• Group wants priests extradited for trials. [Colleary, Briceno, Henn] - RCC.
East Valley Tribune, www.eastvalley tribune.com/ index.php ?sty=41060 , By Gary Grado, ~ May 11, 2005
ARIZONA - A national victims support group wants Valley church and law enforcement leaders to keep trying to have three priests charged with molesting children returned to Arizona for trial.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests made the request in letters Monday to Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.
"We just want to make sure this doesn't get forgotten about," said Paul Pfaffenberger of Gilbert, SNAP's local leader.
Thomas spokesman Bill FitzGerald said the county attorney is seeking extradition of the three priests, but the matter is now in the hands of the U.S. State Department.
Diocese spokeswoman Mary Jo West said Olmsted has also done everything within canon law to get the three priests to return.
Grand juries in 2003 indicted the Rev. Patrick O. Colleary, former associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Scottsdale; the Rev. Joseph Briceno, former associate pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Chandler; and the Rev. Joseph Henn, formerly of St. Mark's Catholic Church in Phoenix, on numerous counts alleging they molested children.
Colleary is in Ireland, Briceno is believed to be in Mexico and Henn in Rome.#
• Fr. Colleary Fights Extradition Again. [Colleary] - RCC. Pink underwear parade in Phoenix is 'cruel'.
KPHO, www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S=3327537&nav=DIH7Zhgs , ~ May 11, 2005
ARIZONA - We have new information about the efforts to bring a fugitive priest back to the valley to face trial. It involves Father Patrick Colleary, a Catholic priest accused of sexual conduct with a minor.
Colleary is in Ireland now fighting extradition and, according to this letter from the Irish court, obtained by the 5-I Team just this afternoon. The accused priest may not be headed back any time soon.
Father Patrick Colleary was released from jail back in 2003. Shortly after that, Colleary returned to his home in Ireland. The 5-I Team tracked him down to the family farm where his brother told us the family had concerns about the way the priest would be treated here in Arizona.
The letter from the Chief State Solicitor in Dublin echoes those concerns. It says Colleary is asking for a "permanent prohibition on extradition...due to alleged cruel, inhuman, and unconstitutional conditions...in particular in Maricopa County."
The chief solicitor brings up Sheriff Joe Arpaio's policy of making inmates wear pink underwear. And it criticizes the recent transfer of inmates from the old Madison Street Jail to the new jail.
During that transfer the inmates were kept in their underwear in the streets of downtown Phoenix. This apparently was played up in the Irish media.
• Supporters come out to back Aretakis.
Troy Record, By Robert Cristo, May/11/2005
NORTH GREENBUSH (NY) - The former town supervisor who allegedly threatened the life of local attorney John Aretakis was sternly greeted in Town Court Tuesday by a wave of supporters of the lawyer who represents alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.
Late last month, Troy resident Daniel Borden was arrested on harassment charges stemming from an alleged threatening phone call made to Aretakis demanding he stop slamming the Roman Catholic Church with allegations of clergy sex abuse.
North Greenbush police have already confirmed it was Borden's voice caught on Aretakis' answering machine, which the lawyer provided to the media.
"I'm sick and tired of you bashing the (expletive) out of the Catholic church ... If you ever say to me what you said, John, you are going to be spending some time in (a) medical facility," Borden allegedly said.
More than a dozen members of the local chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) attended Borden's hearing Tuesday eveningto show support to Aretakis and his family.
• Prison-walk photos may derail extradition . [Colleary] - RCC. Pink underwear and handcuffs.
The Arizona Republic, by Michael Kiefer, May 11, 2005
ARIZONA - For more than three years, a Catholic priest has refused to leave his native Ireland to face two counts of felony sexual conduct with a minor in Arizona.
On April 22, the High Court of Ireland was going to rule on whether to extradite the Rev. Patrick Colleary to Phoenix.
But that morning, according to Colleary's lawyer, a Dublin cabdriver showed a government attorney riding in his cab newspaper photos of jail inmates dressed in pink underwear and flip-flops being paraded in pink handcuffs down a Phoenix street.
It took a week for the photos to reach Ireland of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's much advertised April 15 migration, when about 700 nearly nude prisoners walked the block from the old Madison Street Jail to the new Fourth Avenue Jail. But it took just moments for that photo to derail years of negotiation on the extradition.
On Tuesday, a letter from the Irish Chief State Solicitor's Office arrived at the Maricopa County Attorney's Office - via the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C. - asking prosecutors there to explain the apparent discrepancies between the photographed pink-underwear odyssey and earlier affidavits saying that the underwear was always worn under jail uniforms and was not intended as a form of humiliation.
The County Attorney's Office replied with its own condemnation of the pink parade, questioning "whether there were necessary security or penological interests requiring the mass disrobing of inmates before they entered the new jail," and stating its own regrets.
• Bishop asks abuse victims to forgive. [Breen] - RCC. 8 to 100 girls.
The Argus, By Linh Tat, ~ May 11, 2005
FREMONT (CA) - Allegations that the late Monsignor Vincent Ignatius Breen molested children while at Holy Spirit Catholic Church were affirmed publicly for the first time Tuesday when the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland asked for pardon among parishioners.
Bishop Allen Vigneron spoke before about 100 people at the church, begging forgiveness for failures of the parish and diocese to act on reports of misconduct. He also offered support to victims.
"In particular, I come to this church tonight to apologize for the betrayal of your trust by the parish priest, Vincent Breen," Vigneron said.
And to the victims, he said: "I affirm that the shame you feel belongs elsewhere - on the shoulders of the abuser."
A police investigation in 1981 found Breen molested at least eight girls, ages 7 to 14. The acts included fondling, French kissing and digital penetration. Breen, who was forced to retire and leave the area to avoid criminal charges, died in 1986.
While some believe Breen - who was assigned to Holy Spirit for 29 years - might have molested 100 or more girls, other members of the church maintain he is innocent.
• Concerns over Arizona jail system hampering extradition. [Colleary] - RCC. Pink underwear and flip-flops.
KVOA, http://kvoa.com/ Global/story.asp ?S=3327970 , ~ May 11, 2005
MESA, Ariz. -- Maricopa County authorities are trying to find another jail to house a suspected pedophile priest if he's returned to Arizona from Ireland to stand trial.
The Irish government says it's concerned that the Rev. Patrick Colleary, former associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Scottsdale, would be mistreated in a county jail.
An Irish judge was going to decide April 22 whether Colleary was to be returned to Arizona. But the proceedings were stopped after news articles about inmates at the Maricopa County jail appeared in a London newspaper.
On April 15, county Sheriff Joe Arpaio had 700 inmates move from old jails to new ones, clad only in pink underwear and flip-flops.
• Ex-youth minister charged with 5 felony sex offenses. [1999 Storer] - Faith Community Church. Girl.
Indianapolis Star, By Lesley Rogers Barrett, lesley.rogers.barrett@indystar.com , May 11, 2005
INDIANAPOLIS (IN) - A former Noblesville youth pastor faces sexual misconduct charges after allegedly having a relationship with an underage girl from the church.
Bradley Storer, 36, Indianapolis, a former assistant pastor at Faith Community Church, turned himself in Friday at the Hamilton County Jail, police said.
The reported abuse is said to have begun more than six years ago, when the girl was 14, said Noblesville Police Detective Mike Sadler.
Earlier this year, Storer's wife found on the computer instant messages exchanged between Storer and the female, who is now 20, Sadler said. The wife alerted authorities to the relationship, which apparently ended when the youth was 19, Sadler said.
Storer is charged with having a sexual relationship during the two years the girl was underage.
"The age of consent is 16," Sadler said. "Anything under 16 would be a crime."
Sadler said the girl was reluctant but cooperative with police.
• Catholic group urges legislation. - RCC.
Republican, By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Wednesday, May 11, 2005
EAST LONGMEADOW (MA) - A newly organized affiliate of the Voice of the Faithful in East Longmeadow plans to push for passage of legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations on sex crimes against minors.
"We don't want to focus on meetings, but activities. We want to be active," said John M. Bowen, a Longmeadow resident and a parishioner of St. Michael Parish in East Longmeadow.
Bowen, one of about six core organizers of the new affiliate, said the group will concentrate on one issue at a time.
"We don't want to try to do too much and spread ourselves thin. What we do we want to do well," Bowen said.
The Massachusetts Legislature is considering a bill that would eliminate the 15-year statute of limitations. It would not be retroactive.
However, if the bill becomes law, 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.
• Archabbey settles priest abuse allegations. [Downey] - RCC. Boy.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, By Matthew Junker, Wednesday, May 11, 2005
PENNSYLVANIA - Attorneys for a State College man and St. Vincent Archabbey have reached a settlement that ends one family's public dispute with the Roman Catholic Church over decades-old allegations of abuse.
John Morrison filed suit in February 2004 against the archabbey, the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Bishop Joseph V. Adamec, former Bishop James Hogan, and the head of St. Vincent Archabbey, Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki. The suit sought an unspecified amount in excess of $30,000 for alleged sexual molestation by the Rev. Alvin T. Downey, a monk of St. Vincent and a psychiatric nurse.
Downey was appointed in 1980 to serve as pastor of Morrison's home church, St. John the Evangelist, in Bellefonte, by the archabbey and the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese to substitute for a vacationing priest.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but were not sealed. Morrison's attorney, Helen R. Kotler, of Pittsburgh, said Morrison declined to disclose the terms.
"These are very emotional and stressful cases for the plaintiffs. They bring back memories of things they'd rather not revisit," Kotler said.
• Beine picks safety of prison for now. [Beine] - RCC. Allegations of exposure, pornography. Boys.
Post-Dispatch, By Robert Patrick, May/10/2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - James Beine, citing fear of harm, will remain in prison rather than accept release on bond on charges of exposing his genitals to students at the St. Louis public school where he was a counselor, his lawyer said Tuesday.
The lawyer, Lawrence Fleming, attributed the decision to prosecutors, victims' advocates and even the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis, who all are working publicly to seek additional charges against the long-suspended priest.
Unless they succeed, it appears that Beine eventually will be freed outright by a 4-3 decision of the Missouri Supreme Court on April 26 that said the sexual misconduct law under which he was convicted was unconstitutionally broad. Attorney General Jay Nixon's office has until the end of business today to file for a reconsideration. A spokesman said he would.
Last week, the court said Beine, most recently of Highland, can go free sooner if he posts a $5,000 bond and agrees to home detention. Beine, also known as Mar James, had been convicted on a federal child pornography possession charge, but a different appeals court previously overturned that, saying evidence was improperly seized.
• Chaplain accused of abuse to keep quiet. [1970s Sprauer] - RCC. 17 boys.
KGW, www.kgw.com/ sharedcontent/ APStories/stories/ D8A0R5380.html , Associated Press, May/11/2005
OREGON - A former prison chaplain accused of sexually abusing boys more than two decades ago intends to invoke doctor-patient and clergy-penitent confidentiality laws to resist answering some questions during a sworn deposition scheduled for next week.
In a motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the lawyer for one of the alleged victims says the Rev. Michael Sprauer plan to use the doctor-patient law in response to questions about any diagnosis or treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as any treatment he may have received for "sexual disorders or deviant behavior."
Moreover, the Roman Catholic priest intends to invoke the clergy-penitent privilege for anything reported in confidence to another clergyman about allegations of sexual abuse, according to a filing by attorney Erin K. Olson that was reported by The Oregonian in its Wednesday editions.
Sprauer, a former prison chaplain at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, has denied the accusations by 17 men who say Sprauer molested them in the 1970s.
• A Glimpse at the Mind of a Pedophile. [O'Grady] - RCC. Boys and girls. 25 survivors.
KTLA, http://ktla.trb. com/news/local/ la-me-ogrady11may11, 0,3988446.story? coll=ktla-news-1 ; By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer, May 11, 2005
CALIFORNIA - In a chillingly frank account, a former Roman Catholic priest, promoted 20 years ago by Roger M. Mahony, recently described his decades-long career as a pedophile, including his sexual tastes and how he groomed his young victims for abuse.
In a 15-hour videotaped deposition in March, Oliver O'Grady described how his heart raced when one of the slim, playful boys he preferred toweled off after a swim. He also said he liked to lift little girls' skirts and peek at their underpants.
Asked to demonstrate how he would lure one of his estimated 25 victims into his arms, the 59-year-old Irish native softened his voice, flashed an avuncular smile and looked directly into the video camera.
"Hi, Sally," O'Grady improvised. "How are you doing? Come here. I want to give you a hug. You are a sweetheart. You know that. You are very special to me. I like you a lot."
If his hug met no resistance, O'Grady testified, he would take the child's compliance as "permission" to molest.
• Levada in line for key job at Vatican. - RCC. Levada.
San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Wednesday, May 11, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) - San Francisco Archbishop William Levada is the new pope's leading candidate to become the chief doctrinal watchdog for the 1.1 billion member Roman Catholic Church, according to Vatican sources and several media reports.
The Chronicle reported on May 4, the day after Levada became the first U. S. bishop to have a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI , that the pontiff was considering the San Francisco prelate for the head of the Vatican Congregation to the Doctrine of the Faith.
Now, Time magazine reports on its Web site that a "senior Vatican official" says the Levada appointment is "a done deal." ...
Palmo noted that Levada has extensive experience dealing with the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. church.
"He has on-the-ground experience in the United States," Palmo said. "That is priceless."
The Levada appointment, if confirmed, would have a major impact on the Catholic Church in the United States and the Bay Area.
For years, many American Catholics have complained that the Vatican does not understand the 65 million-member U.S. church.
• Liberatore trial set for mid-June. [Liberatore] - RCC. Altar boy.
Scranton Times, ~ May 11, 2005
MANHATTAN, N.Y. -- Postponed last week, the sexual-abuse trial of the Rev. Albert M. Liberatore in New York is now scheduled for June 15, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.
The Diocese of Scranton priest was scheduled to start trial today. The Rev. Liberatore faces three felony abuse charges in New York, the most serious he faces in three separate jurisdictions.
All stem from abuse allegations levied by a University of Scranton student and former altar boy at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:08 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed May 11, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Anger at child sex sentence. (Newspaper printed headline) [2002-03 Tynas] - Volunteered for charity group. Boys.
The West Australian, "Sex fiend jail term outrage" (Internet headline), www.thewest.com.au/ 20050511/news/general/ tw-news-general-home- sto131157.html , By BEN MARTIN and DAWN GIBSON, Page One, Wednesday, May 11, 2005
SYDNEY (NSW) Australia: A serial child sex offender who molested Princess Margaret Hospital patients during a holiday for sick children organised by charity group Apex will be free in just four months, outraging victims groups.
[To view, visit: >Picture]
The case of 40-year-old Dianella man Bernard Tynas, who has a criminal record for sexually abusing a child in the United States [of America], has also put pressure on the State Government to fast-track a screening system designed to weed out paedophiles working with children.
A Sydney court sentenced Tynas yesterday to a year in prison but made him eligible for release in four months. The sentence is a far cry from the two-year maximum for each of the four charges he faced.
It is also far more lenient than the year he spent in a United States jail in 1993 for one offence. He was convicted then of sexually abusing a child under 11 he was caring for at a Camp America facility in New York. He spent another year in detention before being deported to Australia.
He later joined Apex, keeping his record secret by offering to oversee the charity's paedophiles screening process, and in 2002 he volunteered to take sick children from PMH to a camp in the NSW snowfields dubbed Operation Snowman.
It was there he assaulted two boys by touching their penises. Despite knowing he would be tempted to molest again, he volunteered to go on the 2003 camp where he assaulted two more young boys.
He was arrested last year and extradited to Sydney. He pleaded guilty to four charges in exchange for another four being dropped.
A Department of Justice report to the court said Tynas believed he was a victim of publicity generated by the case, which cost him his job with property firm Colliers, contact with some members of his family and financial losses including legal and counselling fees.
But Magistrate Brian Maloney told Tynas: "You are in a position of authority.
"They trusted you, everybody trusted you. You gave in to pressure and you succumbed to temptation.
"Commit these sort of offences and suffer the consequences that you suffer in society - shame, embarrassment."
Before handing down the sentence Mr Maloney said it was impossible to say what effect the offences would have on the children but he expected they would get over the experiences in time.
Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse WA director Michelle Stubbs said the court had failed to take into account the impact such crimes had on children.
"It is not like a bad experience most people get over very easily," she said. "More often than not, victims are scarred for many, many years. This man has a history, he was convicted in the US, and it is just a joke if the judge thinks he is going to learn from four months in prison."
WA Community Development Minister Sheila McHale vowed to write to the NSW Attorney-General expressing her concern and asking him to appeal against the leniency of the sentence.
Children's rights campaigner Hetty Johnston also called for an appeal. "The sentence just sends all the wrong messages to paedophiles everywhere," she said. "The families must be devastated."
WA-based Apex national vice-president Bruce Kelman said he was pleased that "justice had been done", although he declined to comment on the gravity of the sentence.
"This person now has an Australian record so he won't have the opportunity to get into similar situations (working with children)," Mr Kelman said.
Women's and Children's Health Service chief Glyn Palmer said: "While it is not appropriate for us to comment on the custodial sentence, our thoughts remain with the families involved." # [Bolding added] [May 11, 05]
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu May 12, 2005 edition follows:-
• Ireland residents learn of priest's past. [O'Grady] - RCC. 20 children.
Mercury News, www.mercurynews. com/mld/mercurynews/ news/breaking _news/11632086.htm , by SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press, ~ May 12, 2005
THURLES, Ireland - A pedophile priest who served seven years in a California prison - and whose actions continue to haunt both victims and Roman Catholic leaders in America - lives quietly in this laid-back Irish town where residents are just becoming aware of his past.
Oliver O'Grady, 59, was removed from the priesthood and deported to Ireland in 2001 after completing his prison time for sexually abusing two boys, among more than 20 children he admits molesting during a 30-year career in the United States.
His case - one of many for the church in the United States and Ireland - has received continued attention for two reasons: He was once supervised by Cardinal Roger Mahony, now the archbishop of Los Angeles and, this week, a disturbing videotaped deposition surfaced in which O'Grady detailed how he would prey on children.
"'Come here, I want to give you a hug,'" he said at one point, demonstrating how he would approach a victim. "'You are a sweetheart, you know that. You are very special to me. I like you a lot.' She might respond, 'I like you, too.' That would allow me to give a better hug."
O'Grady was questioned in Ireland in March for a pending civil suit brought by an alleged sex abuse victim against the Stockton Diocese in California, claiming it failed to protect children from a known abuser.
Since 2003 he's been living in this Tipperary town by the River Suir, once one of Ireland's leading centers for exporting priests worldwide. The approximately 8,000 residents of Thurles found out more about their neighbor Thursday when The Irish Times, Ireland's newspaper of record, picked up American news reports about the deposition. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:27 PM]
• Abuse survivors group wants grand jury probe of priests. [Allentown Diocese] - RCC.
The Morning Call, ~ May 12, 2005
PENNSYLVANIA - A support group for victims of clergy sexual abuse has asked Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin to emulate his counterpart in Philadelphia by launching a grand jury investigation of the Diocese of Allentown.
The group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also wants Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen to release the names of clergy members who have admitted to molesting children or others "who have been justifiably accused."
Martin said he investigated those clergy members three years ago and didn't find enough evidence to convene a grand jury. None of the priests were charged with a crime. Diocesan officials said they gave the names to law enforcement officials and cooperated fully with their investigation.
• Nfld. diocese to sell its churches. - RCC.
Western Catholic Reporter, By DEBORAH GYAPONG, Canadian Catholic News, ~ May 12, 2005
CORNER BROOK (Nfld) CANADA - St. George's Diocese in Western Newfoundland will sell off some or all its churches to stave off bankruptcy and meet an expected $13-million settlement to the sexual abuse victims of one of its priests.
"Our hands are open," said Bishop Douglas Crosby in a May 6 news release. "We have offered everything we have. The future of this diocese and our ministry is now in the hands of those who have suffered the most."
"If we must go bankrupt, then we will do so, accepting our share in their suffering," he said.
On May 8, Crosby read a pastoral letter on the proposal at all Masses at the diocesan cathedral and asked that all celebrants of Masses in the diocese read it too.
"We know the proposal is fair and just," Crosby said. "We know that it represents all we are able to give."
• Bishops to revise clergy sex abuse charter, norms. - RCC.
Catholic News Service, By Jerry Filteau, ~ May 12, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC (CNS) -- When the U.S. bishops meet in June, they will work to revise their "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" and the "Essential Norms" implementing the charter legislatively.
They will also be asked to approve spending up to $1 million from their reserve funds to fund a major study into the causes and context behind the decades of clergy sexual abuse of minors that exploded into a major church crisis in 2002.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets June 16-18 in Chicago.
The documents the bishops will be asked to revise and renew were originally adopted in 2002 with a projected two-year life span before review. That life span was extended when the bishops were not able to conduct the revisions at their November 2004 meeting.
Proposed revisions in the "Essential Norms" are few and limited in scope.
• Abuse victims rally behind House bill.
The Advocate, By JESSICA FENDER, jfender@theadvocate.com , Capitol news bureau, May 12, 2005
LOUISIANA - Sexually abused children would have more time to bring charges against their abusers under a bill that a House committee advanced Wednesday after emotional testimony from victims, dozens of whom attended the hearing.
House Bill 17 would extend the statute of limitations from 10 to 30 years after a child's 18th birthday. Supporters said the step would give victims more time to come to terms with coming forward.
Abuse victim John Connelly told the committee that he suffered at the hands of a relative for four years spanning from when he was 12 to when he got physically strong enough to fend off the attacker.
"I kept it to myself for years because I was embarrassed, ashamed, and I wanted to forget about it," Connelly said. "I thought I would take it to my grave."
It's too late for Connelly to bring charges, and even if HB17 passes, it won't be retroactive. The bill next heads to the House floor.
Many states have either extended the time to report sex crimes against children beyond what Louisiana now allows or have no statute of limitations at all, though each has its own sets of caveats, according to Stacie LeBlanc, director of Legal Advocacy for Children's Hospital in New Orleans.
• Retirement changes eyed for priests. - RCC.
The Boston Globe, By Michael Paulson | May 12, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - The cash-strapped Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is considering significant changes in its expectations of senior priests that would encourage clergy to continue to work after they retire and require priests with financial assets to help pay for nursing-home or assisted-living care.
The archdiocese says that it remains committed to taking care of its clergy and that it will guarantee that no retired priests are without shelter, healthcare, or income. But the archdiocese says it must change benefits or risk running out of money in its pension fund.
The adjustments, which were circulated in a draft policy to all priests and are being discussed at meetings with clergy around the archdiocese, are being proposed as many private companies are eliminating or reducing pension benefits.
The archdiocese says it faces a $55 million unfunded liability in its pension fund for priests. Actuaries say that is the amount the archdiocese has promised to retirees, an amount that it does not have in the bank. The archdiocese attributes the problem to poor investment performance and longer average life span and says the shortfall is unrelated to the costs of settling abuse cases or closing parishes.
• Clerical abuse lawsuit expands. [Lundowski (Trappist) 39; Smario (Franciscan) 4; Endal (Jesuit) 1] - RCC.
Fairbanks News-Miner, By MARY BETH SMETZER, ~ May 12, 2005
ALASKA - A civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in Bethel Superior Court adds 12 new complainants alleging they were sexually abused as children by Roman Catholic clerics or volunteers.
Seven complainants, James Does 33 through 39, pushes the plaintiff count up to 39 against Joseph Lundowski, a former Trappist monk, now deceased.
Four women, Julia Does 1 through 4, are bringing suit against Anton Smario, a Franciscan friar, alleging that he molested them as children in the villages of St. Michael and Stebbins.
A fifth woman, Jean Doe 1, alleges the Rev. George Endal, a Jesuit priest now deceased, who supervised both Lundowski and Smario in western Alaska communities, sexually abused her over a three-year period.
Defendants named in the lawsuit are the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese, The Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, and Alaska, the Catholic Archbishop of Anchorage, Anton Smario, and the Franciscan Friars of California.
The latter three defendants in Wednesday's filing are new additions. The amended lawsuit includes Smario, who now lives in California, and was a professed Franciscan friar of the third order of the Santa Barbara Province at the time of the alleged abuse.
[COMMENT: In the last sentence, the words "third order" might be wrong. Usually the "third order" of St Francis comprise laypeople who have made certain promises and keep some customs of the friars, but are not "professed" friars. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Desilets pleads guilty to molesting 18 boys. [1970s-80s Desilets] - RCC. 18 altar boys.
Milford Daily News, By Sara Withee / Thursday, May 12, 2005
WORCESTER (MA) - After years of fighting prosecution, the Rev. Paul Desilets stood in a courtroom yesterday with seven former Bellingham altar boys and admitted to molesting them and several others in the 1970s and '80s.
"I'm sorry for what happened," Desilets said in Worcester Superior Court, after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting 18 altar boys at Bellingham's now-closed Our Lady of the Assumption Parish.
The 82-year-old Catholic priest offered the apology to Judge Timothy Hillman, but struggled to get the words out when he turned toward the men at Hillman's prodding.
Desilets pleaded guilty to six charges of assault and battery and 26 counts of indecent assault and battery.
On the recommendation of his attorneys and Worcester District Attorney John Conte's office, Hillman sentenced the priest to 1 to 1 1/2 years at MCI-Cedar Junction.
This runs concurrently with an additional sentence of a year in the House of Correction and will be followed by 10 years probation. The cleric had faced up to 10 years in state prison on each indecent assault and battery charge.
• Priest guilty of sex abuse. [1970s-80s Desilets] - RCC. 18 altar boys.
Woonsocket Call, Staff and wire reports, May/12/2005
BELLINGHAM (MA) -- A retired Roman Catholic priest who was extradited from Canada to face sex abuse charges pleaded guilty on Wednesday to molesting 18 altar boys from Our Lady of Assumption Parish in south Bellingham and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The Rev. Paul Desilets -- now 82, diabetic and suffering from an illness caused by childhood polio -- admitted to 32 assault and battery charges resulting from a 4½-year-old Bellingham police case. Judge Timothy Hillman also sentenced the former Assumption assistant pastor to 10 years of probation following his release.
"Father Desilets did what he did to accept responsibility for his conduct," said his lawyer, Dennis Kelly. "It's a sad day for everyone involved."
Desilets, who appeared weak and gaunt during his arraignment on April 25, was hospitalized a few days later, but officials would not say why. He returned to prison a week later, Kelly said.
Kelly said his client should be physically able to endure his prison sentence.
• Our View: Priest's familiar pattern isn't necessarily abuse. [? 2004 Bester] - RCC. Man.
Duluth News Tribune, www.duluthsuperior. com/mld/duluthsuperior/ news/editorial/ 11617300.htm , ~ May 12, 2005
DULUTH (MN) - This is embarrassing. The Rev. Robert Bester, a Duluth native, is allegedly caught soliciting sex from an Alaskan man who tapes the conversation and hands it over to a TV station to air. It's a new twist (sex in exchange for church construction work?) that reignites clergy sexual abuse worries and raises questions about Bester's actions during his earlier career as a school superintendent and high school principal in Minnesota.
But before anyone jumps to conclusions, a little perspective is in order: The suspension of Bester, 75, by the Archdiocese of Alaska comes for allegedly soliciting sex from a grown man, not a child. Though that's hardly acceptable behavior for a priest, he hasn't been accused of any crime, and so far no one -- not former teaching colleagues nor students -- has publicly brought forth any evidence that he's ever broken the law. Significantly, Jeffrey Anderson, a Minneapolis lawyer who has represented scores of abuse victims, told the News Tribune's editorial page he'd previously never heard of Bester.
All that is important because even if the facts of the allegations are true (as those on tape tend to be), a rather pitiful offer of homosexual sex does not translate into proof of a dangerous pedophile on the loose. That's significant because too often during the priest abuse scandal the public bought into the stereotypical image of homosexual clergy preying on little boys, despite numerous studies showing sexual orientation has little to do with pedophilia and that heterosexuals are more likely to commit such crimes. Further, therapists estimate at least a third of priest sexual abuse victims are female.
The already messy situation of Bester, who is a priest of the Diocese of Crookston but served in Duluth at St. Mary's Hospital and on loan to the Archdiocese of Alaska, is complicated by his service as a hospital chaplain -- a position sometimes used by church leaders to harbor accused abusers -- and his traveling between church jurisdictions is another pattern seen among accused clergy. That Bester served in Duluth under then-Bishop Roger Schwietz, who later became his archbishop in Alaska, is also a curiosity. Yet counterbalancing those eyebrow-raising circumstances is his late entry, at 47, into priesthood, placing him among a group for whom there is little incidence of abuse.
• Clergy Sex Abuse Survivors Unhappy with Potential Promotion of SF Archbishop. [Levada] - RCC.
KCBS, www.kcbs.com/ pages/kcbs/news/ news_story.nsp ?story_id =71034844&ID =kcbs&scategory =Computers ; May-11-2005
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) - (KCBS) The head of San Francisco's Roman Catholic Archdiocese could soon be given a promotion, which would call him to Rome. But that choice does not sit well with some clergy sex abuse survivors.
KCBS reporter Holly Quan says Archbishop William Levada worked with Pope Benedict XVI in the 1980s, and he was the first to receive a private audience with the pope after he was ordained.
Time Magazine now reports that Levada is the one expected to be tapped to take over the Pope's old job: Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican watchdog.
Dan McNevin with the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said Archbishop Levada continues to ignore their pleas to "out" accused priests.
"I am concerned if this man is elevated to a position where he is in charge of worldwide doctrine and worldwide enforcement of sex abuse that nothing will really change and we'll be heading in a direction where secrecy instead of protection will be prioritized," McNevin said.
• Murdered Woman Made Claims Of Abuse, Mind Control In Church. [Ralph Clark] - Apostolic Faith Church. Woman and children.
NewsNet5, www.newsnet5. com/news/4478692/ detail.html , POSTED 6:45 pm EDT, May 11, 2005
ASHTABULA COUNTY, Ohio -- An Ashtabula County woman made claims alleging misconduct in a local church just weeks before she was murdered.
In an affidavit, Carolyn Clark, a member of the Apostolic Faith Church, made disturbing accusations, claiming numerous incidents of abuse and cult-like behavior, NewsChannel5 reported.
Last Saturday, six weeks after Clark made those claims, police say the 43-year-old woman was beaten to death with a gun inside her apartment.
Police say that five of her 13 children were also inside the apartment. Police arrested her estranged husband, Ralph Clark, and charged him with aggravated murder.
Days before her murder, the courts gave Carolyn Clark temporary custody of her under-age children, with the affidavit possibly playing a role in that decision.
In the document, Carolyn Clark said church members beat her with a belt, abused children, and engaged in sexual abuse.
• Trial begins in burned body case. [2004 Fredericksen] - Molestation excuse given.
Mercury-Register, www.orovillemr.com/Stories/0,1413,157~26686~2865352,00.html , ~ May 12, 2005
OROVILLE (CA) - The burned and stabbed body of Ronald Duane Bailey, 54, was found east of Oroville last spring.
Trial began Wednesday in the murder case against Kelly David Fredericksen, 27, who admits he killed Bailey.
The prosecution hopes to convict Fredericksen of first-degree murder and send him to prison for life. ...
In his opening statement Wednesday, Fredericksen's attorney, Denny Forland, told the jury his client had been molested by a church elder as a child and also had a "mental history" which affected his actions on the day of the killing.
In a videotaped confession following his arrest, Fredericksen said on the night of the slaying, Bailey came to his apartment to make a drug deal. At one point, Fredericksen said, he discovered Bailey standing over his 4-year old daughter's bed, watching the girl sleep.[...] [Emphasis added]
• Arlington pastor in custody again. [2005 Hornbuckle] - Agape Christian Fellowship. Sex, now drugs.
The Dallas Morning News, By JEFF MOSIER / Wednesday, May 11, 2005
FORT WORTH (TX) - Terry L. Hornbuckle, the Arlington pastor indicted on sexual-assault charges, was arrested Wednesday, accused of violating the terms of his bail, Tarrant County officials said.
A May 5 test found illegal drugs in Mr. Hornbuckle's system, Tarrant County probation officials said.
Mr. Hornbuckle was being held without bail Wednesday in the Tarrant County Jail.
Jim Sinclair, Tarrant County's assistant probation director, would not say what drug the test found. Police said they found methamphetamine and a glass pipe in Mr. Hornbuckle's car when he was first arrested in March.
"This is not uncommon," Mr. Sinclair said about the failed drug test. "The courts issue these warrants all the time."
The 43-year-old founder of Agape Christian Fellowship church in Arlington was arrested about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday while reporting to the county probation department in downtown Fort Worth.
• Fort Worth bishop considers retiring. [1990s] - RCC. $US 4.1m payout. 2 males.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, By Darren Barbee, ~ May 12, 2005
FORT WORTH (TX) - Bishop Joseph Delaney, leader of the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese since 1981, said he will take up issues of retirement with Pope Benedict XVI because of his failing health.
Delaney, 70, made the comments Wednesday in his first interview since the diocese recently agreed to pay $4.1 million to two men who sued, saying they were abused in the early 1990s by a priest Delaney appointed to a parish.
Delaney discussed his health and his reasons for settling the suit and for not releasing the names of other priests who have been accused of sexual abuse.
"The Holy Father, by now, knows of my illness," Delaney said in his first published interview with the Star-Telegram since November 2002. "I'm extraordinarily frustrated that I'm unable to fulfill my ministry," he said.
Delaney was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003. His pancreas and parts of his spleen were removed, and Delaney said the cancer is in remission.
• Inquiry tainted by judge's Cornwall roots, say victims. - Officials, professionals, and clergy. Boys.
CBC News, http://ottawa.cbc. ca/regional/servlet/ View?filename=ot- glauderoots 20050511 , Last updated 09:37 AM EDT, May 11 2005
OTTAWA, CANADA - The judge appointed to lead the public inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse and cover-up in Cornwall has deep roots in the area, charge victims who have fought to get the examination.
Last month, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant appointed Justice Normand Glaude to head up the long-awaited look into allegations that a ring of high-ranking officials, professionals and clergy sexually abused boys in the Cornwall area for decades.
The inquiry will examine how the justice system and other public institutions responded to the abuse allegations.
One of the reasons Bryant chose Glaude was because he's not from the Cornwall area. He was born in Sudbury, where he is currently the regional senior justice.
"No, I mean it was very important that the person involved not have any connection," Bryant said last month when he appointed Glaude. "He is from Sudbury and has been in Sudbury for some time now."
Bryant painted Glaude as an outsider, someone who would bring a "fresh perspective" to a troubled town.
But the attorney general didn't mention that Glaude's father was born in St. Raphaels, a few kilometres from Cornwall, nor that his grandparents were married in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall.
• When in Rome. [? 2004 Howell] - RCC. Child pornography.
Boise Weekly, BY SARA BEITIA, ~ May 12, 2005
IDAHO - By now, everyone knows that the Roman Catholic Church lost a pope and gained a pope in recent weeks. Likewise, there are few who aren't aware of the public relations trouble the Catholic Church has been having in recent years - and not just long-running sociopolitical issues such as birth control and abortion, but also sexual abuse scandals and apparent concealment from high up, both globally and locally.
The bright spotlight of attention - with both genuine interest and schadenfreude - has raised questions about the direction and future of the Catholic Church. Public perception, from within the church and without, and the short- and long-term outlook of this powerful church are in question.
In the last 35 years, the church's demographic has drastically evolved. The largest percentage of the world's Catholics is in Latin America, the smallest in North America. The greatest increase in Catholic population in that time has been in Africa, which, while making up only 13 percent of the world's Catholics, has more than doubled its percentage in the past three decades. Numbers are up in that same period in Asia (at nearly 12 percent) and Latin America (43 percent), and down in Europe, Catholicism's traditional home turf.
According to Father Ronald Wekerle, vicar general for the Diocese of Idaho and pastor for St. Jerome's Parish in Jerome, numbers of Catholics in Idaho are holding and perhaps slightly increasing. As the population grows, Wekerle told BW, the percentages may decrease, but the numbers haven't. Last year, nearly 500 people were brought into the Catholic Church in Idaho, and as of 2004, the in-state congregation was 146,000 strong.
This past February, it came to light that Deacon Robert Howell, formerly a lay minister at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Northwest Boise, pled guilty last November to the charge of possession of child pornography (and received an 18-month prison sentence). What had St. Mary's parishioners upset was that the bishop of the Boise diocese, the Rev. Michael Patrick Driscoll, did not disclose Howell's crimes until nearly four months after the guilty plea. Predictably, Catholics in St. Mary's and beyond were angered at what they perceived as being kept in the dark. [Bolding added]
• Boston's Catholic Archdiocese May Cut Priests' Pensions. - RCC.
The New York Times, By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, May 12, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - Seeking to save money, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is proposing cuts in its pension benefits for priests.
The archdiocese says that its pension fund has had poor returns in recent years and has suffered from many of the same problems as corporate America's pension funds. Previously, however, officials have cited general financial strains stemming from the sexual abuse scandal and a resulting decline in contributions from churchgoers.
The archdiocese has begun holding meetings to inform priests of the proposed cuts. They include freezing monthly pension benefits at the current level, $1,889, rather than raising them with inflation, and asking some priests in some case to pick up more of their housing costs.
Medical benefits would also be reduced and linked to financial need for the first time. Able-bodied retired priests would be steered away from assisted-living quarters, which are expensive, and encouraged to stay in their parish rectories after retiring. Those who collect Social Security or have other assets, say, from a family inheritance, would have to dip into those funds to pay for assisted living and nursing home care that the archdiocese now provides.
• Missouri appeals decision that would free Beine. [2001 Beine] - RCC. Boys.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, BY ROBERT PATRICK, May/11/2005
MISSOURI - An order that voided Missouri's indecent exposure law overlooked the facts of James Beine's conviction, the attorney general's office said Wednesday in asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider.
Beine, a St. Louis public school counselor, was not merely using a public urinal, the motion said, but "urinating in a circus-like manner" in an elementary school bathroom that adults did not generally use.
The high court overturned Beine's 2003 conviction on four counts of sexual misconduct involving a child by indecent exposure. In a 4-3 decision April 26, the majority found that the underlying law was so vague and broadly written that it could be construed as making it illegal to use a public restroom.
Unless that finding is reversed, Beine will be released from a 12-year prison sentence.
• 'Father Hands' forgets. [1970s-80s Desilets] - RCC. 1 1/2 years prison. 18 altar boys.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), by Dianne Williamson, dwilliamson@telegram.com , May 12, 2005
WORCESTER (MA) - They called him Father Hands back then, the young boys of Bellingham who yesterday filled two rows in Room 204 of Worcester Superior Court.
They are adults now, some with families, all with memories of a predatory priest who stood before them yesterday a broken old man, sick and gaunt, telling a judge he remembered the faces of only half of the boys he sexually abused in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Sometimes I forget," the Rev. Paul M. Desilets told Superior Court Judge Timothy Hillman, when asked if he was confused about any of the questions posed to him.
"You don't remember the victims?" Judge Hillman asked.
"No," the retired priest replied softly.
"You don't remember any of them?"
The priest paused. "Some."
Judge Hillman continued to probe, gently and painstakingly, in an effort to determine whether the 82-year-old priest was competent to plead guilty to 32 counts of sexual abuse involving 18 former altar boys.
"Is it that you don't remember the individuals or you don't remember the conduct?"
"I don't remember the individuals."
"Do you remember the conduct?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember some of them?" the judge asked. "How many?"
"It's very difficult," the priest replied.
It was very difficult, watching the wheels of justice spin circles around a defendant as old and as sick as Paul Desilets. When he shuffled into court, handcuffed and wearing a dark-blue prison jumper, he looked more like a survivor of Auschwitz than the perpetrator of crimes against children.
His eyes were sunken and his chin was covered with thin white stubble. Mouth agape and head bowed, he could barely keep his eyes open on the witness stand and at one point Judge Hillman mouthed "Is he awake?" to the defendant's lawyer, Dennis J. Kelly.
"Mr. Desilets, are you still with us?" Judge Hillman asked. As was his habit, the priest looked to his lawyer for prompting before saying yes.
He takes 10 medications a day, the names of which he can't recall, the priest told the judge. He suffers from diabetes and the effects of childhood polio. On April 27, he was taken from the Worcester County Jail to an undisclosed area hospital, but was later returned to his cell. He was arraigned last month in a wheelchair via video feed from the jail.
The young boys from Bellingham are grown men now, but for them, time has stopped. They don't see the priest as a frail old man who needed help from a court officer to negotiate the witness stand. Instead, they see the powerful priest who sexually abused them for years, before Mass and after funerals, in a room off the altar at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Bellingham. They see his smile. They hear his warning that they'd burn in hell if they told.
Unlike the Rev. Desilets, they remember everything.
"I just look past his infirmities and remember him the way he was - a big, mean, bullying man," said James Corriveau, 37, one of two brothers who said they were abused by the priest for seven years, beginning at age 9. "We've been scarred forever by what he did. I don't feel any pity for him."
His brother, Brian Corriveau, said the boys never told on the priest but would talk among themselves and inquire: "Did you get attacked by Father Hands today?" It was only four years ago, after his uncle returned from a trip to Canada and said he had seen the priest, that Brian revealed the boys' secrets. More victims came forward. In 2002, the Rev. Desilets was indicted by a Worcester grand jury and later arrested in Canada, where he was living in a retirement home in Quebec.
Yesterday, Judge Hillman sentenced the priest to 1 to 1-1/2 years in state prison. His lawyer, Mr. Kelly, told the judge that his client wanted to apologize for his behavior.
"I'm sorry for what happened," the priest said softly.
"You might want to say that to the people in back of you, not to me," Judge Hillman said.
So the Rev. Paul Desilets dutifully turned to the men in the first two rows, to the boys he remembered and the boys whose faces he can't recall.
"I'm sorry for what happened," he said again.
One of the men had tears in his eyes. The rest stared back at their now-feeble tormenter before filing silently out of the courtroom, engrossed in their private thoughts, no longer helpless against the priest they once called Father Hands.
"He haunted my dreams for years," Brian Corriveau said. "As young boys, we never felt there was anything we could do. Now, something's been done. I just can't believe this day has actually come."
• Desilets sentence is 1 to 1-1/2 years. [1970s-80s Desilets] - RCC. 1 1/2 years prison. 18 altar boys.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), By Gary V. Murray, gmurray@telegram.com , May 12, 2005
WORCESTER (MA) - He could not recall the names or faces of all of the 18 men who have accused him of sexually assaulting them more than 20 years ago, when they were altar boys at Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Bellingham and he was the associate pastor.
But 82-year-old retired priest Paul M. Desilets said he did remember the unlawful conduct that led to the charges against him.
Rev. Desilets was sentenced to 1 to 1-1/2 years in state prison yesterday, after pleading guilty in Worcester Superior Court to 16 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, 10 counts of indecent assault and battery and 6 counts of assault and battery.
In addition to imposing the prison sentence, Judge Timothy S. Hillman placed Rev. Desilets on probation for 10 years, to begin upon his release from custody. The sentence handed down was recommended by Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey T. Travers and Rev. Desilets' lawyer, Dennis J. Kelly.
Gaunt, unshaven and reportedly in poor health, Rev. Desilets appeared to nod off at times during the court proceedings, prompting Judge Hillman to ask on more than one occasion if he was awake and understood what he was doing. Rev. Desilets responded affirmatively and his lawyer reassured the court that his client was fully cognizant of what was going on, despite being "a little tired."
Rev. Desilets was indicted in 2002, and was extradited from Canada April 22 to face the sexual assault charges. He was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail after his return. While in custody, he was hospitalized, reportedly suffering from diabetes and the effects of childhood polio.
The offenses to which he pleaded guilty yesterday occurred from 1978 to 1984, while Rev. Desilets was assigned to the Bellingham parish. Mr. Travers said the 18 victims were sexually assaulted by Rev. Desilets "on or around church property."
Had the case gone to trial, Mr. Travers told the judge, the victims would have testified that Rev. Desilets sexually assaulted them by touching their buttocks and genitals, either over or under their clothing. The prosecutor said the victims, who were identified only by their initials and dates of birth, did not consent to the priest's sexual advances.
Several of the victims were in court yesterday. One read from a poem titled "The Betrayal," that he said he had written and dedicated to the survivors of clergy sexual abuse. "You've shattered young lives at the cost of your soul ... This is something even the angels can never forgive."
Another victim read from an impact statement in which he decried what he said was the "great injustice" he had suffered at the hands of Rev. Desilets and the Catholic church. "I have lost faith in the Catholic church, but I have not lost faith in God."
In urging Judge Hillman to adopt the sentence he and Mr. Travers had proposed, Mr. Kelly said his client wished to accept responsibility for his misconduct. Mr. Kelly said there have been no similar allegations against Rev. Desilets since his move to Canada in 1985.
Rev. Desilets also apologized to the court and to his victims, saying in a barely audible voice, "I'm sorry for what happened."
One victim later said the apology meant little to him and that he felt no sense of closure from Rev. Desilets' guilty pleas.
"I have a lot of empathy for old people, but for him I have no empathy. He's been haunting my dreams for years," said another victim. He said he was 9 years old when he was first molested by Rev. Desilets.
Rev. Desilets was given credit for 17 days he spent in custody while his case was pending. As conditions of probation, he was ordered to have no contact with the victims, and no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender and to undergo any sex-offender counseling deemed appropriate by the Probation Department.
David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of Survivors Network of Those Abuse by Priests, lauded the efforts made by law enforcement to extradite Rev. Desilets. "We also hope that this move will inspire other prosecutors to more aggressively seek the extradition of dozens of other proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests who have fled the country."
Mr. Clohessy said the organization, which supports and advocates for victims of clergy abuse, is grateful that Rev. Desilets pleaded guilty, "and hopes this provides some comfort and consolation to his victims and their families."
The director, who is also a clergy abuse survivor, said they hope that other alleged victims of Rev. Desilets come forward "and get the healing they need and deserve."
He said there is no "magic age" when a serial predator stops molesting minors. He urged people to "remain vigilant" around the priest. "Even very elderly molesters have been caught hurting children."
Kathleen A. Shaw of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report. [Emphasis added]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu May 12, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• [Clergy sex abuse leads to complete diocese sell-off]. [Bennett] - RCC.
The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), "Bishop prepared to sell," p 5, May 12, 2005
CANADA: A Canadian bishop said he is prepared to sell all of the diocese's 150 properties in order to settle a 16-year lawsuit with sexual abuse victims. Bishop Douglas Crosby of St George's in Newfoundland said the Church will sell its churches and missions to come up with the US$10.5 million for the victims of Father Kevin Bennett.
"Our hands are open," Bishop Crosby said in a May 6 statement. "We have offered everything we have. The future of this diocese and our ministry is now in the hands of those who have suffered the most.
"If we must go bankrupt, then we will do so, accepting our share in their suffering," he said.
Canadian Press also reported that Greg Stack, who represents 37 of 39 victims, said he expected they would accept the offer when they vote on May 25. "The amount of the settlement is almost secondary," said Mr Stack.
[COMMENT: On another page of the same paper there was an article about forgiving trespasses an unlimited number of times. Evidently the New Testament texts opposing that viewpoint have not been taken into account. COMMENT ENDS.] [May 12, 05]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri May 13, 2005 edition follows:-
• Movie tells stories of abuse in Boston. - RCC. Documentary film "Our Fathers".
The Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews.com/ sharedcontent/dws/dn/ religion/arts/stories/ 051405DNrel-artmatters Fathers.a460a503.html ; By ROBIN GALIANO RUSSELL / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News, 04:23 PM CDT on Friday, May 13, 2005
UNITED STATES - Cardinal Bernard Law, recently criticized for leading a memorial Mass in Rome for Pope John Paul II, is one of the central figures in a Showtime original film premiering May 21.
The film, Our Fathers, takes an agonizing look at the damage done by sexually abusive priests in the archdiocese of Boston. The exposure of the scandal is foreshadowed by the film's opening, taken from the Gospel of Luke: "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known."
The film, is based on Newsweek journalist David France's book Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal.
The docudrama depicts the anguish of victimized boys who become dysfunctional and wounded adults. It also captures the grief experienced by the cardinal himself for not dealing with priests who molested children under his watch. Christopher Plummer gives a subtle but exquisitely tormented performance as he faces victims' support groups and angry parishioners.
The film centers on attorney Mitchell Garabedian, victims who come forward to tell their story, reporters at The Boston Globe and, Cardinal Law. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:27 PM]
• Erlanger's Catholic Center to close . - RCC.
Cincinnati Enquirer, news.cincinnati.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article ?AID=/20050513/NEWS 0103/505140321/ -1/CINCI , May 13, 2005
ERLANGER (KY) - The Covington Diocese will close the Catholic Center and move its operations to office space at St. Elizabeth Medical Center North in downtown Covington, Bishop Roger Foys announced today.
About 50 employees will be relocated in the move.
Bishop Foys noted that since 2003 the diocese has paid out nearly $4 million of its own funds to settle sexual abuse claims and has been working to resolve the class-action lawsuit filed in Boone County District Court.
"We no longer have the interest income which was used to underwrite the Catholic Center's maintenance costs," he said. "In any case we would likely have concluded that relocating to lower-cost office space would be prudent."
The relocation, it is hoped, will save the diocese about $300,000 per year.
• Profile in courage. [1970 Birmingham] - RCC. "Our Fathers" movie.
Newsday, BY NOEL HOLSTON, for May 15, 2005
UNITED STATES: There may be Roman Catholics who will regard "Our Fathers," Showtime's Saturday 9 p.m. movie about the church's pedophile priest scandal, as more exploitation, more Catholic-bashing. Olan Horne has another word for the film: "courageous."
Horne is one of the victims. In 1970, consumed with guilt and shame, he confided to Rev. Joseph Birmingham, a friendly, new priest at his church in Lowell, Mass., that he was being sexually molested by a member of his family. Birmingham first coaxed a graphic description of the abuse from him and then asked Horne to show him his genitals. Horne was frightened. He was 12. He did as he was told.
"Showtime has been as courageous as any individual who decided to come forward, because there's still a stigma attached to this," Horne, a butcher by trade, told a group of TV writers in January. "Nobody can have a healthy conversation. I have a family that has difficulty even talking about the issue."
Horne didn't step out of the shadows and speak up until he was middle-aged. An earlier victim of Birmingham, Bernie McDaid, recalled that he did tell his parents and that they reported the priest - in 1969. The priest was transferred. To Lowell.
Huge fallout
"The Catholic Church said that they went and got him help, but they never did," said McDaid, now a painting contractor. "The records show differently. The fallout from this is huge, and it needs to be exploited more. We need to talk about it more because the damage, as far as I'm concerned, they raped my soul. OK? They took God from me at age 11, and that needs to be known."
• Reflecting on the priesthood, Latinos, and moving on. - RCC. New priests' leader.
The Lompoc Record, By Steve Pent - Editor, El Tiempo, May/13/05
CALIFORNIA - When Father Richard Vega announced to his parish - La Purisima Concepcion in Lompoc - his plans to leave after nearly 11 years of service, there were gasps of surprise and more than a few groans.
Beginning in July 2006, he is to assume the presidency of the National Federation of Priest Councils (NFPC), a group that represents 26,000 U.S. parish priests serving in 125 dioceses.
The NFPC elected Vega on April 14 as its first Latino president in its 37-year history.
The 47-year old succeeds the Rev. Robert J. Silva of Stockton, who has served since 2000 and has managed the organization's response to the national sex-abuse scandal. ...
On the issue of sexual-abuse scandal, Vega said he will push for providing a safer environment, one that will be more proactive for children.
And concerning those priests that have been convicted, he commented that "most priests are not pedophiles ... [but] we still need to reach out to those in jail. They're still a part of our family. We can't pretend they're not a part of us."
He added that while the NFPC acknowledges the crimes committed, it also must try to reach out and be of support to abusing priests, without losing sight of the victims, of the betrayal, and of the damage done to the church.
Among the things Vega still wants to get done at the parish between now and when he moves on is to strengthen family catechism, because "children learn faith through a family environment ... and parents play a primary role."
• Abuse Allegations Against a Top Catholic Re-examined. [Maciel] - RCC.
ABC News, April 21, 2005
NEW YORK -- An investigation into the sexual abuse allegations against a high-ranking priest of the Roman Catholic Church has been reopened, seven years after the formal complaint was first filed with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, according to people familiar with the case.
Ratzinger's office ordered the case against the Rev. Marcial Maciel reopened in December, around the time there was growing speculation Ratzinger was a leading candidate to be the next pope. In fact, a Vatican investigator began taking sworn statements from the alleged victims just two weeks ago in New York, the day Pope John Paul II died, according to sources close to the case.
"They knelt and kissed his ring, filing these charges in his tribunal, and after that it was simply stuffed, it was shelved," said Jason Berry, co-author with Gerald Renner of a book on the case, "Vows of Silence."
"This pope is at a crossroads. He has to resolve the Maciel case or it will stalk him like a shadow in the sun."
• Ex-priest jailed for sex crimes. [1974-93 Daniels] - Anglican. 10 boys.
Ninemsn, AAP, 05:55 AEST, for Sat May 14 2005
AUSTRALIA - A former Anglican priest was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail for abusing teenage boys over a 20-year period.
Louis Victor Daniels pleaded guilty to 13 charges of sex-related offences with 10 boys aged between 11 and 17.
The crimes took place in Tasmania from January 1974 until December 1993.
Justice Pierre Slicer said the crimes leading to Daniels' jail sentence included maintaining a sexual relationship and acts of indecent assault.
Speaking in Hobart's Criminal Court, Justice Slicer said Daniels, 57, showed a pattern of predation and persisted to abuse boys, despite their resistance.
"He was well aware that his conduct was abhorrent to both the social values and tenets of his religion," Justice Slicer said.
• Take the Bishop Michael Driscoll Pedo-Quiz!. [Orange Diocese] - RCC. Record $US 100m payout planned.
Orange County Weekly, www.ocweekly. com/ink/05/36/ ex-arellano.php , by GUSTAVO ARELLANO, ~ May 13, 2005
CALIFORNIA - On May 6, Diocese of Boise Bishop Michael Driscoll apologized for his role in Orange County's Roman Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal.
Driscoll - who was in charge of priest personnel affairs for the Diocese of Orange from its 1976 inception until leaving for Idaho in 1999 - made the stunning admission in a letter printed in the Idaho Catholic Register, stating he was "deeply sorry that the way we handled cases [in Orange County] allowed children to be victimized by permitting some priests to remain in ministry, for not disclosing their behavior to those who might be at risk, and for not monitoring their actions more closely."
What's with the mea culpa? Two words: damage control. On May 17, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge will issue a ruling determining which priest personnel files will become public as part of the record-breaking $100 million settlement reached earlier this year between the Orange diocese and sex-abuse victims. Church sources say Driscoll's name is all over the documents, which molestation survivors claim will show the various cover-ups Orange diocesan officials executed while Driscoll served as chancellor and auxiliary bishop.
But why wait until May 17? Take the following quiz and discover for yourself Driscoll's role in the rape of innocents! [...]
• The Word From Rome.
National Catholic Reporter, By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., ~ May 13, 2005
ROME - On May 13, as had long been rumored, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop William J. Levada of San Francisco as the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Why Levada?
First, he has a solid theological background. He wrote his doctoral thesis in theology at Rome's Gregorian University under the direction of Jesuit Fr. Francis Sullivan, widely regarded as one of the best minds in ecclesiology of the 20th century. The subject of Levada's dissertation was "The Infallible Church Magisterium and the Natural Moral Law," examining how the magisterium understands natural law, and especially its binding force. Levada reviewed a range of theological opinions and drew what one observer described as "balanced, judicious" conclusions. Given the way that moral questions, especially on sexual issues and biotechnology, are among the most contentious matters the doctrinal congregation handles, it's a background that would serve Levada well. ...
Fourth, since the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has the juridical responsibility for handling cases of priests accused of sexual abuse, Levada's background as a member of the U.S. bishops' conference and the "mixed commission" that worked out the American norms means that he would bring an insider's understanding to those issues, and become a powerful voice in setting Vatican policy on the sexual abuse issue.
• Pope names San Francisco archbishop to Vatican's top doctrinal post. - RCC. Levado to Vatican top post.
Catholic News Service By John Thavis, ~ May 13, 2005
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop William J. Levada of San Francisco as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican agency charged with protecting and promoting the church's teachings on faith and morals.
The appointment, announced May 13, marked the first time a U.S. prelate has headed the congregation. It is the oldest of the Vatican's nine congregations and is considered primary in responsibility and influence. ...
Archbishop Levada, who has headed the Archdiocese of San Francisco since 1995, was a key figure in the approval of new norms to handle cases of priestly sexual abuse.
In 2002, he was a member of the U.S.-Vatican commission that made final revisions to the norms, which laid out a strict policy on priestly sex abuse and provided for removal from ministry or laicization of priests who have sexually abused minors.
Earlier this year, he and four other U.S. church leaders returned to the Vatican for talks on extending the norms.
• Pelaez served 3 years in prison for sexual abuse of Turlock boy. [Pelaez] - RCC. Boy.
Modesto Bee, www.modbee.com/ local/story/ 10482246p -11278209c.html , By JOHN HOLLAND, Last Updated 06:50:56 AM PDT, May 13, 2005,
CALIFORNIA - The Rev. Oscar Pelaez, a Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty in 2002 to molesting a Turlock boy, has been released from state prison, officials said Thursday.
Pelaez, 38, was paroled Tuesday after serving nearly three years of a six-year sentence for molesting the youth, the California Department of Corrections reported. The victim attended Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Turlock, where Pelaez once served.
Pelaez's new place of residence could not be determined Thursday. A brief form from the state agency said he was released in Parole Region 1, which includes all of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada. A spokesman said he did not have more precise information.
The Diocese of Stockton, overseeing Catholic churches in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and central Sierra, issued a news release Thursday announcing Pelaez's parole. Sister Terry Davis, a diocese spokeswoman, said it is working with his parole officer, but she did not know his new location either.
• Archdiocese set to lay off 7 employees. - RCC.
The Boston Globe, May 13, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - The Archdiocese of Boston, facing a budgetary crisis, said yesterday that it will lay off seven administrative employees and eliminate four positions that are vacant. That will lower the number of archdiocesan employees to 281 from 367 in 2002. In a memo to employees yesterday, the archdiocese said employees will get an average 1.75 percent salary increase in the fiscal year that begins July 1, in a further effort to control costs. The budget crisis has largely been caused by a reduction in contributions from parishioners following the clergy abuse crisis.
• Chaminade brother . [1980s Pistone (Marianist)] - RCC. Not sustained.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch ~ May 13, 2005
MISSOURI - A Marianist brother resigned as a campus minister at Chaminade College Preparatory School last week after an internal investigation into an allegation of sexual harassment of a student at a Texas high school in the 1980s.
A letter to Chaminade parents, faculty and staff said that Brother Tony Pistone would leave the school though the investigation found no evidence to substantiate the allegation and uncovered no other allegations of inappropriate behavior. The letter from the school's president and principals, dated May 4, also stated that no criminal or civil charges were filed. Pistone has denied the allegations.
Pistone, 70, had stepped down temporarily in March pending the results of the investigation by the provincial of the U.S. Marianist province, Brother Stephen Glodek.
• Dallas pastor indicted on indecency charges. [? 2000s Crocker] - Lakeview Christian Church.
The Dallas Morning News, By GRETEL C. KOVACH / Thursday, May 12, 2005
DALLAS (TX) - Larry Joe Crocker, a Dallas pastor accused of molesting a boy from his church, was indicted Thursday on two felony charges of indecency with a child by contact.
Mr. Crocker, head minister of Lakeview Christian Church, was arrested March 16 at his Garland home and was released from jail after paying a $20,000 bond and about $1,000 in outstanding traffic tickets.
Mr. Crocker, 56, has denied the charges. His lawyer and regional Disciples of Christ representatives could not be reached for comment Thursday.
A representative of the Lakeview church of about 60 members said the indictments are the starting point in an investigation that will clear Mr. Crocker.
"This is the first step in the process when any kind of allegation occurs," said Brian Cook, a church trustee. "He is innocent." [Bolding added]
• Two officials break with church. [? 2000s Hornbuckle] - Agape Christian Fellowship. 3 women.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, By Anthony Spangler, ~ May 13, 2005
ARLINGTON (TX) -- Two of the Agape Christian Fellowship elders named in a lawsuit that claims Bishop Terry Hornbuckle sexually assaulted three women have broken with the church.
The civil lawsuit contends that Eben and Sarah Conner and six other elders are partially responsible for Hornbuckle's actions because they hired him as senior pastor of Agape in Arlington.
The Conners and the other elders were represented by the same attorney. However, the Conners have hired a lawyer who filed court documents on their behalf last month asserting that any injuries to the women were caused "by the intervening criminal acts or act of Defendant Hornbuckle."
If the Conners, who have started their own church, are found liable, they want to be reimbursed by Hornbuckle, according to the court documents.
No other elders had filed counterclaims as of Wednesday.
• Bail revoked; pastor rearrested. [? 2000s Hornbuckle] - Agape Christian Fellowship. 3 women.
Star-Telegram, By Anthony Spangler, ~ May 13, 2005
FORT WORTH (TX) - Bail for Bishop Terry Hornbuckle, who is accused of sexually assaulting three female parishioners, was revoked Wednesday after he tested positive for drugs.
Hornbuckle, senior pastor of Agape Christian Fellowship in Arlington, was arrested Wednesday while reporting to a probation officer in downtown Fort Worth, said Jim Sinclair, assistant director of Tarrant County probation.
"The urinalysis was submitted on the fourth of this month and the court was notified" Tuesday, Sinclair said. "A warrant was issued and he came in to make his regular report and was taken into custody in our office."
Hornbuckle, 43, was indicted in March on four charges of sexual assault and was released on $405,000 bail. In two of the cases, he is accused of using date-rape drugs to overpower the women.
After his initial arrest in March, authorities said they found a small amount of methamphetamine inside his Cadillac Escalade. Hornbuckle also faces a felony drug charge.
• Former parishioners relieved by Desilets sentence. [? 1970s-80s Desilets] - RCC. 18 altar boys.
Milford Daily News, By Sara Withee / Friday, May 13, 2005
BELLINGHAM (MA) -- The parishioners he stood before for years at Our Lady of the Assumption parish voiced relief yesterday to see the Rev. Paul Desilets, who fought sex abuse charges for three years, sentenced to state prison.
"I'm just glad that it's all put behind us, especially for the families of the victims and the kids themselves," said longtime parishioner Charles Gerrior. "At least we're finished and we don't have to run after him anymore."
"I'm delighted it's over," agreed Margaret Tuttle, 75. "It's a bit of a relief. They are young men now, but they were just little boys. It's a relief for everyone in town, everyone in our parish."
Desilets, 81, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Worcester Superior Court to 32 charges of abusing 18 altar boys at the parish in Bellingham, where he served between 1974 and 1984.
• Former priest jailed for paedophilia. [1974-93 Daniels] - Anglican. 10 boys.
ABC, www.abc.net.au/ news/newsitems/ 200505/s1368 226.htm , ~ May 13, 2005
AUSTRALIA - A former Anglican priest has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years after admitting to molesting 10 teenaged boys.
Louis Victor Daniels last week pleaded guilty to 13 charges, including maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person, indecent assault and attempted indecent assault.
The offences occurred throughout Tasmania between 1974 and 1993.
• Archdiocese sued over priest's alleged behavior. [2004 Bester] - RCC.
Grand Forks Herald Associated Press, ~ May 13, 2005
KODIAK, Alaska - The Anchorage Archdiocese will have 20 days to respond to accusations that it failed to supervise and monitor a former Crookston diocesan priest who allegedly solicited sex from a man in exchange for a job on a church project in Alaska.
The accusations are against the Rev. Robert Bester, who after the allegations came to light a week ago, resigned as priest of Our Lady of Guadelupe Parish in Anchorage and left Alaska. He previously served in Kodiak beginning in 2001, and now is living with friends, an official of the Anchorage archdiocese said.
Bester served in several parishes in the Crookston diocese from 1979 to 1991, as well as being superintendent of schools in Warroad, Minn., and a principal in Red Lake Falls, Minn., during that time.
Bester is accused of soliciting sex last year from Fredrick May in exchange for a job on a church construction project in Anchorage.
• Greek Orthodox Church defrocks ex-Sylvania pastor. [1975 Barrow] - Antiochan Orthodox, moved to Greek Orthodox, defrocked. 3 boys.
Toledo Blade, http://toledoblade. com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20050513/ NEWS08/505130352 , May 13, 2005
OHIO - A former pastor of St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church in Sylvania who was ousted from the denomination in 1977 and later switched affiliations to the Greek Orthodox Church, has been defrocked by that denomination also, officials said.
Gabriel Barrow, 59, of Houston, who was pastor of St. Elias from 1972 until 1977, was accused of sexually abusing three boys in Toledo in the 1970s.
Metropolitan Philip, leader of the 450,000-member U.S. Antiochian Orthodox Church, barred Mr. Barrow from the denomination on Oct. 10, 1977, citing "reasons beyond my control," but offering no further explanation.
After leaving Toledo, Mr. Barrow returned to his hometown of Houston and worked as a teacher in the Houston Independent School District.
During the mid-1990s, he was accepted into the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and served as a pastor in Webster, Texas.
A former Detroit resident who said he was 16 when Mr. Barrow molested him in Toledo in 1975 reported his allegations to the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese headquarters in 1998 and was told that Mr. Barrow had been removed from the ministry.
• Pope Names U.S. Archbishop Doctrine Chief. - RCC. Archbishop William Levada.
New York Newsday, May 13, 2005
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI named San Francisco Archbishop William Levada as the Vatican's chief orthodoxy watchdog on Friday, tapping an American conservative to fill one of the most powerful church offices, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Before his election as pope, Benedict held the office for more than 23 years, gaining a reputation as a hard-liner in defending church teaching. ...
In tapping an American, Benedict has put someone in charge of his old office who is deeply familiar with the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the American church. After the scandal erupted in 2002, John Paul decided that the issue should be handled by Ratzinger's congregation.
Benedict and Levada are old friends, and Levada met with the pope on May 3, fueling speculation that he was on the short list for the job. [Emphasis added]
• Lehigh DA is asked for grand jury inquiry into Allentown diocese. [Allentown Diocese] - RCC.
The Morning Call, By Dan Sheehan, ~ May 13, 2005
ALLENTOWN (PA) - A support group for victims of clergy sexual abuse has asked Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin to emulate his counterpart in Philadelphia by launching a grand jury investigation of the Catholic Diocese of Allentown.
The group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also wants Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen to release the names of all clergy members who have admitted molesting children or others "who have been justifiably accused."
Neither request seems likely to happen. In a statement, Martin said he has received no evidence to justify invoking "the awesome power of an investigating grand jury."
The diocese, meanwhile, said it has met its responsibilities by sharing names of accused priests with authorities and establishing programs to aid victims.
The abuse scandal in the Catholic Church erupted nationally in early 2002 when evidence emerged that, over the course of decades, thousands of priests and other clergy accused of abuse had been shuffled from parish to parish instead of being criminally charged. Eleven current and former priests from the Diocese of Allentown have been targeted in civil lawsuits claiming abuse.
At a news conference Thursday outside the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown, Survivors Network representatives said Martin could aid victims and prevent more abuse by letting the investigative body examine the "alleged criminal conspiracy" in the diocese.
Philadelphia District Attorney Lynn Abraham launched an ongoing grand jury probe of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia two years ago.
• Lawmaker hopes sex-abuse movie will advance bill. - RCC. Documentary film "Twist of Faith".
Asbury Park Press, BY TOM BALDWIN, May 13, 2005
TRENTON (NJ) - A boy in his teens who was sexually abused by a trusted priest tries to live with a haunting past. He heads off to the Navy. He weds, has children and buys a home - to find the abusive priest is his family's new neighbor.
Now the abused man and his wife must agonize about their own children and "that monster" just down the street.
That real-life story in Toledo, Ohio, set the scene Thursday when a state lawmaker, seeking to change state law to enable sex-abuse victims to sue more broadly, aired an award-winning documentary on how the cover-up of sex abuse drove one victim and his family into frightening distress.
The showing of the film "Twist of Faith" - a Sundance Film Festival and Academy Award nominee for best documentary - at the Statehouse gave a fresh face to the usual, dry endorsements and back-room deal-making that often mark the legislative process.
It didn't make much of an impact. In the first of two showings, no lawmakers attended, and only a half-dozen supporters of the measure were there. Even fewer appeared for the second viewing.
• DA: I'm not 'fishing'. [Allentown Diocese] - RCC.
The Express-Times , By JOHN ZUKOWSKI, Friday, May 13, 2005
ALLENTOWN (PA) - Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin rejected a request Thursday by a clergy abuse survivors group to investigate the Allentown Diocese.
Members of the Lehigh County chapter of SNAP -- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests -- asked Martin to launch a grand jury investigation into what the group called an "alleged criminal conspiracy" at the Allentown Diocese.
Martin said a grand jury is only properly empanelled when there's a reasonable possibility of crime. He said he had no evidence of criminal activity at the diocese.
"Therefore I have no present intention to ask a grand jury to investigate," Martin said in a statement. "I have a duty to only proceed in good faith. It would be improper to use the grand jury for a 'fishing expedition'. "
Martin said he's already investigated allegations of priest abuse at the Allentown Diocese.
In May 2002, Martin announced there were no diocese-related prosecutable cases in Lehigh County. He said he knew of no others since that time. He also advised SNAP members to report any current evidence of criminal activity and then action would follow.
• 2002 measure lifted statute of limitations. [2005 San Diego Diocese] - RCC. [1975-80; 1960s] - Girl; Boy.
Union-Tribune, www.signonsandiego. com/news/metro/ 20050513-9999 -7m13priest.html , By Greg Moran, May 13, 2005
SAN DIEGO (CA) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego renewed an effort first made last year in federal court to declare unconstitutional a 2002 law that cleared the way for the hundreds of sexual-abuse cases facing dioceses around the state.
In a motion filed yesterday, the diocese said the law unfairly targets the church, exposing it to potential liability for sexual abuse by priests that other institutions - such as schools, juvenile detention facilities and other government entities - don't face.
The motion was filed in a case in which a woman contends she was molested as a child between 1975 and 1980 by a priest at St. Mary's Parish in Escondido.
The law in question lifted the statute of limitations for filing lawsuits alleging sexual abuse that occurred years ago. The San Diego diocese is facing about 100 suits filed under the law.
The arguments echo those made last year in a case involving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, and a Colorado man who said he was abused by a priest of that diocese. Some of the abuse was alleged to have occurred in San Diego while the priest and the youth were vacationing in the late 1960s. The suit was filed in San Diego to take advantage of the 2002 state law.
The Davenport diocese settled all the claims against it, including the one from the Colorado man, before a federal judge in San Diego could rule on the issue.
• Priest resigns amid sex charges . [2004 Bester] - RCC.
Anchorage Daily News, By LISA DEMER, May 13th, 2005
ANCHORAGE (AK) - An Anchorage priest accused of sexual harassment has resigned as pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left Alaska, Catholic Archbishop Roger Schwietz said Thursday.
The Rev. Robert Bester resigned May 5, the day after a local television station began airing stories based on undercover recordings of the priest talking in explicitly sexual terms with Anchorage resident Fredrick D. May Jr.
May sued the archdiocese May 6 on the grounds that he's suffered extreme emotional distress over his encounters with Bester. He contends that Bester approached him last summer and offered him a job helping to build a new parish church. But within a day or so, the priest began asking for sexual favors from May, the suit says. When May refused, the priest told him there was no longer a job available, the suit says.
Schwietz put Bester on administrative leave May 4. That occurred the same day that Bester notified him of the allegation of sexual harassment and faxed him a partial transcript provided by Channel 11 of the undercover recording, before it aired.
• 'Twist of Faith' gets a broadcast date. [Gray] - RCC. Film "Twist of Faith". Boy.
Toledo Blade, By CHRISTOPHER BORRELLI, May 13, 2005
TOLEDO (OH) - Twist of Faith - the Academy Award-nominated Sundance hit about a Toledo firefighter and his fight with the Toledo Catholic Diocese - has an opening date: June 28, at 10 p.m.
And you won't need to buy a movie ticket, either: It premieres on HBO, the cable network that produced and bankrolled the film in the first place, as part of its American Undercover series.
The documentary from Los Angeles filmmakers Kirby Dick and Eddie Schmidt never did get a theatrical deal - despite a pile of critical raves at the Sundance Film Festival and an Oscar nomination for best documentary.
Big-screen distribution, however, is not entirely off the table, Schmidt said. Two distribution companies are still interested and "there's a strong possibility the film will have a theatrical venue after its air date on HBO."
In the meantime, there is expected to be one local screening at the Maumee Indoor Theatre, probably the night before it airs on television. Schmidt, Dick, and the film's principle subject, Tony Comes, are expected to attend. The bad news: It will be invitation-only.
The film - which almost entirely unfolds in Toledo - recounts Comes' lawsuit against the Diocese for years of alleged rape and molestation by a Toledo priest in the early 1980s. The former priest, Dennis Gray, has denied the allegations. He left the priesthood in 1987. Sally Oberski, a spokeswoman for the Diocese, said they have still not seen the film but "whatever venue it gets shown, we hope by seeing the film, other victims gain the courage to come forward."
• Scranton Diocese Settles St. John's Child Sex Charges, Sells Shohola Property. [Urrutigoity, Ensey (Society of St. Pius X, Society of St. John)] - RCC. Order suppressed, but still operating. Boy.
Tri-State News, By Pat Camuso, 12:54pm, May 9, 2005,
SHOHOLA TOWNSHIP, Pa - Although two priests were able to draw a walk on criminal charges because of Pennsylvania's "statute of limitations," a civil settlement, along with a concession statement from the Scranton Diocese, has now effectively branded them guilty of sexually abusing a young boy in the name of "spiritual guidance." The scene of the abuse, the former St. John's property in Shohola Township, has been sold.
In the case of John Doe vs. the Diocese of Scranton, the Society of St. John, the Fraternity of St, Peter and Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity and Fr Eric Ensey (both founding members of St. Johns in Shohola ), the defendants have agreed to a settlement with the former student of St. Gregory's Academy in Moscow who also spent time in Shohola.
According to John Doe's attorney James Bendell, under the terms of the settlement the defendants will pay the plaintiff $255,000 in cash and future periodic payments of $199,550, for a total settlement of $454,550. He now lives in North Carolina.
Bendell said, "During the course of the litigation of this case, information was brought to light concerning the corruption existing at the Society of St. John, a clerical association approved by former bishop James Timlin, who allowed these priests to form a clerical association in the Diocese of Scranton and to act as chaplains at a boys' prep school after they had been expelled from the Society of St. Pius X. The new bishop of Scranton, Joseph Martino, has since suppressed the Society of St. John."
The Society of St. John in Shohola was "suppressed" by Scranton Bishop Joseph F. Martino back in November but the organization in Shohola has operated its web site, conducted fundraisers and held services since the suppression. [Emphasis added]
• Paterson diocese to reformers: Hold your meeting elsewhere. - RCC. Bonavoglia backing women clergy and abortion. Book.
The Star-Ledger, BY JEFF DIAMANT, Wednesday, May 11, 2005
NEW JERSEY - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson will not allow a self-described "progressive" Catholic author to speak at a laity group meeting in a Jesuit retreat center in Morristown, saying she "contests the teachings of the Catholic Church."
But rather than disinvite Angela Bonavoglia, the 57-year-old author of "Good Catholic Girls: How Women are Leading the Fight to Change the Church," the group Voice of the Faithful has moved tonight's meeting to the nearby St. Mark's Lutheran Church on Harter Road.
Theresa Padavano, co-facilitator of the group's northern New Jersey chapter, said she was told Monday by the Rev. Charles Moutenot, director of Loyola Retreat Center, that diocese officials decided not to let Bonavoglia speak there because of her public support for women's ordination and abortion, which the church opposes.
Padavano criticized the decision: "We did not invite (Bonavoglia) to speak on either of those issues. We invited her to speak on her knowledge of reform groups as a whole, and on Voice of the Faithful in particular."
Her speech is titled "Catholic Women: Victims and Leaders." The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri May 13, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat May 14, 2005 edition follows:-
• 4 object to diocese settlement proposal. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC. $US 15.7 m earmarked. 103 survivors.
Tucson Citizen, www.tucsoncitizen. com/index.php?page =local&story_id =051405a4_diocese _bankruptc , By SHERYL KORNMAN, May 14, 2005
Editor's note: This article corrects inaccurate information in an April 29 article about the Diocese of Tucson's proposed settlement of sex abuse claims. Four objections to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson's latest proposal for settling claims of sexual abuse by priests were filed by yesterday's deadline, diocese spokesman Fred Allison said.
TUCSON (AZ) - In a hearing on the objections Thursday, attorneys for the diocese will answer questions from a federal bankruptcy judge and others about the diocese's proposal to compensate people who have been sexually abused by priests or other diocese workers.
Attorneys have been meeting since the diocese filed for Chapter 11 reorganization Sept. 20 to work out a tentative plan for paying victims of sex abuse and, in some of the claims, their parents or spouses.
Officials of the diocese have proposed a $20 million cap to settle all credible claims of abuse. About $15.7 million of it would be paid to those with known, credible claims, Allison said.
Some money would be set aside in a trust to pay minors who have not reported alleged abuse and to pay adults who have credible claims but who could not file a claim by April 15 because of repressed memory.
Of the 111 abuse claims filed by the April 15 deadline, 103 remain, Allison said. Eight are duplicate claims, he said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:19 PM]
• Man alleges abuse. [1974-76 Christian] - RCC. Altar boy.
Post-Dispatch, ~ May 14, 2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - A man sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis on Friday, alleging that the church should have protected him from a sexually abusive Catholic priest.
John Doe KK, as he is referred to in the suit, says in the suit that the Rev. Norman Christian repeatedly sexually abused him between 1974 and 1976, when the 13- to 15-year-old was an altar boy at St. George's parish in Affton.
The man is now in his 40s and lives out of state.
Christian died in October. He was removed from the St. William Catholic Church in Woodson Terrace in 1995 after an allegation of sexual abuse.
• Nun abuse. - RCC. Nuns' sexy acts.
KSTP, www.kstp.com/ article/stories/ S8247.html ?cat=5 , ~ May 14, 2005
MINNESOTA - Most kids who went to a Catholic school have stories about 'the nuns.'
Now a story that is for the most part untold.
Allegations that some of those nuns sexually abused children.
The story starts in southern Minnesota. The buildingt sits so stately in the small town of Frontenac and has such a pretty name. Villa Maria. Mary Dunford left home to live there when it was a boarding school run by the Ursuline Nuns.
She told us, "They had quite an emphasis on education and lot of religion and discipline."
Young girls respected the Sisters dressed in their black habits.
What Mary Dunford didn't expect was the darkness she'd find inside one of those habits.
Dunford explained, "She would come into my room every night after the other girls had been in bed. And she would take off her upper clothing down to her waist and then she would kiss me on the mouth a lot and tell me she loved me and pull me to her breasts. At the time Dunford thought she was having an affair with a Catholic nun.
Steve Theisen thought he was too while he attended Sacred Heart Catholic school in Dubuque, Iowa.
• Former pastor on leave amid sex allegation. [1996 Flynn] - RCC. Teenage girl.
News-Journal, By JIMMY ISAAC, Saturday, May 14, 2005
TYLER (TX) - A former St. Matthew's Catholic Church pastor has been placed on administrative leave as church leaders investigate eight-year old allegations of sexual impropriety, the Diocese of Tyler announced Friday.
In 2002, Monsignor John Flynn retired from St. Matthew's in Longview, at the request of Bishop Alvaro Corrado of the Tyler Diocese, following allegations from a San Antonio woman made in October 1997.
Flynn has most recently provided ongoing ministry to the community of Holy Spirit Church at Holly Lake in Wood County.
"Monsignor Flynn is to refrain from all priestly ministry and has no faculties from the diocese," said a statement released by Corrada.
"There is nothing to suggest that there are any recent victims, or any victims in the diocese."
Flynn stepped down as pastor of St. Matthew's Church in San Antonio in 1997 after an unidentified woman accused him of unspecified sexual misconduct with her more than 20 years before.
Reports in the San Antonio Express-News describe the woman alternately as an adolescent or teenager at the time of the original misconduct. Flynn spent several months under evaluation at a treatment center in Maryland after he left the San Antonio church.
• Diocese's move can help heal. - RCC.
Cincinnati Enquirer, May 14, 2005
KENTUCKY - The Catholic Diocese of Covington's decision to move its offices to less costly quarters in St. Elizabeth Hospital North's inner city unit gives further proof that the priest sex-abuse scandal left behind not only shattered lives but crippled finances.
Bishop Roger Foys says good stewardship would have dictated the move in any case from the current Erlanger-based Catholic Center, a sprawling former seminary. But almost $4 million in savings paid out to settle sex abuse claims since 2003 also has diminished interest income that had been used to pay for the center's maintenance costs. The diocese still faces a class-action lawsuit, the only one of its kind brought in the United States. Some claims go back 50 years. Foys arrived in summer 2002.
The move makes sense for more than the expected $300,000 in cost savings, 24-hour security, a location closer to the cathedral and computer-ready office space. It's a chance to make a fresh start, returning to the church's humbler, simpler roots in the urban core. The church and the Catholic hospital share a common mission. It's especially good that diocesan officials can embrace a vow of "never again" in a less luxurious context that helps them to "never forget."
• Levada choice angers victims. - RCC. Levada for Rome post.
Press-Telegram, By Kim Curtis, Associated Press, ~ May 14, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO - Archbishop William Levada, who catapulted Friday into the most influential Vatican post ever held by an American, has a track record of upholding Roman Catholic policies while deftly handling controversy.
But his appointment as the chief enforcer of church doctrine was sharply criticized by clerical sex abuse victims, who say he's done a poor job of dealing with the crisis. Levada countered that his experience with the issue is an advantage for the church.
The 68-year-old leader of the San Francisco Archdiocese was named by longtime friend Pope Benedict XVI as his own replacement leading the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The congregation is responsible for policing and enforcing church doctrine. Among other things, it examines writings contradicting church teachings and crimes against faith, morality and the sacraments.
It also reviews all sex abuse claims against clergy, to see whether a priest should be forced out, given a church trial or found innocent.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said Levada has been "slow to act, harsh to victims and committed to secrecy" in responding to molestation claims. [Bolding added]
• Church Official On Child Abuse Charge. [Lister] - Church of England. Child.
Sentinel, www.thisisstafford shire.co.uk/display Node.jsp?nodeId=158578 &command=displayContent &sourceNode=158308&content PK=12449595 ; May 01, 2005
BRITAIN - A Senior Church of England official in Staffordshire has been charged with indecently assaulting a child. The Reverend Peter Lister, The Diocese of Lichfield's director of education, has been bailed to appear before magistrates in Bedlington, Northumberland, next Tuesday to answer the allegation that he indecently assaulted a child.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Lichfield today confirmed Mr Lister has been suspended on full pay from his duties pending the outcome of the investigation.
The spokesman added that Mr Lister denies the allegation. In a statement, a diocesan spokesman said: "We have been informed that a serious criminal charge has been laid against The Reverend Peter Lister. The police have kept us informed about their investigation. Mr Lister has been suspended from [his] duties."
It has also emerged that the allegation dates from a time before the clergyman's employment with the Diocese of Lichfield, and does not involve any church schools in the Diocese of Lichfield or the Diocese of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
• Pope names ex-Portlander as watchdog. [Goodrich, Grammond] - RCC. Levada for Rome post.
The Oregonian, By NANCY HAUGHT, Saturday, May 14, 2005
PORTLAND (OR) - Pope Benedict XVI made the first major announcements of his new papacy Friday, starting an accelerated process to bestow sainthood for the late Pope John Paul II and naming William J. Levada, the former Archbishop of Portland, to the top theological watchdog post of the Roman Catholic Church.
Levada, 68, now archbishop of San Francisco, will become a cardinal and the most powerful American at the Vatican when he heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which enforces church doctrine on topics ranging from abortion, marriage and priest sex abuse to theological dissent by clergy.
To clergy at Rome's largest basilica, the St. John Lateran Church, Benedict said, "And now I have a very joyous piece of news for you." He read a letter asking the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints to skip the five-year waiting period after a person dies and the process for beatification begins. The priests stood and clapped at the news. ...
In 1988, a Portland man filed a suit claiming he had been molested by the Rev. John Goodrich, a former pastor of St. John Fisher Church in Southwest Portland. The church settled the suit in 1990 for nearly $500,000. In 1991, Levada suspended the Rev. Maurice Grammond for refusing to cooperate after being accused of sexual abuse. More than 50 men subsequently accused Grammond of sexual abuse.
• Apology is a long-overdue step toward healing. [< 1982 Breen, Kiesle, Freitas, Francis , Oakland Diocese] - RCC. Girls.
The Argus, www.insidebay area.com/argus/ oped/ci_2735497 , ~ May 14, 2005
CALIFORNIA - In 1982, when Monsignor Vincent Breen was forced to leave Holy Spirit parish amid a criminal investigation into his sexual abuse of young girls, many parishioners leapt to his defense, attacking the victims, their parents and anyone who believed their stories.
That didn't happen this week, when Bishop Allen Vigneron apologized at the Fremont church for the late monsignor's sexual misconduct.
In 1982, despite a diligent police investigation, Breen never served a day in jail. An agreement was reached with the Diocese of Oakland and the victims' families not to press charges against Breen if he retired, left the area and sought counseling.
It seems highly unlikely such an inappropriate deal would be made today, given the arrest and attempted prosecution of former local priests Stephen Kiesle and Robert Freitas three years ago.
In 1982, diocese officials failed to cooperate fully with the police investigation until detectives threatened to go to the media with the story.
A decade earlier, another allegation was withdrawn after attorneys for the diocese "visited" the victim's family. Five years after that, another allegation was investigated by another child molester, the late Monsignor George Francis of Hayward.
• Levada to Have Authority on Sex-Abuse Cases. - RCC. Levada promoted.
CBS 5, 3:51 pm US/Pacific, May 13, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) (CBS 5) - San Francisco Archbishop William Levada will become prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith -- the Vatican office once known as the Inquisition.
It's the same job Pope Benedict held for 24 years when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. The job will give Levada authority over the priest sex abuse scandal that has convulsed the American church.
"It could very well be that one of the reasons that our Holy Father chose an American for this position is because it is precisely the knowledge of our present situation in this terrible issue of sex abuse that is so important for the prefect of the congregation now responsible for making sure these things are handled in the proper manner," Levada said.
But a victims group says Levada will rule on cases that he has already been accused of covering up.
"When Archbishiop Levada goes to Rome, when there is an appeal of any process about a sexual abuse matter, it will go to him and his job in Rome," said Terrie Light of Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. "Our concern is he will cover it up, deny it, and do nothing."
The church is in settlement negotiations with some victims of San Francisco priest abuse. The archbishop's reassignment may delay any settlement if the church decides to wait for Levada's successor to review the cases.
"How it works out, it's such a complicated world," Levada said.
The Archbishop grew testy as reporters asked how he characterized the priest abuse issue to then-Cardinal Ratzinger.
"Anything I said to him before he was pope, either I don't remember or it's none of your business," Levada said. [Bolding added]
• Papal appointee draws criticism. - RCC. Levada. Psychologist accused him of "deception, manipulation and control"
The Dallas Morning News, By BROOKS EGERTON and REESE DUNKLIN / Saturday, May 14, 2005
UNITED STATES and VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI took the unprecedented step Friday of naming a U.S. church leader to head what has become the Vatican's most powerful office.
San Francisco Archbishop William Levada will lead the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which enforces Catholic teachings and discipline around the globe. It rules on all sorts of hot-button issues where the pope and the archbishop appear to agree completely - abortion, euthanasia, gay rights and priestly celibacy, among others.
William Levada will lead the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The congregation also decides the fate of priests accused of child molestation. Archbishop Levada has come under intense criticism in recent years for his handling of such cases in San Francisco.
Last fall, for example, the founding chairman of the archdiocesan panel that reviews abuse cases quit and denounced Archbishop Levada. Dr. James Jenkins, a psychologist, accused him of "deception, manipulation and control" of the panel.
Maurice Healy, the archbishop's spokesman, said Friday that "Dr. Jenkins is flat-out wrong" and is "thrilled to throw calumny on others."
• Bishops challenge clergy abuse law. [Californian RC Dioceses] - RCC.
San Bernardino Sun By Brad A. Greenberg, ~ May 14, 2005
CALIFORNIA - California's Catholic bishops are again asking a federal judge to overturn a law that allowed hundreds of people to file lawsuits claiming abuse by priests.
The law state Senate Bill 1779 lifted the statute of limitations for 365 days on all cases of clergy sex abuse, even those that may be decades old.
"The law enacted in 2002 unfairly targeted the Catholic Church and ignored evidence of similar misconduct involving other institutions," according to a statement released by the Diocese of San Diego after its bishop, Robert H. Brom, filed a motion Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
The diocese stated it has "the full support of all the Catholic bishops in California," including the 1million-member Diocese of San Bernardino and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest.
• For Levada, an honor and a challenge. - RCC.Levada promoted to Vatican. Five jury trials. $US 6.5m. SNAP objects.
San Francisco Chronicle, www.sfgate.com/ cgi-bin/article. cgi?file=/c/a/2 005/05/14/MNGIRC PBFG1.DTL , by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Saturday, May 14, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) - Pope Benedict XVI's appointment of San Francisco Archbishop William Levada to one of the most powerful posts at the Vatican signals a new era in the sometimes rocky relationship between Rome and the American church.
Levada, 68, was named Friday as the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making him the pope's top arbiter on questions of faith and morals. He becomes the highest-ranking American in church history. ...
The appointment also puts Levada in charge of disciplinary cases involving priests accused of sexually abusing minors.
Levada's toughest critics have been the leaders of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP], along with a group of lawyers who have deluged the California church with some 150 lawsuits seeking damage for sexual abuse claims.
On May 4, when rumors of Levada's appointment first surfaced in The Chronicle, the survivor's network issued a press release charging that the San Francisco prelate "has proven time and again that his loyalties are to secrecy, to protecting priests instead of children, and evading justice."
"He is no way fit for this important responsibility," it said.
Levada has vigorously defended his oversight of accused pedophile priests in Portland and San Francisco.
Thus far, five jury trial cases have been decided in San Francisco with approximately $6.5 million awarded, says Larry Drivon, an attorney who is representing many clergy abuse victims.
• U.S. archbishop new Vatican enforcer. - RCC. Levada.
World Peace Herald, By Julia Duin, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Published May 14, 2005
WASHINGTON (DC) -- The Vatican announced yesterday that San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada is the new head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the policy-enforcing arm of the papacy that Pope Benedict XVI headed for 24 years. ...
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests issued a statement criticizing the choice, calling it "an insensitive and unwise decision."
"Regarding [sexual] abuse in the San Francisco archdiocese, Levada has been slow to act, harsh to victims and committed to secrecy," said Dan McNevin, SNAP Bay Area spokesman.
"He has allowed credibly accused priests to remain in ministry even while facing pending civil molestation lawsuits. His lawyer has negotiated deals with local district attorneys that help keep abuse cases quiet."
Archbishop Levada, who headed the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., for nine years before being assigned to the San Francisco archdiocese in 1995, also has been blamed for doing little to prevent the 2004 bankruptcy of the Portland archdiocese because of priest sex-abuse claims. [Emphasis added]
• Levada to bring uniquely American voice to Vatican. - RCC. Levada.
The Argus, By Michelle Maitre, ~ May 14, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) - Archbishop William J. Levada, named Friday to one of the most powerful positions in the Vatican, said he will bring the voice of the American church to Rome and called his appointment a "tribute to the church in the United States."
"I hope my 22 years of experience as a bishop in the United States will help to represent the church here well to the Holy See and to make the bonds between the See of Peter and the American bishops even stronger," Levada said in a prepared statement announcing his appointment as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. ...
But his appointment also was criticized Friday by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who said the archbishop has a poor record of dealing with priest sexual abuse cases. In a statement, the group said Levada "has been slow to act, harsh to victims and committed to secrecy," and has allowed priests to remain in the ministry while they faced molestation lawsuits.
Levada dismissed the criticism, calling it "incorrect and false," and said his knowledge of the "current crisis" is an asset in the Vatican. In fact, he said, his knowledge of the priest abuse cases could have played a role in his selection.
"My appointment should be seen as a net plus for the church in dealing with this issue," he said.
• Sex abuse cases, gays challenged Levada. [Levada] - RCC. Watchdog panel chairperson had left in protest.
Pioneer Press, BY KIM CURTIS, Associated Press, ~ May 14, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) - Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco is a champion of Roman Catholic orthodoxy who has raised the ire of victims' advocates for his handling of the clerical sex abuse crisis and has spoken out against same-sex marriage in a city with a vibrant gay and lesbian community.
Levada, 68, was named Friday by Pope Benedict XVI to be his successor as prefect of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It's the first time an American has held the job, among the most powerful in the Vatican.
In 2003, Levada issued a broad apology to victims of sexual abuse, in which he cited his own failures. "I may have unconsciously been uneasy or afraid to look at the scars caused by sexual abuse so closely," he said.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said Levada had a dismal record on responding to the molestation crisis. Last year, the founding chairman of a watchdog panel Levada formed to review claims against priests in San Francisco resigned in protest when church leaders blocked the release of the panel's findings. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:49 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat May 14, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• [Former Iona College science teacher nudist, photography, porn; suspended sentence.] - RCC.
The Weekend Australian, "Teacher escapes jail for child porn," by Amanda Banks , p 3, May 14-15 2005
PERTH (WA) Australia: THE principal of a prestigious Catholic girls' high school gave a reference to a teacher who admitted having nearly 1000 child pornography images.
The reference testifying to Martin Peter Ernest Goodall's sound reputation was one of many submitted to a Perth court yesterday, where the former lona Presentation College science teacher escaped an immediate jail term.
The District Court was told the 38 year-old father was one of hundreds of Australian men arrested last year in Operation Auxin, a national crackdown on child pornography.
While many of those charged have been sentenced to jail terms, defence counsel Simon Waiters submitted that Goodall's case could be distinguished on the grounds of his legitimate interest in photography and his family's lawful choice to pursue a nudist lifestyle.
Goodall's family home in the northern Perth suburb of Duncraig was raided on September 27 last year, when police found a total of 977 pornographic images of children aged eight to 16.
The images were of naked children in sexually explicit poses, but only two involved sexual acts: a video of three five- to eight-year-olds watching adults engage in sex and an image of a teenage girl holding an adult's penis.
Mr Watters said Goodall, who had been suicidal since his arrest and was overwhelmed with remorse and shame, had been a well regarded member of the community with an exemplary personal and professional record.
Margaret Herley, principal of the exclusive Iona college in Perth's wealthy western suburbs, had provided a reference in January this year describing Goodall's sound reputation as a teacher.
A former principal at Como Senior High School, a public school in Perth's southern suburbs where Goodall taught in 1998, described him as an enthusiastic and capable teacher. Mr Watters said Goodall had a genuine interest in photography and had chosen a naturalist lifestyle with his family. He conceded he had "blurred the edges" of these two pursuits and overstepped the mark, but said psychiatric reports indicated he would not reoffend.
Urging an immediate jail term, the prosecutor told the court Goodall's behaviour had caused grief and trauma to the parents and families of those children who were entrusted to his care.
Imposing an eight-month jail term, suspended for two years, Judge Michael Muller said Goodall had avoided being sent to prison only because the images he had accumulated fell into the less serious category of pornography.# [May 14-15, 2005]
SYDNEY (NSW) Australia: The hardline approach of Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen has seen congregation numbers rising. But does his refusal to ordinate [? ordain] women and homosexuals threaten the church's future? Greg Callaghan reports.
N obody can accuse Peter Jensen of being a shrinking violet. Since he was consecrated as the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney four years ago, the 62-year-old father of five has been accused of being a nepotist, a misogynist and a homophobe.[...] (p 22 a)
***
... To its credit, the Anglican Church did an about-face on contraception in 1958, backing for the first time the use of condoms, unlike the Roman Catholic Church [...] (p 24 c)
Even Jensen's most bitter opponents applaud his "rock-like" stance against sexual abuse in the church. For more than six months, he devoted an afternoon a week to listening to the harrowing tales of victims, and to his credit set up protocols for screening potential ministers before being ordained - a particularly rigorous one for those headed into the children's ministry. "It's horrifying meeting the victims of sexual abuse," says Jensen. "They have taught me about real suffering, and about sin."
It has to be said there's not a hint of hypocrisy about Jensen, no whiffs of sleaze, no hint of corruption.[***] [Emphasis added.]
For a wider selection of this in-depth article, try "Jensen". [May 14-15, 2005]
• Cleric jailed for Dion spouse extortion bid. [2000-02 Kwon] - Presbyterian. Extortion.
The West Australian, p 33, Saturday, May 14, 2005
LAS VEGAS, U.S.A. - A Californian minister has been jailed for trying to extort millions of dollars from Celine Dion's husband.
Ae Ho Kwon, 52, was sentenced to a minimum of 28 months in prison for conspiracy, extortion and soliciting a bribe. He was not ordered to pay restitution.
Kwon, a Presbyterian minister from Pasadena, was convicted in March of devising an extortion plot focusing on the singer's husband, Rene Angelil. Kwon's wife, Yun Kyeong Kwon Sung, claimed Mr Angelil raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 2000.
|
Kwon |
Mr Angelil paid the couple $US2 million ($A2.6 million) as part of a confidential settlement in 2000, but authorities said the couple demanded $13.5 million more two years later.
The couple eventually went public with their rape accusation, filing a police report and a civil lawsuit. Mr Angelil has denied any wrongdoing.
Police investigated but closed the case without laying charges.# [May 14, 05]
• [RC school teacher's child nudes not depraved; other man had child sex act porn, imprisoned]. [2004 Goodall] - Roman Catholic Church. [2004 Gill] - No religion mentioned.
The West Australian, "Jail avoided for child porn," by Minh Lam, p 44, Saturday, May 14, 2005
PERTH, W. Australia: A schoolteacher described as a nudist and avid photographer has avoided jail despite admitting to having almost 1000 pornographic images of children in his possession.
Martin Peter Ernest Goodall, 46, was given a eight-month suspended jail sentence by Judge Michael Muller in the Perth District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography.
The court was told police found 597 pornographic images of children aged eight to 16 on 80 floppy disks when they executed a search warrant on Goodalls home last September.
Police also found more than 300 similar images on 11 compact discs, with the CDs also containing short video clips of children watching adults engaging in sexual acts.
Defence lawyer Simon Walters said Goodall, .who most recently taught at Iona Presentation College in Mosman Park, was an avid photographer and nudist and involved in nudist activities and societies.
He said naked pictures of Goodall, his wife and a teenage daughter previously had appeared in naturalist magazines.
Mr Walters said Goodall was highly regarded by friends and work colleagues and there had been no suggestion he was a threat to children or students.
"He concedes he blurred the edge and fatally overstepped the mark by downloading these images," Mr Walters said.
Judge Muller said the images downloaded by Goodall were mainly of children posing in a sexual, explicit manner and not of them engaged in sexual acts. "The nature of the imagery is what persuaded me more than anything else on the suspended term," he said.
Judge Muller sentenced Goodall to eight months jail, suspended for two years, but ordered him to report to police so he could be placed on the WA sex offenders' register.
Another man, 59-year-old Keith Maxwell Gill, was sentenced to 10 months jail in the same court yesterday after pleading guilty to child pornography possession charges.
Police found two pornographic movies on Gill's computer at South Guildford last December, which featured children as young as five engaged in sexual acts with adults and each other.
Judge Muller said the depravity in the pornography was of the most serious nature and a jail term was warranted. [Bolding added] [May 14, 05]
• Monk loses another bid to stave off deportation. [~ 1993-2005 Pannasara] - Buddhist. 2 women.
The West Australian, By ROY GIBSON, p 68, Saturday, May 14, 2005
PERTH, W. Australia: A rogue Buddhist monk who arrived in Australia from Sri Lanka more than 12 years ago on a short-stay tourist visa may be running out of options in his long legal battle to avoid deportation.
Kahatapitite Pannasara, now in his 60s, blotted his copybook when he was jailed for four years in 1997 for the sexual penetration and indecent assault of two women. Since then, he has been refused a visa on character grounds.
Yesterday, the Full Federal Court unanimously rejected his appeal in an action against the Minister for Immigration. Over the years, he has been to every court in the country, including the High Court, fighting decisions of government ministers and courts.
The latest court loss means he is again 'classified as "an unlawful non-citizen" and faces deportation.
In the joint judgment of Justices Shane Marshall, John Mansfield and Antony Siopis, it was stated that Pannasara entered Australia on a short-stay tourist visa in February 1993. In 1994, he became the holder of a religious worker visa, valid until 1995.
In 1997, while his application for an extension of that visa was being considered, he was jailed for four years for sex offences against two women in their 20s during consultations at his Balga home.
In 1999, the Minister for Immigration refused Pannasara an extension of his religious worker visa on character grounds, sparking an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The same year, when Pannasara was also refused a protection visa, he sought a review of that decision by the Refugee Review Tribunal.
Over the next few years, he mounted various appeals to the Federal Court, Full Federal Court and the High Court -- losing each time.
Yesterday, the Full Federal Court ruled that Pannasara's latest appeal against a decision of Federal Court Justice Robert French was "devoid of merit" and that, with no visa entitlement, he was an unlawful non-citizen. [Emphasis added]
[COMMENTS: 1. The "religious worker visa" ought to be abolished. If a religious group in Australia cannot produce its own clergy etc., it ought to face reality and allow its group to fade away or do without clergy, not rely on overseas imports.
2. Taxpayers ought to ask what was the cost of these court appearances and departmental time etc since his dishonest entry on a short-stay tourist visa around 1993. A different deportee and his family was recently reported in the news media as having cost Australia $3m, which around the time of the deportation the Federal Government said would be booked up to his account, with a view at least of recording it so that if he attempts to enter Australia again he could be asked to pay first! COMMENTS END.] [May 14, 05]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun May 15, 2005 edition follows:-
• Clues to abuse scandal waiting in files. - RCC.
Orange County Register, www.ocregister.com/ ocr/2005/05/15/ sections/commentary/ article_519418.php , by Steven Greenhut, May 15, 2005
CALIFORNIA - As massive institutional and moral failings go, the Roman Catholic Church's child-rape scandal is a doozy. It is almost unfathomable that the church could become so infested by those who twisted Christ's love of children ("Suffer the little children to come unto me ...") into exploitation, and that many leaders refused to side with the victims.
Now that a record-setting settlement has been provided by the Diocese of Orange, and personnel records here are about to be released (although the archdiocese of Los Angeles and many dioceses across the country continue to resist the release of documents), it's useful to look for clues about why the scandal took place.
The files, as bland as they seem, might offer answers about what church leaders knew and when they knew it, which is why abuse victims, notably Joelle Casteix and her attorney John Manly, insisted that the $100 million settlement for 87 Orange Diocese victims include the documents' release.
The church, to its credit, complied and turned the files over to the court. Some alleged abusers are asking to keep the documents sealed, and the court will decide this month. The terms of the settlement: All documents relating to the sexual abuse of children are to be released, although alleged abusers can keep other documents - i.e., performance reviews, 401(k) information, etc. - outside of the public's view.
My theory is the files will include detailed documentation of abuse by priests and others and then glowing review letters sent by the church to the next diocese or employer, thereby shuttling the problem somewhere else. That's what we saw when the Boston archdiocese documents were released by the court. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:25 PM]
• Four object to Tucson diocese's requested cap for sex-abuse claims. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC.
Arizona Daily Sun, May/15/2005
TUCSON (AZ) (AP) -- Four objections have been submitted to a bankruptcy court considering a request by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson to cap its payout for sex-abuse claims at $20 million.
The objections are in response to the diocese's proposal that would make initial payments to alleged abuse victims that would range from $100,000 to $600,000, depending on the severity of the abuse, according to court records.
The deadline to file an objection with the court was Friday.
Critics say the cap falls short of compensating victims whose claims are substantiated.
The diocese maintains it doesn't have enough money to pay all claims and that the bankruptcy reorganization is the only way to pay off plaintiffs and other creditors fairly while preserving the diocese.
The diocese listed $16.6 million in assets and $20.7 million in liabilities when it filed for bankruptcy protection, not including parishes.
• Unrepent Criminal Gets Sainthood?. - RCC. Boy.
Indymedia.org , http://argentina. indymedia.org/news/ 2005/05/291680.php , by Lloyd Hart, ~ May 15, 2005
The Crime
CANADA - When I was 7 years old I was anally raped in the men's bathroom of the Capitol Theater in Winnipeg, Manitoba by a Catholic priest. I was lured into this situation with the promise of money. I came from the home of a hard-working single mom struggling to raise four children on her own and where of course we did not have a great deal money. So the promise of money was very attractive to my seven year old imagination. Little did I know what the cost to my life over the next several decades would come too.
This violent and premature sexual awakening would take its toll on every aspect of my life, family and friends thereafter which included a brief but soul wrenching eight month engagement in prostitution.
My relations with girls and then women were either shallow or guarded or completely obsessive. Being the youngest of four and being four years younger than the next oldest I didn't have a whole lot of play contact with my older siblings so I found myself obsessing sexually on my own. With no way to express these feelings it seemed that I turned to stealing money from my mother. I suppose as an unconscious act to send a signal that there was something terribly wrong. I stole my mother's entire formidable coin collection and seemingly endless amounts of cash from her purse. In the 1960's there were no avenues of discussion or investigation of the symptoms of sexual abuse and therefore those children including myself did not have anywhere to go except for aberrant behavior.
Part of that aberrant behavior was to shut out the influence of authority figures all around me and especially at school. Even though being very bright I barely made it through elementary school and did eventually drop out of school entirely. The emotional state of mind of one not having a father around and two dealing with the emotional nightmare of sexual abuse I simply could not cope in the day to day of it all.
• Compelling 'Our Fathers' recounts devastating scandal. Movie.
The Oregonian, By TED MAHAR, Sunday, May 15, 2005
UNITED STATES - Besides being an absorbing drama reminiscent of Costa-Gavras' classic "Z," the Showtime movie "Our Fathers" is a phenomenon in itself. The pedophile priest scandal in the American Roman Catholic Church has become so familiar -- in fact, such a cliche -- that it has become fodder for a cable docudrama.
Its director, Dan Curtis, is a veteran of television epics ("Dark Shadows," "The Winds of War," "War and Remembrance").
The national scandal, of course, is far too large to encompass in 85 minutes -- and it is hardly the sole property of the United States. "Our Fathers" is based on David France's 2004 book, "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal."
As in "Z," the true story plays out like contrived melodrama, with villains entrenched in high places and a hand-to-mouth lawyer clawing at a fortress for a morsel of justice for the victims he represents. But he happens to be in the right place at the right time for a domino to fall on another domino.
• Former Priest Paroled Back to Stockton After Serving Molestation Sentence. [< 2002 Peleaz] - RCC. Boy.
KXTV, www.news10.net/ storyfull1.asp ?id=10892 , ~ May 15, 2005
STOCKTON (CA) - A former Stockton Roman Catholic priest convicted of molesting a 14-year-old Turlock boy has been paroled to Stockton after serving half of a six-year sentence.
Oskar Peleaz, 38, pleaded guilty in 2002 to molesting the teen over a two year period while serving as a pastor at Turlock's Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Peleaz was granted parole Tuesday after serving three years in prison. His term was divided between the Deuel Vocational Institution near Tracy and Mule Creek State Prison near Ione.
San Joaquin County Sheriff's spokesman Les Garcia said Peleaz has registered as a sex offenderwith the sheriff's office in compliance with state law. Peleaz lists an address on East Waterloo Road as his current residence.
Peleaz will be under the supervision of a parole officer for the next three years. Diocese of Stockton spokeswoman Terry Davis said the diocese will work with Peleaz's parole officer to aid in the former priest's rehabilitation.
• Drama about healing, not anger at church, say survivor, actors. - RCC. Movie "Our Fathers"
Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday, May 15, 2005
UNITED STATES: Ted Danson is no newcomer to TV movies that tackle difficult subjects. He won a Golden Globe award for his work in "Something About Amelia," the landmark 1984 film about incest.
The Emmy-winning "Cheers" star has top billing in "Our Fathers," Showtime's movie about the sexual-abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church. It premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday, and Danson knows that the very topic makes this drama controversial.
But he hopes "Our Fathers" won't be viewed as anti-Catholic. Many of the film's heroes are Catholic, Danson says, and certainly the victims brave enough to confront tortuous pasts are Catholic.
Olan Horne agrees with Danson. Portrayed by Chris Bauer in the cable film, Horne was a 12-year-old schoolboy when first molested by a Boston Diocese priest named Joseph E. Birmingham.
"We're Catholic chickens who came home to roost," Horne said of himself and fellow abuse survivors. "Remember, we learned our morals here. I wasn't a weekend Catholic."
And Horne's message is not one of anger and attack. It's about healing.
• US bishops ask Vatican to retain abuse rules. - RCC. 700 priests removed 2002-04.
The Boston Globe, By Michael Paulson | May 15, 2005
A key group of US bishops is recommending that the Roman Catholic church retain its policy of removing from ministry all sexually abusive priests, despite concern from critics that the policy is too harsh.
The policy, approved by the bishops in the spring of 2002 and adjusted later that year when the Vatican demanded changes to protect priests' rights, requires that any priest who had committed even a single act of abuse, no matter how long ago, be barred from saying Mass publicly, from administering the sacraments, from wearing clerical garb, or from presenting himself publicly as a priest. The priest is then asked to lead a life of "prayer and penance."
The policy was approved overwhelmingly while the church was under intense public pressure in the midst of the sexual abuse crisis. Some bishops and priests have criticized the policy as inflexible and as contrary to Christian teaching about the possibility of forgiveness and redemption.
Most notably, Cardinal Avery Dulles, a member of the faculty at Fordham University and the most prominent American Catholic theologian, wrote last year in America magazine, the Jesuit weekly: "There is no reason to think that the protection of young people requires the removal from the ministry of elderly or mature priests who may have committed an offense in their youth but have performed many decades of exemplary service. Such action seems to reflect an attitude of vindictiveness to which the church should not yield."
But there now appears to be little appetite in the United States and in Rome to revisit the zero-tolerance policy, which has led to the removal of hundreds of priests. The bishops conference said last year that 700 priests and deacons had been [removed from] ministry from 2002 to 2004.
• "Great Hope," Big Troubles . - RCC. Editor Reese goes.
ChallengerNKY, www.challengernky. com/articles/2005/ 05/15/around_nky/doc 4284fe65d982653 3620198.txt , By Dennis O'Connor, For the Sunday Challenger, feedback@challengernky.com , May 15, 2005
COVINGTON (KY) - For more than four years, Rev. Thomas Reese, (Society of Jesus), long-time editor of the national Catholic newsweekly America had dealt with complaints by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger over how the Jesuit publication dealt with controversial issues. On May 6, Reese announced he was throwing in the towel, acknowledging that his tenure would be even more difficult with the former head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith installed as the new Bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI. Reese's seven-year tenure at America will close at the end of May, in the wake of articles on topics as varied as married priests, homosexual clergy and ordination of women - subjects that, it appears, are now verboten from official church discourse.
For Vatican watchers, the America resignation was the first sign since wisps of white smoke curled heavenwards from the Sistine Chapel of just what a new papacy might mean. Would there be more polarization within the ranks of the faithful, between those seeking dialogue about the issues being explored in America magazine and the likes of William Donohue, head of New York-based Catholic League, who last week urged Catholics everywhere to "get over" any objections they might have to a Benedictine papacy? And how will this new pope address the scandals of the American church's clerical sex-abuse crisis? "I think that underneath all this, with the election of a new pope, there is great hope in the Diocese of Covington," said Jim Ott, former president of the advisory board for the Diocese of Covington's newspaper, the Messenger, and author of a history of the diocese, "Seekers of the Everlasting Kingdom: A Brief History of the Diocese of Covington."
"You have this general malaise within the diocese because of the sexual (abuse) problems," Ott said. "Attendance at Mass is down. I really think a lot of people have quit going to church. But with the positive coverage that the church had received with the death of Pope John Paul II and then the election of Pope Benedict, there has been quite a bit of good news. It is something to build on, something for people to look forward to."
The events of recent weeks also have been a diversion from the challenges confronting Bishop Roger Foys and the Diocese of Covington. Faced with financial pressure because of ongoing legal fees and payments related to the clergy sex abuse scandal, Foys directed diocese department directors to whittle employee ranks. Layoffs at the diocese offices in Erlanger will take place July 1.
• Surviving the Scandals. [Beerman] - RCC. Child.
ChallengerNKY , By Dennis O'Connor, For The Sunday Challenger, feedback@challengernky.com , May 15, 2005
COVINGTON (KY) - In 2001, not long after the St. Mary's Cathedral renovation was completed, Covington diocese Bishop Robert Muench returned to Louisiana, where he is now Bishop of Baton Rouge. He left just before the priest sex abuse scandal broke throughout the country.
Covington had its own experience early on with a wayward priest in Earl Beerman, former pastor and head of the Marydale Retreat Center who was convicted of child sexual abuse. Jerry Enderle, editor of the diocese's newspaper throughout that period, noted that the Beerman case was emblematic of the problems that Catholic bishops throughout the United States were dealing with at the time.
"A lot of the problems (of clergy sexual abuse) began in the 1950s and 1960s. At least that we know of. You can only imagine what went on before that. But in the case of a guy like Beerman, Bishop Hughes sought the best advice he could get at the time, and he followed that advice. The 'rulebook' at the time said that you should forgive. Offer treatment and forgive. The bishops were told that when you sent these priests to treatment programs, they were cured of their problems, and they believed what they were told. But it didn't turn out to be true. So, then, they started to listen to their lawyers, which I really think is what has gotten the bishops into the predicament they are into today."
Dioceses throughout the country have enacted new rules to protect children, inform law enforcement about any violations and offer treatment as much as possible for victims. For many, though, it is "too little, too late."
[COMMENT: According to the above article, the "rulebook" at the time said offer treatment and forgive. But, going back to the beginning, it seems there were two strands of thinking about sin and forgiveness. You see, the New Testament has the Prodigal Son and Lost Sheep stories and many pro-forgiveness texts, but see some countervaling scripture in "Impossible to Revive Repentance?" and a few elements of early Christians' wrestling with the problems of serious sin and forgiveness systems in "Is Repeated Forgiveness the Way that Jesus Taught? In fact, after one persecution under a Roman emperor, Christians who bought fake certificates that they had burnt incense before a pagan image were refused re-admittance to some Christian congregations, even though they had NOT committed the serious sin of idolatory. They didn't have a Confession system, and when it was devised it could only be received once. The problem hasn't been truly solved, and there were "rigorist" so-called heresies as the centuries progressed. COMMENT ENDS.]
• 'Our Fathers' Brings Scandal to Light. [Geoghan, Birmingham, Shanley] - RCC. "Our Fathers" documentary movie.
Zap2it, http://tv.zap2it. com/tveditorial/tve _main/1,1002,271 |95022|1|,00.html , By Kate O'Hare, 12:04 AM, Sunday, May 15, 2005
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - During April, the eyes of the press and millions of the faithful turned to the Vatican at the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II and the selection and installation of his successor, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict XVI.
It was probably the most attention -- and overall, the most positive coverage -- the Roman Catholic Church had received since 2002, when a persistent team of Boston Globe reporters blew open the scandal in the Boston archdiocese surrounding sexual abuse of minors -- overwhelmingly boys -- by such priests as John J. Geoghan, Joseph Birmingham and Paul Shanley.
Compounding the allegations by the now-adult victims was the revelation that church officials, and in particular, Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law, had shuffled the perpetrators from parish to parish, one step ahead of angry parents, victims and the law.
And it's not just Boston, as abuse charges have surfaced in other American cities and around the world. The scandal's aftermath was felt to some degree in every Roman Catholic parish in the United States and in the Vatican itself.
On Saturday, May 21, Showtime premieres "Our Fathers," a docudrama version of Newsweek journalist David France's extensive nonfiction book, "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal."
• Deposition reveals truth about molesters. [O'Grady] - RCC. Seduction methods.
Lexington Herald-Leader, By Merlene Davis, HERALD-LEADER COLUMNIST, ~ May 15, 2005
KENTUCKY - It simply was creepy to watch a news report of Oliver O'Grady, the defrocked and deported Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of molesting children in California, as he described how he lured trusting kids into his snare.
"We begin, just the hugging," he said. "Hugging starts off, and then I might just drop my hands. And all the time you're sort of looking for an OK or a permission, and if I wasn't getting a resistance, that was allowing me to go further and further."
O'Grady was giving a deposition in his native Ireland to attorneys who had filed a civil suit against the Stockton Diocese in California, where O'Grady had committed several molestations. The suit claimed the diocese failed to protect children from O'Grady, a known abuser.
O'Grady sat there, sometimes contrite, sometimes winking, as he recalled what he had done. According to his reported testimony, if the child gave him a big hug, he took that as permission to molest.
I've only seen bits and pieces of the-deposition and have read accounts of O'Grady's testimony. But we parents have to somehow get our hands on that 15-hour videotaped deposition and show it to our children.
We have to show them there can be evil - behind a kind and gentle face.
• The Shame Of The Fathers. - RCC. "Our Fathers" documentary movie about Boston's cauldron.
Mercury News, By Charlie McCollum, ~ May 15, 2005
If "Our Fathers," the new TV film about the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, were being shown on a major network or a prominent cable channel, it already would be a lightning rod for controversy.
But "Fathers," based on Newsweek reporter David France's critically acclaimed book, is a production of Showtime, the premium cable channel that is a poor cousin to HBO despite an often-admirable slate of original films and series. As a result, it will air this weekend (8 p.m. Saturday) without the kind of advance national publicity normally lavished on a big TV film.
Too bad, because "Fathers" is everything most television docudramas about recent events are not: thoughtful, restrained without sacrificing emotion, and with a clear ring of truth to it. It is sensational only to the extent that the case itself rocked the very foundation of the church itself. It is inflammatory only to the degree to which Catholics were inflamed by the church hierarchy's reaction to the abuse of hundreds of children by priests they trusted.
While the abuse scandals in other U.S. dioceses are mentioned, "Fathers" is devoted to the scandal that rocked the diocese of Boston and its powerful archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law.
Boston was ground zero for the tragedy that enveloped the U.S. church starting in 2000. The cases of such abusive priests as John J. Geoghan, Joe Birmingham and Paul Shanley erupted there. (Although it initially took on the story with great hesitation, the Boston Globe would win a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for its coverage.) It was in Boston that a group of fervent victims and passionate lawyers went toe-to-toe with the politically powerful Catholic hierarchy, forcing not only multimillion-dollar settlements but also the resignation of Law.
• Vatican's focus falls on U.S., Europe.
San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin and Angela Frucci, Sunday, May 15, 2005
When Pope John Paul II died early last month, papal pundits were consumed with the idea that the world's cardinals might replace him with an African or Latin American pope -- someone from a part of the world where the Catholic Church finds its greatest growth, and perhaps, its future.
Instead, they elected German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a longtime Vatican insider, as Pope Benedict XVI.
On Friday, Benedict named an American, San Francisco Archbishop William Levada, as his chief doctrinal watchdog for the 1.1 billion Catholics around the world.
To some observers, the election of a German pope and the appointment of an American archbishop show that Catholic leaders are focusing attention on solving problems they see in churches across Europe and the United States. For years, Cardinal Ratzinger bemoaned the steep decline of the church's influence in Italy, France, Germany -- the historic cradle of Catholicism.
And while church attendance in the United States is relatively high and stable, the moral and financial fallout of the clergy sexual abuse scandal continues to haunt American bishops accused of covering up the crimes of pedophile priests. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:52 AM]
[COMMENT: The "historic cradle" of Christianity was Judea and Galilee. The historic cradle of Roman Catholicism was the western part of southern Europe and northern Africa. COMMENT ENDS.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun May 15, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon May 16, 2005 edition follows:-
• Attorney: Priest may plead guilty on porn charges. [? 2005 Volino] - RCC, or Church of Greece ? - Child pornography.
Democrat & Chronicle, www.democratand chronicle.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20050516/NEWS01/ 50517 0304/1032/ LIVING , by Gary Craig, May 16, 2005
ROCHESTER (NY) - A Catholic priest accused of transporting and possessing child pornography may plead guilty on Wednesday, his attorney said today.
The Rev. Michael Volino is accused of possessing hundreds of images of child pornography on a computer.
After a hearing today, his lawyer, John Parrinello, said Volino may plead guilty in federal court Wednesday. He said there are unresolved issues that must be negotiated with prosecutors by then.
The child pornography was discovered by a technology specialist at the Diocese of Rochester who was repairing Volino's computer, according to the FBI. Officials at the diocese then contacted authorities. Volino had been a priest at St. John the Evangelist Church of Greece, 2400 W. Ridge Road, since 2002. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:33 PM]
• Facing Messy Stuff In The Church--Kenneth L. Swetland. - Book.
MichNews , By Rev. Austin Miles, May 16, 2005
UNITED STATES - What do you do when a convicted pedophile gets saved in prison and upon release wants to join your church? What do you say to him and how do you confront the issues involved? Do you inform the church of his being there?
If you do not, are you putting the children in your church at risk? How would you discuss this in a meeting with the church board? And what about pastoral confidentiality? This is one of the delicate cases detailed in Facing Messy Stuff In The Church.
Every pastor and chaplain who deals with the complex problems of this, 'anything-goes' 21st Century, will benefit from this book.
It is also invaluable for every seminary student and new pastor who hasn't lived long enough to deal with many of life's messes on behalf of the God of mercy and grace.
Even so, the messy stuff profiled in this book is enough to sober even the most seasoned of pastors. It is frank, raw, and instructive. At times, overwhleming. And these are all real cases in various denominational settings in various parts of the country.
The challenging (as well as sensitive) messes dealt with in this excellent Kregel Publications release are dealt with forthrightly.
It is fascinating, informative, and an easy-read (indeed, a most pleasant, smooth read) of fifteen case studies.
In it, author and theological professor, Kenneth L. Swetland (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary where he also serves as campus chaplain) prepares church leaders to deal head-on with the messy stuff, rather than merely doing damage control after the problems have erupted.
• Memphis Churchgoers Offended By Priest Abuse Leaflets. - RCC. SNAP. Father Richard Mickey.
News Channel 5, www.newschannel5. com/content/ region/ 11262.asp , Posted 10:39:16 AM, May/16/2005
MEMPHIS (TN) - Members of a Memphis Roman Catholic church say they're upset that a group protesting priest sexual abuse of youngsters left leaflets on their cars.
Members of the Church of the Ascension found their cars had been leafleted as they left a ten a.m. mass yesterday.
Members of SNAP -- the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests -- had distributed the leaflets.
Church member Becky DeGroff says Church of the Ascension is her congregation's place of worship and SNAP members have no right to do what they did.
SNAP is upset with the Memphis diocese because of officials' decision to return Father Richard Mickey to a Jackson church.
• Alleged abuse survivor works to promote healing in the church. [1968-70 Russell] - RCC. Girl.
The Catholic Observer (run for RC Diocese of Springfield, Mass.), By Rebecca Drake, Editor, May 16, 2005
SPRINGFIELD (MA) - The Hampden County District Attorney has decided not to file charges of sexual assault against former Catholic priest John R. Russell.
But Springfield native Janet M. (Bengle) Ruidl will not be deterred in her quest to publicize her alleged victimization as a youngster in Holy Cross Parish in the late 1960s. She believes other girls may have been victimized by Father Russell at that time.
Now a resident of the Milwaukee Diocese in Wisconsin, Ruidl said she was the subject of inappropriate sexual advances and an alleged sexual assault perpetuated by the then-Catholic priest between 1968 and the early 1970s when she was in high school and the first year of nursing school.
After more than three decades of internal struggle with the alleged events of her adolescence, and after the national clergy abuse scandal erupted, Ruidl decided to report her misconduct story to the Springfield Diocesan Review Board in April 2004. The review board deemed the story credible and forwarded the report to Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett. In a telephone interview with The Catholic Observer, Father Russell denied all charges made in Ruidl's statement.
• Private investigator sends unusual letter to diocesan clergy. [1972] - RCC. Croteau murder.
The Catholic Observer, By Father Bill Pomerleau, Observer staff, ~ May 16, 2005
SPRINGFIELD (MA) - A private investigator hired by a Springfield newspaper to investigate the 1972 murder of Daniel Croteau sent unusually worded letters to at least 13 priests of the Diocese of Springfield asking for information.
The letters, dated Easter Sunday, March 23, seem to imply that investigator R.C. Stevens could offer confidentiality to informant clergy, and that the former state police officer might know about unfavorable personal histories of the priests.
"Please understand that my inquiries do not necessarily reflect you, your past or your current circumstances. However, through the course of our investigation, unusual circumstances have emerged surrounding groups of individuals," the letters said.
Stevens, a retired state police officer once attached to the Northwest District Attorney's office in Northampton, was hired by The Republican newspaper last August to investigate the 1972 unsolved murder of Daniel Croteau.
Alluding to colleagues at his Hadley-based detective agency, Psychologically Supported Intervention & Investigation, he wrote: "As private investigators, our ability to pose questions in confidence proves advantageous should individuals feel apprehensive with regard to the possibility of public misperceptions."
• Priest removed over ethical violations in prison ministry. [? 2005 Sheridan] - RCC.
Portsmouth Herald, By Norma Love, Associated Press, ~ May 16, 2005
MACHIAS, Maine - A Roman Catholic priest and former state prison chaplain has been removed over ethical violations in his ministry at the Washington County jail, the Diocese of Portland said Saturday.
The Rev. Michael Sheridan, who was administrator of Holy Name Parish in Machias and St. Michael Mission in Cherryfield, was directed to return to his home diocese in Worcester, Mass., immediately. He already had planned to return to Worcester this summer.
The Diocese of Portland will give a full report to the Worcester diocese, which will decide whether and how to discipline him, said Sue Bernard, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Portland.
Jail officials reported the misconduct last weekend and a church investigation verified the complaint. Bernard said the diocese could not discuss the nature of the violations because it was a personnel matter. She did not know whether the violations would result in any criminal charges.
• Priest ousted over ethical violations . [? 2005 Sheridan] - RCC. Female.
Bangor Daily News, By Rich Hewitt, ~ May 16, 2005
MACHIAS (ME) - A Roman Catholic priest and former state prison chaplain has been removed over ethical violations in his ministry at the Washington County jail, the Diocese of Portland said on Saturday.
The Rev. Michael Sheridan, who was administrator of Holy Name Parish in Machias and St. Michael Mission in Cherryfield, was directed to return to his home diocese in Worcester, Mass., immediately. He already had planned to return to Worcester this summer.
Although a diocese representative declined to discuss the details of the violation, the district attorney for Washington and Hancock counties said Sunday night that the violation appears to have been a case of "mutual interaction between the priest and a female inmate at the jail."
"This does not in any way come close to criminal conduct," District Attorney Michael Povich said.
• Catholic lay group lacks church approval, but not convictions. - RCC. VOTF.
Chicago Tribune, By Rita Hoover, Special to the Tribune, Published May 16, 2005
ROCKFORD (IL) -- Defying the bishop of the Rockford diocese, local members of a Catholic lay organization held a meeting Sunday in a church sanctuary.
Bishop Thomas Doran, who has said Voice of the Faithful is not a sanctioned Catholic group, has denied the Rockford affiliate of the organization the right to meet on church property and refused to meet with members.
Aimee Carevich Hariramani, an official of Voice of the Faithful who came from Boston to attend the meeting, called Sunday's participants pioneers.
"This is a really special moment in the life of this group," she said.
Voice of the Faithful was formed in response to the sexual-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. According to its literature, the group's mission is threefold: support victims of clergy abuse, support priests of integrity and shape structural change within the parameters of the church.
Started in 2002 with a handful of members in Massachusetts, the group now claims more than 25,000 registered supporters in the U.S. and 21 other countries.
• SNAP fliers anger church goers. [1980 Mickey] - RCC. SNAP.
Commercial Appeal, By James Dowd, Contact, May 16, 2005
TENNESSEE - Tennessee leaders of a national group critical of the Catholic Church's handling of sex abuse allegations want the Memphis diocese to step up its efforts to prosecute pedophile priests.
Members of Church of the Ascension in Raleigh want to be left alone.
Both sides squared off Sunday following a 10 a.m. mass as parishioners leaving the church discovered every car in the parking lot had been leafleted by members of SNAP (Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests).
The fliers criticized diocesan policies regarding priests accused of sexual misconduct.
The activist organization targeted Ascension because three priests accused of sexual abuse had been assigned to the church previously.
The group's action angered many parishioners.
"This is our place of worship and they have no right to be here doing this," said Becky DeGroff. "I wish they would just go away. I'm sick of this."
SNAP members are upset by a diocesan decision in February to return Father Richard Mickey to the ministry. Mickey was serving as pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Jackson, Tenn., when he was placed on administrative leave in August following a civil lawsuit that claimed the priest molested twin brothers in 1980.
• Abuse claims mount against ex-area priest. [1988+ McSheffery] - RCC. 7 boys.
New Haven Register, By Robert Varley, May/16/2005
CONNECTICUT - Two more men have come forward alleging sexual abuse by the Rev. Daniel McSheffery, including the first accusation that McSheffrey engaged in misconduct while he was pastor of St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in North Branford.
The priest, who is in his mid-70s, lives in Florida. McSheffery served in North Branford for 16 years until the first allegations surfaced in 2002.
Since 2002, six other men have accused McSheffery of sexual abuse. Five civil suits stem from McSheffery's time at St. Augustine. The sixth comes from McSheffery's stint at St. George in Guilford.
One of the latest lawsuits, filed in New Haven, comes from a man known as "John Doe," an altar boy at St. Augustine in North Branford at the time of the alleged 1988 incident.
Doe's complaint lists multiple counts against McSheffery, the Hartford Archdiocese and St. Augustine Church: reckless battery, negligent battery, reckless infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and breach of fiduciary duty.
• For the record. - RCC.
The Boston Globe, May 16, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - Clarification: A headline on yesterday's Page One story regarding Catholic Church rules on priest abuse was unclear on the procedure for retaining the rules. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops will debate proposed changes to the policy at a meeting next month in Chicago; any changes approved by the bishops will then have to be approved by the Vatican.
• Buddhist monk ingests poison in Sri Lanka. [2001 Panniyaloka] - Buddhist. Girl.
Duluth News Tribune, By SHIMALI SENANAYAKE, Associated Press, ~ May 16, 2005
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A monk drank poison and was rushed to a hospital Monday moments after becoming the first Buddhist clergyman to be convicted of the sexual abuse of a child in Sri Lanka, court officials and police said.
Monk Bellana Panniyaloka was found guilty of grave sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl in 2001 and was given the maximum 20-year penalty, court official N.K. Siripala said.
Soon after the sentence, Panniyaloka drank from a bottle he had concealed in his robes and collapsed, Siripala said. He was rushed to a hospital.
"The priest is in critical condition," said Hector Weerasinghe, director of the Colombo National Hospital. He said the 55-year-old monk had consumed insecticide.
The priest belongs to a temple in Nugegoda, just outside the capital Colombo, where the victim was a Sunday school student, Siripala said.
Monday's conviction came a day after a senior Buddhist monk was arrested on charges of sexually abusing a teenager in another Sri Lankan temple, officials said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:08 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon May 16, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Sinking Ship? Archdiocese Facing a $10 Million Debt
The National Herald, republished by Pokrov.org ; www.pokrov.org/ news/050516 nationalherald. html , By Theodore Kalmoukos, Special to The National Herald , Published in OrthodoxNews.com on May 16, 2005
BOSTON - The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America's debt has reached $10 million, while the possibility for it to exceed that amount cannot be excluded.
At the same time, the over-budget expenses of the Clergy-Laity Congress-approved budget are huge and frequent, according to financial documents, as well as letters by Executive Committee members, obtained by the National Herald.
The legal fees for the year 2004 were budgeted at 200,000, but the actual year-end amount paid came to $1.4 million, which means that it went over budget by $1.2 million according to the financial report (page 7), which was supposed to be distributed to the members of the Archdiocesan Council on Friday, May 13, during the Council's regular spring meeting. At press time, neither Archbishop Demetrios, nor Archdiocese Finance Director John Barbagallo responded to National Herald’s telephone calls in relation to the exorbitant debt.
The Herald has learned from within the Archdiocese that its finances are at their lowest levels. The same sources told the Herald that legal fees are very high because of cases involving sexual misconduct perpetrated by clergy, as well as the lawsuit filed by members or persons connected with the Orthodox Christian Laity Organization known as OCL about the new Archdiocese Charter, which has been in effect since 2003.
The Herald is informed that there is an increasing number of lay members of the Archdiocesan Council, including members of its Executive Committee, who are worried about the future course of the Archdiocese.
Will the late Archbishop Iakovos' house be sold?
One of the Executive Committee members, prominent neurosurgeon John Collis of Cleveland, in a letter sent shortly before Easter to all members of the Archdiocesan Council and its Executive Committee stating his concerns for the general course of the Archdiocese.
In the letter, Dr. Collis pointed out that, among other things, "the current state of our Archdiocese is cause for concern' presently the Archdiocese is $10 million in debt."
Dr. Collis also states "the budget is ignored," and that "our financial obligations in settling legal matters (e.g., sexual misbehavior) are increasing."
Dr. Collis told all members of the Archdiocesan Council "a thorough assessment of Archdiocesan administrative policies and practices is needed. We, the Council, are responsible for this evaluation. Certainly we have the talent and the resources to resolve these problems ourselves. Our findings should be the primary agenda for our next Clergy-Laity Congress."
Dr. Collis, who has been serving on the Executive Committee basically since Archbishop Demetrios took the helm as Archbishop of America, concludes his letter by stating, "now is the time to revitalize our Holy Archdiocese' tomorrow may be too late."
Dr. Collis declined to offer any further comment to the National Herald, saying "I first want to have a discussion at the Archdiocesan Council meeting."
The Executive Committee met on Thursday afternoon, May 12. It was the first Executive Committee meeting in many months. The Executive Committee is supposed to meet once a month.
The Executive Committee consists of nine members, all appointed by the Archbishop, who is its chairman: Michael Jaharis, of New York, Vice Chairman; George Behrakis of Tewksbury, Massachusetts; John Pappajohn of Des Moines, Iowa; Nicholas Bouras of Summit, New Jersey, Treasurer; Dr. Collis; John Payiavlas of Warren, Ohio; Catherine Bouffides-Walsh of Glastonbury, Connecticut, Secretary; Eleni Huszagh of Portland, Oregon; and Anthony Stefanis of Atlanta, Georgia. Emmanuel Demos, General Council of the Archdiocese, also participates in the Executive Committee meetings.
Although no agenda was sent to the members of the Archdiocesan Council, the Herald has learned that there was some discussion on the issue of the house of the late Archbishop Iakovos. The house is located in a prime location in Rye, New York, right in the boundaries of the Rye Country Club. The late Archbishop purchased it for $90 thousand. Some years later, he transferred it to the Archdiocese with the same amount he paid to purchase it.
The late Archbishop's wishes were for the house to be used by the Archbishop of America. Today, the value of the house is estimated at $3-5 million.
There seem to be two views held by Archdiocesan officials today: Those who want to sell the house and use the monies to pay part of the huge debt the Archdiocese has incurred (mostly a new debt which was accumulated during the almost six years of the Archiepiscopal ministry of Archbishop Demetrios). And those who do not want to sell the house, but prefer that it be used for the intended purpose.
Archbishop Demetrios does not seem to want to live in that house, but rather chooses to reside in a rented apartment in Manhattan, for which the Archdiocese pays $82,607 per year, as it is recorded on page 7 of the Financial Report. Demetrios has refused to live in either the apartment at Archdiocesan headquarters (where the late Archbishop Iakovos lived his first ten years as Archbishop of North & South America), or in the apartment in the tower of the Holy Trinity Cathedral (where Bishop Savas of Troas, Chancellor of the Archdiocese, currently resides).
Discussions have been held by telephone conference among members of the Archdiocesan Council concerning the number of employees working at the Archdiocese, sources said. The discussions have also touched upon high salaries, benefits and travel expenses which certain employees enjoy, including the leasing of luxury cars and mobile phones, as is the case with a specific lay employee.
According to the financial report obtained by the Herald, Archdiocese Chief Administrator Jerry Dimitriou's office has an annual budget $411,580. Beyond his salary from the Archdiocese (in excess of $100,000), Mr. Dimitriou also serves as a salaried consultant to the Leadership 100, for which he reportedly receives another $50,000.
In the year 2004, the Office of Archbishop Demetrios spent $562,956, the report states.
The First Archdiocesan District expended $155,551 in 2004, according to the report, while the Department of Communications spent $504,452 and the Finance Department $463,862 (going over budget by $23,162). [May 16, 05]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue May 17, 2005 edition follows:-
• The sins of the fathers . - RCC. "Our Fathers" documentary film.
National Catholic Reporter, By RAYMOND A. SCHROTH, ~ May 17, 2005
UNITED STATES of AMERICA - Since the 1990s, our examination of the sexual abuse scandal has gone through the phases from cover-up, to investigative journalism's exposure, to the reports of national committees, to the response of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to the commentaries on the responses.
This last year the artists have come forward. On Broadway, the play "Doubt" has pitted a zealous nun against a parish priest in the early 1960s. Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" and Pedro Almodóvar's "Bad Education" place boy-abusing priests in the dark basements of their plots.
Now prime-time cable TV, which may reach more viewers than Broadway and art films combined, gives us "Our Fathers," based on David France's critically admired book Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal. By "church" we mean Boston in 2002, the church of Cardinal Bernard Law.
Showtime, sensitive to critics from both the right, which might accuse it of prejudiced church-bashing, and victims' groups quick to pound a speaker who sticks up for priests' rights, has been careful in script, casting, photography and tone to do this right. Within the limitations of its two-hour format, it has produced a work that gives everyone who cares about the church a lot to think about. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:09 PM]
• Bishop Wants Sex Abuse Law Overturned. [2005 San Diego Diocese] - RCC.
KFMB, Last Updated 7:19AM, May-17-05
CALIFORNIA - San Diego's Bishop Brom wants a state law overturned--that has allowed hundreds to file lawsuits alleging priest abuse from years ago.
Brom has filed a motion, asking a judge to rule a bill, Enacted in 2002, unconstitutional.
The San Diego diocese says the Catholic Church has been unfairly targeted.
• Priests Accused of Abuse.
WMCTV, www.wmctv.com , ~ May 17, 2005
MEMPHIS (TN) - Video - Priests Accused of Abuse: Ben Watson
• 'Our Fathers' dramatizes the tragedy of sexually abusive Catholic priests. - RCC. "Our Fathers" docufilm.
Boston Herald, Associated Press, Tuesday, May 17, 2005
NEW YORK - "Our Fathers" confronts a subject that seems all too ripe for exploitation: sexually abusive priests in the Catholic Church.
But while dramatizing the tragedy, this Showtime film avoids the pitfalls of melodrama. It focuses not on the squalid crimes, but on their disastrous effect - as well as on the courage of the victims who spoke up. "Our Fathers" premieres at 8 p.m. EDT Saturday.
Reflectively, somberly, the story unfolds: In early 2002, the Boston Globe exposed Father John J. Geoghan as well as Cardinal Bernard Law, who not only failed to stop years of sexual abuse by Geoghan and other Boston clergy, but tried to hide it.
Contacted initially by just a handful of victims (abused boys now grown to troubled, shame-filled adulthood), attorney Mitchell Garabedian took on the archdiocese. The church's response, even in the face of damning evidence of abuse that spanned decades, was disavowal and further cover-up.
"John Geoghan's transgressions were not the fault of a caring church," Law declares in a sermon in the film, "but the aberrant act of one depraved man."
• Correction: Diocese settlement. [May 2 editorial - newspaper's correction] - RCC.
Tucson Citizen, May 17, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - A May 2 editorial on financial settlements from the Catholic Diocese of Tucson to victims of priests' sexual abuse contained incorrect information.
The editorial said proposed settlement amounts were inadequate based on the average amount of past settlements. The editorial gave an inaccurate figure for past settlements, which, based on figures from the diocese and attorneys, averaged less than $500,000 per victim.
The amount of future settlements is not known. The diocese has proposed a tiered settlement system ranging up to $600,000, depending on the degree of abuse. A federal bankruptcy judge will set payments.
• Priest in court. [1970s Ferris] - ? RCC.
News & Star, Published on 17/05/2005
BRITAIN - A FORMER West Cumbrian priest now faces a total of 27 charges of indecent assault when he appears in court next month.
Father Piers Grant Ferris, 71, was at York Crown Court yesterday. He initially faced 16 charges relating to a period 30 years ago when he was a teacher at a private school near York. Eleven further charges have been added.
Fr Grant Ferris served at Workington's Our Lady and St Michael's Church between 1978 and 1989. He is now a monk at Ampleforth Abbey, York.
• Worcester Diocese strips priest of ministry. [? 2005 Sheridan] - RCC.
MaineToday, ttp://news.maine today.com/apwire/ D8A4TQI80-136.shtml , Associated Press, ~ May 17, 2005
WORCESTER, Mass. - The Diocese of Worcester said a priest who was sent home from Maine last week has been stripped of his ability to minister, enforcing a decision made by Portland Bishop Richard Malone to remove the Reverend Michael J. Sheridan's priestly authority.
Meanwhile, Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus said Monday he is awaiting a full report on Sheridan from Portland.
Sheridan, 56, was returned to Worcester after an alleged incident at a jail in Machias, Maine.
District Attorney Michael Povich of Ellsworth, Maine, told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester in a telephone interview that he did not want to go into details of the incident, except to say it involved "inappropriate physical interaction" with a female inmate at the jail. Some of the interaction was videotaped by a camera in the jail, he said.
• Burying the Catholic Drama. - RCC. "Our Fathers" docufilm.
New York Sun, BY DAVID BLUM, May 17, 2005
Movies about abused children and scandal have been a staple of television for years - all the way back to 1984 and the groundbreaking TV movie "Something About Amelia," in which Ted Danson played a seemingly normal American dad (married to Glenn Close) who sexually abused his daughter. That then-controversial (and Emmy Award-winning) movie propelled sexual abuse into the forefront of American consciousness, and grew Mr. Danson's star power. Now, after an illustrious sitcom career has dissipated into sporadic film work, Mr. Danson returns to the topic in Showtime's "Our Fathers," on the other side of the law.
And, alas, with far less dramatic results. In this overlong Showtime movie (premiering this Saturday at 8 p.m.) about the scandals involving sexually abusive priests in the Boston area, Mr. Danson plays a zealous lawyer who investigates allegations against one local religious leader and stumbles onto a scandal of mammoth proportions. Had we ever understood his character's motivation or background, we might have cared; but in the years since "Amelia" and even "Cheers," Mr. Danson has acted less with his head than he has with the hideous hairpieces he has chosen to put on it. He has evolved into a distraction, not a force, or as the focal point of what might have made a compelling, subtle drama of right and wrong. By focusing on Mr. Danson's detective work - instead of the more dramatic battle taking place within the local archdiocese - "Our Fathers" goes wide of the mark.
It's an unfortunate miss, especially when measured against the potential for powerful storytelling in the premise. Its great virtue lies in two key supporting performances: Christopher Plummer as Cardinal Bernard Law, who tried everything he could to suppress the scandal; and Brian Dennehy, who worked just as relentlessly to fan its flames. Only after an extended prologue - with prolonged and tedious scenes of middle-aged men experiencing their tortured recollections of childhood abuse, then seeking out Mr. Danson's help - do Messrs. Plummer and Dennehy even show up.
Whenever they appear on screen, the movie comes to life; the energy of their conflict takes us into the murkier moral questions at the scandal's core. Do any of us really doubt the horror of child abuse by priests? Of course not. But what's even more terrifying is the notion of the church's leadership (reaching nearly all the way to the Vatican) hiding its scandals for the sake of its reputation, and putting the faith of its followers in jeopardy.
• Church sex abuse audit advances . [Manchester Diocese] - RCC.
Concord Monitor, By DANIEL BARRICK, May 17, 2005
NEW HAMPSHIRE - Two months after a judge dismissed objections by the Diocese of Manchester, state officials are about to begin long-delayed annual audits of the church's sexual abuse prevention policies.
The attorney general's office is close to signing a contract with KPMG, a Boston-based auditor, to review whether the church has improved the way it prevents and reports sexual abuse. The contract goes before the Executive Council for approval tomorrow.
The audits are a central piece of the landmark 2002 settlement between the state attorney general's office and the diocese. But the audits have been delayed for more than two years, as state and church officials sparred over the details.
Church officials challenged the state's proposal to review the effectiveness of its new policies. The diocese also wanted the state to pay the entire cost of the audits, estimated at $550,000 over four years. In March, Hillsborough County Superior Court Justice Carol Ann Conboy dismissed nearly all of the diocese's objections.
In the absence of an appeal by the diocese, state officials are taking Conboy's ruling as the final word on the audits.
"We intend to go forward, and it will go forward as KPMG and the state want it to," said Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker. "Time will tell whether all the diocese's problems (with the audits) are resolved."
• Sexual Abuse Victim Arrested For Possessing Child Pornography. [2005 Hearty; Years ago - Lum, Volino] - RCC.
13WHAM, www.13wham.com/ news/local/story. aspx?content_id=65F8511A-2B62-4A8E-98B6-3E220DFD6EDC by Jane Flasch, May/16/05
ROCHESTER (NY) -- A man who was sexually abused by a Rochester priest as a teenager has recently been arrested and accused of possessing child pornography. There are also indications that the case may be tied to the arrest of another Rochester priest, who faces similar charges.
When Monroe County Sheriff's deputies arrested Paul Hearty on March 3, he was carrying a blue bag filled with floppy discs that contained images of child pornography. Police sources confirm that one picture depicted the children engaged in sex acts who appear to be 10 or 11 years old.
Hearty has pleaded not guilty and when reached at his house in Greece, said he had no comment.
In 1997, he accused a Rochester Roman Catholic priest of sexually molesting him in the rectory of Our Lady Of Mercy. The Rev. William Lum later admitted to the crime and pleaded guilty.
Sources close to the investigation say Paul Hearty admitted to possessing the pornography. He also claims to have kept tabs on Lum and mentioned another priest, the Rev. Michael Volino.
• Victim of alleged priest molestation sues the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. [1978-82 Becker] - RCC. Altar boy.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, By DERRICK NUNNALLY and TOM HEINEN, dnunnally@journalsentinel.com , Posted May 16, 2005
MILWAUKEE (WI) - For at least the third time, an adult who claims he was sexually abused by a priest as a child has sued the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for fraud over its handling of the situation.
The suit against the archdiocese and former priest Franklyn Becker claims Becker, who was recently removed from the priesthood after 40 years, molested Charles Linneman, an altar boy the priest met while assigned to St. Joseph Church in Lyons in 1980.
According to the lawsuit, the molestation happened two years later, while Becker was assigned to an unspecified Milwaukee church. The St. Joseph altar boy, then 14, went to Becker's church the night before he was to serve as an altar boy there.
In the lawsuit, Linneman claims he was sexually abused at Becker's living quarters at the parish. It says that situation could have been avoided if the archdiocese had publicly disclosed allegations that Becker "fondled the genitals of a 13- or 14-year-old boy on approximately 10 separate occasions" from 1971 to 1972, performed other sex acts on a 14- or 15-year-old boy in California in 1978 and reportedly molested other boys in 1980 and 1982.
"Had (the) Plaintiff or his family known what Defendant Archdiocese knew - that Franklyn Becker had sexually molested numerous children before (the) Plaintiff and that Franklyn Becker was a danger to children, (the) Plaintiff would not have been sexually molested," the lawsuit says.
At a news conference held Monday to discuss the lawsuit and allegations that Becker molested two other men when they were boys at his churches, activists from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests distributed copies of an e-mail report from Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan to priests and Catholic lay leaders that included a brief mention that Becker had been "returned to the lay state by the Holy See." [Bolding added]
• Former priest settles lawsuits. [? 1940s-90s Bass] - RCC. 3 boys.
Quad-City Times, By Todd Ruger, May 17, 2005
IOWA - A retired priest of the Catholic Diocese of Davenport agreed Monday to pay a confidential sum of money to settle the three remaining civil lawsuits by men accusing him of sexually abusing them as children decades ago.
The Rev. Francis Bass, 82, who served as a parish priest in the diocese from 1948 to 1992, apologized in a court statement filed Monday in the lawsuit brought by Steven Davis of Wisconsin in 2003.
"To Steven Davis and others I may have harmed, I apologize," Bass said in a statement made under oath. "I hope this statement will assist in the healing process."
The statement by Bass, who at one time faced five lawsuits, makes him the second priest of the diocese to settle a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse.
• Lawsuit accuses priest, church in abuse. [1978-82 Becker] - RCC. Altar boy.
San Luis Obispo Tribune, Associated Press, ~ May 17, 2005
MILWAUKEE (WI) - A man filed a lawsuit Monday alleging he was molested by a priest as an altar boy in 1982 and that church officials knew the priest had sexually abused other boys in the past.
The lawsuit, filed by Charles Linneman, 36, of Sugar Grove, Ill., named the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, former priest Franklyn Becker and an insurance company.
Linneman contends he was sexually abused at the age of 14 in Becker's living quarters at a Milwaukee-area parish. The lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, alleges that Becker had previously molested other boys, causing church officials to transfer him to a parish in California and then back to Wisconsin again.
Charges were filed against Becker in 2003 accusing him of molesting a boy in a San Diego parish in 1978. The charges were dismissed after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a law that allowed prosecution of decades-old sex abuse allegations.
• Buddhist Monk Convicted of Sex Abuse Dies. [2001 Panniyaloka] - Buddhist. Girl.
Newsday, By SHIMALI SENANAYAKE, Associated Press Writer, May 17, 2005
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- A monk drank poison and later died after becoming the first Buddhist clergyman to be convicted of the sexual abuse of a child in Sri Lanka, court officials and police said.
Monk Bellana Panniyaloka was found guilty of grave sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl in 2001 and was given the maximum 20-year penalty, court official N.K. Siripala said.
Soon after the sentence, Panniyaloka drank from a bottle he had concealed in his robes and collapsed, Siripala said. He was rushed to a hospital, where he later died.
"He had consumed a large quantity of insecticide and died of poisoning," said Hector Weerasinghe, director of the Colombo National Hospital.
The priest belongs to a temple in Nugegoda, just outside the capital Colombo, where the victim was a Sunday school student, Siripala said.
Monday's conviction came a day after a senior Buddhist monk was arrested on charges of sexually abusing a teenager in another Sri Lankan temple, officials said. [Bolding added]
• Iowa priest settles case two weeks before trial. [Bass] - RCC. 14 boys. [9 yrs Janssen] - RCC.
Des Moines Register, By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR, May 17, 2005
IOWA - Two weeks before his civil trial was to begin, a retired Davenport priest settled with 14 men who said they were molested by him.
The Rev. Francis Bass, 83, a former parish priest in the Davenport diocese, issued a statement Monday acknowledging the confidential monetary settlement.
"Given the number and nature of the claims and the extent of the evidence supporting them, I have concluded that it is not likely that I can prevail on the merits and that it is in my interest and the interest of all that these claims be resolved," Bass said in a written statement.
Bass also apologized to Wisconsin resident Steven Davis, 36, and "others I may have harmed," stating he hoped his statement would help the men in the healing process.
On May 9, a Scott County jury awarded $1.8 million to James Wells, who said defrocked priest James Janssen sexually abused him for nine years, beginning when he was 5 years old. At the trial, Janssen admitted the abuse only to recant the next day.
• Allegations against 3 priests costly for Diocese of Orange. [Widera, Ramos, Harris] - RCC. $US 46.78m + 5.2m. 29+ boys.
Orange County Register, By CHRIS KNAP, ~ May 17, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Nearly half of the $100 million in sexual- abuse settlements paid by the Diocese of Orange earlier this year went to plaintiffs who named one of three once-beloved priests as an abuser, court records show.
The three are Siegfried Widera, Eleuterio Ramos and Michael Harris.
The diocese settled with 11 men who claimed abuse by Ramos; nine who claimed abuse by Widera; and nine who claimed abuse by Harris. In three of the nine Harris cases, a church layman was also accused.
Settlements in those 29 cases totaled $46.78 million, according to a court order filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The settlements by the church release it from liability but are not a legal judgment of guilt or innocence.
In 2001 the diocese settled with one of Harris' accusers for $5.2 million. In the 1990s it reached confidential settlements with two of Ramos' accusers. Ramos and Widera are now dead.
• Diocese priest stripped of duty. [2005 Sheridan] - RCC. Woman inmate.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), By Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , May 17, 2005
WORCESTER (MA) - The Rev. Michael J. Sheridan, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester who was ordered back to Worcester this weekend after an alleged incident in a northern Maine jail, has been stripped of his authority to function as a priest in this diocese.
Bishop Robert J. McManus said yesterday he is awaiting a full report on Rev. Sheridan's conduct from the Diocese of Portland, Maine, but is going to let stand a decision by Bishop Richard Malone of Portland to remove his priestly authority. Rev. Sheridan, 56, "will not have faculties for priestly ministry in the Diocese of Worcester or anywhere else at this time," Bishop McManus said.
District Attorney Michael Povich of Ellsworth, Maine, said yesterday in a telephone interview that he did not want to divulge details of the incident except to say that it involved "inappropriate physical interaction" with a female inmate at the jail. Some of that interaction was videotaped by a camera in the jail.
Mr. Povich said the conduct was in no way criminal and he preferred that details be released by the Worcester and Portland dioceses. If the incident had been a conjugal visit involving a married couple, they would have been told to stop, he said.
Jail authorities in Machias, Maine, reported the incident to the Portland diocese, which also is investigated. The Portland diocese declined to give specifics except to say the incident, which allegedly happened about a week ago, was a violation of its code of conduct. Bishop Malone ordered Rev. Sheridan out of his diocese and back to Worcester. Rev. Sheridan never officially became a priest of the Portland diocese and remained under the authority of the Worcester bishop; therefore, he was ordered back to Worcester.
A former prison chaplain, Rev. Sheridan was administrator of Holy Name Parish of Machias and St. Michael Mission of Cherryfield, Maine. He did not appear for Masses in Maine last weekend and a substitute priest was sent into those communities.
Rev. Sheridan, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., had been serving in Maine for the past decade, according to Raymond L. Delisle, spokesman for the Worcester diocese. He had planned to return to Worcester this summer, he said.
The priest was ordained here in 1975 by Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan and served in a number of parishes including St. Pius X, Leicester; St. Bernard, Worcester; Holy Family of Nazareth, Leominster; St. Luke the Evangelist, Westboro; St. Peter, Northbridge; St. Louis, Webster; and St. Mary, Uxbridge.
• Priest settles lawsuits with 14 men alleging abuse. [? 1940s-90s Bass] - RCC. 14 boys.
WHO, www.whotv.com/ Global/story.asp ?S=3353615 , ~ May 17, 2005
DES MOINES, Iowa - A retired Davenport priest says he's sorry for actions that led 14 men to file lawsuits against him for sexual abuse.
The Reverend Francis Bass issued the statement yesterday, which confirms a monetary settlement with the men.
In the statement, he acknowledges the evidence against him and says it's in everyone's best interest to settle the claims. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:56 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue May 17, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed May 18, 2005 edition follows:-
• Two Roman Catholic officials who protected alleged molesters still in prominent church positions. [Orange Diocese] - RCC.
San Luis Obispo Tribune, www.sanluisobispo. com/mld/sanluis obispo/news/ 11680229.htm , By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press, ~ May 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - Thousands of pages of personnel files released as part of a clergy abuse settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange reveal that two officials who covered up for molester priests years ago remain in top positions within the church.
The files, released Tuesday, show that Auxiliary Bishop Michael P. Driscoll and Msgr. John Urell knew of repeated allegations of sexual misconduct against Orange County priests yet did little to protect parishioners or prevent future abuse.
Driscoll is now the bishop of the Diocese of Boise, Idaho. Urell, who was a top diocesan official at the time, is now pastor of St. Norbert Church in Orange.
Neither man returned calls for comment from The Associated Press.
Driscoll, 65, posted a lengthy apology on the diocese's Web site earlier this month in anticipation of the files' release.
"At this time I once again want to apologize to the victims who were harmed by priests in the Diocese of Orange and for my role in these cases," Driscoll wrote. "I am ashamed that this happened." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:39 PM]
• Signs of abuse ignored at day care, suits say. [1990s] - RCC. Girls.
The Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews.com/ sharedcontent/dws/ dn/religion/stories/ 051905dnprodaycare. bf5ee355.html ; By BROOKS EGERTON / 08:23 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 18, 2005
DALLAS (TX) - One was a popular longtime parishioner. The other was a clown with a criminal record, a falsified resumé - and a recommendation from a deacon.
For most of the 1990s, they worked at St. Pius X Catholic Church's child care center in Far East Dallas. Each was the target of complaints about his behavior with little girls. Each turned out to be a child molester and is now in prison.
Lawsuits set for trial beginning next month say center officials ignored "red flags" about the men, despite tremendously expensive 1990s litigation showing that Dallas Catholic Diocese leaders had turned a blind eye to evidence of sexual abuse by priests.
Church officials blame everything on the child care workers, saying in court filings that the men managed to deceive everyone around them. The officials declined several requests to be interviewed about the cases and didn't respond to written questions.
The lawsuits come at a difficult time for diocesan leaders. They face a broader criminal investigation of how they handle sexual misconduct allegations. They are still trying to recover from the past clergy cases, which cost them nearly $40 million in payments to victims. And a priest who was a leading supporter of Bishop Charles Grahmann's management of those cases was recently arrested on child pornography charges.
• No Hidden Cameras or Gay Supervisors in Irish School Dressing Rooms, Insists Human Rights Group. [2005 Christian Brothers] - RCC. Boys.
Life Site, www.lifesite.net/ ldn/2005/may/ 05051803.html , May 18, 2005
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (LifeSiteNews.com) - The discovery of a hidden camera in a boys changeroom in a prestigious Catholic school in Northern Ireland has prompted the Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition (IATC) to push police to launch an investigation.
The Abbey Christian Brothers School in Newry explained that the camera was installed to catch a thief. However that trite explanation without investigation raised the ire of parents including a politician whose son is a student at the school.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) launched an investigation after pressure from the IATC.
LifeSiteNews.com spoke with IATC Director Gregory Carlin about the incident and related issues. While he acknowleged that he, and not the Catholic hierarchy pressed for a police investigation, he said that it was not clear that the hierarchy were aware of the situation and added, "The church's position on these matters is unequivocal."
Speaking of the criticism the secret filming received, Carlin said, "It has been condemned by politicians and sexual abuse organizations. Before a (hidden) camera can be installed in a school, a qualifying assessment has to take place in order to ensure compliance with three statutes, the Data Protection Act 1998, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The filming of children in a changing room is completely unacceptable."
Carlin has also been involved in advising Catholic schools about homosexual teachers in roles as supervisors in change rooms. Asked about this, Carlin replied, "We also advise the Catholic Church not to have male teachers viewing 14 year old girls in dressing rooms. The principle is entirely the same, it is not in the least controversial. It is not a question of picking on anybody, we have consulted with gay rights organizations. The general legal consensus is that the prohibition that legitimately precludes opposite gender supervision in changing rooms can sensibly be related to gender and orientation. The potential for prurient viewing is a perfectly legitimate legal exception."
• Our Fathers. - RCC. "Our Fathers" docufilm.
Hollywood Reporter, www.hollywoodreporter. com/thr/reviews/review _display.jsp?vnu_content _id=1000927906 , By Barry Garron, 8-10:10 p.m., Saturday, May 21, 2005
UNITED STATES - Showtime - The revelation of widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church raises too many disturbing questions and presents too many serious issues for any film, or even a miniseries, to thoroughly explore. And while there is widespread agreement that this abuse by trusted and admired religious leaders was despicable, opinions differ on why it happened, what should be done about it and how the victims should be compensated. Even the victims don't all agree on answers to these questions.
In trying to get a filmic handle on the situation, Showtime based "Our Fathers" on a meticulously researched account of how the scandal unraveled in Boston, as told in David France's best-seller "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal." France worked alongside teleplay writer Thomas Michael Donnelly, passing along documents and interviews as the book was being written. Perhaps, as a result, "Our Fathers" sacrifices Hollywood dramatic polish in favor of a factually pristine presentation of events and personalities.
This is, among other things, a classic David-vs.-Goliath story as well as a tale of an insidious bureaucracy as corrupt as the greediest energy manipulators or defense subcontractors. Actually, worse, because it robbed its victims of their faith and souls. But rather than speechify about this grand evil, Donnelly lets it unfold bit by bit, giving us perspectives from a growing number of victims as well as church leaders, who quickly circle the wagons and go into cover-up mode.
• Scranton priest pleads guilty to sex abuse charges. [? 1997 Liberatore] - RCC. Altar boy.
Centre Daily, Associated Press, ~ May 18, 2005
WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA - A suspended Roman Catholic clergyman was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to sexually molesting an altar boy while he was a parish priest in the Diocese of Scranton.
The Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr., 41, of Scranton, was charged last year after the victim, now 20, told police that he became involved with the priest when he was an eighth-grade altar boy at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea.
Investigators said that the man described meeting Liberatore regularly for dinners, sleeping twice a week in his residence at the rectory and going with him on trips to New York City, where he said Liberatore took him to gay bars and they had sexual contact at hotels.
Liberatore pleaded guilty Wednesday in Luzerne County Court to indecent assault, corruption of minors, furnishing alcohol to a minor and child endangerment.
• Louisiana deputy, former pastor arrested on child rape charges. [? 2000s Labat, Lamonica] - Hosana Church. Child.
WWLTV, www.fox11az.com/ news/other/stories/ KMSB-20050518 -wwlbp-abusering.2886 c1f7d.html , 11:10 AM MST on Wednesday, May 18, 2005
LOUISIANA - A Tangipahoa Parish deputy and a former pastor of a Northshore church are under arrest on rape charges amid an investigation into an alleged child sex abuse ring.
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office said it arrested Deputy Christopher Blair Labat, 24, of Hammond on one count of aggravated rape Tuesday.
A Sheriff's Office spokesman says the arrest came in conjunction with the arrest of Louis Lamonica, the former pastor of Hosana Church, by Livingston Parish deputies on Monday. Lamonica was charged with two counts of aggravated rape and one charge of crime against nature.
According to juvenile investigator Reginald Bryant, the investigation that led to the arrests began with a phone call form the mother of a juvenile in Columbus, Ohio about five weeks ago.
Bryant said the mother told deputies that she fled Louisiana in fear for her child, and that counseling sessions had raised the allegations of sexual abuse.
• Former Pastor, Deputy Implicated In Church Child Sex Abuse. [2002-03 Bernard, Lamonica] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
Click2Houston, www.click2houston. com/news/4503872/ detail.html , UPDATED 1:59 pm CDT, May 18, 2005
PONCHATOULA, La. -- Sheriff's deputies in Louisiana made a third arrest Wednesday in the ongoing investigation of a case involving allegations of sexual abuse of children and animals at a Ponchatoula, La., church.
Austin Aaron Bernard III, 36, was arrested on a charge of aggravated rape of a child under the age of 13. Police said Bernard confessed to detectives that he had sex with a young girl in November 2002 and admitted to knowing about sexual acts involving children and a dog that occurred at Hosanna Church.
Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's deputy Christopher Blair Labat, 24, was booked Tuesday on one count of aggravated rape and one count of crime against nature.
On Monday, Louis Lamonica, 45, the former pastor of Hosanna Church, was booked with two counts of aggravated rape and one count of crime against nature after he walked in to the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office and said he could implicate others in a situation at the church that reportedly occurred two years ago. All three are being held without bond.
• Priest Admits Guilt to Sexual Assault. [1999] - RCC. Teenage boy.
WNEP, www.wnep.com/ Global/story.asp ?S=3362995&nav =5ka4a1Uq , ~ May 18, 2005
PENNSYLVANIA - A priest admitted Wednesday he sexually assaulted a teenage boy. Now prosecutors are blasting him for abusing his position as a man of God and violating the boy's trust.
Father Albert Libertore [? Liberatore] told a judge he molested a teenager several times over three years. The victim, now 20, came forward last year, telling of the abuse in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties.
Father Libertore admitted he crossed the line in his relationship with that teenager. The punishment for that abuse is no jail time but a sentence of five years probation.
The priest, who served in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties is now considered a child molester. Court papers say the offenses began six years ago at Sacred Heart parish in Duryea, where Libertore met the then 14 year old altar boy and took the relationship too far.
The two slept in the same bed. The priest touched the boy and invited him to parties at the rectory where adults had gay sex. He supplied his victim with alcohol, expensive gifts and trips. The abuse continued at the University of Scranton, where Libertore taught, while the victim was a college student.
• Calif. Church files add to priest abuse scandal. [Orange Diocese] - RCC. $US 100m. 15 priests and teachers. Children.
Reuters, www.reuters.com/ newsArticle.jhtml ?type=domesticNews &storyID=8535394 , 05:37 PM ET, Wed May 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) (Reuters) - Roman Catholic Church authorities in a Southern California diocese shuffled pedophile priests between parishes for two decades, according to personnel files released by a judge.
In what has become a familiar tale of cover-ups by the U.S. Catholic Church, the files of 15 priests and teachers painted a picture of secrecy and stonewalling over what mushroomed into a damaging nationwide priestly sex abuse scandal.
The files were ordered released by a Los Angeles judge late on Tuesday as part of a $100 million settlement -- one of the largest since the scandal broke in Boston in 2002 -- reached in January between the diocese of Orange and 90 alleged victims of molestation.
Five of the priests are dead. The 10 other priests and teachers raised no objection to the ruling.
Raymond Boucher, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the files revealed how the Orange diocese "helped to take a priest who had engaged in criminal conduct and move that priest from church to church, from diocese to diocese, and as a result, a significant number of lives have been destroyed."
• Secrets order forced me to quit priesthood. - RCC. Crimen Sollicitationis ordered secrecy. Result: Priest resigned 1984. Child.
Irish Examiner, www.examiner.ie/ pport/web/opinion/ Full_Story/did-sgD- wG8b-6aGwsgdq- nXlDAyFE.asp , ~ May 18, 2005
IRELAND - THE Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis, referred to by Patrick Geaney (Irish Examiner letters, April 27 and May 11), prompted my resignation from the priesthood in 1984.
At the time my American bishop (since deceased) refused to agree with my decision to refer to the local sheriff a serious allegation of clerical sex abuse which was brought to my attention by the then 10-year-old victim's parents.
During the course of discussions with my bishop I sought his approval urgently to hand the complete file over to the civil authorities, including the report of the local tribunal which had completed its investigation into the allegations - but he refused.
By way of support for his decision, the bishop went to his filing cabinet, withdrew a copy of Crimen Sollicitationis and referred me to clause 11 in the document, which states:
"What is treated in these cases has to have a greater degree of care and observance so that those same matters be pursued in a most secretive way... they are to be restrained by a perpetual silence (Instruction of the Holy Office, February 20, 1867), each and everyone pertaining to the tribunal, in any way or admitted to knowledge of the matter, because of their office, is to observe the strictest secret, which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office, in all matters and with all persons, under the penalty of excommunication."
• Ex-Billerica priest cleared after criminal e-mail probe. [? 2000s Randone] - RCC. Chaplain dismissed. E-mails to students.
Lowell Sun, By MATT MURPHY, Sun Staff, ~ May 18, 2005
BILLERICA (MA) -- No criminal charges will be filed against the Rev. Michael Randone, who was fired as chaplain of Central Catholic High School.
The Essex County district attorney's office found no reason to charge the former Billerica priest.
Randone, 36, was fired from his alma mater in March after he was accused of sending inappropriate online messages to students from a personal computer. The communication after school hours constituted a violation of school policy, but there was also some question as to whether the messages were sexual in nature.
At the time he was fired, officials at the private school in Lawrence said Randone denied sending any inappropriate e-mail.
"The e-mails were investigated, but no charges will be filed," Essex County District Attorney spokesman Steve O'Connell said. "There was nothing in those e-mails that rose to a criminal level."
• Details sought in priest removal. [? 2005 Sheridan] - RCC. Woman inmate.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), By Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , May 18, 2005
WORCESTER (MA) - A Maine activist yesterday called on Bishop Richard Malone to explain why the Rev. Michael J. Sheridan was dismissed from the Portland Diocese and sent back to Worcester this weekend after the priest was allegedly involved in an inappropriate incident with a female inmate at a northern Maine jail.
The Portland Diocese declined to discuss details, other than to say it was a personnel matter. Michael Povich, district attorney for Washington and Hancock counties, also declined to discuss specifics on Monday, but indicated it was an interaction between the priest and a woman, part of which was caught on videotape by jail staff. He said no criminal conduct had occurred. Bishop Malone of Portland said the priest was involved in prison ministry.
Paul Kendrick of Cumberland, Maine, a founder of the Maine Voice of the Faithful Chapter and member of the St. Ignatius Voice of the Faithful affiliate in Portland, said the bishop not only needs to give details of what happened at the Washington County jail, but needs to go into the parishes served by Rev. Sheridan to see if there are people who might be victims.
Michael Swett, spokesman for Maine VOTF, said the organization was pleased that Bishop Malone took the actions that he did in removing Rev. Sheridan immediately, and hopes that the Worcester bishop will do the same. Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester said Monday that Rev. Sheridan no longer can serve as a priest in Worcester or elsewhere.
Mr. Kendrick said he understood that Rev. Sheridan, in addition to serving in parishes in Machias and Cherryfield, was involved in prison ministry at the jail. He said that if the priest was sexually involved with a female inmate this would be "sexual exploitation of women." Exploitation of women remains "a major issue" in the Catholic Church, Mr. Kendrick said.
Many people do not believe consensual sex between adults should be construed as exploitation, he said, but the relationship would be inappropriate if he was in prison ministry and this woman was an inmate, Mr. Kendrick said.
In a letter to parishioners of Holy Name in Machias and St. Michael's Mission, Cherryfield, Bishop Malone said Rev. Sheridan had planned to return to Worcester next month, but the bishop learned on May 7 that he had violated the diocesan ethics code. The Portland Diocese covers all of Maine.
The diocese opened an investigation May 9, "and by Thursday I was convinced that serious violations of the code" did occur, Bishop Malone said. He met with Rev. Sheridan and told him he no longer could function as a priest in Maine "and that he should return to his own diocese immediately," he said. He told parishioners that the Worcester Diocese was informed of his actions. Bishop McManus said he also removed Rev. Sheridan's permission to function as a priest in Worcester or elsewhere and was awaiting a full report from the Portland Diocese.
Rev. Sheridan, 56, left Worcester for northern Maine about 10 years ago. He never became a priest of the Maine diocese, although he ministered there with permission of the Maine bishop. Ordained in Worcester in 1975, he remained a priest of the Worcester Diocese. The diocesan directory lists 16 priests of the Worcester Diocese who are ministering elsewhere, in locations ranging from Peru to the Vatican, and a number of places within the United States and the armed services.
"Let me state very clearly, these violations do not involve any misconduct with minors. It is a personnel matter involving the church's own ethical standards and is being dealt with in an appropriate manner," Bishop Malone said.
The bishop during the weekend sent members of the diocesan crisis team into the parishes to meet with parishioners and answer questions.
• Release of records about teacher denied. [1980s Hodgman, 1980s+ Orange Diocese] - RCC. Girl.
Toledo Blade, By ROBIN ERB, May 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - A judge in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday declined to release documents in a civil lawsuit involving a former California high school teacher now working at Adrian College in Michigan.
Thomas Hodgman, choir director at the college, had asked Judge Peter Lichtman to block the release of several documents that had been held by the Diocese of Orange County in California.
The diocese agreed not to object to the release under terms of a $100 million settlement agreement between the diocese and dozens of victims of sexual abuse by priests and others.
Mr. Hodgman was among those named in the lawsuits. He was accused of carrying out [? on] a relationship with a student in the 1980s when he was a teacher at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif.
The school is part of the diocese.
His accuser, Joelle Casteix, has become an outspoken critic of the diocese and has spearheaded an effort to release the documents, saying the information will help protect others.
• 2005 Catholic Church sexual-abuse settlements since Diocese of Orange settlement. [Roman Catholic Church dioceses]
UNITED STATES - The Orange County Register, May 18, 2005
MAY 2005
Altoona-Johnstownand Greensburg, Pa., dioceses, et. al.;
one plaintiff; three priests;
amount undisclosed
APRIL 2005
Manchester, N.H.,diocese; four plaintiffs; three priests; amount undisclosed (six-figure range)
Santa Rosa diocese; one plaintiff, one priest; $3.3 million "The largest settlement for a female victim of sexual abuse by a priest in this country and the third-largest for any California victim."
Fort Worth, Texas,diocese and Worcester, Mass.,diocese; one plaintiff; one priest (first of two cases against same priest); $1.4 million; one plaintiff; one priest (second case against same priest); $2.75 million. Money to come from Fort Worth Diocese.
Peoria, Ill.,diocese; one plaintiff; three priests; amount undisclosed
• Group demands action to keep Beine jailed. [< 1977, 2001 Beine] - RCC. Boys.
Post-Dispatch, ~ May 18, 2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - The St. Louis School District should act to keep a former school counselor accused of indecent exposure behind bars, say members of a group representing people who have been abused by priests.
James Beine, also known as Mar James, was convicted in 2003 on charges of exposing himself to three students at a St. Louis grade school, but the Missouri Supreme Court overturned Beine's conviction. Beine, who also has been a priest in three area parishes, has chosen to remain in prison while the Missouri attorney general asks the court to reconsider the ruling.
Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests sent letters two weeks ago to St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and schools Superintendent Creg E. Williams imploring them to do what they can to keep Beine in jail.
• Illinois priest named to succeed Delaney. [Calicott] - RCC. Child abuse.
Star-Telegram, By Darren Barbee and Brett Hoffman, ~ May 18, 2005
FORT WORTH (TX) - Monsignor Kevin W. Vann of Illinois has been named coadjutor bishop of the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese and will succeed ailing Bishop Joseph Delaney when he retires, church officials announced Tuesday.
Vann, 54, was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on May 9. Vann will begin work in the diocese after his ordination as bishop, which is expected in July. ...
But news of Vann's appointment drew criticism from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. As a canon lawyer, Vann represents the Rev. John Calicott in his request to the Vatican to be allowed to resume his ministry after allegations of child abuse.
Calicott's request that Vann represent him was "very routine," Vann said. Under the charter, priests "are supposed to get a canon lawyer," he said.
The matter is still pending at the Vatican, Vann said.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he found it troubling that someone who would represent Calicott has been elevated to bishop.
• Diocese has spent millions on sex abuse cases. [1975 Delaney, Reese] - RCC.
KVUE News, www.kvue.com/ news/top/stories/ 051705cccakvue priest.2855b 2c08.html , By RUDY KOSKI / 10:58 PM CDT on Tuesday, May 17, 2005
HOUSTON (TX) - Up until Monday afternoon, Dan Delaney was a part-time receptionist at the Art Institute of Houston. Thirty years ago, he was a high-ranking priest in the Austin diocese.
In 1975, Houston attorney Robert Scamardo, then 15 years old, attended a Catholic youth conference in San Antonio.
He says Delaney, the Austin diocese's director of youth ministry at that time, sexually abused him in a hotel room.
"I was very angry to learn that Delaney was living and working here in Houston," Scamardo said. "It's a very difficult thing to accept that this sort of crime happened to me within my church."
Scamardo says he reported the attack to James Reese, a youth minister from Sacred Heart Parish in Austin.
Instead of getting help, he claims Reese sexually abused him as well.
• Web Site Seeks To Out Records Of Norwich Diocese. [Norwich Diocese] - RCC.
The Day, By LISA MCGINLEY, Night City Editor, Published on May/18/2005
NORWICH (CT) - So far, the casualties of the Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal have been: the grievously scarred victims of pedophilia; the communities where defrocked pedophile priests take up new addresses and careers, unannounced and unrecognized; the good men now carrying out their priesthoods under a cloud; uncounted Catholics disgusted with the church; and the dioceses hemorrhaging money for lawsuit awards.
That leaves one category of American Catholics that either could have prevented this before or repented for it since: the bishops, whose reactionary response to public outrage was a zero-tolerance policy that can snatch away in an afternoon the career of even an unfairly accused priest.
Very little has ever come out about clergy sexual abuse because a bishop voluntarily released records. But a new [?] Web site, BishopAccountability.org, is set to publish all the records it can get relating to abuse complaints, reassignment of accused priests and other details most dioceses have refused to release. Its founders are going after the Norwich diocese.
At a meeting Sunday in Niantic the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful, lay Catholics who have been meeting since the sex-abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese, introduced the founders of the new Web site, which is seeking to post online records kept by the Diocese of Norwich.
[COMMENT: Not new! BishopAccountability has been known to Faith Purification Programme since Jan 13, 2004. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Second chances . [Orange Diocese] - RCC. 15 files to be unsealed. "Forgiven." Boys sodomised, girl impregnated and given STD.
The Orange County Register, By RACHANEE SRISAVASDI, ANDREW GALVIN, TONY SAAVEDRA and CHRIS KNAP, of The Orange County Register, May 18, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Diocese of Orange leaders enabled the sexual abuse of Catholic children by accepting or keeping known pedophiles in parish work, by ignoring warnings about abusive priests and by misleading parishioners, a review of church records shows.
Fifteen once-sealed personnel files, made public Tuesdayas part of a record $100 million settlement of child sexual-abuse cases, provide a window into the minds of men of the cloth in Orange County from the 1960s to 1990s. A judge ruled the diocese must release other secret documents, including psychological reports and correspondence between church leaders, within a week.
The details of many of the cases have been revealed in lawsuits and previous news stories: boys sodomized by priests they trusted; a high school girl impregnated and given a sexually transmitted disease.
But other cases are new: A man who alleges he was molested for three years by a priest who later died of AIDS. That man received the highest settlement of any of the 90 victims: $3.7 million.
The files also reveal the extent to which diocesan bishops, chancellors and other church leaders routinely forgave priests for abusing children, paid for counseling, then welcomed them back to pastoral work - sometimes two or three times.
• Pledging vigilance . [1989 Hodgman, 1989+ Orange Diocese, 2005 college] - RCC. Cover-up. Accused, still teaching. Girl.
The Orange County Register, By ANN PEPPER, May 18, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Joelle Casteix is just back from a visit to the Midwestern college where the man she says abused her teaches.
She tried to tell the college president about Tom Hodgman, former choirmaster at Mater Dei High School. He told her she was vindictive and turned her away.
The release of Hodgman's records would have lent her credibility, but they were not made public Tuesday; the teacher petitioned to block them.
"I realize that while the battle in Orange County might be slowly coming to a close, the battle nationwide is only starting," she says
During the same trip, she lobbied in Ohio on behalf of a bill similar to the one that lifted the statute of limitations on abuse cases in California during 2002.
"The release of the documents is the ultimate goal in these cases. It is the only way people can see the scope of the cover-up," Casteix says.
• Sugar Grove man alleges sex abuse, sues ex-priest. [1982 Becker] - RCC. Boy.
Chicago Tribune, By Rita Hoover, Special to the Tribune, Published May 18, 2005
SUGAR GROVE (IL) - A Sugar Grove man who claims he was sexually abused in 1982 by a former priest has filed a civil suit against him and the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by Charles Linneman, 36, alleges that Franklyn Becker, who was defrocked in December, sexually molested him in 1982.
Linneman reportedly met Becker, 67, while attending St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lyons, Wis., in 1980. According to Linneman's attorney, Jeff Anderson, Becker was transferred out of the Lyons church that same year, but the priest invited Linneman to visit him at his new Milwaukee parish, where the sexual molestation allegedly took place.
According to Kathleen Hohl, archdiocese of Milwaukee communications director, church officials have taken appropriate action to alert the public about Becker.
In December, when Becker was officially removed from the priesthood, church officials contacted Dodge County Sheriff Todd M. Nehls about Becker's history and his residence in that Wisconsin county. Hohl said it is church policy to notify local law enforcement in such circumstances.
[COMMENT: Notifying the sheriff might be "church policy" now in some US dioceses, but the long-term official Vatican line is to keep "perpetual silence" (Crimen Sollicitationis). COMMENT ENDS.]
• Downstate priest tapped for bishop of Ft. Worth. - RCC.
Chicago Tribune, May 18, 2005
ILLINOIS -- In one of the first American appointments made by Pope Benedict XVI, an Illinois pastor has been named bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ft. Worth.
Monsignor Kevin Vann, 54, pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish and vicar for priests in Springfield, will work alongside and ultimately succeed Bishop Joseph Delaney, 70, of Ft. Worth, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003. His cancer is in remission.
"Naturally it is a big, unexpected change for me, but I trust in the providence of the Lord and that this is the place for me to be," Vann told the North Texas Catholic, the diocesan newspaper.
Vann, who has two graduate degrees in canon law, has become one of Illinois' leading judicial vicars and has participated in canonical proceedings for clergy accused of sexual abuse.
• LA judge rules to release files on 14 priests. - RCC. $US 100m. 14 released, 8 blocked at present.
San Luis Obispo Tribune, By LAURA WIDES, Associated Press, ~ May 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - A judge agreed Tuesday to release the files of 14 priests and one layperson from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange who were accused of sexual abuse. The files of eight other defendants were withheld.
The decision was heralded by alleged victims, who reached a record-breaking $100 million settlement with the diocese in December after nearly two years of negotiations.
As part of the agreement, the diocese agreed not to block the release of private files on the accused priests.
Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman based his decision on what he called the state's "compelling interest in protecting children from abuse." He said, however, that he would not release the files of eight priests who contested the release.
• Files show Catholic diocese knew of molest allegations against priests for years. - RCC. $US 100m. Four laymen, 19 priests. 15 files released, 8 withheld.
Monterey Herald, By LAURA WIDES, Associated Press, ~ May 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - Roman Catholic officials in Orange County knew for years of allegations of sexual misconduct against priests and lay workers but did little to warn parishioners or prevent future abuse, personnel files show.
The private personnel files of the 14 priests and one lay person were released Tuesday after Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman ruled that to do so was in the state's "compelling interest in protecting children from abuse." The files of five other priests and three lay teachers were withheld because those individuals contested the release.
The decision was heralded by the priests' accusers, who reached a record-breaking $100 million settlement with the diocese in December after nearly two years of negotiations. As part of that agreement, the diocese agreed not to block the release of private files on the accused priests and lay workers.
• SNAP protests St. Mary's pastor. [1980 Mickey] - RCC. 2 boys.
Jackson Sun, By WENDY ISOM, wisom@jacksonsun.com , May 18 2005
JACKSON (TN) - A victims' advocacy group has started a flier campaign against the pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson.
Members of SNAP, which stands for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, were in Jackson over the weekend passing out fliers and attached copies of alleged letters and public trial documents from the ongoing civil case against the Rev. Richard Mickey.
"We consider the reinstatement of Father Mickey to be a reckless disregard for diocesan policy as well as for the judicial process" is one of the statements in bold, black letters on the front of the flier.
Mickey was put on administrative leave last August following sexual abuse allegations that were made public. After an internal investigation by the diocese, Mickey was reinstated at St. Mary's in February.
Twin brothers Blain and Blair Chambers accuse Mickey of abusing them in 1980 when they were students at Bishop Byrne High School in Memphis, where Mickey was working as a counselor. Mickey, who was ordained as a priest in 1988, was a counselor to one of the teens and a religion instructor to the other, according to the lawsuit.
• Victims call for Congress to probe clergy sex abuse. - Various religions.
Boston Herald, http://news.boston herald.com/politics/ view.bg?articleid =83596 , By Marie Szaniszlo, Wednesday, May 18, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - A group of victims and their supporters are lobbying for congressional hearings into clergy sexual abuse, a crime that occurs in every religion, often facilitated, they say, by laws that vary from state to state.
"If they heard what I've heard, I believe Congress would be blown away," said John Harris, who says he was raped when he was a 21-year-old college student by the Rev. Paul Shanley, one of the central figures in the Archdiocese of Boston's scandal.
Harris was one of a half-dozen people who met Monday with U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston) to urge him to call for bipartisan hearings into the "epidemic" that became national news in 2001 with Boston's scandal, but is hardly unique to the Roman Catholic Church. Two former Jehovah's Witnesseses, for example, told Lynch how they were shunned when they spoke out against abuse in their own church.
Yesterday, the congressman said it was "too early to say what the best course of action is," but called their cases "compelling" reasons for considering a national approach, such as changing the federal statute of limitations for rape. [Emphasis added]
• Files: O.C. diocese did little to stem abuse. [Orange Diocese] - RCC. Diocese knew for years. 15 files unsealed. 8 others contested.
Press-Telegram, By Laura Wides and Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press, ~ May 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - Personnel files released Tuesday by court order show that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange knew for years of allegations of sexual misconduct against priests and lay workers but did little to warn parishioners or prevent future abuse.
The private personnel files of the 14 priests and one lay coach were released after Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman ruled that to do so was in the state's "compelling interest in protecting children from abuse." The files of five other priests and three lay teachers were withheld because they contested the release.
The decision was heralded by the priests' accusers, who reached a record-breaking $100 million settlement with the diocese in December after nearly two years. As part of that agreement, the diocese agreed not to block the release of private files on the accused priests and lay workers.
"This was a very important and historic decision," said Ray Boucher, an attorney for the plaintiffs. He said he would appeal the judge's decision to seal the remaining eight files.
Bishop Tod D. Brown welcomed the unsealing.
The settlement "was about taking moral responsibility for sins of the past that have caused suffering and pain," Brown wrote. "Today's release follows through on my commitment to the victims and their loved ones."
• Files: Calif. diocese knew of allegations. [Orange Diocese] - RCC. Diocese knew for years. $US 100m. 15 files unsealed. 8 others contested.
Contra Costa Times, By LAURA WIDES, Associated Press, ~ May 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - - Roman Catholic officials in Orange County knew for years of allegations of sexual misconduct against priests and lay workers but did little to warn parishioners or prevent future abuse, personnel files released Tuesday show.
The private personnel files of the 14 priests and one lay person were released by court order after a judge ruled the information could help the state protect children from abuse.
The hundreds of pages suggest the diocese knew as early as 30 years ago about alleged sexual misconduct among some of its clergy.
In many cases, priests were repeatedly referred for psychological treatment and counseling before finally being barred from the priesthood. Some were not barred but were sent instead to other dioceses.
The decision to release the documents was heralded by the priests' accusers, who reached a record-breaking $100 million settlement with the Orange County diocese in December after nearly two years of negotiations. As part of that agreement, the diocese agreed not to block release of files on accused priests and lay workers.
• Rev. Hargadon, imprisoned for sex abuse, dies . [1976+ Hargadon] - RCC. 3 boys.
The Courier-Journal, By Paula Burba and Gregory A. Hall, May 18, 2005
KENTUCKY - The Rev. James Hargadon, a Roman Catholic priest who was imprisoned at the Kentucky State Reformatory for sexually abusing three boys, died Monday. He was 77.
Hargadon died at Baptist Hospital Northeast in La Grange, said Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Corrections. He had been transferred from the prison to the hospital early Sunday morning, she said, and had a terminal illness that she declined to specify.
Today would have marked one year that Hargadon had served in the prison, Lamb said. He would have been eligible for parole in November, she said.
Hargadon was sentenced in Jefferson Circuit Court last June to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to sodomizing a 14-year-old boy in 1976 in the rectory of St. Polycarp Catholic Church in the Pleasure Ridge Park area, where he was pastor at the time.
• Orange Diocese Gives Details on Sex Abuse. [Orange Diocese; Andersen] - RCC. Diocese knew for years. $US 100m. 15 files unsealed. 8 others contested.
Los Angeles Times, By William Lobdell and Jean Guccione, May 18, 2005
CALIFORNIA - For more than two decades, officials in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange covered up for priests who molested children, shuffling predators from parish to parish and diocese to diocese, protecting them from prosecution and failing to warn parishioners of the danger, according to church documents released Tuesday.
More than 10,000 pages of letters, handwritten notes, memos and other documents detailing church actions were released from the personnel files of 15 priests and teachers as part of a court-approved $100-million settlement reached in December between the Orange Diocese and 90 alleged molestation victims. A judge ruled, however, that he was "powerless" to order the release of files on eight other priests and teachers.
According to the newly released documents, church officials dumped one serial molester in Tijuana. They welcomed a convicted child abuser from another state into their diocese, even though they knew he faced a new allegation. When he was accused once again, they sent him to a New Mexico rehabilitation center with a notation: "No one else will take you." And they offered a repeat abuser up to $19,000 to leave the priesthood quietly.
Even as they coddled abusive priests, church officials stonewalled and ostracized victims' families, the documents show.
"It is hard to believe that our spiritual leaders would knowingly sacrifice lives of innocent children ... to keep up the façade and [live] a lie," a woman wrote in a 1986 letter to Diocesan Administrator John T. Steinbock, now bishop of Fresno, after learning that Andrew Christian Andersen, a Huntington Beach priest who allegedly molested her son in 1983, had gone on to sexually abuse three more boys.
"How many more innocent children does he have to molest before something is done about this sick man!" she wrote.
The pattern of deception involved two bishops of Orange - William R. Johnson, now deceased, and Norman F. McFarland, who retired in 1998 - and Auxiliary Bishop Michael P. Driscoll, now bishop of Boise. It also involved Msgr. John Urell, then a top diocesan official and now pastor of St. Norbert Church in Orange. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:59 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed May 18, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu May 19, 2005 edition follows:-
• Catholic school shutting its doors in Waterbury. - RCC.
WFSB, www.wfsb.com/ Global/story. asp?S=3368939 , ~ May 19, 2005
WATERBURY (CT) -- After fifty-one years, a local Catholic school in Waterbury is shutting its doors.
Generations of children have come to Saint Lucy's, and parents say this is a sad day for a place that always welcomed kids.
The archdiocese says one of the big reasons why the school is closing is because the population is aging. They say the number of baptisms has fallen 77 percent over the last ten years.
According to the Department of Health, the number of births in Waterbury has dropped by half over the same period. Parents are saying the 22 hundred dollar a year tuition and the priest sex abuse scandals did not help either.
"People lost trust in the Catholic church", says parent Emerald Dasent. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:28 PM] [Emphasis added]
• The 'Sins' Of The Father. [1970s Andersen, 1987 Vatican] - RCC.
Orange County Weekly, by Gustavo Arellano, ~ May 19, 2005
Pope John Paul II knew.
CALIFORNIA - On May 17, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered their release.
Of the many shocking stories to emerge from the Orange diocese's recently released personnel files, one fact is likely to resonate around the world: The pope knew that Catholic priests were accused of molesting children as early as 1987--and apparently did nothing to stop the scandal.
That disturbing revelation is included in the papers of Father Andrew Christian Andersen. His file is included in the thousands of pages of documents released May 17 as part of the record-breaking $100 million settlement reached between the Orange diocese and its victims. Andersen pleaded guilty in 1986 to 26 counts of molesting four boys while working at St. Bonaventure in Huntington Beach.
One item in his file is an August 10, 1987, note to Orange diocesan officials from Monsignor Oscar Rizzato, then Secretariat of State for the Vatican. The Secretariat of State, as the Vatican's website describes it, is the arm of the Holy See's bureaucracy "which works most closely with the Supreme Pontiff in the exercise of his universal mission."
Rizzato's letter is brief: just an acknowledgement that the Vatican had received and was forwarding to Orange two letters from a non-Catholic outraged at the Orange diocese's handling of the Andersen case. As previously reported in the Weekly (see "Good Cop, Bad Church," Feb. 20, 2004), church officials stymied Huntington Beach police detectives who wanted to interview Andersen about the molestation claims.
The man, whose name has been redacted, said he was writing John Paul II "out of desperation and heartache." His letter describes the domestic havoc unleashed after a deacon abused his brother during the 1970s.
The man also expressed disappointment that many St. Bonaventure parishioners and church leaders continued to support Andersen--after he admitted to the molestation charges, even after officials sent him to the Paracletes facilities in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, a remote counseling center for the church's child-molesting priests.
• Four in 'cult-like' church charged with abusing children. [2000s Lamonica] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
The Advocate, www.2theadvocate. com/stories/051905/ new_ponchatoula 001.shtml , The Associated Press, May 19, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) -- Within the walls of Hosanna Church in this southeastern Louisiana town, children, dogs and cats were sexually abused by a minister and his "cult-like" group of members, authorities alleged.
So far, four people -- including a sheriff's deputy -- have been jailed and authorities say as many as a dozen adults may have been involved in victimizing as many as 24 children, ranging in age from infants to teens.
The case broke when church pastor Louis Lamonica walked into the sheriff's office Monday and allegedly started talking about the crimes and his involvement and giving the names of others.
"He said he was educating the children in sexual exploits and how to have sex," said Livingston Parish sheriff's Detective Stan Carpenter. "We didn't know how to take it. The man just came in off the street."
Lamonica, 45, was arrested and booked on two counts of aggravated rape and one count of crime against nature.
• Diocese bankruptcy closer to resolution. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC.
KVOA, http://kvoa.com /Global/story.asp ?S=3368931 &nav=HMO5a5DK , ~ May 19, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - There was a hearing Thursday morning in Federal Bankruptcy Court over how to settle sexual abuse claims against the Diocese of Tucson.
All major parties walked out of the courtroom predicting Tucson's Diocese could be the first in the country to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Lynne Cadigan, an attorney representing victims, says, "What happened today is all the major parties have reached an agreement."
Dioceses in Tucson, Portland and Spokane all filed for bankruptcy court protection after they were sued by people claiming sexual abuse by priests.
Now, it appears Tucson's church, victims and creditors could agree to a payment plan and a judge could approve it by July 14th.
• Beine defrocked by the Vatican. [1970s+ Beine] - RCC.
Post-Dispatch, By Robert Patrick, May/19/2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - Former school counselor and Roman Catholic priest James Beine has been defrocked by the Vatican, the St. Louis Archdiocese announced Thursday.
James Beine's name was on a list of just under 12 priests submitted to the Vatican in October of 2003, Archdiocesan spokesman Jamie Allman said by telephone Thursday.
The Archdiocese submitted Beine's name "for the welfare of all children and for the welfare of the Church," according to a news release.
"James Beine had credible allegations of sexual abuse ... going back 30 years," Allman said.
After then-Cardinal John J. Carberry revoked his priestly faculties in 1977, Beine started his own church.
• Sins of Our Fathers. - RCC. "Our Fathers" book and film.
Gay City News, By PAUL SCHINDLER, ~ May 19, 2005
"My work is always about when an institution is challenged, when philosophies and ideas clash," explained journalist and author David France during a breakfast interview earlier this week at an East Village coffee shop near his home.
That perspective offers one rubric for describing the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the American Roman Catholic Church over the past five years, but it merely hints at the scope of that tragedy inflicted upon thousands of victims or at the vitality and dedication that France brought to reporting the story in "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal." (Random House, 2004)
The book has become the basis of a Showtime original film premiering this Saturday that stars Ted Danson, Christopher Plummer, Brian Dennehy and Ellen Burstyn.
In two hours and 10 minutes, the film captures some of the greatest strengths of France's nearly 600-page narrative - its heartrending drama and its commitment to tell a complex, rather than simple story.
Cardinal Bernard Law, Boston's former archbishop, whose haughtiness and then despair is played by Plummer, is a remote autocrat shockingly aloof to the suffering of his flock and to the damage wrought by his overlooking of crimes. Law is forced to sit face-to-face with enraged working-class men who were victimized as children who refuse to address him as "father" never mind "your eminence."
• Imprisoned priest formally dismissed from clergy. [Beine] - RCC.
Belleville News-Democrat, By JIM SUHR, Associated Press, ~ May 19, 2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - A Roman Catholic priest who has opted to stay imprisoned while authorities challenge a court's tossing out of his convictions of sexual misconduct involving boys has been formally dismissed from the clergy, the Archdiocese of St. Louis announced Thursday.
Former Archbishop Justin Rigali initiated the often-lengthy laicization proceedings against James Beine in October 2003 "for the welfare of all children and for the welfare of the Church," the archdiocese said in a statement.
Beine, 63, was suspended from the priesthood in 1977 over allegations of sexual abuse, and in the mid-1990s St. Louis' archdiocese paid $110,000 to settle two lawsuits that alleged Beine sexually abused boys more than three decades earlier.
"James Beine has credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against him dating back 30 years," the archdiocese said.
Earlier this month, Beine was ordered freed on appeal bond by the Missouri Supreme Court, 10 days after it threw out convictions on charges that he exposed himself to boys in a restroom in a St. Louis grade school, where he worked as a counselor.
• Plaintiff, Stockton diocese reach $3 million agreement in O'Grady case. [O'Grady] - RCC. $US 10m so far. Boys.
Mercury News, By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press, ~ May 19, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton and lawyers for a victim of abuse by a former priest have agreed to settle a pending civil claim for $3 million, an attorney said Thursday.
The unidentified victim accused the diocese of failing to protect him from a known molester, Oliver O'Grady, who served as a priest at St. Anne's in Lodi in the 1970s. The diocese has already paid more than $10 million for claims involving O'Grady.
A statement from Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire said the diocese was pleased to "bring this matter to closure," and it looked forward to continuing "to reach fair and just resolutions for the victims of childhood sexual abuse."
The agreement was reached late Wednesday, according to plaintiff's lawyer John Manly. However, the victim did not give up his right to sue O'Grady as an individual. A trial was expected to begin this summer, Manly said.
"It's very clear that there were many priests, like Father O'Grady, who were serial pedophiles who spent as much time in ministry as they did hurting kids," Manly said. "My client's abuse is horrific and without his courage to come out of the shadows, none of this would have been possible."
• Goodwill Exec Resigns After Past Is Revealed. [1970s Worsley] - RCC.
KATU, www.katu.com/ stories/ 77261.html , By Bob Heye and KATU Web Staff, ~ May 19, 2005
PORTLAND, Ore. - A top executive with Portland's Goodwill Industry resigned suddenly on Thursday, just as news of admitted sexual abuse dating back to his days as a priest was revealed.
Jim Worsley, who was Director of Transitional Services at Goodwill, resigned shortly after his employer learned of his admission.
The case dates back 30 years to Worsley's time as a Catholic priest in Boise, Idaho.
"He acknowledged that there had been an allegation stemming from his tenure as a Catholic priest and he believed it would be in the best interest of our organization if he submitted his resignation," said Bob Barsocchini with Goodwill Industries of the Columbia-Willamette.
In the mid-1970s, Worsley was then Father Jim Worsley, a Catholic priest in Boise, Idaho.
• California diocese actively sought to hide abuse, report claims. [Ruhl, Hodgman; Orange Diocese] - RCC.
Detroit Free Press, May 19, 2005
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- Leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange scripted public statements to hide sexual misconduct involving a priest and a choir teacher, according to a newspaper account of sealed documents that were accidentally released.
The documents reveal the role of church officials in crafting statements to parishioners when the priest and teacher were forced to leave the diocese after acknowledging the misconduct, The Orange County Register reported Thursday.
Editor Ken Brusic said The Register decided to publish information from the documents -- over the objections of the diocese and the plaintiff's attorney who inadvertently released the files -- because clergy child abuse is a "matter of compelling public interest."
"We obtained the documents legally, and found they contained new and important information," Brusic said in a note accompanying the story.
The material published by the paper includes information on the Rev. John E. Ruhl and Thomas Hodgman, a former teacher at the diocese's Mater Dei High School. Hodgman has publicly claimed he is innocent; Ruhl has refused to comment.
• Contract for diocese audits is approved. [Manchester Diocese] - RCC.
The Union Leader, By GARRY RAYNO, ~ May 19, 2005
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE - The Executive Council yesterday approved a contract to perform long-stalled audits of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.
Annual audits are part of a 2002 agreement between the attorney general and the diocese to avoid criminal prosecution under the state's child endangerment statutes.
Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said the audit is needed to ensure the church has a policy in place that protects children. "This is a very important matter," she told the council.
The extent of the four annual audits and who would pay for them was litigated in Hillsborough County Superior Court. In March, Judge Carol A. Conboy ruled the state and the diocese should split the cost of the audits.
She also ruled the state could evaluate the effectiveness of the diocese's child protection policies without threatening the church's First Amendment or due process rights.
• Tucson diocese to auction properties Saturday to settle suits. - RCC. 85 properties for auction.
AZCentral.com Associated Press, 09:25 AM, May 19, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson will hold a public auction Saturday of 85 properties.
The money raised will be use to help pay victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Meanwhile, the judge handling the diocese's bankruptcy case has been told that most parties in the case have reached agreement about settlement terms between the diocese and abuse victims.
• More light in dark corners. [< 1976 Widera] - RCC. Boy.
The Orange County Register, May 19, 2005
CALIFORNIA - As expected, many of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange's once- secret personnel files were released on Tuesday, and the facts inside the files prove what church critics have long argued: Church leaders knew about priests who had molested and raped children, yet they continued to let them serve as priests where they could continue to prey on the youngest, most vulnerable members of the community.
Orange Bishop Tod Brown at a Tuesday news conference called the documents "painful testimony" and earlier responses by the diocese "inadequate and failed."
Even when the diocese had to face up to its actions and inaction, officials there downplayed what they knew. "The files show that diocesan officials knew that at least three priests they accepted to work in Orange County had previously been in trouble for sexual abuse of children in other dioceses," reported the Register.
For instance, officials had said they knew the Rev. Siegfried Widera, who came to Orange County in 1976, had a "moral problem with a boy," "[b]ut the records released on Tuesday show, for the first time, that church leaders knew much more than that." The Rev. Widera was accused of abusing boys in Milwaukee and was even convicted of child molestation, yet the diocese misled the public.
The scandal isn't just something from the distant past, the records also show.
• Local victim in film about sexual abuse. - RCC. "Holy Water-Gate" film
Observer-Tribune, By MARIA VOGEL-SHORT, May/19/2005
MENDHAM TWP, NEW JERSEY - A former township man who has become a leading figure in the fight to stop sexual abuse by clergy members is featured in an award-winning documentary to be shown tonight.
The former township man, Mark Seranno, 41, was sexually assaulted as a nine-year-old child by James Hanley, the former pastor at St. Joseph Church in Mendham who has since surrendered his clerical collar.
Serrano now lives in Virginia and will be featured in the documentary entitled "Holy Water-Gate: Abuse Cover-up in the Catholic Church," which will premiere at 10 p.m., today, Thursday, on Showtime Network.
The 56-minute documentary examines the priest's sexual abuse scandal and the cover-up of the abuse by clergy.
It is a companion program to Showtime's original picture, "Our Father," starring Christopher Plummer and Ted Danson.
• Papers show Idaho bishop protected abusive priests. [Orange Diocese] - RCC.
Idaho Statesman, by Bill Roberts and Gregory Hahn, ~ May 19, 2005
IDAHO - Idaho Catholic Bishop Michael P. Driscoll was one of several high ranking church officials who brought a priest with a complaint of sexual misconduct into a southern California diocese and moved another priest when a complaint of sexual misconduct arose, according to documents made public Tuesday.
Driscoll served as chancellor in the Orange Diocese between 1976 and 1987 and he was responsible for clergy personnel matters. He was named the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise in 1999.
In 2002 as the priest scandal exploded nationwide, Driscoll apologized for mistakes in handling priest sexual misconduct matters. He issued a second apology earlier this month documents were about to be released.
"I ... apologize to the victims who were harmed by priests in the Diocese of Orange and for my role in these cases," Driscoll wrote in a prepared statement before the documents were released. "I am ashamed that this happened. The focus at the time was to provide help to priests so they could continue in their vocations. I know know that our priorities were horribly misplaced."
• Pastor's church trial canceled after deal. [Martin] - Methodist. Female.
Indianapolis Star, By Robert King, robert.king@indystar.com , May 19, 2005
INDIANA - A rare United Methodist church trial scheduled to begin today was averted after a Jeffersonville minister and the woman who accused him of sexual harassment reached an agreement that resulted in the charges being withdrawn.
The agreement means the Rev. Larry Martin, pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Jeffersonville, is eligible to return to the ministry. If he had been found guilty at a public trial, Martin could have been defrocked.
Martin could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But the Rev. Mark Dicken, pastor of Newburgh United Methodist Church and a former attorney who was to defend Martin at the trial, said the agreement was the result of talks that had been going on for months.
"We're all very happy that we are able to resolve this in a mutually agreed manner within the church. That's always a good thing," Dicken said. "The church was able to take care of its own business."
Methodist officials said they have no record of a church trial ever having been conducted in Indiana, where Methodists have more than 200 years of history.
• Church trial called off; late settlement reached. [Martin] - Methodist. Female.
The Courier-Journal, By Alex Davis, alexdavis@courier-journal.com , May 19, 2005
INDIANA - A last-minute deal was reached yesterday to avoid a rare church trial for a Jeffersonville pastor accused of sexual harassment.
The trial for the Rev. Larry Martin, pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church, was scheduled to begin this morning in New Albany before a jury of 13 clergy members.
No details of the charges -- or the settlement of the case -- were released. But Martin, if convicted, could have lost his ordination as a minister.
Some members of Martin's church reacted yesterday with a sense of relief.
"Yes, yes," said Eugenia Stover. "It is very much a sigh of relief."
The trial would have cost the United Methodist Church an estimated $20,000 to $30,000 for travel, lodging and legal advice, said Daniel Gangler, its director of communications in Indianapolis.
• Diocese warns tutor's companion is ex-priest. [Warren] - RCC. Females.
Toledo Blade, By ROBIN ERB, May 19, 2005
TOLEDO (OH) - The Toledo Catholic Diocese this week warned its school principals not to recommend a tutoring service in their school newsletters.
The problem is not the former teacher who offers the tutoring.
It's her companionship with former priest Chet Warren, who has been accused of sexually assaulting children. Among his accusers are Teresa Bombrys, to whom Bishop Leonard Blair publicly apologized this year for Mr. Warren's "grievously sinful and criminal" acts, and Barbara Blaine, founder of the national Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
The women said they were abused by Mr. Warren when he was assigned to St. Pius X Church in West Toledo.
"The concern is that we're aware of the fact [the teacher is] either living with, or quite often has someone we know is a child molester, on the premises when she's tutoring children," said Carolyn Schmidbauer, the diocese's assistant superintendant for school services.
• Greek Orthodox priest defrocked following sex abuse allegations. [1970s Barrow] - Greek Orthodox.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Associated Press, ~ May 19, 2005
HOUSTON (TX) - A Greek Orthodox priest who is also a retired Houston school district official has been defrocked after an investigation of alleged sex abuse in Ohio in the 1970s.
Gabriel Barrow was suspended last year from priestly duties at St. John the Theologian Greek Orthodox Church in Webster, a Houston suburb, after the claims surfaced.
Now, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey has ordered Barrow permanently removed from the priesthood, said Nikki Stephanopoulos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
• Sealed records show cover-ups. [Ruhl, Hodgman] - RCC.
The Orange County Register, By TONY SAAVEDRA, RACHANEE SRISAVASDI and CHRIS KNAP, May 19, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Former Bishop Norman McFarland and other Catholic leaders scripted plans to cover up admitted sexual abuse that led to the resignations of a Placentia pastor and a Mater Dei High School teacher, according to sealed personnel files that are part of a $100 million settlement by the diocese.
For the first time, documents reveal that the Rev. John E. Ruhl and school choir director Thomas Hodgman confessed their misconduct to church officials more than a decade ago. Hodgman for years has publicly claimed innocence, while Ruhl has refused to comment.
In both cases, records show, the church removed the men once they received a public complaint but orchestrated carefully worded plans to hide why they had been dismissed. Both were said to have resigned for personal reasons.
A different story emerges from sealed documents inadvertently given to The Orange County Register, documents that were mixed in with others approved for release by the court. The Register is publishing these papers to give a fuller picture of how the church handled those accused of molestation.
"These documents have existed for how long?" said Claudia Vercelloti, head of the Toledo chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Hodgman now teaches at Adrian College in Michigan, near Toledo.
"They have been hiding these records, when they knew what was going on," she said. "They turned a child molester out on another state."
• Priest sentenced for sex abuse. [Liberatore] - RCC. Probation. Boy.
Scranton Times, By Edward Lewis, May/19/2005
WILKES-BARRE (PA) -- A diocesan priest was sentenced to five years probation Wednesday after admitting to sexually assaulting a teenage boy while serving at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea.
Albert M. Liberatore Jr., 41, Scranton, pleaded guilty to three counts each of indecent assault and corruption of minors, and one count each of endangering the welfare of children and furnishing alcohol to minors.
Prosecutors said no sentencing deal was made with Mr. Liberatore's lawyers, Joseph Cosgrove and Larry Moran.
First Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll said sentencing was at the discretion of Luzerne County President Judge Michael Conahan and that criminal offenses did not meet the criteria of the state's Megan's Law.
District Attorney David W. Lupas said the victim, now 20, was satisfied with Mr. Liberatore's guilty plea.
• Ex-priest guilty of sex offense, theft. [? < 2003 Bussmann] - RCC. Woman.
Pioneer Press, BY BETH SILVER, ~ May 19, 2005
ST. PAUL (MN) - A former Roman Catholic priest from St. Paul was convicted Thursday of sexual misconduct and theft involving a former church employee and parishioner.
After a weeklong trial and a day of deliberations, a Hennepin County jury found John Joseph Bussmann, 51, guilty of two felony counts of theft, one count of sexual misconduct and one count of indecent exposure.
Bussmann also is charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct involving two other female parishioners. Those cases are scheduled to go to trial in July.
All of the incidents reportedly involve women Bussmann counseled at St. Walburga in Fletcher, Minn., and St. Marin in Rogers, Minn. The parishes later merged to form Mary Queen of Peace in Rogers.
Bussmann, who was ordained in 1980, was removed as a priest in March 2003.
• The Long and Difficult Road to Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse.
FindLaw By MARCI HAMILTON, hamilton02@aol.com , Thursday, May. 19, 2005
UNITED STATES: Over the last decade, concern about childhood sexual abuse has grown.
Megan's Laws -- which put convicted sex offenders on public registers, so that parents can know if a neighbor has a record -- have become popular. Child abuse reporting statutes that mandate that certain professionals contact the state with knowledge of child abuse have also been passed.
And of course - in the most high-profile development - suits against clergy and religious institutions for childhood sexual abuse have been filed, and their filing has sent shock waves through the Catholic Church and (as I will discuss below) other religious institutions.
Even the press - which was unforgivably lax in covering this issue -- is starting to cover children's issues as though they are an important part of public policy.
What are the reasons for this trend? One is that experience has shown that pedophiles are incurable. It is a sexual predisposition, not a treatable psychological condition.
Another is that society has come to recognize that children have a great deal of trouble telling others about their victimization, and that, later in life, they suffer serious ill-effects from abuse. The victim pays for life, and society pays in lost capacities and contributions.
• California Diocese's Documents Show Abuse Cover-Up. [1985+ Ramos] - RCC. 25 boys.
The New York Times, By NICK MADIGAN, Published May 19, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA), May 18 - Thousands of pages of confidential church documents detailing sexual abuses by priests in Orange County, Calif., were released this week, exposing the extent to which clergy members, one of them now a bishop elsewhere, concealed accusations of abuse.
In the documents, unveiled Tuesday under a court order after a $100 million settlement of charges involving 90 accusers, senior officials of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County were shown to have routinely moved priests and church employees accused of sexual misconduct from parish to parish, usually without warning anyone of the extent of the accusations against them and often providing glowing reports of their abilities. At the same time, the documents show, families that complained of certain priests' behavior toward their children were often ignored or told lies.
In one case, the Rev. Eleuterio Ramos, who admitted to the police in 2003 that he had molested at least 25 boys, including involvement in the gang-rape of a boy in a San Diego hotel room in 1984, was transferred in 1985 to a parish in Tijuana, Mexico, where the Orange County Diocese continued to send him a monthly paycheck and pay his car expenses. The Tijuana Diocese was not informed of the full extent of the priest's abuses, according to the documents. Father Ramos died last year.
Against objections from church officials, Judge Peter D. Lichtman of Los Angeles Superior Court ordered the Orange County Diocese, which has more than a million parishioners, to release personnel files, letters between church leaders and psychological reports of priests, although the diocese, citing privacy concerns, succeeded in withholding parts of some priests' files. Lawyers for some plaintiffs said they would appeal.
• Sins of the 'Fathers': Showtime film spotlights Boston's priest sexual abuse scandal. [Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. "Our Fathers" docufilm.
Boston Herald, By Sarah Rodman, Updated: 12:52 AM EST, Thursday, May 19, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - If your heart hasn't already been broken by the priest sex abuse scandal, then Showtime's strong film "Our Fathers" will finish the job.
Based on Newsweek editor David France's book "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal," the two-hour film, airing Saturday at 8 p.m., tells the now well-known story of the cover-up of predatory Catholic priests shuffled from parish to parish in the Boston diocese, leaving scores of damaged children in their wake.
Any tragedy is tough to turn into "entertainment," but this one is particularly difficult - especially for local viewers.
Fortunately, director Dan Curtis and a strong cast manage to avoid playing this as a seedy, exploitative movie of the week. (Curtis did similarly sober work during the Holocaust portion of his miniseries "War and Remembrance.")
Much as the Hub-centered "A Civil Action" did, "Our Fathers" uses as its entry point a lawyer who fought on behalf of the victims, in this case, Mitchell Garabedian (Ted Danson). (Unlike "Action," the Showtime film was shot in Canada.)
• Priest defrocked in '70s sex abuse case. [1970s Barrow] - Greek Orthodox.
Houston Chronicle, By TARA DOOLEY, News Services, ~ May 19, 2005
HOUSTON (TX) - A Greek Orthodox priest and retired Houston school district official has been defrocked by church leaders after an investigation into sexual abuse allegations stemming from incidents in the 1970s in Ohio.
Gabriel Barrow, who was suspended from duties at St. John the Theologian Church in Webster last year, was permanently removed from the priesthood, said Nikki Stephanopoulos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Calls to Barrow and St. John the Theologian were not returned.
Barrow also worked as an instructional supervisor in the northeast office of the Houston Independent School District until he retired in August, said spokesman Terry Abbott.
He started at HISD in 1979 as a history teacher at Barbara Jordan High School.
The district has said Barrow had a "spotless" record.
• No. 2 priest wants his job back. [1970s Shafer] - RCC. Boy.
Quad-City Times, By Todd Ruger, ~ May 19, 2005
DAVENPORT (IA) - The second-ranking priest in the Catholic Diocese of Davenport - on leave pending the resolution of a civil lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused a minor in the 1970s - wants to continue working for the diocese now that the lawsuit has been settled, his attorney said.
Monsignor Drake Shafer, the diocese's vicar general, never has done anything but deny the allegation by a West Burlington, Iowa, man identified in court records only as "John Doe," the only allegation in his 30 years as a priest, attorney Peter Fieweger said Tuesday.
"He is going to do everything in his power to get back into his full priestly functions," Fieweger said the day after he received paperwork that the case is officially dismissed.
The diocese said its Review Board will look at the allegation against Shafer when it receives final word on the lawsuit's resolution.
• Former priest pleads guilty to sexual assault. [? 1997 Liberatore] - RCC. Freed on probation. Boy.
Citizens Voice, By Edward Lewis, Staff Writer May/19/2005
PENNSYLVANIA - A former Roman Catholic priest admitted in Luzerne County Court on Wednesday to sexually assaulting a teenage boy while stationed at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea.
Albert M. Liberatore Jr., 41, Scranton, was sentenced to five-years' probation by President Judge Michael Conahan after pleading guilty to three counts each of indecent assault and corruption of minors, and one count each of endangering the welfare of children and furnishing alcohol to minors.
Prosecutors emphasized that no deal was made with Liberatore's lawyers, Joseph Cosgrove and Larry Moran, on sentencing.
First Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll said that sentencing was at the discretion of Judge Conahan and that the criminal offenses did not meet the criteria of the state's Megan's Law.
"This was not a plea agreement; he pleaded guilty to all the offenses levied against him," Musto Carroll said.
District Attorney David W. Lupas said the victim, now 20 years old, was satisfied with Liberatore's guilty plea.
• Albany man claims priest violated him. [1970s Maher] - RCC. Boy.
Troy Record, By Robert Cristo, May/19/2005
ALBANY (NY) - Allegations of sexual abuse were leveled Wednesday against a priest from Holy Cross Church who also spent nearly 20 years at Sacred Heart Church in Watervliet.
Thomas Clements III, 44, of Albany, claims that Rev. Daniel J. Maher raped him twice in the early 1970s during weekend trips to a Saratoga Lake camp.
Clements was 12 years old when the alleged incidents took place, and said he first met Maher when he was an altar boy at St. Frances de Sales church in West Albany, where Maher spent 10 years as a priest before moving to Sacred Heart in 1974.
Clements' attorney, John Aretakis, filed a $2 million lawsuit against the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese in state Supreme Court in Saratoga County this week.
Clements, an Albany native, said the media attention surrounding clergy sex abuse cases over the past few years reignited his pain.
• Pope's test: women's place in ministry. - RCC.
Newsday, BY ANGELA BONAVOGLIA, May 19, 2005
Angela Bonavoglia is the author of "Good Catholic Girls: How Women Are Leading the Fight to Change the Church."
UNITED STATES - There is a new face of Catholic ministry in the United States, and it is female. With the crushing shortage of Catholic priests worldwide, maintaining the commitment of Catholic women to ministry is one of the most important challenges facing the new pope.
More than 80 percent of the nearly 30,000 Catholics in lay paid parish ministry in the United States are female. They pastor priestless parishes. They serve as directors of religious education and family ministers. Seventy percent of the members of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains are women, too; they work in hospitals, hospices, universities and prisons. ...
To keep Catholic ministry alive, Benedict XVI must respond to women's concerns. Recognizing the profound disagreement among leading theologians about the church's ban on women's ordination to the priesthood, he could respectfully resist the temptation to declare that ban an infallible teaching, which no previous pope did.
He could at least ordain women deacons. He could lead an effort to guarantee just wages and working conditions for women in ministry. He could ensure sexual safety for Catholic women and their children by addressing the crisis of priest sexual abuse and exploitation worldwide.
• Files on Some Accused Priests May Remain Sealed. - RCC. Predators win partial victory.
Los Angeles Times, By Jean Guccione, May 19, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Alleged victims of pedophile priests celebrated when secret files showing Diocese of Orange officials had covered up for abusive priests were released Tuesday. But their triumph came at a cost.
Though Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter D. Lichtman allowed lawyers for accusers to open 15 files to the public, the judge had said he was "powerless" to order the release of information on eight accused priests and educators who objected to the diocese disclosing their secrets.
The ruling could mean that hotly contested files - including the ones Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles has been fighting to conceal for two years - will remain sealed forever unless alleged victims mount costly legal battles.
"It's a triumph for the predators and those who protect them," said Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., lawyer who specializes in clergy sex-abuse cases.
The Los Angeles accusers had been trying to negotiate an out-of-court settlement just like the Orange Diocese's record $100-million pact - one that would include money and full disclosure of church files, they said.
But after eight priests and educators objected that their privacy rights would be violated if the information got out, Lichtman said he couldn't order the release because he had no jurisdiction over the settled cases.
• Many Want Disclosures in O.C. Diocese Emulated. - RCC. Former White House man, Judge, urge full disclosure.
Los Angeles Times, By William Lobdell and Teresa Watanabe, May 19, 2005
CALIFORNIA - As the faithful try to absorb painful revelations from newly released church documents about Orange County priests who sexually abused children, some national Roman Catholic leaders are renewing pleas that all U.S. bishops, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, make public the files of other priests accused in the national scandal.
"What really concerns me is, instead of really disclosing what has taken place and having the church be transparent ... here is this continuing fight to protect against disclosure, and in the end it hurts the church that much more," said Leon Panetta, who was White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton and later served on the U.S. bishops' national review board that investigated sexual abuse by clergy.
"There wasn't just one Cardinal [Bernard] Law in this country," added Panetta, referring to the Boston prelate who resigned in 2002 after documents showed that he had protected serial molesters. "There were others doing the same thing - shifting around people and ignoring the threat they posed."
Justice Anne M. Burke of the Illinois Appellate Court, who served on the same bishops' review board, also called for the release of such files nationwide. "I urge them not to fight this anymore," she said. "Release the documents, say you're sorry, and move forward so this will never happen again."
More than 10,000 documents about Orange County cases were made public Tuesday as part of a $100-million settlement reached in December with 90 alleged victims. The files from accused priests show that top diocesan officials in Orange County kept known molesters in churches with no warning to parishioners, ignored allegations of sexual abuse and failed to report the criminal acts to police.
• A holy outrage. [O'Grady] - RCC. "Our Fathers" docufilm.
San Bernardino Sun, By Valerie Kuklenski, ~ May 19, 2005
UNITED STATES - The scandalous epidemic of priests sexually molesting children that came to light in Boston in 2002 may seem like old news to a public that has moved on to other headlines such as Michael Jackson's trial.
But the subject always will be raw for the survivors violated by such trusted figures, the relatives who cope with their emotional baggage, and the teachers and bosses of those survivors who cannot earn their trust.
Showtime's dramatization of the most notorious cases, "Our Fathers," debuts Saturday as recent headlines serve as reminders of the scope of the problem.
Last week, a videotaped deposition by former Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady surfaced, showing him describing his seduction technique that led to multiple assaults on young children in Stockton while Cardinal Roger Mahony was the bishop there.
And voluminous files released this week related to the $100 million settlement between the Orange Diocese and 90 plaintiffs show bishops there also covered up for and transferred known pedophile priests for more than two decades.
• Reverend avoids jail in abuse case. [1994-2004 Liberatore] - RCC. Altar boy.
Times Leader, By DAVID WEISS, dweiss@leader.net , ~ May 19, 2005
WILKES-BARRE (PA) - The Rev. Albert Liberatore avoided prison and becoming a Megan's Law offender despite pleading guilty to fondling a teenage altar boy.
The 41-year-old Liberatore on Wednesday admitted to giving the boy alcohol and molesting him during overnight stays at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church rectory in Duryea from 1999 to 2004.
The plea led to Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Conahan sentencing Liberatore, of Scranton, to five years probation.
Liberatore still faces more serious charges of sodomy and sexual abuse in New York City. His next court date in that case, which involves the same boy, is scheduled for June 15 in Manhattan.
Liberatore, who was charged last year, met the teen through a youth group in 1999. The boy was 13 at the time.
Local investigators have said Liberatore showered the teen with gifts, such as money and a computer, and pleaded with the teen to break up with his girlfriend and "give in to his gay feelings."
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu May 19, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri May 20, 2005 edition follows:-
• Pastor Rounded Up in Alleged Abuse. - Religion not named. 24 children, animals.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), The Associated Press, May 20, 2005
PONCHATOULA, La.- The pastor of what authorities called a "cult-like" church has been arrested in an investigation of possible sexual abuse of up to two dozen children.
The pastor's wife, a sheriff's deputy, and five other church members were also arrested on sex charges this week, and all remained in custody without bond Friday.
The alleged victims ranged in age from infants to teens, officials said. Animal abuse was also alleged.
The roundup came after a woman called sheriff's deputies five weeks ago from Columbus, Ohio, to say that she had fled Louisiana out of fear for her child, authorities said. She and her husband were among those arrested. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:10 PM]
• The Legion of Christ: Hope for the Church? [1940s+ Legion of Christ.] - RCC.
ReGain, www.regainnetwork. org/article.php ?a=47245903 , ~ May 20, 2005
In the unsettled atmosphere of a Church rocked to its core by clerical sexual abuse scandals, Catholics, facing a dearth of priestly vocations, anxiously cast about for signs of hope.
Until recently, one of those signs has been the Legion of Christ. Spurred on by Pope John Paul II's demonstrative approval of Father Maciel, the Legion's founder, the Rome based religious order has made enormous inroads in certain U.S. circles.
Founded in Mexico in 1941 by Marciel Maciel Degollado when he was a seminarian, the Legion now claims 500 priests, another 2,500 seminarians, eleven universities and over 150 prep schools worldwide.
Legionary priests serve in the United States. The order operates a seminary and novitiate in Connecticut. The lay movement associated with the Legion is called Regnum Christi.
But today the luster surrounding the Legion is showing tarnish. There are skirmishes between Legionaries and lay people over schools.
Three U. S. dioceses have forbidden the Legion to operate within their environs: the Diocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Archbishop Harry Flynn, Columbus, OH, Bishop Emertius James A. Griffin, and Baton Rouge, LA, Bishop Robert Muench.
The Legion and its auxiliary lay movement, Regnum Christi, are coming under fire from former members. They accuse the order of manipulation, mind-control, and subversive tactics that could rise to the level of a cult.
Former Legionaries and Regnum Christi members have formed a network, ReGain. Through ReGain's web site , which features news articles and personal testimonies, members say they seek to inform the public of the true nature of the Legion's policies and practices as well as to provide healing and reintegration for those psychologically damaged by the order. ( www.regainnetwork.org )
The most explosive situation for the Legion of Christ, however, is the charges made by a number of former Legionary priests that Father Maciel sexually abused them for years beginning when they were children in the Legion's minor seminaries.
In the United States, the Legion has operated an almost a subterranean existence in Connecticut since the middle sixties. Very little was known about them until the past ten years.
In the early 1990s, a Hartford Courant journalist, George Renner, attempted to interview the Rev. Anthony Bannon, the Legion's national director for a story on the seminary.
Bannon's unexpected refusal to talk to a journalist peaked Renner's interest, and he began to look more closely at the order.
When Renner wrote an article about the Legion in a March 25, 1996 issue of the Courant, he began receiving phone calls about the secretive Cheshire seminary where "200 young men in black cassocks do preparatory studies for the priesthood before further schooling in Spain and Italy."
After meeting with several former seminarians, all of whom complained of being ensnared in a closed system and subjected to fierce control and brainwashing, Renner wrote more extensively about the Legion's strange practices.
• Advent of Abuse. [1980s Wittlake, Nelson] - Seventh-day Adventist Church. Boy.
Gtweekly, by Laurel Chesky, May 18, 2005
CALIFORNIA - It's difficult to watch a grown man cry.
It's downright gut-wrenching to watch a man like Michael Weston cry. Broad-faced, strong-jawed, with intense eyes shaded by thick eyebrows and his baseball cap on backwards, Weston personifies tough. He's also articulate and expressive. His entire face engages when he speaks. He squints to stress a point. He lilts and tosses his head, Bill-Murray-esque, to punctuate the irony of a statement. His eyes burn incredulous as he recalls painful memories. And he cries. Big, unrelenting tears flow down his face when he talks about it.
"He grabbed my hand with incredible force; he was actually pretty strong," Weston says. "I remember he had strong forearms, and he grabbed my hand and he placed my hand ... [here's where Weston breaks down and begins to cry] ... he placed my hand on his genitals and he started to -- he was already erect and he was already excited and I didn't know what to do and he had such an iron grip on my hand -- he started masturbating himself with my hand. And then I started to fight and told him to stop, and I got very upset and started to stiffen up and started to squeeze on him a little bit, and he didn't like that and he got very angry. Mr. Wittlake violently tore away my pants or underwear or whatever I was wearing and he tried, you know, he put his mouth on me and tried to get me aroused, and ... I wasn't at all aroused. What went through my mind at the time was, 'Oh my God, he knows about Nelson and he's pissed off that Nelson got me first.' He, uh, then he just started, he started, you know, he just, you know, he just, f*cked, he f*cked me, like that."
Welcome to Weston's nightmare.
Weston attended high school at Monterey Bay Academy in La Selva Beach, for just one semester back in the 1980s. But that was plenty of time for two teachers, Ron Wittlake and Lowell Nelson, to repeatedly sexually molest Weston, according to Weston's testimony and a complaint filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Monterey Bay Academy is run by the Central California Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Weston, now in his late thirties, was born into a devout Adventist family and grew up a faithful Adventist. His father is a pastor in the church.
• 7 Members of Louisiana Church Charged With Abuse of Children. [~ 1998] - Religion. Children, animals.
The New York Times, By ARIEL HART, Published May 20, 2005
LOUISIANA - The pastor of a Louisiana church and six of its members, including the pastor's wife and a sheriff's deputy, have been arrested in what the police described as a cult-like sex ring that abused children and animals.
All seven are being held on charges of aggravated rape, including rape of a child younger than 13, which can be prosecuted as a capital crime in the state, the authorities said.
Five other adults were identified yesterday as "persons of interest" at a meeting of seven law enforcement agencies, including the F.B.I., said Deputy Chuck Reed, a spokesman for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office.
Deputy Reed said the police wanted to interview as many as 24 children as possible victims in incidents that might date to 1998.
• More Arrests Made in Case of Bizarre Sex Ring. [2000s Fontenot, Ms Bernard, Bernard III, Ms Lamonica, Lamonica, Pierson, Labat] - Religion. Children, dogs, cats.
WAFB, www.wafb.com/ Global/story. asp?s=3368964 , ~ May 20, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) - Eight people have now been arrested in connection with the church based sex cult in Tangipahoa Parish. That includes four more suspects who were booked Thursday. Three of the suspects are women. Authorities say many children were raped at that church, as well as dogs and cats.
21-year old Paul Fontenot of Ponchatoula was arrested and faces a charge of aggravated rape of a juvenile. 36-year-old Nicole Bernard also faces that same charge. She was picked up by the FBI in Ohio. Nicole Bernard is the former wife of Austin Bernard the third, who's also been arrested in this investigation.
45-year old Robin Lamonica is the wife of the former pastor of the Hosana Church in Ponchatoula. She is also charged with raping a child. Investigators say Lamonica had sex with a young boy from the time he was four until he was 13-years-old.
Four other people were already in custody, including 46-year-old Allen Pierson. Detectives say he had sex with a girl when she was nine or ten years old. The other three suspects in custody are former Tangipahoa deputy Christopher Labat, church pastor Louis Lamonica and Austin "Trey" Bernard the third. All face sex charges.
• Voice of the Faithful hires director. - RCC. Ray Joyce to lead.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 20, 2005
NEWTON (MA) - Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay organization that formed during the clergy sex abuse crisis in Boston, has hired a new executive director.
The reform group hired Ray Joyce to fill the vacancy left by Steve Krueger, the founding executive director who resigned in late September to pursue other interests, spokeswoman Suzanne Morse said.
A key role for Joyce, who started work May 9, will be to increase the group's national profile, she said.
"That's always been the idea - to increase our visibility as a social movement across the country," Morse said.
• Priest convicted of child pornography hired by diocese. [Poster] - RCC. Child porn.
Courier, May 20, 2005
IOWA CITY (IA) (AP) --- A Roman Catholic priest who was convicted last year of using a church computer to download child pornography has been hired on to the maintenance staff at the Davenport Diocese, church officials say.
The Rev. Richard Poster, the former director of liturgy and publisher of the newspaper for the diocese, pleaded guilty in August 2003 to receiving pictures of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He was sentenced to one year in federal prison and was released earlier this year.
Although Poster remains a priest, he is barred from any ministerial duties pending a Vatican decision whether he should be defrocked.
Diocese spokesman David Montgomery said Poster was hired by a diocese review board to perform maintenance duties at the Diocesan Pastoral Center in Davenport. His employment includes several conditions, including direct supervision and no contact with children.
"Father Poster will be assigned job duties that are consistent with special conditions of his release, as required by his probation officer," Montgomery said. "He has direct supervision ... without access to computers."
• Adrian College stands by choir chief. [1989 Hodgman, 1989+ Orange Diocese, 2005 Adrian College] - RCC. "Bogus." Impregnated and infected girl.
Toledo Blade, May 20, 2005
OHIO - Calling Thomas Hodgman "an exemplary faculty member," Adrian College officials yesterday stood by their choir director, a day after the unintended release of documents that indicate he admitted to having a sexual relationship with a California high school student 16 years ago.
Mr. Hodgman resigned his position at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana., Calif., in 1989 because of the relationship, according to documents obtained by The Blade.
In January, Adrian students learned about the allegations against Mr. Hodgman when the Diocese of Orange County, of which Mater Dei is part, agreed to settle lawsuits with dozens of alleged victims of sexual abuse.
Among those accused was Mr. Hodgman, whom former student Joelle Casteix said had carried on a relationship with her, gotten her pregnant, and passed on a sexually transmitted disease.
Ms. Casteix is now an outspoken critic of the Orange County diocese's handling of sex abuse cases and wondered why the man she said was her abuser, Mr. Hodgman, was working as a choir director at the southeast Michigan school.
Mr. Hodgman, who has repeatedly declined to return Blade calls, had initially called the case "bogus." He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
• Two men say they were molested by priests . [1980-83 Ferraro, 1970-71 Christian] - RCC. Boys.
Post-Dispatch, ~ May 20, 2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - Two men sued the St. Louis Archdiocese Thursday claiming that as young boys, Roman Catholic priests sexually abused them.
Both lawsuits say the church should have protected them from abuse and that the church should have known that Rev. Romano Ferraro and Rev. Norman Christian were dangerous.
The lawsuit filed by John Doe GS, a computer industry worker who lives in the St. Louis area, says Ferraro molested him multiple times between 1980 and 1983, while Romano was at St. Joan of Arc Parish.
The lawsuit filed by John Doe 111C says that Christian fondled him in 1970 to 1971, when the boy was 11 to 12 years old. Christian was at Sacred Heart Church in Crystal City, the suit says.
• Returning Spotlight to Sins in Boston. [Law] - RCC. "Our Fathers" docufilm.
The New York Times, By ALESSANDRA STANLEY, Published May 20, 2005
Retirement works wonders. When Cardinal Bernard F. Law led a memorial mass for Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica last month, it was as if his long tenure as archbishop of Boston had been unblemished, his resignation under pressure in 2002 forgotten.
Even the cardinal seemed to have banished unpleasant memories. When the ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos veered from the topic of John Paul II's legacy to ask the former archbishop if he thought he could have done more to address the problem of pedophile priests, Cardinal Law looked as if he had been slapped.
"You know, I, I don't know that this is a time to be reflecting on that issue," the cardinal replied stiffly, before adding that of course he deplored his and others' failures.
John Paul II's death and the election of Pope Benedict XVI helped divert public attention from the issue, which only three years ago dominated newspapers and Sunday sermons. "Our Fathers," a Showtime movie tomorrow about the uncovering of the sexual abuse in the Boston Diocese, is a jarring reminder of the crimes that were covered up or excused for generations.
The film, based on David France's book "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal" (Broadway Books, 2004), turns the spotlight back to Boston and the shattered lives of Catholic children. The film's scrutiny is relentless, but respectful and not without mercy: "Our Fathers" is not a horror story about monsters in clerical collars, but a horrifying story of sick priests and their innocent victims.
• Jailed priest rehired by diocese. [Poster] - RCC. Child porn.
Quad-City Times, By Todd Ruger, ~ May 20, 2005
DAVENPORT (IA) - A priest in the Catholic Diocese of Davenport - recently released from federal prison for possession of child pornography on a diocese-owned laptop - has been rehired by the diocese for janitorial work at its headquarters.
Diocese leaders decided to employ the Rev. Richard Poster, 40, in the maintenance department of its Pastoral Center, 2706 N. Gaines St., as they await a decision from the Vatican about a request to remove him from the priesthood, spokesman David Montgomery said.
"(Poster) has direct supervision without contact with children and without access to computers," Montgomery said in a written statement. "Father Poster will be assigned job duties that are consistent with special conditions of his release, as required by his probation officer."
However, Al Burke of LeClaire, Iowa, said employing Poster "is an absolute disgrace" for a diocese that gave no outreach to him and other people who tried in the past few years to report the names of priests who sexually abused them decades ago.
• Bishop Franklin, 75, announces he will step down. [1950+ Davenport Diocese] - RCC. $US 9m. 20 offenders.
Quad-City Times, By Deirdre Cox Baker, ~ May 20, 2005
DAVENPORT (IA) - Bishop William Franklin of the Diocese of Davenport has announced he will resign after 11 years as the leader of Roman Catholics in eastern Iowa.
Franklin celebrated his 75th birthday early this month and submitted his resignation as required to Pope Benedict XVI. He will continue in his current role until a successor is appointed and said he plans to remain in Davenport. ...
In recent years, his tenure has been clouded by allegations of child sexual abuse committed by Davenport Diocese priests, with many of the cases dating as far back as 1950.
On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004, he issued a report showing that 65 allegations had been made against 20 priests from the diocese between 1950 and 2002.
The diocese sent requests to the Vatican in June to defrock five priests, and Pope John Paul II removed one of them, James Janssen of Davenport, July 28. The other four requests are still pending.
In October, the diocese paid $9 million to settle 37 civil claims of sexual abuse by priests.
• Vatican action removes Beine from priesthood. [< 1977 Beine] - RCC. Exposure, child porn, molested children.
Post-Dispatch, BY ROBERT PATRICK, May/19/2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - James Beine, an inactive Roman Catholic priest who won appeals of indecent exposure and child pornography convictions, has been defrocked by the Vatican, the St. Louis Archdiocese announced Thursday.
Beine, most recently of Highland, had been removed from the active priesthood in 1977 after accusations that he molested children. But he technically remained a priest.
"This is good news for parishioners, good news for the Catholic Church, and hopefully this is good news for those Beine abused," archdiocesan spokesman Jamie Allman said Thursday.
• 'Our Fathers': The case that ignited clergy scandal. - RCC. "Our Fathers" docufilm.
The Arizona Republic, May. 20, 2005
The Catholic Church has spent an unusually large amount of time in the spotlight lately. The death of an immensely popular pope, his lengthy funeral rites and the selection of his successor have focused a mostly positive light on the church.
The rites and rituals have been a welcome relief, one presumes, from the critical eye cast upon the church the past few years in the wake of sexual-abuse scandals that rocked dioceses around the country, including in Arizona. So it may seem as if it would be impossible that a dramatic adaptation of the sexual-abuse scandal in the Boston diocese would serve as anything but fodder for continued controversy, or maybe an excuse to lob cheap shots at the Catholic Church and its priests.
Yet that's not the case with Our Fathers, a compelling Showtime film that centers on Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law. He eventually resigned after it was learned that, aware of their crimes, he had merely reassigned pedophile priests for years, a decision that allowed them to continue abusing children. The scandal spread throughout the country as more victims came forward, including many in Arizona, costing the church millions of dollars in settlements.
To be sure, harsh criticisms are made about the church's silence concerning the scandal and of Law's handling of it. But they're legitimate criticisms, made all the more so here by the portrayal of the victims and their suffering.
• Church Abuse Case: Documents illuminate Calif. diocese attitude. [Orange Diocese] - RCC.
The Monitor, The Monitor View, May 20,2005
TEXAS - The Rio Grande Valley, like other parts of the United States, has seen allegations of clergy members preying on members of their congregations. And South Texas, as elsewhere, has also encountered Roman Catholic Church officials more concerned with sweeping such incidents under the rug than with justice and preventing further crimes.
So it's interesting to read about church documents released as part of a settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit in Orange County, Calif.
As expected, many of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange's once- secret personnel files were released on Tuesday, and the facts inside the files prove what church critics have long argued: Church leaders knew about priests who had molested and raped children, yet they continued to let them serve as priests where they could continue to prey on the youngest, most vulnerable members of the community.
Orange Bishop Tod Brown called the documents "painful testimony" and earlier responses by the diocese "inadequate and failed."
Even when the diocese had to face up to its actions and inaction, officials there downplayed what they knew. "The files show that diocesan officials knew that at least three priests they accepted to work in Orange County had previously been in trouble for sexual abuse of children in other dioceses," The Orange County Register reported.
• Suspended Catholic priest is defrocked. [1970s+ Beine] - RCC. Boys.
Kansas City Star, ~ May 20, 2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - A Roman Catholic priest who opted to stay in prison while authorities challenge a dismissal of his convictions for sexual misconduct involving boys has been dismissed from the clergy.
Former Archbishop Justin Rigali had initiated the often-lengthy laicization proceedings against James Beine in October 2003 "for the welfare of all children and for the welfare of the Church," the archdiocese said Thursday in a news release.
Beine, 63, was suspended from the priesthood in 1977 over allegations of sexual abuse.
In the mid-1990s, the Archdiocese of St. Louis paid $110,000 to settle two lawsuits alleging that Beine had sexually abused boys more than three decades earlier.
"James Beine has credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against him dating back 30 years," the archdiocese said.
• Former vicar asks to be priest again. [1970s Shafer] - RCC. Boy.
Des Moines Register, By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR, May 20, 2005
DAVENPORT (IA) - The Rev. Drake Shafer, the former vicar general of the Davenport Diocese, wants to work as a priest again after settling a civil lawsuit involving sexual abuse of a teenage boy in the 1970s, said his lawyer.
Shafer was second-in-command in the diocese until he was suspended three years ago when a West Burlington man sued him and the diocese. The diocese settled with the unnamed man last fall and Shafer settled this month, agreeing to pay the man's mental health costs.
In a 2002 e-mail to the man that was made public in a court hearing, Schafer apologized and said the incident was an isolated transgression in his priesthood. He acknowledged getting drunk on the night in question, that he didn't intend to hurt the boy, and that he was himself abused as a child by a priest.
Bishop William E. Franklin has not made a recommendation on Shafer.
Peter Fieweger, Shafer's attorney, said Thursday that he did not think Shafer's settling the lawsuit was an obstacle to resuming his priestly duties.
• Stockton diocese settles abuse case for $3 million. [O'Grady] - RCC. $US 13m now. Boys.
Contra Costa Times, By Kim Curtis, ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 20, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - The Stockton diocese and lawyers for a victim of abuse by a former priest have agreed to settle a pending civil claim for $3 million, an attorney said Thursday.
The unidentified victim accused the diocese of failing to protect him from a known molester, Oliver O'Grady, who served as a priest at St. Anne's in Lodi in the 1970s. The diocese has already paid more than $10 million for claims involving O'Grady.
A statement from Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire said the diocese was pleased to "bring this matter to closure," and it looked forward to continuing "to reach fair and just resolutions for the victims of childhood sexual abuse."
The agreement was reached late Wednesday, according to plaintiff's lawyer John Manly.
"It's very clear that there were many priests, like Father O'Grady, who were serial pedophiles who spent as much time in ministry as they did hurting kids," Manly said. "My client's abuse is horrific and without his courage to come out of the shadows, none of this would have been possible."
• 'Our Fathers' takes viewer inside church abuse scandal. - RCC. "Our Fathers" docufilm.
Chicago Tribune, By Shia Kapos, Special to the Tribune, Published May 20, 2005
UNITED STATES - In "Our Fathers," a new made-for-television movie about the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, one scene shows the fear and horror on a boy's face when his priest takes him for an afternoon drive to buy ice cream.
The segment haunts Bernie McDaid. He was that boy.
"I hid in the bushes to get away because I knew what would happen," McDaid said of the assault that followed. "My mother caught me and said, 'How can you hide from a priest?' You're supposed to be able to trust your priest."
He hopes the two-hour movie, which debuts on Showtime at 7 p.m. Saturday, brings public awareness to the issue and knowledge that it can happen to anyone--if not by a priest then by a coach, a teacher or someone else you trust.
The film tells the real-life events of the scandal that broke in 2002 when a judge ordered that church documents about reports of abuse be unsealed. Since then, hundreds of people have said they were sexually abused and Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston archdiocese resigned.
The stories of the victims are at the core of "Our Fathers," but the movie also tells the story of a careful cover-up by church hierarchy and discovery of the truth by a courageous attorney and the Boston Globe.
• Abuse Victim, Boise Catholic Diocese Strive For Settlement. [1976-79 Worsley] - RCC. Boy.
KCBI, http://www2.kbcitv. com/x5154.xml?Parent PageID=x5157&Content ID=x65549&Layout =KBCI.xsl&Ad GroupID=x5154 ; By Scott Logan, ~ May 20, 2005
BOISE (ID) - TJ Hopper of Caldwell says his long nightmare started in 1976 at St. Paul's Catholic Center in Boise.
"I was sexually molested by a priest at St. Paul's Catholic Center from about the time I was 10 years old on," Hopper told Local 2 News.
Hopper, now 40,says that priest was Father Jim Worsley, a family friend, and he says the abuse lasted four years on weekends and vacation visits and included threats.
"He'd say: 'You know your parents will go to jail unless you do what I tell you to do,'" Hopper said. "Well, as a 10 year old, a kid, you don't know better. Of course, now I know that was absurd."
Hopper says he reacted by blocking the abuse from his memory. But in 1992, he says it all came back in a flood of emotions.
Hopper says he drove to the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, thought about jumping, but instead went to the Monastery of the Ascension near Jerome, seeking refuge.
"And I went inside and proceed for about 24 hours to hit myself, yell and scream, and bounce my head off the walls," he said.
Hopper told the Boise Diocese and the Church says Worsely admitted to the abuse.
• The Legionaries of Christ: Fr. Maciel's Trial Draws Nearer. [Maciel (Legion of Christ)] - RCC.
Chiesa, www.chiesa.espress online.it/dettaglio. jsp?id=31208&eng=y , by Sandro Magister, May 20, 2005
ROMA, Italia - Last April 2, just as John Paul II was dying in Rome, in New York the promoter of justice for the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Charles J. Scicluna, from Malta, was interviewing Paul Lennon, the former headmaster of a "School of Faith" run by the Legionaries of Christ.
Mr. Lennon, who is Irish, is now a psychotherapist in Alexandria, Virginia, and a witness against one of the most revered and powerful men of the Catholic Church worldwide: Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, 85, from Mexico, the founder of the Legionaries and the apple of pope Karol Wojtyla's eye.
With 650 priests, 2,500 students of theology, 1,000 consecrated laypeople, 30,000 active members in twenty nations, and dozens of high-level schools and universities - two of which are in Rome; one of pontifical right, inaugurated in 2002, the Regina Apostolorum; and another which has just been recognized by the Italian government, the European University of Rome - the Legionaries of Christ are a staggering success story.
Last November 30, John Paul II publicly embraced their founder, Maciel, and congratulated him on his 60th anniversary of priestly ordination, in the jubilant atmosphere of a Vatican audience hall filled to bursting with thousands of Legionaries and militants of Regnum Christi, the order's parallel lay association.
Four days earlier, on the 26th, pope Wojtyla had given over to the "care and management" of the Legionaries nothing less than the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem, a substantial meeting place and center of hospitality owned by the Holy See and located just a few steps away from the Holy Sepulchre.
But meanwhile, in another Vatican building, that of the former Holy Office, the then cardinal prefect Joseph Ratzinger had just told Scicluna, his promoter of justice, to pull from the congregation's shelves all of the trials still on the waiting list and in danger of never being processed. The order was: "Every case must take its proper course." [Emphasis added]
• Pastor Accused of Having Sex with Teen. [1993 Hammons] - Alpha Joy Temple. Girl.
WOAI, www.woai.com/ news/local/story. aspx?content_id =0753B252-C7B9- 4BFC-B8C4-FF 940EC30F5A , Posted By Walker Robinson, May 20, 2005
This story is available on your cell phone at mobile.woai.com.
SAN ANTONIO (TX) - A church pastor was on trial Thursday, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl he was counseling. The woman claims it happened 12 years ago.
The woman took the stand Thursday, and testified she had sex with Duane Hammons several times when she was 15-years-old. Hammons was 32 at the time, she claimed.
They met at the Alpha Joy Temple on the west side in 1993, the woman said. She testified Hammons convinced her to skip school and sleep with him at different motels.
Hammons' defense attorneys said the alleged victim has given different versions of what happened, especially on the dates she claims they had sex. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:44 AM]
• Woman says pastor forced her to have sex as a teen. [1993 Hammons] - The Church of God in Christ. Girl.
Express-News, by Rhea Davis, ~ May 20, 2005
SAN ANTONIO (TX) - As a 15-year-old girl, she had a troubled family life and few friends, so fellow congregation members advised her to seek the counsel of one of their church pastors.
But instead of guiding and mentoring her, one church leader took her to a string of cheap motels and forced her to have sex with him.
That was the testimony of a 27-year-old woman who told jurors Thursday that Duane Hammons, a former pastor of The Church of God in Christ, began having sex with her when she was a freshman at Holmes High School.
"I trusted him," she told jurors. "He was the only person I could talk to. He was the only man in my life that made me feel important."
Hammons, 47, is charged with sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child by contact. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The woman's identity is being withheld because the San Antonio Express-News does not reveal the names of victims of sex-related crimes.
• Stockton Diocese to Pay $3 Million in Abuse Suit. [O'Grady] - RCC. Confessional misuse.
Los Angeles Times, By Jean Guccione, May 20, 2005
CALIFORNIA - The Diocese of Stockton will pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that a former Roman Catholic priest raped a boy in a church confessional while he forced the child to say penance.
The settlement, announced Thursday, is the latest involving Oliver Francis O'Grady, a former Stockton priest who spent seven years in state prison for child molestation before U.S. immigration authorities deported him to Ireland in 2001.
O'Grady's chillingly frank account of his decades-long sexual attraction to children refocused national attention on the clergy sexual abuse scandal last week.
In a 15-hour videotaped deposition, he admitted molesting 25 children, and described how he groomed his young victims for abuse. At one point, he looked into the camera, softened his voice, and demonstrated how he might lure a young girl into his arms, with the intention of fondling her.
He denies, however, molesting the man who just settled with the diocese.
Costa Mesa attorney John C. Manly, who represents that plaintiff, now 42, said the O'Grady case was emblematic of the church hierarchy's failure to stop predator priests or to warn parishioners of the danger. [Bolding added]
• Priest convicted of child pornography hired by diocese. [Poster] - RCC. Child porn.
Courier, ~ May 20, 2005
IOWA CITY (IA) (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest who was convicted last year of using a church computer to download child pornography has been hired on to the maintenance staff at the Davenport Diocese, church officials say.
The Rev. Richard Poster, the former director of liturgy and publisher of the newspaper for the diocese, pleaded guilty in August 2003 to receiving pictures of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He was sentenced to one year in federal prison and was released earlier this year.
Although Poster remains a priest, he is barred from any ministerial duties pending a Vatican decision whether he should be defrocked.
Diocese spokesman David Montgomery said Poster was hired by a diocese review board to perform maintenance duties at the Diocesan Pastoral Center in Davenport. His employment includes several conditions, including direct supervision and no contact with children.
"Father Poster will be assigned job duties that are consistent with special conditions of his release, as required by his probation officer," Montgomery said. "He has direct supervision ... without access to computers."
• Adrian College stands by choir chief. [1989 Hodgman, 1989+ Orange Diocese, 2005 Adrian College] - RCC. "Bogus." Impregnated and infected girl.
Toledo Blade (Ohio), May 20, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Calling Thomas Hodgman "an exemplary faculty member," Adrian College officials yesterday stood by their choir director, a day after the unintended release of documents that indicate he admitted to having a sexual relationship with a California high school student 16 years ago.
Mr. Hodgman resigned his position at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana., Calif., in 1989 because of the relationship, according to documents obtained by The Blade.
In January, Adrian students learned about the allegations against Mr. Hodgman when the Diocese of Orange County, of which Mater Dei is part, agreed to settle lawsuits with dozens of alleged victims of sexual abuse.
Among those accused was Mr. Hodgman, whom former student Joelle Casteix said had carried on a relationship with her, gotten her pregnant, and passed on a sexually transmitted disease. Ms. Casteix is now an outspoken critic of the Orange County diocese's handling of sex abuse cases and wondered why the man she said was her abuser, Mr. Hodgman, was working as a choir director at the southeast Michigan school.
Mr. Hodgman, who has repeatedly declined to return Blade calls, had initially called the case "bogus." He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
• Two men say they were molested by priests . [1980-83 Ferraro, 1970-71 Christian] - RCC. Boys.
Post-Dispatch, ~ May 20, 2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - Two men sued the St. Louis Archdiocese Thursday claiming that as young boys, Roman Catholic priests sexually abused them.
Both lawsuits say the church should have protected them from abuse and that the church should have known that Rev. Romano Ferraro and Rev. Norman Christian were dangerous.
The lawsuit filed by John Doe GS, a computer industry worker who lives in the St. Louis area, says Ferraro molested him multiple times between 1980 and 1983, while Romano was at St. Joan of Arc Parish.
The lawsuit filed by John Doe 111C says that Christian fondled him in 1970 to 1971, when the boy was 11 to 12 years old. Christian was at Sacred Heart Church in Crystal City, the suit says.
• Returning Spotlight to Sins in Boston. [Law] - RCC. "Our Fathers" film.
The New York Times, By ALESSANDRA STANLEY, May 20, 2005
UNITED STATES - Retirement works wonders. When Cardinal Bernard F. Law led a memorial mass for Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica last month, it was as if his long tenure as archbishop of Boston had been unblemished, his resignation under pressure in 2002 forgotten.
Even the cardinal seemed to have banished unpleasant memories. When the ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos veered from the topic of John Paul II's legacy to ask the former archbishop if he thought he could have done more to address the problem of pedophile priests, Cardinal Law looked as if he had been slapped. "You know, I, I don't know that this is a time to be reflecting on that issue," the cardinal replied stiffly, before adding that of course he deplored his and others' failures.
John Paul II's death and the election of Pope Benedict XVI helped divert public attention from the issue, which only three years ago dominated newspapers and Sunday sermons. "Our Fathers," a Showtime movie tomorrow about the uncovering of the sexual abuse in the Boston Diocese, is a jarring reminder of the crimes that were covered up or excused for generations.
The film, based on David France's book "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal" (Broadway Books, 2004), turns the spotlight back to Boston and the shattered lives of Catholic children. The film's scrutiny is relentless, but respectful and not without mercy: "Our Fathers" is not a horror story about monsters in clerical collars, but a horrifying story of sick priests and their innocent victims.
• Jailed priest rehired by diocese. [2000s Poster] - RCC. Laptop child porn, but back to work - as janitor!
Quad-City Times, By Todd Ruger, ~ May 20, 2005
DAVENPORT (IA) - A priest in the Catholic Diocese of Davenport - recently released from federal prison for possession of child pornography on a diocese-owned laptop - has been rehired by the diocese for janitorial work at its headquarters.
Diocese leaders decided to employ the Rev. Richard Poster, 40, in the maintenance department of its Pastoral Center, 2706 N. Gaines St., as they await a decision from the Vatican about a request to remove him from the priesthood, spokesman David Montgomery said.
"(Poster) has direct supervision without contact with children and without access to computers," Montgomery said in a written statement. "Father Poster will be assigned job duties that are consistent with special conditions of his release, as required by his probation officer."
However, Al Burke of LeClaire, Iowa, said employing Poster "is an absolute disgrace" for a diocese that gave no outreach to him and other people who tried in the past few years to report the names of priests who sexually abused them decades ago.
• Bishop Franklin, 75, announces he will step down. [20 priests] - RCC.
Quad-City Times, By Deirdre Cox Baker, ~ May 20, 2005
DAVENPORT (IA) - Bishop William Franklin of the Diocese of Davenport has announced he will resign after 11 years as the leader of Roman Catholics in eastern Iowa.
Franklin celebrated his 75th birthday early this month and submitted his resignation as required to Pope Benedict XVI. He will continue in his current role until a successor is appointed and said he plans to remain in Davenport. ...
In recent years, his tenure has been clouded by allegations of child sexual abuse committed by Davenport Diocese priests, with many of the cases dating as far back as 1950.
On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004, he issued a report showing that 65 allegations had been made against 20 priests from the diocese between 1950 and 2002.
The diocese sent requests to the Vatican in June to defrock five priests, and Pope John Paul II removed one of them, James Janssen of Davenport, July 28. The other four requests are still pending.
In October, the diocese paid $9 million to settle 37 civil claims of sexual abuse by priests.
[LOOK FORWARD to "Victim: Defrocked priest hid $80G in assets," ~ October 05, 2007 in ethcont141.htm . ENDS.]
• Vatican action removes Beine from priesthood. [< 1977 Beine] - RCC. Children.
Post-Dispatch, BY ROBERT PATRICK, May/19/2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - James Beine, an inactive Roman Catholic priest who won appeals of indecent exposure and child pornography convictions, has been defrocked by the Vatican, the St. Louis Archdiocese announced Thursday.
Beine, most recently of Highland, had been removed from the active priesthood in 1977 after accusations that he molested children. But he technically remained a priest.
"This is good news for parishioners, good news for the Catholic Church, and hopefully this is good news for those Beine abused," archdiocesan spokesman Jamie Allman said Thursday.
• 'Our Fathers': The case that ignited clergy scandal. [Law] - RCC. "Our Fathers" film.
The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/ arizonarepublic/news/ articles/0520 goody0520.html , May 20, 2005
UNITED STATES - The Catholic Church has spent an unusually large amount of time in the spotlight lately. The death of an immensely popular pope, his lengthy funeral rites and the selection of his successor have focused a mostly positive light on the church.
The rites and rituals have been a welcome relief, one presumes, from the critical eye cast upon the church the past few years in the wake of sexual-abuse scandals that rocked dioceses around the country, including in Arizona. So it may seem as if it would be impossible that a dramatic adaptation of the sexual-abuse scandal in the Boston diocese would serve as anything but fodder for continued controversy, or maybe an excuse to lob cheap shots at the Catholic Church and its priests.
Yet that's not the case with Our Fathers, a compelling Showtime film that centers on Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law. He eventually resigned after it was learned that, aware of their crimes, he had merely reassigned pedophile priests for years, a decision that allowed them to continue abusing children. The scandal spread throughout the country as more victims came forward, including many in Arizona, costing the church millions of dollars in settlements.
To be sure, harsh criticisms are made about the church's silence concerning the scandal and of Law's handling of it. But they're legitimate criticisms, made all the more so here by the portrayal of the victims and their suffering.
• Church Abuse Case: Documents illuminate Calif. diocese attitude. [Orange Diocese] - RCC. Minors.
The Monitor, The Monitor View, May 20, 2005
TEXAS - The Rio Grande Valley, like other parts of the United States, has seen allegations of clergy members preying on members of their congregations. And South Texas, as elsewhere, has also encountered Roman Catholic Church officials more concerned with sweeping such incidents under the rug than with justice and preventing further crimes.
So it's interesting to read about church documents released as part of a settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit in Orange County, Calif.
As expected, many of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange's once-secret personnel files were released on Tuesday, and the facts inside the files prove what church critics have long argued: Church leaders knew about priests who had molested and raped children, yet they continued to let them serve as priests where they could continue to prey on the youngest, most vulnerable members of the community.
Orange Bishop Tod Brown called the documents "painful testimony" and earlier responses by the diocese "inadequate and failed."
Even when the diocese had to face up to its actions and inaction, officials there downplayed what they knew. "The files show that diocesan officials knew that at least three priests they accepted to work in Orange County had previously been in trouble for sexual abuse of children in other dioceses," the Orange County Register reported.
• Suspended Catholic priest is defrocked. [< 1977, 2001 Beine] - RCC. Boys.
Kansas City Star, ~ May 20, 2005
ST. LOUIS (MO) - A Roman Catholic priest who opted to stay in prison while authorities challenge a dismissal of his convictions for sexual misconduct involving boys has been dismissed from the clergy.
Former Archbishop Justin Rigali had initiated the often-lengthy laicization proceedings against James Beine in October 2003 "for the welfare of all children and for the welfare of the Church," the archdiocese said Thursday in a news release.
Beine, 63, was suspended from the priesthood in 1977 over allegations of sexual abuse. In the mid-1990s, the Archdiocese of St. Louis paid $110,000 to settle two lawsuits alleging that Beine had sexually abused boys more than three decades earlier.
"James Beine has credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against him dating back 30 years," the archdiocese said.
• Former vicar asks to be priest again. [Shafer] - RCC. Boy.
Des Moines Register, By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR, May 20, 2005
DAVENPORT (IA) - The Rev. Drake Shafer, the former vicar general of the Davenport Diocese, wants to work as a priest again after settling a civil lawsuit involving sexual abuse of a teenage boy in the 1970s, said his lawyer.
Shafer was second-in-command in the diocese until he was suspended three years ago when a West Burlington man sued him and the diocese. The diocese settled with the unnamed man last fall and Shafer settled this month, agreeing to pay the man's mental health costs.
In a 2002 e-mail to the man that was made public in a court hearing, Schafer apologized and said the incident was an isolated transgression in his priesthood. He acknowledged getting drunk on the night in question, that he didn't intend to hurt the boy, and that he was himself abused as a child by a priest.
Bishop William E. Franklin has not made a recommendation on Shafer.
Peter Fieweger, Shafer's attorney, said Thursday that he did not think Shafer's settling the lawsuit was an obstacle to resuming his priestly duties.
• Stockton diocese settles abuse case for $3 million. [1970s O'Grady] - RCC. $US3m. Boy.
Contra Costa Times, By Kim Curtis, ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ May 20, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - The Stockton diocese and lawyers for a victim of abuse by a former priest have agreed to settle a pending civil claim for $3 million, an attorney said Thursday.
The unidentified victim accused the diocese of failing to protect him from a known molester, Oliver O'Grady, who served as a priest at St. Anne's in Lodi in the 1970s. The diocese has already paid more than $10 million for claims involving O'Grady.
A statement from Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire said the diocese was pleased to "bring this matter to closure," and it looked forward to continuing "to reach fair and just resolutions for the victims of childhood sexual abuse."
The agreement was reached late Wednesday, according to plaintiff's lawyer John Manly.
"It's very clear that there were many priests, like Father O'Grady, who were serial pedophiles who spent as much time in ministry as they did hurting kids," Manly said. "My client's abuse is horrific and without his courage to come out of the shadows, none of this would have been possible."
• 'Our Fathers' takes viewer inside church abuse scandal. - RCC. "Our Fathers" film.
Chicago Tribune, By Shia Kapos, Special to the Tribune, May 20, 2005
In "Our Fathers," a new made-for-television movie about the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, one scene shows the fear and horror on a boy's face when his priest takes him for an afternoon drive to buy ice cream.
The segment haunts Bernie McDaid. He was that boy.
"I hid in the bushes to get away because I knew what would happen," McDaid said of the assault that followed. "My mother caught me and said, 'How can you hide from a priest?' You're supposed to be able to trust your priest."
He hopes the two-hour movie, which debuts on Showtime at 7 p.m. Saturday, brings public awareness to the issue and knowledge that it can happen to anyone--if not by a priest then by a coach, a teacher or someone else you trust.
The film tells the real-life events of the scandal that broke in 2002 when a judge ordered that church documents about reports of abuse be unsealed. Since then, hundreds of people have said they were sexually abused and Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston archdiocese resigned.
The stories of the victims are at the core of "Our Fathers," but the movie also tells the story of a careful cover-up by church hierarchy and discovery of the truth by a courageous attorney and the Boston Globe. [Posted on Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker at 05:52 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri May 20, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Bishops hear from Church action group on Children Inquiry. - RCC.
CathNews (from Church Resources, Australia), www.cathnews. com/news/505/ 116.php , May 20, 2005
SYDNEY: Australia's Bishops have endorsed a series of recommendations set out in the first report of the Action Group they established to respond to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care.
A report was presented to the Bishops at their Plenary Meeting in Sydney earlier this month.
The action group was established at the November 2004 Plenary Meeting to analyse the recommendations of the Senate inquiry, with particular reference to how they apply to the Catholic Church.
The group consists of Dr Kristen Johnston, Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes; Fr Brian Lucas, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference; Br Kevin Ryan, Christian Brothers; Mr Paul Linossier, Catholic Welfare Australia; and Ms Myolene Carrick, Catholic Welfare Australia.
The recommendations in the report must also be presented to the Leaders of Religious Institutes, at their meeting in June.
"The Action Group recognises the profound harm and justice issues that are documented by the Senate Inquiry Report and recommends that, in spite of methodological limitations of the Inquiry that were identified, the church continue and strengthen its pastoral approach to the needs of care leavers," the group's report said.
Among the recommendations endorsed by the bishops was one for Catholic Welfare to undertake a scoping study of agencies that may have a role in the ongoing response of the Church. This would be followed by state-based workshops with those agencies. A report on progress will be provided to Bishops and Leaders in 12-18 months.
The bishops also endorsed a recommendation that the Action Group be maintained as a reference group, to report to the ACBC Plenary Meeting in November 2006 and May 2007 before presenting a final report and winding up.
Meanwhile, other outcomes of the Plenary meeting were set out in a news item posted yesterday on the Bishops Conference website. The headlines in the "news briefs" posting include:
• Science and religion meet on issue of climate change
• Bishops discuss Sacrament of Penance
• New research on abortion
• Bishops' meeting infused with the spirit of Mary Mackillop
• Up to 2,000 Australian pilgrims for World Youth Day in Cologne
• Bishops receive Caritas update on Tsunami response
• Cardinal Hamao to address Sydney conference
• ACBC Appointments
SOURCE
Bishops' Plenary Meeting, May 2005 - News Briefs (Australian Catholic Bishops Conference 19/5/05)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
HAVE YOUR SAY Click here
[COMMENT: The Catholic Church was among the worst offenders with sex abuse and cruel physical punishments to some children -- Aboriginal, migrant, and other -- in its institutions, the so-called "homes" and "orphanages." Unless the Christian Brother selected for the panel is like the "whistleblower" and author Barry Coldrey, sceptics would not think him much of a choice. What "response" can be given, except to admit and confess that clergy and brothers did not believe their own teachings, and their leaders hid their sins, not even believing the New Testament's teachings about the responsibility of leaders? An apology, of sorts, has already been issued. This is from www.aph.gov. au/senate/ committee/ clac_ctte/inst_ care/report2/ c01.htm
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
1.15 On 14 December 2004, the Australian Catholic Bishops and the Leaders of Religious Institutes issued a statement on the report into children in institutional care. They formally renewed the apology, first made in the 1996 document 'Towards Healing', to those whose abuse was perpetrated by Catholic Church personnel. The statement said:
We are also deeply regretful for the hurt caused whenever the Church's response has denied or minimised the pain that victims have experienced. And we regret the hurt and distress caused to the many good people who have worked in this area.
COMMENT ENDS.]
[May 20, 05]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat May 21, 2005 edition follows:-
• Vatican Says Mexican Priest Will Not Face Abuse Trial. [1943-1960s Maciel Degollado] - RCC. Male seminarians.
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/ 2005/05/22/ international/ europe/22pope. html? , By IAN FISHER, May 22, 2005
ROME, May 21 - The founder of an influential Roman Catholic order in Mexico will not face a church trial on longstanding allegations that he molested teenagers, a Vatican spokesman said on Saturday.
In December, the Vatican opened a full-scale investigation into the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the 85-year-old founder of the Legionaries of Christ and a prominent religious figure in Mexico. At least eight people came forward in the late 1990's to accuse him of abusing them between 1943 and the early 1960's.
But on Saturday, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, the spokesman, said that no charges would be brought against Father Maciel. He did not say why the investigation was ended.
"There is no investigation now, and it is not foreseeable that there will be another investigation in the future," Father Ciro said by telephone.
The news seems likely to receive particular scrutiny since it is the first major sex abuse case - one of the most important issues facing the church in North America - decided under Pope Benedict XVI.
Before he became pope last month, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was responsible for overseeing investigations into priests accused of sexual abuse. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:23 PM] [Emphasis added]
• Tucson diocese auctions properties to pay sex abuse claims. - RCC.
KOLD, ~ May 21, 2005
TUCSON, Ariz. - More than 80 properties owned by the Catholic Diocese of Tucson are being auctioned today to help pay victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Church officials hope the auction brings in at least three-point-two (m) million dollars.
The sale of properties in eight Arizona counties won't become final until June 23rd. So officials won't know for at least a month how much revenue the auction produces.
Only two of the properties have homes on them; the rest are unimproved lots.
• Archdiocese of Miami sued. - RCC.
Renew America, by Matt C. Abbott, May 21, 2005
MIAMI (FL) - The following is a significant portion of the text of a lawsuit filed May 20, 2005, in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court by attorneys Sharon Bourassa, Joe Titone and Mark Viethe. (Note: Sharon Bourassa has informed me that "the lawsuit was altered yesterday [May 20], shortened. It has been filed. It basically says the same thing, but some of the causes of action have been changed. We have just summed it up better.")
PLAINTIFF'S VERIFIED COMPLAINT
COMES NOW, the Plaintiff, Father Andrew Dowgiert, by and through his undersigned counsel, and sues Defendants, ARCHDIOCESE OF MIAMI, ARCHBISHOP JOHN C. FAVALORA, MONSIGNOR WILLIAM J. HENNESSEY and FATHER ANIBAL MORALES, and alleges as follows: ...
Approximately 17 years ago, Father Andrew was ordained in Poland under Bishop Kiesiel in Bialystok, close to Lithuania.
The Bishop knew Fr. Andrew for approximately 12 years and for 5 of those years, Fr. Andrew worked as a priest under Bishop Kiesiel in Poland.
Father Andrew then requested permission by the Bishop to be sent to Zimbabwe, Africa as a missionary priest. Fr. Andrew was a missionary priest in Zimbabwe from 1994-1999.
There he contacted Malaria and further, the political climate being very dangerous at the time, as the political government did not like Catholic priests, Father Andrew returned to Poland.
In Poland, he requested that he be sent to the Archdiocese of Miami, Florida to continue to fulfill his priestly duties.
In 1999, the Archbishop assigned Father Andrew to St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church, in Key Largo, Florida. See attached hereto Plaintiff's Composite Exhibit C.
While Father Andrew continued his priestly duties at St. Justin Martyr's, the Pastor, Father Olszewski, was removed for sexual misconduct on minors.
During the time that Father Andrew worked under Father Olszewski, he was not compensated his full salary of $1450.00 a month, amounting to in excess of fifteen thousand ($15,000.00) dollars.
Father Olszewski paid Father Andrew only five hundred ($500.00) dollars a month. See W-4 forms attached hereto as Plaintiff's Composite Exhibit D. [Bolding added]
• Diocesan Files Show Deceit, Denial. [Orange Diocese] - RCC.
Los Angeles Times, by Dana Parsons, May 20, 2005
CALIFORNIA - The local Catholic hierarchy never passed itself off as divine.
Good thing.
The disclosures this week from the Diocese of Orange put names and faces to two decades of cover-ups and left one indelible impression: The hierarchy was all too human.
As human as any corporate executive trying to save his skin in an accounting scandal. As human as any cop or military man protecting a fellow officer from charges of excessive force. As human as any gang member refusing to rat out the shooter in a drive-by.
In street terms, it's called the code of silence.
I don't know what they called it in the diocese.
I know all too well that many readers have had it up to here with stories about priests or other diocesan officials or educators who molested or otherwise sexually abused young people. Those readers, who have made their displeasure known to me and others at the newspaper, argue that the point has been made and that it's time to move on.
These stories won't run forever, but the release this week of 10,000 pages of documents - keep in mind they were from only one diocese - underscore that we probably didn't have a full grasp of just how deep the cover-ups were during the period preceding the administration of the current bishop, Tod D. Brown.
• Priest faces more charges. [1960s-70s Ferris] - Christian religion.
Times & Star, ~ May 21, 2005
BRITAIN - A FORMER Workington priest will face a total of 27 charges of indecent assault when he appears in court next month.
Father Piers Grant Ferris, 71, was at York Crown Court last Friday.
He initially faced 16 charges relating to a period 30 years ago when he was a teacher at a private school for boys near York. Eleven further charges have now been added.
Now a monk at Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire, he was charged following a police investigation into alleged abuse at Gilling Castle Preparatory School, York.
The alleged assaults date to between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s at the fee-paying school for boys aged from seven to 13.
No details of the ages of the alleged victims were made public. His connection with the school, now closed, ended in 1975.
• Accused priest tries to block media coverage. [Buzanowski] - RCC. Boy.
Green Bay Press-Gazette, By Andy Nelesen, Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers, ~ May 21, 2005
GREEN BAY (WI) - The Green Bay Press-Gazette has filed a protest to an accused pedophile priest's efforts to bar media coverage of his court case.
Donald Buzanowski, 62, faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child. He is accused of fondling a 10-year-old boy while serving as a counselor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Green Bay. Buzanowski's attorney, Owen Monfils, filed a motion April 6 asking to bar reporters from hearings leading up to trial.
Buzanowski's motion claimed that information argued during motion hearings could prejudice potential jurors in the case. Brown County Circuit Judge J.D. McKay has resisted a change of venue in the case or the option of bringing in jurors from another county.
Buzanowski, who is still a priest, remains in custody in the Brown County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. Buzanowski has not served as a priest since 1989, and the Green Bay diocese has asked the Vatican to laicize Buzanowski. Officials in Rome have not yet acted, however.
Joseph Thornton, the attorney representing the newspaper, said WLUK-TV Channel 11 has asked to join in the protest, but documents to that effect have not been prepared.
• NEW: Former pastor guilty of child sexual assault . [1992-94 Hammons] - Church of God in Christ. Girl.
Express-News, by Rhea Davis, Web Posted: 04:49 PM CDT, May/20/2005
SAN ANTONIO (TX) - A former pastor accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl more than a dozen years ago, was found guilty of sexual assault of a child today.
Duane Hammons, 47, was found guilty on four charges of sexual assault of a child and two charges of indecency with a child by contact.
The charges stem from four sexual encounters ranging from 1992 to 1994, when the now-28-year-old woman was a freshman and sophomore in high school. The jury found him not guilty on two counts of indecency with a child by contact.
He faces up to 20 years in prison, but may be granted probation.
Hammons, a former pastor of The Church of God in Christ, was asked to counsel the teenager because she was having trouble at home and didn't have many friends.
The woman testified that Hammons would pick her up from Holmes High School and take her to a string of cheap motels to have sex.
• Chief Rabbinate Under Cloud As Police Question a 2nd Rabbi. - Judaism [Amar] Abduction, beating of daughter's suitor. [Metzger] Unlawful benefits.
Forward, By MITCHELL GINSBURG, May 13, 2005
JERUSALEM - In a devastating blow to the credibility of Israel's state rabbinic establishment, the nation's Sephardic chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar, was interrogated this week by the police on suspicion of complicity in the abduction and beating of a 17-year-old youth who was dating his daughter.
Amar is not known to be suspected of direct involvement in the assault, but he is believed to have been present in his home while the youth was being beaten. His wife, a son and several associates were being detained this week on suspicion of direct involvement.
The case, embarrassing in itself, is particularly damaging to the rabbinate because it comes just two months after police questioned Israel's other chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, in an unrelated case. Metzger was the first chief rabbi in Israeli history to undergo criminal interrogation.
Metzger is under investigation on suspicion of receiving unlawful benefits from a Jerusalem hotel. The charges are the latest in a string of suspicions, including sexual abuse and extortion, that have dogged him for years, beginning long before he was named Ashkenazic chief rabbi in 2003.
With the Metzger probe still open, the eruption of the Amar affair has touched off anguished talk in some Orthodox circles that the very institution of the Chief Rabbinate is threatened.
"The chief rabbis were once like a lighthouse of righteousness, the moral compasses of the nation," said Rabbi Yehuda Gilad, a former Knesset member who heads the respected Ma'ale Gilboa yeshiva. "Today, the way things are going, I won't mourn the passing of the institution."
• Roundtable discussion. - RCC.
Providence Journal, May 21, 2005
KINGSTON (RI) - The Rev. Msgr. Paul D. Theroux will join members of Voice of the Faithful in a roundtable discussion of current issues facing the Church, including his experience in handling cases of sexual abuse by diocesan clergy, Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Christ the King Parish Hall, 180 Old North Rd., Kingston.
• Dealing With Abuse Allegations: The Halachic Way -- Or The Awareness Center Way?. [Tendler] - Judaism
The Jewish Press By Editorial Board, Posted May/18/2005
UNITED STATES - Rabbi Hershel Billet, who chaired the Rabbinical Council of America's Vaad Hakavod process leading to the RCA's expulsion of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler, has at least partially lifted the RCA's extraordinary veil of secrecy surrounding the matter (news story, page 3). Rather than settle the matter, though, his disclosures raise questions beyond those we've articulated in a series of editorials these past few weeks. And the implications go far beyond the issue of Rabbi Tendler.
For one thing, the newly revealed identities of the members of the Vaad present special problems. Some of the members are individuals known to have had very public - and in some instances very nasty - disputes on unrelated subjects with Rabbi Tendler. Further, it appears that there is significant overlap between membership on the Vaad and on the RCA's Executive Committee to which the Vaad made its recommendations. Thus, not only is there the unfortunate appearance of possible lack of impartiality, but apparently the Vaad, in large measure, reports to itself for confirmation of its own recommendations. And still unanswered is why one member of the Vaad, a rabbi, resigned - according to one source it was because this individual was upset by what he perceived to be "an agenda" on the part of some Vaad members; by the prejudicial leaks to the newspapers; and by the role of non-rabbi members of the Vaad.
Also of great interest is the startling revelation that Rabbi Billet sought to get a principal witness against Rabbi Tendler to disavow her recantation of negative things she'd said to the Vaad Hakavod about Rabbi Tendler. That witness, described publicly as "Joanna, the Jamaican cleaning lady," testified before a formal Monsey, New York, bet din that her earlier statements to the Vaad about Rabbi Tendler were spoken in error. The recantation, it needs to be emphasized, was made to a formal halachic bet din. Nevertheless, Rabbi Billet, who was chairing a non-halachic panel, attempted to have her change her testimony. Extraordinary.
• Allegations pour salt in family's wounds. [? 2000s Lamonica] - Hosanna Church. Sex with juveniles and animals.
The Times-Picayune, By Keith O'Brien, Saturday, May 21, 2005
HAMMOND (LA) -- As a boy, family members recalled, Louis David Lamonica never cursed or smoked. He was called to serve the Lord, said his sister Liz Lamonica Roberts on Friday, and he wanted to be a preacher just like his daddy.
And so when news broke this week that Lamonica, 45, and seven other members of his church in Hammond were arrested for allegedly participating in, or failing to report, sex acts with children, family members were horrified.
It's not that Lamonica has been perfect over the years. To the contrary, family members said Friday that he has been filled, at times, with anger as he pushed them out of his life and his church.
But murder, said Roberts, would be easier to accept than the aggravated rape charges facing her oldest brother, who became pastor of the Hosanna Church in 1993 and is now at the center of a growing investigation into what some are calling the cult-like activities of the curious congregation.
Some of the alleged activities include the sexual abuse of juveniles and animals, such as dogs and cats, police said. Chief Charles Fitz, the director of investigations at the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office, said Friday that there may be as many as two dozen victims, ranging in age from 1 to 20. And more arrests may follow, he said, as investigators from Tangipahoa, the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, the Ponchatoula Police Department, state Child Protective Services and the FBI continue to interview people and analyze seized computers.
• Safety skills called critical. - General prevention.
The Saginaw News, By DENISE FORD-MITCHELL, Saturday, May 21, 2005
MICHIGAN - For more than two decades, Kenneth Wooden has crisscrossed America to teach parents, educators, community leaders and church officials techniques to protect and save young lives.
On Friday, the 69-year-old, a best-selling author and creator of the accredited child protection program "Child Lures Prevention," journeyed to Saginaw Township to discuss -- frequently in graphic detail -- with Catholic Diocese of Saginaw parishioners how "sophisticated pedophiles stalk, lure and capture their victims."
"It's much better to teach kids how to recognize signs of danger long before a tragedy happens," Wooden said, "because there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that can prepare you or the children for the types of things a sexual predator will do.
• Goodwill exec resigns after abuse case revealed. [Worsley] - RCC. Child.
The Oregonian, Saturday, May 21, 2005
OREGON - Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette said Friday that one of its executives resigned after the nonprofit learned he had sexually abused a child decades ago when he was a Catholic priest in Idaho.
Jim Worsley resigned Thursday as the nonprofit's deputy director of transitional services, said Robert Barsocchini, Goodwill's human resources director and general counsel. Worsley had worked for Portland-based Goodwill since 1994, Barsocchini said.
Goodwill knew Worsley had been a priest but was unaware of his sexual misconduct until a Boise-based reporter contacted Goodwill on Thursday, Barsocchini said. Worsley then confessed, said he was involved with the Catholic Church in a settlement and immediately resigned, Barsocchini said.
• Police to investigate school changing-room camera. [Christian Brothers] - RCC.
Newry Democrat, ~ May 21, 2005
NORTHERN IRELAND - THE police are to contact the Abbey Grammar School in Newry in relation to the placing of a secret camera in students' changing rooms, it was confirmed this week.
In a statement issued to the Democrat, a PSNI spokeswoman said, "The protection of children and young persons is an important goal for all in society including parents, teachers and public services, including the police service. We are aware of speculation in relation to a school in the Newry and Mourne area raising concerns and we intend to contact the school with a view to pursuing this matter."
She added that should any formal complaint be made to police, it will be fully investigated.
Meanwhile, an organisation which combats internet child pornography and the trafficking of children has also expressed an interest in the Abbey controversy.
Gregory Carlin, the director of the Belfast based Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition, told the Democrat that he has been in contact with both the police and Bishop John McAreavey of Dromore in relation to the matter.
In correspondence forwarded to Mr Carlin, Bishop McAreavey indicated that responsibility for governing the school lies with its board of governors and the Christian Brothers and added that he is not the correct party with whom the issue should be raised. [Bolding added]
• Springfield Diocese. [Costa] - RCC.
WAND TV, www.wandtv.com/ SendPage.asp?6169 , ~ May 21, 2005
SPRINGFIELD (IL) (AP) - Five people -- including a state senator, a state police sergeant and a mother -- have been named to a panel to examine the behavior of Catholic priests in the Springfield Diocese.
Formation of the panel -- which now also includes a priest and a nun -- was announced three months ago by Springfield Bishop George Lucas following the beating of Monsignor Eugene Costa in a local park late last year.
• Archdiocese may be ready for new victim negotiations. - RCC expensive to insurance company. $US 20m involved. 170 claimants still.
Boston Herald, By Jessica Fargen, Saturday, May 21, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - The remaining 170 alleged priest sex-abuse victims who are waiting for resolution on their claims could see movement soon, the Archdiocese of Boston said.
The archdiocese yesterday said it received $8.5 million from St. Paul Travelers, an insurance company it used in the 1980s. The archdiocese held off on negotiations on the 170 new abuse lawsuits until settling with Travelers.
Alleged victims who missed the deadline for the first $85 million settlement reached last year have been waiting in "emotional limbo," said Anne Webb, a member of Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests.
"When a person is waiting for this to happen, it's really hard on the survivor," she said.
The St. Paul Travelers deal was the second of two the archdiocese was waiting for before launching negotiations with the accusers. In March, the church reached a $20 million settlement with Lumbermens Mutual Casualty.
• Accused Green Bay priest adds insanity plea. [1988 Buzanowski] - RCC. Minors.
Green Bay News-Chronicle, Associated Press, ~ May 21, 2005
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - A priest accused of molesting a 10-year-old boy while serving as a counselor at a Catholic school in 1988 asked Friday to change his plea to include a claim that he was not mentally responsible.
The lawyer for Donald Buzanowski, 62, filed a motion for him to plead not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, in addition to his previous plea of not guilty. If found guilty of the charges, he then would have a second phase of his trial on his sanity at the time.
Buzanowski is charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child stemming from alleged incidents when he served as a counselor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Green Bay.
Defense lawyer Owen Monfils has also filed a motion to bar reporters from hearings leading up to trial. He contended that information from motion hearings could prejudice potential jurors in the case.
The Green Bay Press-Gazette filed a protest to the request.
• Paedophile tracked to Thurles. [1980s O'Grady] - RCC.
Tipperary Star, By Anne O'Grady - aog@tipperarystar.ie , ~ May 21, 2005
IRELAND - A former priest, who was deported from the United States over four years ago, subsequently setting up home in Thurles, was said to have left the area as we went to press.
Oliver O'Grady, a native of Limerick City, had been living in rented accommodation on the Dublin Road prior to Thursday last but is now said to have left the house.
A former priest, Mr. O'Grady was ordained in St. Patrick's College in Thurles in 1971 for the Diocese of Stockton in California.
However, he was laicised following his conviction for sexually abusing two young brothers in the Stockton Diocese in the 1980s and he was deported to Ireland in January 2001 after serving seven years in California State Prison for the offences.
Mr. O'Grady is understood to have taken up residence in Thurles in 2002, renting accommodation in a house on the Dublin Road.
During his time in the town he was said to have kept to himself and the 'Tipperary Star' understands that gardai [police] in the town were aware of his presence and were monitoring the situation.
The 59-years-old Limerick man came to national prominence late last week after a transcript of a deposition he had given in relation to the abuse was lodged in a California Court days earlier.
• Local Tip Leads To Church Abuse Case. [2000s Lamonica, Labat, Bernard] - Hosanna Church. Sex with children and animals.
WBNS TV, ~ May 21, 2005
LOUISIANA - A call from a Central Ohio home led authorities near New Orleans to uncover what they think is a church cult that sexually abused children.
Three men, including a sheriff's deputy, an ex-pastor and a former church worker have been arrested on rape charges as part of an investigation into an alleged child sex abuse ring that may have operated out of a church near Ponchatoula, Louisiana.
Investigators in the Tangipahoa Parish and Livingston Parish Sheriff's office say the charges are deeply disturbing, including allegations that the children were taught to perform sex on each other and animals.
Louis Lamonica, 45, the former pastor at the Hosanna Church near Ponchatoula; 24-year-old Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Deputy Chris Labat; and 36-year-old Austin Bernard, who allegedly worked in the Hosanna Church, were all arrested on rape charges.
• Diocese agrees to sell six churches. - RCC. 62 parishes closed.
The Boston Globe, By Michael Paulson and Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | May 21, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - The financially strapped Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has reached an $8.5 million settlement with the second of two insurance carriers and has reached agreements to sell property associated with six closing parishes for at least $10 million.
The insurance settlement and the property sales will help the archdiocese bring some order to its financial situation, which has been severely harmed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The archdiocese has closed 62 parishes since last summer, has cut 19 percent of its administrative staff since 2002, and is now contemplating reducing pension benefits for priests.
Archdiocesan officials declined to disclose the sale prices for the six properties yesterday, but according to property purchasers and public records, church officials agreed to sell the largest -- Blessed Sacrament church, school, rectory, and convent campus in Cambridge -- to a developer for at least $5.6 million. An official from a Jamaica Plain Pentecostal church said that the congregation had reached a $2.8 million purchase and sale agreement for the former St. Joseph Church, rectory, and hall in Hyde Park.
In Quincy, a group of private developers confirmed that they had reached an agreement with the archdiocese to buy the former Most Blessed Sacrament Parish rectory in Hough's Neck for $815,000. In Medford, Tufts University spent $1.1 million for the former Sacred Heart Church and its rectory, according to a record of the purchase filed with the county registry of deeds. Sale prices of the other two properties, in Lowell and Malden, were unavailable yesterday.
The archdiocese said the proceeds of the sales will be used to help finance archdiocesan operations and support remaining parishes, but will not be used to finance settlements with abuse victims.
The archdiocese is paying for the portion of the abuse settlements that is not covered by insurance with money from last year's $99 million sale to Boston College of a 43-acre portion of the archdiocesan headquarters in Brighton.
• Vatican says no church action planned against Legionaries' founder. [1940s-50s Marcial Maciel Degollado (Legion of Christ)] - RCC. Seminarians (males).
Catholic News Service, ~ May 21, 2005
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican has confirmed that it plans no canonical process against the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, investigated for alleged sexual abuse of teenagers under his care.
The Vatican confirmation came after the Legionaries issued a May 20 statement saying that "there is no canonical process under way into our founder, Father Marcial Maciel, LC, nor will one be initiated." Father Maciel has consistently denied the accusations made against him.
The confirmation was issued by Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, after Catholic News Service asked him about the Legionaries' statement.
The decision not to start a canonical process comes after Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, an official of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, traveled to Mexico and the United States earlier this year to interview adults who said they were abused by Father Maciel, now 85, when they were teenage seminarians of the Legionaries.
"We hold no grudge against those who accuse us; rather, we keep them in our prayers while expressing our humblest gratitude to the countless people of good will who in these circumstances have reiterated to us their support and esteem," said the Legionaries' statement.
• Abuse Victim Seeks $630,000 From Boise Diocese. [1976-80 Worsley] - RCC.
KBCI TV, By Scott Logan, ~ May 21, 2005
BOISE (ID) - The former Boise priest who now lives in Portland was not answering his door today, one day after he resigned his position as an executive at Goodwill Industries when Local 2 News confronted him with a decades-old child abuse scandal.
TJ Hopper says the impact of the sexual abuse inflicted on him by former priest Jim Worsley at St. Paul's Catholic Center in Boise from 1976 to 1980 devastated his life.
"It's manifested itself in chronic depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress," Hopper said in an exclusive interview with Local 2 News.
Hopper, now 40, blocked the childhood abuse from his memory until 1992 and now says he wants justice in the form of a financial settlement from the Boise Diocese for Worsley's actions.
"He suffered no consequences, as a result of this," said Hopper, a Caldwell native. "I on the other hand, have a lifetime of consequences I've had to deal with." [Posted on Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse at 01:52 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat May 21, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun May 22, 2005 edition follows:-
• Police Name New Suspect In Cult-Like Church Ring. [2002-03 Bernard, Lamonica, Ms Pierson] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
TheNewOrleansChannel.com ; www.theneworleans channel.com/news/ 4517198/detail.html , UPDATED 1:39 pm CDT, May 22, 2005
PONCHATOULA, La. -- Authorities have gathered new evidence from the home of a former pastor accused of leading a church group in "cult-like" rituals involving the sexual abuse of children and animals.
Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Covington said authorities seized cars belonging to three of the eight arrested suspects in the case and also searched the home of former Hosanna Church pastor Louis Lamonica on Friday night.
Also Sunday, authorities issued an arrest warrant for Trish Pierson, bringing the number of suspects to nine.
Covington said Pierson is the wife of Allen R. Pierson, a 46-year-old man who lived in an apartment on the church complex and has been accused of raping a girl who was nine or 10. Covington would not say what charges Trish Pierson was wanted on. Covington said detectives believed Trish Pierson was somewhere in the southwestern region of the country on Saturday.
Authorities have said more arrests are possible, and the details of the case have become increasingly graphic.
Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards said members of a Ponchatoula church carried out the practices for years as part of a devil-worshipping ritual involving cat blood. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:10 PM]
• Clear goals on sex-abuse fight. - Anglican.
The Advertiser, By JILL PENGELLEY, May 23, 2005
AUSTRALIA - ADELAIDE's new Anglican Archbishop will invoke diplomacy and prayer to deal with a dilemma of his appointment.
The Right Reverend Jeffrey Driver is an Essendon supporter in the AFL and family friend of captain James Hird.
"We're going to have to have dual citizenship at best," he said yesterday.[...]
While he made light of his football allegiance, Bishop Driver was earnest in his commitment to healing within the Anglican Church in Adelaide.
He said the diocese had made progress in responding to the needs of sexual abuse victims in the church. "I'm absolutely committed to a process of healing that's appropriate, that's transparent and is full," he said.
• Informing our readers means not shunning the dark facts. [O'Grady] - RCC. 25 children.
Modesto Bee, May 22, 2005
CALIFORNIA - "In a chillingly frank account, a former Roman Catholic priest who served in the Stockton Diocese recently described his decades long career as a pedophile, including his sexual tastes and how he groomed his young victims for abuse." So began a story on Oliver O'Grady that ran on The Bee's front page 10 days ago.
The story went on to describe, in some detail, how O'Grady molested an estimated 25 children while serving parishes in our area.
The detail, as it turned out, was too much for some of our readers, including Linda Vermeulen of Ripon, who e-mailed us complaining not only about that story but about coverage of Michael Jackson's molestation trial as well.
"What is the purpose of such a graphic and disgusting description of (O'Grady's) molestation accounts?" Vermeulen wrote. "I was sickened as I read it, and couldn't help but wonder how this detail serves the readers of The Modesto Bee.
"The most dishonorable part of your piece was where he tells the reporter how he lures a child to come to him. I couldn't help but feel the sorrow and revulsion of the hundreds of child molestation victims who must have been reading the article in horror. Shame on you."
I'm sure many of our readers were shocked and even repulsed by O'Grady's own account - as well they should have been. And, it might have opened old wounds among other readers.
Our intent in publishing the detailed account was to help readers - especially parents - better understand how pedophiles operate, and thus how better to protect children. The vast majority of teachers, pastors, coaches and other youth workers are good and honorable people; at the same time, there are sick and twisted people among them. Parents and children alike need to be alert. And to be alert, they need to be informed.
• Land sales to pay priest abuse claims. - RCC. 83 properties auctioned to pay for clergy sex abuse.
The Boston Globe, By Arthur H. Rotstein, Associated Press | May 22, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) -- More than 80 properties owned by the Catholic Diocese of Tucson were auctioned off yesterday in hopes of raising $3.2 million toward an eventual settlement to pay clergy sex abuse claims.
But the sale of the 83 properties in eight Arizona counties, conducted with Bankruptcy Court approval, will not become final until June 23, and officials will not know for about 40 days exactly how much revenue the auction produced.
Three parcels were sold under sealed bids that had to be submitted by Thursday; their pre-set minimums were expected to bring in more than half of the hoped-for total. All three were considered prime candidates for development.
Intense bidding opened on the single most expensive parcel sold yesterday -- 10 acres in northeast Tucson -- reaching $890,000. The last two properties sold were quarter- and fifth-acre plots in Navajo County, for $1,500 apiece.
• Ex-altar boy alleges sexual abuse. [1973 Maher] - RCC. Altar boy.
Albany Times Union, By CAROL DeMARE, Thursday, May 19, 2005
ALBANY (NY) -- The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese said Wednesday it would investigate allegations that the pastor of Holy Cross Church molested an altar boy 32 years ago.
Attorney John Aretakis filed a lawsuit this week against Bishop Howard Hubbard, the diocese, Holy Cross parish, and the priest, the Rev. Daniel J. Maher, on behalf of the alleged victim, Thomas G. Clements III, now 44, of Colonie.
Clements claimed he was sexually assaulted twice by Maher in 1973, when he was 12, at a camp on Saratoga Lake.
Maher denied the allegations, and the diocese said the priest poses no threat to the parish.
Clements' lawsuit, filed in Saratoga County Supreme Court, is seeking $2 million in damages and accuses the diocese of negligence for allowing Maher to remain in active ministry at a parish where there is an elementary school.
• The scandal that won't go away. - RCC. "Holy Water-gate" film.
NorthJersey.com , www.northjersey. com/page.php? qstr=eXJpcnk3Zjcz N2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyN jMmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cW VlRUV5eTY2OTY3Mj ImeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2 Y3dnFlZUVFeXk5 ; By MIKE KELLY, Sunday, May 22, 2005
UNITED STATES: SUPPOSE YOU were asked to name one of the biggest criminal coverups in American history. Maybe you would point to Wall Street or to the White House or to another political institution.
But the Roman Catholic Church? This is just one of the questions to emerge from a new documentary about decades of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests as church leaders kept silent or actively kept evidence from police.
How did this widespread abuse happen? How did it go on for so long?
"Holy Water-gate: Abuse Cover-up in the Catholic Church," by filmmaker Mary Healey-Conlon, touches on those questions and more in one of the most searing examinations of how church leaders turned a deaf ear to what surely is American Catholicism's most serious crisis, not to mention the most extensive coverup of criminal behavior in the nation's history.
The numbers speak volumes about how horrible this story is - some 11,000 children raped or abused by more than 4,000 priests during a 40-year span. But those numbers are conservative estimates, approved by the church officials. The truth may be even worse.
• Sheriff: church rituals involved cat blood. [2000s Lamonica, Ms Pierson] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
KATC, ~ May 22, 2005
PONCHATOULA, La. Authorities have gathered new evidence from the home of a former pastor accused of leading a church group in "cult-like" rituals involving the sexual abuse of children and animals.
Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Covington says authorities seized cars belonging to three of the eight arrested suspects in the case and also searched the home of former Hosanna Church pastor Louis Lamonica on Friday night.
Also today, authorities issued an arrest warrant for Trish Pierson, bringing to nine the number of suspects.
Covington says she is the wife of Allen R. Pierson, a 46-year-old man who lived in an apartment on the church complex and has been accused of raping a girl who was nine or ten. Covington would not say what charges Trish Pierson was wanted on. Covington said detectives believed Trish Pierson was somewhere in the southwestern region of the country on Saturday.
Authorities have said more arrests are possible, and the details of the case have become increasingly graphic.
• Probe ongoing in alleged 'cult' sexual abuse. [2000s Lamonica] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
The Advocate, From staff and news services, May 22, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) -- Authorities gathered new evidence from the home of a former pastor accused of leading a church group in "cultlike" rituals involving the sexual abuse of children and animals.
Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Covington said Saturday that authorities seized cars belonging to three of the eight arrested suspects in the case and also searched the home of former Hosanna Church pastor Louis Lamonica on Friday night.
"They took a few computers," Covington said.
Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards said that a warrant was issued Saturday for the arrest of a woman believed to be linked to the group accused of sexually abusing children and animals.
Edwards would not release her name, but said the warrant said she faces prosecution in counts of aggravated rape and sexual battery.
• Witness hospitalized with illness; minister's molestation trial delayed. [? 2001-02 Palmer] - Baptist. 2 stepdaughters.
Delta Democrat Times, By ELORIA NEWELL JAMES, elorianewelljames@ddtonline.com , May 22, 2005
MISSISSIPPI - A witnesses' illness led to a delay in a sexual battery case being tried last week in Washington County Circuit Court.
Proceedings will resume Monday, Circuit Judge Richard Smith ordered.
The defendant, Michael F. Palmer, 41, is a Baptist minister from Leland. He is accused of molesting two stepdaughters. The girls, now ages 13 and 15, were 10 and 12 when the alleged molestation began. According to testimony, the acts continued for about 18 months before law enforcement was notified.
The trial began Wednesday.
Smith said Friday that the court was informed that a witness is ill.
"One of the witnesses is hospitalized at this time, and I'm continuing the case until Monday," he said. "On Monday, I will assess the situation, and hopefully the witness will be out of hospital and able to be here."
Prior to the continuance, the alleged victims and several other state witnesses told a Washington County Circuit Court Jury about incidents in which Palmer allegedly touched the girls in private areas. The younger girl told about Palmer getting on top of her several times and having intercourse.
• Tucson Diocese Property Auction. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC. 85 properties auctioned for sex abuse.
KOLD, by Mark Stine, KOLD News 13 Reporter, Posted May-21-05
TUCSON (AZ) - Hundreds of people looking for a great deal.
"And we got one, just got one, 14 acres for $7,500." Steve Griffin and his wife were looking for some land so they could build their retirement home.
"We had a price, we stuck with it and we got it," Griffin said.
And after all the fast paced action, Griffin can now relax. "This is for me and my wife to kick back and have a good time."
With a simple hand raise, or nod of the head, bidders pick their price. The Tucson Diocese auctioned off 85 properties raising money to pay off victims of sexual abuse.
"Been a catholic all my life, born and raised and thought it'd be great to get a good deal and help out the situation we have here," Griffin said.
• New Archbishop finally named. - Anglican.
The Sunday Mail, By Chris Pippos, May 22, 05
AUSTRALIA - A VICTORIAN touted as someone who could heal problems created by sexual abuse in the church has been elected as Adelaide's new Anglican Archbishop.
Bishop of Gippsland, the Right Reverend Jeffrey Driver, was elected "overwhelmingly" yesterday by the 280-member Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide.
After the election Bishop Driver, 54, said he "hoped to be a builder of community and bring healing" to the church.
"It's not a poisoned chalice - I think the diocese has some great strengths," said Bishop Driver, who is married with two adult children.
• Diocese auction nets millions. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC. > 60 properties sold for sex abuse.
KVOA, http://kvoa.com/ Global/story.asp? S=3375625&nav= HMO5a99C , ~ May 22, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson took a huge step Saturday in its chapter 11 reorganization.
It sold off more than 60 properties, with all the proceeds now going towards settling sexual abuse claims.
There were diocese holdings from eight counties all around the state, that were sold, fetching millions of dollars.
The bidding was fast and furious.
There were investors, like Chris Dougherty, looking to buy low and sell high.
"Some of these properties are very, very good," said Dougherty.
• Diocese auctions properties to raise money for sex abuse settlements. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC. > 60 properties sold for sex abuse.
Fox 11, By PETER BUSCH, Eyewitness 4, May 21, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - The Catholic Diocese of Tucson sold off more than 60 properties on Saturday, raising millions of dollars to settle sexual abuse claims.
The bidding was fast and furious, and investors like Chris Dougherty were looking to buy low and sell high.
"Some of these properties are very good," he said.
Pima County Representatives bid on an archeological site up on the auction block just so no one else would build on it.
"We're interested in preserving it," said Christine Curtis of Pima County Real Properties. "We had some money from a bond election in May 2004 to help us acquire it."
• 83 parcels owned by diocese sold to settle sex abuse suits. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC. $US2.4m raised for sex abuse.
Tucson Daily Star, By Carol Ann Alaimo, ARIZONA DAILY STAR, ~ May 22, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - Dozens of Catholic church properties were auctioned off at a Tucson hotel for at least $2.4 million Saturday, amid merry strains of fiddle music and frenzied shouts of bidders.
But the hoopla was tinged with sadness for those who recalled the reasons behind the unprecedented sales event.
The properties, owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, were sold with Bankruptcy Court approval to help pay settlements to victims sexually abused as children by priests.
"My heart pours out to the victims," said Quincy Robinson, 52, of Las Vegas, who heard about the diocese auction on the Internet and jetted into town with her husband in search of land deals.
"If this is the way the victims can be compensated, then that's the way it has to be," Robinson said.
• Cardinal ordains eight priests. - RCC. 8 new clergy.
Boston Herald, By Marie Szaniszlo, Sunday, May 22, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley yesterday ordained eight men to the priesthood, a welcome addition for an archdiocese that is closing more than a quarter of its parishes partly because of a shortage of priests.
Although he did not refer directly to the closings or the clergy sexual abuse crisis that helped precipitate them, O'Malley acknowledged the difficult task that lay ahead of the new clergymen.
"Answering the call to ministry is never easy. Not everyone who is called is ready to respond," O'Malley said in his homily at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End.
"I invite you to rest your heads on the heart of Jesus. Set an example for believers in your words and in your actions. Have a special love for your brother priests. They are your new family."
Thomas S. Rafferty, one of the newly ordained priests, said he had thought about becoming a priest ever since he was an altar boy but went on to practice law for 20 years before he entered the seminary.
"I'm aware of how much people have been hurt," he said, referring to the sexual abuse crisis and the parish closings. "But the church has always faced difficult times but the Holy Spirit gets us through. He's in it for the long haul."
• Sex-abuse complaints voiced at site of conference. - Methodist; Roman Catholic.
Daily Telegram, By Dennis Pelham, ~ May 22, 2005
ADRIAN, MICHIGAN -- Complaints of sexual abuse by two United Methodist Church ministers were voiced Saturday from the sidewalk in front of the Adrian College campus where an annual weekend gathering of church leaders in the Detroit Conference was taking place.
A board member of the national group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a press conference along with a Dearborn Heights man who said his former minister destroyed his marriage and sexually harassed his four daughters.
After the press conference, SNAP board member Janet Patterson of Kansas walked across the campus to try to hand deliver a letter to Michigan Conference Bishop, Jonathan Keaton.
She was not able to meet with him. She also passed out copies of her letter to people attending the conference, including to one of the two ministers SNAP is asking the church to take action against.
Patterson is the mother of a sexual abuse victim who committed suicide nearly six years ago at the age of 29. She said he was abused by their family's Catholic priest when he was 12 years old.
• Boston priest writes U.S. Rep.. - RCC.
Renew America, by Matt C. Abbott, May 22, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - The Rev. Robert J. Carr of St. Benedict's Parish in Somerville, Mass. has written the following (edited) letter to U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch:
Dear Mr. Lynch,
I read in the Boston Herald that John Harris [an alleged victim of the Rev. Paul Shanley] wants a congressional investigation into the crisis in the Church. I support it, but I'd like to include how the media and government handled the crisis in the Church.
I have been calling for this publicly for several years. As a United States Navy Veteran (STG2), I witnessed terrible things done to my parishioners with the full support of our state government and media. You will find a list of them in the first column I wrote for Catholic Online in which I describe my innocent parishioners as true Catholic heroes: www.catholic. org/ featured/ headline. php?ID=554
I am well-known as the author of Be Fooled No More, a list of agendas using the crisis behind the scenes to stage a coup of the Roman Catholic Church. I removed it down for awhile to concentrate more on my primary role of serving the people, but I put it up now for your inspection and the inspection of some others. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:38 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun May 22, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon May 23, 2005 edition follows:-
• Pastor in sex-abuse furore surrenders credentials. [1980s Hughes] - Assembly of God. Teenager.
New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald. co.nz/index.cfm? c_id=1&ObjectID= 10127146 , By CHRIS BARTON, for May.24.05
NEW ZEALAND - Wayne Hughes, the Takapuna Assembly of God pastor at the centre of sexual abuse claims, has voluntarily surrendered his credentials as a minister and withdrawn from all ministry in the church.
In a statement released on Friday, Assemblies of God general superintendent Ken Harrison said: "The executive has concluded that to further pursue the matter is inadvisable as, amongst other things, the only sanction available in terms of the constitution and by-laws, is suspension of, or removal of credentials."
The Executive Presbytery, which is the Assembly of God movement's governing body, has been conducting an investigation into the matter since November. Mr Harrison said the investigation "has been considerably hampered by issues of legal and court privilege".
The abuse of a teenager occurred 20 years ago, but the victim has not complained to police. Both Mr Hughes and the victim have acknowledged some form of abuse occurred.
After a series of articles in the Herald, Mr Hughes opted for early retirement last month, citing personal reasons and concerns about how the publicity might affect the church. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:27 PM]
• Father crusades for bill to protect children.
Cincinnati Enquirer, By Dan Horn, May 23, 2005
COLUMBUS (OH) - Before he speaks, Mike Chakeres takes a deep breath and gently presses his hands together, as if in prayer.
He sits face-to-face with an aide for Ohio Rep. Steve Driehaus, preparing to explain why the House of Representatives should approve a new child protection bill. Chakeres has made this pitch before, but he's not a lobbyist or a salesman.
He still feels uneasy telling strangers how this particular piece of legislation became his personal crusade.
So he starts at the beginning.
"I'm just a father," he says, leaning forward in his chair. "My children have been harmed."
For Chakeres, this has been a simple and terrible fact of life for more than two years, ever since his two sons told him a Cincinnati priest molested them in the late 1970s. Now, he's here at the statehouse, on a beautiful day in early May, asking lawmakers for help.
"All we seek is a chance for justice," Chakeres tells the aide.
• Vatican: No plans for Degallado probe. [1940s-60s Maciel] - RCC. Male seminarians.
Myrtle Beach Sun News, By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press, ~ May 23, 2005
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said Monday there was no investigation under way of allegations that the Mexican founder of a conservative religious order sexually abused seminarians more than 30 years ago, and the Holy See had no plans to bring a church trial against the priest.
The Legionaries of Christ said Friday that the Vatican notified them a day earlier about the status of the case involving the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degallado. In the late 1990s, nine former seminarians alleged Maciel had abused them when they were young boys or teenagers in Roman Catholic seminaries in Spain and Italy. The alleged abuse occurred in the 1940s-1960s.
Maciel, 85, has denied the allegations and said his accusers plotted to defame him.
"There is no investigation under way and it is not foreseen that there will be one in the future," a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said Monday.
Earlier this year, news reports surfaced that the Vatican had reopened the sexual abuse case against Maciel. But Vatican officials at the time said the reports resulted from a misunderstanding.
• Ireland attracts overseas zeal as priest numbers fall. - RCC.
Reuters, By Paul Majendie, May 23, 2005
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland once used to send thousands of priests and nuns to spread Christianity abroad.
Now the trend has been reversed for the Roman Catholic church on the Emerald Isle.
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, trainee priests are now coming to Ireland from Eastern Europe to learn their trade. ...
Up to 60 percent of Irish Catholics still attend mass every week -- but just nine new priests are being ordained this year into a church that once dominated every facet of Irish life.
Ireland's Catholic Church, like others around the world, was shaken to its foundations by a string of scandals involving the sexual abuse of children by priests.
But now religious commentators point to other more pressing problems -- a top-heavy hierarchy battling to breathe new life into a church whose faithful are enjoying the secular delights of the Celtic Tiger -- Ireland's booming economy.
"People are thinking of having rather than being," said Doran, reflecting on the church's role in an increasingly secular society.
But just how badly have the child abuse scandals affected vocations?
"It is not as high profile as it was. But of course it is there in the background and always has the potential to hit the headlines when a case comes up," Doran said.
• Good intentions may be unconstitutional.
Canton Repository, www.cantonrep. com/index.php?Cate gory=3&ID=224 219&r=0 , Monday, May 23, 2005
OHIO - Ohio Senate Bill 17 took a bizarre, and arguably unconstitutional, turn before the Senate completed work on it earlier this spring. The bill, having to do with abuse of children, is now in the hands of the Ohio House. Lawmakers there should try to save it. We ask state Reps. Scott Oelslager, William J. Healy II and John Hagan to have a look.
Drafted with the cooperation of the Catholic Church, the bill would require all clergy to report any known or suspected abuse of a child. Nearly everyone knows the unfortunate recent history of the church. In certain parts of the country, church leaders concealed problems of abuse of children by priests. The bill would prohibit such concealment.
It also would extend to 20 years the time period for filing a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of a minor. Twenty years would give people up to age 38 the oppportunity to bring suit.
After the Catholics endorsed the legislation, the Ohio Senate amended it with a special twist. It added a provision by which, for a year or two, people would have the chance to file suit for incidents as old as 35 years ago.
This decision to temporarily permit more lawsuits is a particularly odd decision for the Ohio Senate to make. It was, after all, the body that rushed last year to severely limit citizens' ability to file lawsuits against businesses, only to have its work frustrated by a more thoughtful Ohio House of Representatives. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:10 AM]
• Ohio proposal on child abuse troubles clerics.
Beacon Journal, By Colette M. Jenkins, Beacon Journal religion writer, ~ May 23, 2005
OHIO - The Rev. Byron Arledge doesn't need legislation to mandate doing the right thing.
"I would be hard-pressed to think of a reason why a clergy person would not report the suspected abuse of a child. It's not a political decision. It's a child-welfare issue and a matter of conscience," said Arledge, interim pastor at St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in the village of Tuscarawas in Tuscarawas County.
Arledge, who is also a licensed counselor and executive director of Pastoral Counseling Service in Akron, said clerics have a duty to protect children who need help -- not because they want to comply with a law, but because they are required "by a higher power" to do what is right.
That higher power is not the Ohio legislature, which is considering a proposal that would require clerics and church leaders to report suspected child abuse, just as teachers, doctors, lawyers and other professionals are required to do.
The bill also would lengthen the statute of limitations for the filing of lawsuits involving child sexual abuse to 20 years, clarify that a 20-year criminal statute of limitations does not start until a victim is 18 years old, and establish a one-year window after the law's enactment in which victims could sue alleging childhood sexual abuse that occurred in the previous 35 years.
• Church audits get close look. - RCC.
The Union Leader, By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI, ~ May 23, 2005
UNITED STATES - Poised to launch the third round of annual audits to determine whether Catholic dioceses and eparchies are complying with the church's child protection policies, the nation's bishops defend them as a credible.
Still, opinions differ among leaders of groups representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse nationwide. Some claim the audits are meaningless while another said the mere fact bishops are submitting to outside scrutiny is a milestone.
"The fact that the audits are being conducted and dioceses around the country are opening up to that process to having independent oversight is a very good thing," said Susan Archibald, president of The Linkup, a support group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse that has about 3,000 members.
But the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests dismissed them as nothing more than a public relations ploy that could do more harm than good by fostering a false sense of security.
"It leads Catholics to a sense of complacency when complacency is really dangerous," said David Clohessy, executive director of the group, which represents more than 5,000 clergy sexual abuse survivors.
• Vatican reportedly drops probe of Mexican cleric. [1940s-60s Marcial Maciel (Legion of Christ)] - RCC. 8 male seminarians.
The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/ news/world/latin america/articles/ 2005/05/23/vatican_ reportedly_drops_ probe_of_mexican_ cleric ; By Marion Lloyd, Globe Correspondent | May 23, 2005
MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican founder of the Legion of Christ, an influential Roman Catholic order, will not face a church trial on allegations that he sexually abused young seminarians in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, according to the Legion and news reports citing a Vatican spokesman.
In December, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith opened a full-scale investigation into the allegations by eight former seminarians against the Rev. Marcial Maciel, the 85-year-old founder of the Legion of Christ. In April, a Catholic Church prosecutor, Charles J. Scicluna, traveled to the United States and Mexico to take testimony from dozens of former Legionaries, according to the co-accusers.
But on Friday, the Legion announced that it had been told by the Holy See that no charges would be brought against Maciel, adding that the priest "unambiguously affirmed his innocence." A Vatican spokesman confirmed yesterday that the investigation had ended, and that there were no plans to reopen it, according to the Associated Press. Efforts by a Boston Globe reporter to obtain comment from the Vatican yesterday were unsuccessful.
"Father Maciel is exonerated, and the Holy See has found nothing upon which to begin any kind of canonical process," Jay Dunlap, the Legion's spokesman, said yesterday. He added that Maciel was "just grateful for the victory of truth and to be able to get on with the business of his priesthood."
The news was met with skepticism by the co-accusers -- mostly Mexicans in their 60s and 70s -- whose meetings with Scicluna had raised their hopes that the case would go to trial before the Vatican's Tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
• Disgraced priest group claims victim status. [Society of St. John] - RCC.
Renew America, by Matt C. Abbott, May 23, 2005
PENNSYLVANIA - Another update in a seemingly never-ending, but still interesting, situation:
The Society of St. John, a suppressed clerical association that, along with the Diocese of Scranton, was the target of a (recently-settled) sex abuse lawsuit, has claimed victim status.
According to Dr. Jeffrey Bond, president of the College of St. Justin Martyr (an institution formerly affiliated with the SSJ), the group "has posted on its web site a 'Press Release' and a 'Letter to Benefactors' ( www.ssjohn.org ), both of which provide evidence that madness is not the cause of evil, but rather that evil is the cause of madness.
"Indeed, the SSJ has now reached a stage that can only be called delusional.
"In their press release, the SSJ claims that the sale of their Shohola property 'gives evidence to the Society's claim that their project is financially viable.' Yes, you read that right. The SSJ is claiming their project is 'viable.' [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:53 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon May 23, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue May 24, 2005 edition follows:-
• Vatican Quietly Scuttles Abuse Probe. [Maciel] - RCC.
Hartford Courant, www.courant.com/ news/nationworld/ hc-maciel0524.artmay 24,0,2228491.story? coll=hc-headlines- nationworld ; By GERALD RENNER, Special To The Courant, May 24, 2005
UNITED STATES: The Vatican announcement that no action will be taken against the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative religious order, has stunned those who accuse him of having sexually abused young seminarians in his charge years ago.
The decision announced by the Vatican Press Office short-circuits normal church procedures to reach a resolution in the case against the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado.
Neither the men making the accusations nor their canon lawyer in Rome had been told of the decision as of Monday, said one of the accusers, Juan Vaca, of Holbrooke, N.Y., a former Legionary priest who once headed the order in the United States.
Vaca, now an adjunct professor of psychology and sociology at Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., said he felt betrayed. "I am more than upset," he said. "I've lost all faith in the church."
Maciel, 85, the Mexican founder and recently retired head of the Legionaries of Christ, recently was the subject of an intense preliminary investigation by a high-level Vatican agency known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
The case against Maciel gained wider attention when Ratzinger became pope. As a cardinal, Ratzinger had been in charge of handling sexual abuse allegations, and observers were looking to this case as a test of how seriously the Vatican will pursue allegations such as those that have roiled the church in America. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:29 PM]
• Los Angeles Times Writer Spews Hate. - RCC.
Catholic League, May 24, 2005
NEW YORK - Catholic League president William Donohue wrote the following news release in response to columnist Robert Scheer's latest piece:
"In today's article, Los Angeles Times op-ed page writer Robert Scheer manages to mangle the facts and distort the truth about both the Catholic Church and homosexuals. He does so because he is full of hate.
"He dubs the Catholic Church 'one of the most sexually repressed institutions in human history' that is responsible for a 'horrific drumbeat of child molestation revelations' led by a new pope who is 'a longtime leader of vicious church attacks on 'evil' gays'; Pope Benedict XVI is also accused of scapegoating the media. Scheer is wrong on all counts.
"It is not the Catholic Church's emphasis on sexual reticence that gave us the scandal, it was morally delinquent priests who jettisoned the Church's teachings on sexuality. The 'drumbeat of child molestation revelations' is pure myth: 81 percent of the victims were male - the majority being postpubescent - and 100 percent of the victimizers were male, thus making this a homosexual scandal (not a pedophilia scandal). But don't look for Scheer to mention this: He will protect gays at all costs and he will slander the Catholic Church at any expense.
• Florida man sues priest, diocese; alleges molestation attempt in Ga.. [1971 Bowles] - RCC. Boy.
Tallahassee Democrat, By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press, ~ May 24, 2005
PENSACOLA, Fla. - A 49-year-old man sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee and a now-retired priest Tuesday, saying that 34 years ago, when he was 15, the priest tried to molest him in a Georgia motel room.
The Circuit Court suit accuses Monsignor Richard Bowles of disrobing and demanding oral sex from Paul Tugwell, then 15, during a 1971 trip to Callaway Gardens at Pine Mountain, Ga. Tugwell said he refused Bowles request.
The suit also alleges that diocese officials failed to report the matter to police when Tugwell's parents complained and transferred Bowles from one parish to another "thereby perpetuating his harm to others."
"I don't think there's a day that goes by that I haven't thought about it," Tugwell said at a news conference. "For a long time I pretty much pushed it away to not have to deal with it, but when the Boston cases came out I felt I needed to do something about it."
Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as archbishop of Boston in 2002 after the disclosure that he had moved predatory priests to new church assignments without notifying parishioners. His archdiocese settled more than 550 lawsuits for $85 million. The Boston complaints led to similar allegations and thousands of lawsuits across the nation.
• Search On For Clues In Alleged Satanic Pedophile Ring. [? 2000s Ms Bernard, Mr Bernard, and 7 others] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
NBC4i, www.nbc4i.com/ news/4526430/ detail.html , UPDATED: 5:11 pm EDT May 24, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- FBI agents and local police searched a storage unit located along Morse Road Tuesday in connection with an alleged sex scandal linked to a New Orleans-area church, NBC 4's Nancy Burton reported.
The storage unit was searched after one of the suspects, Nicole Bernard, told investigators that it held evidence of a satanic pedophile ring.
Bernard made her first court appearance Tuesday in Franklin County after being arrested Thursday by Reynoldsburg police at a home in Blacklick and charged with aggravated rape.
Bernard's husband, a church pastor and a sheriff's deputy were arrested in Louisiana. All are accused of sexually abusing children -- including some related to them, Burton reported. A search warrant indicated that animals also were involved, Burton reported.
Nine people in all have been arrested, according to WDSU-TV in New Orleans.
Police said the satanic pedophile ring went on for four years. The sex scandal allegedly occurred at the Hosanna Church, located 60 miles north of New Orleans.
A pastor in Louisiana owns the house Bernard was living in in Blacklick. [Bussmann] - RCC. Thefts, sex misconduct. Woman.
• Ex-Rogers priest convicted for sexual misconduct, theft.
Star News, May 24, 2005
MINNESOTA - John Joseph Bussmann, a former priest of the Mary Queen of Peace congregations in Rogers and Fletcher, was convicted last week of sexual misconduct and theft charges involving a female employee and parishioner when he served as a priest there.
According to Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, after a one-week trial and one day of deliberations, a jury convicted Bussmann, 51, of one count of theft over $500 (a felony), one count of theft by swindle over $500 (a felony), one count of fifth degree criminal sexual conduct (a gross misdemeanor) and one count of indecent exposure (a misdemeanor).
He will be sentenced July 11 in front of Hennepin County District Judge Diana Eagon. Bussmann also remains charged with two counts of third degree criminal sexual conduct involving two other female parishioners. Those cases will be tried in July.
Bussmann was a priest at St. Martin's Catholic Church in Rogers and St. Walburga's Catholic Church in Fletcher from 2000-03 (These churches merged in 2002 to form the Mary Queen of Peace congregation). The Archdiocese removed Bussmann as a priest in March 2003.
The victim in this case, said Klobuchar, was a church employee and parishioner. The victim testified that, around April 2001, Bussmann summoned her to the rectory stating that there was water in the basement. She went over to the building and entered the basement. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she discovered there was no water leaking. Bussmann then walked into the basement naked and stood at the bottom of the stairs so she could not leave.
On another occasion, Bussmann purchased a gift for the victim. When she went to his office to thank him, he gave her a hug, rubbing her buttocks and touching her breasts over her clothing. She pushed herself away, packed her belongings and left her employment the same day.
• Priest Cleared Of Sexual Misconduct Allegations . - RCC. Rev. George Crespin back on duty.
Daily Planet, By MATTHEW ARTZ, May 24, 2005
BERKELEY (CA) - Father George Crespin returned to the pulpit Sunday, two days after Oakland Diocese officials cleared him on charges that he sexually molested a boy more than 30 years ago.
In a letter handed out to parishioners Sunday, Bishop of Oakland Allen Vigneron wrote that a diocese review board found the available evidence "insufficient to support the allegation made against Father Crespin."
Diocese officials were not available Monday to answer whether the accuser, whose identity the diocese has withheld, would have the opportunity to appeal the ruling.
According to parishioners, Father Crespin, 69, told those at mass on Sunday that he was overwhelmed by their support and prayers.
"It was just jubilation," said Sharon Girard, who attended the mass. "We all believed in him. I never doubted him for a moment."
In February, the diocese placed Crespin on administrative leave while it investigated an accusation from a man who said Crespin sexually abused him in 1984, while Crespin was a priest at Our Lady of the Rosary in Union City.
• Teens who beat priest face up to 3 years in prison . [Costa] - RCC. Offered $US50 for sex.
AZCentral, Associated Press, 09:30 AM, May 24, 2005
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Two teenagers charged with the December beating of a priest in Springfield have pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and face up to three years in prison.
As part of Monday's agreement with the state, Jamie E. Gibson, 17, and Ryan Boyle, 15, will face no more than three years when Sangamon County Circuit Judge Leo Zappa sentences them July 19. A second aggravated battery count against each teenager was dismissed in exchange for the guilty pleas.
Each admitted hitting and kicking the Rev. Eugene Costa, 54, in the head and body after he offered them $50 for sex acts, police said Gibson told them.
Boyle is charged as an adult in the case, although if he is sentenced to the Department of Corrections, he will be held in a juvenile facility until he is 17.
Aggravated battery is punishable by up to five years in prison, but probation is an option.
Assistant state's attorney Karen Tharp said a Springfield Park District police officer came across Costa's car in Douglas Park about 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 21 after the park was closed. Costa was found near the vehicle, severely beaten.
Gibson told police he and Boyle had cut through the park, stopped to smoke a cigarette and rest. An older man, later identified as Costa, started talking to them, offered the youths $50 for sex acts, and then rubbed up against Gibson and touched his leg.
When the man did the same thing again, Gibson punched him, knocking him to the ground. Gibson and Boyle then started kicking Costa in the head.
• Priests' attorney raps bishop. [Urrutigoity, Ensey] - RCC.
Times Leader, By MARK GUYDISH, mguydish@leader.net , ~ May 24, 2005
PENNSYLVANIA - The attorney who represented two priests in a civil lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct with a minor issued a stinging rebuke of Bishop Joseph Martino on Monday
Attorney Sal Cognetti, who represented the Revs. Carlos Urrutigoity and Eric Ensey, was responding to a May 6 press release from the Diocese of Scranton that announced a settlement in the suit filed by a man identified as John Doe.
In the diocese press release, Martino was quoted as saying that Doe's allegations "were very damaging. In view of the serious claims made by the young person and in light of the statements by the witnesses who supported his claim, it was determined that the just decision was to reach a settlement that will assist the victim and his family as they attempt to heal."
Cognetti countered that there wasn't "even one corroborative testimony in support of" Doe's claims.
"It shocks me deeply as an attorney to see the prejudicial and antagonistic nature of the statements leveled against my clients by their own bishop, apparently giving credence to the allegations without any finding of fact whatsoever on his part (or a court's part)."
Cognetti also claimed Martino "does not know the case, except from those who have, quite apparently, erroneously advised him on the matter," and that the bishop "does not even know personally the priests he has so unjustly defamed. ..."
• Italy investigating 186 over child torture site. [186 people] - Internet child torture, abuse.
San Diego Union-Tribune, REUTERS, 8:03 a.m. May 24, 2005
ROME - Italian police are investigating 186 people including three priests after uncovering an Internet pornography site for paedophiles that showed young children being tortured, an official said on Tuesday.
Police said the anonymous web site had been protected by a password and was only accessible for nine days last year in an apparent effort to avoid detection.
But a tip-off to a child-abuse telephone helpline allowed computer experts to track down the users. Besides the Roman Catholic priests, police also believe a mayor, a teacher and a doctor downloaded illegal videos.
'The children on the films were aged between 4 and 8 at most. Some were abused, others were even tortured,' said Domenico Di Somma, coordinator for the police computer investigation taskforce.
Police have confiscated computers across Italy, but have not yet pressed charges as they continue with their investigation.
• Vatican accepts Kansas City bishop's resignation. - RCC.
The Kansas City Star, By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press, ~ May 24, 2005
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Vatican accepted the early retirement Tuesday of Bishop Raymond J. Boland, whose ailing health pushed him to leave his post as leader of the region's 140,000 Roman Catholics.
Boland, 73, headed the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for 12 years, but last year asked Pope John Paul II to allow him to step down. He is a colon cancer survivor who has a fatigue-inducing condition called hemochromatosis. ...
Boland's tenure was not without incident.
He was named in numerous lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct by his priests, though he was never accused of abuse himself. Years before the church's abuse crisis erupted, Boland was involved in forming a training program, "Protecting God's Children," to help create safe environments for children and to teach adults warning signs of abuse.
• Italian child porn site targeted . [3 priests included] - Child abuse, torture.
BBC News, http://news.bbc. co.uk/2/hi/americas/ 4575977.stm , ~ May 24, 2005
ITALY - Some 200 people are being investigated over an internet pornography site showing young children being tortured, Italian police say.
Suspected members of the paedophile ring are said to include three priests and a mayor, media reports say.
The children were aged between four and eight. No arrests have yet been made.
Child protection organisation head Antonio Marziale said the case was just the tip of the iceberg.
He told the Italian news agency Ansa that fighting paedophilia should be at the top of the government's agenda.
"The children on the films were aged between four and eight at most. Some were abused, others were even tortured," said Domenico Di Somma, co-ordinator for the police computer investigation taskforce.
• Woman Accused In Sex Abuse Case In Court. [? 2000s Ms Bernard] - Hosanna Church. Satanism, child sex.
WBNS, ~ May 24, 2005
COLUMBUS (OH) - Detectives search a local storage unit for more clues in a bizarre church sex abuse case unfolding in Louisiana.
The pastor of the church and a sheriff's deputy are among those accused of having sex with children.
It was a Columbus woman who led police to the church. Tuesday, her alleged involvement landed her in a Franklin County courtroom.
Nicole Bernard waived her right to extradition and will be headed back to Louisiana sometime this week. Bernard is charged with multiple counts of aggravated rape against a juvenile.
In court documents obtained by 10TV, Bernard told investigators of satanic sexual rituals she and other adults participated in over a long period of time involving children.
The cult-like ceremonies took place at the Hosanna Church, about 30 minutes outside of Louisiana.
• Murder Haunts Catholic Church. [1972 Lavigne] - RCC. Murder. 45 boy sex victims.
CBS News, May 24, 2005
MASSACHUSETTS - (CBS) Thirteen-year-old Danny Croteau was brutally murdered in 1972 and the only suspect in the case was his priest.
Father Richard Lavigne continued to work in the diocese of Springfield, Mass., for the next two decades, until two men accused him of sexually molesting them when they were boys.
Since then, 43 other men have accused Lavigne. The molestation charges against Lavigne led police to refocus the investigation into Danny's murder. Correspondent Dan Rather reports on the case on 60 Minutes Wednesday, May 25, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
After Danny's murder, Lavigne, who had identified the body to police and participated in the funeral mass, became a suspect. Local police had circumstantial evidence against Lavigne at the time, but with no witnesses and no firm physical evidence, the district attorney did not prosecute.
Lavigne declined an interview with 60 Minutes Wednesday, but his lawyers maintain that Lavigne was not involved in Croteau's murder and point to crime-scene evidence that seems to support their claim.
Tom Martin disagrees. Martin is one of the 43 men who came forward about sexual abuse and he believes that Lavigne had a motive for killing Danny: to hide the dark secret of abuse that the boy was threatening to tell.
• Charges, countercharges on Legionaries' founder . [1940s+ Marcial Maciel (Legion of Christ)] - RCC. Seminarians (males)
Spirit Daily, May 23, 2005
VATICAN CITY (CWNews.com) - Despite a flurry of published reports, the Vatican has not released any public statement about an investigation of Father Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ.
Last week an Italian magazine published a story including unusually detailed allegations about an inquiry into sex-abuse charges against the Mexican cleric who founded the Legionaries in 1941. In response, spokesmen for the religious movement reported that their founder had been exonerated, and no further investigation was planned. But to date the Vatican has released no public statement on this remarkable exchange.
Jay Dunlap, an America spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ, issued a statement on May 20 saying: "The Holy See has recently informed the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ that at this time there is no canonical process underway regarding our Founder, Father Marcial Maciel, LC, nor will one be initiated."
But critics of the Legionaries quickly shot back with a report that the Vatican press office had not confirmed that there is no investigation underway. The critics quoted Father Ciro Benedeittini, the deputy director of the Vatican press office, as saying that his office "had not received any communiqué about if there exists, had existed, or will exist said investigation."
Under ordinary circumstances, no public statement would be issued about an ongoing canonical investigation. Thus the fact that the press office has not received any statement for public distribution is inconclusive.
By the same token, since Vatican investigations are conducted under rules of confidentiality, it was extraordinary that L'Espresso magazine carried what appeared to be a detailed report of a probe being conducted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith into charges lodged against Father Maciel by former members of the Legionaries.
L'Espresso reported that Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the promoter of justice for the Congregation, had traveled to Mexico and the US in April to interview Father Maciel's accusers at length, apparently compiling a dossier for a canonical case against the Legionaries' founder.
• Priest sues over job loss. [Miami Archdiocese] - RCC. Rev. Andrew Dowgiert (suspected) sues archdiocese.
Miami Herald, BY ALEXANDRA ALTER AND FRED TASKER, aalter@herald.com , ~ May 24, 2005
MIAMI (FL) - A Catholic priest from Poland who served nearly five years in churches in Key Largo, Miami and Sunrise sued the Miami Archdiocese on Friday, claiming he was wrongly fired for complaining about financial improprieties and homosexual activity among fellow priests.
According to the lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the Rev. Andrew Dowgiert, who was ordained in Poland in 1988 and served in South Florida between 1999 and 2004, is suing on several counts, including breach of employment contract, slander and whistle-blower retaliation. He is seeking reinstatement.
Mary Ross Agosta, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami, on Monday denied that Dowgiert was fired. She said he was a visiting priest who was never formally employed by the archdiocese.
"Father Dowgiert has never belonged to the Archdiocese of Miami and served here temporarily with the permission of his Archbishop and Archbishop John Favalora," the archdiocese said in an e-mailed statement. "When it became necessary to end Father Dowgiert's service here, the norms of canon law were followed."
Dowgiert's suit said the immediate cause of his firing from All Saints Catholic Church in Sunrise was that he resisted an archdiocese attempt to send him away for psychological and alcohol treatment. Dowgiert, whose lawyers said he would not comment Monday, denied any problem with alcohol, the suit said.
• Bishop quiet over steamy transcripts. - Orthodox.
Cyprus Mail, www.cyprus-mail.com/ news/main.php? id=20067&cat_id=1 , ~ May 24, 2005
CYPRUS - ACTING Church head, Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos, yesterday declined to comment on a transcript of a conversation in which he appeared to be talking about the sexual exploits of a bishop and a number of monks.
The transcript, published by Politis, had the outspoken cleric casually naming this or that priest as a "pervert" and giving the impression that this was common knowledge among ecclesiastics both in Cyprus and in Greece. The other participant in the conversation was said to be Archbishop Chrysostomos himself.
One of the names that came up was that of Limassol bishop Athanassios, who was reportedly friends with other monks of similar sexual inclination at a monastery in Greece. One cleric in particular, described as the "Old Man", was said to be in the company of a group of young boys, probably apprentices.
In one instance, it was said that Archbishop Chrysostomos had conceded to his Paphos namesake that he was none too happy with appointing Athanassios, but also hinted that he would find ways to remove him if things got out of hand in the future.
Smut notwithstanding, the above discussions were in fact about Church politics, with the Archbishop and Chrysostomos deploring the lack of capable or charismatic leaders.
• Judge dismisses lawsuit against the Rev. Zoghby. - RCC.
Mobile Register, By GARY McELROY, Tuesday, May 24, 2005
MOBILE (AL) - In a curt, 27-word order issued late Monday, a Mobile judge dismissed -- "with prejudice" -- a civil suit alleging that a Catholic priest made sexual advances toward a woman in November 2001.
Mobile County Circuit Judge Ferrill McRae dismissed the case brought against the Rev. Paul Zoghby by parishioner Stephanie Hughes, 54.
In her suit, filed in June 2004, Hughes alleged that when Zoghby was at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Mobile he approached her from behind and physically grabbed and groped her buttocks "in an intimate and sexual manner."
• Pedophile Priest Sentencing. [1979+ Behan] - RCC.
WPVI, http://abclocal. go.com/wpvi/news/ 05242005_nw_behan sentencing.html , May 24, 2005
PHILADELPHIA (PA) - This is sentencing day for a priest accused of molesting a Philadelphia teenager more than 25 years ago.
James Behan was a teacher at Northeast Catholic High School. A former student, Martin Donahue, said Behan abused him, starting when he was 15 years old. Donahue is now 41.
• Teens plead guilty to priest beating in Springfield. [Gibson, Boyle] - RCC. Costa (accused) beaten.
WQAD, ~ May 24, 2005
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. Two Springfield teenagers have pleaded guilty to beating and kicking a Roman Catholic priest in a city park in December.
Seventeen-year-old Jaime Gibson and 15-year-old Ryan Boyle entered their pleas to aggravated battery during separate court appearances in Sangamon County yesterday. In exchange, prosecutors have agreed to recommend no more than three years in prison when they're sentenced on July 19th.
The teens admitted stomping on and beating Monsignor Eugene Costa to the point that they feared he would die.
Costa -- who serve as pastor of parishes in the central Illinois communities of Sherman and Athens -- survived. But he resigned from the Springfield Diocese in January.
• Tentative agreements set on monetary range for clergy abuse claims. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC. 30 claimants.
KVOA, http://kvoa.com/ Global/story.asp? S=3367799& nav=HMO6aApI , ~ May 24, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - Victims of sexual abuse by clergy have agreed to settlements in as many as 30 claims that have been brought forward in the Catholic Diocese of Tucson's bankruptcy case, attorneys said during a court hearing Thursday.
Under the agreements negotiated by lawyers in the case, about 30 people who have filed abuse claims and are represented through a tort claimants committee have agreed to be placed in one of five tiers determining eventual monetary payouts.
The diocese has proposed tiers paying from $100,000 to $600,000 per claim, depending on a number of factors, but those figures could change.
Susan Boswell, the diocese's chief bankruptcy lawyer, said talks have essentially brought agreement, "certainly in principle," resolving at least some objections to the diocese's disclosure statement and an amended plan of reorganization.
• Vatican asked to show compassion to clergy sex abuse victims. - RCC. 1000 new allegations in 2004.
Catholic Online, May/23/2005
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The Vatican needs to engage in "acts and words of compassion" to clergy sex abuse victims, said the former head of the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection.
"The victims and their families are deserving of overdue apologies from the highest levels of the church," wrote Kathleen McChesney in the May 30 issue of America, a New York-based national Catholic weekly magazine of news and commentary run by the U.S. Jesuits.
The sex abuse crisis also calls the church to "serious thought" about optional celibacy for Latin-rite priests, she said, noting that sex abuse accusations have been made against clergy in many countries.
McChesney said that the election of a new pope is a good opportunity for the church to assess what still needs to be done in preventing child sex abuse.
"The crisis is not over," she said, mentioning the more than 1,000 new allegations of clergy sex abuse of minors made in 2004. [Bolding added]
• Ill witness causes proceedings to be delayed for the weekend. [? 2001-02 Palmer] - Baptist. 2 stepdaughters.
Delta Democrat Times, By ELORIA NEWELL JAMES / elorianewelljames@ddtonline.com , May 23, 2005
MISSISSIPPI - The trial of a Baptist minister accused of molesting his stepdaughters resumed in the Washington County Courthouse today.
Friday, Circuit Court Judge Ashley Hines continued the case against Michael F. Palmer until today.
Hines said the continuance was needed because a witness' illness led to the delay in the sexual battery case, that began last week.
The defendant, Michael F. Palmer, 41, is a Baptist minister from Leland. He is accused of molesting two stepdaughters. The girls, now ages 13 and 15, were 10 and 12 when the alleged molestation began. According to testimony, the acts continued for about 18 months before law enforcement was notified.
• A Hypocritical Church's Sex Lessons. [2002 Ratzinger] - RCC.
Los Angele Times, by Robert Scheer, ~ May 24, 2005
UNITED STATES - One of the most sexually repressed institutions in human history has been caught with its pants down yet again but still insists on wagging its disapproving finger at the rest of us.
Last week, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange released more than 10,000 pages of letters, handwritten notes and other documents from the personnel files of 15 priests and teachers as part of its $100-million settlement of another in a numbing series of class-action sexual abuse lawsuits against the Catholic Church.
Despite the horrific drumbeat of child molestation revelations, however, sensible Catholics hoping for a more transparent and less sexually repressed church shouldn't hold their breath. The new pope is not only a longtime leader of vicious church attacks on "evil" gays, he also has shamefully blamed the molestation scandal on the media.
"In the church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower," said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - in 2002 when he was the head man of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
There is nothing holy about shooting the messenger.
The leader of the world's largest religious denomination apparently doesn't understand the essential truth of the molestation scandal: It was the church's breathtakingly systematic cover-up over many decades that so horrified followers and outsiders alike.
• Vatican, religious order say sex abuse investigation is closed. [1940s-1960s Maciel Degollado] - RCC. 9 male seminarians.
Newsweek, By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer, 1:39 AM EDT, May 24, 2005,
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican said Monday there was no investigation under way of allegations that the Mexican founder of a conservative religious order sexually abused seminarians more than 30 years ago, and the Holy See had no plans to bring a church trial against the priest.
The Orange, Conn.-based Legionaries of Christ said Friday that the Vatican notified them a day earlier about the status of the case involving the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degallado. In the late 1990s, nine former seminarians alleged Maciel had abused them when they were young boys or teenagers in Roman Catholic seminaries in Spain and Italy. The alleged abuse occurred in the 1940s-1960s.
Maciel, 85, has denied the allegations and said his accusers plotted to defame him.
"There is no investigation under way and it is not foreseen that there will be one in the future," a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said Monday.
Two of Maciel's alleged victims said Monday they had not been informed by the Vatican that the case was resolved. In Mexico, one accuser said closing the case would be "very damaging" to the Vatican's prestige, and he insisted he and others could prove the abuse. [Emphasis added]
• Alleged victim supports defrocking. [Dupre] - RCC. 2 boys.
Republican By BILL ZAJAC wzajac@repub , Tuesday, May 24, 2005
SPRINGFIELD (MA) - One of Bishop Thomas L. Dupre's two alleged sexual abuse victims is supporting a call for the Vatican to defrock Dupre, to announce the results of its investigation of Dupre and to reveal the bishop's whereabouts.
Tuan Tran, a Vietnamese refugee who said Dupre began abusing him as a pre-teen, expressed support for the plan by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests to hold a press conference today in Springfield calling for the Vatican to act on 15-month-old allegations against Dupre, who served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield until his resignation in February 2004.
The 11 a.m. press conference in front of the Springfield Diocese's Chancellery is being held on the eve of CBS's 60 Minutes Wednesday's planned broadcast of a story about the 33-year-old unsolved murder of Springfield altar boy Daniel Croteau, defrocked priest Richard R. Lavigne - the only publicly identified suspect - and Dupre.
David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said his organization's main concern is that children be protected from someone accused of sexual molestation.
Dupre's lawyer, Michael O. Jennings, and the diocese refused comment.
• One of bishop's alleged sex abuse victims urges church discipline. [Dupre] - RCC. 2 boys.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, USA), The Associated Press, May 24, 2005
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.- A man who claims he was sexually abused by Bishop Thomas L. Dupre in the 1970s said he supports calls to defrock the former Springfield bishop, but never wanted to see Dupre go to prison.
The man, Tuan Tran, 42, made his identity public for the first time in an interview with The Republican newspaper in Springfield. Tran told the paper in Tuesday's editions that he endorsed a call by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests for the Vatican to defrock the bishop.
"I wish the church dealt with this more honestly," Tran said. "They seemed to have ignored the whole thing."
Still, Tran told the newspaper that he had mixed feelings about Dupre, with whom he maintained a decades-long friendship after the alleged abuse ended.
Tran said he had cooperated with the criminal investigation of Dupre. But he also said he wasn't disappointed when Hampden District Attorney William Bennett decided in September against pursuing charges because the statute of limitations had expired. Bennett's decision came hours after a grand jury indicted Dupre on two counts of child rape.
"I didn't want to see him go to jail," Tran told the newspaper.
The second alleged victim, who was introduced to Dupre by Tran, declined to comment, citing a pending lawsuit filed by the two men against Dupre and the Springfield Diocese is pending. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:32 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue May 24, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed May 25, 2005 edition follows:-
• McDowell wants movement on child abuse issue. [Dublin Archdiocese] - RCC.
One in Four, http://oneinfour. org/news/news 2005/move , by Martin Wall - Irish Times, ~ May 25, 2005
IRELAND - Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has written to Minister for Finance Brian Cowen seeking to break the deadlock over the establishment of a planned fast-track investigation into how the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin managed child abuse claims against priests.
The Department of Justice has reached agreement on the inquiry with groups representing victims and submitted proposals to the Department of Finance last February. However, there has been no progress since then.
The new inquiry, which would come under the Government's new powers to establish commissions of investigations into matters of public interest, would examine how the diocese handled cases of alleged child abuse against priests. According to informed sources it would look, for example, into whether the Archdiocese moved priests around against whom allegations had been made. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:07 PM]
• Clerical abuse victim lashes McDowell over inquiry delay. [Payne] - RCC. Boy.
Irish Independent, Wednesday May 25th 2005
IRELAND - ONE of the victims of paedophile priest Fr Ivan Payne has hit out at the Government for delays in setting up the fast-track investigation into how the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin managed child abuse claims against priests.
Andrew Madden said it was no longer acceptable that victims were waiting almost three years after Justice Minister Michael McDowell promised an inquiry.
Mr Madden, who in 1994 became the first clerical child sex abuse victim to go public, said despite the fact he and others had numerous meetings with the Department of Justice, there had been no progress.
The new inquiry, which is set to come under the Government's new powers to establish commissions of investigations into matters of public interest, is set to examine in detail how allegations of clerical child sexual abuse were handled.
While it has emerged that Mr McDowell has written to Finance Minister Brian Cowen on the setting up of the probe, Mr Madden said victims were fed up waiting.
• Priest pleads guilty to child porn charge. [2004 Volino] - RCC. Computer child porn.
Democrat & Chronicle, by Gary Craig, May 25, 2005
ROCHESTER (NY) - A Catholic priest today pleaded guilty to the possession of child pornography found on his computer at the Diocese of Rochester.
The Rev. Michael Volino, 41, admitted that in October he possessed child pornography on the computer.
The child pornography was discovered by a technology specialist at the Diocese of Rochester who was repairing Volino's computer, according to the FBI. Officials at the diocese then contacted authorities.
Volino had been a priest at St. John the Evangelist Church of Greece, 2400 W. Ridge Road, since 2002.
Volino will remain confined to an area home until he is sentenced in September. The maximum sentence for the crime is 10 years but federal prosecutors say that federal sentencing guidelines establish a sentence between 46 and 57 months. Volino's lawyer, John Parrinello, plans to argue that the guidelines instead suggest a sentence between 15 and 21 months.
• Priest pleads guilty to possessing child porn. [2004 Volino] - RCC. 600 computer boy porn images.
WHEC, www.10nbc.com/ news.asp?template= item&story_ id=15061 , ~ May 25, 2005
ROCHESTER (NY) - Father Michael Volino pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing child pornography and now faces possible jail time. Volino, who was a priest at St. John The Evangelist Church in Greece, appeared in federal court with his attorney John Parrinello, his parents and friends.
In court he answered numerous questions from the judge before he signed his plea agreement. Most of the time it was "yes, your honor." Or "yes, sir."
The plea closes another chapter in the church's ongoing problem with priests who have fallen from grace.
The diocese information technology officer discovered the child pornography images on Volino's computer. The diocese then turned over the computer to the FBI. The plea agreement says there were more than 600 pictures of boys under the age of 18 engaged in sexually explicit activity.
"Father Volino accepted responsibility for his conduct. He has continually expressed remorse for engaging in the conduct that he did. And he is fully resolved that nothing like this will ever happen again in his lifetime," said Parrinello.
The maximum sentence is ten years in prison and/or a $250,000.00 fine.
• Statement on Maciel not issued by agency responsible for sex abuse cases. [1943-1960s Maciel Degollado (Legion of Christ)] - RCC. 9 male seminarians.
National Catholic Reporter, By John L. Allen, Jr., Rome, May 25, 2005
ROME - In a potentially significant twist to the case involving the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, NCR has learned that the office that recently released a statement saying there is no case against Fr. Marcial Maciel regarding sex abuse accusations is not the office with responsibility for making that judgment.
On May 20, the Legionaries of Christ issued a news release stating that the "Holy See" had informed them that "at this time there is no canonical process underway regarding our Founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, LC, nor will one be initiated." Subsequently, the Catholic News Service and other press agencies quoted the Vatican Press Office as confirming the statement.
That news startled some observers, since an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican agency charged in 2001 by Pope John Paul II with responsibility for the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, traveled in early April to New York and Mexico City to collect testimony from alleged victims. Those efforts by Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the Promoter of Justice within the congregation, suggested that a preliminary investigation was underway.
Most observers assumed that the new communication to the Legionaries must have come from that congregation, the office once headed by Pope Benedict XVI.
In fact, however, the communication came from the Secretariat of State, the department that handles papal diplomacy and acts as a coordinator for the work of other Vatican agencies. It came in the form of a fax, which was unsigned but bore a seal from the Secretariat of State indicating official status. Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, is a longtime supporter of Maciel and the Legionaries of Christ. [Bolding added]
• Catholic diocese settles with victims of sexual abuse. [19 years Bennett] - RCC. 36 boys.
Canada NewsWire Group, www.newswire.ca/ en/releases/archive/ May2005/25/c 3220.html , May 25, 2005
CORNER BROOK, NL, CANADA /CNW/ - Ernst & Young Inc., in its capacity as Trustee in the Proposal of the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. George's, today announced that the creditors of the Corporation voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Corporation's Proposal.
The Most Rev. Douglas Crosby, OMI, Bishop of St. George's Diocese, expressed his gratitude that the victims of sexual abuse along with other creditors of the Corporation, the civil arm of the diocese, voted to accept the Corporation's proposal.
"Today's vote confirms our hope that the victims would see our proposal as fair and just," said Bishop Crosby. "I've acknowledged from the outset that while no amount of money can compensate these young men for the harm that was done to them and their families, it was our moral and legal obligation to offer them everything we could possibly manage."
In 1990 Kevin Bennett, then a priest of the Diocese of St. George's, was sentenced for the sexual abuse of 36 young men over a period of almost 20 years and served four years in prison. Since that time a number of victims 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.
• A CEO who must help heal. [O'Malley] - RCC.
Boston Herald, By Boston Herald editorial staff, Tuesday, May 24, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - In many ways Boston's archbishop is also a kind of archdiocesan CEO - and in this case the CEO of an economically troubled organization.
So Archbishop Sean O'Malley has spent the past year tending to that increasingly challenging role - evaluating parishes, closing churches, disposing of real estate, reshuffling priests, attempting to make scarce resources go further.
In doing so, however, the spiritual leader of Boston's Roman Catholic community has neglected an important part of his pastoral role - tending to some in that community who were the most grievously injured by priests who turned out to be sexual predators.
• Clergy sex abuse victims still await meetings with O'Malley. [O'Malley] - RCC.
Daily News Tribune, Associated Press, Tuesday, May 24, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley has not met with a clergy abuse victim for six months, angering those who believe repairing the damage done by the abuse scandal in the archdiocese should remain his top priority.
As of October, O'Malley had met with 110 victims and family members, according to his aides. Since then, meetings with two dozen others were postponed as he dealt with the reconfiguration of the archdiocese and the closing of 80 parishes.
"Seventeen months? How timely is that?" said alleged abuse victim Christine Hickey, 48, of Cambridge, of her wait to see O'Malley. "What's an hour of your week when this is supposed to be the most important thing you were sent here to do?"
O'Malley declined to be interviewed, but the Rev. John Connolly, who oversees the archdiocese's efforts to address the abuse crisis, called the length of Hickey's wait "very unusual."
• Vilified accuser goes on. [1980s Foster] - RCC.
Boston Herald, By Marie Szaniszlo, Monday, May 23, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - Not every survivor of clergy abuse is willing to criticize the Boston archdiocese, particularly if they rely on it to pay for the years of therapy and medication "survival" often entails.
Criticism, after all, can come at a cost.
No case made it more clear than that of Paul Edwards, who accused the archdiocese's top canon lawyer of molesting him as a child, only to become a cautionary tale, many survivors say, of how fierce the backlash can be.
"They'll tell you anything you want to hear," Edwards, 37, said bitterly. "But in the end, nobody pays for what they've done. Nobody."
After he accused Msgr. Michael Foster of molesting him in the 1980s at Newton's Sacred Heart Church, he said, Foster's supporters launched a campaign to discredit him, portraying him as a pathological liar.
His vilification was so complete, Edwards said, that he lost the child he and his wife had applied to adopt, was ostracized by his neighbors and clients and received threatening phone calls Eventually, he dropped his civil suit and he and his wife left the state.
Earlier this year, in a four-hour meeting with the Rev. John Connolly and Barbara Thorp, who heads the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, Edwards asked that O'Malley clear his name. Two weeks later, Thorp contacted him and said she hoped to have an answer for him by week's end.
"I never heard from them again."
• Catholic priest charged with sodomy. [2005 Kimaro] - RCC. Boy.
IPPMedia, www.ippmedia.com/ ipp/guardian/2005/ 05/25/40339.html , By Keregero Keregero, 08:57:40, May-25-2005
TANZANIA - A Roman Catholic priest, Sixtus Kimaro, appeared before a Dar es Salaam court yesterday to answer charges of having unnatural carnal knowledge of a 17-year-old boy.
The clergyman was arraigned before Principal Resident Magistrate Pellagia Khadaya of Kisutu Resident Magistrate court to answer the charge.
Kimaro is stationed at Mlandizi in Coast Region, where, prior to his arrest and subsequent suspension by the church from conducting religious matters, he was the parish priest.
According to the prosecution, the accused is alleged to have had carnal knowledge of a 17-year-old boy on the night of May 19.
• Profile: Attorney Scott Rosenblum.
KSDK, www.ksdk.com/ news/cover_ article.aspx? storyid=79824 , By Mike Bush, ~ May 25, 2005
MISSOURI (KSDK) -- It's not often that you find Scott Rosenblum home for dinner. It's a rare moment when the defense rests. "Since the day I met him, he's always had a lot of ambition and drive," says his wife Georgeanne.
Rosenblum is usually in his Clayton law office. In fact, he's there seven days a week, sometimes 16 hours a day and he's handled some of the areas most high profile cases. ...
But Rosenblum has his detractors. His client, Bryan Kuchar a priest, eventually was sentenced to 3 years in jail for sex abuse, but his first trial ended in a hung jury.
David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP didn't like the way Rosenblum attacked Kuchar's accuser on the witness stand and it still makes him angry. "Not because he prevailed. You know, that happens in the court system. But because of the tactics that he used," says Clohessy.
• Florida Man Sues Priest, Diocese For Alleged Abuse. [1971 Bowles] - RCC. Boy.
News4Jax, www.news4jax. com/news/45288 82/detail.html , POSTED: 7:16 am EDT May 25, 2005
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- A 49-year-old man sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee and a now-retired priest Tuesday, saying that 34 years ago the priest tried to molest him in a Georgia motel room.
The Florida Circuit Court suit accuses Monsignor Richard Bowles of disrobing and demanding oral sex from Paul Tugwell, then 15, during a 1971 trip to Callaway Gardens at Pine Mountain, Ga. Tugwell said he refused Bowles request.
The suit also alleges that diocese officials failed to report the matter to police when Tugwell's parents complained and transferred Bowles from one parish to another.
• Sexual abuse on school bus charged. [Dickenson] - Baptist. Boy.
Bristol Herald Courier, BY JENNIFER WIG, May 24, 2005
KINGSPORT (TN) - A former bus driver for Sullivan County schools was charged Monday with sexually abusing a boy on his bus route in the Bloomingdale area.
Stuart D. Dickenson, 60, of 300 West Ravine St. was charged with sexual battery, rape and statutory rape after a year-long investigation, according to a news release from the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office. Lt. Bobby Russell said the allegations were made in February 2004. The boy, who was 14 at the time, said that sexual contact occurred on the bus and at a rental home Dickenson was looking at, he said.
Russell said Dickenson may also have spent time with the boy while working a church bus route for Tabernacle Baptist Church in Bloomingdale.
• Dead Woman Accuses Church Of Sexual Abuse In Documents. [Clark, Church leaders] - Newborn Assembly Church. Woman.
NewsNet5, www.newsnet5.com/ news/4528822/ detail.html , POSTED: 6:46 am EDT May 25, 2005
ASHTABULA, Ohio -- In this tight-knit northeast Ohio city, the death of Carolyn Clark on Mother's Day weekend was story enough: Police said her estranged husband beat her head with the stock of a rifle in front of the youngest five of their 13 children.
But then talk intensified as news spread about legal papers Carolyn Clark had filed in a custody dispute she won a few days before her death, accusing leaders of the couple's church of sexual and physical abuse against members, including children. Clark said she was trying to get her young children away from the church, which she accused of brainwashing her husband and older children.
Now prosecutors are investigating whether the Apostolic Church Body of Jesus Christ of the Newborn Assembly had any role in her death. Social service officials are looking into the abuse allegations.
"This murder happened, and it might have kicked over a rock and there's some sunlight shining down now," Ashtabula County Prosecutor Thomas L. Sartini said.
No charges have been filed against leaders of the country church.
Its bishop, Charles Keyes, has repeatedly declined to comment.
Clark's five adult children told The Star Beacon the church had nothing to do with her death. They said their mother had been abusive, beating them, burning them with a clothes iron and forcing them to eat vomit as punishment.
• Alleged cult member arrested, another to be returned. [2000s Pierson x2, Bernard x2] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
The Advocate, The Associated Press, May 24, 2005
AMITE (LA) -- Police have arrested the last person named so far in warrants accusing them of being part of a cult which had sex with children and animals, but a dozen or more additional people could be involved, authorities say.
FBI agents and East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies arrested Patricia "Trish" Pierson, 54, when she arrived at the Baton Rouge Municipal Airport on a flight from Tulsa, Okla., said Laura Covington, a spokeswoman for the Tangipahoa Parish sheriff.
Pierson was arrested as a fugitive and then transferred to Tangipahoa Parish, where she was booked on charges of sexual battery and principal to aggravated rape, Covington said.
Another woman, Nicole Bernard, wanted on a charge of aggravated rape, waived extradition Tuesday in Ohio's Franklin County Common Pleas Court and will likely return to Louisiana within 10 days, authorities said.
Her ex-husband, Austin Aaron Bernard, 36, was arrested May 17 on a charge accusing him of making a girl under the age of 13 perform a sex act.
Seven of the eight people arrested, including Pierson's husband, Allen R. Pierson, remain in jail without bail because they are accused of capital offenses, Covington said.
• Sex Charges Follow a Church's Collapse. [2000s Lamonica] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
The New York Times, By RICK LYMAN, May 25, 2005
PONCHATOULA, La., May 24 - Two decades ago, Hosanna Church was one of the fastest growing congregations in the cypress flats of Tangipahoa Parish on Lake Pontchartrain's northwest rim, and its pastor, Louis Lamonica, was a beloved figure.
"That man could really preach," said Bill McCormack, a resident of Ponchatoula who attended the church as a boy. "He was an awesome local icon."
But by two years ago, when the church finally closed after a ferocious falling-out between the pastor's son and successor, Louis Lamonica Jr., and his family, the congregation that once neared 1,000 had dwindled to 10 or 15 troubled souls from a handful of families.
And now, many of them, including Louis Lamonica Jr. and a deputy sheriff who once lived on the church grounds, are behind bars, accused by the police of a litany of ungodly offenses, including sexual abuse of perhaps two dozen children and the mutilations of cats for satanic rituals.
• Former pastor gets 10 years of probation. [1992+ Hammons] - Church of God in Christ. Girl.
Express-News, by Rhea Davis, Web Posted: May/25/2005
SAN ANTONIO (TX) - A former West Side pastor was sentenced to 10 years of probation Tuesday for having sex with an underage choirgirl more than a dozen years ago.
Duane Hammons, 47, was found guilty Friday of four charges of sexual assault of a child and two charges of indecency with a child by contact.
The jury found him not guilty of two counts of indecency with a child by contact. He faced 20 years in prison.
Hammons, a former pastor of the Church of God in Christ, was convicted of having sex with Nailah Coggins while she was a freshman and sophomore at Holmes High School. Coggins, now 27, testified the sexual abuse began in 1992 when she was 15.
The San Antonio Express-News generally does not reveal the identity of sex crime victims; however, Coggins said she didn't mind being identified by name.
"It wasn't exactly what I wanted," Coggins said of the sentence, after leaving the courtroom.
• Church was closed to outsiders. [? 2000s] - First Assembly of God / Hosanna Church. Devil worship, sex with children, animals.
The Advocate, By STEVEN WARD, sward@theadvocate.com , May 25, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) -- During the final days of Hosanna Church, out-of-towners looking for a place to worship on a Sunday were greeted with closed doors and requests from the church's dwindling congregation to leave the property.
"Strangers were not allowed there. You had to be invited," said the Rev. Gary Wayne Yates, pastor of the Hammond Revival Center and a former member of Hosanna Church in the 1980s when it was known as First Assembly of God.
Nobody knows exactly what secrets Hosanna Church Pastor Louis David Lamonica was hiding behind those closed doors except for members of the church's small congregation just before it closed in 2003.
But speculation among residents of Ponchatoula is rampant following the recent arrests of nine former members of that church and the ensuing newspaper and broadcast accounts of devil worshiping, sexual abuse of children and animals, and occult rituals involving pentagrams and the blood of animals.
• Cult suspect booked; FBI digs at church. [Bernard, Pierson + 7] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
The Advocate, By DEBRA LEMOINE, dlemoine@theadvocate.com , Florida parishes bureau , May 25, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) -- Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's deputies worked to bring two alleged cult members to jail in Amite on Tuesday while the Federal Bureau of Investigation dug up the grounds at the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula looking for more evidence.
The extradition of the two suspects and the excavation are part of a seven-week investigation into the alleged occult practices of the church that includes sex with children and animals. Nine people have been arrested so far.
Deputies were scheduled to fly to Ohio today to bring the woman who first alerted the Sheriff's Office about the abuse at Hosanna to Amite in order to book her into the parish jail on a count of aggravated rape, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards said.
Nicole Bernard of Columbus, Ohio, waived extradition Tuesday in Ohio's Franklin County Common Pleas Court. She was arrested Friday.
Bernard told deputies she moved to Ohio a several months ago out of fear for her safety.
FBI agents and East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies arrested Patricia "Trish" Pierson, 54, when she arrived at Metro Airport in Baton Rouge aboard a flight from Tulsa, Okla., said Laura Covington, a spokeswoman for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office.
• Allegheny County Judge halts proceedings in 35 sex abuse suits . [Pittsburgh Diocese] - RCC. 35 plaintiffs.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, May 25, 2005
PENNSYLVANIA - An Allegheny County judge has halted proceedings in 35 sex abuse lawsuits filed against the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh while the state Supreme Court considers an appeal of a ruling in similar cases in Philadelphia.
Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. granted a request by the diocese to stay the cases but did not rule on its request to dismiss the cases. Lawyers for the 35 plaintiffs had objected to the stay because it keeps the diocese from turning over documents related to the allegations.
In March, the state Superior Court ruled that alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia waited too long to file their lawsuits. Attorneys for the Philadelphia plaintiffs in April appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court.
• Reports Show Failure of Therapy for Priests. [Orange Diocese] - RCC. Abusing boys while in therapy.
Los Angeles Times, By Jean Guccione and William Lobdell, May 25, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Documents released Tuesday reveal the failure of the Diocese of Orange's decades-old strategy of trying to cure pedophile priests with therapy, detailing how the clerics continued to abuse young boys while in treatment but were cleared by psychologists to return to the ministry.
The files also show that Roman Catholic officials ignored a recommendation to limit one cleric to an adults-only ministry and allowed him to set and enforce his own rules against being alone with children.
The hundreds of pages of psychotherapist reports, billings and other internal memos were the latest documents released as part of a court-approved $100-million settlement reached in December between the Orange diocese and 90 alleged victims.
Last week, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter D. Lichtman ordered the production of more than 10,000 pages from the confidential personnel files of 15 accused priests and teachers.
Those papers document the transfer of predator priests from parish to parish and diocese to diocese, as well as efforts to protect them from prosecution while failing to warn parishioners of the danger.
• 3 priests among suspects in child porn ring. [3 RC priests among 186 suspects] - Child pornography.
Daily Bulletin, By Aidan Lewis, Associated Press, ~ May 25, 2005
ROME - Italian police raided the homes and offices of 186 suspected members of a child pornography ring including three Roman Catholic priests and a local mayor who downloaded pictures from an exclusive Web site, officials said Tuesday.
The group downloaded photos and video of sexual abuse against children, whose ages ranged from 4 to 8, from a Web site that could only be entered with a password, said a police officer in the Sicilian town of Syracuse, where the investigation was based.
The officer, who cited office policy that he could not be identified, said the site had operated for nine days before authorities closed it down in July after receiving a tip from Telefono Arcobaleno, a local association that scans the Internet to combat child abuse.
Police searched the homes and offices of 159 suspects in 16 of Italy's 20 regions Tuesday, the official said. The remaining 27 suspects had their homes and offices searched in recent months.
During the searches, police seized child pornography videos from computers owned by the three priests and were studying some homemade videos confiscated during the raids in an attempt to identify where the children were filmed and who filmed them, authorities said.
• Trying to sort it out .
Troy Record, By James V. Franco, May/25/2005
ALBANY (NY) - To break the three-year stalemate with the Senate, Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany, is pushing for a conference committee to sort out differences in legislation that would add members of the clergy to the list of professions that are mandated to report child abuse.
McEneny said the only difference between his bill and the one expected to pass the Senate is that his extends a confidentiality privilege to certain professions like doctors, counselors and nurses.
"Their profession will tell them how to handle the situation," he said. "Their profession does not allow them to ignore the issue, but it does not demand a knee-jerk reaction to pick up the phone and call the police."
The problem with the bill sponsored by Sen. Stephen Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, is if a young person knows the police will automatically get called, he or she may not seek out the necessary help they need, McEneny said.
• Group: Defrock Bishop Dupre. [Dupre] - RCC. 2 boys.
Republican, By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Wednesday, May 25, 2005
SPRINGFIELD (MA) - A national support group for clergy abuse victims yesterday asked the bishop of the Springfield Diocese to join its effort to ensure that his predecessor, Bishop Thomas L. Dupre, is removed, saying he is a risk to children.
At a press conference in front of the diocese's headquarters, Peter C. Pollard, coordinator of the Western Massachusetts affiliate of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, asked for the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell's support as the group sends a letter to Pope Benedict XVI.
The letter from the national organization calls for Dupre to be held accountable for allegations of sexual child abuse, be encouraged to seek further treatment, be defrocked and have his whereabouts disclosed.
A local Voice of the Faithful representative joined the press conference and read a statement of support.
Dupre, who resigned 15 months ago when allegations were brought forward by two men who said he abused them as children, entered St. Luke Institute in Maryland upon his resignation. His whereabouts since then have remained a mystery, and neither the diocese nor the pope's U.S. representative have commented on a probe the Vatican initiated upon his resignation as bishop.
Pollard tried to deliver a letter to McDonnell at the chancery, but Vice Chancellor Sister Carol Cifatte answered the door and informed Pollard that McDonnell wasn't available. Cifatte took the letter.
• Opinion Mixed on Idaho Bishop's Role in Abuse. [Driscoll] - RCC.
KTLA, http://ktla.trb.com/ news/local/la-me- driscoll25may 25,0,7826348. story?coll= ktla-news-1 , By Larry B. Stammer and William Lobdell, May 25, 2005
BOISE, Idaho - Southern Californians who were sexually abused by priests left in ministry by Bishop Michael P. Driscoll want him to resign or be fired.
But in Idaho, where Driscoll now serves as bishop of Boise, Roman Catholic opinion appears far more divided after the release last week of internal church documents that detailed his past handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations in Orange County.
Many Idaho Catholics have remained supportive of Driscoll, who has apologized for what he described as his "horribly misplaced" priorities in California. Others say they have trouble reconciling the engaging "Bishop Mike," who speaks passionately of his concern for children and the poor, with the portrait that has emerged from the files.
According to the documents, Driscoll moved priests accused of molesting minors from parish to parish in Orange County. He helped others relocate to other dioceses and countries to avoid prosecution, ignored or delayed acting on parents' complaints, and accepted a convicted molester from Wisconsin into a local parish.
The files were released last week as part of a $100-million settlement involving 90 alleged victims of sexual abuse and the Diocese of Orange. Driscoll served as chancellor and later as auxiliary bishop in Orange County from 1976 to 1999, when he became head of the statewide diocese in Idaho.
• Panel OKs tighter rules for sex offenders' bonds.
The Times-Picayune, By Ed Anderson, Capital bureau, Wednesday, May 25, 2005
BATON ROUGE (LA) -- A bill designed to make it harder for sex offenders to get out of jail on bail was approved by a House committee Tuesday.
Without objection, the Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice approved House Bill 451 by Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, sending it to the House floor for debate.
Geymann's bill requires a bond hearing in front of a judge when a convicted sex offender has been arrested on a subsequent sex charge involving a victim younger than 13.
Lake Charles City Councilman Rob Corquodale, a former prosecutor, said a judge now sets the bond for a sex offender when an arrest warrant is issued without taking any testimony or finding out the violator's background.
Under Geymann's bill, the district attorney would present evidence to the judge on the alleged attacker's background before bond is set.
• Church paid bills for priests, accusers. [Orange Diocese] - RCC.
Monterey Herald, ~ May 25, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange paid thousands of dollars for medical treatment for priests accused of abuse and for their traumatized accusers and accusers' relatives, but did little else to deal with clergy abuse, according to hundreds of pages of priest personnel files released late Tuesday.
The nearly 1,000 pages of confidential documents from the files of nine accused Orange County priests mark the second mass release of such papers in a week.
Tuesday's documents include bills for medical and psychological treatment for priests, alleged victims and their relatives that were submitted to the diocese for payment.
The files also include evaluations of accused clergy by psychologists, letters between bishops and, in one case, a petition for laicization to Pope John Paul II written by the accused priest himself.
The first batch of some 10,000 pages of files was released on May 17 as part of a record-breaking, $100 million settlement between the diocese and 87 plaintiffs. The second batch was released Tuesday night after the diocese handed them over to plaintiffs' attorneys under court order.
• Archdiocese feels betrayed by film. - RCC. "Holy Water-gate" film.
Chicago Tribune, By Manya A. Brachear, Published May 25, 2005
CHICAGO (IL) - When filmmaker Mary Healey-Conlon requested an interview with Cardinal Francis George for a documentary on the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, the cardinal welcomed her to his residence in hopes that answering her questions would shed light on the scandal enveloping American bishops.
Now officials with the archdiocese of Chicago say they regret their participation, contending that the film, titled "Holy Water-gate," is riddled with inaccuracies. They also fault Healey-Conlon for failing to disclose conflicts of interest when she approached them in 2002.
"The cardinal will not dignify this so-called documentary with a comment," said Jim Dwyer, a spokesman for the archdiocese. "This thing is an infomercial for plaintiffs' attorneys ... pure propaganda."
The documentary debuted last week on Showtime as a prelude to "Our Fathers," a made-for-television movie about the scandal that came to light in Boston in 2002. Both the movie and documentary will air again Wednesday night.
The 56-minute film, boiled down from 350 hours of footage, features interviews with victims' advocates, including lawyers, priests and parishioners.
"I worked hard in the film not to draw too many conclusions for the audience," Healey-Conlon said. "It's very important that people grapple with it on their own. I still grapple with this on my own."
In the film, George says the crisis presents an opportunity for people in the church to explore their faith more deeply.
• Efforts revealed to cure priests. - RCC. [1980s-90s Psychotherapists] $US 100m. [Ramos] $US 16.6m.
The Orange County Register, By CHRIS KNAP, ANDREW GALVIN AND RACHANEE SRISAVASDI, May 25, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Psychotherapists and clinics that treated sexually abusive Catholic priests in the 1980s and 1990s routinely declared that priests were ready to return to service, long-secret documents released late Tuesday by the Diocese of Orange show.
In some cases, the priests went on to sexually abuse again, according to lawsuits settled by the church.
"After a period of reluctance and resistance, Father (Eleuterio) Ramos was able and willing to work through his emotional difficulties of a sexual nature. During the last year, he was capable of controlling his impulses completely," Dr. Klaus D. Hoppe of the Hacker Clinic in Los Angeles wrote to Bishop William Johnson in 1982. Hoppe could not be reached late Tuesday.
Ramos was returned to ministry by the diocese. According to lawsuits settled by the church earlier this year, he would again molest boys in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Ramos died in 2004.
In all, the Diocese of Orange has settled with 15 alleged Ramos victims for more than $16.6 million.
The documents released Tuesday are part of a record-setting $100 million settlement reached earlier this year between the Diocese of Orange and 90 Catholic men and women who alleged they were sexually abused as children by Orange County priests, nuns, brothers or laypeople.
As part of the settlement, the diocese agreed to release certain documents it had already showed to plaintiffs' attorneys during mediation. Two weeks ago, the church filed a brief attempting to withdraw some of the documents, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman refused.
• Lawyer quits trying to force files' return . [Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC.
The Orange County Register, By PEGGY LOWE, May 25, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - An attorney who mistakenly released sealed personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse dropped an effort Tuesday to force The Orange County Register to return the documents.
The Register informally agreed to return the original documents and keep copies to use in its ongoing reporting of the case. In return, the victims' lawyer, Patrick DeBlase, told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman that he would withdraw his request for sanctions against the newspaper.
DeBlase asked the judge last week to bar newspapers from printing any of the information, which detailed how church officials covered up sexual abuse by priests. Lichtman refused to grant that request. The Register published its report Thursday.
Lichtman said during a 20-minute hearing Tuesday that the First Amendment trumps other rights and bars him from any restraints on the press. The only time a judge can place restraints on the press is for national-security concerns during time of war, he said.
Donald Wood, a lawyer for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, blasted the Register for publishing the information, saying the paper acted with "self-righteous arrogance."
• Files reveal Orange County diocese paid thousands for priests', accusers' medical bills. - RCC [Orange Diocese] Allowed molesters to continue. [Widera] 10 boys.
Mercury News, By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press, ~ May 25, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange paid thousands of dollars to treat allegedly abusive priests and their accusers but permitted some acknowledged molesters to continue in the ministry, newly released files show.
Nine priests were ordered into therapy after being accused of sexual abuse. Nearly 1,000 pages of confidential documents from their files were released Tuesday.
The files included medical bills, psychological evaluations of accused clergy, letters between bishops and, in one case, a petition for laicization to Pope John Paul II written by the accused priest himself.
It was the second mass release of such papers in a week. The first batch of some 10,000 pages of files was released on May 17 as part of a record-breaking, $100 million settlement between the diocese and 87 plaintiffs who had sued over alleged abuse.
The files showed that priests accused of sexual misconduct typically received counseling until a 2002 "zero tolerance" policy was adopted.
Siegfried Widera, for example, was barred from priestly duties and sent to a Catholic treatment center in New Mexico in 1985. According to a psychological evaluation, he acknowledged molesting at least 10 boys in Orange County.
However, the director of the center wrote in a 1986 progress report that he believed Widera "will continue to be a good minister within the church." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:39 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed May 25, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu May 26, 2005 edition follows:-
• Diocese clears pastor of sex-abuse charges. [1980s] - RCC. Rev. George Crespin cleared.
San Francisco Chronicle http://sfgate.com/ cgi-bin/article. cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/ 26/BAEBDIGEST2.DTL , by Henry K. Lee, Thursday, May 26, 2005
CALIFORNIA - The pastor of St. Joseph the Worker parish has been cleared of decades-old sexual-abuse allegations, an Oakland Diocese official said Wednesday.
In a letter to parishioners Sunday, Bishop Allen Vigneron wrote that officials "found that it is insufficient to support the allegation made against" the Rev. George Crespin, who is returning as pastor emeritus.
Crespin was put on leave and retired in February after being accused by "a young adult" of sexual abuse in the 1980s. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:51 PM]
• Berkeley priest cleared of sex abuse charges. - RCC. Rev. George Crespin cleared.
Contra Costa Times, By Martin Snapp, May 26, 2005
BERKELEY (CA) - Father George Crespin, the longtime priest at St. Joseph the Worker Church who took early retirement in February after being accused of sexual abuse, has been cleared of all charges by a formal review authorized by Oakland Diocese Bishop Allen Vigneron.
The Catholic Voice, the official publication of the diocese, reported that parishioners at St. Joseph gave Crespin a standing ovation when he returned to work last Saturday. He expressed his relief and joy at returning to active ministry. Since the allegation was made, he has been unable to celebrate Mass or perform other priestly duties.
"We're very grateful that this process is completed," said Father Jayson Landeza, who has been acting administrator at the parish during Crespin's absence. "We at St. Joseph had confidence that the process would exonerate him."
Crespin was unavailable for comment, but Landeza said the retired pastor planned to stay in residence at St. Joseph. Since he was removed from ministry, the parish has rallied around him and held a town hall meeting with diocesan representatives Feb. 15, where they expressed their grief at his sudden departure.
• Victims of sex abuse get compensation deal. - RCC. [20 yrs Bennett] 36 boys. [Diocese] $CAN 13m. 36 victims.
Canoe, May 26, 2005
CORNER BROOK, Nfld. CANADA (CP) - Sexual abuse victims of a Newfoundland priest have accepted $13 million in compensation from the Roman Catholic diocese where he worked.
Individual compensation for the 36 people ranges from a low of $75,000 dollars to a high of $1 million. Greg Stack, a lawyer for most of the abuse victims, said they had the choice of either accepting the offer or letting the diocese of St. George's go into bankruptcy.
Bishop Douglas Crosby said he's grateful the victims have seen fit to vote in favour of the offer.
Diocese officials said they will need to sell some of their assets to pay for the compensation deal.
They have appealed to parishioners, and are accepting contributions from other dioceses.
Rev. Kevin Bennett admitted his guilt and was convicted in 1990 of sexually abusing 36 boys over a period of nearly 20 years while he worked in the diocese.
• Sheriff: Suspects used toys to lure children . [? 2000s] - Hosanna Church. Child sex.
The Advocate, By BRETT TROXLER, btroxler@wbrz.com , 2theadvocate.com staff, From a report by WBRZ's Ben Lemoine, benl@wbrz.com , May 25, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) - Tangipahoa Sheriff Daniel Edwards said Wednesday he believes members of the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula used toys to lure children to have sex.
In total nine people have been arrested in connection with what police are calling a sex cult.
"It would not surprise me if there had been the use of puppets and things in order to make the children feel comfortable and what not to be able to perpetuate these types of crimes," Edwards said. "It would not surprise me."
According to a search warrant 36-year-old Nicole Bernard, who was arrested on a charge of aggravated rape, "openly stated (a 5-year-old) had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by members of her family and the cult since birth."
She said she had evidence secured in a storage facility in Ohio.
• Columbus Woman Extradited to Louisiana. [? 2000s Bernard] - RCC. Child, animal sex rituals.
Ohio News Network, ~ May 26, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) - Witnesses told police that people dressed in black clothing stood inside pentagrams and performed blood rituals involving the sexual abuse of children and animals at a now-closed church.
A woman whose phone call to police started the investigation was arrested last week in suburban Columbus, Ohio, on a charge that she raped her daughter. Authorities left with Nicole Bernard from Columbus on Wednesday for Louisiana after she gave up her right to a hearing on whether she should be extradited.
Police searched a storage unit in Columbus after Bernard told them it contained evidence. Officers took mattresses, videos and nine garbage bags full of costumes from the storage facility, according to a search warrant.
A message seeking comment was left for Bernard's attorney in Columbus, Bob Bernard.
• Guilty plea to boys sex. [1978-86 Sims] - Uniting Church. 4 boys.
The Mercury, By GAVIN LOWER, May 26, 05
HOBART (Tas) AUSTRALIA - A FORMER caretaker of a church camp yesterday pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four brothers from a family he befriended about 30 years ago.
The Supreme Court in Hobart heard that Philip Davies Sims, 53, sexually abused the boys, including twins, between 1978 and 1986. Each boy was abused over a period of between 12 and 24 months.
Prosecutor Mike Stoddart said the abuse happened when the boys stayed with Sims at the Uniting Church camp caretaker's house at Seven Mile Beach.
"I submit his behaviour has been a most severe breach of trust given his position in the church and the trust invested in him by the [boys'] family," Mr Stoddart said.
Sims, of Seven Mile Beach Rd, Seven Mile Beach, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault and three counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person under the age of 17.
• The Rt Rev Roderick Wright. [Wright] - RCC. 'Celibate,' fathered children.
Telegraph, May 26, 2005
SCOTLAND - The Right Reverend Roderick Wright, the former Roman Catholic Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, who died on Tuesday aged 64, scandalised the Church in 1996 when he ran off with his housekeeper, Kathleen MacPhee, a divorced mother of three children whom he had met at Lourdes; it later emerged that he was also the father of a son by another parishioner.
In September 1996 Wright was reported to have disappeared. He was, in fact, moving secretly from Bishop's House, Oban, to a hired cottage at Kendal, in the Lake District, there to set up home with Mrs MacPhee while he prepared to release a statement announcing his resignation.
When the couple heard, on the radio, of his "disappearance", Wright telephoned the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Keith O'Brien. Wright fixed a meeting with the Archbishop of Glasgow, Cardinal Thomas Winning, to tender his resignation.
He maintained later that not only had he come clean about his relationship with Mrs MacPhee, but confessed to Winning a previous relationship with another woman, Joanna Whibley, which had resulted in a son.
Winning helped Wright to compose a letter of resignation to Pope John Paul II, and made public a statement by Wright tendering his resignation because of his liaison with Kathleen MacPhee. If Wright had confessed to his relationship with Joanna Whibley, Winning kept silent.
• Group Representing Abuse Victims Wants Dupre Defrocked. [Dupre] - RCC. 2 boys.
WWLP, www.wwlp.com/ news2004/story. html?artID= 222655 , ~ May 26, 2005
SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - A group representing people who claim abuse by members of the catholic clergy delivered a letter to Springfield's bishop on Tuesday.
They say the public deserves to know where Bishop Dupre is and they also want to see him formally removed from the priesthood.
Members of Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests showed up at the bishop's door on Tuesday to hand him that letter, and show him another they've addressed to the pope.
They think it's wrong that Dupre, who's been indicted on charges of molesting 2 boys, is somewhere out in the world, potentially unsupervised, where they say he could abuse more victims.
• Priest 'had sex in church'. - Christian. Woman.
ROMANIA - Ananova, ~ May 26, 2005
Parishers in a Romanian village are protesting about their new priest - because he allegedly had sex in a church.
Villagers at Rastoaca, in Vrancea county, organised a street demonstration and stopped priest Marian Trusca from entering their church.
Parishioner Dumitru Chirita told Evenimentul Zilei newspaper: "We can never accept this man as our priest.
"We know he was transferred for disciplinary reasons from another village because he had sex on the altar with the school's secretary."
The priest denies the allegations but the villagers are adamant and church officials are now reviewing the appointment.
• Catholic diocese sex-abuse suits are halted. - RCC. 35 complainants.
Philadelphia Inquirer, Associated Press, ~ May 26, 2005
PITTSBURGH (PA) - A judge has halted proceedings in nearly three dozen sex-abuse lawsuits filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh until the state Supreme Court issues an opinion regarding Pennsylvania's statute of limitations.
Allegheny County Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. did not rule on the diocese's request to dismiss the 35 sex-abuse cases, but last week did grant the diocese's request to halt the proceedings.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs objected to the stay because it allows the diocese to not turn over records related to the cases.
• Volino lists more than 3 images; prosecutors say it was 600-plus. [Volino] - RCC. Computer child porn.
Democrat & Chronicle, by Gary Craig, May 26, 2005
ROCHESTER (NY) - A Catholic priest whom the Diocese of Rochester once restricted from contact with children pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to possession of child pornography.
The Rev. Michael Volino, 41, admitted that last year he had child pornography on a diocesan computer. In his guilty plea to a single felony count, Volino admitted only to possessing more than three pornographic images, but federal prosecutors contend that he had more than 600.
The difference could be crucial to Volino's sentence, because sentences can be increased if there are more than 600 images.
In 2002, diocese officials asked Volino to attend a Maryland-based psychiatric center for priests because of concerns about his "maturity and development," Bishop Matthew Clark said in an earlier interview.
Counselors recommended that the diocese ensure that Volino was not alone with children, a restriction the diocese maintained it followed. (Clark said the diocese did err by allowing Volino to teach at St. John the Evangelist Church in Greece [USA]; the center recommended that he be prohibited from work in schools.)
• Church looked at in beating death. [Ralph Clark] - Apostolic Faith Church. Woman and children.
Cincinnati Enquirer, By M.R. Kropko, The Associated Press, May 26, 2005
ASHTABULA, Ohio - In this tight-knit northeast Ohio city, the death of Carolyn Clark on Mother's Day weekend was story enough: Police said her estranged husband beat her head with the stock of a rifle in front of the youngest five of their 13 children.
But then talk intensified as news spread about legal papers Carolyn Clark had filed in a custody dispute she won a few days before her death, accusing leaders of the couple's church of sexual and physical abuse against members, including children. Clark said she was trying to get her young children away from the church, which she accused of brainwashing her husband and older children.
Now prosecutors are investigating whether the Apostolic Church Body of Jesus Christ of the Newborn Assembly had any role in her death. Social services officials are looking into the abuse allegations.
"This murder happened, and it might have kicked over a rock and there's some sunlight shining down now," Ashtabula County Prosecutor Thomas L. Sartini said.
• Class action possible in church case. - RCC.
The Oregonian, By STEVE WOODWARD, Thursday, May 26, 2005
OREGON - All 389,000 Roman Catholic parishioners in Western Oregon soon may find themselves defendants in their archdiocese's legal fight to keep parish property from being used to pay sexual-abuse settlements.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris said in a Wednesday hearing that she was leaning toward converting the property litigation into a rare class action at the end of July.
"I've never had a class action before in my 21 years as a bankruptcy judge," Perris said, as she and several bankruptcy lawyers thumbed through their copies of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, puzzling over the class-action rules.
Rather than name every parishioner individually, a class action would enable the committee representing sex-abuse plaintiffs to sue the volunteer parishioners on behalf of all parishioners.
The so-called adversary proceeding, which is similar to a lawsuit, would be meant strictly to answer the question of who owns the property in the archdiocese's 124 parishes and three high schools: the archdiocese or the parishes.
Who owns $600 million in real estate, investments and cash has been a central issue since the Archdiocese of Portland became the nation's first to file for bankruptcy in the wake of lawsuits alleging clergy sexual abuse.
• Police: Witnesses describe child sex abuse, blood rituals at church. [2000s Ms Bernard] - Hosanna Church. Rituals, children, animals.
Beacon Journal, Associated Press, ~ May 26, 2005
PONCHATOULA, La. - Witnesses told police that people dressed in black clothing stood inside pentagrams and performed blood rituals involving the sexual abuse of children and animals at a now-closed church.
A woman whose phone call to police started the investigation was arrested last week in suburban Columbus, Ohio, on a charge that she raped her daughter. Authorities left with Nicole Bernard from Columbus on Wednesday for Louisiana after she gave up her right to a hearing on whether she should be extradited.
Police searched a storage unit in Columbus after Bernard told them it contained evidence. Officers took mattresses, videos and nine garbage bags full of costumes from the storage facility, according to a search warrant.
A message seeking comment was left for Bernard's attorney in Columbus, Bob Bernard.
Eight other people, including the church's pastor and an ex-sheriff's deputy, have been arrested in connection with the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula, a once-bustling house of worship that was reduced to a handful of members in recent years before closing in 2003. A dozen or more additional people could be involved, authorities said.
• Church protesters demand apology. [1972 Huneke] - RCC. Boy.
Newsday, BY RITA CIOLLI, May 26, 2005
LONG ISLAND (NY) - Demanding an apology from Msgr. John Alesandro for failing to help sexual abuse victims who complained to him about predatory priests, about 40 people protested outside St. Dominic's Church in Oyster Bay Wednesday night where the former Diocese of Rockville Centre top official is now pastor.
"As Christians, we are supposed to forgive and we would do that if he showed any kind of remorse," Pat Cuomo of Northport said. "An apology is in order to my brother and the other victims and he needs to own up to his responsibility in the scandal."
The group stayed outside the rectory for about 45-50 minutes, some holding posters reading, "Monsignor, it's time to confess," and "Monsignor Thou Shalt Not Lie."
Andrew Cuomo, who lives in Milwaukee and flew in Wednesday for the demonstration, said the late Rev. Robert D. Huneke began abusing him in 1972 when he was a 14-year-old who had been recommended to the priest for counseling. Huneke had been named in lawsuits accusing him and other priests with sexual abuse.
• Priest enters guilty plea on child porn charges. [2005 Volino] - RCC. Computer child porn.
Newsday 10:33 PM EDT, May 25, 2005,
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing child pornography on his computer.
The Rev. Michael Volino, 41, admitted in U.S. District Court to one count of possessing more than three explicit images.
Volino was arrested in March after a Diocese of Rochester technician found the pornographic material while repairing his computer. Federal prosecutors said more than 600 images were found.
Volino will be in home confinement until his Sept. 8 sentencing. He faces probation to 10 years in prison.
He served at St. John the Evangelist Church in the Rochester suburb of Greece beginning in 2002.
• More Than Acts of Contrition. [Orange Diocese] - RCC.
Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Sometimes, saying "I'm sorry" isn't nearly enough. The release last week of papers revealing that church leaders in Orange County concealed, denied and enabled sexual molestation by priests for decades neither brings the matter to psychological closure nor speeds healing. Instead, it should spur some church leaders to step down, while forcing others - most notably, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony - to finally disclose the church's complicity in the scandal.
Bishop Michael P. Driscoll, formerly a diocesan official in Orange County and now the bishop of Boise, Idaho, posted a preemptive apology on his website before the release of the papers. As The Times reported Wednesday, disagreement about whether he is redeemed or should resign has given Catholics one more thing to be divided about. In either case, church officials will have to do much more to help heal the community - and they should start by releasing all documents related to the abuse cases.
The 10,000 pages of documents released by the diocese confirmed critics' worst suspicions. Bishop of Orange Tod D. Brown has been more forthright about the scandal than many of his colleagues (although it should be pointed out that these papers were released to comply with a court settlement). Mahony, in contrast, has waged an unseemly struggle to keep key personnel records from the grand jury and plaintiffs' lawyers.
• Voice of the Faithful supports victims of clergy abuse. - RCC. VOTF meetings.
Burlington Union, By Christopher Rocchio / Thursday, May 26, 2005
WINCHESTER (MA) - At the beginning of weekly meetings for the Winchester chapter of the Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), Bob Morris asks those in attendance at St. Eulalia's Church in Winchester how many were from different parishes and communities. Several weeks ago he stopped this practice, mainly because so many people were raising their hands.
"Even though we're here at St. Eulalia's, we have always drawn people outside the parish," said Morris.
The Winchester VOTF affiliate recently celebrated its three-year anniversary. Like their weekly meetings, the event had a good turnout of people reminiscing about what the organization has meant to them. The VOTF is centered around three goals: To support survivors of clergy abuse, support priests of integrity and shape structural change in the church.
"The mission statement is to provide a prayerful voice attentive to the spirit through which the faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the church," said Morris.
The VOTF originated in January 2002, when Boston-based newspapers began running articles on a daily basis about the burgeoning Catholic church sexual abuse scandal. Morris said many of the cases involved priests and bishops who allowed abuse to happen, finding quick-fixes, like shuffling the offenders to different parishes or dioceses. While it was not known as the VOTF at the time, the first meeting occurred at St. John the Evangelist in Wellesley Hills.
• Catholics seek help sending abuse victims to conference. - RCC. BA appeals for funds for SNAP.
Boston Herald, By Marie Szaniszlo, Thursday, May 26, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - A group of Boston-area Catholics has started a unique scholarship fund to help pay for clergy sexual-abuse victims to attend a national survivors conference.
BishopAccountability.org, the largest online archive on the crisis in the Catholic Church, is soliciting donations for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP].
SNAP's third annual conference will be held June 10 to 12 in Chicago, but not all victims can afford the roughly $500 airfare, registration fee and hotel expense.
"What strikes me again and again is the nearly superhuman strength it takes for survivors to come forward and risk public humiliation," said Anne Barrett Doyle, one of the Web site's directors.
"Without their courage, the scandal would never have been exposed."
• Bennett victims accept diocese offer. [Bennett] - RCC. $CAN 13m. 36 boys.
CBC, http://stjohns. cbc.ca/regional/ servlet/View? filename=nf- diocese-bennett- 050526 , Web Posted 08:01 AM NDT, May 26 2005
CORNER BROOK, CANADA CBC News - The victims of Father Kevin Bennett have accepted a $13-million compensation offer from the Roman Catholic diocese of St. George's.
Bennett was convicted in 1990 of molesting 36 boys while he served in parishes in the diocese.
Kevin Bennett was convicted in 1990 of sexually abusing 36 boys in parishes where he had served.
The victims fought their case for compensation to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The package involves 39 men, including two additional victims of Bennett and a man who had been molested by one other priest.
Greg Stack, the lawyer who represents most of the sexual-abuse victims, says his clients really had only two choices: accept the offer or let the diocese go into bankruptcy.
"None of the victims [is] jumping up and down with joy but certainly everyone hopes that this is going to be the end of it, and hopes the debts will be retired in an orderly fashion," Stack says.
"It was accepted, because the alternative is probably a little bit worse in terms of time. The time limits of payments would be delayed a year or two … The complexity and the administrative costs would be a lot, [and] that would consume a lot more of the funds." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:29 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu May 26, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri May 27, 2005 edition follows:-
• Idaho bishop didn't remove deacon who viewed child porn. - RCC. [2004 Driscoll] Supervision lack. [2002 Howell] Child porn.
The Olympian,
http://159.54. 227.3/apps/pbcs. dll/article?AID=/ 20050527/NEWS/ 50527005 ,
The Idaho Statesman, May 27, 2005
BOISE, Idaho - Idaho's Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Driscoll, who recently apologized for permitting priests to remain in a California ministry after they had victimized children, failed to remove a Boise deacon after he was told the FBI was investigating the clergyman for allegedly viewing child pornography.
Driscoll had known of the investigation nine months before the church notified members of St. Mary's parish in Boise, where Deacon Rapelyea Howell served, according to the Los Angeles Times and Idaho Statesman newspapers.
The 65-year-old leader of Idaho's 144,000 Catholics was told June 1 of last year that Howell was accused by authorities of viewing Internet child pornography between June and September 2002 when he worked for Casey Family Programs, a Seattle-based foster child counseling service that has an office in Boise.
The foundation monitors computer use by employees and was alerted to suspicious activity by software that tracks keyword searches and Web site visits. After putting Howell, 48, on administrative leave from the job he had held for 12 years, Casey officials turned Howell's hard drive over to the FBI and fired him on Oct. 11, 2002. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:17 PM] [Emphasis added]
• Suspended priest gets support. [Kavanagh] - RCC. Male seminarian.
The Journal News, By GARY STERN, gstern@thejournalnews.com , May 27, 2005
NEW YORK - Three years after Monsignor Charles Kavanagh was removed from his high-profile ministry, taken down by an accusation of long-ago misconduct, more than 200 supporters came out last night to give him a hug, wish him a happy birthday and remind him that they feel he was hung out to dry.
Kavanagh was the Archdiocese of New York's vicar of development, raising millions of dollars for the church, when he was prohibited from acting as a priest three years ago this week. He was accused by a former seminarian of pursuing a romantic, sexually charged relationship with him two decades before.
Ever since, Kavanagh's supporters have been outraged that he was dismissed with no timetable for a possible appeal or a resolution to his case. In addition to losing his spot as chief fundraiser, he lost his pulpit at St. Raymond's Church in the Bronx.
"As is often said, justice delayed is justice denied," said John Dearie, the former state assemblyman and a close friend of Kavanagh who hosted last night's party. "This man gave 40 years of his life to reaching out, supporting people, so now we want to show our ongoing support for him."
• Sheriff: Suspected core members of alleged sex abuse ring in custody. - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
The Advocate, The Associated Press, May 26, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) -- The suspected core members of a group that allegedly abused children and animals within the walls of a now-defunct church have been arrested and the next major step will be to send the case to a state prosecutor, authorities say.
Nine people have been arrested in connection with alleged activities at the Hosanna Church, a once-bustling house of worship that dwindled to a handful of members -- some implicated in allegations of sexually abusing children and animals -- before it closed in 2003.
"Right now, it's still in the fact-finding mode," District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said. "It's a law enforcement issue, but when they're done, they package it and the case file is sent to us."
Perrilloux will have 60 days from the time of the arrests to present the case to a grand jury.
• FBI evidence team finishes search at Hosanna Church. - Hosanna Church. Satanism, sex with children, animals.
The Advocate, May 27, 2005
PONCHATOULA (LA) -- Investigators interviewed witnesses and went through volumes of evidence Thursday as they worked to piece together a Ponchatoula church's alleged occult rituals that included devil-worship and sex with children and animals.
A FBI evidence team wrapped up its search at the Hosanna Church on Southwest Railroad Avenue, the location where most of the alleged child abuse occurred, said Laura Covington, spokeswoman for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office.
Investigators have not said what they found as they dug pits on the church grounds, other than construction debris and an old carpet.
Covington said that as of midweek, no additional arrest warrants or search warrants were pending in the investigation. Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards has said that there are at least 100 people detectives plan to interview and has not ruled out more arrests.
• Paedophilia: Telefono Arcobaleno, Law To Protect Minors Needed. [3 RCC priests included] - Child porn.
AGI, www.agi.it/ english/news. pl?doc=200505 241421-1150- RT1-CRO-0-NF 11&page=0&id= agionline- eng.oggitalia , May 24, 2005
PALERMO, Italy (AGI) - "Today's operation once again highlighted what we have been reporting for some time: the social danger of the paedo-pornography phenomenon", stated, Giovanni Arena, chairman of Telefono Arcobaleno, the association which had pressed the charges which ended in the blitz in Syracuse, investigating 186 people in all of Italy, including three priests.
Arena highlights: "It is not a coincidence that there are representatives of the Church, educators and public administrators among the investigated. Individuals who, also for professional reasons, paradoxically can be in contact with children every day."
According to Arena the broadness of the phenomenon should make us think on the "necessity of regulations that safeguard minors even more. A concrete need, and I think that what happened a few days ago in Verona confirms our thought: the trial against a man on whose computer investigators found 82,634 files with paedo-pornographic content downloaded from an internet site and 33 videotapes of the same kind.
"The suspect struck a deal, ending his legal issue with a payment of 3,000 euro and returning home without a criminal record because the current law does not expect a mention of the sentence, even though Telefono Arcobaleno (who had tracked down and reported the man) sued for damages in a criminal court."
• Paedophilia: Blitz All Around Italy, 186 (3 Priests) Under Pro. [3 RCC priests included in 27 working with children] - Child porn.
AGI, May 24, 2005
SYRACUSE, Italy (AGI) - They were in contact with children and were supposed to educate them, take care of them, and instead they were part of a paedophile organisation that was broken today in an operation around Italy.
Twenty-seven people who worked with minors were arrested, including three priests from Palermo, Verbania, and Bolzano, and an educator in Palermo.
186 searches were done around Italy, as part of an investigation of the Syracuse prosecutor's office.
The investigation was based on a website that could be seen by using a password, without an index page. The site showed sexual abuse of children between four and eight years of age.
The investigations were done by the Syracuse investigations unit, coordinated by prosecutors Giuseppe Toscano, Antonio Nicastro and Mariella Cavallo. (AGI) .
• The "Sins" of the Father. [Pope John Paul II] - RCC. Knew of cover-up.
Orange County Weekly, www.ocweekly. com/ink/05/38/ ex-arellano.php , by GUSTAVO ARELLANO, ~ May 27, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Pope John Paul II knew. Many shocking stories of priestly sex abuse and their subsequent cover-ups are emerging from the once-secret Diocese of Orange priest personnel files. On May 17, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered their release as part of the record-breaking $100 million settlement reached between the Orange diocese and victims of its pedophilic employees.
But from the more than 10,000 pages of documents, by far the most damning account is found in merely four pages: Pope John Paul II knew.
The disturbing revelation is included in the papers of Father Andrew Christian Andersen, who pleaded guilty in 1986 to 26 counts of molesting four boys while working at St. Bonaventure in Huntington Beach.
One item is an August 10, 1987, note by Monsignor Oscar Rizzato, then the Secretariat of State for the Vatican, to the Orange diocese. The Secretariat of State, as the Vatican's website describes it, is the arm of the Holy See's bureaucracy "which works most closely with the Supreme Pontiff in the exercise of his universal mission."
• Facts and Feces. - RCC.
Orange County Weekly, ~ May 27, 2005
CALIFORNIA - When I imagine working on the Register's editorial page, I think of alchemists - the Renaissance "scientists" who believed it was possible (as they put it) to "conglutinate" objects, to turn one thing into another. I think specifically of the story of Leonard Turneisser, who in 1677 is reported to have "turned an Iron Nail heated in the fire, and immersed in Oyl, into Gold; done at Rome the 20th day of November after Dinner." ...
Two days later, and the Register was feeling pretty good about itself. On May 19, it reported that Mater Dei High School choir director Thomas Hodgman and a Placentia priest named John E. Ruhl confessed to sexual misconduct to Orange Diocese officials - more than a decade ago.
Was this revelation the result of dogged investigation? Mmmmm, no.
What the Register did was attend a press conference, hold out its hand, and receive documents related to the Diocese of Orange sex scandal, documents released May 17 following an LA superior court judge's order.
Understandably, and in the kind of hushed tones one normally expects from professional wrestlers, the Register congratulated itself, saying it was "publishing these papers to give a fuller picture of how the church handled those accused of molestation."
• Judge OKs priest's insanity plea. [1988 Buzanowski] - RCC. Boy.
Press-Gazette, By Andy Nelesen, anelesen@greenbaypressgazette.com , ~ May 27, 2005
GREEN BAY (WI) - A Brown County judge accepted a 62-year-old priest's bid to plead insanity and ordered him to undergo a mental examination in a case charging him with child molestation.
Brown County Circuit Court Judge J.D. McKay also "categorically denied" the Rev. Donald Buzanowski's bid to bar media coverage of pre-trial hearings. McKay's ruling made moot a motion to intervene filed by Joe Thornton, a lawyer representing the Green Bay Press-Gazette and WLUK, Channel 11.
"There is no justification, no precedent this court is aware of to make such a ruling," McKay said in denying efforts to bar the media.
Buzanowski faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child. He is accused of fondling a 10-year-old boy in 1988 while Buzanowski served as a counselor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Green Bay
Buzanowski remains in custody in the Brown County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. As part of his plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, Buzanowski will have to submit to a psychological evaluation to determine whether he understood right from wrong when he allegedly touched the boy and whether he was able to conform to the rules of society.
The results of that exam are due July 8.
• Priest, 62, enters plea in sex case. [1988 Buzanowski] - RCC. Boy.
Post-Crescent, Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers, ~ May 27, 2005
GREEN BAY (WI) - A Brown County judge accepted a 62-year-old priest's bid to plead insanity and ordered him to undergo a mental examination in a case charging him with child molestation.
Judge J.D. McKay also "categorically denied" the Rev. Donald Buzanowski's bid to bar media coverage of pretrial hearings. McKay's ruling made moot a motion to intervene filed by Joe Thornton, an attorney representing the Green Bay Press-Gazette and WLUK-TV, Channel 11.
Buzanowski faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child. He is accused of fondling a 10-year-old boy in 1988 while Buzanowski served as a counselor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Green Bay.
Buzanowski remains in the Brown County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
As part of his plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, Buzanowski will have to submit to a psychological evaluation to determine whether he understood right from wrong when he allegedly touched the boy and whether he was able to conform to the rules of society.
• Diocese appeals far and wide to cover claims. [Bennett, St George's Diocese] - RCC.
CBC News Web Posted 07:04 AM NDT, May 27 2005
CORNER BROOK, CANADA - The Roman Catholic bishop in Corner Brook says he is confident that Catholics elsewhere will pitch in to help raise money to keep churches and parish halls.
Bishop Douglas Crosby says the Diocese of St. George's is appealing to other diocese in the province - as well as Catholic organizations outside the province - for financial help.
To cover a $13-million settlement finalized this week with the victims of Father Kevin Bennett, the Diocese of St. George's will need to sell some of its properties.
Crosby is hoping to raise between $4 million and $6 million over the next 10 months.
Donations will allow the diocese to keep some of its assets, says Crosby, who adds that some donations are already coming in.
• Retired teacher regains Seward church membership. [? 2000s Meyer] - Lutheran. 'Repentance'.
Lincoln Journal Star, BY ART HOVEY / ~ May 27, 2005
SEWARD (NE) - Seward resident Arlen Meyer, excommunicated from St. John Lutheran Church in March, has been reinstated to full membership by a vote of the congregation.
The Rev. Mark Cutler read from a prepared statement Thursday that said, in part, that "the congregation in meeting assembled has removed the excommunication placed on Arlen and has restored him to Christian fellowship in this congregation."
Meyer, retired from teaching after a long career at St. John Lutheran School, was the subject of a 2002 Nebraska State Patrol investigation into acts of alleged sexual misconduct against students.
He has never been criminally charged, but Congregational Chairman Ray Huebschman said in March that a count of written ballots at a special church meeting resulted in "a clear majority" favoring excommunication.
The statement quoted by Cutler Thursday, which also cited "evidence of repentance," will be handed out this weekend to the 1,100 people who usually attend four services at Seward's largest church.
• Archdiocese trimming staff. - RCC. $US 18.2 m in one fiscal year for abuse.
Chicago Sun-Times, BY SHAMUS TOOMEY, May 27, 2005
CHICAGO (IL) - For the first time in 14 years, the Archdiocese of Chicago is laying off workers at its downtown headquarters as it fights to close an ongoing, multimillion-dollar budget deficit.
Church officials said Thursday that 40 positions will be cut by July at the pastoral center on East Superior, which is home to about 600 employees. Some of the jobs will be erased through early retirements and attrition, but the remainder will be layoffs, officials said.
It's all part of the ongoing struggle facing the local Catholic church, which has had to ship millions of dollars to struggling parishes to keep them afloat, depleting the budget of its pastoral center.
The financial woes have been exacerbated by legal claims paid out to victims of sexual abuse by priests, including the $18.2 million paid to settle claims in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2004. But church officials said the budget woes surfaced before the claims were paid, and the abuse settlements are not the predominant reason for the struggles.
• A lifeline for the church.
The Boston Globe, By Steven Krueger | May 27, 2005
BOSTON (MA) - IT WAS a year ago this week that a fleet of FedEx trucks delivered the devastating news to thousands of faithful Catholics in the Archdiocese of Boston -- their churches were slated to be closed. Over the past year the destructive track of downsizing has created immeasurable pain in the lives of countless Catholics and their communities. Few have gone unscathed, including Archbishop Sean O'Malley himself. We have every reason to believe this history will repeat itself if the archdiocese does not change its course.
The former flagship of the Catholic Church in America, the Boston Archdiocese, continues to sink. Already facing a slow but gradual long-term decline, the archdiocese needed to embark on a course of hope and healing after being stricken with the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The settlements in December 2003 provided that opportunity. Regrettably, a flawed top-down reconfiguration process has put us into a steeper downward spiral and refractured an already broken trust.
There is cause for alarm that goes beyond declining Mass attendance, a priest shortage, budget and program cuts, and other objective measures. At a time when creative and vibrant solutions are needed, the archdiocese is stuck in the same old ways -- diminishing hope and alienating those it needs most for its survival and growth, the faithful parishioners. The mission of the church is the ultimate casualty. [COMMENT: By their fruits you will know them. ]
• Vatican defrocks one Detroit priest, disciplines eight. [Quane and 8 others] - RCC.
Detroit Free Press, 4:15 AM, May 27, 2005,
DETROIT (MI) (AP) -- The Vatican has defrocked a priest who served in several parishes in metropolitan Detroit and has barred eight others from the ministry, the Archdiocese of Detroit says.
The nine priests have been on leave since allegations of sexual abuse surfaced, said Auxiliary Bishop Walter Hurley.
"The final decision ... basically confirms the original decisions made by the cardinal," said Hurley, who is Cardinal Adam Maida's delegate on issues of clergy misconduct.
The archdiocese is awaiting Vatican review of 14 other cases, including four priests who requested church trials, the Detroit Free Press said Friday.
The Vatican defrocked, or "laicized," Robert Quane, 60, who served at nine parishes in the Detroit area, including St. Francis of Assisi in New Haven, St. Raymond in Detroit and St. Ronald in Macomb County's Clinton Township.
• Priest cleared of sex charges. - RCC. Rev. George Crespin cleared.
Contra Costa Times, By Martin Snapp, ~ May 27, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Father George Crespin, the longtime priest at St. Joseph the Worker Church who took early retirement in February after being accused of sexual abuse, has been cleared of all charges by a formal review authorized by Oakland Diocese Bishop Allen Vigneron.
The Catholic Voice, the official publication of the Diocese, reported that parishioners at St. Joseph gave Crespin a standing ovation when he returned to work at the Berkeley church this past Saturday. He expressed his relief and joy at returning to active ministry. Since the allegation was made, he has been unable to celebrate Mass or perform other priestly duties.
"We're very grateful that this process is completed," said Father Jayson Landeza, who has been acting administrator at the parish during Crespin's absence. "We at St. Joseph had confidence that the process would exonerate him."
Crespin was unavailable for comment, but Landeza said the retired pastor planned to stay in residence at St. Joseph. Since he was removed from ministry, the parish has rallied around him and held a town hall meeting with diocesan representatives Feb. 15, where they expressed their grief at his sudden departure.
• Vatican rejects probe of abuse claims against order's founder. [1940s+ Marcial Maciel Degallado (Legion of Christ)] - RCC.
Chicago Sun-Times, BY FRANCES D'EMILIO, May 27, 2005
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican said this week there was no investigation under way of allegations that the Mexican founder of a conservative religious order sexually abused seminarians more than 30 years ago, and the Holy See had no plans to bring a church trial against the priest.
The Legionaries of Christ said last week that the Vatican had notified them about the status of the case involving the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degallado. In the late 1990s, nine former seminarians alleged Maciel had abused them when they were young boys or teenagers in Roman Catholic seminaries in Spain and Italy. The alleged abuse was in the 1940s-1960s.
Maciel, 85, has denied the allegations and said his accusers plotted to defame him.
"There is no investigation under way, and it is not foreseen that there will be one in the future," a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said.
Earlier this year, news reports surfaced that the Vatican had reopened the sexual abuse case against Maciel. But Vatican officials at the time said the reports resulted from a misunderstanding.
• Pope to face criminal charges over child abuse. - RCC. 2001 secrecy orders.
PressEsc, http://unspun. mithuro.com/ content/view/ 148/1/ , Contributed by Ugo Lancione, Vatican Correspondent, Friday, 27 May 2005
ROME - A Catholic rights group is pressing the Italian police to press criminal charges after the authorities in Rome last week busted a massive child abuse ring run by Catholic priests.
Catholics Against Child Abuse (CACA) wants the police to arrest Pope Benedict XVI and charge with aiding and abetting sexual abuse of children and obstructing the course of justice by covering up crimes against children by other priests.
In May 2001 the Cardinal sent a secret letter, obtain by the respected British newspaper Observer, to every Catholic bishop asserting the church's right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood.
CACA asserts that this constitutes a blatant obstruction of justice and the Pope should stand trial for the alleged crime. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:02 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri May 27, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat May 28, 2005 edition follows:-
• Pastors Take Turns Raping Girl. - Christian clergy. Girl.
Vaal Weekly, www.news24.com/ Regional_Papers/ Components/Category_ Article_Text_ Template/0,,372_ 1712201~E,00.html ; ~ May 28, 2005
SOUTH AFRICA - VaalRand Police's swift action on Monday led to the arrest of two priests in Evaton West.
This is after they were implicated in the rape of a little girl that had apparently endured the abuse from January of this year.
The victim is a learner at a Primary School in Palm Springs. Apparently the girl confessed to her parents after it was discovered that she came home late every day.
Vaal Weekly was told that following the girl's confession after a stint of 'forceful' persuasion from her parents, it was discovered that she is being fetched daily from the school by the pastor who then takes her to the bushes and violates her.
This shocking news comes on the heels of information that the pastor's friend, who also happens to be the man of the robe, once helped himself to the girl by raping her. Stunned members of the community expressed shock that religious leaders are being accused of this ghastly deed. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:39 PM]
• Arrest warrant issued for rabbi. [? 2000s Lipman] - Judaism. 2 girls.
Arizona Daily Sun, www.azdailysun. com/non_sec/nav_ includes/story. cfm?storyID=109231 , May/28/2005
PRESCOTT (AZ) (AP) -- A felony warrant has been issued for the arrest of a rabbi accused of child molestation and sexual abuse, authorities said.
Yavapai County prosecutors said David Lipman, 55, faces 11 counts of child molestation and five counts of sexual abuse that stem from an investigation involving two girls, ages 16 and 14.
Prescott Justice Court Judge Arthur Markham signed a warrant Thursday for Lipman's arrest.
City police received a call on May 13 from a Child Protective Services employee who reported possible sexual abuse of two girls.
That prompted a criminal investigation against Lipman, who admitted to inappropriate touching, according to Prescott Police Det. Robert Peoples.
Lipman was placed on administrative leave Monday from Temple B'rith Shalom, where he has been rabbi since April 2002 of a congregation with about 300 members.
• Priests listed in records of complaints. [1952+ 8 priests, 1 brother] - RCC.
Sun Journal, By Bonnie Washuk, Saturday, May 28, 2005
Editor's note: The Sun Journal does not publish the names of people accused of crimes if those accusations do not result in criminal charges. For that reason, no names released by the state's Attorney General's Office have been included in this article. The list of names is available through the Attorney General's Office.
AUGUSTA, MAINE - In 1952, a 10-year-old altar boy at a Lewiston church was sent to see a priest at the church.
According to documents released Friday by the Maine Attorney General's Office, the priest took advantage of the boy.
He kissed him and had oral sex with him.
Soon it was happening two or three times a week in the church's sacristy, according to the documents. Each time it happened, the priest paid the boy $5, telling him the money was payment for him not talking.
Years later, after the boy had grown, he told authorities of the abuse, saying that during the four years it was happening, there was no one he could tell since it was his parents who had sent him to the priest to talk about sex.
The allegation is one of dozens accusing a total of 21 Maine priests and brothers - now all dead - of sexually abusing children.
The documents are a compilation of statements from the Maine Roman Catholic diocese, letters from victims and reports from prosecutors, lawyers and the Attorney General's Office.
None of the cases was ever proven in court because, by the time authorities learned of them, the statute of limitations prevented prosecution, said Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin. In the early '90s, state lawmakers removed the statute of limitations for new sex abuse cases.
The documents were released Friday based on a Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruling ordering the Attorney General's Office to turn over the records, which included the names of the priests and brothers, and the churches where they served. Nine of them - eight priests and one brother - had been assigned to churches in central and western Maine.
The court also ordered that the names of the victims and their families not be released.
The ruling came after the Portland Press Herald asked the court for the documents, Robbin said.
• Group to discuss church sex cases. [Driscoll] - RCC. Supervision.
Idaho Statesman, Statesman staff, Edition Date: May-28-2005
BOISE (ID) - A national organization that supports people abused by clergy will come to Boise next week to talk about Idaho Catholic Bishop Michael Driscoll's handling of cases of sexual misconduct.
David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Tuesday near the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise office at 303 Federal Way. The exact location hasn't been set.
SNAP has criticized Driscoll's handling of priest abuse cases when he was chancellor at the Diocese of Orange in California in the 1970s and 1980s.
• Priest sent to prison for abuse wants out. [Bierman] - RCC. Child abuse.
Cincinnati Post, Post staff report, May 28, 2005
KENTUCKY - Convicted child molester and defrocked priest Earl Bierman is scheduled to go before the Kentucky Parole Board in July to ask for release from his 20-year prison sentence a year and a half early.
He was sentenced in 1993, and with time earned for good behavior, is supposed to complete his sentence in December 2006.
Bierman, 73, was a late addition to the list of inmates the parole board has scheduled for hearings in July, said Campbell Commonwealth Attorney Jack Porter.
Porter said he didn't know why Bierman, who was given a serve-out order by the parole board in 1997, was granted a hearing and wanted more information about his status before taking a position on the request for early release.
Parole officials weren't immediately available for comment on Friday night, so the basis for Bierman's hearing wasn't known. During a previous hearing before the board in 1997, he complained of health problems.
• State names accused priests who have died. [1930s-70s 20 priests (2 Jesuits, 3 Dominicans)] - RCC. Children.
Portland Press Herald, By GREGORY D. KESICH and JOHN RICHARDSON, May 28, 2005
MAINE - Twenty now deceased Roman Catholic priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children were identified by the Maine Attorney General's office Friday, in compliance with a court order.
The names and supporting documents detail complaints of abuse ranging from the 1930s to the 1970s, in Maine communities from Fort Kent to South Berwick. Some of the priests are named by a single accuser, others by as many as 13.
The allegations were made against 16 priests of the Diocese of Portland, two Jesuits and two Dominican priests. There is also an allegation against one Dominican brother.
The list of the priests is accompanied by letters and statements of victims and witnesses, whose names have been blacked out in the records. Many tell of the emotional pain of childhood abuse that lasts long into adulthood.
• Davenport Diocese to unveil monument dedicated to abuse victims. - RCC. 'Millstone' monument by settlement.
KWQC, ~ May 28, 2005
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport will unveil a monument next month that is dedicated to the dozens of men and women who were sexually molested by eastern Iowa priests in the last 50 years. Bishop William Franklin will lead the blessing on June 20th of the Millstone Marker.
Church officials say it's a symbol intended to show respect for the victims and promote healing in the wake of a scandal that roiled the diocese and its parishioners for the last three years. The marker was created as part of the settlement reached with abuse victims last fall.
• Court seizes $100 mil in polygamist sect's funds. - Fundamentalist LDS Church. $US 100m frozen.
The Arizona Republic, by Robert Anglen, May 28, 2005
UTAH - Land, housing and assets belonging to the nation's largest polygamous community and estimated to be worth more than $100 million were temporarily frozen Friday by a Utah court.
The ruling effectively wrests financial power of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs, who for years has controlled the school district, municipal government and most of the property in the isolated towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.
Judge Robert Adkins temporarily froze a trust fund for the church and suspended Jeffs and five other trustees, saying he found sufficient evidence that they committed a breach of faith by selling property to church insiders for less than market value. advertisement ... "For the past two years, I've worked with the Utah attorney general on a coordinated effort to investigate all credible allegations of child abuse, sexual exploitation, welfare fraud, tax evasion and other financial wrongdoing. The events of this week show we are making good progress."
• Binning faces more sex abuse charges. - Glory Hill Worship Center. 2 girls.
The Daily Nonpareil, By TOM MCMAHON, May/27/2005
DENISON (IA) - Two additional sexual abuse charges were filed against Kelly Binning Thursday.
Denison Police Chief Rod Bradley said Binning, 38, of Denison, is alleged to have sexually abused a 4- and 5- year-old girl, both of whom were being cared for in a home day care center operated by his wife. ...
During the time period listed on the May 13 charge, Binning had owned a computer business in Denison. He later sold the business and became the pastor of Glory Hill Worship Center, now located in Arion.
• No bail for one in church abuse. [Ms Bernard] - Hosanna Church.
The Advocate, By VIC COUVILLION, Special to The Advocate, ~ May 28, 2005
AMITE (LA) - Judge Robert Morrison of the 21st Judicial District Court denied bail early Friday for Nicole Bernard, 36, who is charged with aggravated rape in connection with the Hosanna Church sex crime case that has been developing over the past several weeks.
Joyce Jackson, assistant warden of the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, said that Morrison had denied a bail request from Bernard about 8:30 a.m. Friday.
The hearing was not held in open court, and Morrison issued his ruling over the telephone.
Twenty-First Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said judges do not customarily comment on bond hearings.
Perrilloux said bond is almost never granted in capital cases.
• Catholic Diocese of Tucson files revised bankruptcy documents. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC.
KOLD, www.kold.com/ Global/story. asp?S=3404185 , ~ May 28, 2005
TUCSON, Ariz. - Three Yuma brothers who say they were repeatedly raped by a priest will each receive at least 600-thousand dollars.
The cash payout is outlined in revised bankruptcy documents filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson.
The brothers and other victims of clergy sexual abuse who have valid claims against the diocese could be paid from a total pot of more than 20 (m) million dollars.
The amended statement and Chapter eleven plan were filed late Thursday in federal court.
Exactly how many plaintiffs will be dividing the total pot of money remains unclear.
• Documents relating to priest abuse released. [21 priests] - RCC.
The Boston Globe, May 27, 2005
AUGUSTA, Maine -- The state attorney general's office on Friday released more than 100 pages of documents relating to allegations of sexual abuse of minors involving 21 deceased Roman Catholic clergy.
The documents had been screened to eliminate names of alleged victims and witnesses. They included diocesan records, investigative reports and other material.
The documents were made public in response to an April ruling by the Maine supreme court. In that split decision, the court ruled 4-3 that the attorney general must release the files to Blethen Maine Newspapers, owner of the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel newspapers.
Blethen Maine Newspapers filed a Maine Freedom of Access request with the attorney general in 2002 seeking records pertaining to the attorney general's investigation of alleged sexual abuse by priests who are now deceased.
• Sexual Reeling . [Salazar, Ramos] - RCC.
Orange County Weekly, by Gustavo Arellano, ~ May 28, 2005
CALIFORNIA - At the beginning of this year, local victims of priestly pedophilia expected The Orange County Register to destroy the Diocese of Orange for good. After all, 2003 was a banner year for the daily, a year in which the Register consistently scooped its competitors in exposing the pederast-coddling sins of church officials. Some of its more shocking revelations included:
• Register opinion writer Steven Greenhut disclosing in his July 20 Sunday column the case of Father Cesar Salazar, whom diocesan officials refused to remove from St. Joseph's in Santa Ana despite the discovery of child pornography on his computer. They finally did after the public uproar that followed the publication of Greenhut's piece.
• Reporter Jim Hinch's Sept. 14 story on how Mater Dei High School officials never reported to law-enforcement agencies allegations of student molestations at the hands of the Santa Ana parochial school's teachers and sports coaches.
• A two-part, front-page Register exposé based on a police report in which Father Eleuterio Ramos admitted to molesting at least 25 boys during his tenure in the Orange diocese from 1976 to 1986.
But as the Orange diocese sex-abuse scandal nears its disgraceful end - Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown has agreed to pay $100 million to 87 victims of his child-raping employees, the largest clerical sex-abuse settlement in Catholic Church history - some sex-abuse victims are furious at the Register. When victims needed Orange County's paper of record the most, they say, the Register failed them.
• $20 million ceiling on payouts to victims lifted in diocese's latest court filing. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC.
Fox 11, www.fox11az.com/ news/local/stories/ KMSB-20050527-dsbp- churchpayout. 2b8160928.html , Arizona Daily Star, 05:20 PM MST on Friday, May 27, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - Victims of sexual abuse by clergy with valid claims against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson could be paid from a pot of more than $20 million.
A revised "amended disclosure statement" that accompanies the diocese's federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorgnization plan was filed late Thursday in federal court.
The revised statement says the diocese's minimum contribution to settlements with victims is $15.7 million, with additional money contributions possible as the diocese continues to pursue settlements with insurers.
A previous disclosure statement had proposed capping the settlement contribution at $20 million, but that ceiling limit was removed in the new document.
Creditors have until Tuesday to file objections to the new statements. A hearing in front of federal bankruptcy judge James M. Marlar is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
• Local young people offer up perspectives on religion.
The Free-Lance Star, By JESSICA ALLEN, May 28, 2005
VIRGINIA - There are several reasons why Jonathan Watson doesn't go to church.
He cites the Catholic sex-abuse scandal. Plus, he says people can be spiritual without joining a particular religious organization. Then, there's his desire for tangible evidence that there's one correct path.
"Basically, I'm more of a practical person who needs proof," Watson said. "They say it's more of a leap of faith, and I couldn't make that leap."
The 26-year-old Fredericksburg resident and engineer is among a sizable number of young adults professing an interest in spirituality, but not necessarily in organized religion, according to a couple of recent surveys.
The studies by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute and Reboot, a Jewish networking group, focused on college-age young people and how they see life's mysteries with and without participating in a religious institution.
• Clergy-Abuse Victims Group Urges D.A. to Investigate Orange Diocese. [Orange Diocese] - RCC. Transferred offenders.
Los Angeles Times, By William Lobdell, May 28, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Armed with newly released church documents, advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse asked the Orange County district attorney Friday to open an investigation into whether Roman Catholic officials acted criminally by covering for molesting priests and failing to report their crimes to authorities.
"We ask you to protect kids by setting an example for those who would protect child molesters," wrote three officials of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in a letter to Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas.
More than 11,000 pages of documents were released over the past two weeks as part of a record $100-million settlement between the Diocese of Orange and 90 alleged victims of molestation.
The documents show that church officials moved known molesters from parish to parish and diocese to diocese, never told parishioners that a sexual predator was in their midst and never told authorities about the crimes.
• Judge rules ex-altar boys may seek damages. [Pritchard] - RCC. $US 6.437m so far. Children.
San Francisco Chronicle, by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Saturday, May 28, 2005
SAN JOSE (CA) - Two former altar boys who say they were sexually abused by a San Jose priest in the 1970s may seek punitive damages against the Archdiocese of San Francisco, an Alameda County judge tentatively ruled Friday.
When made final by Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw, the order could put new pressure on the archdiocese to settle dozens of negligence claims still pending for the actions of local church leaders before Archbishop William Levada's 1995 arrival in San Francisco.
The judge's tentative ruling involves one of 18 lawsuits claiming negligent supervision of the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard, the former pastor of St. Martin of Tours parish in San Jose.
Last month, a San Francisco jury awarded four other plaintiffs nearly $6 million for sexual abuse inflicted by Pritchard, who died in 1988.
That judgment came on top of another $437,000 award in March stemming from sexual misconduct by the San Jose priest.
• Diocese says it can't use parishes to pay. [Spokane Diocese] - RCC. Denying assets. 58 complainants.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER, ~ May 28, 2005
SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane said Friday it does not own 81 parish churches and nearly 100 other assets - and cannot use them to pay alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The diocese filed documents in U.S. Bankruptcy Court challenging the assertion by alleged victims that Bishop William Skylstad owns the 81 churches, 16 schools, one high school and 79 other Catholic assets in the sprawling region.
The diocese, which faces lawsuits filed by 58 alleged victims, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last December, listing assets of $11.1 million and liabilities of $81.3 million - the vast majority being sexual abuse claims.
The diocese has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams to rule that Skylstad only controls the roughly $11 million worth of assets that belong specifically to the diocese.
"We are trying to resolve this Chapter 11 in a way that compensates those harmed by the church in the past," said Shaun Cross, an attorney for the diocese.
• AG releases complaint files on 21 dead priests. [21 priests] - RCC. Both genders.
Editor's Note: The Bangor Daily News will continue to review the circumstances of individual priests identified in Friday's release of information by the Maine Attorney General, but at this time will not publish the list of priests in its entirety. The newspaper believes it would be inappropriate to publish the names of individuals who have been the subject of unsubstantiated allegations that in most cases can never be proved.
The Bangor Daily News, BY JUDY HARRISON, Saturday, May 28, 2005
AUGUSTA , MAINE - The Maine Attorney General's Office on Friday released investigative files containing complaints of sexual abuse against 21 dead priests who worked in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland at the time the alleged abuse occurred.
In a split decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court last month ruled 4-3 that the documents be released to the media and the public. The names and information that would identify the alleged victims, their family members and friends were blacked out.
The complaints ranged from a priest's attempt to fondle a boy at the age of 13 to multiple victims stating that priests had touched their genitals to some priests allegedly forcing children to touch their penises.
One victim reported that when she was 6 years old, a priest who visited her in the hospital after she had had an appendectomy moved her to an empty storage room and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
The diocese opposed the release of the information because most of the allegations were never substantiated, some of them were made anonymously and a majority of the priests had died years before the incidents were reported. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:21 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat May 28, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun May 29, 2005 edition follows:-
• Woman accused in church abuse case beaten in jail. [? 2000s Ms Bernard] - Hosanna Church. Children, animals.
The Times-Picayune, www.nola.com/ newsflash/louisiana/ index.ssf?/base/ news-16/11173376092 40510.xml&story list=louisiana , The Associated Press, May/28/2005
HAMMOND, La. (AP) - A woman accused of being part of a group that allegedly abused children and animals within the walls of a now-defunct Ponchatoula church was beaten by other female inmates at the Tangipahoa Parish jail, sheriff's deputies said.
Nicole Bernard, who recently was returned from Ohio to face an aggravated rape charge, was placed in a cell by herself after the Friday night attack.
Chief Deputy Dennis Pevey said several female prisoners apparently were angry at Bernard because of her alleged involvement in the abuse of children.
"It's hard to keep them separated and the other inmates they kind of retaliated," Pevey said. "It's like that's the only offense that somebody can do where known criminals in jail have a problem with. It's OK to be a thief or a burglar, but if you commit a crime against children and (other inmates) say, 'Hey you crossed the line.'"
Prison officials said they would do what they can to keep all the suspects in the case safe. Six of eight suspects are in the parish jail and two others are in the Livingston Parish jail. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:30 AM]
• Pope faked child abuse investigation. [Benedict XVI / Ratzinger] - RCC. 'Faked' inquiry?
Press Esc, Contributed by Ugo Lancione, Vatican Correspondent, Sunday, 29 May 2005
ROME - The pope is facing new accusations that he 'faked' an investigation into child abuse by a leader of an influential Roman Catholic order to show the world that he was taking tough stance against offenders in order to get himself elected the leader of the Catholic Church.
The disgraced pontiff Bendedict XVI is accused of opening an investigation into the conduct of the alleged serial molester and leader of the Legionnaires of Christ Marcial Maciel in December last year but promptly dropping the investigation after being elected as the pope last month.
The pope last week claimed immunity from prosecution against charges of obstructing the course of justice stemming from secret letter, obtained by the respected British newspaper Observer, that the then Cardinal Ratzinger sent to every Catholic bishop asserting the church's right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to ten years after the victims reached adulthood.
It is believed that the immunity claim is also an attempt to ward of any criminal investigation in the Vatican itself after the Police in Rome busted a pedophile ring run by Roman Catholic priests last week.
"When Ratzinger stepped up the investigation of Maciel, dispensing a priest around the world to take the alleged victims' statements, it seemed that he was positioning himself to be the next pope, shoring up his anti-molester credentials." Mark Oppenheimer wrote in the New Haven Advocate. "And now, no sooner does he become pope than he decides to close down a fruitful investigation into a man accused of being a serial molester of young seminarians."
• Catholic Diocese of Tucson files revised bankruptcy documents. [Tucson Diocese] - RCC. 103 claims.
KVOA, http://kvoa.com/ Global/story.asp? S=3405928 , ~ May 29, 2005
TUCSON (AZ) - Three brothers in Yuma who say they were repeatedly raped by a priest will each receive at least $600,000 under terms outlined in revised bankruptcy documents filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson.
The brothers and other victims of clergy sexual abuse who have claims against the diocese could be paid from a total pot of more than $20 million, according to the revised bankruptcy reorganization plan. The amended statement and Chapter 11 plan were filed late Thursday in federal court.
Exactly how many plaintiffs will be dividing the money remains unclear. The Bankruptcy Court has logged 103 claims against the diocese, but they must be approved by the court as valid before claimants are eligible to receive any settlement money. A committee of tort claimants filed a motion Friday disputing 74 of the claims.
• Church, victims split again. - RCC.
Cincinnati Enquirer, By Dan Horn, May 29, 2005
OHIO - Child-abuse victims and Catholic bishops are bracing for a battle in the Ohio legislature that neither side wants.
The anticipated dispute is over a child-protection bill that would allow victims to sue the church in decades-old clergy-abuse cases, most of which are too old to take to court under existing law.
Victims' groups favor the change and the church opposes it.
Both sides agree an ugly showdown in the Ohio House of Representatives, which is considering the bill this month, could hurt everyone involved.
Victims fear a protracted fight in the House could lead to a watered-down version of the bill, and the last thing church officials want is another public confrontation with people who accuse them of mishandling abusive priests.
"It's very difficult," said Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. "We're being accused of not being pastoral in our approach to this."
But a battle may be inevitable.
• Pastor Arrested, Charged With Sexual Abuse. [4 yrs Jackson] - New Generation Church. Girl.
Ohio News Network, ~ May 29, 2005
COLUMBUS (OH) - Maurice Jackson, pastor of the New Generation Church in Northeast Columbus, was arrested Friday and charged with gross sexual imposition, and corrupting a minor.
The charges stem from allegations that he sexually molested a little girl. The victim's mother says that Jackson repeatedly molested her daughter over a four-year period, starting when she was seven years old.
• Victims weren't first priority. [1970s-80s Driscoll] - RCC. Transferred offenders.
The Orange County Register, By ANDREW GALVIN, May 29, 2005
CALIFORNIA - Michael Patrick Driscoll didn't go into the priesthood to become a personnel manager. He didn't expect that his career path would include supervising some of the worst priest-pedophiles in Orange County's history.
But in the early years of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, that was his job. From 1976 to 1987, as the diocese's chancellor, Driscoll oversaw personnel matters involving priests. Personnel files released by the diocese over the past two weeks show that Driscoll participated in numerous decisions that gave accused priests the opportunity to remain in ministry.
Driscoll, who today is the bishop of the Diocese of Boise, Idaho, has repeatedly apologized for his role in those decisions. Most recently, on May 5, he admitted that his priorities were "horribly misplaced" when he dealt with allegations of abuse in the 1970s and 1980s.
"It is hard for me to understand today how we could not have seen what was happening to the children," Driscoll wrote in a statement posted on the Boise diocese's Web site. "People who know me well know how much I love children. They know that I would never hurt anyone intentionally, especially children."
People who know Driscoll say he is a warm, generous man, an exceptional speaker devoted to his religious calling. During his years in Orange County, he was a champion of the poor. Every Christmas, the rotund Driscoll donned a Santa Claus suit to distribute gifts to disadvantaged children. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:19 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun May 29, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• [Judge true to form, says not possession, can't tell children's ages.] [Wescott] - Roman Catholic Church. Porn.
Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne), "Outrage on porn verdict; Judge frees teacher," by CARLY CRAWFORD, p 9, May 29, 2005
GEELONG (Vic) Australia: A JUDGE has sparked outrage by overturning a child pornography conviction because he could not be sure the explicit images depicted children.
Prosecutors are considering appealing against Judge John Barnett's decision in the County Court this week.
The judge overturned a conviction against Catholic school teacher Terrence James Wescott, 56, charged with possessing child porn.
It is the fifth controversial decision handed down by Judge Barnett in a sex-related case.
In the County Court, sitting in Geelong on Thursday, Judge Barnett reasoned there was no clear evidence that images Mr Wescott had accessed depicted minors.
"I can't say that they are apparently under the age of 16 or over the age of 16. My experience is I that I can't pick the age I of children," Judge Barnett was reported to have said. He was also unconvinced that the presence of the images on Mr Wescott's computer at the school constituted possession.
And he went further, saying current child pornography legislation is draconian.
Mr Wescott was the principal of Torquay's St Therese Catholic Primary School when he was arrested and charged in the nationwide crackdown on child porn, Operation Auxin.
In April, a magistrate sentenced Mr Wescott to six months' jail with a minimum of two months for possessing explicit images of girls.
Mr Wescott pleaded not guilty, saying he paid to access the images out of stupidity and inquisitiveness.
During that hearing, in the Geelong Magistrate's Court on April 28, police told the court the girls appeared to be aged between nine and 14.
Australian Childhood Foundation chief Joe Tucci encouraged the Office of Public Prosecutions to appeal the County Court ruling.
"If he can't pick the age of children, he should not be involved with cases involving children," Dr Tucci said.
"To me it's appalling that decision was reversed."
Judge Barnett in February urged a confessed rapist to reconsider his guilty plea, saying he did not believe penetration had occurred.
Last year he let a pedophile who abused a seven-year-old girl off without a jail term.
And in 2000, he decided a suspended jail term was enough for a Catholic priest who molested 20 children, saying the priest was no longer a threat.# [May 29, 2005]
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon May 30, 2005 edition follows:-
• Top barrister calls for 15-year limit on sex abuse trials. - Child abuse.
One in Four, http://oneinfour. org/news/news 2005/limit , By John Breslin - Irish Examiner, ~ May 30, 2005
IRELAND - A Statute of limitations should be placed on criminal proceedings taken against those accused of sexual abuse, one of the country's leading defence barristers told a conference this weekend.
Patrick Gageby, who has defended individuals accused of sex crimes sometimes decades old, said it may be time for the Government to step in and draw a line in the sand. Mr Gageby suggested a limit of 15 years, adding that all civil cases are subject to time limits, except ironically those relating to claims of sexual abuse.
Speaking at the National Prosecutors Conference, the defence barrister said there were inherent dangers in old cases, where the key witnesses have inaccurate, faded, changed or intruded memories and where there was little additional or corroborating evidence. In too many cases, a jury trial can turn in to a "pure beauty contest." "Who do you like more, who's the more attractive? Who exactly is telling the truth? It comes down to body movements, gestures and the like," Mr Gageby said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:03 PM]
• 4 more allegations against Eatonville preacher surface. [2000, 2005 Williams] - World Wide Revival Center. 5 women.
Sun-Sentinel, By Christopher Sherman, Posted May 17 2005
EATONVILLE (FL) -- Four more women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against a minister arrested Friday on charges of sexual battery and false imprisonment, police said Monday.
Lura Williams, 71, an itinerant preacher who built a church in Eatonville in 1969 after initially sermonizing from a tent on the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Wymore Road, turned himself in to police Friday.
A member of his World Wide Revival Center told Eatonville police that Williams, known at the church as Bishop Williams, asked her to come to the church April 26 to discuss some programs.
In a recreational vehicle parked behind the church, a report said, Williams lured the woman to the back, pushed her onto the bed and raped her. She broke away once, then was pushed down again until she was eventually able to escape, according to a police affidavit filed for the arrest warrant.
Williams faced charges for another sexual-assault allegation in 2000, but that case was dropped, Eatonville police Capt. Gene Arrington said. Police were still researching why that case was dropped.
• More Allegations Of Rape Against 71-Year-Old Pastor. [2005 Williams] - World Wide Revival Center. 5 women.
WFTV, www.wftv.com/ news/4491894/ detail.html , UPDATED: 5:47 pm EDT May 16, 2005
EATONVILLE, Fla. -- Eyewitness News has discovered several more victims have come forward claiming a prominent Central Florida pastor raped them.
The list of potential victims continues to grow. Five people, so far, have accused bishop Lura Williams of sex crimes, including one woman who says he raped her over and over when she was only 11 years old.
In the tiny town of Eatonville, this stunning case has grown even more disturbing. A man of the cloth is accused of unspeakable acts and at least one alleged victim wasn't even in her teens.
The woman, now 41, told investigators Williams would take her into wooded areas in Sanford and have his way. She has only come forward now after watching the story on Channel 9.
Williams is in jail with no bond, accused of raping a congregant just last month. Monday, police impounded the RV where the woman says the 71-year-old pastor attacked her on April 26. She said Williams invited her over to talk church business, but instead forced her to have sex.
• Progress on sex abuse compo. [1950s-60s Lake] - Presbyterian Justice of the Peace. Children.
Stuff, www.stuff.co.nz/ stuff/0,2106,329 6257a11,00.html , By ANNA CHALMERS, 30 May 2005
NEW ZEALAND - Berhampore Children's Home sex abuse complainants are hopeful of a resolution after meeting Presbyterian Support.
The agency has changed tack in its handling of the former residents' allegations of sexual and physical abuse by justice of the peace Walter Lake, who headed the Wellington orphanage.
At least 14 former residents went to police last year with claims they were sexually abused during the 1950s and 60s by Lake, who was made an OBE for social services in 1986. He died last November, aged 84, just before police were to charge him with sex offences.
Allegations of abuse involving Lake have continued to surface, with three siblings telling The Dominion Post last week that they had suffered sexual and physical abuse for years while at the home.
Complainants and Presbyterian Support representatives met on Friday, after the agency agreed to discuss compensation. They issued a joint statement yesterday saying they were pleased with progress, but would make no further comment "in the interests of sustaining a constructive climate for discussions".
• Abuse crisis to follow Levada to Rome post. [Levada] - RCC.
San Francisco Chronicle, http://sfgate.com/ cgi-bin/article. cgi?file=/c/a/ 2005/05/30/LEVADA.TMP , by Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, Monday, May 30, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) - Archbishop William Levada's move to Rome this summer will offer the former San Francisco prelate little respite from the clergy sex abuse crisis in the American Catholic Church.
Levada's new job as Pope Benedict XVI's chief doctrinal watchdog includes leading the Vatican's investigation of hundreds of ordained clergymen suspended from public ministry amid allegations they had sexually abused children.
Anne Burke, the former head of the U.S. bishops' National Review Board set up to study the abuse crisis, said Levada's new office is overwhelmed with a backlog of some 700 cases.
"Rome has not been set up for these kind of (church) trials," said Burke, a state appeals court judge in Illinois.
Burke said U.S. bishops are largely responsible for the backlog because they have not provided adequate information to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which decides whether to permanently suspend, defrock or otherwise discipline accused clerics. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:23 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon May 30, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue May 31, 2005 edition follows:-
• Rhode Island Catholics welcome new bishop. - RCC.
NEPA News, www.zwire.com/ site/news.cfm? newsid=14618246& BRD=2212&PAG= 461&dept_id= 465812&rfi=6 , By RICHARD C. LEWIS, Associated Press Writer, May 31, 2005
PROVIDENCE (RI) AP - Thomas Tobin was installed on Tuesday as bishop of Providence, becoming the spiritual leader of the nation's most Catholic state. In his first address, Tobin urged Catholics to be disciples in the tradition of Jesus, and dwelt on the church's fundamental principles, including preserving human life at all stages and a commitment to heterosexual marriage. ...
Considered a theological conservative, the 57-year-old Pittsburgh native was praised during his years in Ohio for his handling of the clergy sex abuse crisis and his dedication to the church.
Outside the church before the service began, a handful of people silently held signs with the pictures of young men who they say were abused by Catholic priests. Patricia Shanley, a practicing Catholic from Providence, said she wanted the new bishop to forthrightly deal with the clergy abuse scandal and be committed to reform agreed upon by Catholic leaders.
"We are the church," the 62-year-old Shanley said. "It's not just the hierarchy." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:52 PM]
• Pope wants exemption from U.S. law. [2001 Ratzinger / Benedict XVI] - Roman Catholic Church. Cover-up conspiracy alleged.
Vermont Guardian, May 31, 2005
HOUSTON (TX) - The Vatican has asked the U.S. State Department to declare Pope Benedict XVI immune from a sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Houston, according to court documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle. On May 20, a church official contacted the State Department, requesting that it notify a Houston federal court of the pope's immunity as the head of a foreign state.
The lawsuit, filed by three anonymous plaintiffs, accuses the pope, then acting as a cardinal, of conspiring to cover up the alleged abuse. The suit names a former seminary student as the alleged abuser.
In a confidential letter sent to every Catholic bishop in May 2001 (Vermont Guardian, April 29), then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger issued an order ensuring the church's investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret. Lawyers for abuse victims claim it was designed to prevent allegations from becoming public knowledge or being investigated by the police.
• Clergy Classes. - All religions.
WCAX, www.wcax.com/ Global/story. asp?S=3413811& nav=4QcSaUxZ , May 31, 2005
WATERBURY, Vermont - The sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church led to new rules for priests and all other clergy across Vermont. Any person who performs official duties for a church or religious body, must report cases of abuse to the state. Now the Vermont Department for Children and Families is training clergy on how it all works.
Classes were held inside the Vermont State Colleges building in Waterbury. The students -- clergy members.
"We want to help the families in our congregation and children," said one Minister.
The group learned about a law affecting each of them regardless of faith. Under Vermont's Child Abuse Reporting Law, all clergy became mandatory reporters.
• Trial set for next week in clergy abuse case. [1990s Wempe] - RCC.
Monterey Herald, Associated Press, ~ May 31, 2005
LOS ANGELES (CA) - A retired Roman Catholic priest will stand trial next week for allegedly molesting a boy in the 1990s.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin June 9 in the case against Michael Wempe, who faces three counts of committing a lewd act on a child and one count of oral copulation of a person under 16.
The current case stems from charges filed in September, months after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling voided 42 other sexual abuse allegations against Wempe. The alleged victim, now in his mid-20s, is the brother of two previous alleged victims. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:16 PM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue May 31, 2005
Abuse Chronology: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker SIGN-UP: www.ncrnews.org/abuse/signup.php for daily e-mails
or click Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse for current on-line
The Boston Globe book: http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse USA
Weblog at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Books list: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/carnalbooks.htm
Overview at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/minilist.htm
Books Melbourne: http://www.j23.com.au Australia
Books Perth: pbpress@iinet.net.au Australia
US Archive: www.BishopAccountability.org
|
INTENTION: A challenge to RELIGIONS to PROTECT CHILDREN. Click for more explanation. |
USA memory jogger: AK = Alaska; CO = Colorado; IA = Iowa; ME = Maine; MN = Minnesota; MO = Missouri; MT = Montana; NE = Nebraska.
Some clickable links are for network access only, so might not work for you.
** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is available here without profit to people who want to read it for research and educational purposes. If you quote from this, please check (if possible) and acknowledge the ORIGINAL source. **
|
To SEARCH only ONE WEBPAGE AT A TIME, you may use the built-in features of your own Browser. With most systems press
[Ctrl] + F. This will cause a Find or Find/Replace dialogue box, or a Search/Replace box, to appear. (With some old programmes, start by pressing [Ctrl] + [Shift] + F. However, if your system requires it, click Edit, then click Find.) Type in a keyword, and press [Enter], or click Find Next, or Find, or Search.
To SEARCH all of This Site, use the special panel provided. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
Composed with monitor screen of 800 x 600 pixels, High Colour (16 bit)
Doc. 238 + URL = http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont112.htm