" and mentally and physically abused their young brother. Raymond Russell George stood with his head down and declined to respond when asked how he wished to plead to six felony charges, so Washoe District Judge Steven Kosach entered "not guilty" pleas for him Wednesday.
       George, 57, was indicted Nov. 3 on three counts of lewdness with a child under 14, two counts of sexual assault on a child and one count of willfully endangering a child resulting in child abuse and/or neglect. The lewdness charges each carry a maximum sentence of life in prison with probation possible after 10 years. The sexual assault charges also carry a maximum life term with probation possible after 20 years and the endangerment charge carries a six-year maximum term.
       According to Deputy District Attorney Jim Shewan, George lived in 2001 and 2002 with his common-law wife, Mary Smalley-George, 53, and two girls aged 13 and 14.
       The girls' parents, Doug Moulton, 37, and Marnie Moulton, 34, lived in an adjacent apartment with their son, age 11. The group behaved like a religious cult with George, whom they called "Jacob," serving as their leader, Shewan said. George would take the girls into his "fantasy and/or pleasure room" and molest and rape them when he wished, the indictment said.
       Shewan said the girls initially denied that they were raped. They said they were married to George and behaving as husbands and wives should, the prosecutor said. All four adults were arrested in September 2003. Smalley-George and the Moultons pleaded guilty to one count of child endangerment. Smalley-George was sentenced to a maximum of six years in prison. Doug Moulton is serving a five-year sentence and Marnie Moulton was sentenced to a maximum of three years. The court ruled that George was not competent to stand trial and he was sent to Lakes Crossing, a mental health facility in Sparks. But during an Oct. 15 hearing, Kosach ruled that George had received adequate treatment and was ready to stand trial.
       He was indicted by a Washoe County grand jury that heard testimony from the three children, who live in another state with their grandparents, Shewan said.#
    • The Passion Of Father Paul Shanley [1980s Shanley] -- RCC.
       Legal Affairs, www.legalaffairs. org/issues/ September- October-2004/ feature_wypi jewski_sep oct04.html ; By JoAnn Wypijewski, September-October 2004
       Paul Shanley became the most demonized among the church's fallen fathers. But however numerous Shanley's sins, they have nothing to do with the evidence to be presented against him in court. On the irrevocable damage caused by recovered memories.
       UNITED STATES:IN OCTOBER, THE MOST HATED MAN IN MASSACHUSETTS is scheduled for trial. Paul Shanley, a political radical who ministered to runaways and spoke out for gay rights in the 1970s, was once known as Boston's "street priest." By 2002, he'd become "a depraved priest," according to a Boston Globe editorial. The city's largest-circulation gay paper, Bay Windows, argued in an editorial, "He deserves whatever the criminal justice system has in store for him." And after Mass one Sunday at Boston's Jesuit Urban Center, a gay man said he could never be an impartial juror in a criminal case against Shanley: "It's just too awful." Those opinions were voiced before Shanley was arrested, charged, and indicted in June 2002 for indecent assault and battery and for child rape.
       Shanley, then Father Shanley, emerged as a central figure in the Catholic sexual abuse scandal from the day The Globe launched a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles about the church in January 2002. No other priest has received as much high-profile national press attention. Few others have faced trial. When Shanley was released on $300,000 bail the following December, after seven months in jail, his lawyer used a body double to divert the media frenzy. When people in Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod learned Shanley had taken up residence there, signs began appearing on lampposts, warning neighbors that a pedophile was in their midst.
       The criminal charges against Shanley, 73, are rooted in the "recovered memories" of one man, Gregory Ford, whose claims, it now turns out, will never be tested in court. Through the deft maneuvers of his personal injury lawyer, Roderick MacLeish, Jr., Ford became a poster child for priestly abuse early in the scandal. The media relentlessly replayed Ford's assertions that beginning when he was a little boy, he was pulled out of religious instruction class by Shanley, who fondled, sodomized, and otherwise sexually assaulted him in the church and rectory of St. Jean L'Evangeliste in Newton, Mass., where the priest was pastor in the 1980s. After Ford made those allegations, three other men made similar claims, all involving the classes at St. Jean's.
       Like Ford, the other three said they immediately forgot being raped or abused. And like Ford, they said they recovered their memories after reading the Globe article about Shanley or with other press coverage of the priests scandal. All four sued the Boston Archdiocese for civil damages, all received monetary settlements, all had the same lawyer, and, until recently, all were listed as victims in the criminal case. This July, the Middlesex County District Attorney's office announced that "in order to make this the most manageable case for a jury to hear," it would not go forward with charges on behalf of Ford and one of the other men. In other words, prosecutors have deemed the allegations of Shanley's headline accuser too risky or unsupportable, yet the prosecution proceeds. The Boston media have barely noted this development.
       Until the criminal allegations, there were no claims against Shanley involving sex with young children. Instead, there were claims of sexual encounters between the priest and adolescents or young adults during the late 1960s and '70s. Shanley himself, according to people close to him, has admitted to past "sexual misconduct." In a January 2002 letter to friends, he explained that "it was never with a child but with a highly sexualized adolescent, never with an 'innocent,' and was so non-traumatic then that some of the victims returned. And it was never repeated in the thirty years since that I have tried to make up for my wrongs." Following the advice of attorneys, Shanley does not speak to the press or to the public. "They want angels or devils," he told a confidant. "Anything in between is very difficult for them." He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. [...]
       The Fords showed Gregory the article with Shanley's picture. He didn't react. Then they showed him a photograph of himself receiving his First Holy Communion from Shanley, and he fell to the floor in tears. Over the next year and a half, Gregory reported a series of "flashbacks," recovered memories of abusive and violent incidents, numbering more than 70, most of which involved strip poker and anal penetration. In depositions taken for the civil case brought by Ford against the Boston Archdiocese for failing to protect him from Shanley, Gregory Ford testified that he buried the memory of each attack, and thus approached each new encounter with the priest as if it were the first, without fear. At the time this began, Ford would have been 6; Shanley, 52.
       The day after Ford's epiphany, Paul Busa, also 27 and then a military police officer at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, got a call from his girlfriend telling him about the Globe article. The girlfriend called Busa again 10 days later to tell him that Ford had recovered memories of abuse. According to papers filed in his civil case, Busa's memories "began flooding back." He called Ford, who by then had retained MacLeish, a Boston lawyer who has represented more than 200 alleged victims in the latest public scandal and who earlier negotiated dozens of secret settlements with the church. A few days later Busa was flying to Boston, his ticket paid for by MacLeish. By March, Busa had retained the lawyer. At MacLeish's suggestion, Busa consulted two psychiatrists who had also talked to Ford.
       Back at Peterson, another psychiatrist had encouraged Busa to keep a journal, his "emotional barf bag," in which he reconstructed his memories, backdating them to February 1, 2002, the day he heard about the Globe story. He was discharged from the Air Force that April, and now works for the Newton fire department.[...]
       Other experts, however, reject the notion that highly traumatic memories can be spontaneously repressed and recovered. One of Ford's first therapists, Robert Azrak, testified in a deposition that "there is no scientific basis" for the type of recovered memories described in this case. As Richard McNally, a clinical and experimental psychologist at Harvard and the author of Remembering Trauma, pointed out, "There is just no mechanism in the mind for keeping the door shut to traumatic memory. The more times a particular type of event happens, the harder it may be to distinguish one incident from another, but that doesn't mean people fail to remember the entire set of events."
       Remembering trauma, McNally said, "is crucial to evolutionary development; if you've been threatened, you better remember if you want to survive." That was as true for cavemen as it is for the contemporary child who, once burned, learns to avoid a hot stove.[...]
       SO MUCH OF WHAT IS PUBLICLY KNOWN ABOUT PAUL SHANLEY has its origin in a two-and-a-half-hour press conference that MacLeish held in April 2002. That event, televised live in Boston, showcased Ford's recovered memories and featured, as evidence of the priest's moral corruption, a PowerPoint presentation of strategically edited excerpts from a 1,600-page personnel file that the archdiocese had kept on Shanley, and that it released only after MacLeish and the press sued for access.
       Following that press conference, it was reported that Shanley's file reveals a 30-year pattern of accusations of sexual abuse, cover-ups, and transfers of the priest from parish to parish. That they contain an admission by Shanley of rape as well as the results of a psychiatric examination showing that "his pathology is beyond repair." That they indicate Shanley was a founding member of the North American Man/Boy Love Association. That they show he left St. Jean's in 1989 because of sex abuse charges, and was transferred to California although the church knew he was a child molester. Those claims, repeatedly recycled, created a portrait of the priest as criminal before any legal charge was made. Not one of them is supported by documents in the file.[...]
       At his 2002 PowerPoint show, MacLeish projected a sentence from a 1979 account from Gaysweek that read, "At the end of the conference, 32 men and two teenagers caucused and formed the Man Boy Lovers of North America." The suggestion or assertion that Shanley was among the 32 has been repeated in the press many times since. But Shanley wasn't part of that group, say a Catholic priest and Protestant minister who were.
       AND YET SHANLEY MAY WELL HAVE SEDUCED TEENAGERS. In the civil cases against the archdiocese, MacLeish gathered affidavits from 19 men who say the priest used them sexually when they were young. The statements were meant to demonstrate that the recovered memories of Ford and the others were consistent with Shanley's sexual modus operandi. The D.A.'s office has reportedly entered those affidavits in the criminal case against Shanley for the same dicey purpose. Their admissibility will no doubt be challenged by the defense.[...]
       IN HIS JANUARY 2002 LETTER TO LOVED ONES, Shanley confessed: "I am sorry beyond telling for the wrongs of my life and for the sorrow and anguish of which I have been the occasion. How I envy those who say in their declining years: 'if I had it to do over I would not do anything differently.' For me it is the opposite: I would do many things differently. For one, I would never have become a priest and tried to wrestle with mandatory celibacy and the myriad consequences of that folly. But who knew?"[...]
       But Shanley was also on the older edge of a generation that saw the transfiguration of homosexuality from something sick to something people claimed with pride. As Shanley noted in one of his lectures, before Stonewall, only in the priesthood could a gay man with no particular courage escape the prying questions, the life of whispering, and be admired. And only in the priesthood could a young man be transformed overnight from novice to sage. The dislocations accompanying that transition, the sudden investment of authority and expectation of purity, must have cut two ways for a young man both aflame with Catholic idealism and weighted with a sexual secret. Shanley was a closet case in a closet culture, weak and powerful at the same time.[...]
       As for Shanley, should he lose, any sentence is likely to be a life sentence, given his age. His silence, for a man whose life was distinguished by rebellion, indicates how much he has already lost. Shanley's defeat came long before his name was made tinder for scandal. When he decided to resign his pastorship at St. Jean's in November 1989, by his account because he could not take an oath committing pastors to give "internal assent" to the Pope's position on any issue, his lifetime of loyal opposition and prophetic witness was finished. As he wrote then to the cardinal: "I do not leave in protest, or for a woman, or from disillusionment. I leave the active priesthood in grief. . . . To take this oath would dishonor the priesthood. . . . With rage at the dying of the light."
       From there, his archdiocesan file traces his decline - ailing, without a mission, estranged from the family of the church, full of doubt and disappointment though not without a brittle humor, finally accused.#
    JoAnn Wypijewski is a writer in New York City.
    • Clergy abuse case revived; State Supreme Court to consider statute of limitations, church protections [1960s-70s Nuedling] - RCC.
       Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline. com/news/state/ nov04/278077.asp , By PATRICK MARLEY, pmarley@journalsentinel.com , Posted: Nov. 23, 2004
       MADISON, USA: The state Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to take up a case that challenges legal protections for churches that employ clergy accused of molesting children. The court will also consider when the statute of limitations takes effect for children abused by clergy. In July, the 1st District Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that 10 children allegedly abused in the 1960s and 1970s by the late Father George Nuedling could not sue the Archdiocese of Milwaukee because of the statute of limitations in such cases. State law at the time required abuse victims to file claims shortly after their 18th birthdays. The plaintiffs argued they should have more time, contending they learned later the church had concealed information and that they were slow to recognize the harm done to them because of abuse-related disabilities and their reverence for the church. The Court of Appeals, ruling 2-1, also said a 1995 Supreme Court decision protected the church from lawsuits in such matters because of the First Amendment's ban on the state interfering with religion. "The law in Wisconsin has been so prohibitive that right now it probably is the safest state in the union . . . for abusers," said Jeff Anderson, the attorney who brought the lawsuits for the 10 who said they were abused by Nuedling. "The fact that the Supreme Court accepted review of it is a very positive sign." Since filing suit, many of those he represented have negotiated settlements with the archdiocese. The Supreme Court will review the case of a plaintiff - known only as John Doe 67C - who did not settle. The court will likely hear oral arguments next spring.[...] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:41 AM]
    ////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu November 25, 2004
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    • Recalcitrant bishops resisted sex abuse clean-up: Burke. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), "Burke bows out from US review board. Despite problems, review board work deepened faith, says Burke," By Agostino Bono, CNS, p 13, November 25, 2004
       UNITED STATES: Although it meant raising "holy hell" with some "recalcitrant bishops," her work as a member of the National Review Board deepened her faith, said Justice Anne M. Burke.
       Her 29-month term as a charter member of the lay board that monitors Church compliance with sex abuse prevention policies transformed her into an active Catholic, said Burke, who has been interim head of the board since 2003.[...]
      
    [Picture of woman's face]

    Justice Anne Burke Photo: CNS

    "I believe in my faith and I'm sure Jesus Christ doesn't want his priests to be conducting themselves as many have over the past 50 years," she said.
       "Nor do I believe Jesus Christ wants his disciples and his bishops to be acting the way they did," Burke said, citing "mismanagement and poor decision-making" in the way many bishops handled the situation.[...]
       ... Burke said that other topics she could contribute to as a lay Catholic include fiscal management and education. ...
       [COMMENT: About 10 per cent of the bishops did not reach the required standard. Most of the religious orders (about a third of the clergy) did not even take part in the audit. If this exercise deepened the faith of Justice Burke, she must be one of a minority. Her predecessor left the board with public acrimony, likening some of the bishops to the Mafia. Is any further comment really necessary? COMMENT ENDS.] [Nov 25, 04]
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    #### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri November 26, 2004 edition follows:-
    • Church leaders in dark on cases [2000s Nelson] -- Episcopal, Lutheran. Girls. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Republican-American, www.rep-am. com/story. php?id=13033 , By Doug Dalena, Thursday, November 25, 2004
       NAUGATUCK, USA -- Allegations that a Naugatuck man sexually assaulted four teenage girls came as a surprise to officials at both churches where he played the organ, an official of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut said Wednesday. The diocese learned from news reports of the charges against Robert Nelson, who played organ at Immanuel St. James Episcopal Church in Derby, said Jack Spathe, the diocese's administrator. "The authorities made no contact," Spathe said. State police last week charged Nelson with 11 sex offenses, including sexual assault and child pornography, involving four girls he met at the church. The girls, ranging in age from 13 to 16, were all minors at the time of the alleged incidents between 2000 and this year, police said. Leaders of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Waterbury, where Nelson played organ and taught piano until this week, said they also did not know about his arrest until a reporter contacted them. Chaplain Andrew Krey, temporary pastor of Zion Evangelical, said Nelson contacted him last Friday to say he would miss Sunday services because his sister was sick, but Nelson showed up Sunday anyway. Nelson was released on $500,000 bond after his arrest Friday night, and is due in Waterbury Superior Court Wednesday. "It was odd for me this weekend to hear that he wasn't coming to worship, and then to have him show up anyway on Sunday," Krey said. "If he had wanted to tell me this he had plenty of opportunities." Nelson had two prior convictions for risk of injury to a minor. He told WTNH, Channel 8, this week that one of the cases related to possession of child pornography. He is not listed in the state's sex offender registry, however, because the conviction predated 1998 law that established the registry. Waterbury State's Attorney John A. Connelly said he was not aware of any police or court policy for informing employers such as churches when employees are suspected of or charged with a sex crime. It was not clear if police had such a policy, either. State law requires clergy and a long list of other professionals who have contact with children to report immediately any suspected abuse. It also requires the state Department of Children and Families to notify a school superintendent or a child care institution when an employee is suspected of abuse, but the policy does not appear to apply to private organizations. ... [Emphasis added] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:49 PM]
    • Abuse Victims' Camp -- RCC.
       Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, www.pbs.org/ wnet/religion andethics/week 813/cover.html , Episode no. 813, November 26, 2004    UNITED STATES:
       BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: In the nearly three years since the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal broke, hundreds of millions of dollars have been paid out to victims. But for many of those victims, cash settlements don't erase the pain. Now, there is a national retreat center for those victims located on a farm near Louisville, Kentucky. A number of Catholic bishops and religious orders have contributed to the project, but the Church does not control it. It is not therapy; it is not a faith experience. It is about the survivors' healing and recovery through telling each other their painful stories. The identity of a participant in our story has been obscured to protect her privacy. Judy Valente reports from what is called, simply, The Farm.
       JUDY VALENTE: They arrive at dusk on a Friday night -- a plumber a secretary, a truck driver, a professor. Among them, Shannon Age, a 44-year-old mother of two. This is Shannon just after making her First Communion.
       Photo of SHANNON AGE SHANNON AGE: My sister and I both were raped, on both of our Communion days. He told us we were dressed as God's brides. He was God's man, and only he could show us God's love. It was as if, in his eyes, it was our wedding night.
       VALENTE: (to Shannon): Why did you keep this dress?
       Ms. AGE: This is the little girl I was before he did these things to me.
       VALENTE: This photo of the two girls was taken by their mother, unaware that only hours earlier, both had been raped -- by the same priest.
       Shannon and the others have come to a 1,300-acre working farm, where corn and other vegetables are raised. Some of the buildings have been donated for use as centers for health and wellness.
       The weekend retreat is run by The Linkup, an organization for survivors.
       Photo of SUE ARCHIBALD SUE ARCHIBALD (The Linkup): What's unique about The Farm is that it's the first place survivors of clergy abuse can go that really is their own.
       VALENTE: It's not unusual for survivors of clergy sexual abuse to gather together to tell their stories. But The Farm offers something unique: A chance not just to confront the pain, but to move beyond it toward healing.
       Photo of RAY COPPOLA RAY COPPOLA (Psychotherapist): In the process of using a bunch of different exercises and structured activities, it's like an inquiry into the self. In the course of telling their stories and experiencing each others' stories, it's as if their stories massage each other. They come to look at their relation to their story in a different way. So that if one goes into the heart of the wound, it's possible one can actually discover a gift.
       Ms. ARCHIBALD: The Farm is a very special place.
       VALENTE: There is no religious aspect to the program. Most of these people have long since left the Catholic Church. Some practice no religion. Many have suffered from alcoholism and depression. But they are not here for therapy.
       Ms. ARCHIBALD: I think that you can get stuck in therapy where there's really nothing fresh or new. And it seems as though you almost need a catalyst to push you to the next level. And so, with the combination of experiences we have here, we're hoping that spark can be lit. ... [Well worth clicking main link to read the comments of other victims, etc.]
    Related R&E Material: Full archive of R&E stories on the Catholic Church crisis
    Related Links:
    The Linkup -- Survivors of Clergy Abuse
    The Boston Globe: "Clergy abuse victims seek out some peace at The Farm in Ky." by Amy Green, July 19, 2004
    Detroit News: "Clergy abuse victims' retreat to open" by Rachel Zoll, AP, March 26, 2004
    National Catholic Reporter: Abuse Tracker
    Boston Globe: "Catholic bishops' leader reflects on abuse crisis" by Rachel Zoll, AP, Nov. 8, 2004 #
    • Scandal Puts Focus on Los Angeles Cardinal -- RCC.
       Newsday, www.nynewsday. com/news/nation world/nation/ wire/sns-ap- los-angeles- cardinal,0, 1128340.story? coll=sns-ap- nation-headlines
       UNITED STATES: [Can't get newsitem today, 06 Dec 2004]
    • Analysis: Inward-looking bishops see pastoral issues as key
       National Catholic Reporter, http://ncr online.org/NCR_ Online/archives2/ 2004d/112604/ 112604h.php , by Joe Feuerherd, NCR Washington correspondent. jfeuerherd@natcath.org , November 26, 2004
       UNITED STATES: It was the type of motherhood-and-apple-pie proposal -- development of a statement encouraging Catholics to read the Bible -- that previously would have been easily adopted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. A no-brainer. Not this time. Concerned about budgets, a perception that the statements they produce are ignored, and a desire to establish firm priorities to guide their deliberations, the bishops voted 137-102 to shelve the project. A day earlier, Nov. 15, at the start of their three-day annual business meeting, the bishops voted overwhelmingly to "develop a process to prioritize the goals and objectives of the USCCB" and only approve projects found to be demonstrably in-line with those objectives. The statement about the Bible was made the first test case of this new approach. "The issue is not whether it's a good idea" but "whether we should follow the processes [we] approved yesterday," Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk told his colleagues. "The question is whether we are serious about what we did yesterday or not." In offering his proposal to send the project back to committee, Pilarczyk challenged the bishops. "It seems we are saying we are going to go on a severe diet -- sometime next year. In the meantime, let's have another helping of what we are used to." The bishops did, however, take some extra helpings. They rejected a Pilarczyk proposal to set aside a National Pastoral Initiative on Marriage, approving that proposal by a wide margin. And they backed a measure to establish an Ad Hoc Committee for the Church in Africa, which will create a "Solidarity Fund" to assist the church on that continent. Yet a decided theme had emerged. Facing budget cuts in their home dioceses, still reeling from the intense media coverage generated by the clergy sex abuse crisis and the recent presidential campaign, and concerned that their agenda is driven by outside forces, the bishops want a time-out: some room to breathe and, many say, discuss issues of a pastoral nature outside the limelight. That was made evident when Indianapolis Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, chairman of a committee created to consider whether a nationwide plenary council should be convened, noted that there was "little support for a plenary council or a regional synod" among the bishops. Such an extraordinary gathering was originally proposed by a group of conservative bishops at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Still, said Buechlein, the issues raised in the course of considering whether to call a plenary council generated a consensus that the bishops "need a more focused and defined idea in our own minds about the nature of these pastoral challenges." In a series of non-binding votes designed to guide the conference leadership, the bishops indicated by overwhelming margins that they want to focus on evangelization and catechesis, the importance of the Eucharist and the sacraments, and the priesthood. Further, they would like to do so privately. By a vote of 193-41 the bishops said they would "prefer that further reflections" take place in a "special assembly" where "nonessential staff or media" are not present. If the conference follows the will of its majority, one day of the bishops' meeting in June 2005 will follow this format. "Because of the circumstances of the last couple of years we haven't had much of a chance to address pastoral issues. Our agenda has been largely controlled by external forces [and] this gives us an opportunity to address some things of importance that would probably get lost, given the usual press of business," said St. Petersburg, Fla., Bishop Robert Lynch, a former conference general secretary. "We always seem to be driven by committee agendas that are focused on much smaller issues," said Lynch. "They're important, but not at the heart of what the church is doing." Said Buechlein, "The public discussion will eventually come forward, but we [bishops] need to get out heads together so we can provide the leadership." It is about "freedom to speak," Chicago Cardinal Francis George told NCR. "We find the conversation very different when we're just among ourselves than from what it is when we're with everyone else publicly." ...
    • Church to tackle flock's concerns -- RCC. Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Waterford News & Star, www.waterford- news.ie/news/ story.asp?j= 16288 , By Aileen Mulhall, Friday, November 26, 2004
       IRELAND: The Catholic Church in Waterford is drawing up an action plan to tackle the concerns of its flock at the dwindling number of priests in the Diocese, the alienation of young people from the Church and sharp decline of numbers attending Masses. These concerns are just some of the views highlighted by more than 3,000 Catholics, who took part in the Diocese of Waterford & Lismore's unique six-month consultation with its flock. The Report on the Listening Process is to form the basis of the Diocese's proposed pastoral action plan for the future. This blueprint will provide for much greater involvement of lay people in the Church's ministry and administration in parishes to compensate for the shortage of priests and also to involve ordinary Catholics more in the life of their church. Apart from the alienation of young people, shortage of priests and decline of Mass attendances, participants in the Listening Process also voice concern at the harm caused by the scandals in the Church and anger at the way they have been handled. According to the report, many also feel frustrated and angry that women are excluded from positions of influence in the Church and call for women to be involved in decision making at all levels in parishes and the diocese. Many participants also voice dissatisfaction with the materialistic ethos of society today and stated that the Church and Christian values and creation of community spirit in parishes were more important than ever. But they voice deep appreciation of the great work priests do in their parishes. Despite the scandals in the Church there were many expressions of concern and support for the majority of priests "unjustly placed under a cloud of criticism and suspicion". However, participants fear that the future of the Church in this county is "precarious" because of the dwindling number of clergy. They feel this has serious implications for the future of parishes and fear churches will close. Bishop of Waterford & Lismore Most Rev. Dr William Lee says he is extremely pleased with the response to the Listening Process. "It was quite an extraordinary statement from the people about their concerns and also the fact that they are deeply interested in the future of the Church and are deeply appreciative of being asked for their views," he said. ...
    • Religious orders 'must pay €7.5m shortfall' to cover claims -- RCC. Dwindling clergy numbers.
       Irish Independent, www.unison.ie/ irish_independent/ stories.php3?ca= 9&si=1293544 &issue_id=11739 , by David Quinn, Religious Correspondent
       IRELAND:
       The Department of Education is demanding an additional €7.5m in cash from 18 religious orders that signed the controversial agreement setting up the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB).
       The demand was made after the department refused to accept 20 of the properties offered to the State by the orders as part of the deal.
       The revelation was made yesterday at a meeting of the Dail's influential Public Accounts Committee by John Dennehy, secretary general of the Department of Education.
       The deal with the 18 orders that ran the country's residential institutions requires them to hand over to the State cash and property to the value of €128m.
       Mr Dennehy told the committee that although his department has accepted 62 properties valued at €71.21m on behalf of the State, this leaves a shortfall of almost €7.5m in what was agreed.
       He said the department has recently written to the solicitors for the congregations and "proposed that they should now offer a cash sum in order to finalise the property aspect of the agreement".
       He said he was "confident that this aspect of the agreement will be finalised in the very near future".
       Mr Dennehy also told the committee that in addition to the 62 properties it has accepted, another 20 have been turned down because they were unsuitable. He said this was evidence of the tough line it has been taking with the orders.
       Mr Dennehy also confirmed that the State has already received full payment of the cash end of the agreement from the religious orders. This amounted to over €40m.
       The RIRB was established two years ago following an agreement between the State and the religious orders.
       In return for contributing €128m to the redress scheme, the 18 orders were given a full indemnity by the State against any claims for compensation that are made against them in court up until the end of 2008.
       The Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell, also repeated his prediction the RIRB could end up paying out between €700m and €880m in compensation to abuse claimants. To date, €156m has been paid out.#
    • Donegal Priest Remanded On Bail [McGarvey 2004] -- RCC.
       Derry Journal, www.derryjournal. com/story/5260 , Friday 26th November 2004
       IRELAND: A 37-year old Donegal priest charged with an indecency offence was remanded on continuing bail yesterday when he appeared at Derry Magistrate's Court. Fr. Patrick McGarvey, whose address was given as Main Street, Stranorlar, is charged with observing another person carrying out a private act in a public toilet for the purpose of sexual gratification. The offence is alleged to have taken place at Derry's Foyleside Shopping Centre on August 4 last. The curate, who is originally from Creeslough, made no reply to the charge when it was put to him at Derry Magistrate's Court on September 16. Fr. McGarvey will appear before the court again on January 6 next.
    • Pastor Allegedly Used Fear Of Devil To Have Sex With Women; Trial Set For Next Year -- Cult. Women. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       10 News, www.10news. com/news/3949 976/detail.html , November 25, 2004
       SAN DIEGO, USA -- A National City pastor accused of using the fear of the devil to persuade women in his congregation to have sex with him will go on trial next year. Carlos Romero, 59, faces up to five years and eight months in prison if convicted of three felony counts, including making a criminal threat. Superior Court Judge William Kennedy Wednesday scheduled a pretrial hearing for Dec. 13, with trial scheduled to start Feb. 14. At a Sept. 17 preliminary hearing, La Mesa police Sgt. Daniel Willis testified that Romero told him he was sorry for telling three women who went to his church the "devil would physically harm them and he could protect them if they had sex with him." Willis said the pastor told him he knew his actions toward the women were wrong and he "wouldn't do it again." A woman identified as Dora testified that she had gone to Romero's church for about a year and came back in 2000. She said she met the defendant in Fashion Valley last January. "He told me that there was a revelation from God," Dora said. "He told me that I had already been attacked by the devil, that I could only stop this by having sexual relations with him." ...
    • Time added to paedophile's sentence [? 1970s-80s Hawkins] -- Anglican. 8 boys. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn. 
       Australian Broadcasting Corporation, www.abc.net. au/tasmania/ news/200411/ s1252415.htm , Friday, 26 November 2004
       HOBART (Tas, Australia): A former Anglican priest in Tasmania has been given further time in jail for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy. The Criminal Court in Hobart was told 59-year-old Garth Stephen Hawkins committed the crime more than 20 years ago when he was an Anglican priest at Triabunna. Justice Peter Underwood said the 15-year-old boy and another boy were staying at his home while on a camping trip when the offence occurred. Last year Hawkins was given seven-and-a-half years jail for sex crimes against seven teenage boys, with a non-parole period of four-and-a-half years. The new nine-month sentence means Hawkins will now be eligible for parole after four years and nine months.
    • Ex-priest's jail sentence extended on fresh guilt [1974-84 Hawkins] -- Anglican. 8 boys.
       The Examiner, Hobart, www.examiner. com.au/story. asp?id=262752 , By MICHAEL STEDMAN , Saturday, 27 November 2004
       HOBART (Tas, Australia): Former Anglican priest Garth Stephen Hawkins has been sentenced to nine months' jail for the indecent assault of a 15-year-old boy 20 years ago. Hawkins is already serving 71/2 years after being found guilty last November of sexual assaults on seven boys between 1974 and 1984. Justice Peter Underwood said that under the principle of "totality", he had considered the incident as it would have be weighted if included in the previous convictions. As a result, the sentence would be imposed six months before the expiration of the previous conviction, extending the non-parole term from four years and six months to four years and nine months. The court heard that the incident occurred on a camping trip with two boys and another adult when Hawkins climbed naked into bed with the complainant - who was pretending to be asleep - and indecently assaulted him. "All the while he pretended to be asleep, but he wasn't, and your criminal conduct has ever since caused him great mental anguish," Justice Underwood said. Hawkins's lawyers claimed at a mitigatory hearing last week that the defrocked priest had received regular death threats in jail and was confined to a cell most of the day for his own protection. Denise Cripps, of Survivors Investigating Child Sexual Abuse, said that the sentence sent a strong message that victims of abuse could achieve justice even after such a long period. "I think it says to survivors that there is a great amount of justice still in the world that we are seeing paedophiles, within Tasmania at least, getting sentences that are appropriate," she said.#
    • Abuse victim named to panel -- RCC. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Berkshire Eagle, www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~7514~2559230,00.html , by D.R. Bahlman, Friday, November 26, 2004
       DALTON -- A local teacher and school administrator has been named to the Diocesan Review Board of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. James Stankiewicz of Dalton, assistant superintendent of the Central Berkshire Regional School District, was appointed to a three-year seat on the board by Bishop Timothy A. McDowell. Stankiewicz is one of three new members named to the board, which was formerly known as the Misconduct Commission. The panel hears allegations of misconduct by priests and diocesan personnel. As a victim of clergy abuse, Stankiewicz brought his allegations to the board in 1993, according to an announcement from the diocese. Stankiewicz could not be reached for comment on his appointment. "I consider myself fortunate to have been selected to serve," he said in a statement that was provided to the diocese and included in its news release. "I look forward to working with the other professionals on the board so that together we may help victims of abuse in their process of healing." The appointment of Stankiewicz fulfills McDonnell's commitment to name a victim to the review board, the release states. Stankiewicz was recently named assistant superintendent at Central Berkshire. He holds a bachelor's degree in music and a master's degree in education. He and his wife are the parents of four children. The other appointees are Robin Powell of Granby, assistant superintendent at the Hampden County sheriff's department, and the Rev. Robert White, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Springfield. Teresa Harris, a member of the board since 2001, has been named chairwoman of the panel for a term to end in 2007. She succeeds Richard Brown, who resigned.#
    • Editorial: Abuse issues get hearing
       Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline. com/news/editor ials/nov04/ 278515.asp , Nov. 26, 2004,
       UNITED STATES: Victims of sexual abuse by clergy must be heartened by the news that the state Supreme Court will take up a case that challenges legal protections for churches and will also review the statute of limitations for children abused by clergy. Both issues deserve a hearing from the state's highest court, which in the 1990s seriously damaged the ability of victims to find justice in Wisconsin. A 1995 decision by the court effectively barred victims from suing the church over cases in which church employees, such as priests, were guilty of abuse. In addition, state law in the 1960s and 1970s required abuse victims to file claims shortly after their 18th birthdays. The decision and the law worked hand in hand against the interests of victims. The court decision allowed church officials trying to protect an institution the ability to hide from public view the ways in which they were protecting and covering up for pedophiles in the church. Church officials argue that at the time, they thought they were handling such cases appropriately by getting priests treatment and then reassigning them. But it is now clear - and there were those at the time who understood this - that repeat pedophiles cannot be trusted near children. ...
    • Reverend Blackwell Questions Accuser's Mental Health [1970s, 1990s Blackwell] -- RCC.
       WJZ, http://wjz.com/ localstories/ local_story_ 330205116.html , 8:40 am US/Eastern, Nov 26, 2004
       UNITED STATES: A priest is trying to force the man he's accused of molesting as a boy, and who shot him years later, to undergo a psychological examination. Lawyers for the Rev. Maurice Blackwell, who faces trial next month on charges of child sexual abuse, have filed a motion seeking an evaluation of Dontee Stokes. The motion alleges that Stokes "may not be competent to testify and may suffer from a mental illness which may impact his ability to accurately recall facts." Judge John Glynn will hear arguments Dec. 7 on whether Stokes, a key witness in Blackwell's trial, should be evaluated by a defense psychiatrist. Blackwell's trial, which has been postponed four times, is scheduled to begin Dec. 13. Kenneth Ravenell, Blackwell's attorney, and Assistant State's Attorney Joanne Stanton said they would be ready to begin the trial next month. Ravenell said medical records of Stokes he's recently reviewed "indicate this is a man who has a big problem with distinguishing fantasy from reality." "We believe that's what happened in this case -- that this is all fantasy," Ravenell said. Blackwell, 58, is accused of molesting Stokes, 28, whom he baptized as a child and mentored as a teenager, more than a decade ago. Blackwell has denied the allegations. Blackwell, a pastor at St. Edward Catholic Church in west Baltimore from 1979 until 1998, was stripped of his church authority after admitting to having a sexual relationship with a different teenage boy in the early 1970s. ...
    • Abuse lawsuit allowed to proceed [1973-74 McGlynn] -- RCC. Females, male.
       The Kansas City Star, www.kansascity. com/mld/kansas city/news/loc al/10273418.htm , By JOE LAMBE, Posted on Fri, Nov. 26, 2004
       UNITED STATES: A Jackson County judge this week ruled that a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse in the 1970s by a now retired Kansas City priest should go to trial. Circuit Judge John R. O'Malley declined to dismiss the lawsuit on statute of limitations grounds, saying jurors would have to decide the issue. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Teresa White alleges that Francis McGlynn abused her at St. Mary's Church in Independence in 1973 and 1974, when she was 17. Another woman and a man also have sued McGlynn, alleging that he abused them when they were minors in the 1970s. McGlynn, 77, has denied the allegations. The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which also is a defendant in all three cases, filed the motion to dismiss White's case on statute of limitations issues. Lawyers have said the ruling could have implications for all three cases. White argued that she involuntarily suppressed memories of the alleged abuse until 2002, so the five-year statute of limitations should begin at that time. The diocese argued that White should have recognized any injuries immediately and filed any lawsuit within five years of turning 21. She was engaged to be married at the time of the alleged abuse. ...
    • Abuse allegations increase in Bethel [1956-78 Convert; 1965-75 Lundowski] -- RCC. Jesuits. 18 boys, 28 boys.
       Juneau Empire Online, www.juneau empire.com/ stories/112 604/sta_2004 1126024.shtml By JON GROVER, TUNDRA DRUMS, Web posted November 26, 2004
       BETHEL, USA - In two separate lawsuits filed in Bethel Superior Court, 49 plaintiffs contend they were sexually abused for decades by Catholic priests and church associates in rural Western Alaska. The lawsuits, filed by the law firm Cooke, Roosa and Valcarce, claim the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks is liable for the abuse. Because of the sensitive nature of the allegations, the names of the victims are omitted from the lawsuit and are sealed at the courthouse. One of the lawsuits, alleging that the late Rev. Jules Convert sexually abused and assaulted 18 young boys in the region, was filed two years ago and is awaiting a ruling on the statute of limitations by the state Supreme Court before arguments can be heard in Bethel. "We're asking the court to deal with this suit under the statute of limitations," said Robert Groseclose, an attorney representing the Fairbanks Diocese. "By the same token, the church abhors any sexual abuse and is doing anything it can to reach out to victims." The Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, the Catholic order to which Convert belonged, originally named as defendants in the case, were dismissed from the complaint last summer. In 2001, the Alaska Legislature removed incidents of sexual abuse from the list of offenses subject to the statute of limitations. However, when the abuse is alleged to have occurred the law gave victims only two years from the time they learned of their injuries to file suit.[...] The incidents alleged in the Convert case occurred between 1956 and 1978. Convert was originally sent to Alaska in the 1940s. During at least part of that timeline, Convert was the mission superior of the Jesuits in Alaska, overseeing Jesuit activities in the state. Most of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit had been altar boys between the ages of six and 17 years old, according to the complaint. Convert would invite altar boys to spend the night at his residence, tell them to sleep in his bed and molest them while they slept, according to the complaint. In a second lawsuit, 28 plaintiffs contend that Joseph Lundowski, a former monk, sexually abused them while he was a church volunteer and possibly a deacon between 1965 and 1975. Since the lawsuit was filed in Bethel this month, three additional Western Alaska men have joined the case, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. According to the court document filed last week, a fourth man is filing a civil lawsuit in Dillingham on related complaints.[...] The plaintiffs were between the ages of 6 and 24 when the alleged abuse occurred. The complaint outlines a pattern in which Lundowski is accused of enticing his victims with gifts and telling them if they reported the abuse, no one would believe them. "He gave them hard candy, money he stole from the collection plate, cooked food, baked goods, beer, sacramental wine, brandy and better grades on their catechism assignments in exchange for sexual favors," the lawsuit alleges. "Joseph Lundowski told many of the boys not to tell, and also warned some of them that if they told what he was doing to them, no one would believe them because he worked for God." Ken Roosa, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, said that some of the children tried to tell relatives what Lundowski was doing to them but were dismissed and told not to lie.[...] Lawyers representing victims of Lundowski and Convert claim the church did little to protect children from abusive priests. The problems of priest abuse in Western Alaska are indicative of a worldwide and centuries-old church policy of denial, said Patrick Wall, a former priest and investigator for the church.# [Emphasis added]
    • Three more men claim they were sexually abused by former monk [1965-75 Lundowski] -- RCC. Jesuit. 4 more boys.
       Anchorage Daily News, www.adn.com/ alaska/story/ 5839789p-57 57884c.html , Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, November 26, 2004
       WESTERN ALASKA: Three more Western Alaska men have joined a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month against Joseph C. Lundowski, the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese and the Oregon Jesuit Province, alleging Lundowski, a former monk, sexually abused them when they were children. The plaintiffs, listed in the amended complaint as James Does 30 through 32, allege the abuse took place in church rectories in the communities of Hooper Bay and St. Michael between 1965 and 1975. According to the court document filed Wednesday by the law firm Cooke Roosa & Valcarce, a fourth man is filing a civil suit in Dillingham on related complaints. Lundowski's association with the Fairbanks diocese began during the 1950s at Holy Rosary Mission School in Dillingham where he was in charge of the boys' dormitory under the direction of the Rev. George S. Endal, a Jesuit priest, and superior of the mission school. Over the ensuing years, he also worked in Nulato, Stebbins, St. Michael and Hooper Bay, conducting services, teaching catechism and distributing Communion. All of the previous 28 complainants who filed were residents of the last three communities at the time of the alleged abuse and list multiple instances of single or group sexual abuse ranging from oral sex to forcible sodomy. Bob Groseclose, diocesan attorney, has said the diocese has been unable to confirm from records that Lundowski was ever a deacon. The lawsuit also alleges that records pertinent to sexual abuse of children by priests and religious workers in the diocese were destroyed in 2003 by diocesan officers and employees.# [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:16 AM]
    ////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri November 26, 2004
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    #### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat November 27, 2004 edition follows:-
    • Church faces abuse complaints. Jehovah's Witness policy: Address issues internally [1980s Berry] - Jehovah's Witnesses. Daughters. 60 other lawsuits. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Concord Monitor Online, www.concord monitor.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20041122/REP OSITORY/411 220301/1031 , By ANNMARIE TIMMINS, 224-5301, ext. 323, atimmins@cmonitor.com , November 22. 2004
       UNITED STATES: When Sara Poission suspected her husband was abusing their daughters 20 years ago, she took her fears to the leaders of her Jehovah's Witness congregation in Wilton. Poisson regrets deeply that she followed the advice she says she received: Pray more, be a better wife and keep quiet. "I was a puppet," said Poisson, now of Claremont. "It was 'God says you are a screw-up, so fix yourself and it will stop.'" The church never reported Poisson's former husband, Paul Berry, to state officials.
       A school teacher did, after noticing one child's injuries, and Berry is serving 56 to 112 years in state prison for physical and sexual abuse. The church publicly supported Berry during his trial. Poission said she was kicked out of the church for cooperating with investigators. Her daughters, now in their 20s, are suing the church in a case that is pending before the state Supreme Court.
       Poisson's story contradicts the church's written policy for dealing with child abuse. But her allegation that the church ignored her complaint has been repeated by nearly 60 other former members nationwide in lawsuits against the church over similar accusations. And critics say the church's official policy, even when followed, puts children at risk because it allows molesters back into the congregation with a guarantee that their crime will not be reported to the congregation.
       Those critics say it's time the Jehovah's Witness church, which counts about 4,000 members in New Hampshire and 1 million in the United States, faces the same scrutiny the Catholic Church endured for harboring abusive priests. "This has not captured the public's attention because (the Jehovah's Witnesses) are a small church," said Jeff Anderson, a lawyer from Minnesota who has represented victims of abuse within the Catholic, Mormon and Jehovah's Witness churches. "But anytime anyone learns of (how the church handles abuse), they are as alarmed by it as they are by the Catholic church cases."
       The Jehovah's Witness policy requires two eyewitnesses to abuse - or a molester's confession -before the church sanctions a molester. A young child cannot be his own witness. When someone is found guilty by the elders, the rest of the congregation cannot be told because doing so would be a sin, according to the church's interpretation of the Bible. A molester may be allowed to remain an active member, if he repents. In some cases, molesters have been appointed as church leaders again.
       "These people make the Catholics look like saints," said Bill Bowen of Kentucky, a former Jehovah's Witness leader who started a Web site in 2001 to monitor child abuse inside the church after he says he caught the church in a cover-up. "I think the Catholic Church has made great strides in publicly apologizing and establishing polices to prevent molestation in the future.
       "I think (the Jehovah's Witness church) is living in total denial and refusing to admit what they've done in order to protect themselves legally," Bowen said. He has been excommunicated from the church for his public statements and "disfellowshipped" - a total shunning by even his own parents.
       Members of the local congregations in Concord, Franklin and Laconia either could not be reached or referred calls to the church's national office in New York. J.R. Brown, a spokesman there, said church leaders are told to report all abuse allegations if their state requires them to do so (New Hampshire and about 40 others do). But they are also advised to take advantage of clerical exemptions, which excuse clergy in New Hampshire and about 30 other states from reporting abuse if it's revealed in a spiritual setting.
       Brown could not say how many cases the church has reported to the authorities. "As a spiritual shepherd, your main goal is to save a sinner from eternal destruction at God's hands,"said Brown, who explained that the policy and all the church's beliefs are based on a literal reading of the Bible. "You want people to turn around and go the right way. When you have that point of view, you can see why confidentiality of the confession is important. If the person knows it's going to be out (publicly), they may be very reluctant to come."
       As for what that could mean for the safety of potential victims, Brown said the church expects parents, teachers and others to report the abuse to the state authorities. He said it is against church policy to discourage parents or others from reporting the abuse and added that if a church elder had done that, it was a mistake.
       Advice posted on the church's official Web site, however, questions the wisdom of going outside the church. "Some legal experts advise reporting the abuse to the authorities as soon as possible," read an article titled "Protect your children!"
       "In some lands the legal system may require this. But in other places the legal system may offer little hope of successful prosecution."
    Thousands of allegations
       It's difficult to know how widespread the sexual and physical abuse of children is in the Jehovah's Witness church. Or how often the church has neglected to report assaults or has protected abusive members. Brown confirmed that the national church keeps a database of Witnesses who have been accused or found guilty of child abuse, but he declined to comment on newspaper reports that the list is 23,000 names long. On his "Silentlambs" Web site, which monitors abuse, Bowen has collected stories of abuse from nearly 1,000 Witnesses who are allowed to remain anonymous. He said 5,000 others have contacted him but have not published accounts of their alleged assaults.
       Prosecutors across the country and world have convicted church members for abuse, but it's unknown how great that number is. In New Hampshire, Berry and another Witness from Hollis are serving prison time for sexual abuse of children. Meanwhile, nearly 60 Witnesses nationwide are suing the church for allegedly protecting abusive members, according to Bowen.
       In Massachusetts, a 14-year-old girl and her parents filed a lawsuit against the church in 2002 alleging that leaders covered up the girl's sexual abuse by a Bible study leader and discouraged the girl's parents from contacting authorities. Like Poission, the mother in that case alleges she was told to "pray more."
       A Minnesota woman had similar allegations in a lawsuit she filed last year. When she complained of abuse by a church member, the elders told her to keep quiet and not "drag" the man and the church through the mud, according to her lawsuit. Another lawsuit by a Texas woman alleges the church transferred a man it knew had abused her without telling his new congregation of the complaints. He was later convicted of indecency with a child.
       "If you take just the two-eyewitness principle, that alone is enough to say, 'Oh my God, what are they doing?'" Bowen said. Through his Web site, he's been invited to speak at meetings of activist Catholics, and he said the reaction is always the same.
       "They are absolutely stunned,"Bowen said. "I've had those Catholics tell me that this is 10 times worse than what their leaders do."
    An internal policy
       Two years ago, with the help of several child abuse experts (and under the watch of state officials), the Catholic Church in New Hampshire rewrote its policy for handling sexual abuse in the church. The document runs 67 pages and spells out the obligation to report abuse and the training requirements for every church volunteer or employee.
       The policy governing the Jehovah's Witnesses is just over one page and cites only the Bible as its source of inspiration. For example, the church takes its two-eyewitness rule from Deuteronomy 19:15: "No single witness should rise up against a man respecting any error or any sin."
       The policy begins with the church's belief that child abuse is "abhorrent." It goes on to advocate balancing the protection of children with the church's faith in repentance and forgiveness.
       According to the policy, reports of abuse are reported inside the church to the congregation's elders, who are male and chosen for their ability to lead proper lives and teach the Bible. Together, the body of elders appoints two or three of its members to investigate the allegations, which involves the elders interviewing the accuser and the accused.
       Brown, the church's spokesman, said the church does not teach its elders how to interview victims or investigate claims of abuse. They earn their livings outside the church and often do not even know their state's reporting requirements, Brown said. They are expected to call church headquarters in New York for advice on that.
       The policy requires two eyewitnesses or a confession from the accused to take action, a standard victim advocates say is practically impossible to meet especially if the child cannot be his or her own witness. Brown said a victim can be a witness only if he is mature enough. The church allows local leaders to decide whether the child is mature enough to be considered credible, Brown said.
       "Locally, our elders know the children best," Brown said. If the alleged molester does not confess, the elders can require the accuser to restate his or her claim directly to the accused in case that prompts a confession, the policy says. Without two eyewitnesses or a confession, the policy requires the elders to drop the matter.
       If the complaint is confirmed, an abuser is invited to repent, Brown said. (The same procedure is followed for other serious sins, including smoking, drinking and stealing, Brown said.) With a heartfelt repentance, the abuser may remain in the congregation but with restricted duties, Brown said. But he said it's more likely that the elders would disfellowship or remove an abuser.
       Brown couldn't say how often abusers have been allowed to remain in the church. Unlike the policy governing the Catholic Church, there is no stated plan for caring for the victims. Those familiar with the church said counseling is not offered.
       Whether or not someone is found guilty, the rest of the congregation is not told why the member was questioned, sanctioned or removed. Members hear only that he or she has been "reproved," Brown said. He disagreed with critics who complain that that silence puts other children at risk.
       The church is a family, Brown said, and families don't need to be told of another member's sins. "We can't tell them, but it will be known informally," Brown said. "In a family, everyone knows of the weaknesses of Aunt Suzie or Uncle John. Things are just known."
       The policy contradicts itself on abusers being returned to positions of authority. At one point, it says a molester may not return to a position of authority. Elsewhere, it says that has been allowed when the abuser demonstrated years of exemplary behavior.
       Other material posted on the church's Web site either further confuses the church's policy on child abuse or goes against the thinking of professionals who work with abuse victims.
       In an article titled "Child Molesting, You can protect your child," the church advises parents to be watchful of potential abusers. It advises that a child's simple "No" can be enough to deter a molester. But it does not alert parents that molesters often spend months grooming their victims into submission.
       Brown stood by the church's policy and said if abuse has been ignored or badly handled, the policy wasn't to blame.
       "Do I believe elders have made mistakes?" Brown asked. "Yes, elders have made mistakes. Elders are imperfect. We are dealing with humans."# [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:11 PM]
    • No liability over abuse says church [? 1965-99 Brandenberg] -- Anglican. 40 victims. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn. 
       Sunday Mail, www.theadvertiser. news.com.au/ common/story_ page/0,5936, 11521778% 255E2682,00.html , Nov 28, 2004
       ADELAIDE (S. Australia): The Anglican Church has denied any liability for the actions of serial pedophile and church worker Robert Brandenberg or that it owed a duty of care to his alleged victims, court documents show.
       The denial is revealed in the church's response to a claim by two of Brandenberg's 40 alleged sex abuse victims, filed in the District Court. The Synod of the Diocese of Adelaide of the Anglican Church of Australia Inc denies "that as a matter of law" it is "vicariously liable for the alleged criminal acts of Brandenberg" or "that it owed the duty of care" to his alleged victims.
       Brandenberg was employed as Chief Commissioner of the Church of England Boys Society (CEBS) from about 1965 to 1981 and as a camp sites manager until 1999, when he abused boys, victims allege. In its defence, the church partly distances itself from Brandenberg by saying it did not have "ultimate control or responsibility for CEBS" which was "an independent and self-controlling association".[...] Brandenberg, who abused an estimated 80 boys, committed suicide in 1999 after being charged with child sex offences.
       All of Brandenberg's alleged victims are seeking about $20 million compensation for physical, psychiatric and psychological injury. In its defence, the church also denies former Anglican Archbishop Ian George did not act on a victim's complaint against Brandenberg. According to one victim he met the then Archbishop George in 2000 and gave him "extensive details" of Brandenberg's abuse, the claim says. "(He) alleges that the Archbishop told him that he did not accept there is or was a problem with Brandenberg", it says.
       The church says at the meeting with the alleged victim, Dr George "did not refuse to accept there was a problem with Brandenberg", and offered "assistance", which "was declined". Dr George resigned in June following criticism of his handling of claims of sexual abuse within the church.[...]
       The matter is expected to resume in court early next year when lawyers seek to join about 38 more victims to the Brandenberg law suit to expand it to a class action.
       Meanwhile, another class action by about 30 abuse victims is being prepared against the church generally and will be filed with the court next year.
       An Anglican Church spokesman did not respond to inquiries last week about compensation.#
    • Catholic priests and the laity must move forward carefully - RCC.
       Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20041117/ COLUMN20/1111 70289/-1/COLUMN [Costs 60 cents for one day's access.]
    • The bishops' new president -- RCC. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       St Petersburg Times, Opinion Online, www.sptimes. com/2004/11/ 27/Opinion/The_ bishops__new_ pres.shtml , A Times Editorial, November 27, 2004
       ST PETERSBURG, USA, Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane was elected this month to a three-year term as president of the U.S. Catholic bishops conference, the nearest thing to a governing board for the autonomous bishops. Skylstad has much on his plate, from instituting new child-protection measures to saving cash-strapped churches from insolvency. He will also need to move the bishops into the 21st century. Prejudging Skylstad is unfair, even though the bishop announced this month that his diocese would seek bankruptcy protection in the face of civil lawsuits over alleged clergy sex abuse. As the bishops' vice president since 2001, Skylstad followed the usual rotation into power. He worked closely with his predecessor, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., on the child protection protocols the bishops adopted in Dallas in 2002, after sex abuse allegations began to engulf dioceses around the country. Skylstad is credited with making the names of alleged molesters public and with dealing openly with parishioners and victims. His ability to repair the church's image will be tested quickly. Gregory fumbled at times and displayed a tendency to overstate both the church's shock at the revelations and its record in coming clean and addressing the problem. In fairness, Gregory was caught between a pope who has never seemed to grasp the damage the scandal has caused in this country and individual bishops who are unwilling to concede any oversight responsibility. ...
    • Bishop discusses direction of diocese -- RCC. 100 clergy to 50 in 2010.
       Bangor Daily News, www.bangornews .com/news/temp lates/?a=10 4309&z=6 , Saturday, November 27, 2004
       PORTLAND, USA - So far, so good is how the Most Rev. Richard J. Malone, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, assessed his first eight months on the job. However, work released by the evangelization planning committee he appointed has spurred speculation about churches closing. Since his installation on March 31 as the 11th bishop of Maine, he has visited every parish and put 22,000 miles on his car. In his office in the Chancery in Portland, Malone, 58, recently discussed the challenges facing the diocese and the state's 218,000 Catholics. "I'm discovering the many challenges that are on my desk as bishop. Also, I'm discovering the wonderful people and resources that we have in the diocese to meet them," he said.[...] The state's changing demographics and a shortage of priests are driving the need for realignment. Currently, there are 100 priests serving the 35 parishes and 44 missions in Maine. With a large number of retirements anticipated over the next five years and with 10 men in the seminary, the diocese expects to have 50 priests in 2010. The final recommendation of the New Evangelization Planning Committee is to be delivered to Malone on Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, the day the wise men from the East brought gifts to the baby Jesus. A working document presented to priests earlier this month set off a flurry of speculation about possible church closings in some parts of the state, but Malone said on Monday that such concerns were premature. ...
    • Pope warns of US priest shortage -- RCC. Vatican / Papal flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       BBC, http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/ hi/americas/ 4046029.stm , Friday, 26 November, 2004
       VATICAN CITY:
    Pope John Paul II The Pope said Bishops should pray for an increase in vocations
    Pope John Paul II has warned that the increasing difficulty of recruiting men to join the Catholic priesthood in the US represents a "stark challenge".
       The Pontiff said the problem must be urgently addressed and suggested one day each year should be dedicated to praying for vocations.
       He said the church must guarantee its future by preserving existing faith and encouraging new belief.
       Several sexual abuse scandals have hit already dwindling US priest numbers.
       "No-one can deny that the decline in priestly vocations represents a stark challenge for the church in the United States," Pope John Paul II told American bishops gathered in Rome.
       "And one that cannot be ignored or put off."
    Scandals
       "I would propose for your consideration that the Catholic community in your country annually set aside a national day of prayer for priestly vocations," he added.
       In a report earlier this year, the Vatican said the total number of priests had fallen sharply in North America and Europe between 1961 and 2001.
       In North America, the number dropped from 71,725 to 57,988 at a time when the population was growing.
       Numbers have been further weakened by allegations of US priests' involvement in child abuse scandals, which surfaced in January 2002. ...
    • Judgment day - RCC. Scotland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Vatican / Papal flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Scotsman, http://news. scotsman.com/ features.cfm? id=1361642004 , BOOK REVIEW, By CRISTINA ODONE, Sat 27 Nov 2004
       THE POPE IN WINTER: THE DARK FACE OF JOHN PAUL'S LEGACY, By John Cornwell (VIKING, £20)
       SCOTLAND: THE AUTUMN YEARS OF A PATRIARCH should find him resting from the daily slog, adopting a philosophical attitude towards encroaching illness and basking in the knowledge of his lasting legacy.
       As the 84-year-old pontiff of the world's one billion Catholics, John Paul II has reached his autumn - indeed, his winter - without playing by the rules. He won't let up on his punishing schedule and is locked in combat against an ever more debilitating form of Parkinson's. As for his legacy, it is under constant attack from critics who regard Karol Wojtyla as a dangerous dictator rather than a world spiritual leader.
       Among the Pope's most unforgiving critics is John Cornwell, a Catholic writer and Vatican-watcher whose liberal sensibilities have long been outraged by the ultra-traditionalist stance of the present Pope. In this book, more the chronicle of an extraordinary pontificate than the biography of an extraordinary man, Cornwell depicts the Pope's 25-year term as a tumultuous, oppressive regime and John Paul II as a sinister player in global power-politics.
       If Karol Wojtyla's papacy truly had a crisis point, it came in early 2000 when the issue of paedophile priests was first raised in the United States, with a lawsuit against the Catholic Church by a former seminarian who had been sexually abused. A succession of high-profile international sex-abuse cases followed, these exposing not only the repeated violation by priests of their charges (students, choirboys or altar boys) but the Church's slow and confused response to such outrages.
       Scandals that could have been stamped out by a leader immediately calling for the rigorous investigation of individual allegations, and the harsh punishment of offending priests, have instead been allowed to malinger, drawing accusations of a systematic cover-up within the Church.
       In Africa, John Paul II has repeatedly refused to countenance the use of condoms, even when faced with the spread of HIV-AIDS, thus seemingly abandoning Africans, in their millions, to a lethal epidemic. Elsewhere, he continues his intransigent opposition to birth control of any kind, divorce, homosexuality, IVF treatment, and to married and women priests. Huge swathes of the Catholic community are in this way made to feel excluded.
       Cornwell's analysis of these lowpoints convinces in its measured tone and abundance of facts. There can be no denying that the Church's mishandling of its sex scandals has made priests, in many people's eyes, synonymous with paedophiles. (One result of this is the dramatic fall in vocations, with Ireland, once the seedbed of Catholic priesthood, boasting only one vocation last year.) Equally, the advance in Africa of the Protestant evangelical churches cannot fail to be connected to the Catholic Church's teaching on condom use. And Catholics who cannot meet the Pope's exacting standards of sexual morality are withdrawing from the church in record numbers, turning a once-thriving community into a shrinking one.
       And yet, as even Cornwell acknowledges, John Paul II will go down in history for playing a pivotal role in freeing millions from the yoke of totalitarian rule. This was true not only in his native Poland, where Karol Wojtyla worked covertly and indefatigably to bring down the Soviet-backed regime, but also in Latin America, where he exhorted the people of Haiti, Nicaragua and the Philippines to cast off their oppressive dictators. With his popular appeal (kneeling on the Tarmac to kiss the ground upon arrival, kissing children at al fresco Masses) and his carefully orchestrated globe-trotting visits, John Paul II brought religion to the masses, turning himself into the world's most recognised figure in the process.
       His tireless campaign to cancel Third World debt, rein in the market and temper our civilisation of greed have made him the most visible and influential champion of the poor across the world. And his impassioned interventions against war - whether in the Balkans or in Iraq - have won him the grudging respect of many secularists who would otherwise condemn him out of hand.
       John Paul II is, in fact, a tremendously complex human being, a leader of unquestioned abilities whose blind spots have caused him to stumble along the way. Cornwell seeks to reduce this larger-than-life man to a one-dimensional caricature of an autocrat. It doesn't work. The freedom-fighting champion of the marginalised and dispossessed keeps breaking out of the tight little corner into which Cornwell would paint him.
       Certainly, unlike most of the Church's secular critics, Cornwell knows his business; he has met the Pope several times and maintains excellent contacts with the Vatican - especially with one Vatican prelate, dubbed Monsignor Sotto Voce, who willingly trades curial secrets for a good bottle of wine and a roast suckling pig.
       But despite the fact that Cornwell's re-examination of public debates and revelation of private differences shed light on Karol Wojtyla's thinking and modus vivendi, the strain of trying to shoehorn his subject into a simplistic category shows. This makes it difficult to read The Pope in Winter without wondering about the real story, one that in Cornwell's acidulous book remains untold.#
    • 'Collared' novelist to take part in benefit United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Republican, www.masslive. com/living/rep ublican/index. ssf?/base/liv ing-2/1101372 51918250.xml , By GEORGE LENKER, glenker@repub.com , Saturday, November 27, 2004
       MASSACHUSETTS, USA: You might call Mike Farragher's book a case of life imitating art imitating life. Farragher, an entertainment and music writer for the Irish Voice, recently published his first novel, "Collared." The book is a fictional account of two brothers who were sexually abused by a Catholic priest in their youths who find themselves dealing with the incidents in very different ways. But it also touched a nerve in the writer's own life that made him confront a priest of his childhood. Farragher will be signing copies of the novel at Edwards Books in Tower Square in downtown Springfield Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The event will benefit the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and features several other authors, including Sean Glennon ("This Pat's Year"), Suzanne Strempek Shea ("Becoming Finola"), Daniel Jones ("The Bastard on the Couch") and Leslea Newman ("A Fire Engine For Ruthie"). "Collared" revolves around abused brothers Mitch and Barry, who grow up to be a reporter and priest, respectively. Mitch's stories about the church sex abuse scandal bring him up against the power structure of his diocese, while Barry gets caught in between his brother's investigation and the Cardinal's attempts to quell the controversy. Without giving the plot, Farragher describes the rest of the book as "violent and edgy" - including a murderer who targets priests involved in the scandal. "But it's also a very redemptive book," he adds. "The anger, then the following redemption of the book is what Catholics are looking for - without the dead bodies," Farragher said. ...
    • Rev. Michael Kelly Jesuit Priest takes on controversial issues -- RCC. AIDS booklets. Jamaica flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Jamaica Gleaner, www.jamaica- gleaner.com/ gleaner/2004 1127/(spirit)/ (spirit)1.html By Barbara Ellington, Senior Gleaner Writer, Saturday, Nov 27, 2004
       JAMAICA: SEVENTY-FIVE-year-old the Rev. Michael Kelly was born in Tullamore, Ireland and it is not surprising that he became a Jesuit priest, considering his homeland is known for its strong spiritual connections. Two of his six siblings are also in the holy order - and having embarked on a path of service to God, he has dedicated his life to educational training. Resident in Zambia for over 50 years, Rev. Kelly who is now retired was recently in Jamaica to receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of the West Indies, for his work in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In an interview with The Gleaner, he shared his views on gay marriage, the sex abuse scandal that rocked the religious community and celibacy. THE GLEANER: That whole business of celibacy seems highly overrated given the number of times we hear of sexual scandals involving priests, explain how you cope with it. KELLY: The scriptures say there are some who are eunuchs because they have been made eunuchs by human beings, some choose to be and some have it thrust upon them. It has been easy for me because I pray daily for strength and you can't miss something you never had. THE GLEANER: In his two books 'Angela's Ashes' and the sequel 'Tis', Irish author Frank McCourt paints a graphic picture of the almost painful memories of growing up Catholic and the rigid treatment of the priests at school and the strict upbringing of the poor little Irish lads, I would think anyone growing up under such tyranny, would want to escape from rather than embrace the church fully, yet three members of your family are priests, do you regret taking this path? KELLY: You can't escape from your mother, not fully, you live in accordance with the values she taught you. You see celibacy from outside but we see it from inside.[...] THE GLEANER: In normal relationships, when you are physically attracted to someone, you fall in love, the sex act follows as a natural progression of the long-term attraction, not in platonic but intimate friendships, so if that happens between two people of the same sex, isn't it wrong? KELLY: I don't think it is, if it's friendship only. But once sex comes in, it's wrong, that's where I draw the line. But as a priest or anyone in service who knows of someone's orientation in that way, but who is able to live responsibly and understand that they can't go further with a certain direction; there is nothing to suggest they can't be generous, inspiring and helpful and there is room in the world for them. We have categorised them too early and assumed that if there is a bond between two men or women, it will express itself sexually, and I don't think so. ...
    • Attorney challenges renegade priest-author to expose "ring of predators" - RCC. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Renew America, www.renewam erica.us/col umns/abbott/ 041126 , Matt C. Abbott, November 26, 2004
       UNITED STATES: The clergy sex abuse scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church in the last few years continues to make news. Sheila Parkhill, a noted Catholic attorney who currently resides in Texas, has challenged renegade [?] priest-author-sociologist Father Andrew Greeley to reveal the information he claims to have in "safekeeping" about the activities of a clerical "ring of predators" - a ring that may have been involved in the 1984 still-unsolved murder of Greeley's then-acquaintance, Chicago musician and professor Francis E. Pellegrini. The following is a significant portion of the letter Parkhill e-mailed to Greeley on May 6, 2004 regarding the matter. (To date, Greeley has not responded.) "Dear Father Greeley: "I have followed your career and writings for many years now, reading the many stories you've written about the sexual abuse crisis in our Church, the problems, the solutions, stories you have written denouncing the bishops and their cover-ups. 'Are the bishops sorry at all?', you asked 8/3/2003. They all sound so right, so self-righteous and yet, when it comes to your personal life, doing the right thing yourself, your silence is deafening! "I had to laugh when I read that Bishop Wilton Gregory said: "I can assure you, known offenders are not in the ministry." Yet you and I both know that is not true. We both know of at least six. While I do not yet have the proof in my hands, you do. "For over a year now I have been investigating the Boys Club in Chicago. "In light of the arrest of Father Gerald Robinson of Toledo [see www.wtol.com/ Global/story.asp? S=1891776 ], isn't it time you do something about the Chicago Boys Club, including the priest, now bishop, whose name has been included with it? They are still in the ministry, active in parishes. Some of those parishes have schools. They have not yet been exposed. You have made it clear to all that you know who they are. Knowingly allowing evil conduct to evade justice is to cooperate with evil.[...] Parkhill's investigation and letter is the most recent attempt to crack this bizarre case. In 2000, several Chicago businessmen, including Catholic activist Michael Tario, teamed up with Stephen Brady, founder and president of the Petersburg, Ill.-based Roman Catholic Faithful (www.rcf.org ), a lay watchdog group, to investigate and expose the Boys Club. In 2001, I asked Cardinal Francis George about Greeley's allegation. The cardinal responded that he had asked Greeley twice about it, but that Greeley didn't provide him with any evidence. Greeley merely told the cardinal to talk to two priests, whose names the cardinal did not reveal. Sheila Parkhill can be reached at stparkhill@yahoo.com Matt C. Abbott is the former executive director of the Illinois Right to Life Committee and the former director of public affairs for the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. He is also a contributor to Cruxnews.com, RenewAmerica.us, MichNews.com, "The Wanderer" Catholic newspaper, Catholic.net, Catholic.org, and Out2.com. Out2.com. He can be reached at mattcabbott@hotmail.com.
    • Sex abuse lawsuit dismissal upheld; Statute of limitations expired for 2 brothers suing S.L. diocese [1960s-70s Rapp] - RCC. 2 boys.
       Deseret Morning News, http://deseret news.com/dn/ view/0,1249,595 108432,00.html [Rapp] - RCC. Boys. By Linda Thomson, Saturday, November 27, 2004
       UTAH, USA: The Utah Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by two brothers against the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City because the statute of limitations had run out. Charles Matthew Colosimo and Ralph Louis Colosimo filed suit in 2003, alleging they had been sexually abused as schoolboys by a priest, James F. Rapp, who worked as a teacher at Judge Memorial High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Colosimos had sought $80 million in damages. Rapp, who is no longer a priest, is serving a 40-year prison term in Oklahoma for molesting a boy there. Third District Judge Paul Maughan previously dismissed the Colosimo brothers' suit because they missed the legal deadline for filing it. ...
    • Objections raised over appointees - RCC.
       Republican, www.masslive. com/springfield/ republican/ index.ssf?/base/ news-6/110154 522011772.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Saturday, November 27, 2004
       SPRINGFIELD - An outspoken priest and several alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse said a priest's presence on the panel that reviews such abuse allegations will deter others from bringing complaints to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. However, the diocese's victim advocate, Laura F. Reilly, said that a person can request that the recently appointed priest not be present when an allegation is brought to the Review Board. "This is a sensitive issue. (New Review Board member) Father (Robert S.) White agreed that he will not attend any meeting in which a victim requests he not be there," Reilly said. White refused comment, saying, per agreement of the Review Board members, the panel's chairperson is the only board member who will respond to media inquiries. The diocese Monday announced that for the first time an alleged clergy abuse victim and a priest have joined the previously all-lay, nine-person Review Board, which was known as the Misconduct Commission when it was formed 12 years ago. The board hears complaints made against priests and other church personnel and then makes recommendations to the bishop. East Longmeadow priest the Rev. James J. Scahill, a victim advocate and outspoken critic of the church hierarchy regarding clergy abuse, criticized the "ecclesiastically myopic" U.S. bishops policy for the provision that states at least one priest should serve on all diocesan Review Boards. "Jesus would have preferred a grass roots approach that would have included lay people - the real people of the church - being involved in developing a policy," Scahill said. Scahill said he was not upset that he was not asked to be on the board. "If I was asked, I would have refused," Scahill said. Scahill also said a victim shouldn't be on the panel. "It's a matter of consistency. A victim on the board without a priest would shift the balance against an alleged abuser," Scahill said. ...
    • Court rules brothers waited too long to sue [1970s, Rapp] -- 2 boys.
       The Salt Lake Tribune, www.sltrib. com/utah/ ci_2475307 , By Elizabeth Neff, Nov/27/2004
       UTAH, USA: A pair of Utah brothers waited too long to sue over their alleged abuse by a Roman Catholic priest in the 1970s, the state Court of Appeals ruled Friday. The judges said Ralph and Charles Colosimo failed to prove limits on how long victims of sexual abuse have to file lawsuits should be set aside in their case. The brothers sued the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City and Judge Memorial Catholic High School in 2003, alleging officials knew the Rev. James F. Rapp, a former teacher, was a pedophile but did nothing to stop him from abusing them three decades earlier. Utah law typically gives sexual abuse victims four years after they turn 18 to file suits, but the brothers - now in their 40s - argued they did not realize Rapp's history of molestation until seeing a May 2002 article about him in The Washington Post. Rapp is now defrocked and serving a 40-year prison term for molesting an Oklahoma boy. The appeals court judges pointed out the brothers knew they were being abused at the time and that Rapp admitted to Ralph Colosimo in 1975 that he was a pedophile and was abusing Charles. Ralph Colosimo claimed Rapp sexually abused him when he was a student at Judge in the early 1970s, while his younger brother said Rapp became a family friend when Charles Colosimo was attending St. Ann's Catholic Grade School and molested him from 1972 through 1975. Ralph Colosimo also alleged he had repressed the memory of many instances of the abuse until his 1998 divorce. Charles Colosimo made no claim of repressed memory. ... [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:19 AM]
    ////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat November 27, 2004
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    • Prudish Pontiff didn't 'see' clergy sex abuse. Poland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Vatican / Papal flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Weekend Australian Magazine, "The Prudish Pontiff; Did dark secrets in his early life shape the sexual puritanism of Pope John Paul II?" - John Cornwell reports, pp 28-35, November 27-28, 2004
       The Pope in Winter: The Dark Face of John Paul II's Papacy. Book.
       [...] John Paul's refusal to identify a crisis in the priesthood is inseparable from the scandal of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The systemic corruption of priestly paedophilia has revealed a paralysis and vacillation on the part of local bishops, who attempted to conceal and deny it while looking over their shoulders to Rome. The paralysis goes right up to the Pope himself. The details are horrific, involving altar boys being routinely lured into bed by priests, and children entrusted to the Church's protection being forced to perform oral sex. John Paul, however, ignored the scandal until he was forced y international outrage to acknowledge it.
       According to a reputable report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, of the City University of New York, 4400 Catholic priests in the US have been credibly accused of sexually attacking some 11,000 minors between 1950 and 2002. That represents virtually half the period of John Paul II's papal watch. [Check if mathematics are right.] Multiple cases have been reported throughout the world. In the past six or seven years, 120 priests have been investigated in Britain, resulting in 21 convictions. In Australia, 90 Catholic priests and religious brothers have been sentenced for sexual offences in the past ten years, according to the victim support group Broken Rites.[...]
       ... In the view of some Catholic social scientists, his own underlying fundamentalism has led to a disastrous loss of influence over the excesses of Islamic fundamentalism. John Paul might have been the pope to encourage the Muslim faithful towards acceptance of pluralist societies in which individuals and groups have a right to choose their own values and beliefs. Despite the Christian contribution to the origins of democracy, John Paul won't have it. He insists certain actions -- above all, contraception -- are evil for everybody and in every circumstance, and that error has no rights. For this reason he has maintained deep reservations about democracy, free enterprise and Western-style separation of Church and State.[...] (pp 30-31)
    •The Pope in Winter: The Dark Face of John Paul II's Papacy, by John Cornwell (Viking-Penguin, $49.95), is due for publication in Australia in February.
       [COMMENT: As usual, some of the opinions of this author are not necessarily those of this website. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE:
       "We destroyed all the towns and put to death all the men, women, and children." -- Hebrew scripture, Deut 3:6 .
       "And the Jews say: Uzair [Ezra] is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!" -- Arabic scripture 9:30, http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.030
       Regarding a Jew who had become a Muslim, then returned to Judaism, he said: "I will not sit down till he has been killed." Arabic text 009.084.058 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Nov 27-28, 04]
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    #### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun November 28, 2004 edition follows:-
    • Church sex abuse probe draws blank - RCC. Documents withheld. Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Sunday Times - Ireland, The Times Online, www.timeson line.co.uk/ article/0,, 2091-13789 84,00.html , by Dearbhail McDonald, November 28, 2004
       IRELAND: A TWO-YEAR garda inquiry into allegations that the Catholic church covered up child sex abuse has so far failed to produce incriminating evidence against senior church figures.
       It had been hoped by clerical sex abuse victims that the "God squad" - a 20-strong specialist detective unit - would confirm claims that the church concealed the activities of abusive priests in Dublin, Ireland's largest archdiocese. But an internal review of the inquiry last week concluded that no damning evidence had been unearthed.
       Gardai privately say their investigation has been hampered by the church's unwillingness to give full access to its files, which cannot be removed from Archbishop's House. "The investigation is still ongoing, but to date there is nothing in the church's own files to indicate a cover-up.
       There's no conspiracy there," said a source close to the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The garda investigation was launched after claims were made in an RTE television documentary that priests were given access to children even after the church had received complaints of abuse from parents.[...]
       The investigation is expected to be completed before the start of a €3m state inquiry into abuse in the Dublin diocese next year.
       Diocesan files released to gardai have confirmed the transfer of known and suspected abusers to new parishes. But the documents, which are released under the supervision of diocesan authorities and cannot be removed from church property, do not contain any evidence that senior figures, including Cardinal Desmond Connell, the retired archbishop of Dublin, concealed the activities of paedophile priests.
       Despite Connell's promise that gardai would be given unlimited access to diocesan files, victims fear incriminating documents have been withheld.
       "Access to files won't be a problem for the statutory inquiry," said Andrew Madden, a campaigner for victims of sex abuse.
       "Only a state inquiry into the Dublin diocese will ascertain how well Connell and other senior clerics handled complaints. It will have the powers to ensure discovery of church files. We have heard absolutely nothing from the garda inquiry in 2Å years, so you have to ask whether it really achieved its objective."
       Last year, the Dublin diocese paid almost €400,000 to a victim of Thomas Naughton, a priest who was jailed for abusing four boys. The unprecedented settlement was agreed between the church and Mervyn Rundle, who won a High Court application to access all documents on the abusing priest.
       "The gardai can have access to my files any time if they are in any doubt about a cover-up," said Rundle. "This is why we need a state inquiry more than ever, so we can compel the church authorities to testify."
       Connell's pledge for complete access to diocesan files was made last December after a breakthrough meeting with Marie Collins and Ken Reilly, campaigners for victims of sex abuse.
       There are an estimated 450 legal actions against priests and members of religious orders in the Dublin archdiocese alone.
       The screening of Cardinal Secrets in 2002, and a series of disclosures of abuse, led to unprecedented calls for Connell's resignation in the wake of "unspeakable abuse" and his handling of complaints.
       Diarmuid Martin, Dublin's new archbishop, has defended his predecessor. "The person who took the clearest stance on the issue is Cardinal Connell," he said last year. "It is sometimes not seen that he was the one who suspended and reduced priests to a lay state very quickly after he came in, in very many of these cases."
       Earlier this year, nine Catholic bishops, including Connell and Eamon Casey, the disgraced former bishop of Galway, were cleared of claims that they had failed to act on complaints of sexual impropriety against the head of St Patrick's College, Maynooth.
       The bishops commissioned an independent report, which has yet to be published, after a priest accused them of ignoring complaints that Monsignor Michael Ledwith, the former president of the college, was harassing seminarians. The bishops denied any knowledge of the complaints.#
    ////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun November 28, 2004
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    #### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon November 29, 2004 edition follows:-
    • Oakland Seminary Housing Sex Offender Priests [Dominican Order] -- RCC. 7 abusers at seminary, near schools. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       ABC 7, Nov. 28, 2004
       OAKLAND (CA) - In all the controversy over child abuse by Catholic priests, one issue really has not been explored. What does the church do with priests who've molested children? Where do they go? The ABC7 I-Team has a disturbing answer for people living in an upscale Oakland neighborhood.
       The I-Team has learned that one order of priests has decided to place its sex offenders at a seminary in Oakland. And, church officials haven't told the neighbors or the schools nearby.
       If you attend one of the daily services at St. Albert's seminary in the Rockridge neighborhood, you probably wouldn't expect to be sitting next to several sex offenders. But, that's often the case. The Dominican Order of Catholic Priests has decided to send its members who've abused children across the western United States to live at St. Albert's.
       Former seminarian: "I think it's embarrassing for the church, it's a very sad statement on what can happen when people abuse power, when they abuse authority." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:23 PM]
    • Priest arrested for not reporting to police sexual molestation by a church program leader [2004 Valencia] -- RCC.
       Tucson Citizen, www.tucson citizen.com/ breaking/ 112904priest_ arrest.html , By Sheryl Kornman, Nov 29, 2004
       TUCSON (AZ): A priest assigned last summer to St. Monica's Parish in Tucson has been arrested on a charge that he failed to report an allegation of sexual abuse of a girl by a male church program leader.
       The incident took place in October, Tucson police said.
       It was reported to police Oct. 18 by a lay counselor who was counseling the minor.
       The priest, Father Raul Valencia, was arrested in connection with a state law that requires mandatory reporting of allegations of sexual molestation of a minor.
       He was released on his own recognizance, pending the outcome of the case, and is on administrative leave with the diocese. He was an assistant pastor at St. Monica's at the time of the alleged incident.
    • Leaflets about church sex abuse distributed in Seattle, Spokane [O'Donnell] -- RCC.
       KGW, By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS / Associated Press, Nov/29/2004
       SPOKANE (WA): Sex abuse victims who have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane have a message for leaders of the Archdiocese of Seattle: You are also to blame for the depredations of former priest Patrick O'Donnell.
       In leaflets distributed in Seattle and Spokane over the weekend, abuse victims said publicity surrounding the Spokane Diocese's plan to file for bankruptcy next month should not blind people to the actions of Seattle church leaders.
       The Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests [SNAP] said the Seattle Archdiocese allowed O'Donnell, subject of many of the lawsuits, to continue to minister there after he was transferred from Spokane because of abuse complaints.
       "They have denied any responsibility for Patrick O'Donnell despite having assigned him to pastoral responsibilities at St. Paul Parish in Seattle during the time he was being treated for pedophilia," the leaflet from SNAP said.
    • Diocese tries to move past porn scandal [2000s Krenn] -- RCC. Austria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Salt Lake Tribune, www.sltrib.com/ nationworld/ ci_2475840 , The Associated Press
       ST. POELTEN, Austria - Roman Catholic Church leaders in Austria formally installed a new bishop Sunday in a diocese rocked by the discovery of a vast cache of child pornography on computers at a seminary.
       Klaus Kueng, a bishop in southwestern Austria who was sent by Pope John Paul II to investigate the scandal, was installed as the bishop of St. Poelten in this city 50 miles west of Vienna.
       Kueng succeeds Kurt Krenn, who resigned amid investigations by the Vatican and a federal prosecutor into the discovery of up to 40,000 lurid images - including child porn - at the diocese seminary last summer.
    • Boychoir defense to argue immunity [1970-71] -- RCC. Choirboy. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Star-Ledger, BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG, Monday, November 29, 2004
       NEW JERSEY, USA: When he enrolled in the seventh grade at a prestigious choir school in Princeton, John Hardwicke Jr. wanted to travel and sing the classical repertoire he loved.
       But his two years at the school left him with troubling memories. Three decades later, he went public with accusations that as an eighth-grader in 1970-71, he was molested daily by the choirmaster.
       Today, he will sit in the courtroom of the New Jersey Supreme Court as it hears arguments on whether his lawsuit against the American Boychoir School can go to trial.
       "It's important for me that the judges know that their decision has to do with a real human being," Hardwicke said.
       The issue before the justices is whether, as a trial judge ruled, the state's 46-year-old Charitable Immunity Act is so ironclad that it protects charities from being sued, regardless of wrongdoing or crimes their staff might commit.
       The court's ruling could affect all charities in the state, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, which faces scores of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse at the hands of priests. Martin McKernan, the lawyer for the New Jersey Catholic Conference, has been given 15 minutes to argue the church's position in defense of charitable immunity.
    • Trial delayed in clergy abuse case [Janssen, Bass + 2 others] -- RCC. $US9m so far, 13 more cases.
       Courier, The Associated Press, Nov 29, 2004
       DAVENPORT (IA) -- A judge has postponed a trial slated to begin Monday in a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a former Roman Catholic priest, saying questions remain about how the lawsuit and others should proceed.
       The Diocese of Davenport recently agreed to pay $9 million to settle decades-old claims of abuse by priests, but another 13 lawsuits remain.
       However, District Court Judge C.H. Pelton still has not ruled on how the remaining lawsuits should proceed through the court system.
       The trial postponed by Pelton names James Janssen, defrocked by the Vatican after 56 years as a priest.
       At this point, trials are expected to move forward against Janssen and four other accused priests, including the Rev. Francis Bass.
    • Ex-priest admits abuse, walks [1964-68 Weston] -- RCC. Schoolboys. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn. 
       News.com.au ; November 29, 2004
       AUSTRALIA: A Christian Brother walked free from a Melbourne court with a suspended sentence today after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting four boys at Catholic schools in the 1960s.
       Keith William Weston, 81, of Tugun, Queensland, received a two-and-a-half-year jail term, fully suspended for two years, for the assaults on boys aged 12 to 14.
       The Victorian County Court was told Weston on three occasions told boys to go to his office and remove their clothes before masturbating them.
       The fourth assault took place in similar circumstances through the boy's clothes.
    • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: Keeping the faith -- RCC. Rev. Tom Doyle to speak to priests. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday. com/stltoday/ news/columnists. nsf/kevinhorrigan/ story/87039E12 D8AE06C586256 F590037B714? OpenDocument& Headline=THE+ CATHOLIC+CHURCH% 3A+Keeping+the+ faith+- +at+great+ personal+c ; By Kevin Horrigan, Nov/28/2004
       UNITED STATES: Tom Doyle once dwelled in the church's inner circle, but was booted out when he uncovered a horrible secret. Today, that secret has come back to haunt the church.
       Had Gilbert Gauthe not been a pervert, Tom Doyle would be a bishop by now. Maybe a cardinal. Maybe, in God's time, the first American pope.
       Instead, the Rev. Thomas Patrick Doyle - O.P.; C.J.D; USAF Maj. (ret.); former lawyer to the Most Rev. Pio Laghi, papal nuncio to the United States - is excited because he just got a gig counseling alcoholics, and because he has got a book coming out, and because he's on his way to occupied territory.
       On this Monday, Father Doyle ("Call me Tom") was headed to Belleville to speak to some of his fellow priests, and he's not sure that Wilton D. Gregory, the bishop of Belleville, would be happy if he knew.
    • Priest recruit plea pits pope against activists -- RCC.
       Boston Herald, By Marie Szaniszlo, Saturday, November 27, 2004
       BOSTON (MA): Pope John Paul II yesterday called for a national day of prayer to reverse a stark decline in the number of U.S. priests, an idea some Catholics called an ironic example of his failure to understand the reasons for the decline.
       "We think it behooves [? behoves] the church in the United States and particularly in Boston to look at why . . . the main reason being that lay Catholics feel disengaged from the church," said Suzanne Morse, a spokeswoman for Voice of the Faithful [VOTF], a group of lay Catholics that formed in response to the clergy sexual-abuse crisis in Boston. "The Catholic Church right now is in crisis in this country, and the decline in priests is one of the symptoms."
       Last year, fewer than 500 new priests were ordained in the United States, roughly half the number ordained in 1965, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In Boston, the trend has been even more pronounced. In a recent letter to local Catholics, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley said one of the reasons for his controversial decision to close 83 of the archdiocese's 357 parishes was that the archdiocese had ordained only seven priests this year, compared to "50 or 60 a year" a half-century ago. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:45 AM]
    ////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon November 29, 2004
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    • School abuser walks free. [1964-68 Weston] -- RCC. Schoolboys. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn. 
       Herald Sun, (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), www.heraldsun. news.com.au/ common/story_ page/0,5478, 11531388% 255E1702, 00.html , Nov 29, 2004
       MELBOURNE: A Christian Brother walked free from a Melbourne court with a suspended sentence today after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting four boys at Catholic schools in the 1960s.
       Keith William Weston, 81, of Tugun, Queensland, received a two-and-a-half-year jail term, fully suspended for two years, for the assaults on boys aged 12 to 14.
       The Victorian County Court was told Weston on three occasions told boys to go to his office and remove their clothes before masturbating them.
       The fourth assault took place in similar circumstances through the boy's clothes.
       Judge Barton Stott said the crimes were a gross betrayal of the trust placed in Weston as a principal, teacher and Christian Brother between 1964 and 1968.
       "Each boy was in awe of your authority and ill at ease with your conduct," he said.
       Judge Stott said Weston was suffering from poor health, including dementia, prostate cancer and depression.# [Nov 29, 2004]
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    #### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue November 30, 2004 edition follows:-
    • Whom will Skylstad serve? -- CORRECTIONS by Newspaper, re RCC. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Seattle Times, http://archives. seattletimes. nwsource.com/ cgi-bin/texis. cgi/web/vortex/ display?slug=brodeur2 1m&date=20041121
       SPOKANE (WA) - Correction: Nicole Brodeur's column incorrectly reported that Spokane Bishop William Skylstad was one of the priests who escorted his predecessor, then-Bishop of Spokane Lawrence Welsh, from a bar in 1989 and sent him to alcohol treatment.
       The column also incorrectly stated that at the time, Skylstad publicly attributed Welsh's absence from the diocese to stomach problems; the Spokane diocese had provided that explanation in 1986, when Welsh earlier received alcohol treatment.
       And Skylstad's comment that he was unable to remember all the events surrounding abuse allegations against the Rev. Patrick Gerald O'Donnell Jr., a priest whom he supervised years ago, was made in a written statement, not in a court deposition. The Seattle Times apologizes for the errors. [Emphasis added] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:34 PM]
    • Scranton bishop suppresses conservative group -- RCC. Society of St. John. Finances, sex.
       Catholic World News, Nov. 29, 2004
       SCRANTON (PA) (CWNews.com) - Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pennsylvania, has suppressed the Society of St. John, citing grave financial problems and reports of sexual impropriety.
       The Society of St. John, a conservative group dedicated to the revival of Catholic culture centered around the Tridentine Mass, was founded in the Scranton diocese in 1998, with the approval of then-Bishop James Timlin. But by 2002, the Society was beset with problems involving allegations of financial and sexual misconduct.
       Critics -- including disaffected former members -- cited lavish spending at the Society's rural Pennsylvania headquarters, and reports that adolescent boys were given alcohol and invited for overnight stays with the group's leaders.
       In a canonical decree that was published on November 25 by the diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Light , Bishop Martino announced that he was suppressing the Society. The bishop's announcement said that after 6 years of operation "the Society has shown no progress in attaining its stated purposes," and had become "principally a debt servicing operation." He also revealed that the Scranton diocese had backed a $2.6 million loan to cover some of the Society's debts.
    • Religious orders 'must pay €7.5m shortfall' to cover claims -- RCC. "Orphans." Ireland flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       One in Four, Friday November 26th 2004
       IRELAND: The Department of Education is demanding an additional €7.5m in cash from 18 religious orders that signed the controversial agreement setting up the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB).
       The demand was made after the department refused to accept 20 of the properties offered to the State by the orders as part of the deal.
       The revelation was made yesterday at a meeting of the Dail's influential Public Accounts Committee by John Dennehy, secretary general of the Department of Education.
       The deal with the 18 orders that ran the country's residential institutions requires them to hand over to the State cash and property to the value of €128m.
    • €150,000 award has 'implications' for Redress Board -- RCC. Boy.
       One in Four, Patsy McGarry of The Irish Times www.oneinfour. org/news/news 2004/implications
       IRELAND: A settlement of €150,000 with a man allegedly abused in residential institutions had "very serious implications for the Redress Board", representatives of victims support groups said yesterday.
       Mr Tom Sweeney (57), who as a child was in industrial schools at Artane and Galway, was made an initial offer of €113,000 by the Residential Institutions Redress Board, which was reduced to €67,000 when he opted for an oral hearing. On appeal this was adjusted to €73,000.
       He undertook a 22-day hunger strike at the Dáil which ended on May 17th after the Government agreed to expedite a High Court case he discontinued in 2000 when advised to go before the Redress Board. In a settlement involving the State and the Christian Brothers, Mr Sweeney has been awarded €150,000 and an apology from the religious.
       Mr Colm O'Gorman of the One in Four group said the case illustrated the need for an examination of the workings of the Board. Both Mr John Kelly of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse and Ms Christine Buckley of the Aislinn group felt the case illustrated that the Redress Board was failing victims.
    • Hunger striker tells of abuse 'nightmare' by Brothers [Christian Brothers] -- RCC. Boy.
       One in Four, www.oneinfour. org/news/news 2004/hunger , from The Irish Independent
       IRELAND: A man who spent 22 days on hunger strike outside the Dail spoke yesterday of his continuing nightmares over the abuse he suffered at the hands of the Christian Brothers.
       Dubliner Tom Sweeney has settled his case against the State and Christian Brothers for €150,000 and an apology from the order. The State has paid €113,000 of the total.
       The balance of €37,000 is to be paid by the Christian Brothers.
       Mr Sweeney was originally offered €113,000 for abuse he suffered at residential institutions in Artane Industrial School and St Joseph's Industrial School, Salthill, Co Galway in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
    • Abuse support group alarmed by priests [Dominican Order] -- RCC. 7 abusers United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       San Francisco Chronicle, by Kelly St. John, Tuesday, November 30, 2004
       OAKLAND (CA): A support group for victims of clergy molestation called on Oakland city officials Monday to investigate a Roman Catholic seminary that is housing seven priests suspected of sexually abusing children across the Western United States.
       None of the men -- who have been living at St. Albert's Priory near two public schools in the city's Rockridge district for two to 10 years -- has been convicted of sex crimes or are registered sex offenders.
       But officials with the Dominican Order of Catholic Priests acknowledge that all had allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against them from five to 45 years ago, and that the accusations were credible enough for the church to pay for counseling for their victims.
       "None of the men in question are in public ministry," the Rev. Roberto Corral, head of the Western Dominican Province, said in a statement released Monday. "Nor do they have contact with children or young people. They receive psychological care and are under supervision.
    • Priest pleads guilty just as sex abuse trial was to begin [1980s Gale] -- RCC. Altarboy.
       Boston Globe, November 30, 2004
       CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A priest charged with repeatedly raping an altar boy during the 1980s pleaded guilty Tuesday, just as jury selection was set to begin in his trial.
       The Rev. Robert Gale was charged with four counts of child rape for allegedly raping a boy at St. Jude's parish in Waltham between 1980 and 1985, when the boy was between 10 and 15 years old. Prosecutors said the boy was sexually abused by Gale about twice a month. The alleged victim is now 34 and was in the courtroom with his parents Tuesday as Gale entered his plea.
       "I feel at peace," Gale told Judge Charles Grabau.
       His sentencing was scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday. Gale faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors and defense lawyers both declined to say whether they'd agreed upon a sentence recommendation as part of the plea deal.
       Gale's attorney had been expected to argue that the charges should be thrown out because they were filed in August 2002, after the 15-year statute of limitations for rape had expired.
       Prosecutors said Gale moved to New Hampshire, and by moving out of state he had temporarily stopped the clock ticking on the statute of limitations. Gale claimed he was just visiting his sister in New Hampshire, and was actually living in Boston.
    • Appeals Court affirms lower court's dismissal of sex-abuse claims [1967-69 Adamson] -- RCC. Boy.
       Pioneer Press, www.twincities. com/mld/twin cities/news/ state/minnesota/ 10304765.htm , Associated Press
       ST. PAUL (MN) - A district court properly dismissed claims filed in 2003 by a man who says he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest as a teenager because the six-year statute of limitations had expired, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
       The man, identified in the case as "John Doe," filed the claims against the Diocese of Winona based on alleged sexual abuse between 1967 and 1969.
       In 1986 or 1987, the man discovered that the priest, Thomas Adamson, had abused children in the Twin Cities area, and that one of the victims had sued the church.
       John Doe took two days off work to attend trial proceedings in the case, but decided not to come forward with his own allegations against Adamson at that time for personal reasons.
    • Court may start settling diocese sex claims today -- RCC.
       Tucson Citizen, By SHERYL KORNMAN, Nov 30, 2004
       TUCSON (AZ): The first major step toward settling claims of sex abuse by Tucson Diocese priests may be taken today as a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge decides whether to accept a settlement agreement crafted by attorneys for three Yuma brothers and the diocese.
       Eight new confidential claims seeking settlements have been filed in the diocese's bankruptcy reorganization case, according to court records.
       Details of those claims are not being made public.
       During Chapter 11 proceedings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court here, any claims of alleged sexual abuse by diocese personnel that are filed after the reorganization are to remain confidential.
       The diocese filed for Chapter 11 reorganization Sept. 21 because it faced an unknown number of sexual abuse claims and wanted to be able to settle them all fairly, rather than on a first-come, first-served basis, according to Bishop Gerald Kicanas.
       Victims have until April 15 to file claims.
    • Priory neighbors wary of residents [7 of Dominican Order] -- RCC.
       Oakland Tribune, www.oakland tribune.com/ Stories/0, 1413,82~1726~ 2567177,00.html , By Laura Casey
       OAKLAND (CA) -- An activist group called upon city officials Monday to look into whether Saint Albert's Priory in Oakland's Rockridge district is harboring accused sexual predators.
       Dan McNevin, East Bay coordinator for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said the men could pose a risk to neighborhood children.
       "These guys are living among a bunch of targets," he said, noting that most survivors of child sexual assault by priests do not come forward with their allegations until 20 or 30 years after the crimes occur.
       He and other members of SNAP want the Oakland Police Department to scrutinize the behavior of men at Saint Albert's Priory, on Birch Court off College Avenue.
    • Diocese Property Sales -- RCC. Springfield Diocese says most are parish land.
       WWLP, www.wwlp.com/ news2004/story. html?artID= 54399 , ~ Nov 30, 2004
       SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - New information may be coming to light today that the Springfield Diocese netted a profit of millions in property sales and purchases.
       This week Bishop Timothy McDonnell said the church has no land to sell. But victim abuse advocate, Warren Mason, says there's proof that the church could sell additional property to settle clergy sexual abuse claims.
       But the Diocese says most of the properties sold are parish-held and their sales benefited parish communities not the Diocese at large.
       They also say the money can not be used to settle sex abuse claims.
       22News checked with property assessors in East Longmeadow and Longmeadow. They confirm the properties are listed under the Springfield Diocese.
    • Priest arrested for failing to report sexual abuse of a minor by church volunteer [? 2000s García] -- RCC. Girl.
       Arizona Daily Star, www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/50296.php , By Stephanie Innes
       TUCSON (AZ): A 45-year-old priest from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson has been arrested for failing to report an allegation that a church volunteer had sexually abused a minor.
       The Rev. Raúl Valencia García, who until recently was an associate pastor at St. Monica's Catholic Church, 212 W. Medina Road, was arrested by the Tucson Police Department on Nov. 23 for violating the state's mandatory law on reporting suspected child sexual abuse - a felony.
       Valencia García, who recently was transferred to a position at St. Jude's Catholic Church, in San Luis, near Yuma, is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the court case.
       According to police, Valencia García was arrested for failing to report his knowledge of an allegation of a sexual act between a female minor and an adult male church volunteer. Sgt. Carlos Valdez said a second person - the volunteer director of the church's teen-age youth program - also was arrested for failing to report the allegation. The alleged sexual abuse remains under investigation.
    • Property sales bolster to abuse settlement -- RCC. $US7m for 46.
       Republican, By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Tuesday, November 30, 2004
       SPRINGFIELD (MA) - With the sale of a piece of property last week for $750,000, the clergy sexual abuse settlement between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield and the majority of claimants is nearly complete.
       The settlement, reached in August with 46 people represented by Greenfield lawyer John J. Stobierski, included $7 million in cash and net proceeds from the sale of two properties. The diocese put the properties in the control of the claimants through Stobierski.
       One property, a 4.8-acre vacant lot on Tinkham Road in Wilbraham, was sold last week to developer Anthony Carnevale, according to Hampden Registry of Deeds records.
       "We are quite pleased with the value we received," Stobierski said. The sale price was higher than recent appraisers' estimates of between $400,000 and $600,000.
    • Bishop suspends priest accused of sex abuse [1970s St. Charles] -- RCC. Child.
       Commercial Appeal, By Bill Dries, November 30, 2004
       MEMPHIS (TN): A retired Catholic priest who was a prominent Catholic Youth Organization leader in Memphis during the 1970s was suspended Monday from his priestly ministry by Catholic Bishop J. Terry Steib because of allegations of child sexual abuse.
       Steib took the action against Rev. Paul W. St. Charles after a diocesan review board in a letter to Steib concluded "it finds it more likely than not that (St. Charles) engaged in sexual misconduct involving a minor."
       The review board acted on a complaint made to church officials in 2002. It involved allegations of sexual misconduct dating back to the late 1970s, according to the board.
       St. Charles is not charged with a crime nor is he named in any civil suit.
    • Sex Abuse Settlement May Be Near -- RCC. 60 complainants.
       Los Angeles Times, By Jean Guccione and William Lobdell, Nov 30, 2004
       CALIFORNIA: After two years of mediation, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and attorneys for 60 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse worked late into the evening Monday, again optimistic that a multimillion-dollar settlement was imminent, attorneys for both sides said.
       The deal was close enough that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Owen Lee Kwong asked the plaintiffs to be in court, the first time their appearance has been requested since negotiations began. The talks resume this morning.
       "At least it's encouraging," said Joelle Casteix, who is suing the Orange Diocese for alleged abuse. "I think having all the survivors here is scary for the diocese and eye-opening for the judge. Up until now we've been nothing but paperwork" to the court.
    • Abuse victims also angry at Seattle archdiocese [O'Donnell] -- RCC.
       The Seattle Times, http://seattle times.nwsource. com/html/local news/2002 104264_chur ch30m.html , By Nicholas K. Geranios, The Associated Press
       SPOKANE (WA) - Sex-abuse victims who have sued the Roman Catholic diocese of Spokane have a message for leaders of the archdiocese of Seattle: You are also to blame for the depredations of former priest Patrick O'Donnell.
       In leaflets distributed in Seattle and Spokane over the weekend, abuse victims said publicity surrounding the Spokane diocese's plan to file for bankruptcy next month should not blind people to the actions of Seattle church leaders.
       The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said the Seattle archdiocese allowed O'Donnell, subject of many of the lawsuits, to continue to minister there after he was transferred from Spokane because of abuse complaints.
       "They have denied any responsibility for Patrick O'Donnell despite having assigned him to pastoral responsibilities at St. Paul Parish in Seattle during the time he was being treated for pedophilia," the leaflet from SNAP said.
    • Leaflets about church sex abuse distributed in Seattle, Spokane [O'Donnell] -- RCC.
       KING 5, www.king5. com/local news/stories/ NW_112904WAK churchabuse SW.a6078 eef.html , Associated Press
       SPOKANE, Wash. - Sex abuse victims who have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane have a message for leaders of the Archdiocese of Seattle: You are also to blame for the depredations of former priest Patrick O'Donnell.
       In leaflets distributed in Seattle and Spokane over the weekend, abuse victims said publicity surrounding the Spokane Diocese's plan to file for bankruptcy next month should not blind people to the actions of Seattle church leaders.
       The Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests [SNAP] said the Seattle Archdiocese allowed O'Donnell, subject of many of the lawsuits, to continue to minister there after he was transferred from Spokane because of abuse complaints.
    • Abuse Victim Tries to Pierce a Legal Shield [1970s American Boychoir School] -- RCC. Choirboys.
       The New York Times, By LAURA MANSNERUS, Published: November 30, 2004
       TRENTON, (NJ) Nov. 29 - In a case brought by a man who says he was sexually abused as a pupil at a boarding school that tolerated pedophiles on its staff, the New Jersey Supreme Court was urged on Monday to revisit the legal protection of nonprofit organizations from negligence lawsuits.
       The case raises accusations against former staff members at the American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J., that date from the 1970's. Some former students came forward years later, after the sexual abuse scandal involving Roman Catholic priests in Boston, to report abuse at the Boychoir School.
       The case is aimed at bringing New Jersey into line with about 40 other states that have abandoned the doctrine of charitable immunity, which protects institutions from most lawsuits by people who were their beneficiaries.
       It carries potentially damaging consequences not only for the nationally renowned Boychoir School but also for the Catholic Church in New Jersey.
       The lawyer for John W. Hardwicke Jr., who was enrolled at the Boychoir School as a 12-year-old in 1969, told the justices the school had "pervasive, institutionalized sexual abuse."
    • Outrage Over Sex Offenders At Seminary [7 of Dominican Order] -- RCC.
       ABC 7, Nov. 29, 2004
       OAKLAND (CA): - There is reaction to an ABC7 I-Team investigation that revealed seven priests -- admitted sex offenders -- have moved into an upscale Oakland neighborhood.
       The Dominican Order of Priests has decided to place its sex offenders from the ten most western states, including Alaska and Hawaii at St. Albert's Seminary in Oakland.
       The main problem is the church didn't tell anyone -- the neighbors of the seminary or the schools nearby -- about their plan to move the sex offenders in. And now they are facing stiff resistance.
       Several survivors of clergy sexual abuse protested outside St. Albert's Seminary in Oakland and spoke to neighbors after Sunday night's I-Team investigation revealed seven priests, admitted sex offenders, are living there.
       Dan McNevin, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP): "I'm telling you, these men are a clear and present danger to the kids in this town, we don't want any more kids hurt. We are afraid it may be too late."
    • Priest barred due to allegation [1970s Rev. St. Charles] -- RCC.
       KnoxNews.com ; Associated Press, November 30, 2004
       MEMPHIS (TN) - A retired priest has been barred from performing any priestly duties because of a child abuse allegation from the 1970s, the Roman Catholic diocese of Memphis said Monday.
       A church review board found "more likely than not" that the Rev. Paul St. Charles engaged in sexual misconduct involving a minor, the diocese said in a statement.
       The Rev. John Geaney, a spokesman for the diocese, declined details on the allegation. St. Charles, who retired from the Memphis diocese in 1986, now lives in the Nashville area, Geaney said.
       The Associated Press found a listing for the Rev. Paul St. Charles in the Nashville phone book, but a man who answered the phone said he did not live there.
       The allegation was brought to the church's attention in 2002, Geaney said, declining to give details. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:03 AM]
    ////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue November 30, 2004
    Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont105.htm
    For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
    • Teen Rape Covered Up, Court Told. [2001 Tara Anglican Girls' School] - Not caused by staff. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn.  Italy flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       NEWS.com.au , http://email.news. com.au/ct/click? q=9a-b6TGQT MEGS_ys68 Fiv9iylF_ndRR , November 30, 2004
       AUSTRALIA and ITALY: A prestigious private girls' school covered up an alleged gang rape of one of its 15-year-old students during an excursion in Italy, a court has been told. [Nov 30, 04]
    FOR GOOD TEACHINGS TO BE HEEDED, A BIG CLEAN-UP IS NEEDED
    Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker SIGN-UP: www.ncrnews.org/abuse/signup.php for daily e-mails
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    * Jehovah's Witnesses = "Church faces abuse complaints. Jehovah's Witness policy: Address issues internally." USA: Sixty former members nationwide are in lawsuits against the church over similar accusations. And critics say the Church's official policy, even when followed, puts children at risk because it allows molesters back into the congregation with a guarantee that their crime will not be reported to the congregation. - Concord Monitor Online, November 22, 2004
    * Listen = "Listen to the Children; Review of Claims of Abuse from Adults in State Care as Children" Report by the Tasmanian Ombudsman, www.justice.tas.gov.au/ombudsman/Child%20Abuse %20Report%20-%20Final.pdf , November 24, 2004 HOBART (Tas) Australia: The Tasmanian civil authorities, and the Churches who operated institutions, let defenceless children be abused -- physical beatings, emotional crushing, and sexual initiation and ongoing abusive relationships. Those who summoned up the courage were not believed, or were severely punished. Tasmania's experience is similar to those in "orphanages" or "industrial schools" etc. around the world.
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