Clergy Child Molesters (123) — References/Archive/Blog
• 2 brothers settle abuse case for over $1 million
[1970s Cornelius (Sulpician)] - Roman Catholic Church (RCC). $US 1m. 2 boys.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
http://seattlepi. nwsource.com /local/265207_ priest01.html ,
P-I Staff And News Services, ~ April 01, 2006
SEATTLE (WA) -- Two brothers who accused former Seattle priest John Cornelius of repeatedly molesting them as teenagers during the 1970s have settled their case against the Seattle Archdiocese for more than $1 million.
The brothers had planned to go to trial against the archdiocese in June. Similar charges they made against the diocese of Boise, Idaho, and the Order of the Sulpicians - both of which hosted Cornelius - remain unresolved and scheduled for court.
"What's interesting about the case is Cornelius went from Boise to the Sulpician seminary to the Seattle Archdiocese and, despite knowledge that he was a problem, nobody took steps to address it," said Michael Pfau, a lawyer who represented the brothers.
Cornelius has since been defrocked by the Vatican.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:22 AM]
(This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
for Saturday, April 01, 2006)
INTENTION: A challenge to RELIGIONS to PROTECT CHILDREN
Series starts:
www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Visit
http://www.ncrnews.org/abuse . These are digests of and links to mass media coverage of clergy abuse. Get fuller details by trying the link.
[2006 Benas -NEW*] - RCC. Woman.
Monterey Herald,
~ April 01, 2006
SAN JOSE (CA), (AP) -- A Northern California priest remained jailed Friday for allegedly raping a 29-year-old woman he counseled over the telephone and by mail, authorities said.
The woman, who is from Oregon, told police that the Rev. Randy Benas, 45, of Sacred Heart Parish in Saratoga, raped her at a Motel 6 early Tuesday, said Lt. Marty Dale of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety.
The woman told authorities that she and Benas started exchanging letters and speaking on the phone about two times a time after she wrote to several priests around the country seeking spiritual guidance and Benas was the only one to respond, Dale said.
She met the priest in person for the first time late Monday when he asked her to stop in the San Francisco Bay area while she was on her way south to San Diego, according to Dale. They met at the motel in Sunnyvale.
"The victim viewed it as a counseling or mentoring relationship," Dale said. "The father's insight had helped her through struggles that she was having."
[Blattel] - Baptist.
ABC 7,
April 1, 2006
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. -- The former deacon of Downers Grove church who is already facing trial for a sexual attack in Alabama is now also the focus of a criminal investigation in Kansas City, Missouri, one that reputedly involves serial sex crimes.
Kansas City police have confirmed that they are investigating the activities of 65-year-old Howard Blattel.
Blattel is a former Bolingbrook resident who served as a deacon at Marquette Manor Baptist Church and Academy in Downers Grove during the late 1990s and the early part of this decade.
- RCC. 22 dioceses not obeying national Church policy.
Grand Forks Herald,
Associated Press, ~ April 01, 2006
FARGO, N.D. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fargo has not fully complied with training requirements of a national church policy to prevent sexual abuse, a report says.
A November audit by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops found the Fargo diocese among 22 that are not in compliance with the policy. The Diocese of Crookston, Minn., and the Diocese of Bismarck were found to be in full compliance.
The Fargo diocese has a training program, but the training had not been completed at the time of the audit, said Rev. Gregory Schlesselmann, the vicar general of the diocese.
"It's on ongoing process," Schlesselmann said. "You have new people coming in. You have a turnover of volunteers from year to year."
Clergy, staff and other personnel are required to watch a training video.
[12 clergy] - RCC.
ABC 7,
April 1, 2006
(MUNDELEIN, Ill.) - Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller says more than a dozen Roman Catholic priests accused of sexual misconduct with minors no longer should live on a Mundelein seminary's property across from a high school.
Waller's complaint comes in the wake of a report criticizing the church for poor monitoring of the priests living at a University of St. Mary of the Lake retreat house.
The report was commissioned by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and archdiocesan spokesman Jim Dwyer says moving the priests out of the retreat house is not improbable.
[2006 Benas*] - RCC. Woman.
San Francisco Chronicle,
by Cicero A. Estrella, Saturday, April 1, 2006
SARATOGA (CA) -- A Saratoga priest has been arrested for the alleged rape of an Oregon woman he had been counseling over the phone for the last year, authorities said on Friday.
The Rev. Randy Benas, 45, of Sacred Heart Parish in Saratoga was arrested Thursday and is being held on $200,000 bail at the Santa Clara County Jail, Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Lt. Marty Dale said.
"The staff and the parishioners are very surprised," said Elizabeth Lily, a parish minister. "There was nothing to suspect anything like this. People are in a state of disbelief."
The 29-year-old Oregon woman alleged that Benas raped her early Tuesday morning after she met him at the Motel 6 on Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale. She was driving to visit friends in San Diego but had stopped in the Bay Area late Monday after Benas asked her to meet him for the first time, Dale said.
[10 clergy of Newark Archdiocese -NEW*] - RCC. Sexual misconduct.
The Jersey Journal,
By KEN THORBOURNE, Saturday, April 01, 2006
NEW JERSEY -- An independent audit has found 12 allegations of sexual misconduct against 10 priests in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark last year.
The audit, performed by the Gavin Group of Boston, was part of a national campaign by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to make sure allegations of sexual misconduct are immediately referred to prosecutors.
The Archdiocese - which covers Hudson, Bergen, Passaic and Union counties - was found to be "fully compliant" in its efforts to protect young people from sexual predators last year, church officials announced yesterday.
That means all allegations were referred to prosecutors and hundreds of priests and other diocesan employees underwent training on sexual abuse prevention, said James Goodness, a spokesman for the Archdiocese.
[1980s Edelin] - RCC. Teenage girl.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
Associated Press, ~ April 01, 2006
JOHN DAY, Ore. -- A priest accused of molesting a teenage girl in Texas more than 20 years ago will take over the parish in this Eastern Oregon town next week, church officials said.
The Rev. Richard Edelin was accused of abuse by a 17-year-old parishioner who was then working in youth ministry at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in west Houston.
Edelin has denied the allegation and church officials in Houston said their investigation could not substantiate the abuse claim.
Parishioners at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church in John Day will be advised of the situation this weekend, said Rev. James Logan, chancellor of the Baker Diocese, which covers 18 Eastern Oregon counties.
Edelin is listed on a church Web site as temporary administrator and director of religious education at St. Elizabeth. He had served previously in the Hermiston area.
- RCC.
[2006 Benas*] - Woman.
[1970s Mons. Larkin] - Altar boys.
Mercury News,
By Kim Vo and Hong Dao Nguyen, ~ April 01, 2006
SARATOGA (CA) -- Faith and forgiveness. That's what members of Sacred Heart Parish in Saratoga say they're leaning on after another sex allegation surfaced against a priest within their tight-knit community.
The Rev. Randy Benas is accused of raping an Oregon woman who was seeking spiritual counseling.
His arrest comes more than a year after a monsignor was placed on leave, then resigned as church pastor, amid accusations that he molested altar boys in the late 1970s when he was at another congregation.
"Does it feel like a punch in the stomach?" said Ron Lewis, a church member for three decades. "Yeah, we're human. But you're going to hear that, 'My heart goes out to him.' "
Parishioners say they banded together after allegations surfaced against Monsignor Alexander Larkin, and they expect to do so again with these new charges.
- RCC.
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
by Ted Wendling, Saturday, April 01, 2006
COLUMBUS (OH) -- Victims of sexual abuse by priests have filed two lawsuits accusing Speaker Jon Husted and seven other House Republicans of holding an illegal meeting before a House committee passed a hotly contested sex-offender bill this week.
In an ironic twist to a story that has made national headlines, one of the suits has been assigned to a Franklin County judge whom Husted and other GOP officials have sought to impeach for his sentencing of a child molester.
The suit was filed Thursday in Columbus by Dan Frondorf and Christy Miller, members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests. It was assigned by blind draw to Judge John Connor, a Democrat. A second suit was filed by SNAP member Claudia Vercellotti in Toledo.
Connor has been the target of withering criticism by Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, who has called for the judge's impeachment. O'Reilly continued his crusade Thursday evening by inviting Ohio Sen. Steve Austria onto his show and asking the suburban Dayton Republican for "a personal favor" - that Austria "watch [the] back" of a woman in Columbus who is working to remove Connor from the bench.
[Belleville Diocese] - RCC.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
By Amanda St. Amand, Apr/02/2006
BELLEVILLE (MO) -- Pardon the parents of eighth-graders across the Belleville Diocese for feeling anxious as they get ready for the confirmation of their sons and daughters. Few of them have met the man who will confirm their kids, but nearly all of them have read or heard something about him, and little of it has been good.
Bishop Edward Braxton got off to a bad start before he even got to Southern Illinois last year. He asked the diocese for renovations to the official bishop's residence. Not a good start in a far-flung diocese struggling, like others, with a shortage of priests, shrinking enrollment in schools and added expenses that stemmed from the priest sexual abuse scandal.
[1980s Edelin] - RCC. Teenage girl.
KGW,
By KRISTINA BRENNEMAN, kgw.com Staff , March 31, 2006
JOHN DAY, Ore. -- A Catholic priest will take over an Eastern Oregon parish April 3, two years after his career was in limbo over sexual abuse charges.
Father Richard Edelin has been assigned to serve at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church in John Day, Oregon, according to the church Web site.
However, a support group for clergy molestation victims, SNAP, is trying to block the appointment.
The Houston archdiocese paid a $5,000 settlement and sent a letter of apology in 1996 to a woman who alleged Edelin had groped and molested her as a teenager, according to a 2004 [? report] in the Houston Chronicle.
[1980s-2006 Joliet Diocese] - RCC. Stated nudity with boys not sexual abuse.
NBC 5,
~ April 01, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet will publish on its Web site the names of priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children, the bishop announced Friday.
The diocese will list the names of priests "against whom a credible allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor has been made," Bishop Joseph Imesch said in a letter to parishioners. "We have taken this step in the hope of further facilitating healing and closure for those who have been affected by the tragedy of sexual abuse of a minor."
Imesch also apologized in the letter for his handling of a sexual abuse case that allegedly took place in the diocese in the 1960s.
In a 2005 deposition related to the case that was unsealed in February, Imesch said he transferred to another parish a priest who skinny-dipped and played poker in the nude with young boys. The behavior was inappropriate, but was not sexual abuse, Imesch testified.
[Denver Archdiocese] - RCC. Opposed opening seduction to judgement.
Washington Post,
By T.R. Reid, Page A10, Saturday, April 1, 2006
DENVER (CO) -- When Colorado lawmakers proposed making it easier for victims of sexual abuse by priests to sue the Roman Catholic Church here, Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput fought back hard.
He charged that the effort to relax statutes of limitations reflected "a peculiar kind of anti-Catholicism" and said the goal of some lawmakers is the "dismantling and pillaging of the Catholic community."
Church representatives have testified to legislative panels here that children in public schools are just as open to sexual abuse as in a church setting and have even given state lawmakers the names of public school teachers who allegedly abused children.
Chaput said in an interview with a church newspaper that diocesan officials went to a Denver newspaper with concerns about abuse by public school teachers and others in an effort to get a story published.
[1960s Bishop Skylstad] - RCC. Girl.
BBSNews,
FFRF via BBSNews, Mar-31-2006
UNITED STATES -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has been monitoring "black collar crimes" since the late 1980s, is calling on Bishop William Skylstad to step down as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and as bishop of Spokane, Wash.
President George W. Bush talks with Bishop William Skylstad, newly elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in the Oval Office Monday, March 14, 2005. In November 2004, Bishop Skylstad was elected to a three-year term as head of the USCCB, which serves to promote, coordinate and encourage Catholic activities in the United States.
The call was prompted after remarks by Bishop Skylstad, prefacing the disclosure late this week of the church's 2005 "self-audit" on sexual abuse cases. Skylstad said he had both "a sense of progress" and a "great sense of the continuing impact of the sexual abuse crisis," because his own diocese is in bankruptcy over sex crimes, and he himself has been accused of molesting a teenage girl in the 1960s. Skylstad denies the allegation.
"If these circumstances provide you with a 'sense of progress,' " asks Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation co-president in a letter to the bishop, "what would give you a sense of failure?"
Gaylor said the U.S. Conference of Bishops "lacks all credibility when its head is accused of being a child molester himself."
[Seattle Archdiocese] - RCC. $US 26m in 19yrs.
Spokesman-Review,
Associated Press, April 1, 2006
SEATTLE (WA) -- The Seattle Archdiocese has dug into its reserve funds to cover the cost of settling sex abuse claims, church officials said.
Payments to victims plus counseling and attorneys' fees now total $26 million over the past 19 years, a church audit showed. The archdiocese has paid the settlements and other expenses through a combination of insurance and reserve funds from the sale of property more than 20 years ago.
The information was released Thursday as part of a national update on clergy abuse.
The reserve fund was tapped because cumulative costs exceeded the archdiocese's self-insurance program, spokesman Greg Magnoni said.
[1980s Edelin] - RCC. Teenage girl.
The Oregonian,
By ASHBEL S. GREEN, Saturday, April 01, 2006
OREGON -- Eastern Oregon Roman Catholic officials came under fire Friday after advocates for child sex-abuse victims discovered a 25-year-old accusation against a priest who used to work in Texas.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement protesting the assignment of the Rev. Richard Edelin to St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in John Day.
The statement disclosed that Edelin was accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl in Houston in the early 1980s. It also said that the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston paid $5,000 to the accuser in 1996 and issued an apology.
[1980s-2006 Joliet Diocese] - RCC. Stated nudity with boys not sexual abuse.
Belleville News-Democrat,
Associated Press, ~ April 1, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet will publish on its Web site the names of priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children, the bishop announced Friday.
The diocese will list the names of priests "against whom a credible allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor has been made," Bishop Joseph Imesch said in a letter to parishioners. "We have taken this step in the hope of further facilitating healing and closure for those who have been affected by the tragedy of sexual abuse of a minor."
Imesch also apologized in the letter for his handling of a sexual abuse case that allegedly took place in the diocese in the 1960s.
In a 2005 deposition related to the case that was unsealed in February, Imesch said he transferred to another parish a priest who skinny-dipped and played poker in the nude with young boys. The behavior was inappropriate, but was not sexual abuse, Imesch testified.
"I know that some of my words in that deposition have caused pain to many in the Diocese and have hurt our Church," Imesch wrote. "For all the hurt I have caused by my words and decisions, by what I have done or ought to have done, I am truly sorry."
- RCC.
[1960s Stefanich] - Boy, girl.
[1980s-2006 Joliet Diocese] - Stated nudity with boys not sexual abuse.
Chicago Sun-Times,
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI, Religion Reporter, April 1, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- In a letter sent to every parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet this week, Bishop Joseph Imesch asked forgiveness from those who have been hurt by his decisions and comments about clergy sexual abuse of minors.
Imesch's letter, released Friday, made reference to a deposition he gave last summer in a lawsuit filed against the Joliet Diocese by a man who says he was molested by a priest of the diocese, Edward Stefanich, in the 1960s.
Stefanich pleaded guilty in 1987 to criminal sexual abuse for molesting a 14-year-old girl and was sentenced to six months in jail. He has since left the priesthood.
In the deposition given in August 2005 but unsealed by a judge in February, Imesch appeared unapologetic for not having removed from ministry priests about whom he knew there were allegations of sexual abuse with minors, including one priest who went skinny-dipping with boys and played poker with them in the nude. The bishop sent that priest for counseling and then reassigned him to another parish, where he was again accused of abusing youngsters.
[1980s-2006 Joliet Diocese] - RCC. Stated nudity with boys not sexual abuse.
Chicago Tribune,
By Manya A. Brachear, Published April 1, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet promised on Friday that in the next two weeks it would post on its Web site the names of priests facing credible allegations of sexual misconduct with minors, echoing a similar move by the Chicago archdiocese.
"We have taken this step in the hope of further facilitating healing and closure for those who have been affected by the tragedy of sexual abuse of a minor," Bishop Joseph Imesch said in a statement released Friday.
But victims' advocates, who have sought a list of names for years, said the church is acting because it wants to quell protests and soften the blow of lawsuits demanding names of the accused and records of the allegations against them.
"The lists have almost always been very limited, and bishops have split hairs to minimize the numbers," said Barbara Dorris, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "Any step toward openness, however partial or belated or begrudging, is welcome. We hope this will prompt other victims of pedophile priests to come forward and get help."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:10 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Sat April 01, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Abuser's sentence devastates victim.
[1980s Brown] - No religion link mentioned. 3 girls.
The West Australian,
by RYAN PEDLER, p 58, Saturday, April 01, 2006
PERTH (Western Australia): A Perth woman who was sexually abused by her primary school teacher in the 1980s says she is devastated at the jail sentence the man has received.
Amanda, not her real name, and two other girls were aged nine or 10 when Ian Stanley Brown abused them at Helena School in Darlington almost 20 years ago.
Brown, who is now 67, was jailed for five years and four months in the District Court yesterday on a total of 17 counts of indecent assault and aggravated sexual penetration of the girls.
He will be eligible for parole after three years and four months.
Amanda said the jail term was not nearly long enough.
"I'm absolutely devastated that he got so little for so many charges," she said.
The 27-year-old said the sexual abuse she suffered had affected her terribly.
"I've had an eating disorder, suicide attempt and numerous hospitalisations," she said. "It's affected me and my family very, very badly."
Brown, who was jailed for two years on separate charges last year, committed several sexual assaults on Amanda and the two other girls during school camps, entering their sleeping bags during the night.
He also sexually assaulted Amanda during a school music excursion and one of the other girls at his home and in his classroom.
Judge Philip Eaton said that the girls did not tell anyone what Brown did to them because they felt ashamed, scared and confused and did not think anyone would believe them.
Brown had told Amanda that if she put up with what he was doing he would not interfere with her sister.
Judge Eaton also said that the school principal counselled Brown the year before he abused Amanda following an allegation the teacher shared a sleeping bag with a girl on a school camp.
But the principal had allowed Brown to remain teaching at the school.
Judge Eaton told Brown this "would have confirmed in the minds of the female children in your classes that to complain was likely to be pointless".
"It also seemed to confirm in your mind that you could continue with that conduct and avoid detection," he said.
The offences were not brought to the attention of the police until 2000.
Judge Eaton said he took Brown's age and ill health into account in sentencing him.
Amanda urged any other girls who had been abused by Brown to come forward.
"I think there are definitely more," she said. #
[Apr 1, 06]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Sun April 02, 2006 edition:
• A bishop's failure: Audit shows McCormack is unfit
[2002-05 Manchester Diocese] - RCC. Delayed reporting offender, breaking legal promise.
The Union Leader,
www.unionleader. com/article.aspx? headline=A+bishop% E2%80%99s+failure% 3A+Audit+shows+ McCormack+is+ unfit&articleId=af0b 50f2-0c08-4bfe- 830b-9a8ff6ea1bf4 ; ~ April 02, 2006
NEW HAMPSHIRE -- WHEN SUPPOSED men of God have to be compelled by the state to protect children, something is terribly wrong.
That is the situation with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester. Last week the state Attorney General's Office released an audit of the diocese's compliance with the 2002 settlement agreement in the priest sex abuse scandal. That agreement required the diocese to take numerous steps to protect the children under its supervision. The audit found that although the diocese has made a great deal of progress, it has failed to comply fully with the settlement's terms.
That is no surprise. The diocese never was as interested in protecting children, as in appearing to protect them. It adopted new procedures because not doing so would have resulted in criminal prosecution. But those procedures were drafted merely to follow the letter of the law. The spirit of the law - the deep-seated desire to shield the innocent from the depraved and the wicked - never found a home in the heart of the diocesan leadership.
One of the many failures cited in the attorney general's report involved a priest who "did not complete the Safe Environment Screening Program requirements and was later accused of prohibited conduct, as defined by the Church's Code of Ministerial Conduct."
In a familiar story, the priest resigned "to seek medical treatment" and was later reinstated by the diocese. He was later found to have accessed pornography, possibly including images depicting children, on a church computer. The audit indicates that the diocese waited months before notifying the attorney general of this conduct, as it was required to do.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:58 AM]
[DOCTRINE: For the Lord's sake subject yourselves to every human creation: whether to a king as being the supreme authority, or to governors as being sent by him to inflict punishment on evildoers but to praise doers of good. (1 Peter 2:13-14)
Magistrates bring fear not to those who do good, but to those who do evil. So if you want to live with no fear of authority, live honestly and you will have its approval; it is there to serve God for you and for your good. But if you do wrong, then you may well be afraid, because it is not for nothing that the symbol of authority is the sword; it is there to serve God, too, as his avenger, to bring retribution to wrongdoers. (Romans 13:3-4)
DOCTRINE ENDS.]
[2006 Benas*] - RCC. Woman.
Mercury News,
By Patrick May, ~ April 02, 2006
SARATOGA (CA) -- The Rev. Rolando "Randy" Benas, the priest from Saratoga's Sacred Heart Parish arrested last week on rape charges, has bailed out of Santa Clara County Jail, officials said Saturday.
Benas, 45, had been held on $200,000 bail after his arrest for the alleged assault early Tuesday of an Oregon woman he had counseled over the phone the past year. Police said the rape occurred in a Sunnyvale motel room where the woman had stopped during a trip to San Diego. Benas, who faces up to eight years in prison, is expected to be arraigned this week.
- RCC. Party reversed its policy.
The Columbus Dispatch,
By Jim Siegel, Sunday, April 02, 2006
OHIO -- In March 2005, every Republican state senator in attendance voted to give victims a one-year window to sue for child sex abuse that occurred up to 35 years ago.
This past week, all but one Republican House member voted against the measure, targeted mainly at abusive Catholic priests.
There doesn't appear to be any single reason why members of the same party, meeting in chambers less than 50 yards apart, came to such starkly different conclusions about the controversial provision.
But when a last-minute attempt at a deal fell apart, House Republicans stripped the so-called "look-back" provision from the bill and got the Senate to reluctantly go along with it.
[2006 RC bishops, politicians] - Backroom deals weakened bill.
Toledo Blade,
~ April 02, 2006
OHIO -- There's plenty of shame to go around in the halls of state government after the watering down of legislation that would have given men and women sexually abused by predatory priests a last chance for justice.
First, shame on Ohio's Roman Catholic bishops, who won their fight to gut the bill. And shame on the dealmakers in the General Assembly, who helped the bishops prevail by meekly genuflecting before the altar of political expediency.
What's left is a significantly weakened measure creating a civil registry of alleged abusers that is of dubious constitutionality. How can people be blacklisted who've never been convicted of anything? It is a testament to the inability of weak-kneed lawmakers to stand up to the church and give victims of clergy abuse a meaningful legal opportunity to press their claims.
Particularly troublesome are the back-room deals that scuttled the bill's toughest provision, a year-long "look back" window allowing civil lawsuits alleging abuse up to 35 years ago. House Speaker Jon Husted reportedly vowed to kill the entire bill if the look-back provision were not removed. He denied it, but the allegation came from a fellow Republican, Sen. Jeff Jacobson.
- Brown switches after visit to Cardinal.
The Washington Times,
By Jon Ward, March 31, 2006
MARYLAND -- Sex abuse victims in Maryland thought they had Delegate Anthony Brown on their side in a push for a law allowing retroactive civil suits against the Catholic Church.
That was until Mr. Brown was summoned to see Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick.
After his meeting with the archbishop of Washington, Mr. Brown, a Prince George's County Democrat and running mate to gubernatorial candidate Martin O'Malley, changed his position to oppose the legislation.
Mr. Brown, a practicing Catholic, said the visit was "a social call."
But abuse victims say Mr. Brown "grilled" Catholic Church officials and attorneys at a March 9 hearing.
"He was asking very pointed questions about what they were doing, and he did not seem satisfied that they were helping the victims," said David Lorenz, 47, of Bowie, who said he was abused when he was 11 in Kentucky.
"It seemed like he was all into protecting us," said James Bucci Jr., 44, of California, Md., who said he was abused by two priests, and eventually raped by one of them, from 1969 to 1977.
Mr. Brown met with Cardinal McCarrick days after the hearing.
The bill would have extended the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits so anyone who claims they were abused could sue until they were 43 years old.
Last weekend, the House Judiciary Committee, on which Mr. Brown sits, amended the bill to exclude anyone who is currently over 25 years old. The bill has advanced to a Senate committee for consideration.
• Abuse reports stir action
- RCC.
[? < 2000-05 McCormack*] - Scores of boys.
[Bennett]
[? < 2000-06 Chicago Archdiocese]
The Catholic New World,
http://catholic newworld.com/ cnw/issue/1 _040206.html ,
By Michelle Martin, ~ April 02, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- One more expert has been named to the ad hoc board advising archdiocesan officials on its handling of clerical sex abuse cases.
Joseph J. Iacono, a downstate financial analyst, joins the group which includes judges, police, child abuse experts and civic leaders. The outside advisory group was among the reforms announced March 20 following release by archdiocesan officials of two reports highly critical of its handling of clerical sex abuse.
A complete list of the advisory committee members appears on Page 36. A list of priests accused of sexual abuse appears on Page 11.
The unfavorable reports, which had been commissioned by Chancellor Jimmy Lago, looked into the handling of the cases of Father Daniel McCormack and Father Joseph Bennett, and examined the monitoring of priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse.
- RCC.
[? 1970s Paquette] - Children.
[Vermont Diocese] - 17 trials due.
Times Argus,
By KEVIN O'CONNOR, April 2, 2006
VERMONT -- Leaders of Vermont's Catholic Church face a daunting question: Do they settle 17 new priest misconduct lawsuits for up to $1 million, or do they try to fight the charges in a string of headline-grabbing trials set to start the day after Easter?
Burlington attorney Jerome O'Neill has filed civil lawsuits in Chittenden Superior Court on behalf of 17 clients, charging five former Vermont priests with child sexual abuse.
O'Neill, chairman of the Burlington Police Commission and a former federal prosecutor, has a track record of winning cases against the church. The lawyer compelled the diocese to settle one similar case in 2004 for a $150,000 cash payment -- the largest such agreement in state history -- and another the same year for $120,000.
The church, having seen the nearby Boston Archdiocese pay more than $85 million to settle its own sex-abuse lawsuits, hoped it had seen the last of O'Neill. But the latest round of Vermont cases promises to dwarf the publicity and payoffs sparked by the four previous lawsuits he has settled with the diocese in the past decade.
Twelve of the 17 current lawsuits involve child sexual abuse charges against Edward Paquette, a former priest who worked in Burlington, Montpelier and Rutland from 1972 to 1978.
[1980s-2006 Joliet Diocese] - RCC. Stated nudity with boys not sexual abuse.
The Beacon News,
By Ted Slowik, ~ April 02, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet says it will release the names of some priests accused of sexually abusing minors.
The diocese will post on its Web site the names of "diocesan priests against whom a credible allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor has been made," Joliet Bishop Joseph Imesch wrote in a letter to be distributed in parish bulletins this weekend.
A class-action lawsuit filed against the diocese last month seeks to force the diocese to disclose the names of priests accused of sexually abusing minors. The bishop's letter indicates the diocese's list will not include the names of religious order priests who served in the diocese, or diocesan priests who were the subjects of claims that were deemed unfounded.
The letter does not indicate when the names will be posted on the Web site,
www.dioceseofjoliet.org .
- RCC. Schoolroom violence opened his eyes.
Newsday,
BY GLENN THRUSH, Newsday Washington Bureau, April 2, 2006
WASHINGTON (DC) -- Fifty years ago, 11-year-old Peter King sat in a classroom at St. Teresa's Grammar School in Woodside watching a little girl, who was deeply depressed about the death of a close relative, struggle with a mountainous multiplication table on the blackboard.
"I realized she had made some kind of mistake," says the House Homeland Security chairman, speaking from behind his gleaming oak desk on Capitol Hill last week. "I saw the nun standing behind her grab her by the hair and smash her face into the blackboard. Her nose was bleeding and the nun started talking about the family's tragedy, belittling her, telling the kid, 'Is that the best you can do? Is that the best you can do?'"
King, who co-sponsored the hard-edged border protection bill that passed the House in December, uses such stories to express his long-simmering anger at the church - and to explain why he's so disgusted with Catholic clerics who have condemned his immigration plan as inhumane.
A 'silent majority' no more
The Seaford Republican raised eyebrows last week by calling the nation's Catholic establishment "liars" and "hypocrites," urging it to stop playing politics and "spend more time protecting little boys from pedophile priests."
[? < 2000-05 McCormack*] - RCC. 3 boys, scores suspected.
Chicago Tribune,
By Margaret Ramirez and Russell Working, April 2, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Called to the priesthood as an Irish-Catholic boy, Rev. Daniel McCormack followed a path that led him into the heart of the African-American community. He learned to preach as few Roman Catholic priests could, firing up the faithful in the rolling cadences of a black Baptist clergyman.
He called on his flock to love God as passionately as a South Sider loves the White Sox. But away from the pulpit, he was an introvert, often perceived as painfully shy, even uncomfortable, in conversation.
To many, he was a devoted white priest who ministered to suffering neighborhoods and was moved by the passion of African-American culture. As pastor of St. Agatha in Chicago for six years, he was forceful in his denunciations of violence and prayerful in his late-night visits to the emergency room to comfort victims of gunfire.
Yet he now stands accused of betraying the trust he had earned, by sexually abusing three boys at his parish.
[1980s-2006 Joliet Diocese] - RCC. Stated nudity with boys not sexual abuse.
Chicago Tribune,
Published April 2, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet promised on Friday that in the next two weeks it would post on its Web site the names of priests facing credible allegations of sexual misconduct with minors, echoing a similar move by the Chicago archdiocese.
"We have taken this step in the hope of further facilitating healing and closure for those who have been affected by the tragedy of sexual abuse of a minor," Bishop Joseph Imesch said in a statement released Friday.
But victims' advocates, who have sought a list of names for years, said the church is acting because it wants to quell protests and soften the blow of lawsuits demanding names of the accused and records of the allegations against them.
"The lists have almost always been very limited, and bishops have split hairs to minimize the numbers," said Barbara Dorris, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "Any step toward openness, however partial or belated or begrudging, is welcome. We hope this will prompt other victims of pedophile priests to come forward and get help."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:15 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sun April 02, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Mon April 03, 2006 edition:
• Bishops Sex Abuse Board Recommends "Fraternal Correction" Against Nebraska Bishop
[2002-06 Lincoln Diocese] - RCC. Non-compliant.
LifeSite,
www.lifesite. net/ldn/2006/ apr/06040302. html , by Hilary White, April 3, 2006
LINCOLN (NE) -- Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection (OCYP), recommended March 30 that the US bishops use "strong fraternal correction" to one of their members who has refused to comply with an annual audit of compliance with national guidelines on sex-abuse programs.
The Bishop for whom the OCYP has recommended the correction is Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, a diocese that is one of the most faithful and has among the lowest rates of child abuse by clerics in the US.
The annual "audit" by the OCYP measures how well dioceses have implemented programs recommended at the 2002 Dallas meeting of the USCCB on the homosexual abuse scandals. This year, however, was the first in which it was suggested the bishops attempt to examine whether the programs of the "Dallas Charter" actually succeed in protecting children. Many parents and other Catholics say they do not and that they are little more than massive PR effort to rehabilitate the bishops' public image. Many have said the programs do little more than shift responsibility onto the children who are "trained" to protect themselves.
Without holding back his outrage, Bruskewitz has come out swinging. In a statement issued March 31, he wrote, "The Diocese of Lincoln has nothing to be corrected for, since the Diocese of Lincoln is and has always been in full compliance with all laws of the Catholic Church and with all civil laws."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:13 PM]
[~ 1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. Minor.
AZFamily.com ,
The Associated Press, April 03, 2006
MESA (AZ) -- Police are looking for a former Arizona priest accused of sexually abusing a minor.
Phoenix and Yuma police have been investigating the Rev. Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez for about a year.
Hernandez's home diocese is in Quito, Ecuador. He is accused of abusing a minor during his assignment to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma from 1988 to 1991. The church is part of the Tucson Catholic Diocese.
Police are not accusing Hernandez of any wrong doing during his work in the Phoenix Catholic Diocese from 1991 to 1993.
Officials did not say who made the allegation or what the specific allegation is.
[Emphasis added.]
[2002-05 Manchester Diocese] - RCC. Delayed reporting offender, breaking legal promise. Failure at the top.
Concord Monitor,
By ERIC MOSKOWITZ, March 31, 2006
NEW HAMPSHIRE -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester has failed to ensure that priests, employees and volunteers who work with children have passed criminal background checks or attended training aimed at preventing and identifying abuse, a state audit of the church revealed.
The audit, released yesterday, identified flaws in the Catholic Church's attempt to live up to the terms of the agreement it reached with the state in 2002, a deal that enabled the church to avoid criminal charges of child endangerment despite decades of protecting abusive priests in its handling of sexual-abuse allegations.
The church has taken some important steps to protect children in the three-plus years since the agreement, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said. But the deficiencies named in the audit -- which was delayed nearly a year-and-a-half by a protest from the diocese over the terms and cost -- must be addressed immediately. The church has 30 days to come up with a plan to fix the problems or risk facing legal action from the state, said Ayotte, who blamed Bishop John McCormack's administration.
"The fundamental problem appears to be a failure to take responsibility at the top of the diocese," said Ayotte, who submitted the inch-thick audit report to the church earlier this week with a letter listing the specific findings that need to be addressed.
[1970s ? Slegel] - Lutherans. Six boys.
Asbury Park Press,
BY KATHLEEN HOPKINS, TOMS RIVER BUREAU, ~ April 03, 2006
TOMS RIVER (NJ) -- A Dover Township attorney has filed a lawsuit seeking a total of $30 million in damages for six men who allege they were molested as children by a minister at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Brick throughout the 1970s.
The lawsuit alleges the minister, identified in court papers only by the initials R.L.S., used his position with the church on Salmon Street to gain the trust of boys as young as 5 and then molest them. It alleges another pastor of the church, identified in court papers by the initials J.M.E., turned a blind eye to the misconduct, allowing it to continue for years.
The lawsuit also alleges that the church itself has a policy of masking the identities of pedophiles while allowing them to continue working as ministers. Church officials denied that, but said it was too early to comment on the molestation allegations against the church's former pastor, whom they identified as Robert L. Slegel.
Civil suits involving molestation accusations against clergymen have burgeoned in recent years, sparked in part by the highly publicized criminal prosecution in 2002 of former Catholic priest John Geoghan in Massachusetts.
[1999 Sewar] - RCC. Boy.
Democrat & Chronicle,
by Michael Zeigler, April 3, 2006
ROCHESTER (NY) -- A judge today postponed the trial of a Roman Catholic priest who is charged with fondling a 14-year-old boy.
Jury selection had been scheduled to begin in the trial of the Rev. Dennis Sewar, 54, who is charged with a misdemeanor of third-degree sexual abuse for allegedly touching the boy's clothed genitals in 1999.
But Rochester City Court Judge John E. Elliott indefinitely postponed the trial to allow Sewar's lawyer time to look over a police report and a handwritten statement by the alleged victim that was turned over to the prosecution last week. The prosecution, in turn, gave a copy to the defense.
Sewar will return to court April 26 for possible legal arguments on whether the new material can be used in his trial. Elliott may set a new trial date then.
[1999 Sewar] - RCC. Boy.
Democrat and Chronicle,
by Michael Zeigler, April 4, 2006
ROCHESTER (NY) -- A judge postponed the trial Monday for a Roman Catholic priest charged with fondling a 14-year-old boy.
[And so on as above item of April 3.]
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:14 AM]
- Methodist. Paul Stambaugh acquitted.
The Free Press,
By Mickey Tibbits, ~ April 03, 2006
MINNESOTA -- A former Waseca pastor has been found not guilty of all 10 charges of sexual abuse of a minor.
A jury announced the verdict in the trial of Paul Stambaugh in the Waseca County courthouse late Friday afternoon after deliberating for about six hours.
The 10 felony charges, both first and second degree, were based on incidents described in the criminal complaint by the juvenile, who was then 13 years old, while Stambaugh was the pastor at Faith United Methodist Church, on the west side of Clear Lake, and also a resident of Waseca.
Stambaugh, 58, retired in July 2004 after serving as pastor of Faith United Methodist Church for four years. Currently a Kasson resident, Stambaugh had served in the ministry for more than 30 years.
"We are delighted with the decision," said Richard Tollefson, Stambaugh's attorney. "The jury reached the correct decision."
- RCC. Book interview.
Renew America,
by Matt C. Abbott, April 2, 2006
UNITED STATES -- Vincent J. Nauheimer, whose son was molested by a priest of the New York archdiocese, has published a book titled Epistles on Clergy Abuse, which can be purchased here. The following is the preface of Nauheimer's book.
Preface
Michael, tell me about Moral Relativism?
No!
Why?
Because, you will only figure out how to use what I say in your efforts to destroy my church!
Michael, I am not trying to destroy your church. The Catholic Church is doing an excellent job of destroying itself. I am only providing a running commentary.
And after a long thoughtful pause Michael said: "I guess you're right. What is it you want to know?"
This was an actual conversation that I had with an ex-seminarian friend who is still a very devout Catholic. He is also one of the brightest, most intellectual, and philosophically astute people I know. It is a fitting opening because it defines the spirit in which my letters and this book were written.
This work is a chronological history, through letters, of what has become known as the Infamous Clergy Abuse Scandal. Its purpose is to provide a running record of the destruction caused by an arrogant hierarchy who with unparalleled hypocrisy covered up their own evil with the excuse: "We are protecting the church."
[2002-05 Manchester Diocese] - RCC. Delayed reporting offender, not doing simple checks. Failure at the top.
Concord Monitor,
By DAVID J. BRAITERMAN, ~ April 03, 2006
NEW HAMPSHIRE -- On Thursday, I went to the two press conferences concerning the Diocese of Manchester audit report released by the attorney general. The diocese scheduled its press conference to begin just after Kelly Ayotte issued her evaluation.
The report by KPMG stated that the diocese's efforts to date were sorely lacking in commitment from the top to correct the conditions that led to widespread child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Ayotte observed that church efforts had not even included simple measures such as criminal records checks and sex offender registry checks. These are routinely used by other institutions that work with children.
Father Edward Arsenault, speaking on behalf of the diocese, made no apologies for not attending Ayotte's press conference. He did not need to, he said, because he had read the AG's letter that complimented the church on positive steps taken during the last couple of years.
What Arsenault failed to acknowledge meaningfully were the five pages after that introductory paragraph that took the church leadership to task for not implementing even the most basic steps to assure that abusive priests and staff are not free to prey on children.
Arsenault spent most of his time at the press conference challenging a few incidental facts in the KPMG auditors' report. He said these minor errors undermined the whole report, including the auditors' central critique of church practices. In challenging the report in this way, Arsenault undermined his other point: that the diocese still has more to do.
[2002-05 Manchester Diocese] - RCC. Delayed reporting offender, breaking legal promise. Failure at the top. False reply.
Concord Monitor,
Monitor editorial, April 02, 2006
NEW HAMPSHIRE -- The fate of the youngest members of the Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire is now in the hands of parishioners. The leadership of the Diocese of Manchester remains in denial about its history of child sex abuse by priests and its responsibility to ensure that more children won't be scarred for life.
In 2002, the state cut a deal with the diocese: It would not prosecute officials who covered up for the child molesters in church ranks if the diocese took major steps to prevent abuse in the future. Part of that agreement called for an audit of the church's compliance.
The first audit was delayed by the diocese's objections to paying for it and to the terms of it. The audit's results were made public last week. They show that the church failed to keep its end of the bargain in many ways.
The diocese has made progress, but its claims that it has fully complied with the agreement are false. Here are just some of the deficiencies Attorney General Kelly Ayotte cited before giving the church 30 days to correct them or face court action. [...]
[~ 1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. Minor.
KOLD,
~ April 03, 2006
MESA, Ariz. -- Police are looking for a former Arizona priest accused of sexually abusing a minor.
Phoenix and Yuma police have been investigating the Reverend Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez for about a year.
Hernandez's home diocese is in Quito, Ecuador. He is accused of abusing a minor during his assignment to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma from 1988 to 1991. The church is part of the Tucson Catholic Diocese.
Police are not accusing Hernandez of any wrong doing during his work in the Phoenix Catholic Diocese from 1991 to 1993.
[Bolding added.]
- RCC and Mormons.
Reuters,
~ April 03, 2006
BELMONT, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Stepping into a Mormon temple is like watching a cinematic take on heaven: everything glows in white -- from the rich upholstery to the ivory outfits of worshipers and polished marble floors.
It's also a step more people are taking in the heavily Roman Catholic U.S. Northeast, where Mormon numbers have jumped 37 percent in 10 years, nearly double the religion's national growth rate of 21 percent, church data show.
"The number of new members here is just utterly amazing," said Allan Barker, president of the Massachusetts temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the faith is formally known. ...
"Catholicism has stumbled," said Jan Shipps, president of the American Society of Church History, adding that Massachusetts's Mormon governor -- potential 2008 White House contender Mitt Romney -- also boosted the church's profile.
Tim Wilson, a 31-year-old former Catholic, said news that U.S. bishops moved priests known to have abused minors to new parishes instead of defrocking them sealed his decision to join the Mormon faith in December 2002.
"I didn't have any vested interest in belonging to an organization that would conduct such an awful situation among its priests," said Wilson, a research executive.
[COMMENT: The research executive ought to do some research on how many Mormons have been accused of child sex abuse.
COMMENT ENDS.]
[1999 Sewar] - RCC. Boy.
10 NBC,
Apr/3/06
NEW YORK -- Jury selection is scheduled to begin this morning for the sexual abuse trial involving a local catholic priest. Father Dennis Sewar is charged with sexual abuse involving a 14-year-old boy in 1999. Authorities say it happened when Sewar was at the Church of Annunciation in Rochester. This past February a judge threw out the "forcible touching charge" against Sewar.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:18 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Mon April 03, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Tue April 04, 2006 edition:
• Priest accused of rape on leave from church
[2006 Benas*] - RCC. Woman.
KGW,
www.kgw.com/ sharedcontent/ APStories/ stories/D8GP F3982.html , Associated Press, April/04/2006
CALIFORNIA -- A Sacred Heart Parish priest arrested on a charge of raping a 29-year-old Oregon woman in a motel room was placed on paid administrative leave, church officials said.
The Rev. Randy Benas, 45, lives at the church's Saratoga campus but is no longer assigned to a parish, Roberta Ward, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose, said Monday.
Benas was arrested Thursday on suspicion of rape after a police sting involving three phone calls between Benas and the woman, police said. The woman was not identified.
Police said Benas counseled the woman over the phone for a year after she sent letters to various priests seeking spiritual guidance. She claims she was raped at a Motel 6 in Sunnyvale after stopping to visit Benas on her way to San Diego.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:01 PM]
• CAS let kids down, Cornwall inquiry told
[1960s-80s CAS] - Government agency did not check for criminal records.
Ottawa Sun,
http://ottsun. canoe.ca/News/ OttawaAndRegion/ 2006/04/04/ 1519466.html ,
Tue, April 4, 2006
CORNWALL, Canada -- For decades, children who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of caregivers were not properly identified by the very agencies established to protect them, an inquiry heard Monday.
Despite the fact the Children's Aid Society was established in the 1960s, it was years before sexual abuse victims were treated differently than children suffering other forms of abuse, the inquiry into the response to historical allegations of child sexual abuse in this eastern Ontario city was told.
"In the 1960s, it was about protecting neglected children," said Bill Carriere, special assistant to the executive director of the local CAS. "There was no reference to children who were being abused."
Carriere said the agency was set up to protect children who were suffering neglect, a term which seemed to encompass any form of maltreatment reported to case workers.
• Ex-seminarian: accused priest would 'dedicate' virgins
[~ 1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 priests reported him. Minors.
Renew America,
www.renew america.us/ columns/ abbott/ 060404 , by Matt C. Abbott, April 04, 2006
ARIZONA -- Former seminarian and alleged abuse victim-survivor Philip Hower of Tucson, Ariz., whose 2004 RICO suit against the Church was settled in 2005, remembers some bizarre practices of Father Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez, who "is accused of abusing a minor during his assignment to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma from 1988 to 1991," according to an April 3, 2006 Associated Press story.
Recounts Hower:
"Father Richard E. Troutman, currently pastor of St. Odilia's Parish in Tucson, was then-pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma. Father Joe Baker, currently pastor of Holy Family Parish in Tucson, was the assistant with me. Joe and I knew [about Cordova's activities] and told Troutman, who just laughed. Troutman had 'hired' Jorge and Jorge's blood brother, Gus, into the parish.
"Jorge used to 'dedicate' virgins and would say the words of consecration: 'This is My Body, This is My Blood.' Jorge would take his right hand during the pronouncement of the words of Institution and point directly to himself, as if to suggest 'Jorge's body, Jorge's blood.'
"He had women and minor girls in his rectory room frequently and at all hours. When ill, he had a specific woman stay in his room to 'minister' to him. In addition to Troutman, Bishop Manuel Moreno was aware of the situation, as was the vicar for Yuma, Monsignor Richard O'Keeffe. Yet, despite Father Joe and me continuing to alert the three men in leadership positions, they did nothing."
Hower says he did not alert police because he wasn't aware of any specific allegation made against Cordova at that time. #
[1992, 2002 Muth] - Byzantine Catholic. Boy, man.
Belleville News-Democrat,
by MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press, April 04, 2006
KANSAS CITY (MO) -- A former church groundskeeper who claims he was sexually assaulted both as a child and as an adult has sued the Catholic priest he says was his abuser.
The lawsuit filed by the 25-year-old Kansas City man, identified only as John Doe GS, is against the Rev. Stephen Muth, who the plaintiff claims he was molested by as a 12-year-old boy, and again a decade later, when the priest was his boss. It was filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court and announced in a news conference Tuesday.
Muth is a Byzantine Catholic priest, part of one of numerous Eastern Rite churches that answer to Rome but maintain separate traditions. He is pastor of St. Luke Parish, a Byzantine Rite church in Sugar Creek that is part of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, which covers a dozen Midwestern states, and administrator of St. Cyril Parish, a Roman Catholic church in Sugar Creek that is part of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
Loretta Nemeth, a spokeswoman for the eparchy, said no allegation involving Muth had been reported to church officials there. Rebecca Summers, a diocesan spokeswoman, said a complaint against Muth had been investigated in the past and was not substantiated, though she said she had not received the lawsuit and was unsure if the allegations were the same as the prior ones.
[~ 1980s-90s Shifflett] - Baptist. 8 warrants now. Money. Children.
Culpeper Star Exponent,
by Liz Mitchell, Tuesday, April 4, 2006
CULPEPER (VA) -- Charles Shifflett, the pastor at Culpeper Baptist Church who faces several charges of child abuse and neglect, is now being investigated for embezzlement.
"The Sheriff's Office is investigating embezzlement allegations ... and they are taking it in a measured and thorough manner, which is appropriate here," Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Close said. "My office is being kept abreast of their investigation, and we have met with potential victims and discussed their concerns. We will make a prosecutorial decision some time in the future."
Shifflett, 54, faces eight charges of cruelty and injury to children, child endangerment, and indecent liberties with a child and felonious assault of a 10-year-old girl. The alleged physical and sexual abuse occurred nearly 20 years ago at Calvary Baptist Church and its private K-12 school, where Shifflett was pastor at the time.
[? < 2000-06 Cardinal George] - RCC. Permitted accused to keep ministering.
The Courier-Journal
By Peter Smith, psmith@courier-journal.com , April 04, 2006
LOUISVILLE (KY) -- A Louisville group of reform-minded Catholics is calling for the resignation of Chicago Cardinal Francis George for allowing a priest to stay in ministry last year after a sexual-abuse allegation.
The Louisville affiliate of Voice of the Faithful -- a national group of lay Catholics seeking structural change in the church in the wake of the abuse crisis -- issued the statement Tuesday.
It noted that bishops adopted a zero-tolerance policy over sexual abuse in 2002, requiring that accused priests be removed temporarily pending investigations and that confirmed abusers be removed permanently.
Shannon Whelan, a member of the local group, said it seeks to work with bishops. But she said members at the Louisville affiliate's meeting last week were unanimous that George should resign.
[2002-05 Manchester Diocese] - RCC. Delayed reporting offender, breaking legal promise. Failure at the top.
Catholic Online,
Catholic News Service ( www.catholicnews.com ), April/4/2006
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire -- After receiving a critical state-sponsored audit of the Manchester Diocese's policies and programs to protect children from sexual abuse, a diocesan spokesman disagreed with parts of the report but acknowledged that "we have further work to do."
The audit - the first conducted for the state following a 2002 agreement between the diocese and the New Hampshire attorney general - found deficiencies in the diocese's background screening of personnel and volunteers who work with children and in its child protection training program.
The state audit appeared March 30, the same day that the U.S. bishops issued a national report on the audits of U.S. dioceses to assess their compliance with the bishops' "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."
In the national report the Manchester Diocese was faulted for not having completed the sexual abuse awareness training of children and young people in Catholic schools and religious education programs. The diocese said that at the time of the charter audit the majority of children in its religious education programs and Catholic schools had not yet undergone training.
[1970s, ? 2006 Coonan] - RCC. Sex, violence, intimidation alleged. Women.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass., USA),
By Rushmie Kalke, April 04, 2006
DUDLEY (MA) -- After Rev. Joseph A. Coonan appeared at Dudley District Court for a pretrial conference today, his sister told reporters that she and her mother are looking to drop the domestic assault and battery charges against him "because a whole lot was made out of nothing."
Standing outside the courthouse with the help of crutches after reconstructive leg surgery, Patricia Loiselle said that reading about the incident in newspapers was like reading about someone else's life.
The case against Rev. Coonan, 58, involving charges of domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a person over 65 years of age and one count of intimidating a witness, was continued to May 16 for a status hearing. Rev. Coonan declined to comment today.
Rev. Coonan, the pastor of St. John's Church in Worcester placed on administrative leave in 2002, was arrested on Feb. 28 after his mother, Mabel G. Coonan, 77, told police that her son "had engaged in an argument with her and her daughter."
She said that Rev. Coonan tried to choke her, according to police reports. According to Ms. Loiselle's statement, Rev. Coonan pulled his sister's hair and grabbed the phone from her hand when she threatened to call the police.
In Rev. Coonan's statement to police he said only a verbal argument had occurred.
Today, Ms. Loiselle attributed her brother's mood swings to drops in blood sugar as a result of diabetes.
She said that her mother has made a previous call to 911 over a situation with a neighbor that didn't warrant it and suffers from dementia.
"She doesn't even remember what happened," Ms. Loiselle said.
When asked about Rev. Coonan's consumption of beer that evening as reported in the police records and her mother's statement that his drinking had been an ongoing problem, Ms. Loiselle said the family had been celebrating Mabel Coonan's birthday and Rev. Coonan had something to drink.
Rev. Coonan has continued to live with them at their Oxford apartment after the alleged incident, she said.
"We get along great. We are a close family," Ms. Loiselle said.
- RCC. All the files have not been submitted.
National Catholic Reporter,
By JOE FEUERHERD, ~ April 04, 2006
WASHINGTON (DC) -- Auditors hired to rate diocesan compliance with church child-protection programs would have access to priest personnel files under a proposal approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Administrative Committee earlier this month. The measure will be considered by the full body of bishops at their June 2006 meeting in Los Angeles.
The proposal to allow auditors greater access to information was announced at a March 30 news conference in which the bishops released reports indicating that 89 percent of U.S. dioceses were in compliance with the church's "Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth" during 2005. The announcement comes on the heels of reports commissioned by Chicago Cardinal Francis George that demonstrated the inadequacy of church child-protection policies in that archdiocese (NCR, March 31).
William Gavin, chairman of the organization conducting the diocesan audits, told the news conference that problems revealed in Chicago demonstrate the need for greater auditor access to church files. The auditors hired by Chicago church officials to investigate complaints against a prominent pastor "had access to everything," said Gavin. Gavin said the auditors who work for him need the same type of access.
[1970s Olszewski] - RCC. Juryperson's omission lets him off.
Detroit Free Press,
By PATRICIA MONTEMURRI, April 4, 2006
MICHIGAN -- The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said today it will not seek to retry the Rev. Edward Olszewski, four months after the Michigan Supreme Court overturned the Catholic priest's 2002 conviction for allegedly abusing a youth at St. Cecilia parish in Detroit in the 1970s.
When the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in December that he deserved a new trial, Olszewski already had served most of his sentence -- three years of probation -- which was handed down by a trial judge in January 2003.
Olszewski, 72, "was deprived of an impartial jury" because a juror did not disclose during jury selection that she had been sexually molested, the supreme court ruled in December.
Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said the office would pass on a retrial.
[2006 Benas*] - RCC. Woman.
Mercury News,
By Jean Whitney, Knight Ridder, ~ April 04, 2006
SARATOGA (CA) -- A Saratoga priest arrested in connection with the rape of a 29-year-old Oregon woman seeking spiritual guidance was put on administrative leave from Sacred Heart Parish, church officials said Monday.
The Rev. Randy Benas, 45, was arrested Thursday at the Saratoga church after Valley Medical Center's sexual assault unit alerted Sunnyvale police to a possible link.
"It's all alleged," said Roberta Ward, director of media relations for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose. "Father Benas is presumed innocent until proven guilty."
Benas will continue to be paid but is no longer assigned to a church, Ward said. He lives at the church's Saratoga campus.
"The Diocese of San Jose is committed to following its policies and will cooperate fully with the civil authorities. We offer Father Benas, his accuser and the people of Sacred Heart Parish our prayers," a statement from the diocese said Monday.
• Pope appoints Boston auxiliary bishop to lead Cleveland diocese
[2000s Bishop Lennon] - RCC. Documents show probably was involved in cover-up.
The Boston Globe,
www.boston. com/news/ local/ massachusetts/ articles/2006/ 04/04/pope_ appoints_boston_ auxiliary_bishop_ to_lead_ cleveland_ diocese ;
April 4, 2006
CLEVELAND (OH) -- Pope Benedict the XVI appointed as bishop of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese a leader who was interim head of the Boston archdiocese during the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal.
Bishop Richard Lennon will be introduced later Tuesday at a news conference in Cleveland with his predecessor, retiring Bishop Anthony Pilla, diocese spokesman Bob Tayek told The Associated Press.
Lennon, 59, was ordained in 1973 and became an auxiliary bishop in 2001. He led the Boston archdiocese for about six months on an interim basis after Cardinal Bernard Law quit in 2002 amid pressure for mishandling the priest sex-abuse scandal in Boston.
During that tenure, Lennon received mixed reviews from members of the nation's fourth-largest diocese.
[Ex-priest] - RCC. > 24 children.
WPEC,
Written By : Associate Producer, 5:52PM, April 3, 2006
FLORIDA -- He is accused of sexually abusing more than two dozen children.
A former priest is now living here.
That's according to a victims advocacy group who traveled more than 800 miles from Tennessee to make sure the man's past is not forgotten.
A few years ago that former priest, reportedly owned a liquor store on this street.
He has been difficult for some to get a hold of but those same people want to make sure the man's history isn't as hard to track down as he is.
[1970s, ? 2006 Coonan] - RCC. Sex, violence, intimidation alleged. Supporters fundraising. Boys. Women.
Worcester Voice,
~ April 04, 2006
WORCESTER (MA) -- Joseph Early Jr. will appear this morning in Dudley District Court to defend Father Joseph A. Coonan on charges that he brutalized his 77-year-old mother and attacked his sister when she sought help of police.
Mr. Early also represented Father Coonan when he was removed from St. John's parish in Worcester after numerous allegations were made that he was sexually inappropriate with boys in Oxford some years ago.
Father Coonan still has supporters in the parish who are conducting a fundraising event for Father Coonan, who thus far has refused to resign as pastor of the parish although he has been banned from the premises since 2002. Some in the parish, who will not be buying the raffle tickets, are questioning why Father Coonan's name still appears in the church bulletin every week.
This money raising is in addition to the monthly pay check and medical coverage he is eligible to receive from the Worcester diocese, which under Canon Law is required to support him as long as he is a priest. Father Coonan is among those priests on leave that are costing the Catholics of Central Massachusetts more than $300,000 a year.
[2000s Bishop Lennon] - RCC. Documents show probably covered up.
The Boston Globe,
By Michael Paulson, ~ April 04, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Bishop Richard G. Lennon, who oversaw the Archdiocese of Boston for seven months after the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law but became a polarizing figure because of his role in numerous diocesan controversies, will become the bishop of Cleveland, the Vatican announced today.
Lennon, an auxiliary bishop who holds the key posts of vicar general and moderator of the curia in Boston, will replace Cleveland Bishop Anthony Michael Pilla, who is resigning, the Vatican said. Cleveland is the 15th largest diocese in the U.S. -- about half the size of the Archdiocese of Boston-- with an estimated 800,000 Catholics and 583 priests.
Pilla, a former president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, is resigning under a provision of canon law that requests the resignation of "a diocesan bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause," the Vatican said.
A 73-year-old Cleveland native, Pilla has served as the bishop there since 1981.
Lennon, a 59-year-old Arlington native and self-taught canon lawyer who had served as rector of St. John's Seminary, was appointed by Pope John Paul II to serve as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Boston on Dec. 13, 2002, when Law resigned over his role in the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
[1980s Larson] - RCC. Altar boys.
KBSD,
by Sarah Pierik, KWCH 12 Eyewitness News, Monday, April 3, 2006
MISSOURI -- Convicted molester and Catholic priest Robert Larson is being released from prison.
Less than two weeks ago, the attorney general's office petitioned for Larson to be committed as a sex predator. That would have sent Larson to a state mental hospital indefinitely. Now, in accordance with the plea agreement made five years ago, the attorney general has dropped the petition.
That means the 76 year old will now live the rest of his life in a secure, therapeutic facility for priests with personal problems. Larson will be housed near Saint Louis. In Missouri, he will be registered as a sex offender with the highway patrol.
[1980s Larson] - RCC. Altar boys.
The Wichita Eagle,
BY STAN FINGER, ~ April 04, 2006
MISSOURI -- Former priest Robert Larson will spend the rest of his life at a long-term care center in Missouri for priests who have engaged in sexual misconduct, under terms of an agreement signed Monday.
Larson, 76, was released from Lansing Correctional Facility last Wednesday after serving five years in prison for sex crimes he committed while serving as the parish priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Newton in the mid-1980s.
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline had sought to have Larson designated a sexual predator, which would have allowed the state to confine him indefinitely for treatment. Under terms of a 2001 plea agreement, however, the state had agreed not to declare Larson a sexual predator.
[~ 1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. Minor.
East Valley Tribune,
By Katie McDevitt, April 3, 2006
ARIZONA -- Police are trying to track down a former Arizona priest accused of sexually abusing a minor. The Rev. Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez, whose home diocese is in Quito, Ecuador, has been under investigation for about a year by Phoenix and Yuma police.
The priest is accused of abusing a minor during his assignment to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma in the Tucson Catholic Diocese from 1988-91. He is not accused of abuse during his work in the Phoenix Catholic Diocese from 1991-93.
"The Diocese of Phoenix and the Diocese of Tucson have collaborated to extend counseling and support to the individual who made the allegation," Phoenix diocese spokesman Daniel Subia wrote in a statement.
Subia would not say who made the allegation or what the specific allegation is.
[Emphasis added.]
[1970s, ? 2006 Coonan] - RCC. Sex, violence, intimidation alleged. 15 boys (urinate, defecate or masturbate), women.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass., USA),
by Dianne Williamson, dwilliamson@telegram.com , April 04, 2006
WORCESTER (MA) -- The Rev. Joseph Coonan has learned that criminal law moves much faster than canon law.
The once-popular pastor of St. John's Church heads to court today. He faces charges that he assaulted his mother and sister Feb. 27, while still awaiting a decision from Rome about a priesthood thrown into disarray in 2002 by allegations that he assaulted young boys before being ordained.
Meanwhile, his loyal but shrinking band of supporters is busy holding raffles and drumming up support for the priest, who is represented in the secular world by the lawyer who will likely be our next district attorney, who is hoping that the current district attorney drops the criminal charges against his clerical client.
All of which begs the unavoidable question: Since he'll never clean up the mess, isn't it time for Father Coonan to throw in the towel? How can this priest ever expect to resume a ministry tainted by such repugnant allegations of abuse?
Three years after the local diocese removed Father Coonan from his ministry, his well-meaning but misguided supporters remain steadfast in their love fest and committed to restoring him to the pulpit. Many say they don't believe the allegations, even though at least 15 men have come forward to share strikingly similar stories, many involving the priest's fondness for watching boys urinate, defecate or masturbate.
True, these alleged acts mostly took place in the 1970s, well before Father Coonan became a priest. He has never been charged in connection with the alleged abuse, mainly because the statute of limitations had expired. And, gee, he played cool music at his Sunday services and was even voted "Best Clergy" in the 2002 Worcester Magazine poll.
But what of his alleged victims? What of the men who were just 12 years old when the then-lay Joseph Coonan is accused of sexually assaulting them on camping trips? What of the men still haunted by their experience with someone they trusted? Haven't we learned yet that seemingly stand-up guys are eminently capable of committing secret crimes?
Patricia McGrath is a member of the "Friends of Father Coonan" and author of a letter recently sent to some 600 supporters, asking for donations for a raffle to benefit the priest. Yesterday, she said support for the priest remains "phenomenal," even though attendance at the monthly prayer vigil has dwindled.
Regarding the allegations of abuse, she said, "I personally think that anything I have thus heard has been placed out of context." I asked her what that meant, and she said, "I don't think he sexually assaulted anyone at all. I haven't heard any supporters who think he's capable of sexually assaulting anyone."
I asked if she had spoken to any of the men who claim they were abused by Joseph Coonan. She said she hasn't, but that she's given the matter "a lot of prayerful consideration," a process perhaps preferable because it's less burdened by matters of fact.
As for secular issues, Father Coonan is due back in Dudley District Court today to face charges of domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a person over 65 and intimidating a witness, after Oxford police received a 911 call Feb. 27 from his mother, who said she had a "problem" with her son. Mabel Coonan, 77, would tell police that her son tried to choke her. His sister, Patricia Loiselle, told police that he pulled her hair and pulled the phone from her hand when she tried to call police. Father Coonan has shared an apartment in Oxford with his mother since he was removed from his ministry.
"Mrs. Coonan stated that this has been an ongoing problem," according to the Oxford police report. "She stated that (it) escalates when Joseph consumes alcohol."
Yesterday, lawyer Joseph D. Early Jr. said his client denies assaulting his family but doesn't deny that he was drinking. Mr. Early, who is running unopposed for Worcester County district attorney, said Father Coonan's mother and sister are seeking to have the charges dismissed. The letter sent to Father Coonan's supporters from Ms. McGrath claims that the incident was "blown way out of proportion" and that Father Coonan's mother suffers from dementia.
The letter also urges supporters to write the Vatican in support of the priest. In 2002, the diocese placed Father Coonan on administrative leave and later asked him to resign as pastor of St. John's. Father Coonan refused and has hired a canon lawyer to fight his removal. He has no active ministry but still receives his stipend as pastor, according to diocesan spokesman Raymond Delisle, who said the diocese is awaiting a ruling from Rome.
"He's still looking to hold on to his pastorship," Mr. Delisle said.
Thus the prayer vigils, the canon lawyer, the letter-writing campaign from the faithful, the division within the church of those who support Father Coonan and those who don't, to say nothing of the continued grief of the alleged victims. How, I wonder, does three years of turmoil help a parish that the priest professes to love?
"He's waiting for a decision so he can move on with his life," Mr. Early said. "All he wants is a decision. He's tried to do everything they've asked him to do but resign his pastorship."
Too bad that the one thing he won't do is the honorable thing.
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Tue April 04, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse
Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Wed April 05, 2006 edition:
• CAS under microscope at Cornwall probe
[1960s-80s CAS] - Didn't do in-depth character checks.
Ottawa Sun,
http://ottsun. canoe.ca/News/ OttawaAndRegion/ 2006/04/05/ 1521034.html ,
By CP, Wed, April 5, 2006
CORNWALL, Canada -- It wasn't until the mid-1980s that the Children's Aid Society began to do in-depth checks on people applying to be foster parents, an inquiry into the response to allegations of child sex abuse here heard Tuesday.
Prior to 1985, screening consisted of such things as a medical exam of each parent, a test for tuberculosis, three references from a priest, a friend, a neighbour or a family member, a home visit and an interview to complete a two-page home study.
Beginning in the early 1960s, CAS workers would note the physical aspects of the home, ensure the couple had a valid marriage licence, put together a summary of the references and medical reports, and compile a brief description of the parents and their children.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:11 PM]
[2000s Bishop Lennon] - RCC. Documents show probably covered up.
Bishop Accountability,
~ April 05, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- When Richard G. Lennon was named apostolic administrator after the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, Lennon told reporters that "he knew 'zero ... nothing' about the extent of sexual abuse by clergy." (See Paulson and Robinson, Lennon Promises Effort to Settle Abuse Claims.)
But as more archdiocesan documents were released, Lennon's knowledge of and involvement in abuse cases came under renewed scrutiny.
• Italian priest accused of sexually abusing 20 boys
[> 10yrs Agostini -NEW*] - RCC. ~ 20 boys.
Irish Examiner,
www.irishexaminer. com/breaking/ story.asp?j= 76304528&p=7 63x483x&n= 76304908 ,
~ April 05, 2006
ITALY -- Italian authorities arrested a priest today and accused him of repeatedly abusing about 20 children from his parish south of Rome over more than a decade.
Officers picked up Father Marco Agostini at a youth hostel in the Umbrian town of Assisi where he had been transferred last year after spending a decade in the small town of Pomezia, said Alberto Intini, head of the crime squad at Rome's police headquarters.
[1974-85 Doherty] - Free Presbyterians. 2 girls.
One in Four,
~ April 05, 2006
NORTHERN IRELAND -- A man has gone on trial at the Derry Crown Court charged with sexually abusing two young sisters when he was a lay preacher and senior member of the Free Presbyterian Church in Co Derry.
James Doherty (71), is originally from Co Donegal. Judge Gemma Loughran QC has ruled that neither his address nor the location of the Free Presbyterian church he attended could be made public in order to protect the identities of his alleged victims.
The sisters were aged six and seven when the offences allegedly took place. Mr Doherty denies committing 25 sex offences against the two sisters between August 1974 and July 1985. The charges include rape, b*ggery, committing an act of gross indecency with a child and indecent assault.
- RCC.
Irish Independent,
by John Cooney, Religious Affairs Correspondent, ~ April 05, 2006
IRELAND -- PRIESTS accused of child sexual abuse or sexual misconduct are strongly advised to engage the services of a solicitor and seek advice from a canon lawyer.
This advice is offered to diocesan priests in a ground-breaking article in the current issue of the theological journal, 'The Furrow', that lifts the veil of secrecy on recent Catholic Church judicial procedures.
Titled 'Accused but innocent - what should a priest do?', the article spells out the rights of a diocesan priest in dealing with his bishop when first facing an accusation.
It is written by four priests and theologians working in the West of Ireland, Patrick Connolly, Eamonn Conway, Eugene Duffy and Enda Lyons.
[~ 1980s-90s Shifflett] - Baptist. 8 warrants now. Brother speaks out. Children.
Culpeper Star Exponent,
by Liz Mitchell, Wednesday, April 5, 2006
CULPEPER (VA) -- Eight and a half years ago, Josh Shifflett left Calvary Baptist Church, which he said made him look like an enemy and estranged him from his brother and pastor, Charles Shifflett.
Until now, Josh Shifflett has been hesitant to speak on his brother's case - who faces charges of child abuse and endangerment for incidents that occurred nearly 20 years ago at the church and its private K-12 school.
But when a local resident organized a Tuesday morning rally to support those who have accused Charles Shifflett of physical and sexual abuse, Josh Shifflett felt compelled to address the nationwide problem of abused and neglected children.
"It's about child abuse. It's not about Charles Shifflett," Josh Shifflett said. "There is enough pressure on them from the outside world without having to worry about those they trust.
[1969-80 O'Shea] - RC priest apologises as part of plea deal. Many boys. 3 altar boys in cases.
San Francisco Chronicle,
by Cicero A. Estrella, Tuesday, April 4, 2006
OAKLAND (CA) -- A defrocked priest who has admitted molesting numerous boys from 1969 to 1980 on Tuesday settled a lawsuit filed by three of his former altar boys.
Patrick O'Shea, 73, agreed in Oakland Superior Court to pay $100,000 to each of the plaintiffs, who said they were among the boys molested by the former monsignor from 1969 to 1980, the plaintiff's lawyers said.
As part of the agreement, O'Shea couldn't contest any of the charges and had to apologize in open court to his victims -- Wayne Presley, 47, of Foster City, Matthew Hadden, 47, of Sonoma, and Steve Lucarelli, 49, of Oregon.
"That was critical to our clients," attorney Larry Drivon said. "It's one thing to get every last nickel that a guy's got, but it's something else to have public acknowledgement of what happened to them all those years ago."
[< 1980s Brunner] - RCC. $US 1m claim. 2 girls.
Community Press,
~ April 05, 2006
OHIO -- Thomas Brunner, former principal of Mount Notre Dame High School and former pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Montgomery, has been laicized by Pope Benedict XVI.
In a letter to Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith granted Brunner's petition for laicization, or defrocking, from the priesthood.
Brunner was barred from functioning as a priest in September 2003 when a church law went into effect prohibiting priests who have offended a child from continuing in the ministry.
In November 2003, two female students filed a lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Please Court, accusing Brunner of molesting them and seeking individual damages in excess of $1 million. The case is pending on appeal in the Ohio Supreme Court. Brunner requested the laicization.
- RCC. St. Petersburg Diocese priest list wanted by SNAP.
WUSF,
By STEVE NEWBORN, April 04, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG (FL) -- Mary Grant says she was abused as a young child in a Catholic church in her native California. She later decided to do something about it. She became western regional director for SNAP, a national self-help support group for people who have been victimized by clergy.
Grant wore a picture of herself as a child at about the age she was abused. She and several other people gathered at the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg headquarters on Ninth Street North. They had a message for Bishop Robert Lynch.
GRANT: We're calling on Bishop Lynch to put action behind his words. It's one thing to say you're sorry, it's one thing to say that you pray for the victims. It's another thing to take tangible steps to make sure these victims can heal and kids can be protected.
Grant and the other members of Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests had a list of demands for the bishop. They want him to publicize a list of priests who have had "credible accusations" against them.
[1970s Olszewski] - RCC. Juryperson's omission lets him off.
Detroit Free Press,
BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI, April 5, 2006
DETROIT (MI) -- The Rev. Edward Olszewski lives in Florida, but the Archdiocese of Miami has barred him from working as a priest.
Charges were dismissed Tuesday against the Rev. Edward Olszewski after the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office decided not to retry the Catholic priest. A December ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court overturned his 2002 conviction for allegedly abusing a youth at St. Cecilia parish in Detroit in the 1970s.
"His first response is that he'd been through four years of hell and was now vindicated," said Olszewski's attorney, James Thomas, speaking of Olszewski's reaction when he learned the news while at home in Florida.
When the court ruled in December that he deserved a new trial, Olszewski already had served most of his sentence, which was handed down by a trial judge in January 2003.
Olszewski, 72, "was deprived of an impartial jury" because a juror did not disclose prior to being selected that she had been sexually molested, the state Supreme Court ruled in December.
Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said the office would pass on a retrial. The high court's decision legally cleared Olszewski. His name no longer appears on the Michigan sex offender registry, as was required after the 2002 conviction.
[1981 Edelin] - RCC. Teenage girl.
KBCI,
By Teri Nelson and Associated Press, ~ April 05, 2006
JOHN DAY, (OREGON) -- A former Houston priest accused of sexual abuse 25 years ago is now posted in John Day Oregon. It's a move that's prompted some to question whether this is a case where a rural community is getting a bad deal -- or a man is unfairly haunted by his past.
Rev. Richard Edelin, who was then 21-years-old, is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-parishioner who was then working in youth ministry at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in west Houston. The woman claimed the affair began with hugs and advance to groping in church offices, during confession and retreats. She said she declined an offer to go to his bedroom. Edelin has denied the allegation and church officials in Houston said their investigation could not substantiate the abuse claim.
David Bartish, a business owner in John Day, says he was immediately concerned when he read a headline about the priest's past.
"I kind of thought 'Uh, oh, what have we got coming? Are they putting him here in John Day to try to hide him?" Bartish told Local Two News. But after weighing the facts, Bartish says he thinks Edelin deserves the benefit of the doubt. "You know, child predators don't stop what they're doing-- and there's been no other allegation against that guy since then and so it kind of makes you wonder exactly what happened and the circumstances."
[2000 Bishop Lennon] - RCC. Certified Shanley was in good standing.
Boston Herald,
By Marie Szaniszlo, Wednesday, April 5, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Pope Benedict XVI yesterday appointed a controversial Boston Archdiocese official as bishop of Cleveland.
Bishop Richard G. Lennon, who became the archdiocese's interim head at the height of the clergy sex abuse crisis, will replace retiring Bishop Anthony Pilla effective May 15, church officials said.
Lennon, 59, was ordained in 1973 and became an auxiliary bishop in 2001. The following year, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned amid revelations he had transferred priests who had molested children from parish to parish without notifying parents or police. Lennon had been one of the cardinal's top aides, and his 14 months heading the archdiocese were fraught with discord.
Critics accused him of being complicit during the crisis, pointing to a January 2000 letter in which he certified that Paul Shanley, a priest who has since been defrocked and convicted of child rape, was in good standing when Shanley applied for a transfer.
[1992 Muth] - Byzantine Catholic. Boy, man.
Kansas City Star,
By JOE LAMBE, April 5, 2006
KANSAS CITY (MO) -- A man has sued a Kansas City area priest and the Catholic church in part for alleged molestation more than a decade ago.
The lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court alleges the Rev. Stephen J. Muth molested the John Doe plaintiff in Wichita in 1992, when the plaintiff, then 12, was in an altar boy training program.
Muth, who is pastor at the St. Luke's Byzantine Catholic Church and administrator at St. Cyril Catholic Church, both in Sugar Creek, could not be reached for comment.
A review board for the church found no merit in the allegations, a spokeswoman said.
[2000 Bishop Lennon] - RCC. Certified Shanley was in good standing.
Beacon Journal,
Staff report, April 5, 2006
CLEVELAND (OH) -- When Richard Gerard Lennon, the new bishop of the Cleveland Diocese, became apostolic administrator of the troubled Boston Archdiocese and its 2 million Catholics in 2002, he was a relative unknown, untainted by the sexual abuse scandal.
It was an unusually sensitive time -- he followed Cardinal Bernard F. Law, 71, who resigned amid accusations that he and other church officials ignored and covered up sexual abuse by priests.
Seeking to stabilize the church, Lennon was forced to take painful steps -- he cut the budget, sold church property, and closed and merged schools.
He was born on March 26, 1947, in Arlington, a working-class suburb of Boston.
[1970s, ? 2006 Coonan] - RCC. Sex, violence, intimidation alleged. Women.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass., USA),
By Rushmie Kalke, April 5, 2006
DUDLEY (MA) -- After the Rev. Joseph A. Coonan appeared at Dudley District Court for a pretrial conference yesterday, his sister told reporters that she and her mother want to drop the domestic assault and battery charges against him "because a whole lot was made out of nothing."
Standing outside the courthouse with the help of crutches after reconstructive leg surgery, Patricia Loiselle said that reading about the incident in newspapers was like reading about someone else's life.
The case against Rev. Coonan, 58, involves charges of domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a person over 65 years of age, and one count of intimidating a witness. It was continued to May 16 for a status hearing. Rev. Coonan, represented in court by his lawyer, Joseph D. Early Jr., declined to comment.
Rev. Coonan, the pastor of St. John's Church in Worcester placed on administrative leave in 2002, was arrested Feb. 28 after his mother, Mabel G. Coonan, 77, told police her son "had engaged in an argument" with her and her daughter. She said her son tried to choke her, according to police reports. Ms. Loiselle told police her brother pulled her hair and grabbed the phone from her hand when she threatened to call police.
Rev. Coonan's statement to police said only a verbal argument had occurred.
Yesterday, Ms. Loiselle attributed her brother's mood swings to drops in blood sugar as a result of diabetes. She said her mother, who suffers from dementia, has made a previous call to 911 over a situation with a neighbor that didn't warrant it.
"She doesn't even remember what happened," Ms. Loiselle said, referring to the Feb. 28 incident.
Asked about Rev. Coonan's consumption of beer that evening, as reported in the police records, and her mother's statement that his drinking had been an ongoing problem, Ms. Loiselle said the family had been celebrating Mabel Coonan's birthday and Rev. Coonan had something to drink. She said her brother has continued to live with them at their Oxford apartment after the alleged incident.
"We get along great. We are a close family," Ms. Loiselle said.
[? < 2000-06 Cardinal George] - RCC. VOTF affiliates unanimous. Permitted McCormack to keep ministering.
The Courier-Journal,
By Peter Smith, psmith@courier-journal.com , April 5, 2006
LOUISVILLE (KY) -- A Louisville group of reform-minded Catholics is calling for the resignation of Chicago Cardinal Francis George for allowing a priest to stay in ministry last year after a sexual-abuse allegation.
The Louisville affiliate of Voice of the Faithful -- a national group of lay Catholics seeking structural change in the church in the wake of the abuse crisis -- issued the statement yesterday.
It noted that bishops adopted a zero-tolerance policy over sexual abuse in 2002, requiring that priests who are accused be temporarily removed from ministry pending investigations and that confirmed abusers be permanently removed.
Shannon Whelan, a member of the local group, said it seeks to work with bishops. But she said members at the Louisville affiliate's meeting last week were unanimous that George should resign.
[? < 1978 Paquette] - RCC. 12 cases. Altar boys.
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, Wednesday, April 5, 2006
VERMONT -- The retired former priest facing 12 lawsuits alleging he sexually molested altar boys at Roman Catholic parishes in Vermont will not appear in court to defend himself when the first of the cases goes to trial later this month.
In a letter sent to a Chittenden Superior Court clerk last week, Edward Paquette of Westfield, Mass., cited health and economic reasons for his decision not to attend the trial, scheduled to begin April 19 or 20.
"I'm soon to have daily radiation treatments for prostate cancer," Paquette wrote in a March 29 letter to the court. "So, will not be able to attend the trial ... Also, cannot attend trial for financial reasons, cannot afford to stay in a motel, restaurant meals for duration of the trial."
Paquette, who was stripped of his priestly duties by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington in 1978, has not been provided legal services by the diocese, his co-defendant in the 12 cases.
[2000 Bishop Lennon] - RCC. Certified Shanley was in good standing.
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
by David Briggs, Plain Dealer Religion Reporter, Wednesday, April 05, 2006
CLEVELAND (OH) -- He had been an auxiliary bishop only a little more than a year. But Richard Lennon did not hesitate in December 2002 when the Vatican asked him to lead the Archdiocese of Boston while it sought a replacement for embattled Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in the face of an explosive clergy sex-abuse scandal.
When Lennon was put in charge of overseeing church closings in Boston, he not only agreed to the thankless task but also accepted that one of those churches would be his home parish, St. James the Apostle, built with the physical labor of his uncles.
So when the call came from the Vatican two weeks ago asking if he would become the next bishop of Cleveland, Lennon answered the only way he knew how.
"I've always said yes since I've been ordained as a priest," Lennon said Tuesday.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:46 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Wed April 05, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Thu April 06, 2006 edition:
• New Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Abuse By Priest
[~ 1988-91 priest] - RCC. Boy.
WBBM Newsradio 780,
www.wbbm780. com/pages/ 22580.php? , Steve Miller Reporting, ~ April 06, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- The Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese has been hit with another lawsuit from a man who says he was abused by a priest when he was younger.
This latest lawsuit was filed by a man who wants to be known only as "Juan Doe," a 31-year-old Hispanic man living in the suburbs, who says he was abused from age 13 to 16, in the late '80s.
The suit has been filed against the Chicago Archdiocese and against a former priest - a man who resigned from the archdiocese in the early '90s.
Newsradio 780 is not naming the priest because his accuser - the plaintiff in the civil lawsuit - has not come forward with his own name.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:32 PM]
[? < 2000-06 Cardinal George] - RCC. Permitted accused to keep ministering.
Chicago Sun-Times,
BY ANNA JOHNSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 6, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Cardinal Francis George, the head of the nation's third-largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, said Thursday that sexual abuse of children by priests is a "moral crisis" that threatens to stain the church's progress over the past 50 years.
George and the Chicago archdiocese have been under fire for weeks for failing to remove a priest from church work even though allegations that he sexually abused a boy arose months before he was charged.
The cardinal has accepted blame for the failure and has vowed to correct what went wrong. But he said Thursday that the national clergy abuse scandal is jeopardizing the church and the progress it has made in educating children, evangelizing and becoming more integrated.
"The moral crisis colors all this. ... All of that threatens to be completely submerged into the crisis around the sexual abuse of minors by priests here and elsewhere," George told the City Club of Chicago, a nonpartisan civic group.
[priest] - RCC. Child.
Detroit Free Press,
By PATRICIA MONTEMURRI, April 6, 2006
DETROIT (MI) -- National leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests protested Thursday outside the offices of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, blasting her decision not to retry a Catholic priest on abuse charges after the Michigan Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
Barbara Blaine of Chicago, a cofounder of the organization, and David Clohessy of St. Louis, its national director, said Worthy's decision could discourage other abuse victims from coming forward.
We want them to retry the case, Blaine said. Not doing so just sends the wrong message to everyone involved, she said.
Blaine noted that few priests ever were charged with crimes or spent time in jail, even after abuse was revealed, in part because victims were afraid to come forward or statutes of limitation prevented charges from being brought for long-ago crimes.
[? < 2000-06 Cardinal George] - RCC. Retained accused McCormack.
WQAD,
~ April 06, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Cardinal Francis George says the Catholic church's system of protecting children broke down when the Chicago Archdiocese failed to remove a priest now charged with sexually abusing three boys.
The leader of the nation's third largest archdiocese told the City Club of Chicago today that the recent priest abuse scandal is something he thinks about every day. And George says the problem colors the good things the church tries to do.
The Reverend Daniel McCormack was charged earlier this year with sexually abusing three boys and is out on bond. His attorneys insist he's innocent.
The archdiocese has acknowledged that one of the charges stems from an allegation first made in August, but McCormack wasn't removed until months later.
• Who is Anne Burke?
- RCC.
Daily Southtown,
www.daily southtown. com/southtown/ dsnews/061a bn4.htm , Thursday, April 6, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Anne McGlone Burke, 62, made a name for herself in 1968 as a young Chicago Park District physical education teacher, helping to convene the first International Special Olympics at Soldier Field.
With four children younger than 10 at home, she completed her college and law degrees. She later won a high-profile class-action lawsuit against retail stores for overcharging taxes on feminine hygiene products.
In 1987, then-Gov. Jim Thompson appointed Burke to the Illinois Court of Claims. In 1994, Gov. Jim Edgar appointed her special counsel for child welfare services.
Being married to powerful Chicago Ald. Edward Burke (14th) opened doors for her, but she had to succeed or fail on her own, she said.
"He didn't take the bar for me," she said of her husband.
In 1995, Supreme Court Justice Mary Ann McMorrow appointed Burke to the Illinois Appellate Court, and she was elected to a seat in 1996.
Burke's role on the lay panel appointed by U.S. Catholic bishops to advise them on addressing the church's priest sex-abuse scandal showed she was willing to stand up to authority and was willing to handle tough issues, her supporters say.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:59 AM]
[1980s Larson] - RCC. No State oversight at facilities. Altar boys.
Wichita Eagle,
Associated Press, April 06, 2006
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- Victims of abuse by Roman Catholic priests on Wednesday asked Missouri's governor to investigate two residential centers where abusive and convicted priests are sent for rehabilitation.
The St. John Vianney Center in Dittmer and Evergreen Hill in Robertsville lack adequate oversight, said David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The group is seeking an investigation into how the facilities operate and what security measures are in place to ensure the safety of children in surrounding communities.
"We find it troubling that the state regulates cosmetologists and undertakers but not Catholic priests who supervise abusive Catholic priests," Clohessy said. "These centers operate with no state oversight whatsoever. Church officials time and time again tell judges and prosecutors these facilities are secure, when they are not."
The request comes after the Rev. Robert Larson, who was recently released after spending five years in a Kansas prison for molesting four children, was sent to live permanently at the St. John Vianney Center in Dittmer, about 30 miles south of St. Louis.
[1992, 2002 Muth] - Byzantine Catholic. Boy, man.
KAKE News,
April 5, 2006
KANSAS -- Liana Wagle remembers Father Stephen Muth as a very holy man. Wagle met Father Muth when he was an associate pastor at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Wichita in the early 90's. He was in Wichita only two years before moving to Kansas City.
A former altar boy remembers the priest in a different way. A suit filed in Kansas City accuses the priest of sexual misconduct against boys. The accuser, not wanting to use his real name, is listed as John Doe. Through his attorney, Rebecca Randles, he says the sexual advances began in Wichita.
The suit claims Father Muth sexually abused the boy in a Wichita swimming pool. Years later, Randles says John Doe took a job at the Kansas City churches as a groundskeeper where Father Muth ministered. Doe claims Father Muth abused him there, too.
Randles says John Doe finally decided to report the abuse when he allegedly caught the priest in bed with a young boy. She says John Woe witnessed the priest with his face close to the boy's genital area.
[1970s-80s Baynham (Oblate)] - RCC. Province refused to extradite. 3 more cases.
CBC News,
Last updated 08:20 AM NDT, Apr 6 2006
CANADA -- The Roman Catholic church has settled three more civil court cases related to the sexual exploitation of Innu boys by clergy in Labrador.
The suits, which were rooted in incidents dating back as far as the 1970s, were settled this winter.
Two Natuashish men allege they were sexually abused by a lay member of the Oblate order in the 1980s.
Bro. Gordon Paul Baynham was charged with three counts of sexual assault in 1990, but the provincial government refused to pay the cost of his extradition from the U.S.
Justice officials argued a conviction would likely have resulted only in a suspended sentence or a short prison term.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:22 AM]
[3 clergy of Manchester Diocese] - RCC. Children.
The Union Leader,
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI, April 06, 2006
NEW HAMPSHIRE -- One priest the Diocese of Manchester removed from ministry since 2002 for alleged child sexual abuse was indicted for felony sexual assault, but the charge was dropped when his accuser would not testify at trial.
The priest later had his case annulled by the court, removing any trace of its existence from the public record, according to the attorney who represents him.
The Rev. Edward J. Arsenault, who heads the diocese's office of ministerial conduct, said all three mentioned in the audit remain on "precautionary administrative leave" pending an investigation into the credibility of the allegations. He would not identify any by name or discuss their cases.
- RCC.
Dayton Daily News,
By Tom Beyerlein, April 06, 2006
DAYTON, Ohio | State Sen. Marc Dann, a candidate for Ohio attorney general, said this week he will continue to push for a one-year window that would allow childhood victims of sexual abuse to sue over abuse that occurred as long as 35 years ago.
That provision was stripped from state legislation last week after intense lobbying by Catholic bishops and insurance companies, angering adult victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests.
At a news conference outside the Montgomery County courthouse, Dann, a Youngstown-area Democrat, knocked Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, for his role in "closing the courthouse door" to victims in the new legislation. The Ohio Senate had unanimously favored the lawsuit window, but it was scuttled after "a very heavy-handed" closed-door conference among lawmakers, Dann said.
"I don't think the leaders of the House had any intention of giving power to victims," he said. "We're not going to quit. We're not going to let down the victims of childhood sexual abuse."
- RCC.
FindLaw,
By MARCI HAMILTON, hamilton02@aol.com , Thursday, Apr. 06, 2006
OHIO -- Last week, the Ohio House sent a bill to the Governor's desk that requires clergy to report child abuse. That sounds like good news - but closer inspection shows the bill is extremely disappointing. And worse, it is not the only way Ohio has grievously let down victims of child abuse.
Last year, as I described in a previous column, the Ohio Senate unanimously passed legislation creating a window of time during which the statute of limitations would not apply, and lawsuits based on prior clergy child sexual abuse could be brought. Fittingly, the Senate accorded the victims who attended a standing ovation.
But a year later, the House Judiciary Committee caved under the pressure of the Catholic Conference -- gutting the same bill and filling the void with a toothless child abuse reporting requirement and an ineffective, insulting "civil registry," which, as I will explain, bring the victims no closer to justice.
- RCC.
Arizona Daily Star,
~ April 06, 2006
A year ago when the conclave was over, many of us went home depressed (in part perhaps by the unseasonably chill and wet Roman spring). Richard John Neuhaus, an American priest and editor, was allegedly predicting that there would be a house cleaning in the church in this country. He seemed to know whom the new pope would clean out. Like the Lord High Executioner in "The Mikado," he apparently had a little list.
I adopted the stand of the Swiss theologian Hans Kung, once a colleague and friend of Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and then a bitter enemy. Kung offered wise advice that most people on both sides of the Catholic divide ignored. Give him time, said Professor Kung, suspend judgment and see what he does. ...
Before the pope was elected, the Rev. Thomas Reece of America was done in by the secret denunciation of a clique of American bishops who were involved in the sexual abuse scandal and was not supported strongly enough by his Jesuit superiors. The instruction - not a doctrinal statement - on gays in seminaries did not say that they all should be banned, though it suited the interests of both the gays and the gay bashers to create that image. The comment on Harry Potter was in a private letter written years ago and not an official position.
[COMMENT: Hang on, isn't this the man who won't let a Church court hear the cases against the founder of the Legion of Christ? So, why follow Professor Kung and suspend judgement?
COMMENT ENDS.]
[50 yrs Philadelphia Archdiocese] - RCC. Children etc.
Philadelphia Inquirer,
by John Salveson (a spokesman for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in Philadelphia), ~ April 06, 2006
PHILADELPHIA (PA) -- On Sept. 21, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham released a stunning grand jury report detailing decades of horrific sexual abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It described both the activities of sexually abusive priests and the systematic cover-up perpetrated by the church hierarchy that protected those priests and enabled them to continue to abuse children without consequence.
The outrage and disgust felt by Catholics in the Philadelphia region were palpable. They wondered: How could this happen? How could children be put in harm's way so consistently, leading to more and more abuse and wrecked lives? Church leaders' response to the report did nothing to answer their questions or quell their fears. The report was characterized by one attorney for the archdiocese as "anti-Catholic." Cardinal Justin Rigali said he didn't think the report was "of value to families."
Yet the bottom line was simple: Kids were abused and priests were protected largely because Pennsylvania law is inadequate to address this criminal behavior. And the report outlined seven legislative reforms that are needed.
[? < 1978 Paquette] - RCC. 12 lawsuits.
Indianapolis Star,
By Robert King, robert.king@indystar.com , April 06, 2006
INDIANA -- A former Indiana priest with 12 molestation lawsuits facing him in Vermont says poor health and a lack of money will prevent him from being in court when the first of the cases goes to trial.
Edward O. Paquette, who served Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend from 1964 to 1971, will not appear in court to defend himself when the first trial begins later this month, the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press reported Wednesday.
"I'm soon to have daily radiation treatments for prostate cancer. So will not be able to attend the trial," the paper reported, citing a letter Paquette wrote the court. "Also, cannot attend trial for financial reasons, cannot afford to stay in a motel, restaurant meals for duration of the trial."
Paquette, who now lives in Massachusetts, served two parishes in South Bend, one in Elkhart and another in Decatur. He faced sexual misconduct allegations during that time, said Vince LaBarbera, a spokesman for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. But the diocese no longer has the names of Paquette's Indiana accusers, and it is not clear how those cases were resolved, LaBarbera said.
- RCC.
The Boston Globe,
By Michael Paulson | April 6, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- The new second-in-command at the Archdiocese of Boston, the Rev. Richard M. Erikson, said yesterday that he was chosen because he was not a part of the archdiocesan administration throughout the clergy abuse crisis, and that he will bring a fresh perspective to the problems afflicting the Catholic Church here.
Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley yesterday announced that he has tapped Erikson, a 47-year-old military chaplain, to assume the jobs of vicar general and moderator of the curia at archdiocesan headquarters. Those posts, which are akin to the job of a chief operating officer at a business, are currently held by Bishop Richard G. Lennon, who was named on Tuesday by Pope Benedict XVI to become the next bishop of Cleveland.
Erikson, a Watertown native whose home parish is St. Luke's in Belmont, has been serving in the military for 14 years, the last seven on active duty. In 2004, he volunteered to go to Iraq when a Catholic chaplain there needed to return home to care for his mother.
"Our men and women need priests, they need the sacraments," Erikson told reporters during a conference call yesterday, as he recalled ministering to injured soldiers of all faiths who had been wounded in the Sunni triangle.
[COMMENT: It's hard to tie the first paragraph into the facts of other newsitems. The boss, who was part of the cover-up administration, has been promoted! All Cardinal Law's lieutenants are moving up. Cardinal Law has been transferred to the sinecure of St Mary Major, Rome.
COMMENT ENDS.]
- RCC.
Chicago Tribune,
By John Chase and Robert Becker, Tribune staff reporters, (Tribune staff reporters Bonnie Miller Rubin and Manya Brachear contributed to this report),
Published April 6, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- At the end of her tenure in 2004 as head of the U.S. Catholic Church's review board on sex abuse, Anne Burke took aim at bishops for trying to take away the panel's autonomy by appointing to it religious members.
She lambasted the "mischievers at work" within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for attempting to squelch two years of "freedom and accountability."
Burke's remarks, supporters say, show an independence that will suit her well in her new job as a member of the Illinois Supreme Court.
"She has shown a lot of growth and courage, especially speaking out recently about the backsliding of bishops across the country and their reneging on their reforms," said David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. "I think it's always beneficial when people who truly understand child sexual abuse are in decision-making positions, especially within the judiciary."
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Thu April 06, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Fri April 07, 2006 edition:
• No retrial for priest brings protesters
[priest] - RCC. Child/ren.
Detroit Free Press,
www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060407/NEWS05/604070451/1007/NEWS05 ; BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI,
April 7, 2006
DETROIT (MI) -- National leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests protested Thursday outside the offices of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, blasting her decision not to retry a Catholic priest on abuse charges after the Michigan Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
Barbara Blaine of Chicago, a cofounder of the organization, and David Clohessy of St. Louis, its national director, said Worthy's decision could discourage other abuse victims from coming forward.
"We want them to retry the case," Blaine said. Not doing so "just sends the wrong message to everyone involved," she said.
Blaine noted that few priests ever were charged with crimes or spent time in jail, even after abuse was revealed, in part because victims were afraid to come forward or statutes of limitation prevented charges from being brought for long-ago crimes.
- RCC and other religions.
Jewish Times,
by Joan Murphy, Special to the Jewish Times, APRIL 07, 2006
MARYLAND -- A bill to help victims of childhood sexual abuse seemed assured of success when it overwhelmingly passed the House of Delegates last month. Suddenly, though, it has been abandoned in the Senate in a divisive debate that has even assumed religious undertones.
Sponsored by Del. Pauline Menes (D-21st), of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, House Bill 1148 would extend the statute of limitations for childhood abuse victims to file civil actions against their abusers. Today, a child abuse suit may be filed until the claimant is 25 years old, seven years after the legal age of adulthood. This bill would extend the deadline to allow victims up to 42 years old to seek money from alleged abusers.
With the legislative session winding down, every legislative maneuver is critical. The House overwhelmingly passed the bill by a 130-8 margin on March 24, beating the deadline for it to be automatically assigned to a standing Senate committee, the last stop before a vote on the Senate floor. If it had been reported to the Senate any later, it would have had to be sent to the Senate Rules Committee for consideration.
But in an unusual move, the bill was shoved into the Senate Rules Committee where advocates fear it may languish as the legislature wraps up its session on April 10.
Local Catholic Church officials have been waging a fierce lobbying campaign to kill the bill. They argue that the additional time would allow victims of the abuse to wait too long to seek damages, get counseling and identify their offenders.
[Jeffs] - Fundamentalist LDS. Girls.
Deseret Morning News,
By Ben Winslow and Nancy Perkins, ~ April 07, 2006
ST. GEORGE (UT) -- The legal troubles surrounding the fugitive leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church got much worse on Thursday, as Washington County prosecutors filed a pair of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice charges against Warren Jeffs.
Authorities across the state hailed the charges filed late Wednesday in St. George's 5th District Court, which accuse Jeffs of arranging a child-bride marriage. And prosecutors expect the alleged victim to be their star witness.
"The victim in this case, Jane Doe, came to us," said Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap. "We have been working with her for the past few months. Jane Doe said she will testify at trial if and when it happens, and I believe that she will do that."
Belnap said the Washington County Sheriff's Office began investigating Jeffs, who is also wanted on sexual misconduct charges in Arizona, from January to March 2006 for arranging a "spiritual" marriage with an underage girl and an older man.
[1980s-90s] - Gospel of Truth Ministry. Children.
St. Petersburg Times,
By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN and WAVENEY ANN MOORE, April 7, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG (FL) -- Like thousands of others, the college student drove to the famous Christmas House and its massive holiday display.
But she didn't come to see the twinkling lights. She wanted to visit a piece of her tortured past.
Outside the house at 2719 Oakdale St. S this past December, she saw the man who police say sexually assaulted her inside the house when she was a little girl.
That, police say, is when she decided she couldn't keep quiet anymore.
After investigating the woman's complaint, St. Petersburg police on Wednesday arrested three longtime members of the Gospel of Truth ministry, which puts on the Christmas display, on charges related to sexual battery.
Police say they have uncovered horrific allegations that young children were assaulted by one of the ministry volunteers in the 1980s and early 1990s and forced to have sex with each other as ministry members watched.
- RCC.
Baltimore Sun,
By Matthew Hay Brown, April 7, 2006
BALTIMORE (MD) -- Cardinal William H. Keeler, the archbishop of Baltimore for 17 years and an influential leader in the church worldwide, has submitted his letter of resignation to the Vatican and is waiting to learn whether Pope Benedict XVI will extend his term as spiritual leader of the area's more than 500,000 Catholics.
Canon law requires that bishops submit a letter offering their retirement when they reach their 75th birthday, but the Vatican in recent years generally has allowed those who have been willing and able to continue working. When Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington turned 75 last year, the pope declined his resignation, and McCarrick was told informally that he would be kept on for another two years. ...
Keeler, who came to Baltimore in 1989, has shepherded the archdiocese throughout the national sex abuse crisis that has rocked the church in the United States. A vocal opponent of abortion, he gained national prominence as a leading spokesman for what his friend Pope John Paul II called "the culture of life."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:17 PM]
- RCC.
The Tidings,
April 07, 2006
CALIFORNIA -- In her work as a pediatrician, Dr. Helen DuPlessis-Taylor has seen plenty of what she calls "the back end" of the child abuse cycle -- the physical and emotional damage done to child-victims (and their families). That, and the followup reporting and (when necessary) testifying she does, is admittedly the "less than pleasant" part of her job.
So when an opportunity arose to be involved in the "front end" -- the preventive end -- of child abuse, it was no problem for
DuPlessis-Taylor to say yes. The opportunity was provided by her pastor, Msgr. Joseph Greeley at St. Pancratius Church in Lakewood, in the course of establishing a parish Safeguard the Children Parish Committee as mandated by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
DuPlessis-Taylor was one of several St. Pancratius parishioners who, through the archdiocesan Safeguard the Children Office, became trained to conduct VIRTUS® "Protecting God's Children" Awareness Sessions for Adults" at the parish. It is a ministry that the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center doctor finds as rewarding as any she has ever served in, if not more so.
[1970s Olszewski] - RCC. Juryperson's omission lets him off.
WXYZ,
By Mary Conway, Web produced by Sarah Morgan, April 6, 2006
DETROIT (MI) -- Victims of sexual abuse sent a strong message to the Wayne County Prosecutor, Thursday, because of her decision to not retry an accused priest.
Three people, who were sexually abuse by priests, met outside the Wayne County Prosecutor's office and signed a letter protesting Prosecutor Kym Worthy's decision to not retry Edward Olszewski.
Olszewski was convicted in 2003 of abusing children while he was a priest, but his case was thrown out on a technicality.
Sexual abuse survivor, Bill McAlary, said "What is he doing in Florida? Is he abusing kids? Is he on a sex offenders list in Florida? Is he on the offenders list in Michigan? We don't know that. Just because they say it's unlikely that he will practice in Florida, he might move to California or Texas."
[? < 2000-06 Cardinal George] - RCC. Retained accused priest.
The Times,
BY DALIA HATUQA, CIARAN McEVOY and YUXING ZHENG, Medill News Service, April 07, 2006
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, April 7, 2006 12:48 AM CDT
CHICAGO (IL) -- Cardinal Francis George Thursday acknowledged the Archdiocese of Chicago failed to protect children from sexual abuse while the Rev. Daniel McCormack was pastor of a West Side church. The failure occurred even after allegations surfaced that he had previously molested minors.
But George also said it was impossible for him to visit each parish where sexual abuse allegations had been raised.
"We do [visit]. I don't personally, but I write a letter," he said.
The archbishop told Medill News Service that an auxiliary bishop meets with parishioners on his behalf. "My schedule is filled up to visit parishes a year in advance, but we do that."
[1987-90 Craig] - RCC. 2 boys.
Chicago Tribune,
By Margaret Ramirez, Tribune religion reporter, April 7, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- A 31-year-old man filed a $300,000 civil lawsuit Thursday against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, alleging a priest sexually abused him as a teen and church officials transferred the cleric between churches to conceal a pattern of abuse.
The complaint said Robert Craig abused the plaintiff, who was not identified, from 1987 to 1990 when he was 13 to 16 years old. Craig was placed on administrative leave in 1990 after then-Cardinal Joseph Bernardin found reasonable cause to suspect the priest had engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor, said archdiocese spokeswoman Colleen Dolan.
Craig resigned from the priesthood in 1993. He had been ordained in 1974 and worked in several Chicago parishes, including St. Aloysius, All Saints-St. Anthony, St. Ann and St. Mark.
[? < 2000-05 McCormack*] - Scores of boys.
Chicago Tribune,
April 7, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- A Cook County Criminal Court judge on Thursday delayed discussion on records in the sexual abuse case against Rev. Daniel McCormack to allow an attorney for the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to attend the talks.
Judge Thomas Sumner was set to hear attorneys' arguments on whether some sealed records that the judge got in March from James Geoly, the archdiocese lawyer, should be turned over to the prosecutors who subpoenaed them.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:04 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Fri April 07, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Sat April 08, 2006 edition:
• Lawyers: Church hid abuse of client's brother
[1987-90 Craig] - RCC. 2 boys.
Chicago Sun-Times,
www.suntimes. com/output/ news/cst-nws- abuse07.html# ,
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI, Religion Reporter, April 7, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Lawyers for a 31-year-old Chicago man who filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Archdiocese of Chicago and a former priest he accuses of sexually abusing him in the late 1980s say officials with the archdiocese hid the fact the man's older brother also was abused by the same priest.
Despite numerous conversations with attorneys for the archdiocese about their client's allegations, Marc Pearlman and Jeff Anderson, attorneys for the Chicago man who filed his lawsuit under the name "Juan Doe 104," said only after they filed the suit Thursday morning did they learn that the archdiocese had settled a sexual abuse claim against the Rev. Robert D. Craig brought by Doe 104's older brother in 1989.
Craig, a priest who was removed from ministry in 1990 because of allegations of sexual misconduct with minors and who resigned from the priesthood in 1993, could not be reached for comment.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:31 PM]
[1955-80 Garchow, Maloney (St John of God order)] - RCC. Children.
Stuff,
By YVONNE MARTIN, April 08, 2006
AUSTRALIA -- A battle against extradition by two Catholic clergymen accused of child-sex abuse has become so protracted that their religious order is axeing its financial support.
It has been a year since a Federal Court judge in Sydney reserved his decision on extraditing the 59-year-old priest and 70-year-old brother to face charges in New Zealand.
Yesterday, the court broke the unusually long wait for justice by announcing the judgment would be released in the next few weeks.
With legal fees rising, the St John of God Order has consulted its hierarchy in Rome and decided to pull its support once the matter ends in the Federal Court.
[Emphasis added.]
[BACKGROUND: For background, search around April 11, 2005,
in Ethics Chronology 111. END.]
[1984 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. Altar boys.
The Herald News,
By Ted Slowik, ~ April 08, 2006
DIXON (IL) -- A Joliet Diocese priest's release from prison after serving a sentence for sexually abusing young boys is prompting criticism that Joliet Bishop Joseph Imesch gave a sexual predator continued access to children.
The Rev. Fred Lenczycki, 61, pleaded guilty in January 2004 to criminal sexual abuse of three boys under age 13 and was sentenced to five years in prison. He is scheduled to be paroled Tuesday from the Dixon Correctional Center, a medium-security facility in northwest Illinois.
Lenczycki was convicted of molesting altar boys at St. Isaac Jogues parish in Hinsdale in 1984. When reports of misconduct surfaced, Imesch sent Lenczycki for counseling, then reassigned him to ministries in Missouri and California. Allegations continued. At St. Peter's Parish in Pacifica, Calif., prosecutors in 2002 investigated allegations that Lenczycki molested other boys.
"The church's own conduct in removing the defendant and placing him out of state gave us the ability to charge the defendant because the defendant was not an Illinois resident, and therefore, the otherwise three-year statute of limitations did not run," DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said at the time of Lenczycki's sentencing.
[1973-1980s Springer] - RCC. 2 more boys.
The Advocate,
By ADRIAN ANGELETTE, Apr 8, 2006
LOUISIANA -- Two more men claim in a lawsuit that former priest Christopher Springer molested them while they were altar boys at a Plaquemine church in the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
In this case, the molestations allegedly occurred from May 1973 until the summer of that year, when Springer worked at St. John the Evangelist Church in Plaquemine, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Baton Rouge.
The lawsuit lists as defendants Springer, the diocese and Bishop Robert Muench. Also listed are Fireman's Fund and GuideOne insurance companies, who insure Muench and the diocese.
The attorney for the two men said she thinks it has been established that Springer preyed on young Catholic boys during the 1970s and 1980s.
[1960 Feit] - RCC. Female.
The Monitor,
by Brittney Booth, April 08,2006
EDINBURG (TX) -- After 24 years on the job, Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra has made tough decisions in thousands of criminal cases.
But of those cases, two recent decisions have come back to haunt him in his face-off with challenger Alma Garza in the April 11 runoff election. ...
IRENE GARZA
Some of the staunchest criticism Guerra's faced comes from those who accuse him of mishandling the investigation into the murder of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old second grade teacher who disappeared the day after Easter in 1960 after giving confession at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. Her body was found five days later in a canal; investigators believe she had been raped.
The priest who heard her confession, John B. Feit, was thought to be the last person to see Irene Garza alive. Feit was never named as a suspect, but many believe he was involved in Garza's murder. Now living in Arizona and no longer a priest, Feit has repeatedly denied the accusations.
[1961-64 Skylstad] - RCC. Female.
Gonzaga Bulletin,
Section: Religion & Faith, by Alex Fitterer, April/7/06
SPOKANE (WA) -- While the Spokane Diocese is working to restore trust during the last 16 months, after filing for bankruptcy, an alleged claim against Catholic Bishop William Skylstad has only made matters worse. In recent weeks turmoil erupted when a woman claimed Skylstad sexually abused her in Spokane nearly 40 years ago. Skylstad firmly denies the accusations made against him.
A March 16 article published by The Spokesman-Review states, "The claim was filed Dec. 27 by a woman who said she was under the age of 18 between 1961 and 1964 -- the time period she alleges that Skylstad sexually abused her at St. Patrick's Parish and at Gonzaga."
The alleged victim's name will not be released due to a court order related to the Catholic Diocese's bankruptcy case.
The article went on to state, "Skylstad, who was in his late 20s during the time of the woman's claim, was a student at Gonzaga University from 1962 to 1966, but had no apparent connection to St. Patrick's Parish in Hillyard. In fact, he was in Colbert, teaching math and physics to students attending Mater Cleri Seminary."
• Third report on sex abuse charter released
- RCC. 11% not complying fully.
Pittsburgh Catholic,
www.pittsburgh catholic.org/ newsarticles_ more.phtml? id=1643 ,
~ April 08, 2006
PITTSBURGH (PA) -- Nearly 89 percent (or 169) of the 191 Catholic dioceses or eparchies (dioceses of the Eastern Catholic Church) that were audited during 2005, including the Diocese of Pittsburgh, were found to be in full compliance with the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."
This is the conclusion of the third annual "Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," issued by the Office of Child and Youth Protection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The report is based on an independent compliance audit conducted by the Gavin Group Inc. of Winthrop, Mass., headed by William Gavin, a former FBI official.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh was found to be in full compliance when its diocesan policies and practices were audited in August. The auditors gave the diocese an "A+," and noted that the communications plan and its implementation were particularly well done.
[Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. 626 apology letters. Monitoring needs upgrade.
The Boston Globe,
By Michael Paulson | April 8, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has made significant progress improving protection of children since the clergy sexual abuse crisis erupted four years ago, but is at constant risk of losing steam and needs to restructure the board that handles allegations against priests, a quasi-independent panel said yesterday.
In a 137-page report, the panel reviewed the vast scope of archdiocesan efforts to prevent a repeat of the abuse scandal, praising a "major cultural and organizational change" that has included the training of more than 52,000 children in Catholic elementary schools, 43,000 children in weekend religious education classes, and 46,000 church volunteers to detect and prevent abuse. The report said that Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley has written 626 personal letters of apology and invitations to meet with him to abuse victims, and that the archdiocese has been working with 400 therapists to serve about 637 abuse victims and family members.
But the report includes numerous notes of caution, calling for a restructuring of the review board, which makes recommendations to the cardinal about the handling of abuse allegations against clergy. The board, the report says, has done an inadequate job of communicating to victims and accused priests and needs to be more clearly defined as independent. The report also says that the church nationally needs to find a way to monitor priests who were removed from ministry because they were sexually abusive.
• Diocese defrocks 3 more priests in sex abuse scandal
[~ 1960s-80s Avery, Gana, McGuire, Santry, Mons. Schaeflein, Donofrio] - RCC. Countless children.
Duluth News Tribune,
www.duluth superior. com/mld/ duluth superior/ news/nation/ 14287889.htm ,
By MITCH LIPKA, Philadelphia Inquirer, ~ April 08, 2006
PHILADELPHIA (PA) -- Three more Catholic priests who sexually abused boys have been removed from the clergy, including one said to have molested "countless children" for years, bringing to 17 the number of Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests defrocked in the church sex scandal.
As is the tradition of such announcements, notice of the defrockings appeared deep inside yesterday's issue of the archdiocese's newspaper, the Catholic Standard & Times.
Although defrocking -- the demotion of a priest to lay status -- is the most severe action the church can take against one of its clergy, the growing list is of little consolation to a group of abuse survivors.
"This does nothing to address the broader issue that they broke the law and they escaped prosecution because the statute of limitations is so short," said John Salveson, a leader of the national advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and Other Clergy. [...]
The three defrocked priests - Edward V. Avery, Stanley M. Gana and James E. McGuire - were named in a lengthy grand jury report issued in September that identified 63 archdiocesan priests as abusers. [...]
Last month, the archdiocese announced that three other priests were defrocked in connection with the scandal:
William L. Santry, who was ordained in 1956, was accused of sexually abusing a minor. He served St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Norristown and was on the faculty of Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia from 1959 to 1968. He voluntarily left the priesthood in 1971.
Msgr. Charles J. Schaeflein - who spent 25 years in archdiocesan high schools and 12 as pastor of St. Andrew parish in Newtown - has agreed to a "supervised life of prayer and penance" at Villa St. Joseph in Darby. He was 86 in the fall when allegations against him surfaced.
The Rev. Michael J. Donofrio, who served at Queen of the Universe Parish in Levittown and was an associate director of the Lower Bucks County Catholic Youth Organization, has had his case referred to the Vatican. He cannot be located by the church. [...]
Read the grand jury report on priest abuse, including parish-by-parish listings, along with previous coverage at http://go. philly. com/priests
- Society generally.
Centre Daily Times,
By MARTHA RAFFAELE, Associated Press Writer, ~ April 08, 2006
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Victim advocates are intensifying their efforts to prod lawmakers into passing reforms recommended last fall by a grand jury that investigated alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Philadelphia.
They are organizing an April 24 forum for lawmakers at the Capitol to encourage support for lifting the statute of limitations on criminal charges for sexual offenses against children -- currently a victim's 30th birthday.
They also want to waive for one year the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits, which generally must be filed within two years of an alleged incident.
John Salveson, a spokesman for the Philadelphia chapter of the Survival Network of Those Abused by Priests and Other Clergy, said his group is using the forum to counteract opposition by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, which lobbies on behalf of the state's Catholic churches.
"They're only hearing one side of the story," Salveson said Friday. "One of the challenges for us is that there haven't been any hearings held on the legislation."
• Accused ex-priest had worked at slain professor's parish
[1987-90 Craig] - RCC. 2 boys.
Renew America,
www.renew america.us/ columns/ abbott/ 060408 , by Matt C. Abbott, April 08, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- The following is most of the text of a complaint filed April 6, 2006 in Chicago. Defendants in the lawsuit are the Chicago archdiocese and former priest Robert Craig.
(Interestingly, one of the parishes to which Craig was assigned was All Saints-St. Anthony, the same parish at which choir director Francis Pellegrini had worked prior to his murder in May 1984.
(Pellegrini, also a professor and acquaintance of Father Andrew Greeley, was found stabbed multiple times in his South side apartment. Pellegrini reportedly was going to inform the archdiocese about the activities of a clergy pedophile ring known as the Boys' Club, which had been targeting minority children in addition to engaging in sexual "escapades" with other adults.
(Catholic attorney Sheila Parkhill has been working to expose the ring.)
[Legal complaint text follows. It is well worth reading.]
- RCC. Bishop Gumbleton (survivor) speaks.
Midland Daily News,
Apr/08/2006
MICHIGAN -- During an April 2 address in Midland about sexual abuse, a retired Catholic bishop used words written by the late Pope John Paul II regarding the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton referred to John Paul's statement which described a "shattered moral order" that calls for a "response that combines justice and forgiveness."
Gumbleton spoke to about 150 people at Blessed Sacrament Church for a service to seek healing and prayerfully address the scandal within the Catholic Church.
"From our own hearts, we must learn to reach out to forgive rather than to hold a spirit of vengeance, resentment or even hatred. (But) to reach out in forgiveness does not exclude, in fact it must be accompanied by, holding people accountable and struggling to make that happen," Gumbleton said.
Gumbleton's retirement as an assistant to Cardinal Adam Maida in the Archdiocese of Detroit was accepted in late January by Pope Benedict XVI. The announcement came weeks after Gumbleton called for state legislatures to remove time limits on lawsuits against the Catholic Church for alleged sexual abuse. Gumbleton also disclosed that he, as a teen, had been inappropriately touched by a priest. Officials have said that Gumbleton's retirement wasn't linked to his announcements.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:27 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Sat April 08, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Sun April 09, 2006 edition:
• Before the Next Sex Scandal
[? 2006 Latham (Baptist), < 2005 Paulk (megachurch)] - Various reformed Churches.
Christianity Today,
www.christian itytoday.com/ ct/2006/004/ 12.28.html ,
Editorial | posted 09:30 a.m., April/07/2006
UNITED STATES -- Lonnie Latham, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention executive committee and pastor of a large Tulsa, Oklahoma, church, resigned from both positions in January after police arrested him for allegedly attempting to solicit a male undercover officer for oral sex.
Earl Paulk, pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch, has dodged allegations of sexual impropriety for years. But in August 2005, a female employee sued him, alleging he arranged for his brother and visiting pastors to have sex with her. The International Communion of Charismatic Churches (ICCC)-- an association Paulk developed -- forced him to resign as archbishop in October.
Such cases may be extreme, but stories abound of pastors snared by sexual transgression. The problems transcend theology and ecclesiology. A pervasive culture of sensuality and disregard for communal accountability guarantees that some pastors will struggle with all sorts of sexual temptation.
Toss into this mix the internet's availability and anonymity, which have spread the reach of pornography and clandestine sexual encounters. The challenge to help our pastors resist temptation demands a wise church response. First, we must enact clear and enforceable standards that will guard against temptation. Then, our churches must implement plans for discipline and restoration when possible.
Know the Temptations
In 1927, Sinclair Lewis struck a nerve during an era of flamboyant evangelists with his fictional Elmer Gantry. Lewis's model of a huckster preacher long endured in the American mind, occasionally affirmed by salacious real-life examples.
Years later, evangelist Billy Graham knew many leaders who succumbed to temptation on the preaching circuit. That's why in 1948, Graham met with his evangelistic team in Modesto, California, and discussed how to protect themselves against smearing the gospel of Christ. They brainstormed the particular temptations faced by traveling evangelists and identified wealth, prestige, slander, and sex.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:52 PM]
[1980 Logan -NEW*] - RCC. Girl.
Newsday,
BY CAROL EISENBERG, April 9, 2006
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- Janique McKenny had long imagined this moment. The day she would confront the Roman Catholic priest she accuses of taking her to an isolated stairwell every week for nearly a year. She was 13, and she said he would stand with his back against the wall and hold her for an hour -- so close that her face broke out from his Shetland sweaters.
When she finally got the chance to talk with the Rev. William Logan last month, she said she decided to secretly tape-record their conversation.
"For 25 years, I've been feeling guilty," the Holbrook woman said on the tape. "Because for one hour a week, I was held by a priest in a dark stairwell. Or sat on your lap in a dark classroom."
The man she confronted sounded bewildered. He said he had no memory of her whatsoever. And he kept returning to the message she had left on the diocesan sex abuse hotline Jan. 9 accusing him of "molestation," though she would make no claim that the priest had sexually assaulted her.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:13 AM]
[Szafranski - NEW*] - RCC. Sexual misconduct.
WJRT,
By Cathy Shafran, Apr/08/06
MILWAUKEE (MI) -- There are tears of shock and disappointment tonight as members of a Milwaukee Catholic Parish learn their trusted priest is being investigated for sexual misconduct.
The news was told to parishioners at St. Matthews Parish tonight during a Palm Sunday Mass.
It was the Bishop of the Saginaw Diocese who shared with parishioners today news that their pastor, Father Richard Szafranski, had been put on administrative leave while charges of sexual transgression against him were investigated.
It was difficult news for all.
"I'm so angry with him, it's not even funny. I've heard rumors. I'm angry, I'm just so angry and hurt because he betrayed us. I feel he betrayed us...this is not the way our priests are supposed to be," said Helen Rewley.
[1980s MacLaughlin] - RCC. $US 300,000. Male.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass., USA),
by Dianne Williamson, dwilliamson@telegram.com , April 09, 2006
WORCESTER (MA) -- For a private man who once aspired to the priesthood, Ed Gagne has endured more than his share of secular drama.
In the late 1980s, his life intersected with the notorious Austin R. MacLaughlin, a 300-pound poser who scammed friends and colleagues out of more than $450,000 before he was sent to prison. In 1994, a decade before it became acceptable to disclose claims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, Mr. Gagne sued the diocese of Worcester and was awarded $300,000.
Most recently, Mr. Gagne received $130,000 after settling a lawsuit against the city of Worcester that claimed his boss didn't pay him fairly, based partly in retaliation for the above-mentioned incidents. The city settled the case after a former employee at the Office of Employment and Training testified that Mr. Gagne's Catholic boss, Stephen Willand, was angry that his subordinate sued the diocese and helped blow the whistle on Austin MacLaughlin.
Mr. Gagne is well aware that people may consider him litigious, or at least unlucky to have experienced so much personal turmoil. But the city's Forrest Gump says his ordeals have only strengthened his resolve to speak out against injustice.
[1984 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. Altar boys.
WQAD,
~ April 09, 2006
DIXON, Ill. -- Former DuPage County Roman Catholic priest Fred Lenczycki (len-ZISK'-ee) is due to be released Tuesday from the Dixon Correctional Center, where he has been serving since his child molestation convictions in 2004.
Lenczycki's case spurred a law requiring religious officials to alert civil authorities to suspicions of sexual misconduct. His pending release is sparking renewed criticism of how the Joliet Diocese has handled such cases.
[1980 Logan*] - RCC. 2 girls.
New York Post,
By KIERAN CROWLEY, April 9, 2006
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- A Long Island priest has been suspended by his diocese after two women accused him of giving them weekly, hourlong "hugging" sessions and made them sit on his lap when they were 13 and 14 years old, sources said.
Janique McKenny, 39, says she endured a year of the close physical contact at the hands of the Rev. William Logan when she was 13.
McKenny confronted the priest last month in a meeting she secretly recorded.
The cleric repeatedly apologized for his 1980 behavior - because years ago "what seemed an expression of warmth or comforting, would now seem, in retrospect, grossly inappropriate," said Logan.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:27 AM]
- RCC. Bishop Gumbleton (survivor) speaks.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
By TOM HEINEN, theinen@journalsentinel.com , Posted: April 8, 2006
MILWAUKEE (WI) -- Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of Detroit told about 350 people in a crowded Milwaukee church Saturday that the Vatican's recent document barring most homosexuals from Catholic seminaries was a hurtful step backward.
During a question and answer session, he indicated he would be willing to publicly support pending legislation in Wisconsin that would enable victims of sexual abuse by clergy to sue churches regardless of when the abuse occurred.
Gumbleton drew national attention this year when he spoke to Ohio legislators and endorsed a one-year window for victims to file such lawsuits in Ohio. At the time, he revealed that he had been "inappropriately touched" by a priest when he was a teenager.
[1970s priest; 2004 civil authorities] - RCC. Child.
Herald-Leader,
By Frank E. Lockwood, ~ April 09, 2006
LEXINGTON (KY) -- Although Lexington's Catholic diocese received credible evidence in 2003 that a former priest had sexually and psychologically abused a 13-year-old child in Ashland in the late 1970s, the information was never forwarded to police, authorities say.
Diocesan spokesman Tom Shaughnessy says the church wrote Commonwealth's attorney Stewart Schneider in January 2004 and offered to cooperate, but got no response.
Ashland Police Capt. Don Petrella, to whom Schneider forwarded the letter, says the letter indicated only that a civil lawsuit had been filed in Northern Kentucky against former Ashland priest Steve Gallenstein, but the letter did not allege that the priest had committed any crimes.
If the church has evidence that a child was sexually abused in his city, Petrella says his department wants to see it.
- RCC promoting the enablers.
The Boston Globe,
By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist | April 9, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Call it the (Saint) Peter Principle. With the appointment of Bishop Richard Lennon as head of the Cleveland Diocese, is there a top aide to Cardinal Bernard Law left who has not been rewarded with a promotion?
Lennon, of course, was interim head of the Boston Archdiocese after Law's forced resignation in December 2002 in the midst of the sexual abuse scandal. He was the compassionate shepherd who subpoenaed records of victims' therapists in an attempt to undermine their credibility. He was the man of God who hired legal specialists to argue that civil authorities had no right to interfere in a church's supervision of its priests. He was the man of the people who shut the doors of parochial schools and neighborhood parishes without so much as a conversation with the people in the pews.
Why wouldn't the Vatican choose him to lead a diocese of 800,000 Roman Catholics? It awarded Law a comfortable posting to Rome, after all.
Lennon follows a long line of similarly rewarded subordinates who did the boss's bidding despite the damage inflicted on victims of the predatory priests the Boston hierarchy was so determined to protect.
- RCC. Praise for an enabler.
MetroWest Daily News,
By Frank Mazzaglia / Columnist, Sunday, April 9, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Nobody could have done it better than Bishop Richard G. Lennon! Those who know him best will tell you that Cleveland's new Bishop Lennon has a spine of steel but a gentle heart and an overwhelming love for the Church he serves.
It was in the middle of the full-fledged sexual-abuse crisis that the Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Bernard Cardinal Law and simultaneously appointed Bishop Lennon as the apostolic administrator of the Boston Archdiocese. Under the glare of flashing cameras, for four grueling months it was Bishop Lennon at the helm. Fielding questions from a hostile press, and working through complicated legal matters while awaiting the selection of a permanent archbishop from the Vatican, he stood alone but firmly in charge. This is what happened next.
On July 30, 2003, Rome announced that Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley was the pope's choice to serve as Boston's next archbishop. As a sign of his wisdom, the new archbishop quickly recognized Bishop Lennon's value and appointed him as moderator of the Curia and Vicar General. In that role, Bishop Lennon served essentially as the chief of staff but not as the chief executive. The chief executive was the archbishop.
- RCC.
Herald-Tribune,
By CHRISTINA E. SANCHEZ, christina.sanchez@heraldtribune.com , April 09, 2006
VENICE (FL) -- Barbara DiCocco has signed on for a tough job, but one she sees as critical in helping the Catholic Church move forward from one of its most painful periods.
DiCocco, a licensed clinical social worker for 35 years, was recently hired by the Venice diocese to counsel those who claim to have been sexually abused by Catholic Church clergy, staff or volunteers.
"Instead of casting a stone, I felt a duty to help my church," said DiCocco, a Catholic who has followed the abuse allegations issue.
Since exposure of a sex abuse scandal rocked the Catholic Church almost four years ago, Catholic dioceses around the country and locally have been working to regain the trust of church members.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:57 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sun April 09, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Mon April 10, 2006 edition:
• SNAP co-director due back in court next month
- RCC. SNAP campaigner Mark Lyman disobeys order.
Capital News 9,
www.capital news9.com/ content/your_ news/capital_ region/default. asp?ArID= 175244 , By Capital News 9 Web Staff, 11:12 AM, April/10/2006
ALBANY (NY) -- The co-director of the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, will be back in court next month on misdemeanor charges after violating a restraining order.
Police arrested Mark Lyman near the Holy Cross Church in Albany during Palm Sunday services.
The co-director of SNAP will be back in court next month on misdemeanor charges after police said he violated a restraining order during Palm Sunday mass.
Under a recent court order, protesters cannot come within 100 feet of the church. Police said Lyman violated that order.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:43 PM]
[2005 McGrath and Adams] - RCC. Girl.
Ocean fm ,
~ April 10, 2006
ENGLAND -- A Catholic priest who denies sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and helping to groom her for abuse by another man has appeared in a Liverpool court.
Father Jeremiah McGrath, aged 62, is originally from Rosslea, County Fermanagh.
Fr. McGrath is pleading not guilty to one count of sexual assault and three counts of facilitating a child sexual offence in England between May and November last year.
He's accused of paying 38-year-old William Adams, who's charged with child rape, to groom the girl and to pay for accommodation in which the abuse took place.
[2006 Bracey -NEW*] - Baptist. 6 boys.
ABC 7,
April 10, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- A former elementary school basketball coach and cafeteria worker from Chicago's South Side is being held without bond in the Cook County Jail on charges of sexually abusing children.
Thirty-six-year-old Alonso Bracey, who also directed the choir at the Light House Baptist Church, is accused of taking six students from the Clara Barton Elementary School to his apartment in January. Police say the boys ranged in age from eleven to 13. They say Bracey fondled three of them, assaulted two, and forced a sixth boy to remove his pants.
[1970s Szafranski*] - RCC. Girl.
WJRT,
April/10/06
SAGINAW (WJRT), (MI) -- New information has come to light today on the sex abuse allegations that have stunned a local Roman Catholic Church.
A Milwaukee priest, Father Richard Szafranski, is on leave after being accused by a woman of sexual misconduct.
The victim says it happened nearly 30 years ago.
The Saginaw Catholic Diocese held a news conference earlier this morning.
Bishop Robert Carlson released very little this morning. It is still uncertain how the priest met the young woman who was 16 or 17 at the time. Father Szafranski apparently was 27-years-old, but it's not been made clear if he was ordained then.
The bishop didn't know where, or how many times this inappropriate relationship happened.
[1962-2002, 21 priests of Ferns Diocese] - RCC. Government appoints monitor. Minors.
Irish Independent,
~ April 10, 2006
IRELAND -- THE Minister for Children, Brian Lenihan, has appointed a Trinity College academic to monitor implementation of the Catholic Church's new child protection guidelines in the Republic, writes John Cooney.
Dr Helen Buckley, a senior lecturer in the department of social studies at Trinity, was a member of the inquiry into the diocese of Ferns which highlighted over 100 allegations of child sex abuse by 21 priests from 1962 to 2002.
• Diocesan Priests with a Substantiated Allegation(s) of Sexual Abuse of Minors Made Against Them
[22 priests of Joliet Diocese] - RCC.
Diocese of Joliet,
www.Diocese ofJoliet.org/docs/ ListofPriests.pdf , ~ April 10, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- The following list of diocesan priests has been prepared in the hope that it will further facilitate healing and closure for those who have been affected by sexual abuse. It may also encourage others who have been sexually abused to come forward.
Priests listed below have had a credible/substantiated allegation(s) of sexual abuse of minors made against them while they were serving in the Joliet Diocese.
Persons wishing to report sexual abuse are asked to call the Victim Assistance Coordinator, Sister Mary Frances Seeley, OSF, at 815 263-6467 or to contact DCFS at 1-800-25ABUSE.
Priest Ordained Status
Dedera, Philip 11/1/72 Removed from ministry 2002
Dennerlein, Arno 5/31/69 On administrative leave 2003, case pending
Fischer, Lowell 5/8/54 Removed from ministry 2002
Formusa, Salvatore 4/27/35 Retired 1985
Frederick, James 5/30/59 Deceased 1988
Furdek, John 6/2/84 Removed from ministry 2000
Gibbney, Michael 5/24/75 Removed from ministry 1992
Gibbs, Lawrence 5/12/73 Removed from ministry 1992
Howlin, Carroll 5/26/61 On administrative leave 2002, case pending
Lenczycki, Frederick 10/21/72 Removed from ministry 2002
Mateo, Leonardo 3/17/56 Left diocese 1984, later returned to Archdiocese
Meis, Anthony 8/15/72 Removed from ministry 2002
Mullins, Lawrence 10/15/77 Removed from ministry 1993
O'Connor, Donald 5/23/64 Removed from ministry 2002
Pock, Donald 6/7/58 Removed from ministry 2002, deceased 2004
Poff, Edward 6/7/58 Removed from ministry 2002
Ross, Anthony 11/11/72 Removed from ministry 2002
Ruffalo, Richard 5/30/59 Deceased 1997
Slade, Henry 5/31/69 Removed from ministry 1990
Slown, John 5/30/59 Removed from ministry 1983
Stefanich , Edward 5/25/65 Removed from ministry 1987
White, Myles 5/28/68 Removed from ministry 1992
[22 priests of Joliet Diocese] - RCC. Minors.
CBS 2,
~ April 10, 2006
JOLIET (IL), (CBS) -- The Diocese of Joliet has posted on its Web site the names of priests who have been accused - with credible or substantiated allegations - of sexually abusing minors while the priests were serving in the diocese.
Posting the names might encourage people who think they might have been abused to come forward, said Joliet diocesan spokesman Thomas E. Kerber.
Bishop Joseph Imesch announced in March plans to release the priests' names.
"We have taken this step in the hope of further facilitating healing and closure for those who have been affected by the tragedy of sexual abuse of a minor," Imesch said in a letter to parishioners.
Imesch also apologized in the letter for his handling of a sexual abuse case that allegedly took place in the diocese in the 1960s.
- RCC.
The Post,
By Niamh Connolly, April 09, 2006
IRELAND -- The government has commissioned a review of the Catholic Church's new guidelines on child sexual abuse to examine if they are compatible with state guidelines.
The church's publication, Our Children, Our Church, will be assessed by Helen Buckley, one of the three authors of the Ferns Report into clerical child sexual abuse in the Co Wexford diocese. The child protection expert is an academic at Trinity College Dublin.
In an interview, the Minister for Children, Brian Lenihan, said he was presented with a copy of Our Children, Our Church by the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, in December.
- RCC. SNAP's Mark Lyman arrested.
Albany Times Union,
By COLIN McDONALD, Monday, April 10, 2006
ALBANY (NY) -- After nearly seven months of protesting every week outside the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross in Albany, the co-chairman of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests was arrested Sunday morning for allegedly violating a court order that requires him to keep his distance from the church.
Mark Lyman had been ordered to stay at least 100 feet away from the church's entrances, and his lawyer, John Aretakis, contends his client was doing nothing different from what he has done on previous Sundays.
"I had just stepped out of my truck with my coffee," Lyman said. "I did not even have my signs."
But police say Lyman was warned to move before he was arrested. He was released on $400 bail. "This individual was inside of (the restricted) distance," said Detective James Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. "He was asked to move his vehicle and he was asked to move himself.
[2005-06 Boston Archdiocese] - RCC.
Amherst Times,
by KATIE ZEZIMA, Saturday, April 08, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Efforts to change the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston in the aftermath of the crisis of sexual abuse by clergymen have been hampered by diminished resources, according to a report issued Friday.
"The greatest challenge presented to the archdiocese in 2005-6 is the slow pace of organizational and cultural change in the face of diminished human and financial resources," the report, compiled by an independent panel over two years, said. "This challenge is ignored at the peril of the church."
The report found that the archdiocese had taken significant steps to insure that children were protected. But, it added, the archdiocese has also suffered from spotty carrying out of many policies, most noticeably community healing and outreach, internal and external communication and preventative education programs. While the archdiocese has made a "solid beginning," the report said, "continuity and assimilation are serious tasks ahead."
The archdiocese has succeeded on several fronts, the report said: reaching settlements with hundreds of people who say they were abused by priests; establishing a network of therapists; running background checks on teachers and volunteers, and creating teams for preventing child abuse.
[2005 McGrath and Adams] - RCC. Girl.
U.TV,
~ April 10, 2006
ENGLAND -- A priest from County Fermanagh has been remanded on continuing bail at a court in Liverpool on child sex abuse charges.
Father Jeremiah McGrath,62, from Church Road in Rosslea, is set to go on trial in September accused of facilitating the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl and sexually touching her.
He is charged alongside another man who is accused of abducting and raping the girl.
- RCC. SNAP's Mark Lyman arrested.
North Country Gazette,
~ April 10, 2006
ALBANY (NY) -- The co-director of the Albany Chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), has been arrested and charged with violating a court order which restrains him and other protesters from being within 100 feet of the Holy Cross Church.
Mark Lyman was charged with a misdemeanor by Albany Police during Palm Sunday services. After posting bail, he reportedly joined in another protest outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He is scheduled to appear in Albany City Court Monday morning.
Lyman is being represented by controversial clergy sexual abuse attorney John Aretakis, himself the subject of a restraining order which keeps him at least 300 feet away from the Holy Cross Church.
[1960s, ~ 2006 + Mons. Alzugaray -NEW*] - RCC. Girl.
Napa Valley Register,
By DAVID RYAN, Monday, April 10, 2006
NAPA (CA) -- A Napa priest lost his defamation lawsuit last week against a woman accusing him of sexual abuse in Los Angeles more than 40 years ago.
Monsignor Joseph Alzugaray of St. Appollinaris Catholic Church in Napa filed a slander suit against Pasadena resident Erin Brady after she sued the Los Angeles Archdiocese, claiming he had molested her. Alzugaray's lawyers vigorously deny the claims in her lawsuit, which have not been considered yet by a judge or jury.
Alzugaray's slander case drew to a close Thursday when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jon Mayeda dismissed his claim against her. Claims against her lawyers and a group called the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) had been dismissed previously.
[1984 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. Altar boys.
Chicago Tribune,
By Charles Sheehan, April 10, 2006
ILLINOIS -- The state will try to block the release Monday of a Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing three boys at a Hinsdale church--the first time Illinois authorities have tried to hold a clergyman with a law allowing them to commit indefinitely a sex offender to a mental treatment facility, according to the attorney general's office.
Rev. Frederick A. Lenczycki, 61, pleaded guilty in January 2004 to aggravated sexual abuse of three boys, though prosecutors said they believe he molested three times that many children. Lenczycki is scheduled to be paroled this week, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, the state can force a sex offender to stay in a mental treatment facility if it can prove that another sex crime is probable should the inmate be allowed to go free.
The Illinois attorney general's office filed a petition on Friday to put Lenczycki in the Joliet Treatment and Detention Facility, and an assistant attorney general plans to bring the case before a DuPage County Circuit Court judge Monday morning.
"The Sexually Violent Persons program was designed to keep people off the street who shouldn't be there," said Melissa Merz, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.
[2005 McGrath and Adams] - RCC. Girl.
BBC News,
~ April 10, 2006
UNITED KINGDOM -- A Catholic priest has denied sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and helping another man to groom her for sexual abuse.
Father Jeremiah McGrath, of Rosslea, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, is alleged to have committed the offences in Merseyside and Blackpool last year.
Father McGrath pleaded not guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to one count of sexual assault and three counts of facilitating a child sexual offence.
He was granted conditional bail.
[1983-86 Christian Brothers' school] - RCC. Boy.
One in Four,
~ April 10, 2006
IRELAND -- The Supreme Court has ruled that a man who was sexually assaulted while at a Christian Brothers school in Dublin is entitled to have a jury trial to assess his claim for damages.
The man was a student at a school run by the Christian Brothers in Dublin between 1983 and 1986 and is suing a former Christian Brother and the Congregation of Christian Brothers for damages for sexual assault and negligence.
The man claims he sustained serious personal injuries, trauma and psychological damage after he was subjected to repeated episodes of sexual assault.
He is claiming that the Congregation of Christian Brothers knew, or ought to have known, that the former Christian Brother was unsuitable to have unsupervised contact with children.
• Church structures 'may have added to abuse'
- RCC. Reformer Bill Cosgrave.
Irish Independent,
www.unison.ie/ irish_independent/ stories.php3?ca= 9&si=1594710& issue_id=13899 ,
by John Cooney, Religious Affairs Correspondent, ~ April 10, 2006
IRELAND -- BISHOPS and the Vatican have been challenged by a leading Irish theologian to review church structures that may have contributed to child sex abuse by clergy.
He has called for a look at how the compulsory celibacy of priests and the unaccountability of bishops may have been part of the problem.
And he has put forward a series of proposals that he says should be implemented in dealing with complaints against the clergy.
Writing in the theological journal The Furrow, Fr Bill Cosgrave says it is unsurprising that some bishops are of the opinion that the relationship between priests and their bishops have been damaged by the manner in which accused priests have been dealt with.
Fr Cosgrave put forward five proposals to the bishops for the establishment of just procedures in a secretive and hierarchical system of church governance. [...]
"A thorough and prompt investigation must be carried out in relation to any and all allegations by qualified investigators.
It will be essential here that this be totally independent of the bishop and his advisors." A canonical process or trial, again totally independent of the bishop and advisors, must be held, he writes. This process would decide, on the basis of relevant evidence, what the future of an accused priest should be. #
- RCC. SNAP's Mark Lyman arrested.
Capital News 9,
By Capital News 9 Web Staff, 10:39 PM, April/9/2006
ALBANY (NY) -- Albany police arrested the leader of a clergy abuse victims' advocacy group for allegedly violating a court order restricting protests.
Mark Lyman was arrested near the Holy Cross church in Albany during Palm Sunday services.
By court order, protesters cannot come within 100 feet of the church, but police said Lyman overstepped that. Lyman is the local co-director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
After posting bail, Lyman joined another protest outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Church leaders said the protestors are blind to their efforts, but Lyman's lawyer said the diocese is trying to shut his client up.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:16 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Mon April 10, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Tue April 11, 2006 edition:
• Man looking for church justice
[1959 Sister Phillip / Josephine Schmitz] - RCC. Nun taught boy French kissing.
The Daily Iowan,
www.dailyiowan. com/media/storage/ paper599/news/ 2006/04/07/ Metro/Man- Looking.For. Church.Justice- 1800946.shtml? norewrite200 604110851& sourcedomain= www.dailyiowan. com ; Section: Metro; By Mason Kerns, April/7/2006
IOWA -- As a 9-year-old at Holy Trinity Sacred Heart school in Dubuque, Steve Theisen said Catholic nun Sister Mary Philip, the teacher of his fourth-grade class, would frequently ask him to stay after the bell.
"At first, she said she was going to teach me how the Eskimos kiss, and she'd rub noses with me," the 54-year-old said during a Concerned Catholics of the Davenport Diocese meeting last week in Iowa City. "Later, she showed me how the Americans kiss, and then the French, waiting a few weeks in between each to see if I'd tell anybody."
As the state director for the support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Theisen is working with groups, such as Concerned Catholics, to not only counsel clerical-abuse victims but prevent further incidents and demand accountability from the Catholic Church. Both Theisen and the Concerned Catholics expressed disillusionment with what they deem the church's opaque bureaucratic tendencies and reluctance to reveal its abusive clergy.
Theisen was one of numerous clerical-abuse advocates who at the Concerned Catholics meeting on March 31 openly decried what they labeled the church's non-forthcoming attitude regarding Bishop Lawrence Soens. Soens was accused in June 2005 of making wrongful sexual contact with a student at Iowa City Regina, where he served as principal from 1959-67.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:53 AM]
[1984 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. Altar boys.
Chicago Sun-Times,
BY DAN ROZEK, April 11, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- His prison term ends today, but a Roman Catholic priest convicted of molesting three suburban boys will remain in custody after Illinois and DuPage County officials on Monday blocked -- at least temporarily -- his scheduled release.
Invoking a state law designed to keep dangerous sex offenders locked up even after they have served their prison sentences, authorities halted the release of the Rev. Fred Lenczycki by seeking to have him committed to a mental hospital.
The legal action stunned Lenczycki, 61, who pleaded guilty in January 2004 to fondling three boys while he was a priest in the mid-1980s at St. Isaac Jogues parish in Hinsdale. In return for his guilty plea, Lenczycki received a five-year prison term and was scheduled to be released today on parole.
"He's distraught. He did not know it was coming," his attorney, Harry Smith, said Monday after a DuPage County judge determined there was probable cause to detain Lenczycki for mental health evaluations.
- Troopers took Law's secret files.
The Boston Globe,
By Brian C. Mooney | April 11, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly is highlighting his investigation of the clergy sex abuse scandal in his campaign for governor, and last week all but took credit for forcing Cardinal Bernard F. Law to resign in late 2002.
The remarks, at a Democratic candidates' forum in Newburyport on Saturday, are prompting a debate among some longtime observers of the scandal, one of whom suggests that Reilly overstated his role. Others said they saw another sign that politicians in the Bay State are willing to take on the church, a step that once would have been political suicide in heavily Catholic Massachusetts.
At the forum, Reilly touted his work on several issues and cited the clergy sexual abuse investigation as an example of his "guts" and "leadership." He later said his remarks should not be interpreted as an attempt to take sole credit for Law's exit.
"There weren't many other people in politics that were willing to stand up to the Archdiocese of Boston in the sexual abuse of children," Reilly said at the forum. "You're looking at someone who did, and changed things forever. It changed things forever. With the guts to send state troopers into that chancery. And two days later, [Law] was in Rome, and he never came back. He never came back. That's what a difference leadership can make."
[? < 2000-06 Cardinal George] - RCC. Permitted McCormack to keep ministering.
Chicago Sun-Times,
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI, Religion Reporter, April 11, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- The largest Catholic reform group in the nation on Monday called for Cardinal Francis George to resign as archbishop of Chicago if he is not willing to push for stricter monitoring of how U.S. dioceses obey new church laws governing the handling of clergy sex abuse allegations.
In a letter sent to George last week, Call to Action -- a liberal-leaning organization that claims 25,000 members nationally -- questioned his ability to govern in the wake of a scandal involving one of his priests, the Rev. Daniel McCormack, who has been charged with fondling three boys at his West Side parish between 2001 and 2005.
Call to Action's letter focused on an audit by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, where George is vice president, that found the Chicago archdiocese in "full compliance" with church laws about clergy sex abuse allegations. The audits are based on data provided by the dioceses themselves.
[1984 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. Altar boys.
Chicago Tribune,
By Angela Rozas, April 10, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- A Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing three boys at a Hinsdale church will be committed to a mental treatment facility, pending a trial to determine if he is a sexually violent person incapable of rehabilitation, a DuPage County judge ordered Monday.
Attorneys for Rev. Frederick A. Lenczycki, 61, agreed Monday that an expert--hired by the state and county prosecutors--would have testified that the priest is a sexually violent person who would commit abuse if released. Lenczycki's attorneys asked for time to get their own experts to evaluate the clergyman.
Judge Edward Duncan gave them three weeks to come up with a list of potential witnesses.
[1970s Szafranski*] - RCC. Girl.
ClickOnDetroit.com ,
POSTED 3:21 pm EDT, April 10, 2006
SAGINAW, Mich. -- A priest has admitted to church officials that he sexually abused a teenager 30 years ago.
Reverend Richard Szafranski wrote in a statement read by the bishop that the relationship was wrong and painful to the girl.
Bishop Robert J. Carlson of the Saginaw Diocese said at a news conference that the 57-year-old Szafranski is on administrative leave from Saint Matthew Catholic Church in Saginaw County's Zilwaukee Township.
The victim came forward last week and identified Szafranski as the priest who abused her, church officials said.
[1982-84 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. 3 boys.
CBS 2,
AP, ~ April 11, 2006
CHICAGO (IL), (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest convicted of molesting three boys will be held at a treatment center for sexually violent people until a hearing to determine if he should be committed there indefinitely, a DuPage County judge ruled Monday.
The Rev. Frederick Lenczycki is scheduled to be paroled on Tuesday from the Dixon Correctional Center, where he has served two years for the aggravated sexual abuse of three boys from 1982 to 1984 while serving at a Hinsdale church.
Instead of being released, Judge Edward Duncan ordered Lenczycki, 61, moved to a secure facility in Joliet, where he'll be in the custody of the state Department of Human Services, said DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett.
"The good news is he won't be free," said Birkett, who is running for lieutenant governor as a Republican. "The bad news is that he continues to suffer from these mental disorders and that continues to make him a danger to society."
- RCC. SNAP's Mark Lyman arrested.
Troy Record,
By: Robert Cristo, April/11/2006
ALBANY (NY) -- An alleged victim of clergy sex abuse will have to answer for misdemeanor charges that he violated a restraining order while protesting near the Holy Cross Church in Albany during Palm Sunday services.
Mark Lyman, 41, a Troy native and the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, was charged in Albany City Court Monday with violating a recent court order that requires protesters to not come within 100 feet of the Rosemont Street church.
The Stillwater resident, who claims to have been sexually abused by a Franciscan priest and La Salle Institute school chaplain in the late '70s and early '80s, was arrested while protesting with a small group who believe the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany hasn't done enough to help victims of clergy sex abuse.
Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard countered those claims by saying the diocese has done everything "possible to protect children" and that either the protesters are "unaware" of those efforts or are "ignoring" them.
[1982-84 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. Altar boys.
The Beacon News,
By Ted Slowik, ~ April 11, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- A Joliet Diocese priest convicted of sexually abusing young boys could be confined indefinitely under the state's Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act.
The Rev. Fred Lenczycki, 61, was scheduled to be released from the Dixon Correctional Center today after serving less than half of a five-year sentence. But Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan petitioned a DuPage County judge on Monday to keep Lenczycki locked up, saying he remains a danger to society.
"Attorney General Madigan believes the Sexually Violent Persons Act is a critical tool in keeping sexually violent people off the streets," said Melissa Merz of the attorney general's office.
DuPage County Judge Edward Duncan ordered that Lenczycki be transferred to the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services and be held at the sex offender facility in Joliet, Merz said.
The law allows the state to use civil proceedings to involuntarily commit sex offenders after they have served their criminal sentences.
[1982-84 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. Altar boys.
The Herald News,
By Ted Slowik, ~ April 11, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- A Joliet Diocese priest convicted of sexually abusing young boys could be confined indefinitely under the state's Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act.
The Rev. Fred Lenczycki, 61, was scheduled to be released from the Dixon Correctional Center today after serving less than half of a five-year sentence. But Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan petitioned a DuPage County judge Monday to keep Lenczycki locked up, saying he remains a danger to society.
[And so on, as above.]
[22 priests of Joliet Diocese] - RCC. Minors.
The Herald News,
By Ted Slowik, ~ April 11, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet has posted on its Web site a list of 22 priests accused of sexually abusing minors.
Two of the clerics on the list are linked to sexual abuse for the first time, though one of the priests has died and the other is in his 90s.
The list lacks other names of individuals accused of abuse. The diocese qualified its list by saying it contains the names of "diocesan priests against whom a credible/substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor had been made while they were serving in the Diocese of Joliet."
Joliet Bishop Joseph Imesch said in a letter to parishioners last month that the diocese would post the names on its Web site. The list can be found at www.diocese ofjoliet.org/ docs /Listof Priests.pdf .
"The diocese has taken this step in the hope of further facilitating healing and closure for those who have been affected by the tragedy of sexual abuse of a minor," diocesan spokesman Tom Kerber said in a statement. "We also hope that posting the names might encourage those who think they may have been abused to come forward."
- Boston bishop coming.
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
CLEVELAND (OH) -- Richard Lennon, the auxiliary bishop from Boston chosen by Rome to replace retiring Cleveland Catholic Bishop Anthony Pilla, comes to town with a reputation.
His admirers call him a loyal son of the church. So do his detractors. In these troubled times of priest scandals and priest shortages, loyalty to the church is not a trait universally praised.
Plus, Lennon comes from the Boston Archdiocese, perhaps the epicenter of priest sexual abuse scandals, which will dismay those upset by church leaders' see-no-evil cover-up.
[1980s Logan*] - RC official denies mother's story. Girls.
Newsday,
BY CAROL EISENBERG, April 11, 2006
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- A parent active in St. James Parish in Seaford said she told a top diocesan official 25 years ago about what she considered "inappropriate" behavior by the Rev. William Logan, who last month was suspended from ministry because of an allegation of similar behavior around that time.
"We were having all kinds of problems with Father Logan, and I confronted him about it, and I spoke directly to Bishop Daly about this several times," said Linda Kramps, a Great River mother of five who supervised cheerleaders at St. James in the 1980s.
Based on behavior that she said she observed first-hand, or heard from her children and girls she supervised, Kramps said she had relayed concerns to Daly that Logan "blatantly handled young girls in ways that were totally inappropriate. He was hanging on and hugging them. He had young girls riding in his car without their parents' permission. He took them to dark parks at night or to the beach."
Reached in Blue Point yesterday, Daly denied hearing such allegations about Logan, or having a conversation with Kramps.
[1984 Lenczycki] - RCC. Counselling, then on he went. 3 boys.
Chicago Tribune,
By Angela Rozas, Tribune staff reporter, (Tribune staff reporter Manya A. Brachear contributed to this report), Published April 11, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- A Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing three boys at a Hinsdale church will be committed to a mental treatment facility, pending a trial to determine if he is a sexually violent person incapable of rehabilitation, a DuPage County judge ordered Monday.
Attorneys for Rev. Frederick A. Lenczycki, 61, agreed Monday that an expert--hired by the state and county prosecutors--would have testified that the priest is a sexually violent person who would commit abuse if released. Lenczycki's attorneys asked for time to get their own experts to evaluate the clergyman.
Judge Edward Duncan gave them three weeks to come up with a list of potential witnesses.
Lenczycki, dressed in blue prison garb, his hands shackled in front of him, stood quietly while his case was heard in the Wheaton courthouse. He was set to be released on parole Tuesday after serving 2 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to abusing three boys while serving at St. Isaac Jogues Church in Hinsdale in 1984.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:55 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Tue April 11, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse
Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Wed April 12, 2006 edition:
• Alleged Abuse Victim Wants Nun Punished
[1959 Sister Phillip / Josephine Schmitz] - RCC. Nun taught boy French kissing.
KWWL,
www.kwwl. com/Global/ story.asp?S= 4762628& nav=2Ifu , ~ April 12, 2006
IOWA -- A Catholic nun is accused of abusing an Eastern Iowa man as a child. Steve Theisen of Hudson is the leader of Iowa SNAP: the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. In his case, he says the abused by a nun when he was a fourth grader. "It's tough for any survivor to come forward. People have a hard time believing that abusers can be female," says Theisen.
In Theisen's case, that female he's accusing is Sister Mary Phillip, now known as Sister Josephine Schmitz. KWWL went to sister Josephine's home in Dubuque to get her reaction to Theisen's allegations. However, nobody answered the door.
For Theisen's, coming forward is all about helping others. "My main purpose is reaching out to other survivors. And by having her name out there and hopefully the archdiocese putting it on the web if anybody has been abused by this nun to please come forward," says Theisen.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:31 PM]
[1994, 2005 Jacques] - Episcopalian. Boys.
New York Post,
By LAURA ITALIANO, April 12, 2006
NEW YORK -- A defrocked Episcopal priest with a sick appetite for boys has been captured in Canada and brought back to face sodomy charges for allegedly seducing an emotionally troubled 16-year-old in Central Park last year, authorities said.
Bruce Jacques, 57 - whom investigators call a brilliant manipulator - had been living on the lam in Canada and Malaysia since Oct. 20, the day of the alleged attack.
The victim - described as psychologically immature and highly suggestible - was a student at the Robert Louis Stevenson HS on West 74th Street.
For two years, Jacques worked as the fund-raising administrator at the school for kids suffering emotional, psychological or learning difficulties - reportedly hired by hiding a sordid history as rector at St. John's Episcopal Church in New Milford, Conn.
In 1995, a 13-year-old boy at the church accused the then-priest of offering to give him oral sex as a Confirmation present. Resulting lawsuits were settled out of court, and Jacques' collar was yanked in 1998.
[Bolding added]
[1980s Scharff - NEW*] - RCC. Boy.
Courier-Post,
By SARAH GREENBLATT, Wednesday, April 12, 2006
GLOUCESTER CITY, NEW JERSEY -- A veteran teacher and golf coach at Gloucester Catholic High School has resigned amid allegations that he sexually abused a student two decades ago.
Gerald Scharff, 63, stepped down after a Gloucester Catholic alumnus reported he was subjected to "inappropriate touching" in the mid-1980s, said Andrew Walton, spokesman for the Diocese of Camden.
Scharff quit upon learning that he had been placed on administrative leave pending a review by a diocesan review board, Principal John T. Colman said in a letter to parents and guardians of Gloucester Catholic students.
In his letter, dated Monday, Colman urged parents to discuss the matter with their children and report any inappropriate activity they may have experienced.
[? 1970s < 2002 Bernabe] - RCC. Girl.
St. Petersburg Times,
By CHRIS TISCH, April 12, 2006
FLORIDA -- A Catholic priest from the Philippines who was accused of sexually abusing a girl while visiting a Gulfport church decades ago has reportedly died.
The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office learned last summer that the Rev. Polienato Bernabe may have died in the Philippines. Prosecutors had issued a warrant for Bernabe's arrest in 2002, but the priest could not be found.
The St. Petersburg Diocese confirmed this week that a diocese in the Philippines told them of Bernabe's death.
"We did get confirmation that he passed away," said Vicki Bedard, a diocese spokeswoman.
Prosecutor Jim Hellickson said the diocese provided his office with a copy of Bernabe's death certificate, which says he died in 2004. Still, prosecutors are trying to independently verify that Bernabe has died, Hellickson said.
[Bolding added. ]
[COMMENT: Yes, keep checking. A previous case where a diocese said a priest had gone back to an overseas country ended when he was found to have crossed a river in the U.S.A., and was working for a diocese there! Ask yourself, how come that some diocese overseas contacted the US one with a death certificate, but had not contacted the US police while he was alive, so that he could be extradited?
COMMENT ENDS.]
- RCC. Archbishop said to have been strong on scandal.
The Observer,
By Amanda Michaels, April/12/06
SOUTH BEND (IN) -- Joining the more than 2,000 undergraduate and advanced degree candidates receiving diplomas at Notre Dame's 161st Commencement exercises May 21 will be 12 prominent visitors - including Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Harper Lee, the University announced in a statement Tuesday.
Along with keynote speaker Irish President Mary McAleese, the recipients - three women and 10 men, including McAleese - will be awarded honorary degrees from the University acknowledging their work in a wide spectrum of professional fields. ...
Archbishop Michael Sheehan of the Diocese of Santa Fe, New Mex., recognized for his strong leadership in dealing with a sexual abuse scandal existing in the archdiocese prior to his arrival, will also receive a doctor of laws.
[2002-06 Lincoln Diocese] - RCC. Refuses to conform.
The Wanderer,
~ April 12, 2006
LINCOLN (NE) -- (Editor's Note: Following is the complete text of an interview Christopher Manion conducted with Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., about the relationship of his diocese with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board.)
Q. On March 30, Mrs. Ewers, who heads the USCCB's National Review Board, urged your brother bishops to give you some fraternal correction. Do you feel adequately corrected?
A. Sometimes you have to react. If I'm attacked, they are going to get a mouthful of porcupine quills. And it wasn't just me. They attacked my diocese . . . the people who serve on that board. Some Board members support abortion very strongly, such as Leon Panetta. Paul McHugh, a Kinseyite from Johns Hopkins University, has supported human cloning. This is publicized in some of the USCCB's own publications like Origins.
Q. What prompted your response to the published letter from Mrs. Ewers to Bishop Skylstad?
A. I was speechless with indignation, and I refuse to be bossed around by these people. It was explicit in a published report that was put on the Internet, an attack on the Diocese of Lincoln.
• Leader of Catholic lay group speaks against archdiocese
[Archdiocese] - RCC. Tolerating offenders.
Star Tribune,
www.startribune. com/614/story/ 365591.html , by Pamela Miller, Last update 6:56 AM, April 12, 2006
ST. PAUL (MN) -- On Tuesday night, the leader of a group of orthodox laymen called the Defenders of Church Society told about 150 people at a meeting in St. Paul that the archdiocese is violating canon law by tolerating sexual activity by gay and straight priests and covering up a gay subculture that Pence blames for the priest sex abuse scandal.
The archdiocese has adamantly denied the group's claims.
[1994, 2005 Jacques] - Episcopalian. Boys.
The News-Times,
By John Pirro, ~ April 12, 2006
CONNECTICUT -- Twelve years after his son's charges against the pastor split the congregation of St. John's Episcopal Church in New Milford, Kevin McDougall feels a "bitter sense of vindication."
"It's bitter because it came at the expense of another kid, who didn't escape as lightly as my son did," McDougall, who lives in Kent, said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Bruce Jacques, the former church pastor who McDougall's son said had offered him oral sex as a confirmation gift, was arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom for performing a sex act on a 16-year-old boy in Central Park last October.
Jacques, 57, had been on the run for six months. He was arrested Sunday after he was caught Sunday trying to sneak into the United States from British Columbia on Canada's west coast.
[Emphasis added]
- RCC. Victim priest John Nesbella edged out.
Centre Daily,
Associated Press, April 12, 2006
ALTOONA, Pa. -- A Roman Catholic priest who sued his own diocese last year for alleged abuse by another diocesan priest more than 25 years ago has left the priesthood.
John Nesbella, 43, of Lilly, Cambria County, cited criticism he got from other priests after he spoke out against homosexual priests in announcing his decision Tuesday.
"This is the end of a sad tale of how wicked so-called Catholic priests and bishops drove me and a few other priests out because we dared to speak up about the corrupt brotherhood of homosexuals in the priesthood," Nesbella told The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown for Wednesday's editions.
Rob Egan, spokesman for the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese, which Nesbella sued last February, said only, "It's a personal decision."
- RCC. Rev. Charles Murphy cleared by archdiocese.
The Patriot Ledger,
By DENNIS TATZ, April 12, 2006
WEYMOUTH (MA) -- The Rev. Charles J. Murphy is returning to St. Francis Xavier Church in Weymouth now that the archdiocese has cleared him of sexual abuse charges.
"It was a nightmare for him," Boston attorney Timothy O'Neill, who represented the Rev. Murphy in a lawsuit, said yesterday. "He has had tremendous support from the community. There was no credibility (in the charges) whatsoever. He's a good man."
In August 2004, the Rev. Murphy, then 70, was placed on administrative leave following allegations that he molested a young girl years ago while serving as director of counseling at the former Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph.
The Archdiocesan Review Board investigating the alleged incidents recently determined they lacked validity.
[2000s Cardinal Mahony] - RCC. Drug trafficker allegations.
By George Neumayr,
~ April 12, 2006
After Bill Clinton pardoned drug trafficker Carlos Vignali and controversy broke out, James Carville, appearing on Meet the Press in March 2001, sought cover by saying, "I don't know all the facts, but I do know the cardinal of Los Angeles supported this." Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony had written a note to Clinton asking him to consider clemency for the cocaine dealer. But it turned out in the scandalous aftermath that Mahony hadn't even met the felon.
An embarrassed Mahony admitted, "I have never met Mr. Carlos Vignali." Scrambling for an explanation, he said that he had written the note at the direction of "leaders of the community whom I greatly respect" and because he was "well aware of the outstanding contributions which the Vignali family have made to all of Southern California over the years" (though he hadn't met Carlos Vignali Sr. either and said he "knew nothing about [the Vignali family's] past nor their history." ...
Michael Baker, an ex-priest caught molesting children, has testified about Mahony's hypocritical brand of I'm-above-the-law clericalism, recounting that after he offered to turn himself in to the police, Mahony's chancery lawyer said, "Should we call the police now?" And Mahony's response was, according to Baker, "No, no, no." Mahony then assigned Baker - over the subsequent 14 years - to several parishes near schools and children.
Jurors sitting on a case involving a pedophile priest in Stockton (a priest whose ministry partially overlapped with Mahony's tenure as bishop of Stockton) concluded that Mahony didn't even respect the rules of the courtroom. In their deliberations on the size of the settlement to the victims in the case, the jurors disregarded Mahony's testimony, sizing him up as a witness who lacked credibility. One juror told the press that he "found Mahony to be utterly unbelievable."
- RCC. Rev. Charles Murphy cleared by archdiocese.
Salem News,
~ April 12, 2006
BOSTON (MA), (AP) -- A priest accused of sexually abusing a child at a school for the deaf in the 1970s has been reinstated after an investigation found the claims to be unsubstantiated, the Boston Archdiocese said yesterday.
The Rev. Charles J. Murphy was placed on administrative leave in August 2004 after he was accused in a lawsuit of fondling a 12-year-old female student at the school and, two years later, walking into her dormitory room while she was undressing.
The archdiocese said that after investigating the claim, its review board found it to be unfounded.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Los Angeles Times,
By P.J. Huffstutter, April 12, 2006
TOLEDO, Ohio - Surrounded by shade trees at the convent at Our Lady of the Pines, the grave of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl is marked by a small granite tombstone inscribed with the simple message, "May She Rest in Peace."
There is no indication of the turmoil and angst that have surrounded Pahl's gruesome 1980 slaying. It led to the 2004 arrest of Father Gerald Robinson, 67, a popular Roman Catholic priest who helped preside over Pahl's funeral Mass, on charges of strangling and stabbing her to death.
As jury selection begins Monday in Robinson's murder trial, residents say they will spend their Easter weekend bracing for a courtroom drama that has been 26 years in the making.
Some hope for closure in a saga that has long pained this community, where one out of every four people is Catholic and neighborhoods are often referred to by the name of the local parish.
The case has been pulled into the ongoing controversy surrounding the Catholic Church's handling of sex abuse allegations against its priests. Questions also have been raised about whether the Toledo Police Department helped the church cover up old crimes or intentionally looked the other way.
[~ 1976 Szafranski*] - RCC. Teenage girl.
The Bay City Times,
By DENISE FORD-MITCHELL, Tuesday, April 11, 2006
MICHIGAN -- A priest removed from his post in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw admits he was involved in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teenager 30 years ago.
"It was wrong of me and painful to her," the Rev. Richard T. Szafranski wrote in a statement that Bishop Robert J. Carlson read at a press conference Monday.
Szafranski, 57, a Bay City native, is on administrative leave from Zilwaukee Township's St. Matthew Catholic Church while Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas investigates an allegation made by the unidentified woman.
• Defrocked Priest Began Career In Idaho
[1970s+ Cornelius (Sulpician)] - RCC. $US 1m. > 20 young men.
NBC Newschannel 6,
www.kpvi.com/index.cfm?page=nbcheadlines.cfm&ID=32552 , Apr 10, 2006
IDAHO -- One of the few Catholic priests to have ever been defrocked because of sexual abuse began his career as a father right here in southeast Idaho.
Nightside reporter Ty Perry has more.
Father John Cornelius has been accused of sexually abusing over 20 young men. And in the early 70's, Cornelius was part of the seminarian [? seminary] right here in Idaho Falls.
With more than 20 different charges of sexual abuse John Cornelius is facing, at least one comes from Idaho Falls.
Tim McKenna, Sexual Abuse Victim: "I was an actual victim in the case against John Cornelius."
Today, McKenna gave a deposition, hoping to further the case against Cornelius. [...]
Now, as the local president of the SNAP organization: Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, McKenna is asking anybody who has been a victim to come forward.
"If anybody does know of, or is a victim themselves, I ask that you come forward to the SNAP organization."
... www.snapnetwork.org
- RCC. Abused priest John Nesbella edged out.
The Tribune-Democrat,
By SUSAN EVANS, ~ April 12, 2006
LILLY (PA) -- Even after a priest sexually abused him when he was in high school, John Nesbella of Lilly came back to the church.
And when Nesbella became a priest, and his strong stance against homosexuality in the priesthood drew venomous mail from his colleagues, he kept the faith.
But now, at age 43 and after being banned for the past year from publicly performing any priestly duties, the outspoken and controversial Cambria County priest is taking off his collar.
John Nesbella has resigned from the priesthood.
"This is the end of a sad tale of how wicked so-called Catholic priests and bishops drove me and a few other priests out because we dared to speak up about the corrupt brotherhood of homosexuals in the priesthood," he said.
[Berthiaume + 22 others] - RCC.
The Times,
BY DALIA HATUQA, Medill News Service, April 12, 2006
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 12:50 AM CDT
JOLIET (IL) -- A victim's support group was outraged Tuesday that the Joliet Diocese has released what the group claims is an incomplete list of priests accused of sexually abusing children.
"Some names (of abusive priests) were omitted and we find that troubling," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It's disappointing that it takes so much pressure for church leaders to take this minimal step that might help protect children."
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet posted a list of the names of 22 priests involved in the scandal on its Web site on Monday but omitted the names of clergymen who were accused of abusing minors in other places.
"The list includes only those priests against whom a credible allegation was made while they were serving in the Joliet Diocese, not while they were serving elsewhere," said diocesan spokesman Tom Kerber.
The list excluded the name of the Rev. Gary Berthiaume, who served with Joliet Bishop Joseph Imesch at a Michigan parish in the 1970s.
[Decades - Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. Judge Constance Sweeney real heroine.
The Boston Globe,
~ April 12, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Thomas F. Reilly flatters himself.
The attorney general of Massachusetts did not run Cardinal Bernard F. Law out of Boston any more than The Boston Globe did.
The Vatican yanked the discredited archbishop out of Brighton because it made a calculation that the checkbooks of Boston Catholics would stay shut as long as Law remained at the helm of the fourth largest diocese in the United States.
It is tempting, especially for politicians seeking higher office, to rewrite history, but events as recent as this one do not lend themselves so easily to recasting. Reilly came late to this stage, and his role had little impact on the drama that began with Judge Constance Sweeney's decision to open church files to public scrutiny and ended with Law comfortably ensconced in a basilica in Rome.
Certainly Reilly's impact was not nearly as far-reaching as the candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor suggested over the weekend. "There weren't many other people in politics that were willing to stand up to the Archdiocese of Boston in the sexual abuse of children. You are looking at someone who did, and changed things forever," he said.
[Bishop and 2 RC ministers] - RCC. Bishop honouring 2 accused. Minors.
The Herald News,
By Ted Slowik, ~ April 12, 2006
JOLIET (IL) -- A protester disrupted a Holy Week service at the Cathedral of St. Raymond on Monday night as Joliet Bishop Joseph Imesch honored two clerics accused of sexual abuse of minors.
Lee Schulz of Elwood said he stood up and criticized Imesch because of how the bishop has handled cases of priests who sexually abused children.
"I publicly interrupted Imesch last night with hopes of encouraging others to make their voices heard. It is time for the silence to end," Schulz said.
Ushers escorted Schulz from the cathedral, telling him it was neither the time nor the place to cause a disruption, he said.
"I politely disagreed, saying that it is time for the faithful of God to make a stand for righteousness," Schulz said.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
by James Ewinger, Wednesday, April 12, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- There are no little murders. But Gerald Robinson is about to go on trial in Toledo for one that is unusually large, judging by the interest.
He is a Roman Catholic priest. The victim, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, was a nun, and the slaying occurred more than 20 years ago, in the chapel of a hospital where they worked.
The crime is anchored to Easter Sunday - the most sacred, defining day in Christendom. It occurred on Holy Saturday 1980, the day before Easter and what would have been the nun's 72nd birthday.
Robinson's murder trial begins Monday, the day after Easter 2006, when a Lucas County Common Pleas judge begins empaneling a jury under the glare of national - and quite possibly international - media attention.
And why wouldn't the media descend?
There are intimations of a ritual killing, satanic cults, organized sexual abuse and an institutional cover-up.
Someone strangled and stabbed Pahl at least 30 times - the wounds defining an inverted cross. Some of her clothes were pulled off, suggesting a sexual assault.
- Daniel J. Shea is candidate.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass., USA),
By Richard Nangle, rnangle@telegram.com , April 12, 2006
WORCESTER (MA) -- Houston lawyer Daniel J. Shea, a central figure in the local church sexual abuse scandal and a vocal critic of District Attorney John J. Conte, is moving to Worcester County to run for Mr. Conte's seat.
Mr. Shea has taken out nomination papers and will run in a Democratic primary against the only announced candidate in the race, Joseph D. Early Jr.
Through his work representing local victims of priest sexual abuse, Mr. Shea showed himself to be both dogged and glib, a style that placed him in sharp contrast to Mr. Conte, who rarely makes public appearances or statements.
Mr. Shea accused Mr. Conte of working in tandem with the Catholic Diocese of Worcester to keep the local scandal under wraps, and he prodded the district attorney to establish a more adversarial relationship similar to district attorneys who handled sexual abuse matters in the Boston Archdiocese.
Mr. Shea criticized Mr. Conte's repeated donations to the Bishop's Fund, for example, arguing they betrayed a blatant conflict of interest.
Mr. Early, meanwhile, was representing one of the accused clergy, Rev. Joseph Coonan of St. John's Church in Worcester, who was removed from his duties in the church, but has not been charged in connection with allegations of misconduct that allegedly happened before he became a priest.
Mr. Shea said he believes voters will take that into account when they make their choice in the September primary.
"I represented victims," he said.
Mr. Shea said he would transform the district attorney's office into one that is open and accessible to the public. "I certainly would bring a much different style to that," he said. The district attorney is paid an annual salary of $108,000, manages a $7 million budget and oversees more than 60 workers.
He vowed to match Mr. Early's spending dollar-for-dollar, but said at this point he is focusing on obtaining the necessary signatures to place his name on the September primary ballot.
When Mr. Early officially entered the race in 2004, Mr. Conte was already an announced candidate. But in January, Mr. Conte said he would not seek re-election. Mr. Early had $99,650 in his campaign account at the end of March and has raised more than $160,000 to date. "We're hoping to raise $250,000 to $300,000," he said.
"We always assumed we'd have an opponent so we didn't let ourselves get caught by surprise," he said.
In his 2000 Democratic primary bid for state Senate against Harriette L. Chandler, Mr. Early raised $187,000.
Mr. Shea said his campaign would focus on preventing the creation of the new generation of youthful offenders. Calling himself a Bill Clinton Democrat, he said he would implement the former president's "signature piece of legislation," the Workforce Investment Act, a program of job training and education the Bush administration has targeted for deep cuts for fiscal 2007.
Mr. Shea also said he would adhere to state law that requires the district attorney to play a major role in working with the local community and schools on juvenile violence prevention and intervention.
"Law enforcement is more than just chasing down the bad guys," he said. "The district attorney is the chief law enforcement officer in the county. When it comes to establishing public policy, that's the district attorney's job, enacting changes in public policy that will improve the community."
Mr. Early has said his campaign focus will be on juvenile justice and "keeping the streets safer."
Mr. Shea is a donor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and said he would support a bid by New York U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the presidency in 2008.
While Mr. Shea, 62, has lived in Houston for many years, he has local roots. Both his grandfather and father were born in Worcester.
He grew up in Providence, attending Boston University and Rhode Island College after serving on a nuclear submarine in the Navy during the Vietnam era and rising to the rank of petty officer 1st class.
He entered Pope John Seminary in Weston in 1969 and completed his studies at Louvain, an American Catholic seminary in Belgium. He studied for a semester at Boston College before serving as a deacon in Providence for one year and then deciding against joining the priesthood.
He worked for Nuclear Utilities Services in Washington, D.C., and was transferred to Houston where, after 13 years, he decided to seek a law degree at South Texas College of Law, graduating in 1990. He has practiced law in Texas, New York and Massachusetts.
Mr. Shea points to his time spent on a nuclear submarine for developing a no-nonsense personality that he admits rubs some people the wrong way.
"In a submarine there is no room for self-deception," he said.
"You develop a very low tolerance for foolishness. That was probably the most formative experience of my life."
Contact Richard Nangle by e-mail at rnangle@telegram.com.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:50 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Wed April 12, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Child sex law fuels Anglican divide
- Anglican Church.
Child sex law fuels Anglican divide
The West Australian,
p 17, Wednesday, April 12, 2006
SYDNEY: The Anglican Church's highest legal tribunal has been called to referee a dispute between the national Church and Sydney Anglicans over laws to tackle paedophilia in the clergy.
Two years ago, Church leaders approved a national registry of licensed clergy as part of a broader strategy to stop offenders moving from diocese to diocese.
Sydney Diocese has been at the forefront of the child abuse initiatives but wants the national laws to be approved by its local synod first.
The diocese asserts that the national laws affect its "order and good government", prompting the Primate, Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, to refer the question to the Church's Appellate Tribunal.
The tribunal will rule later this year on the status of this national law, and on another special canon that introduces changes to the way charges of misconduct and heresy are brought against bishops.
The national Church's general secretary, the Rev. Canon Bruce McAteer, said that at the heart of the matter was the question of whether the national Church could impose new legislation on a diocese without it being supported by the local synod.
The case had the potential to delay the introduction of the database, which is still being compiled.
"The legal opinion is that it would not affect the introduction of the registry in the dioceses not party to the clarification of the status of the canons," Mr McAteer said.
Garth Blake, a member of the Sydney Diocese and the General Synod standing committee, said the matters were unlikely to have wider ramifications.
"I don't believe there is any lack of commitment within the diocese of Sydney to deal with these issues," he said.
Dr Muriel Porter, a Melbourne Anglican and a critic of the diocese, said it would be grossly unfair if this latest reference took precedence over the issue of women bishops. #
[Apr 12, 06]
• [Rape permitted, says Pakistani migrant]
[2002] - Islam. Girls.
Victim defies stigma attached to rape
The West Australian,
By MIRANDA DEVINE, devinemiranda@hotmail.com , p 24, Wednesday, April 12, 2006
AUSTRALIA: Few question the law that suppresses rape victims' identities. It has been seen as protecting their privacy and, by implication, concealing their shame. But in one impulsive, heroic moment last week, 18-year-old Tegan Wagner threw away that legal protection and revealed to the world her face and her name.
"We're not ashamed of what happened to us," she said. Four years ago, Tegan, then 14, was raped by brothers MSK, 27, and MAK, 26, in their Ashfield home. The two men and their younger brothers MMK, 19, and MRK, 21, are already in jail for gang-raping two other girls at knifepoint.
None of the Pakistan-born brothers, who have identical first names, can be identified because two were minors at the time. Police have evidence that alleges more victims of the brothers have not come forward.
Standing in the NSW Supreme Court last week after MSK and MAK were sentenced, Tegan yelled: "F... you, go to hell."
"I'd like to say, 'Have fun in prison, boys, I won'," she told reporters, as she waived her right to anonymity.
"We're not telling people so they know we've been raped," she told Channel 9's A Current Affair. "We're telling people so other victims know they have support... to just show that you need to be confident if you're a rape victim, especially from these boys. You need to come forward.
"We all need to be strong and stick together and convict these people."
Sitting alongside Tegan was Cassie Hamim, who was 13 in 2002 when she was lured home by the brothers and raped. It was just a month after Tegan's ordeal.
Inspired by Tegan last week, Cassie, too, waived her right to anonymity. "Tegan's grown stronger," she said. "I realise I need to be strong and move on."
Cassie also said that her Muslim father was "disgusted" by the fact the rapists used their religion.in court as an excuse."
MSK, a married Australian citizen and one of seven brothers who migrated to Australia in 1997, blamed cultural misunderstanding for his actions, claiming his upbringing in a small Muslim village in Pakistan taught him he had the right to rape promiscuous girls. Tegan qualified as promiscuous, he told an earlier hearing, because she did not wear a headscarf and had come to his house unchaperoned.
But Justice Peter Hidden dismissed this excuse: "He must have had sufficient exposure to the Australian way of life to be aware that the place occupied by women in the traditional culture of his area of origin is far removed from our social norms."
Despite Tegan's elation after last week's sentencing, the result was more symbolic than satisfying. MSK's jail term was increased by five years and MAK's by two.
"It is as if there is some kind of discount if you do many rapes," Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen said on Friday.
But Ms Cunneen, who ran this prosecution and several other successful rape trials, said she was proud of Tegan and Cassie.
"It is wonderful how they realise in their generation that no shame attaches to being raped," she said. "Part of the idea that (rape victims) not be named is the residual idea that they are also somehow to blame... that it remains a stain on their character."
Ms Cunneen's compassion for the victims ensured they persevered through long, arduous legal processes.
But she has suffered through the perception by some colleagues that she has become too involved with a cultural issue that makes them uncomfortable: a series of sexual assaults in Sydney in which most perpetrators were Muslim men who regarded non-Muslim women as fair game.
To some in the legal establishment she prosecuted these men too aggressively, advocated for the victims too passionately and received too much publicity.
But in the eyes of Tegan and Cassie, Ms Cunneen helped them achieve justice, and protected other women from suffering as they did.
Together, victims and prosecutor have achieved a profound shift in the perception of rape victims, now seen as heroes rather than shamed victims. #
[RECAPITULATION: MSK, a married Australian citizen and one of seven brothers who migrated to Australia in 1997, ... claiming his upbringing in a small Muslim village in Pakistan taught him he had the right to rape promiscuous girls. ... she did not wear a headscarf and had come to his house unchaperoned. ***
Muslim men who regarded non-Muslim women as fair game.
RECAP. ENDS.]
[COMMENT: He's MARRIED, and he has a RIGHT to JUDGE whom he may RAPE! Is it the village culture, or was he taught about seizing the spoils?
(Cassie says her Muslim father was disgusted by the rapists using religion as an excuse, but check the theology.)
COMMENT ENDS.]
[DOCTRINE:
23:1, 5, 6:- Blessed are the believers ... who restrain their carnal desires (except with their wives and slave-girls, for these are lawful to them ...)
24:33:- ... Force not your female slaves into sin, in order that ye may gain the casual fruitions of this world, if they wish to preserve their modesty. Yet if any one compel them, then Verily to them, after their compulsion, will God be Forgiving, Merciful.
33:50 (or 49):- O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom God hath given thee as spoils ...
DOCTRINE ENDS.]
[MORE COMMENT: 24:33 graciously forgives the women if males "compel" them!!! So, one wonders why the mullahs are stoning rape victims to death! And here in 2006, the moderately-light Australian sentence brought the sarcastic comment from the prosecution: "It is as if there is some kind of discount if you do many rapes." Don't the Australian courts also need to straighten up their thinking? Perhaps more women judges are needed? END.]
A copy of this is also on submit/subchron5.htm
[Apr 12, 06]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Thu April 13, 2006 edition:
• Police: Church dismisses music minister charged in New York sex case
[2005-06 Rodriguez -NEW*] - Lutheran. Girls.
The Ridgefield Press,
www.acorn- online.com/ news/publish/ article_5914. shtml , By Jenny Blum, ~ April 13, 2006
CONNECTICUT -- The music minister of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church has been dismissed, after he was arrested on charges of child endangerment and statutory rape.
Omar Rodriguez, 28, had been the music minister and chorus director of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church since September 2004, St. Andrew's Pastor Carla Meier said.
On Friday, April 7, he was arrested on six counts of endangering the welfare of a child in the Town of Mamaroneck, N.Y., where he was a music teacher at the Hommocks Middle School.
After learning of those charges, a 16-year old girl came forward with her parents last weekend to report that Mr. Rodriguez had had sex with her in his Mamaroneck apartment in December 2005 and February 2006, Mamaroneck police said. Mr. Rodriguez was re-arrested on Monday, April 10, on two charges of statutory rape.
An area newspaper reported that the 16-year-old girl was from Ridgefield, but Mamaroneck police said they would not confirm her hometown in order to protect her privacy. Channel 12 News in Norwalk said she lives in Weston.
Lt. James Gaffney of the Village of Mamaroneck Police Department said yesterday, April 12, that the case is under investigation and there may be more charges.
- RCC objected.
The Catholic Telegraph,
~ April 13, 2006
CINCINNATI (OH) -- ARCHDIOCESE - Members of the Ohio Senate approved a bill that extended reporting time for sexual abuse crimes from two to 20 years and strengthened the requirements for church officials to report suspected incidents of abuse by clergy and church employees and volunteers.
Before passing State Bill 17, however, the legislature removed a hotly debated "look-back" period for persons to file lawsuits for incidents that may have occurred decades ago.
The bill passed in the House by a vote of 77-16 and in the Senate by a vote of 18-13 on March 29.
The bill passed the Ohio Senate unanimously last year but has been stalled in the House judiciary committee amid debate between victims' advocates and the Catholic Conference of Ohio over the look-back period.
- Jehovah's Witnesses. Poor response.
Lowell Sun,
By ROBERT MILLS, ~ April 13, 2006
WILMINGTON (MA) -- Rick Fearon stood outside the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall just off Main Street last night knowing a daughter who will no longer speak to him would soon be inside.
That daughter, as well as several other family members, stopped speaking to Fearon a few years ago when he left the church and began speaking out about problems he sees in the Jehovah's Witness religion.
A Jehovah's Witness for more than 40 years, Fearon now wants to inform people of accusations that the church does not adequately react to reports of sexual abuse of children, and charges the church's teachings on blood transfusions have needlessly killed Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide.
"I attended this congregation and never realized the problems they had," he said.
Fearon stood across the street from the Kingdom Hall with about a half-dozen others in the hopes they would make those new to the church look into it more deeply.
- RCC opposes "look-back". $US 1.38 bn so far
USA Today,
By Richard Willing, April 12, 2006
UNITED STATES -- The Catholic Church is having early success in fighting proposals in state legislatures that would permit people claiming they were sexually abused as children to sue priests and other church officials long after the alleged offenses occurred.
Measures proposed in nine states would suspend statutes of limitation and allow lawsuits to be filed regardless of when an alleged offense took place. The proposals are patterned on a 2003 California law that allowed a one-year window for suits to be filed there without regard to the statute of limitations.
Since March, aggressive lobbying by the church helped to bottle up such a measure in a state Senate committee in Maryland, and to alter the language of an Ohio bill to rule out new lawsuits. A bill in Colorado's Legislature is being debated, but it's a long shot because of intense Catholic opposition, the bill's supporters say. The church is gearing up to fight proposals in Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Mark Chopko, counsel to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the bills unfairly target Catholics and could add millions of dollars to the $1.38 billion the U.S. church has paid since 1950 to settle claims and for other expenses related to sexual abuse of minors by priests.
[1980s Scharff *] - RCC. Boy.
Gloucester County Times,
By Pete McCarthy, pmccarthy@sjnewsco.com , Thursday, April 13, 2006
GLOUCESTER CITY (NJ) -- A long-time Gloucester Catholic High School teacher and golf coach has been accused of having sexual contact with a student approximately 20 years ago while out of state, leading to his resignation.
Gerald Scharff, 63, stepped down last week after the allegations of "inappropriate touching" were made by the man who attended Gloucester Catholic in the mid-1980s, according to Andrew Walton, spokesman for the Diocese of Camden.
"It's not clear whether it was school sponsored or not," Walton said of the alleged event.
He declined to identify the state in which the alleged incident occurred or the circumstances around it to protect the identity of the accuser.
The Camden County Prosecutor's Office announced on Wednesday it would not be investigating these allegations because they reportedly took place out of state.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:14 AM]
• Real (Ray) Bourque, O.M.I.
[~ 1979 + Bourque (Oblate)] - RCC. Many boys.
Bishop Accountability,
www.bishop- accountability. org/docs /boston/ bourque , ~ April 13, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- We believe these are all the Bourque personnel documents filed with the court by Attorney Eric MacLeish in the Ford case. This is not Bourque's complete file. In particular, the documents below refer to other documents that should be in the Boston files or were in the Oblate provincial's files:
1979 Oblate letter to Boston auxiliary bishop Hart, probably in regard to his phone call and visit with the Oblate provincial about Bourque (see AOB 00150 for reference to call and visit; see AOB 00148 for reference to Oblate letter).
Document in Oblate files containing "reference to incidents in Maine" (see reference in AOB 00148).
1993 or 1994 letter by Cardinal Law in Wellesley parish bulletin about abuse (see reference in AOB 00146).
1997 circular letter by Bourque to many people in Boston area, suggesting that he is back in ministry there (see reference in AOB 00141).
See also Bourque's assignment record .
- Dan Shea to contest DA position.
Worcester Magazine,
By Scott Zoback, April 13, 2006
WORCESTER (MA) -- We all heard this week that a new wild-card candidate had pulled papers to run for District Attorney.
Lawyer Dan Shea is best known around here for his work on the clergy abuse scandal and his defense of conte2006.com proprietor Mary Jean, but is still only reachable on his Texas-area cell phone.
That's changing, Shea says. He tells us he signed a contract and a mortgage for a new place in town on Tuesday - not even a full day after pulling papers to run.
"I was coming back [to Worcester] anyway," says Shea. "I won't only be a politician, I'll be a taxpayer, and I'll be a real, live, Worcester person."
- RCC.
Catholic Sentinel,
by Ed Langlois, Apr/13/2006
PORTLAND (OR) -- He's a kind man, an extrovert with a penchant for baseball, the kind of guy you'd want as an uncle. Right now, he has one of the hardest jobs in Oregon.
Portland Archbishop John Vlazny, 69, arrived in the state in 1997 and had what he calls a two-year honeymoon. Then from out of the past came sexual abuse allegations against Oregon priests, sometimes-jaded news coverage, bankruptcy and possibly years of hearings.
"In the beginning, I was looking at it as a distraction from the more important work of the church," the archbishop says. "But a pastor has to deal with what is there in the lives of the people."
He feels bad for the church, bad for priests, bad for victims and sometimes even bad for himself. He worries about the archdiocese's uncertain footing.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:06 PM]
[? < 2000-06 Cardinal George] - RCC. 30 errors re McCormack.
Chicago Tribune,
By Manya A. Brachear, April 13, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Robert Costello recalls how his mother used to draw the window shades in the afternoon hours of Good Friday so the family could contemplate Jesus Christ's suffering during the hours Christ hung on the cross.
This year Costello is coming to Chicago from his home in Norwood, Mass., to hold a vigil Friday outside Holy Name Cathedral and ponder the pain of children allegedly abused by Rev. Daniel McCormack, a Chicago priest.
Costello and other Catholics from Massachusetts, Indiana, Kentucky and New York also will petition peacefully for Cardinal Francis George to resign as head of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
McCormack, 37, served in several churches despite allegations of sexual misconduct dating back to his time in the seminary. Prosecutors have charged the priest with sexually abusing three boys at his West Side parish.
Subsequent audits commissioned by George revealed more than 30 missteps and oversights in the handling of the McCormack case that put children at risk.
[~ 1979 + Bourque (Oblate)] - RCC. Many boys.
News-Democrat,
BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK, ~ April 13, 2006
BELLEVILLE (IL) -- The Rev. Real "Ray" Bourque, who admits that he sexually abused boys in the late 1970s and early '80s while serving as a priest on the East Coast, was transferred four years ago to a retirement home in Belleville.
During a brief telephone interview Monday, Bourque said that while he did sexually abuse children, he was himself a victim of molestation as a child by an attacker who was not a priest.
Asked whether he had sexually molested boys, Bourque responded: "Eventually I did." He declined further comment, saying, "I was a victim myself ... I'm retired. I'm 78 years old. I don't want to be part of a witch hunt."
A spokesman for the most Rev. Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Atlanta and former bishop of Belleville, said if Gregory had had any knowledge of Bourque's transfer or background, he would not have allowed the admitted child molester to reside within the diocese.
- RCC. $US 400,000 +. Relatives, lady friends.
Cleveland Scene,
~ April 13, 2006
CLEVELAND (OH) -- When Richard Lennon was named the new bishop of Cleveland's Catholic Diocese last week, a Plain Dealer headline noted that "Lennon has always said yes when asked to do tough jobs." His new job may be his toughest yet.
Though Lennon, a Boston auxiliary bishop, was in the midst of that diocese's massive pedophile scandal, he'll face a new round of problems in Cleveland: the impending indictments of church financial officials.
The U.S. Attorney's Office is reportedly in the midst of an investigation that may involve significant improprieties. Church officials have been accused of creating off-the-book accounts -- some as large as $400,000 -- for their personal use. They also allegedly asked outside contractors to overbill the diocese, then redirect the excess payments to church officials and their designates.
Finally, there is speculation that certain contracts may have benefited the relatives of church leaders, and that "lady friends" of priests were supported by church money, though this could not be confirmed.
[1984-94 Mons. Fushek] - RCC. Fondled in Confession. 7 young men, boys.
The Arizona Republic,
by Jim Walsh, Apr. 13, 2006
ARIZONA -- A judge Wednesday refused to throw out a series of sex charges against the former pastor of St. Timothy's Catholic Church in Mesa even though his attorney argued that the evidence was protected by the seal of the confessional.
San Tan Justice of the Peace Sam Goodman rejected arguments by Monsignor Dale Fushek's three defense attorneys that his conversations about sex with a series of victims were during confessions and protected by the First Amendment's right of free speech.
Goodman did not explain the reasons for his ruling, which leaves Fushek facing five counts of contributing to delinquency of a minor, two counts of indecent exposure and three counts of assault.
Goodman in February granted a defense motion freeing Fushek from wearing an ankle monitor.
[1980s Scharff*] - RCC. Boy.
Courier Post,
By LARRY HANOVER, Thursday, April 13, 2006
GLOUCESTER CITY (NJ) -- Allegations of sexual abuse against a longtime Gloucester Catholic High School teacher and coach mark the first time the Camden Diocese has been forced to act under the zero-tolerance charter adopted by Catholic bishops four years ago, a diocese official said.
The result has been something not expected as revelations of abuse have dominated the news in recent years -- agreement among the diocese and groups representing sexual-abuse victims that the system seems to have worked.
The teacher, Gerald Scharff, 63, resigned Friday after learning he was placed on administrative leave. Scharff did not return calls seeking comment, although supporters continued to argue he is wrongly accused.
It was unclear Wednesday whether Scharff might face criminal or civil action.
[? < 2000-06 Cardinal George] - RCC. Retained accused McCormack.
CBS 2,
By Alan Suderman, Medill News Service, ~ April 13, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Two conservative Roman Catholic groups joined their liberal counterparts on Wednesday in calling for Cardinal Francis George to resign.
Michael Tario of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Prevention of Clergy Sex Abuse, and Paul Picchietti of the Roman Catholic Faithful lambasted George as being unresponsive to parishioners' concerns about sexual misconduct by priests. They made their allegations at a press conference held outside the Archdioceses of Chicago's offices at 155 E. Superior.
"It just doesn't seem like our leadership is willing or able to do anything about it," said Picchietti, whose group condemns homosexuality and non-traditional Latin masses.
[1959 Sister Philip / Josephine Schmitz] - RCC. Nun taught boy French kissing.
KIMT,
by Anthony Welsch, KIMT - NewsChannel 3, Wednesday, April 12, 2006
IOWA -- You probably remember Steve Theisen. We talked with him back in February about what he claims to have gone through as a fourth grader.
Today, he publicly named and asked for an investigation into Sister Mary Philip, who Theisen says abused him in the 1960's.
"Basically, you had a late 30's, early 40 year old nun with her tongue in a 9 year old boy repeatedly after school, on weekends," Theisen said.
While Theisen says his abuse happened in Eastern Iowa, Sister Mary Philip served two stints at the Visitation Parish in Stacyville, just east of Osage.
We spoke with that church's pastor Wednesday afternoon- He says until today, he'd never even heard of Mary Philip.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:06 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Thu April 13, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Fri April 14, 2006 edition:
[1980s] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. Altar boy.
Irish Examiner,
By Jimmy Woulfe, ~ April 14, 2006
IRELAND -- A LIMERICK man, who claimed he was sexually abused by a priest, took his own life two days after he had mediation talks with priests in the diocese, it was confirmed last night.
It emerged last night that Peter McCloskey, 37, was found dead last week.
He had met representatives of the diocese of Limerick 48 hours before his body was found, in a bid to address allegations of sexual abuse he said happened in the 1980s.
Mr McCloskey claimed he was abused by a priest when he served as an altar boy at 10 years of age.
• Man asks Dubuque archdiocese to reopen sexual abuse case
[~ 1960s Sister Philip / Josephine Schmitz (Franciscan)] - RCC. Boy.
WHO,
www.whotv. com/Global/ story.asp?S= 4769108& nav=2HAB , April 14, 2006
DUBUQUE, Iowa -- A Hudson man who says he was sexually abused by a nun has asked the Archdiocese of Dubuque to reopen his case.
The archdiocese had previously ruled that Steve Theisen's claims that he was fondled as a child could not be substantiated.
Theisen called a press conference this week and said he wants church officials to do a "proper investigation."
Theisen has accused a Franciscan sister of abusing him in the early 1960s at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Dubuque. Theisen says the sister kept him after school and kissed and fondled him.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:05 AM]
[? < 1988, 1994-96 Hagan] - RCC. Boy.
Chicago Tribune,
By Manya A. Brachear, April 14, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- A 24-year-old construction worker from Chicago sued a former Roman Catholic priest Thursday, saying the priest molested him for two years until he was removed from ministry for sexual misconduct with minors.
Had the Archdiocese of Chicago removed James Craig Hagan, 58, of Berwyn as soon as the first allegation of abuse was reported in 1988, children would have been safer, said Jeff Anderson, the attorney for the plaintiff, whose name was not disclosed. plaintiff's attorney. The archdiocese is named in the lawsuit.
Hagan could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Colleen Dolan, communications director for the archdiocese, said the 1988 accusation was reported to the Cook County state's attorney's office and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The child welfare agency determined the allegation to be unfounded, and prosecutors did not pursue it, Dolan said.
[Emphasis added.]
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:53 AM]
[1967-70 McMahon -NEW*] - RCC. Girl.
The Boston Globe,
By Cristina Silva | April 14, 2006
MASSACHUSETTS -- A former Foxborough priest was indicted yesterday for the alleged rape and sexual abuse of a young girl nearly 40 years ago, the Norfolk district attorney's office said.
Gerard McMahon, 70, of Pensacola, Fla., was indicted by a Norfolk grand jury on one count of rape of a child and one count of indecent assault and battery of a child, said David Traub, a spokesman for the district attorney's office. McMahon was not in custody yesterday, and it was not clear when he would face formal charges.
McMahon is accused of raping and indecently touching the girl, whom he knew from his duties as a priest at St. Mary's Church in Foxborough between 1967 and 1970, Traub said.
Despite the lapse of time since the alleged crime occurred, the district attorney was able to pursue charges because of a provision in the statute of limitations that excludes any period of time a suspect is not a resident of Massachusetts. [...]
After leaving the military, McMahon moved to Pensacola, where he was occasionally asked by other priests to work in various churches, though he was still considered a priest with the Boston Archdiocese, said Peggy DeKeyser, spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. [...]
[? < 1988, 1994-96 Hagan] - RCC. Boy.
Pantagraph,
Associated Press, April 14, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Attorneys representing a man who said he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest a decade ago filed a lawsuit Thursday against the priest and the Archdiocese of Chicago, which they accused of covering up prior abuse by the priest.
The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court accuses the Rev. James C. Hagan, 59, of battery and child sexual abuse and the archdiocese of negligence and fraud.
The plaintiff, identified only as "John Doe 105," is a Chicagoan in his early 20s who formerly was an altar boy at St. Denis Church on the city's southwest side, said one of his attorneys, Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minn.
Anderson, a leading lawyer for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said the plaintiff recently came forward to say he had been repeatedly molested by Hagan in 1994-96, when he was 13 and 14 years old and Hagan was serving at St. Denis.
[? < 1988, 1994-96 Hagan] - RCC. Boy.
Chicago Sun-Times,
April 14, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and a priest who has been removed from ministry are defendants in a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday by a "John Doe" who says he was molested in his early teens.
The unnamed plaintiff alleges that from 1994 to 1996, when he was 13 to 14 years old, he was repeatedly sexually molested by the Rev. James C. Hagan while at St. Denis parish in Chicago. The six-count sex abuse lawsuit, which includes charges of negligence and fraud on the part of the archdiocese, is asking for compensation in excess of $50,000.
Hagan was put on administrative leave in 1996, ending an eight-year stint as pastor of St. Denis, according to a statement issued by the archdiocese Thursday night. Hagan has not been a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago since April 1997.
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Fri April 14, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Sat April 15, 2006 edition:
• Former St. John's pastor arrested
[1994, 2005 Jacques] - Episcopalian. Boys.
New Milford Spectrum,
www.spectrum.newmilford.com/story.php?id=655263 ,
By John Pirro, ~ April 15, 2006
NEW MILFORD (CT) -- It's been 12 years since allegations against the then-pastor of New Milford's St. John's Episcopal Church split the parish and ultimately led to his defrocking.
On Tuesday, Bruce Jacques, the former St. John's pastor who in 1994 was accused of offering oral sex to a teenaged boy as a confirmation gift, was arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom for allegedly performing a sex act on a 16-year-old boy in Central Park last October.
Twelve years after the local incident, Kevin Mcdougall - the father of the teen who made the charges against the Rev. Jacques - said he feels a "bitter sense of vindication" over the news of Mr. Jacques' arrest in New York City.
"It's bitter because it came at the expense of another kid, who didn't escape as lightly as my son did," Mr. Mcdougall, who lives in Kent, said Tuesday.
Mr. Jacques, 57, had apparently been on the run for six months. Officials said he was arrested Sunday after he was caught Sunday trying to sneak into the United States from British Columbia on Canada's west coast.
[Emphasis added.]
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:43 AM]
- RCC's Fr James Donaghy trial won't proceed.
Belfast Telegraph,
by Michael McHugh, April 15, 2006
NORTHERN IRELAND -- Charges against a priest accused of child sex abuse have been dropped by prosecutors, it emerged yesterday.
Friends of the former parish priest in Bangor Fr James Donaghy have welcomed the decision as a vindication of his reputation.
The Public Prosecution Service decided this week that Fr Donaghy should not be prosecuted because the evidence was not strong enough to provide a reasonable chance of conviction.
Fr John McManus from the Down and Connor Diocese said the priest had been through a very difficult time.
"I can confirm that the charges against Fr Donaghy have been dropped. Fr Donaghy has been through a very difficult two years, years of emotional and spiritual upset," he said.
• Landmark murder trial of priest to start Monday; Toledo nun was killed day before Easter '80
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
http://toledo blade.com/ apps/pbcs. dll/article?AID= /20060415/ NEWS02/ 60415005 ,
By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, April 15, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- It is believed to be the first time a priest has faced a murder trial for the death of a nun, and it's happening in Toledo on Monday.
On a cold April morning in 1980, the day before Easter, an elderly nun was strangled and stabbed in the room next door to Mercy Hospital's chapel.
Another nun found the body of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on the marble floor of the sacristy, where she had gone to prepare the chapel for Holy Saturday Mass.
The 71-year-old nun, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, had been strangled, then stabbed between 27 and 32 times in the chest and neck. Her undergarments had been pulled down over an ankle. [...]
Homicide detectives eventually packed up their reports, boxed the evidence, and put everything on the shelf.
Until December, 2003.
That month, a Toledo cold-case squad, acting on new information, dusted off the evidence and reopened the investigation. On April 23, 2004, they announced that they were charging a local priest, the Rev. Gerald Robinson, in the murder of Sister Margaret Ann. [...]
[With pictures]
[Read the whole newsitem to learn about Robert Cooley, a licensed psychologist, who was dismissed for "blowing the whistle", and Dave Davison, a retired Toledo policeman, who has pleaded for the case to be re-opened.]
- Mormons.
Newschannel 6,
Apr 13, 2006
IDAHO -- The Idaho Falls sexual abuse case was a minor allegedly assaulting a minor. We checked on the policies of the LDS Church to see what they're doing to help prevent adults from assaulting kids.
In February of this year, the church instituted new policies for the Primary, that's where children ages three to eleven attend class.
A church spokesperson says if possible, all primary classrooms should have a window. Also, if a man is asked to teach the class, there must be another adult in the classroom.
Where this is impossible, a member of the primary presidency should periodically check on that class.
[1980s Warren Jeffs] - Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of LDS. Boy (nephew).
AZCentral.com ,
The Associated Press, Apr. 15, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY (UT) -- Two brothers of fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs have been dropped from a sexual-abuse lawsuit because they have gone through bankruptcy proceedings.
Third District Judge Stephen Roth on Monday dismissed Leslie B. Jeffs and Blaine B. Jeffs from the lawsuit, which also names Warren Jeffs, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the church's property arm, the United Effort Plan Trust.
Brent Jeffs, now 23, a nephew of the three men, filed suit in July 2004 alleging that Warren Jeffs sodomized him and the other two men watched and participated in the abuse in the late 1980s. He said they told him the actions were a way to make him a man.
Brent Jeffs, who was around 5 or 6 at the time, alleged he was abused in the Salt Lake area.
[1994, 2005 Jacques] - Episcopalian. Boys.
WTNH,
AP, 8:45 PM, Apr. 11, 2006
NEW YORK -- A fired high school administrator and defrocked priest who had been on the run for almost six months is now in jail without bail in New York City.
57-year-old Bruce Jacques was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court today on charges of sexually molesting a teenage student last year. He was charged with one count of third-degree criminal sex act.
His next court appearance is Friday.
Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Kerry O'Connell says Jacques was caught Sunday while trying to sneak into the United States from British Columbia on Canada's west coast. Kerry says Jacques had spent most of his time as a fugitive in Malaysia.
[Bolding added]
- RCC secret finances.
Albany Times Union,
Saturday, April 15, 2006
ALBANY (NY) -- Bishop Howard Hubbard's plea for school tax credits for parochial school students is a noble goal, but it should be viewed in light of the church's handling of finances.
The most recent report of the Catholic bishops says that they have spent more than $1 billion on sexual abuse case settlements. There have been few public church reports nationally or locally on these expenses.
For years, parishioners were not told that settlements had been made and that priests were abusing children. The financial condition of the church from Albany to Rome is still secret.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
Apr. 14, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- THE trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson, due to begin next week with jury selection, has all the ingredients to become the most sensational legal proceeding ever to take place in Lucas County, and it would be foolish to pretend otherwise.
Never before, thankfully, has the courthouse stage been set for testimony about a vicious murder, with a nun as victim and a priest as defendant, fueled by allegations of sexual abuse and occult activities.
No wonder Court TV plans gavel-to-gavel coverage, accompanied by dozens of print and electronic reporters, producers, and photographers, many from out of town.
The knee-jerk reaction would be to categorize the whole thing as a "media circus," but that would be to discount the intense interest and apprehension, not just in Toledo but from around the world, in one of the most riveting stories of our time - sexual abuse of children on the part of Roman Catholic clergy over many years.
In truth, this 26-year-old murder case probably never would have come to trial had it not been for allegations of that very sort.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, Apr. 14, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Two members of SNAP, the advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse, became embroiled in an emotional showdown with a Toledo diocesan official yesterday when they were barred from church property while trying to deliver a letter to Bishop Leonard Blair.
Claudia Vercellotti and Jon Schoonmaker, co-coordinators of the local Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, were blocked at the Catholic Center's sidewalk by Patty Stein, building manager.
After a long and smoldering standoff, the SNAP representatives handed Ms. Stein a letter urging Bishop Blair to forbid the Rev. Gerald Robinson from wearing clerical garb during his murder trial, slated to begin Monday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
The SNAP officials said in the letter they "fear that allowing Father Robinson to dress in clerical garb may unduly bias the proceedings" and "inappropriately influence the jury."
[< 1988, 1994-96 Hagan] - RCC. Boy.
Belleville News-Democrat,
~ Apr. 15, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Attorneys representing a man who said he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest a decade ago filed a lawsuit Thursday against the priest and the Archdiocese of Chicago, which they accused of covering up prior abuse by the priest.
The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court accuses the Rev. James C. Hagan, 59, of battery and child sexual abuse and the archdiocese of negligence and fraud.
The plaintiff, identified only as "John Doe 105," is a Chicagoan in his early 20s who formerly was an altar boy at St. Denis Church on the city's southwest side, said one of his attorneys, Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minn.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
MLive.com ,
By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press, 9:03 p.m. ET, Apr/14/2006
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A day before Easter in 1980, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was found strangled and stabbed in a hospital chapel, the wounds on the nun's chest and neck forming what investigators say resembled a cross. An altar cloth covered part of her body.
The trail soon went cold and stayed that way for more than 20 years - until investigators circled back to the priest who presided at her funeral Mass.
On Monday, the Rev. Gerald Robinson, 68, goes on trial on murder charges in a case swirling with allegations of an official cover-up, rumors of sexual abuse rites among priests, and suspicions that the killing was some kind of ritual slaying. Robinson could get life in prison if convicted.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:01 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Sat April 15, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Sun April 16, 2006 edition:
• Judge gives rabbi lifetime probation
[Lipman] - Judaism. Female.
The Daily Courier,
http://prescott dailycourier. com/main.asp? SectionID=1& SubSectionID= 1&ArticleID=39381 ,
By MIRSADA BURIC, ~ April 16, 2006
PRESCOTT (AZ) -- An articulate letter from the victim pleading with the court not to sentence former Rabbi David Lipman to prison for molesting her warranted him lifetime intensive probation on Thursday.
Yavapai County Superior Court Judge William Kiger said in his 12-year career as a judge he hasn't dealt with a more unusual and difficult case.
After listing all mitigating factors, Kiger read portions of the letter in which the victim said, "Don't punish me by sending (the defendant) to jail."
She said sending Lipman to prison would make her regret that she ever came forward with the accusations against him.
"I have never had this articulate presentation," Kiger said, explaining how the court has to listen to what the victim has to say in addition to fulfilling societal expectations when deciding "what is the just and right thing to do."
• Priest's Molestation Conviction Overturned
- RCC. Misconduct by prosecutor at Lopez trial.
Los Angeles Times,
www.latimes. com/news/print edition/calif ornia/la-me- briefs14.2apr 14,1,1800779. story?coll=la- headlines-pe- california ;
From Times Staff and Wire Reports, April 14, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- A state court of appeals overturned the conviction of a Los Angeles priest accused of molesting boys, ruling Thursday that the prosecutor's comments had prejudiced the jury.
Fernando Lopez, a Colombian national and associate pastor, had been convicted of molesting three boys at Koreatown's St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church between 2001 and 2004.
But the appeals court said the prosecutor's comments during the trial, including an allusion to the Catholic Church's broader molestation scandal, was implying "guilt by association" and constituted misconduct.
[Emphasis added.]
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:24 PM]
[1990s-2000s Altoona-Johnstown Diocese] - RCC. Hutchison to get $US 1m.
Altoona Mirror,
By Phil Ray, pray@altoonamirror.com , April 16, 2006
PENNSYLVANIA -- A court battle that has lasted nearly two decades between a former Altoona man and the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese has ended with an announcement Saturday that the diocese will not file another appeal.
Bishop Joseph V. Adamec's decision is printed in the Monday edition of The Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the diocese. Although the publication date is April 17, some parishioners received their copies in the mail Saturday.
Adamec's decision means 38-year-old Michael Hutchison, now of Columbus, Ohio, will receive $1 million plus interest in punitive damages awarded by a Blair County jury in 1994. Hutchison claimed that he was sexually molested by a priest.
The payment will be forwarded through Hutchison's attorney this week.
[< 2003 Cleveland Diocese] - ? $US 500,000 to Kodger. RCC.
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
by James F. McCarty, Saturday, April 15, 2006
CLEVELAND (OH) -- The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland will pay a substantial settlement and apologize to a sex-abuse victim and his parents under terms of a tentative agreement reached this week in a defamation lawsuit.
Christopher Kodger, 39, of Homer, Alaska, who joined his parents in the suit filed against the diocese in 2003, was prepared to return to Ohio for a trial April 24 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
But he said Thursday that a trial will be unnecessary after diocesan officials agreed to compensate the Kodgers with a significant award - believed to be about $500,000 - after Bishop Anthony Pilla writes a letter of apology for a potentially libelous statement.
"They can tell the truth on the witness stand or they can apologize," Kodger said in a telephone interview. "Either way they pay."
An attorney for the diocese did not return a call seeking comment.
Diocesan spokesman Bob Tayek said settlement discussions had been held, but he declined to say if an agreement had been reached.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:17 AM]
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
WKYC,
~ April 16, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Activists in Toledo are urging that a Catholic priest not be allowed to wear a clerical collar when he goes on trial for murder.
Two members of an advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse tried to deliver a letter detailing their concerns to Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair yesterday.
They fear seeing Reverend Gerald Robinson dressed as a priest might influence jurors. But they were barred from entering the diocesan Catholic Center and had to give their letter to the building's manager.
• Innocence lost - The church at Easter
- Various Churches.
Jamaica Gleaner,
www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060416/focus/focus1.html ,
by Ian Boyne (a veteran journalist), ianboyne1@yahoo.com , Contributor, Sunday | April 16, 2006
JAMAICA -- IT IS not only Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller who should gauge carefully the negative reactions and cautions about her promotion of Christianity. The church had better take careful notes, too.
There was a time when a Jamaican Prime Minister's announcement about putting a pastor on every state board and the invoking of the name of God would attract unanimous public applause.
Not anymore. What has changed in Jamaica? First, media have had a major negative impact on the image of the church.
There were always rascals, hypocrites and the corrupt in the church but they were traditionally outside the media's glare. People heard whispers, but the confirmed immorality and abuse which the media have documented was not the order of the day.
The sex scandals in the Roman Catholic and other churches, the not infrequent local headlines about sexual and other transgressions in the church and the impact of global media have significantly affected people's perceptions of the church. Innocence has been lost. [***]
Christians must distance themselves from those hypocrites ready to kill gays but accommodating of fornicators and adulterers. In Christian theology, adultery and fornication are in the same category of sin as homosexuality. Singling one out for criminalisation and discrimination is unbiblical.
The challenge to the church in Jamaica is to be credible, consistent and critical. It is a challenge the church must meet if it is to harness the unique opportunity which has been thrust upon it by the accession to office of Portia Simpson Miller. #
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
April 16, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- There will be no public parking at meters on the east side of Michigan Street from Jackson to Adams streets and on both sides of Adams from Michigan to Erie Street beginning tomorrow for the start of the Rev. Gerald Robinson murder trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
Meters will be bagged, and the areas will be designated parking for media vehicles until the end of the trial, which is scheduled to last at least three weeks, Toledo police Sgt. Richard Murphy said.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
by Russ Lemmon, April 16, 2006
Seven molasses-coated Lemmon Drops to nibble on while waiting for the first spotting of a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited:
TOLEDO (OH) -- In ranking all-initial organizations that provoke the most intense knee-jerk reactions from their opponents, the ACLU would have to be No. 1 nationally. Take your pick for No. 2, PETA or the NRA.
In Catholic-rich northwest Ohio, SNAP might challenge the ACLU for the top spot.
On Thursday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held another one of its orchestrated, made-for-media events in front of the Toledo diocese headquarters. SNAP representatives were there to deliver a letter to Bishop Leonard Blair, asking that the Rev. Gerald Robinson not be allowed to wear his clerical collar during his murder trial.
SNAP's problem is that a certain percentage of Catholics automatically dismisses its message. Just because it's SNAP. (I could make a case that SNAP's insistence that the Oscar-nominated documentary Twist of Faith be shown in a commercial venue in the Toledo area was a big factor in why it wasn't.)
Had SNAP not made an issue of Father Robinson wearing his clerical collar in court, I never would given it a thought. But, you know, it is a valid argument. (For what it's worth, I disagree with SNAP's stance.)
- RCC. Misconduct by prosecutor at Lopez trial.
ABC News,
Apr 14, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA), (AP) -- A state appeals court has overturned a former Roman Catholic priest's conviction on charges of molesting three boys.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled 2-1 on Thursday that misconduct occurred during Fernando Lopez's trial when the prosecutor expressed her personal opinions to jurors.
Lopez, a Colombian citizen, was found guilty in March 2005 of molesting the boys during a three-year period that began shortly after his transfer to Los Angeles from Rome in 2001.
The majority of the court panel wrote that the prosecutor made improper comments by saying in a rebuttal argument: "I don't think (the defense attorney) is mean or stupid. But I think his client is guilty."
- RCC. 900 potential.
The Eagle-Tribune,
By Yadira Betances, April 16, 2006
MASSACHUSETTS -- Some 900 people in Massachusetts and New Hampshire tonight will become Catholic - the largest group of new Catholics since the priest sex abuse scandal broke four years ago.
"It shows that the faith is growing and that we can see beyond the controversy that God works in wonderful ways," said Diane Jarvis, director of religious education at St. Patrick's Church in Lawrence, which welcomed 26 new members last night. ...
Wearing white dresses, Pamela Pfifferling, 37, and her 12-year-old daughter Courtney were among those receiving First Communion at St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill. The sexual abuse scandal did make Pfifferling postpone her decision to join the church and enroll her daughters in religious education classes.
"It bothered and disturbed me as it would any parent," she said. "You think that you're safe bringing your kids to church, but when you hear about that, you ask yourself, 'Why should I bring them?' What was going on was frightening."
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sun April 16, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Mon April 17, 2006 edition:
• Sex abuse cases heading for court
[Portland Archdiocese] - RCC. 130 cases.
OregonLive.com ,
www.oregon live.com/news flash/regional/ index.ssf?/base/ news-14/114531 4460212970.xml& storylist= orlocal ;
By WILLIAM McCALL, The Associated Press, 3:39 p.m. PT, Apr/17/2006
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - After stopping a flood of priest sex abuse lawsuits with the first bankruptcy ever filed by a Roman Catholic diocese two years ago, nearly 130 cases are now heading for court.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris on Monday cleared the way for alleged victims of abuse to go to trial after waiting almost two years for a settlement with the Archdiocese of Portland.
The archdiocese and its creditors - the alleged victims - have both drafted settlement plans but have been unable to agree.
Monday was the deadline for deciding whether to go to court, and 88 victims chose to have their cases heard in federal court while nearly 40 are headed to state court, said Erin Olson, attorney for several alleged victims.
Nearly all the cases referred to state court resulted from alleged abuse by prison chaplains at the MacLaren School for Boys, the state facility for juvenile offenders, Olson said.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:01 PM]
[MacQuarrie -NEW*] - RCC. Harassment allegation.
WDTN,
~ April 17, 2006
OHIO -- A local priest and the Archbishop are named in a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Friday afternoon, court papers were filed against Father John MacQuarrie. He's pastor at the Transfiguration Catholic Church in West Milton. A former female co-worker accuses Father MacQuarrie of sexual harassment while she worked with him at the church. Father MacQuarrie declined comment on camera, but tells 2News the charges are false. Parishioners say they are surprised by the news.
"Here this is a small town," said Lea Dean, a church member. "I didn't think anything would be going on here."
"It's disturbing but it's not true," said Bob Bulter, a church member. "I mean I don't think it's true."
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, April 17, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Jury selection was going slower than expected this morning as Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Osowik and attorneys for the defense and prosecution began questioning prospective jurors today in the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson.
Father Robinson, 68, was arrested in April, 2004, for the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann, whose body was found strangled and stabbed in the room next to a chapel at Mercy Hospital. He has pleaded innocent. If found guilty, he could face life in prison.
A pool of 99 prospective jurors was divided into four groups and undergoing individual questioning that will continue through tomorrow afternoon.
The court had planned to interview 21 prospective jurors in the morning and 25 in the afternoon, but only 10 had been questioned as of the 12:30 p.m. recess.
Of those interviewed, one woman, a practicing Catholic, was eliminated when the prosecution objected over her assertion that if the laws of man and the laws of God conflicted, she would follow the laws of God.
[? 1970s-80s] - RCC. Altar boy.
Unison,
~ April 17, 2006
IRELAND -- The family of a Limerick man who committed suicide two days after he held mediation talks with priests in the diocese are to speak publicly today.
37 year old Peter McCloskey claimed he was sexually abused by a priest when he served as an altar boy.
The priest in question, who was ordained in Sydney, Australia, returned to Ireland in 1978 where he worked until his death in 1987.
Mr McCloskey first told the Bishop of Limerick, Donal Murray about the allegations in 2002.
Following an investigation, it emerged that a number of incidents in Australia led the priest to come back to Ireland where the abuse is alleged to have taken place.
[Emphasis added]
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from court.
Monterey Herald,
By TONI LOCY, Associated Press, ~ April 17, 2006
WASHINGTON (DC) -- The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere in a California prosecutor's efforts to obtain confidential counseling records kept by the Catholic Church on two priests under investigation for molesting children.
The justices, without comment, declined to hear the church's appeal of a state court ruling that permitted the Los Angeles district attorney to subpoena records generated by the bishop and the priests in dealing with concerns about child sexual abuse.
The subpoenas are significant because similar records are being sought in hundreds of lawsuits filed by sexual abuse victims across the nation. According to the church's filing, counseling records are being sought in more than 500 victims' lawsuits in California alone.
The 14 documents sought in the DA's investigation include letters to and from the bishop and the priests, along with details from their confessions and treatment.
• Provincial of Jesuits deals with charges
- RCC. Jesuit discusses abusers.
Anchorage Daily News,
www.adn.com/ news/alaska/ story/763625 5p-75478 76c.html ,
By LISA DEMER, April 17, 2006
ALASKA -- Allegations of sexual abuse against priests began heating up around the country about the time the Rev. John D. Whitney became head of the Society of Jesus Oregon Province in 2002.
Whitney, a graduate of Georgetown University, is responsible for about 240 Jesuit priests and brothers in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, plus spiritual support for two universities, four high schools, one middle school and seven parishes. Officially, he's known as the provincial.
Whitney, silver-haired at 48, sat down April 10 for an interview with Daily News reporter Lisa Demer in which he talked about priests, their sexuality and how he is handling the sexual abuse cases. [...]
Q. Why do you think that is? I've seen you address the perception at least that Alaska is a dumping ground.
A. That, I know, is untrue because in order to get to Alaska people had to really request it. ... They really wanted to do missionary work. They wanted to go someplace challenging. You're talking sometimes when they came 60 or more years ago. ... It was never a dumping ground. That is just so contrary to all of our experience. [...]
[? < 1978 Paquette] - RCC. 17 lawsuits.
WCAX,
April 17, 2006
BURLINGTON (Vermont) -- The first of 17 priest misconduct trials began Monday in Burlington.
38-year-old Michael Gay claims he was sexually abused by Edward Paquette when he served as an altar boy more than 25 years ago.
Gay is seeking damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.
"We are going to be talking very substantial numbers in connection with this case. We are going to be talking damages to compensate Mr. Gay in the two-to-five million dollar range. We are going to be talking about what we can call punitive damages, to punish the diocese for what conduct was put forth here in the multi-million dollar range," said Gay's lawyer Jerry O'Neil.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, April 17, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Thanks to the popular CSI television programs, today's juries expect a show in the courtroom - and prosecutors in the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson don't plan to let them down.
The prosecution is expected to augment its case with plenty of visuals, including the use of charts, videotapes, and high-tech "smart boards" that integrate the display functions of a laptop computer and an erasable whiteboard.
Father Robinson, 68, is facing a murder charge in the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. The 71-year-old nun was found slain in the chapel sacristy of Mercy Hospital the day before Easter, 1980.
She had been strangled, then stabbed multiple times. Her clothes had been arranged to look as though she had been molested, which investigators called a ruse by the killer to mislead police.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
The Beacon Journal,
Associated Press, ~ April 17, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- A timeline of events surrounding the killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl:
April 5, 1980 - Sister Margaret Ann Pahl's body is found in the chapel at Mercy Hospital. She had been strangled and stabbed in the chest and neck about 30 times.
April 9, 1980 - The Rev. Gerald Robinson celebrates Sister Pahl's funeral Mass.
April 18-19, 1980 - Robinson is questioned by police. He also is given two polygraph tests.
[? < 1978 Paquette] - RCC. 17 lawsuits. Altar boys.
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, Monday, April 17, 2006
VERMONT -- The trial in the first of 12 cases involving a former Catholic priest accused of molesting altar boys at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the 1970s is scheduled to get under way this week in Burlington.
The case brought by Michael Gay of South Burlington against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington alleges the former priest, Ed Paquette of Westfield, Mass., "sexually abused and sexually exploited" him as a child and claims the diocese knew Paquette was a child molester when it hired him.
Judge Ben Joseph last week agreed to sever the case against Paquette, elderly and claiming to be in ill health, from the case against the diocese at the request of Gay's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill. Paquette's case will be tried separately at a later date, court officials said.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. 2 girls, 1 boy. Nun dead.
Spero News,
By Martin Barillas, ~ April 17, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- The Reverend Gerald Robinson, a 68-year-old Roman Catholic priest, begins today in Toledo OH for the ritualistic murder of a nun, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, some 26 years ago.
Jury selection starts today in a case that has galvanized the Catholic community of this Ohio metropolis for a quarter century. Rev. Robinson has pleaded not guilty and faces a possible life sentence if convicted. He has been on leave from the priesthood since 2004.
The investigation of the murder had been stymied since 1980, but a letter from an alleged victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Robinson came to light when the Toledo leader of Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Claudia Vercellotti, forwarded it to the Ohio Attorney General.
The alleged abuse victim had tendered the letter to diocesan officials in Toledo in 2003, having requested reimbursement for psychological counseling. The woman claimed to have been the childhood victim of Robinson, and also victimized by other priests in satanic sex rituals.
The unidentified woman fingered Robinson as one of several priests who sexually molested her and forced her to participate in obscene rituals. Another woman and her husband filed suit against the diocese in 2005, also alleging sexual abuse and satanic rituals.
The Pahl case was cold, even though Robinson had always been a prime suspect, until Vercellotti passed the victim's letter on to the Attorney General's office in September 2003 after having concluded that Catholic officials had been too slow to respond. Robinson has not faced any sexual abuse charges, however.
[1984-94 Mons. Fushek] - RCC. Fondled in Confession. 7 young men, boys.
KPHO,
~ April 17, 2006
GILBERT, Ariz. -- A judge has refused to throw out a series of sex charges against the former pastor of a catholic church in Mesa.
Attorneys for Monsignor Dale Fushek (FYOO'-shek) had argued that his conversations about sex with a series of victims were during confessions and protected by the First Amendment's right of free speech.
But San Tan Justice of the Peace Sam Goodman rejected that argument. That leaves Fushek facing five counts of contributing to delinquency of a minor, two counts of indecent exposure and three counts of assault.
Fushek's trial on the misdemeanors is scheduled for June second.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
The Beacon Journal,
By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press, ~ April 17, 2006
TOLEDO, Ohio -- The trial of a Roman Catholic priest accused of killing a nun in a hospital chapel over Easter weekend 26 years ago will at times resemble a modern TV drama, with forensic evidence playing a starring role.
Among those expected to testify at the trial, which begins Monday with jury selection, are a medical examiner who has written a book on bloodstains and a forensic anthropologist who also is a best-selling mystery author and the inspiration behind Fox's crime show "Bones."
The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 68, is charged with strangling and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in 1980 at the hospital where they worked. Investigators say the 30 stab wounds on the nun's chest and neck formed what resembled a cross.
Police have said the killing may have been some kind of ritual slaying because of evidence found in the chapel and because Pahl's body was posed to look as though she had been sexually assaulted, even though investigators say she wasn't.
[~ 1979 + Bourque (Oblate)
] - RCC. Many boys.
Belleville News-Democrat,
BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK, ~ April 17, 2006
BELLEVILLE (IL) -- A defrocked priest living in Belleville, who admitted he sexually molested boys in Massachusetts decades ago, could be prosecuted if a victim comes forth and statute-of-limitation requirements are met.
And if a prosecution is brought against the Rev. Real Bourque, 78, a resident of the St. Henry Oblate Retirement home on North 60th Street, a potential witness could be another priest who told church officials in Massachusetts that Bourque abused that priest's brother.
That priests' brother wrote a 1994 letter to Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of Boston, stating that in 1979 Bourque had abused him in South Natick, Mass., where Bourque was then assigned. The letter also referred to Bourque sexually molesting members of a local boys choir.
"For any time the alleged perpetrator is not in the State of Massachusetts, the time on the statute of limitations stops..." said Emily LaGrassa, spokesman for the Middlesex County district attorney's office, which has jurisdiction over South Natick.
[? < 1978 Paquette] - RCC. 17 lawsuits. Altar boys.
Times Argus,
By Kevin O'Connor, Rutland Herald, April 17, 2006
VERMONT -- Jury selection is set to start today in the first of 17 priest misconduct lawsuits against Vermont's Catholic Church.
Burlington's Chittenden Superior Court has scheduled two days for choosing 12 jurors and three alternates to decide the civil case of Michael Gay, a 38-year-old South Burlington man who claims the Rev. Edward Paquette "sexually abused and sexually exploited" him as an altar boy from ages 10 to 12. In his lawsuit, Gay says the church knew the priest had a history of assaulting boys but did nothing to stop him.
Court paperwork limits description of the allegations to "unpermitted, harmful and offensive sexual contact" and seeks financial damages "in an amount deemed appropriate by the jury." A gag order restricts lawyers from saying anything more to the press. But all involved anticipate Gay's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill of Burlington, will offer a headline-grabbing opening statement if the trial starts Wednesday as scheduled.
The defendant, now 77 and retired in Massachusetts, has told the court he won't attend because he's about to receive daily radiation treatments for prostate cancer and can't afford lodging for a trial set to run up to two weeks. But that won't stop Gay's case against the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, which is wrestling with its own concerns.
- RCC.
Lowell Sun,
By DEBBIE HOVANASIAN, Sun Correspondent, ~ April 17, 2006
MASSACHUSETTS -- Regina Rich grew up surrounded by a large, extended family firmly entrenched in the traditions of the Catholic faith. First Communions, confirmations, and weddings were celebrations.
A Tewksbury native, Rich was educated at St. Peter's Grammar School in Lowell and faithfully attended Sunday Mass. She married in 1984 at the aging St. Peter's Church in Lowell for sentimental reasons.
Her triplets were born in 1991, and were baptized.
But when clergy sexual abuse scandalized the Boston Archdiocese in 2002, Rich, 50, did what many other Catholics did. She fell away.
Today, she is slowly finding her way back. So are many others who found their faith tested.
Though anger lingers, a strong devotion to the Gospel, Catholic liturgy and doctrinal teachings appear to have kept many Catholics rooted in their pews through difficult times, local church leaders say.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
CBS News,
AP, Apr. 17, 2006
TOLEDO, Ohio, (AP) -- When Sister Margaret Ann Pahl's body was found the day before Easter 26 years ago, she had been strangled and stabbed in a hospital chapel. The wounds on her chest and neck resembled a cross.
Jury selection was to begin Monday in the murder trial of the man accused of her killing, the Rev. Gerald Robinson, the same Roman Catholic priest who presided at Pahl's funeral Mass.
Robinson, 68, is accused of strangling and stabbing Pahl in 1980 at the hospital where they worked. Investigators have not disclosed a motive for the slaying but said it may have been some kind of ritual slaying.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:49 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Mon April 17, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Man sues Crosiers religious order, alleging sexual abuse 20+ years ago
[1980-83 Mohs (Crosier)] - RCC. Boy.
Man sues Crosiers religious order, alleging sexual abuse 20+ years ago
Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota),
www.star tribune.com/ 462/story/ 376563.html ,
by Herón Márquez Estrada, Tel. 651-298-1554, Last update 8:41 PM, April 17, 2006
Man sues Crosiers religious order, alleging sexual abuse 20+ years ago
Plaintiff's lawyer says the suit is aimed at forcing the order to publicly identify members accused of abuse.
MINNESOTA -- A former Minnesotan filed suit Monday against a Roman Catholic religious order and a former member who he says sexually molested him more than 20 years ago.
Robert Skjonsby, 40, of Port Orchard, Wash., said that it was only last year that he was able to admit to himself and his wife that he was abused from 1980 to 1983 while he was a parishioner at Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon, Minn. The abuse occurred, he said, in a cabin in the Mille Lacs area and at a housing facility in the Twin Cities.
"For 25 years I've kept it inside," he said. "I never admitted that I was sexually abused. I never wanted to admit that I was sexually abused. ... It's caused me a lot of pain."
Named as defendants were the Crosier religious order and Wendell Mohs, a former brother and recruiter for the Crosiers.
Skjonsby singled out Mohs as the man who he said abused him several times. A call to Mohs' home in Rice, Minn., seeking comment Monday was not returned.
Skjonsby's attorney, Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, said the suit is an attempt to get the Crosiers to release the names of priests and brothers who have abused children in the past.
The Crosiers order, which has about 80 members in the United States, was founded in Minnesota in the 1920s. It is based in Shoreview and operates communities in Phoenix and Onamia, Minn.
In 2002, the Crosiers revealed that 11 of its members were living under restrictions because of sexual misconduct allegations. Their identities were never released.
"It's time for them to come clean," Anderson said Monday during a news conference announcing the suit. "The Crosiers have known for years that they had a serious problem."
Dave Kostik, a Crosier spokesman, said Mohs left the order years ago, but Kostik didn't know when or how long he had belonged to the Crosiers.
"We've received the lawsuit and we've begun to investigate," Kostik said. "We take reports of sexual misconduct very seriously."
The suit seeks unspecified compensatory damages. But Skjonsby, a U.S. Navy veteran, said he did not file it for money. All he wants, he said, is for the Crosiers to release the names of members identified as child abusers.
"We're just looking for information," he said. "I just want the Crosiers to tell us who might have abused children. I'm here today to protect children who may be as vulnerable as I was." #
[LOOK BACK: The Crosier order with about 80 US members has 11 under restrictions "because of sexual misconduct allegations".
[NOTE: A shorter version, by courtesy of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, is listed with the April 18 edition of CSAT, below.
COMMENT ENDS.]
[Apr 17, 06]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Tue April 18, 2006 edition:
• County Antrim man admits raping 12-year-old girl
[2005 Adams and McGrath] - RCC. Girl.
U.TV,
www.utvlive. com/newsroom/ indepth.asp?id= 72482&pt=n , 14:44:55, TUESDAY Apr/18/2006
UNITED KINGDOM -- A man accused of being part of a paedophile ring with a Catholic priest has admitted raping a young girl.
William Adams, 38, pleaded guilty today to raping the 12-year-old girl in Blackpool, Lancs, in July and August last year.
However, he denied 11 other counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault, sexual touching and child abduction - all relating to the same girl - between May and November last year.
Adams, originally from Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court via videolink. He was remanded in custody.
Last week, Fr Jeremiah McGrath denied one count of sexual assault and three counts of facilitating a child sexual offence.
[1960s-70s Morse (Jesuit) -NEW*] - RCC. Child.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ April 18, 2006
MOSES LAKE, Wash. -- A Jesuit priest has been accused of sexual abuse and, at the request of his superiors, has withdrawn as pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, parishioners were told on Easter.
In a letter dated April 12 and handed to churchgoers Sunday, the Rev. John J. Morse wrote that he learned of the accusations in a call from his religious superior, the Rev. John D. Whitney, the provincial or head of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus.
"I want you to know that I categorically deny that I have ever abused another person, and certainly not a child. I am deeply saddened by these allegations and pray that I will be exonerated once a full investigation is complete," Morse wrote.
"These allegations refer to my days some 35-40 years ago while working in the area around Omak, Wash., though we have not yet received any further details," Morse added.
[1960s McMahon
*] - RCC. Girl.
Pensacola News Journal,
by William Rabb, April 18, 2006
PENSACOLA (FL) -- A Catholic priest who retired to Pensacola has been charged with the rape of young girl almost 40 years ago in the Boston area.
The Rev. Gerard McMahon, 70, was stripped of his priesthood March 30 after the local Catholic diocese was told that charges were pending against him in Foxborough, Mass., a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee said Monday.
McMahon has had no official capacity since retiring here in the early 1990s, said Peggy DeKeyser, spokeswoman for the local diocese.
He filled in occasionally at services, funerals and events when other priests were out of town or unavailable, but he now is barred from that, she said.
• Man sues Crosiers religious order, alleging sexual abuse 20+ years ago
[1980-83 Mohs (Crosiers)] - RCC. Boy.
Star Tribune,
www.startribune. com/462/story/ 376563.html , by Herón Márquez Estrada, Tel. 651-298-1554, Last update 8:41 PM, April 17, 2006
MINNESOTA -- A former Minnesotan filed suit Monday against a Roman Catholic religious order and a former member who he says sexually molested him more than 20 years ago.
Robert Skjonsby, 40, of Port Orchard, Wash., said that it was only last year that he was able to admit to himself and his wife that he was abused from 1980 to 1983 while he was a parishioner at Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon, Minn.
The abuse occurred, he said, in a cabin in the Mille Lacs area and at a housing facility in the Twin Cities.
"For 25 years I've kept it inside," he said. "I never admitted that I was sexually abused. I never wanted to admit that I was sexually abused. ... It's caused me a lot of pain."
[A fuller version is shown above.]
• Church not the only loser in fallout from tragic Limerick man's death
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. Altar boy.
Irish Examiner,
www.irish examiner.com/ pport/web/op inion/Full_ Story/did-sggu 9Pv7v7-CMsgDQQ 5wn3uAIg.asp , By Ronan Mullen, ~ April 18, 2006
IRELAND -- IT would be outrageous to suggest that the behaviour of One in Four, the advocacy group for victims of sexual abuse, contributed to a client's death.
But some people see nothing wrong in making just such a suggestion to Bishop Donal Murray and the diocese of Limerick.
RTÉ's flagship current affairs programme Prime Time has no qualms either.
And One in Four itself has no problem about trying to put the diocese in the dock.
Last Thursday night, Prime Time told the tragic story of a man who approached the diocese of Limerick in 2002 with an allegation that he had been abused by a priest in 1981. [...]
The Church, in this case, was doing its level best to keep parties in dialogue. Yet it finds itself the target of some very unseemly suggestions because a very wounded man did a very tragic thing. No victim of abuse is well served by such recriminations. The Church is not the only loser. #
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:25 PM]
[Click the original URL for more light on the dangers of "trial by newsmedia".]
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, April 18, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Seven of 20 prospective jurors interviewed today were dismissed in the second round of jury selection for the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson, who is accused of killing a nun in 1980.
Three of those were excused because of their strong feelings for or against the Roman Catholic Church and Catholic clergy. The rest had family or medical problems that would have prevented them from serving in a case that is expected to last three to four weeks.
The process of selecting 12 jurors and four alternates from a pool of 99 prospective jurors began yesterday and had been scheduled to conclude this afternoon, but a slow start with individual interviews yesterday pushed the selection process into tomorrow.
As of the 12:30 lunch recess today, a total of 50 prospective jurors have been interviewed and 10 have been excused.
[? < 1978 Paquette] - RCC. 17 lawsuits. Altar boys.
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, Tuesday, April 18, 2006
BURLINGTON (VT) -- The man suing the state's Roman Catholic diocese on claims that, as a child, he was molested by a priest is seeking several million dollars in damages from the diocese, his lawyer told prospective jurors in the case Monday.
Michael Gay of South Burlington has alleged that the Rev. Ed Paquette sexually abused him in 1978 when Gay was a young boy receiving religious education from the priest at Christ the King Church.
"We are going to be talking damages to compensate Mr. Gay in the $2 million to $5 million range," Jerome O'Neill, Gay's attorney, told the prospective jurors. "We are going to be talking about what we call punitive damages, to punish the diocese ... in the multi-million dollar range."
Gay has agreed to permit publication of his name in The Burlington Free Press, which does not disclose the names of alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent.
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from courts.
NBC 4,
UPDATED 9:09 am PDT, April 18, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles found itself smarting Tuesday after being dealt a major legal setback by the United States Supreme Court. On Monday the court refused to hear arguments from the archdiocese as to why the internal files of two priests accused of molesting children should not be turned over to a grand jury. That had the effect of letting stand lower court rulings against the archdiocese.
"This is a decisive victory for victims of clerical abuse," said Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. "It's unfortunate that it took four years of litigation to reach this day of justice for victims. "The U.S. Supreme Court's denial to review this matter establishes an important principle that evidence of criminality be made available to appropriate authorities," he added.
The District Attorney's Office had sought the personnel files, but the Archdiocese resisted, citing constitutional issues.
"Today's court decision that allows the release to the Los Angeles County District Attorney of 14 documents -- or 21 pages -- concerning two priests is disappointing," according to a statement released by the Archdiocese. "We accept the court's ruling. This ruling will have no effect on the ongoing efforts of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to settle the civil cases through mediation."
- RCC. SNAP's Lyman sues.
Capital News 9,
By Capital News 9 Staff, Updated 10:20 AM, Apr/18/2006
ALBANY (NY) -- The co-director of the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests who was arrested for allegedly violating an order of protection at an Albany church is filing a lawsuit.
Mark Lyman of Stillwater is seeking $5 million in damages from the Albany Police Department as well as the Albany Diocese.
Lyman was arrested on April 9 for allegedly violating an order that keeps protesters 100 feet away from the Holy Cross Church.
[1954-85 Sylvestre] - RCC. 45 complainants.
CD98.9,
~ April 18, 2006
CANADA -- The case of a retired priest facing numerous sex abuse charges is on hold until May 31.
Eighty-two-year-old Charles Sylvestre who was a priest in Port Dover's St Cecila for 3 year faces sexual assault charges dating back to 1954.
Crown Attorney Paul Bailey said seven new alleged victims have come forward, raising the number of complainants to 45.
[< 2001] - RCC. Rev. Michael Fugee to get new trial.
Star-Ledger,
BY JEFF DIAMANT, Tuesday, April 18, 2006
NEW JERSEY -- A state appeals court yesterday overturned the 2003 conviction of a Catholic priest from Bergen County who was found guilty of aggravated criminal sexual contact on a teenage boy.
In ordering a new trial for the Rev. Michael Fugee, the court ruled his case suffered because the trial judge improperly charged the jury and wrongly let the panel hear a statement Fugee gave to police when he was arrested in March 2001.
Fugee, 45, was an associate pastor at St. Elizabeth Church in Wyckoff, and has not served as a priest since his arrest. He still receives support payments from the Newark Archdiocese, said James Goodness, an archdiocesan spokesman.
When he was sentenced in 2003, Fugee was ordered to lifelong community supervision and five years' probation. He also must register as a sex offender wherever he lives.
Fugee could not be reached for comment yesterday, but his attorney, Brian Neary, said Fugee maintains his innocence.
"I guess he'll be a happy man today. That was a hard-fought trial," said Neary, who would not reveal Fugee's whereabouts.
• Church in Limerick out of step
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. Altar boy.
One in Four,
www.oneinfour. org/news/news 2006/chinlim ,
~ April 18, 2006
IRELAND -- Today questions must be asked about Limerick Diocese's handling of the Peter McCloskey case.
No one can deny that Peter was a troubled, even a tortured soul. But that is not surprising considering he was sexually abused by a priest at the age of 10.
But to add insult to injury, when Peter tried to lay the ghosts of his past to rest by embarking on a quest for truth, Limerick Diocese offered little or no help.
In fact he had to travel at his own expense to Australia to unearth the murky past of his serial abuser.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:08 AM]
[Emphasis added]
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from court.
Reuters,
April 18, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA), (Reuters) -- The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the nation, lost a four-year legal fight on Monday to keep private the files of two priests accused of molesting children.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case, meaning that Cardinal Roger Mahony will have to hand over to Los Angeles prosecutors the records of all communications regarding the two priests.
The Los Angeles archdiocese has fought one of the most vigorous battle in the United States to prevent the files of priests accused of abuse from being made public.
The Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests criticized Mahony's tactics, saying on Monday he had "spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, donated by generous Catholics, on far-fetched and increasingly unsuccessful legal maneuvers to keep hidden the secrets about abusive priests and complicit bishops."
[1960s McMahon*] - RCC. Girl.
Herald-Tribune,
The Associated Press, April 18, 2006
CANTON, Mass. -- A former Massachusetts priest who now lives in the Florida Panhandle has been indicted on charges that he raped a girl in the late 1960s.
The Reverend Gerard McMahon was indicted on one count of rape of a child and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14.
The woman came forward with the allegations several months ago. Authorities were able to move forward with the indictments because the statute of limitations at the time of the alleged crimes is suspended when defendants move out of state.
The 70-year-old McMahon is now retired, living in Pensacola. His lawyer says McMahon "is not a predator."
He has never been assigned to any official position in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.
[Portland Archdiocese] - RCC. First bankrupt. ? $US 42m. < 130 cases.
Houston Chronicle,
By WILLIAM McCALL, Associated Press Writer, ~ April 18, 2006
PORTLAND, Ore. - A judge cleared the way Monday for nearly 130 sex abuse claims to go to trial, almost two years after the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland filed for bankruptcy.
The archdiocese and the alleged victims have been unable to agree on terms of a settlement, and Monday was the deadline for deciding whether to go to court.
Nearly 40 cases are headed to state court, and 88 alleged victims chose to have their cases heard in federal court, said Erin Olson, attorney for several accusers.
The archdiocese became the nation's first Catholic diocese to declare bankruptcy in July 2004. Its reorganization plan, which must include an estimate of how much it will pay for the claims, is subject to approval by creditors _ the alleged victims _ and the court.
"We just want to proceed and get this done with as much accuracy as possible," archdiocese attorney Susan Ford said.
The archdiocese said in court papers last year that it had hoped to settle all the claims for about $42 million.
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. Altar boy.
One in Four,
~ April 18, 2006
IRELAND -- There can be nothing more heartbreaking for a parent than to lose a child.
For that child to die by his own hand is the most devastating blow of all.
Mary McCloskey's pain and rage at her son Peter's death was laid bare at a press conference held by her family yesterday.
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. Altar boy.
One in Four,
~ April 18, 2006
IRELAND -- The mother of a deceased Limerick man who alleged clerical child sex abuse has called on Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick to resign.
Peter McCloskey, a 37-year-old separated father of three, was found dead on April 1st, two days after mediation talks with diocesan representatives. He was said by his brother Joseph to have been "devastated" by the mediation process.
The late Mr McCloskey alleged he had been abused in 1980/81 by Fr Denis Daly, a priest ordained for Sydney who served in Limerick from 1978 until his death aged 61 in 1987.
Mr McCloskey's mother, Mary McCloskey, said yesterday she believed "the actions of the Limerick Diocese were directly responsible for Peter's death.
[Bolding added]
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey. Altar boy.
One in Four,
~ April 18, 2006
IRELAND -- Devastated mum Mary McCloskey is blaming Church authorities for the death of her clerical abuse victim son.
Peter McCloskey (37) took his own life two days after mediation talks with the Diocese of Limerick broke down.
Peter would be alive if it wasn't for them: Mum slams church over abused son who took his own life
The devastated mum of a clerical abuse victim who ended his own life three weeks ago has called on the Bishop of Limerick to resign.
Mary McCloskey claimed last night that her son Peter would still be alive if another cleric had been dealing with his case.
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. Altar boy.
Irish Independent,
~ April 18, 2006
IRELAND -- AN angry mother yesterday called on Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray to resign - and claimed the Catholic Church was directly responsible for her son's death.
Peter McCloskey (37) was found dead an April 1, two days after mediation talks with Catholic Church representatives in relation to his allegations of clerical sex abuse.
His brother Joseph McCloskey yesterday said "something very fine" inside him "had snapped" after he had talks with a senior priest and nun from the Limerick diocese.
Mr McCloskey had contacted the Church in relation to abuse he alleged he had suffered in 1980/81 from Fr Denis Daly, an Irish priest who had been ordained in Australia but who had returned to Ireland and who had worked as a supply priest in Limerick from 1978 to 1987.
Mr McCloskey was aged 10 when the alleged abuse began. Fr Daly, who died in 1987, had been aged 55.
[Emphasis added]
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. < 30yrs of letters. Altar boy.
Irish Examiner,
By Jim Morahan, Apr/18/06
IRELAND -- THE mother of clerical sex abuse victim Peter McCloskey yesterday called on the Catholic Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, to resign.
Mother-of-three Mary McCloskey said she believed the actions of the Limerick diocese were directly responsible for her son's death. Ms McCloskey held a news conference with her son Joseph, 39, who described the distress suffered by Peter when the mediation process broke down. Peter, 37, died this month two days after the collapse of the mediation process with the diocese.
Four in One support group leader Colm O'Gorman expressed shock and dismay at statements made by Bishop Murray. Mr O'Gorman called for the confidentiality agreement Mr McCloskey signed as part of the mediation process to be waived to allow the truth to emerge. He rejected suggestions that the late Mr McCloskey walked out of the mediation. Mr O'Gorman claimed the bishop was aware Mr McCloskey was travelling to Australia to find out the truth about the priest who abused him and that arrangements were made for him to meet with Australian Church sources.
He said Mr McCloskey travelled to Australia in 2004 and uncovered the offending priest's file held by Sydney diocese. It showed nearly 30 years' of correspondence between Church authorities in Australia and Ireland.
[Emphasis added]
- RCC. SNAP's Lyman sues.
Albany Times Union,
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
ALBANY (NY) -- The co-chairman of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests is suing the city, its Police Department, three officers and the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese over his arrest this month during a protest.
Mark Lyman filed a $5 million notice of claim Monday, challenging his April 9 arrest outside the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross where, on a weekly basis for nearly seven months, he had been protesting the diocese's handling of child molestation allegations against a priest.
Police said Lyman violated a court order requiring him to be at least 100 feet from the church entrance and refused to move after being warned. Lyman denies that in his lawsuit.
Lyman, 41, one of the leaders of the group SNAP, claims priests abused him when he was a child living in Troy.
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from court.
The New York Times,
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD, Published April 18, 2006
LOS ANGELES, (CA) April 17 -The Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear an appeal by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to withhold personnel records of two former priests involved in an investigation of child molesting.
The decision, issued without comment, requires the archdiocese to comply with a subpoena from District Attorney Steve Cooley, who has sought letters to the former priests and notes from counseling sessions conducted by the church.
Cardinal Roger Mahony had argued that the subpoenas were an unconstitutional intrusion on private church affairs.
Mr. Cooley said in a statement, "The U.S. Supreme Court's denial to review this matter establishes an important principle that evidence of criminality be made available to appropriate authorities."
The archdiocese, in a statement, called the ruling disappointing.
- RCC.
Eagle-Tribune,
By Andy Smith, April 18, 2006
NEW HAMPSHIRE -- It might not have happened as quickly as he would have liked, but the Rev. Marcel Martel says Holy Angels in Plaistow, like other New Hampshire parishes, is training staff and conducting background checks to ensure that children are never endangered in church.
Local Catholics say the Manchester Diocese can still do more to ensure the safety of children, though most agree that significant progress has been made since 2002. That was when the diocese agreed to new child-protection policies and annual audits by the attorney general's office.
The reaction comes in the wake of the first audit - done by the forensic practice unit of the auditing firm KPMG - which criticized the diocese for failing to carry out background checks on all of its staff and volunteers.
Some priests, including Martel, believe the audit might already be outdated. It includes data collected as early as May 2005 and was released by Attorney General Kelly Ayotte on March 30.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
by Russ Lemmon, ~ April 18, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- With jury selection in the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson scheduled to begin today, media attention is at the "frenzy" level - which, given the circumstances of the case, is not unexpected.
The sensationalism potential in this trial is so high, though, that things could quickly escalate to the next level - that is, the dreaded media "circus."
Court TV plans to offer gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial beginning with the opening statements, which could come later this week. Two heavyweights of the newspaper industry, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, are expected to have reporters in Toledo.
Coverage by those three media entities alone means millions of people across the country will be aware of the proceedings in Lucas County Common Pleas Court. Competitive pressures likely will force other national media, such as Fox News Channel and CNN, to provide coverage of the trial.
If the trial becomes a topic on CNN's Larry King Live, complete with a panel of legal and forensic experts discussing the case, look out. At that point, we would go from circus "watch" to "warning."
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, April 18, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- The deliberate process of selecting 12 jurors and 4 alternates from a pool of 99 people in the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson will extend beyond today's scheduled conclusion and carry over into tomorrow.
The potential jurors were questioned yesterday by Judge Thomas Osowik of Lucas County Common Pleas Court, defense attorneys, and the prosecutor's office. Much of the questioning revolved around three main points:
Whether the prospective jurors have formed an opinion in the case based on extensive pretrial media reporting about the 1980 stabbing death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
Whether participating in a trial expected to last three to four weeks would cause a hardship on jobs or family.
If prospective jurors' religious beliefs might impair their ability to be fair and impartial.
- RCC.
[Fortune, Grennan] - Children.
[Bishop Comiskey] - Allowed continuance in Ferns.
Irish Independent,
~ April 18, 2006
IRELAND -- DISGRACED Bishop Brendan Comiskey yesterday emerged from the shadows for his first public appearance since the publication of the damning Ferns Report and declared he has found peace.
Speaking to the Irish Independent three years after resigning over his inadequate handling of clerical child sex abuse scandals in Ferns, he said: "I have found peace with myself. I feel fulfilled."
The former Bishop of Ferns was severely criticised in last October's Ferns Inquiry for his handling of notorious paedophiles such as the disgraced and deceased clerics Sean Fortune and Jim Grennan.
Victims of clerical sex abuse last night gave a mixed reaction to the retired bishop's claim of a new state of mind and spirit.
[1960s-70s Morse* (Jesuit)] - RCC. Child.
Columbia Basin Herald,
April 17, 2006
MOSES LAKE (WA) -- A priest at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church has been accused of sexual abuse and has withdrawn from his position.
In a letter to parishioners dated April 12 and handed to churchgoers this Easter Sunday, Father John Morse stated that he had received a call from his religious superior, Father John Whitney who is the provincial for the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, informing him of the allegations.
"These allegations refer to my days some 35-40 years ago while working in the area around Omak, Washington, though we have not yet received any further details," Morse wrote.
At the request of Whitney and Bishop Carlos Sevilla of Yakima, Morse stated, he is withdrawing from all public ministry, "and will go to live with my Jesuit brothers until these charges can be answered and my name cleared."
Morse denied the allegations in his letter.
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from court.
Los Angeles Times,
By Jean Guccione and William Lobdell, April 18, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, rebuffed Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court in his request to keep two accused priests' personnel files private, now must turn those documents over to a grand jury and face the growing possibility that he may soon be forced to relinquish more confidential church records involving alleged sexual abuse.
Attorneys for the Los Angeles archbishop had argued that all communication between a bishop and his priests - including that about allegations of sexual abuse and resulting investigations - was protected under the 1st Amendment. In declining to hear his case, the Supreme Court effectively let stand a California appellate court decision that rejected the constitutional claim.
This was good news for prosecutors, who said their inability to view such confidential records had hampered their investigation of two priests. The documents initially will remain part of secret grand jury proceedings but could become public later in criminal court.
"This will send a message that these sorts of records, this sort of information is not something they can keep secret and away from a lawful prosecution," said Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley. "We're entitled to go get the evidence where the evidence exists."
Church officials called the court's decision disappointing.
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from court.
The Boston Globe,
By Charlie Savage | April 18, 2006
WASHINGTON (DC) -- The Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for prosecutors to obtain sex-abuse records from the Catholic Church, a decision that could affect hundreds of cases in which priests have been accused of molesting children.
Also, in a Boston-related case, the court rejected a request that it hear an appeal by two Chinese Muslim prisoners at Guantánamo Bay who maintain they should be freed, saying the case should be heard by a lower court first.
The Catholic Church and Guantánamo cases headlined a slew of cases the Supreme Court rejected yesterday as it did some spring-cleaning of its inbox.
In the child molestation case, the court turned down an appeal by the archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, and two unnamed priests who wanted to block a subpoena for internal church records.
The order lets stand a state-court ruling that allows the Los Angeles County district attorney to obtain pastoral counseling records that could reveal the priests' confessions and any psychological treatment.
The court's decision could have broad consequences for hundreds of civil lawsuits filed by sexual-abuse victims against the church. Just in California, according to the church's filing at the court, there are more than 500 lawsuits in which alleged victims of abuse are seeking counseling records.
[Bolding added]
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Cincinnati Enquirer,
BY JOHN SEEWER | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 18, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Attorneys prosecuting a priest accused of killing a nun in a hospital chapel over Easter weekend 26 years ago tried to find jurors Monday who could believe a reverend is capable of a brutal crime.
Most of the questions of the first day of jury selection centered on the potential jurors' religious beliefs and thoughts about the Roman Catholic Church.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 68, is accused of strangling and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl at the hospital where they worked. The priest presided at Pahl's funeral Mass four days after her death.
Investigators have not disclosed a motive but said it may have been some kind of ritual slaying because of evidence found in the chapel and because Pahl's body was posed to look as though she had been sexually assaulted even though she wasn't.
Potential jurors also were asked whether they have opinions on sexual molestation charges against clergy members in the Catholic Church. Two prospective jurors said they doubted a priest could kill a nun.
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from court.
Monterey Herald,
By TONI LOCY, Associated Press. ~ April 18, 2006
WASHINGTON (DC) -- The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere in a California prosecutor's efforts to obtain confidential counseling records kept by the Catholic Church on two priests under investigation for molesting children.
The justices, without comment, declined to hear an appeal by the church of a state court ruling that permitted the Los Angeles district attorney to subpoena records generated by Cardinal Roger Mahony and the priests in dealing with concerns about child sexual abuse.
The subpoenas are significant because similar records are being sought in hundreds of lawsuits filed by sexual abuse victims across the nation. According to the church's filing, counseling records are being sought in more than 500 victims' lawsuits in California alone.
The 14 documents sought in the DA's investigation include letters to and from Mahony and the priests, along with details from their confessions and treatment.
[55 priests of Chicago Archdiocese; McCormack] - RCC. 2006 list incomplete? 30 mistakes in McCormack case. Minors.
Chicago Tribune,
April 18, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- A Boston-based group pushing for more public access to information on the clergy sexual abuse crisis said Monday that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago had published an incomplete list of clergy accused of sexually abusing minors and offered a roster with 28 additional names.
The alternative list released by BishopAccountability.org includes 13 religious order priests, one deacon, three extern clergy, four priests accused posthumously, three priests accused of sexual misconduct with adults and one resigned priest for whom an allegation was never substantiated by the church.
It also includes three priests still under church investigation, including Rev. Daniel McCormack, the West Side pastor charged with three counts of sexually abusing children. The archdiocese disclosed a list of 55 priests March 20, the same day it announced that independent auditors had found more than 30 missteps in the church's handling of the McCormack allegations.
The archdiocese said at the time that it would not name priests who were accused posthumously and did not have a chance to answer the allegations.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:38 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Tue April 18, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse
Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Wed April 19, 2006 edition:
• Former priest arrested on sex charges
[1991 Unnamed priest -NEW*] - RCC. 2 altar boys.
News.com.au ,
www.news. com.au/story/ 0,10117,188 65403-12 43,00.html , By Annabelle McDonald, for April 20, 2006
AUSTRALIA -- A FORMER Catholic priest has been arrested in north Queensland over allegations he sexually assaulted two altar boys in Victoria 15 years ago.
After an eight-month investigation, police arrested the 57-year-old at his Cairns house yesterday morning and charged him with indecent assault.
He will be extradited to Victoria to face another 10 charges relating to the abuse of two youngsters who were altar boys at a Catholic church in Warrnambool.
The priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ordained in 1976 before quitting the church in 1993. He moved to Cairns about five years ago.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:01 PM]
[1970s Fortier] - RCC. Boy.
NorthernLife.ca ,
~ April 19, 2006
CANADA -- A Catholic priest charged with molesting a Sudbury altar boy more than 30 years ago was found unfit to stand trial following a brief hearing late last week at the Sudbury Courthouse.
Outside the courthouse, Richard Brazeau, 52, a man who says he was sexually molested during a single incident by Father Benoit Fortier, also known as Bernard Fortier, who is now in his 90s, asked other victims of sexual abuse by priests to come forward.
Brazeau said he suffered emotional scars for many years until he finally got counselling three years ago.
Benoit's lawyer Denis Michel presented a doctor's letter to the court and assistant Crown attorney Julie Lefebvre didn't oppose Michel's request Fortier be deemed unfit to stand trial.
[2005 Cannel] - (Check religion). Internet "boy".
KGW,
~ April 19, 2006
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - A former youth pastor who used his church computer to try and arrange for sex with a fictitious 12-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.
As part of his plea deal, James Cannel will be sentenced to no more than five years, 11 months in federal prison. Cannel entered his plea in U.S. District Court.
Cannel, 45, was originally charged in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in May. The indictment included charges that Cannel received and distributed child pornography and received and distributed obscenity. He was arrested in February 2005.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:18 AM]
[2005 Adams and McGrath] - RCC. Girl.
Blackpool Today,
~ April 19, 2006
UNITED KINGDOM -- A MAN accused of being part of a paedophile ring with a Catholic priest has admitted raping a young girl in Blackpool.
William Adams, 38, pleaded guilty to raping the 12-year-old in July and August last year.
He denied 11 other counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault, sexual touching and child abduction - all relating to the same girl - between May and November last year.
Remanded
Adams, originally from Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court via videolink. He was remanded in custody.
[< 2003 Orr -NEW* (Jesuit)] - RCC. Boy/s.
The Washington Times,
April 19, 2006
MARYLAND -- The Maryland Jesuit Province has found that a 2003 accusation of sexual abuse against a priest who taught at Georgetown Preparatory School is "substantially true," according to letters sent to parents of students and alumni of the private school in North Bethesda.
The Rev. Garrett "Gary" Orr, who was investigated but not charged by Montgomery County police, is on a leave of absence and has been barred from assignments at schools and parishes, the Very Rev. Timothy Brown, the Jesuit provincial head, said in a letter to the Rev. William L. George, president of Georgetown Prep.
"It is with a heavy heart and a sense of great sorrow," began Father George's two-page letter, dated April 10, to parents of 450 boys at the country's only Jesuit boarding school.
[1960s-70s Morse* (Jesuit)] - RCC. Child.
The Spokesman-Review,
by Virginia de Leon, April 19, 2006
WASHINGTON -- A Jesuit priest now working in the Diocese of Yakima was removed from ministry last week after a sexual abuse claim against him surfaced in the Spokane Diocese's bankruptcy case.
The Rev. John J. Morse denied the accusations in a letter he wrote to parishioners of Our Lady of Fatima in Moses Lake, but his Jesuit superiors still asked him to step down as they await the findings of an independent investigation.
The abuse allegedly occurred 35 to 40 years ago at Omak's St. Joseph Catholic Church, one of 82 parishes that constitute the Diocese of Spokane.
[1960s-70s Schwartz] - RCC. 3 boys.
KWWL,
~ April 19, 2006
IOWA -- Three men suing a former eastern Iowa priest for sexual abuse reach a settlement out of court. Former Waterloo residents Joseph Faucher and Steven Lown and current Waterloo resident, Dr. Donald Schmit, say William Schwartz abused them when they were students at Columbus High School in the 1960's and 1970's.
Schwartz was serving as spiritual director at Columbus and Associate Pastor at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Waterloo. Terms of the settlement are confidential.
[? 1977-78 Paquette] - RCC. $US 965,000. (17 claims.) Boys.
WCAX,
~ April 19, 2006
BURLINGTON, Vt. -- A lawsuit filed by a former altar boy who claimed he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1970s was settled Wednesday for $965,000 as the case was due to go to trial.
Michael Gay, 38, of South Burlington had claimed that Father Edward Paquette sexually abused him as an altar boy from age 10 to 12 at Christ the King Catholic Church in Burlington in 1977 and 1978.
"The Diocese of Burlington expressed deep sympathy and regret for this very sad situation and for all whose lives have been affected by (it) and who have suffered through this terrible ordeal," the diocese said in a statement
News reports said it was the largest settlement in a priest-abuse case in state history.
As part of the settlement, the church acknowledged it failed to take action against Paquette after being warned about his actions.
• Sex scandal costs Boston Catholic Church millions
[50yrs Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. $US 151m so far.
Reuters,
http://today. reuters.com/ news/article news.aspx? type=topNews &storyid=2006- 04-19T2159 28Z_01_N192 83541_RTR UKOC_0_US- RELIGION- BOSTON.xml ; By Jim Finkle, April 19, 2006
BOSTON (MA), (Reuters) -- The Roman Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal has cost the Boston Archdiocese at least $151 million since it erupted in 2002, the Church said on Wednesday in a financial report.
Struggling to restore public confidence after it was exposed for moving abusive priests to new parishes instead of reporting them to authorities, the archdiocese had to close more than 60 churches to raise money and was pressured to reveal its finances.
Church leaders called the latest report the most comprehensive public financial account in the history of the Boston church and said a growing budget deficit had put its programs and ministries at risk.
The archdiocese lost $8.3 million in its fiscal year to end-June 2005 as spending rose and donations shrank. That compared with a year-earlier loss of $2.5 million.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:47 PM]
[Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. $US 46.3-m deficit.
San Francisco Chronicle,
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer, Wednesday, April 19, 2006
BOSTON (MA), (AP) --The scandal-battered Boston Archdiocese released a two-year audit Wednesday that showed it running a $46.3-million deficit. Cardinal Sean O'Malley warned the shortfall is threatening Roman Catholic work in the community.
The audit, which covered the 2004 and 2005 fiscal years, also shows assets of nearly $330 million, but most of the money is restricted or earmarked for specific purposes.
"When we look at the decrease in revenue over previous years, we see clearly that our programs and ministries are at risk," O'Malley wrote in a letter to parishioners that accompanied the audit.
"It is also clear that the revenue numbers reflect the painful experience of our recent past, the anger over the sexual abuse crisis and the closing of parishes," O'Malley wrote. "These numbers are one response of a wounded community, an expression of deep hurt and a measure of our need to remain focused on the long process of healing that lies ahead."
[RECAPITULATION: ... the revenue numbers reflect the painful experience of our recent past, the anger over the sexual abuse crisis and the closing of parishes ...
RECAP. ENDS.]
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. > 500 victims. Hiding facts.
International Herald Tribune,
New York Times, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2006
UNITED STATES -- After years of stonewalling, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles has run out of excuses for blocking the prosecution of rogue priests accused in the Catholic Church's pedophilia scandal.
While other bishops and cardinals cooperated with the authorities, Mahony became a study in arrogance who only compounded the church's embarrassment.
His lawyers concocted elaborate hypotheses that church leaders and priests - under the confidentiality of "the sanctification process" - somehow enjoyed shelter from their basic duty to cooperate with criminal law enforcement.
The Supreme Court put an end to the evasions on Monday in refusing to hear the cardinal's final appeal.
The archdiocese must now follow lower court orders to yield church documents in the cases of two defrocked priests facing criminal trials.
The diocese should have to make available similar material affecting the civil suits of more than 500 people who say they were sexually abused by priests in years past, beyond the criminal statutes of limitation.
The archdiocese is just one shard of a scandal that in the past four years has forced the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to promise reforms, pay hundreds of millions in settlements, and dismiss more than 700 priests accused of sexually ravaging thousands of schoolchildren.
Mahony's resistance to civil authorities is a reminder of the one factor in the scandal that has not been fully scrutinized: the misbehavior of ranking churchmen who fiercely protected and even reassigned guilty priests to prey again upon their flocks.
The church's own laity panel singled out Mahony and Cardinal Edward Egan of New York for criticism, but both have defended their past management of scandalous priests. The panel warned that "there must be consequences" for culpable prelates as well as for the priests.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, April 19, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Twenty-one of the 67 prospective jurors interviewed in the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson have been excused from the case, mostly because of financial hardships they might face from being away from work for three to four weeks.
The two other main reasons for the dismissals had to do with people's health and religious beliefs.
The individual interviews of prospective jurors is the first step in winnowing the field of 99. Those who make the first round will then go through a general selection process until 12 jurors and four alternates are chosen.
Father Robinson, 68, is being tried in Lucas County Common Pleas Court on charges that he murdered 71-year-old Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on Holy Saturday, 1980. If convicted, he faces possible life in prison.
The questions asked of prospective jurors center on three main concerns: impact of a lengthy trial on jobs and families; whether they already have opinions based on news reports, and whether their religious beliefs could prevent an impartial decision.
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. 500 victims. Hiding facts.
Los Angeles Daily News,
~ April 19, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Now that the United States Supreme Court has rejected his legal wrangling, we can only hope that Cardinal Roger Mahony will at last cooperate fully with the law.
As the priestly sexual-abuse scandal has slowly unfolded these past few years, Mahony has been reluctant, at best, in his dealings with authorities or the public.
First, he failed to notify police upon learning that some of his priests were predators. And ever since, he has refused to turn over key information to a criminal investigation, citing some hitherto unheard-of legal claim to a bishop-priest privilege supposedly implied in the First Amendment.
But as the Supreme Court made clear by rejecting Mahony's arguments Monday, such a privilege does not exist. The information in question - archdiocesan personnel files - aren't covered by the seal of the confessional, and the right to the free exercise of religion doesn't include protecting sexual predators.
[Baker, Miller + others] - RCC. Children.
Los Angeles Daily News,
BY JENNIFER SOLIS, Guest Columnist, ~ April 19, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from Cardinal Roger Mahony (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 05-1017), will His Eminence release the files on alleged pedophile priests Michael Baker and George Miller to District Attorney Steve Cooley?
The prosecutor has been trying to obtain 14 church counseling records dealing with allegations of child molestation.
Similar records are also being sought in hundreds of lawsuits filed by sexual-abuse victims, including more than 500 in California alone. The records might contain details from the priests' confessions and treatment.
Cooley stated Monday that "It's unfortunate that it took four years of litigation to reach this day of justice for victims.
- RCC.
Irish Independent,
~ April 19, 2006
IRELAND -- THE former Bishop of Ferns, Brendan Comiskey, will not be present at the investiture of his successor on Sunday in St Aidan's Cathedral, writes John Cooney.
A spokesperson for the Ferns diocese, Fr John Carroll, said last night that "some time back Bishop Comiskey indicated to Bishop-elect Denis Brennan that he will not be in attendance at his ordination next Sunday".
Criticised
Bishop Comiskey, who resigned four years ago, was strongly criticised in October's Ferns Inquiry report for his handling of child clerical sex abuse cases.
On Monday he was at the centre of huge media attention when he said Mass at the funeral of Dr Peter Kavanagh, the brother of the famous Irish poet, Patrick, in the village of Iniskeen, Co Monaghan.
- RCC.
Western People,
~ April 19, 2006
IRELAND -- The special prayer service of Atonement and Healing for the effects of sexual abuse, and other forms of abuse, within the Catholic Church was held in the parish church in Castlebar on Palm Sunday last.
The ceremony was very moving yet difficult for many people to hear how far reaching the effects of abuse has on survivors of the abuse. The introduction to the Service referred to the need for the Church to pay heed to "abuse caused by lay members of the Church as well as to those abused by clergy or religious".
It also said, "A great and terrible wrong has been committed by some people who are members of our community of Faith, against innocent and blameless people of all ages. Sexual abuse, and indeed other abuse, is a grave breach of trust, a serious crime and an outrage. We, the community, need to acknowledge the wrongdoing, and we must unwaveringly place our primary focus, care and concern on the survivors of this abuse".
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:22 PM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Wed April 19, 2006
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Sex accused loses fight
[Iles] - No religion link reported.
The West Australian,
p 9, Wednesday, April 19, 2006
PERTH (Western Australia): A man accused of child sex crimes has failed in a legal bid to keep his identity secret.
Barry Glen Iles' lawyer unsuccessfully sought to have Mr Iles' name suppressed when he appeared in Perth Magistrate's Court yesterday because he believed nationwide media coverage of his client's case was "unfair".
But the argument received short shrift from Magistrate Michael Wheeler who said there were no grounds to suppress the name. Mr Iles will re-appear in court in May. #
[Apr 19, 06]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont123.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Thu April 20, 2006 edition:
• Church says almost fully compliant with background checks
[2005-06 Manchester Archdiocese] - RCC. 17% volunteers untrained.
The Boston Globe,
www.boston. com/news/ local/new_ hampshire/ articles/2006/ 04/20/church_ says_almost_ fully_compliant_ with_background_ checks ;
By J.M. Hirsch, Associated Press Writer | April 20, 2006
CONCORD, (NEW HAMPSHIRE) --Three weeks after prosecutors faulted efforts by the state's Roman Catholic diocese to protect children from sexual abuse, church officials say criminal background checks on anyone who works with children are nearly complete.
As of April 5, criminal and sex-offender registry checks had been performed on all 237 active priests and deacons in the Diocese of Manchester, the church said in a news release Thursday. All members of the clergy also had received sex-abuse prevention training.
Sex-offender registry checks also had been done on the diocese's 1,466 employees and 6,861 volunteers who regularly work with children. Criminal background checks had been done on 95 percent of workers and three-quarters of volunteers, church officials said.
Nearly all workers and 83 percent of volunteers had received the training.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:11 PM]
[2002-05 Kuczynski -NEW*] - RCC. Boy.
The Morning Call,
~ April 20, 2006
PENNSYLVANIA -- A Berks County lawyer today continued his statewide crusade for victims of the Catholic clergy sex-abuse scandal, filing a lawsuit on behalf of a 13-year-old boy who says he was abused by a Montgomery County priest.
The suit accuses the Rev. Edward Kuczynski of abusing the boy while he was a fifth-grader at St. Peter's School in Pottstown. It also names the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali, and school principal Joyce Babin as defendants.
The suit, filed in Philadelphia, is the latest prepared by attorney Jay Abramowitch alleging sexual abuse in Pennsylvania dioceses. It comes eight months after a Philadelphia grand jury released a scathing report documenting decades of abuse and cover-up by priests working in the church.
The suit alleges Kuczynski, the pastor of St. Peter's Church in Pottstown, began improperly touching the boy in 2002 and continued until February 2005, when the boy was removed from the school by his mother.
• Essex Pastor Charged With Sexual Child Abuse
[2005-06 Hill -NEW*] - House of God Church. Boy.
WJZ,
http://wjz. com/local/ local_story_ 109231457. html , Kai Jackson Reporting, ~ April 20, 2006
ODENTON (MARYLAND) -- The associate pastor of the House of God church in Essex has confessed to sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy, according to the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
Police say an investigation revealed that 28-year-old Enoch Hill, of 2104 Peaceful Way in Odenton, sexually abused the victim during six different encounters. On April 4, the boy reported the abuse, telling detectives it began when he visited Hill's home a year ago.
Lieutenant David Waltemeyer, a police spokesman, tells WJZ's Kai Jackson that Hill was arrested and booked Tuesday after he turned himself into police. [...]
Hill ... is currently being held in the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on a $35,000 bond. #
[With picture/s]
• Priest on sex charge
[1991 Ryan -NEW*] - RCC. Male youth.
Herald Sun,
www.heraldsun. news.com.au/ common/story_ page/0,5478, 18868365% 5E2862,00. html , April 20, 2006
AUSTRALIA -- A FORMER Victorian priest was arrested in far north Queensland yesterday and charged with sexual assault of a boy.
Paul David Ryan, 58, was charged with indecent assault of a 16-year-old boy at Penshurst, in western Victoria, in 1991.
Dr Ryan, who has a theology degree from the US, was working as a health officer for the Apunipima Aboriginal community in far north Queensland until he resigned early this year.
He had worked for several years for the Cape York district health council, a government body based at Weipa.
[2006 Lee -NEW*] - (Sect not named). Girl.
Press and Sun-Bulletin,
By Jim Wright, April 20, 2006
NORWICH (NY) -- A former pastor accused of running off with a 15-year-old girl could be served by the Chenango County District Attorney's Office with sex charges as early as today, Assistant District Attorney Stephen Dunshee, of Sherburne, said Wednesday.
Lewis J. Lee, 54, was apprehended at his Maryland job Monday night, while Elizabeth Thomsen of the Town of Columbus was with him. The Chenango County teenager left home with her family's former pastor March 18. In the past month, the two were spotted as far away as Tennessee.
Lee could face two counts of third-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor, or third-degree rape, a felony, Dunshee said. Both charges will result from incidents Dunshee said occurred in the Town of Sherburne.
"He manipulated her and then had sex with her," Dunshee said following Lee's arraignment Wednesday in Chenango County Court on a felony charge of first-degree custodial interference.
"Any sex that occurred was not consensual. She is not of the age where she can give consent. I think what happened here is despicable."
[Spokane Diocese] - RCC. $US 4.25m (of $46m) insurance deal.
KXLY,
Associated Press, Last updated 02:07:33 PM, Thursday, April 20th, 2006
SPOKANE (WA) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane has reached settlements totaling $4.25 Million with two more of its insurance carriers in a dispute over coverage of clergy sex abuse claims.
Bishop William Skylstad announced the proposed settlements today. They still must be approved by federal bankruptcy and district court judges.
It is the second time in less than a month that companies that issued policies to the diocese have agreed to settle, rather than go to trial. The diocese now has more than nine-point-five million dollars from insurance companies to pay victims of clergy sexual abuse.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because of sex abuse claims and has offered to settle with 75 victims for nearly 46 million dollars.
[2002-06 Bishop Bruskewitz, Melkite Archbishop Bustros] - Catholic. Refuse to obey agreement.
Catholic Online,
By Tom McFeely, National Catholic Register ( www.ncregister.com/ ) , April/20/2006
WASHINGTON (DC), (National Catholic Register) - A recent clash over abuse audits raises the question of the authority of individual bishops on the one hand and bishops' conferences on the other.
The National Review Board is made up of lay people appointed by the U.S. bishops conference. The board is responsible for overseeing annual audits of U.S. dioceses and eparchies, assessing their compliance with the provisions of the U.S. bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
The Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., and the Melkite Eparchy of Newton, Mass., both declined to participate in last year's audits.
In her foreword to the 2005 report on the result of the audits, which was released in late March, Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, the National Review Board chairwoman, called for "strong fraternal correction" of Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz and Melkite Archbishop Cyrille Bustros over their refusal to participate.
Said Ewers, "Though their governance authority is fully understood by the board, nonetheless, these refusals go against all of the efforts of the church to be open and transparent in addressing child protection and reaching out to victims to help with their healing."
Bishop Bruskewitz released a sharply worded response March 31.
[Emphasis added.]
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. Altar boy.
Irish Independent,
~ April 20, 2006
IRELAND -- THE Diocese of Limerick last night admitted it did not do enough to prevent the sexual abuse of former altar boy Peter McCloskey but did "everything possible" afterwards to help him recover from his horrific ordeal.
The father of three tragically took his own life on April 1 just days after meeting with diocesan officials to discuss the terms of a compensation package with the Catholic Church.
The 37-year-old was brutally raped by a substitute priest, Fr Denis Daly, when he was just 10 years old and serving as an altar boy in Caherdavin in 1980/81.
Moral
It has now emerged that the Co Clare-born priest, who spent 30 years in Australia before returning to Ireland in the 1980s, had come to the attention of Australian police and is on record by the Diocese of Sydney for "a moral lapse".
[Emphasis added]
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, April 20, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Opening arguments are set to begin tomorrow morning in the high-profile murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson, accused of killing a Toledo nun on Holy Saturday, 1980.
Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Osowik and prosecution and defense attorneys are scheduled to make their final jury selections today, picking 12 jurors and four alternates for a trial that is expected to last three to four weeks.
After opening arguments, the jury is scheduled to travel to the former Mercy Hospital, now a college, and its sacristy, where the murder took place. They also will visit the apartment in the hospital annex where Father Robinson, then Mercy's chaplain, lived.
The first phase of jury selection took three days as 85 people were individually interviewed. Of the 99 in the original jury pool, 28 were excused, mostly for financial concerns over being away from work for up to a month.
[2006 Benas*] - RCC. Woman.
Mercury News,
Knight Ridder, ~ April 20, 2006
SARATOGA (CA) -- Prosecutors said Wednesday that the case of a Saratoga Roman Catholic priest arrested in connection with an alleged rape of a 29-year-old woman was still pending.
The Rev. Randy Benas has been out on $200,000 bail since a day after his arrest March 30. No charges have been filed, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
Benas is on paid leave by the Diocese of San Jose from Saratoga's Sacred Heart Parish. Police said Benas met the alleged victim, an Oregon woman, at a Sunnyvale Motel 6 on March 28 after a year of long-distance counseling. A local hospital official alerted police after treating the woman.
- RCC.
Washington Post,
By Alan Cooperman and Michelle Boorstein, Page B03, Thursday, April 20, 2006
WASHINGTON (DC) -- Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick said yesterday that he expects to retire soon as archbishop of Washington, a post in which he has been a prolific fundraiser, helped shape the church's response to the sex abuse crisis and taken a nonconfrontational approach to Roman Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.
McCarrick submitted his resignation when he turned 75 in July, as required by church law. But he will remain in the job, overseeing an archdiocese of 560,000 Catholics and 115 parochial schools in the District and Maryland, until Pope Benedict XVI formally accepts it.
Although the Vatican has not announced a date for his departure or given any clues to who his successor might be, McCarrick said, "I am getting the sense that this is going to happen soon."
[50yrs Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. $US 151m so far.
CRI,
~ April 20, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- The Roman Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal has cost the Boston Archdiocese at least $151 million since it erupted in 2002, the Church said on Wednesday in a financial report.
Struggling to restore public confidence after it was exposed for moving abusive priests to new parishes instead of reporting them to authorities, the archdiocese had to close move than 60 churches to raise money and was pressured to reveal its finances.
Church leaders called the latest report the most comprehensive public financial account in the history of the Boston church and said a growing budget deficit had put its programs and ministries at risk.
The archdiocese lost $8.3 million in its fiscal year to end-June 2005 as spending rose and donations shrank. That compared with a year-earlier loss of $2.5 million.
- RCC.
Spirit Daily,
~ April 20, 2006
UNITED STATES -- As yet, it's no large movement. In no region of North America has it come to dominate. It remains off the table at national bishops' conferences -- at least in open session.
But in various parts of the U.S. laymen as well as a number of priests have risen vocally against local ordinaries in a way that if unaddressed could turn ominous.
The tone has been startlingly direct in a Church known for a strict pecking order and used to unequivocal obedience.
The new approach to expressing concern seems to have arisen from the sexual-abuse crisis and charges that many bishops mishandled it, a perception that has roused a growing undercurrent of dissension, along with other issues.
[RECAPITULATION: Ominous trend ... RECAP. ENDS.]
[COMMENT: What is "ominous" about the few efforts to awaken the "sheep" to the fact that the "shepherds" have been deflowering their children, and the "chief shepherds" are enabling, transferring, lying, and excusing?
And, has the author of this article thought that perhaps the Vatican leaders ought to have ordered these two prelates to at least go through the motions of repentance and reformation of character?
COMMENT ENDS.]
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from court.
Los Angeles Times,
April 20, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- HIS LAST-DITCH APPEAL to the U.S. Supreme Court rejected, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony may soon find himself at the mercy of a far less exalted body: the civil jury. Given the American Catholic Church's lamentable record in dealing with abusers in the ranks of the clergy, that is a just result.
The Supreme Court wisely declined this week to prolong an unseemly legal dispute over Mahony's refusal to turn over to authorities the personnel files of two priests accused of molesting minors. The L.A. archdiocese has no choice but to accept that personnel and counseling files of clergy members must be made available to a grand jury investigating the possible commission of crimes. Church authorities should go further, however, and also make such records available in civil lawsuits.
Lawyers for the archdiocese had argued that the personnel files, which contain information about the psychological evaluation and treatment of members of the clergy, are protected by a variation of the confidentiality of communications between priest and penitent and by the 1st Amendment's protection of freedom of religion. Public disclosure of personnel files of troubled priests, the church argued, would "destroy the confidentiality and trust between the bishop and his priests, which is essential to the sanctification process." A California appellate court was unimpressed, declaring that churches must abide by "the rules of civil society, particularly when the state's compelling interest in protecting children is in question."
• Separation of church and state over audits
- RCC.
Concord Monitor,
www.cmonitor. com/apps/pbcs. dll/article?AID=/ 20060416/ REPOSITORY/ 604160369& SearchID=7324 2150307681 ;
By ERIC MOSKOWITZ, April 16, 2006
When the state released the results of its first audit of New Hampshire's Roman Catholic diocese, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said three more would follow. The audits are a key component of the 2002 agreement that spared the diocese from criminal prosecution despite decades of protecting sexually abusive priests.
But the Rev. Edward Arsenault - the diocese's top official for sexual-abuse issues - said he understood the agreement differently. The audits would end in December 2007, no matter how many had been conducted, Arsenault said.
That was late last month. Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker has said the audits should extend beyond the 2007 deadline because church protests over the cost and the nature of the audits delayed their start by a year and a half. But the attorney general's office does not believe the issue needs to be resolved immediately, Delker said Friday.
David Braiterman, the Concord lawyer who represents a coalition of organizations and individuals who want the church to comply with the spirit of the agreement, said the question is too important to wait. Given both the deficiencies revealed by the first audit and the church's attempts to limit that audit, Braiterman said, the state should not wait to make sure that four audits can be performed.
[50yrs Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. Assets $US 330m. Child sex cost $US 151m so far.
The Sun,
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press, April 20, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- The scandal-battered Boston Archdiocese released a two-year audit yesterday that showed it running a $46.3 million deficit. Cardinal Sean O'Malley warned the shortfall is threatening Roman Catholic work in the community.
The audit, which covered the 2004 and 2005 fiscal years, also shows assets of nearly $330 million, but most of the money is restricted or earmarked for specific purposes.
"When we look at the decrease in revenue over previous years, we see clearly that our programs and ministries are at risk," Cardinal O'Malley wrote in a letter to parishioners that accompanied the audit.
"It is also clear that the revenue numbers reflect the painful experience of our recent past, the anger over the sexual abuse crisis and the closing of parishes," Cardinal O'Malley wrote. "These numbers are one response of a wounded community, an expression of deep hurt and a measure of our need to remain focused on the long process of healing that lies ahead."
[50yrs Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. Assets $US 330m. Child sex cost $US 151m so far.
The Boston Globe,
By Michael Paulson | April 20, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley is pledging to cut spending, improve fund-raising, and balance the church's budget within 18 months, as he attempts to strengthen a storied archdiocese financially hobbled by years of scandal and debt.
Saying he was seeking to rebuild trust by disclosing information, O'Malley released a torrent of financial data yesterday that the archdiocese believes is the most ever disclosed by any Catholic diocese in history. And he pledged full financial transparency on an ongoing basis -- continually updated data on the Internet and annual financial reports about the archdiocese, its 303 parishes, and dozens of related Catholic organizations.
The multiple reports released yesterday reveal the stunning breadth of the Archdiocese of Boston, which claims nearly 2 million adherents in 144 communities. The archdiocese owns 1,500 buildings in Eastern Massachusetts, with an estimated replacement value of $2.8 billion; it employs 3,000 people and oversees ...
[50yrs Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. Assets $US 330m. Child sex cost $US 151m so far.
The Boston Globe,
By Michael Paulson | April 20, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy cost the Archdiocese of Boston $150.8 million through the end of last June, the archdiocese said yesterday in a detailed examination of the financial implications of the abuse crisis.
"The substantial financial costs detailed in today's report reflect the staggering scope of the crisis," Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley said in a letter that accompanied the report on sexual abuse settlements, released to fulfill a portion of O'Malley's pledge of financial transparency.
The archdiocese said it had paid $127.4 million to settle claims brought by 895 people who said they were harmed by clergy sexual abuse over the years; an additional $8.8 million for support programs such as therapy for victims; and $14.6 million on legal, mediation, arbitration, and borrowing costs associated with paying settlements.
Additionally, the archdiocese last month agreed to settle abuse claims with an additional 88 people, for an average of $75,000 each, which would bring the totals to 983 settlements for approximately $157 million.
[1980-81 Daly] - RCC. McCloskey suicide. Altar boy.
Limerick Post,
By Mary Earls, ~ April 20, 2006
IRELAND -- ANYONE who has suffered clerical abuse is being warned to stay away from Bishop Donal Murray or his diocese by the brother of deceased former alter-boy, Peter McCloskey.
Calling for the bishop to resign his post, Joseph McCloskey said that his brother's cry for help resulted in his death.
Mr McCloskey told the Limerick Post that the church's silence on the matter is also being "exacerbated by reports of another allegation of abuse in Limerick by the same priest, which wasn't brought into the public domain".
37-year-old Caherdavin man, Peter McCloskey, was found dead on April 1, just two days after mediation talks with Catholic Church representatives about his allegations of clerical sexual abuse.
[1980 Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE, April 19, 2006
TOLEDO (OH) -- Another prospective juror was dismissed this morning from the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson because of her strong feelings against the Roman Catholic Church and its clergy.
Bias for or against Catholicism was cited in 4 of the 34 dismissals over the past three days. During that time, a total of 94 people have been interviewed, with the final interview scheduled for this afternoon.
The majority of the jurors excused were over concerns for financial hardship, health problems, or family issues, but religious bias came into play in a sharp courtroom debate this morning.
One woman said she feels the Catholic Church "has gotten off too easy" in the crisis involving clerical sexual abuse of children, but that she could be impartial because this is a murder case, not a molestation case.
[1975; 1981 O'Brien -NEW*] - RCC. Boy; girl.
NBC 5,
UPDATED 7:36 pm CDT, April 19, 2006
CHICAGO (IL) -- Two new sexual abuse lawsuits were filed against a recently suspended priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The suits name the Rev. William O'Brien and the archdiocese.
The alleged victims, a man and a woman, both in their 40s, claimed the abuse occurred in 1975 and 1981, in two separate parishes.
They said church officials knew of O'Brien's pedophilia, but did not protect other children.
"I just feel that they cover up. They always say that they're out for the benefit of their children, and they're not. They're more concerned about their priests," one of the unidentified victims said off-camera.
[1960s-70s Schwartz] - RCC. 3 boys.
WQAD,
~ April 20, 2006
WATERLOO (Iowa) -- Attorneys say a defrocked Catholic priest has settled three lawsuits alleging he sexually abused boys in the 1960s and 1970s.
William Schwartz, who now lives in Arizona, was accused of molesting three boys while Schwartz was an associate pastor at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Waterloo and later when he was spiritual director at Columbus High School.
The three accusers filed the lawsuits in February 2005 and settled claims a year later against the co-defendant, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque. The archdiocese paid five million to settle 20 cases of sexual abuse alleged against nine priests over the past five decades.
The only surviving priest is Schwartz, who was defrocked last year by the Vatican.
[50yrs Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. Assets $US 330m. Child sex cost $US 151m so far.
Catholic Online,
~ April 20, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Dear Friends in Christ,
The document you are about to read is a comprehensive summary of the financial condition of the Archdiocese of Boston. It presents a look at all of the entities that most would consider to comprise the Archdiocese, with a particular focus on the principal operating entity, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, a Corporation Sole. Through full disclosure, a clear description of our organizational structure and the recognition of the impact of our difficult recent history, we hope to provide the faithful as complete an understanding as possible of our financial status.
The numbers on these pages are meaningful only when put within the context of ministry. As Catholics, we are charged with the mission of spreading the Gospel in word and in deed. That mission is served when a priest says Mass and when a child attends religious education class. It is also served when a soup kitchen feeds someone in need or a pastoral minister visits a hospital patient. The numbers within this report do not define who we are as Church, but they do provide a picture of the resources available to carry out our mission. And they tell us we have a great deal of work to do.
[50yrs Boston Archdiocese] - RCC. Assets $US 330m. $181m shortfall. Child sex cost $151m so far.
Milford Daily News,
By Emelie Rutherford, Thursday, April 20, 2006
BOSTON (MA) -- Catholics fighting the Boston archdiocese's plans to shutter their parishes largely applauded church officials for opening the organization's books yesterday, though some parishioners said the financial data does not answer all of their nagging questions.
Responding to calls to divulge the archdiocesan finances in the wake of the priest sex abuse scandal and parish closings, Cardinal Sean O'Malley released an audit and other financial data about the last two fiscal years that paint a bleak financial picture.
As of last June 30, the archdiocese was grappling with a $46.3 million deficit, a $135 million shortfall in the clergy pension fund and declining donations.
"When we look at the decrease in revenue over previous years, we see clearly that our programs and ministries are at risk," O'Malley wrote in a letter to parishioners. He said the revenue numbers reflect "the anger over the sexual abuse crisis and the closing of parishes."
[2003-06 Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. Keeping facts from court.
Pasadena Weekly,
By André Coleman, ~ April 20, 2006
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- The day after Easter, the otherwise joyous mood around the Archdiocese of Los Angeles turned sour after the US Supreme Court declined to hear Cardinal Roger M. Mahony's request to keep secret the files of two priests whom authorities suspect of molestation, a decision that could open the floodgates for more civil litigation against the Catholic Church and, some Church critics hope, leave Mahony open to criminal prosecution.
Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, called the high court's decision not to hear Mahony's plea to keep the file