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Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat December 04, 2004 edition follows:-
• Holyrood 'prejudice' over abuse in Church homes attacked [1970s] -- RCC. "Orphans"
Scotsman, http://news. scotsman.com/ politics.cfm? id=1394332004 , By EDDIE BARNES, POLITICAL EDITOR
SCOTLAND: Ministers have been accused by Catholic insiders of "prejudice" against the Church over the issue of abuse in children's homes.
Jack McConnell's public apology last week to the victims of care home abuse was quickly overshadowed by reports that ministers believed the Church itself should admit to its failings.
The calls have enraged Catholic leaders who believe they are being unfairly singled out as a result of the high-profile nature of abuse cases involving priests and nuns.
Scotland on Sunday understands that the fury within the Church has been heightened because Education Minister Peter Peacock let Archbishop Mario Conti know about McConnell's apology last week, but did not give any indication that the Church would be singled out afterwards.
Conti is believed to have been shocked by the subsequent reports that the Executive thought "the Catholic Church should be clearer" about its view. "It has definitely diluted the level of trust between us," said one insider last night.
The controversy is now to be discussed by Conti and his fellow bishops this week. They will consider issuing a firm rebuttal to the Executive.
The apology from McConnell followed a petition sent to the Scottish Parliament by Christopher Daly, who claimed he had been abused in a home run by nuns at Nazareth House in Aberdeen in the 1970s. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:35 PM]
• Runaway priests: When the law looks the other way [Sayasaya] -- RCC. Boys.
The Dallas Morning News, By REESE DUNKLIN and BROOKS EGERTON, Saturday, December 4, 2004
(First of three parts)
MANILA, Philippines - As fugitives go, the Rev. Fernando Sayasaya is an easy catch.
North Dakota police found him here two years ago with the FBI's help. Under questioning, the Catholic priest admitted molesting boys in the Fargo Diocese.
Nor have authorities investigated his explanation for his initial disappearance: that his bishop warned him through an intermediary to stay out of the United States to avoid arrest. An FBI agent and a North Dakota detective immediately talked themselves out of pursuing the priest's assertion, which the intermediary has verified for The Dallas Morning News.
Father Sayasaya, meanwhile, is working with young people in his native Philippines. "I'm trying to restrain myself," he told The News.
The case highlights a central finding of the newspaper's yearlong study of how Catholic Church workers escape sexual abuse allegations by going abroad: Justice officials sometimes assist them and their religious superiors. And it happens even in countries such as the United States, where the rule of law is presumed to be strong and the separation of church and state clear.
The Rev. Fernando Sayasaya, a fugitive who has admitted molesting boys in North Dakota, taught English grammar to teens in Manila, Philippines. Since the clergy sex-abuse scandal exploded anew in 2002, Catholic leaders have taken the brunt of blame. Overlooked is the role of police, prosecutors and judges - the people expected to hold abusers accountable when the church itself will not. Law enforcement typically has helped through inaction, but sometimes the aid has been direct.
A West Texas prosecutor, for example, agreed to let the church send a priest candidate home to Spain after the man admitted to his bosses in 2000 that he had pulled down a boy's pants, touched his buttocks and taken his underwear. Police closed their investigation without questioning the suspect. [Emphasis added]
• Survivors Support Network Challenges Archdiocese [Heil] -- RCC. Girl.
WCPO, Reported by 9News, Web produced by Neil Relyea, Photographed by 9News, 4:32:16 PM, Dec/2/2004
CINCINNATI (OH): A group of priest abuse survivors are urging Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk to reach out to the parishes where a recently accused priest worked.
9News was the first to report on Wednesday that a lawsuit has been filed against St. John the Evangelist priest Norman Heil.
A woman claims as a teenager she got pregnant by Father Heil and the church coerced her into giving up the child for adoption.
On Thursday the support group SNAP, or Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, encouraged anyone else who had information about this or any abuse case to come forward.
"We're also urging the Archdiocese to offer any information about this abuse or any other child abuse they know from this man, giving it openly and willingly to both the victim and the public so we can help this all come to an end," said Christy Miller, co-leader of SNAP.
• Eastside man convicted of sodomy [? 1998 Pippens] -- Faith Tabernacle Deliverance Church. Boy.
Birmingham News, By CHANDA TEMPLE, Saturday, December 04, 2004
ALABAMA: An East Lake man this week was convicted of sodomizing a boy, who kept quiet about the abuse for years until seeing a documentary about molestation claims against entertainer Michael Jackson.
The child later sat down with his mother and revealed what happened.
Samuel Pippens, 77, was convicted Thursday of one count of sodomy. He will be sentenced Jan. 18.
The child, now 13, claims Pippens began molesting him at age 7 or 8 and continued until he was 11 or 12. Pippens and his wife baby-sat the boy periodically in their home, and the boy said the abuse happened when he and Pippens were alone. ...
Pippens is a church bishop who is married to the pastor of Faith Tabernacle Deliverance Church in Birmingham. On hearing the verdict, he looked into the audience at a handful of supporters and indicated he'd call them from the county jail.
• SNAP members angry over Moreno dedication -- RCC.
KVOA, http://kvoa. com/Global/ story.asp? S=2647990& nav=HMO6TpW0
TUCSON (AZ): Members of SNAP, the survivors network of those abused by priests, have tried for years to get Bishop Manuel Moreno's name taken of the Diocese office building, and now they're angry the Diocese is paying even more respects to the former bishop.
On Friday, The Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Somerton, near Yuma, named its Migrant Outreach Center after Moreno.
The majority of the alleged sexual abuse cases that plague the Diocese of Tucson to this day came under Moreno's twenty-one year tenure as bishop.
SNAP says Moreno ignored warnings as to the extent of the problem, leaving more children vulnerable to abuse.
"To put him in a place of honor, just feels like they're rubbing salt in the wounds of the survivors," says Southern Arizona SNAP President Jim Parker.
• Church payout's ripple effect -- RCC. $US100m to 87 survivors. A record.
Mercury News, www.mercurynews. com/mld/mercury news/news/local/ 10338437.htm , By William Lobdell and Jean Guccione, Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (CA) - The agreement by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to pay $100 million to settle 87 sex-abuse claims against priests probably will set a standard that will profoundly affect hundreds of cases in California and nationwide, lawyers familiar with the litigation said Friday.
Although final terms of the settlement remain undisclosed under a gag order, sources on all sides of the complex case confirmed the overall settlement figure, which would be a record payment by a Catholic diocese in the United States.
The Vatican-approved deal will provide, on average, $1.1 million to each of the 87 alleged victims of sexual abuse -- considerably more than most previous settlements of multiple priest sex-abuse claims. The previous record settlement came last year when the Archdiocese of Boston agreed to pay $85 million, divided among 552 victims.
The size of the Orange County agreement will provide a benchmark for future settlements. "It's like a gigantic eBay," said Patrick J. Schiltz, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minn., where recent sales can dictate prices of similar items. Schiltz called the $100 million settlement "an astonishing amount of money."
• Judge refuses to throw out brothers' suit against priest [~ 1969 Gorayeb] -- Melkite Catholic Church. HIV. 2 boys.
NewJersey.com ; By EMAN VAROQUA, Saturday, December 4, 2004
NEW JERSEY: A state judge decided Friday to hear a civil case filed by two Passaic County brothers who say a priest, now deceased, molested them more than 30 years ago.
In their suit against the Rev. Albert J. Gorayeb and St. Anne's Melkite Catholic Church, the brothers allege the pastor promised their mother that he would "love and care for them like his own children," and over a course of six months molested the boys 15 to 20 times.
Another Passaic County man has filed suit against Gorayeb and the church, alleging he contracted HIV from the priest, court records show. That suit is set to be heard before another judge in Paterson in coming weeks, said Philip Elberg, the man's attorney.
Superior Court Judge David Waks in Paterson quashed an attempt Friday by attorneys representing the West Paterson church to drop the case. Both sides will meet again before Waks on March 14, and a trial could follow shortly.
The attorneys for the church had argued that because the abuse happened around 1969, the statute of limitations was exceeded.
Most civil actions must be brought within two years of the time a plaintiff knows he or she has been harmed, or their 21st birthday. The statute of limitations can be extended in sexual abuse cases if a judge believes the plaintiff's mental state or duress from a defendant kept the plaintiff from filing sooner.
• $100M clergy abuse deal brings some relief - RCC. $US100m wasted
Boston Globe, By Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press Writer, December 4, 2004
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- A record-breaking, $100-million clergy sex abuse settlement between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and 87 plaintiffs brought some measure of relief to long-suffering families Friday, but legal experts differed over whether the blockbuster deal would help resolve a huge backlog of cases in California.
The agreement, reached late Thursday and expected to be finalized as soon as Monday, surpasses the previous record of $85 million awarded to 552 victims of clergy abuse in Boston in 2003, a participant in settlement negotiations said.
The Associated Press has learned the settlement involving the Orange County Diocese is worth $100 million.
It wasn't clear how much of the settlement insurers would pay and how much the diocese would provide, but church officials said the deal would not bankrupt the diocese or require the closure of any of its 55 parishes.
Superior Court Judge Owen Lee Kwong has prohibited lawyers in the case from discussing the amount of the settlement.
Legal experts not involved in the case said the deal could be a blueprint for mediation underway in about 500 lawsuits still pending against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Another 300 cases are pending throughout the rest of the state.
"One signal it sends is this can be done. A second signal is if this can be done, at least some dioceses will come up with big bucks. Both of those things are important," said Richard Marcus, law professor at the Hastings College of Law at the University of California, San Francisco.
• Calif. diocese seen in record settlement - RCC.
Boston Globe, By Kevin Cullen, December 4, 2004
CALIFORNIA: The Roman Catholic diocese of Orange County, Calif., has reached a settlement that reportedly exceeds $100 million with 87 people who were sexually abused by priests and other diocesan employees, topping the record $85 million that the Archdiocese of Boston paid more than 500 victims of clergy abuse last year.
Unlike Boston, where the terms of the 16-page settlement were immediately made public, the judge overseeing the Orange County settlement, Owen Lee Kwong, ordered attorneys and plaintiffs not to discuss details of the agreement reached Thursday. They are expected to be released by the court in about a week, according to lawyers involved in the case.
But a source familiar with the case described a report Wednesday in the Daily Journal, a Los Angeles legal newspaper, that a tentative settlement for "$100-million plus" had been reached as "very accurate." The Associated Press quoted someone it called "a source close to the case" as saying the Orange County settlement would exceed Boston's.
Bishop Tod D. Brown, who presides over the diocese of 1 million Catholics that stretches along some 42 miles of Southern California coastline, said the settlement "fairly compensates the victims in a way that allows our church to continue its ministry." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:19 AM]
• Abusive priest left sex trail in Ireland [1966-68 McNamara] -- RCC. Boys.
The Times-Union, www.jackson ville.com/tu- online/stories/ 120404/met_173 57971.shtml , By JEFF BRUMLEY, Dec 4, 2004
JACKSONVILLE (FL): The visiting Irish priest blamed for abusing at least three children in Jacksonville in the late 1960s eventually returned to Ireland where he sexually assaulted more children the following two decades, a Catholic bishop in Ireland told The Florida Times-Union.
The Rev. Thomas McNamara was identified this week by the Diocese of St. Augustine as the priest accused of "inappropriately touching" three youths during his service here from 1966 to 1968. McNamara was the same person who perpetrated similar assaults on "a number of victims," all of them teen-age boys, in Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s, Bishop Willie Walsh of the Diocese of Killaloe in Ennis, Ireland, said in a telephone interview Friday.
Walsh said McNamara died at age 77 in 1997.
Experts in clergy sex abuse say the Jacksonville report is one of an increasing number of international cases in which predatory priests moved not only from parish to parish and diocese to diocese, but also nation to nation -- only to return home seeking legal refuge and, often, more victims.
A spokeswoman for the Jacksonville-based Diocese of St. Augustine, which represents 162,000 Catholics in Duval and 16 other North Florida counties, said there is no indication diocesan officials at the time knew of the abuse allegations or knowingly returned the priest to an unsuspecting Irish church.
"We have no reason to believe that is what took place," said the spokeswoman, Kathleen Bagg-Morgan. [Emphasis added.] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:57 AM]
• $129m deal in church abuse case -- RCC. $US100m to 87 plaintiffs.
The Australian, From correspondents in Los Angeles, December 04, 2004
CALIFORNIA: A RECORD $US100 million ($129 million) clergy sex abuse settlement between the Californian Catholic Diocese of Orange and 87 plaintiffs has brought some relief to families.
But legal experts differ over whether the deal will help resolve a huge backlog of cases in California.
The agreement, reached yesterday and expected to be finalised as soon as Tuesday, surpasses the previous record of $US85 million awarded to 552 victims of clergy abuse in Boston in 2003, a participant in negotiations said.
The Associated Press has learned the settlement involving the Orange County Diocese is worth $US100 million.
• Time of renewed hope for Catholics - RCC.
Arizona Daily Star, www.dailystar. com/dailystar/ dailystar/51 042.php , By Stephanie Innes
TUCSON (AZ): Advent may conjure images of opening little doors on 24-day calendars in anticipation of Santa Claus, but the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson this year is stressing that Advent has a serious theological meaning - hope and expectation for Jesus Christ's Second Coming.
While U.S. Christmas celebrations may seem to begin the day after Thanksgiving, the local Catholic Church this year is trying to emphasize the reflective, noncelebratory purpose of the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. ...
In the local Catholic diocese, the season of hope follows another difficult year.
On Sept. 20, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the face of 22 pending legal actions over sexual abuse of children by priests, and is currently in a bankruptcy process expected to continue throughout much of 2005.
"For us in the diocese, it's a particularly important time to be assured that God is among us," Kicanas said this week.
• Settlement reached in 87 diocese abuse suits [Murray, Harris, Stevens] - RCC.
Daily Pilot, www.latimes. com/news/local/ pilot/news/la- dpt-catholic 04dec04,1,413 5928.story? coll=la-tcn- pilot-news ; by Deepa Bharath, Dec 4, 2004
NEWPORT-MESA, CALIFORNIA - Plaintiffs, attorneys and Catholic Church officials expressed relief on Friday after a two-year legal tug-of-war between the Diocese of Orange and victims of clergy abuse ended in a historic settlement late Thursday night.
Terms of the settlement, which included a monetary settlement and other agreements, were not revealed because of a court-issued gag order. The amount of the settlement and other terms will likely be released late next week.
As many as 800 claims were filed statewide throughout 2003 by people who said they had been molested years ago as children. The civil cases grew in number last year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a California law that had permitted the retroactive criminal prosecution of old child molestation cases.
Thursday's settlement related to 87 plaintiffs who sued the Diocese of Orange, alleging sexual abuse by clergy or lay people who were employed by the diocese in churches or schools.
Costa Mesa-based attorney John Manly handled 27 of these cases, including eight victims from the Newport-Mesa area. Manly's cases included victims who say they were abused by Daniel Murray of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the Balboa Peninsula; Michael Harris, former principal of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, who used to conduct Sunday masses at St. John the Baptist; and Donald Stevens, a custodian at St. Joachim Catholic Church in Costa Mesa who has passed away.
• Audit praises Albany Diocese -- RCC.
Troy Record, By Matt Smith, The Associated Press, Dec/04/2004
ALBANY (NY) - The Albany Diocese, now investigating sexual misconduct allegations against nine current and former priests, is complying with a national church program aimed at combatting sex abuse, a new report said.
Prepared by independent auditors for the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the report cites the diocese's creation of a "safe environment" education program for young people, adding Albany church officials have "established clear and well-publicized standards of ministerial behavior."
"We continue to work diligently to ensure children and young people are safe," Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard said. "We are continuing to meet our commitment to be transparent in our actions."
A critic of the diocese called the audit "window dressing."
Attorney John Aretakis, who has brought several sex-abuse lawsuits against the diocese, said Hubbard has "intentionally disseminated misinformation and severely undercounts the extent and wide-ranging effects of this type of abuse in order to promote a sense of relief."
The diocese's Sexual Misconduct Review Board determined earlier this year there was "reasonable grounds" to believe allegations of sex abuse involving six former priests, none of whom remain in ministry, according to diocese spokesman Kenneth Goldfarb.
Meanwhile, seven former priests and two that remain in ministry are under investigation, Goldfarb said.
• Molestation victim gets $100K [1991-92 Fitzgerald] -- RCC. Boy.
Boca Raton News, by Dale M. King, Saturday, December 4, 2004
FLORIDA: The Roman Catholic Dioceses of Palm Beach and Rockville Centre, N.Y., have settled a sexual abuse lawsuit involving a former priest accused of molesting a teenager while he served at a Boca Raton church some 13 years ago.
The victim, now 28, claimed in his suit that former priest Matthew Fitzgerald molested him in 1991 and 1992 while he was a teenager and Fitzgerald served at Ascension Catholic Church on North Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
The lawsuit, filed in September 2003, contended the teen sought counseling from Fitzgerald because he was upset over being molested by a teacher.
A parishioner who asked not to be named told the Boca Raton News on Friday that he recalled Fitzgerald as "a nice guy." Reports that Fitzgerald may have molested a child came as a shock, he said. "I never heard of any problems."
The parishioner wonders if anything actually happened since the dioceses reached out-of-court settlements. "It was never proven. They can't prove anything."
"He always maintained his innocence," the parishioner said of Fitzgerald. The church member said he knew the ex-priest well. "We played golf together and everything."
But as to the alleged sexual incident, he said, "I didn't have a clue."
• Orange County Diocese Settles Sex Abuse Cases -- RCC. 87 victims. > $US85m.
Washington Post, By Amy Argetsinger and Kimberly Edds, Page A12, Saturday, December 4, 2004
LOS ANGELES (CALIFORNIA), Dec. 3 -- The Roman Catholic diocese for suburban Orange County has agreed to settle claims from 87 people who say they were sexually abused by priests and other church employees with a sum that reportedly would exceed the record $85 million paid by the Archdiocese of Boston last year.
The size of the settlement, announced late Thursday to an emotional group of plaintiffs who waited out negotiations at a downtown courthouse, could have a major impact on church sexual abuse cases pending across the country, lawyers said.
Though details remain under a court gag order, it is clear that the individual awards will be far larger than in Boston, where the settlement was shared by more than 550 victims. Lawyers and others said the Orange County case could encourage more people to file suits, raise the expectations for settlement sums -- and possibly send more dioceses into bankruptcy.
"It's devastating for the church. Devastating," said Jay P. Dolan, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of a book on American Catholicism. "This impacts all of the services the church provides."
• Diocese interprets priest cases wrong, prosecutor says [1970s St. Charles; Duran] - RCC. Priest says Duran case non-custodial. Boy.
Commercial Appeal, By Bill Dries, December 4, 2004
MEMPHIS (TN): Two years ago, a man told Memphis Catholic Church officials he had been sexually abused by Father Paul W. St. Charles as a teenager in the late 1970s.
Four years ago, parents told church officials Father Juan Carlos Duran had sexually abused their son.
In each case, church officials deemed the allegations credible enough that they took actions against the priest.
But they didn't report the allegations to agencies that might launch a criminal investigation despite state laws requiring anyone who knows of such abuse to report it to authorities.
"Some of the things that happened are not reportable. For example, in the Duran case ... the relationship he had with Father Duran was noncustodial. That's not a reportable crime," said Diocesan spokesman Father John Geaney.
Asst. Dist. Atty. Kevin Rardin, chief prosecutor of child sexual abuse cases in Shelby County and head of the Child Protection Investigation Team, disagreed vehemently.
"I am, in fact, shocked that a Catholic priest would maintain that a priest is not responsible for the care of children," Rardin said.
• Priest abuse payout tops Boston record -- RCC. Estimated $US100m
San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Saturday, December 4, 2004
CALIFORNIA: A record settlement of child sexual abuse claims against the Catholic Church in Southern California could set the stage for a series of mega-payouts in the Bay Area and across the state.
On Friday, attorneys familiar with the Diocese of Orange negotiations confirmed reports that the settlement of 87 claims in that county would exceed the $85 million paid out to abuse victims last year in Boston -- the previous record for a joint settlement. The Associated Press reported the settlement was worth $100 million.
In Northern California, pretrial motions in some 150 abuse suits against dioceses across the region are being heard in Oakland by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw.
Attorney Steve McFeely, who represents the Diocese of Oakland in the Northern California cases, said the news from Orange County "at least indicates that these cases can be settled."
"That is good news," he said.
But McFeely said church lawyers in Northern California needed to see the details of the Diocese of Orange settlement -- such as how the money is divided and whether stronger cases got a larger share of the pot.
• Former priest admits abuse of boy [2000 Smith] -- RCC. Boy.
Miami Herald, www.miami.com/ mld/miamiherald/ news/local/ 10336035.htm , BY JAY WEAVER, jweaver@herald.com
MIAMI (FL): The only Catholic priest to be charged with sexually abusing a child in South Florida pleaded guilty Friday to fondling a 12-year-old boy while he was visiting his grandmother at a nursing home.
The Rev. Trevor Smith, who served in the Archdiocese of Miami for 40 years, faces no jail time but had to apologize to the victim, now 16, and his mother, as part of his plea agreement.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola sentenced Smith, 67, to two years of house arrest in Miami.
He must continue to wear an electronic ankle bracelet so authorities can monitor his movement. That will be followed by eight years' probation.
Smith, now retired, also must pay a $1,000 fine, continue his therapy with a psychologist and have no contact with minors.
• Diocese adds two priests to list of those accused of sex abuse [Manzo, Riol] - RCC. Addresses unknown.
Tucson Citizen, www.tucson citizen.com/ breaking/ 120404dioc ese.html , By SHERYL KORNMAN
TUCSON (AZ): Two more priests who served in the Catholic Diocese of Tucson have been added to list of clerics against whom there are credible allegations of sexual misconduct with minors, the diocese says.
Both served in Tucson; one in the 1960s, the other as recently as 2003. Their whereabouts are unknown to the diocese.
A civil lawsuit involving the actions of one of the priests, the Rev. Fernando L. Manzo, was filed against the diocese before the diocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, according to Fred Allison, diocese spokesman.
Manzo was placed on administrative leave by the diocese in December 2003, after the diocese was notified that authorities were investigating him regarding an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. Manzo gets no financial support from the diocese.
It is not known if any claims have been filed against the Rev. Claudio Riol, the second priest named yesterday, Allison said.
Riol served at Immaculate Heart Academy in Tucson from 1960 to 1961 and lived here until 1969, according to a notice on the diocese Web site. He has not been removed from priestly duties.
• Finding Strength in Pain -- RCC.
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes. com/news/local/ state/la-me- victims4dec04, 1,5547803.story? coll=la-news- state ; By Nita Lelyveld
CALIFORNIA: For years, they jammed their childhood traumas so deep inside that even their families had no access.
Two years ago, 20 years into his marriage, Max Fisher finally told his wife, Cory. At last, she knew the source of her husband's thrashing nightmares - the ones that left him with bloody gouges on his face and her with permanent pouches under wary, worried eyes.
David Guerrero, at 34, crushed his parents with the confession that a priest had started sodomizing him when he was 8, in their church and in their home. In horror, Robert and Minerva Guerrero replayed their son's feral years of lashing out at them and lurching toward loveless sex, crystal methamphetamine and booze.
Guilt, shame, fear, rage - the burdens they all bore daily - bruised and broke them. So when these direct and indirect victims of sexual abuse by priests gathered in a cold Los Angeles courthouse hallway this week, they found a strained solace together.
• Man settles in priest abuse case [~ 1991 Fitzgerald] - RCC. Boy.
Sun-Sentinel, By Scott Travis, Posted December 4 2004
FLORIDA: A man who accused a former priest of sexually abusing him has settled with the Catholic dioceses of Palm Beach and Rockville Centre, N.Y., for an undisclosed amount of money.
The 28-year-old man, identified in court papers as John Doe, will receive "well in excess" of $100,000, his lawyer, Andrew Pelino, said. The man did not want to reveal the exact amount, Pelino said.
The man said that when he was 15 years old, Matthew Fitzgerald, then a priest at Ascension Catholic Church in Boca Raton, molested him. The man kept the matter to himself until revealing it during a family argument in 2000, Pelino said.
The lawsuit alleged that officials at the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island and the Diocese of Palm Beach covered up years of sexual misconduct by Fitzgerald before he had his rights to serve as a priest revoked in 2002. Fitzgerald could not be reached for comment Friday. His lawyer, Stephen Muffler, declined to comment.
• Diocese's Deal Raises the Bar Across U.S. - RCC. $US100m to 87.
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes. com/news/local/ state/la-me- priest4dec04, 1,1977783.story? coll=la-news- state ; By William Lobdell and Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writers
CALIFORNIA: The agreement by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to pay $100 million to settle 87 sex-abuse claims against priests is likely to set a standard that will profoundly affect hundreds of cases in California and nationwide, lawyers familiar with the litigation said Friday.
Although final terms of the settlement remain undisclosed under the terms of a gag order, sources on all sides of the complex case confirmed the overall settlement figure, which would be a record payment by a Catholic diocese in the United States.
The Vatican-approved deal will provide, on average, $1.1 million to each of the 87 alleged victims of sexual abuse - considerably more than most previous settlements of multiple priest sex-abuse claims. The previous record settlement came last year when the Archdiocese of Boston agreed to pay $85 million, divided among 552 victims.
The size of the Orange County agreement will provide a benchmark for future settlements. "It's like a gigantic EBay" where recent sales can dictate prices of similar items, said Patrick J. Schiltz, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minn. He called the $100-million settlement "an astonishing amount of money."
• Spokane diocese to pay $664,500 to abuse victims [O'Donnell, Knecht, O'Grady] - RCC.
The Seattle Times, http://seattle times.nwsource. com/html/local news/200210 9059_spokane 04m.html , By Nicholas K. Gerianos, The Associated Press
SPOKANE (WA) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane has reached settlements totaling $664,500 with five victims of sexual abuse by priests, Bishop William Skylstad announced yesterday.
But the diocese still faces numerous lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in claims and still plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday.
The Rev. Steve Dublinski, the diocese's vicar general, said three of the settlements involved people who had filed lawsuits, while two involved people who had not done so. No confidentiality agreements were involved in the settlements, but the diocese elected not to reveal the names of the victims involved.
Three of the settled cases involved abuse by former priest Patrick O'Donnell, accused of molestation in multiple lawsuits; one involved the late Rev. Joseph Knecht and one involved the late Rev. Peter O'Grady, Dublinski said.
• Mistrust lingers after sex abuse scandal -- RCC. 4/5 ashamed.
Charlotte Observer, By DAVID BRIGGS, Religion News Service
UNITED STATES: The sexual abuse scandal is creating a shift in relations between American Roman Catholics and their church hierarchy.
In the first comprehensive national study of the effects of the sexual abuse scandal, researchers at Catholic University of America and Purdue University found that nearly four of five people in the pews said they were ashamed and embarrassed for their church. Nearly three-quarters said that the failure of U.S. Catholic bishops to stop the abuse is a bigger problem than the abuse itself.
Anger in the pews toward church leaders so far is apparently having little effect on Catholics' commitment to their church. Respondents reported only a slight decline in attendance and financial giving as a result of the scandal; more than four in five report that being Catholic remains very important to them personally.
But what the results indicate is that while the church itself remains intact, the sexual abuse scandal is shaping up to be a seminal moment in how Catholics view the authority of bishops.
"The development of lay organizations such as Voice of the Faithful demanding accountability and openness to me represents a new day. It's new in my life," said Catholic University's Dean Hoge.
• Dallas attorney: clergy abuse scandal worse than reported - RCC. Archive to be digitised.
RenewAmerica, by Matt C. Abbott, December 4, 2004
UNITED STATES: Yikes. Just when you thought the clergy sex-abuse scandal might be abating.comes news that the Diocese of Orange, Calif. has reached a settlement with clergy abuse victims that "is worth $100 million," according to Gillian Flaccus of the Associated Press.
And then there's this lovely item:
On a popular weblog run by Catholic author and journalist Amy Welborn (see http://amywel born.typepad. com/open book ), there are a couple of interesting posts.
The first is from Rod Dreher, a journalist with the Dallas Morning News ( www.dallasnews.com ):
"I just conducted a long phone interview with Sylvia Demarest, the Dallas lawyer who represented victims in the successful civil case against the diocese here. She was so moved by the damage that this abuse did to children that she began to collect everything she could on the scandal nationwide, from press reports to legal documents (many sent to her by attorney friends around the country working in the same area), to scholarly studies, etc.
"After years of building this archive, she had over 100 boxes of material, and figures the time spent amassing this stuff cost her over a million dollars. But she had become so engrossed in the story of the abuse and systematic cover up she felt that she couldn't quit, even though her physical health and her financial situation suffered.
"She's just turned all this over to BishopAccountability.org, and they're going to make a vast digital archive of it, accessible and searchable for free, by all. It will first and foremost help parents find out the histories of their priests and dioceses. But it will also enable historians and researchers to start connecting dots. She says there is evidence in these files of the kinds of sexual networks that we've all heard so much about - though she said it will be up to others to decide how conclusive that evidence is. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:13 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat December 04, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun December 05, 2004 edition follows:-
• Days after record settlement, Orange County bishop 'at peace' - RCC. $US100m to 87 survivors.
Contra Costa Times, www.contra costatimes. com/mld/cc times/news/ state/103 46813.htm , By BEN FOX, Associated Press, Sun, Dec. 05, 2004
ORANGE, Calif. - The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange told parishioners Sunday that he can finally sleep through the night now that he has ended a long and at times bitter legal battle by agreeing to the nation's largest settlement for victims of sexual abuse by clergy.
"I am at peace with the settlement," Bishop Tod D. Brown said in brief remarks after Mass at Holy Family Cathedral. "The victims will be fairly compensated and, at the same time, our diocese will be able to continue our mission of service."
Brown did not disclose details of the settlement - saying he will do so only after it is finalized, which is expected this week - but said it involves "many millions of dollars" and will be "very painful" for the diocese. Attorneys involved in the negotiations have said privately that the church and its insurers will pay $100 million to 87 victims.
The settlement exceeds the previous record of $85 million awarded to 552 victims of clergy abuse in Boston in 2003 and may serve as a model for the resolution of other outstanding lawsuits against the church in Southern California. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:24 PM]
• Legionaries, accused of seminarian-abuse, still in Papacy's favour - RCC. Male seminarians.
National Catholic Reporter, The Word From Rome column, www.national catholicreporter. org/word , By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
ROME: Several readers have written asking about recent signs of approval from the Holy See for the Legionaries of Christ and their founder, Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado.
Among other things, the pope recently entrusted to the Legionaries the administration of an important church institution in the Holy Land, Jerusalem's Notre Dame Center. He approved the statutes the Regnum Christi movement, a lay branch of the Legionaries. A top Vatican official ordained 59 new Legionaries of Christ priests from 10 countries in a Rome ceremony.
By letter, John Paul II also congratulated Maciel for 60 years of "intense, generous and fruitful priestly ministry." The pope said he wanted to join in the "canticle of praise and thanksgiving" for the great things he has accomplished and said Maciel has always been concerned with the "integral promotion of the person."
What should one make of all this, readers have asked, in light of charges from several former members of the Legionaries of Christ that they were sexually abused by Maciel, charges documented in the book Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II by American journalists Jason Berry and Gerry Renner?
I think the only honest answer is that the pope and his senior aides obviously do not believe the charges. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:22 PM]
• Silva: Priestly life changed by sex abuse crisis. - RCC.
The Catholic New World, www.catholic newworld.com/ cnw/issue/ interview.html
UNITED STATES: Father Robert J. Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils, was busy with the federation's usual work of representing priests on issues from pay and health care to spirituality and serving on the U.S. bishops' committee on priestly life and ministry, when news of the clerical sexual abuse scandal hit in 2002.
Suddenly, in addition to his public duties, he ended up as the public face of the priesthood, fielding 50 media calls the day the Boston Globe broke the story. At the same time, the council had to help accused priests defend themselves and advocate for their rights. Silva, ordained in 1965 for the Diocese of Stockton, Calif., spoke about how the scandal has affected priests with staff writer Michelle Martin.
The Catholic New World: What does the federation do?
Father Robert J. Silva: The National Federation of Priest councils has a two-fold purpose: to represent the priests of the country in some way, and then to assist in discerning the pastoral mission that we face. It does that by pulling together into a loose federation all the presbyteral councils who choose to affiliate with us (Councils from 126 out of 186 U.S. diocese participate.) We're going to take up issues that deal with the way a priest lives, his humanity, his spirituality.
Then I represent the priests to the media. Usually, the media are pretty good. For all the tragic things they are accused of saying and causing, they usually do pretty well. BBC, CBS, NBC, CNN, we've had them all in here with the scandal.
• Priest abuse victims fault church report - RCC.
Albany Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Sunday, December 5, 2004
ALBANY (NY) -- A report finding the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has properly handled the clergy abuse crisis prompted a victims' group to question the data.
The Capital Region chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP] called the report disingenuous Friday.
"In the spirit of good will, if the numbers are so good, then why not give up the personnel files?" said Mark Furnish, the director of the Capital Region chapter, who recently was named to the network's national board of directors. Church officials say the documents are protected by privacy considerations.
Furnish questioned the audit, which was paid for by the church, and said his conversations with other local victims indicate more priests -- about 20 or 25 -- are under inquiry than publicly acknowledged: "But, do I have a smoking gun? No, I don't."
Bishop Howard Hubbard removed two priests from ministry earlier this year after the Diocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board found reasonable grounds to believe allegations against them. Investigations are ongoing into claims against nine others, two of whom are in active ministry.
• Tassie compo law blow to victims, says expert - Anglican.
The Mercury, www.themercury. news.com.au/ common/story_page/ 0,5936,11599512% 255E3462,00.html , By ELLEN WHINNETT, Chief Reporter, Dec 06, 04
AUSTRALIA: SEXUAL abuse victims were being disadvantaged by Tasmania's "archaic" personal injury laws, says a national plaintiff lawyer.
Roger Singh, from the Shine Roche McGowan law firm, said Tasmania's laws were the most difficult in Australia for victims of abuse seeking justice.
He said the State Government should consider providing the same opportunities for victims of abuse to sue as they had recently done for victims of asbestos illnesses.
Mr Singh is representing Hobart man Steve Fisher and another victim in their claims against the Anglican Church.
He said the church was offering payments capped at $60,000, and there was no guarantee any of the victims would receive the maximum amount.
[Australian Anglican "Church apologises to victims of institutions", www.anglican. org.au/docs/ MR%207-10%20 Apology%20to% 20Victims% 20of%20 Institutions.pdf ,of October 6, 2004. Requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™]
• Rio Hondo pastor arrested [Ramirez] - Religion not stated. Girls
Valley Morning Star, www.valleystar. com/localnews_ more.php?id=55 879_0_19_0_M , By MATT LYNCH, mattl@valleystar.com ; 956-430-6280
RIO HONDO (TX) - Authorities arrested a 60-year-old church pastor Wednesday after he allegedly admitted to repeatedly molesting two 13-year-old girls who attended the church with their families.
Sgt. Rudy Delgado of the Cameron County Sheriff's Department said Guadalupe Ramirez Sr. of Rio Hondo was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child after he allegedly confessed to the offenses during an interview with police.
"The allegations came through Child Protective Services," Delgado said.
"We brought in the suspect, he was Mirandized and he gave us a confession. Once he confessed to the allegations, he was charged and arrested."
Delgado said department officials learned of the incidents after the parents of the victims filed complaints through CPS last week.
Delgado said after learning of the incidents, the victims were interviewed by officials at Maggie's House, a San Benito facility that provides services to abused children as part of the Cameron County Children's Advocacy Center. Delgado said that during the interviews, both children allegedly indicated that Ramirez abused them.
• Court rules statute of limitations has expired in sex abuse case [1967-69 Adamson] - RCC.
Winona Daily News, www.winonadaily news.com/articles/ 2004/12/05/news/ 1news05.txt , By Darrell Ehrlick, Dec 5, 2004
MINNESOTA: The Minnesota Court of Appeals has upheld a district court decision dismissing a sexual abuse case against the Diocese of Winona involving the Rev. Thomas Adamson.
The three-panel appellate court ruled that the plaintiff, "John Doe 76A," could not bring a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Diocese because the six-year statute of limitations had expired. Doe contended in court documents abuse by Adamson had mentally affected him, causing a disability. Doe's appeal to the higher court argued that a mental disability caused by the alleged abuse didn't let him understand the abuse fully until he brought the suit in February 2003.
The suit accused Adamson of abusing Doe between 1967 and 1969. Adamson was a priest in southern Minnesota from 1958 to 1974. The suit states that Doe's parents were "very devout Catholics" and Adamson had frequent contact with the family. When Doe was 13 in 1967, court documents allege that Adamson started sexually abusing the boy. Doe alleges that Adamson abused him four times over the course of two years.
Doe testified that he felt "confused, scared, ashamed and uncomfortable," and that at all times, he knew it was wrong. In the proceeding years, Doe discussed the abuse with some friends and family, according to court documents. Doe also discovered that Adamson and the church were being sued for abuse by church members in 1986 or '87, and took two days off work to attend the trial.
In 1994, Doe's mother disclosed the allegations to then- Bishop John Vlazny. In a letter dated March 18, 1994, Vlazny apologized for the abuse and offered assistance to Doe, according to court records. Doe declined the offer, telling the court that he didn't trust Vlazny.
In February 2003, Doe filed suit against the Diocese of Winona, asserting claims of negligence, sexual battery, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty as a result of the alleged abuse. However, the Winona District Court dismissed the suit, saying the statute of limitations had expired, and that Doe had known "at all times since the abuse occurred that he had been abused and that the abuse was wrong."
• Two priests added to list of diocese abuse suspects [1960s-80s. Manzo, Riol] - RCC. 30 + 2 + 1. ? Mainly boys.
Fox 11, By Stephanie Innes / Arizona Daily Star, 10:40 PM MST on Saturday, December 4, 2004
TUCSON (AZ): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson on Friday added two priests to a public list of clergy with "credible" accusations of sexually abusing children.
The addition of the Rev. Fernando L. Manzo and the Rev. Claudio Riol brings the list to a total of 30 priests, two deacons and one nun. The diocese created the list in 2002 after reaching a $14 million settlement with 10 men who said they were abused by four local clergy members during the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
Until December 2003, Manzo was the pastor of San Felipe de Jesus Catholic Church in Nogales, Ariz. Manzo, 48, disappeared after being told he was under investigation because of an accusation by his nephew, Brandon Croly, who said Manzo sexually molested him as a teen-ager. Manzo has not been criminally charged, though the Tucson Police Department was informed of the allegation.
Croly is a U.S. Army investigator who is preparing to leave for a yearlong deployment in Iraq. His case is one of 22 civil actions pending against the local diocese, which filed for federal bankruptcy protection Sept. 20. The bankruptcy filing temporarily stayed all pending legal actions against the diocese, but the lawsuits all must be resolved as part of the bankruptcy reorganization plan.
• A Bishop's Bold Move - RCC. $US100m payout to 87; releasing files.
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes. com/news/local/ la-me-brown5dec 05,1,4551842. story?coll=la- headlines- california By Larry Stammer, William Lobdell and Jean Guccione
CALIFORNIA: One is the shy, mild-mannered Roman Catholic bishop of Orange. The other is a prince of the church, the cardinal archbishop of Los Angeles, who has been unhesitant in using the power of his office to both bless and cajole.
But the record $100-million settlement reached last week by Bishop of Orange Tod D. Brown with 87 sexual abuse victims brought the prelate out of the shadow of his former seminary classmate, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony.
Brown is now the bishop in the national spotlight. His decision to approve the massive payout, the way he was embraced by sobbing victims the night of the settlement and his decision not to fight the release of internal church documents have highlighted the two men's differences in method and tactics.
"We have two styles: One is a man of action, the other is a man of words," said attorney Jeffrey Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., who represents hundreds of victims in California and elsewhere.
While Mahony has often expressed his desire to settle all 544 abuse cases in his archdiocese, Brown became the first bishop in California to resolve all the cases in his diocese.
• Prosecutor says church should have reported sexual abuse cases [1970s St. Charles; Duran] - RCC. Priest says Duran case non-custodial. Boys.
Tennessean, www.tennessean. com/local/arch ives/04/11/ 62389950.shtml? Element_ID= 62389950 Associated Press
MEMPHIS (TN) - Catholic Church officials failed to report to authorities two cases of sexual abuse allegations involving minors despite state laws that a prosecutor says required the church to do so.
Two years ago, a man told Memphis Catholic Church officials he had been sexually abused by Father Paul W. St. Charles as a teenager in the late 1970s.
Four years ago, parents told church officials Father Juan Carlos Duran had sexually abused their son.
In each case, church officials took actions against the priest but didn't report the allegations to agencies that might launch a criminal investigation.
"Some of the things that happened are not reportable. For example, in the Duran case ... the relationship he had with Father Duran was noncustodial. That's not a reportable crime," said Diocese spokesman Father John Geaney.
• Catholic Church fights for shield [1969-71 American Boychoir School] - RCC. Boys.
The Times, By KRYSTAL KNAPP, Sunday, December 05, 2004
NEW JERSEY: Leaders of the Catholic Church in New Jersey have been lobbying state legislators to amend a bill that would eliminate charitable immunity as a legal defense in cases where nonprofit organizations negligently employ child molesters.
The New Jersey Catholic Conference (NJCC), the lobbying arm of the state's Catholic bishops, is urging lawmakers to set time limits on how far back the legislation would apply retroactively.
The church's lobbying effort comes as the state Supreme Court is deciding whether John Hardwicke Jr., a graphic designer from Maryland who alleges he was sexually abused numerous times by several American Boychoir School employees, has a right to sue the nonprofit institution.
Hardwicke attended the elite Princeton Township school from 1969 to 1971.
In September, a state appeals court ruled Hardwicke's case could move forward, overturning a Superior Court ruling barring him from suing the school.
Advocates for survivors of sexual abuse and sponsors of the legislation have decried the church's proposed amendment, saying it is unacceptable, arbitrary and unfair to victims. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:24 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun December 05, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon December 06, 2004 edition follows:-
• Taking cover under the red, white and blue -- RCC.
The Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews. com/sharedcon tent/dws/dn/ religion/stories/ 120704dnpro canada.33a33.html , By BROOKS EGERTON and REESE DUNKLIN, Monday, December 6, 2004
(Last of three parts)
UNITED STATES: Catholic workers accused of sexual abuse sometimes start over in the United States after getting special treatment from justice officials abroad.
Four religious brothers from one rural Canadian province, for instance, are living free in this country.
Two of the men are fugitives whom Canadian prosecutors have never tried to bring back for trial. A prosecutor who opposed one man's extradition became his attorney in a lawsuit over the alleged abuse.
The other two are convicts. One was let out of prison unusually early. The other was sentenced to house arrest but allowed to move to New York - where no one has the authority to supervise him - and is working in lay ministry.
"We're concerned about these matters," said Jamie Zuieback, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. "We're looking into what avenues can be pursued."
Some officials in Canada are upset, too. Vic Toews, a Parliament member who speaks for the Conservative Party on crime issues, is seeking a federal inquiry on his side of the border. He said the cases undermine his country's policy of aggressively combating child molestation.
Mr. Toews, a former prosecutor, said leaving the men free in the United States "gives them another opportunity to abuse." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:57 PM]
• Spokane Diocese files for Chapter 11 protection -- RCC.
KGW, By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS / Associated Press, Dec/07/2004
SPOKANE (WA): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, saying it did not have the money to cover lawsuits filed by alleged victims of clergy abuse.
The diocese faces claims that already total some $77 million, and Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the best way to ensure that all victims are treated fairly and that the church continues its mission, Bishop William Skylstad said.
"Demands by plaintiffs continue to be beyond the ability of the diocese to meet," said Skylstad, who was just elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In its filing, the diocese listed assets of $11.1 million and liabilities of $81.3 million - the vast majority of liabilities being sexual abuse claims.
• Diocese suppresses Society of St. John [Society of St. John of Shohola] -- RCC. Sex, financial instability.
The River Reporter, www.riverre porter.com/issues/ 04-12-02/head3-s tjohn.html , By TOM KANE, Dec 2, 2004
SCRANTON, PA -- In a surprise move, the Bishop of Scranton, Joseph Martino, issued a decree of suppression of the Society of St. John of Shohola.
The decree effectively forbids the society from serving any religious function in the diocese. The decree appeared in the latest edition of Catholic Light, the diocesan newspaper.
Under Catholic canon law, a diocese has the authority to establish - and suppress - a public association of the faithful.
Martino cited acts of commission and omission regarding sexual allegations by a youth in the society's charge and increased financial instability as the reasons for the action.
• Franciscan priest named in lawsuit [? 1970s Genevive (Franciscan)] - RCC. Boy.
Newsday, www.newsday. com/news/ local/state/ ny-bc-ny-- churchabuse- lawsu1206dec 06,0,7979540. story?coll=ny- region- apnewyork ; December 6, 2004
ALBANY, N.Y. -- A 40-year-old man who claims he was abused as a boy by a member of a Roman Catholic religious order filed a $5 million lawsuit against church officials.
Mark Lyman of Stillwater, N.Y., claims he was sexually abused beginning at age 13 by Frank Genevive, a priest whom he met when he was a Franciscan brother assigned to St. Anthony's Church in Troy, N.Y. The civil lawsuit, filed last week in Boston, alleges that the abuse occurred during trips to that city and at other locations over several years.
Genevive, reached at a friary in Wappingers Falls, had no comment on the lawsuit. Officials with the Franciscan order named as a co-defendant said they would not comment on the lawsuit because they had not read it. But Father Robert Campagna of the Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception in New York City said Genevive was removed from public ministry when allegations first surfaced against him a few years ago. He has no access to children, Campagna said.
The lawsuit also names the Albany diocese and Bishop Howard Hubbard, claiming the bishop allowed Genevive to remain in active ministry despite knowing he abused children.
A spokesman for the Albany diocese, Ken Goldfarb, said the bishop had "absolutely" no knowledge of any allegations against Genevive until Lyman made a complaint to the district a year or two ago.
• The clergy abuse scandal: homosexuality or pedophilia? - RCC.
RenewAmerica, www.renew america.us/ columns/abb ott/041207 , by Matt C. Abbott, December 7, 2004
UNITED STATES: As many who have been following the clergy sex abuse scandal should know by now, there has been a debate of sorts over the issue of homosexuals in the priesthood. Part of this debate centers on whether men with the homosexual inclination should be ordained in the first place (orthodox Catholics say no), and the other part - which is the focus of this column - centers on the "Is this largely a 'homosexual' scandal or a 'pedophile' scandal?" issue.
I received the following e-mail from Betty Clermont:
"Could you please explain to me why orthodox/conservative Catholics refuse to tell the truth about the statistics of sex-abuse in the Catholic Church? Whether it's zenit.org or ewtn.com, the lie goes round and round that homosexuality is the cause of the sex-abuse scandal and not one of you quotes the original source of the data - only incorrect reports get quoted.
"The original source is the John Jay College of Law study conducted with data reported by the U.S. bishops. The URL is: www.usccb.org/nrb/johnjaystudy/incident3.pdf . There you will find that 80.9% of alleged victims were males (Table 4.3.1). Table 4.3.2 gives a breakdown by age of both male and female combined. There is no table showing the ages of only male victims. The report does state that the average age of all alleged victims is 12.6. You will also find that 15.1% of victims were aged 16 and 17 and 47.6 were aged 13 through 15. That's 62.7% of both male and female victims who were age 13 and above.
"You will also note there were 160 reported victims aged five and under! 'Pedophile' and 'homosexual' are not synonyms. The average Catholic is more outraged by the cover-up of the bishops than the criminal acts of some pretty sick men. The decline in the number of Catholics will show a marked increase starting in 2002. That means you and your readers will be left holding the bag for all the bills that the priests and bishops run up and for supporting the clergy and hierarchy in the manner to which they have become accustomed.
"The dissenters and liberals can walk away with clear consciences no matter what names you call them. So if I were a conservative/orthodox, I'd start thinking about asking for some kind of financial accountability and openness. As my pastor told us, his and the bishop's salary and benefits will be the last things that ever get touched. Doesn't bother me, either. I stopped contributing long ago."
Catholic writer Steve Kellmeyer ( www.bridegroom press.com ) responded:
"While it is true that pedophilia is distinct from homosexuality, the two are not necessarily separate at all times. Like sadomasochism, which is a combination of the disorders of sadism and masochism, homosexuality may or may not delve into pedophilia. As long as the one perpetrating the abuse is of the same sex as the one being abused, the abuse is – by definition – homosexual. The age of the victim might also make it pedophilia. So, a woman who abuses a boy is a pedophiliac but not a homosexual. A man who abuses a boy is both. A woman who abuses a girl is both, while a man who abuses a girl is merely a pedophiliac. See the division of pedophilia into exclusive and non-exclusive categories in DSM-IV: www.behavenet. com/capsules/ disorders/pedo philiaTR.htm
"Since the predilection of homosexuals for young victims is well-attested to in gay literature, the disorders of homosexuality and pedophilia are commonly found together, though this is not always the case."
In a subsequent e-mail, Clermont stated:
"There is no valid study which shows that homosexuals are more likely to abuse children than heterosexuals. In fact, the largest incidence of child sex-abuse – by far – are stepfathers, mothers' boyfriends, uncles and other males known to the family abusing little girls. Read the John Jay Report.
"Part of the reason that 80.9% of the recorded abuse of minors involved boys may be because priests had more access to boys – altar boys, etc. While Catholic parents thought nothing of letting their sons sleep at the rectory, go on over-night camping trips, outings to amusement parks etc. with priests, the opportunity for priests to molest girls was far more limited. Read the National Review Board Report.
"No one would argue that there are more homosexuals in the priesthood than other professions. I have heard it said many times that, in the past, Catholic families with 'strange' sons would put them in the priesthood as the only honorable thing to do with them. Nor would I argue that there were seminaries that promoted the gay lifestyle and persecuted straight and/or orthodox seminarians.
"Have you read any of A.W. Richard Sipe's studies showing that the incidence of unchastity in priests and bishops is about even between heterosexuals and homosexuals? That a priest or bishop that had a girlfriend was just as likely to look the other way at the criminal behavior of his fellow clergy as a priest or bishop with an adult boyfriend?
"The point is this: The orthodox want their followers to believe that homosexuality is the root cause of the sex-scandal and that once seminaries weed them out, the remaining priests and bishops will be holier men. I, and many others, disagree. The primary cause of the sex-abuse scandal is the culture of clericalism whereby bishops and priests hold themselves above and apart from the laity to the point where they see themselves as even above civil criminal laws as well as, of course, canon and God's laws. How else could you account for the destruction of tens of thousands of Catholic children – including babies, girls and pre-pubescent boys? They have become accustomed to lives of privilege, unchecked authority, and acquiescence of the laity to whichever way they choose to retain their exalted status.
"As I already mentioned to Matt, Catholics are leaving in droves. I understand that there are persons who, by personality type, are comfortable with, indeed need, an authoritarian, hierarchical structure in their lives. They want a 'father' figure to tell them what to do and how to do it and how to think and what to believe. Unfortunately for you, that is a minority of human beings. Those who want to be 'The Remnant' may find that their wishes come true. Just remember, whoever is left gets to pay the check.
Kellmeyer responded:
"Homosexuals, as homosexuals admit, make up roughly 1% of the population (see the footnotes to the brief filed by the homosexual lobby in the Texas sodomy case). So, in raw numbers, it is certainly true that more heterosexuals are abusing than homosexuals, if only because there are 99 times more heterosexuals in the world. Simple questions of access come into play. You can't abuse a child you have no access to.
"Children are most often abused by non-biological household residents, i.e. step-parents, parental boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. Following that, biological relatives are the next most frequent abusers (uncles, fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters). This is followed by public school and day care personnel. The reasons are obvious: access and stigma.
"While the access to children for both non-biological and biological household residents is high, the stigma is relatively lower for non-biological residents than for biological residents. The access for child-care custodians is somewhat lower, but the stigma is lower still. More could be said on this point, but you get the idea.
"So, comparing raw numbers of heterosexual abusers to raw numbers of homosexual abusers does not give us a good understanding of the problem. We have to compare on a per capita basis. That is, what percentage of heterosexuals versus homosexuals abuse, and what is the average number of victims abused?
"On both counts, the homosexuals come out on top. In terms of pure percentage of respective populations, more homosexuals abuse, and each homosexual abuser attacks far more victims.
"Now, it is not the case that simply removing homosexuals from seminaries will make resulting graduates holier. I fully agree that clericalism is rampant, that a large number of bishops and priests in the United States are out of touch with their communities and with the larger reality of American culture. I absolutely agree that bishops are insulated from everyone by layers of bureaucracy that rivals any on the face of the earth.
"Unfortunately, there is nowhere else to receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist nor does any other faith contain the fullness of Truth. So, we have to put up with their sins and they have to put up with ours."
"That's life on this planet."
(Steve Kellmeyer would like readers to check out the following articles: http://bridegroom press.com/catalog/ article_info.php? articles_id=70 and http://bridegroompress.com/catalog/article_info.php?articles_id=5 ) .
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 a Catholic journalist and commentator. He can be reached at mattcabbott@hotmail.com
© Copyright 2004 by Matt C. Abbott www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/041207 [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:24 PM] [Emphasis added]
[COMMENT: A comment is needed on "nor does any other faith contain the fullness of Truth." A quiet read of various footnotes in the Good News Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible about changes, additions, and wrong translations in the bible would set one to wondering about the truth of most of the Christian denominations.
To save ploughing through hundreds of pages, a summary of some of the forgeries may be found at http://www.multiline. com. au/~johnm/religion/ spurious.htm#holey . Problems in what Churchmen call the "Word of God", even at the beginning when Greek dominated society and the Church, are revealed in http://www.multiline. com.au/~johnm/religion/ spurious. htm#mistakes . Then, when the breakaway of the West occurred, and Rome's switch from Greek to Latin, more things went wrong. A summary of these is at http://www.multiline .com.au/~johnm/ religion/spurious. htm#vulgate . Some of these "errors" were carried over into the 1611 Church of England Authorised Version, which many Protestants honour.
So, to read history about torturing and burning of theological trailblazers, or to read modern news about brutality in "orphanages" and about clergy sexually abusing children, is not as big a surprise as might be first thought. "By their fruits you shall know them." COMMENT ENDS.]
• Catholic group forms to act on sex abuse allegations -- RCC. Priest helps in forming group dissatisfied with diocese response.
The Gazette, By Kurt Rogahn, Sunday, December 05, 2004
IOWA CITY (IA) -- A grass-roots group of Catholics upset with the Davenport Diocese response to allegations of sexual abuse by clergy will hold its second meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Thomas More Parish, 405 Riverside Dr.
Iowa City needs such a group because past sexual abuse by priests in that community "is more extensive than we know," said the Rev. David Hitch of St. Mary's Parish in Tipton, who helped Dorothy Whiston of Iowa City set up the meetings.
Whiston, a former pastoral assistant at St. Thomas More, said she acted after reading a National Catholic Reporter news story in which the Davenport Diocese was branded one of the least responsive in the country to the crisis. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:53 AM]
• 'Fair City' producers reject priest's criticism of storyline - RCC.
Irish Times, www.ireland. com/newspaper/ front/2004/ 1206/233351 9588HM1FAIR CITY.html , by Alison Healy and Anne Lucey
IRELAND: The producers of the Fair City TV soap have rejected criticism from the pulpit about a storyline involving clerical sex abuse.
The storyline revolves around an ex-priest, played by T.P. McKenna, who breaks the seal of Confession in the hope of bringing an abuser to justice.
Father Kevin McNamara, a priest in Killarney, told parishioners at the weekend that he had been "stung" and hurt when he read that the storyline involved a priest breaking the seal of Confession.
He told Mass-goers at St Mary's Cathedral on Saturday evening that "the seal of Confession is never broken". He said it was hard enough to get people to come to Confession without suggesting that priests would tell someone.
Father McNamara repeated his comments yesterday at 10.30 a.m. Mass when he said the 'soap' plot line was "the lowest of the low". He knew of no priest who had ever broken the seal of Confession.
A spokeswoman for the RTÉ programme defended the storyline yesterday and said it was carefully researched with One in Four, the charity for survivors of sexual abuse.
[COMMENT: Yes, and until a few years ago most people did not know of any priest who sexually abused anybody. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Warrant languishes; fugitive is home, free. S. Texas DA says he doubts he could find Nigerian priest [Onyia] - RCC. Females.
The Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews. com/shared content/dws/ dn/religion/ stories/120604 dnproonyia. 361d9.html By BROOKS EGERTON, begerton@dallasnews.com begerton@dallasnews.com , Mon, Dec 6, 2004
(Second of three parts)
PHARR, Texas - - The mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed incest victim says the priest has been sexually abusing her. The girl's mother alerts church leaders, who confront Father Basil Onyia.
He, in turn, barges into the family's small home in this sunburned town near the Mexican border. This is what the witness sees next:
"I have betrayed you," Father Onyia cries to the mother, who had trusted no one else outside her family to counsel her troubled daughter. "The devil got into me and made me do it."
With the teenage victim hiding in another room, the priest falls to his knees, grabs the mother's blouse, begs for forgiveness and receives it. Then he falls to the floor and thrashes about.
"God," he cries, "why have you forsaken me?"
For a little while after all this came tumbling out, in early 2001, it looked like Father Onyia might be on the fast track to prison. The witness was a crisis counselor, who summoned Pharr police and wrote down what she had seen.
But if God had forsaken Father Onyia, Catholic bishops did not. And the Hidalgo County district attorney's office did little to challenge any of them.
The priest left the house before officers arrived and fled to his native Nigeria a few days later. Police soon obtained an arrest warrant, but prosecutors have not tried to force Father Onyia back for trial.
Police say District Attorney Rene Guerra's office also discouraged them from investigating church officials' dealings with the priest. Among detectives' questions: Did Brownsville Diocese leaders tell Father Onyia to flee? Did they help him? Did they know where he was?
Mr. Guerra said that he didn't handle the case personally and that investigators never complained to him about the assistant prosecutor on the case. "That's a bunch of baloney," Mr. Guerra said of the police concerns. "If you can talk to me, any stupid police officer can talk to me."
He also expressed doubt about whether it would be illegal to keep silent about Father Onyia's whereabouts. "Let's say a church official knew where this guy was," Mr. Guerra said. "What crime is the church official committing?" He did not answer his question. Texas law forbids hindering a suspect's apprehension, whether by concealing him, helping him escape or warning him of impending arrest. Mr. Guerra said his office generally doesn't seek indictments of fugitives but did so against Father Onyia because police submitted the case "and somebody said, 'Let's take this to the grand jury and indict it so that we won't be accused of impeding justice.' "
Charging fugitives, he said, "is a time bomb on my hands because we have to show due diligence that we're looking for the guy." Otherwise, a judge could dismiss the case for failure to prosecute promptly. "If I'm forced to dismiss it, what are you going to say?" Mr. Guerra asked. " 'Another example of Guerra letting a priest off the hook.' " Mr. Guerra referred to Father Onyia while discussing his refusal to prosecute in another clergy scandal: that of ex-priest John Feit, the prime suspect in the rape and murder of a young schoolteacher who vanished in 1960 after meeting him at a McAllen church residence.
Police reopened that case in 2002 and found two witnesses who say he admitted involvement in her death. That bolstered the circumstantial evidence that has long pointed to Mr. Feit. Mr. Guerra has termed the old evidence contradictory and dismissed the witnesses as unreliable, which McAllen's police chief calls baffling. Mr. Feit has denied wrongdoing and recently declined to answer questions from police and a reporter. Some of the victim's relatives and one of the witnesses have said they think Mr. Guerra, who is Catholic, isn't prosecuting for religious reasons. The district attorney rejected the criticism and said the Onyia case shows he is willing to target a prominent representative of his faith. "I support him coming back," he said.
So why isn't he demanding the priest's return? Mr. Guerra blamed a lack of resources. "You tell me I'm going to find a guy who can blend in in Nigeria, who I don't suspect is a practicing Catholic priest over there?" he asked. "Go find him for me and I'll bring the sucker back. What can I do? My county's broke."
In the ministry
Locating Father Onyia turns out to be a pretty straightforward task. For he has remained in ministry, like many other clergymen The News found during its yearlong investigation of accused priests' international movement. And Father Onyia's bishop in Nigeria – who had loaned him to the Brownsville Diocese – put him right back to work in parishes. The priest even made national news there in July, because he had been named to a state government panel investigating misconduct allegations against a prominent politician. (The coverage said nothing about the U.S. charges against Father Onyia.)
The News recently hired a Nigerian journalist to interview the 38-year-old fugitive, who denied wrongdoing. "I am just a victim of circumstance," Father Onyia said, speaking at his church, St. David, in the village of Uratta. "There was nothing like molestation, assault or sexual abuse of any kind."
He also spoke to investigators' suspicions about church officials' conduct. "My bishop advised me to go back home," he said, referring to Bishop Raymundo Peña, who heads the Brownsville Diocese. He added that other Nigerian priests working in the United States gave similar counsel. They all told him, he said, that "here in America, once you are black, the case is against you." "All this put fear in me," Father Onyia added, "so I left all my property and escaped to Nigeria." He said he paid his own way.
Bishop Peña declined to speak with The News. In written responses to the newspaper's findings, he did not confirm or deny that he had advised Father Onyia to flee. Diocesan lawyer David C. Garza, in a February 2001 letter to police, said he and Bishop Peña learned from Pharr officers that the priest had fled a few days earlier. "We had no information that he had left or was going to leave," Mr. Garza wrote to a detective. "As I told you, the diocese is willing to and has cooperated fully on any investigation that you are conducting." The Pharr girl's mother doesn't buy it. "I think they all knew how to protect him," she said, "so he wouldn't be there to answer questions."
Police, church clash
Pharr police were suspicious of church officials from the early days of their investigation. They said the bishop failed to notify them immediately of the abuse allegations, as state law requires, and instead sent Father Onyia to live at a parish in another South Texas county. The delay took about a week, they said, and gave the priest time to flee. They said they would have arrested him immediately if they had known of the reassignment. Police also were frustrated because the diocese insisted that they send all information requests to Mr. Garza's law office. Investigators eventually told a local newspaper, in 2002, that the church was not cooperating.
Tensions escalated
Pharr's mayor and the man who was police chief then recently described for the first time what happened next: Bishop Peña called Mayor Leo "Polo" Palacios to a private meeting at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle and complained that police weren't telling the truth about him. Officers refused to retract their statements. "We couldn't do that," said Jesse Medina, the former chief. "They did not cooperate. This guy got away because they did not cooperate."
Mr. Medina, now head of Pharr's international bridge office, said the bishop's contact with the mayor was "just another attempt to stonewall the investigation." He added: "It could all be evidence of obstruction of justice." Mr. Palacios said Bishop Peña insisted that "he did what he could and he would not harbor the guy and he did not know where he went. And he didn't appreciate the police department just bringing it out all over the newspaper. "His concern was getting his name in the news media." In his written statements to The News, Bishop Peña confirmed that he had called the mayor.
"The Pharr Police Department never called me directly, nor did they say how I failed to cooperate," the bishop wrote. "I was just as eager as they were to bring [Father Onyia] to justice." Mr. Medina also questioned whether Mr. Guerra – Hidalgo County's district attorney for 22 years – was "too Catholic for the case." He said his concern was underscored by the prosecutor's handling of the McAllen police case against Mr. Feit, the murder suspect.
"The Catholic Church is very strong down here," Mr. Medina said. In the Brownsville Diocese's four-county region of far South Texas, 85 percent of the approximately 1 million residents are Catholic. The former Pharr chief suggested that Bishop Peña might have used his influence with Mr. Guerra. "If he called the mayor," Mr. Medina speculated, "he would've called the DA."
Mr. Guerra declined to take questions on this and other points after The News' Nov. 21 article about the murder case. His only comment before hanging up on a reporter was, "If they make an arrest [of Father Onyia], we'll do whatever's necessary."
Bishop Peña wrote that he has "had no direct communication from the district attorney's office in regard to this case. I will certainly cooperate with that office in regard to this or any other criminal investigation."
Other allegations
The criminal investigation of Basil Onyia followed months of other misconduct allegations against him, most of which came to light only because the Pharr family sued the Brownsville Diocese and won a fight for church records. State child-welfare authorities say in a court filing that the allegations involving minors were not reported to them. Sexual harassment complaints against Father Onyia started in late 1999, soon after he came to Texas as a visiting priest and was made an assistant pastor at the basilica. Two church employees told a supervisor that he would clasp their hands and not let go; one said he asked her to go to Africa with him, and the other said he asked her out to dinner. Then an altar girl complained of unwanted touching.
The priest, when confronted, said his behavior was acceptable in Nigeria but agreed to stop, according to the church records. Next, a 19-year-old woman who sought spiritual counseling told police that Father Onyia hugged her, licked her face and tried to French-kiss her. Bishop Peña transferred Father Onyia to a Harlingen parish, where he was accused in late 2000 of taking two girls to his bedroom and telling them "that it was OK for priests to have girlfriends."
The basilica's head priest warned that Father Onyia was still claiming to work at Our Lady of San Juan and improperly soliciting donations for himself. Monsignor Juan Nicolau also reminded the bishop about the sexual harassment and added that a woman had regularly visited the priest's bedroom at San Juan. "My only recommendation," wrote Monsignor Nicolau, "would be that Fr. Basil be in fact returned back to the dioceses of Nigeria without delay."
Finally, in January 2001, Bishop Peña wrote to his counterpart in the Diocese of Aba, Nigeria, asking him to recall Father Onyia to "prevent the possibility of scandal in this diocese." While awaiting an answer, he left the priest on duty. That allowed Father Onyia continued access to the Pharr girl, whose mother had asked him to help her with school-related problems. And he allegedly continued a pattern of sexual assault and abuse that had started several months earlier.
In his interview with The News, Father Onyia denied it all and suggested that he was the victim of a plot between Monsignor Nicolau, whom he called a racist, and the girl's family, who he said might have financial motives. He described the girl as "melancholic" and said he had helped her. "She began opening up to me as she started getting used to me," Father Onyia said. "I took her out to watch movies and shopping and so many places just to make her feel OK." He said he didn't communicate with his bishop in Aba, the Rev. Vincent Ezeonyia, until he returned home.
"He knows my record from the seminaries, and he knows that the story against me is not true, having lived in America for years himself," Father Onyia said. Bishop Ezeonyia could not be reached for comment in person or by phone, and his office did not respond to an e-mail. He also didn't respond to Bishop Peña's request for information about Father Onyia's whereabouts, Brownsville Diocese spokeswoman Brenda Nettles Riojas said. "I have, therefore, not continued to deal with him in any way," Bishop Peña wrote The News.
Yet he continues to employ two of Bishop Ezeonyia's other priests. In his written statements, the Brownsville bishop also said he had not known Father Onyia was working as a priest in Nigeria. Court records show that Bishop Peña wrote to the fugitive in Aba, shortly after he returned there. The letter criticizes him for fleeing and terminates his permission to minister in the Brownsville Diocese, then adds: "I pray that your service to the Church in Aba, under the direction and supervision of the bishop, be for the glory of God and the welfare of God's people."
The Pharr girl's mother said a financial settlement of her lawsuit, in which the Brownsville Diocese admitted no wrongdoing, hasn't helped them much. Her daughter, she said, is still haunted by Father Onyia. And it's hard to move on because the criminal case is unresolved. "I hope he's not serving the church over there as a priest," she said, "and hurting his own people."
Freelance journalist George Osodi contributed to this report from Nigeria.# [Emphasis added]
• Bishop apologises over abuse [Fletcher] - RCC. Minor.
The Courier-Mail, Dec 06, 04
AUSTRALIA: A New South Wales Catholic bishop has apologised to the victims of a priest who was today convicted of child sex abuse.
Bishop Michael Malone said an East Maitland court found Father James Fletcher guilty of nine charges relating to sexual abuse with a minor.
"As bishop of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, I apologise profoundly to the victims, who cannot be named, and the victims' family and friends for the immense pain and suffering caused by Father Fletcher's criminal actions," he said in a statement.
"Sexual abuse is a serious crime and cannot be tolerated.
"Because of these criminal actions, Father Fletcher will not return to the ministry."
Bishop Malone said a toll-free number had been set up so people could discuss their feelings with trained counsellors. [By courtesy of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, USA, plus Broken Rites, Australia]
• Auditors to review abuse prevention efforts - RCC.
Star-Telegram, www.dfw.com/ mld/startelegram/ news/local/ 10350282.htm , By Darren Barbee
FORT WORTH (TX): The Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese will open its doors to auditors this week as part of a national effort to ensure that children are protected from sexual abuse in the church.
The annual audit, paid for by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, follows a January report showing that most dioceses are in compliance with a charter to protect children. The charter was adopted two years ago amid widespread revelations of sexual abuse by clergy.
Beginning today, auditors will review abuse prevention efforts, visit parishes and schools, and meet with Fort Worth officials, including Bishop Joseph Delaney, said the Rev. Robert Wilson, chancellor of the diocese. Delaney could not be reached to comment.
"They're going to go through countless pages of reports and numbers ... [to] see how we are living up to the terms of the charter," Wilson said.
Diocese officials say they have gone well beyond the charter, offering more training than required and increasing the membership on the diocese sexual misconduct committee. The January audit report commended the diocese for its strong efforts to prevent abuse.
• Lawsuit alleges Dutchess County priest involved in sexual abuse of boy [1980s] - RCC. Boy.
Hudson Valley News, Dec 6, 2004
NEW YORK: A Catholic priest, who is now serving in the Poughkeepsie-Wappingers Falls area, is alleged to have been involved in the sexual abuse of a boy over 20 years ago while serving in the Albany area.
Attorney John Aretakis has filed a lawsuit again the priest in Massachusetts Superior Court since the alleged abuse took place when the priest took the youth across state lines.
"The statute of limitations are not a bar to these 15 and 20 year old cases as they are in New York State, so we have found a lot of success in pursuing these cases in a state where the actual sexual [? abuse] occurred, which in this case is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," he said.
Aretakis said this is the fifth such suit he has filed in Massachusetts in addition to the many others he has filed in Albany and New York City. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:36 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon December 06, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue December 07, 2004 edition follows:-
• Bush Recognized Accused Youth Pastor In Speech [Hintz] - Religion not stated.
TheIowaChannel.com ; www.theiowa channel.com/ politics/3978 990/detail.html , December 7, 2004
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Below is an excerpt of President George W. Bush's speech in Des Moines on Oct. 4. It references Michael Hintz, a Des Moines youth pastor who was charged with sexual exploitation by a counselor. (Read complete story.)
President George W. Bush recognized Michael Hintz and his family during a Des Moines campaign event in October.
"One of those families is the Hintz family, from Clive, Iowa. Thank you all for coming. (Applause.)
"It's a special day for Mike and Sharla, not because they're with the President or with Chairman Grassley, but because it's their 13th wedding anniversary. (Applause.) Theirs is a typical story. See, last year they received a child tax credit check for $1,600 for their four children. And under all the tax relief we've passed, they saved about $2,800 last year. With this extra money they bought a wood-burning stove to reduce their home heating costs. They made a decision for their family. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:12 PM]
[COMMENT: President George W. Bush and/or his advisers are following a similar path to that of his war ally, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who spoke favourably about a former Anglican Archbishop, who had backed child abusers, and whom the Liberal-National Government had put into the Governor-General's seat. "Birds of a feather ..." ? COMMENT ENDS.]
• Youth Pastor Facing Sex Charges Posts Bond [2004 Hintz] - Assembly of God. Girl.
TheOmahaChannel.com ; December 7, 2004
DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Des Moines youth pastor is out of jail after being charged with sexual exploitation by a counselor, which is a felony.
Rev. Michael Hintz, 35, of Clive, was arrested Monday, and he posted bond shortly after.
Hintz, who is married with four children, was the senior youth pastor at Des Moines' First Assembly of God Church on Merle Hay Road.
Police said in the spring, Hintz began a relationship with a 17-year-old Johnston girl who was a member of the church's youth group. The teen later told a counselor about the alleged relationship.
"The family had sought some counseling in the matter ... and the victim had made some admissions to a mandatory reporter, who, in turn, notified department of human services, who notified us," Johnston police Sgt. Lynn Aswegan told KCCI.
• Worcester Diocese seeks dismissal of clergy abuse suits - RCC.
Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20041207/ APN/412070761 , The Associated Press
WORCESTER, Mass.- Lawyers for the Worcester Diocese have asked a judge to dismiss or limit clergy sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the diocese by a dozen men who claimed they were molested by priests.
Joanne Goulka, a lawyer for the diocese, cited First Amendment protections of religion and a 1971 state law that had limited the amount of liability that charitable institutions could face to $20,000.
Carmen Durso who represents some of the plaintiffs, argued that First Amendment protections should not apply to allegations that the church was negligent in its supervision of clergy.
"We're talking about acts, not beliefs, and we're talking about the rights of children," Durso told Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Locke at a hearing Monday.
Similar arguments were raised by the Boston Archdiocese but were never invoked in its $85 million settlement with 500 victims of clergy sex abuse. As part of the deal, the archdiocese dropped its argument that the amount of money paid to the victims should be limited.
• Details of Bishop Skylstad's inaction in face of child abuse. [Skylstad] - RCC. Boys.
Philadelphia Inquirer, "Bishops seek a way out from sex-abuse scandal," www.philly. com/mld/ inquirer/ news/editorial/ 10355080.htm
UNITED STATES: John Salveson is director of the Philadelphia chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
The newly elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Bishop William S. Skylstad, personifies everything that is wrong with the handling by Catholic Church leaders of the sexual-abuse scandal. According to media reports, Skylstad sat by and allowed a sexually abusive priest to continue to serve in the ministry after:
Skylstad admits that he didn't report the abuse to the police, alert parents, attempt to find other victims or remove the priest. His defense? It would have been "an impossible thing to do."
Also, it seems as though he has had trouble remembering many facts of the case, according to court documents.
Largely because of the neglect and inaction of Skylstad and others, this particular priest admitted to abusing so many boys he can't remember all of their names.
These victims, now adults, are living with the devastating effects of their abuse, and at least one has committed suicide.
• Pastor Charged With Sexual Exploitation Of Child [2004 Hintz] - Assembly of God. Girl.
TheIowaChannel.com ; December 7, 2004
DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Des Moines youth pastor is charged with the sexual exploitation of a child.
KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police.
Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years.
Police said he started an affair with a 17-year-old in the church youth group this spring.
Church officials fired Hintz immediately after hearing the allegations.
• Aretakis unveils new lawsuit [? 1970s Genevive (Franciscan)] - RCC. Boy.
Capital News 9 ; By Capital News 9 web staff, 4:04 PM, Dec/6/2004
ALBANY (NY): Attorney John Aretakis has unveiled a new lawsuit against a former local priest.
Mark Lyman, 40, of Stillwater clams that he was sexually abused several times by Father Frank Genevive.
Lyman said the abuse happened while Genevive was a priest at St. Anthony's Church in Troy. He said the abuse continued even after Genevive was transferred to a Massachusetts high school.
Meanwhile Aretakis is calling for Genevive to leave the active ministry.
A spokesman for the Albany Diocese said that Father Genevive was never under their supervision. He said that Genevive is part of the Franciscan Religious order in Manhattan.#
• Priest found guilty of sex charges [1973 onwards Coy] - Assemblies of God. 3 girls.
ABC (Australia), www.abc.net. au/northtas/ news/200412/ s1259903.htm , Tuesday, 7 December 2004
LAUNCESTON (Tas) AUSTRALIA: A Launceston jury has found a former Wynyard man who is now a priest in Bendigo guilty of abusing three girls in the 1970s.
David Charles Coy has been found guilty on three out of four charges of maintaining a sexual relationship with a person under 17.
The Launceston Criminal Court heard Coy kissed and fondled the women in Devonport and George Town.
Coy was 18 and training to be a priest when the first incident occurred.
The girls involved were aged between 10 and 16.[...]
Coy left his position as a pastor at the Assemblies of God Church in 1999, seven years after he apologised to the girls for his actions.
He will be eligible for parole after one year.
A fourth charge of maintaining a sexual relationship with a person under 17 will be decided on Monday.#
• Plaintiff: N.Y. priest molested me in Mass. [1970s-80s Genevive (Franciscan)] - RCC. Boy.
Boston Herald, By Jessica Heslam, Tuesday, December 7, 2004
BOSTON (MA): A New York man has filed a $5 million lawsuit against church officials, claiming he was molested as a boy by a priest during trips to the Bay State.
"A significant amount of the abuse occurred in Boston," said John Aretakis, an attorney for the alleged 40-year-old victim, Mark Lyman of Stillwater.
Lyman claims he was sexually abused for nearly five years in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Frank Genevive, a priest whom he met when Genevive was a Franciscan brother assigned to St. Anthony's Church in Troy, N.Y.
Lyman, who has filed a civil suit in Suffolk Superior Court, said he was 13 when the abuse began.
In an interview yesterday, Lyman said he had visited Boston about six times with Genevive, who took him on weekend and weeklong trips.
• Man claims friar abused him [1978-83 Genevive (Franciscan)] - RCC. Boy.
Albany Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Tuesday, December 7, 2004
ALBANY (NY) -- A 40-year-old state worker has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and a Franciscan friar he claims photographed and videotaped him in pornographic poses as a teenager.
Mark Lyman of Stillwater says he was 13 when the alleged sexual abuse by the Rev. Frank Genevive began in 1978. Genevive was assigned to St. Anthony's Church in Troy at the time.
Lyman, who is now married and the father of four children, said Genevive took him on trips to Massachusetts between the ages of 13 and 18 and abused him.
Genevive, who later served at two Cape Cod churches, took an interest in a struggling family that had no active male role model, Lyman said. While he has talked about the abuse recently, Lyman only made the priest's name public on Monday.
• Judge blocks release of Campobello tapes [Campobello] - ? RCC. Females.
Kane County Chronicle, www.kcchronicle. com/MainSection/ 2996330769 44377.php , By DAN CAMPANA
GENEVA (IL) - A judge Monday blocked the release of details from taped conversations between former priest Mark Campobello and the Geneva girl he molested.
The temporary order bars the disclosure of information from six audio tapes to anyone other than attorneys involved in one of two civil lawsuits against Campobello, Circuit Judge Keith Brown said.
Brown also said he would review 120 pages of taped transcripts to determine whether the information should be sealed longer. He will rule Dec. 20 on the issue.
The tapes, made by the Geneva Police Department during its investigation of sex-abuse claims against Campobello, reportedly include the former priest "admitting to his involvement with this victim," attorney Keith Aeschliman said last month.
Aeschliman represents two women whom Campobello admitted to molesting. The women, referred to as "Jane Doe" and "Jane Roe," sued the former priest and the Rockford Diocese this year.[...]
In May, Campobello, 39, pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Campobello is being held at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton. ...
• Catholic Church Files for Bankruptcy - RCC. Worth $US11m or $US81m.
KXLY, www.kxly.com/ common/get Story.asp?id= 41073
SPOKANE (WA): While the city of Spokane is racing to get out of federal court, the local Catholic Church is plunging head-long in, and now the fate of the Spokane Diocese rests in the hands of a federal judge.
One of the first things church attorneys did after filing chapter eleven today, was to file to protect the diocese 41 employees salaries.
It's still unknown how much insurers will give the diocese to pay abuse claims, still, most of the diocese financial information, both good and bad is now public.
The Catholic Diocese of Spokane estimates its net worth at just over 11-million. In the same court documents debts are detailed topping 81-million dollars.
• Diocese asks judge to limit abuse lawsuits [1980] - RCC. Boy.
Boston Globe, www.boston.com/ news/local/mass achusetts/art icles/2004/12/07/ diocese_asks_ judge_to_limit_ abuse_lawsuits ; By Jonathan Saltzman, jsaltzman@globe.com , December 7, 2004
WORCESTER (MA) -- The Diocese of Worcester asked a judge yesterday to dismiss or limit lawsuits filed by a dozen men who say that the church hierarchy was grossly negligent in its handling of sexual abuse by clergy dating back to the 1950s.
The request was another illustration of the stance taken by the diocese, which has offered much smaller sums to settle abuse lawsuits than the amounts paid by the Archdiocese of Boston.
Eunice White, whose son alleged that a priest at Sacred Heart Church in Worcester abused him at the pastor's private campground in 1980 when he was 9, called the diocese's efforts to dismiss his suit ludicrous. She also bristled that such complaints are called allegations.
"It happened," she said. "It happened to hundreds and hundreds of boys in the world, and it's time the church took responsibility."
Joanne L. Goulka, a lawyer for the diocese, asked Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Locke to dismiss suits filed by 12 people -- or cap the potential damages each could collect at $20,000 -- based on three legal arguments.
First, she contended that the First Amendment right to freedom of religion bars the state from interfering with the "internal workings" of the diocese, including matters such as how the bishop assigns parish priests. Second, she said the statute of limitations for those allegedly molested had expired.
• Franciscan priest subject of lawsuit [1978-83 Genevive (Franciscan)] - RCC. Boy.
Troy Record, By Robert Cristo, Dec/07/2004
ALBANY (NY): A Troy native filed a $5 million lawsuit Monday against the Albany Diocese, accusing a former local Franciscan priest and La Salle Institute school chaplain of sexually abusing him in the late '70s and early '80s.
Mark Lyman, 40, of Stillwater, filed the Massachusetts civil suit against Rev. Frank Genevive, who resigned from posts at St. Anthony's Church in Troy and the La Salle Institute in North Greenbush back in the 1980s for unknown reasons.
"I believe there are a number of others out there who Genevive abused who should come forward but are ashamed and blame themselves," said Lyman on why he wanted the lawsuit made public. "I want them to know their abuse was not their fault."
Lyman claims that Genevive allegedly began molesting him when he was 13 in 1977, and he says the abuse continued right up until 1983 in New York and Massachusetts.
According [to] Lyman, now a married father of four children, Genevive videotaped hours of sexual misdeeds, took provocative Polaroid snapshots of him as a child and frequently offered him alcohol.
• Spokane diocese files for bankruptcy - RCC.
The Seattle Times, http://seattle times.nwsource. com/html/local news/2002111403_ diocese07m.html , By Janet I. Tu
SPOKANE (WA): By becoming only the third diocese nationally to seek shelter in bankruptcy court, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane is hoping the court will help provide a clearer picture of its financial liability in mounting sex-abuse lawsuits and goad its reluctant insurers into paying some of the claims.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Spokane, citing total liabilities of about $81 million, with about $76 million of that in sex-abuse claims, according to financial statements filed as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. It has only about $11 million in assets, according to the statements.
Spokane diocese bankruptcy attorney Shaun Cross acknowledges filing for bankruptcy does entail some risk, but said "the diocese chose the option that it believes has the greatest chance of paying the most to claimants" while allowing the church to continue its work.
"Hopefully we'll have some finality" once the court sets a deadline on claims coming forward, and the diocese - and its insurers, who have been reluctant to pay - can then determine the extent of its potential financial liability, Cross said.
But lessons from the two other bankrupt dioceses - Portland and Tucson, Ariz. - show the move comes with daunting odds.
• Spokane diocese files for bankruptcy - RCC.
Salem Statesman Journal, BY NICHOLAS GERANIOS, The Associated Press, December 7, 2004
SPOKANE (WA): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, saying it did not have the money to cover lawsuits filed by alleged victims of clergy abuse.
The diocese faces claims that already total about $77 million, and Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the best way to ensure that all victims are treated fairly and that the church continues its mission, Bishop William Skylstad said.
"Demands by plaintiffs continue to be beyond the ability of the diocese to meet," said Skylstad, who was just elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In its filing, the diocese listed assets of $11.1 million and liabilities of $81.3 million -- the vast majority of liabilities being sexual-abuse claims.
The filing means federal bankruptcy court will determine what assets can be used to pay claims and how much each victim will get. Catholic dioceses in Portland and Tucson, Ariz., also recently filed for bankruptcy in the wake of a nationwide scandal involving sexual abuse by clergymen.
• Alleged sex abuse victim goes public after 22 years of silence [? 1977-82 Genevive (Franciscan)] - RCC. Boy.
Hudson Valley News, www.midhudsonnews.com/News/Lyman_suit-07Dec04.htm , Dec 7, 2004
ALBANY (NY): Forty-year-old Mark Lyman of the Albany area said he went public about alleged sexual abuse committed against him by a priest because he couldn't remain silent anymore.
The married father of four is alleging in a $3 million lawsuit filed in Massachusetts that while he was between the ages of 13 and 18, Fr. Frank Genevive sexually abused him, many times taking him across state lines to the Bay State.
Lyman has a message to other young people who may face similar situations. "I think the most important thing to realize is that touching of a [?] from any adult, especially if you're a child, is not a normal thing," he said.
The lawsuit also names the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, the Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception and Bishop Howard Hubbard. ... [Emphasis added :-) ]
• Motion to dismiss pending church abuses cases heard - RCC.
Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article?AID=/ 20041207/NEWS/ 412070711/1007/ NEWSLETTERS05 , By Gary V. Murray, gmurray@telegram.com , Dec 7, 2004
WORCESTER (MA): Lawyers for the Worcester Catholic Diocese are asking a judge to dismiss several clergy sexual abuse lawsuits pending against the diocese in Worcester Superior Court.
A hearing was held yesterday on a motion filed by Joanne L. Goulka, a lawyer for the diocese, seeking dismissal of the claims against the diocese on First Amendment grounds. In the alternative, the diocese is asking that the court enter a partial summary judgment in its favor on the basis of the charitable immunity doctrine.
Summary judgment is a judgment issued without the necessity of a trial on the basis of uncontroverted facts as disclosed by the pleadings in a case.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the pending cases opposed the requests of the diocese, which were taken under advisement by Judge Jeffrey A. Locke.
In her argument for dismissal yesterday, Ms. Goulka said civil courts lack jurisdiction to decide disputes involving issues of religious doctrine, discipline, faith or internal organization, including matters relating to "the ecclesiastical relationship between the priest and the bishop." Ms. Goulka argued that the lack of jurisdiction extended to the supervisory role bishops have over priests.
Carmen L. Durso, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, said there was no First Amendment protection for the diocese in the context of the cases before the court because the allegations that negligent supervision allowed the abuse to continue "have nothing to do with core beliefs."
"We're talking about acts, not beliefs, and we're talking about the rights of children," Mr. Durso told the judge.
As an alternative to dismissal, Ms. Goulka asked the court to rule that the diocese was absolutely immune from liability for any torts committed before Sept. 16, 1971, on grounds of charitable immunity and that damages for torts found to have been committed after that date be limited to $20,000.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued they were entitled to present evidence on the question of whether the negligence alleged occurred during activities outside the scope of the church's charitable purposes.
The plaintiffs' lawyers also took issue with Ms. Goulka's assertions that the claims against the diocese were barred by the statute of limitations. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:29 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue December 07, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Priest found guilty of teen sex charges. [1980s-90s Fletcher] -- RCC. Boys.
ABC News Online (Australia), www.abc.net.au/news/australia/nsw/newcastle/200412/s1259312.htm , 08:46 (AEDT), Tuesday, December 7, 2004
EAST MAITLAND (NSW) Australia - The family of a man from the Hunter Valley, on the central coast of New South Wales, who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest more than 10 years ago says justice has finally been done now that Father James Fletcher has been found guilty.
An East Maitland District Court jury yesterday convicted the 63-year-old Branxton parish priest of nine charges relating to the repeated sexual assault of a teenage boy in the early 1990s.
A second man, who alleges he was abused by Fletcher in the 1980s, also gave evidence in the trial.
Detective Sergeant Peter Fox, who led the police investigation for more than two years, paid tribute to the victims.
"I'd just like to pay my homage to the two boys that gave evidence," he said.
"Their absolute courage in coming forward and being prepared to come along to court and say what they did before a packed courtroom - it took a hell of a lot of courage in itself."
Fletcher is due to be sentenced in March.
[By courtesy of Broken Rites, Australia] [Dec 7, 04]
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed December 08, 2004 edition follows:-
• Des Moines Diocese Prepares Sexual Abuse Audit - RCC. $US680,000 wasted.
TheIowaChannel.com ; www.theiowa channel.com/ news/3981 691/detail.html , December 8, 2004
DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Catholic Diocese of Des Moines is expected to release another audit over its sexual abuse investigation in January or February.
Last year's audit showed the church paid more than $680,000 in the last 50 years to settle claims of abuse. ... [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:29 PM]
• Fifth Trial Date Set For Priest Accused Of Abusing Man Who Shot Him [1989-92 Blackwell] - RCC. Male.
TheWBALChannel.com ; December 8, 2004
BALTIMORE (MD) -- The trial of a priest accused of abusing a former parishioner who shot him years after the alleged abuse has been postponed until early next year.
It marked the fifth time the trial for the Rev. Maurice Blackwell has been delayed. This time, the delay was caused by a lack of courtroom space in Baltimore Circuit Court.
A new trial date was scheduled for Jan. 3.
Blackwell was charged with four counts of child sexual abuse of Dontee Stokes beginning in 1989 and ending in 1992.
In May 2002, in the midst of a national scandal involving Catholic priests, Stokes, 28, shot Blackwell three times outside the priest's home.
• Former Tulsa Priest Settles Sexual Abuse Lawsuit [Murphy] - RCC. 14 boys.
KOTV, www.kotv.com/ main/home/ stories.asp? whichpage= 1&id=73986 , The News on 6, Dec/8/2004
TULSA (OK): A former Tulsa priest settled a lawsuit with 14 men who accused him of sexual abuse. John Murphy taught at Cascia Hall in the late 1960's, but most of the victims in this case attended a private school in Chicago where Murphy taught in the 70's and 80's.
Murphy left the priesthood in 1993 when the church reported several sexual abuse complaints involving him. ...
• Group Says Archdiocese Not Doing Enough To Help Abuse Victims - RCC.
TheWBALChannel.com ; www.thewbal channel.com/ news/3983 125/detail.html , December 8, 2004
BALTIMORE (MD) -- Survivors and friends of those who have lived through abuse by priests said Wednesday that the Baltimore Archdiocese is not doing enough to help, WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Lisa Robinson reported.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said they want to get the attention of Baltimore's Cardinal William Keeler. The group protested outside of the Archdiocese headquarters on Cathedral Street. But the Archdiocese was closed because Wednesday is a holy day.
They said they want Keeler to revise programs to better address the needs of survivors and change the Archdiocese's policies regarding compensation of victims, Robinson reported.
"What we want to do is call attention to Maryland Catholics so that they see that the Archdiocese has been dishonest in their attempts to reconcile and reach out to victims," SNAP representative Kurt Gladfsky said.
SNAP said the last time they brought attention to the issue, six alleged victims came forward.
• North Dakota authorities seek extradition of former priest [1995-98 Sayasaya] - RCC. 2 boys.
Star-Telegram, www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/10369899.htm , By James MacPherson, Associated Press, Wed, Dec. 08, 2004
BISMARCK, N.D. - A priest who authorities believe fled to the Philippines to avoid sex crime charges told police and a friend that he would come back to face a jury if he could afford a plane ticket, but prosecutors are skeptical.
The Rev. Fernando Sayasaya is accused of having sexual contact with two boys between 1995 and 1998. He was charged in Cass County in December 2002 with gross sexual imposition, about four years after he returned to his native Philippines.
Authorities have not spoken to Sayasaya in two years, but they say they are still working with the Philippine government to bring him back to Fargo.
Cass County State's Attorney Birch Burdick said it is the first time his office has attempted to extradite someone from outside the United States, and it's a slow process.
Sayasaya has said he would come back voluntarily if he had enough money to travel, but U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said he believes the priest just wants to avoid charges. "He's a fugitive from justice," Wrigley said. [Emphasis added]
[COMMENT: A religion that cannot provide its clergy from its own population, from among the millions and millions available, has been sick for a long, long time. Could it be they have not returned to the original revelation? COMMENT ENDS.]
• Religious order to build memorial to abuse victims [1970s-80s Murphy] - RCC. Augustinians. 13 males.
Chicago Sun-Times, BY DAN ROZEK, December 8, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to build a memorial for victims who filed a lawsuit last year contending they were sexually abused by one of its priests while he was assigned to a South Side parish in the 1970s and '80s.
The memorial is one of the key provisions in a settlement announced Tuesday that ends a 2003 lawsuit brought in Cook County by 13 men who said they were molested by John D. Murphy, then a Catholic priest in the Augustinian order assigned to St. Rita parish.
The financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed. But attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, who represented the men, said key agreements included the memorial, holding a healing mass for sex abuse survivors and including survivors and family members on a committee reviewing sex abuse allegations against priests.
One of the first two men to come forward to file the suit in February 2003 said he is relieved a settlement has been reached. "I'm glad it's over," said the man, identified in the lawsuit as John Doe 74A. "It wasn't about money, it was about helping other victims."
• Warrant details alleged abuses [1989-90, 2000s Nelson] -- Episcopal, Lutheran. Carnal and child pornography. 4 girls.
Republican-American,, By Doug Dalena, Wednesday, December 8, 2004
NAUGATUCK (CT) -- A church organist paid four girls hundreds of dollars to pose for pornographic photos and for two of them to have sex with him over a four-year period, then paid the mother of two of the girls at least $17,000 to keep quiet when she found out about it, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The alleged sexual abuse began when one of the girls was 10, according to the affidavit state police filed to get an arrest warrant for Robert A. Nelson. The girls now range in age from 13 to 16, according to a state police news release issued after Nelson's arrest Nov. 19.
Nelson has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges in Waterbury Superior Court and Derby Superior Court. The charges include various degrees of sexual assault, possession of child pornography, employing a minor in an obscene performance, and providing alcohol to minors.
The 50-year-old Naugatuck man met the girls when he worked as an organist at Immanuel St. James Church in Derby, he told police and the Republican-American,.
Nelson, who had prior convictions for risk of injury to a minor from incidents in 1989 and 1990 in Newtown and Trumbull, also played the organ and gave piano lessons at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Waterbury until church officials learned of his arrest.
• New Anger At Seminary Housing Admitted Sex Offenders [Dominicans] - RCC. 7 offenders in seminary (!!!). Four doors from a school (!!!!)
KGO, http://abc local.go.com/ kgo/news/iteam/ 120604_iteam_ seminary.html , Dec. 6, 2004
OAKLAND (CA) - Seminary officials are refusing to attend a town hall meeting arranged by an Oakland city councilwoman to address neighbors' concerns about the sex offenders living there. The I-Team has an update to an investigation.
The basic problem is that neighbors didn't know the seminary was bringing in seven admitted sex offenders. The I-Team broke that story a week ago, and now, seminary officials are being criticized for not being open about who's living there and the steps they're taking to protect children.
Oakland city councilwoman Jane Brunner was as shocked as St. Albert's neighbors last week, when the I-Team revealed that seven priests -- admitted sex offenders -- were living at the seminary just four doors down from Claremont Middle School.
Brunner took action. She scheduled a town hall meeting for Dec. 16th.[...]
The Dominican order of priests runs the seminary, but they are refusing to attend Brunner's meeting.
Jane Brunner: "I'm disappointed because I think it would have actually calmed everything down."
Brunner tells us, the head of the Dominicans' western province, Father Roberto Corral, didn't want to face our cameras again or members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). ...
He [Corral] confirms the seminary is "housing several friars with histories of sexual misconduct," and he "sincerely apologizes for not having informed you earlier."
He invites some of the neighbors to a meeting at St. Albert's next week.
Annette Floystrup, St. Albert's neighbor: "It's difficult to criticize people in their own house, and I believe they're counting on that." ...
• Priest dismissed in wake of sexual abuse convictions [1970s Brown] - RCC. 2 boys.
Atlanta Journal Constitution, Associated Press, Dec/08/04
SAVANNAH (GA) - A Catholic priest from Rome has been dismissed from the priesthood after being convicted of sexually abusing two boys.
The decision, made by Pope John Paul II, said Wayland Yoder Brown was removed from all obligations connected to the priesthood, said Barbara King, spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Savannah, where he was stationed.
In November 2002, Brown, 61, pleaded guilty in a Maryland court to charges of child abuse and battery for performing sexual acts on a teenage boy and his younger brother in the 1970s. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year.
The abuse occurred while Brown was studying to be a priest in Maryland and includes alleged molestations in Savannah. Brown was arrested at his Savannah home in June 2002.
• Neighbors want open meeting with priory [2004; 7 accused of Dominican Order] -- RCC. Abusers with young seminarians, near schools.
Oakland Tribune, www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~2583617,00.html , By Laura Ernde
OAKLAND (CA) -- Catholic leaders are refusing to meet publicly with Rockridge residents who are upset about seven priests at St. Albert's Priory suspected of sexually abusing children in the past.
The Rev. Roberto Corral has scheduled a private meeting instead that will exclude the media and members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP], which has been critical of the priory.
Corral expressed regret about the controversy in his hand-delivered letter inviting neighbors to a meeting Tuesday at the Birch Court seminary.
"I also sincerely apologize for not having informed you earlier of the presence of these men in our community," wrote Corral, head of the Western Dominican Province that oversees the priory.
[COMMENT: Will he also apologise for running a system that produces paedophiles in the numbers revealed (so far), all solemnly committed to a "no-sex" lifestyle supposedly guaranteed by God? COMMENT ENDS.]
• Former priest's two-year sentence [1973-81 Coy] -- RCC. 3 girls.
The Mercury, (Hobart, Tasmania), www.themercury. news.com.au/ common/story_ page/0,5936,116 34649%255E3462, 00.html , By NICK CLARK, Dec 09, 04
LAUNCESTON (Tas) AUSTRALIA: A former priest convicted of molesting three sisters in the 1970s and 1980s was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Launceston yesterday to two years' jail.
David Charles Coy, 50, of Echuca, Victoria, would be eligible for parole after one year, Justice Peter Evans said. Coy was convicted of three counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a person under 17 years old between 1973 and 1981.
"You regularly illicitly molested each of these girls when an opportunity arose," Justice Evans said. "In each case your abuse progressed from touching the girls in the main on the breasts to tongue-kissing them."
The first victim was 10 years of age when Coy began his attacks. "Your second victim was 10 years of age when the abuse of her began and you were then 21 years of age and your last victim was 12 years of age when you were 25 years old," the judge said.
On one occasion Coy had entered the bathroom partly clad when one of the sisters was wearing only knickers. "You kissed her, fondled and kissed her breasts, lay on her and suggested making love," Justice Evans said.[...]
Coy was the chief executive officer of a training college in Echuca until May this year.
Counsel will discuss in Hobart on Monday the future of a fourth count on which the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The offences occurred in George Town and Devonport when the girls were aged between 10 and 16 years old.#
• Defrocked & doing time [1970s Brown] - RCC. Child.
The Moultrie Observer, Dec-08-2004
SAVANNAH (GA) - Pope John Paul II recently dismissed former Moultrie priest Father Wayland Yoder Brown from the priesthood after he was jailed last year for child molestation.
Savannah Bishop J. Kevin Boland received the Vatican's decree, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The decree stipulates that Brown is dispensed from all obligations connected with sacred ordination. Such decisions cannot be appealed, a release from the Catholic Diocese of Savannah said.
Brown, 61, is serving a 10-year prison term at the Western Correctional Institution, a medium security facility outside of Cumberland, Md., for child sexual molestation and battery against a minor. He pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2002 in connection with offenses that occurred there in the 1970s.
"The victims have carried the hurt and humiliation from these incidents for years," Boland said. "I reiterate that if there are any other victims, I encourage them to come forward."
The bishop said he will continue to pray for the victims of Brown and to pray that Brown "finds forgiveness and reconciliation in his spiritual journey."
• Apologies go only so far -- RCC. 87 victims reach settlement.
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes. com/news/local/ pilot/news/ opinion/la-dpt- commentary08 dec08,1,518 1083.story? coll=la-tcn- pilot-news- opinion ; Daily Pilot. My Turn column, By MAXINE COHEN, Dec 08, 2004
CALIFORNIA: The scandal over the abuse of child parishioners by the clergy and employees of the Diocese of Orange has been all over the national news, in the Los Angeles Times and in this local paper.
I read about the settlement in Saturday's Pilot, "Settlement reached in 87 diocese abuse suits." How relieved people were. There were "silent tears," "loud sobs" and the feeling "like 500 pounds had been lifted off my shoulders."
No kidding.
But what stood out for me the most was Joelle Casteix's statement about the personal apology from Bishop Tod Brown. She said: "All these years, the one thing I've wanted the most was this personal apology. This is what is going to help me heal."
I believe her.
And this sounds good on the surface, but let's look a little deeper. Because it's not the apology, in and of itself, that heals. It's what it means on a deeper level.
In the best of all possible worlds, a sincere apology means that the person accepts responsibility for his actions. It means that he understands what he did and how that harmed you and feels sorry about the fact that his actions caused you to be gravely injured.
To the person receiving the apology, it corroborates her sense of reality. It invalidates the ways in which she was told that it was OK somehow, that she was to blame for being seductive, that she shouldn't tell anyone, all of which have the net effect of making her feel crazy. It validates the fact that what she experienced is real — it was horrible — and it was not her fault. At an even deeper level, it's about being able to trust yourself. To know that what every fiber of your being is screaming out is, in fact, true. It's about removing the doubt. You can exhale. You now know. It's all right.
But what about the sex drive? Sex is not a want. It's a need, a biological drive, a mechanism designed by nature for our own survival. You can't get more basic than that.
So what do you do with it if you're told and if you've pledged that you will forsake the "normal," "healthy," "biologically designed" outlet? You can only suppress the drive for so long and then the need manifests in other ways. Biology cannot be denied. The only question is where to channel its manifestation.
Great artists sublimate their sex drive and redirect its energy into artistic expression. The Roman Catholic clergy are supposed to redirect this energy into their worship and adoration of God.
As far as other employees of the diocese — lay people — in the now-settled civil lawsuit, they have no admonitions against healthy sexual expression. They are alleged pedophiles, which is beyond scary if they are involved with children all the time.
Pedophilia means that a person is sexually attracted to children, not adults, and an apology and monetary remuneration will not change that. Why do you think we have Megan's Law? It's because pedophilia is highly resistant to change. Something has gone wrong at the most basic level of personality, and although the urge may be controlled, it is rarely eradicated.
Then there is the whole issue of post-traumatic stress disorder. An apology does nothing to repair that — the memories, the nightmares, the flashbacks, the ways in which a victim's sexuality may have been irretrievably altered for the remainder of her life. This is a horror that may never end for the victims of this sexual abuse.
And therein lies the tragedy. Yes, the clergy and employees of the diocese say they're sorry and move on. But the effects on the victims remain, and it will be up to each of them to find her or his own way to deal with that and to heal. My heart goes out to them.
• MAXINE COHEN is a Corona del Mar resident and marriage and family therapist practicing in Newport Beach. She can be reached at maxinecohen@adelphia.net or at (949) 644-6435
[COMMENT: The "biological drive" for sex is given its due importance in the Christian Scriptures, although with different terminology. Few clergy preach from these texts, which have been in the Bible for centuries, and the RC system doesn't seem to accept them! Copies of these texts have been going to clergy for more than a year now, but no change is evident! Read on:
Husbands, love your wives ... (Ephesians 5:25, 28, 33; Colossians 3:19). The raw translation of the first quote is "Men, love the women ...", which is hardly conducive to so-called "celibacy"!
... to avoid fornication every man ought to have his own wife and every woman her own husband. ... You must not deprive each other, except by mutual consent for a limited time, to leave yourselves free for prayer, and to come together again afterwards, otherwise Satan may take advantage of any lack of self-control to put you to the test. ... It is better to be married than to be burnt up. (Bible, 1 Corinthians 7: 2, 5, 9)
Let marriage be honourable in all, and the bed undefiled, because God will judge fornicators and adulterers. (Hebrews 13:4)
[Jesus said:] Did you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and two become one flesh. They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh. (Matthew 19:4-6)
[Jesus said:] On this account a man will leave this father and mother, and the two will be one flesh ... (Mark 10: 7-8)
For a wider discussion on the question of failures by Church leaders (and the theories they defy) to remove sinning clergy, visit "Non-marital carnal activity of Church workers" at http://www. multiline.com.au/ ~johnm/ethics/ nonmarital.htm . Pages 1 and 3 to 4 explain how Church members and leaders may use apostolic means to remove child sex abusers from the possibility of harming others (and themselves). Also visit "Celibacy crept in from the outside" at http://www .multiline.com.au/ ~johnm/ethics/ celibacy crept.htm for an explanation of how this blot crept in to one large sect, although it has been sturdily resisted for centuries. COMMENT ENDS.]
• He cherished priesthood, 'his people' -- RCC. Anti-secrecy Rev. Thibeault dies from complications.
Concord Monitor, www.concord monitor.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20041207/ REPOSITORY/ 412070324/1031 , By ANNMARIE TIMMINS, December 07. 2004
PENACOOK (NH): The constant ringing of the telephone punctuated Kay Laroche's reminiscing without mercy yesterday. "North or south, which way are you coming?" she asked the latest caller needing directions to today's funeral. LaRoche hung up and returned to the April afternoon that her friend, the Rev. Tim Thibeault told her he'd been feeling ill.
"He didn't want to go to the doctor, and I told him he had two choices: the black coat or the blue coat," LaRoche. "He grabbed the black one and said, 'Let's go.'"
Eight months after doctors diagnosed Thibeault with lymphoma, he died Friday at age 60. He beat the cancer, but the chemotherapy aggravated a liver problem beyond repair. At Thibeault's request, his 11 a.m. funeral will be held at Immaculate Conception in Penacook, his parish of seven years. Given the number of phone calls for directions, Thibeault's friends and family are expecting more people than the pews can hold.
Thibeault will be remembered as a man who cherished the priesthood even as he publicly protested the way his Catholic Church covered up repeated sexual abuse by its priests. He was the first priest in the state to allow Voice of the Faithful, the lay reform group created in response to the crisis, to meet in a parish, and he joined the group in calling for changes in the way the church did business. But he also comforted accused priests, even attending one priest's criminal trial.
• Calif. Diocese Settles Clergy Sex Abuse Lawsuits for Record Sum - RCC. Estimated $US100m to 87 survivors.
Legal News Watch, www.legalnewswatch.com/news_491.html
CALIFORNIA: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County has reached a settlment with 87 victims of sexual abuse by priests and lay employees for a sum that reportedly would exceed the record $85 million paid by the Archdiocese of Boston last year.
The New York Times reported that the payment is at least 100 million. The record settlement will impact other dioceses facing clergy sex abuse lawsuits including the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, which faces 540 claims of clergy sex abuse.
In a statement, Bishop Tod D. Brown, said the settlement means "We have kept our commitment to the victims of these crimes by compensating them, with the help of our insurers, at a level that is, in our view, significant, generous and compassionate."
• Clerical sex abuse scandal gets wide play - RCC. 3 stage shows about clergy abuse.
National Catholic Reporter, http://ncronline. org/NCR_Online/ archives2/2004d/ 121004/121004q. php , By RETTA BLANEY, Dec 10, 2004
UNITED STATES: "Ripped from the headlines" is the catchy phrase often used to promote TV movies based on sensational events. This fall it could well describe theatrical productions on both the East and West Coasts. Just as last fall brought a number of plays dealing with Sept. 11 themes, this year the subject is sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, capturing the stage in three Off-Broadway productions and at least two in Los Angeles.
John Cullum and John Leonard Thompson in "Sin (A Cardinal Deposed)" I've only seen the New York shows, the most compelling of which is "Sin (A Cardinal Deposed)," a documentary play by Michael Murphy drawn from the testimony of Cardinal Bernard Law, which dramatically portrays the arrogance and indifference with which Cardinal Law handled accusations of sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority over many years.
The script was developed using portions of Cardinal Law's deposition in two civil cases and information from more than 15,000 pages of internal church documents going back four decades. It combines the two civil suits and distills dozens of attorneys into one for each side, giving them fictional names.
Veteran Broadway actor John Cullum portrays Cardinal Law as alternately imperial, detached and defensive. The play takes place in a deposition room in Suffolk Superior Court as Cardinal Law is questioned by Orson Krieger (Thomas Jay Ryan), a lawyer for Patrick McSorley and 86 other plaintiffs who have charged Law with failing to protect them from sexual abuse by priests of the Boston archdiocese.
• Priest sex conviction to spark new appointment [1989-91 Fletcher] -- RCC. Boy.
ABC News Online (Australia), www.abc.net. au/news/news items/200412/ s1260260.htm
AUSTRALIA: The Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle in New South Wales says he will appoint a new parish priest to the Branxton parish as soon as possible, after its former priest was convicted of child sex offences this week.
Father James Fletcher, 63, was found guilty of nine charges relating to the repeated sexual assault of a teenage boy between 1989 and 1991.
Fletcher was removed from his parish after he was arrested in May 2003.
• Brownsville bishop says he never advised priest to flee [? 2000s Onyia] - RCC.
The Dallas Morning News, By BROOKS EGERTON, 08:50 PM CST on Tuesday, December 7, 2004
TEXAS: Brownsville Catholic Bishop Raymundo Peña denied Tuesday that he advised a priest suspected of sexual abuse to flee the country.
"Bishop Peña never advised Father [Basil] Onyia to go back to Nigeria, and we are surprised that Father Onyia is working as a priest there," a statement on the diocese's Web site said.
The News tracked the fugitive to his native Nigeria, where he has worked in parish ministry since disappearing from South Texas in early 2001. Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra charged him with sexual assault and abuse but has not tried to extradite him for trial. [Emphasis added]
[COMMENT: Ah, but did the bishop and the Nigerian bishop ORDER Father Onyia to return and surrender to law officials? If not, why not? We are told that every RC priest promises to be obedient to his bishop. The bishop is quoted as being surprised that Onyia was working as a priest. Another newsitem contradicts that. This newspaper ought to win an award for the huge effort to expose the fleeing priests, and the help they get from the bishops. Similar help from their superiors has been reported about the Anglicans in Australia. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Pope dismisses former Savannah priest [1974-77 Brown] - RCC. 2 boys.
Savannah Morning News, by Jan Skutch, 912.652.0336, jan.skutch@savannahnow.com , Dec 7, 2004
SAVANNAH (GA): A Catholic priest from Savannah has been dismissed from the priesthood in wake of his convictions in 2002 for sexually abusing two boys in the 1970s.
The decision by Pope John Paul II stipulates that Wayland Yoder Brown is removed from all obligations connected with his sacred ordination, said Barbara King, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Savannah.
Action against Brown, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, cannot be appealed.
"The victims have carried the hurt and humiliation from these incidents for years," said Bishop J. Kevin Boland, who heads the Savannah diocese. "I reiterate that if there are any other victims, I encourage them to come forward."
Brown, 61, pleaded guilty in a Maryland court in November 2002 to charges of child abuse and battery for performing sexual acts on a teenage boy and his younger brother in Maryland between 1974 and 1977.
• Editorial 12:08: The obligation to report abuse - RCC.
Commercial Appeal, December 8, 2004
MEMPHIS (TN): Officials of the Memphis Catholic Diocese say there are certain crimes that are "not reportable" -- the sexual abuse of a minor by a priest who doesn't have legal custody of the victim, for example.
The approach is no doubt informed by legal advice, but it offers little comfort to those who expect the diocese to be actively involved in the battle against sexual abuse.
In fact, the diocese may have not only a public duty to report allegations of sexual abuse but a legal responsibility as well.
Referring to previous sexual abuse allegations that have come to the attention of diocese officials, diocesan spokesman Father John Geaney told The Commercial Appeal: "Some of the things that happened are not reportable." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 02:20 AM]
[COMMENT:
O what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!
-- Marmion 6.17, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). COMMENT ENDS.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed December 08, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Man snared in porn blitz admits sex with boys, name suppressed. [? 2000s] - No religion link in report. Boys.
The West Australian, "Man snared in porn blitz admits sex with boys," by Gay McNamara, p 20, Wednesday, December 8, 2004
PERTH (W. Australia): The national police crackdown on internet porn has exposed a northern suburbs paedophile.
The man pleaded guilty yesterday to 19 charges of indecent dealing and sexual penetration of boys aged under 16, two charges of indecent recordings and two of possession of child pornography.
The man faced the District Court on charges relating to a teenage boy he molested over four years.
Earlier in the Magistrate's Court, he pleaded guilty to a further nine charges of indecently dealing with a child under 13 and a child over 13 years of age.
The man elected to be remanded in custody for sentencing on all charges on March 2. District Court Juge Kate O'Brien re-imposed a suppression order on his name and address to protect the children's identity.
Also in the District Court, Raymond Bruce Styles, 49, of Thornlie, was jailed for eight months after admitting he downloaded 2500 pornographic images from the internet. [Dec 8, 04]
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu December 09, 2004 edition follows:-
• Churches oppose bill on disclosure
The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/ news/local/art icles/2004/12/ 09/churches_opp ose_bill_on_dis closure , By Michael Paulson, December 9, 2004
BOSTON (MA): The major mainline Protestant and Orthodox churches of Massachusetts have decided unanimously to oppose legislation that would force religious organizations to make public their finances, throwing an obstacle in the path of efforts by some Catholics to require greater disclosure by the Archdiocese of Boston.
The Massachusetts Council of Churches, an umbrella organization representing about 1,700 non-Catholic Christian congregations, said the proposed legislation would violate the independence of religious organizations promised by the federal and state constitutions.
''Many churches have deep historical memories of an experience of undue influence by the state in the affairs of the church, and thus many churches are wary of giving the state unnecessarily intrusive powers over their internal workings," said the Rev. Diane C. Kessler, executive director of the council. ''Our churches are committed to transparency, and in many cases sizable representative groups of clergy and laity vote on operating budgets, and there is an enormous amount of financial information that is transparent, but our churches would continue to advocate for voluntary transparency, rather than for any further required reporting."
Kessler called the idea of mandatory reporting by churches a ''threateningly slippery slope," and said that as a result of the council's unanimous vote, taken Tuesday night, she will be lobbying legislators to oppose it. The council's members include, among others, the state divisions of the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Methodist Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Greek Orthodox Church.
The legislation, proposed by Senator Marian Walsh, would require religious organizations, including churches, to disclose financial information now required of other nonprofit organizations. The reports would include a summary of financial data and the salaries for the five highest-paid employees and the five highest-paid consultants.
The bill would also require all charitable organizations, including churches, to list their real estate holdings on an annual financial report. ... [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 11:31 AM]
• Sex offender accused of molesting homeless boy - Baptist. Boy.
Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes. com/output/news/ cst-nws-ab use09.html , BY STEFANO ESPOSITO, sesposito@suntimes.com AND FRANK MAIN, fmain@suntimes.com> , Staff Report, December 9, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): Six years after a minister lured a teen to his Chicago home, asked him to take a sex survey and molested him, the man is now accused of preying on a homeless boy.
Michael M. Taylor, still claiming to be spiritual leader in the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church on the South Side, was counseling a 13-year-old he met at a West Side shelter this year, authorities said.
The boy's mother let him stay at Taylor's home, where he was allegedly sexually abused and shown pornographic movies.
On Wednesday, Taylor, a 48-year-old registered sex offender, was ordered held without bail.
"The Chicago Police Department tries hard to ... keep track of people, and yet you still have guys like this offending even while they are still registered," said Chicago Police Lt. Robert Hargesheimer of the Special Investigations Unit.
Taylor is part of New Covenant's "deacon program," Hargesheimer said.
The Rev. Stephen J. Thurston, the church pastor and the newly elected president of the 3.5 million-member National Baptist Convention in America, couldn't be reached for comment. A church receptionist said Taylor is a minister, but not at the church.
• CT Judge: Catholic Church Not Liable In Sex Suit [1996-99 Kappalumakkel] - RCC. Female.
1010 WINS, http://1010wins. com/topstories/ local_story_344 074137.html , 7:17 am US/Eastern, Dec 9, 2004
MILFORD, Conn. (1010 WINS) - A judge in Milford has ruled that the Archdiocese of Hartford can't be held liable for a West Haven priest's alleged sexual relationship with a female parishioner.
Judge Patrick Carroll has dismissed Doreen Ahern's lawsuit against the archdiocese. He says since another judge ruled that the priest, Matthew Kappalumakkel, couldn't be held personally liable if he had sex with Ahern, the archdiocese can't be held liable, either.
Ahern's attorney says she'll appeal.
Ahern, formerly of West Haven, alleged in the three-year-old lawsuit that she had a four-year affair with Kappalumakkel.
She says the alleged affair began in 1996, when she was a parishioner at Our Lady of Victory Church in West Haven and he was an associate pastor there.
Kappalumakkel is now on administrative leave.
• Lawsuit against archidiocese dismissed
Newsday, www.newsday. com/news/local/ state/ny-bc- ct-brf--priest sexsuit1209 dec09,0,115 9230.story? coll=ny-region- apconnecticut ; December 9, 2004
MILFORD, Conn. -- A Superior Court judge has ruled that the Archdiocese of Hartford cannot be held liable for a West Haven priest's alleged sexual relationship with a female parishioner. Judge Patrick Carroll this week dismissed New Haven Doreen Ahern's lawsuit against the archdiocese, saying that since another judge ruled Matthew Kappalumakkel couldn't be held personally liable, the archdiocese can't be held liable, either. The key issue was whether Kappalumakkel breached a "fiduciary" relationship with Ahern, as her priest, by allegedly having sex with her. Judge Angela Robinson ruled in March that he did not. Ahern, formerly of West Haven, alleged in the 3-year-old lawsuit that that she had a four-year affair with Kappalumakkel. The affair allegedly began in 1996 when she was a parishioner at Our Lady of Victory Church in West Haven and he was an associate pastor there. Kappalumakkel is now on administrative leave.
• Justice for All: Law enforcement must not shield priests
The Dallas Morning News, Opinion | Editorials, Wednesday, December 8, 2004
DALLAS (TX): Self-interest explains why bishops would help priests accused of sexual abuse hide out from the law. But why would prosecutors, judges and police officers aid and abet their flight from justice? According to accounts by Dallas Morning News reporters Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin, politics has a lot to do with it, including fear of a public backlash. Perhaps timid lawmen could locate their spines if Catholics and others offered clear support for bringing dirty priests to justice. There is also some naiveté among police officers, who sometimes cling to outdated stereotypes about clergy trustworthiness. The News cited a conversation in which an FBI agent and a police detective talked themselves out of believing a molester priest when he said his American bishop ordered him to stay out of the country to avoid arrest. "That would be obstruction of justice," the FBI agent said. "The bishop wouldn't do that." Bunk. If we have learned anything from this scandal, it's that the clergy are capable of all kinds of deeds incompatible with their status. It's important to note that the fear of God has not caused the church to come clean about its molester priests, but rather the power of the American legal system. When civil authorities refuse to go after credibly accused clerics – and, for that matter, decline to pursue obstruction of justice investigations of bishops – whose interest is served? Not the public's. Not the innocent victims'. Consider the case of Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra. The News reported complaints from police and other locals that the Catholic DA is uninterested in the Rev. Basil Onyia, a Nigerian priest accused of molesting a mentally retarded girl in 2001. The cleric left for his native country before he could be arrested. Mr. Guerra nevertheless charged him with sexual assault and abuse, but is not seeking extradition, explaining to this newspaper that tracking down the priest would be nearly impossible. "Go find him for me and I'll bring the sucker back," Mr. Guerra challenged News reporters. Lo and behold, our reporters easily located Father Onyia in ministry back home. The priest denies wrongdoing, and says Brownsville Bishop Raymundo Pena told him to flee ahead of the cops (the bishop denies this). Now Texas will see if DA Guerra is a man of his word, or the kind of official for whom the phrase "Justice is blind" means see-no-evil when it comes to the Catholic Church.#
• 2 more suits claim abuse by priests
Daily Bulletin, (909) 483-9340, Wednesday, December 08, 2004
LOS ANGELES (CA) - Two more lawsuits were filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy. In a suit filed Tuesday, a woman listed only as "Jane Doe" claims she was sexually molested by Patrick Cotter from 1973 to 1974 at a school or parish in West Hollywood. In a second lawsuit filed Tuesday, Jonathan David Hoy, 32, sued an unnamed priest, who, according to the suit, is a registered sex offender. The suit also names the Archdiocese, the Diocese of San Bernardino and schools or parishes where the priest worked in Coachella and Perris. Hoy claims he was abused by the same priest from about 1984 to 1988, and that the abuse included oral, anal and group sex.#
• Gregory named Atlanta archbishop
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, By BILL MONTGOMERY, bmontgomery@ajc.com, JOHN BLAKE, jblake@ajc.com, Dec/09/04
ATLANTA (GA): Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., was introduced Thursday as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta. Bishop Gregory received a standing ovation from the priests assembled for a news conference at the Catholic Center in downtown Atlanta. "I come with no preset agenda, but only with an open heart," said Bishop Gregory, 57. "My heart and office will be open to people." Currently the bishop of the Diocese of Belleville, Ill., he recently finished a three-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops. He presided over reform measures enacted after the widespread clergy sexual abuse scandal. "I wish that it didn't happen at all," he said of the abuses. "To have any child harmed is a great travesty. I wish we had been quicker in our response. But I'm proud of what we've done." The Vatican announced his appointment as archbishop-elect at noon in Rome, 6 a.m. Atlanta time. He will become Atlanta's sixth archbishop. The appointment is effective immediately, according to the archdiocese's Web site. Gregory, succeeds Archbishop John F. Donoghue, 76, who announced his retirement a year and a half ago ...
• Bishop Wilton Gregory named new archbishop of Atlanta
AccessNorthGa.com ; www.access northga.com/ news/ap_new fullstory. asp?ID=50689 , The Associated Press
ATLANTA (GA) - Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, who was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the height of the clergy molestation crisis, has been appointed by Pope John Paul II to serve as Archbishop of Atlanta, the archdiocese announced Thursday. Gregory, who had been serving as bishop in Belleville, Ill., will become Atlanta's sixth archbishop. "I welcome the opportunity to serve the people of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. I am deeply grateful to the Holy Father for his confidence and support," Gregory said. ,,,
• Disgrace of the dedicated monsignor [Green] - RCC.
The Mercury (Hobart), By GAVIN LOWER, Law Reporter, December 10, 2004
TASMANIA, Australia: For more than 40 years Philip Green dedicated his life to God, the Catholic Church and community. Ordained as a priest in Hobart in 1961, he rose through the church ranks and achieved the title "Monsignor".
His community work was recognised when he was made a Member of the British Empire in 1988 and a Member of the Order of Australia in 1995. But the good name has disappeared and been replaced with disgrace and shame.
The senior priest who was stripped of his duties last year after confessing to inappropriate behaviour, is now a convicted criminal.
• Top priest avoids jail over grope [1970s Green] - RCC. Male. Grope and sensual kiss while consoling bereaved!
The Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Queensland), By Gavin Lower, Dec 10, 2004
TASMANIA, Australia: The fall from grace of one of Tasmania's highest ranked Catholic priests was complete yesterday after he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a grieving young man nearly 30 years ago.
Monsignor Philip Green admitted in the Supreme Court in Hobart to groping the groin of a 22-year-old and forcefully tongue-kissing him in a car at Greens Beach, in the state's North, in 1977.
The high-profile priest who was sacked from active ministry last year after allegations of inappropriate behaviour was given a suspended three-month jail sentence on condition he behaves for two years.
Chief Justice Peter Underwood said the crime was a gross breach of trust.
The court heard Green had been a family friend of the victim and had been consoling the family after the victim's sister had been killed in a car accident. Green had identified the sister's body for her family and interviewed police to pass on information about the accident to them.
He attacked the man by grabbing his groin through his clothes and kissing him while he was sitting in his car trying to come to terms with the death of his sister.
Justice Underwood said a significant aggravating feature of the crime was that it was committed while Green was ministering to the man and his family, all traumatised by the death.
"You, as an ordained priest of the Catholic Church, held yourself out to this young man and his family as a custodian of moral values and a person in whom trust could be placed when in need," he said.
"Your public humiliation is complete for your former high standing has been transformed to disgrace and odium from which you are unlikely to recover."[...]
Prosecutor Daryl Coates, SC, said that in 2002 the man spoke to a priest about the incident and after a meeting in Launceston between him and church officials he understood Green would no longer act as a priest, and would have counselling.
But the following year he learned Green was still performing church duties, so he complained to police.
"The complainant feels betrayed and let down by the accused," Mr Coates said.
He said the man felt he could not discuss the incident with his parents at the time because they were grieving over the death of his sister. When he told his father he didn't believe him until 2002. ...
• Closed meeting riles neighbors near priory [7 accused Dominicans] - RCC.
Contra Costa Times, By Guy Ashley, Posted on Thu, Dec. 09, 2004
OAKLAND, USA - Neighbors have been invited to a meeting Tuesday at St. Albert's priory, the seminary whose officials admitted it houses seven clerics accused of sexually abusing minors. But the meeting is off limits to the media and the group of clergy sex abuse survivors behind the first public revelations that the clerics were living in Oakland. Strict limits on participation in the meeting were revealed by Oakland City Councilwoman Jane Brunner, who said her offers to organize a larger public meeting were rejected by officials of the Dominican Order of Catholic Priests, which operates the seminary. "I invited them to a meeting on Dec. 16, but they said they had decided not to come," Brunner said. "They said they were concerned about having the media and SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) at the meeting." Dominican officials said the discussion about the seven priests and the concerns raised by their presence will be most productive if it is contained within the neighborhood surrounding St. Albert's -- located on Birch Court, a block from College Avenue and Claremont Middle School in Oakland's upscale Rockridge neighborhood. ...
• Bishop Gregory named to Atlanta; shrine rector to be W.Va. bishop
Catholic News Service, By Patricia Zapor, BISHOPS (UPDATED) (950 words), With photos, Dec-9-2004
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., has been named by Pope John Paul II to head the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He will replace Archbishop John F. Donoghue, whose retirement was accepted by the pope Dec. 9. The retirement of Bishop Bernard W. Schmitt of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., also was announced. His successor will be Msgr. Michael J. Bransfield, 61, a Philadelphia priest who currently serves as rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the United States, made the announcements in Washington. Archbishop Gregory, 57, completed a three-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in November. Archbishop Donoghue, 76, has headed the Atlanta Archdiocese since 1993. Bishop Schmitt, also 76, has been bishop of Wheeling-Charleston since 1989. Archbishop Gregory was president of the USCCB during a turbulent time for the U.S. church, as the bishops dealt with the clergy sexual abuse crisis. It was perhaps one of the most difficult periods in the conference's history.
• Blessed by the Devil; Orange's dirty deal threatens to brush away the priest scandal - RCC. Writer thinks money will avoid prosecutions of abusers.
LA Weekly, www.laweekly. com/ink/05/03/ news-anderson.php , by Jeffrey Anderson, December 10-16, 2004
UNITED STATES: Observers of the Catholic Church sex scandal saw for the first time last Friday what passes for mass closure in these parts. The Diocese of Orange agreed to pay $100 million to 87 victims of 31 priests – minus 40 percent for the victims' lawyers.
Comes out to less than a million per victim, after the lawyers get paid, but it is a record settlement by the Orange Diocese, which has been crippled for the past year by revelations of corrupt priests and bishops and seemingly complicit D.A.s and cops. Eclipses the $85 million Boston settlement and every other diocese in the country, where for decades priests have b*ggered little boys, while vicars, bishops and cardinals let them.
Victims had huddled in a Los Angeles courtroom corridor for days, beckoned by their attorneys, who after haggling with the church behind closed doors for two years sensed that the end was near. The end, according to sex-abuse victims in Los Angeles who have weathered a similar ordeal but are dreading the same result, of the most choreographed, pre-ordained and self-serving charade the California legal system could muster.
Then came the kicker: They hugged. Not just each other. They hugged Orange Bishop Tod Brown, and thanked him for ending their suffering. Not the suffering over being molested in their youth by men they were raised to revere as their conduit to God. That is something they will live with the rest of their lives, along with depression, alcoholism and dysfunction, some better compensated than others. No, they thanked him for ending a process they joined on a promise from their lawyers to fight for exposure, accountability and justice, but which resulted in none of the above.
You can't buy justice. No priest will go to jail in Orange County for raping a child. No church official will have to answer for allowing such crimes to occur, or denying knowledge of molester priests in their ranks. Local power brokers such as GOP leader Tom Fuentes, diocese spokesman during an era of heavy pedophile traffic, and William Lyon, a developer whose home became a haven for an accused priest, will never have to testify under oath about what they knew. Less than six months ago, victims' attorneys swore to depose "everyone in sight" and fight in court "if it takes a lifetime" to document every move the diocese made in shielding pedo-priests.
Hardly. The record pact merely states that the diocese will relinquish its fight to conceal internal documents that show the extent to which officials ignored reports of molestation, allowing priests to molest again. Since the clergy scandal erupted in Boston, in 2002, eventually ousting former Cardinal Bernard Law, such documents have been the Holy Grail for victims. Such documents, a Los Angeles judge has ruled, are evidence of crimes against children. In Boston, the public knew what it knew because lawyers for the 552 victims and the media forced disclosure of church documents, which showed the whole, sordid, ugly truth – before settlements were reached, not after. Similar revelations have cleansed dioceses in New Hampshire, Phoenix and Tucson.
When will such documents come out in Orange? Nobody knows. How? Wait and see. Will it matter when they do? Not likely.
"Money is what this has always been about," says one detractor of the settlement process, a victim of priest abuse in Los Angeles. "It would be vain for any victim to see their suffering as a means of forcing change in the church." Last Thursday night, as the courthouse vigil ended, Raymond Boucher, lead attorney for the victims, and Peter Callahan, an attorney for the Orange Diocese, offered a joint statement: "The exact terms of this settlement including the amount for each victim are still being worked out," they said. "As far as documents are concerned, the Diocese has already produced what was required," Boucher continued. "They will be provided to the court for a ruling on what can be legally produced."
Translating, that means neither the lawyers for the diocese nor lawyers for the victims had the courage or conviction to prove their clients' cases. It means they don't want responsibility for showing the public, in the writings of the Catholic hierarchy, what church officials knew and when they knew it. Washing their hands of the matter, the lawyers chose resolution with no accountability over a more complete, honest resolution.
Minutes away from the courthouse, Mike Hennigan, the embattled lawyer for Cardinal Roger Mahony and the Los Angeles Archdiocese, which faces more than 500 similar lawsuits and has harbored hundreds of alleged pedophiles since 1930 – sometimes in concert with Orange – waited. He waited to be informed that it was over, for reporters to call him and ask for comment. He told them he really had no involvement with the Orange negotiations. And then he likely called Mahony to deliver the news: Orange, the first in the state, is settled. One down.
California's management of the clergy scandal in its 12 dioceses has contrasted from other states such as Massachusetts, Arizona and Kentucky, where bishops resigned, priests went to jail, and then lawsuits were settled. In Boston particularly, nothing about the scourge of priest pedophilia went unexamined. But after a backroom deal struck by plaintiffs' lawyers and Mahony's lawyers in December 2002, in which they agreed to avoid an open-court battle, and following orders from the California Judicial Council to consolidate thousands of lawsuits across the state, secret negotiations have kept the public in the dark, or confused by leaks and rumors.
Critics have cited two reasons for this clandestine approach. One is the influence of Mahony, whose vulnerability is complicated by his authority under church law, which extends from San Diego to Monterey. No bishop can be appointed in California without Mahony's approval. At least six bishops are his friends, former classmates or former employees. That's not counting exiled former Bishop Patrick Ziemann, a Mahony protégé who allegedly was aware of pedophiles running amok in the Orange Diocese and Los Angeles in 1980, who served as Mahony's auxiliary bishop from 1987 to 1992, and who scandalized the Diocese of Santa Rosa in 1999, when he was accused of coercing sex from a priest. The District Attorney's Office was investigating Ziemann until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California's criminal child-abuse statute in 2003. Church documents showing what Ziemann knew, and what Mahony and others knew of Ziemann, are key incentives for Mahony to avoid a public airing.
The second is the influence of Chief Justice Ronald George of the state Supreme Court. No judicial fiat to force thousands of sex-abuse victims into private mediation could be accomplished without his say-so. Faced with a flood of lawsuits due to a change in the statute of limitations in 2003 – which was heavily lobbied for by trial lawyers Ray Boucher and Larry Drivon, who control more than half the state's clergy sex-abuse cases – George could see chaos if every victim sought their day in court. Add the influence of the church in Los Angeles, where virtually no non-Catholic has served as presiding judge, and the goal was clear: keep a lid on the scandal until settlements could be reached.
Orange was supposed to be different. Plaintiffs' lawyer John Manly, an outspoken Catholic who adversaries refer to as "Mad Dog Manly," promised to see justice done. "Documenting clerics' files is the real goal," Manly told reporters. "It's the only reason to sue the church," said Joelle Casteix, who alleges her teacher abused her from 1986 to 1988 at Mater Dei High School. "If I settled without documents, it would feel like dirty money," Casteix told O.C. Weekly in June.
Manly's fight yielded signs that the Orange County establishment was complicit in the protection of priests and bishops. He compared Bishop Tod Brown, who released church files for mediation purposes but fought for months against public disclosure, to Judas. In July, a group of devout Catholics were calling for Brown's ouster because of his refusal to go public with the truth. Manly rejected a $40 million settlement offer from the church and threatened to depose "anyone remotely associated" with the clergy scandal. During one such deposition he got disgraced former bishop of Tucson Manuel Moreno – a close friend of Mahony's – to admit to knowing about accused priests who were allowed to take children to Disneyland. Manly exposed former bishop of Orange Norman McFarland for bringing accused pedophiles into Orange from Reno and Sacramento.
Meanwhile, reporters in Orange County exposed law-enforcement authorities, prosecutors and influential laymen as key sources to be questioned about what appeared to be a countywide cover-up.
Former Anaheim Chief of Police Roger Baker, O.C. Weekly reported, misplaced a taped confession by accused priest John Lenihan that he molested a 13-year-old, then held on to a copy of the tape provided by the alleged victim until after the criminal statute of limitations expired. Republican Party chairman Tom Fuentes, a spokesman for the diocese from 1977 to 1989, personally supervised a priest brought into the diocese in 1984 despite knowledge of a Sacramento police report of the priest being caught in a graveyard with a 13-year-old boy's legs wrapped around his face. Mega-developer William Lyon allowed Monsignor Michael Harris, a defrocked cleric and subject of a $5.2 million sex-abuse settlement in 2001, to live in one of his homes, after Harris resigned as principal of Santa Margarita High School in 1994 for allegedly molesting students. Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas refused to file criminal charges against Harris despite an apparent wealth of evidence and complete cooperation from Ryan DiMaria, the recipient of the $5.2 million settlement, who now is an attorney with Manly's firm.
Manly and Drivon swore they would depose these O.C. insiders. But as last week's negotiations simmered to a boil, Brown gave Manly and company 100 million reasons to call it quits. Suddenly victims and their lawyers were licking the sandals of a bishop who was publicly ridiculed for nailing "Seven Theses" for reform to the cathedral door in January, criticized for never enacting those reforms when required by the DiMaria settlement, and lambasted for spending $350,000 on a New York public relations firm while planning to build a lavish cathedral. The diocese has been sitting on $270 million in investment reserves, and according to abuse survivors, Boucher had told them the Orange lawsuits were worth $300 million. But enough was enough. "I'm proud of what I did," Manly said of the settlement. "It's over, it's over, it's over," cried one exhausted victim.
Legal experts will debate the fate of the documents, including the "balancing test" between public interest and privacy rights of priests that a judge will use to decide what to release – and when. They will analyze the effects of insurance carriers on the process in Orange and in Los Angeles, as the public grows increasingly weary of the church saga. Yet poignant questions remain: Will the Archdiocese of Los Angeles come clean with its internal records before putting a large enough hunk of money on the table for victims and their lawyers to bite on? Does the Orange settlement bode ill, or well, for Mahony? And, will victims in Orange, none of whom objected to the settlement, one day regret not having public vindication and proof of their claims, before they signed away their legal rights for a cash settlement – minus 40 percent for their lawyers?
Sources close to the negotiations want the media and the public to believe that by approving a landmark settlement and promising not to fight the release of church documents – which may not be released until after Los Angeles has settled its cases – Brown has thrown Mahony under the bus. Brown's proposed letter of apology to each victim also has been cited as a classy touch, whereas Mahony's lawyers are still threatening scorched-earth tactics, such as a challenge to the state law that allowed thousands of lawsuits to be filed in 2003. Said one observer, "Everyone knows Mahony didn't want Brown to settle like this. What does this say about the cardinal's standing? He's f*cked."
But in the hierarchical manner of the Catholic Church, Mahony made Brown. And despite the church's insistence that its bishops act independently, it's not likely the settlement was done without approval from the Vatican, or Mahony. Most likely, Mahony supports the Orange settlement and is banking on very few documents seeing the light of day.
Survivors in Los Angeles have seen enough of the cardinal's handiwork – not to mention their own lawyers at work – to know how the film ends. "I'm not sanguine about the prospects for public vindication or emotional satisfaction," says Udo Strutynski, an attorney in Alhambra who alleges abuse by his priest when he was a teenager.
Strutynski has drifted from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a nonprofit group that has grown through its affiliation with Boucher and Drivon, who match donations to the cause and have provided free office space to the group. "SNAP is interested in its own financial well-being, and so are attorneys, by nature," Strutynski says. "Victims say they want the glory of a show trial, but not many understand that is not a practical possibility. I've spoken with victims who have settled. They say they'll keep Bishop Brown's apology letter in their bathroom in case they run out of toilet paper."
Lee Bashforth, a SNAP leader whose lawsuit is one of 544 being mediated in Los Angeles, says, "Seventy-five percent of the victims want the truth to come out, and the rest don't care as long as the money is right. This works out well for the Diocese of Orange. Now the judge can stall releasing the documents. He'll say, 'We can't release these while Los Angeles is still negotiating.' Or it will be some other line of bullshit. Then he'll go on vacation for two weeks and nothing will happen. Insurance companies will get out their checkbooks and help the archdiocese sweep everything under the rug. It's no coincidence they were about to depose Tom Fuentes in Orange County before settling."
Bashforth says settlement talks have turned into a war of attrition. "Lawyers on both sides have worn victims down," he says. Victims never envisioned settling their cases, Bashforth says, then waiting for a judge's approval on what to release. "If that's the way they structure it in Los Angeles, I'll have even less faith that there will ever be any sense of truth and justice. But that's how the lawyers envision it. They took on more cases than they could handle and knew all along they had to rely on settlement."
Callahan, attorney for the Orange Diocese, says it would be irresponsible to release documents about priests without protecting their privacy rights. But that ignores two things: The church has already turned its back on pedophile priests, and a judge's ruling in a criminal proceeding has characterized church documentation of priest sexual abuse as evidence of a crime. Still, Callahan insists, "All the polemics about documents has to do with Los Angeles, not us. They've disclosed these half-assed summaries, and we've turned over everything from day one." The Los Angeles Archdiocese has resisted turning over actual files but has proposed posting summaries of Los Angeles priests' files on its Web site. A lawyer for area priests has filed objections with the court.
"If money gets paid out before documents are disclosed, the documents will have no value," Strutynski concludes. "In Boston, they published the documents first. And if you understand that this is really about the money, then you understand that going public with the documents and a threat of a jury trial only raises the ante. My problem with the whole thing is that the attorneys don't tell us anything. They don't trust us. And the church still has a cover-up mentality." Asked about the chances he'll see his case pressed to the fullest, rather than packaged for a massive closeout sale, Glendale SNAP leader Steven Sanchez replied, "Slim to none, and slim is on a bus on his way out of town."# [Emphasis on names etc. added]
• Priest convicted of indecent assault [1977 Green] - RCC. Man.
The Courier Mail (Queensland), www.thecourier mail.news.com. au/common/story_ page/0,5936, 11639275%255 E1702,00.html , By David Killick, Dec 09, 2004
TASMANIA, Australia: A senior Catholic priest who forcibly kissed and groped a grieving male parishioner was today sentenced to a three-month suspended jail term.
Philip Richard Green, 69, of Hobart, today pleaded guilty in the Tasmanian Supreme Court to one count of indecent assault on a 22-year-old man at Greens Beach in northern Tasmania in 1977.
The monsignor was aged 43 when he went to the victim's home after identifying the body of the young man's sister, who had been killed in a road crash, Crown prosecutor Daryl Coates told the court.
The victim was sitting in a car when Green sat down beside him, grabbed his groin and forcibly tongue kissed him, Mr Coates said.
He broke from the priest's embrace and fled the car and later saw Green talking with his family "as though nothing had happened", the court was told. [...]
Green, who was awarded an MBE in 1988 and an Order of Australia medal in 1995, had suffered from a long list of health problems including heart and kidney disease, bladder cancer, anxiety, depression and sleep apnoea, Mr Ayliffe said.
He would never work again, had been vilified in the press and had lost the respect of the community, he said. ...
• Molestation trial of city priest is postponed for a fifth time
Baltimore Sun, From Staff And Wire Reports, Originally published December 9, 2004
UNITED STATES: The trial of a priest accused of molesting a former parishioner, who shot him a decade after the alleged abuse, has been postponed for the fifth time.
Maurice Blackwell, 58, whose trial was to start next week, is charged with four counts of child sexual abuse of Dontee Stokes, 28, when Stokes was an adolescent. The trial is now scheduled for Jan. 3.
Blackwell, who denies the allegations, was pastor at St. Edward Roman Catholic Church in West Baltimore from 1979 until 1998, when he was stripped of his authority after acknowledging having a years-long sexual relationship with another teenage boy in the early 1970s.
In May 2002, Stokes shot Blackwell outside the priest's home. A jury acquitted Stokes of attempted murder. Later, he pleaded guilty to handgun violations and was sentenced to the 18 months' home detention he had served.
Stokes' allegations against Blackwell were investigated in 1993, but no charges were brought then. Blackwell was indicted last year. ...
• Outspoken Bishop to Lead in Atlanta -- New Atlanta Archbishop Introduced
WXIA-TV (Atlanta), Web Editor: Tracey Christensen and Sean Rowe, Last Modified 7:26:33 AM, Dec/10/2004
ATLANTA (GA): Questions following Wilton D. Gregory's confirmation as Atlanta's newest archbishop quickly turned to the Catholic Church position on the sex abuse scandal and same-sex marriage Thursday. Outgoing Archbishop John F. Donoghue introduced Gregory saying, "I'm very honored today to announce that our Holy Father Pope John Paul II has named Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., as the sixth archbishop and the seventh bishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta." At 6 a.m. eastern time, the pope announced Gregory's appointment, confirming an earlier story reported exclusively by 11Alive.Com. Archbishop Donoghue took up the lead role at the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 1993. "The holy father has accepted my resignation in accordance with canon law, which requires that a bishop submit his resignation when he reaches the age of 75," Archbishop Donoghue said. ...
• Scranton diocese target of lawsuit; Hierarchy showed "willful blindness" to sexual misconduct complaints, the suit claims. [1997-2004]
Times Leader, By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER, tmorgan@leader.net , Posted on Thu, Dec. 09, 2004
DURYEA - A former altar boy who claims he was molested by the Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr. has filed a federal lawsuit against the priest and the Diocese of Scranton. The suit, filed on behalf of the victim identified as "John Doe," claims former Bishop James Timlin received complaints of inappropriate sexual conduct involving Liberatore as early as 1997. Rather than address them, Timlin showed a "willful blindness" to the allegations, which lead to Liberatore's abuse of the youth, the suit claims. Named as defendants are Liberatore, Timlin, the Rev. Joseph R. Kopacz, Brother Antonio Antonucci and the Diocese of Scranton. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, outlines many of the same allegations lodged against Liberatore in criminal charges filed against him earlier this year in Luzerne County and New York state. Liberatore was removed from his duties in May; he is awaiting trial in both cases. Among the allegations are that Liberatore fondled the boy during sleepovers at the church rectory; that he invited the boy to homosexual parties at the rectory and showed him pornographic movies after plying him with alcohol and that he sexually assaulted the alleged victim earlier this year in a hotel in New York. ...
• Lawyers spar over clergy sex abuse
Telegram & Gazette
UNITED STATES: [Costs 60 cents US daily to access]
• A letter from a victim of nun abuse - RCC.
RenewAmerica, by Matt C. Abbott, December 9, 2004
UNITED STATES: I received the following e-mail letter from Mary Dunford of Eagan, Minn. "Dear Mr. Abbott, "You published one of my letters June 14, 2004. In it I explained that I was the victim of sexual abuse by an Ursuline [nun] at a boarding school in southern Minnesota run by the Ursulines. It is now an ecumenical retreat center run by the same order. "I told you that the bishops, notably Archbishop Flynn, refuse to take any responsibility for the other church leaders besides priests who have sexually abused children, teens, and vulnerable adults. Those others are Catholic nuns, youth leaders, lay ministers, paid lay employees, volunteers. Understanding that nuns are autonomous, answerable only to themselves and the Pope, isn't it time we demand that all victims of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by Catholic Church leaders be given a voice? "Let's confront the whole of the problem and offer justice and healing to all these persons and their loved ones who suffer daily in marginal lives which are always less. Less fulfillment. Less health. Less joy. Less opportunity. Less everything. Less than the promise and potential that was present in each of these persons before they were ravaged. Less than what other unabused persons may enjoy. "As an update: the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) refused to allow male and female victims of abuse by nuns to speak for one half hour of their four days' conference in Fort Worth in August. This organization has leader-members from 400 religious orders of women, representing 76,000 nuns. The conference theme was a response to the violence around the world. This did not include the violence perpetrated by members of the orders in their own 'backyards' apparently. ...
• Catholics seek healing for abuse victims
Iowa City Press-Citizen, By Rob Daniel, Thursday, December 9, 2004
UNITED STATES: Healing, accountability and reform are the main goals of a grassroots movement of Catholics in response to allegations of sexual abuse by clergy. The group met Wednesday at St. Thomas More Church, 405 N. Riverside Drive, in Iowa City to discuss how best to approach the Davenport Diocese about the church leadership's response to allegations that several clergy abused children the past 40 years in Iowa City-area parishes. Leaders within the group claim the Diocese leadership did not investigate the claims thoroughly and tried to cover them up. The Rev. David Hitch, a priest at St. Mary's Church in Tipton, said his brother, Mike, was abused. "I was in the seminary while he was at home being abused by our parish priest," he told the crowd of about 50 people. "I struggle with a lot of things of my brother's abuse." Hitch did not identify the church. This led Hitch to team with Iowa City resident Dorothy Whiston in reaching out to clergy abuse victims. ...
• Priest still sought
The Forum, Thursday, December 09, 2004
BISMARCK, USA -- A former Fargo and West Fargo priest who authorities believe fled to the Philippines to avoid sex crime charges told police and a friend that he would come back to face a jury if he could afford a plane ticket. The U.S. attorney is skeptical. The Rev. Fernando Sayasaya is accused of having sexual contact with two boys beginning in 1995. In December 2002, about four years after Sayasaya returned to his native Philippines, state prosecutors filed two felony charges in Cass County for gross sexual imposition. Authorities have not spoken to Sayasaya in two years, but they say they are still working to bring him back to Fargo. Cass County State's Attorney Birch Burdick said it is the first time his office has attempted to extradite someone from outside the United States, and it's a slow process.
• Turn That Smile Into a Brown; How the Orange bishop put the deal together
Los Angeles Weekly, by Gustavo Arellano
ORANGE, USA: For decades, the Catholic Diocese of Orange allowed child-raping priests to roam its parishes. For years, it covered up those crimes. For months, it stonewalled victims seeking justice. Now the second largest Catholic diocese west of the Mississippi has achieved total victory in its notorious sex-abuse scandal. Forget the staggering $100 million sum and the potential PR nightmare if the personnel files of pederast priests are released. Money and privacy issues were never important matters for Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown. Throughout two years of mediation, Brown's only concern was to secure a reputation as a reformer and protect his most valued interests, and he succeeded magnificently.
Also in this issue: Blessed By the Devil www.laweekly. com/ink/05/03/ news-ander son.php Orange's dirty deal threatens to brush away the priest scandal, by Jeffrey Anderson
In the wake of the momentous deal, many county Catholics are forgetting and forgiving Brown, who plans to build a $100 million cathedral and spent hundreds of thousands on a PR firm earlier this year to spin his pedo-lies. The media have already replaced the image of a stuttering, uncaring Brown who stumbled through a February Nightline interview with that of an empathetic church leader who unexpectedly showed up at the mediation talks Thursday night and consoled a room of sobbing survivors. Brown also endeared himself to sex-abuse victims nationwide by seeming to defy Cardinal Roger Mahony, the most powerful Catholic prelate in the United States and perhaps its most ardent opponent of clerical sex-abuse reform. Most crucially for Brown, however, the settlement means that some of Orange County's most powerful individuals will never have to disclose their part in a sex-abuse scandal that touched Orange County from the lowliest barrio parish all the way to the chambers of Capitol Hill. And by shielding them, Brown ensures his political and financial future in one of the country's wealthiest, most religious regions.
In May, Mahony called the bishops of California to a meeting in San Francisco to discuss the Catholic sex-abuse scandal. There, according to those who attended, he urged the bishops to stand united, disclose no personnel files, and work together for a statewide settlement rather than allow each diocese to settle its cases individually. Only one bishop vetoed the strategy: Brown, Mahony's former classmate at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo during the early 1960s. Brown's decision stems from his fortuitous circumstances. While lawyers suing the Los Angeles Archdiocese and other dioceses allege that the sitting bishops knowingly transferred pederast priests from parish to parish, nearly all of Orange County's clerical sex-abuse cases predate Brown's 1998 assumption of the Orange bishopric. The personnel files that Brown plans to release and the cases he settled, then, serve more as historical documents and instances of previous coddling administrations rather than a reflection of current policies toward child molesters. With his actions, Brown set a precedent and contrast with which Mahony must now contend. Mahony is reportedly furious with his once-close friend. (See "Blessed by the Devil" on preceding page for another view of Mahony's thinking.) What's most ironic about Brown's betrayal is that the bishop owes his career to the cardinal. When previous Orange Bishop Norman McFarland retired in 1998, he opposed the appointment of Brown – then bishop of Boise – because Brown had a reputation as being liberal on doctrinal issues. Mahony, however, maneuvered to have Brown appointed, hoping to consolidate his power over the bishops of California. Brown may have saved his soul with the $100 million settlement, but he also lost his most powerful patron. His once-steady ascent in the American Catholic Church hierarchy is over.
But a falling-out with Mahony was the least of Brown's worries; more important to the bishop was his Orange County legacy. In Boise, Brown quickly became unpopular for closing parishes after the diocese there faced a funding shortage. The $100 million settlement will undoubtedly bring similar problems to Orange County's 1.1 million Catholics – on the Sunday after the settlement, Brown only told the congregation at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange that the financial losses would be "very painful." Most of the multimillions will come from the diocese's seven previous insurers and primarily from its current one, Ordinary Mutual; coincidentally, Brown sits on the company's board. His Excellency will raise the rest from the diocese's extensive holdings and investments -- upward of $270 million at the beginning of this year, according to church financial reports.
• Residents learn about neighbor
Daily Herald (Suburban Chicago's Information Source), By Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, Posted Dec/9/2004
UNITED STATES: A group of men who claimed in a lawsuit they were sexually abused by a Chicago priest more than 20 years ago handed out fliers in a Carpentersville neighborhood Wednesday afternoon warning residents that the former priest lives in their midst. Someone's got to tell them, the men said. Neighbors were grateful that someone did. And angry that no one had before. John D. Murphy was never convicted of sexual abuse, never even charged. His name does not appear on a sex offender registry. Murphy, now 62, was, however, named in a civil lawsuit brought by 13 men who accused him of molestation when he was a Catholic priest assigned to St. Rita of Cascia parish on Chicago's South Side. The settlement of that lawsuit, which also named the Augustinian Order's Midwest province and the Archdiocese of Chicago as defendants, was announced Tuesday. In the settlement, which does not include any statement of guilt, the archdiocese paid the men undisclosed financial rewards, promised to build a memorial for them and vowed to involve abuse victims and their families in a national review board that hears allegations against priests, Jim Geoly, an attorney for the Augustinian Order, said Wednesday. But that didn't help Carpentersville residents, who had no way of knowing Murphy lived in their neighborhood because the civil proceeding doesn't require sex offender registration. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:18 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu December 09, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri December 10, 2004 edition follows:-
• Priests pay up for sex abuse victims - RCC.
Eircom, From The Irish Independent, Friday, 10th December, 2004
IRELAND: Priests in the Ferns diocese have dipped into their own pockets to the tune of more than €75,000 to set up a new trust fund aimed at helping out victims of clerical sex abuse.
Serving and retired priests are contributing to the fund, which is one of a number of ways in which the diocese, one of the worst hit by scandals in the country, is responding to victims of abuse.
The fund, called the St Ibar's Trust, was set up during the summer. It came into being following talks between priests and diocesan officials about what clerics could do to help out clerical sex abuse victims.
The fund, which is governed by a deed of trust, helps the diocese to meet the cost of giving pastoral support and assistance to those who suffered abuse from priests of the diocese. A condition of the trust is that no monies from the fund can be used to help the diocese in meeting its legal fees arising from abuse claims.
Diocesan spokesman, Fr John Carroll said the fund consists purely of contributions from some of the diocese's 108 serving and retired priests. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:22 PM]
• Pope discusses abuse with U.S. bishops - RCC.
Fresno Bee, The Associated Press, Updated Friday, December 10, 2004
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II told American bishops Friday that he shares their pain over the U.S. sex-abuse scandal and said he was aware of their determination to deal forthrightly with the problem.
The pope has raised the sex abuse scandal and other problems facing the U.S. church as American bishops have made their periodic visits to the Vatican this year. In the last such visit of the year, he saw bishops from Minnesota as well as North and South Dakota.
John Paul, who referred to the "pain and scandal of recent years" without mentioning the problem of sex abuse by name, said his meetings with American bishops have been consolation to him.
• Diocese: parishes separate - RCC. Tucson diocese lawyer contradicts Phoenix diocese court claim.
Arizona Daily Star, www.dailystar. com/dailystar/ allheadlines/ 51923.php By Stephanie Innes, 573-4134 or sinnes@azstarnet.com , Published: Dec.10.2004
TUCSON (AZ): The lead bankruptcy attorney for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson is rebutting a Diocese of Phoenix contention that parishes are not separate financial entities.
In a "notice of clarification" filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, Diocese of Tucson attorney Susan Boswell wrote that parishes are financially separate from the diocese, which holds them in trust, "with each parish retaining the equitable and beneficial interest in that property." She asked the court to strike the Diocese of Phoenix's arguments from the court record.
Phoenix attorneys Jon Weiss and Mark Wagner filed a motion on behalf of the Phoenix diocese in October that said a parish "does not independently own any property or assets," and that parishes within a diocese are "part of the diocese itself" - separate under church law, but not civil law.
Weiss and Wagner's motion was in connection with a civil suit alleging sexual abuse of a minor by two priests and a nun at Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Phoenix during the 1960s. The civil action was filed by 51-year-old Allan S. MacDonald, who is in a state prison on assault and robbery convictions and is representing himself.
• In consultations with U.S. bishops, pope emphasizes healing, holiness - RCC.
Catholic News Service, www.catholic news.com/data/ stories/cns/ 0406764.htm , By John Thavis
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a series of "ad limina" talks this year, Pope John Paul II has encouraged U.S. bishops to regroup pastorally after the sex abuse scandal and recover their prophetic voice on moral and social issues.
The pope acknowledged that the clergy sex abuse cases have brought a "crisis of confidence" in church leadership in the United States. But rather than dwell on the past failings, he praised the bishops for their response to the crisis and suggested it was time to turn the page.
The pope said rebuilding the church's credibility -- among Catholics and in society -- would ultimately be achieved through the holiness and witness of its pastors and faithful.
The "ad limina" visits, which began in March and ended in mid-December, brought the entire U.S. episcopate to Rome in 14 regional groups. Each group spent a week in meetings and special liturgies designed to underline their apostolic ties with Rome. "Ad limina" visits are required of heads of dioceses every five years.
• O, Albany! Problems in New York diocese are not unique, but they sure are acute - RCC.
Spirit Daily, http://spirit daily.com/ ohalbany.htm , By Michael H. Brown
ALBANY (NY): There's a book by a famous novelist named William Kennedy called O, Albany! -- I guess I'd headline this article the same.
I can not tell a lie: back when we lived in Albany, New York, there were certain "problems" in the diocese. The first priest I spoke to there was a traditionalist who had splintered from Rome. He was a nice guy, and I think sincere, but he ended up doing time in jail for theft from the parish.
The next priest I saw was the pastor of a church who during Mass acted in a way that I found immediately upsetting with an altar boy. This was ten years before the abuse scandal. Was I seeing things? I knew I was not.
Next was the priest who was supposed to do our pre-Cana. We went elsewhere when he gave us a marriage guide that endorsed masturbation (which is explicitly condemned in the Catechism). He also had a plaque saying something to the effect of "Respect Mother Earth," which seemed a bit New Age.
Then we met a young priest at a rather hidden shrine, and enjoyed his orthodox views. We invited him over for dinner. Before he came he said he wanted us to know that he had been "falsely accused" of sexual abuse back in Massachusetts. We decided to postpone dinner.
At another nearby parish, I had two discussions with the pastor, first because a new priest there was not elevating the Host (in his humility, he started to do that when I sent him a Missal; he said he didn't know he had to raise it); the second with the pastor because the altar girls were wearing skirts halfway between the knees and hips.
(Fortunately, he changed that to attire that fell to their ankles.) When we went to classes at that same church for the Baptism of our first child, the layman leading the group said that Baptism was what you made it -- that it didn't matter if you took it as a religious sacrament or as a simple occasion to have friends over and celebrate.
At the closest parish to our home was a nationally-known charismatic priest. When he couldn't come to dinner (he said he didn't do dinner at private homes), I wondered a bit, and later he made headlines when he was barred from priestly duties (and from even wearing a collar) when it was learned that he too admitted abuse.
• Belleville diocese likely to wait months for Gregory replacement
KWQC, www.kwqc.com/ Global/story. asp?S=2673793
BELLEVILLE, Ill. The Belleville diocese will have to wait several months before learning who will replace Bishop Wilton Gregory.
Gregory led the diocese for nearly eleven years and is leaving to become archbishop of Atlanta.
The Belleville diocese now faces a time-consuming process for selecting candidates for a new bishop. According to the bishops' conference, it often takes eight months or more to complete.
The archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George, will distribute the names of candidates submitted by Gregory and other bishops to all the Illinois bishops.
• New Jersey Pastor No Longer Missing [2001-02 McGuire] - Baptist.
Hartford Courant, By BILL SWAYZE, Newark Star-Ledger, December 10, 2004
CONNECTICUT: A pastor of a New Jersey church who has been missing for a month has turned up in a Connecticut jail on multiple sex assault charges, shocking parishioners who say they had been told he was away on family business.
Andre McGuire, the 46-year-old pastor of the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dover, remains behind bars in Hartford, with bail set at $250,000, after Connecticut State Police charged him with four counts of third-degree sexual assault, according to an arrest warrant in Superior Court and court officials.
McGuire, according to court papers, forced a young woman to have sex with him on several occasions between November 2001 and March 2002 at motels along I-84 in Connecticut during trips to and from the woman's college. She was 18 at the time of the first incident.
New Jersey authorities alerted Connecticut's state police about the case, stating the woman had told authorities "he raped and sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions," according to the arrest warrant. He told investigators, "I had a relationship with [the victim] that was not forced," according to the arrest warrant.
• Orange County bishop behind abuse deal seen as moral, pragmatic - RCC.
The Mercury News, www.mercurynews. com/mld/mercury news/news/ breaking_news/ 10387843.htm , By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
ORANGE, Calif. - When Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange Tod D. Brown agreed to a record $100 million clergy abuse settlement, even some of his toughest critics praised him as a moral champion of the church.
But Brown said he was just making a practical - if financially painful - decision intended to protect his million-member diocese from fiscal and moral bankruptcy.
If the settlement talks had collapsed, a judge promised to set trial dates for the 87 lawsuits and start depositions and discovery. The bishop said he couldn't take that risk in a state where a jury once awarded $30 million to two people who claimed they were sexually abused by clergy.
"We knew that we could go to a certain point this side of bankruptcy and this settlement is the edge - it brings us to the brink," Brown said. "Had we not settled and had gone to trial, it would be just a question of time until we reached that total that forced us into bankruptcy."
• Bishop Gregory's Letter to the People of the Diocese of Belleville - RCC.
Sun Times, www.suntimes news.com/2/ news_archive/ dec_04archives/ 1209bishop2.htm
ILLINOIS: My Brothers and Sisters, When you receive this letter, I shall be in Atlanta, Georgia where it is being announced today that I have been appointed the next Archbishop of Atlanta. Since being notified of this assignment during Thanksgiving week, I have had much time to reflect on the many blessings that I have enjoyed during the nearly eleven years that it has been my privilege to serve as Bishop of Belleville.
I have reflected on your kindness, your support, your collaboration, and your encouragement which I pray have made me a better Bishop, a better person, and certainly a very grateful individual. Thank you is not sufficient to express my gratitude for your acceptance and countless acts of kindness. I have attempted to serve you with all of my heart and I ask your forgiveness for the mistakes that I made during my time in your midst.
• Attorney: Parishes financially separate from diocese - RCC.
KVOA (Tucson), http://kvoa. com/Global/ story.asp?S= 2677051 , at 12:10PM MST December 10, 2004
TUCSON (AZ): The lead bankruptcy lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson claims parishes are financially separate from the diocese.
In a court filing, attorney Susan Boswell says the diocese holds the parishes in trust "with each parish retaining the equitable and beneficial interest in that property."
Boswell wants an argument by another diocese that parishes are not separate financial entities stricken from a court's record.
Two months ago, attorneys filed a motion in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of the Diocese of Phoenix that said a parish "does not independently own any property or assets," and that parishes within a diocese are "part of the diocese itself," separate under church law, but not civil law.
• Chicagoan Gregory promoted to archbishop of Atlanta - RCC.
Chicago Tribune, By Manya A. Brachear, Published December 10, 2004
ILLINOIS: Belleville Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, the former Chicago churchman who shepherded the nation's Roman Catholic bishops through the tumult of the sex-abuse crisis, will become the next archbishop of Atlanta, church officials said Thursday.
Pope John Paul II tapped Gregory, 57, to succeed Archbishop John G. Donoghue, 76, who is retiring.
"I hope to follow his strong lead and example and learn to be a better listener to all of God's people before I chart out priorities," said Gregory.
Gregory will be installed as archbishop on Jan. 17, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The promotion makes Gregory only the second prelate to move to a larger diocese after serving a term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Gregory's mentor, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, was the first.
• Rockridge priory, residents to talk [2004 Dominican Order] - RCC. 7 offenders secretly living with young seminarians, near school.
Contra Costa Times, www.contracosta times.com/mld/ cctimes/news/local/ states/california /counties/alameda_ county/cities_ neighborhoods/ montclair/103 86468.htm?1c ; By Guy Ashley
ROCKRIDGE (CA): Neighbors have been invited to a meeting set for Tuesday at St. Albert's priory in Rockridge, the seminary whose officials admitted it houses seven clerics accused of sexually abusing minors.
But the meeting is off limits to the media and the group of clergy sex abuse survivors behind the first public revelations that the clerics were living in Oakland.
Strict limits on participation in the meeting were revealed by City Councilwoman Jane Brunner, who said her offers to organize a larger public meeting were rejected by officials of the Dominican Order of Catholic Priests, which operates the seminary.
"I invited them to a meeting on Dec. 16, but they said they had decided not to come," Brunner said. "They said they were concerned about having the media and SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) at the meeting."
• Two lawsuits allege abuse by priest [McFadden] - RCC. Altar boys. 21 claimants now.
Des Moines Register, December 10, 2004
IOWA: Two new lawsuits were filed in Woodbury County district court Thursday against the Rev. George McFadden and the Sioux City Catholic Diocese alleging child sexual abuse by the priest.
Former altar boys Joseph M. Boyok and Don Miller were reared in devout Catholic families in Sioux City. They claim they were abused by McFadden when they were students at St. Francis of Assisi school.
Currently there are 21 lawsuits alleging abuse pending against McFadden and the diocese. Another lawsuit against the diocese alleges abuse by a deceased priest, Everett Apt. Four lawsuits have been settled as have five abuse claims by men who did not file lawsuits.
It is likely additional claims will be made against the diocese, according to R. Scott Rhinehart, whose law firm represents a majority of the plaintiffs.
• Nuns reject victims' group proposal - RCC.
Washington Times, Dec. 10, 2004
CHICAGO, IL, (UPI) -- An association of 75,000 Roman Catholic nuns rejected a proposal by a sexual victims' advocacy group to help encourage those who were molested to seek help.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious told the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in a letter dated Nov. 22 that they could not "meet their specific requests in the manner ... indicated," the Washington Post reported.
The two groups met in Chicago Oct. 3, during which SNAP asked the nuns' association to provide its members with information about SNAP, to identify contacts at individual orders for victims to call, and to allow SNAP representatives to address the nuns' annual convention.
"At every juncture, they've been resistant. They seem determined to repeat the same cold, bureaucratic and ultimately hurtful patterns we've seen in so many bishops," said SNAP spokeswoman Landa Mauriello-Vernon.
• Judge denies request for psychological exam of Stokes [1990s Blackwell] - RCC.
Baltimore Sun, The Associated Press, December 10, 2004,
BALTIMORE (MD): A judge today denied a request by a priest's attorney to conduct a psychological examination of the man who accuses the cleric of sexually abusing him.
Baltimore Circuit Judge John Glynn said a psychological evaluation by a doctor selected by the defense could be hard to explain to the jury. Glynn said he thought the evaluation would be "contrary to the interests of justice." "It's hard to imagine how that would help the jury," the judge said.
The Rev. Maurice Blackwell, 58, is accused of sexually abusing Dontee Stokes, 28, who shot Blackwell about a decade after the alleged abuse. Blackwell is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 3.
• Pedophile priests took victims to morgue [1950s Janssen] - RCC.
RenewAmerica, www.renew america.us/ columns/abb ott/041210 , by Matt C. Abbott, December 10, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): The following information comes from journalist Lee Podles, whose book, 'A Harsh Light: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church,' is due out relatively soon.
Disturbing material, to say the least.
"Davenport-Chicago link"
"In 1948 a group of pedophile priests graduated from Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis: James Janssen, Francis Bass, and Theodore Anthony Geerts. They began a 50 year reign of abuse in Davenport with the knowledge of the three bishops of Davenport.
"They had strong connections to the Chicago area. When Bishop Hayes discovered James Janssen was an abuser, he sent Janssen to Chicago to live at St. Isaac Jogues parish in Hinsdale, to study at Loyola University, and to be treated by Father William Devlin, S. J., M. D., and J. V. P. Stewart.
No one told the pastor of St. Isaac Jogues that Janssen was an abuser. Janssen worked with the Boy Scouts and families of the parish, and started abusing a twelve-year-old scout while convincing the therapists that he was cured.
"In the mid and late 1950s Janssen and Bass took Davenport boys to the Cook County Hospital Morgue, where the abusers had a contact. Janssen took his nephew James Wells (whom he had molested since he was five) to the morgue. One boy whom Bass took remembered:
'Each corpse seemed more horrible than the last. Some were decomposed. Others were frozen in bizarre and terrifying postures with their eyes and mouths wide open. Our guide stopped us often and provided details. He showed me some babies.'
Bass took the boys to his uncle's house in the suburbs and molested them. Janssen told his victims that he knew men in Chicago who would pay to have sex with them: 'He also told me that I could make money letting older men perform oral sex on me and that he would show me how to make those connections in Chicago.' ... [Fuller version elsewhere]
• Archdiocese Not Liable In Suit [Kappalumakkel] - RCC. Woman.
Hartford Courant, Associated Press, December 10, 2004
MILFORD (CT) -- A Superior Court judge has ruled that the Archdiocese of Hartford cannot be held liable for a West Haven priest's alleged sexual relationship with a female parishioner.
This week, Judge Patrick Carroll dismissed Doreen Ahern's lawsuit against the archdiocese, saying that since another judge ruled Matthew Kappalumakkel could not be held personally liable, the archdiocese cannot be held liable, either.
The key issue was whether Kappalumakkel breached a "fiduciary" relationship with Ahern, as her priest, by allegedly having sex with her. Judge Angela Robinson ruled in March that he did not.
Ahern, formerly of West Haven, alleged in the 3-year-old lawsuit that she had had a four-year relationship with Kappalumakkel.
• Attorney urging Catholic priests to unionize - RCC.
The Bristol Press, By BRIAN McCREADY and MEGGAN CLARK, Journal Register News Service, Dec/10/2004
MILFORD (CT) -- Calling the Archdiocese of Hartford "arbitrary, capricious and arrogant," a New Haven attorney is urging priests around the state to unionize to protect their due process rights when they're accused of sexual misconduct.
It's an idea many members of the Catholic clergy consider appalling and improbable, but attorney Hugh Keefe, who has represented many priests who have been accused of misconduct, said Thursday he has reached out to top state union leaders in an effort to help priests unionize. Keefe said he has also broached the topic with many priests.
"Lying under the surface is tremendous resentment from the vast majority of Catholic priests who feel betrayed and not backed up by the hierarchy of the church," Keefe said.
The Most Rev. Peter Rosazza, an auxiliary bishop in New Haven, called the notion of priests unionizing "repugnant."
[COMMENT: 4th par: "repugnant." Rather, priests standing in for Jesus sexually corrupting boys and girls is REPUGNANT, Bishop Rosazza.
3rd par: "not backed up by the hierarchy". Surely there was TOO MUCH backing up in the past! Don't these people know that the bad clergy have been HURTING people? And, to use old-fashioned words, SINNING and giving BAD EXAMPLE? Or have these dissatsified priests "moved on", and don't want to "live in the past"? If so, why read the old Bible and talk about a 2000-year-old death for the world's sins? COMMENT ENDS.]
• Sexual Reeling; How the Register blew the Orange Diocese sex-abuse story [Salazar, Mater Dei High School, 1976-86 Ramos, 2004 Brown, Murray, Tanilong, 1970s Lenihan] - RCC. Joelle Casteix exposures missed.
Orange County Weekly, www.ocweekly. com/ink/05/14/ ex-arellano.php , by Gustavo Arellano, ~ Dec 10, 2004
CALIFORNIA: At the beginning of this year, local victims of priestly pedophilia expected The Orange County Register to destroy the Diocese of Orange for good. After all, 2003 was a banner year for the daily, a year in which the Register consistently scooped its competitors in exposing the pederast-coddling sins of church officials. Some of its more shocking revelations included:
• Register opinion writer Steven Greenhut disclosing in his July 20 Sunday column the case of Father Cesar Salazar, whom diocesan officials refused to remove from St. Joseph's in Santa Ana despite the discovery of child pornography on his computer. They finally did after the public uproar that followed the publication of Greenhut's piece.
• Reporter Jim Hinch's Sept. 14 story on how Mater Dei High School officials never reported to law-enforcement agencies allegations of student molestations at the hands of the Santa Ana parochial school's teachers and sports coaches.
• A two-part, front-page Register exposé based on a police report in which Father Eleuterio Ramos admitted to molesting at least 25 boys during his tenure in the Orange diocese from 1976 to 1986.
But as the Orange diocese sex-abuse scandal nears its disgraceful end - Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown has agreed to pay $100 million to 87 victims of his child-raping employees, the largest clerical sex-abuse settlement in Catholic Church history - some sex-abuse victims are furious at the Register.
When victims needed Orange County's paper of record the most, they say, the Register failed them.
In a year filled with disturbing leak after disturbing leak - Brown's secret purchase of a $1.1 million estate for himself and push for a $100 million cathedral up the street from South Coast Plaza; the hiring of a mysterious PR firm to spin pedo-lies for at least $300,000 more than what Brown originally admitted; and the non-disclosure of a $500,000 settlement in 2003 against Father Daniel Murray - the Register's roster of reporters broke nothing.
Nearly every Register story on the Catholic sex-abuse scandal in 2004 regurgitated facts previously reported in the Los Angeles Times or the OC Weekly. And those few involving original reporting-such as the April conviction of Father Gerardo Tanilong during the spring for molesting a 15-year-old girl or Brown's infamous pounding of his "Covenant with the Faithful" on the door of Orange's Holy Family Cathedral - were little more than rewrites of press releases with some color added.
"The Register missed a golden opportunity," said Joelle Casteix, a 33-year-old Corona del Mar resident who has emerged as the unofficial voice of Orange County's Catholic sex-abuse survivors. In June 2003, Greenhut broke the story of how she resigned from the diocese's Sexual Misconduct Board in protest of its victim-ignoring ways, dismissing it as a "PR sham."
"It's the Register's responsibility as the major paper in the county to handle all the sex-abuse stories, especially considering so many Catholics read it," said Casteix. "The Register had the opportunity to run with it and to effect change in the diocese. And they simply didn't. It was completely disappointing this story went completely unnoticed there for an entire year."
As a telltale sign of the Register's shoddy coverage, consider the Dec. 3 edition, published the day after lawyers for the church and victims announced the $100 million settlement agreement. While local radio and television newscasts featured interviews with both sides all day and the Los Angeles Times ran a thorough front-page story, the Register only included a 281-word blurb-with three authors sharing the byline!
Sources at the paper that bills itself as being on Orange County's side blame the anemic coverage on the reassignment of Hinch, who handled most of the sex-abuse-scandal stories last year. He now works at the paper's Sacramento bureau.
"Jim was passionate about finding out the truth, and he hated it when the diocese lied to him," said Casteix. "He got a promotion - it was well-deserved. I just didn't realize it would create a journalistic vacuum in covering these cases."
Taking his place in the sex-abuse coverage was longtime Register staffer Ann Pepper, whom victims will always remember as being on vacation when the settlement was announced.
But some blame must also fall upon Greenhut, whose passionate jeremiads against Brown and his pedo-spinning became must-reads over the course of the sex-abuse scandal. Many church critics particularly relied on Greenhut to interpret the diocese's various transgressions for the Register's notoriously conservative readers.
But this year, Greenhut devoted only one full column to the sex-abuse scandal in January and wrote four unsigned editorials on the matter since. None matched the explosive influence of his 2003 efforts.
"No doubt, I haven't written much about the church over the summer and fall, but there is no deep, dark reason for that," Greenhut wrote in an e-mail to the Weekly. "When you consider that I focus on politics and public policy rather than religion, I think the amount of coverage I've devoted to the church is significant."
The Register's lack of pederast-priestly print is further disappointing considering its heritage. The Orange diocese sex-abuse fiasco arguably began in 1991, when Mary Staggs - now known as Mary Grant, western regional director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests - revealed to the Register that Father John Lenihan molested her in the late 1970s while she was a teenager attending Mass at St. Norbert's in Orange. No Orange County newspaper had ever dared out a local priest as child molester before. The Register's exposé on Lenihan-at the time a wildly popular priest at St. Boniface in Anaheim - was considered such a touchy subject at Grand Street that then-editor/now-publisher N. Christian Anderson took the extraordinary step of writing an accompanying explanation to the story.
"Some readers will ask why The Orange County Register is publishing an article about something that occurred more than 10 years ago, particularly when one of the individuals involved is a priest who has the respect and honor of his parishioners," wrote Anderson at the time. "In fact, the decision to publish this story was not made lightly or quickly."
Anderson went as far as writing a letter to then-Orange Bishop Norman McFarland informing him about the upcoming Lenihan article, a move that, Anderson wrote, "the bishop chose to attack . . . rather than address the facts of the case and answer questions that would help you understand how the church deals with matters such as this."
The same could be said for the Register today.# [Emphasis added]
[COMMENT: It's never advisable for one news medium to spend a lot of space criticising another. The public really soon tires of such disputes. Just keep selling them current news. However, the paper has given readers a summary of the chicanery of the clergy and their leader. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Hunt for 'forgotten' abuse victims as claims hit £150,000 - Mainly RCC.
Glasgow Evening Times, www.evening times.co.uk/ hi/news/5033 431.html
SCOTLAND: Up to £150,000 compensation is being awarded to Glasgow residents who were victims of abuse in Ireland as children. Scores of victims have already put forward claims and have been awarded between £40,000 and £150,000.
But organisers of a nationwide search believe there are thousands more "forgotten victims" living in Glasgow who are entitled to pay-outs. All victims were subject to child abuse at 250 children's homes, industrial schools, reformatories or institutions run by religious groups in Ireland between the 1920s and 1970s.
• Black bishop ascends in Vatican's ranks - RCC.
Duluth News Tribune, www.duluthsup erior.com/mld/ duluthsuperior/ news/nation/ 10380744.htm , By Tim Townsend, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS (MO) (KRT) - Belleville, Ill., Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, who guided the nation's Catholic church through the sexual abuse scandal, will now lead one of the country's fastest-growing dioceses.
Pope John Paul II on Thursday appointed Gregory to become the sixth archbishop of Atlanta. The nation's best-known black bishop, he will be installed on Jan. 17 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
In a press conference in Atlanta Thursday afternoon with the man he will replace, Archbishop John F. Donoghue, Gregory expressed his thanks to the people of Belleville.
"I leave the Diocese of Belleville in Illinois with deep gratitude for the support and collaboration of the extraordinary people of that local Church during these past 11 years," he said.
Last month, Gregory finished a three-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Although some of his fellow bishops and even officials inside the Vatican criticized various decisions Gregory made in that role - especially his steadfast support of the zero-tolerance policy for abusive priests - most praised his handling of the worst crisis the American Roman Catholic Church has faced.
• Predator's past under scrutiny [1998-03 Marsh] - Baptist. 5 boys.
The Courier-Mail (Brisbane), www.thecourier mail.news.com. au/common/story_ page/0,5936, 11650379%255 E3102,00.html , by Mark Oberhardt, Dec 11 2004
AUSTRALIA: An assistant Baptist pastor, jailed for five years on sex charges in Queensland, could have left the US under a cloud for similar behaviour, it was alleged yesterday.
In the District Court in Brisbane, Michael Leeroy Marsh, 30, was sentenced to five years' jail with a recommendation for parole after 20 months when he admitted 16 offences against five boys, including three brothers.
The court heard Marsh, an American who arrived in Brisbane in 1998, used his position as a youth group leader to meet the boys and later molest them.
Most of the offences involved touching of the genitals but one of the victims was sodomised.
A large number of people from the church community were in court to see Marsh, who has now left the Baptist Church, kiss his wife farewell as he was led away to the cells.
The court heard Marsh had no previous criminal convictions. However, outside court parents of the victims raised the question of whether Marsh had come to Australia after he was "kicked out" of college for "something involving boys"?
The father of one boy, who cannot be named because it would identify the victims, said he had received an e-mail from the US, containing the allegations.[...]
Marsh pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual assault, nine of indecent dealing with a child under 16 and one of sodomy committed on various dates between October 15, 1998, and April 1 last year.
Prosecutor Matt Nathan said Marsh's offences were against boys aged 12 to 18 years whom he had met through his role as assistant pastor and youth leader at an independent Baptist Church.
He said offences included touching the boys on the penis outside their clothing or on occasions after he had pulled down their pants. Marsh had sodomised one of the boys. ... [Emphasis added]
• Coordinator to aid abuse victims - RCC.
Republican, By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Friday, December 10, 2004
SPRINGFIELD (MA) - Clergy sexual abuse victims who have problems with mental health, substance abuse, housing, employment or other issues will be able to get help through a newly created resource position that one victim said could become a national model.
A victim resource coordinator position has been created and an accompanying $50,000 grant from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield to fund it has been awarded to Behavioral Health Network, the diocese announced yesterday.
"The goal is to refer individuals to the appropriate place to get help," said Laura F. Reilly, victim advocate for the Springfield diocese.
"If, for instance, it is a housing problem, the victim resource coordinator will be able to refer the person to the places where help can be found. It's not to pay for the housing, it is to point the person to the professionals who can help address the person's housing problem," Reilly said.
Also, the diocese's Fund for Help and Healing, which was established to provide short-term emergency financial help to clergy abuse victims, has spent $9,000 in responding to 32 requests for help since the fund was established in the spring, fund committee members Sandra L. Tessier and Sister Elizabeth Broughan reported yesterday.
• Residential schools agreement stands despite Ontario court's ruling - Anglican.
The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, December 10, 2004
TORONTO, CANADA -- An Ontario Court of Appeal decision to certify a class of plaintiffs in a lawsuit for abuse at a native residential school "does not change or threaten in any way" the agreement between the Anglican church and the federal government that caps the church's liability at $25 million, says Archdeacon Jim Boyles, General Secretary of the national church.
The decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed lawsuits by former students at the Mohawk School in Brantford, Ont., to proceed as a class action. The former students are suing the Anglican diocese of Huron and the federal government.
In a letter sent to all Anglican bishops earlier this week, Mr. Boyles said that any future findings of liability against the church for the sexual or physical abuse of students at the schools would be shared between the church and the government under the terms of the 2003 agreement.
The agreement says that the church and government would share in the payment of any awards on a 30/70 per cent basis.
• Update on Claims and Child Protection - RCC. 87 claimants.
The Tidings, www.the-tidings. com/2004/1210/ abuse.htm , Official Statement, Dec 10, 2004
CALIFORNIA: The Diocese of Orange, Calif., reached a reportedly record-breaking financial settlement with 87 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse late Dec. 2. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles issued the following statement Dec. 3:
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles continues to believe that a cooperative settlement process will better facilitate healing and reconciliation for and with those who have made allegations of past abuse by clergy. Both Cardinal Roger Mahony and the Archdiocese reiterate support for a comprehensive settlement that is just and fair to all parties involved.
While the Archdiocese's focus is on achieving a settlement that is both just and fair to all parties involved, the road to such a settlement is unique for each diocese. There are a number of factors that differentiate the situation in Los Angeles from the settlement in the Diocese of Orange that was reported in the press today.
The Diocese of Orange was formed in 1976, from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. As a much younger and smaller diocese, it faced far fewer civil claims than the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
• Diocese hires outside agency to assist clergy abuse victims - RCC.
Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20041209/ APN/412090995 , The Associated Press, Dec 9, 2004
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has hired a Springfield-based mental health service agency to serve as an independent advocate and provide counseling and other assistance to clergy-abuse victims.
The one-year $50,000 contract with Behavorial Health Network was part of a $7.7 million settlement the diocese reached earlier this year with 46 people who claimed they had been abused by priests.
Marti Bono, one of those who settled his claims against the diocese, came up with the idea.
"In Boston and other places we've seen too many of our brothers and sisters get the money and fall by the wayside, even commit suicide," Bono said, pointing out that many abuse victims end up addicted to drugs or alcohol and have lingering mental problems.
Still, many victims of clergy sexual abuse are reluctant to seek help directly from the church for their problems, said Bono, who says he was molested by his childhood priest.
• Bishop Gregory to Lead Atlanta Archdiocese - RCC.
Zenit, DEC. 9, 2004
ATLANTA, Georgia, (Zenit.org). - John Paul II accepted the resignation of Archbishop John Donoghue, 76, of Atlanta and appointed Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville to succeed him, the Vatican press office announced.
Archbishop Gregory, 57, recently completed a three-year term as president of the U.S. bishops' conference.
Wilton Gregory was born in Chicago on Dec. 7, 1947. He attended St. Carthage Grammar School, Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, Niles College of Loyola University, and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary.
Three years after his ordination to the priesthood, he began graduate studies at the pontifical liturgical institute Sant'Anselmo in Rome. It was there he earned a doctorate in sacred liturgy.
He was ordained a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese on May 9, 1973. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Chicago on Oct. 31, 1983.
• Newspaper: law officers fail to hunt down fugitive priests - RCC.
KGBT, www.team4news. com/Global/story. asp?S=2673807
DALLAS (TX): Dallas Police, prosecutors and judges in several countries reportedly did nothing to stop Roman Catholic priests from going abroad to escape sexual abuse allegations.
The Dallas Morning News has conducted a yearlong investigation into the international shuffling of accused clergy.
The newspaper found police and prosecutors who had failed to take the most basic steps to catch fugitive clerics.
Some law enforcement officials said they did not have the resources to hunt down wanted priests.
In San Angelo, a prosecutor allowed church officials to send Agusti Huerres, a candidate for the priesthood, home to Spain in 2000.
• Cardinal Defended Priest Transfer
WXIA, The Associated Press, Last Modified 10:21:26 PM, Dec/9/2004
LOS ANGELES (CA) (AP) -- The leader of the nation's largest archdiocese says he responded quickly and decisively in a sexual abuse scandal in the 1980s, when as a bishop he dismissed two visiting Mexican priests accused of molesting children.
In a deposition transcript released Thursday, Cardinal Roger Mahony said the cases were different, however, than that of another priest investigated for molestation in Stockton, where Mahony was bishop at the time.
After a psychological evaluation and a police inquiry, Mahony transferred the priest, the Rev. Oliver O'Grady, to a rural parish in the Sierra foothill community of San Andreas. Two of O'Grady's alleged victims later claimed the molestation continued after the transfer.
• Archbishop Is Appointed for Atlanta
The New York Times, By ARIEL HART, Published December 10, 2004
ATLANTA, (GA) Dec. 9 - Pope John Paul II has named Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, who led the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops through the sexual abuse scandal, to head the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Bishop Gregory, who is currently bishop of the Diocese of Belleville, Ill., will be installed as archbishop in January, the archdiocese said.
Under Bishop Gregory's leadership, the bishops' conference adopted measures in 2002 to deal with the scandal, including mandates to remove any priest from the ministry who had molested a child, to report child sexual abuse to public authorities, and to create a structure to ensure church leaders' accountability.
The promotion can be viewed as a vote of confidence, said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, editor in chief of America, a Jesuit magazine.
• Wilton Gregory brings charisma
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, By JOHN BLAKE, BO EMERSON, Dec/10/2004
ATLANTA (GA): Bishop Wilton Gregory, one of the most charismatic figures in the U.S. Roman Catholic church, has been named archbishop of the Atlanta archdiocese by Pope John Paul II.
Gregory, 57, was greeted Thursday with a standing ovation from local church leaders during an afternoon news conference. Minutes into his comments, Gregory had the room laughing and nodding in approval at his sharp wit and self-deprecating manner.
The bishop of the dioceses of Belleville, Ill., is a rising star in the U.S. church. He was the youngest American bishop at 35, the first African-American president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and one of the first American bishops to grapple with the church's sex abuse scandals before they would become a national issue.
Gregory said he will keep his office open to victims of clergy sex abuse and look for ways to work with other religious leaders in the city.
"I come with no preset agenda, but with an open heart," he said. "My heart and office will be open to all people."
• Two more sexual abuse lawsuits filed against priest, diocese
Sioux City Journal, www.siouxcity journal.com/ articles/2004/12/ 10/news/local/ 1fd1e6721fc6f17c 86256f66001 2345b.txt , By Nick Hytrek, Dec 10, 2004
SIOUX CITY (IA): Two more sexual abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City and a former priest.
Petitions filed Wednesday and Thursday in Woodbury County District Court bring the number of pending lawsuits to 22. Four others have been settled out of court.
Don Miller and Joseph M. Boyok both allege that the Rev. George McFadden sexually abused them in the early 1960's while he was the pastor at the now-closed St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Sioux City.
According to the lawsuits, Miller was under age 14 and Boyok under age 12 when the abuses occurred. Both men said there were repeated sexual acts that occurred while they were alone with McFadden on church property.
In allegations similar to those made in previous lawsuits, Miller and Boyok said that the diocese was negligent in its hiring and supervision and aided and abetted McFadden by transferring him to other parishes to cover up his actions instead of stopping them.
• Nuns group dismisses plan for drawing out abuse victims
The Boston Globe, By Caryle Murphy, Washington Post, December 10, 2004
WASHINGTON (DC) -- An association representing 75,000 Roman Catholic nuns has rejected a proposal from a victims advocacy group designed to encourage people who were sexually molested by nuns to come forward and get help.
The proposal was presented to officials of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a Silver Spring, Md., umbrella group of women's religious orders, by representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, when the two sides met privately in Chicago on Oct. 3.
The proposal included five requests of the conference: place information about SNAP on the conference's Internet home page; request that individual religious orders in the conference do the same; provide SNAP with a list of those orders and names of contacts to call when a victim comes forward; allow victims to address next year's annual convention; and allow them to speak at conference workshops on sexual abuse.
Conference officials responded to the requests in a Nov. 22 letter, saying the group's efforts had heightened "our awareness of the long-term effects of sexual misconduct by women religious." But, the officials wrote, they could not "meet their specific requests in the manner . . . indicated."
• Mahony in '80s Banned Two Priests
Los Angeles Times, By Jean Guccione, Dec 10, 2004
CALIFORNIA: Two decades go when he was bishop of Stockton, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony ordered two priests accused of child molestation to leave the country, according to a transcript of a deposition he gave last month.
Mahony gave the deposition in lawsuits filed by people who claim they were molested by several priests, including a third one whom he transferred when he was bishop of Stockton.
Mahony said the two instances when he told priests to leave the country had slipped his memory.
"I had forgotten about those incidents," he testified in a Nov. 23 deposition in lawsuits alleging the Roman Catholic Church was negligent in failing to protect children from predatory priests. The transcript was made public Thursday.
• Pope names new Atlanta archbishop
Macon Telegraph, www.macon.com/ mld/macon/1038 1063.htm , By Doug Gross, Associated Press
ATLANTA (GA) - The former president of America's Roman Catholic bishops, who led the prelates through the height of the clergy sex abuse crisis, was appointed archbishop of Atlanta on Thursday, signaling Vatican approval of his leadership through the scandal.
Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Wilton D. Gregory to serve as archbishop of Atlanta. Gregory, who had been serving as bishop in Belleville, Ill., will become Atlanta's sixth archbishop.
The appointment places a black clergyman at the head of an archdiocese based just blocks away from where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached. And it signaled an approving nod to a man who, as head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, balanced difficult factions during one of the church's most difficult public periods.
"If he had gotten all sorts of people mad over at the Vatican, he would not be moving to Atlanta," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, an expert on the church hierarchy and editor of the Jesuit magazine America.
• Recognise faults, rise again, Pope tells U.S. Church
Reuters AlertNet, By Philip Pullella, 13:44:59 GMT, 10 Dec 2004
VATICAN CITY: (Reuters) - The American Roman Catholic Church must recognise its failings in the priestly sexual abuse scandal and rise up again with determination to heal the deep wounds, Pope John Paul told U.S. bishops on Friday.
The 84-year-old Pope, addressing a group of bishops from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, said the leaders of the United States Catholic Church had to first renew themselves spiritually in order to truly renew their Church.
"I have shared the deep pain which you and your people have experienced in these last years," the Pope said.
The sexual abuse crisis erupted in 2002 when it was discovered that many U.S. bishops had simply moved priests known to have abused minors to new parishes instead of defrocking them or reporting them to the authorities.
• Shameful ovations - RCC. Whistle-blower Scahill attacked.
Boston Pilot,
WORCESTER (MA): It was painful to watch 600 Catholics emotionally applaud a priest who bashed his peers, all the while holding himself up as the example of an ideal priest.
Father James Scahill of Springfield accepted the Voice of the Faithful's "Priest of Integrity" award at the organization's conference held Nov. 13 in Worcester. In his acceptance speech, Father Scahill lashed out at priests and bishops alike.
"It is regrettable that you should have to establish an award to give to a priest for integrity. Integrity is something that should be expected from us. Yet, inexplicably, the vast majority of clergy has been silent. In their complicit silence they have betrayed truth and turned their backs on children and minors. By and large, the clerics have been myopic company puppets instead of being men," he said, receiving a standing ovation from the audience.
Those were but a few of the harsh words heard throughout the day. Other conference speakers set a similar tone.
References to the "monarchical Church," the need to fight for a democratic American Church and an outright mockery of the U.S. bishops' position on pro-abortion politicians were all part of the morning session.
[COMMENT: It's a diocesan newspaper. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Toledo's Bishop Blair reflects on a year of crises in diocese
Toledo Blade, By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, Dec 10, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): It's been an eventful year for Bishop Leonard Paul Blair, who was installed as the seventh bishop of the Toledo Catholic Diocese on Dec. 4, 2003.
Since that solemn ceremony at Rosary Cathedral, the new bishop has faced a number of serious crises, including the arrest of one of his priests for the 1980 murder of a nun; the recommendation to close or merge 33 parishes; $1.19 million in settlements paid to 23 victims of clerical sexual abuse, and a highly publicized dispute over moving the historic Lathrop House in Sylvania.
A Detroit native who was ordained a priest in 1976, Bishop Blair, 55, said yesterday that he would "defer to others" rather than grade himself on his first year in Toledo.
But in an interview in his spartan fourth-floor office overlooking the city's downtown, the bespectacled, gray-haired bishop acknowledged that he has been through some difficult times as leader of the 314,000 Roman Catholics in the 19-county Toledo diocese.
"The toughest things I think you know," he said in response to a question. "That would include the abuse cases and the [murder] allegations against Father [Gerald] Robinson."
• A voice grows a little softer; Concern rises as fewer join Roman Catholic group formed amid priest sex scandal
Star-Ledger, BY JEFF DIAMANT, Friday, December 10, 2004
UNITED STATES: The reform group Voice of the Faithful was created by lay Catholics in response to the clergy sex abuse scandal amid revelations that some bishops protected priests from prosecution.
The group, whose mission is to increase roles for laity in church governance, quickly drew thousands of people, its membership reaching 30,000 by June 2003 after less than 18 months of existence.
Yet even as it has grown to 200 chapters nationwide, the growth of the group has slowed dramatically over the last 18 months as public attention to the crisis has decreased. [Posted by Dennis Coday, NCR staff writer at 08:20 AM]
• Abuse response defended
Monterey Herald, Associated Press, Dec. 10, 2004
LOS ANGELES - Cardinal Roger Mahony defended his handling of abusive clergy in a deposition transcript released Thursday, saying as bishop of Stockton in the 1980s he immediately dismissed two visiting Mexican priests accused of sexually molesting children.
In wide-ranging and often combative testimony, the leader of the nation's largest archdiocese drew a distinction between those situations and the case of the Rev. Oliver O'Grady, another Stockton priest investigated for molestation around the same time. [Posted by Dennis Coday, NCR staff writer at 08:10 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri December 10, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Pedophile priests took victims to morgue [1948 - ~ 1998 Janssen, Bass, Geerts, Diocese of Davenport]
Renew America, www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/041210 , by Matt C. Abbott, December 10, 2004
UNITED STATES: The following information comes from journalist Lee Podles, whose book, A Harsh Light: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, is due out relatively soon.
Disturbing material, to say the least.
"Davenport-Chicago link"
"In 1948 a group of pedophile priests graduated from Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis: James Janssen, Francis Bass, and Theodore Anthony Geerts. They began a 50 year reign of abuse in Davenport with the knowledge of the three bishops of Davenport.
"They had strong connections to the Chicago area. When Bishop Hayes discovered James Janssen was an abuser, he sent Janssen to Chicago to live at St. Isaac Jogues parish in Hinsdale, to study at Loyola University, and to be treated by Father William Devlin, S. J., M. D., and J. V. P. Stewart. No one told the pastor of St. Isaac Jogues that Janssen was an abuser. Janssen worked with the Boy Scouts and families of the parish, and started abusing a twelve-year-old scout while convincing the therapists that he was cured.
"In the mid and late 1950s Janssen and Bass took Davenport boys to the Cook County Hospital Morgue, where the abusers had a contact. Janssen took his nephew James Wells (whom he had molested since he was five) to the morgue. One boy whom Bass took remembered: 'Each corpse seemed more horrible than the last. Some were decomposed. Others were frozen in bizarre and terrifying postures with their eyes and mouths wide open. Our guide stopped us often and provided details. He showed me some babies.' Bass took the boys to his uncle's house in the suburbs and molested them. Janssen told his victims that he knew men in Chicago who would pay to have sex with them: 'He also told me that I could make money letting older men perform oral sex on me and that he would show me how to make those connections in Chicago.'
"John Doe III v. Janssen, Bass, Geerts, and Diocese of Davenport CN 101428 Exhibit 49.
"Wells v. Janssen, Exhibit 38.
"Full text of morgue incident:
"Ed Thomas had gotten into trouble with the law and been ordered by the judge to start attending church, where he met Bass, who promised to guide him to 'a moral life.' Thomas, fourteen at the time, remembered this trip to the hospital:
"Somebody he knew met us. All had been arranged. As we moved deeper into the maze of dark passages, the smell of death grew thicker. There were bodies on carts parked along the walls. Father Bass had arranged for a guided tour.
"The morgue was being renovated. We arrived at a temporary wall with two doors about eight feet apart. 'Take your pick,' Father Bass said to me. I opened the door on the right. A yellow light immediately flooded the room, and I stood facing a gauntlet straight from hell. The room was stark, long, and narrow. Bunks end-to-end lined the outside walls and a double row of bunks filled the center, producing a U-shaped trail of horror ending at the door to my left on the other side of the room. The bottom bunks hit me at about the waist, and I was just tall enough to be eye-to-eye with the bodies on the top bunks. They were lying on what looked like large cookie sheets.
"Each corpse seemed more horrible than the last. Some were decomposed. Others were frozen in bizarre and terrifying postures with their eyes and mouths wide open. Our guide stopped us often and provided details. He showed me some babies...."
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 a Catholic journalist and commentator. He can be reached at mattcabbott@hotmail.com.
© Copyright 2004 by Matt C. Abbott
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/041210
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#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat December 11, 2004 edition follows:-
• Lay minister convicted of sex abuse at Mount Cashel told stop New York duties [1950s Murphy] - RCC. 4 boys.
Canadian Press, www.cp.org/english/online/full/World/041210/w1210100A.html
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany told a lay minister to stop any public duties in one of its parishes after investigating a news report that he was convicted of sex charges in Canada this year.
A Canadian judge allowed John Evangelist Murphy, 75, of Dolgeville, N.Y., to serve 20 months of house arrest in New York state, where no one has authority to supervise him, The Dallas Morning News newspaper reported Monday.
Murphy was convicted in May of fondling four boys in the 1950s while a teacher at Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Nfld., run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland.
Murphy left the order decades ago and lived in New York state for years before he was extradited to Canada for trial, the newspaper reported.
Murphy, reached at home Friday, declined comment on Bishop Howard Hubbard's decision.[...]
The newspaper's report is part of a yearlong investigation into the international shuffling of accused clergy.# [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:14 PM] [Emphasis added]
• Minister ordered to leave diocese [1950s Murphy] - RCC. 4 boys.
Capital News 9, By Capital News 9 web staff, 11:26 AM, Dec/11/2004
ALBANY (NY): A local minister was forced to leave the Albany Diocese after a newspaper report showed he was convicted of sexually abusing four boys.
The Dallas Morning News said 75-year-old John Murphy, who was serving as a minister in Dolgeville, was sentenced to 20 months of house arrest for the assaults. According to the report, the abuse happened in Canada back in the 1950s. [Emphasis added]
• Ex-priest in Henry County jail [1980s Engels] - RCC. Altar boy.
Peoria Journal Star, Saturday, December 11, 2004
CAMBRIDGE (IL) - A former priest with the Catholic Diocese of Peoria is in the Henry County Jail awaiting extradition to Wisconsin where he faces charges he sexually abused a Cambridge altar boy during trips to the state 25 years ago.
Francis Engels, 68, served as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Annawan before stepping down in 1993 amid allegations of sexual molestation from several former parishioners. He also had responsibility for St. Mary's Mission in Hooppole.
Engels was arrested Wednesday night in Henry County after Milwaukee County, Wis., issued a second-degree sexual assault warrant for him on Tuesday, the clerk's office confirmed. An extradition hearing will be held Monday in Henry County Circuit Court.
The charge relates to trips Engels allegedly took to Wisconsin in the 1980s with Dan Koenigs, who was an altar boy. Earlier this year, Koenigs, now 37 and living in Chicago, sued the Catholic Diocese of Peoria
• Church counselor charged with child molesting [2003-04 Duncan] - Apostolic Church.
Indianapolis Star, Star report, December 11, 2004
INDIANAPOLIS (IN): A Fishers man who is a youth counselor at his father's Indianapolis Eastside church was charged with having a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl who is a church member, police said Friday.
R.H. Duncan Jr., of Greater One Way Apostolic Church, 5840 E. 16th St., was charged with five felony counts of child molestation Wednesday, said Indianapolis Child Abuse Unit Detective Chris Lawrence.
Lawrence said Duncan, 41, is accused of having sex several times in different locations, including the church, with the girl from December 2003 to March 2004.
Duncan's father, Bishop R.H. Duncan, is church pastor.
• Court allows man's abuse suit against church [1980s Clark] - RCC.
The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal. com/localnews/ 2004/12/11 ky/B3-abuse 12110-3110.html , By Gregory A. Hall, ghall@courier-journal.com , Dec 11, 2004
LOUISVILLE (KY): A Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling released yesterday will allow Kyle Burden's lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville to proceed.
Burden sued the archdiocese in 2002 alleging that it covered up sexual abuse in the 1980s by Daniel Clark, then an archdiocesan priest.
A year ago, Jefferson Circuit Judge Thomas B. Wine denied the archdiocese's request for summary judgment, saying the church failed to prove that Burden had not filed his lawsuit in a timely fashion.
The archdiocese asked the three-judge Kentucky Court of Appeals panel to overturn Wine's ruling, repeating its claim that Burden waited too long to file his suit.
• New abuse lawsuits filed in Sioux City [McFadden] - Altar boys.
Des Moines Register, By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR, December 11, 2004
SIOUX CITY (IA): Two new lawsuits were filed Thursday in Woodbury County District Court, alleging child sexual abuse by the Rev. George McFadden and negligence by the Sioux City Catholic Diocese.
Former altar boys Joseph Boyok and Don Miller were raised in Catholic families in Sioux City. They claim they were abused by McFadden when they were students at St. Francis of Assisi school.
Jim Wharton, spokesman for the Sioux City diocese, did not return phone calls Friday.
• Web postings about accused priests blocked - RCC. 200 accused priests' files.
Contra Costa Times, www.contracosta times.com/mld/ cctimes/news/ state/10393916.htm , ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (CA) - A judge temporarily blocked the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from posting information on the Internet about priests accused of sexual abuse.
Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz issued the emergency order Thursday during a closed-door hearing after a lawyer representing about 25 priests argued the move would violate his clients' privacy.
The attorney, Donald Steier, declined to comment because of confidentiality required as part of ongoing mediation.
A hearing was scheduled for Dec. 28 to determine whether the ban would become permanent.
The files, known as "proffers," contain summaries from church records kept on about 200 accused priests that were prepared by the archdiocese for lawyers representing alleged victims, said attorney J. Michael Hennigan, lead counsel for the archdiocese.
• Survivor: abuse by women religious 'rampant' - RCC. Nuns plan "a study".
RenewAmerica, www.renewa merica.us/col umns/abbott/ 041211 , Matt C. Abbott, December 11, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): I received the following e-mail from Gabrielle Azzaro of Cardiff, Calif.
"I am one of the survivors/victims who met recently with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) to discuss what we could do together to educate, treat, and prevent sexual abuse by women religious. Those women sat and listened to five horror stories from survivors aged 30 to 82, and their response was to send us a letter that said pretty things, but was totally devoid of any type of true action.
"Although they told us that 'LCWR's function is to provide its members with resources, education and support,' they did not see fit to include the education that only survivors of this horror could give. They said they could not 'endorse any specific group of survivors, but would rather work with individuals.' We encouraged them to endorse any and all groups of survivors, but they prefer to keep their horrible, dirty secrets among themselves and the individual, rather than allow them to reach the public. [...]
... They are 'investigating funding sources in order to develop an educational video that would incorporate the testimony of survivors of sexual misconduct by women religious.' [...]
"Sexual abuse by women religious is real. It is rampant. It will be extremely difficult for the general public to accept. But it does exist. Something needs to be done about it, and the women who lead are the ones to do it. Unfortunately, they are too caught up with trying to find words that will make people think they are doing something while they sit around and wring their hands."# [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:14 AM]
• SNAP out to warn in C'ville [1970s-80s Murphy] - RCC.
The Courier News, www.suburban chicagonews.com/ couriernews/top/ e09snap.htm , By Janelle Walker, Dec/09/04
CARPENTERSVILLE (IL) - Representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests knocked on doors in Meadowdale subdivision Wednesday, telling residents a former priest accused of abusing children now lives in their neighborhood.
By canvassing the neighborhood in which John D. Murphy now lives, the SNAP activists said, they hope to protect other children.
"We want to ensure innocent children are not hurt the way we were hurt," said Barbara Blaine, an abuse survivor and SNAP founder who helped pass out fliers.
Murphy does not have a listed phone number and did not answer reporters' knocks at his door Wednesday.
Dan Herlihy of Chicago and Ken Kaczmarz of LaGrange Park, now members of SNAP, say they were both abused by the Carpentersville man in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he was a priest at St. Rita's Catholic School in Chicago. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:21 AM]
• Attorney: Parishes, diocese separate; Contradicts earlier filing in Phoenix
Casa Grande Valley Newspapers, www.zwire.com/ site/news.cfm? newsid=13534597& BRD=1817& PAG=461&dept_id=6 8561&rfi=6 , Wire Services, Associated Press, December 10, 2004
TUCSON (AZ) (AP) - The lead bankruptcy lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson claims parishes are financially separate from the diocese.
In a court filing, attorney Susan Boswell says the diocese holds the parishes in trust "with each parish retaining the equitable and beneficial interest in that property."
Boswell wants an argument by another diocese that parishes are not separate financial entities stricken from a court's record.
Two months ago, attorneys filed a motion in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of the Diocese of Phoenix that said a parish "does not independently own any property or assets," and that parishes within a diocese are "part of the diocese itself" - separate under church law, but not civil law.
That contention directly contradicts what Tucson Diocese Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas has said - that parishes are separate financial entities that can be individually sued and are not part of the diocese's overall wealth.
• Catholic officials, DA to set meeting
Commercial Appeal, By Bill Dries, December 11, 2004
MEMPHIS (TN): The District Attorney General's office and Memphis Catholic church officials plan to meet later this month to talk about why the diocese hasn't reported child sexual abuse allegations to authorities.
Assistant District Attorney General Kevin Rardin said a member of the Diocesan Review Board contacted him this week about a meeting "to try to come up with a policy that everybody can agree on." Diocesan spokesman Father John Geaney said Catholic Bishop J. Terry Steib requested the meeting and that there is no agenda yet.
The session, which was still being scheduled Friday, comes after church officials said last week that parts of state law requiring them to report such abuse didn't apply in the cases of two priests accused years ago of sexually abusing children.
• Papal Address to Bishops of Minnesota, and North and South Dakota
Zenit, Dec. 10, 2004
VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org).- Here is the address prepared by John Paul II when he received in audience today the U.S. bishops of the ecclesiastical provinces of Minnesota, and North and South Dakota. The prelates were on their five-yearly visit to Rome.
Dear Brother Bishops,
1. In this, the last of my meetings with the pastors of the Church in the United States making their quinquennial visits "ad limina Apostolorum," I offer a warm greeting to you, the bishops of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
In the course of this year, I have engaged with you and your fellow bishops in a series of reflections on the threefold office of teaching, sanctifying and governing entrusted to the successors of the apostles. Through a consideration of the spiritual gifts and the apostolic mission received at episcopal ordination, whereby each bishop is sacramentally configured to Jesus Christ, the Head and chief Shepherd of his Church (cf. 1 Peter 5:4), we have sought to deepen our appreciation of the mystery of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ, enlivened by the Holy Spirit and constantly built up in unity through a rich diversity of gifts, ministries and works (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; "Lumen Gentium," No. 7).
• Lay minister convicted of sex abuse at Mount Cashel told stop New York duties [1950s Murphy - Christian Brothers of Ireland; 2000s Hubbard] - RCC.
Macleans, www.macleans. ca/topstories/ news/shownews. jsp?content= w121093A
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany told a lay minister to stop any public duties in one of its parishes after investigating a news report that he was convicted of sex charges in Canada this year.
A Canadian judge allowed John Evangelist Murphy, 75, of Dolgeville, N.Y., to serve 20 months of house arrest in New York state, where no one has authority to supervise him, The Dallas Morning News newspaper reported Monday.
Murphy was convicted in May of fondling four boys in the 1950s while a teacher at Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Nfld., run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland.
Murphy left the order decades ago and lived in New York state for years before he was extradited to Canada for trial, the newspaper reported.
Murphy, reached at home Friday, declined comment on Bishop Howard Hubbard's decision.
He told the newspaper his ministry at St. Joseph's Church consisted of reading the Bible during mass and visiting parishioners in the hospital.
• LA archdiocese blocked from placing accused clergy's information online
North County Times, www.nctimes. com/articles/ 2004/12/11/ news/state/18_ 10_4512_10_ 04.txt , By Associated Press, Dec 11, 2004
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- A judge temporarily blocked the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from posting information on the Internet on priests accused of sexual abuse. Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz issued the emergency order Thursday during a closed door hearing after a lawyer representing about 25 priests argued the move would violate his clients' privacy.
The attorney, Donald Steier, declined to comment because of confidentiality required as part of ongoing mediation.
A hearing was scheduled for Dec. 28 to determine whether the ban would become permanent.
The files, known as "proffers," contain summaries from church records kept on about 200 accused priests that were prepared by the archdiocese for lawyers representing alleged victims, said attorney J. Michael Hennigan, lead counsel for the archdiocese.
Church officials and plaintiffs' attorneys agreed two years ago to a process in which information about accused priests could be shared through proffers instead of church personnel records. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:08 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat December 11, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• More charges after child porn blitz. [2004 Matthews] - No religion link. Possession of indecent articles, or child porn.
The West Australian, p 15, Saturday, December 11, 2004
PERTH (WA), Australia: A 47-year-old man charged after a nationwide child pornography police operation appeared in Perth Magistrate's Court yesterday to answer nine additional charges.
Glenn Alan Matthews, of North Dandalup, was originally charged with one count of possessing child pornography. But he has since been charged with five new counts of possessing an indecent or obscene article, or four counts of possessing child pornography. [Meaning uncertain]
He was not required to plead yesterday. Magistrate Jeremy Packington renewed bail until January 28. [Dec 11, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun December 12, 2004 edition follows:-
• Cardinal Mahony accused of perjury in sex abuse case - RCC.
San Francisco Chronicle, www.sfgate.com/ cgi-bin/article. cgi?file=/ chronicle/ archive/ 2004/12/11/ BAG70AA8UR1.DTL ; by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Saturday, December 11, 2004
CALIFORNIA: One of California's leading sexual abuse lawyers said Friday that newly released court documents show that Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony committed perjury during a 1998 trial in Stockton.
The accusation by Stockton attorney Larry Drivon came one day after a transcript of a deposition Mahony gave in Los Angeles on Nov. 23. was made public.
A spokesman for Mahony called the accusation "ridiculous.''
Mahony served as the bishop of the Diocese of Stockton from 1980 to 1985, when he was elevated to head the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese.
The Los Angeles prelate's deposition involves his supervision of the Rev. Oliver O'Grady, a convicted child molester whose actions have cost the California Catholic church millions of dollars. The deposition is in connection to a recent wave of lawsuits made possible by a 2002 state law that temporarily abolished the statute of limitations on abuse claims against the church and other employers of known sexual predators. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:43 AM]
• Using a dose of fear to stop kidnappings
New York Daily News www.nydailynews. com/boroughs/ story/261085p- 223608c.html , December 12, 2004
NEW YORK: Workers and volunteers for the Diocese of Brooklyn gasped and groaned as they watched nationally renowned child safety expert Ken Wooden lure children from a playground. As diocese members observed a polite, soft-spoken Wooden trick kids one-by-one, recruiting their help to find a supposedly lost puppy, they were shocked at how easily he gained their trust.
Some kids held Wooden's hand and others grabbed the leash he handed them as they joined in a chorus of shouts calling out the puppy's name.
"I believe by teaching these lures we won't have this awful scandal rain down on us again," Wooden said to parishioners after they watched his video presentation.
About 250 diocese youth workers gathered Monday at the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston to hear Wooden, the author of "Weeping in the Playtime of Others: America's Incarcerated Children," explain ways to keep children safe from predators.
The discussion was part of an introduction of the Child Lures program the diocese has put in place to help prevent sexual abuse, abduction, Internet crime, drugs and school violence. The program is part of an initiative begun by U.S. bishops in June 2002.
• A priest's victim not robbed of faith - RCC.
Orange County Register, www.ocregister. com/ocr/2004/12/ 12/sections/news/ news/article_ 341895.php , By GREG HARDESTY, Dec 12, 2004
SIGNAL HILL (CA) - A black-and white baby picture of David Guerrero hangs in his bedroom.
The artist, now 36, has added the words "$1.49 per pound" next to his smiling face, to symbolize how a priest snatched his 8-year-old body and, for three years, used it like a piece of meat.
Now, as one of 87 victims of clergy sexual abuse set to receive large sums from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in a historic settlement, Guerrero's artistic statement also poses the question: How much money do the victims deserve?
"I'm grateful for (any money), but we're getting pennies for what happened to our lives," said Guerrero, stretched out on a brown armchair in the living room of his mother's two-bedroom condominium in Signal Hill.
Sad-eyed Minerva Guerrero, 61, watched her son, the third of four boys, from the couch as "Silent Night" played on the stereo. An artificial white Christmas tree blinked incessantly. David's father, Robert, a 61-year-old dry-wall installer, was at work.
Minerva Guerrero, a homemaker, was sitting in the same spot in November 2002 when her hysterical son, jacked up on speed, told her he had been molested by Father Sigfried Widera while attending catechism classes at St. Justin Martyr Roman Catholic Church in Anaheim.
• Pastor is given four-year sentence for molestation [Villalobos-Perez] - Pentecostal. 2 girls.
Skagit Valley Herald, www.skagitvalleyherald.com/articles/2004/12/11/news/news03.txt , By MARTA MURVOSH
WASHINGTON: A Skagit County judge, facing a courtroom full of about 50 family members and supporters of a pastor convicted of molesting two young girls, said he had to consider accounts of the defendant's good works in handing down a sentence.
With that, Judge Michael Rickert Friday sentenced Armando Villalobos-Perez to 4 1/4 years in prison, the shortest sentence he could have meted out under state law.
Sixteen people speaking at Villalobos-Perez's sentencing told the judge they believed the defendant to be innocent.
A jury Oct. 4 found Villalobos-Perez, 58, guilty of three counts of first-degree child molestation. The two victims were clients of his wife's day care. ...
Villalobos-Perez is the pastor of the Iglesia Santa Pentescostes Ovejas De Jesucristo, a Spanish and English Pentecostal church in Mount Vernon.
• Dover pastor accused of rape [2001-02 McGuire] - Baptist. Girl.
Home News Tribune www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,1140961,00.html?sec=main?=centraljersey , By ABBOTT KOLOFF, GANNETT, NEW JERSEY
DOVER (NJ): The case of a Baptist pastor from Dover accused of repeated sexual assaults against a young woman in Connecticut was moved Friday to a court that handles the most serious felony cases, court officials said.
Andre L. McGuire, 46, whose family lives in Rahway and who is pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, is married and has six children. He has been charged with four counts of sexual assault in Connecticut and has been held for more than a month in a Hartford correctional facility on $250,000 bail.
He was arrested on Nov. 8 after an investigation that lasted more than two years.
Members of his church said that up until this past week they were told he was away handling a family emergency.
Court records, which include statements by the alleged victim, detail some of the allegations and show the alleged victim first talked to law enforcement authorities more than two years ago, after she told some family members about her allegations and wrote a letter to administrators of the college she was attending at the time to explain why she was having a hard time keeping up her grades. She told them she had been raped.
McGuire, who had been living with his family in Rahway before his arrest, was accused in court papers of forcing himself sexually on the girl at various places in three states in 2001 and 2002.
• Voice Of The Southern: Bishop Gregory Has Been An Inspiration Through His Work
The Southern Illinoisan, Posted Sunday, December 12, 2004
ILLINOIS: It is with sadness that news was received that Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, who has served as head of the Belleville Diocese, has been re-assigned and will become Atlanta's sixth archbishop. He succeeds Archbishop John F. Donoghue, who is resigning. Pope John Paul II's appointment of Gregory to the Atlanta post was announced Thursday.
The 57-year-old Gregory has become an extremely important figure in the Catholic church. Gregory served as was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for three years during the height of the clergy molestation crisis. Gregory was the first black president of the bishops conference when he was elected in November 2001.
At the time, his election was seen by black Catholics as long-awaited recognition of their presence in the church. A week before his term expired as leader of the conference, Gregory said the pressure of guiding the church through the height of the sex abuse crisis "drove me to my knees" spiritually.
• Nuns Protect List Of Members - RCC. Nuns to girls.
Hartford Courant, By KIM MARTINEAU, December 12, 2004
CONNECTICUT: A national group of Catholic nuns will not turn over a list of members to an advocacy group for victims of sexual abuse by clergy, or allow the victims to speak at its upcoming conferences.
The advocacy group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], made those demands to raise awareness about the problem of abusive nuns, at a time when news reports have focused heavily on abusive priests.
"All we want is to be part of the healing and education," said Mary Guentner, a social worker from Milwaukee who says she was abused as a teenager by a nun. "We are the experts. ... We can truly help develop a plan to put the healing of victims first."
A Connecticut woman, who claims she was abused by a nun when she was a senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, helped arrange a historic meeting in October with leaders from the nation's largest consortium of nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
At the meeting, Landa Mauriello-Vernon and four others asked the nuns to help them reach out to other alleged victims, by providing a link to the Survivors Network on their website and turning over contact information to the approximately 450 religious orders that belong to the Leadership Conference.
• Santa stint eases a heavy heart - RCC. 1977 allegation but no charge.
Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20041212/ COLUMN01/412 120583/1010 , by Dianne Williamson, dwilliamson@telegram.com , T&G STAFF
WORCESTER (MA): A year ago, Solomon E. Toledo Jr. was the well-regarded head of the young adult ministry for the Diocese of Worcester. He was earning a respectable wage and hoping to eventually parlay his experience into a higher post with a diocese on the West Coast.
Today, Mr. Toledo is homeless and living in his 1993 blue Buick LeSabre. He works part time at Wal-Mart in Whitinsville, but a salary cut in half by child support payments barely covers his food. And although he has struggled for years with clinical depression, he said he is nourished by a holiday ritual he has performed for three decades.
Every weekend, the 50-year-old Mr. Toledo dons a Santa Claus suit and sheds his sadness for a few magical hours. At a discount store in the Wal-Mart plaza, Mr. Toledo sits in a tall chair and allows the dreams of happy, innocent children to nurture his battered soul.
"I love it," said Mr. Toledo, whose bleached beard and ruddy complexion make him a picture-perfect Santa. "The world is so bleak at times. But kids see me and their eyes shine. If I can't be a youth minister anymore, I can at least be a symbol of love for children."
A year ago last month, Mr. Toledo was summoned to the diocesan chancery office and summarily fired by Monsignor Thomas J. Sullivan. While the diocese has provided few details, Mr. Toledo said he was dismissed because of a 26-year-old allegation of sexual misconduct that occurred between the then 22-year-old youth minister and a 16-year-old girl in Riverside, Calif. No charges were ever brought against Mr. Toledo; last week, police in Riverside said they have no record of any investigation against him.
Mr. Toledo said the Worcester diocese was told last year by the girl's mother that he had sex with the girl twice. Mr. Toledo denied the allegations but admitted that he kissed the girl in 1977, then apologized and told her he could have no sexual contact with her.
"I was wrong to kiss that young lady," Mr. Toledo said. "We were both young. It was a very different time. But the Worcester diocese has made me feel like a criminal. And they took away something I was very, very good at."
A native of San Diego, Mr. Toledo came to the Worcester diocese three years ago from Portland, Ore., where he did similar work. He loved his job in Worcester and was instrumental in starting the well-publicized "Theology on Tap" series, where younger Catholics would gather informally at the Irish Times to discuss religion or listen to a guest speaker.
Mr. Toledo had worked in Worcester for two years and was earning an annual salary of $32,000 when he was fired. He said no details of the allegations were revealed and he was denied a chance to defend himself or meet with the bishop. He was given three days to vacate the diocesan Oakhurst Retreat Center in Whitinsville, where he had been living, and he received no severance pay.
"Now that I've had a year to think, I guess I've grown kind of bitter," Mr. Toledo said. "There was no investigation, no nothing. I believe I was made an example of to show that the diocese can move quickly. Priests are often protected, but a layperson has no rights in the Catholic Church."
Raymond L. Delisle, diocesan spokesman, declined to discuss Mr. Toledo's case, calling it a personnel matter. He said only that the "circumstances would not allow" Mr. Toledo to continue in the post, and he defended the diocese's handling of its former employee.
"Personally, I don't believe they would fire anyone without having real reasons or explaining the details," Mr. Delisle said. "I felt bad about what's happened to him, but that doesn't change why they can't use him in that position."
After he was fired, Mr. Solomon lived on and off with friends for a few months before moving into his car. He tried unsuccessfully to find work in other dioceses. And with no health benefits or medication, Mr. Solomon struggles to stave off the depression he has dealt with since before moving to Worcester, a depression now exacerbated by his circumstances.
He found part-time work last year as a cashier at Wal-Mart. Half of his paycheck goes to support a 9-year-old daughter who lives in Oregon. He takes home $90 a week, which goes mainly toward fast food and gas. He sleeps in the front seat of his car in various residential neighborhoods in Northbridge, covering himself with a blanket.
Two weeks ago, he volunteered his services as a weekend Santa Claus at a dollar store called The Max in the Wal-Mart plaza. Mr. Toledo said he has played Santa for 30 years at malls, department stores and photo studios in California and Oregon. At The Max, Mr. Toledo tries to make a few bucks by charging visitors $4 for a photo, but he said it cost him more than he earns to buy a Polaroid camera and film.
"My life is very, very hard," he said matter-of-factly. "But in order for depression not to conquer you, it's important to do something rewarding. Playing Santa has always made my Christmas special. I know that I have to be this smiling, joyful-type person, so it helps me have a better attitude."
Mr. Toledo said he's trying to save money to make repairs to his car, so he can return to Oregon and be closer to his children. He's looking for more holiday work and plans to run a classified ad to hawk his Santa services at parties and other events.
And while his life hasn't turned out as he had hoped, he's confident that his work over three decades will serve as a legacy to a career interrupted.
"My life will always be a success," he said. "Through the help of God, I've changed a lot of lives. No one can take that away from me."
He paused, then broke out in a broad grin that belied a year's worth of loneliness and torment. "And I really am a very good Santa." #
• Sex abuse lawsuits could cost the Catholic Church dearly - RCC. $US70m sought by < 60 complainants.
KGW, By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS / Associated Press, Dec/12/2004
SPOKANE (WA): The Roman Catholic church in Spokane educates thousands of school children, operates the state's second largest hospital, runs multimillion-dollar charities and provides for the spiritual needs of some 90,000 people.
But much is at risk because nearly 60 victims of child sex abuse and their lawyers are seeking more than $70 million in damages.
This is the central conundrum of the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the nation's largest church: How do you square the needs of victims who have courageously stepped forward to expose decades of abuse, while preserving all the good things the church does?
Victims insist they are not out to destroy the church, and should be commended for coming forward to expose a decades-long conspiracy of silence.
"We're all sick and tired of this thing," said Michael Ross, a local leader of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests [SNAP], who has sued the Spokane Diocese.
The diocese has known since at least 1944 that some priests were pedophiles, and did not take enough steps to protect children, Ross said. Offender priests would still be shuffled among parishes and free to molest more children if victims had not come forward, Ross said.
• Priest's extradition sought in abuse case [1980-85 Engels] - RCC.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, By MARIE ROHDE, mrohde@journalsentinel.com , Posted Dec. 11, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI):Milwaukee police are seeking the extradition of a 68-year-old Peoria, Ill., priest who has been charged in a warrant here with bringing an altar boy to Milwaukee more than 20 years ago and sexually assaulting him.
The priest, Francis Engels, has been held in the Henry County, Ill., jail since Tuesday on two felony counts of second degree sexual assault of a child that were issued by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. The priest is being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in court in Illinois on Monday morning.
The victim, Dan Koenigs, is now 37 and living in Chicago, according to his lawyer, Joe Klest, of Schaumburg, Ill.
Koenigs said he was molested many times between 1980 and 1985 by three priests, including Engels. Some of the abuse took place in Kentucky and Wisconsin, according to his lawyer. Koenigs was able to identify the Milwaukee motel were the abuse took place, Klest said.
• Stolen memories [Flynn] - RCC.
Palm Beach Post, By Lona O'Connor, Sunday, December 12, 2004
FLORIDA: Fourteen years after his wife Pat's death, Bob Hittel still lives under her spell.
Their home is infused with her presence. There she is in a black and white picture, the pretty teenager he fell in love with in 1942. In a photograph from middle age, with her thick brown wavy hair turned snow white, she was even more luminous.
Days after her death in 1990, Bob Hittel wrote to Pat's mother, calling their marriage "a fairy tale of love enduring all obstacles."
He soon discovered that his fairy tale had a dark underbelly of secrets, loathing and disgust.
Two months after Pat Hittel died, her husband discovered a diary she had secretly kept for years, hundreds of handwritten pages detailing her passionate love for another man. Although she carefully never mentioned his name, Hittel is sure his wife was writing about Frank Flynn, the family priest.
In the diary, she wrote about her husband of 47 years - and the man who displaced him in her heart:
"He loved me in a quiet way, not real exciting, but I knew I would be taken care of. But as I grew older I realized my inner life was not loved and never had been. Then I met him, oh so loving and exciting. I loved him oh so purely at first. I knew he loved me. He saw a piece of my heart and took it as his own. Oh Lord, how we loved in those first years. My love, my priest. I treasured our intimate talks, our love words to each other."
Pat Hittel was in remission from lymphoma when she met Flynn, a charming, warm-hearted priest, at St. John the Baptist parish in Fort Lauderdale.
Two years later, Flynn was transferred to St. Ignatius Loyola Cathedral in Palm Beach Gardens. Pat Hittel followed Flynn, regularly traveling more than 50 miles north to attend Mass and to study with Flynn for her college courses in religion.
Frank Flynn's name hit the headlines in 2002, after Palm Beach Diocese officials revealed they settled two sexual abuse lawsuits involving him.
• Mahony would do well to mimic Brown - RCC.
Pasadena Star-News www.pasadena starnews.com/ Stories/0,1413, 206~11851~259 2259,00.html
CALIFORNIA: The Orange County Roman Catholic Diocese, under the direction of Bishop Tod D. Brown, has agreed to pay $100 million to settle 87 outstanding priest abuse cases. Brown said the diocese wants to move forward. He has cooperated fully with authorities as well, handing them internal church documents as requested. He is to be commended, and by all accounts, has earned accolades from grateful victims, relieved of sometimes lifelong burdens.
The decision and his actions stand in stark contrast to Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of the Los Angeles Diocese. Mahony has been secretive and reluctant to turn over any records that would indicate the church's handling of accusations against priests. Some 544 cases of alleged sexual-abuse cases have been brought against the diocese.
At best a misguided, and we believe damaging, miscalculation on the part of easily the most influential American Catholic leader.
While it is natural for Mahony to protect those in positions of authority, he should err on the side of the alleged victims and allow the justice system to work. There's little doubt the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office will leave no evidentiary rock unturned to exonerate those falsely accused.
• Effort to monitor priests falls short, groups claim
Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/10399761.htm , By Robin Evans
CALIFORNIA: The Diocese of San Jose has assigned two priests to watch over four colleagues removed from ministry -- and parish residences -- for sexual misconduct. The Oakland Diocese just hired a retired probation officer to keep tabs on nine priests, including three who moved out of state.
But victims and lay groups are wary of church efforts to monitor wayward priests because they're being told little about them. And national church officials say such efforts are not only inconsistent across the country but inherently inadequate.
"Generally speaking, there's not a real good, efficient way of monitoring these men," said Sheila Horan, assistant director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:15 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun December 12, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon December 13, 2004 edition follows:-
• Vatican firms up plans for U.S. seminary visitation in 2005
Catholic News Service, www.catholic news.com/data/ stories/cns/ 0406801.htm , By John Thavis
VATICAN CITY: (CNS) -- The Vatican is consolidating plans for the much-anticipated apostolic visitation of U.S. seminaries, viewed by church officials as a crucial part of the response to the priestly sex abuse scandal.
Officials now expect the visitation to begin in the fall [autumn] of 2005 with the start of the school year, sources in Rome said in December.
The Vatican is expected to publish soon an "instrumentum laboris" or working questionnaire that is about three pages long. It will act as an outline for the visits to more than 100 seminaries and other institutes of formation, which are expected to take several days each.
Already, the names of approximately 75 bishops and 100 priests who will carry out the visitations have been submitted and discussed by U.S. and Vatican officials. A facilitator to coordinate U.S.-Vatican contacts also will be chosen.
Sometime before the process begins next fall, the Vatican expects to publish a long-awaited and potentially controversial document on whether candidates with homosexual inclinations should be admitted to the priesthood. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:56 PM]
• Church Audit Plan Rankles Advocacy Groups - RCC.
Newsday, By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer, 4:24 PM EST, December 13, 2004
UNITED STATES: Two victim advocacy groups accused Roman Catholic bishops Monday of abandoning their pledge to root out sexually abusive clergy by reducing the number of U.S. dioceses that will receive full, onsite audits of their child protection programs next year.
But a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the changes were meant only to make the process more efficient, and were not a sign church leaders are backing away from reforms.
Voice of the Faithful [VOTF], a lay Catholic group, and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said the revisions will undermine whatever trust the bishops have restored in their leadership since the abuse crisis began in early 2002.
In each of the last two years, the bishops hired an outside auditor who sent teams largely made up of former FBI agents into all 195 U.S. dioceses. Their job was to determine whether the church had put in place the safeguards required under the anti-abuse policy that the bishops approved at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas.
Last month, the bishops authorized a new approach to the audits at their national meeting in Washington. They decided that dioceses found fully compliant twice will not be required to have onsite visits next year. Instead, they can fill out questionnaires that will be sent to the auditors for review. Some bishops had complained that the audits were expensive and time-consuming.
• Illinois priest waives extradition to Wisconsin [Engels] - RCC. Boys.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/10408329.htm, Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (WI): A Roman Catholic priest charged in Wisconsin with sexual abuse of a child more than 20 years ago on Monday waived extradition from Illinois, where he had been held without bail since last week.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney's office had charged Francis Engels, 68, with two felony counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child.
Engels appeared in Henry County, Ill. Circuit Court Monday and said he would not fight the extradition, said Terry Patton, the Henry County state's attorney.
Milwaukee Assistant District Attorney Jane Carrol did not immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press Monday inquiring about when Engels might be brought to Wisconsin.
The victim, Dan Koenigs, now 37, said three priests, including Engels, molested him many times between 1980 and 1985, according to his attorney, Joe Klest, of Schaumburg, Ill.
• Pedophile priest may face more charges [1961-82 Ridsdale] - RCC. Boys, girls.
The Age, www.theage. com.au/news/ National/ Pedophile- priest-may- face-more- charges/2004/12/ 13/1102787 018735.html ; By Ian Munro, Law and Justice Editor, December 14, 2004
AUSTRALIA: A decision is expected this week on whether pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale will face more sex abuse charges relating to a further nine people.
This follows a meeting at Ballarat police station yesterday between the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Coghlan, QC, the alleged victims and Detective Sergeant Kevin Carson who investigated their complaints.
In August, The Age revealed that Mr Coghlan was refusing to press further charges against Ridsdale, who was jailed in 1994 and will be 75 before he is eligible for parole.
A further prosecution was deemed "not in the public interest", as the allegations could have been heard at Ridsdale's original trial.
Responding to what he called "disquiet in the community", Mr Coghlan later offered to meet the complainants and reconsider his decision. The mother of an alleged victim, who represented her son at yesterday's meeting, urged victims to come forward. [...]
A spokesman for Mr Coghlan said the DPP hoped to have a decision by the end of this week.
Ridsdale, 70, was convicted on a representative 46 charges of sexual abuse involving 21 boys and girls between 1961 and 1982. He was sentenced to 18 years' jail, with a 15-year non-parole period.
The offences mostly related to abuse at parishes in central and western Victoria.#
• Shepherds Finessing Their Flock - RCC.
The New York Times, December 13, 2004
UNITED STATES: The scandal over sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy is still raging in the courts, yet the American bishops have made a wrongheaded decision to cut back their auditing of local dioceses' compliance with the church's new child protection measures. The bishops concluded that 90 percent of dioceses had been examined, found in compliance and can "self-report" next year. The auditors will focus on dioceses that are not carrying out the safeguards fully. This easing of scrutiny hardly jibes with pledges of ongoing accountability.
In the face of the dark universe of abuse by priests - more than 700 dismissed in three years for sexually abusing thousands of children - it was commendable that the bishops' conference enacted some firm remedies, including a one-strike-and-you're-defrocked policy toward abusers. But the laity is still waiting for an accounting of bishops' culpability in protecting predatory priests and paying hush money to contain complaints.
That the crisis is far from over is clear in California, where Bishop Tod Brown of the Orange County diocese recently agreed to a record $100 million damage settlement with 87 victims. Bishop Brown's welcome decision to release internal church documents as part of the agreement contrasts with the struggle in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where Cardinal Roger Mahony continues legalistic stonewalling of 500 abuse claims. His refusal to turn over priests' personnel files to prosecutors was criticized by the laity panel the bishops appointed to monitor their actions. [Emphasis added]
• Sex offender got shelter job without background check [2004 Taylor] - Baptist.
Chicago Sun-Times www.suntimes. com/output/ news/cst-nws- abuse13.html , BY STEFANO ESPOSITO, December 13, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): There was no reason not to trust Michael Taylor, the woman once thought. He said he was a church minister.
He promised to help find a home for her and her two sons. He told her that if she stayed strong, God would find a way.
Taylor was the woman's case manager at a city-funded homeless shelter for women and children on the West Side. She first met him last summer.
But only now, after Taylor was arrested last month and accused of sexually assaulting her 13-year-old son, does the woman know the truth: Taylor, 48, is a convicted sex offender.
The woman, who did not want her name used, can't fathom why Taylor was counseling some of the city's most vulnerable people. ...
Then, as now, Taylor was affiliated with the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church on the South Side. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:30 AM]
• Abuse victims in debt despite compensation - Anglican. 12 males. Physical and sexual abuse.
ABC (Australia), "AM" programme, www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1263716.htm , 08:17:00, 13 December , 2004
AUSTRALIA: TONY EASTLEY: Twelve men who suffered physical and sexual abuse in New South Wales Anglican boys homes 50 or 60 years ago - have found themselves tens of thousands of dollars in debt, despite being compensated.
The men from the Coventry and Ohio Boys homes, initially received money from the Victims of Crime Tribunal.
They then successfully pursued further compensation from the Anglican Church.
However they're now being told that because they're getting compensation from the Church, they must repay the original compensation given to them by the Tribunal.
That, they say, has left them tens of thousand of dollars out of pocket.
The men who were regularly beaten as children now feel they're being brutalised by the legal system.
Nonee Walsh with this report.
NONEE WALSH: Just over two years ago seven men who'd been viciously abused in the Coventry and Ohio boys homes in northern New South Wales, were ecstatic that a solicitor was taking up their case through the victims' compensation tribunal.
Now, Jack as we'll call him, says they're in a legal nightmare which brings back the worst memories.
JACK: It's very difficult to sort of you know, get through what I actually felt like while I was in the home, but I'd never ever actually thought about committing suicide but at different times I really honestly wished to Christ that I was bloody dead.
NONEE WALSH: Initially the solicitor got you a victims of crime payment from the Victims' Compensation Tribunal. What made you then still go on to take action against the Anglican Church as well?
JACK: When we received the maximum $50,000, I got a plaque done to send to the solicitor in appreciation for getting us the maximum amount of money after a very, very long time.
The solicitor responded by saying and I quote "ha, that's only chicken feed to what I'm going to get you".
NONEE WALSH: The men's solicitor warned that they'd have to pay the Tribunal back if they got a settlement. But at mediation with the Anglican Church solicitors on July the 7th last year, that all changed, when Jack protested that the money offered was less than the amounts paid by the Tribunal.
JACK: I was given an undertaking by the solicitor, orally and in writing that the Victims Tribunal did not have to be repaid, and if I was to pursue it on my own, that meant that nobody in the room benefited in any way from the mediation.
NONEE WALSH: And the other men who were in that situation were also told that, is that right?
JACK: The other men at the mediation were all of the opinion that in fact that they were clear of repaying the money.
NONEE WALSH: The deed of release setting up a trust run by the solicitor to pay the men, forbade anyone from talking about the settlement. But Jack anonymously contacted the Victims Compensation Tribunal, concerned that he was breaking the law.
JACK: The Tribunal said I can guarantee you 100 per cent that you have not been given indemnity from repaying the money, and you are now subjected to a repayment totalling all money that was received at mediation.
NONEE WALSH: The solicitor wrote three letters to Jack in December and January this year, still insisting that two senior counsel had advised that the money was not repayable.
He also noted that contacting the Tribunal was a breach of the confidentiality agreement. He told Jack to get other legal advice.
The Attorney General Bob Debus referred complaints about the lawyers to the Legal Services Commission in June. Neither the tribunal, the Attorney General nor the Legal Service Commission will comment on the case.
Church lawyers have refused a request to re-mediate. Jack has spent thousands engaging and disengaging lawyers, lobbying and obsessing ever since.
JACK: I cannot understand why we are being victimised for doing what we thought was right. In that home we were flogged every day. If you walked, you ran, you talked, you spoke, you had to get permission. And if you didn't, you were flogged. And here we are again. We've done the right thing. We've fulfilled our lawful obligation and now we're being crucified again.
TONY EASTLEY: Abuse victim "Jack" and the order for repayment is not being enforced until the investigation is completed.#
• National Tribunal needed for abuse victims: McLucas
ABC (Australia), www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1263679.htm, "AM" programme, 08:18:00, Monday, 13 December, 2004
AUSTRALIA: TONY EASTLEY: The former Chairwoman of the Senate committee on Children in Institutions Jan McLucas says this story is a good example of why a national tribunal is needed.
And she says compensation for victims of sexual abuse should be taken out of the court system.
She's speaking to Nonee Walsh.
JAN MCLUCAS: These men have attempted to seek redress through the legal system. They have found themselves in a more invidious position than when they started. I find it very distressing when you read the story of what happened to them as children, and in their attempt to get some redress of that situation have found themselves financially, but more importantly very emotionally hurt.
NONEE WALSH: How equipped are these people in your view to actually now sort out the mess that they're in?
JAN MCLUCAS: By living in institutions, many people missed out on an education and that's become evident in this particular set of events. I mean most of us who have been educated are daunted by the legal system. For people who have had a very limited education, it must be extremely daunting and the net result is that they're in a pickle.
NONEE WALSH: Is this a common thing to happen to people who are going through the legal system?
JAN MCLUCAS: The particular events that you're describing are some of the worst that I've seen but my experience is for those people who have been through a legal process, it is invariably unsatisfying. Some of the evidence that we had was particularly concerning. That's why our committee suggested that the legal system is not the appropriate way for people who have lived in institutional care to get legal or some sort of redress.
Our recommendation was that the Commonwealth Government establish and manage a national fund so that victims on institutional abuse could apply through that process outside of the legal process for a recognition of the hurt that they had received and some form of redress.
TONY EASTLEY: Jan McLucas speaking there to our reporter Nonee Walsh.#
• Va. priest admits to misconduct [Gallagher] - RCC. Woman.
Richmond Times-Dispatch Dec 13, 2004
HARRISONBURG (VA): Father Jim Gallagher resigned as pastor of Harrisonburg's Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church after admitting "sexual misconduct with an adult woman," the Catholic Diocese of Richmond said yesterday.
The Most Rev. Francis X. DiLorenzo, bishop of the diocese, told parishioners the news before celebrating Mass. The diocese has temporarily suspended Gallagher pending an investigation, the bishop said.
Although Gallagher, 52, has resigned as pastor of the church, he has not left the priesthood, DiLorenzo said.
Gallagher arrived at Blessed Sacrament in June 2003 after serving for seven years at a church in Petersburg. He has been a priest for 17 years.
In his statement to parishioners yesterday, DiLorenzo said the diocese had learned that Gallagher "has admitted sexual misconduct with an adult woman. In the interest of privacy, the diocese will not release the identity of the person involved."
• Bishop says priest admits sexual misconduct, resigns [Gallagher] - RCC.
WAVY, www.wavy.com/ Global/story. asp?S=2682897
HARRISONBURG, Va. - The pastor of Harrisonburg's only Catholic church has resigned after admitting sexual misconduct with an adult woman.
That according to an announcement today by the Diocese of Richmond.
Father Jim Gallagher has been a priest for 17 years. He arrived at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in June 2003 after serving seven years in a Petersburg church.
Bishop Francis X- DiLorenzo is head of the Richmond Diocese. He broke the news to parishioners before celebrating Mass today. The bishop says the diocese has temporarily suspended Gallagher pending an investigation.
• Bishop won't reinstate priest - RCC. Fr Mesley still battlng.
Independent, www.gallup independent.com/ 121104priest.html , By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
GALLUP (NM) - Apparently the war will continue in the Diocese of Gallup. And like all wars, it looks like everyone will suffer.
It's the frequently discussed, but rarely publicized, legal battle between Bishop Donald E. Pelotte and Father Jerry T. Mesley, the Diocese of Gallup priest who had his priestly faculties removed by the bishop in September 1997 over allegations of misappropriation of funds at St. Jerome Parish in Gallup, which was closed by the diocese in 1996, and Immaculate Conception Parish in Cuba, N.M.
Although documents from the Vatican confirm that Pelotte lost his most recent legal challenge, Pelotte is hardly conceding to Mesley.
Or, apparently, to the Vatican either.
In a press release dated Dec. 6, 2004, Pelotte's chancery office issued a statement about Mesley that shot across the diocese like a shotgun blast. The Independent was not issued a copy of the press release but obtained a copy of it on Thursday, Dec. 9, from angry diocesan personnel. Copies of the Vatican's Congregation of the Clergy documents, dated March 13, 2001, and Nov. 18, 2004, were also provided to the newspaper.
• Resurrection Church will close - RCC. $US25.7m payout.
The Courier-Journal, www.courier- journal.com/ localnews/ 2004/12/12 ky/B1-resurrect1 212-6004.html , By Matt Batcheldor, mbatcheldor@courier-journal.com ; Dec 12, 2004
LOUISVILLE (KY): The old Resurrection Catholic Church on Poplar Level Road, which has continued to hold weekend Masses after merging with Guardian Angels parish in 1999, will close permanently next month.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville plans to sell the church property, part of which is leased to Pitt Academy, to the Highlands Latin School for an undetermined sum. The sale is not final, but the last Mass will be celebrated at Resurrection on Jan. 9, archdiocese spokeswoman Cecelia Price said.
Proceeds from the sale will help rebuild the archdiocese's coffers in the wake of a $25.7 million settlement last year with victims of priest sexual abuse, Price said. Selling the church property was included in a five-year financial plan issued last year.
"Certainly, we understand it's a loss for the people who had been worshipping there," Price said.
• A small piece of good - RCC.
WEBC, www.webcommentary.com/asp/ShowArticle.asp?id=simonl&date=041212 , by Larry Simoneaux (WEBCommentary contributor), December 12, 2004
COVINGTON (LA): Recently, the Archdiocese of Seattle was in the news because of a report criticizing it for - as the article put it - "poor record keeping and a habit of ignoring troubling behavior by clerics" that continued into the early 1990's.
The Archdiocese of Portland has declared bankruptcy. The Diocese of Spokane faces claims that total $77 million and filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
The whole thing is an unmitigated mess.
Men of God did abominable things and then others seemingly ignored or, worse, tried to bury the problem.
I can't defend that.
What I can do, however, is tell you a story. It's about a place I know near Covington, Louisiana.
"St. Ben's" is a small Benedictine monastery. I spent a year there studying to be a priest.
Recently, I received a letter from the rector. The gist of it was: "Man, there's a lot that needs to be done here and our budget's pretty thin. Think you could help?"
Along with the request, he included some news regarding the monks still living there. One of the monks mentioned was the individual who had the misfortune of being my spiritual advisor.
Father Hugh is now well past eighty. I saw him several years ago and he looked all of fifty-five. "St. Ben's" has that effect on those who live there. The place is off in the woods, has a river running through it and a number of small ponds scattered about.
While I was there, the monks made their own bread, raised vegetables, had a small dairy herd, kept bees, and generally made do on the premises. We rose at 5:30 a.m. and were asleep by 10:00 p.m. Such a pace doesn't engender high blood pressure or premature aging.
Other things I remember: Father Hugh was also a tennis fiend who gave me my first look at a 100-mph serve. After letting up on me, I made the mistake of rushing the net against him. He proceeded to fire one directly at my head. I can still hear him chuckling as I was getting up from behind the net.
Father Dominic had a voice that made the hairs on your neck stand. When he sang - especially at Christmas and Easter - people came from as far away as Baton Rouge and New Orleans to listen. Tears were not uncommon.
Father Augustine, our Latin teacher, used to get our attention by bending 16-penny nails with his bare hands. At the end of class, he'd straighten them. None of us ever gave Father Augustine any trouble.
Father Anselm was built like the proverbial brick outhouse. In one of the "touch" football games between the monks and the seminarians, I watched someone try to block him. The results resembled the aftermath of a meeting between a Yugo and a Kenworth. Father Anselm played the part of the Kenworth.
Father Paul was in charge of the annual Thanksgiving bonfire. I think he was a pyromaniac who'd missed his calling.
About two weeks before Thanksgiving, he'd augur a hole into the middle of one of the fields. Then he'd get the tallest knocked-down pine tree he could find. Once he had that in place, he'd pile logs around it. After Thanksgiving dinner, we'd all go out to enjoy Father Paul's bonfire.
Rumor has it that the first of these had the local fire department thinking the entire woods had gone up. They showed up ready for war.
Some other highlights:
The abbey church has some remarkable murals. Father Gregory DeWit painted them over a period of ten years. One day, while Father DeWit was working, a young boy came in to watch. The boy stayed for a while and, just before he left, said, "Nice pictures."
Father DeWit considered it one of the finest compliments he'd ever received.
While I was at "St. Ben's," one of the older monks died. He was buried – as he wished to be - on the grounds. I don't think he could've found a better place to spend eternity.
I could go on about a place where I spent one of the best years of my life, but space here is limited. I'm not trying to gloss over the ugliness of what's happened. It's a wound that will take generations to heal.
But I am going to tell you that there's still good out there. "St. Ben's" is a small piece of good.
It'd be easy to miss if you didn't know where to look. Just thought I'd mention it.
Larry Simoneaux is a freelance columnist and author who writes a regular column for the Edmonds Beacon and Mukilteo Beacon in Washington state. He is a retired ship driver for the US Navy, and NOAA. His first book, "Call Me Backward, and I'll Thank You For It," is pending publication. # [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:07 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon December 13, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Notorious pedophile to be released. [Ferguson] - No religion link. 3 children.
The Courier-Mail (Brisbane), www.news.com. au/common/ story_page/0, 4057,1167079 0%255E264 62,00.html , By Sean Parnell, additional reporting AAP, December 13, 2004
BRISBANE (Qld) Australia: One of Queensland's most notorious pedophiles will again be released from jail this week amid increasing support for a national summit on child abuse.
For picture of Ferguson, click http://www.news. com.au/common/ imagedata/0,360 0,402892,00.jpg
Dennis Raymond Ferguson, 55, will finish his 15-month stint in a New South Wales jail for failing to tell police about a new job which may have given him access to children.
Ferguson had previously served a 14-year jail term in Queensland for attacking three young children, but failed to complete a rehabilitation program or even admit his crimes.
The public outcry over Ferguson's release in January last year prompted Attorney-General Rod Welford to devise means of keeping dangerous sex offenders in jail indefinitely[...]. When Ferguson walks free this week, he will be on sex offender registers and must keep notifying police of his place of residence and employment. Premier Peter Beattie, unaware of any move by Ferguson to return to Queensland, said bail conditions and registers existed to protect people against recidivist sex offenders.[...] Mr Beattie threw his support behind NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney's call for a national summit on child abuse, saying Queensland would be willing to take part. [Dec 13, 04]
• Sex abuse at Mildura, Victoria, 33 years ago. [1971 Day] - RCC. Girls, boys. Detective victimised.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, "7.30 Report," with Maxine McKew, Monday, December 13, 2004
VICTORIA, Australia: The programme conducted interviews about the allegation that the Victoria Police squashed the career of a police detective, Denis Ryan, who investigated the alleged sex abuse of girls and boys by an RC priest, John Day, at Mildura. Later he was promoted to Monsignor. He has since died.
A well-known footballer was interested in having him prosecuted.
Girls and 14 boys gave statements during a three-month investigation.
In spite of Det. Ryan giving the information to a higher level of the police, he was ordered to hand over the statements etc. and no prosecution was launched. Both of his upline officers were Roman Catholics.
A woman named Ruth on the programme said that Father Day would drive at 80 miles per hour, he would then tell her to take the wheel, and he started fiddling with his hands in her pants.
In 1997 parishioners received a Church letters saying that it seemed there was substance in the allegations against Monsignor Day.
Ryan is seeking compensation from the Victoria Police. The service stated for the programme that everything was in order.
LINKS:
Mildura abuse victims to launch action (CathNews Nov 25, 2004)
Sins of the monsignor (The Australian 20/11/04)
Catholic Diocese of Ballarat
Broken Rites Victim Support Group [Dec 13, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue December 14, 2004 edition follows:-
• Court sends priest paraded naked to jail [Christudas] - RCC.
New Kerala, [India News], Dec 14, 2004
DUMKA (Jharkhand), INDIA: A Jharkhand court has sentenced a Catholic priest who was paraded naked by miscreants naked seven years ago to jail for molesting a tribal boy.
Chief Judicial Magistrate G.N. Pandey of Dumka district Monday ordered three years rigorous imprisonment for Father Christudas, 48, a priest for 19 years.
Christudas, vice principal of St. Joseph's School at Guhiyajori in the district, was stripped and paraded naked in front of government officials Sep 2, 1997 after being accused of committing sodomy with a 14-year-old schoolboy.
Christudas said he would appeal the order. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 02:26 PM]
• Priest sentenced to one year for sex assaults [1965-88 Noreau] - RCC. Children.
Montreal Gazette, NTR, Tuesday, December 14, 2004
CANADA: Gilles Noreau, a former priest of Val-Bélair and ex-teacher at the Petit Séminaire, received a one year prison sentence after having pled guilty to seven charges of sexual assault. The offences were committed over a 23-year period, between 1965 and 1988, when he taught at the Petit Séminaire. The priest's victims were on average about 12 years old at the time the abuse took place.
• Hubbard bars lay minister over past [Murphy] - RCC.
Albany Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Tuesday, December 14, 2004
ALBANY (NY): Bishop Howard Hubbard has banned a 75-year-old man from public participation in his Herkimer County church after learning that the onetime Christian Brother was convicted of child sexual abuse in Canada.
John Evangelist Murphy was a lay minister at St. Joseph's Church in Dolgeville, about 80 miles northwest of Albany. His crimes were mentioned in Dallas Morning News articles last week. Murphy is serving a 20-month sentence of house arrest imposed by a Canadian judge following his conviction last year on four counts of indecent assault of four boys at the Mount Cashal Orphanage between 1950 and 1960.
Reached Monday, Murphy, whose first trial ended in mistrial in 2003, had little to say: "Shoot, this never ends. No comment."
• Court to decide if diocese shielded in abuse lawsuit - RCC. 3 boys.
The Clarion-Ledger, www.clarionledger. com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20041214/ NEWS01/41214 0364/1002 , By Jimmie E. Gates, jgates@clarionledger.com
JACKSON (MS): A state Supreme Court panel heard more than an hour of arguments Monday on whether the First Amendment bars civil litigation against the Catholic Diocese of Jackson over alleged priest sexual abuse.
At stake is a $48 million lawsuit filed in 2002 in Hinds County Circuit Court by three brothers against the diocese saying they were sexually abused by a priest more than 30 years ago.
If the state's highest court rules the First Amendment doctrine of church autonomy gives the church control over its ecclesiastical matters, the lawsuit likely will be thrown out, lawyers for the plaintiffs say. Last year, Circuit Judge Winston Kidd ruled the First Amendment didn't protect the diocese against the civil litigation. The diocese appealed to the state Supreme Court, saying the lawsuit infringes on the diocese's constitutional rights.
• Once Investigated For Stigmata, Priest Is Now Charged With Abuse Of Altar Boys
Spirit Daily, www.spiritdaily.com/stigmataabuse.htm
CALIFORNIA: The Press-Enterprise [Tuesday, December 14, 2004] in Southern California reports that a one-time personal aide to former San Bernardino Diocese Bishop Phillip F. Straling who was alleged to possess stigmata now stands accused of molesting six teenage boys, according to lawsuits filed in Los Angeles County.
"Jesus 'Jesse' A. Dominguez is accused in the litigation of sexually abusing three altar boys while he worked at Our Lady of Soledad Church in Coachella in the mid 1980s," reports the newspaper. "He is also accused of molesting three boys at a Los Angeles County Catholic school during the 1970s, according to the three lawsuits."
Known as Father Jesse, Dominguez, now 55, was the subject of a stigmata investigation in 1984 after blood reportedly appeared on his hands during a Mass at St. Edward Catholic Church in Corona.
• Baker pastor faces court date for molestation charges [McFarland] - Religion unknown.
The Advocate, By BRETT TROXLER, btroxler@wbrz.com , From a report by WBRZ's Ken Pastorick , Dec 13, 2004
BAKER (LA): A Baker minister accused of molesting at least three boys is set to go on trial in February 2005, more than four years since deputies made the arrest.
Prosecutors say they have enough solid evidence to send Benny McFarland away for a long time, but one of the alleged victims is upset his case has yet to make it to trial.
"He was supposed to be my father figure, and when you trust someone like that, you don't expect them to betray you," said Justin Hurst, an alleged victim.
Hurst turned McFarland in four years ago in September 2000. McFarland was arrested again in June of 2002.
Assistant District Attorney Barry Fontenot said he can see why Hurst is frustrated, but that he is doing everything in his power to get the case to trial and blaming circumstances beyond his control for the delay.
• Advocacy groups slam bishops for audit plans - RCC.
MetroWest Daily News, By Rachel Zoll / Associated Press, Tuesday, December 14, 2004
UNITED STATES: Two victim advocacy groups accused Roman Catholic bishops yesterday of abandoning their pledge to root out sexually abusive clergy by reducing the number of U.S. dioceses that will receive full, onsite audits of their child protection programs next year.
But a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the changes were meant only to make the process more efficient, and were not a sign church leaders are backing away from reforms.
Massachusetts-based Voice of the Faithful, a lay Catholic group, and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the revisions will undermine whatever trust the bishops have restored in their leadership since the abuse crisis began in Boston in early 2002.
In each of the last two years, the bishops hired an outside auditor who sent teams largely made up of former FBI agents into all 195 U.S. dioceses. Their job was to determine whether the church had put in place the safeguards required under the anti-abuse policy that the bishops approved at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas.
Last month, the bishops authorized a new approach to the audits at their national meeting in Washington. They decided that dioceses found fully compliant twice will not be required to have onsite visits next year. Instead, they can fill out questionnaires that will be sent to the auditors for review. Some bishops had complained that the audits were expensive and time-consuming.
• Priest sentenced to Three years RI for sodomy [1997 Das] - RCC
Team India News Network, Dec 13, 2004
DUMKA (Jharkhand) INDIA: -- A priest associated with Dumka Dudhani Catholic Mission was today sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment by a local court here in connection with a 1997 sodomy case.
Chief Judicial Magistrate B N Pandey gave Christo Das, who was the superintendent of Ghuiajori Mission school, a month's time to appeal before a higher court. Das has since been on bail obtained from Patna High Court.
The judge also slapped a fine of Rs 1000 on Das. In case he failed to furnish the amount, he would have to undergo another six months of simple imprisonment.
As many as nineteen witnesses deposed during the trial.
Das had been the superintendent of the Mission school when a ninth standard student charged him with sodomy. Agitated students stripped Das and paraded him on the streets of Dumka before the police took him into custody.
• Priest leaving school, church after suspension [Gallagher] - RCC. Woman.
Staunton News Leader, http://vh10113. moc.gbahn.net/apps /pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20041213/ NEWS01/412 130302/1002 ; By Ruth Jones/staff, rjones@newsleader.com
HARRISONBURG (VA) - The priest at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church was suspended this week after admitting to a sexual relationship with an adult woman.
Richmond Bishop Francis Xavier DiLorenzo announced the suspension of the Rev. Jim Gallagher during the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Masses Sunday morning.
Gallagher not only presided over the Harrisonburg church, but was one of four parish priests who came to Guardian Angel Regional Catholic School as a spiritual consultant once a month to have Mass with the students.
"He is so beloved by so many people," said school administrator Mary Thompson.
"We just found out about it last night," said administrator assistant Tina Obenschain. "It was just overwhelming and it just still is. Father Gallagher was not only loved by the children at Blessed Sacrament, but he was extremely loved at Guardian Angel. He did everything he could to build that parish community in so many ways. He will be greatly, greatly missed."
• Supreme Court hears arguments in Jackson Catholic Diocese motion
Sun Herald, www.sunherald. com/mld/sunherald/ news/state/ 10409386.htm , Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. - A state Supreme Court panel on Monday heard arguments on whether the First Amendment prohibits lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese over allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
Three brothers filed a $48 million lawsuit in Hinds County Circuit Court in 2002. They claimed they were abused by a priest more than 30 years ago. The trial is on hold while the Supreme Court considers the diocese's motion for dismissal.
The diocese argues that the separation of church and state makes the church autonomous and that certain church documents are privileged.
"We are not saying somehow the church is above the law," said Martin Nussbaum, an attorney representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson.
Circuit Judge Winston Kidd ruled last year that the First Amendment doesn't protect the diocese from litigation, and the diocese appealed to the high court, saying the lawsuit infringes on its constitutional rights.
• Bishop Dendinger ordained - RCC.
The Independent, www.theindependent.com/stories/121404/new_dendinger14.shtml , By Mike Bockoven, michael.bockoven@theindependent.com
GRAND ISLAND (NE): Thousands of people watched live and on television on Monday as the Grand Island Diocese ordained its first new bishop in more than 25 years.
William J. Dendinger became the seventh bishop of the diocese in a ceremony that filled St. Mary's Cathedral to capacity an hour before its 2:30 p.m. start time. Dendinger replaces Bishop Lawrence J. McNamara, who served from 1978 through 2004.
Clergy, members of Dendinger's family and many others from across the state were present for the special ceremony, which included participation by the Most Rev. Gabriel Montalvo, titular archbishop of Celene and apostolic nuncio to the United States, a representative from the Vatican. ...
"I know for sure you have good priests to support you in ministry and many faithful Catholics spread throughout the diocese," he told Dendinger. "You have no diocesan debt and no lawsuits pending. You don't even have any public scandals caused by sexual abuse. Let me tell you this is the truth: You have inherited a blessed diocese."
• Former Inland priest accused [1970s-80s Dominguez] - RCC. Altar boys.
The Press-Enterprise, By MICHAEL FISHER, 11:41 PM PST on Monday, December 13, 2004
CALIFORNIA: A former Inland priest who was a one-time personal aide to former San Bernardino Diocese Bishop Phillip F. Straling now stands accused of molesting six teenage boys, according to lawsuits filed in Los Angeles County.
Jesus "Jesse" A. Dominguez is accused in the litigation of sexually abusing three altar boys while he worked at Our Lady of Soledad Church in Coachella in the mid 1980s. He is also accused of molesting three boys at a Los Angeles County Catholic school during the 1970s, according to the three lawsuits.
Dominguez, now 55, could not be located for comment Monday. Known as Father Jesse, Dominguez was the subject of a 1984 stigmata investigation after blood reportedly appeared on his hands during a Mass at St. Edward Catholic Church in Corona.
The Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the Diocese of San Bernardino, said a review of Dominguez's personnel files did not turn up any past sexual-abuse complaints targeting the cleric, nor any correspondence or accusations from the three Inland accusers who are now suing.
• Ex-priest waives right to hearing
Peoria Journal Star, BY JESSICA L. ABERLE, Tuesday, December 14, 2004
CAMBRIDGE (IL) - A former priest with the Catholic Diocese of Peoria will face Wisconsin charges of second-degree sexual assault of a child after waiving his right to an extradition hearing Monday in Henry County Circuit Court.
Francis Engels, 68, of 702 N. Fremont in Kewanee, spoke briefly with a public defender about leaving some credit cards and other information behind before signing the waiver in a very brief appearance before Judge Ted Hamer.
Engels, dressed in orange county jail garb and flip-flops, signed the waiver without even reading it. Hamer handed it back, telling Engels to make sure he read and understood the document.
"You've agreed to waive extradition and go back to the state of Wisconsin?" Hamer questioned. "Yes, sir," Engels replied. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:24 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue December 14, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed December 15, 2004 edition follows:-
LA Weekly, www.laweekly. com/ink/05/04/ news-anderson.php , by Jeffrey Anderson, December 17 - 23, 2004
CALIFORNIA: Confidential documents and sworn statements by Cardinal Roger Mahony were released last week, ending two years of legal maneuvers to shield "his eminence" from examination in the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal. The cardinal's testimony, memos and letters offer a rare glimpse into Mahony's formative years as a priest and young bishop in Fresno and Stockton from 1962 to 1985, and reflect on his moral standing as shepherd of 5 million Catholics in Los Angeles and ranking prelate in the United States.
Mahony emerges as a man of contradictions and memory problems. A man who claims never to have known a priest to have sex before 1968, who struggles to remember steps he took - or did not take - to address a pedophilia crisis of epic proportions. A man whose fitness to lead must now be examined in light of whether he is telling the truth or not.
Compelled by the court after months of resistance, Mahony was deposed recently at his lawyer's office in downtown Los Angeles. Five lawyers representing hundreds of sex-abuse victims questioned Mahony for six hours about how he responded to accusations that priests in his charge had molested children. His stubborn refusal to answer all questions with candor was a virtual dare to his adversaries to dig deeper for the truth.
Victims who witnessed the deposition struggled to contain their emotions as Mahony's attorneys coached the cardinal and cajoled victims' lawyers, who in their blunt questioning conveyed a sense of moral outrage on behalf of people whose lives were ruined by a priest who might have been stopped had the cardinal done more.
At stake was not only the tenuous negotiations of hundreds of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, or the pending prosecution of a few rogue priests, or even the possibility of broader conspiracy charges against Mahony and his colleagues, but the credibility of the last remaining symbol of influence, power and authority in the U.S. Catholic Church.[...]
For instance, despite new, damaging evidence, Mahony insists he did not lie when he testified in a civil trial in 1998 that he dealt with just one priest accused of molestation while he was the bishop of Stockton from 1980 to 1985. He says he simply forgot about memos in his own hand in 1981 and 1984 that show him lowering the boom on two previously undisclosed priests accused of molestation. Meanwhile, in 1984, he transferred a pedophile priest to a new parish where he molested again. Church personnel documents are cryptic but suggest a broader problem than the one Mahony denies remembering.
Such evidence undermines Mahony's credibility as a witness and an administrator. After his sworn testimony, lawyers accused him of perjury, and sent a transcript to prosecutors in Northern California for investigation. Fallout could reach Los Angeles, where his decisions to leave priests in ministry after he knew they had molested children are being investigated. A criminal trial of one, Michael Wempe, begins in January, and prosecutors know of key witnesses who could revive charges against another, Michael Baker.
"No amount of public relations can turn this into a poor memory," says A.W. Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist, author and former priest. "For a man of his background and administrative capability to make such a claim is disgusting. We're scratching at the surface of his character here. And you are seeing the philosophy of the Catholic hierarchy, which is, 'I only lie when I have to.'"
Mahony's credibility will be an issue in 544 lawsuits headed for settlement in Los Angeles. Lawyers for abuse victims have shown they will relinquish the fight for accountability if the price is right. They recently settled 87 lawsuits with the Diocese of Orange for $100 million, after the diocese promised not to conceal documents that likely will emerge only after lawsuits are dismissed. While attorneys contend a large enough settlement could cost Mahony his job, Sipe believes the truth could be more effective. "If the real story gets told, lay people will realize that Los Angeles is more corrupt than Boston," he says.
Some of the discrepancies may appear small. For example, the Catholic Church for decades has called upon a variety of institutes to evaluate and treat priests with sexual disorders. Mahony, in his deposition, said he had no knowledge of them until 1985. Likewise, he seemingly was rising through the ranks of some other Catholic Church when the Vatican was disseminating procedures for dealing with priests accused of solicitation and pedophilia in the 1960s.
Mahony was ordained in 1962, and was a licensed social worker in Fresno from 1964 to 1970. He served there as a chancellor and a vicar between 1975 and 1980. Yet he barely acknowledges being aware that the church was rife with molestation. He even denies knowledge of priests breaking their vow of celibacy until after the Second Vatican Counsel, in 1968. "I wouldn't have any way of knowing," he said.
"Mahony would have to be deaf, dumb and stupid not to have known of priests breaking their vows in the 1960s," says a member of the clergy in Los Angeles. "Having sex is one way many found out whether the priesthood was the right calling for them." Father Thomas Doyle, an Air Force chaplain and canon law expert says, "As chancellor and vicar, the number one issue that takes up your time is dealing with problem priests."
One case that Mahony had trouble recalling is illuminated in confidential memos from 1970 that show him overseeing the transfer of Monsignor Anthony Herdegen from one parish to another. Mahony, in his deposition, denies any knowledge of reports that young boys visited Herdegen in his private residence in the rectory. He says Herdegen was transferred for being too conservative.
But in December 2003, the Fresno Bee reported that two brothers accused Herdegen of sexually abusing them in the 1960s and 70s. Herdegen served in 10 parishes before retiring in 1985.
More explicit records from the Diocese of Stockton show Mahony knee-deep in personnel problems. Yet he maintained in his deposition that three accused molesters were reported to him before 1985 - a claim that contradicts trial testimony he gave in 1998, in which he admitted only one. Personnel records suggest there may have been more than three.
The subject at trial in 1998 was Oliver O'Grady, a pedophile Mahony transferred in 1984, despite a 1976 letter of apology from O'Grady to an 11-year-old molestation victim, and a psychiatrist's report stating O'Grady had a "severe defect in maturation in the matter of sex and social relationships." Mahony claims he never looked in O'Grady's confidential file, however, so he could not have possibly seen the letter. And, he said that he did not consider the psychiatrist's report to pose a serious problem.
Even if true, such indifference is shocking. Sources say O'Grady was the subject of numerous molestation settlements before Mahony arrived. But again, as incoming bishop, Mahony says he never inquired about the fitness of the priests in his diocese. He says he didn't even have a key to the confidential-file cabinet, which is odd, because such files are kept secret from most everyone except the bishop. O'Grady was convicted of lewd conduct involving a child in 1993 and later deported to Ireland.
At the 1998 trial Mahony was asked if any other priests were involved with any kind of sexual misconduct with children. Mahony replied, "I cannot recall another case." Jurors, some of whom said they did not believe Mahony, awarded $30 million to O'Grady's victims. A judge later cut the award to $7 million.
In fact, O'Grady, who responded to a recent lawsuit with a 10-page anatomical explanation claiming he could not have anally raped a boy 150 times based on his own "medical research, including the Internet," was not the only accused priest Mahony dealt with at Stockton. Newly surfaced documents, some handwritten by Mahony, show that he took swift action against two accused priests visiting from Mexico in the early 1980s.
In 1981, Mahony learned of families who complained that Father Antonio Munoz had taken their sons to Tijuana and "had some type of sexual misconduct." Mahony fired the priest. "Your assignment and your faculties were canceled because of problems of a very serious and grave nature," he wrote to Munoz in 1982. Mahony then met with a family in 1984 that claimed their two boys drank beer with Father Hector Camacho in his bedroom, where the priest later molested them. Mahony typed a five-page memo of his firing of Camacho.
"It is my intention to take every possible step to be certain that no other young person is harmed," Mahony wrote. Mahony also wrote two letters to the Modesto police and letters to the bishops in all of the western states warning them not to hire Camacho, who returned to Mexico under threat of prosecution.
At his deposition Mahony was asked why he did not acknowledge these incidents at O'Grady's trial in 1998. "It was some 13 years after I had left Stockton," Mahony said. "We had many events in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and I was very preoccupied. We had the visit of the [Pope]. We had earthquakes. We had riots. We had everything. I simply did not remember everything that happened in Stockton."
Sipe, who witnessed the deposition, was astounded. "Lawyers might call that perjury, but a lay person would say, 'My God, that's a lie.' Even if he had a genuine memory lapse it raises questions about his ability to lead." Such perceptions devastated Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, when a judge ruled that his deposition testimony did not appear truthful.
A review of personnel records during Mahony's tenure as bishop of Stockton suggest he was more involved with priest pedophilia problems than he admits. Clergy Personnel Board minutes from December 12, 1984, concern a man named Father Titian Miani. "[Miani] seems to be causing dissension in the parish," the minutes state. "Reports have come from very credible witnesses.
We have no process to deal with priests who act unprofessionally, nor a way to listen to credible witnesses in such cases." Miani was charged in 2003 with two counts of committing a lewd act on a child in the mid-1960s. Charges were dropped in 2003 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California's statute of limitations for child sex abuse.
Then there are cryptic entries such as one about a priest who "is back after visiting missionaries. He'll try to use moral persuasion. We are informing anyone from Welfare, etc., to use civil arm of Stockton to deal with him if necessary." And this, related to another priest: "OK right now, not bad-bad." Sipe, the author of the book Celibacy in Crisis, says, "'Bad' means alcohol problems. 'Bad-bad' means f*cking kids."
After scandal erupted in 2002 Mahony admitted to leaving eight accused molesters in ministry as cardinal in Los Angeles. That includes Michael Baker, who admitted to Mahony in 1986 that he had molested several youths, but who Mahony kept in ministry for 14 years. Baker was charged with 34 counts of molestation, which were dismissed as a result of the Supreme Court ruling. And it includes Michael Wempe, who faces new criminal charges after 42 counts of sex crimes were dismissed last year.
Yet Mahony states that even in the 1980s he knew he must remove priests from ministry when he received credible allegations of molestation. "I knew that we wanted priests serving in our parishes who were not going to be a danger to anybody," he testified. But he also said that O'Grady's admitted sexual urges toward a 9-year-old would not lead to his removal.
Last Thursday, Mahony told a reporter from CNN that the protocol of the 1980s was to leave accused priests in ministry because, "We misunderstood pedophilia to be a moral weakness or a sin, something that could be dealt with through spiritual counseling. We now know that is inadequate." Mahony has offered similar explanations to explain Baker, Wempe and others who remained in ministry well into the 1990s.
Thomas Brandlin, a deacon in Los Angeles, has a theory about Mahony. In 1986, Brandlin was accused of molesting a boy in Santa Barbara. Even after Brandlin obtained a declaration of factual innocence from the Santa Barbara District Attorney's Office, Mahony denied his full faculties for 10 more years, until Brandlin hired a canon lawyer and brought his case to the Vatican. "He has no plan," Brandlin says of Mahony. "He does and says what he needs to get out of whatever situation he is confronted with."
Maybe Mahony should stick to memory loss after all.
To download the complete text of Cardinal Mahony's deposition, click here.
To download part of Cardinal Mahony's testimony from a 1998 civil trial, click here..
To download a letter from Cardinal Mahony to the Modesto Police regarding Father Camacho, click here.
To download a 1984 memo from Cardinal Mahony regarding Father Camacho, click here.
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[Emphasis added.]
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:34 PM]
• Sunday School Teacher Charged With Unlawful Sexual Conduct With Minors [? 2000s Coyle] - Church of Christ. 3 boys.
WTOV9, POSTED 6:07 p.m. EST December 15, 2004
CALDWELL, OH -- News 9 has learned that a Noble County man has been charged with four counts of sexual battery, two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and two counts of gross sexual imposition.
According to the Noble County Sheriff's Office, Lower Salem resident James Coyle was arrested recently on the charges.
Sheriff Landon Smith says the arrest happened after three young boys between the ages of 12 and 15 accused the 60-year-old of improper sexual contact.
The sheriff says Coyle knew the three boys because he was their Sunday school teacher at the Church of Christ in Caldwell. Coyle was a leader in the church and hadn't faced any criminal charges in the past.
• Former Youth Pastor Appears In Court On Sex Charges [2004 Hintz] - Assembly of God. Girl.
TheIowaChannel.com ; December 15, 2004
DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Clive youth pastor accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old member of his congregation made his first court appearance Wednesday.
Michael Hintz, 35, appeared in front of a Polk County judge and was charged with sexual exploitation by a counselor.
Hintz, who is married with four children, is the former youth pastor at First Assembly of God Church on Merle Hay Road in Des Moines.
Police said in the spring, Hintz began a relationship with a Johnston girl who was a member of the church's youth group. The contact allegedly occurred at the girl's home and during an overseas mission trip to India.
• Clergy privilege is limited, court rules [? 2000s Waters] - Nondenominational. Woman to boy.
Azcentral.com ; Associated Press, 04:51 PM, Dec. 15, 2004
ARIZONA: Don't count on confidentiality if you make confessions about criminal conduct to church personnel who aren't considered clergy by the church involved.
The Court of Appeals refused to expand the so-called "clergy-penitent privilege" by overturning a trial judge's decision to permit a woman's admissions to a church's volunteer music director to be used as evidence in court.
After being indicted in 2003 on a felony charge of sexual conduct with a minor, Korri Lee Waters had contacted Dawn Worth, the music director of the Church on the Word in Glendale, asking for forgiveness and explaining that she wanted advice for how to start over.
Worth, who had the honorific title of "minister" at the nondenominational Christian church, forwarded the e-mail to the church's pastor, Daniel McCluskey, who told Worth that Waters would have to admit what she'd done.
Waters did so in an e-mail acknowledging her relationship with a 16-year-old boy in graphic detail, court papers said.
• Bishop Bans Priest Over Defilement [2004 Kalyango] -- RCC. Girl/s
The Monitor (Kampala), by Michael J. Ssali, Masaka, December 15, 2004
UGANDA: The Diocesan Bishop, Rt. Rev. John Baptist Kaggwa, has said a priest who allegedly defiled a girl in a lodge in Lyantonde Town last week embarrassed the Catholic Church.
In the letter to the priest, the bishop quoted newspaper reports which indicated that Rev. Fr. Richard Kalyango of Luvule Parish, was found in the lodge with two girls, 15 and 16 years old respectively and had had sex with one of them.
It read in part, "The incident reported about has brought much shame not only to you, but all the priests of the entire Catholic Church who are charged with preaching righteousness and being exemplary.
• Diocese clears priest of sex-abuse charges Fr James F. Quinn cleared.
WSTM, www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=2697322
SYRACUSE, N.Y. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse says it has cleared a priest of sex abuse allegations.
A diocesan investigation found insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations against the Reverend James F. Quinn.
In a statement, Quinn says the past 19 months have difficult and he looks forward to moving on and living out his priestly ministry.
Quinn has been on leave from his diocese job enlisting and counseling young men for the priesthood.
Last year, Quinn was named in a lawsuit filed by John Zumpano of New Hartford, who alleged he was sexually abused by Quinn from 1963 to 1970 while a student at Saint Agnes Church's grammar school and Notre Dame High School in Utica.
• CNY Priest Removed from Ministry [1980s Keating] - RCC. Girls.
WTVH, www.wtvh.com/story.asp?stid=10950
SYRACUSE (NY): The Syracuse Catholic Diocese announced the removal of a Central New York priest Wednesday after a two-year investigation substantiated multiple claims of sexual abuse. According to Bishop James Moynihan, the diocese found enough evidence to remove Reverend Thomas Keating from the ministry and forward his case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith at the Vatican. Father Keating had been the center of at least two lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct and abuse while he served at St. Mary's Church in Cortland in the 1980's.
Last January, three sisters stepped forward to accuse Father Keating of sexually abusing them when he was a priest at Saint Mary's Church in Cortland 20 years ago. Kristen, Karen and Amy Hansen worked in the rectory of the church during the three years the alleged abuse occurred. In 2003, another woman filed a lawsuit against Keating for alleged abuse at the same church.
When she came forward in January, Karen Hansen said, "I have two daughters, three and five, and my faith has been shattered in this system that the Catholic Church has and I only hope they have some restored faith." Father Keating worked most recently at the Most Holy Rosary Church in Maine, New York, near Binghamton.
Due to the diocese's decision, Keating can no longer celebrate mass or present himself as a priest. Keating's attorney Barry Abbott issued a statement on Wednesday that his client was denied the right to a fair hearing. The civil lawsuits against him are still pending.
• Pastor of New Hope church arrested: Suspected of child sexual abuse [Garcia] - Christian Fellowship. Child.
The Daily Journal, www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Stories/0,1413,91~3089~2599772,00.html , By QUINCY CROMER/The Daily Journal
CALIFORNIA: The pastor of Redwood Valley's New Hope Christian Fellowship was arrested and booked into jail Tuesday morning on suspicion of sexually abusing a child.
Daniel Aram Garcia, 47, of Willits, was arrested by the Willits Police Department and booked into Mendocino County jail at 3:33 a.m. Tuesday with bail set at $500,000. He was also arrested on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child, sexual penetration with a foreign object and oral copulation.
Mendocino County District Attorney Norm Vroman said Garcia also works as a clerk for Mendocino County Superior Court.
Willits Police Chief Gerry Gonzalez said all information regarding the victim will be withheld due to the sensitivity of the crime.
• Minister Accused of Sexually Abusing Teens [2000s Perry-Johnson] - Baptist.
WAVE 3, By Janelle MacDonald, 5 p.m. December 15th, 2004,
(LOUISVILLE (KY) -- A minister and youth mentor now stands accused of abusing the teens he worked with. WAVE 3's Janelle MacDonald has the details.
Detective Rhonda Speaker says Isrom Perry-Johnson worked hard to gain the trust of the teens he worked with. "He just went above and beyond."
The 25-year-old Johnson was most recently a minister at Prince of Peace Church, which has been temporarily holding services in the Baptist Fellowship Center on Catalpa Street. But he also worked with teens at several mentoring programs, mainly in the city's west end.
Speaker says the church's youth began to rely on Johnson for even the most mundane requests. "Different kids would call him late at night and say, 'hey, would you take me to White Castle to go eat?' He'd get up out of bed and take them to White Castle in the middle of the night."
• Awakening the community to sexual abuse awareness - 25% and 12.5% abused.
The Tidings, www.the-tidings.com/2004/1217/virtus.htm , By Paula Doyle
CALIFORNIA: St. Robert Bellarmine School principal June Rosena has a passion to protect children. Besides her 37-year career as a Catholic educator, Rosena has had a 20-year private practice as a licensed marriage and family therapist where she counsels people in crisis, including child victims and adult survivors of sexual abuse.
She can easily speak for four hours straight about the devastating effects of child abuse, and she has riveted audiences as a Virtus child protection facilitator. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles implemented the Virtus training program in response to the national clergy sexual abuse crisis.
"I find it so rewarding to give the Virtus talks," said Rosena, who holds a Ph.D in psychology. "Thank God for this long overdue awakening for a situation that's been with us for centuries."
The statistics are staggering: one in four women and one in eight men experience sexual abuse during their lifetime. The perpetrators include parents, siblings, relatives, friends, teachers, coaches, clergy, religious and strangers --- in short, they can be anyone who has access to children.
Rosena estimates that she has spoken to 800 people at six different schools in the San Fernando Valley, including St. Francis Xavier in Burbank, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Sun Valley, St. Genevieve in Panorama City, St. Elizabeth in Van Nuys, St. Patrick in North Hollywood and St. Robert Bellarmine (school and parish) in Burbank.
• Forgiveness in the Church
Arlington Catholic Herald, By Bishop Paul S. Loverde, Special to the Herald, (From the issue of Dec/16/04)
VIRGINIA: The fourth in a five-part series on Advent, Bishop Loverde considers how forgiveness in the Church is integral to the Church's preparation for Christ this Christmas. In this column, Bishop Loverde considers forgiveness in the Church. In next week's Christmas issue, Bishop Loverde will write on welcoming Christ anew this Christmas. The complete series is available online at www.catholicherald.com .
With Christmas just around the corner, we continue to prepare our hearts for the Lord Jesus by considering how forgiveness might remove the obstacles to His love. In last week's reflection on the family, I pointed out that forgiveness in our parish begins in the home and that forgiveness in the universal Church begins in the "domestic Churches" of our homes.
The Church is, after all, our family of faith, and the same lessons apply. Just as we need to give and receive forgiveness within the family circle, so that same need also exists within the Church family. As we know painfully well from the past few years, this can be very difficult, especially when those in need of forgiveness are those whom we hold to a higher standard - those who hold positions of authority or responsibility in the Church and act in the name of the Church, including bishops, priests, deacons, religious brothers and religious sisters, Church employees and volunteers.
Yes, God calls each of us to holiness, but experience demonstrates that we often fail to respond to His call, instead acting in ways that are not Christ-like. Although we who represent the Church try to be Christ for others, we too are human and prone to sin. In fact, we do sin. Sometimes, this sin manifests itself in small ways, like impatience with others or lack of charity in thoughts or words or actions.
Tragically, sin is manifested in more serious ways, including the violation of the solemn commitment which bishops, priests, deacons and religious men and women make as they embark on their service to the members of the Church.
The abuse of minors and young people by some clergy and religious in past decades has profoundly scarred not only the victims and their families, but indeed to some degree, all the members of the Church. The experience of victims is beyond human words to describe adequately. In the Church, we are all connected, one to the other; we all have struggled with a range of emotions, including hurt, betrayal, anger, despair, rage and even the desire for revenge. [Emphasis added]
• Diocese upholds sex abuse charges against priest [1980s, 1990s Keating] - RCC. Girls. 1982 Woman.
New York Newsday, By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press Writer, December 15, 2004
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse said Wednesday it was removing a 65-year-old priest from ministry after finding sufficient evidence he may have sexually abused three young girls and a woman in the 1980s. A second priest, meanwhile, was cleared of sexual abuse allegations.
Church officials said sufficient evidence was found incriminating the Rev. Thomas F. Keating, who allegedly abused three young sisters while serving as pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Cortland from 1982 to 1993. The sisters were 12, 13 and 14 at the time and attended the church's grade school.
Keating also was accused of sexually abusing a woman who had gone to him in 1982 to tell him she had been raped by another priest.
Spokeswoman Danielle Cummings said the diocese's finding does not mean Keating is guilty, but his case had raised "serious concerns."
"These allegations are over 20 years old. Determining guilt or innocence is very difficult," Cummings said.
• Victims divided over public tactics of clergy abuse support group - RCC. Leafleting, police brought in!
Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20041215/ APN/412150849 , By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
CORONA, Calif.- The leafletting outside St. Matthew Catholic Church started well, with parishioners accepting the brochures about clergy abuse being handed out by alleged molestation victims.
Then a woman standing on a church balcony screamed "You're evil!" and a man made an obscene gesture. The parish called police, who told the protesters they couldn't leaflet without a city permit.
The angry reaction came as no surprise to members of the Survivors Network of Those Abuse by Priests, or SNAP. Since the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic church blew up in 2002, SNAP has sought the spotlight by publicly portraying itself as the official voice of thousands of victims.
While those victims embrace SNAP as a support group and a means to win long-overdue justice, its tactics have alienated many practicing Catholics and even some of the very people it hopes to help.
Some abuse victims said the group is too angry and confrontational, while others insist it's not activist enough. Others fault SNAP for its close financial relationship with clergy abuse attorneys, saying the link fuels perceptions that victims are only after the church's money.
The attitudes reflect the deep divisions among victims over how to proceed now that the first wave of the scandal has subsided. That question has profound significance for victims, many of whom will never see their molesters criminally prosecuted because of the statute of limitations.
• Trust the bishops? - RCC. 10% failed.
The Arizona Daily Star, www.azstarnet. com/dailystar/ dailystar/52541.php
UNITED STATES: Two years ago, the nation's Catholic bishops finally acted on sexual abuse of children by priests. Among their moves was establishing the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a set of tough procedures, and ordering audits to make sure they are complied with in each diocese.
Now, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is backing off on the audits, employing a practice common in organizational turnarounds: Stopping annual on-site audits for those dioceses found to be in compliance two years in a row and allowing them to self-report, instead.
Whether this will ever be the proper course for the church in America remains to be seen. The first audits showed compliance by about 90 percent of the dioceses, including Tucson.
But, with the second set of audits just now being readied for release, it certainly is not yet time to take a more lenient approach toward monitoring the parishes.
And certainly not until the bishops follow up on the finding by their special lay committee, the National Review Board, that there "must be consequences" for bishops who helped cover up the decades of clergy abuse.
Thus far, the bishops are mum on their own culpability or that of their predecessors.
• Cincinnati Archdiocese postpones victim compensation - RCC.
Middletown Journal, www.middletown journal.com/news/ content/news/ stories/2004/12/14/ mj1215archdiocese.html? urac=n&urvf=1103 1165350220.5938 800813013694 ; Dec 14, 2004
CINCINNATI (OH) - The planned end-of-the-year distribution of the $3 million by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as compensation for victims of sex abuse by church employees won't happen.
A delay in the processing of the claims and the need to contact newly accused priests will postpone release of the money for about two months, said attorney Matt Garretson, administrator of the fund.
"That process has slowed," Garretson admitted Tuesday.
There are, he said, two main reasons for that:
• Local pastor accused of molesting teens [Johnson]
WHAS 11, 07:11 AM EST on Wednesday, December 15, 2004
LOUISVILLE (KY): A Louisville pastor known for his volunteer work with teenagers will be arraigned Wednesday morning. He's accused of molesting the teens he met through his mentoring work.
Police arrested 25-year-old Isrom Johnson Tuesday and charged him with 16 counts of child sex abuse and sodomy. Detectives say the young minister would meet underprivileged youth through his volunteer programs and would make friends with them.
Detective Rhonda Speaker with the Louisville Metro Police Department said, "(He) then would buy them gifts, take them to his apartment, have them spend the night and things would happen."
The suspect's sister, Lashawnda Johnson said, "He's a man of God. We all go through struggles in life and this is just a test. They always target the ones that's doing good."
• Does diocese want justice or just to avoid bad press?
The Monitor, by Mack Harrison, December 12,2004
TEXAS: Most religions promise justice in the next world. But what about justice in this one? The Catholic Church has helped accused rapists avoid prosecution all over the planet - even in the Rio Grande Valley.
I'm referring to The Dallas Morning News' excellent investigative series on how Catholic Church workers can avoid facing sexual abuse charges by fleeing the country. The News reporting team spent a year tracking down priests accused of sexual abuse - including one clergyman charged with sexual assault in Pharr.
They found that Catholic priests accused of sex crimes in one country often end up back in their native lands, still in the ministry.
That's not a surprise to David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP; Web site: snapnetwork.org).
"The focus remains very heavily on damage control," he told me in a phone interview. He said even in the wake of the church sex abuse scandals over the past few years, "there's been a focus on policies and procedures and paperwork, but very little substantive change."
• Bishop makes leadership moves
The Union Leader, www.theunion leader.com/ articles_showfast. html?artic le=48379 , Staff Report
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Bishop John B. McCormack yesterday announced major changes in assignments throughout the Manchester Diocese. The reordering puts lay professionals in two top administrative posts for the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic diocese.
Diane Murphy Quinlan, an attorney who joined the church leadership during the crisis over priestly misconduct, will serve as chancellor of the diocese, while Guy D. Chapdelaine, who has been serving as diocese's finance director for the past year, was named finance officer.
• Priest Jailed [Noreau] - RCC.
Edmonton Sun, www.canoe.ca/ NewsStand/Edmonton Sun/News/2004/ 12/15/783309- sun.html , CP, Dec 15, 2004
QUEBEC, CANADA -- A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting seven students 23 years ago.
Quebec court Judge Pierre Rousseau refused to allow Rev. Gilles Noreau, 66, to serve his sentence under house arrest.
The sexual acts took place at Le Petit Seminaire de Quebec, where Noreau taught between 1965 and 1988. He had been suspended as a priest, pending the outcome of the trial.
• Priest in jail for abusing 7 students [Noreau] - RCC. 7 boys.
Montreal Gazette, PC, December 15, 2004
CANADA: Another Roman Catholic priest has been jailed for molesting adolescent boys.
Gilles Noreau, 66, a former Val Belair priest who taught at the Petit Seminaire in Quebec City from 1965 to 1988, was sentenced Monday to one year in prison.
Noreau pleaded guilty to abusing seven students during that period - the youngest victim a boy of 12.
• Former Riverside County priest sued for alleged sexual abuse
San Luis Obispo Tribune, www.sanluis obispo.com/mld/ sanluisobispo/ 10417405.htm , Associated Press
RIVERSIDE, Calif - Six men claim that as teenagers they were molested by a man who is a former Roman Catholic priest and lay high school teacher, according to lawsuits filed in Los Angeles County.
Three of the men claim Jesus "Jesse" Dominguez, 55, abused them while he served the Diocese of San Bernardino at a Coachella church in Riverside County in the mid-1980s, The Press-Enterprise reported Tuesday.
Three other men accused Dominguez of abusing them in the 1970s at a Los Angeles County Catholic school, where he served as a teacher before being ordained a priest.
The men in the Coachella case are also suing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for negligence.
Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg said there were no records that Dominguez served as a priest in Los Angeles County. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:31 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed December 15, 2004
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont106.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• 15 months jail for man caught in child porn swoop. [Sandells] - No religion link reported. Child, adult, bestiality.
The West Australian, "Jail for man caught in child porn swoop," p 9, Wednesday, December 15, 2004
PERTH (WA) Australia: A 22-year-old Australind man has been jailed for 15 months and fined $1500 for possession child pornography and possessing indecent or obscene articles after being caught in an international operation in September which led to more than 20 arrests in WA.
Adam Wade Sandells pleaded guilty in the District Court to possession 9000 images of child pornography, 1700 images of adults in various situations and 45 small video files on his computer hard drive depicting bestiality.
The former night-shift service station attendant, who had to give up his job because of the publicity, was caught after United States authorities traced credit card payments for downloading child pornography from an internet site.
Judge Paul Healy said he took into account Sandells' early guilty plea but the child pornography images were disturbing in relation to the abuse and corruption of the children involved in producing the images.
Sandells' lawyer said his client was remorseful. [Dec 15, 2004]
or click Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse for current on-line
The Boston Globe Spotlight http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse
Books: pbpress@iinet.net.au W. Australia
References at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Overview at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/minilist.htm
Books: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/carnalbooks.htm
Buy Fidelity magazine www.j23.com.au Australia
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