Clergy Child Molesters (110) — References/Chronology

• Former Youth Pastor Gets 15 Years Behind Bars [? 2000s Ford] - Victory Chapel. Girl.

   KOTA, www.kotatv.com/ localnews/story. asp?ID=20597 , by Sara Sciammacco, 4:29:05 PM Mar/1/2005
   SOUTH DAKOTA, United States of America - After an emotional day in court, a former youth pastor gets 15 years in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl.
   In a crowded courtroom, 40-year-old Glenn Ford told the teenage victim "he was sorry and asked for forgiveness". After testimony from Ford's wife and a sex offender therapist, Ford was handed the maximum sentence for statutory rape.
   Last month, Ford pled guilty to having sex with the girl in the basement of a church. According to police, Ford also had inappropriate sexual contact with the girl several times at his home.
   A judge ordered Ford to pay full restitution and all counseling costs for the girl.# [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:16 PM] (This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse , for Tue, March 01, 2005.)

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INTENTION: A challenge to RELIGIONS to PROTECT CHILDREN
Series starts: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm Visit http://www.ncrnews.org/abuse    INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs. • Settlement reached in sexual abuse case against Nome priest [6-7 yrs Poole (Jesuit)] - Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Radio pioneer. $US1m. Girl.
   KTUU, www.ktuu.com/ CMS/templates/ master.asp?article id=12110 &zoneid=4 , by Megan Baldino, Tuesday, March 1, 2005
   ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A settlement in the $1 million range has been reached in a child sexual abuse case against Father Jim Poole, a former priest from Nome.
   Ken Roosa, the attorney for Elsie Boudreau, formerly identified as Jane Doe I, says lawyers on both sides of the case signed a binding agreement. Boudreau claims Poole sexually abused her repeatedly from the time she was 10 until she was 16 years old.
   Poole was a Jesuit priest working for the Catholic diocese. He is best known for starting KNOM, the Catholic radio station in Nome.
• Catholic deacon going to prison on child porn charges [? 2000s Howell] - RCC. Child porn.
   KTVB, www.ktvb.com/ news/localnews/ stories/ktvbn -mar0105 -howell.f845 40b6.html , by Mike Vogel, Idaho's NewsChannel 7, ~ March 1, 2005
   BOISE (ID) - A local Catholic deacon will be going to federal prison Wednesday on child pornography charges.
   Robert Howell is going to prison for 18 months for possession of child pornography.
   Robert Howell plead guilty to the possession of child pornography charges back in November after being investigated by the FBI.
   He was sentenced in January to serve 18 months in federal prison in Lompoc, Calif.
   The local Catholic Diocese started its own investigation as soon as it learned the FBI was investigating.
   Howell is a deacon in the Catholic Church, though he isn't currently practicing.
• Lawsuit Filed Against Priest [1954 Goltz] - RCC.
   KWWL, www.kwwl.com/ Global/story .asp?S=3014537 , ~ March 1, 2005
   IOWA - A new child molestation lawsuit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
   A co-chair for the support group called "SNAP," or the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says the suit was filed against Father William Goltz in Fayette County for a sexual abuse incident that allegedly happened in 1954.
   A co-founder for the northeast Iowa chapter of "SNAP" says she applauds the victim's courage, and hopes this lawsuit will encourage more survivors of priest molestation to come forward.
• Kueng apologises for St. Poelten affair [~ 2004] - RCC. Seminary depravity.

   Die Presse, www.diepresse. at/Artikel.aspx ?channel=&ressort =ee&id=467949 , Printed Edition, Mar.01.2005
   VIENNA, Austria St. Poelten Bishop Klaus Kueng has apologised to Austrian Catholics for the child porn scandal that took place in the diocese under his predecessor Kurt Krenn in a letter to all those who left the Church last year.
   In the letter, he wrote that everyone would be welcomed back if they change their minds. He said that the large number of people leaving the church was a "painful sign." He described the "sad events" as a "great scandal."
• Responsibility And Crisis [2000s Theoklitos, Giosakis] - Greek Orthodox. Bishop resigns. Scandals. Huge assets.

   Macedonian Press Agency, www.mpa.gr/ article.html ?doc_id =513695 , ~ March 1, 2005
   GREECE - Metropolite Theoklitos of Thessaliotida tendered his resignation to the Church of Greece Holy Synod today assuming responsibility for proposing to the Church to use Iakovos Giosakis, while he is also scheduled to testify to the prosecutor and state everything he knows about the activities of Giosakis.
   The Metropolite of Piraeus reacted strongly to the allegations made by Theoklitos against the ecclesiastical organization "Chrisopigi".
   Meanwhile, Metropolite Panteleimon of Attiki and Metropolite Dionisios of Chios will give explanations for the huge personnel [? personal] assets they allegedly have.
   Metropolite Germanos blames for the crisis the Archbishop and suggested his replacement by Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania.
• Attorney says priest accused in nun's death didn't fail polygraph [1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun.

   Beacon Journal, By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press, ~ March 1, 2005
   TOLEDO, Ohio - An attorney who once represented a Roman Catholic priest accused of killing a nun in 1980 said claims that the priest failed a lie detector test were wrong.
   The attorney, Henry Herschel, sought on Tuesday to dispute court documents released a day earlier that included allegations that the Rev. Gerald Robinson failed one of two polygraph tests days after the killing.
   The priest took two tests and the first one produced results that could not determine whether Robinson was telling the truth, Herschel said.
   The examiner who gave the test noted that Robinson needed to be in a calmer state, Herschel said, adding that Robinson had just spent several hours being questioned by police.
   Another examiner who administered the second test a few months later determined that Robinson was probably telling the truth, Herschel said.
   According to a court document filed by investigators, Robinson failed the first test and passed the second one.
• Attorneys Speak Out in Case of Accused Priest [1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun.
   WTOL, www.wtol.com/ Global/story. asp?S=3014694 , ~ March 1, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) -- The attorneys for accused killer Father Gerald Robinson are speaking out. Defense attorneys want to talk about lie detector tests that the priest took 24 years ago in connection with the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. She was found stabbed to death in the chapel of Mercy Hospital back in 1980.
   Details of the tests were included in search warrant affidavits released Monday. The affidavits were filed to support two police searches conducted in September at the offices of the Diocese of Toledo in which detectives wanted to see alleged "secret archives." Late Monday, the diocese denied the existence of any "secret archives," and said all information about Father Robinson has been turned over to the prosecutor's office and the police.
   Alan Konop is one of the attorneys representing Father Gerald Robinson. He is expected to say that the search warrants have false information in them and that Robinson did not fail that lie detector test. Also expected at Tuesday's news conference is an attorney who represented Father Robinson back in 1980.
• Former Area Priest Headed to Prison Again [1990s, 2000s Malsch] - RCC. Child porn.
   WSAW, www.wsaw.com/ home/headlines/ 1317547.html , by Jeff Thelen, ~ March 1, 2005
   WISCONSIN - A retired priest convicted of sexual misconduct in Wisconsin is headed back to prison for at least five more years.
   Sixty-six-year-old David Malsch was convicted of child enticement in 1993 and served six years.
   In 2001, Malsch was sent a home for troubled priests in Missouri. In 2003, federal authorities searched Malsch's room there and found 28 photos of child porn.
   He pleaded guilty to that charge Monday.
• Order failed to notify gardaí of abuse claim [1970-77 Mercer (Dominican)] - RCC order knew since 1995. 8 boys.

   Online.ie , www.online.ie/ news/viewer.adp ?article=3210419 , ~ March 1, 2005
   IRELAND - A religious order tonight admitted that it failed to notify the Gardaí about abuse allegations against a priest who carried out a "reign of terror" in Newbridge College.
   The Provincialate Dominican Order said it had received the complaint about the college's former headmaster, Fr Vincent Mercer, in 1995.
   "It was notified to our solicitors but the victim at the time asked that it not be notified to the Gardaí," said spokesman Fr Pat Lucey.
   The Gardaí did not learn of the allegations against the 58-year-old priest until 2003, when further victims came forward.
   Fr Mercer was given a three-year suspended sentence today at Naas Circuit Criminal Court for sexually abusing six schoolboys in Newbridge College, as well as two more boys at a holiday camp in Cork, between 1970 and 1977.
• Minister tells court he's guilty [2000s Southward] - Baptist. Internet solicitation. Girl.
   Ann Arbor News, BY CATHERINE O'DONNELL,Tuesday, March 01, 2005
   ANN ARBOR (MI) - An Ypsilanti minister pleaded guilty Monday to charges he solicited a 14-year-old girl over the Internet.
   The Rev. James C. Southward, former pastor of Graceway Baptist Church, appeared in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, admitting to Chief Judge Archie C. Brown that he had sent sexually explicit e-mails to the girl.
   "It didn't start out that way," Southward told the judge. "But I did it and am very sorry."
   Southward, 63, pleaded guilty to one count of sexually abusive activity with a child and one count of using the Internet to commit the crime. Maximum penalties are 20 years in prison for each count. Fines could total $100,000 for the initial count and $20,000 for the second one.
   In a sentencing agreement made Friday, Southward will serve 24-40 months in prison in exchange for the plea agreement. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 27 but is free on bond until then.
   Southward wept as he told the court he has known the girl all her life but "never intended to hurt her."
• Former Pastor Pleads Guilty To Sex Charges [2000s Southward] - Baptist. Electronic solicitation. Girl.
   ClickOnDetroit.com ; www.clickon detroit.com/ news/4243541/ detail.html , POSTED: 3:28 pm EST March 1, 2005
   ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A former Baptist minister in Washtenaw County has pleaded guilty to sex charges.
   James Southward, 63, was pastor of Faithway Baptist Church in Ypsilanti Township. He is accused of soliciting a 14-year-old girl over the Internet.
   Michigan State Police said Southward made phone calls to an Arizona teenager who previously belonged to his congregation.
   Investigators posed online as the 14-year-old in a chat with Southward. Police said the conversation turned sexual and the minister allegedly tried to set up a meeting with the girl.
   Police said Southward never had sexual contact with the girl.
• Bishops' report shows widespread diocesan compliance [2005 failures:- Three Eastern Rite eparchies; plus 5 Latin Rite dioceses: Lincoln, Neb.; Burlington, Vt.; Fresno, Calif.; Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va.; Youngstown, Ohio,] - RCC. 4% fail.
   National Catholic Reporter, By JOE FEUERHERD, Washington, ~ March 1, 2005
   WASHINGTON (DC) - In the two-and-a-half years since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called upon its members to implement sex-abuse prevention programs in their local churches, nearly every diocese has done so, but questions about the effectiveness of those efforts remain unanswered.
   The Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, released Feb. 18 by the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, noted that 96 percent of the nation's 195 dioceses and Eastern Rite eparchies were compliant with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People adopted by the bishops at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal in June 2002.
   Between July 26 and mid-December of 2004, the dioceses were visited by representatives of the Gavin Group, a Boston-based firm hired by the bishops' conference to rate diocesan compliance with the charter. All but one diocese -- Lincoln, Neb. -- participated in the survey.
   Three Eastern Rite eparchies and the dioceses of Burlington, Vt., Fresno, Calif., Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., and Youngstown, Ohio, were found out of compliance with the charter, largely because they either failed to conduct background checks on church employees and volunteers or had not instituted "safe environment programs."
• Suspended sentence for priest in sexual 'reign of terror' [1970-77 Mercer (Dominican)] - RCC order knew since 1995. 8 boys.

   Online.ie ; www.online.ie/ news/viewer. adp?article =3210391 , ~ March 1, 2005
   IRELAND - A Dominican priest who sexually assaulted a schoolboy in a "reign of terror" at Newbridge College was today given a three-year suspended sentence.
   Father Vincent Mercer, 58, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting six boys at the college, as well as two boys at a holiday camp in Cork, between 1970 and 1977.
   At Naas Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Raymond Groake said Mercer had deliberately chosen to abuse his victims in dormitories where they would be too frightened to alert anyone else about what was taking place.
   He added that it took no genius to recognise the harm caused to his victims.
• Archbishop sends seven priest abuse cases to Rome - RCC. 7 defrocking candidates.

   Courier, By PAT KINNEY, Assistant City Editor, ~ March 1, 2005
   WATERLOO (IA) -- Seven Catholic priests who allegedly sexually abused minors within the Archdiocese of Dubuque apparently have been referred to the Vatican for possible action, including defrocking, Dubuque Archbishop Jerome Hanus told the Courier last week.
   Hanus would not identify the priests. But the seven cases are equal to the number of living archdiocesan priests against whom credible accusations of sexual abuse have been made.
   In a December 2003 report, Hanus said 18 of the 26 archdiocesan priests accused of sexual abuse since 1950 have died. One of the remaining eight, Robert Reiss, was defrocked in 1997. He died in Mexico Feb. 3, the archdiocese reported last week.
   None of the seven can represent themselves in public as a priest, Hanus said.
   The Vatican may defrock priests --- dismissing them from the priesthood --- or concur with penalties imposed to date. [Bolding added.]
• Concerns raised about centers housing abusive priests [? 1980s, 2003 Malsch] - RCC. Child porn at "treatment" centre.
   Duluth News Tribune, By JIM SALTER, Associated Press, ~ March 1, 2005
   ST. LOUIS (MO) - A priest's admission that he received child pornography while living at a home for troubled priests near St. Louis has raised concern about oversight at that site and a similar one nearby.
   David Malsch, 66, a convicted sex offender from Wisconsin, was living at the Wounded Brothers RECON facility in Franklin County in October 2003 when federal agents searched his room and found 28 photos of child porn.
   Malsch pleaded guilty Monday and faces at least five years in prison when sentenced June 10.
   Allegations of inappropriate behavior with a child against Malsch date to the early 1980s, when he was serving St. Patrick church in Superior, Wis. In 2002, Superior Bishop Raphael Fliss apologized publicly for the diocese's failure to more thoroughly investigate Malsch.
   RECON officials did not return telephone calls Tuesday seeking comment. Director Mark Matousek has described it as a halfway house mainly for those who have exhausted treatment options.
• Plan To Combat Sexual Abuse Unveiled - Judaism (Orthodox). Abuse-free institute planned.
   Forward, By Steven I. Weiss, February 25, 2005
   UNITED STATES - A rabbi at the forefront of efforts to curb abuse in the Orthodox community is launching an initiative to certify organizations that adopt policies to combat the problem.
   The rabbi, Mark Dratch, told the Forward that he is planning to leave his post as religious leader of Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford, Conn., in "six months to a year" to launch JSafe: The Jewish Institute Supporting an Abuse Free Environment. The hope, he said, is that the "seal of approval" he will provide will become "something that parents would begin to look for."
   Dratch, who serves as chairman of the Rabbinic Sexual Improprieties Task Force of the Rabbinical Council of America, a union of more than 1,000 Orthodox rabbis, announced his plan Sunday at the biennial conference of the liberal Orthodox organization Edah.
   The plan is being unveiled as the RCA is being criticized by some rabbis, outside experts and alleged victims for sharing the names of complainants with a rabbi accused of sexual harassment. The country's largest Orthodox organization, the Orthodox Union, has been working for several years to restore its reputation after a series of reports chronicling the failure of O.U. officials to act against a top youth group leader who was eventually convicted of sexual abuse.
• Worker sentenced for sexual abuse at Temple Sinai [? 2000s Guerra] - Judaism (Reform). Girl.
   Washington Jewish Week, www.washington jewishweek.com/ localstory.php ?/wjw2/293086 277285153.bsp , by Debra Rubin, Editor. ~ March 1, 2005
   WASHINGTON (DC) - A former maintenance worker at a District synagogue has been sentenced for sexual abuse, while a local family remains devastated by the incident.
   Associate Judge John H. Bayly Jr. of the District of Columbia Superior Court last week sentenced Elvin Guerra to 40 months in prison with no possibility of parole after a plea bargain agreement reached in December.
   His imprisonment will be followed by three years of supervised release, and he also must register as a sex offender for 10 years.
   Guerra, 23, was sentenced on two counts: second-degree sexual abuse and enticing a child to commit a sexual act.
   In his plea, he admitted to sexual intercourse and sexual contact after enticing the girl into a rest room at the Reform synagogue "for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts and sexual contact with her."
• Priest gets suspended term for abuse [1970-77 Mercer (Dominican)] RCC order knew since 1995.

   RTE News, www.rte.ie/ news/2005/0301/ mercerv.html , 16:55, March 01, 2005
   IRELAND - A former headmaster of the Dominican College in Newbridge, Fr Vincent Mercer, has been given a three-year suspended sentence for sexually abusing boys in his care.
   Fr Mercer, who is 58, admitted indecently assaulting eight boys aged between ten and 13 years over a period of seven years.
   The assaults took place in their beds in the dormitories, in his office, in the college infirmary while they were sick and at a holiday camp run by the Dominicans.
• The Worcester Diocese has paid two times more in legal fees in the past three years than compensation to the victims. [1950 onwards Worcester Diocese] - RCC. $US 764,833 to lawyers, insurance helps pay victims.
   Worcester Voice, ~ March 1, 2005
   WORCESTER (MA) - In a review of the payments accounted for by the Worcester diocese since the onset of the recent crisis in the Catholic Church one can determine that the legal expenses has risen over three hundred percent.
   In a January 10, 2003 interview with The Boston Globe then Worcester Bishop Daniel Reilly stated that since 1950, when the diocese was established, it has paid $764,833 to settle lawsuits involving sexual abuse of minors, and its insurance companies have paid $1,384,000.
   Additionally, Reilly said "We did not pay out any money for any settlement. We did pay legal counsel fees of $21,312 to respond to the suits filed against the diocese and the bishop. We also spent $28,150 to provide treatment services to those alleging abuse and to establish our Office for Healing and Prevention."
   Bishop Reilly on February 16, 2004 released his report on clergy abuse with the dioceses. According to the diocese report, $2,280,833 has been paid in compensation to victims in settlements of abuses between 1950 and 2003. Of that, $1,469,000 came from insurance and $811,833 was paid directly by the diocese.
   Doing the math this would have resulted in an additional $47,000 dollars paid out by the dioceses of Worcester as compensation for victims of clergy sexual abuse within approximately a 13 months time span. During fiscal year 2003 which runs from September 1, 2002 till August 31, 2003 legal services were listed as $118,422. For fiscal year 2004 legal services increased to $131,875. Prior to September 1, 2002 legal fees were $21,000 in fiscal year 2002 according to Bishop Reilly. The total amount of legal service in the past three years to the Worcester dioceses is $271,297 dollars.
• Teacher's molestation convictions reversed [1999-2000 Speers] - RCC. Case back to lower court.
   KVOA, http://kvoa.com/ Global/story.asp ?S=3013620&nav =HMO5Wwpz , ~ March 1, 2005
   ARIZONA - The state Court of Appeals has reversed the child-molestation convictions of a former Catholic-school teacher.
   In a memorandum issued late last week, the appellate panel returned Phillip Gregory Speers' molestation case to Yuma County Superior Court, where he was prosecuted.
   In September, the Court of Appeals overturned his convictions for possessing child pornography in connection with the same case, which involved accusations that the 32-year-old Speers molested girls in a second-grade class he taught at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in Yuma in the 1999-2000 school year.
   Thursday's memorandum said Speers should have been allowed to call an expert witness to talk about the implantation of false memories in children and he should have been allowed to have friends, family members and co-workers give testimony about his character.
• Documents Released In Priest Murder Trial [1980 Robinson] - RCC. "Secret archives". Nun.
   Ohio News Network, ~ March 1, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - Secrets inside the Toledo Catholic Diocese were unveiled, as court documents were released in the murder case against Father Gerald Robinson.
   According to those documents, the diocese kept "secret archives" about its priests - including Father Robinson. That's why detectives served two search warrants last September on Bishop Leonard Blair and other top officials at the diocese headquarters in downtown Toledo.
   The documents released today show Father Robinson was the prime suspect in the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, even days after she was found strangled and stabbed in the chapel of the old Mercy Hospital.
• Sex CD: 2 more priests arrested [2005] - Kalipur Hindu sect. Sex disks.

   Rediff.com ; http://in.rediff. com/news/2005/mar/ 01sex.htm , 19:27 IST, March 01, 2005
   INDIA - Two more priests attached to Swaminarayan temple have been arrested from Surendranagar district in Gujarat in connection with the sex CD case.
   The priests arrested belonged to the Kalupur sect of Swaminarayan temple at Ahmedabad but worked under its branch in Surendranagar, police said.
   Swaminarayan temple priest held for immoral trafficking
   The first arrests in the case came in February when a priest of a Swaminarayan temple, Bhaktiswarup, and three other people were arrested for making sleazy video CDs and distributing them.
   The police arrested the Surendranagar priests after getting leads from Bhaktiswarup and others involved in the case, the police said.
• Church ponders scandal [2000s Theoklitos, Panteleimon, Yiossakis] - Greek Orthodox. Suspicion of drug dealing, homosexuality, influencing judges.

   Kathimerini, http://ekathimerini. com/4dcgi/ _w_articles _politics_100006 _01/03/2005 _53538 , March 1, 2005
   GREECE - Archbishop Christodoulos held a crisis meeting yesterday with a series of bishops and legal advisers to discuss the corruption scandal that has led to the dismissal of one top churchman and the forced resignation of another, while bringing the Church leader under pressure to step down.
   Today, the Church's ruling body, the Holy Synod, is expected to accept Friday's resignation of Theoklitos, Bishop of Thessaliotis, who is being investigated following allegations by his predecessor that he was detained in the past on suspicion of drug dealing. He has also been accused of having a gay affair.
   The resignation of Theoklitos, one of Christodoulos's closest associates in the top Church echelons, followed the suspension of Panteleimon, Bishop of Attica, pending an investigation into claims he tried to influence senior judges. Panteleimon has also been accused of homosexuality, which the Church officially abhors.
   Yesterday, Christodoulos, who has refused to resign, met with 10 bishops and three of his legal advisers to discuss the ongoing scandal, which started with allegations that a churchman, Archimandrite Iakovos Yiossakis, was involved in a trial-fixing ring. Sources said the archbishop conveyed the impression that he enjoyed government backing in his handling of the scandal.
• Priest failed 1st lie detector test, documents say; other test was inconclusive [1980 Robinson] - RCC. "secret files". Nun.
   Toledo Blade, By ROBIN ERB, March 1, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - Homicide detectives believed that officials at the Toledo Catholic Diocese intentionally misled them during their investigation into the slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl last year, according to court documents unsealed yesterday.
   The records show that during unprecedented police searches of the downtown church headquarters, investigators said they were looking for evidence of "obstructing justice," in their search for "secret files" that might lead to information about murder suspect and longtime cleric Father Gerald Robinson.
   Police said they obtained 148 documents when they searched the diocese on Sept. 15 armed with a judge's order - documents the diocese had failed to turn over to them on an earlier request.
   The papers also reveal that Father Robinson had twice taken a lie-detector test during the 1980 probe, and "failed" it the first time, according to investigators.
   Sister Pahl was found strangled and stabbed in the Mercy Hospital chapel.
   "The results indicated that Father Robinson was involved in the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl," Sgt. Steve Forrester wrote in an affidavit requesting court approval to search the diocese's Spielbusch Avenue offices. [Emphasis added]
• Silence on sex case priest's abuse group role [McCloskey] - RCC. Money paid. Accused priest a counsellor! Teenage male.

   Belfast Telegraph, By Sarah Brett, March 01, 2005
   NORTHERN IRELAND - The chief of a sex abuse counselling group that employed a priest accused of a sexual assault was today tightlipped about the scandal engulfing the Derry diocese.
   While priests across the North West were planning an open and transparent way of turning the Stewardship Fund debacle around, the Director of NEST, Fr Seamus O'Connell, refused to answer questions about employing Fr Andy McCloskey, who paid a £19,000 out of court settlement to a man who accused him of sexual assault.
   The man was 18 at the time and Fr McCloskey has never admitted liability. He is now on an indefinite leave of absence from his Dungiven parish.
   In a statement a week ago, the embattled Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty said he had no part in appointing Fr McCloskey to NEST but accepted the organisation's opinion that he was good counsellor material.
   He said: "Fr McCloskey's involvement in NEST as a counsellor came about following an assessment made by the professional and independent people involved in that organisation.
• Ex-priest gets new hearing [? 1990s (Augustinians)] - RCC. Funds. Children.

   Cnews, http://cnews. canoe.ca/CNEWS/ Law/2005/03/01/ 946114-sun.html , By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN, ~ March 1, 2005
   CANADA - A former Roman Catholic priest has sought political asylum in Canada after alleging he knew of sexual abuse against kids and the bilking of funds at his church in Peru.
   Alberto Luis Calderon Mendez, 26, fled to Toronto in June, 2003, claiming persecution on the grounds of his religion, opinion and membership in a particular social group. His refugee bid was nixed by an immigration board but successfully appealed last month to the Federal Court of Canada.
   "He is an ex-priest of the Catholic Church, specifically the Order of St. Augustine," Justice Max Teitelbaum said.
   Mendez claimed he witnessed his boss misappropriating funds and was told of children being abused by another priest at his church.
   He testified he reported the allegations to the Vatican and his bosses and in February of 2001 was reassigned to a village in the jungle.
   "His task was to distribute clothing," court heard. The job "made him a target for harassment by members of the Shining Path terrorist group."
• Settlement in Father Poole abuse case could be largest ever [6-7yrs Poole] - RCC. $US1m. Girl.
   KTUU, www.ktuu.com/ CMS/templates/ master.asp?article id=12055&zoneid=4 , by Megan Baldino, Monday, February 28, 2005
   ANCHORAGE, Alaska - It looks as though a settlement with the Catholic Church may be reached in a deal that could be the largest in Alaska.
   Monday, the attorney for a woman who says she was abused as a child by a popular Nome priest, says he is close to an agreement.
   There is word of a possible settlement in the $1 million range, and on Monday, for the first time, "Jane Doe" released her name. Elsie Boudreau says going public is part of her effort to heal.
   In the lawsuit, Boudreau claims Father Jim Poole fondled and French-kissed her many times when she was 10 to 16 years old, with the abuse taking place mainly in Nome. It was Poole who started KNOM, the Catholic radio station there, and he was known as "the radio priest."
   Lawyers for Poole filed a protective order a while ago in the case to prevent his deposition from being released.
   Boudreau's attorney, Ken Roosa, wants the written account released because he claims Poole's deposition includes an admission that he abused a young woman.
• Local Catholic Deacon Pleads Guilty To Possession Of Child Porn [2004 Howell] - RCC. Internet child porn.
   KBCI, By Hailie Brook, March 1, 2005
   BOISE (ID) - A deacon with a local Catholic Church is headed to prison. Last fall, Deacon Robert "Rap" Howell was charged with possession of internet child pornography.
   In November, the Deacon pleaded guilty to the crime but many parishioners at St. Mary's Parish are angry because their priest just told about the conviction during last Sunday's sermon.
   The former deacon will spend the next 18 months behind bars in federal prison. Meanwhile parishioners wonder why his guilty plea was withheld from them for so long.
   The case against Deacon Howell began last May after his former employer discovered child porn on the Deacon's computer. "The age range here I believe involved children between the ages of nine and 13," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson.
   Olson prosecuted the case against Howell. She said the F.B.I. proved eight of the explicit images on the former Deacon's computer illegally involved children. "There were a number of other images suspected but they weren't able to be definitely pinned down as items of child pornography," said Olson.
• Sex scandal: Two more Swaminarayan sadhus nabbed in Gujarat [2005 Prabhudas alias P P Swami; Prayam Vallabh Swami alias Kakaswami; Bhaktiswarupwas; Mansuk Patel; Banubhai Patel; Takkarsinh Patel] - Hindu sect. Sex discs.

   Deepikaglobal.com ; www.deepika global.com/ latestnews. asp?ncode =25967 , ~ March 1, 2005
   AHMEDABAD, India Ahmedabad, Mar 1 (UNI) Two more sadhus of the Swaminarayan sect have been arrested in Mooli Mandir in Surendranagar district in connection with the sex CD scandal involving a priest of Junagadh.
   The sadhus - Prabhudas alias P P Swami and Prayam Vallabh Swami alias Kakaswami - were nabbed by the State Crime Branch late last night, Investigating Officer N K Amin told UNI here.
   The scandal was allegedly a fallout of group rivalry in the sect.
   The earlier arrests were made on February 15 by a Crime Branch team.
   While the priest, Bhaktiswarupwas has been charged with trafficking of women, the other three - Mansuk Patel, Banubhai Patel and Takkarsinh Patel - were taken into custody under Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act for making videos of the sexual acts and distributing them in the form of CDs, D G Vanzara, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) had said at a press conference after their arrest.
• Priest pleads guilty to receiving child porn at Robertsville facility [2003 Malsch, Roberts, Chumik]- RCC. Child abuser sent child porn from priests' "treatment" centre.
   Post-Dispatch, By Peter Shinkle, Monday, Feb. 28 2005
   ST. LOUIS (MO) - A Roman Catholic priest with a history of sexually abusing children pleaded guilty Monday of receiving child pornography at a Franklin County home for troubled priests.
   The Rev. David J. Malsch, 66, admitted that in October 2003 he got child pornography images at the RECON facility on Vondera Drive in Robertsville. He also admitted forwarding child porn from the home to a "pen pal" in Pennsylvania.
   RECON, also known as Wounded Brothers, is where a Nevada priest, Mark Roberts, was sentenced to serve a term for his 2003 child molestation conviction.
   Another resident is Gerald Chumik, a Franciscan monk who has been a fugitive since 1990 from Canada, where he faces charges of gross indecency with a minor.
   A victims' support group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], has called for Roberts to leave, noting that he is now living just 20 minutes from one of his victims.
   David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, said Wounded Brothers is too lax for someone with Malsch's record. "This is what happens when priests oversee other abusive priests in a church-run secretive environment," Clohessy complained.
   "This is why men like Malsch belong behind bars and not at a church-run retreat-style facility." [Bolding added.]
• Distant sex-abuse cases get local aid [6-7 yrs Poole (Jesuit)] - RCC. Radio pioneer. $US1m. Girl.
   Orange County Register, By CHRIS KNAP and RACHANEE SRISAVASDI, ~ March 1, 2005
   ALASKA - In the bleak, isolated villages along the Bering Sea, Jim Poole, the founder of missionary radio KNOM, stood out as a different kind of spiritual leader.
   People Magazine called the Jesuit "Western Alaska's Hippest DJ." The archbishop of Anchorage, Alaska, called him "a dynamic priest, a man of personal discipline despite his relaxed, almost casual manner."
   Now it appears that Poole may have been too casual - and not at all disciplined.
   Lawsuits and claims filed with the church accuse Poole of kissing, fondling and simulating sex acts with native girls as young as 10. One suit alleges that he impregnated a 14-year-old, then encouraged her to have an abortion and blame her father.
   In a deposition taken last year by Costa Mesa sexual-abuse litigator John Manly, Poole admitted French-kissing young girls and having them lie on top of him, according to lawyers on both sides. But he denied that his intentions were sexual or that he impregnated anyone. [Emphasis added]
• TBN Accuser Has Charge Dismissed [Ford] - Trinity Broadcasting Network. "Insufficient evidence".
   Los Angeles Times, By Claire Luna, ~ March 1, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - An Orange County judge dismissed a contempt charge Monday against a man accused of violating a court order when he talked to the Los Angeles Times about his alleged sexual encounter with televangelist Paul Crouch.
   Before the defense presented any evidence, Superior Court Judge Robert J. Moss ruled that Crouch's lawyers did not have enough proof to support their case against former Trinity Broadcasting Network employee Enoch Lonnie Ford.
  "While it is likely that Mr. Ford did violate this order," Moss said, "there has been inadequate evidence."
   Another judge had barred Ford in April 2003 from talking to the media about his allegation that Crouch seduced him seven years earlier at a network-owned cabin near Lake Arrowhead.
   Reporter William Lobdell cited Ford's friends and court documents in a Sept. 12 article that first revealed the allegations. A story that ran 10 days later included statements from Ford and photographs of the 41-year-old Lake Forest man taken by a Times photographer. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:52 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue, March 01, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont110.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Understanding "secret clerics' business" - RCC. Was Peterson's role to do a cover-up?

Clericalism in the Catholic Church is something like the pattern in the wall paper: It's been there so long you don't see it any more. Bishops and priests have been doing what made perfectly good sense within the clericalist system in which they have been socialised and whose rules they know so well. When problems arise they desire to be good servants of the Church: but instead they serve only the system. - Russell Shaw Fidelity magazine (Melbourne), by BCS, pp 6-7, March 2005.
Lead Us Not Into Temptation; Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children, front cover, 10.3kb

Lead Us Not Into Temptation; Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children, front cover, 10.3kb

UNITED STATES: Lead Us Not Into Temptation by Jason Berry was published in 1994. [1992 is more probable.] It was written just after the first case of a US Priest abusing boys became NEWS. Berry provided a study of the clerical reaction and the masterful clerical cover-up of the Catholic Church in America in which Michael Peterson played a central role.
   At nineteen, Peterson, a Mormon, converted to the Catholic faith. In a sermon which the young catechumen never forgot, a French priest said that centuries of darkness were lifting.
   For Michael it was the belief that lifting the centuries of darkness was the task of psychiatrists.
   After graduation from the University of California at San Francisco Medical School, he worked in Washington at the National Institutes of Health and Virology.
   At thirty-two, with the permission of Cardinal William Baum, then archbishop of Washington, Peterson began seminary studies. He also counselled priests and taught at Georgetown University medical school. Ordained in 1978, at thirty-five, he founded a hospital, St. Luke Institute named after the healing disciple Luke, and began to treat chemically dependant clergy.
   St. Luke Institute began admitting pedophiles [paedophiles] and on February 11, 1985 Peterson was asked to assist in the difficulties faced in the LafayetteCase. Fr Doyle, a canonist attached to the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, conveyed the nuncio's appreciation.
Fr -Doyle, a canonist, Dr Peterson, a psychiatrist, and a lawyer Ray Mouton drafted a document which the Bishops later accepted.
   They were really setting up a crisis intervention team without a moral theologian. Fr Michael Peterson had become the US Bishops' expert on sexual issues and his recommendations carried weight- he was one of their own, a priest, a psychiatrist and he ran a treatment centre for deviant clergy. The team's paper: The Problem Of Sexual Molestation By Roman Catholic Clergy: Meeting the Problem in a Comprehensive and Responsible Manner
   Perhaps the Bishops hoped that the still unpublished paper would achieve what its title suggested. And who could blame them? At that time perhaps most had no idea what the psychiatrist's Sexual Attitude Restructuring SAR therapy really involved. (See p. 19)
It seems that the cover-up worked like this. On being arrested an offending priest would meet his lawyer who would advise him to plead guilty to the lesser of any charges and his lawyer would request an immediate psyschiatric [? psychiatric] assessment which would then advise treatment at an appropriate centre. Cases could be moved through the courts quickly.
Therapists would contact the priest's bishop with regular progress reports and the bishop could, at a later date, encouraged by the therapists' reports feel confident to reassign the priest to a new parish. There were no background checks on the men the clinics were using as therapists. But Jason Berry in Lead Us Not Into Temptation does cover this shocking aspect. By January 1, 1987, 135 priests and brothers had been reported to the nunciature but by 1970 4500-5000 were under treatment at various centres.
Perfectly Good Sense Within The Clericalist System
   Fr Doyle had counted on the support of Archbishop Bernard Law to have the Doyle-Mouton paper, which made perfectly good sense within the clericalist system, accepted by the US Bishops' Conference. Later it all came unstuck. Cardinal, Bernard Law was being questioned in court over his reappointment of a convicted priest who again abused children in his new position.
   The cardinal had handed over the documents required by the Court and he was asked about a letter he had written to the priest after receiving a therapist's report. The cardinal had congratulated him on the progress he had made under treatment. When the news of this knowing reappointment of a repeat offender was made public there was an uproar in the press and the cardinal was forced to resign his position.
   The clericalist manoeuvring had been successful in moving the offending priests quickly through the courts and into therapy, but the invention of the psychiatrists, The Sexual Attitude Restructuring therapy had not brought about any change for the better but instead was a time bomb set to destroy another parish and in this case a prince of the Church. See p. 18 (Priestly Child Sexual Abuse).
Things were getting worse and Dr Michael Peterson who had returned from a "meet the bishops and speak to the seminarians" visit to Australia was ill. The St Luke board tried to conceal his illness till Archbishop Hickey met with them and told them that people in his office knew that Michael had AIDS.
   On April 9 1987 Fr Michael, after admitting that he was gay and that he had AIDS, died. When other young homosexuals had been coming "out" Michael had chosen to enter the Catholic priesthood.
   The funeral Mass at St Matthew's Cathedral, with a procession of the pro-nuncio, Pio Lagi, eight bishops and 150 white-robed priests, transformed the first acknowledged death of an American priest from AIDS into a virtual affair of state. Fr Canice Connors became president of St Luke Institute and in 1994 he in turn was invited to Australia to advise priests and religious on the issue of sexual abuse. At his Melbourne press conference (Feb. 7, 1994) Fr L.Connors was challenged for his soft view that it is a mistake to think of priests as specially endowed. "The tendency to put clergy up", he says, "is part of the problem." We should "not look up at priests, but look at them" as human beings. The "average Catholic", he continued, can handle the problem of clerical sexual abuse because "it's a human problem".
Margaret Joughin, a Fidelity writer at the time, asked "Why is Fr Connors in Australia?" She wrote:

We at Fidelity can only dispute that and repeat what the Church teaches - that priests are "configured to Christ". As "living instruments of Christ the Eternal Priest" they are endowed with a "special grace" and as such they are "bound by a special reason to acquire perfection."

Margaret pointed out that perhaps Fr Connors had forgotten that:

When 10,000 Chicago-area Catholics gathered in meeting halls and schoolrooms in the previous month to discuss the handling of the [US child abuse] crisis, of the 2,000 who responded to a survey by the lawyers guild, 64% agreed with a survey statement, "No priest should ever be reassigned to any other ministry (office work, hospital chaplain, etc.) after a substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor." (Fidelity March 1994)

In 1997, Encompass Australia, a psychological service company was established in both Sydney and Melbourne (Australia) to assist sexually-troubled clergy and religious, as a proactive step to address the child molestation problem. Who paid?
   On 24 October 1998, the course director, Dr Gerardine Taylor said that 74 men had been assessed for the intensive programme which could be entered voluntarily but was usually undertaken at the request of a bishop or Religious superior. (Coldrey p.4)
   Some Australian dioceses have asked all of their priests to attend seminars entitled Life as a Developmental Process run by Encompass Australia!
   Now "the intensive programme" referred to by Dr Gerardine Taylor is an interesting topic. Since the Encompass Australia has obvious links to the American clinics, is the Sexual Attitude Restructuring program in use here in Australia? Even recent history can be a wise teacher.# [March 2005]
• Irish survivors of abuse. - RCC and Government. 60 years. Children.

   News for Seniors (Centrelink, Australian Commonwealth Government), www.centrelink.gov.au , editornfs @centrelink. gov.au , Canberra, ACT, Australia; p 17, Autumn (southern) 2005.
   Thousands of Irish-born Australians, if they were residents in Irish orphanages, industrial schools and centres for young offenders between the 1920s and the 1980s may be eligible for compensation.
   They might have experienced neglect, malnourishment, lack of education, being used for child labour, physical, psychological and sexual abuse.
   The Irish Government has apologised for this and set up a compensation fund for victims.

Irish survivors of abuse

Thousands of Irish-born Australians who were resident in state institutions in Ireland as children may be eligible for compensation from the Irish Government.
   Many children who were resident in orphanages, industrial schools and centres for young offenders in Ireland between the 1920s and 1980s experienced abuse. This included experiences such as neglect, malnourishment, lack of education, being used for child labour, physical, psychological and sexual abuse.
   The Irish Government has apologised for this and set up a compensation fund for victims, and, in some cases where the victim has died, their families.
   Some people who may be eligible for compensation currently live in Australia.
   They can apply before the closing date of December 2005.
Postal contact details
Send correspondence to:
Residential Institutions Redress Board
Belfield Office Park
Beech Hill Road, Clonskeagh
PO Box 9104, Dublin 4, Ireland
Telephone, email and website details
Telephone 0011 353 1 800 200 086 (for calls from outside Ireland, the Board can call back to minimise your costs). Alternately, email: info@rirb.ie or visit the website www.rirb.ie

Please note
Receipt of a payment under this scheme may affect the rate of your social security payment.
If you receive one of these payments, you should immediately contact Centrelink or the Department of Veterans' Affairs to ensure you receive your correct social security/Veterans' Affairs payment. •

[Picture of man and two women (297 x 359 pixels]

Irish survivors of abuse may be eligible for
compensation from the Irish Government

AUTUMN 2005 NEWS FOR SENIORS 17

[Autumn 2005, listed as March 2005]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed, March 02, 2005 edition follows:-
• Show-cause notice to Swaminarayan priest [Swami, Swami] - Hindu sect. Girl.

   ExpressIndia.com ; Express News Service, for March 2, 2005
   RAJKOT, INDIA: FOLLOWING widespread protest by devotees, the Radharaman trust has issued a showcause notice to Junagadh temple sadhu P P Swami allegedly for possessing properties in Jetpur town of Rajkot district. The notice is yet to be received by P P Swami, who has been absconding since February 23.
   P P Swami and chairman of Junagadh Swaminarayan temple Devnandan Swami have also been accused of molesting a girl about three years ago. But the temple board has decided against touching this issue. The family members of a Rajkot-based girl along with other devotees of the Swaminarayan temple on Bhupendra Road had alleged that Devnandan Swami and his junior had molested the girl.
   They also alleged that these two sadhus own properties worth several lakhs in Rajkot district. The issue was raised once again at a meeting held in Jetpur on Sunday. Devotees of all five sub-sects attended the meeting and demanded action against both sadhus.
   "The temple board has issued a notice, seeking clarification about ownership of property in Jetpur. But P P Swami, who has been absconding since February 23, has not received the notice," said Purshottam Thumar, a trustee with Radharaman Temple Board, adding, "The Board is likely to disqualify P P Swami soon." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:38 PM]
• Sins is unholy for Catholic bishops - RCC. Film "Sins". Censorship application.
   The Times of India, ~ March 2, 2005
   NEW DELHI, India: Protesting the release of Hindi film "Sins," which depicts a Catholic priest in a sexual relationship, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) on Wednesday appealed for taking it off the screen.
   "We, the Catholic Bishops of this country, feel that the film pays scant regard to the sensitivity of Catholic community in India that holds its priests in high esteem," the CBCI said.
   It noted that such portrayal of religious persons in films serves no purpose other than giving fodder to those who are working to tarnish the social and religious institutions.
   [COMMENT: 1. Opposition only adds to the potential audiences. 2. The film is telling the truth, even if the bishops in India, similarly to their brethren in other countries, keep evading the truth. COMMENT ENDS.]
   [DOCTRINE: "You will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (2 - 4 - 8:32) DOCTRINE ENDS.]
• Women sue Newark diocese, claim sexual harassment [2000s Rose] - Episcopal. Sexual harassment. 2 women.
   Star-Ledger, The Associated Press, Mar/2/2005
   NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Two female employees have sued the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, alleging it failed to address repeated sexual harassment by a priest. The suit filed Wednesday in federal court by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims the Rev. Dana Rose regularly made "sexually explicit, insulting and derogatory" comments to the women.
   The Rev. Canon Paul S. Hunt said the diocese would fight the lawsuit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages for what it called the diocese's "malicious and reckless behavior."
   "The Diocese of Newark is committed to a safe and discrimination-free workplace," Hunt said. "Our investigation thus far has revealed there is no legal merit to the claim. It is therefore our intent to vigorously defend against the lawsuit."
   Michelle Wilson and Maxine Gooden allege in the lawsuit that during Rose's frequent visits to the diocese's office, where both women worked as administrative assistants beginning in 2002, he made remarks such as, "You know I'm your baby's daddy."
• Metropolitan Theoklitos resigns over alleged links with Yiossakis but insists he is innocent [2000s Theoklitos, Yiossakis] - Greek Orthodox.

   Athens News Agency ~ March 2, 2005
   GREECE - Thessaliotidos Metropolitan Theoklitos offered his resignation to the Holy Synod in writing on Tuesday, stressing that he was resigning from the Thessaliotidos diocese but not from the prelacy.
   The metropolitan's decision, known several days beforehand, was made after his name was embarrassingly linked with that of jailed former archmandrite Iacovos Yiossakis, currently in Korydallos Prison facing charges of antiquities smuggling, and an emerging scandal involving both courts and clergy, in which judges were apparently bribed in order to hand out lighter sentences to known drug dealers.
   Theoklitos, a former spokesman for the Permanent Holy Synod and a close associate of Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos, insists that his intentions in recommending that Yiossakis be promoted were innocent and that he is resigning to avoid all hint that the archbishop was in any way linked with "covert" centres.
• Priest: Abuse won't happen again [2001 Hands] - RCC. 6 boys.
   Newsday, BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO, March 2, 2005
   LONG ISLAND (NY) - Maintaining his sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy was a one-time offense that won't be repeated, defrocked Catholic priest Michael Hands defended himself Wednesday against allegations that he may have preyed on as many as six underage victims and could do so again.
   Hands, 38, who was released last April after serving 15 months in prison for abusing the teen in 2001, appeared in a Riverhead court hearing to determine his risk level as a registered sex offender.
   Saying Hands continues to dwell "in a dark corner of this world called child sexual abuse," prosecutor Donald Mates asked Suffolk County Court Judge Stephen Braslow to depart from the standard formula for assessing a sex offender's risk level and assign him to the highest category, level 3.
   That would mean Hands would remain on a state registry for 10 years, and would allow law enforcement to notify Hands' neighbors and publish his address. Hands, who has a separate conviction in Nassau County for abusing the same boy, was assigned a lesser risk level of 2 there, and his defense attorney, Peter Rubin, maintains he should be assigned the same in Suffolk.
• CBCI protests portrayal of priest in "Sins" - RCC. Film "Sins".

   Deepikaglobal.com ; www.deepikaglobal. com/ENG3_sub.asp ?newscode=94436 &catcode=ENG3 &subcatcode= , Mar 2, 2005
   NEW DELHI, India (UNI) - The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) has protested the controversial film "Sins", released last Friday as it "pays scant regard to the sensitivity of the Catholic community in India".
   CBCI Secretary General Rev Percival Fernandes said," it is a matter of deep concern than cinema is indulging in sensationalising deviant behaviour of an individual and in the process undermining the entire priestly fraternity's long established credibility.
   [COMMENT: The "credibility" started in unravel in the USA around 1985, with the Louisiana scandal. Father Fernandes ought to read more than the Holy Office and the Missal to get a real understanding, or perhaps re-check the doctrinal and scriptural background of bishops' duties, celibacy (banned in the scriptures), clergy selection criteria, and the like. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Man files lawsuit claiming he was abused by priest [1954 Goltz] - RCC. Boy.
   WQAD, www.wqad.com/ Global/story. asp?S=3022052 , ~ Mar 2, 2005 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dubuque claiming he was abused by a priest more than 50 years ago.
   According to the lawsuit filed in Fayette County, the man claims he was abused by retired priest William A. Goltz when he was assigned to Sacred Heart Church in Oelwein in 1954.
   The man, who filed the lawsuit under the name "John Doe" claims he was 13 years old when he was beaten and sexually abused by Goltz.
• Settlement reached in Nome priest abuse case [1970s Poole (Jesuit)] - RCC. Female.
   Anchorage Daily News, The Associated Press, March 2nd, 2005
   ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Roman Catholic Church and a woman who accused a Nome priest of molesting her in the 1970s have agreed to settle a civil lawsuit she filed against the church, her attorney said.
   Attorney Ken Roosa said Wednesday that the two sides have reached a binding agreement. The paperwork is being finished on the settlement expected to be in the $1 million range, he said.
   Elsie Boudreau, identified in court documents as Jane Doe 1, sued the Rev. James Poole, the Diocese of Fairbanks, the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, and the Alaska Jesuits in March last year.
   Boudreau went public because she felt it empowered her and would help others to come forward as well, Roosa said.
• Committee oversees sex abuse fund [Derry Diocese] - RCC. 3% levy dropped. £1m target.

   BBC News, http://news.bbc. co.uk/1/hi/ northern _ireland/ 4310099.stm , ~ March 2, 2005
   NORTHERN IRELAND - A committee has been set up to clarify issues surrounding the Stewardship Fund which pays out compensation to victims of clerical sex abuse.
   A 3% levy on church collections was abolished last week, after parishioners complained they were not told the money was going towards the fund.
   At a meeting of priests in the Derry diocese, it was decided to explore practical ways of consulting parishes.
   It is thought priests discussed how to raise £1m for the fund over five years.
• Sexual Abuse Case Filed Against Logan County Priest [1976 Fuhrmann] - RCC. Boy.
   TheHometownChannel.com ; March 2, 2005
   LOGAN COUNTY, Ark. -- On top of the more than 1,000 new allegations of abuse cases reported in the Catholic Church nationwide, a new case has been filed in the Hometown area.
   As 40/29's Beth Burnett reported Wednesday, the case involves a priest and a former student at Subiaco Academy -- a Catholic school in Logan County.
   The alleged abuse took place in 1976, and officials said the alleged victim in the case waited until he was an adult to file his complaint.
   According to the federal lawsuit filed in Fort Smith, Joffre J. Miller claims that the Rev. Nicholas Fuhrmann, who worked as a priest at Subiaco Academy, sexually abused him. Miller now lives in Texas.
   A complaint filed by Miller's attorneys says that "in the course and scope as teacher and boxing coach, Furhmann exploited his authority and position over Joffre and thereby gained access to Joffre's body using the pretext of massaging him due to the strains of boxing."
   The complaint goes on to allege that "massages led to Fuhrmann sexually molesting Joffre from 1976 until 1979."
   Fuhrmann and the school are both listed as defendants in the case. Miller is asking for more than $75,000 in damages.
• JANE DOE 1: Woman alleged the Rev. James Poole molested her. [6-7 yrs Poole (Jesuit)] - RCC. Radio pioneer. $US1m. Girl.
   Anchorage Daily News, By NICOLE TSONG, March 2nd, 2005
   ALASKA - The Catholic church and a woman who says a Nome priest molested her in the 1970s have agreed to the broad terms of a settlement in a civil suit she brought against the church, her attorney said, with a final deal expected to be in the $1 million range.
   Attorney Ken Roosa said the details are still being hashed out.
   Elsie Boudreau, identified in court documents as Jane Doe 1, sued the Rev. James Poole, the Diocese of Fairbanks, the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province and the Alaska Jesuits in March last year.
   Boudreau accused Poole, a Jesuit, of kissing and fondling her dozens of times, starting in 1978 during summer visits to Nome and lasting until she was 16. The abuse included heavy petting and having her lie on top of him, the lawsuit says.
   She said in a recent interview that she decided to sue after discussions with Fairbanks Bishop Donald Kettler about counseling bothered her. The bishop put parameters on paying for counseling, she said.
• Church Members Say Trust Violated In Abuse Case [2003-04 Edmunds] - Joyful Hearts. Child porn. 3 girls.
   TheChamplainChannel.com ; POSTED 10:53 am EST March 2, 2005
   CONWAY, N.H. -- The directors of a church-run day-care center are trying to determine how a worker accused of molesting three young girls there had enough time alone with them to commit the alleged crimes.
   Jeffrey Edmunds, 40, of Bridgton, Maine, worked at the Joyful Hearts Children Center between April 2003 and April 2004. He faces six felony charges, three for fondling young girls and three for having child pornography.
   "The staff works together pretty much throughout the day. It's pretty rare that anyone would be alone," said Sandford Kravette, pastor of Christian Fellowship of New England.
   "We're still a little uncertain when Jeff would have had opportunity to be alone with the children to do what's alleged," Kravette said.
   Edmunds came to the attention of New Hampshire authorities after Bridgton police arrested him in January on charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and invasion of privacy.
• Priest accused again of abuse [1970s-80s] - RCC. Boys.
   The Albuquerque Tribune, By Joline Gutierrez Krueger, March 2, 2005
   ALBUQUERQUE (NM) - New allegations of sexual misconduct by a longtime Albuquerque priest are renewing efforts by a national organization to have Archbishop Michael Sheehan remove the priest from duty.
   Officials with the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, planned today to hand-deliver a letter to Sheehan at the chancery office in Albuquerque asking him to suspend the priest and to investigate the new allegations.
   "Please remember what you and your brother bishops have repeatedly promised," the letter states. "To err on the side of children's safety, to remove a credibly accused cleric first from his current assignment until a more thorough investigation can be completed."
   The priest has been accused in the past of other incidents of sexual molestation, many that were detailed in six letters sent to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 1995.
   The letters are from men who as boys attended a Roman Catholic middle school in Albuquerque in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ...
   Because no criminal charges have been filed, The Tribune is not naming the priest or the parish with which he is affiliated.
• Ex-priest may have been murdered [Reiss] - RCC.

   Courier, By PAT KINNEY, Assistant City Editor, March 2, 2005
   WATERLOO (IA) -- A defrocked former Evansdale priest who died in Mexico last month may have been murdered, U.S. State Department officials have told U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley's office.
   Mexican authorities are investigating the death of former priest Robert Reiss "as a possible murder/robbery," said a spokesman for Grassley, whose office contacted the State Department in response to a request from the Courier.
   "Our embassy is continuing to monitor the case and has requested information from Mexican authorities as the investigation proceeds forward," Grassley spokesman Dustin Vande Hoef said. No additional details were available.
   Reiss, 75, died Feb. 3 in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico. Chilpancingo is a city of 380,000 between Mexico City and Acapulco and is the capital of the Mexican state of Guerrero. [Emphasis added.]
• Ex-Student Claims Sex Abuse At Subiaco Academy [1976-79 Fuhrmann] - RCC. Boy.
   Times Record, By Amy Sherrill, asherrill@swtimes.com , March 2, 2005
   ARKANSAS - A former student of Subiaco Academy is suing the school and one of its priests in federal court in connection with alleged sexual abuse in the late 1970s.
   It is the first lawsuit filed in Arkansas accusing a priest of sexual abuse, according to the office of the Vicar General with the diocese in Little Rock.
   Joffre J. Miller of Texas filed a lawsuit against Subiaco Academy and the Rev. Nicholas Fuhrmann on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.
   Miller alleges that Fuhrmann sexually molested him from 1976-79, while Fuhrmann was his teacher and boxing coach, court document states.
• Archdiocese won't release names in report [St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese] - RCC. 18 more children.
   Minnesota Public Radio, ~ March 2, 2005
   MINNESOTA - The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says it won't release the names of sex offenders identified in an independent audit last year.
   The audit found 18 new cases of sexual abuse of children. Dennis McGrath is communications director for the archdiocese. He said the cases involve offenders previously identified.
   "You know a fair number of these folks are dead. And I don't know what good would be served to their family and survivors if they've already been exposed and humiliated. Now that they're dead let the dead lay," he said.
• Christodoulos in a corner [Eirinaios, Christodoulos, Vavylis] - Greek Orthodox. Drug dealer and Israeli secret agent as envoy.

   Athens News, www.athensnews. gr/athweb/nathens. prnt_article?e=C&f =13119&t=01&m =A04&aa=1 , By GEORGE GILSON, ~ March 2, 2005
   GREECE - LIKE Chinese water torture, embarrassing revelations, leaked drop by drop, continued to batter Greece's embattled Archbishop Christodoulos, immediately overshadowing a series of transparency measures introduced by the church to overcome its simmering crisis.
   Patriarch Eirinaios of Jerusalem on February 23 confirmed allegations that Christodoulos sent convicted drug dealer and suspected intelligence agent Apostolos Vavylis as an envoy to help him be elected patriarch in 2001. Eirinaios had earlier denied that Christodoulos had sent Vavylis as an envoy.
   Christodoulos, who has admitted that he wrote a recommendation for Vavylis before his drug conviction, repeated his denial that he sent Vavylis to Jerusalem. But the development cast further doubt on his ability to clean up the church while he is now faced with a wave of calls to resign.
   A 1996 Greek intelligence document published by To Vima on February 22 indicated that Vavylis was an Israeli Mossad agent, and his access to the Greek public order and defence ministries could prove to be a major espionage case.
• Call to prayer as scandal balloons - Greek Orthodox. Judiciary too. Trial-fixing, drugs, homosexuality, sex video.
   Kathimerini, ~ March 2, 2005
   GREECE - Top churchmen yesterday summoned the faithful to a nationwide, all-night prayer next week for the scandal-mired Church to overcome the ballooning crisis, as a bishop forced to resign for corruption implicated politicians in the alleged trial-fixing ring thought to have comprised clerics and judges.
   Meanwhile, criminal charges for concealing assets were brought against three judges suspected of involvement in the ring, while a fourth member of the judiciary faced disciplinary action for allegedly refusing to repay a 2,000-euro loan to a New Democracy MP.
   The Church of Greece's ruling body, the Holy Synod, yesterday accepted the resignation announced on Friday by Theoklitos, Bishop of Thessaliotis, who is alleged to have maintained ties with the trial-fixing ring. Theoklitos is also accused of having been detained by police on suspicion of drug dealing in a dodgy bar, and of homosexuality - which the Church officially abhors.
   The Synod also decided to summon two more bishops to provide explanations today regarding allegations of misconduct, and to dismiss an unmarried priest serving in the archbishopric after video tapes of a sexual content in which he allegedly appeared were made public.
   The priest was dismissed on the evidence of the tapes, although the Synod had previously refused to take similarly stringent action against Panteleimon, Bishop of Attica - who has been suspended for allegedly seeking to influence senior judges - after audio tapes surfaced in which he apparently had a lewd conversation with a male lover.
• Lawyer: Priest didn't fail polygraph [1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun.
   Cincinnati Enquirer, By John Seewer, The Associated Press, ~ March 2, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - An attorney who once represented a Roman Catholic priest accused of killing a nun in 1980 said claims that the priest failed a lie detector test were wrong.
   The attorney, Henry Herschel, sought on Tuesday to dispute court documents released a day earlier that included allegations that the Rev. Gerald Robinson failed one of two polygraph tests days after the killing.
   The priest took two tests, and the first one produced results that could not determine whether Robinson was telling the truth, Herschel said.
   The examiner who gave the test noted that Robinson needed to be in a calmer state, Herschel said, adding that Robinson had just spent several hours being questioned by police.
   Another examiner, who administered the second test a few months later, determined that Robinson was probably telling the truth.
   According to a court document filed by investigators, Robinson failed the first test and passed the second one.
• Nun's slaying:- Polygraph didn't lie, officials say. Defense lawyers dispute report priest failed exam [1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun.
   Toledo Blade, By ROBIN ERB, ~ March 2, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - Under attack for stating that murder suspect Father Gerald Robinson "failed" the first of two polygraphs, investigators yesterday stood by the results of the tests administered 24 years ago that indicated the cleric was being untruthful.
   In a news conference earlier in the day, Father Robinson's defense lawyers questioned the validity of a lie detector exam Father Robinson took on April 18, 1980 - 13 days after Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was stabbed and strangled in the Mercy Hospital chapel.
   Reading from the report by the polygraph examiner James Wiegand, attorney Henry Herschel said the examiner wrote that he "was of the opinion that truthfulness could not be verified."
   "The examiner," Mr. Herschel said, "did not use the word 'failed' in his report."
   Mr. Herschel, who represented the priest in 1980, was among the lawyers who appeared yesterday for a news conference to challenge the findings released in court documents Monday.
   The records supported police searches last year at Toledo diocese offices by investigators who had reopened the murder case.
• Former pastor gets 15 years for rape [2000s Ford] - Victory Chapel. Girl.
   Rapid City Journal, By Vicky Wicks, ~ March 2, 2005
   RAPID CITY (SD) -- Saying he didn't want another child to go through what Glenn Ford's victim went through, 7th Circuit Judge Merton Tice Jr. sentenced the former youth pastor to 15 years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary.
   At Tuesday's hearing, Tice suspended seven years of the sentence and gave Ford until Friday to report to Pennington County Jail for transport to prison.
   The sentencing ends the story that started in June, when Ford, now 40, was charged for having sex with a 13-year-old girl while he was youth pastor at Victory Chapel on La Crosse Street.
   The victim was in the courtroom Tuesday, but her mother spoke on her behalf, telling of the nightmares and fears the girl had after reporting the crimes that occurred over a three-month period. The child's mother said the girl was depressed and suicidal and sometimes slept in a closet because of her fears.
   Other youths in the congregation no longer wanted to attend church because of the situation caused by Ford, the mother told Tice.
• Ex-priest sex charges trial delay [Daniels] - Anglican. 23 charges.

   The Australian, March 02, 2005
   AUSTRALIA - THE trial of a former Anglican priest accused of a string of child sex offences dating back to the 1970s has been put back to April.
   Prosecutor Michael Stoddard today told the Tasmanian Supreme Court in Hobart that an un-anticipated matter needed to be resolved in Louis Victor Daniels' case, which involved making contact with a person on the mainland.
   Justice Pierre Slicer ordered 57-year-old Daniels to reappear on April 18, when he will be required to enter pleas to 23 charges.
   Daniels, of the Canberra suburb of Charnwood, appeared in court via videolink from Canberra.
   He is charged with 21 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual intercourse with a young person under the age of 17.
• Donnellan: Paul Shanley's deception [Shanley] - RCC.
   NEWTON (MA) - Newton Tab, Diane Donnellan/ Guest Commentary, Wednesday, March 2, 2005
   How did he fool us? An entire parish full of families thought he was wonderful. Fathers, mothers, grandparents and children welcomed him into our parish and into our lives, our homes and, yes, our hearts.
   I was probably one of the first people to meet him in the rectory way back in '79. Being on the School Board for St. Jean's School and a member of the Parish Council, I was always in and out of the rectory meeting with the pastor or on some errand or another.
   It was on one of these visits to the rectory that I was introduced to him during his first few days at St. Jean's. He told me that he was sent to our parish to help out our elderly pastor, and I thought how wonderful that our cardinal had seen fit to send us a young priest to help out.
• Priest in halfway house had child porn [1980s, 2003 Malsch] - RCC. 28 child porn photos.
   Duluth News Tribune, BY JIM SALTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ March 2, 2005
   ST. LOUIS (MO) - - A priest's admission that he received child pornography while living at a home for troubled priests near St. Louis has raised concern about oversight at that site and a similar one nearby.
   David Malsch, 66, a convicted sex offender from Superior, was living at the Wounded Brothers RECON facility in Franklin County, Mo., in October 2003 when federal agents searched his room and found 28 photos of child porn.
   Malsch pleaded guilty Monday and faces at least five years in prison when sentenced June 10.
   Allegations of inappropriate behavior with a child against Malsch date to the early 1980s, when he was serving St. Patrick Church in Superior. In 2002, Superior Bishop Raphael Fliss apologized publicly for the diocese's failure to more thoroughly investigate Malsch.
   RECON officials did not return telephone calls Tuesday seeking comment. Director Mark Matousek has described it as a halfway house mainly for those who have exhausted treatment options.
   Both St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests questioned how a cleric with a history of sexual misconduct could be allowed to get child porn by mail. Just two weeks ago, archdiocese spokesman Jamie Allman said, Burke met with RECON officials to express concern over security and monitoring.
• Catholic Church Denies Cover-Up [? 2000s Howell] - RCC. November guilty plea, in March parishioners told. Internet child porn.
   KBCI 2, By Hailie Brook, ~ March 2, 2005
   BOISE (ID) - As a Deacon with a local Catholic Church prepares to head to prison for possession of child pornography, some parishioners at St. Mary's Parish continue to question the way the church handled the situation.
   Last fall, Deacon Robert "Rap" Howell was charged with possession of internet child pornography. In November the deacon pleaded guilty to the crime.
   But some parishioners are upset because the church didn't tell them about the conviction until last Sunday. "I'm trying to win the church back, I'm trying to fight for the church that I believe should be there," said St. Mary's Parishioner Erin Brannon.
   Last Sunday - in the middle of mass - Erin Brannon took a stand, speaking out against the way he says the church has handled the Howell situation. "I just said I have an announcement and I walked up there and I probably didn't speak very well and I doubt anyone even heard me because I was so emotional," he said.
   His emotions were boiling because he said the priest had just announced Deacon Howell was going to jail for a crime he "unknowingly committed." A crime that Howell had confessed to months ago. "The fact is he was caught with the materials on his hard drive and that's the fact," said Brannon, "and the fact is they were obscene materials with children."
• Funds dealing with residential schools legacy continue to climb [Anglican Church] - $CAD 13.3m going. Indigenous children.

   Anglican Journal, http://anglican journal.com/ 131/03/canada 07.html , By SOLANGE DE SANTIS, STAFF WRITER, ~ March 2, 2005
   CANADA - The fund set up by the Anglican Church of Canada to pay victims of abuse in native residential schools has collected $13.3 million as of Jan. 31, 2005, according to the national church's finance office in Toronto.
   Under an agreement with the federal government signed in March 2003, the church's liability in lawsuits seeking damages for abuse suffered by students was capped at $25 million. All 30 dioceses and the national office, called General Synod, are paying into the fund at varying levels over a five-year timespan.
   About $4.7 million has been paid to claimants who have been able to prove that they were victims of sexual or physical abuse at Anglican-run schools that were part of a nationwide system of boarding schools for native children. The Anglican church ran 26 of the 80 schools that were in the system.
   Another church fund related to native people's experiences in the residential schools - the aboriginal healing fund - recently topped the $2 million mark in disbursements, according to fund co-ordinator Esther Wesley.
• Priests discuss fund for victims [Derry Diocese] - RCC.

   BBC News, ~ March 2, 2005
   NORTHERN IRELAND - Priests in the Derry diocese will meet again to discuss raising money for the Stewardship Fund, which pays clerical sex abuse victims compensation.
   Last week a levy for the fund from church collections was abolished, after parishioners' complaints that they were not told where the money was going.
   The meeting will be held at the Iona Retreat Centre just outside Derry.
   A spokesman said no agreement will be made on the commitment to the fund without parishioners having their say.
   Bishop of Derry Dr Seamus Hegarty apologised in a letter read out at Masses in the diocese on Sunday for not telling parishioners that a 3% levy on church collections was going towards the fund for victims of clerical sex abuse.
• Tampa man says priest molested him as a child [1965-66 Mena] - RCC. Altar boy.
   Bradenton Herald, By RICHARD DYMOND, ~ March 2, 2005
   MANATEE (FL) - A 49-year-old Tampa man who claims a priest sexually abused him when he was an altar boy at a Sarasota church is suing the Catholic Diocese of Venice.
   James Woods' civil suit, which also names dioceses in St. Petersburg and St. Augustine, claims that The Rev. Jose Mena, who is now retired and living in Jacksonville, sexually abused him in 1965 at Incarnation Catholic Church on Bee Ridge Road.
   Filed in Hillsborough County, the suit states that Mena was involved in the youth ministry at Incarnation and sexually abused Woods on numerous occasions during the 1965-66 school year while Woods was in the fifth grade at Incarnation Catholic School and an altar boy at Incarnation Catholic Church.
   The alleged abuse occurred on the premises of Incarnation, the suit states.
   A call to Mena was not returned Tuesday. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:30 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker Wed, March 02, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont110.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, Thu, March 03, 2005 edition follows:-
• Personnel Bile No. 5: The List [Orange County RCC]

   Orange County Weekly, www.ocweekly. com/ink/05/26/ ex-arellano2 .php , by GUSTAVO ARELLANO, ~ March 03, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - Document No. 5 isn't a secret diocesan record but a list of every Orange County priest ever accused of pedophilia since 1958 and the parishes that they once roamed. For easier access, we're presenting it in groups of three, with each list containing three priests, the years in which they served and their parishes. Some fun facts:
   *Year with the most accused pedophiles: 1976 (17)
   *Parish with the highest tally: St. Edward, Dana Point (John Lenihan, Denis Lyons, Michael Pecharich, Henry Perez, Gerald Plesetz, Siegfried Widera)
   *Priest with the most assignments: Daniel Murray, Eleuterio Ramos and Gerardo Tanilong: five each. Ramos, however, gets extra points for going to Tijuana after getting suspended here!
   *Parishes that housed two or more accused pedophiles at the same time: St. Boniface, Anaheim (1994: John Lenihan, Daniel Murray, Gerardo Tanilong), St. Cecilia, Tustin (1976: Michael Harris, Gerald Plesetz), St. Edward, Dana Point (1996-2001: John Lenihan, Denis Lyons), St. John the Baptist, Costa Mesa (1987: Denis Lyons, Gary Pacheco), St. Pius V, Buena Park (1976: Arthur Fernando, Denis Lyons) [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:51 PM]
• Our View: Disgraced Superior priest sends a message to church [1980s, 2000s Malsch] - RCC. Internet child porn.
   Duluth News Tribune, ~ March 03, 2005
   MINNESOTA - If anyone is shocked to hear that a former Superior priest managed to amass and distribute kiddie porn while supposedly locked up for child molestation, brace yourself for more horror stories if the nation's Catholic bishops relax their abuse-prevention measures this spring.
   That's a possibility because the much-touted "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," adopted in 2002 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to address clergy sexual abuse at the height of the scandal, expired this week. The rules, which require mandatory reporting of abuse claims to civil authorities as well as background checks of church employees dealing with children, received Vatican approval in March 2003 as "particular law" affecting all U.S. parishes (but none elsewhere in the world) for two years. But it must be reviewed by the bishops at their June meeting to remain in force.
   Yet even with those measures in place, they did nothing to prevent the Rev. David Malsch -- a one-time cleric at St. Patrick's parish in Superior convicted of child enticement -- from receiving and disseminating child pornography at the Missouri home for troubled priests, where he remained in civil commitment after serving a two-year prison term. On Monday, Malsch, 66, pleaded guilty to the child pornography charges for which he faces at least five additional years in prison.
   That a facility approved for civil commitment of sex offenders could have allowed Malsch to continue his abhorrent behavior is disturbing. That he should have been committed to the porous Wounded Brothers facility -- run by the Franciscan order but ultimately the church that failed to turn him over to authorities when allegations first surfaced in the 1980s -- is truly disconcerting. And it speaks to the inability of the church to control its bad apples, even after they have been brought to justice.
• Archbishop defends church steps in '54 abuse case [1954 Goltz] - RCC. Boy.
   Courier, By PAT KINNEY, Assistant City Editor, March 03, 2005
   WATERLOO (IA) -- When the Archdiocese of Dubuque responded in 1954 to a child sexual abuse complaint against a priest in Oelwein, it followed its required procedures in place at that time, Dubuque Archbishop Jerome Hanus said Wednesday.
   The complaint, against the Rev. William Goltz, was the basis of a lawsuit filed Friday by an anonymous plaintiff in Fayette County District Court against the archdiocese and the priest.
   The suit alleges that Goltz asked the alleged victim, 13 at the time, to help him wash a car and then drive it to dry it off. They drove to a quarry outside Oelwein where Goltz allegedly sexually abused the boy and showed him illicit photos.
   Hanus noted that, according to the suit, when the abuse complaint was made to the church, the archdiocese immediately removed the priest and "followed its required procedures and instituted a church trial against the accused."
   That church trial was instituted by then-Dubuque Archbishop Leo Binz. Only one such trial has been held in the archdiocese's 168-year history.
   "That response was typical of Archbishop Leo Binz. He considered sexual abuse of minors to be 'the worst crime.' " Hanus wrote in a statement. "He would have followed the canon law procedures required in place at that time."
• Abuse memories flood back [? 1970s] - RCC. Still a priest. Not the only boy.
   Albuquerque Tribune, By Joline Gutierrez Krueger, March 3, 2005
   ALBUQUERQUE (NM) - He had pushed it away, the memories of what he says happened to him in his youth in Los Alamos at the hands of a Roman Catholic priest his parents thought they could trust.
   He thought he was the only one.
   But recently, when his wife scrolled through a Web site dedicated to the New Mexico victims of priest sex abuse and found the name that had tormented him for nearly three decades, the memories flooded back.
   The priest, she learned, was still active in an Albuquerque parish and a Catholic school. And like her husband, other men had made accusations of sexual abuse against the priest.
   "That's when he learned he was not the only one," said Steven Rabi, director of the New Mexico chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, which runs the Web site. "That's when he reached out."
   The man, now in his 40s and living out of state, is the latest to allege sexual misconduct by the longtime Albuquerque priest.
   Despite the archdiocese's naming of the priest in its response to the allegation Wednesday, The Tribune is not naming him or the parish with which he is affiliated because no criminal charges have been filed.
• Norwich bishop called lenient in Maine case [Rweyemamu, Cote, Gerry] - RCC. Homosexual internet images.
   Journal Inquirer, By Tom Breen, March 03, 2005
   NORWICH (CT) - Is it worse for a Roman Catholic priest to give muddled homilies and run a private charity inefficiently, or to post graphic descriptions of his homosexual encounters with a subordinate on an Internet site featuring photographs of naked men and a priest with his arm around a young boy?
   That's a question parishioners at St. Bernard Catholic Church in the Rockville section of Vernon could ask, based on the difference in treatment accorded to the Rev. Justinian B. Rweyemamu, a parochial vicar there, and to priests in the Diocese of Portland, Maine, where the current bishop of Norwich was an auxiliary bishop until 2003.
   The bishop, the Most Rev. Michael R. Cote, has never been accused of any wrongdoing in Maine. But some Catholics there say Cote and his superior, Bishop Joseph Gerry, were too slow to discipline three priests involved with a pornographic Internet site -- including one priest who lived with Cote.
   By contrast, the Norwich diocese has been swift in its efforts to remove Rweyemamu from the parish, charging him first with ministerial problems like poor homilies and later with unspecified mismanagement of a private charity.
• Catholic reform group official allegedly denied communion - RCC.
   Lincoln Journal Star, BY KEVIN O'HANLON / The Associated Press, March 03, 2005
   NEBRASKA - An official with a Catholic reform group that has criticized the church's handling of priest sex-abuse cases says he was denied communion by Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz and two other priests.
   John Krejci, a former priest and co-founder of the Nebraska chapter of Call to Action, said Bruskewitz denied him communion at Sacred Heart parish on Feb. 7, with "an unfriendly wave of his hand."
   "It was kind of like, "Go away!," Krejci said. "Then he spun around and went back to the altar."
   Bruskewitz said nothing, Krejci said.
   Call to Action has long been critical of how the church handled allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.
   Nebraska's diocese in Lincoln was the only one in the nation to refuse to participate in the Catholic church's sex-abuse survey; Bruskewitz said it was flawed.
   The alleged incident with Krejci came some nine years after he and members of several other groups were excommunicated by Bruskewitz - a decision Krejci said is still on appeal to the Vatican.
• Abuse victims sue Milwaukee archdiocese for fraud [1973-76 Widera] - RCC. Boys.
   Duluth News Tribune, By RYAN NAKASHIMA, Associated Press, ~ March 03, 2005
   MILWAUKEE (WI) - Two victims of clergy abuse filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee of fraud and saying a former official of the archdiocese who now serves as bishop of Superior helped cover up the offending priest's history of abuse.
   The male victims were minors when they were abused on "dozens of occasions" by the late Rev. Siegfried Widera from 1973 to 1976, said Peter Isely, a spokesman for a victims group called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
   The abuse occurred after Widera had been convicted of sexual perversion with a teenager in 1973 and after the archdiocese transferred him without warning the public to the St. Andrew's parish in Delavan from Port Washington, the suit said.
• Church Audits Don't Allay Fears [Dupre] - RCC. Audit clears diocese in spite of abrupt departure. 2 altar boys.
   Hartford Courant, By FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR, March 3, 2005
   UNITED STATES - Despite the piles of data on sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church being released annually, victims' advocates continue to express disappointment with the process, charging that the U.S. bishops' "self-reported" audits have not provided the answers that advocates seek.
   In addition, a change in the reporting method that begins this year means that only dioceses that failed to meet the guidelines set forth by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for reporting and handling allegations of sexual abuse will get field visits. The rest of the dioceses will simply audit themselves.
   About 90 percent of the nation's 195 dioceses - including Hartford, Bridgeport and Norwich - have complied with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that the bishops conference established in 2002 to address the sexual abuse crisis.
   David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the shift from the original auditing process to self-surveys will make what was a bad situation worse.
   "Right now we have admitted abusive clergy walking the streets, moving to new states and foreign countries where people don't know about them," Clohessy said.
   He said the case of former Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre highlights the system's deficiencies. Dupre resigned in 2004 and entered treatment in Maryland in February 2004 after two men accused him of molesting them when they were teenage altar boys. The Springfield audit, which says the diocese is in compliance with the bishops' charter, does not mention Dupre's departure or the charges against him. [Bolding added.]
• Bishops faulted on lobby agenda - RCC. Thoughts are pubic, but not for victims!
   Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Thursday, March 3, 2005
   ALBANY -- The state's Catholic bishops will gather at the Capitol next week to lobby for the kind of social reforms that are at the foundation of their faith.
   Fair funding in education, ethical stem cell research, a ban on embryo experimentation and abolition of the death penalty will be among the hot-button issues.
   But critics say what's missing from the aggressive 7-point 2005 agenda brought forth by the clergy's public policy arm -- the New York State Catholic Conference -- is anything for clergy sex abuse victims.
   They note there are no renewed requests on the conference's agenda for a mandatory reporting bill. Nor for relaxing the statute of limitations for those who were victimized as children by priests.
• 'Blueprint for coverup?' [1970s Frost] - RCC. Boys.
   KSTP, www.kstp.com/ article/stories/ S6682.html?cat=5 , Updated 08:14:22 AM, Mar/03/2005
   MINNESOTA - A 5 Eyewitness News investigation reveals secrets at the highest level of the Catholic Church. We obtained a 1962 Vatican document that directs church leaders how to handle sex abuse cases. It indicates the secrecy surrounding these cases started at the top. We found the secrecy often stays too long with the victim.
   Rodney Jenniges is forty seven years old. He told us, "You don't heal a hundred percent is the whole problem." He says he kept his abuse secret for twenty years. Now he's trying to rebuild his life by tearing down the past that haunts him. "I think back now and I just cringe." Jenniges says unspeakable things happened inside the rectory at St. Albert the Great in Minneapolis.
   He says he was only 12 when Brother Edmund Frost gave him alcohol before molesting him and maintains many people knew what was going on at the rectory. He told us, "I would just like an apology."
   Brother Frost is now dead, but Jenniges says he would still like an apology from the church. He didn't get one when he filed a lawsuit in 1999. Instead the church fought him and the courts determined the statute of limitations had run out.
   But it may not be too late for John Doe 56 who filed his lawsuit Wednesday. He was an altar boy at St. Albert's in the early 1970's and went to the parish school where Brother Frost taught sex education.
   John Doe 56 wants to remain anonymous. He says he hasn't even told his parents about the abuse. He says it started when Frost showed him a deck of pornographic playing cards and described each sex act on the cards.
   Afterward he performed oral sex on him. In all he says Brother Frost sodomized him 10 times. The now grown man, told us how that abuse has affected his life.
   He said, "It's a lonely, lonely feeling and very depressing." He also told us why he's filing the lawsuit. "I want them held accountable."
• Vatican asks Condoleezza Rice to help stop a sex abuse lawsuit [2005 Vatican] - Vatican seeks to turn US lawsuit aside.

   National Catholic Reporter, By John L. Allen Jr., NCR Rome Correspondent, March 3, 2005
   ROME - Alongside predictable exchanges on Iraq, the Middle East and religious liberty, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in her Feb. 8 visit to the Vatican also received an unexpected request -- to intervene in a U.S. lawsuit naming the Holy See as the defendant in a sex abuse case.
   Church sources told NCR that Rice was asked by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, whether the United States government could stop a class-action lawsuit currently before a United States District Court in Louisville, Ky., that seeks to hold the Vatican financially responsible for the sexual abuse of minors.
   Sources told NCR that Rice explained that under American law, foreign states are required to assert claims of sovereign immunity themselves before U.S. courts.
   Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls, asked by NCR for comment, responded March 2: "It's obvious and reasonable that the Holy See would present its positions as a sovereign entity to the American State Department, and recall the immunity for its acts that international law anticipates."
   It's not the first time, according to observers, that the Vatican has asked the State Department for help on a legal matter.
   Most experts say that lawsuits against the Vatican in American courts, such as the Kentucky case that prompted Sodano's request, are a long shot. At least two dozen previous attempts have gone nowhere, not only because the Vatican is a sovereign state, but also because American courts are generally reluctant to deal with religious matters on First Amendment grounds.
• The Holy Synod Meets Today [2000s] - Greek Orthodox. Huge US bank ac