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 account, villa on Patmos, sexual harassment, economic improprieties.

   Macedonian Press Agency ~ March 3, 2005
   GREECE - The Church of Greece Holy Synod meets again today under Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece in a heavy atmosphere and in the shadow of unending revelations.
   Metropolite Dionisios of Chios will give explanations on the accusations that he has huge bank accounts in a US bank, while Metropolite Chrisostomos of Zakynthos will give explanations concerning the villa in the island of Patmos.
   Also, Metropolite Nikiforos of Didimoticho will give explanations concerning sexual harassment accusations and Metropolite Chrisostomos of Peristerion will also appear before the Holy Synod accused of economic improprieties.
• Rabbi to serve 7 years for sex abuse of girls [? 1980s-90s Lanner] - Judaism. Girls.
   Asbury Park Press, By A. SCOTT FERGUSON, March 3, 2005
   NEW JERSEY - A rabbi who once was principal of a local religious school is in prison, resentenced to serve the same seven-year term ordered in 2002 when he was convicted of child endangerment.
   A Superior Court judge resentenced Rabbi Baruch Lanner to the term after the Appellate Division of Superior Court dismissed one of the two child-endangerment charges against Lanner.
   Lanner, the former principal of Hillel High School in Ocean Township, surrendered to authorities on Feb. 23. Superior Court Judge Paul F. Chaiet resentenced him that day, Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter Boser said this week.
   Lanner is now in South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, Cumberland County. He will be eligible for parole on Dec. 9, 2006, according to the state Department of Corrections. Lanner will have to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law.
   Officials at Hillel, where Lanner worked from 1982 to 1997, did not return calls asking for comment.
• Diocese saddled with harassment suit [? 2000s Rose] - Episcopal Church. Sex harassment alleged. 2 females.
   Asbury Park Press, Mar/3/05
   NEWARK (NJ): Two female employees have sued the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, alleging it failed to address repeated sexual harassment by a priest after several complaints.
   The suit filed Wednesday in federal court claims the Rev. Dana Rose regularly made "sexually explicit, insulting and derogatory" comments to the women.
• Suit alleges priest molested, threatened student in 1980 [1980 Flosi] - RCC. Boy.
   Chicago Tribune, By Manya A. Brachear, March 3, 2005
   CHICAGO (IL) - A former Roman Catholic priest has been accused of molesting a minor 25 years ago when he was an assistant pastor at Holy Name Cathedral.
   A lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court this week accuses James V. Flosi of sexual assault, battery and negligence stemming from an encounter with a Quigley Theological Seminary student in 1980.
   In the suit, Michael Callo, 39, alleges that Flosi invited him to lunch, then took him to the rectory and molested him. The suit also says that after the assault Callo was subjected to "severe and egregious threats" aimed at keeping him silent, causing emotional and psychological damage.
   At the time of the alleged assault, Flosi worked at Holy Name and as director of the archdiocesan office of separated and divorced Catholics. After resigning from the priesthood in 1992, Flosi founded AIDSCARE, a non-profit organization that helps people with HIV and AIDS live independently.
   From 1971 to 1976, Flosi served as assistant pastor at St. Hubert in Hoffman Estates, then served at Holy Name. From 1985 to 1988, he was an associate pastor at St. Luke in River Forest. From 1989 to 1990, he was an associate pastor at St. Gertrude in Franklin Park. And from 1990 to 1992, he was an associate pastor at St. Giles in Oak Park.
• Priest's 4,000 Child Porn Images [2000s Campbell] - RCC. Girl porn.

   News & Star, Mar/03/2005
   SCOTLAND - A parish priest who became obsessed with child porn websites and downloaded more than 4,000 pictures of young girls has escaped a prison sentence.
   But Father George Campbell, who stood down from his duties at St Columba's in Annan, when his home was raided by police, was yesterday placed on probation for three years, ordered to carry out 250 hours community service, and placed on the sex offenders register for three years.
   Sheriff Kenneth Ross at Dumfries heard that Campbell had indicated to the police that he did not access the websites for sexual gratification but through a morbid curiosity that developed into an obsession.
   Deputy procurator fiscal Jennifer McGill said the pictures were of girls under 16 in naked or erotic poses, but none showing any sex with adults.
   Some of the sites visited carried titles such as "Hot Girls Photos" and "Young Strawberry".
• Diocese: Priest owes $1.2M [Kelly, Nolin] - RCC. Funds missing.
   Cape Cod Times, By AMANDA LEHMERT, ~ March 3, 2005
   CAPE COD (MA) - The Fall River Diocese is seeking $1.2 million from a former Falmouth priest accused of embezzling funds from two Cape Cod churches, according to court documents filed yesterday.
   The Rev. Bernard Kelly, first investigated by police in 2003 for his relationship with convicted murderer Paul Nolin, is being sued in civil court by the diocese and Bishop George Coleman for allegedly misusing parish money from Our Lady of Lourdes in Wellfleet and St. Joseph's in Woods Hole while he was pastor.
   Yesterday, the court set a trial date in August, although both parties are trying to settle the case in the next 30 to 60 days, according to court papers.
   Kelly's troubles were compounded yesterday when Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said his office's criminal investigation into Kelly's alleged larceny is nearly complete and is likely to be sent to a Barnstable grand jury soon.
   Kelly, ordained in 1961, spent much of his career at Cape and islands churches. He worked at parishes in Hyannis and Martha's Vineyard, then became pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes from 1988 to 1997 before moving to the Woods Hole parish.
   In fall 2003, police pressured Kelly for information about the death of Jonathan Wessner of Falmouth. Nolin, who had connections to Kelly, was eventually convicted of murdering Wessner.
   Kelly resigned as St. Joseph's pastor in 2003 several weeks after Coleman placed him on leave.
   Kelly was introduced to Nolin, a convicted sex offender, through fellow priest and Mashpee resident the Rev. Donald Turlick. Investigators allege that Nolin and Kelly had a sexual relationship; Kelly has denied it.
• Perv not high risk, doc says [? 1990s-2000s Hands] - RCC. Trolling internet for more. Boy.
   New York Daily News, BY LAURA WILLIAMS, ~ March 3, 2005
   LONG ISLAND (NY) - A defrocked priest convicted of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy should not be considered a dangerous sexual predator, according to testimony in a hearing yesterday.
   The risk-assessment hearing was held in Suffolk Criminal Court in Riverhead to determine whether Michael Hands, 38, should be listed as a Level 2 or Level 3 sex offender.
   Hands is listed as a Level 2 offender in Nassau, but Suffolk prosecutors want him classified Level 3 - at the highest risk for reoffending - in their county.
   Hands served 15 months in jail after pleading guilty to sodomy and other charges in Nassau and Suffolk. He befriended the 14-year-old's family while serving as parish priest in Northport and later in East Meadow. Hands was employed by the Diocese of Rockville Centre at the time.
   But Hands did not just abuse the 14-year-old, said prosecutor Donald Mates, who painted a portrait of a repeat, high-risk offender.
   "He was trolling for more underage victims, visiting offshore Web sites, searching out sexual partners," Mates said.
• Catholics urged to stay vigilant in battle against child sex abuse - RCC.
   Plain Dealer, by David Briggs, Plain Dealer Religion Reporter, Thursday, March 03, 2005
   CLEVELAND (OH) - People in the pews were kept in the dark for half a century.
   Now it is up to average Catholics to hold their church accountable to protect children from sexual abuse, the former head of the national lay review board monitoring the church's response to the scandal said Wednesday.
   "Raise some hell. . . . Be vigilant. Be outspoken. And demand transparency," Illinois Appellate Justice Anne Burke said in an impassioned speech at the St. Joseph Center in Cleveland. "No more passive Catholics. That is my mantra now."
   Burke served on the lay review board appointed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from June 2002 until her term ended last November. She was interim chairwoman from July 2003 until she left the board. Her talk Wednesday was sponsored by FutureChurch, a national independent lay Catholic group based in Cleveland.
   Burke said if she were to write a book about her experiences, it would be titled "Asleep at the Switch," or "Who's Running this Joint?"
   Yet even after what she called the "cataclysmic failure" of bishops to protect children or care for abuse victims, there still are many church leaders who want to return to the way things were, she said.
• As trials near, talks pick up in church sex scandal [O'Shea] - RCC. Police told RCC in 1994.
   San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Thursday, March 3, 2005
   SAN FRANCISCO (CA) - It has been nearly 11 years since San Francisco police told Roman Catholic Church leaders that Monsignor Patrick O'Shea, one of the city's most politically connected Catholic priests, faced multiple allegations of child sexual abuse.
   That police notification -- on March 10, 1994 -- set off a pedophilia scandal that could soon cost the Catholic Church in the Bay Area more than $100 million.
   O'Shea, now 72, has been jailed, released, defrocked, convicted of embezzling church funds, jailed again, released again and repeatedly sued over the past decade. Dozens more Northern California priests have been accused of child sexual abuse and removed from public ministry.
   The ultimate cost of the abuse scandal hinges on settlement negotiations being held this week at the Concord Convention Center. Pushing the talks are trial dates Monday for lawsuits against the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which includes Marin and San Mateo counties, and the Diocese of Oakland, made up of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
• A church in crisis [1980 Robinson, Toldedo Diocese] - RCC. Files withheld allegation. Nun.
   Toledo Blade, ~ March 3, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - THIS is a tough time to be a Catholic in Toledo. Sexual abuse by priests has rocked the church to its foundation, nationally and locally. Another priest is charged with murdering a nun in a bizarre ritualistic crime 25 years ago at a local hospital. Dwindling enrollment and membership has forced the bishop to close several schools and churches.
   So it would seem foolish to aggravate the substantial public relations damage that has already been done to the Catholic Diocese of Toledo by engaging in conduct that suggests the church has been less than forthcoming in the police investigation of the slaying in 1980 of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, or in the broader inquiry into criminal activity in the diocese.
   But Toledo police believe they have been stymied in their attempts to examine all records pertaining to Father Gerald Robinson, who is accused of the murder.
   Authorities believe that information and files have been withheld perhaps out of a sense of obligation to Canon 489 of the Catholic Church, which requires that a secret archive be maintained for the storage of records related to allegations of crimes committed by clerics. [Bolding added.]
• Woman settles Nome clergy abuse case [1978-83 Poole] - RCC. Girl.
   Fairbanks News-Miner, By MARY BETH SMETZER, ~ March 03, 2005
   ALASKA - A settlement in the $1 million range has been reached in a child sexual abuse case against Father Jim Poole -- who founded radio station KNOM in Nome -- as well as the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese and the Society of Jesus Oregon Province said Ken Roosa, the attorney for Elsie Boudreau, formerly identified as Jane Doe 1.
   Monday, lawyers on both sides of the case signed off on a binding agreement for a settlement that is still being worked out, Roosa said.
   "We're working on it. I don't know anything more than that," Roosa said. "All we've got to be is be patient."
   Boudreau claims Poole sexually abused her repeatedly from the time she was 10 until she was 16 years old.
   A year ago this month, Boudreau sued Poole, a Jesuit who worked 40 years in Alaska.
   Boudreau accused Poole of kissing and fondling her dozens of times, starting in 1978, during summer visits to Nome, and continuing until she was 16. The abuse included heavy petting and having her lie on top of him, the lawsuit stated.
• Church Loses Harassment Suit [? 2000s Lusk] - Lutheran. $US1.3m. Sexual advances to woman.
   Washington Post, By Eric Rich, Page B01, Thursday, March 3, 2005
   GAITHERSBURG (MD) - A jury awarded $1.35 million yesterday to a woman who said she was driven from her job as music director at a Lutheran church in Gaithersburg and pushed nearly to the brink of suicide by a pastor whose alleged sexual advances she had rebuffed.
   Mary Linklater alleged that she was ostracized from Prince of Peace Lutheran Church because of a campaign of retaliatory harassment by its pastor at the time, the Rev. Rufus S. Lusk III, and his allies. Linklater, 46, contended in a lawsuit that after she complained about Lusk's conduct, he delivered a series of sermons intended to discredit her by focusing on such topics as the sinful nature of bearing false witness.
   The jury in Montgomery County Circuit Court awarded $1 million in punitive damages and $300,000 in compensatory damages against Lusk, finding that Linklater was the victim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
   The jury, which deliberated for two days, also awarded $50,000 in compensatory damages against the church.
   Attorneys on both sides said they were surprised by the size of the award. Linklater, a Germantown resident who now gives private music lessons, said she, too, was stunned by the outcome.
• Fall River Diocese sues priest for $1.2 million [Kelly, Nolin] - RCC. Funds missing. Homosexuality.
   Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 3, 2005
   BARNSTABLE, Mass.- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River is seeking $1.2 million in a lawsuit filed against a former priest accused of embezzling funds from two Cape Cod churches.
   The Rev. Bernard Kelly is being sued by the diocese and Bishop George Coleman for allegedly misusing parish money from Our Lady of Lourdes in Wellfleet and St. Joseph's in Falmouth while he was pastor.
   Meanwhile, the criminal investigation into Kelly is almost complete and is likely to be sent a grand jury soon, said Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe.
   Kelly, first investigated by police in 2003 for his relationship with convicted murderer Paul Nolin, has spent much of his career at Cape and island churches. He worked in Hyannis and Martha's Vineyard before becoming pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes from 1988 to 1997, when he moved to St. Joseph's.
   The alleged embezzlement first came to light in 2003 when authorities were investigating the murder of Jonathan Wessner of Falmouth. Kelly had a relationship with Paul Nolin, who was eventually convicted of killing Wessner. Kelly hired Nolin to work at the Falmouth church.
   Investigators alleged that Nolin and Kelly had a sexual relationship, which Kelly has denied.
• Integrated child protection for Maitland-Newcastle Diocese - RCC.

   CathNews (from Church Resources, Australia), ~ March 3, 2005
   AUSTRALIA - Bishop Michael Malone has announced that the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle will establish a diocesan-wide child protection unit that will address the problem that there are many agencies, groups and individuals with different needs and varying resources.
   "The area of child protection is extremely complex," Bishop Malone told the Aurora diocesan newspaper, "and the effects of child protection issues are far-reaching.
   "I am very conscious that there is a need to develop and preserve high levels of trust in all of our dealings with children. It's one of the fundamentals of the church's mission; it affects all areas."
   Bishop Malone acknowledged that breaches of trust on the part of individuals have a devastating effect on victims, families and communities and have set back the mission of the church immeasurably.
• Griffin: What Paul Shanley faces now [Shanley] - RCC.
   Transcript, By Richard Griffin/ Growing older, Thursday, March 3, 2005
   BOSTON (MA) - I feel sorry for Paul Shanley. This does not prevent me from feeling sorrow and deep outrage on behalf of his victims.
   I also admire the courage of Shanley's accuser whose testimony led to his tormentor's conviction. He persevered on the stand despite the emotional turmoil he clearly had to endure. Tempted more than once to abandon his case, the unnamed firefighter managed to fight on.
   Shanley has been sentenced to a prison term that will last at least until 2013. For him, this will make for an unhappy old age, to say the least. Not without reason, his victims feel this sentence altogether too lenient for what he did to them.
   I first met Paul Shanley in 1962 at the parish in Stoneham, where he was one of the priests on the ministerial staff. He impressed me, not only with his personal charm, but also with his dedication to ministry. There was nothing to show that, as was later alleged, he may have been already engaged in sexual abuse of young people.
• Priest scheduled for sentencing [1970s Benham] - RCC.
   Gazette, by Jill Murphy, Mar. 3, 2005
   MARYLAND - When Francis A. Benham takes his seat in court for sentencing on Friday, more than 20 years will have passed since his victims last faced the priest they say sexually abused them as children.
   Their last encounter with Benham occurred in the 1970s at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Forestville, but their memory continues to be haunted.
   As a 13-year-old girl, one of Benham's victims played folk guitar in the church band. Her mother taught religion classes and her father served as an usher on Sundays. Her brothers were altar servers.
   But in 1979, she revealed almost two years of oral sex and sodomy with Benham to her parents, according to charging documents.
   "He betrayed all of us," the victim's mother said in an interview. "She idolized him. He manipulated her mind while everyone was telling her what a great person he was." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:57 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu, March 03, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont110.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed. Transparency, compassion, but did not report abuser. [1962-79 Adderley, ~ 1972 Johnston, ? 1960s-70s, 2005 Holohan]

The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), "Transparency, compassion, our goals," p 7, March 3, 2005
On Wednesday this week Bishop Gerard Holohan of Bunbury released the following statement about further allegations against former clergy appearing in the West Australian newspaper.

Bishop Holohan

   BUNBURY (W. Australia): The West Australian last Saturday (26 February 2005) reported further allegations of abuse against two priests who previously worked in the Bunbury Diocese. This report will give rise to deep concern to all in our diocese. The purpose of this Statement is to give what background information I can.
Newspaper allegations of wrong doing by priests
   A number of people have commented to me about their distress at recent newspaper reports alleging sexual abuse against children by two priests who once worked in this diocese. I can certainly understand their feelings. However I believe it is necessary far the diocese to face up to any past wrong doing if it
   First, healing is fundamental to the mission of the Church, for it was founded by Jesus Christ, the Healer. If in fact there are genuine victims of sex abuse by diocesan personnel - ordained or non-ordained - it would be a good thing if these people could come forward and we can assist them towards their healing.
   Second, Jesus made clear that his Church is for sinners who know their need for God [eg Mark 2:15-17]. In the Bunbury Diocese, Church personnel - present and past, ordained and non-ordained - have done fantastic work in a spirit of genuine service. However, if one or two Church personnel in the past have indeed misused their positions of trust to abuse others, I believe the diocese must be transparent about this.
   Third, all Church personnel serving today in the Bunbury diocese - ordained and non-ordained - are people of great integrity. The Diocese has never received an allegation of any kind against any of them. If there had been, Church regulations since the 1990s would have required their removal from ministry.
The Church's response to victims of the past
   Across Australia, I am told that between half and one percent of priests over the decades have been accused of sexual abuse. The percentage of religious brothers is higher. The percentage is higher still in other sections in our society. The percentage of married people n involved means that there is no relationship between sex abuse and j celibacy.
   One could be forgiven for being surprised that 99 percent of priests have been without blemish in this regard. Media reporting of past cases, without any acknowledgement of the great good done by the 99 percent of our priests over the decades, has certainly damaged the priesthood and the Church.
   The Church's response in this situation has been the Towards Healing process.
   It has two aims.
   The first is the swift dismissal of any Church personnel who is guilty of allegations of abuse. The second is to assist the healing of any victim.
The Investigation of claims
   From the Church's point of view, the best option for anyone with a claim of abuse against an ordained or non-ordained Church worker is that they go to the Police. The Police have the authority, skills and experience to thoroughly investigate such claims. The Police are completely independent from the Church. Going to the Police is the fairest way of dealing with all allegations, and is in the best interests of all parties.
   Some people, however, cannot face the publicity of a court trial that may be the result of a Police investigation. They do not want to go to the Police. To assist these people, the Church, as part of its Towards Healing process, finances a Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG) to investigate their allegations.
   The PSRG is at arm's length from the Church. Obviously, it would be ideal if the Church was not funding this group as this funding might lead some to question its total independence. However, there is no other source of funding, and the Church needs the PSRG as part of its Towards Healing process. The PSRG operates on the basis of guaranteeing complete confidentiality to all parties. Without this, people would not be forthcoming.
   However, this guarantee can leave the Church in a vulnerable position if someone is unhappy with any outcome, or unhappy with the process itself. They can make claims to which the Church cannot reply.
   This leaves the Church looking as though it has something to hide under the cloak of confidentiality. However, the Church must continue with the PSRG process as it has helped so many people across Australia since the 1990s. The healing of victims is more important than avoiding pain for the Church.
   The confidentiality provisions of the Professional Standards process have limited seriously my ability to respond to recent allegations by Mr Alan Rowe. This would not have been a problem if he had gone first to the Police, rather than after Fr Johnston had retired.
The healing process
   Any claim by a victim for compensation from the Church must be treated by the Church on its merits with regard to principles of law.
   However, where there is no legal liability, there remains a moral obligation on the Church to assist genuine victims of abuse towards their healing. For this purpose, the PSRG employs skilled professionals to assist the Church with assessing how it can help people towards healing.
   A diocese or religious order does whatever it reasonably can to help a genuine victim. This may include an ex-gratia payment for healing purposes. The payment is not compensation in the legal sense, for no legal liability is involved.
Fr Kevin Johnston
   In 1997-1998, a PSRG investigation was conducted into an allegation made against Fr Kevin Johnston by Mr Alan Rowe. As stated in my Statement of 16 February 2005:
   Fr Johnston denied the allegation This situation is one person's word against another. Contrary to what was claimed in the West, the diocese is in no position to confirm or deny the allegation - nor has it ever done so.
   Prior to Mr Rowe's allegation, no other allegation had been received by the Diocese against Fr Johnston. Now the West claims that two more people are making allegations anonymously against Fr Johnston. I have seen no evidence that these people have indeed made allegation. I have no idea, if they did indeed make allegations, whether there is any truth to their claims.
   However, I do know that their claims have not been investigated by the PSRG. And it is not easy to accept that anyone would be reluctant to go to the Police if they felt free to make allegations to a newspaper journalist.
Dr Bert Adderley
   Two complaints were made against Dr Adderley in 1974. As I told the West, the Bishop of the time, Bishop Myles McKeon, had received no complaints prior to these, despite the suggestion to the contrary in the West. He has been insistent on this point in discussion with me.
   After an investigation of these complaints, Dr Adderley was dismissed and expelled from the diocese. The complainants did not want to follow the Police route. To the best of my knowledge, he then undertook librarian studies and worked in a library until his death in the early 1980s.
   I considered telling the diocese about Dr Adderley after I found out about him myself. However, I was persuaded not to do so by professionals in the area of child abuse. They told me that if there were to be any other victims, my naming him could do these people great psychological damage. I am sorry that the West feels no such constraint. I have followed this advice, despite my own preference for transparency.
The hurt to others
   My thoughts now are first with any unknown victims of Dr Adderley, particularly given the advice I received. His public naming must be a source of renewed pain for them, as well as for the victims who are known.
   Second, I very much feel for the friends of Dr Adderley. Learning about his crimes from the West will have been a painful and disillusioning experience.
   I feel too for our priests, especially those who knew Dr Adderley. Some have already expressed sorrow and hurt. Others fear what people may think about priests in general. It is never easy to hear about the crimes of others we thought we knew.
Conclusion
   I hope that we do not learn that there are more anonymous allegations of any kind in the West against priests who served in the Bunbury Diocese. It is particularly frustrating that the paper requires no Police or other objective investigation into claims before they are reported to the general public.
   I hope that, if there are any more claims, the above background will prove helpful to Catholics. If there are unknown victims of sex abuse in the diocese whom we can help, I hope that they will call the Professional Standards Office (1800 072 390).
   Finally, the present experience is particularly unpleasant far the priests and people of our diocese. Let us support one another, and speak freely of our concerns and feelings to each other. None of us today has anything to be ashamed of: we too are victims of events of the past
   And let us all thank God for the wonderful service provided by present and past priests in the Diocese of Bunbury. Let us never fail to appreciate the great work of such men for our people because of allegations against one or two. [Bolding added]
   [COMMENT: "Events of the past"? "None of us today has anything to be ashamed of"? On January 21, 2003, it was reported in the Sunday Times Online http://www. sundaytimes. news.com.au/ common/story _page/0, 7034, 5870079%255 E2761,00.html, "Catholic priest admits indecent dealing," that in the Bunbury Diocese, with the Most Rev. Gerard Holohan as bishop, Father Adrian Richard van Klooster, 60, of Australind, formerly of New South Wales, and before that of Holland, admitted sliding naked around the floor of an Australind home with naked children in February 2002. He allegedly also took digital photographs and photocopies of the naked children.
   It's in "the past" if you decide that right up to a second ago is in the past -- but it's in the current reign of Bishop Holohan, who by his previous statement that the RC Church didn't understand such matters has put himself all square with the corrupt "see no evil" clergy in other States and countries.
   "One or two"? So, with Fr Johnston, Dr Adderley, and Fr van Klooster that makes three! He can't even count. How many others have been hidden by the "compassion" of the senior clergy, such as the now-Bishop Holohan showed by not even telling Church leaders, let alone the Police?
   "Transparency, compassion" -- but not for the victims! COMMENT ENDS.] [Mar 3, 05]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri, March 04, 2005 edition follows:-
• Priest Who Admitted To Molestation To Spend Time In Treatment Center [1995 Hopkins] - Altar boy.

   NBC 10, www.nbc10.com/ news/4255191/ detail.html , UPDATED: 3:57 pm EST March 4, 2005
   PENNSAUKEN, N.J. -- It was judgment day for a former Catholic priest who admitted to molesting a 10-year-old boy nearly a decade ago.
   Under a plea deal, James Hopkins was sentenced Friday to eight years in a special treatment center for sex offenders.
   Hopkins, 61, will serve his time at the adult diagnostic treatment center in Avenel, N.J.
   "I don't know if any amount of time can take away from the amount of pain already caused," said Catherine Norton, James Norton's mother.
   Hopkins admitted to fondling the victim -- now 20 years old -- at the boy's home in Pennsauken in the summer of 1995. Jonathan Norton was an altar boy at St. Peter's Church in Merchantville at the time. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:30 PM]
• Former Oaklyn Priest Sentenced For Sex Assault [1995 Hopkins] - Altar boy.
   CBS 3, 1:51 pm US/Eastern, Mar 4, 2005
   CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) A judge in Camden County sentenced a defrocked Catholic priest to eight years in prison Thursday for sexually assaulting a former altar boy ten years ago.
   James Hopkins admitted fondling the then-ten-year-old at Saint Aloysius Church in Oaklyn.
   The allegations against Hopkins surfaced near the height of a national scandal revolving around sexual abuse by clergy in 2002. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:24 PM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri, March 04, 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, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat, March 05, 2005 edition follows:-
• Justice is halted at the border [Paquin, Shanley, Iguabita, Desilets, Geoghan] - RCC. Altar boys.

   MetroWest Daily News, www.metrowest dailynews.com/ localRegional/ view.bg?article id=92419 , By Sara Withee, for Sunday, March 6, 2005
   MASSACHUSETTS - As allegations began, four priests became quick symbols of the Archdiocese of Boston's unfolding clergy sex abuse scandal: Ronald Paquin, Paul Shanley, Kevin Iguabita and Paul Desilets.
   Among the first to face public allegations in the wake of former priest John Geoghan's sex abuse trial in 2002, the four were also linked by their inability to escape prosecution through statutes of limitations.
   Paquin, a former Haverhill priest charged with raping an altar boy, was sentenced first in January 2003. Iguabita was convicted that summer of raping a 15-year-old girl from his Haverhill parish.
   Shanley, meanwhile, met his fate last month when he was convicted of child rape during a widely watched trial in Middlesex Superior Court. The 74-year-old former Newton priest is now serving 12 to 15 years in state prison.
   Desilets is the only one who remains free. The 81-year-old has spent the past three years in Canada, fighting extradition on 32 charges of sexually abusing and assaulting altar boys at Assumption parish in Bellingham.
   It's a fight expected to stretch on at least a few more months -- news that comes hard for the now-grown altar boys who have spent several decades awaiting justice. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 11:56 PM]
• Covington Diocese plans layoffs to cut costs - RCC.

   WKYT, www.wkyt.com/ Global/story. asp?S=3035090 , ~ March 05, 2005
   ERLANGER, Ky. -- The Covington Diocese plans to lay off some workers this summer as it continues to cut costs while paying out millions to settle sexual-abuse claims.
   The plans were announced by Bishop Roger Foys in Friday's edition of the diocesan newspaper, The Messenger. The layoffs are necessary considering the financial situation of the diocese, Foys wrote.
   Diocesan spokesman and Messenger editor Tim Fitzgerald wouldn't elaborate on what financial situation Foys was referring to in the article.
• Dioceses must cover €50m abuse claims - RCC. €50m.

   The Sunday Business Post, By Kieron Wood, 06 March 2005
   IRELAND - Ireland's Catholic Bishops will meet in Maynooth next week to decide how best to raise new funds to meet the expected €50 million bill for clerical sex abuse victims.
   Nine years ago, the bishops set up the Stewardship Trust Fund to compensate victims of clerical sex abuse. The trust, which is run by the Archbishops of Armagh, Cashel, Dublin and Tuam, received an initial €4.3 million from the Catholic Church's insurers, Church & General.
   Three years later, the insurer agreed to pay up to a further €6.3 million into the trust. Existing funds are now about to run out because of the volume of claims and Allianz insurance is shortly expected to top up the fund with "several million euro" to meet new claims.
• Advocates, critics review Catholic abuse policy - RCC.
   Newsday, BY CAROL EISENBERG, March 5, 2005
   UNITED STATES - It was every school official's worst nightmare.
   At 4:20 p.m. on a late January school day, a fax came to Manatee Schools Superintendent Roger Dearing in Bradenton, Fla., warning that one of his assistant principals had been accused of molesting two boys while a Catholic seminarian 30 years earlier.
   By 4:45, Dearing had placed the longtime educator on administrative leave. Within two days, the assistant principal had resigned.
   Why weren't those allegations -- contained in a civil lawsuit in Massachusetts and a complaint to the Portland, Maine, Diocese -- known to Dearing?
   Victims' advocates say that's one of the largest holes in the so-called "one strike and you're out" policy adopted by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops in June 2002, and now under review in the United States and Rome.
   "If a bishop asked me, 'What is the quickest, cheapest, most effective step I could take to protect the safety of children today,' I would tell them that it would simply be to put the names of the known and suspected molesters up on diocesan Web sites," said David Clohessy, national president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
• Cases against ex-Naples priest settled for $1.5 million [1970s Romero] - RCC. $US1.5 m.
   Sun-Sentinel, The Associated Press, Posted March 5 2005
   NAPLES (FL) - Three sexual misconduct cases against a former Catholic priest have been settled in recent months for $1.5 million, the victims' lawyer said.
   Five lawsuits are known to have been filed against William Romero, who served at the St. Ann parish in Naples during the mid-1970s and the Archdiocese of Miami. But attorney Ted Zelman said more victims would be found had archdiocese officials conducted a full investigation.
   "I believe they acknowledge what had happened," Zelman said. "But as far as really accepting their culpability, that didn't occur."
   Church officials say they've exhausted efforts to root out potential Romero victims and their investigations are shut.
   Romero, 68, retired in 1995 and resigned from the clergy in 2003 after allegations resurfaced.
• Priests' victims finding closure [Albany Diocese] - RCC. Boys.
   Albany Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, First published: Monday, February 28, 2005
   ALBANY (NY) -- On the surface, the two men couldn't be more different.
   One, a 59-year-old professional, left the area years ago for sunnier climes out West and has been gainfully employed ever since.
   The other, a 47-year-old who still lives in the Capital Region, once aspired to the priesthood but hasn't been able to keep a job for very long.
   What they share is the experience of having been sexually abused as boys by priests. By the time they turned 13, their innocence and faith were long gone.
   The two men are among the first seven to receive monetary compensation from an independent mediation program.
   The initiative, overseen by retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine, was commissioned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany last year as a way to handle abuse allegations independently.
• The Word From Rome - RCC trying to get US Administration to stifle court case!

   National Catholic Reporter, "The Word from Rome" segment, www.national catholicreporter .org/word , By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., ~ March 05, 2005
   VATICAN CITY - NCR broke a story this week about a request from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in their Feb. 8 meeting, asking the State Department to intervene in a lawsuit in Kentucky seeking to hold the Vatican responsible for clerical sexual abuse in the United States.
   Though most legal experts describe the lawsuit as a long shot -- both because of the Holy See's status as a sovereign state and on First Amendment grounds, in addition to the fact that the Holy See is not directly involved in the supervision of clergy -- the Sodano request nevertheless reflects concern that the Vatican could be exposed to the sort of crippling payments that American dioceses have been forced to make.
• Bishop apologizes for priest's actions [1970s Warren] - RCC. Girl.
   Toledo Blade, ~ March 05, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - Bishop Leonard Blair, in an unprecedented public letter, apologized to hundreds of members of a West Toledo Catholic parish for the actions of a former priest removed from ministry for allegedly sexually abusing young girls in the 1970s.
   The letter was mailed this week to parishioners at St. Pius X Church as part of a legal settlement between the diocese, the parish, and Teresa Bombrys, 43, who accused former associate pastor Chet Warren of molesting her when she was a student at the parish's grade school.
   The bishop wrote that Ms. Bombrys' complaint was investigated by the diocese and "determined to be credible."
   "On behalf of the Diocese of Toledo and Saint Pius X Parish, I apologize to Teresa Bombrys for the harm she suffered," the bishop stated. "I continue to pray for her and all the other innocent victims of sexual abuse and ask your prayers as well as those who have been harmed."
   In addition to the letter - the first of its kind ever sent by the Toledo diocese - the bishop plans to preside at a healing Mass at the church sometime later this year, Sally Oberski, diocesan spokesman, said.
• Bishop has chance to make diocese honest, accountable [Clark] - RCC.
   The Argus, By Dan McNEVIN, ~ March 05, 2005
   OAKLAND (CA) - ON Feb. 24, The Argus broke a story about the Catholic Diocese of Oakland's duplicity in moving a convicted sexual felon to Niles, where he allegedly abused at least three altar boys, "Church knew of pastor's sex past."
   When diocese spokesman Father Mark Wiesner was asked why The Rev. James Clark's personnel file did not contain records of his arrest, probation or court-ordered psychiatric care, Wiesner said he "could think of no reason why the information about Clark's conviction would have been excluded."
   He went on to say: "But the church of 40 years ago is not the church of today," implying today's church would not hide or destroy such data.
   At best, Wiesner is mistaken. At worst, he continues a tradition of deceit.
   To wit: Former Oakland Chancellor and Vicar General George Crespin was featured recently in The Dallas Morning News ("Why DA Bill Hill Should Be Wary," Feb. 15). In a deposition the News excerpted, Crespin admitted keeping records of abusive priests clear of their personnel files. He said his lawyers directed that behavior.
   Reportedly, Crespin was in charge of investigating sex abuse allegations leveled against the diocese, and until 1994 was second in command to the bishop.
   [COMMENT: Look up the scripture. Jesus Christ is written up there as the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he said he would be with his flock all days, even to the end of the age. And the Church is said to be the pillar and ground of the truth, and to be spotless and without wrinkle. So, where does that leave the sex-abusing Churches? Whom do they serve? COMMENT ENDS.]
• Orthodox Clergy Demand Resignation of Leaders Involved in Scandals - Greek Orthodox Church. Embezzlement, corruption and sex.

   Christian Today, ~ March 05, 2005
   GREECE The Greek Orthodox Church is under pressure from a sweeping change of Church leadership amid investigations of overwhelming scandals on sex and finance among senior clergymen.
   The controversy began in early February. Since then the Greek Orthodox Church, the official state religion of Greece, has been stunned by continuous allegations of embezzlement, corruption and sexual escapades. The Holy Synod, governing body of the Church, therefore met in Athens on 18-19 February to endorse a major emergency reform in the wake of the scandal.
   The head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, made an apology to the whole nation regarding all the embarrassing misbehaviours of priests and senior clerics. Financial administration has been reinforced and a council to regulate ethical problems of clergymen has been set up.
   Unfortunately, the apology has not been able to ease the Church out of public and cleric outrage, and calls have been continuous for the resignation of leaders involved in the scandal.
• Vatican asked Rice for help in sex case: - RCC asks for courts to be set aside!

   New Kerala, By ERIC J.LYMAN, March 4, 2005
   VATICAN CITY [World News]: Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to intervene on the behalf of the Holy See during Rice's recent visit to Rome, a request that Rice declined.
   Speculation that such requests are commonly made behind closed doors is common, but confirmation is unusual. The story of Sodano's request was first brought to light by the National Catholic Reporter on Friday and confirmed to United Press International by Vatican sources.
   The request came on Feb. 8, a time that 84-year-old Pope John Paul II, who is already slowed by severe arthritis and Parkinson's disease was forced to cancel his meeting with Rice while in the hospital for breathing-related problems. The aged pontiff left the hospital two days after that, but re-entered on Feb. 24 and has been in intensive care since then after undergoing an emergency tracheotomy to relieve serious breathing problems.
• Polygamous church may pull up roots [Jeffs] - Fundamentalist Church of LDS.
   Rocky Mountain News, By Travis Reed, Associated Press, March 5, 2005
   HILDALE, Utah - No one in this secluded polygamous town along the Arizona border is necessarily sure what it will look like a month from now. They don't know where they will live, who will live with them or whether they will be torn from their families and neighbors and uprooted two states away.
   Or, if they do know, they're not saying. And neither is the man who will make that decision for them, the reclusive prophet of the polygamous Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who reportedly is building a heavily fortified compound in Texas where he and his closest supporters will live.
   "I'm not in a position where I would know much about it, so I don't know that I could really comment one way or the other," said church member David Zitting, who also is Hildale's mayor.
   Observers of the church, however, are convinced that church prophet Warren Jeffs, who has a reported 50 to 70 wives, is culling his flock and preparing the most devout followers for the move to Texas to avoid prosecution in Utah on allegations of forced child marriages, sexual abuse, welfare fraud and tax evasion.
• Catholic Center to lay off 15 - RCC. 23% of staff losing jobs. $US10.5m gone.
   Cincinnati Enquirer, By Jim Hannah, March 5, 2005
   ERLANGER (KY) - - The Covington Diocese said Friday that it plans to lay off 23 percent of the Catholic Center staff this summer as it continues to cut costs while paying out millions to settle sexual-abuse claims.
   The 15 employees to be laid off June 30 are among 65 full- and part-time employees at the Catholic Center, a sprawling campus of buildings off Donaldson Road that serves as home to 26 administrative and pastoral offices.
   The diocesan newspaper, The Messenger, published an article Friday saying the "actions are necessary in light of the financial situation of the diocese." Diocesan spokesman and Messenger editor Tim Fitzgerald wouldn't elaborate on what financial situation Bishop Roger Foys was referring to in the article.
   The Messenger article chronicled how much had been spent to settle 55 sexual-abuse claims since September 2003. The total amount of those settlements was $10.5 million. The diocese's insurance paid $6.5 million toward the settlements.
   The diocese paid the remaining amount, which almost matches what the diocese has previously reported as its annual revenue.
• Where will the money come from? [Oakland Diocese] - RCC.
   Contra Costa Times, ~ March 5, 2005
   OAKLAND (CA) - Church insurance companies most likely will bear the burden of paying potential settlements and verdicts facing the Oakland Diocese. But the diocese will shoulder some of the cost.
   Mark Wiesner said it's too early to say how the diocese will pay its portion of damages or whether that will entail selling church assets.
   "We don't really know the numbers yet," Wiesner said.
   Plans for building an estimated $131 million cathedral in Oakland probably won't be affected because the mostly lay-driven effort relies on private donations, said Lee Nordlund, spokesman for the Cathedral of Christ the Light Project.
• Two of 150 sex abuse claims against dioceses head to trial [Oakland Diocese] - RCC. > 150 cases.
   Contra Costa Times, By Randy Myers, ~ March 5, 2005
   OAKLAND (CA) - Two landmark sex abuse trials involving the Oakland Diocese are slated to get under way next week.
   The trials stem from more than 150 sex abuse cases brought against Northern California dioceses in 2002 and 2003.
   One in San Francisco heads to trial Monday, while a trial involving a priest who served in at least five parishes in Alameda and Contra Costa counties may be delayed two days.
   Stephen McFeely, an attorney for the diocese, said Friday that a mandatory settlement conference ordered by Alameda County Judge Ronald Sabraw, who has been presiding over the 150 cases in pretrial hearings, puts the Oakland Diocese trial on hold. But Larry Drivon, who is one of the lead plaintiff attorneys, said it could begin Monday.
   Only nine others among the 150-plus Northern California cases have trial dates so far.
   "I'd expect some fireworks from those 11," predicts Dan McNevin of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests.
• Diocese has new voice in Oakland - RCC.
   Contra Costa Times, March 5, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - The Rev. Mark Wiesner is finding many ways to develop his speaking skills, and he enjoys all of them
   WHAT HE'S READING: Recently finished "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix;" now reading "Warrior of the Light" by Paulo Coelho and "Wildmen, Warriors and Kings" by Patrick M. Arnold
   Speaking the Faith is a monthly conversation with an East Bay religious leader.
   This month, Times staff writer Randy Myers speaks with the Rev. Mark Wiesner, priest at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Oakland. In January he became the communications director of the Oakland Diocese, which encompasses Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wiesner was ordained in 1995 and took over at St. Augustine a year ago. He also heads up the Ruach Players, a traveling musical theater troupe that performs "Godspell" as well as a Christmas cabaret show in the Bay Area.
   The last few weeks Wiesner's eight-hour-a-week job as diocesan spokesman has been especially busy. He's been answering inquiries about the Pope and about settlement talks in the Diocese's sexual abuse cases in advance of Monday's trial date in one case.
• Ex-church members keep open mind in pastor's case [14 yrs Neathery] - RCC. Boys.
   The Dallas Morning News, By JEFF MOSIER, Friday, March 4, 2005
   FORT WORTH (TX) - Former members of Westside Victory Baptist Church describe their ex-pastor as a happy and God-fearing man who delivered doughnuts to neighbors and presided over a close-knit congregation of a few dozen.
   Since last spring, however, the virtuous and cheerful image of Larry Neathery has been called into question. In April, he was arrested and then indicted on a charge of indecency with a child. Five more boys he's accused of molesting and eight more charges were added to the case in late December.
   Now he's facing nine charges of molesting young boys over a 14-year period and remains in the Tarrant County Jail in lieu of $950,000 bail. The indictments range from indecent exposure to aggravated sexual assault of a child.
   "I'm pretty certain that he's not guilty, but at the same time, everyone has faults," said former church member Jim Hughes. "We don't know what people do in their secret lives."
   Mr. Neathery's attorney, Tiffany Lewis, could not be reached for comment last week, but she has previously said her client is innocent. The families of those Mr. Neathery is accused of molesting could not be found for comment.
   The current pastor of Westside Victory Baptist Church, where Mr. Neathery served for more than a dozen years, was guarded about his assessment of the charges.
   "We're not his judge," said Ron Bridges, who served as pastor alongside Mr. Neathery for several years. "God is his judge."
• Ex-priest sentenced for abuse 25 years ago [1980 Benham] - RCC. Boy, girl.
   The Washington Times, By Jon Ward, March 4, 2005
   MARYLAND - A former Catholic priest from Forestville was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison for molesting a 15-year-old boy and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl.
   The sentencing follows a guilty plea in December by the ex-priest, Francis A. Benham, who committed the acts 25 years ago.
   In return for the plea, Prince George's County Circuit Judge Michelle Hotten sentenced Benham, 67, to 10 years each for the molestation and the sodomy, with all but 18 months suspended.
• Diocese sues priest on embezzlement charge [Kelly, Nolin] - RCC.
   Herald News, by Gregg M. Miliote, Mar/05/2005
   FALL RIVER (MA) -- The Fall River Diocese has filed a $1.2 million lawsuit against a retired Cape Cod pastor accused of bilking two parishes he previously served.
   Father Bernard Kelly, former pastor of St. Joseph's Parish in Wood's Hole and Our Lady of Lourdes in Wellesley, was initially placed on leave after diocesan officials learned he was being questioned by police about a grisly slaying committed by his friend, Paul Nolin.
   Nolin was convicted recently of the September 2003 murder of 20-year-old Falmouth resident Jonathan Wessner. Nolin had also previously been convicted of raping a child.
   During the investigation into the Wessner murder, police alleged Kelly and Nolin had a sexual relationship, something his attorneys have denied even after investigators revealed Kelly had changed his will to make Nolin one of his two main benefactors.
• Ex-priest gets 8 years for sex assault [1995 Hopkins] - RCC. Boy.
   Courier Post, By RENEE WINKLER, ~ March 5, 2005
   CAMDEN (NJ) - A former Roman Catholic priest, who served in four Camden County parishes in the 1990s, was sentenced Friday to eight years in state prison for sexually assaulting a boy a decade ago.
   James Hopkins, 61, had pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault between May and December of 1995.
   Hopkins, who was living in Florida when he was arrested in April 2003, will be sent to the state's Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center at Avenel, a facility for sex offenders diagnosed as compulsive and repetitive.
   Inmates detained there generally serve a longer portion of their prison terms, often the whole sentence, than prisoners who get regularly scheduled parole reviews.
   Superior Court Presiding Criminal Judge Linda G. Baxter said she took that into consideration in handing down Hopkins' sentence. A plea agreement between Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Donna Spinosi and defense attorney Robert Rosenberg included a maximum 10-year term.
   The victim, now 20, did not attend the sentencing. His mother said he refuses to return to New Jersey.
• Teczar claims he's innocent of abuse [Teczar] - RCC.
   Webster Times, BY JOYCE KELLY, ~ March 5, 2005
   DUDLEY (MA) - A retired priest is angry because he thinks whatever his accusers say is considered "gospel truth."
   Of those involved in this scenario, one is the aforementioned man of the cloth, one a gas station attendant, another a neighborhood kid, two a mother and son, and the rest a few other common young men.
   Rev. Thomas Teczar, of Dudley, is no longer preaching these days; ironically, it is the others who have won the blind faith of the masses, he says.
   The members of this short list - a mix of former parishioners and locals - have all claimed Rev. Teczar sexually abused minors.
   Most recently, he was accused of sexual abuse by two Texas men known only as "John Doe I" and "John Doe II," who also allege the Worcester Catholic Diocese and Fort Worth, Texas Diocese, conspired to help him avoid arrest.
   The men filed a lawsuit in Tarrant County District Court in Forth Worth, stating that Rev. Teczar sexually abused them at 12 years old, while he was the pastor of St. Rita's Church in Ranger, a small town in northeastern Texas.
   "It's horrible, absolutely horrible. It's just awful, unconditionally awful. Finding this out was like hearing, 'You've got cancer and you've only got 30 days to live," said Rev. Teczar, in a telephone interview from his home last week.
• Cases against ex-Naples priest settled for $1.5 million [? 1975-76 Romero] - RCC. $US1.5m gone.
   Naples Daily News, By JANINE A. ZEITLIN, jazeitlin@naplesnews.com , March 5, 2005
   NAPLES (FL) - South Florida's Catholic hierarchy paid out about $1.5 million in recent months to settle three sexual misconduct cases targeting a former priest and teacher at the St. Ann Catholic parish in Naples.
   The lawyer who handled the cases suspects there are potential victims yet to break their silence about William Romero's time at St. Ann school and church in 1975-76.
   He said the Archdiocese of Miami, which included St. Ann during Romero's year there, hasn't thoroughly probed what transpired.
   "If nobody else comes forward, it will mean that this episode in the history of Naples and the history of the Catholic Church never gets fully investigated," said Ted Zelman, the Naples attorney who represented clients in Romero sexual misconduct cases. "I believe they acknowledge what had happened but as far as really accepting their culpability, that didn't occur."
   His two clients recently opted to settle to forgo shame of reliving the alleged abuse in a courtroom, he said.
   Romero, 68, retired in 1995 and resigned from the clergy in 2003 after allegations resurfaced.
• Diocese: Vatican rejects appeal of blanket excommunications - RCC.
   Sioux City Journal, March 5, 2005
   LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- An appeal of the threatened blanket excommunication of scores of Lincoln Catholics has been rejected by the Vatican, the Lincoln Diocese confirmed Friday.
   But some canon law experts questioned whether such a blanket action was valid.
   "It's against the whole spirit of Church law," said Monsignor Kenneth Lasch, a retired canon lawyer in Morristown, N.J.
   Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz ordered Lincoln Catholics in March 1996 to sever their ties to 12 groups or face excommunication two months later. The bishop said the groups -- including Call to Action, several Masonic organizations, and abortion-rights groups Planned Parenthood and Catholics for a Free Choice -- contradict and imperil Catholic faith. ...
   The appeal of Bruskewitz's order had faded from the public light until this week, when an official with the Lincoln chapter of Call to Action told The Associated Press that he was denied communion by Bruskewitz and two other priests in the past month.
   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."
   Call to Action has long been critical of how the church handled allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.
• How the Zeitgeist Affected the Catholic Church in the U.S. after Vatican II - Roman Catholic Church.
   The Conservative Voice, By Matt C. Abbott, ~ March 5, 2005
   UNITED STATES - The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, held from 1962 to 1965 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, had as its objectives the renewal of the Catholic Church and to modernize its forms and institutions. Unfortunately, during and after the Council, the Zeitgeist - the German term for "spirit of the age" - was largely responsible for the decline in certain key aspects of the Catholic Church in the U.S.
   These aspects are the number of priests and religious, weekly church attendance by its members, and the state of Catholic marriage. The Zeitgeist also fostered the rise of dissident Catholic organizations and individuals who have often misrepresented the teachings of Vatican II in order to promote their own agendas.
   Kenneth C. Jones of St. Louis researched and compiled a number of statistics which he titled "Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II," published in 2003.
   Among his findings: While the number of priests in the U.S. more than doubled to 58,000 between 1930 and 1965, since then, that number has fallen to 45,000, and by 2020, there will be only 31,000 priests left; the number of seminarians declined over 90 percent between 1965 and 2002; in 1965, there were 180,000 Catholic nuns, but by 2002, that number had fallen to 75,000; a 1958 Gallup Poll reported that three in four Catholics attended Mass on Sundays, but a recent study by the University of Notre Dame found that only one in four now attend; Catholic marriages have fallen in number by one-third since 1965, while the annual number of annulments rose from 338 in 1968 to 50,000 in 2002. ...
   Also between 1960 and 1991, child abuse increased more than 500 percent. This, of course, has been a problem even in the Church, specifically in regard to sexual abuse by members of the clergy and religious, which has made national and world headlines in the last few years.
   A study commissioned in 2002 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), done in response to hundreds of sex-abuse accusations that were made in nearly every U.S. Catholic diocese, found that from 1950 to 2002, there were 10,667 cases of abuse. Interestingly, the study found that 81 percent of sex crimes committed against children by Catholic priests during the past 52 years were homosexual men preying on boys.
   Such is an illustration of how the Cultural/Sexual Revolution influenced - perhaps "infected" would be a better term - a number of Church officials who seemingly let sexual deviants into the priesthood. Indeed, one could even say that deviancy was promoted at certain seminaries. Catholic author Michael S. Rose, in his 2002 book Goodbye! Good Men, quotes Father John Trigilio about an incident at the seminary in the 1980's: ... [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 02:41 AM]
   [COMMENT: Did the "World" infect the Churches, or vice-versa? Matt C. Abbott would get closer to the truth if he spent a few weeks looking at how the RCC twisted scriptures to come to the conclusion that "no sex" is a more perfect way to God than the God-given command to increase and multiply, and for a man to "cleave" to his wife. The removal of the RCC teaching on "compulsory clerical virginity" would attract to the clergy men who loved the feminine, and so would save countless boys from being diverted from religion to a life of masturbation, non-marital sex, alcohol, drugs, etc. - in other words, immature irresponsible lifestyles. COMMENT ENDS.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat, March 05, 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, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun, March 06, 2005 edition follows:-
• AFM pastor in sex scandal [? 2000s Name withheld] - Apostolic Faith Mission. Girls.

   News 24, www.news24. com/News24/ South_Africa/ News/0,,2-7- 1442_1672166, 00.html , by Philip de Bruin, 22:34 - (SA), Mar/06/2005
   JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - An Apostolic Faith Mission pastor, who is facing charges relating to the sexual harassment of young girls, will know his fate this week.
   A disciplinary council of the Apostolic Faith Mission will deliver judgment on Wednesday after a hearing at the weekend.
   The name of the Richard's Bay pastor is being withheld on legal advice. Although he appeared in the magistrate's court last Thursday, he still has to plead. He will appear again on Monday.
   According to AFM sources, the pastor is widely known in church circles and he and his family have played a prominent role in the church for many years.
   Beeld learnt that some of the girls' parents decided to take the case to the police after the AFM started its investigation into the allegations [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:45 PM]
• First Northern California church abuse cases set for trial Monday [1979-82 Ponciroli, 1972-73 Pritchard] - RCC. Males.

   Contra Costa Times, By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press, ~ March 06, 2005
   SAN FRANCISCO (CA) - Cases alleging negligence at two northern California Roman Catholic dioceses are scheduled to go to trial Monday, making them the first of about 150 civil suits filed by alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests since the statute of limitations was temporarily lifted in 2002.
   The trials involving the San Francisco and Oakland dioceses are scheduled to begin Monday in Alameda County Superior Court before two separate judges. But the Oakland case may be delayed after a judge ordered a settlement conference for Monday.
   "The bishop is hoping mediation works," said the Rev. Mark Wiesner, spokesman for the diocese.
   The case set for trial against the Oakland diocese was filed by a 34-year-old former altar boy, who now lives in Arizona. The man claims he was abused by former priest Robert Ponciroli at St. Ignatius Church in Antioch. Ponciroli, 68, now lives in Florida and is not a defendant in the case.
   A second claimant in that same case is the man's brother, according to Stephen McFeely, a lawyer for the diocese.
   The case against the San Francisco diocese was filed by a man who alleges abuse by the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard while the man was a student at St. Martin of Tours Church in San Jose. The man, now in his mid-40s, has said the abuse took place in 1972 and 1973.
• Vatican Asked Condoleezza Rice To Help. - RCC.

   Montana News Association, by MNA PRESS, ~ March 06, 2005
   VATICAN CITY -- Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to intervene on the behalf of the Holy See during Rice's recent visit to Rome, a request that Rice declined. Speculation that such requests are commonly made behind closed doors is common, but confirmation is unusual.
   The Kentucky case that prompted Sodano's request for help is different than most lawsuits working their way through the American court system in that it is the only one in which the Vatican is the lone defendant and the only one directly related to the recent series of sex abuse scandals that have stained the reputation of the Catholic Church in the United States.
• Priest Retirement Center Prompts Controversy - RCC. Sexual predators in rest home for aged clerics!
   Times, by Don Corrigan, March 04, 2005
   SHREWSURY (MO) - Clergy with histories of sex abuse, who reside at a retirement facility in Shrewsbury, may pose a threat to children in the community, according to Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
   SNAP members demonstrated Feb. 23 outside the St. Louis County Police Department in Clayton. They held photos of priests and a map with push pins showing where convicted and suspected abusive clerics live in the St. Louis area.
   They also produced a letter of concern about molestation risks, addressed to Col. Jerry Lee of St. Louis County Police.
   "We write to you today because of our concern that children within your jurisdiction are needlessly being placed at risk because the Archdiocese of St. Louis has chosen to house known pedophiles in a retirement home," declared the letter, authored by David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris of SNAP.
   "The home, Regina Cleri, was designed as a retirement facility for priests in their declining years," the letter continued. "It was built with their comfort and safety in mind. It was not built to house dangerous sexual predators."
• Diocese money woes imperil schools - RCC. Sacramento Diocese.
   Sacramento Bee, By Laurel Rosenhall, Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, March 6, 2005
   SACRAMENTO (CA) - Financial troubles stemming from declining enrollment and the potential cost of settling lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests threaten the future of up to 10 elementary schools in the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento.
   Diocese officials, who oversee an area that stretches from Sacramento to the Oregon border, won't name all the schools they're considering restructuring or closing. But at least two are in Sacramento neighborhoods, and parents there say they are frustrated with the lack of communication on a matter that affects hundreds of families.
   In a Feb. 24 letter sent to parents at All Hallows School in Tahoe Park and St. Peter's School in Fruitridge Manor, diocese officials warned that the stability of the schools is in question because of dropping enrollment, rising operating costs and the looming threat of legal liability.
   "The settlement of abuse cases puts our finances in question," said Lynette Magnino, spokeswoman for the Sacramento Diocese.
   "There is a potential that things will be affected in the future."
• A criminal history kept under wraps [2000 Sexton] - Baptist. 4 girls.
   Fort Worth Star-Telegram, www.dfw.com /mld/startelegram/ news/local/ 11066238.htm , By Susan Schrock, ~ March 06, 2005
   CHENEY, Kan. - The 8-year-old girl and her brother invited fellow church member Jeremiah Sexton to join them in a game of tag in the yard of Cheney Baptist Church.
   It was Sunday, Jan. 9, 2000. Months later, the girl told her parents that Sexton had grabbed her and touched her inappropriately after her brother left the game. She said Sexton, who was 17, had told her "to keep it a secret."
   She was one of four girls Sexton was convicted of fondling at the church during a nine-month period. Although many in the tight-knit congregation came to learn of Sexton's crimes, few people outside of the church were aware of them.
   School officials, local media outlets and even his grandmother said they didn't know that Sexton withdrew from high school in April 2000 because he had been placed in a juvenile detention center and ordered into sex offender therapy.
   After he was released in 2002, Sexton moved with his family to Springtown, Texas. Because he was convicted as a juvenile, Sexton wasn't required by Kansas law to tell anyone he was a sex offender.
   His criminal past wasn't revealed until February when Sexton, now 22, was charged with abducting and sexually assaulting two young Arlington girls.
• After decades of silent pain, a victim resolves to stop running from 'it' [1973 Brett] - RCC. Boy.
   Baltimore Sun, By Dan Rodricks, ~ March 06, 2005
   BALTIMORE (MD) - I COUNT at least three epiphanies - sudden and stunning realities he had ignored, denied or just missed for nearly three decades - that Bob Russell experienced as he moved firmly into middle age and finally faced the old demon named Brett.
   The first came in June 2001, when Russell, now a force in the Baltimore chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), heard a news report of a schoolteacher who had received a heavy jail sentence for sexually abusing a student, in either Maryland or Pennsylvania. Russell does not recall why this case, among the ugly many that stream in and out of public consciousness, made him decide to unlock his own secret.
   But it did.
   "That," Russell says, "was when I decided, 'OK, enough. What happened to [me] has happened to others, and it has got to stop. Enough. It was not [my] fault. Stop running from it. It is not [my] shame. It is the shame of the Roman Catholic Church.'"
   For years, Russell had kept his secret "locked in a steel box with chains around it."
   He never told anyone - not his parents, not classmates, not the woman who became his wife - what had happened in 1973, when he was a 15-year-old sophomore at Calvert Hall College, the all-boys Catholic high school in Towson.
   Twice, Russell says, a priest named Laurence Brett molested him.
• Victim: Church slow prosecuting priest [1975 Klubertanz] - RCC. 3 males.
   Janesville Gazette Extra, By Sid Schwartz, Sunday, March 6, 2005
   WISCONSIN - A former Reedsburg man, who claims the Rev. Kenneth Klubertanz also molested him, said the church is dragging its feet in the prosecution of the priest.
   "It's taken so long," the 48-year-old man said. "It's taken over a year now just to get word that there's going to be a canonical trial. Rome works so slow.
   "It really works on you at times. You feel defenseless. You feel hopeless."
   He is one of three men who have accused Klubertanz of inappropriate sexual contact.
   Unlike Christopher Leonard, a former Janesville man who claims Klubertanz molested him in 1975, the former Reedsburg man does not want his name published.
   "Some have said, 'If you come out, maybe others will come out.' That may be true, but then I have to live with the stigma."
   The man said Klubertanz sexually assaulted him when he was 12 while they were alone at a cabin in northern Wisconsin.
• Canon law operates under different rules [1975 Klubertanz] - RCC. 3 males.
   Janesville Gazette Extra, By Sid Schwartz, Sunday, March 6, 2005
   WISCONSIN - Unlike trials in criminal or civil court, the trial of the Rev. Kenneth Klubertanz under canon law will not be public.
   The accusers probably won't be allowed to attend, either.
   "They do not try to have the accused and the accuser in the same room at the same time going at each other," said the Rev. Arthur Espelage, executive coordinator of the Canon Law Society of America in Alexandria, Va.
   "I can see where a child who has been hurt this way has been scarred forever. They have been robbed of power and control.
   "Maybe this is a way they feel they can get that power and control back, but I'm not sure that a courtroom is a place to do that. I'm not even sure it's possible."
   Bill Brophy, communications director of the Madison Diocese, said Klubertanz's trial has not yet been scheduled.
• Former Janesville man says priest abuse changed his life [1975 Klubertanz] - RCC. 3 males.
   Janesville Gazette Extra, By Sid Schwartz, Sunday, March 6, 2005
   WISCONSIN - Christopher Leonard said he dreamed of joining the clergy even after a Janesville priest molested him in 1975.
   "My emotional growth was stunted," Leonard said. "I turned for validation to other things to validate who I was. Seminary was a way to escape."
   But he said he couldn't run away from the pain and depression.
   "I completely changed. I became more withdrawn, more angry. I wanted to run away from home so bad I could taste it," he said.
   In 1975, Leonard was 13.
   That summer, the Rev. Kenneth Klubertanz, then a priest at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Janesville, took him camping in northern Wisconsin. While they bathed naked in a lake, Leonard said, Klubertanz sexually assaulted him.
• Reilly changes stance on statute of limitations for child sex abuse [Shanley] - RCC.
   Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article ?AID=/20050306 /APN/503060538 , THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 6, 2005
   BOSTON (MA) - Attorney General Tom Reilly, reversing his earlier stance, said he will support legislation to eliminate the 15-year statute of limitations for sex-abuse crimes against children.
   "A predator of a child should never be out of the reach of the law," Reilly said in a telephone interview with the Boston Sunday Globe. "If a prosecutor can make a case, and there are victims who are willing and able to make that case, the law should not stand in their way."
   The recent trial of former priest Paul Shanley was a factor for Reilly, who described the prosecution of Shanley as "a very important case."
   Reilly met with the victim in that case, and on the day of Shanley's sentencing to 12 to 15 years in prison, the courtroom was filled with alleged Shanley victims who said they couldn't press charges because of the statute of limitations.
   "When someone is brave enough to come forward and testify and confront their abuser, they should not be prevented because of any technicality in the law," Reilly said.
   In Shanley's case, the then-priest left the state in 1990, stopping the clock on the statute of limitations. After his arrest in 2002, his case became a public example of the problems of prosecuting sexual abusers in cases dating back decades.
   In 2003, after Reilly's office delivered a report that found clergy may have abused up to 1,000 children over the last 60 years, Reilly said he could not support elimination of the statute. He said he instead supported tougher penalties for priests and others who didn't report abuse.
• Secret archives at heart of dispute
   Toledo Blade, , By ROBIN ERB, March 6, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - On a warm September afternoon, three Toledo detectives and a Lucas County prosecutor marched through the front door of the Toledo Catholic diocese and - over the objections of a startled receptionist - loaded into an elevator and punched the button to the fourth floor.
   They were carrying a four-page search-and-seizure order signed by a judge, and their abrupt appearance at the downtown office of Bishop Leonard Blair marked a hairpin turn in what had been a cordial relationship between diocesan officials and criminal authorities investigating the 1980 killing of an elderly nun.
   "Their communication prior to the search warrants was pretty open and free-flowing between us," the Rev. Michael Billian, episcopal vicar and the diocese's top administrator, recalled of the unprecedented search.
   Their target that day: the church's most-secret files - documents that investigators had hoped might contain clues to a 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl and the man charged in her death: the Rev. Gerald Robinson.
   Emerging from his office, Bishop Blair told investigators that such papers simply didn't exist.
   But police, who removed 148 documents bearing the murder suspect's name, weren't convinced. Two days later, they returned with a second court order to search the office of the second most-powerful man in the 19-county diocese: Father Billian. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:41 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun, March 06, 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, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon, March 07, 2005 edition follows:-
• Diocese drive seeks $1,815,000 - Roman Catholic Church. 15 employees to lose jobs. $US10.5m. 55 victims. More claiming.

   Kentucky Post, Post staff report, March 07, 2005
   COVINGTON (KY) - Officials of the Diocese of Covington and leaders of the diocese's annual fund-raising drive say they're confident the request for $1.815 million in donations won't be hampered by news that the diocese is laying off 15 of its 65 employees.
   Bishop Roger Foys announced in the latest edition of the Messenger, the diocese's newspaper, that the 15 employees will be let go June 30 because of the financial situation of the diocese.
   The Messenger noted that in the past 18 months the diocese has settled 55 sexual abuse claims for $10.5 million, with $3.9 million of that paid by the diocese from its own funds and the rest from the diocese's insurers.
   The Kentucky Post reported last week that the diocese may be close to settling a class-action lawsuit that alleges a half-century of covering up sexual abuse by priests. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:03 PM]
• Bishop 'took alms cash' [1993-2000 Panteleimon] - Greek Orthodox. Embezzling > €300,000.

   Kathimerini, March 07, 2005
   GREECE - As Archbishop Christodoulos yesterday detected a "silver lining" in the cloud of scandal hanging over the Church of Greece, a report said that a senior bishop has been indicted on charges of embezzling over 300,000 euros from Church funds and charities.
   According to the Sunday Apoyevmatini newspaper, the Nafplion Council of Appeals Court Judges has indicted Panteleimon, Bishop of Corinth, to stand trial for allegedly siphoning the missing cash into bank accounts in his name and destroying the Bishopric's financial records to cover his tracks. Another five Corinth priests and the bishop's female factotum were also indicted.
   The 86-year-old bishop allegedly appropriated Church funds between 1993 and 2000, including cash from a girls' orphanage and an old-age home. Panteleimon is also accused of having falsely claimed that the Bishopric's financial records were destroyed during the severe floods that afflicted Corinth in 1997. Instead, the indictment said, he ordered an associate to dispose of the potentially incriminating documents in dumpsters on a highway outside Corinth.
   Meanwhile, Archbishop Christodoulos claimed the ongoing corruption and sex scandals bedeviling the Church of Greece had their positive side. "Every cloud has a silver lining," he told an Athens congregation yesterday. "[This crisis] has forced us to examine ourselves and our close associates, and to take action... It affects us, even though we are not immediately involved."
• Priest to face justice in Spain? [2001-02] - Religion not stated.

   Kathimerini, March 07, 2005
   GREECE - A 58-year-old Greek priest alleged to have sexually molested a minor in Barcelona had his appeal against extradition to Spain rejected on Saturday by a Supreme Court rapporteur, in the first high court test of a new European arrest warrant.
   A lower court had accepted the extradition request submitted by Spanish authorities after the unnamed cleric was charged with molesting a young girl between 2001 and 2002, when he was giving Greek lessons to children in Barcelona.
   According to the court's ruling, the extradition of the priest for trial in Spain would not violate the Greek Constitution. The ruling was echoed by the Supreme Court rapporteur, who explained that a Greek citizen could be tried by Spanish authorities before being sent back to Greece to serve his sentence. In this particular case, however, the priest would probably face a longer jail sentence in Greece than in Spain, if convicted. [Bolding added.]
• Richmond Diocese makes prevention its policy - RCC.
   The Virginian-Pilot, By STEVEN G. VEGH, March 7, 2005
   NORFOLK (VA) - On a Saturday morning when she might otherwise be shuttling her children to sports practice, Joanne Wagner was in a Catholic parish hall, one among three dozen church volunteers assembled to watch a videotape of child molesters' confessions and abuse victims' anguished stories.
   It was ugly, intense - and also mandatory under the Diocese of Richmond's new and permanent initiative for teaching parish volunteers how to detect and prevent child sexual abuse.
   By June, the diocese expects to have channeled 10,000 parishioners through "Protecting God's Children," a three-hour workshop required for adults whose volunteerism involves contact with children.
   Individuals who refuse the training will not be allowed to work with children unless a second, trained adult is also present, said Maryjane Fuller, the assistant human resources director for the diocese.
   After completing the workshop, volunteers are required to visit an abuse prevention Web site each month for updates and new information.
   The diocese, which already required background checks for volunteers and staff, has also cycled clergy and employees through the workshop.
• Priest to speak on how church can prevent future sex scandals - RCC. Fr. Tom Doyle to speak. Parenthood beneficial.
   Naples Daily News, By JANINE A. ZEITLIN, jazeitlin@naplesnews.com , March 7, 2005
   NAPLES (FL) - Warding off sexual abuse in the Catholic Church will take breaking down the mystique of the power of priests and making celibacy a choice, says a priest who predicted the scandal 20 years ago.
   Father Thomas Doyle, 60, a priest for nearly 35 years, was an expert witness in more 150 clergy abuse cases and consulted on at least 500, he said.
   On Tuesday, local Catholics will host Doyle - profiled in "Vows of Silence," a book chronicling the scandal - in a 7 p.m. speech and question-and-answer session at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in North Naples.
   The Southwest Florida chapter of Voice of the Faithful - a group with 40,000 members nationwide formed by lay people in response to the unraveling scandals - organized the visit for its third annual speaker's forum.
   Mandatory celibacy was one factor fueling the crisis, says Doyle, because priests didn't fully fathom the scars abuse left on victims, an understanding that might deepen through parenthood.
• Reilly backs ending statute of limitations for child sex abuse [Shanley] - RCC. Boy.
   MetroWest Daily News, Associated Press, Monday, March 7, 2005
   BOSTON (MA) -- Attorney General Tom Reilly said he will support legislation to eliminate the 15-year statute of limitations for sex-abuse crimes against children.
   "A predator of a child should never be out of the reach of the law," Reilly said Saturday in an interview. "If a prosecutor can make a case, and there are victims who are willing and able to make that case, the law should not stand in their way."
   The recent trial of former priest Paul Shanley was a factor for Reilly, who described the prosecution of Shanley as "a very important case."
   Reilly met with the victim in that case, and on the day of Shanley's sentencing to 12 to 15 years in prison, the courtroom was filled with alleged Shanley victims who said they couldn't press charges because of the statute of limitations.
   "When someone is brave enough to come forward and testify and confront their abuser, they should not be prevented because of any technicality in the law," Reilly said.
• Are jarring details fit for obit? [Phinn] - RCC.
   The Boston Globe, By Christine Chinlund | March 7, 2005
   BOSTON (MA) - I CAN understand why people who knew the Rev. Gilbert Phinn were upset by the Globe's handling of his Feb. 22 obituary. It's unsettling to see a beloved priest, especially one as dedicated as Phinn, linked with the Catholic Church sexual abuse story.
   There, in the ninth paragraph of an otherwise positive account, was a description of how Phinn, as archdiocese personnel director 23 years ago, reportedly told a priest with a history of sexual abuse to keep his past a secret from the pastor when assigned to a new parish. The exchange was originally reported in 2002.
   Those who knew Phinn were hurt and angered by what they saw as a very cheap shot. It dominated conversation at his wake and standing-room-only funeral, attendees reported. Here in the ombudsman's office the issue sparked far more outcry than any other obituary during my three-year tenure, with most complaints from Milton, where Phinn served most recently at St. Elizabeth's.
   The issue became more than just one obituary; it was, some readers said, fresh evidence of anti-Catholic bias. For them, it deepened a troubling divide.
   "People were looking for a little comfort in that obituary, and instead this was a slap in the face," said Joseph Coughlin. Whatever Phinn may have once said to an errant priest "had nothing to do with his life's work and there was no point bringing it up in an obituary," said Barbara Bacci. Said Ken Foscaldo, "The Globe did a good job exposing the priest scandal, but at some point it goes beyond the bounds" -- in this case by needlessly hurting "a good man." They spoke for many others.
   I sympathize with readers bothered by the reference; it was jarring. But I am also bothered by the prospect that The Globe would return to the days when obituaries were just eulogies in print.
• Approach to sex-abuse lawsuits varies widely [1970s-80s RCC]
   The Kansas City Star, By KEVIN MURPHY, ~ March 7, 2005
MISSOURI - In both Kansas City and St. Louis, priests have been the target of many sexual-abuse lawsuits in recent years.
   The allegations are similar - that some priests abused children, mostly boys, in the 1970s and 1980s and that the church hierarchy knew of the misconduct but failed to take much, if any, action.
   The responses to the lawsuits, however, are quite different.
   The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis has taken most of the lawsuits right to mediation, settling 31 of 40 recent cases for $2.4 million and agreeing to send letters of apology to victims.
   The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, meanwhile, is contesting all 16 pending lawsuits in court and has filed several dozen motions to strike language, seek more details or dismiss cases.
   The motions have met with mixed success; only one of the lawsuits was dismissed.
   The diocesan motions frustrate plaintiffs in Kansas City, said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
   "There is a difference between fighting on the merits and fighting on technicalities," Clohessy said.
   The Rev. Patrick Rush, diocesan vicar general, said the diocese is following lawyers' advice in fighting the lawsuits.
• Former G-G snubbed sex claim, woman says [1950s-80s Shearman, Heinrich; 2000s Hollingworth] - Anglican. Girl/woman.

   Sydney Morning Herald, 9:05PM, March 7, 2005
   AUSTRALIA - A woman has accused former governor-general Peter Hollingworth of "basically" telling her to get lost when she went to him with a sexual abuse claim against a priest.
   Beth Heinrich said she was a boarder at the Anglican hostel at Forbes in western NSW during the 1950s, run by then Bishop [? sic] Donald Shearman, when he started having sex with her.
   Just prior to his appointment as governor-general, Ms Heinrich approached Archbishop Hollingworth for assistance when she realised she had been sexually abused.
   She claimed he fobbed her off, ABC TV's Australian Story revealed.
   Now in her 60s, Ms Heinrich told the program that, when she was a schoolgirl, Bishop Shearman would make her lie naked on his bed with him, when his wife was away, and read a book about sexual techniques while he told her 'This is what God wants it to be'."
• Dioceses' sex-abuse trials to begin today [1979-81 Ponciroli] - RCC. 2 altar boys.
   San Gabriel Valley Tribune, ~ March 7, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - Cases alleging negligence at two northern California Roman Catholic dioceses are scheduled to go to trial today , making them the first of about 150 civil suits filed by alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests since the statute of limitations was temporarily lifted in 2002.
   The trials involving the San Francisco and Oakland dioceses are scheduled to begin Monday in Alameda County Superior Court before two separate judges. But the Oakland case may be delayed after a judge ordered a settlement conference for Monday.
   The case set for trial against the Oakland diocese was filed by a 34-year-old former altar boy, who now lives in Arizona. The man claims he was abused by former priest Robert Ponciroli at St. Ignatius Church in Antioch. Ponciroli, 68, now lives in Florida.
   A second claimant in that same case is the man's brother, according to Stephen McFeely, a lawyer for the diocese.
• Dead priest is subject of sexual abuse claims [1958 + Klebie, prev. Klebauskas] - RCC. Children.
   Albany Times Union, By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, First published Friday, March 4, 2005
   ALBANY (NY) -- A long-deceased priest who for 12 years ran a church-sponsored overnight camp for underprivileged children is the subject of sexual abuse allegations dating back to 1958.
   The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany is investigating five complaints against the Rev. John P. Klebie. A sixth complaint was one of seven cases just settled against priests last month through an independent mediation program.
   Klebie, who died in 1981, was removed from ministry in the 1970s when a claim he faced then was found to be credible, diocesan officials confirmed Wednesday.
   The priest, who at some point changed his last name from Klebauskas, ran Camp Scully, a Catholic summer camp on Snyder's Lake in North Greenbush for kids ages 7 to 14, from 1958 to 1970.
• Ex-priest who abused teens going to jail [1970s Benham] - RCC.
   The Courier, BY JAMES WASHBURN, ~ March 7, 2005
   UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - Lincoln resident Francis Benham, a 68-year-old former Catholic priest who pleaded guilty in December to second- and third-degree sex charges dating back to the 1970s, was sentenced to 18 months in jail Friday.
   Circuit Judge Michele Hotten officially sentenced Benham to two, 10-year concurrent prison terms stemming from the convictions. But, as part of a plea agreement reached between Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey and Benham's defense attorney, all but 18 months of the simultaneous prison terms were suspended, said Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for Ivey.
   In addition to the jail term, Benham also was ordered to serve three years of supervised release after his discharge from jail and is to refrain from contacting the victims in the case or with any one under the age of 18, Korionoff said.
   Hotten also ordered Benhem be clinically evaluated by a member of the Association for the Treatment of Sex Abusers, he added. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:42 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon, March 07, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont110.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Judicial link in S.A. child sex probe re State wards. - No religion link reported. Children.

   The West Australian, "Judicial link in child sex probe," p 11, Monday, March 7, 2005
   ADELAIDE (S. Australia): A South Australian commission of inquiry into the sexual abuse of children who were State wards is to investigate claims a member of the judiciary abused his son and offered him to paedophiles.
   Adelaide academic Bob Moles said yesterday the claim emerged from interviews with two female health workers two years ago.
   It is among information from around 60 interviews by Dr Moles for the inquiry, led by retired South Australian Supreme Court judge Ted Mulligan.
   Dr Moles said he had not met the boy but the two women - a social worker and a nurse who worked at an Adelaide State institution - appeared credible.
   The allegations emerged out of inquiries into various claims of abuse by staff at the institution.
   "One of these people was the son of a judiciary official who said when he was at home he was abused by his father and then he would be taken to a party where other people would abuse him," Dr Moles said.
   Last week, South Australian parliamentary Speaker Peter Lewis went public with allegations there was a paedophile and possible serial killer MP in State Parliament. Mr Lewis said he believed it was "more likely than not" the recent deaths of two gay men were not a coincidence. [Mar 7, 05]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue, March 08, 2005 edition follows:-
• Vatican asks Rice for help in sex abuse lawsuit - RCC.

   National Catholic Reporter, http://ncron line.org/ NCR_Online/ archives2/2005a/ 031105/031 105h.php , By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., Rome, ~ March 08, 2005
   ROME - Alongside predictable exchanges on Iraq, the Middle East and religious liberty, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her Feb. 8 visit to the Vatican 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 U.S. government could stop a class-action lawsuit currently before a U.S. 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 Joaquín 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. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:36 PM]
• The Archbishop Called On The Faithful To Attend Prayer Vigils - Greek Orthodox.

   Macedonia Press Agency, www.mpa.gr/ article.html ?doc_id=515289 , ~ March 08, 2005
   GREECE - Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece called on the faithful to attend the prayer vigils to be held this evening in churches across Greece and pray for the Church to get out of the crisis tormenting it during the past weeks.
   Minister of State Thodoris Rousopoulos stated that citizens or politicians need no permission to attend religious rites.
   Metropolite Kalinikos of Piraeus criticized the Archbishop but at the same time offered support to him.
   [COMMENT: Prayer - but no change to the man-made rules in the Orthodox Church that bishops must be celibate, and Christendom's serpentine distortions of the forgiveness doctrine? Let us hope that prayer might lead to a reform in beliefs, then reform in practices might follow. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Priest accused of molestation resigns [2002 Devnandan Swami] - Hindu sect. Girl.

   Express India, March 08, 2005
   RAJKOT, India: DEVNANDAN Swami has resigned as chairman of Swaminarayan temple in Junagadh. The priest, who was accused of molesting a girl from Rajkot, had handed over his resignation to Radharaman trust on February 6 citing "health reasons."
   "Devnandan Swami tendered his resignation to Acharya Rakeshprasad who visited Junagadh on Sunday," said acting chairman Purshottam Thumar.
   Following this, the newly formed All-Gujarat Swaminarayan Satsang Samaj called off its agitation against Devnandan Swami. But devotees of the Swaminarayan temple in Bhupendra Road, Rajkot, have asked the Vadtal trust to disqualify him.
   Devnandan Swami and his junior P P Swami had allegedly molested a girl in Rajkot three years ago. At the time, both the swamis resided in Rajkot. The charges were raised again following the arrest of Bhaktiswami of Junagadh temple in connection with the sex-on-CD scandal.
   The issue was taken up by the All-Gujarat Swaminarayan Satsang Samaj which had threatened to launch an agitation against Devnandan Swami on March 11 if no action was taken against him. The Samaj also accused P P Swami of owning properties worth lakhs in Saurashtra region.
   [DEFINITION: "Lakh": In Indian English, a lakh or lac is 100,000, usually of rupees, the major unit of Indian money. (by courtesy of Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1969.) DEFINITION ENDS.]
• Priest's alleged killer seeks to have case dismissed [2003 Druce]
   Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer, March 08, 2005
   WORCESTER, Mass.- The convicted murderer accused of killing pedophile priest John Geoghan asked a judge Tuesday to dismiss the charges, accusing prison officials of retaliating against him because he didn't plead guilty.
   Joseph Druce, already serving a life sentence for murdering a man he thought was gay, allegedly beat and strangled Geoghan in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley on Aug. 23, 2003.
   In a motion filed Tuesday, Druce said prison officials have made it impossible for him to participate in his own defense by trying to limit contact with his attorney and by removing legal documents from his cell.
   Druce said he was barred from viewing a surveillance video from the day of Geoghan's killing without having a prison guard looking over his shoulder. The tape, which shows Druce leaving Geoghan's cell after the murder, is evidence in the case.
   He said supervisors at Souza-Baranowski were retaliating against him for failing to heed their advice that he plead guilty to Geoghan's murder.
   As part of the retaliation, Druce said, his "enemies" were transferred to his cell block. One of them "created a spear-type object, smeared it with feces and stabbed my foot with it as I passed by his cell," Druce said in an affidavit filed with his motion.
• Norwich Priest Resigns After Being Accused Of Assaulting Child 30 Years Ago [1973-75 McConaghy] - RCC. Male.
   The Day, By ETHAN ROUEN, Day Staff Writer/Columnist, Police/Fire Reporter, Published on Mar/8/2005
   NORWICH (CT) -- A priest who served in the Diocese of Norwich for 24 years was forced to resign in February after he was accused of sexually assaulting a child in New York 30 years ago, a spokeswoman for the diocese said Monday.
   The Rev. R. Thomas McConaghy stepped down as a pastor when the diocese received a report Feb. 23 that a man accused the priest of sexually abusing him from 1973 to 1975 while the man was a student at the LaSalle Military Academy in Oakdale, N.Y., a letter from Bishop Michael R. Cote to parishioners said.
   The priest, who last served as pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Norwichtown and the mission church of St. John in Fitchville, was a teacher at the school at the time of the incident, said Jacqueline Keller, the diocesan spokeswoman.
   "This resignation must not be construed as an admission of any of the allegations against him," Cote wrote. "Rather it should stand as an expression of his concern to the Parish and the Diocese of Norwich."
   McConaghy vehemently denied the charges during speeches to parishioners following masses Sunday and Monday, Keller said.
• Catholic diocese seeks stay of proceedings [19 yrs Bennett] - RCC. Insolvency. $50m claims. Males.

   Canada NewsWire Group, March 8, 2005
   CORNER BROOK, NL [?], CANADA /CNW/ - The Most Rev. Douglas Crosby, Bishop of St. George's Diocese, today announced that the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. George's, the civil arm of the Diocese, filed a Notice of Intention to file a proposal pursuant to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
   This filing will effect a "stay of proceedings" in civil actions against the Corporation including those launched since 1991 on behalf of 36 victims of sexual abuse by Kevin Bennett, then a priest of St. George's Diocese. The intent of the filing is to provide the Corporation with adequate time to develop a proposal to its creditors offering a better compensation plan than would be available if the Corporation were forced to declare bankruptcy.
   In 1990 Bennett was sentenced for the sexual abuse of a number of young men over a period of almost 20 years and served four years in prison. Since that time a number of victims have launched civil suits at a total claimed value in excess of $50 million. In March 2004 the Supreme Court of Canada found the Corporation directly and vicariously liable for claims by 36 individuals.
• Bishop removes Norwich pastor [1973-75 McConaghy] - RCC. Male.
   Norwich Bulletin, By BRIAN WALLHEIMER, bwallhei@norwich.gannett.com , March 8, 2005
   NORWICH (CT) - Many parishioners at Sacred Heart Church in Norwichtown, were still stunned Monday after hearing their pastor has been removed because of sexual-abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s, before he became a priest.
   The allegations against the Rev. R. Thomas McConaghy date back to 1973-75, when he was commandant of LaSalle Military Academy in Oakdale, N.Y., on Long Island.
   Norwich Bishop Michael R. Cote removed McConaghy from St. John Mission Church in Fitchville, as well as Sacred Heart, a week ago and replaced him with the Rev. John White.
   "My heart and prayers go out to Father Tom, but in the light of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, there was no other option," Cote told parishioners in a letter dated Feb. 28. "The church has committed itself to creating safe environments for the protection of all young people."
   McConaghy denied the accusation in addresses to parishioners at Sacred Heart during Sunday's Masses.
   "I was stunned. It came out of nowhere," Parish Council President Dean Bosse said. "Everybody is visibly shaken. They don't believe it. It just doesn't make sense."
• Oakland diocese abuse case under way [1979-81 Ponciroli] - RCC. 2 altar boys.
   Oakland Tribune, By Glenn Chapman, March 8, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - While negotiations continued in an effort to reach a "global settlement" between the Roman Catholic Church and those who have accused its priests of sexually abusing them, one of the first so-called Clergy III civil trials began Monday in a Hayward courtroom.
   Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard met for about 90 minutes with the attorney representing former altar boy Bob Thatcher and lawyers defending the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and Thatcher's accused abuser, Robert Ponciroli.
   Sheppard was presented with two large piles of briefs he is to review before attorneys return to his courtroom Wednesday to argue motions, which include requests to limit evidence and expert testimony at the trial.
   Jury selection could begin as early as Thursday.
   Unless a settlement precludes the proceedings, Sheppard will preside over a civil trial pitting Thatcher and his lawyer, Richard Simons, against retired priest Ponciroli and the diocese.
• Archdiocese settles suit with insurance company [Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. 541 cases.
   Boston Herald, By O'Ryan Johnson, Tuesday, March 8, 2005
   BOSTON (MA) - The Boston archdiocese has settled its lawsuit against an insurance company it claims failed to legally defend and compensate the church in hundreds of cases of clergy sexual abuse.
   The archdiocese sued Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company in March 2004 shortly after settling 541 cases of alleged molestation by priests for $84 million.
   The terms of the Lumbermens settlement were not officially released, but church spokeswoman Kelly O'Connor Lynch said Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley will make the figure public in the near future.
   Two sources told The Associated Press that the insurer paid the archdiocese $20 million last week, after the church finance council approved the settlement.
• Archdiocese, former insurer reach settlement [Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. Insurers pay $US 20m.
   Nashua Telegraph, By THEO EMERY, The Associated Press, Tuesday, Mar. 8, 2005
   BOSTON (MA) - The Archdiocese of Boston has settled with one of its former insurance carriers, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., over claims related to lawsuits from alleged clergy abuse victims.
   The archdiocese and Lumbermens filed notice of the settlement, which was dated Feb. 9, in federal court on Monday, stating that all of the church's claims against the insurer would be dismissed.
   "We are pleased to have this matter resolved," the Rev. John Connolly, special assistant to Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, said in a statement. "We are hopeful that, in the near future, we will be in a position to begin discussions about how to resolve pending cases."
   Lumbermens, the lead underwriter of Kemper Insurance Cos. group, paid the archdiocese $20 million last week, after the church finance council approved the settlement, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
• Church excommunicates former teacher [1970s + Meyer] - Lutheran. Children.
   Lincoln Journal Star, By ART HOVEY, Mar. 8, 2005
   SEWARD (NE) - When it was over, 11 elders who might have acted sooner and on their own stood up front at St. John Lutheran Church on Sunday afternoon.
   At least two hundred members of the congregation filed by to shake their hands - and to offer them words of forgiveness.
   "It was," said Congregational Chairman Ray Huebschman, "a most powerful moment."
   A few minutes earlier, the 230 people in the pews learned the outcome of their two votes at an emotional congregational meeting.
   In the first, Huebschman said Monday, a "clear majority" voted to excommunicate Seward resident Arlen Meyer from an overall church membership of about 2,100.
   A second motion - meant to identify those who may have failed to act on knowledge of Meyer's alleged sexual misconduct against students at the school from as long ago as the 1970s - was "soundly defeated," he said.
   The subsequent interaction between members and elders "brought much tears and joy," Huebschman said, "and the victims present felt relieved and welcomed back."
   "As people say, you needed to be there."
• Diocese, insurance company to settle [Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. 541 victims, and more.
   The Boston Globe, By Michael Paulson, March 8, 2005
   BOSTON (MA) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has reached a settlement with one of its two major insurance carriers to cover a portion of the cost of the $85 million settlement with 541 victims of clergy sexual abuse, the archdiocese said yesterday.
   The archdiocese declined to describe the size of its settlement with the Lumbermen's Mutual Casualty Co., but two people familiar with the terms of the deal put it at $20 million.
   The archdiocese had sued Lumbermen's in US District Court in Massachusetts in March 2004, seeking to force the insurance company to pay an unspecified portion of the settlement. The insurance company filed a counterclaim the next month, arguing that the archdiocese had been so negligent in its handling of abusive priests that it should reimburse Lumbermen's for everything the insurance company had already paid out.
   Yesterday the two sides filed a stipulation in court, agreeing to dismiss the litigation.
   The archdiocese is still in negotiations with another insurance company, Travelers, but that company is thought to have significantly less financial liability than Lumbermen's did, because about 80 percent of the alleged abuse incidents took place when Lumbermen's was the primary archdiocesan insurer.
   The $20 million deal means that the archdiocese will have to shoulder the larger share of the cost of its October 2003 agreement with abuse victims.
   The primary funding for the settlement, which was paid with borrowed money, is to come from last year's $99 million sale to Boston College of a 43-acre portion of the archdiocesan headquarters in Brighton.
• Priest accused of sexual abuse while in Mystic [1957-59 Toledy] - RCC. Altar boy.
   Daily Iowegian, By Dan Ehl, Managing editor, March 07, 2005
   MYSTIC (IA) - An apparent settlement was reached between a former member of the Mystic Catholic Church who claimed he was sexually abused by a now-deceased priest and the Diocese of Davenport. The suit was dismissed with prejudice Oct. 14 in the Appanoose Iowa District Court.
   Richard Clark of Winterset had filed 10 counts against the Diocese of Davenport in regard to incidents he charged occurred between 1957 and 1959 in the former Mystic church. The church was dissolved in 1999. He accused the late Father Louis Toledy of sexual abuse.
   A "Dismissal with Prejudice,"according to its legal definition, is the act of a plaintiff dismissing a lawsuit upon settling the case. Such a dismissal may be dismissal with prejudice, meaning it can never be filed again, or dismissal without prejudice, leaving open the possibility of bringing the suit again if the defendant does not follow through on the terms of the settlement."
   Bob Pontious of Clarkdale was an altar boy when Toledy was the priest in Mystic. He said he finds the charges difficult to believe.
   "During a portion of the time that Father Toledy served the Catholic church at Mystic, I served as an altar boy in service to the church and its priest, along with other brothers and friends from those days," he said. "I saw nothing indicating any abusive tendencies exhibited by Father Toledy. I have spoken with others who served during the same period after learning of this allegation and they as well saw nothing exhibited that caused them any concerns."
   "In approximately 1957," reads the plaintiff's court documents, "when Plaintiff Doe (Clark) was 13 years old, Defendant Toledy, using his position, authority, trust, reverence, and control as a Roman Catholic Priest, engaged in unpermitted, harmful and offensive sexual contact with the person of Plaintiff Doe.
• Bishop empathises with priest abuse victim [40 years Shearman, Heinrich] - Anglican. Girl/woman.

   ABC (Australia), www.abc.net. au/news/items/ 200503/1318426. htm?riverina , March 08, 2005
   AUSTRALIA - The Anglican Bishop of Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales has described as "tragic" the saga of a local woman who was abused by a priest as a child and later as an adult.
   Last night, ABC TV's Australian Story program covered the second half of Beth Heinrich's story on her relationship with the now defrocked bishop Donald Shearman.
   The relationship began when she was 15.
   Ms Heinrich, 65, said the then Reverend Shearman promised her a future together while having a sexual relationship with her.
   "Whenever his wife was away Padre used to get me to lie naked on their bed with him, or else in front of the fire in their lounge room on a fox rug made from skins of foxes that he'd shot. He bought a record called I'm in the mood for love and used to like to play that," she said.
   She also has shared the contents of hundreds of letters sent to her during their 40-year affair.
• Diocese faces another abuse suit [~ 1963 Lesniak] - RCC. Boy.
   Tribune-Review, By Matthew Junker and Craig Smith, Tuesday, March 8, 2005
   GREENSBURG (PA) - A Greensburg man filed suit against the Diocese of Greensburg over allegations that he was abused approximately 43 years ago, at the hands of a priest who has been dead since 1991.
   Terrance J. Zawacki, 53, said in a filing made last week that he believes he was approximately 11 years of age when the Rev. Francis M. Lesniak took him ice skating, then invited him to stay overnight at a church rectory.
   Zawacki's attorney is well known in the state for representing alleged victims of abuse at the hands of clergy. Lawyer Richard Serbin, of Altoona, represents Zawacki, one of more than 100 plaintiffs he's represented in this type of case. Last year, he settled 21 cases for $3.71 million against the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
   According to Serbin, Zawacki was a parishioner at Transfiguration Church in Mt. Pleasant, where Lesniak was filling in. Serbin said Lesniak took his client to another rectory, unknown to him.
• Norwich pastor removed amid sex abuse allegations [1973-75 McConaghy] - RCC. Student.
   The Advocate, March 7, 2005
   NORWICH, Conn. -- A Roman Catholic priest has been removed from his position as pastor of Sacred Heart Church while church officials investigate sexual abuse allegations against him dating back to the 1970s.
   The Rev. R. Thomas McConaghy is accused of molesting a student at the LaSalle Military Academy in Oakdale, N.Y., on Long Island between 1973 and 1975. McConaghy was the academy's commandant at the time, before he became a priest in Norwich in 1981.
   The Diocese of Norwich said it learned about the allegations on Feb. 23. The former student reported the alleged abuse to the Rockville Centre diocese and civil authorities in New York.
   McConaghy denied the allegations in addresses to Sacred Heart parishioners during Sunday masses. Norwich Bishop Michael R. Cote removed McConaghy from Sacred Heart and St. John Mission Church in Fitchville last week and replaced him with the Rev. John White.
• Sex crimes statute bill not retroactive [Dupre] - RCC. Minors.
   Republican, By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Tuesday, March 08, 2005
   MASSACHUSETTS - Legislation that seeks to eliminate the 15-year statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes against children would not be retroactive, according to the bill's chief author.
   That means that allegations of sexual crimes made against the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre, bishop emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, and others who allegedly abused minors more than 15 years ago would not be prosecutable, according to state Rep. Ronald Mariano, D-Quincy.
   "Anything on the books that exceeded the statute of limitations would not be prosecutable," Mariano said.
   If the bill passes, it means that sex crimes against children that go back no more than 15 years from the date the bill becomes law would be prosecutable forever, Mariano said.
   The announcement Saturday that Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly supports the legislation will help the chances for passage, Mariano said.
   "I'm encouraged, because the leading law enforcement officer's support of this carries a lot of weight with a lot of the trial court people who feared it would clog our courts. Now it's up to district attorneys," Mariano said.
• Priest molesting case begins [1970s Pritchard] - RCC. Male.
   Mercury News, By Mary Anne Ostrom, ~ March 08, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - The first priest sex-abuse case filed against the Archdiocese of San Francisco got under way Monday, with the attorney for a San Jose man telling a judge that his client plans to testify he was molested between 20 and 30 times by the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard while he was a student at St. Martin of Tours, in San Jose, in the early 1970s.
   Attorney Larry Drivon said Dennis Kavanaugh plans to tell a San Francisco Superior Court jury that he has suffered emotional distress from the experience and "feels guilty" about not speaking out sooner to protect other children from Pritchard. Nearly two dozen men, one woman and Pritchard's nephew have all filed cases against the archdiocese, charging that it knew about Pritchard's pedophilia but refused to act. He died of cancer in 1998 while assigned to St. Nicholas parish in Los Altos.
   The progress of this and a separate case, which also started today in Alameda County Superior Court, is being closely watched. These are the first civil trials arising from a 2002 state law that lifted the statute of limitations, allowing a one-year period for the filing of civil lawsuits against employers charged with negligence in sexual abuse cases.
   In the aftermath, more than 100 sex-abuse cases have been filed against Northern California dioceses.
   On Monday, settlement negotiations ordered by an Oakland judge in dozens of these cases against the Oakland diocese continued. Settlements with the San Francisco diocese, including one in the Kavanaugh case, also could happen at any time, say church and plaintiff attorneys, spurred on by the approaching trials.
• Oakland Diocese sex abuse case moves forward [1979-81 Ponciroli] - RCC. 2 altar boys.
   Contra Costa Times, By Randy Myers, March 08, 2005
   HAYWARD (CA) - As an Alameda County judge met behind closed doors with lawyers Monday in the first Oakland Diocese sex abuse lawsuit, another judge simultaneously herded attorneys into a courtroom for settlement negotiations in 49 other cases.
   Robert Thatcher, the plaintiff in the first case set for trial in Oakland, said it was surreal and emotional to see his case move forward.
   "It's anxiety, it's hope; it's a whole range of emotions all wrapped up into one," Thatcher said.
   Brothers Robert and Tom Thatcher claim they were sexually abused by former priest Robert Ponciroli while serving as altar boys at St. Ignatius in Antioch from 1979 to 1981.
   The brothers seek unspecified punitive as well as other damages, and allege the church was aware of complaints regarding Ponciroli but failed to act upon them.
• Last-ditch settlement talks in clergy scandal [1970s-80s Ponciroli] - RCC. 2 boys.
   San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Tuesday, March 8, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - People who say they were victims of priestly pedophilia finally got their first day in court Monday as two trials in the Northern California clergy sex abuse scandal began in San Francisco and the East Bay.
   At the same time, lawyers for plaintiffs, the Roman Catholic Church and its insurance companies continued settlement talks in a game of brinkmanship over who will pay for alleged church cover-ups of child sexual abuse by priests.
   Such claims are at the heart of 150 lawsuits filed against dioceses and religious orders in Northern California, including the San Francisco case and a suit that went to trial Monday in Hayward.
   In that case, two brothers, Bob and Tom Thatcher, say leaders of the Oakland Diocese allowed them to be abused in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Antioch by a known molester, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli, who is now 68 and retired.
   "This is not just about Tom and me," said Bob Thatcher, 34, a Phoenix salesman and former altar boy at St. Ignatius parish in Antioch. "It's about the truth being told."
• Norwich pastor removed following sex abuse allegations [1973-75 McConaghy] - RCC.
   WTNH, www.wtnh.com/ Global/story. asp?S=3044805 &nav=3YeXXD5G , AP, 6:25 AM, Mar. 8, 2005
   NORWICH (CT) (AP) - A Norwich pastor has been removed following allegations of sexual abuse dating to the 1970s before he was a priest.
   Published reports say the allegations against the Reverend R. Thomas McConaghy date to 1973 to 1975 when he was commandant of LaSalle Military Academy in Oakdale, New York, on Long Island.
   Norwich Bishop Michael Cote removed McConaghy from Saint John Mission Church in Fitchville and Sacred Heart in Norwich a week ago and replaced him with the Reverend John White.
• Civil trials begin of priests accused of sexual abuse [1979-82 Ponciroli] - RCC. Altar boy.
   The Daily Review, By Glenn Chapman, ~ March 8, 2005
   HAYWARD (CA) - As negotiations continue in an effort to hammer out a "global settlement" in about 160 priest sex abuse suits - including several involving former Fremont priests - the first of the Clergy III civil trials commenced Monday in a Hayward courtroom.
   Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard met for about 90 minutes with the attorney representing former altar boy Bob Thatcher and lawyers defending the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and the accused abuser, Robert Ponciroli.
   Sheppard was presented with two large piles of briefs he is to review before rival attorneys return to his courtroom on Wednesday to argue motions, which include requests to limit evidence and expert testimony at trial. Jury selection is expected to begin as early as Thursday.
   Unless there is a settlement, Sheppard will preside over a civil trial pitting Thatcher and his lawyer, Richard Simons, against retired priest Ponciroli and the Oakland diocese.
   Ponciroli, 68, is accused of abusing Thatcher from 1979 to 1982 while Thatcher was an altar boy at St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch. The Oakland diocese includes Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The Thatcher case is one of several naming Ponciroli as an abuser.
• Former Oelwein priest accused of child molestation [1954 Goltz] - RCC. Boy.
   The Daily Register, By JACK SWANSON, Managing Editor, ~ March 8, 2005
   WEST UNION (IA) - Leaders of a local support group for clergy sex abuse victims announced this week that a child molestation lawsuit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Dubuque and Father William Goltz, for an alleged incident that happened while Father Goltz was serving at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Oelwein.
   The suit was filed in Fayette County District Court last Friday on behalf of a victim who only is identified in the lawsuit as "John Doe."
   The abuse is alleged to have taken place in 1954, according to Steve Theisen of Hudson, who co-chairs the Northeastern Iowa chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group.
   The suit states that Goltz was one of three resident priests at the Sacred Heart parish in 1954 and that Goltz became acquainted with "Doe" in the spring and summer of 1954, when Doe was 13.
   Doe alleges that Goltz asked for help washing his car and Doe helped him, and that afterwards, Goltz asked that he go for a drive. Doe says they drove to a rock quarry in Fayette County, where Goltz sexually abused him. He said he also showed him illicit photographs of young boys that he kept in the car's glove compartment.
   Doe also alleges that after the incident, Goltz was summoned to the parish for questioning by the Rev. Paul J. Maquire, one of the two priests assigned by the Archdiocese to the Sacred Heart Parish, and after Maquire questioned him, told him not to talk about the incident.
   Doe also believes that a formal church trial was held against Goltz following a report of the abuse to the Archdiocese, and that as a result of the trial, Goltz was charged with a violation for being sexually involved with young men.
   Doe also alleges that Goltz was found guilty and the Archbishop at the time banned him from celebrating Mass and hearing confessions, removed him from the parish, and required him to live under supervision in a house of penance, but did not report the crimes to civil authorities.
   "We're appalled that Dubuque Catholic officials let Goltz remain around children despite years of 'treatment' for sexual problems at secretive, church-run facilities throughout the United States," said Theisen, co-founder of Iowa SNAP.
   The suit alleges that following the incident Goltz took an extended sick leave in New Mexico, then returned to Iowa and was reassigned to Saint Ludmilla's Parish in Cedar Rapids in 1966.
   He also served in parishes in Webster City, Hampton, Sand Springs, Dorchester, and Waterloo, ending his active priesthood at St. Jude in Cedar Rapids. He officially retired in 1992 and then moved to McGregor. In 1996 he moved to Guttenburg, according to court documents.
   The court documents did not state where he was living at this time. So far, there has been no response from the Archdiocese to the court filing.
   "My heart goes out to this survivor of Goltz. Like so many of us, he has suffered in silence for a very long time," said Heather Smith of Waterloo, and also co-founder of Northeast Iowa SNAP. "We applaud his courage which may bring more survivors forward. We pray all parishes will begin to reach out to all survivors and demand change from Hanus."
   She expressed disappointment that the archbishops still refuses to release the names of those who have had credible molestation accusations made against them. "In his eyes, I guess, the alleged privacy of child molesters trumps the actual safety of children," she said.
   According to Goltz' work history, several years he apparently lived in other states. "Who protected children and warned parents when Goltz was sent to Wisconsin, and Ohio?" Theisen asked.
   Both Smith and Theisen stress that victim-survivors can contact their group in confidence to talk about abuse.
   "We let victims know they are no longer alone, that they are supported no matter how they choose to start recovering, and that despite the pain, there is hope," said Smith.
   Theisen can be reached at 319-231-1663 and Smith can be reached at 319-939-4144. SNAP also has a nation-wide toll-free hotline, 1 877 SNAP HEALS. The organization's web site is SNAPnetwork.org [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:37 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue, March 08, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont110.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Beth and the bishop. [39 years Shearman, ] - Anglican. Girl -> Woman.
   Television, Tuesday, March 8, 2005
   AUSTRALIA: After seducing a 14-year-old girl at an Anglican hostel, the married "Padre" and the girl kept up a correspondence and a kind of "courtship" for about 39 years, interspersed with some sexual relations, and even some time living together, causing a baby to be conceived.
   Padre later became Bishop Shearman, and although his victim finally complained to the Anglican Church about him, the situation was not resolved.
   [COMMENT: It was only when national news media attention focused on then Governor-General Hollingworth's inaction and inane opinion about the case, that the Anglican Church ponderously went into action. In 2004 the Church defrocked Shearman, i.e., he is no longer a bishop or even a clergyman of the Anglican Church. But, probably that's more than the Roman Catholic Church has done COMMENT ENDS.]
   [DOCTRINE: "Remove the wicked from among yourselves." 2 - 7 - 5:13. DOCTRINE ENDS.]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed, March 09, 2005 edition follows:-
• Newfoundland diocese seeks bankruptcy protection from abuse claims [20 yrs Bennett, 2005 St George's Diocese] - RCC. 36 complainants.

   Catholic News Service, www.catholic news.com/data/ stories/cns/ 0501374.htm , March 09, 2005
   CORNER BROOK, Newfoundland, Canada (CNS) -- The Diocese of St. George's has become the first Catholic diocese in Canada to seek bankruptcy protection as a result of sexual abuse claims.
   Bishop Douglas Crosby of St. George's announced March 8 that his diocese took the action to help it come up with money to stave off bankruptcy threatened by $50 million in claims. The bishop said that by going into bankruptcy protection the diocese could develop a plan that would compensate the victims better than if it went bankrupt.
   The stay of proceedings requested by the diocese lasts 30 days and can be extended at the court's discretion. During that time, the diocese is expected to develop a proposal for creditors. If the creditors, including the sex abuse claimants, refuse to accept it, the diocese will be automatically bankrupt, and a trustee will be appointed to liquidate its assets.
   A year ago, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that St. George's Diocese was directly and vicariously liable for claims by 36 individuals. These claims flow out of the case of Kevin Bennett, a former priest of the diocese who was sentenced in 1990 to almost 20 years in prison for sexually abusing young men over a period of two decades. Bennett served four years in prison. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:39 PM]
• March 9: Priest Victims Testify To Change Law
   WCPO, www.wcpo.com/ wcpo/localshows/ iteam/1fa7707a. html , Reported and Web Produced by I-Team, Updated: 17:45:46, Mar/09/05
   OHIO - Anchor, on set:
   Abuse victims from around the state appeared in Columbus today to support a change in Ohio law.
   Victims claim the current statute of limitations prevents them from punishing their abusers... and the Church leaders who protected those abusive priests.
   I-team reporter Laure Quinlivan was at the senate judiciary committee hearing today and joins us with the latest.
   Laure Quinlivan:
   A Cincinnati psychologist told lawmakers today that most victims of childhood sexual abuse don't come to grips with it until they're in their 30's. by then, it's too late to hold abusers accountable in court. That's why many say it's time to change Ohio law.
   (Christy Miller, victim) "All that I am asking for is my day in court."
   Cincinnati's Christy Miller and victims from around the state held up photos to show lawmakers how young they were when Catholic priests sexually abused them.
• Former religious brother jailed for sex abuse [1960s-70s Cosgrove (Marist)] - RCC. 180 charges. 6 boys.

   One in Four, ~ March 09, 2005
   IRELAND - A former religious brother convicted of 180 charges of sexually abusing former pupils at a national school in Sligo has been jailed for eight years.
   Christopher Cosgrove, of Ballyhaunis Road, Claremorris in Co Mayo, pleaded not guilty to the offences committed against six boys at St John's National School in Sligo in the 1960s and 1970s.
   Cosgrove was a Marist brother at the time and taught as Brother Christopher.
   At Sligo Circuit Court today, Judge Anthony Kennedy said the number of offences was enormous and the cumulative effect of them gave this case its great seriousness.
• Pastor Pleads No Contest To Sex Abuse [Harmon] - Baptist. 6 children.
   WCPO, www.wcpo.com/ news/2005/local/ 03/09/pastor .html , 10:41:33 AM, Mar/9/2005
   MAINEVILLE (OH) - A Maineville pastor accused of sexually abusing at least six children is pleading no contest to some of the charges.
   Claude "Steven" Harmon will be tried for rape and gross sexual imposition in April.
   On Tuesday, the 47-year-old pastor of Maineville Baptist Church pled no contest to 11 other similar charges stemming from incidents that allegedly took place in his Maineville home as well as at the church.
• Catholic group asks about source of money for abuse settlements - RCC.
   San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Wednesday, March 9, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - Leaders of a Catholic watchdog group asked church leaders in Northern California on Tuesday to tell the faithful exactly what funds will be used to pay for anticipated, multimillion-dollar settlements or court judgments in the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
   The call came as two days of court-ordered settlement talks in the East Bay ended with no apparent agreement over who will pay for the alleged coverup of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Northern California.
   Meanwhile, court proceedings were expected to continue today in San Francisco and Hayward in the first two trials sparked by a wave of lawsuits filed under a 2002 state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on damage claims against organizations that gave known child molesters access to more victims.
   At the Alameda County Superior Court building in Hayward, leaders of Voice of the Faithful, an organization of Catholic laity, waited in the hallway as lawyers for victims, the church and insurance companies negotiated behind closed doors.
   "It's like a game of poker, but they are playing with our money," said Ed Gleason, the group's director for Northern California.
• Three priests suspended [Paraniuk, Doerger, Vincent] - RCC. 134 claimants.
   Cincinnati Enquirer, By Dan Horn, March 9, 2005
   CINCINNATI (OH) - The Archdiocese of Cincinnati suspended three priests today because of accusations of sexual abuse involving children.
   Church officials said the decision to suspend the priests - Michael Paraniuk, Stanley Doerger and David Vincent - came after an independent tribunal awarded compensation payments earlier this week to their accusers.
   The tribunal is responsible for evaluating claims of abuse and deciding how much, if any, money alleged victims are entitled to receive. The tribunal has sent checks totaling $3.2 million to 120 of the 134 people who filed claims.
   Although tribunal members said they did not use a legal standard of proof in deciding the claims, church officials said the decision to award the accusers money convinced them to suspend the three priests.
   Church officials said two of the priests, Paraniuk and Doerger, had been accused previously but neither allegation was found to have the "semblance of truth" that U.S. bishops have said is necessary to suspend priests.
• Grand jury returns additional charges against priest [1979 Nyhan] - RCC. Minor.
   Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 9, 2005
   CHARLESTON, S.C.- Additional abuse charges have been filed against a Roman Catholic priest who briefly worked in Charleston a quarter century ago.
   The Rev. James Nyhan of Ipswich, Mass., was indicted by a Charleston County grand jury on Tuesday for an alleged 1979 incident. The new charges accuse Nyhan of second-degree assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct, which covers children aged 11 to 15, authorities said.
   He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the charge. He also was indicted on a charge of committing a lewd act on a minor.
   The local solicitor's office was planning this year to prosecute two other cases against Nyhan involving sex-abuse charges.
   A statement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston said the church was unaware of a third alleged victim until now. The statement said Bishop Robert Baker "offers his prayers for healing to this victim and all those involved."
• A Granby man tries to help his church make amends, Robin Powell is a new member of the Catholic Church
   Daily Hampshire Gazette, www.dailyhamp shiregazette. com/cspstory. cfm?id_no=309003 42005&vkey =1287409575319 62b79247ede050 60ad6d00dc3-EDAD 53EF-072A- A079-40DC42C8BA A7E17274057692 , BY KATHLEEN MELLEN, March 9, 2005
   GRANBY (MA) - WHEN Robin Powell decided decades ago to convert from Congregationalist to Roman Catholic, he could not have imagined the turmoil that was in store for his newfound church.
   The religion that he came to love through a childhood friend's family - a big, close family of Irish-Italian Catholics - intrigued him. He was fascinated by its history, its 2,000 years of tradition.
   But now, after practicing the faith for 30 years, and raising his own 12 children as devout Catholics, he finds himself front and center in one of the darkest times in that long history.
   [COMMENT: The history of the RCC is said to be 2000 years - but really the evidence suggests that it began when people in parts of north Africa, Italy, and Western Europe began forsaking the Church's original Greek language, treating Latin as if it was an official Christian tongue, and began contradicting decisions of universal councils of bishops.
   The convert might be shocked to notice, by closely reading The Acts, that James seemed to be the leader at Jerusalem, and that in one passage it is stated that the apostles sent Peter and John on a mission. How could the apostles SEND the supposed "prince of the apostles"?
   Mr Powell ought to look again at his bibles, where he will find that Peter at one stage most likely went eastwards to the huge Hebrew community at Babylon. There never has been any scriptural evidence that he later turned westwards and went to Rome, nor that he was martyred there.
   Also, check the New Testatment contradiction as to who was the "Apostle to the Gentiles." In one passage Peter claims that title, but elsewhere it is allegedly Paul's. But only one of those scriptures is taught in most sermons and religious books in the West.
   The RCC has a wonderful story to tell - but it is only one of many stories. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Victims' attorney: The Catholic Church still has a long way to go [Springfield Diocese] - RCC. $US7m. 45 claimants.
   Daily Hampshire Gazette, www.dailyhamp shiregazette. com/cspstory.cfm ?id_no=30900332 005&vkey=5445985 37531962b79247 ede05060ad6d0 0dc3-EDAD53EF-07 2A-A079-40DC42 C8BAA7E17236307 110 ; BY KATHLEEN MELLEN, March 9, 2005
   MASSACHUSETTS - Setting up a review board that evaluates charges of sexual abuse by clergy and makes recommendations to the bishop is a step in the right direction, says an area lawyer who has represented dozens of victims. But, he adds, the Springfield diocese can do a better job of serving those hurt by predatory priests.
   Greenfield lawyer John J. Stobierski, who has had about 10 clients appear before the board, says, for starters, the diocese should allow victims to bring attorneys to the board's hearings as the accused priests do. And, he says, the board should make public a list of priests against whom credible charges have been made.
   Stobierski represented 45 people who agreed in 2004 to settle their sex-abuse claims against the Springfield diocese and accept a portion of a more than $7 million settlement.
   He says the Dallas norms, the church law written by a gathering of bishops in 2002, requires the names of priests with credible charges against them to be made public, something he says the Springfield diocese has not done effectively.
   "They should post the names on their Web site," he said. "That would provide a sense of success for survivors." [Bolding added]
• Three Priests Placed On Leave [1970's Doerger, 1983 Paraniuk, 1970 Vincent] - RCC.
   WCPO, www.wcpo.com/ news/2005/local/ 03/09/priest leave.html , Last updated 12:58:05 PM, Mar/9/2005
   CINCINNATI (OH) - Three Tri-state priests have been placed on administrative leave due to the findings of the Fund Tribunal administering the $3 million archdiocese claim resolution compensation fund.
   The three are:
   Reverend Stanley Doerger -- pastor of Saint Bernard church in Taylor's creek.
   Reverend Michael Paraniuk -- chaplain at Children's Hospital and for the Cincinnnati Fire Department.
   Reverend David Vincent -- pastor of Saint Denis, Versailles, and Holy Family in Frenchtown.[...]
   For Paraniuk, the allegations are especially hard since he says he too was a victim of priest abuse.
   "I'm not angry at the bishop. I'm not angry at the accuser. I'm not mad at him. I forgive him but I do feel like a victim," said Paranuik.
   None of the three suspended priests has admitted guilt.
   Paraniuk was also on Bill Cunningham's 700 WLW-AM talk show Wednesday afternoon, claiming his innocence. Paraniuk said he is celibate and has never had improper contact with children.[...]
• Falsely accused priest arrested in Gujarat - RCC claims false accusation because he was a missionary.

   AsiaNews.it ; ~ March 9, 2005
   MUMBAI, India (AsiaNews) - An Indian Jesuit was arrested and jailed in Gujarat (western India) on the basis of false accusations made by a woman who claimed he tried to convert and have sex with her.
   Christian leaders have called on the Gujarat state government to immediately intervene and secure the unconditional release of the Fr Prasad Gonsalves, who was arrested "only because he is a missionary".
   Fr Gonsalves was sent to jail on March 7 by a court in Radhanpur after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) convinced Shanteben Gulabbhai from Jawaharnagar village to press charges against him.
   Two months ago Ms Gulabbhai had asked Father Gonsalves for help in finding a place to live in her district, which is located some 300 km from the Banaskantha district (northern Gujarat) where the Jesuit priest is a trustee of the local Catholic Ashram, which runs a low-cost housing project for the poor and disadvantaged.
   The clergyman had told the woman that he could not help given the great distance between them. After being turned down she went to the police to press charges against him only to change her mind later saying that she just wanted to get back at the Jesuit. Father Gonsalves eventually said he would try to do something to help the woman.
• Priest gets 18 months for assault - Judge could have given man 20 years [1977-79 Benham] - RCC. Girl, boy.
   Washington Examiner, By ROBERT ARKELL, Friday, March 4, 2005
   MARYLAND - A Pennsylvania homemaker fought back tears Friday morning shortly before her former Maryland priest was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison for molesting her as a teenager and sexually abusing a Maryland boy nearly two decades ago.
   "I feel as if my soul was raped and that my youth was entirely stolen from me, the 43-year-old homemaker said during her victim impact statement before the sentencing in Upper Marlboro.
   Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Michele Hotten suspended all but 18 months of Francis A. Benham's of 20 year sentence for sexually abusing and sodomizing the two victims as part of a plea agreement in which Benham agreed to forgo a trial and pleaded guilty. Benham, 68, will be eligible for parole after serving six months.
   The woman said the abuse took place between 1977 and 1979 when Benham served as a priest at Holy Spirit Parish in Forestville. Benham was removed from the Holy Spirit Parish in June, 1979 after the woman, then a teenager, reported he sexually abused her. He was reassigned to St Nicholas Parish in Zainesville, Ohio later that year.
• Minister accused of molesting family friend's child [2000 Argent] - Baptist. Boy.
   ABC13 Eyewitness News, http://abclocal. go.com/ktrk/ news/030905 _local_minister .html , Mar/09/05
   CLEVELAND, TX) - A church in Cleveland is trying to heal after learning a former minister has been accused of molesting a child.
   Andrew Argent is a former minister of praise and worship at Cleveland's First Baptist Church in Liberty County.
   Deputies arrested him Tuesday night and charged him with indecency with a child, accusing him of having an inappropriate relationship with a boy who attended the church five years ago.
   The pastor says the church is now trying to get the accuser and his family through the ordeal.
   "We use every bit of biblical material and knowledge to make certain there's much healing as possibly for everyone involved," said Pastor Dr. Howell Burkhead.
• Priest's Alleged Killer Seeks To Have Case Dismissed [2003 Druce]
   WHDH www1.whdh.com/ news/articles/ local/B70607 , ~ March 9, 2005
   WORCESTER, Mass. -- The convicted murderer accused of killing pedophile priest John Geoghan asked a judge Tuesday to dismiss the charges, accusing prison officials of retaliating against him because he didn't plead guilty.
   Joseph Druce, already serving a life sentence for murdering a man he thought was gay, allegedly beat and strangled Geoghan in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley on Aug. 23, 2003.
   In a motion filed Tuesday, Druce said prison officials have made it impossible for him to participate in his own defense by trying to limit contact with his attorney and by removing legal documents from his cell.
   Druce said he was barred from viewing a surveillance video from the day of Geoghan's killing without having a prison guard looking over his shoulder. The tape, which shows Druce leaving Geoghan's cell after the murder, is evidence in the case.
• Priest urges lay Catholics to take a leading role in the church - RCC. Fr Tom Doyle explains.
   Naples Daily News,
   By JANINE ZEITLIN, jazeitlin@naplesnews.com , March 9, 2005
   NAPLES (FL) - A prescription for healing the Catholic Church scarred by the priest abuse scandal will require a healthy dose of democracy, a priest and leading critic of the hierarchy's handling of the cases said Tuesday night.
   More than 300 people turned out to hear Father Thomas Doyle speak at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in North Naples, organizers estimated.
   Doyle, 60, was an expert witness in more than 150 clergy abuse cases and profiled in "Vows of Silence," a book chronicling the scandal.
   "There's a fear of democracy in the Catholic Church," he said. "The age of monarchy is gone. It is no longer effective. That was a world into which the church was born ... But we're no longer riding on horseback. We have cars."
   The Southwest Florida chapter of Voice of the Faithful, a group formed by lay people in response to the scandal, hosted Doyle as part of its speakers forum.
   He said the decades of Catholics following clergy like "a docile flock" are gone, inspiring applause
• Jailed priest files personal details [Kuhn] - RCC. Wants to plead innocent now. 11 charges.
   Dayton Daily News, By Rob Modic, March 9, 2005
   DAYTON (OH) | Claiming his previous attorneys failed him, the Rev. Thomas Kuhn, serving a 30-day jail sentence for violating his probation for public indecency, filed a slew of private documents, including his psychological assessment and sexual history, in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
   Kuhn, 63, convicted in July after he pleaded no contest to public indecency and 10 other misdemeanors stemming from providing alcohol to minors, is seeking to withdraw his plea and go to trial.
   In an affidavit filed late Monday, Kuhn claims his previous attorneys, Roger J. Makely and Christopher R. Conard, did not fully inform him of legal defenses.
   "The discussions were always couched in terms of minimizing embarrassment to the archdiocese and me," Kuhn said in the sworn statement.
   Kuhn has since fired Makely and Conard and retained Dayton attorney Dwight Brannon.
• Priest is charged with embezzlement [Kelly, Nolin] - RCC. $US1.2m missing.
   The Boston Globe, By David Abel, March 9, 2005
   BARNSTABLE (MA) - A Barnstable County grand jury yesterday indicted the former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Falmouth on charges that the Roman Catholic priest embezzled more than $500,000 from the church and filed false tax returns, prosecutors said.
   Bernard Kelly, who is separately being sued by the Diocese of Fall River for allegedly misappropriating $1.2 million, is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in Barnstable Superior Court on one count of embezzlement and five counts of failing to file state income tax returns, prosecutors said.
   In the past five years, Kelly allegedly wrote checks from parish accounts to himself. The investigation into the alleged embezzlement began while police investigated the 2003 murder of 20-year-old Jonathan Wessner. A Barnstable jury last year convicted a former church handyman and friend of Kelly's, Paul Nolin, of fatally stabbing the Falmouth man after he rejected Nolin's sexual advances, prosecutors said.
• Tribunal mails over $3M to victims of clergy abuse [Cincinnati Archdiocese] - RCC. $US3m spent.
   Cincinnati Enquirer, By Dan Horn, March 9, 2005
   CINCINNATI (OH) - An independent tribunal mailed checks totaling more than $3 million Tuesday to victims of clergy abuse in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
   The mailing is the final step in a process that began in November 2003 when the archdiocese established a victim's compensation fund as part of a legal settlement with Hamilton County prosecutors.
   Prosecutors and church officials selected the tribunal to oversee the fund, evaluate individual claims and determine how much money, if any, each alleged victim should receive.
   Of the 134 people who filed claims with the tribunal, 120 are expected to receive a check this week. The amount of individual checks was not disclosed Tuesday.
   "We found that the vast majority of them are eligible for compensation," said Robert Stachler, a Cincinnati attorney and member of the tribunal. "They exhausted the entire fund."
• Arrest Warrant Upheld. [2001-02] - Greek Orthodox. Girl.

   Kathimerini, March 9, 2005
   GREECE - A 58-year-old Greek priest, charged with sexually molesting a minor in Barcelona, is to face trial in Spain after yesterday's Supreme Court ruling upheld a Greek law ratifying the new European arrest warrant.
   A lower court had accepted the extradition request submitted by Spanish authorities after the unnamed cleric was charged with molesting a young girl between 2001 and 2002, when he was giving Greek lessons to children in Barcelona.
• Key scandal testimonies [2000s Greek Orthodox Church; Yiossakis, Kaloussis, Bourboulia] - Greek Orthodox. Sex exploitation, immigrant women, judge, bribes.
   Kathimerini, www.ekathimerini. com/4dcgi/_w _articles_politics _100002 _09/03/2005 _53860 , March 9, 2005
   GREECE - As churches all over the country yesterday held vigils to pray for an end to the corruption and sex scandals bedeviling the Church of Greece, two key suspects are scheduled to testify today in connection with the trial-fixing allegations that opened a Pandora's box of lurid claims regarding senior judges and churchmen.
   The first, Iakovos Yiossakis - a priest in detention pending trial for antiquities theft - was allegedly the eminence grise at the center of the ring, while the second, Court of First Instance President Evangelos Kaloussis, is suspected of having sexually exploited a series of immigrant women and to have banked vast sums that cannot be legitimately accounted for.
   The ongoing investigation into a series of judges and prosecutors suspected of corruption has already led to the opening of Kaloussis's accounts in Greece which, according to judicial sources, point to the judge having received a large number of bribes.
   Kaloussis is also understood to have been implicated in further wrongdoing yesterday, during the testimony of yacht-rental entrepreneur Sotiris Kritikos, on one of whose yachts the judge has been photographed with another disgraced member of the judiciary, Constantina Bourboulia - sacked for her handling of a major stock-manipulation probe.
• Diocese to allow review of files from '02 search [1980] - RCC. Nun murdered.
   Toledo Blade, By ROBIN ERB, March 9, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - Lucas County prosecutors will once again review files from the Toledo Catholic Diocese following an informal meeting Monday of prosecutors and Thomas Pletz, a diocesan attorney.
   But saying she was bound by attorney's ethics rules and criminal statutes of limitations, Prosecutor Julia Bates cautioned that the inspection most likely will not lead to criminal charges, as victims have demanded for years.
   Instead, she characterized it as a "voluntary production of information" by the diocese to make sure documents that prosecutors reviewed in 2002 are the same papers that police saw during a search of the diocesan office in September.
   "We just want to re-examine those records, make sure they are the same ones we already reviewed," she said.
   She said she must trust the diocese in turning over all allegations of child abuse in such an agreement. The move takes place three weeks after The Blade revealed that police, with a court order, twice searched the diocese last year during its investigation of the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
   During the second search, police found records alleging child abuse, but did not seize the documents. [Bolding added.]
• Church mulls repaying Medicare costs to abuse victims - Anglican.

   ABC, www.abc.net.au/ news/newsitems/ 200503/s1319 746.htm , March 9, 2005
   AUSTRALIA - The Anglican Church in Tasmania is considering repaying the Medicare rebates for people who have received compensation for sexual abuse by members of the clergy.
   Under Federal legislation, people who receive compensation are required to repay their Medicare rebates for treatment for injuries or conditions they received as a result of the abuse.
   The Tasmanian Government will pick up those bills for people compensated for abuse while in state care, after the Commonwealth said it would not grant an exemption.
• Inmate asks dismissal in Geoghan slaying [Geoghan, 2003 Druce] - RCC.
   Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), By Gary V. Murray, gmurray@telegram.com , March 9, 2005
   WORCESTER (MA) - Joseph L. Druce, the inmate accused of murdering defrocked pedophile priest John J. Geoghan, is asking that the case against him be dismissed because of what he and his lawyer describe as interference with Mr. Druce's right to a fair trial by the state Department of Correction.
   In a motion to dismiss filed yesterday in Worcester Superior Court, Mr. Druce's lawyer, John L. LaChance, accused correction officials of engaging in "a pattern of misconduct and coercion" designed to force his client to plead guilty and avoid a trial "in which evidence contrary to the interests of the Department of Correction and a certain number of employees" could come out, to alienate Mr. Druce from his appointed counsel and to hinder Mr. Druce's trial preparation by interfering with his ability to obtain witnesses.
   In an affidavit in support of the motion, Mr. Druce alleged that in May 2004, while at the state prison in Walpole, an unnamed captain approached him and "contrary to my attorney's advice told me to take a plea bargain in my case and transfer out of state." In order to "harass and punish" him for not taking the captain's advice, Mr. Druce alleged in the affidavit, an inmate who was a "known enemy" of his was relocated to his tier.
   On Aug. 9, the inmate made a "spear-type object," smeared it with feces and stabbed Mr. Druce's foot with it as he passed by the inmate's cell, according to the affidavit. Mr. Druce further alleged that correction officers took legal materials from his cell during a Nov. 22 "shakedown" and never returned them.
   Mr. LaChance charges in the motion that the alleged interference with his client's right to a fair trial "has in fact caused an attorney-client rift in this case and has served to turn the Defendant's attention away from trial issues and to focus solely on what he considers to be the abuse and interference of the Department of Correction."
   Mr. Druce allegedly killed Mr. Geoghan on Aug. 23, 2003, at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center on the Lancaster/Shirley line. At the time of the slaying, Mr. Geoghan was serving time for fondling a 10-year-old boy and Mr. Druce was doing a life sentence for the 1998 murder of a man he believed to be gay.
   Assistant District Attorney Lawrence J. Murphy told Judge Timothy S. Hillman yesterday he would contact correction officials to allow them to respond to Mr. Druce's allegations.
   Judge Hillman tentatively scheduled an April 25 evidentiary hearing on the motion to dismiss. Mr. LaChance said he expected the hearing to take two to three days.
   Diane Wiffin of the Department of Correction's public affairs unit said correction officials could not comment on the allegations raised by Mr. Druce because of the pending case against him.
• Church Abuse Cases Spark New Classes for Conception Abbey - RCC.
   KQ2, www.kq2.com/ news/default. asp?mode=show news&id=1702 , March 9, 2005
   MISSOURI - The Catholic Church goes to court. Sixteen sexual-abuse cases involving five former priests from the St. Joseph-Kansas City Diocese are pending in Kansas City.
   Although the St. Louis Archdiocese settled cases out of court, plaintiffs in the Kansas City cases will see a judge.
   Up the road, Conception Abbey says it takes sex abuse matters seriously and is, in fact, changing its course requirements.
   KQ2's Maggie Crane goes inside the abbey.
   Prayers are offered up at Conception Abbey for those affected in pending sexual-abuse cases. The abbey says three precautions are now in place to guard against future abuse. Two of the precautions have already been implemented.
   The first is preliminary screenings for potential seminarians.
   "Young men who want to join the seminary, they have to go through a psychological evaluation, they have to have references, there are background checks done on them. I mean, it's a pretty extensive process," Dan Madden, director of development and communication, says.
• Diocese asks court to seal sex abuse files [Campobello, 2005 Rockford Diocese] - RCC. Hiding files.
   Chicago Daily Herald, By Tona Kunz, Posted Wednesday, March 09, 2005
   ROCKFORD (IL) - The Rockford Catholic Diocese made its latest bid for secrecy Tuesday, asking a judge to seal all documents in a civil case over sexual abuse in Geneva and Aurora.
   That would prevent the public and the media from seeing any documents regarding the work file of Mark Campobello, medical records for his 15-year-old victims or records of other diocese priests accused of sexual indiscretions against youths or adults.
   "This is kind of going to be the crux of the case. This really tells them how much disclosure is required. How much of a backlash they will get," said Keith Aeschliman, a Shorewood attorney representing in the civil suit the two teens Campobello admitted sexually abusing while he served at St. Peter's Church in Geneva and Aurora Central Catholic High School. "But at the same time, it is really a test to see if the right of the public to know outweighs the right to privacy."
   Although in the paperwork requesting secrecy the diocese contends it is the victims' privacy at stake, Aeschliman said it is really the diocese at risk. As in some previous church-abuse cases, the girls' names or those of other juveniles could be kept private while still turning over church files. That would protect the juveniles while shining a light on diocese practices regarding allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct.
   Aeschliman has asked for diocese files on 33 priests, including Campobello, allegedly accused of sexual misconduct so that he can determine how the diocese traditionally dealt with accusations and when they learned of them.
• Diocese seeks bankruptcy protection [Bennett, St George's Diocese] - RCC. $CAD50m sought. 36 males.

   CBC News, http://stjohns. cbc.ca/regional/ servlet/View ?filename=nf -diocese-20050309 , WebPosted 07:53 AM NST, Mar 9, 2005
   CORNER BROOK, Canada - The Roman Catholic diocese of St. George's says it is filing for bankruptcy protection in order to give sexual abuse victims the best compensation package.
   However, Greg Stack - the lawyer representing the 36 men abused by priest Kevin Bennett - says the move is a stalling tactic. By filing for bankruptcy protection, the diocese has put a temporary stop to the civil suits.
   Bishop Douglas Crosby says the diocese does not have the $50 million dollars in compensation that the 36 victims are seeking.
• Court overturns time limitations for sex-abuse trial; appellate judges reinstate lawsuit [Hopp] - RCC. Male.
   Toledo Blade, By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, Mar 9, 2005
   LIMA, Ohio - In a decision that could affect clerical sexual abuse cases statewide, Ohio's 3rd District Court of Appeals has ruled that a civil suit filed against the Archdiocese of Cincinnati can proceed even though the statute of limitations has expired.
   The ruling reverses a Shelby County Common Pleas Court decision to throw out the lawsuit by the alleged victim, claiming that he was abused as a minor by the Rev. Thomas Hopp, because he did not file it within two years after turning 18.
   The appellate court sent the case back to the common pleas court, agreeing with the victim, who filed anonymously as John Doe, that the statute of limitations should not apply for a number of reasons, including his arguments that the archdiocese failed to report the priest's alleged crimes to law enforcement authorities, that it concealed the alleged abuse, and that it engaged in "a pattern of corrupt activities."
   "This is the first court of appeals in Ohio to rule in favor of a victim in terms of statute of limitations," said Konrad Kircher, a Mason, Ohio, attorney. Mr. Kircher filed the suit along with Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson, who has filed more than 400 sex-abuse lawsuits against dioceses.
   Named in the lawsuit were the Cincinnati archdiocese, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, and Father Hopp.
   Catherine Hoolahan, a Toledo attorney who has represented more than a dozen people with cases against the Toledo diocese, said many of the same arguments on statutes of limitations have been made by victims throughout Ohio, including Toledo.
• Priest says celibacy should be an option. - Fr. Doyle says being unmarried partly to blame.
   NBC 2, www.nbc-2.com/ articles/read article.asp ?articleid =2762&z=3&p= , ~ Mar 9, 2005
   COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA - Father Thomas Doyle was one of the first to bring reports of sexual abuse to the attention of the Catholic clergy in the 1980's. Now twenty years later, Doyle is visiting churches around the country to show why he believes clergy should have the opportunity to decide whether or not to be celibate as the only way to prevent more abuse.
   Tuesday night it was standing room only at Saint John the Evangelist Church. Everyone gathered to learn how to reconcile the sexual abuse scandal facing the clergy.
   "I'm concerned about the changes in the church so I've come to be more informed I would say," said Sandy Smith.
   Father Thomas Doyle, witness in more than 150 abuse cases in the 1980's feels the scandal has shaped his 34-year career.
   "The biggest thing that I've seen change in my career as a priest has been the upheaval caused by the revelation of sexual abuse by the clergy," said Doyle.
   Doyle believes mandatory celibacy is partly to blame for the hundreds of accusations and subsequent sex scandal brought against catholic clergy members. He says Catholic priests aren't able to understand what harm sexual misconduct can cause.
• Clergy-abuse compensation panel distributes $3.2 million - RCC. $US3.2m. 117 victims.
   Beacon Journal, By JOHN NOLAN, Associated Press, ~ Mar 9, 2005
   CINCINNATI (OH)- Checks totaling $3.2 million have been mailed out to 117 people who say they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests, emptying a compensation fund the Archdiocese of Cincinnati created to help end a prosecutor's investigation.
   An independent three-member panel created to administer the fund closed its work by mailing the checks Tuesday across the 19-county, southwestern Ohio archdiocese. The amount disbursed represents $3 million used to establish the fund in 2003 plus $200,000 in interest it had generated since then.
   The panel was limited by the amount of the fund, said its chairman, Cincinnati lawyer Robert Stachler.
   "You would like to pay some of them a lot more, but you didn't have the funds," he said.
   Advocates for victims of clergy abuse criticized the Cincinnati archdiocese for not creating a bigger fund, and for requiring that people drop lawsuits against the church in order to participate.
   "I think that fund was inadequate. It was put together without input from victims," said Mike Knellinger, co-founder of the Dayton chapter of the Voice of the Faithful, an activist group within the Catholic Church.
• Diocese takes shot at DA [Dominguez, 2005 San Bernardino Diocese] - RCC. Child molestation.
   Press-Enterprise, By MICHAEL FISHER and MIKE KATAOKA, Tuesday, March 8, 2005
   SAN BERNARDINO (CA) - The Diocese of San Bernardino is asking a judge to return a defrocked Inland priest's personnel file, arguing that Riverside County prosecutors improperly seized the documents while investigating the former cleric who was later charged with child molestation.
   The Jan. 25 search warrant, the first ever executed at the diocese's headquarters in San Bernardino, violated federal and state constitutional standards, diocesan lawyer Bill Lemann argued in court papers filed Friday.
   Lemann also contends the seized personnel file for Jesús Armando Dominguez contains privileged paperwork, and that prosecutors failed to follow California laws that require a third party, dubbed a special master, to be present during such searches to secure sensitive records and review their relevance.
   "Given our positive relationship with the district attorney's office in the past, it is surprising that they attempted to go beyond what the law allows by seizing confidential, personnel and medical records," said the Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the million-member diocese, comprising Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
   Riverside County District Attorney Grover Trask said that although his office acted properly he will now require a special master be present during searches involving potentially privileged documents.
   [COMMENT: "Improperly seizing," "confidential," and "sensitive" records: What could be more confidential and sensitive than the private parts of the boys, girls and others that the diocese's guilty clergy had been improperly seizing? And they didn't have search warrants, either! COMMENT ENDS.]
• Diocese seeks defrocked priest's file [Dominguez, 2005 San Bernardino Diocese] - RCC. Altar boys.

   San Bernardino County Sun, By Brad A. Greenberg, ~ Mar 9, 2005
   SAN BERNARDINO (CA) - Seeking to screen information about a defrocked priest accused of sexually abusing two former altar boys, the Diocese of San Bernardino has asked a Riverside judge to return his personnel file.
   Jesus Armando Dominguez, 55, was charged in January with 58 counts of sexual abuse the most ever filed against a priest from the diocese. Authorities believe Dominguez has fled to Mexico.
   The Riverside District Attorney's Office seized his file Jan. 25. The diocese last week asked for it back because it contains privileged information, such as Dominguez's medical and psychological history, said Wilfrid Lemann, diocese attorney.
   "He could turn around and sue the church," Lemann said.
   Phone messages left for district attorney officials were not returned Tuesday.
   A local victims' advocate said the diocese's actions were "highly suspect.' [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:31 AM] [Emphasis added.]
   [COMMENT: "He could ... sue the church," said lawyer Lemann. So what? Why not wait until the fugitive returns to the USA and appears in court to sue the Church (unless there is a law allowing him to strike at a distance), and let the police seize him on the current charges? WHO is footing the bill for such lawyers? Answer: The pewfillers, high on spiritual opium. By the way, have the fugitive's supposed spiritual superiors ordered him, under pain of defrocking and excommunication, to return to the diocese he is supposed to be in, and to face the law of the land? If not, are more of the plate-fillers going go do something about it? COMMENT ENDS.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker Wed, March 09, 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, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu, March 10, 2005 edition follows:-
• Priests and Punishment - Roman Catholic Church.

   North Bay Bohemian, www.metroactive. com/papers/sonoma/ 03.09.05/open-mic -0510.html , By Hank Mattimore, March 9, 2005
   CALIFORNIA - Let's be clear where I stand on the subject of priests sexually abusing kids. It's not just "inappropriate" or even "unacceptable." The sexual abuse of children, especially when done by a person in a position of trust, is abhorrent. It is a betrayal of trust of the worst kind. As a parent and now a grandparent, I am appalled that this kind of behavior was allowed to continue in the church I love.
   All this has been said more eloquently than I have expressed it. Outrage at the behavior of abusive priests and silent bishops has been shouted from the housetops, and (finally) the cries of victims and parents and the Catholic in the pew are being heard. Bishops are no longer able to protect offending priests from legal sanctions. Structures have been set up in every parish in the country to make sure that this never happens again.
   Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI official who in 2002 helped establish the Church's Office of Child and Youth Protection, recently announced that only 22 new cases involving abuse of minors surfaced during 2004. One can argue that even one new case is too many, but given the fact that there are over 50,000 priests in this country serving over 100 million Catholics, it appears that the protections put in place by the bishops and their lay Catholic associates are starting to produce results.
   The victims of child abuse who have come forward at great emotional cost to confront their abusers and relive their childhood trauma deserve our gratitude. If parishes and schools are safer places today, it is because these victims of abuse had the courage to tell their stories. lion dollar lawsuits that the child-abuse scandals have spawned. Nationally, the church has paid out approximately $180 million in damages resulting from child-abuse cases. Three dioceses have already declared bankruptcy, with more to follow. Our own Santa Rosa Diocese has expended over $7 million with several more cases pending. Bishop Daniel Walsh has already warned local parishioners that Santa Rosa may be the next diocese in bankruptcy court.
   I have a problem with the fairness and effectiveness of punishing parishes for the sins of their priests. Who really suffers when a parish or school must close its doors because of the financial burden laid on it by one of these lawsuits? What kind of justice is served when the wrong people are being punished?
   I would like to believe the victims of abuse when they say "it's not about the money." But when the Santa Rosa Diocese will have to cough up an estimated $1 million per each pending case, in addition to the $7 million already expended, what is it about? Do they think that the money will come from the bishop's personal bank account? Hardly. Besides, Bishop Walsh was not even around at the time when the abusive behavior took place. I confess that I would be more inclined to understand the disclaimer "It's not about the money" if the attorneys were working pro bono and the plaintiffs were offering to give the proceeds of their settlement to charity.
   I also take exception to these lawsuits when the vast majority of them go back 30 or 40 years and in some cases (including one in Sonoma County) are being tried against priests who have been dead for several years. Doesn't it strike anyone as macabre to be sending out a posse of accusers to string up a dead man? I might add that too often these long-ago cases are being tried on the evidence of a victim's repressed memory, evidence that is of dubious validity in a court of law.
   We seem to be so reluctant to let anyone (with the notable exception of Enron and other white-collar miscreants) get away with anything in our society. But this time we are punishing the wrong people. These multimillion dollar lawsuits do nothing to right the wrongs that have been done. They simply take our money and line the wallets of lawyers. The money in the diocesan coffers is our money. In spending it to cover the costs of litigation, we end up hurting the working stiff who puts his $10 in the collection basket, the folks who line up for food at St. Vincent de Paul's kitchen, the woman who needs help with her kids. Who exactly are we punishing?
   Harm has been done. Kids have been hurt. Agreed. But public apologies have been given and steps have been taken to make sure it never happens again. I think it's time to move on, time to call off the dogs. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:46 PM]
   [COMMENT: "I also take exception to these lawsuits" that go back 30 or 40 years. But, apologists tell us that it was the wicked World that caused the sex abuse - but never suggest that the seducing priests of previous decades might have helped CAUSE the "sexual revolution" in the World!
   "Time to move on." That's exactly what each sinful bishop and their superiors overseas said each time they "moved on" the sinful priests. And they did it for decades that we know of, for centuries we surmise. That kind of thinking led to an admitted FOUR PER CENT of US priests being DOCUMENTED in Church files as being sex abusers. That is, 4% were documented as having NO BELIEF in Church teachings, and no respect for the civil law or the children or the rest of society, who have been scandalised and turned aside from Christianity as a result of their selfishness and crimes. They somehow got through the seminary (itself a reversal of apostolic practice) and supposed tests, and being assistant pastors, yet were never stopped.
   This apologist's excuses ring as hollow as the others chronicled on the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker and other archival websites. (A large part of this was e-mailed to two Hank Mattimores on March 13, 2005.) COMMENT ENDS.]
• Bishop Kinney dismissed from abuse lawsuit [Thoennes] - RCC.
   Grand Forks Herald, Associated Press, ~ March 10, 2005
   ST. CLOUD, Minn. - Bishop John Kinney was dismissed from a lawsuit that accuses a former St. Cloud Diocese priest of sexual abuse, and a Stearns County judge ruled there was no evidence Kinney knew the former priest was dangerous.
   The diocese and former priest James Thoennes remain defendants in the lawsuit filed by Wayne Eller, according to this week's ruling by District Court Judge Elizabeth Hayden.
   Roger Schmitt, an attorney for the diocese, said the diocese was reviewing the ruling and it's too early to know whether it would appeal, the St. Cloud Times reported in its Friday editions.
   Eller's attorney, Jeff Anderson, said the diocese previously agreed to two settlement options and that the ruling triggers the higher of the two. Neither Schmitt nor Anderson would disclose the settlement amount, but Anderson called it "modest."
   "This is a very important determination by the court for this survivor to put an end to this painful chapter of horror," said Anderson.
• Voice of the Faithful's second convention - John L. Allen and Thomas P. Doyle to speak.
   Newsday, BY RITA CIOLLI, March 1, 2005
   LONG ISLAND (NY) - John L. Allen, the Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and a leading observer of Vatican affairs, will be the featured speaker at the Voice of the Faithful's second convention in Melville on March 19.
   Allen, a commentator for CNN and National Public Radio, will give his insight into the election of the next pope.
   The conference's keynote speaker will be the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a canon lawyer and expert witness in many clergy sex abuse cases, who will discuss how the scandal developed in the American Catholic Church. There will also be a panel discussion on the evolving roles of priests and the laity.
• By staying silent, Bishop Murphy isn't leading [Rockville Centre Diocese] - RCC bishop bans Catholics from premises.
   Newsday, BY DICK RYAN, March 10, 2005
Dick Ryan of West Islip is the author of "Holy Human: Stories of Extraordinary Catholics."
   LONG ISLAND (NY) - March 19 figures to be a huge success for the Long Island Voice of the Faithful for a number of reasons.
   That's when it hosts its second major convention, this time featuring two heavyweight speakers, John H. Allen, the renowned Vatican-based correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, and the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a highly respected lawyer on church issues. There will also be a special panel to discuss the priesthood and the laity and a 3 p.m. Mass.
   Naturally, these people won't be anywhere near the inside of a Catholic Church, banned as they are by Bishop William Murphy from even breathing outside the nearest bingo hall.
   But for all their planning and preparation, the Voice of the Faithful goofed in one crucial area. There should have been a special invitation to the man who was the inspiration and impetus - along with his old friend Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston - for the creation of Voice of the Faithful. There should have been a special place at the table for a third speaker with the perfect credentials for the occasion: the leader of the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
• Priest in court for six rapes - Religion not named. 6 girls.

   News 24, www.news24. com/News24/South_ Africa/News/ 0,,2-7-1442 _1674530, 00.html , 18:13 - (SA), Mar/10/2005
   BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa A 40-year-old Nigerian priest, charged with raping six schoolgirls, appeared in Clocolan magistrate's court on Thursday.
   The priest was arrested on October 7 2004 after the girls said he had raped them at his mission in Hlohlolwane, Clocolan.
   The case was postponed on Thursday to April 11 for further investigation.
   A court official said the priest was still in custody.
   At a previous appearance in February, the result of an appeal against a bail application dismissed last year was not available yet.
• Greece priest charged in child porn case [? 2000s Volino] - RCC. Computer child porn.
   Democrat & Chronicle, Gary Craig, March 10, 2005
   ROCHESTER (NY) - There's no evidence that a Catholic priest accused today of possessing child pornography ever engaged in sexual contact with minors, according to federal prosecutors and his defense lawyer.
   Federal prosecutors today charged the Rev. Michael Volino, 41, with interstate transport of child pornography and possession of child pornography. They allege that he had hundreds of images of child pornography on a computer.
   Volino's lawyer, John Parrinello, said Volino intends to plead not guilty. At his first court apperarance Thursday, where a plea was not required, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman placed Volino under house arrest with electronic monitoring. Volino is staying at an individual's house while the Diocese of Rochester tries to arrange housing as he awaits trial.
   Feldman also prohibited Volino from interaction with minors.
   Parrinello said after the hearing that society, because of the allegations nationwide of priest abuse of minors, could be in an era of "priest-mania" with the public overly and unfairly suspicious of priests.
   [COMMENT: Parrinello gives a classic "apologist's" reaction. There are still millions of RCs who are "in denial." But when one sees that the Anglicans/ Episcopals and Orthodox Churches AND many minor Churches and non-Christian religions are also shielding sinners, one needs to pray "Deliver us from evil." COMMENT ENDS.]
• Oakland diocese could face punitive damages payout, judge rules [? 1979-83 Ponciroli, Oakland Diocese] - RCC. Altar boys.
   Contra Costa Times, By Ivan Delventhal, March 10, 2005
   HAYWARD (CA) - In a tentative ruling issued today, an Alameda County Superior Court judge opened the door to a potential punitive damage award in a recently begun clergy sex abuse case.
   The ruling came in connection with a lawsuit filed by Robert Thatcher, who along with his brother Tom sued the Diocese of Oakland over abuse they suffered at the hands of defrocked priest Robert Ponciroli.
   "As alleged, the conduct of the church is outrageous, oppressive and malicious," Judge Harry Sheppard said in explaining his tentative ruling. "And it was done with a conscious disregard for the persons they were entrusted to protect, being children."
   The tentative ruling, if it becomes final, is significant because punitive damages could dramatically increase the monetary award in the case.
   Ponciroli served at St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch from 1980 until 1983. The Thatcher brothers served as altar boys at St. Ignatius from 1979 to 1981.
• Rochester area priest faces child pornography charges [? 2000s Volino] - RCC. Computer child porn.
   WSTM, www.wstm.com/ Global/story. asp?S=3060690 , ~ March 10, 2005
   ROCHESTER, N.Y. Federal authorities allege in court papers that a Rochester-area Catholic priest possessed child pornography and visited Web sites that trafficked in child pornography.
   The Reverend Michael Volino was charged this morning with interstate receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
   Child pornography was discovered by a technology specialist at the Diocese of Rochester who was repairing the 41-year-old priest's computer.
   That's according to an affidavit from the F-B-I.
   Volino is a priest at Saint John the Evangelist Church of Greece.
   The affidavit contends that Volino told the F-B-I that he had been involved in counseling for three years but had not stopped looking at child pornography.
• Suspended Priest Relieved From FD Duties [1983 Paraniuk] - RCC.
   WCPO, www.wcpo.com/ news/2005/local/ 03/10/paraniuk. html , Reported by 9News, 5:48:48 PM, Mar/10/2005
   CINCINNATI (OH) - The Cincinnati Fire Department has relieved its chaplain of his duties after revelations Wednesday that he had been accused of sex abuse.
   The Archdiocese of Cincinnati placed the Reverend Michael Paraniuk on administrative leave while it investigates the allegation.
   Paraniuk spoke to 9News Wednesday and insisted he's innocent.
• Pastor accused of molesting two boys related to him [? 1990s-2000s Fields] - Holiness Church. 2 boys.
   Al.com ; www.al.com/ newsflash/ regional/index. ssf?/base/news -12/11104849045 7980.xml&story list=alabamanews ; The Associated Press, 2:02 p.m. CT, Mar/10/2005
   MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - The pastor of Bethel Holiness Church in Irvington has been arrested and charged with sodomizing and sexually abusing two boys who are related to him, authorities said.
   Mobile County Sheriff's Department spokesman Christina Bowersox said Dennis Lamar Fields, 51, of Grand Bay was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of first-degree sodomy.
   Fields was arrested about 6 p.m. Tuesday and taken to Mobile County Metro Jail. He was released Wednesday on $30,000 bond.
   A Mobile Register reporter who went to Fields' mobile home was met by a woman who appeared to be in her 30s. She said the family had no comment on the charges against Fields and ordered the reporter off the property.
   Fields is accused of molesting a boy who now is 10 or 11 years old and a man, now 27 years old, who was a child at the time Fields allegedly abused him.
• Fresno diocese complies with policy on youths - RCC. Late reporting.
   Fresno Bee, By Doug Hoagland, Updated 6:05 AM, Thursday, March 10, 2005,
   FRESNO (CA) - A national Catholic group charged with addressing the clergy sexual abuse crisis says the Diocese of Fresno is complying after all with a new nationwide policy to protect children.
   But only a month ago, the Office of Child & Youth Protection was reporting a different story.
   The group reported in February that the Fresno diocese was one of four in the United States that wasn't fully meeting compliance requirements. But after further review and talks with Fresno officials, the group said the diocese's main problem was getting key information in on time.
   The issue was, and continues to be, the Fresno diocese's competence in relaying information about clergy and volunteers working with children to the Office of Child & Youth Protection in Washington.
   The diocese did not make information about clergy and volunteers available in "a useful or satisfactory way" before a Dec. 31 deadline, said Sheila Kelly, interim director of the office. Added Kelly: "If the information that they had, had been provided to the auditors by December 31, they would have been found to be in compliance."
• Church loses on key points, witnesses [1970s-80s Ponciroli ] - RCC. Promoted paedophile. 2 altar boys.
   San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Thursday, March 10, 2005
   HAYWARD (CA) - Attempts by the Catholic Church to limit evidence and witnesses in a key sexual abuse coverup trial were rejected Wednesday by an East Bay judge.
   The rulings by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard put new pressure on the Diocese of Oakland to settle a damages suit by two former altar boys who say church leaders allowed a known pedophile priest to molest them in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
   Church lawyers have already admitted the diocese was negligent in its 1979 promotion of the Rev. Robert Ponciroli to pastor of St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Antioch.
   Now the issue is whether the church is guilty of "intentional infliction of emotional distress."
   Sheppard has yet to rule on that key point, but his decision could result in punitive damages and a much higher award to the plaintiffs in the case, Bob Thatcher, 34, of Phoenix, and his brother, Tom, 37, of Winter Springs, Fla. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:36 PM]
• Victim advocate raps diocese audit - RCC. Paedophiles come and go.

   Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), www.telegram. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article ?AID=/20050310/ NEWS/503100415/ 1008/NEWS02 , By Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , March 10, 2005
   WORCESTER (MA) - Daniel Dick, victim support coordinator for Voice of the Faithful in the Diocese of Worcester, has criticized the manner in which the National Review Board, based in Washington, D.C., conducted its audit of the diocese to monitor compliance with the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
   Mr. Dick has also written to the local diocesan review board asking that he and at least one victim of clergy sexual abuse meet with the board while it does its own review of the charter. The charter expires this year and bishops and a number of groups, including Voice of the Faithful, are reviewing the charter to see what has worked and what might be improved.
   In a letter to lawyer Sylvia L. Pusateri, who heads the review board, Mr. Dick said he believes he and the victims have "considerable experience" in dealing with clergy sexual abuse and that they have recommendations for improving the charter and audit process they want to present to the board.
   The audit was done in December by the Gavin Group of Boston, on behalf of the review board. The board said recently that the Worcester diocese was in full compliance with the charter and no problems were found.
   Mr. Dick said he called and sent an e-mail to the review board at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington. He spoke with Sheila Kelly, deputy director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection. Ms. Kelly recently confirmed that she spoke with Mr. Dick, but said her agency does not discuss publicly specific issues brought to it.
   Mr. Dick said he believes the local diocese has not complied with the charter in some areas.
   "The general public of Worcester, including families and children, do not know where the convicted and accused abusers are living," he said. He said the accused priests are "free to come and go as they please" and get a monthly stipend from the diocese.
   "The claim that they are 'supervised' by their bishop is a hollow one," he said.
   Bishop Robert J. McManus is "not cooperating" with civil authorities as required by the charter, Mr. Dick said. He said the diocese is actively working to dismiss suits pending in Worcester Superior Court that were brought by alleged victims, rather than working to get settlements. He said the diocese is arguing that the bishop's authority over clergy "supersedes that of our civil authority in such cases. Our general community is aghast at the gall exhibited by this submission."
   "A victim in this diocese is not allowed to talk with the bishop until he has 'settled' with the diocesan lawyer and the insurance company lawyer. A victim's first real contact is with these lawyers, not with the bishop," he said. Mr. Dick has served in the victim support role and has met with several alleged victims since the local VOTF chapter was formed in 2002.
   Mr. Dick said Bishop McManus recently sent letters to some alleged victims offering to meet with them, but only a few people are known to have received the letters.
   Mr. Dick, who favors establishment of a restorative justice program in this area to assist victims, said the charter calls for such a program.
   "The Diocese of Worcester has rejected such a program, including the one that our local VOTF proposed over a year ago," he said.
   Mr. Dick asked the review board to "reinvestigate" information it was given by the Worcester Diocese. "You are not getting the whole story or the whole truth," Mr. Dick said. He suggested that the auditors speak to lay people of the diocese and to members of VOTF and Call to Action, two organizations of Catholic lay people.
   Diocesan spokesman Raymond L. Delisle said, "Mr. Dick's concerns revolved around two points. First, he is concerned with a process agreed to by nearly 200 dioceses around the country, which was seen as a major step forward in demonstrating how dioceses are addressing this issue."
   Mr. Delisle said the Worcester diocese agreed with the process "and complied with it for two audits in a row."
   "If having reviewed all records under the scrutiny of two different sets of former FBI agents is not credible enough for some, then I would suggest that no action will be sufficient for them. For most people, this is seen as complying in good faith," Mr. Delisle said.
   "Secondly, he seems to lack confidence in our own civil authorities, since all allegations we have received have been turned over to the district attorney. It is up to civil authorities to assess any risks and respond within the laws of this commonwealth. Is anyone asking that the church act above the law? Or that society not afford the same laws to clergy as it does to other citizens who have been accused of wrongdoing but who for whatever reason have not been tried in court?" Mr. Delisle asked.
   "Mr. Dick seems to confuse civil and criminal cases by implying that we are trying to avoid civil authorities in civil suits. Beyond that, each civil case is addressed individually according to its own circumstances. There are not, nor have there ever been, criminal cases against the Diocese of Worcester," he added.
   "Finally, the audit process confirms that we are focused on promoting healing. To that end, the Office of Healing and Prevention has done a great deal working with victims. That work has been led by a victim services coordinator who is a clinical social worker with decades of experience and who is highly regarded by all agencies in Central Massachusetts. Since we comply with the charter in all areas, and have for two audits, perhaps it is Mr. Dick who is misunderstanding how justice is promoted through the charter.
   Additionally, all victims who come to the diocese have met with a team who are members of the Diocesan Review Committee in presenting their complaint," Mr. Delisle said.
   Mr. Dick said he has also asked Bishop McManus to turn over the working materials used in the audit.
   He said Ms. Kelly told him the American bishops are not of one mind on implementation of the charter but that implementation is up to each bishop. Ms. Kelly said she would take his recommendation to the full review board and get back to him, Mr. Dick said.
   Mr. Dick said he intends to ask Bishop McManus to turn over the diocese's 2004 audit "in its entirety," along with results of the first audit done in 2003. [Bolding added] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:18 AM]
• Man files sex-abuse suit against priest [1970s Richard] - RCC. Male.

   The Chronicle Herald, March 10, 2005
   PICTOU, Canada (CP) - A man has filed suit against a Roman Catholic priest over allegations of sexual abuse in Pictou County three decades ago.
   The man, who now lives in the Annapolis Valley area, filed a statement of claim Wednesday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court against Rev. Claude Richard and the Catholic Episcopal Corp. of Antigonish.
• Is the guilty verdict of defrocked priest Paul Shanley a victory for clergy sexual abuse victims? No. [1980s Shanley] - RCC. Serial rapes. Boy
   Daily Herald, by Robin Washington, ~ March 10, 2005
   MASSACHUSETTS - When Paul Shanley was escorted out of the Cambridge, Mass., courtroom after his Feb. 15 sentencing for the serial rapes of a Sunday school student in the 1980s, he was marching toward his death.
   Not that there's capital punishment in Massachusetts, but the 12- to 15-year sentence the 74-year-old defrocked priest gets will be de-facto equal to life.
   If he's lucky. I have zero faith in the corrections system that allowed the prison murder of fellow molester ex-priest John Geoghan keeping the even more notorious Shanley alive.
   And who'd miss him? After the verdict, untold others prevented by statute of limitations from ever telling a courtroom their tales of abuse at the hands of the charismatic priest shed tears of relief. For three years I have been indelibly touched by their horrific stories and can only grasp at a hint of their pain. But if Shanley's conviction is viewed by them as a victory, it's a hollow one.
   Our legal system hinges on reasonable doubt, and it abounds in this case. Rather than in the courtroom, Shanley's real trial was held in a hotel ballroom three years earlier, where a lawyer playing judge, jury and executioner wowed a throng of journalists and live TV audience with a PowerPoint presentation of voluminous church files to deem the priest as the devil incarnate.
• Missionary arrested in Patan district of Gujarat: [2004-05 (Jesuit)] - RCC. Woman.

   New Kerala, [India News], Mar 8, 2005
   AHMEDABAD, India: A Christian missionary was arrested for allegedly demanding sexual favours from a woman , police said here today.
   Fr Prasad Gonsalves, head of the Catholic mission in Radhanpura town, was arrested yesterday on the basis of the victim's complaint that he had demanded sexual favours from her, Patan police superintendent A V Vasava told PTI.
   The victim alleged in her FIR that the Jesuit priest had promised to give her a house if she converted and also made obscene demands around three months ago.
• Catholic Groups Condemn Priest's Arrest in India [Gonsalves] - RCC. Woman complainant.
   Zenit, www.zenit.org/ english/visualizza. phtml?sid =67526 , MARCH 9, 2005
   RADHANPUR, India, (Zenit.org).- The Christians of the state of Gujarat have demanded the immediate release of a priest who was arrested Tuesday on false charges, says the Indian bishops' conference Web site.
   Jesuit Father Prasad Gonsalves was arrested based on the trumped-up charges leveled against him by a middle-aged woman, Shantaben Gulabbhai, reported the episcopate Indian Catholic News Site.
   The priest managed a project to build some 300 houses for homeless tribal people in Radhanpur, the heart of the arid areas of Banaskantha district in North Gujarat.
   The arrest is connected with the housing project, according to a press release from Father Cedric Prakash, who runs a center for human rights in Ahmedebad.
   Some time ago, Gulabbhai approached Father Gonsalves demanding that she too should have a new house in Anand, almost 300 kilometers (185 miles) away, where she also apparently lives.
• 3 priests suspended on allegations [Vincent, Doerger, Paraniuk] - RCC. Children.
   Dayton Daily News, By Tom Beyerlein, March 10, 2005
   OHIO - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced Wednesday that it has suspended three more priests - two of them with strong ties to the Dayton area - after an independent panel found substance in child sexual-abuse allegations against them.
   Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk suspended David P. Vincent and Stanley Doerger, both of whom have served Miami Valley parishes, and Michael Paraniuk of Cincinnati after a tribunal decided that allegations involving them merited compensation of victims from a special fund.
   Officials said the suspensions don't mean the priests are guilty. The three are the only active priests with plausible accusations against them, the tribunal decided, but all accusations have been reported to law enforcement, the archdiocese said.
   "We believe this action is following the letter and the spirit of the very tough church law the U.S. Catholic Bishops approved in 2002," said Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the 19-county archdiocese serving 500,000 Catholics.
   Their cases will now go to a review board that will recommend whether Pilarczyk should seek to have them defrocked under the bishops' zero-tolerance policy on child abuse, Andriacco said.
• Judge: Ex-students can sue deaf-school nuns, priests [1942-77] - RCC. > 12 accused. Deaf students.
   Boston Herald, By Marie Szaniszlo, Thursday, March 10, 2005
   BOSTON (MA) - A Suffolk Superior Court judge this week refused to dismiss abuse allegations by nine former students against more than a dozen priests and nuns who worked at the now-closed Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph.
   Judge Margot Botsford rejected the defendants' argument that the claims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, which allegedly occurred from 1942 to 1977, are barred by the statute of limitations.
   Botsford also allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint to include allegations that the school's policy of not teaching sign language and punishing students who signed resulted in "social, cognitive and developmental delays which were the functional equivalent of mental retardation." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:41 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu, March 10, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont110.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Austrian Catholics invited to rejoin Church. -- RCC.

   The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), "Catholics invited to rejoin Church; Bishop urges Austrians to support 'new beginning' after scandal," p 9, March 10, 2005
   AUSTRIA, Europe: The bishop of an Austrian diocese forced to close its seminary after a sex scandal has appealed to Catholics who left the church over the incidents to rejoin and support a "new beginning" in the diocese.
   In an open letter posted in early March on his diocese's Web site, Bishop Klaus Kung of Sankt Polten, Austria, said he was aware that "sad events" in the diocese had caused many Catholics "to doubt the church's credibility."
   "It grieves me very much that responsible people in the church caused this annoyance, and I apologize for it," the bishop wrote. "But I can assure you we are working to clear up this disagreeable situation and make possible a new beginning for our diocese. I ask you to look on our efforts with good will."
   "I've learned that you abandoned the church in the last period or previous year, and I regret this very much," said Bishop Kung. He said Catholics' decision to leave was painful to priests and bishops and added, "I invite you to explain your motives to me, so we can learn from them in our work and carry out necessary changes." Bishop Kung, who previously headed Austria's Feldkirch Diocese, was appointed in October to replace Bishop Kurt Krenn of Sankt Polten, who resigned following the July publication of pictures of priests and students at his diocesan seminary kissing and fondling each other.
   Vienna's Die Presse daily reported in August that the number of Catholics leaving the church by discontinuing "church tax" payments had increased sharply after the scandal, raising fears of a permanent decline in Austria, where Catholics nominally make up 78 percent of the population of 8.1 million.
   The paper added that departures had jumped 186 percent in Sankt Polten, but had also increased 30 percent in Vienna, compared to the same period in 2003.
   A "We Are Church" movement demanded changes, including woman priests and voluntary clerical celibacy, after the 1995 resignation of Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer of Vienna amid allegations he sexually abused minors.
   In his letter, Bishop Kung asked Catholics who had quit the church to "bear in mind that the church is composed of people with shortcomings. But its efficacy is founded ultimately on Christ, with his doctrine, his life, his death on the cross and his resurrection. We all need his help," said Bishop Kung.# [Bolding added]
   [COMMENT: Did the seminary directors, while kissing and fondling young males, need the help of the doctrine and death of Jesus, or would it be a fair guess that they don't believe a word of it? Why would anyone think it worth while to explain his/her motives for leaving such a group that looks like "vestments covering vice"? COMMENT ENDS.] [Mar 10, 05]
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, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri, March 11, 2005 edition follows:-
• Priest Sentenced [2004 Ingalls] - RCC. Computer child porn.

   WGRZ, www.wgrz.com/ news/news _article. aspx?storyid =26970 , Posted by Maria Sisti, Assignment Editor, Updated 5:01:53 PM Mar/11/2005
   WYOMING - Saying he's sorry and he's learned to come to grips with his problem, a Wyoming County priest Friday was sent to jail for the next three years.
   The sentence follows a guilty plea in June by the Reverend Fred Ingalls, 56, to one count of possessing child pornography. Father Ingalls was serving as temporary administrator at St. Joseph Parish in Varysburg and St. Cecilia Church in Sheldon at the time of his arrest in February, 2004.
   Father Ingalls admitted to possessing 144 images of child pornography which he had downloaded to his computer. An investigation by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed he accessed and purchased access to the images from the internet and viewed them with his computer at his residence at St. Joseph's Church.
   Reverend Ingalls continues to take part in a diocesan treatment program. According to a spokesperson for the diocese, it is unlikely he will be able to function as a priest ever again. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:00 PM]
• No ending the affair [1950s + Shearman, Heinrich] - Anglican. Girl/woman.

   The Australian, www.theaustralian. news.com.au/common/ story_page/0,5744, 12513919%255 E28737,00.html ; by Greg Roberts, for March 12, 2005
   AUSTRALIA - SHE was responsible for the resignation of a governor-general and the first defrocking of an Australian bishop, but Beth Heinrich still has to face her demons.
   "What happened to Peter Hollingworth and Donald Shearman hasn't helped me," Heinrich says. "I'm still hurting. The hurt is not going to go away until Donald Shearman does the right thing and issues the public apology that he owes me."
   Speaking to Inquirer this week from the home of a Sydney friend, Heinrich, 65, leaves no doubt of the bitterness she feels towards Shearman, 78, the disgraced former bishop who was stripped of his holy orders by the Anglican Church last August over his treatment of her.
   "I can't forgive him for what he did and I can't forgive Peter Hollingworth for protecting him," she says.
   Shearman has admitted to a sexual relationship with Heinrich when she was a boarder in the mid-1950s at a church school in the central-western NSW town of Forbes, where he was the curate. It began when she was 14 and ended when she was 17. A few years later, aged 32, Shearman was consecrated as Australia's youngest bishop. [Fuller version elsewhere.]
• Legionaries of Christ Launch Conservative 'Megamission' - RCC.

   IPS, www.ipsnews. net/africa/ interna.asp ?idnews=27835 , by Diego Cevallos, Mar 11, 2005
   MEXICO CITY, Mexico (IPS) - Some 50,000 followers of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative Catholic congregation founded in Mexico and viewed with favour by the Vatican, will set out later this month to distribute donations and doctrine to the poor in 31 different countries -- while fervently striving to defend their founder, accused of pedophilia.
   The Legionaries tend to recruit their members from wealthy families and are openly endorsed by Pope John Paul II.
   During the upcoming Holy Week, Mar. 20-27, thousands of young people from the Legionaries-sponsored Missionary Youth and Families organisation will take part in a so-called "Megamission", bringing "spiritual" and material aid, like medical supplies, to poor communities around the world.
   This initiative "is a wide-reaching strategy for social penetration by one of the most conservative congregations in the Catholic Church, along with Opus Dei, and thus one of the most highly blessed by the Pope," Mexican academic and religious expert Pablo Mora told IPS.
• Judge dismisses lawsuit against diocese [1960s ? Murray] - RCC. Male.
   Aberdeen News, by JOE KAFKA, Associated Press, ~ March 11, 2005
   PIERRE, S.D. - A federal lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City, in which an Omaha, Neb., man alleged he was sexually molested by priest in the 1960s, has been dismissed.
   U.S. District Judge Richard H. Battey ruled that Gerald P. Pecoraro missed the legal deadline to file the lawsuit. Under a three-year statute of limitations in South Dakota law, Pecoraro had until January 2004 to file, the judge said.
   The lawsuit was not filed until Nov. 29, 2004.
   According to the lawsuit, Pecoraro's father ran a bar in Omaha in the 1960s and raised money from the liquor industry for the Rev. Donald Murray and Sky Ranch for Boys in Harding County.
   Murray was the ranch director but has since died.
• Vigil: It's Not Over Till It's Over - RCC. VOTF and SNAP pray.
   Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot, By D.F. Karppi, March 11, 2005
   LONG ISLAND (NY) - About 100 parishioners of St. Dominic R.C. Church held a vigil on Sunday, Feb. 27, outside the church on the corner of Anstice Street. Police cars were there to see that things were done properly, said Rich Cieciuch, a Eucharistic minister.
   St. Dominic parishioners stood outside the church on Sunday, Feb. 27 in a vigil to help the church heal.
   He said of the vigil, "It was a prayerful experience." He explained it was an information gathering project. "The Voice of the Faithful, a national organization, has a project called The Lost Sheep. They and SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) came to pray in the parish and to make an appeal to anyone who has experienced sexual abuse by teachers, clergy or priests, to speak out, so we can have everything come out to see the scope of the problem and to see where the church will go. We realize the damage done to those people [children who have been abused] and that it leads to breakdowns and suicide."
   SNAP's healing model is that both survivors and the institution that hurt them must be healed. It focuses on helping individuals and changing the church that allowed the abuse. Monsignor Alesandro said in a printed statement, "The group of visitors who offered prayers outside of St. Dominic's Church two weekends ago hope to raise the consciousness of all people about the importance of reaching out to silent victimes of abuse. They have held similar prayer vigils in several other areas of Long Island.
• Priest jailed for sexual abuse [1970s Benham] - RCC. 2 boys.
   Gazette, by Jill Murphy, March 10, 2005
   MARYLAND - Former priest Frank Benham was sentenced last week to 18 months in jail for sexually abusing two young members of two county parishes in the late 1970s.
   "He has been free for the past 25 years while I have been carrying my cross," Matthew Ponton, a victim, said during Benham's sentencing hearing. Ponton met Benham as a teenager at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Beltsville.
   Statements read in court by the victims and their mothers convinced county Circuit Court Judge Michelle Hotten to mandate the maximum sentence allowed under the plea agreement struck with the State's Attorney's Office in December.
   The victims agreed to the plea bargain, which suspended all but 18 months of Benham's possible 20-year sentence, to be followed by three years of probation. The agreement also required Benham to register on the national sex offenders' list and to abstain from contact with anyone under the age of 18, state's attorney spokesman Ramon Korionoff disclosed.
• 'Conspiracy of Silence' (3 stars out of 5); Not-so-subtle look at church - RCC. Film.
   Orlando Sentinel, www.orlando sentinel.com/ entertainment/ orl-calconspiracy11 _mvrv031105mar11, 0,375059.story ?coll=orl-caltop ; By Roger Moore | Sentinel Movie Critic, Posted March 11, 2005
   UNITED STATES: Catholic Church scandals are hardly the stuff of major motion pictures here in the States. They find their way to the front page, play out over a news cycle, and drop off the radar. You have to go back to "Godfather Part 3", "Monsignor" and other films of 15 or more years ago to find serious attempts at building a Hollywood movie around wrongdoing by priests and bishops.
   But in Roman Catholic countries they're still hot stuff. Remember the uproar over Ireland's "Priest", or "The Crime of Padre Amaro" in Mexico? Pedro Almodovar thought church-abuse scandals would make a fine subtext for his latest, "Bad Education".
   "Conspiracy of Silence" is the latest Irish outrage, an over-the-top attack on church-celibacy rules, the price paid by pretending priests don't have sex, and the extremes (at least in the movies) that the Vatican and its bishops will go to in keeping this dirty little secret from the faithful.
   A priest stands up in the middle of a secret Vatican conference and shouts, "The church has AIDS! How many of you here in this room are HIV positive?"
   He is hustled out, stuffed into a car, and nobody hears of this.
   Until, three years later, when Father Sweeney (Patrick Casey) kills himself. His circle of friends, including young priests who were under his influence, comes under suspicion.[...] The message is that celibacy is denying the church good priests, and that the fact that there are noncelibate priests corrupts the entire institution.[...] [Bolding added.] [Fiction.]
• Ex-Pt. Loma pastor in child porn case is given probation [2004 Holtey] - RCC. Child porn.
   Union-Tribune, By J. Harry Jones, March 11, 2005
   SAN DIEGO (CA) - The former pastor of a Point Loma Roman Catholic church was granted probation yesterday after pleading guilty in February to 10 misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography.
   The Rev. Gary Holtey, 59, was not required to appear in San Diego Superior Court for his sentencing and did not, even though his attorney said he was back in San Diego after having spent the past five months in a sex offender treatment program on the East Coast.
   One of the conditions of Holtey's probation requires that he complete a year-long offender program. Deputy City Attorney Timothy Campen said Holtey has already completed 24 weeks of a program approved by the probation department in Silver Spring, Md., and that it is expected he will complete treatment at the same location.
   Holtey went on leave from St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and Academy shortly after federal agents and San Diego police raided his parish office May 6.
   At the time of Holtey's guilty plea last month, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego said Holtey has been permanently removed from the ministry.
• Pastor Caught With Child Porn Gets Probation [2004 Holtey] - RCC. Internet child porn.
   NBCSanDiego.com ; www.nbcsandiego. com/news/4274569/ detail.html , March 10, 2005
   SAN DIEGO (CA) -- A priest who admitted possessing child pornography received a sentence of probation.
   Gary Holtey was the pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Point Loma. Agents investigating child-porn Web sites raided his office last year.
   Holtey pleaded guilty to 10 counts. He will have to register as a sex offender and needs to stay in a treatment program for a year. He was also ordered to have no contact with children and is forbidden to own a computer.
• Polygamy alone won't be prosecuted [2000s] - Mormon-type groups. Forced underage marriage, sex abuse, welfare fraud, tax fraud.
   Chicago Tribune, Published March 11, 2005
   ST. GEORGE, Utah -- The attorneys general of Utah and Arizona have told a two-state town hall meeting that they would not target polygamists solely for practicing plural marriage. Their remarks drew an angry reaction from opponents of polygamy, who said the practice is criminal and the law should be enforced.
   Still, Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff and Arizona Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard said they would pursue criminal charges against those involved in forced or underage marriages, sexual abuse and welfare and tax fraud.
   The meeting last week drew both polygamous families and those who oppose the practice
   Polygamists say they have a 1st Amendment right to practice plural marriage because it's part of their religion. They also say they've been unfairly targeted by prosecutors because they're different.
   Shurtleff rejected the claim.
   "It's never been about religion, but we certainly won't sit back and let people commit crimes," he said.
   The meeting was about 50 miles from the towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., which are dominated by the several-thousand-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints--one of the largest polygamous sects.
• Priest nabbed in porn inquiry [2000s Volino] - RCC. Computer child porn.
   Democrat & Chronicle, by Gary Craig, March 11, 2005
   ROCHESTER (NY) - There's no evidence that a Catholic priest accused Thursday of possessing child pornography ever engaged in sexual contact with minors, according to federal prosecutors and his defense attorney.
   Federal prosecutors charged the Rev. Michael Volino, 41, with interstate transport of child pornography and possession of child pornography. They allege that he had hundreds of images of child pornography on a computer.
   Volino's attorney, John Parrinello, said Volino intends to plead not guilty. At Volino's first court appearance Thursday, where a plea was not required, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman placed Volino under house arrest with electronic monitoring.
   Volino is staying at an individual's house while the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester tries to arrange housing as he awaits trial.
   Feldman also prohibited Volino from interaction with minors.
   Parrinello said after the hearing that society, because of the allegations nationwide of priest abuse of minors, could be in an era of "priest-mania," with the public overly and unfairly suspicious of priests.
• Punitive damages possible in abuse case [1979-81 Ponciroli] - RCC. Church "outrageous, oppressive and malicious". 2 altar boys.
   Contra Costa Times, By Ivan Delventhal, March 11, 2005
   HAYWARD (CA) - In a tentative ruling that could expose the Diocese of Oakland to significantly increased financial liability, an Alameda County judge on Thursday opened the door to a potential punitive damage award in a recently begun clergy sex abuse trial.
   The ruling came in a civil lawsuit filed by Robert Thatcher against the diocese over molestation he and his brother, Tom, claim they suffered at the hands of former priest Robert Ponciroli at St. Ignatius Church in Antioch.
   The Thatchers' suit alleges the diocese acted intentionally and with "reckless and conscious disregard of the safety of St. Ignatius altar boys" when it named Ponciroli pastor of that church. Robert Thatcher suffered severe emotional distress as a result, the suit states.
   "As alleged, the conduct of the church is outrageous, oppressive and malicious," Judge Harry Sheppard said in explaining his tentative ruling. "And it was done with a conscious disregard for the persons they were entrusted to protect, being children."
   The tentative ruling, if it becomes final, is significant because punitive damages, which are meant to punish a defendant for reprehensible behavior, could dramatically increase the monetary award in the case. It could also mean Robert Thatcher's attorney will present evidence of Ponciroli's history of abuse and of the diocese covering up the behavior.
• Judge rules against diocese in abuse case [1979-81 Ponciroli] - RCC. Hundreds of other claims. 2 altar boys.
   San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Friday, March 11, 2005
   HAYWARD (CA) - Calling the Catholic Church's conduct "outrageous, oppressive and malicious," an East Bay judge ruled Thursday that two alleged sexual abuse victims may seek punitive damages against the Diocese of Oakland.
   The tentative ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard was another setback for the church, which faces hundreds of other damage claims across the state.
   This case and a lawsuit being heard in San Francisco are the first two trials stemming from a 2002 state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for molestation victims seeking damages against organizations that gave known child molesters access to more victims.
   Sheppard presides over a case brought by two brothers, Bob and Tom Thatcher, who say the Diocese of Oakland allowed them to be molested by a known pedophile priest, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli.
   At a morning hearing in Hayward, Sheppard said that Thatchers' attorneys can seek punitive damages from a jury that is scheduled to be selected early next week.
• Church secretary resigns over letter [Warren] - RCC. Females.
   Toledo Blade, By ROBIN ERB, March 11, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - A nearly three-month delay in getting Bishop Leonard Blair's letter of apology to parishioners at a West Toledo Catholic parish has cost a church secretary her job.
   Patti Roshak resigned yesterday from her post, which she held for five years at St. Pius X Church, after a controversy arose over her handling of the letter apologizing for alleged abuse by a former associate pastor.
   No one would say whether Ms. Roshak was forced to step down, but the Rev. Jim Sanford, the parish's pastor, said he had no choice but to accept her resignation.
   "It's real tough because she's a nice person, but she made a mistake that caused too much hurt to too many people," Father Sanford said.
   In December, the letter from Bishop Blair was hand-delivered to the church office on Carskaddon Avenue. It extended an apology to Teresa Bombrys, one of several women who accused former priest Chet Warren of abusing them when they were younger.
   Mr. Warren was removed from his ministry.
• New Report from Worcester Diocese - RCC.
   WTAG, www.wtag.com/ localstory.html ?ID=200503 10162219 , ~ March 11, 2005
   WORCESTER (MA) - The Diocesan Review Committee of the Diocese of Worcester releasing an updated Policy dealing with protection of minors against sexual abuse - Diocese spokesman Ray Delisle tells WTAG - that the Church has an office for healing and prevention and a full time victims services co-ordinator - and a new position has been established to have a priest act as a liaison with the priests on leave. The complete report is available on line at www.worcesterdiocese.org .
• Abuse suit continues without Kinney [Thoennes, St. Cloud Diocese] - RCC. Male.
   St. Cloud Times, By David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com , ~ March 11, 2005
   ST. CLOUD (MN) - A Stearns County judge has dismissed Bishop John Kinney from a lawsuit accusing a former St. Cloud Diocese priest of sexual abuse.
   The ruling this week by Stearns County District Court Judge Elizabeth Hayden means the diocese and James Thoennes remain defendants in the lawsuit filed by Wayne Eller.
   Eller's attorney and the diocese previously agreed to two settlement options. Hayden's ruling triggers the higher of the two monetary settlements from the diocese, said Jeff Anderson, the attorney representing Eller.
   Roger Schmitt, an attorney representing the diocese, said the diocese was reviewing Hayden's ruling and said it was too early to know whether it would appeal. He wouldn't disclose the settlement amount.
• Jury Selection To Begin Monday In Sex Abuse Case Against Oakland Diocese [1979-82 Ponciroli] - RCC. 2 altar boys.
   CBS 5, http://www2. cbs5.com/local wire/localfs news/bcn/2005/03/11/ n/HeadlineNews/ CLERGY-CASES/ resources _bcn_html ; 12:25 PST, Mar/11/05
   HAYWARD (CA) (BCN) Jury selection will begin Monday in a lawsuit against the Diocese of Oakland by two former altar boys who allege that church leaders allowed a known pedophile priest to molest them in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
   The Alameda County lawsuit and a separate suit starting up in San Francisco this week are the first two civil cases to reach trial under a 2002 state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on damage claims against institutions such as religious organizations that gave known child molesters access to more victims.
   That law allowed victims of abuse dating back many years, even as far back as the 1930s, to file suit during a one-year window in 2003.
   The case before Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard involves retired priest Robert Ponciroli of the Diocese of Oakland, who's accused of abusing former altar boys Bob Thatcher, now 34, and his brother Tom, now 37, at St. Ignatius in Antioch from 1979 to 1982. The suit alleges negligence by the Diocese of Oakland. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:00 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri, March 11, 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, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat, March 12, 2005 edition follows:-
• Editorial: Web site links abuse victims, prosecutors - 24 reports in 8 weeks.

   Salem News, www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/04/s/sstory.pl?fn-sedi0312 , March 12, 2005
   MASSACHUSETTS - A Merrimack Valley couple has created a Web site on which people can anonymously alert law enforcement about sexual predators.
   The New Hampshire attorney general has endorsed the concept. Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly should, too.
   Diane Williams Galebach and her husband, Stephen Galebach, who live in Andover, created the site - victimpower.org - in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandals that rocked the Roman Catholic Church. Locally, complaints of abuse have been raised against priests from both the Archdiocese of Boston and the Diocese of Manchester, N.H.
   The site is unique in that it allows two-way communication between law enforcement officials and anonymous victims. Previously, investigators could not talk to victims providing tips through the mail or "crime lines" without knowing their identities.
   In eight weeks of operation, the Web site has hosted 210 user accounts and received two dozen reports of abuse from around the country. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:53 PM]
• Could it happen to you? - Greg Speers.
   The Dallas Morning News, 10:57 AM CST on Saturday, March 12, 2005
   ARIZONA - Greg Speers is in prison today on a flawed conviction. The way his case was handled raises questions about fairness in the justice system. Laura Beil tells her cousin's story and how it has made her wary - as a parent and an American.
   GREG SPEERS / Self Portrait My cousin Greg Speers lost his life on April 28, 2000. Maybe he will still get it back.
   The youngest of my Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Bob's eight children, Greg grew up in Tucson, where Uncle Bob was a Walgreens pharmacist. The family would pull up in front of our house in Marshall every other summer, packed into a station wagon brushed with two days of Southwest sand. Those were the Julys of sleeping bags, games of freeze tag, and a slamming back screen door.
   Bob and Charlotte Speers presided over the Catholic branch of the family. They were made for children. After their own grew up, they took in foster kids - first Vietnamese refugees, then neglected souls in need of emergency shelter. My aunt and uncle didn't do good deeds because they thought they ought to. They were simply not capable of anything else.
   Greg was an engaging, cheery kid who soaked up his role as the baby in the family. The fair-haired adolescent grew into a fetching man, with enviable cheekbones and a Hollywood smile. He stole hearts, then broke them when, in his early 20s, he announced his intention to enter the seminary.
   Ultimately, though, he became disillusioned and wanted to reconsider. As a respite, the diocese offered him a job teaching second-graders at a Catholic elementary school in Yuma in 1999. Soon after, an old girlfriend followed him out, and the decision was cinched. He began preparing for the law school entrance exam. ...
   Just before Greg moved to Yuma, the town had been stunned by reports that a priest who taught at the school in the 1970s had molested his students. The school's current principal was perhaps on a hair trigger from this and other disturbing disclosures of Catholic clergy abuse. In a tragic misunderstanding, the principal thought these girls were coming forward to report an incident on their own and didn't initially realize that Greg had sent them. She dialed the police. They interviewed the girls and eventually arrested Greg.
   News that a teacher - Catholic and male - had been jailed on charges of molesting his students hit Yuma like a desert sandstorm. Greg voluntarily consented to a search of his apartment, hoping that if the police realized he had nothing to hide, they would know that they had made a dreadful mistake.
• Lawsuit against Catholic diocese dismissed - RCC Rapid City Diocese. Murray and Sky Ranch case.
   Argus Leader, By JOE KAFKA, Associated Press, Mar/12/05
   PIERRE (SD) - A federal lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City, in which an Omaha man alleged he was sexually molested by priest in the 1960s, has been dismissed.
   U.S. District Judge Richard Battey ruled that Gerald P. Pecoraro missed the legal deadline to file the lawsuit. Under a three-year statute of limitations in South Dakota law, Pecoraro had until January 2004 to file, the judge said.
   The lawsuit was not filed until Nov. 29, 2004.
   According to the lawsuit, Pecoraro's father ran a bar in Omaha in the 1960s and raised money from the liquor industry for the Rev. Donald Murray and Sky Ranch for Boys in Harding County.
   Murray was the ranch director but has since died.
   In 1965, when Pecoraro was 14, his parents sent him to Sky Ranch and appointed Murray as his guardian.
• Woman Who Accused Priest Of Molestation Settles Suit [1960s Schoettelkotte] - RCC. Female.
   TheIndyChannel.com ; www.theindychannel.com/news/4278959/detail.html , POSTED 1:17 pm EST March 12, 2005
   INDIANAPOLIS (IN) -- A woman who accused a Roman Catholic priest of molesting her during the 1960s when he worked at a New Albany church has settled her lawsuit against the Indianapolis archdiocese.
   The settlement was completed earlier this month when a joint statement by victim June L. Kochert and Archbishop Daniel Buechlein of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis was published in the March 4 edition of the archdiocesan newspaper.
   The statement said the Archdiocesan Review Board substantiated the allegations against the Rev. John B. Schoettelkotte.
   According to the statement, "Father Schoettelkotte subsequently resigned his post and has been barred from performing any priestly functions."
• Pastor's charges dropped - McNeese case. Complainant "scarred."
   The Leaf-Chronicle, www.theleafchronicle. com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20050312/ NEWS01/5031 20307/1002 , By REGAN LOYOLA HUNEYCUTT, March 12, 2005
   TENNESSEE - It has been nearly three years since the Rev. LaMonte McNeese, founder of One Way Apostolic Assembly Church, was accused of rape and sexual battery.
   Several motions and court hearings later, his ordeal ended Friday, with the state deciding to retire the three remaining charges against him.
   Retiring charges - or dismissing them without prejudice - means the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office can bring those charges to trial in the future.
   "I feel obviously relieved that this is over," McNeese said after the charges were retired. "I am angry, but I don't feel revengeful towards anybody."
   McNeese's case was supposed to go to trial March 28 on three charges - two counts of child rape and one county of statutory rape - but the state Friday decided not to move forward. Assistant District Attorney Art Bieber asked Circuit Court Judge Michael Jones to retire the case because the alleged victim was too emotionally scarred from a November 2004 trial in Stewart County to participate in the Montgomery County proceedings.
• Letter talks of love for priest [2001 Arakal] - RCC. Girls.
   Modesto Bee, By AMY WHITE, Last Updated March 12, 2005
   STOCKTON (CA) - A Hughson woman suing two Modesto priests wrote to one of them saying she was in love with him, according to a letter read Friday in San Joaquin County Superior Court.
   The impact and meaning of that comment is yet to be determined in the woman's lawsuit against the St. Joseph's Catholic Church priests, the Catholic Diocese of Stockton and others associated with the diocese.
   The lawsuit claims St. Joseph's pastor, the Rev. Joseph Illo, and diocese officials failed to deal properly with the woman's claims that another St. Joseph's priest, the Rev. Francis Arakal, had touched two of her daughters inappropriately. The alleged incidents occurred in July 2001 in the family's home.
   A law enforcement investigation in 2002 concluded that there was insufficient evidence for criminal prosecution.
   Defense attorneys assert that "retribution" is the motive behind the family's lawsuit, saying the mother was in love with Illo and was hurt when he broke off contact.
• Child porn on Internet puts priest in prison [2004 Ingalls] - RCC. 3yrs 1mo. Internet child sadistic, masochistic porn.
   Buffalo News, By DAN HERBECK, Mar/12/2005
   NEW YORK - A Catholic priest arrested a year ago in his Varysburg rectory was sentenced Friday to three years and one month in federal prison for viewing child pornography over the Internet.
   Rodney O. Personius, the attorney representing the Rev. Fred D. Ingalls, 56, said his client suffers from an "unfortunate addiction" to images of naked children.
   Ingalls, who has been a priest for 30 years, was removed as pastor of St. Joseph Church in February 2004 after federal agents seized 144 images of child pornography from his computer in the church rectory.
   "I would like to express my deep regret for what I've done," the soft-spoken priest, dressed in non-clerical garb, told U.S. District Judge John T. Elfvin. "I'm sorry."
   Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin J. Littlefield had asked for a longer sentence, arguing that some of the seized images showed prepubescent children undergoing "sadistic and masochistic" abuse by adults. But the judge turned down the request.
• Diocese unveils safety program - RCC.
   Bangor Daily News, Saturday, March 12, 2005
   BANGOR (ME) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland unveiled Friday a new program designed to keep children safe from sexual predators and abusers. More than 75 religious educators, priests and lay leaders gathered at the St. John's campus of All Souls Catholic School to learn about the Child Lures Prevention program.
   Created 20 years ago by a Vermont man, the curriculum is designed for children in kindergarten through grade 12 to increase sexual abuse awareness and prevention, said Bishop Richard J. Malone, who attended the session.
   The program, to be implemented in Catholic schools and parish religious education programs throughout the state during the next school year, is expected to reach nearly 20,000 Catholic youth.
   "I think people see it not only as a necessary program for abuse prevention in our schools and parishes," Malone said Friday, "but I think they see it as a sign of us moving forward. Maybe, somehow, spiritually it's almost an element of repentance ... for what has happened in the life of the church."
• Arlington pastor faces sex charges [2004 Hornbuckle] - Agape Christian. Date-rape drug. 3 females.
   WFAA, www.wfaa.com/ sharedcontent/ dws/news/localnews/ tv/stories/wfaa 050311_am_agape arrest.12ce 5957b.html ; By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA-TV, 01:51 AM CST on Saturday, March 12, 2005
   ARLINGTON (TX) - A prominent North Texas pastor was arrested Friday, accused of sexually assaulting members of his own congregation.
   Bishop Terry Hornbuckle of the Agape Christian Fellowship in Arlington is being held at the Tarrant County Jail on a bond of $400,000.
   According to the indictments, most of the alleged incidents happened near the end of last July, involving three women - one of whom is a teenager.
   On Sundays, Hornbuckle regularly preached words of encouragement to his congregation of 2,000 members. He may now need to lean on them for support.
   "The grand jury did return four indictments today against Terry Hornbuckle," said Betty Arvin, assistant district attorney for Tarrant County.
   The indictments say the 43-year old pastor, married with three children, sexually assaulted three of his members - one of them twice. According to two of the alleged victims, Hornbuckle led them to a Euless apartment complex under false pretenses. There, they said he fixed them a drink laced with GHB, the date-rape drug, and then took advantage of them.
   Terry Hornbuckle Sheriff's deputies arrested Hornbuckle near his church at State Highway 360 and Mayfield on Friday afternoon.
• 3 accuse minister of assaults [2004 Hornbuckle] - Agape Christian. Date-rape drug. 3 females.
   Fort Worth Star-Telegram, By Anthony Spangler, ~ March 12, 2005
   ARLINGTON (TX) - The senior pastor of an Arlington church was arrested Friday afternoon, hours after a Tarrant County grand jury indicted him on four charges of sexual assault.
   The Rev. Terry L. Hornbuckle, 43, of Colleyville is accused of sexually assaulting three women who were parishioners at Agape Christian Fellowship, 2350 E. Mayfield Road, where he serves as bishop. In two of the cases, he is accused of using date-rape drugs to overcome his victims. Hornbuckle has had no prior convictions in Tarrant County.
   Hornbuckle was being held at Tarrant County Jail. Bail was set at $400,000.
   The women filed personal-injury lawsuits against Hornbuckle in December. The Star-Telegram does not identify sexual assault victims. The lawsuits also name as defendants the church and eight members of the church's board.
   "I think the grand jury's action today bolsters my clients' accusations," said the women's attorney, Gary Lee Finley. "We have the clothes that the girls were wearing and the DNA evidence. He is going to have a lot of explaining to do."
• Pastor indicted in sexual assaults of three congregants [? 2000s Hornbuckle] - Agape Christian. 3 females.
   Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Associated Press, ~ March 12, 2005
   ARLINGTON, Texas - The pastor of an Arlington nondenominational church was indicted on charges of sexually assaulting three women from his congregation.
   The women say Terry L. Hornbuckle, 43, tried to entice them into sex by using his influence as minister of the Agape Christian Fellowship. Two of the women alleged Hornbuckle drugged them before sexually assaulting them.
   Hornbuckle was arrested Friday on four counts of sexual assault.
   Two of the cases involve the same woman, according to court officials.
   Hornbuckle has denied the accusations and alleges the women are trying to extort money from him.
   "I am completely innocent of the charges I have been wrongfully accused of, and this is extortion plain and simple, which I won't surrender to," Hornbuckle said in a statement released through a New York public relations firm.
• Memoir details alleged sex abuse in Mormon home - Mormon. BOOK. Female.
   Daily Herald, www.harktheherald. com/modules.php ?op=modload&name =News&file=article&sid =50003&mode=thread&order =0&thold=0 ; by Mark Thiessen, ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ March 12, 2005
   SALT LAKE CITY (UT) -- A new memoir detailing alleged child sexual abuse in a prominent Mormon home has been discredited by both the church and the author's siblings.
   It's one thing for any Mormon woman to say in public that she had been sexually abused, but it was quite another for Martha Beck, whose roots with the church date back to the beginning: Her great-great-grandfather was the personal dentist for Joseph Smith, founder of what is now the nation's fifth-largest denomination.
   The author of the best seller "Expecting Adam," the 42-year-old Beck also is the daughter of the late Brigham Young University professor emeritus of ancient scripture, Hugh Nibley.
   In his role as a Mormon apologist, he was one of the church's leading authorities and chief defenders against intellectual attacks. His prolific writings now number 15 volumes of collected works, and will likely reach 20 volumes.
   Beck chronicles her difficult and dramatic break from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her spiritual quest and details confrontations she had with her father because of the alleged abuse in "Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith."
• Former Youth Pastor Pleads To Abuse Charges [1997-2000 Wonderly] - Bethany Church. 5 girls.
   ChannelOklahoma.com ; www.channeloklahoma.com/news/4278354/detail.html , UPDATED 8:46 pm CST March 11, 2005
   OKLAHOMA CITY (OK) -- The trial of a former Bethany youth minister accused of sexually abusing five young girls ended after just one witness.
   Ryan Wonderly entered an Alford plea after the first prosecution witness testified. With an Alford plea, Wonderly doesn't admit guilt, but admits the evidence will likely lead to a conviction.
   Wonderly faced 14 charges of inappropriately touching five girls ages 7 to 11 between 1997 and 2000 while he was a youth minister at First Bethany Church of the Nazarene.
• Jury Selection To Begin In Oakland Diocese Sex Abuse Lawsuit [1970s-80s Poncirolli; 1972-73 Pritchard] - RCC. Altar boys.
   KTVU, www.ktvu.com/ ews/4278516/ etail.html , POSTED 9:03 pm PST March 11, 2005
   OAKLAND, Calif. -- Jury selection will begin Monday in a lawsuit against the Diocese of Oakland by two former altar boys who allege that church leaders allowed a known pedophile priest to molest them in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Alameda County lawsuit and a separate suit starting up in San Francisco this week are the first two civil cases to reach trial under a 2002 state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on damage claims against institutions such as religious organizations that gave known child molesters access to more victims.
   That law allowed victims of abuse dating back many years, even as far back as the 1930s, to file suit during a one-year window in 2003.
   The case before Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard involves retired priest Robert Ponciroli of the Diocese of Oakland, who's accused of abusing former altar boys Bob Thatcher, now 34, and his brother Tom, now 37, at St. Ignatius in Antioch from 1979 to 1982. The suit alleges negligence by the Diocese of Oakland.
   The San Francisco case involves the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard, a priest who worked for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in the 1960s and 70s. It was brought by Dennis Kavanaugh, a former student and parishioner at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in San Jose, where he alleges he was molested by Pritchard in 1972 and 1973 when Kavanaugh was 12 and 13 years old.
• Difficult decisions on abuse claims - RCC.
   Cincinnati Post, By Kimball Perry, ~ March 12, 2005
   CINCINNATI (OH) - As a devout Catholic, it was tough for retired Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Nurre to hear the horror of sex abuse on minors by employees of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
   "With my Catholic background and being Catholic all my life, it was a very difficult thing to do. Under those circumstances, it has an effect on you," said Nurre, who still hears cases as a visiting judge.
   As a person, it was tough for Matt Garretson to share the hurt suffered by the victims of priest abuse.
   "You would be inhuman if you didn't feel the pain they are feeling," said attorney Garretson, administrator of the fund established to financially compensate victims of abuse by archdiocese employees.
• Priest sex-abuse suit settled [1960s Schoettelkotte] - RCC. Female.
   The Courier-Journal, By Harold J. Adams, hjadams@courier-journal.com , ~ March 12, 2005
   KENTUCKY - A woman who was allegedly sexually abused by a priest at St. Mary Catholic Church in New Albany in the 1960s has settled her lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
   The settlement was completed last week when a joint statement by victim June L. Kochert and Archbishop Daniel Buechlein was published in the March 4 edition of The Criterion, the archdiocesan newspaper.
   The statement said the Archdiocesan Review Board substantiated the allegations against the Rev. John B. Schoettelkotte.
   "Father Schoettelkotte subsequently resigned his post and has been barred from performing any priestly functions," said the statement in The Criterion.
   The Courier-Journal was unable to contact Schoettelkotte. Susan Borcherts, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said yesterday, "I've known before that he doesn't want to talk, and I'm going to respect his privacy."
• Diocese panel members named - RCC.
   Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), www.telegram.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/2005 0312/NEWS/ 503120359/1003/ NEWS03 , March 12, 2005
   WORCESTER (MA) - Members of the Diocesan Review Committee are Sylvia Pusateri, chairwoman, lawyer; Judith Audette, M.S.W., director of Pathways; the Rev. Michael Broderick, pastor; Mr. Delisle; Dr. John Duggan, pediatrician; Claire Freda, Leominster city councilor; Sister Rose Clarisse Gadoury, S.S.A., faculty member, spiritual adviser at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary, Weston; David Higgins, committee vice chairman, retired executive director, Community Healthlink; Sister Paula Kelleher, S.S.J., Vicar for Religious, and member of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains; Bishop Harold Lohr, retired bishop, Northwestern Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; John Madonna, Ph.D., licensed clinical psychologist; Mrs. Nugent, licensed clinical social worker; Monsignor F. Stephen Pedone, judicial vicar, Vicar for Canonical Affairs; the Rev. Rocco Piccolomini, vicar for clergy and secretary to the bishop; Elizabeth Reidy, L.I.C.S.W., family and child social work consultant; Eileen Scannell, retired worker, DSS; Monsignor Thomas J. Sullivan, chancellor and vocations director; Monsignor Edmond T. Tinsley, fiscal affairs director and chaplain at McAuley Nazareth Home of Boys; and Sister Mary Lou Walsh, S.N.D., promoter of justice for the diocesan tribunal.
• Diocese policy on handling sex abuse allegations updated - RCC. Worcester Diocese. 8 more accused since 2002.
   Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), By Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , March 12, 2005
   WORCESTER (MA) - The Diocesan Review Committee of the Catholic Diocese of Worcester has made changes in how it will deal with allegations of sexual abuse by clergy or diocesan workers and has set procedures for reporting past abuse.
   Bishop Robert J. McManus also announced this week that the Rev. George J. Ridick, now pastor of St. Catherine of Sweden Parish, has been appointed liaison of priests on leave. Rev. Ridick holds advanced degrees in theology and psychology.
   Eight priests have been placed on administrative leave since 2002 when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced, and others are on leave after allegations were made in previous years. The policy states that, in accordance with canon law, priests on leave will continue to receive support from the diocese.
   According to the new policy, anyone alleging they were abused years ago as minors, but are now adults, should call the Office for Healing and Prevention at (508) 929-4363 to begin the reporting process.
   In addition, anonymous complaints will not be viewed as showing "reasonable cause to believe abuse has occurred," according to the new policy.
   Raymond L. Delisle, spokesman for the diocese and a member of the review committee, said two areas were addressed in the updated policy to reflect changes made since the policy was issued in 2002. The areas include the format of the Initial Review Committee and a more "defined role" of the liaison to accused priests.
   During the 1990s, the Initial Review Committee met with people seeking to file a complaint of past sexual abuse. The committee consisted of most members of the review committee, two of whom received any allegations from complainants about abuse.
   Since that policy was issued, the Office of Healing and Prevention was established under direction of Patricia O'Leary Engdahl, and the diocese now has a victim services coordinator who works through that office.
   The new policy drops the use of the special committee name and limits its members' participation in receiving complaints. Instead, complaints are now received by the victim services coordinator, Frances Nugent, or if unavailable another clinical social worker or an equivalent from the Diocesan Review Committee.
   The position of liaison to accused priests was included in the 2002 policy, but the updated policy elaborates on the job to clarify the responsibilities of those who are involved.
   According to the updated policy, the role of the Diocesan Review Committee is to review allegations of sexual abuse of minors made against any diocesan worker, whether clergy or layperson. The committee is also to assist the bishop with ongoing development of pastoral care guidelines for alleged victims and to inform the bishop and other committee members of canonical or civil actions.
   The review committee will be overseen by a Policy Review Board made up of people selected by the bishop from diverse backgrounds. The review committee chairman is to act as liaison between the review committee and the policy committee.
   If someone makes a complaint against a member of a religious order, the diocesan Vicar for Clergy will report the allegations to the person's major superior in the order, according to the policy.
   "I am grateful for the work of the Diocesan Review Committee in strengthening this policy," Bishop McManus said, "as we continue to commit to the process of healing for those who have been abused in the past and protecting those in our care to the best of our ability now and into the future. I also extend my appreciation to Father Ridick in taking on this important role as my liaison to those who have been accused of abuse."
   According to the policy, the bishop or his liaison "will reach out to the accused, meeting with them to ascertain ways in which the Diocese would be able to assist them."
   Communication will be maintained and rehabilitation will be offered if the accused person chooses such a program. The accused will also be referred to professionals for evaluation and treatment, support groups or other treatment resources.
   Daniel E. Dick, victim support coordinator for Voice of the Faithful, has asked for a meeting with the review board to discuss some ideas that he and some alleged victims of clergy abuse have to offer. He has suggested that he and one or two alleged victims sit down with the board. Mr. Dick has proposed a restorative justice program that he said is in compliance with the bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
   Bishop McManus has promulgated the new policy as particular law for the Diocese of Worcester, and it took effect Thursday.
• During service, BR bishop calls for end of sexual abuse - RCC.
   The Advocate, By BARBARA SCHLICHTMAN, bschlichtman@theadvocate.com , Advocate religion and youth editor, ~ March 12, 2005
   LOUISIANA - Catholic Bishop Robert Muench made what survivors of sexual abuse called "an impressive commitment" Wednesday to eradicating sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and religious.
   Muench led the Lenten vesper service at St. Joseph Cathedral. He dedicated the prayers to survivors and victims of clergy sexual abuse.
   During his homily, Muench encouraged worshippers to join him in doing everything "humanly and spiritually" possible to eradicate the sin and crime of sexual abuse, especially abuse perpetrated by clergy or religious.
   "I also express my own apology and sorrow," said Muench who acknowledged the ripple effect of such abuse in terms of pain among families and friends.
   "We pray for the suffering and also that no one else will suffer," he said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:21 AM]
   [COMMENT: But, there ought to be no need to "eradicate" such uncleanness from the successors to the Jesus movement, should there? It ought not to exist there, and certainly ought not to have been condoned by the supervisors, ought it? COMMENT ENDS.] [DOCTRINE: "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints." (2 - 10 - 5:3) ENDS.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat, March 12, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont110.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Guildford Grammar teacher on child porn count. [2005 Messina, Guildford Grammar School] - Anglican. Computer child porn.

   The West Australian, "Guildford teacher on child porn count," By LUKE MORFESSE and CHARLIE WILSON-CLARK, p 7, Saturday, March 12, 2005
   PERTH: A teacher at a prestige boys' school has been suspended after being charged with possessing child pornography.
   Roberto Charles Messina, 32, a secondary school mathematics teacher at Guildford Grammar, was arrested by detectives from the child abuse unit yesterday at his home in High Wycombe.
   It is understood that Mr Messina has taught at the school for several years and is popular with students.
   He was charged with one count of possessing child pornography.
   Late yesterday, he was trying to find surety so he could be released on bail.
   Police will allege that they seized Mr Messina's personal laptop computer in January and that a search of the hard drive revealed video movie clips of child porn.
   Guildford Grammar headmaster Rob Zordan said he was notified by police late yesterday and was still in the process of informing his school community.
   "We are in a position now of having to deal with it and deal with it in a proper fashion, given the lateness of the day and the lateness of the week it is difficult - I have not even been able to speak to the staff," he said.
   The information that led to Mr Messina's arrest stemmed from United States law enforcement authorities that was passed on to the Australian High-Tech Crime Centre in Canberra and then WA police.
   Mr Zordan said the teacher had been employed at the school for some time and had taught there this year.
   "There was a period of time he was not employed at the school, but he has been here this year," Mr Zordan said. "This has only happened today, a letter will now be prepared to inform our community but at the moment I do not have a lot of information."
   Mr Messina is due to appear in Perth Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.# [Mar 12, 05]
• Former children's hospital nurse fined over drugs. [2005 (Name withheld)] - No religion link reported.
   The West Australian, "Former PMH nurse fined over drugs," By RHIANNA KING, p 44, Saturday, March 12, 2005
   PERTH: A former Princess Margaret [children's] Hospital nurse embroiled in paedophilia allegations was fined for a drugs charge in Fremantle Magistrate's Court and is still under investigation over child pornography.
   The 44-year-old Beaconsfield man did not appear in court but endorsed a guilty plea to a charge of permitting his property to be used for illegal drug taking.
   Detectives raided the man's home on February 24 at 9.30am and found 12 bags containing traces of amphetamines and several syringes.
   The man's bedroom was used by a male friend to inject drugs on 12 occasions over the past six months.
   He had told police he would dispose of the syringes by taking them to a hospital where he worked.
   Magistrate Jacqueline Musk fined the man $300 plus costs.
   A computer was seized from the man's home on the same day and was still being analysed to see if it contained images of child pornography.
   The man is accused of tranquillising and molesting a six-year-old PMH patient in August last year.
   The girl's mother claimed she witnessed the molestation. The nurse was one of four PMH staff to resign amid the allegations of child abuse and claims of accessing child pornography on a hospital computer.
   The nurse was charged three years earlier with sexually abusing a seven-year-old patient at an Adelaide hospital but was acquitted.# [Mar 12, 05]
• New start for Austrian seminary. - RCC.

   The Tablet (RC paper, Britain), Europe section, www.thetablet. co.uk/cgi-bin/ citw.cgi/past -00221#EUROPE , by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, Vienna, March 12, 2005
   VIENNA, Austria: The St Pölten seminary, which was closed last August after it was revealed that a seminarian had been downloading child pornography on the internet and that several others had been active homosexuals, is to reopen under a new rector, Fr Anton Leichtfried, this September, Bishop Klaus Küng announced last week.
   The selection criteria for seminarians at St Pölten would be very strict, Bishop Küng said. Particular care would be taken to make sure that candidates for the priesthood were heterosexually and not homosexually orientated, as celibacy meant forgoing marriage and therefore presupposed a heterosexual orientation. "It is with good reason that the Church insists that a definite homosexual orientation is an impediment to ordination. Dropping this practice could undermine celibacy and bring further grave dangers with it," he said.
   In some cases it would be necessary for candidates to undergo medical examinations to see if they were both physically and mentally suitable to become priests. The Pope had only recently emphasised that those in charge of seminaries should consult "competent experts" when necessary. And although unrestricted access to the internet was "almost taken for granted" these days, he said it was necessary to use the internet responsibly, with the necessary filters installed.
   In an interview with the German journal Tagespost, Bishop Küng, who is a member of Opus Dei, was asked how widespread the issue of homosexuality in seminaries was in German-speaking countries and whether there were homosexuals' "networks as in the USA". He replied: "That danger exists, at least in certain areas." Asked whether it was true that bishops were divided on the subject of homosexuality, and that many thought it might be advantageous to allow homosexual men to be ordained, he said the question had come up occasionally at Austrian bishops' conferences, but most bishops had been "very reserved" on the issue. "Experience has since confirmed that their reservation is justified," he said.
   Bishop Küng has also announced that he will reinstate Fr Udo Fischer, a parish priest suspended by his predecessor, Bishop Kurt Krenn, in 1998. Fr Fischer, a Benedictine, was "re-installed" in his parish by his abbot. Widely known in the German-speaking world, his parish was one of the few in Austria where Catholics did not leave the Church after the seminary scandal.
   [COMMENT: It's not the STUDENTS we have to watch so much, Your Reverence, it's the STAFF. This RC paper is not the only one that left out the facts about the seminary's teachers kissing and fondling young male students, with pictures published in newspapers. The teachers and seminarians were breaking one of the cherished RC teachings about not having any sexual pleasure outside marriage. as well as the celibacy promises. Surely knowledgeable UK Catholics would have known this, so why not report it? Or did The Tablet hope that RCs won't realise there is a lot of truth in the saying that the rot starts at the head? Contrast the system of taking teenagers into seminaries, with the system recorded as having been taught by Jesus and his circle. Who would be in most danger of seduction to sexual sins - a teenager, or a married man with children? COMMENT ENDS.]
   [DOCTRINE: "Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." (2 - 7 - 7:2). DOCTRINE ENDS.] [DISPUTED TEXTS "The overseer should therefore be blameless, a man of one woman, sober, ..." (2 - 15 - 3:2) "A man presiding over his own household in a fine manner, ... If indeed any man does not know how to preside over his own household, how will he take care of God's congregation?" (2 - 15 - 3:4-5) "A man of one woman, having faithful children, ... For an overseer must be free from accusation as God's steward, ..." (2 - 17 - 1:6-7) END DISPUTED TEXTS.] [Mar 12, 05]
• No ending the affair [1950s, 1976-84 Shearman, 1976-84 Heinrich] - Anglican. Girl/woman.

AUSTRALIA: No ending the affair.    The Weekend Australian, www.theaustralian. news.com.au/common/ story_page/0,5744, 12513919%255E28737 ,00.html , Inquirer section, by Greg Roberts, p 27, March 12-13, 2005
Beth Heinrich's allegations of sex abuse have shaken the Anglican Church, but she still wants a public apology, reports Greg Roberts
SHE was responsible for the resignation of a governor-general and the first defrocking of an Australian bishop, but Beth Heinrich still has to face her demons.
   "What happened to Peter Hollingworth and Donald Shearman hasn't helped me," Heinrich says. "I'm still hurting. The hurt is not going to go away until Donald Shearman does the right thing and issues the public apology that he owes me."
   Speaking to Inquirer this week from the home of a Sydney friend, Heinrich, 65, leaves no doubt of the bitterness she feels towards Shearman, 78, the disgraced former bishop who was stripped of his holy orders by the Anglican Church last August over his treatment of her.
   "I can't forgive him for what he did and I can't forgive Peter Hollingworth for protecting him," she says.
   Shearman has admitted to a sexual relationship with Heinrich when she was a boarder in the mid-1950s at a church school in the central-western NSW town of Forbes, where he was the curate. It began when she was 14 and ended when she was 17. A few years later, aged 32, Shearman was consecrated as Australia's youngest bishop.
   Hollingworth resigned as governor-general in 2003 as a result of the furore that followed his comment a year earlier that the relationship "was not sex abuse" and that it was "rather, the other way around". He had been defending his failure as Anglican archbishop of Brisbane in the mid-1990s to act on Heinrich's allegations of child sex abuse against Shearman.
   A decision by Heinrich to publicly identify herself for the first time - in a two-part series of the ABC's Australian Story program that ended this week - has laid bare the extent of her personal torment.
   Now, deep divisions are emerging in the Anglican Church about its handling of the controversy. Supporters of Shearman and Hollingworth have seized on. Heinrich's frank admissions in the program about a relationship that she and Shearman resumed 21 years after the Forbes boarding house goings-on. (Under strong pressure from the church, Shearman finally left Heinrich eight years later, in 1984, and returned to his wife, Pay.)

Heinrich, Beth. *The Weekend Australian* 1213Mar05

Hurt: Heinrich's decision to publicly speak out has laid bare her torment

In particular, the Shearman camp has been galvanised by Heinrich's admission that even now - 50 years after she says she was sexually abused by the then young priest - she would consider having him back. But experts say her comment merely demonstrates the insidious and long-term consequences of child sex abuse.
Shearman has maintained his silence since Heinrich's allegations surfaced three years ago. But a close friend, Anglican priest Tom Hall, says Shearman has now prepared a detailed defence, although he continues to be constrained by legal advice from commenting.

'I believe he is one sick little puppy and that he should have gone to jail' Richard Hurford,
Bishop of Bathurst

   Hall says many in the church believe Shearman and Hollingworth were wronged, and that Shearman does not deserve the criticism that has been heaped on him over what happened in Forbes.
   "There is a difference between a little child and a 15-year-old," he says. "One looks like a woman and the other looks like a little girl. It was also a different era back then."
   Hall says Heinrich should have long ago moved on from what occurred in Forbes. "It is Beth who is destroying herself over this, not, Don already uttered his apology. He knows what he did was absolutely wrong, but through all of this he was trying to save his own marriage. People forget that Fay is the one who's suffered enormously."
   Hall says Hollingworth's successor as archbishop, Phillip Aspinall, had buckled to political pressure by defrocking Shearman. Says Hall: "That was devastating to Donald. The church had been his whole life and they did that to an old man."
   Aspinall responds that a church inquiry in 2003 was critical of how Heinrich's complaints had been dealt with. "The laws of our church are not simply strong words left to gather dust on book shelves," he says. "They are here to guide the church and those who belong to the church family. In this instance they were used to examine serious allegations against a bishop in our church, which had been unresolved over many years."
   Aspinall says his decision to act against Shearman was painful. While forgiveness is fundamental in the Christian faith, "forgiveness is not simply ignoring or papering over what has happened ... The church is also committed to protecting the weak and vulnerable."
   The apology referred to by Hall is in a letter Shearman sent Heinrich in 1984. Shearman said in the letter he was "terribly sorry", and that "I grieve for your hurt". But Shearman dismissed their past affairs as "fleeting moments" and told her: "You must realise that what we were doing involved you in the grief."
   Heinrich says now that the letter was no apology. "It does not admit to anything." She also is dismissive of Hall's concern for Fay Shearman.
   "It is not me who has been hurtful to Mrs Shearman. It is her husband who has been hurtful to her and to me and to both our children."
   For his part, Hollingworth has told people close to him that he was unfairly pilloried by the media over the Heinrich matter, which he blames directly for costing him the governor-generalship. But Hollingworth this week told Inquirer that he stood by a public apology he gave Heinrich in 2002 and that he reiterates the apology now.
   Bishop of Bathurst Richard Hurford, who has apologised on behalf of the church to Heinrich (Forbes is in his diocese), is not impressed that Shearman's supporters are now asserting themselves.
   "I believe he is one sick little puppy and that he should have gone to jail," Hurford says.
   Hurford was bishop registrar to Shearman when Shearman was bishop of Grafton. It was Hurford who was dispatched to Heinrich's home town of Wagga Wagga, NSW, in 1984 to talk Shearman into returning to his wife and the church, which he had quit to join Heinrich.
   "I knew nothing then of what had happened in Forbes. I am struggling now to think of anything more horrendous he could have done to the Anglican community."
   Hurford has spoken to Shearman this week. "Everybody would have a chance to move on if only he was willing to apologise, but he won't, which I find very sad."
   The public is not necessarily as sympathetic to Heinrich. Viewers commenting in the Australian Story's online guestbook appear evenly divided. Many comment that Heinrich has suffered because of Shearman's abuse of her trust as a child and that she should be applauded for her long search for justice.
   But just as many attack her as a vindictive "woman scorned" whose primary motivation in pursuing Shearman is revenge. Several refer to her comment on the program that she once told Pay Shearman: "You've had your turn, it's my turn now."
   Leading psychiatrist Ian Curtis, an expert on the long-term effects of child sex abuse, believes this criticism is misplaced. "What's happened with this woman is that there were two episodes of physical and mental abuse occurring 21 years apart," Curtis says.
   "They occurred to satisfy the needs of a deviant pedophile priest who abused a girl he knew to be underage for reasons of his own. That abuse has thrown her life so out of balance that she has lost all perspective. Her life had probably been irretrievably wrecked by the time he finished with her the first time." #
   [DOCTRINE: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." (2 - 1 - 19:18) DOCTRINE ENDS.]
   [COMMENT: Because this rule was defied by first one person, then by another, the life of the girl then woman was ruined, the life of the clergyman then bishop ends in disgrace, the life of the clergyman's wife and children are spoiled, an archbishop become governor-general ends his career in shame, one of the great Churches of the West is dragged into a sewer, and Christianity's claims suffer another severe blow. COMMENT ENDS.]
   [FUTHER NEWS: See ABC (Australian), "Woman in sex abuse scandal still awaiting compo," www.abc.net. au/news/items/ 200606/ 1653644. htm?riverina , Friday, June 2, 2006. END.] [Mar 12-13, 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, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun, March 13, 2005 edition follows:-
• Regular parish audits planned - Roman Catholic Church. Boston Archdiocese.

   Nashua Telegraph, www.nashuatelegraph. com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20050313/ NEWS02/103130096/ -1/news , AP, Sunday, Mar. 13, 2005
   BOSTON (MA), USA (AP) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston plans to start auditing its parishes once every three years and provide annual budgets and financial reports to parishioners in an effort to restore public confidence and prevent fraud.
   The changes are part of a broader plan by Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley to create more financial transparency by the archdiocese, which is under increased scrutiny since the clergy sexual abuse crisis and parish closings, chancellor David Smith told The Boston Globe.
   "It costs a tremendous amount of money to run a parish . . . and we certainly think it's necessary and beneficial to share that information with the people in the pews, because people - if they understand what is going on in the parish, and the money that is being spent on their children and on the sick and on the poor within these parishes - will be much more comfortable in making their donations," he said.
   "And they have every right to know how we're using the money," Smith added.[...]
   Jamie Katz, chief of the attorney general's public charities division, said 10 to 20 parishes have filed complaints with the attorney general's office about different aspects of the church closing process.
   But Katz said Reilly has concluded that his jurisdiction in the parish closings is limited largely to oversight of the use of funds and property donated to parishes for specific purposes that may no longer exist after the parishes close.
   Katz would not estimate the amount of money at stake, but said it was significant.
   He said that ultimately the archdiocese will have to ask the Supreme Judicial Court to approve the use of such money, and the justices will seek the attorney general's opinion before granting such approval.[...] [Emphasis added.] [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:49 PM]
• Time lets molesters get away, mom says [? 1980s Ward] - Christian Church. Stephanie Burt's campaign. 35 boys.
   American-Statesman, By David Kassabian, Sunday, March 13, 2005
   AUSTIN (TX) - Stephanie Burt has been a familiar sight in the halls of the Capitol for the past few months, telling any senator or representative who will listen the story of her 34-year-old son who was repeatedly molested as a child by his church pastor.
   Since Burt moved to Austin from East Texas in April to become an amateur lobbyist, she has tried to persuade lawmakers to support eliminating the statute of limitations for charges of indecency with a child. Currently, accusers cannot press charges after their 28th birthday.
   "It's like, who are you for, the predator or the child?" Burt said last week. "At this moment the power is all in the predator's court, and they are using the law to their advantage."
   Burt's son, Tommy, didn't remember the abuse until 1996, when he was 26 years old, and wasn't ready to press charges until two years later. A subsequent investigation by local prosecutors revealed that at least 35 other boys from the small East Texas town of Henderson were allegedly assaulted by Kenneth Eugene Ward, prosecutors said.
   But because the alleged abuse had occurred decades earlier, the statute of limitations had expired. Despite a full written confession by Ward vividly detailing alleged transgressions across three decades, and specifically mentioning Tommy Burt by name, only the latest incident of abuse Ward confessed to was eligible for prosecution.
• Bishop Apologizes to Sex Abuse Victim [1970s Warren (Oblate)] - RCC. Girl.
   WTOL, www.wtol.com/ Global/story.asp ?S=3070478 , March 13, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) -- Bishop Leonard Blair apologized Sunday to a woman who was sexually abused by a former priest.
   During the final moments of mass at St. Pius, Bishop Blair apologized to Teresa Bombrys for sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of Father Chet Warren.
   "It comes very sincerely from me on behalf of the Diocese that people like Teresa who were abused, we need to apologize to them publicly," said Blair.
   Bishop Blair went even further backing up Bombrys' sexual abuse accusations saying, "upon investigation in compliance with the Toledo Diocesan Sexual Abuse Policy, Teresa's allegations were determined to be credible."
• Bishop Blair Apology [1970s Warren (Oblate)] - RCC. Girl.
   WTOL, www.wtol.com /Global/story. asp?S=3070512 , March 13, 2005
   TOLEDO (OH) - "Having served as your Bishop for over a year now, I have experienced many things, both good and bad, even tragic, that are part of life in the Diocese of Toledo.
   I understand that St. Pius parish recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. As with any parish, there are many events of a half-century to be remembered with gratitude to God. From baptisms to funerals and everything in between; so many of life's significant moments have taken place here for thousands of parishioners.
   However, not all the events that have marked the parish's history are joyful or consoling. I need to discuss with you what is a very painful part of life for some members of this parish.
   Many years ago, from the early sixties until 1974 a priest who worked here hurt some of the children by acts that are grievously sinful and criminal.
   Reports of sexual abuse against minors by the then Father Chet Warren, a former Oblate priest, were made public over a decade ago.
   Many loyal parishioners since then have felt obliged to support Warren, saying that he did much good here.
   It is understandable that many did not want to believe the allegations. No one wants to believe that a trusted priest would harm children.
• 'Not to be trusted ' - RCC.
   The Dallas Morning News, 11:05 AM CST on Saturday, March 12, 2005
   UNITED STATES - As a priest today, the Rev. Joseph F. Wilson says he is constantly on guard - and furious with the Church that has made him live this way.
   The fellow turned the corner, asking, "Sammy, you done?" Then, seeing me standing there at the sink - rather, seeing my clerical collar - he stiffened. I had barely noticed the 8-year-old boy who was standing four sinks down from me in the Delta Shuttle men's room at LaGuardia Airport.
   Pointedly, emphatically, the man said, "Sammy, is everything OK ?" Just a small incident. The boy probably did not even realize its significance, having paid less attention to me than I to him. But, of course, I understood. And Sammy's father understood. In his eyes, I am of a class of people not to be trusted, especially by the fathers of little boys.
   I am a Catholic priest.
• The Pink Elephant in the Church - RCC. Homosexuals in authority.
   The Remant, By Fr. Charles Dahlby, GUEST COLUMNIST, ~ March 13, 2005
   UNITED STATES - As a Catholic priest, I have an investment in issues that affect the Church and the people of God. And, as a Christian, I have an obligation to speak out. So let me make the following points as clearly as I can:
   1) Most of the scandals and evils we see in the Church today are brought about primarily by homosexuality. Homosexuality is an objective moral disorder and unacceptable in the priesthood! For nearly two thousand years the teachings of the scripture, the magisterium, and Tradition - the three sources of revelation which give us truth - have all agreed: homosexuality as [? is] an "abomination"! Only recently have Phil and Oprah and a few TV sitcoms disagreed. But God doesn't change, and Phil and Oprah won't be on the throne to judge us!
   2) Even though Church documents forbid the acceptance of homosexuals into the seminary and, quite obviously, their ordination to the priesthood, those in authority have for years looked the other way, (don't ask, don't tell) and homosexuals have flocked into the Church. Now they have positions of authority! They use this authority to protect and promote one another, creating a distinct subculture that is rapidly becoming dominant.
   This sub-culture is the ideal homosexual environment. As a priest no one questions why you aren't married. You get respect that you don't necessarily earn. You have a target-rich environment, especially if you have a school, and, if you slip up and get caught, the civil authorities will not want to prosecute you because you're a priest and, as we have seen, the Church will cover you, defend you, and may set you up in another parish or even another diocese so you can continue to prey on God's people.
   A homosexual predator could not hope to find a more friendly and supportive environment than priesthood in the American Catholic Church! [Emphasis added.]
• Man jailed for sexual abuse [2000s Jones] - Salvation Army. 8yr sentence. Boy.

   BRITAIN - This is Hertfordshire, ~ March 13, 2005
   A New Southgate man who is a major in the Salvation Army was found guilty last week of abusing a 14-year-old boy in the 1980s.
   Graham Jones, now 61, of Brookdale, New Southgate, was sentenced to eight years in prison at Leeds Crown Court for sexually abusing the boy, who was a member of Jones' congregation in Yorkshire.
   Jones, who has two sons and three grandchildren, was caught after a rag in the loft of the Salvation Army Citadel, in Wakefield, was found to carry his DNA and the boy's.
   The teenager looked up to Jones, who was a respected figure in the Salvation Army, and was too scared to complain when he began to grope him.
   The court heard the boy was systematically groomed, and Jones eventually began to have full intercourse with the 14-year-old in the church toilets and loft.
• Sex charges dismissed against former Clarksville minister [McNeese] - Male.
   WVLT, www.volunteertv. com/Global/ story.asp ?S=3068093 , ~ March 13, 2005
   CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. The final child rape charges against a former Clarksville minister have been dropped.
   Montgomery County prosecutors decided yesterday to dismiss three remaining charges against the Reverend LaMonte McNeese, but could charge him again in the future.
   McNeese was supposed to go to trial March 28th on three charges _ two counts of child rape and one count of statutory rape.
   But prosecutors asked Circuit Court Judge Michael Jones to retire the case because they said the alleged victim was too emotionally scarred from a November 2004 trial in Stewart County to testify again against McNeese.
• Sins of the Fathers; The Springfield diocese tries to restore faith and trust following years of priestly misconduct. [? 1970s-80s Campbell, 1980s Ryan] - RCC.
   SJ-R.com ; www.sj-r.com/ sections/ news/stories/ 50221.asp , By DAVE BAKKE, ~ March 13, 2005
   SPRINGFIELD (IL) - In the past 20 years, three watershed events in the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese have shaken, and in some cases destroyed, the image of the priest and the faith of Catholics.
   The Rev. Alvin Campbell was first. Campbell used his priesthood at St. Maurice Parish in Morrisonville as a tool to seduce boys. He was convicted as a pedophile in the days when using the words "pedophile" and "priest" in the same sentence was unthinkable. In 1985, Campbell pleaded guilty but mentally ill to molestation charges. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
   For Catholics across the 28 counties of the Springfield diocese, Campbell's exposure was the beginning of their loss of innocence. They did not let it go without a fight. Their initial reaction was outrage and anger - directed almost as much at media coverage of Campbell as at his crimes.
   In the 19 years since Campbell's guilty plea, the Springfield diocese has earned a reputation in national Catholic circles as a troubled, volatile place. The list of names of local clergy linked to scandals from homosexual and heterosexual affairs to embezzlement is a long one.
   Next came Bishop Daniel Ryan. His early years as bishop were marred by his admitted alcohol abuse for which he received treatment in the summer of 1986. Ryan's final two years before his resignation in 1999 were spent under the cloud of sexual misconduct accusations.
• Worry about the victims - RCC. Patrick Schiltz defended 500 clergy.
   The Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews. com/sharedcontent/ dws/dn/opinion/ points/stories/ 031305dnedi clohessy.c10a4.html , 11:06 AM CST on Saturday, March 12, 2005
Some accusations may be false, but most are all too real, says David Clohessy.
   UNITED STATES - If ever anyone doubted that our justice system makes mistakes, surely those doubts have largely been erased in recent years. Innocent people do go to jail sometimes (though far more guilty people do indeed go free). With luck, new evidence comes to light and sets them free. And yet, they can't get those years back, nor easily repair their broken relationships, careers and lives.
   Tragic? Absolutely. Yet proportionality must be considered.
   For each relatively rare case of an innocent man being deemed guilty, we should remind ourselves that far more heinous criminals are never charged, never found guilty and never locked up. As a result, more vulnerable adults and innocent children are taken advantage of, exploited and raped.
   Let me get more specific regarding what I know best: child sexual abuse by clergy.
   For decades, Catholic bishops and their PR staffs worked hard to minimize the now widely documented crisis caused by thousands of twisted priests and hundreds of complicit bishops. They repeatedly claim (citing fundamentally partial and misleading figures) that most of the crimes took place long ago.
   But they rarely cite one telling number provided by their own most knowledgeable source, Patrick Schiltz, who for over 20 years as a defense lawyer has helped more than 500 Catholic priests accused of molesting children.
• Church finances probe set to start [1992 Kallinikos] - Greek Orthodox. Government removing finance exemptions.

   Kathimerini, http://ekathimerini. com/4dcgi/_w_articles _politics_100007 _12/03/2005_53995 , ~ March 13, 2005
   GREECE - The process to initiate government checks on the finances of the Church of Greece and to pass a law requiring bishops to declare their assets will begin next week, Education and Religious Affairs Minister Marietta Giannakou said yesterday.
   Giannakou indicated that, in conjunction with Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis, she would issue a formal decision that would start the ball rolling for investigations into the financial management of Church organizations and bishoprics. A draft law will also be submitted to Parliament which will make it necessary for bishops to declare their assets and funds-source (pothen esches) each financial year - an exercise they are currently exempt from.
   The measure was agreed upon last month by Church hierarchs, headed by Archbishop Christodoulos, as part of a process to clean up the institution in the wake of a spate of corruption scandals, some of which involved the alleged misappropriation of Church funds.
   Meanwhile, Kallinikos, Bishop of Piraeus, submitted a written explanation to the Holy Synod, the Church's ruling body, with regard to allegations that he sexually molested a cantor some 13 years ago.
   Kallinikos denies the claims and yesterday said he was the victim of dirty tricks. The bishop asked for an immediate investigation to be launched by the Holy Synod so he could clear his name. The body appointed Vassilios, Bishop of Elassona, to head the probe. [Emphasis added. ]
• Presidential inauguration - Greek Orthodox. Anti-clericalism fueled by scandals.
   Inadaily.com ; www.iht.com/ getina/files/ 232020.html , ~ March 13, 2005
   ATHENS, Greece - As Socialist former foreign minister Karolos Papoulias was preparing to be sworn in today, before Parliament, as Greece's sixth president since the restoration of democracy in 1974, an embarrassing controversy was growing over the Church's role in the ceremony.
   Fearing dissent among its more anti-clerical elements, Papoulias's PASOK party was forced yesterday to issue a circular instructing all Socialist MPs to attend the noon event.
   "As it is easy to understand, any absence could lead to various comments and interpretations," Dimitris Reppas, secretary of the party's parliamentary group, wrote to MPs. "Your attendance will serve as a display of respect to our institutions, as well as to Karolos Papoulias."
   Nevertheless, Theodoros Koliopanos, a former PASOK deputy public works minister, said he would not be there.
   Koliopanos objects to the fact that Papoulias, 76, will be sworn in by Archbishop Christodoulos, head of the sex and corruption scandal-bedeviled Church of Greece. While suspending one bishop and forcing a second to resign, Christodoulos - who has himself been implicated in the scandal - has refused to step down.
   Synaspismos Left Coalition has already stated that its MPs will not attend the event, in protest at Christodoulos's role in it, and has called for the president to be sworn in at a secular ceremony led by the Parliament speaker. Nevertheless, the party insisted it by no means intended to snub Papoulias.
• A priest's confession [Laughlin] - RCC. > 12 altar boys.

   The Oregonian, By ASHBEL S. GREEN, Sunday, March 13, 2005
   PORTLAND (OR) - James Clarizio remembered the Rev. Thomas Laughlin as a giant, a man with a voice that filled a church, a man who once declared, "I am God," a man to obey when he ordered young Jimmy to take off his clothes and climb into the priest's bed.
   When Clarizio, 39, walked into a law firm's conference room Tuesday morning, he clutched his childhood fear of that man, even though he had not seen him in a quarter century.
   But sitting at a green table was someone who appeared quite different.
   "He was a frail old man in an ill-fitting suit with too wide of a tie whose voice did not even sound the same," Clarizio said.
   Clarizio and more than a dozen other former altar boys have accused Laughlin of abusing them. They reached financial settlements with the Portland Archdiocese, but last fall several of them sued Laughlin.
   The men didn't expect to get money from the former priest. Instead, the lawsuit gave them a certain amount of control over a man who had held so much power over them.
   They wanted to force Laughlin to return to Oregon for the first time since he left in disgrace 21 years ago. They wanted this moment: sitting across the room from Laughlin as their lawyer made him confess to the damage he did to dozens of boys. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:55 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun, March 13, 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, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon, March 14, 2005 edition follows:-
• Lawyer Once Censured for Conduct Resigns From Post at Archdiocese - Roman Catholic Church.

   The New York Times, By ANDY NEWMAN, for March 15, 2005
   NEW YORK - A Catholic official whose private law practice was publicly censured has stepped down as head of the New York archdiocese's program to protect children from sexual abuse, a church spokesman said yesterday.
   The official, Robert G. Whiteman, director of the archdiocese's Safe Environment Program, resigned near the beginning of this month and has also quit his post as deacon of his church in White Plains, said Joseph Zwilling, the spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. The departure, Mr. Zwilling said, was for "personal and health reasons."
   Last November, The New York Times reported that Mr. Whiteman was censured in 1996 on six misconduct charges, among them a charge that he had mishandled $5,000 of a client's settlement money. Mr. Whiteman received a medium-level reprimand from a panel of judges that disciplines lawyers, for conduct "involving fraud, deceit, dishonesty or misrepresentation," court records show. The archdiocese said that it learned of Mr. Whiteman's history only when it was contacted by The Times for that article.
   Mr. Zwilling said yesterday that after learning of Mr. Whiteman's disciplinary record in November, the archdiocese, which had named him to the post six weeks earlier, "decided that he would continue on as director," and that his recent resignation was unrelated to the censure. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:40 PM]
• New group to assist managing Catholic business - RCC. National Leadership Roundtable. 1 million employees. $US100 bn p.a. turnover.
   USA Today, By Cathy Lynn Grossman, March 14, 2005
   WASHINGTON (DC) - A contingent of Catholic bishops and financially savvy lay leaders on Monday announced an initiative to put the struggling U.S. church on sound business footing from the parish level up.
   The church has been shaken by a costly three-year sexual abuse scandal, which so far has tipped three dioceses into bankruptcy. The church must operate parishes and schools with fewer priests, fewer dollars and more lay people clamoring for participation and accountability.
   Now, bishops can call on a newly created National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management for guidance in business, finance and human resources, said one of the founders, Geoffrey Boisi, a vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase.
   With a total of 1 million employees and an aggregate annual operating budget of almost $100 billion, the church rivals the nation's largest corporations in size and complexity, said Boisi, a major donor to Catholic causes.
   Yet most of the USA's 196 dioceses and their 19,600-plus parishes have no way to take advantage of economies of scale in their operations. They do their own buying their own travel booking and their own negotiation for services such as insurance.
   [COMMENT: The history of a similar attempt in France many decades ago does not make one confident that this will end in anything but huge losses for the laypeople. And, the many unseen kindnesses by businesspeople, tradespeople, etc. in the present method of trading (and that the Church hardly notices) will be lost. The last word, "insurance," ought to bring a frown to many hardheaded businesspeople. The RCC ought to be almost uninsurable for employee misconduct, yet its leaders will attempt to re-insure, in spite of the continuing pattern of transferring sinful criminal priests interstate and even overseas. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Arlington pastor faces new charges [2004 Hornbuckle] - Agape Christian. Date-rape drug. Drug possession. 3 females.
   WFAA, www.wfaa.com/ sharedcontent/ dws/news/localnews/ tv/stories/wfaa050314 _am_hornbucklefolo2 .13bbc37f9.html ; By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA-TV, 10:02 PM CST on Monday, March 14, 2005
   FORT WORTH (TX) - New charges have been filed against a popular Arlington pastor arrested last week after he was accused of several sex assaults.
   Agape Christian Fellowship's Bishop Terry Hornbuckle posted a $405,000 bond and left jail Monday afternoon flanked by crowd of reporters and photographers, but on the same day a charge of methamphetamine possession was added to the charges on which he was originally indicted.
   "One of the conditions is that he must wear an ankle monitor," said Harry Grisham of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department. "The other conditions are no alcohol, no drugs and no firearms. He'll have to submit to a urinalysis with probation officers on a regular basis."
   The original indictments said the 43-year old pastor, married with three children, sexually assaulted three of his members - one of them twice. Two of the alleged victims said Hornbuckle led them to a Euless apartment complex, fixed them drinks laced with date-rape drug GHB and then took advantage of them.
   Police found several additional items in Hornbuckle's SUV following his arrest on Friday, including between one and four grams of methamphetamine, which led to the drug charges filed Monday.
• Pastor charged with sexual assault, drug possession [2004 Hornbuckle] - Agape Christian. Date-rape drug. Drug possession. 3 females.
   Duluth News Tribune, BY ANTHONY SPANGLER AND MARK AGEE, Knight Ridder Newspapers, March 14, 2005
   FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - Bishop Terry L. Hornbuckle, pastor of Agape Christian Fellowship church in Arlington, Texas, has been charged with rape and drug possession after complaints filed by three women who attended the church.
   Hornbuckle, 43, of Grapevine, Texas, was arrested Friday on the sexual assault charges and was being released Monday when a felony drug possession case was filed against him.
   "He was in his street clothes and we were ready to turn him loose. Then we got word of the new charge," said Terry Grisham, a spokesman for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department.
   Sheriff's deputies said they found 1 to 4 grams of suspected methamphetamine inside Hornbuckle's vehicle after his arrest, court and jail officials said.
• Lawsuit names former priest John Schmitz [1959 Schmitz] - RCC. Female.
   WQAD, www.wqad.com/ Global/story.asp ?S=3076509 , March 14, 2005
   DUBUQUE, Iowa - A lawsuit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Dubuque by a woman who claims she was sexually abused in 1959 by John Schmitz, a former priest who worked in nine eastern Iowa parishes from 1957 through 1982.
   Monsignor James Barta says the archdiocese had been told about the lawsuit but had not yet received a copy. A court clerk confirmed that the lawsuit had been filed Friday but not yet recorded in the court's online database.
   The archdiocese says Schmitz, who died in 1991, was ordained February 2nd, 1957. He served in nine parishes over the years: Immaculate Conception, in Lansing; St. Joseph, New Hampton; St. Joseph, Mason City; All Saints, Cedar Rapids; St. Mary, Manchester; St. Joseph, Greeley; St. Peter, Clermont; St. Anthony, Zearing; and St. Mary, Greene.
• Diocese says it didn't know priest sought counseling [2005 Volino] - RCC. Computer boy porn.
   Democrat & Chronicle, by Gary Craig, March 12, 2005
   ROCHESTER (NY) - The Catholic Diocese of Rochester did not know that the Rev. Michael Volino, accused this week of possession of child pornography, was undergoing counseling to treat a possible fixation with sexual images of youngsters, according to a diocesan spokesman.
   "We had no knowledge that Father Volino was, as the FBI complaint alleges, having conversations with a private counselor about a 'desire to view sexually explicit pictures'," said diocesan spokesman Doug Mandelaro.
   Volino, 41, has been a priest at St. John the Evangelist Church of Greece, 2400 W. Ridge Road, since 2002.
   Federal authorities Thursday charged Volino with receiving and possessing child pornography. In an affidavit, FBI special agent Michael Preisser said Volino admitted that "he had sexual issues for which he was seeking professional help."
   Volino had been undergoing counseling for three years and said he "had told his counselor about his desire to view sexually explicit pictures of boys younger than 18 years old," the FBI affidavit alleges.
• Judge orders priest in porn case to monastery [2005 Volino] - RCC. Computer child porn.
   Democrat & Chronicle, by Gary Craig, March 14, 2005
   ROCHESTER (NY) - A federal magistrate judge today ordered the Rev. Michael Volino to stay at an Elmira monastery as he awaits trial on child pornography charges.
   U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman said reports from 2002 showed that therapists at a Maryland-based counseling center had decided that Volino should not be around children, based on evaluations of Volino.
   Volino, 41, last week was accused of receiving and possessing child pornography after a diocese technician repairing Volino's computer reportedly found pornographic images of children stored there.
   Volino's lawyer, John Parrinello, today argued that Volino should be allowed to stay under house arrest in the Rochester area. Feldman indicated he believed the monastery was a safer setting.
• Jury Selection Begins In Alleged Pedophile Priest Case [1970s-80s Oakland Diocese] - RCC. 2 altar boys.
   MSNBC, www.msnbc.msn. com/id/7182196 , ~ March 14, 2005
   OAKLAND (CA) - Jury selection begins Monday in a sex abuse case against the Oakland Diocese. Two former altar boys allege church leaders allowed a known pedophile priest to molest them in the late 1970s and early 1980s at Saint Ignatius Church.
   The Alameda County lawsuit and a separate suit in San Francisco this week are the first two civil cases to reach trial under a 2002 state law.
• Archdiocese wins key ruling in abuse cases [Philadelphia Archdiocese] - RCC. 18 complainants.
   Philadelphia Inquirer, By David O'Reilly, ~ March 14, 2005
   PENNSYLVANIA - A three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled unanimously yesterday against 18 adults seeking to sue the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for sex abuse they alleged happened many years ago.
   The judges said that even though the alleged abuse was "inexcusable," Pennsylvania's statute of limitations trumped any right to sue on the grounds that the archdiocese had unlawfully interfered with the victims' timely reporting of their abuse.
   C. Clark Hodgson Jr., who represented the archdiocese in the Feb. 16 arguments, said yesterday he believed the court's decision effectively blocked such suits against dioceses across the state.
   Richard Serbin, an Altoona lawyer who helped to develop the legal strategy that the court rejected, said he was disappointed by the ruling. He said he and his co-counsel, Jay Abramowitch of Berks County, intended to appeal the ruling to the Pennyslvania Supreme Court.
• Documents indicate church never probed abuse claim [~ 1960s Alzugaray] - RCC. Girl.
   Register, By DAVID RYAN, Monday, March 14, 2005
   NAPA (CA) - While hundreds of cases charging Catholic priests with sexual abuse work their way through the California courts, one stands out: The case that charges Monsignor Joseph Alzugaray, now head of St. Appolinaris Catholic Church in Napa, with sexually abusing a young girl in Los Angeles nearly 40 years ago.
   The case is unusual in part because Alzugaray is vigorously battling the claims, going farther than other priests in California by filing a counter-suit against his accuser, Erin Brady.
   Now, more than a year after the Southern California woman filed a lawsuit accusing Alzugaray of abuse, court documents obtained by the Register indicate the Catholic diocese in Los Angeles and Santa Rosa has never fully investigated claims that were first raised in 1993. Alzugaray and the church have said in their defense that Alzugaray had been cleared by several internal investigations.
   Letters between church officials, church-generated psychological reports obtained by the Register, and testimony in the Brady-Alzugaray court case, show that Alzugaray has been subject to repeated psychological and other inquiries. But the church focused on Alzugaray's handling of church finances and on his decisions to transfer from one diocese to another.
• Catholic group to promote church overhaul - RCC. National Leadership Roundtable. JPMorgan Chase.
   Bradenton Herald, By RICHARD N. OSTLING, Associated Press, ~ March 14, 2005
   UNITED STATES - Roman Catholic lay leaders announced the formation of an organization Monday that would offer professional guidance to America's bishops on how to run the church.
   As its first act, the nonprofit National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management issued an 80-page "Report on the Church in America" in Washington, with 48 recommendations to overhaul administration, personnel policies, finances and governance. Perhaps the most controversial item seeks changes in the way bishops are chosen.
   The report was mailed to all U.S. bishops last week. Roundtable leaders will meet on Tuesday at U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters in Washington with three bishops who will be the hierarchy's liaison with the new organization.
   The report said the church suffers from "deep-seated ideological divisions" among members, "a pervasive culture of secrecy," clergy-dominated operations, "weakening influence" for its doctrinal and moral message and a decline in religious vocations.
   One participant, Francis Butler, president of an alliance of Catholic donors, said, "The church is financially on the edge today."
   Though dioceses are autonomous, the report noted, taken as a whole they hire more than a million employees and have operating budgets of nearly $100 billion, making the U.S. church the equivalent of a major business corporation.
   Geoffrey Boisi, vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase and a prime organizer of the roundtable, said the scandal of clergy sexual abuse "was an impetus for action" and "a wake-up call to lay leaders and church leaders to start working together," but an increase in such lay involvement was inevitable anyway given the church's problems.
• Dubuque woman's lawsuit alleges rape by priest [1959 Schmitz] - RCC. Girl.
   Des Moines Register, By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR, March 14, 2005
   IOWA - A Dubuque woman has filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Dubuque alleging that in 1959, she was raped as a child by the Rev. John A. Schmitz.
   The lawsuit, which was filed Friday in Dubuque County District Court, is the first to name Schmitz, who is deceased. The lawsuit alleges that the woman was assaulte while she was attending Sacred Heart School in Dubuque,
   Msgr. James O. Barta, vicar general, said the archdiocese has not yet received the lawsuit and would have not comment until Archbishop Jerome Hanus and church attorneys had read it.
   The Dubuque archdiocese has asked the Vatican to sanction seven Catholic priests who have credible allegations of sexual misconduct against them.
• Bishop Apologizes to Abuse Victims in Ohio [1970s Warren (Oblate)] - RCC. Girl.
   New York Newsday, By Associated Press, March 14, 2005
   TOLEDO, Ohio -- A bishop apologized to clergy sexual abuse victims during a Mass at a church where one alleged abuser once worked.
   Bishop Leonard Blair of the Toledo Roman Catholic Diocese read a seven-minute statement Sunday before the congregation at St. Pius X Church in the northern Ohio city.
   Part of Blair's statement was required under a court settlement between the diocese and Teresa Bombrys, who has said she was abused as a child by Chet Warren, a former priest at St. Pius.
   Blair apologized directly to Bombrys.
   He also acknowledged all victims' suffering, praised their courage and encouraged others to come forward.
   "By exposing an evil that festered for decades, they make it possible for the healing to begin," Blair said. "And my apology goes to anyone who has been abused whether at this parish or anywhere in the diocese of Toledo."
• Priest In Court On Child Pornography Case [2005 Volino] - RCC. Computer boy porn.
   WHAM, www.wokr13.tv/ news/local/story. aspx?content _id=D865D4D0- 93E1-4DB7-B174 -2841631A3C5A ; by Chalonda Roberts, ~ March 14, 2005
   ROCHESTER (NY) - There are new questions in the case of a Roman Catholic priest from Rochester charged with possessing child pornography.
   During a court appearance on Monday, a judge ordered Father Michael Volino to stay at a monastery in Elmira. The judge said he based his decision on reports in 2002 from therapists at St. Luke's Institute, a counseling center in Maryland, that said Father Volino should not be around children.
   Volino will reside at the monastery until next month when he's expected back in court.
   The statement released a statement saying that back in 2002, the diocese asked Volino to undergo an assessment at St. Luke's for behavioral issues--not sex abuse. Volino agreed to undergo the assessment.
   In the statement, the diocese admits to failing to adequately monitor the follow through of some of the recommendations. However, the diocese also said the report did not give any findings nor did the diocese interpret any indication that Volino would be a danger to anyone.
• Support group critical of Dubuque Diocese in latest case [1959 Schmitz] - RCC. Misused Confession to initiate sex. Confessed. Secret. Girl.
   Radio Iowa, www.radioiowa. com/gestalt/ go.cfm?objectid =350D8C86-AECD -49A1-976B76AF 0B4C8C4C , by Darwin Danielson, ~ March 14, 2005
   IOWA - Representatives of a support group for people who've been abused by priests blasted the Dubuque Catholic Archdiocese today in the wake of a lawsuit filed against a now deceased priest.
   The lawsuit by an unnamed girl says Father John A. Schmitz sexually abused her at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Dubuque in 1959.
   Steve Theisen, the co-organizer of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP, says they have several concerns about the case.
   He says, "The confessional was used to initiate the sexual contact with the child.
   The other things that're disturbing is that the affidavit or petition, there were four or five priests that were involved in the investigation of this, and they all knew about it and they all kept it quiet."
   Theisen says they're also upset that Father Schmitz was transferred from parish to parish and continued in priestly duties despite the church leaders knowing he raped a 12-yr old grade school girl.
   He says, "Society would not accept a serial rapist, or child molester to go places, yet uh, it seems like the Catholic Church harbors these people."
   A spokesperson for the Dubuque Diocese says they now have a process in place to handle abuse allegations.
• New Information on Local Priest Charged With Possessing Child Pornography [2005 Volino] - RCC. Sex report in 2002. Computer boy porn.
   WROC, www.wroctv.com/ news/story.asp ?id=17113&r=l , 6:00 PM, Mar/14/2005
   ROCHESTER (NY) - Did the Rochester Catholic Diocese drop the ball in the case of a local priest charged with possessing child pornography? That's the question after troubling new details surfaced on the history of Father Michael Volino.
   The priest is facing federal charges after the discovery of child pornography on his computer in January, but on Monday we learned that there were concerns about his behavior years before that.
   Deemed a "potential danger to the community" by Federal Judge Jonathan Feldman, Father Volino has been ordered to confinement at an Elmira monastery. The decision was based, in part, on new evidence included in an old report. It was issued in 2002 from the Saint Luke Institute, a Maryland treatment facility for troubled clergy.
   The Diocese says it asked Rev. Volino to undergo assessment at St. Luke's Institute, but says the referral and assessment were related to "behavioral issues and not to sexual abuse."
• How America's Catholic Church crucified itself - RCC. Law's glowing references for rapists.
   The Sunday Times Magazine, Investigation, ~ March 14, 2005

4,000 paedophile priests identified

80 churches closed down

An archbishop forced to resign

$800m paid in lawsuits

100,000 child victims estimated - and thousands more still at risk
   UNITED STATES - The archbishop's summer residence was the first to go. There had been questions: why does he need the picture-postcard colonial mansion, with its five bedrooms and private beach on the exclusive Cape Cod shoreline? Didn't he already have an opulent mansion in Boston? The three-story abode, resplendent in marble and mahogany to reflect its occupant's stature, had been built in the style of an Italian palazzo, and the archbishop's daily routine was catered for by a posse of nuns. The beach-house sale raised more than $2.5m, but it didn't stop there. His official Boston residence had to be sold too, and, along with 43 neighbouring acres, raised over $100m. But it didn't stop there either. More than 80 Catholic churches in the Boston archdiocese were ordered to close their doors to save overheads. Parishioners occupied some of them, sleeping on pews, in a hopeless bid to save them. But still the inexorable rot ate away at the fabric of the church.
   The archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, 74, was forced to resign. He had paid a heavy personal price. This only son of an air-force colonel, who joined the priesthood in 1961 and became one of the most powerful men in the United States after fighting in the front line of Mississippi's civil-rights movement, was "retired" to Rome - a life's work sullied because he put the church's name before the protection of his flock.
   Law had spent 18 years effectively protecting paedophile priests, who went on, time and again, to re-offend and rape children entrusted to their care by devout parents. It emerged that Law's response to overwhelming evidence of paedophile activity was simply to move the priest to another parish, often allowing them to continue working with children, to write them glowing references and tributes, and to pay off victims' families. More than 1,000 children in the Boston area were sacrificed in the interests of protecting the diocese from scandal.
• Greece swears in new president - Greek Orthodox. Sex, corruption.

   GREECE - ABC (Australia), ~ March 14, 2005
   A former foreign minister Karolos Papoulias has been sworn in as Greece's sixth president but several politicians boycotted the ceremony to protest the presence of the country's embattled spiritual leader.
   Greece's new head of state, Karolos Papoulias, assumed the largely ceremonial post after being sworn in before Athens' 300-seat Parliament.
   The 75-year-old politician becomes Greece's sixth president since the collapse of seven years of military rule in 1974.
   In an unprecedented step, some parliamentarians stayed away from the ceremony to protest the presence of Archbishop Christodoulos, who as leader of the Greek Orthodox Church has been heavily criticised following a spate of sex and corruption scandals within its ranks.
• Israeli ruling leaves Greek Church in a spin - Greek Orthodox. Court declares patriarch election illegal. Drugs. Cash missing.

   Financial Times, By Harvey Morris, 02:00, March 14 2005
   JERUSALEM - In the latest twist in an episode that has rocked the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem to its 16-centuries-old foundations, an Israeli court has ruled that the 2001 election of its patriarch, Irineos I, was illegal.
   The case has exposed a bizarre tale of intrigue involving a fugitive drug dealer, missing millions from church coffers and an alleged assassination plot against the patriarch by a priestly rival that has left the Greek-born hierarchy and its Palestinian laity reeling.
   Coupled with allegations of illicit land deals and sexual misconduct within the priesthood, the crisis has prompted a senior churchman to warn of a potential split in the Holy Land's richest Christian institution. The Greek patriarchate is Israel's biggest landowner apart from the government, owning prime areas of Jerusalem real estate that include the site of the Israeli parliament.
• Church volunteers give mixed reaction to background checks [2003] - Various religions. Force used in 7 rapes, 1 sodomising, 10 fondlings.
   Dateline Alabama, The Associated Press, March 14, 2005
   SOUTH CAROLINA - In an effort to prevent sexual abuse in churches in South Carolina, leaders are asking would-be volunteers to undergo criminal background checks.
   The request has drawn mixed reactions.
   "Those who are really serious about it will submit to it," said the Rev. Curtis Johnson of Valley Brook Outreach Baptist Church. "Those who really want to work with the children understand."
   Seven cases of forceable rape were reported in South Carolina houses of worship in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available from the State Law Enforcement Division. One case of forceable sodomy and 10 cases of forceable fondling also were reported, the figures show.
• A chance to be heard [Hopp] - RCC. Justice beats letter of law, so far. Male.
   Toledo Blade, March 14, 2005
   OHIO - In the interest of justice, Ohio's Third District Court of Appeals ruled that a civil suit against the Archdiocese of Cincinnati involving sexual abuse by a priest can proceed despite an expired statute of limitations. In the interest of itself, the Cincinnati archdiocese said it planned to appeal the ruling to the Ohio Supreme Court to block the lawsuit.
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