• Protest Of Bishop's Policy Brings Out People - But No Cops
- Roman Catholic Church (RCC).
Nebraska State Paper,
http:// nebraska. statepaper. com/vnews/ display.v/ ART/2007/ 06/01/ 466083fc3be87 ,
June 01, 2007
LINCOLN (NE) -- Some Catholics who are members of Call to Action wanted to present church officials in Lincoln with a petition Friday, complaining about Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz refusing to participate in a nationwide audit of sex abuse cases.
They gave up the idea of a personal presentation after Bruskewitz said he would have them arrested if they came onto church property.
They decided to stand outside the cathedral and hold a news conference.
Supporters of Bruskewitz showed up and sang Ave Maria. The protesters joined them for awhile, too.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 7:10 PM]
(This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
for Fri, June 01, 2007.)
[2005 Torres Ortiz -NEW*] - RCC. Boy.
Union-Tribune
ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:15 p.m., June 1, 2007
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A judge in Puerto Rico sentenced a Roman Catholic priest Friday to three years probation for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy he had counseled for depression.
The judge also ordered the Rev. Anibal Torres Ortiz to undergo counseling for sexual offenders and prohibited him from being in the company of minors without the supervision of another adult. He also must register as a sexual offender in the U.S. island territory.
Torres, who was convicted of exposing himself and sexual abuse, could have received up to 3 1/2 years in prison. Authorities said the incident occurred in 2005, when the priest served in a church in Rio Piedras, a suburb of the capital.
- RCC.
[Ladenburger -NEW* (Franciscan)] - 2 students.
[2007 Franciscan Friars] - Denied past record.
Bonner County Daily Bee,
By KEITH KINNAIRD, News editor, June 1, 2007
SANDPOINT (WA) -- Bail is set at $100,000 for a former boarding school counselor who is accused of engaging in lewd conduct with at least two students at Elk Mountain Academy near Clark Fork.
Louis W. Ladenburger, 70, is charged with three counts of sexual battery of a minor between the ages of 16 and 17, a felony punishable by up to 25 years in state prison.
Ladenburger declined the services of a court-appointed public defender when he went before Judge Barbara Buchanan on Thursday. ...
Robinson also told the court that Ladenburger admitted to struggling with sexually inappropriate desires while he was a priest, a fact that he concealed when he was hired on at Elk Mountain.
- RCC secrecy rulings.
PR-Inside,
AP, 16:35:49, June-01-2007
ROME, Italy (AP) - Almost 5 million Italians watched a BBC documentary on sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church aired by the state-run TV after days of controversy, officials said Friday.
The RAI program featuring the 2006 BBC documentary "Sex, Crimes and the Vatican" offered a rare chance to this overwhelmingly Catholic nation to deal publicly with the issue of priest abuse. The broadcaster said those watching was a record for the weekly show, called «Anno Zero.»
The show Thursday night featured long excerpts of the BBC documentary exposing abuse, including interviews with alleged victims. It also invited Bishop Rino Fisichella, the rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, to defend the church.
The show examined a Vatican document written in 1962 regarding secrecy in church investigations of some sex abuse claims. The document has been revised -- in the late 1960s, in 1983 when the Vatican updated the whole Code of Canon Law, and again when new procedures were put in place in 2001, in the wake of the sex abuse scandal in the United States.
[ENGLISH translation of Crimen Sollicitationis, 1962, is on this website at crimineenglish.htm .
ENDS.]
- RCC.
The Pilot (Diocesan paper)
By Christine Williams
Posted June/1/2007
BRIGHTON (MA) -- In a letter to priests dated May 31, Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley said that the agreements to sell the chancery buildings and Bishop Peterson Hall to Boston College and relocate the central administration to Braintree is part of a strategic, long-term plan to strengthen the archdiocese.
"We must have a strong foundation, including our finances and operations, in order to provide the many good works that are essential to our mission," he said. "The financial and administrative factors necessitating these decisions are well known, the response to them requires an understanding of the pastoral, educational and social obligations the Church in Boston must fulfill in the short and long term."
In the letter, the cardinal also reiterated his dedication to St. John's Seminary in Brighton and the formation of priests there. In disagreement with the archdiocese's plans to sell the adjacent Bishop Peterson Hall, Father John Farren, OP, resigned as rector of the seminary a month before his scheduled departure.
- RCC.
The Pilot
~ June 01, 2007
BOSTON (MA) --
Dear Monsignor/Father,
One of my greatest joys as your bishop is ordaining men as priests for our Archdiocese. This past Saturday seven men joined our ranks as they responded to God's call to service in the presence of their families, friends and the community of the Church. As each of the concelebrating priests at the Cathedral laid hands on the newly ordained, the bond that we share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ was strengthened and affirmed.
The priests who were ordained last week spent years preparing for that day, as each one of us did in preparing for our own ordination. We know that the spiritual, academic, pastoral and human formation necessary to prepare for priesthood is a significant and serious undertaking. In the Archdiocese of Boston we are blessed that both St. John's Seminary and Blessed John XXIII Seminary provide men from our Archdiocese and beyond with the training needed to be faithful servants of God's people.
- VoTF discussed.
Houston Chronicle
By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer
~ June 01, 2007
BOSTON (MA) – The lay group created to give anguished Roman Catholics a voice as the clergy sex abuse crisis unfolded five years ago is now in a crisis of its own, dealing with a budget deficit and infighting among its leaders.
Voice of the Faithful is projecting a $100,000 deficit in the next fiscal year following a drop in the number of major donors, according to an account of a group leaders' meeting which is posted on Voice's Web site.
Board chairman William Casey said that the group has had trouble adjusting to a long-term strategy as the short-term anger over the scandal has subsided.
- RCC in denial.
United Press International,
June 1, 2007
VATICAN CITY, June 1 (UPI) -- Vatican officials called a British documentary on sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests "biased" and "unfair" after it aired on Italian television.
After a decision to air "Sex Crimes and the Vatican" prompted debate for weeks, the documentary was watched Thursday by nearly 4.8 million people, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday.
"The documentary deals with dramatic material from a clearly biased viewpoint," Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.
"It becomes seriously unfair when it makes criticisms of the motivations behind church documents, whose nature and goals are misrepresented, and when it focuses on the figure of Cardinal Ratzinger, today Pope Benedict XVI."
[~ 1991 Laurano] - RCC. 3 victims.
The Patriot Ledger,
By SUE REINERT, May 30, 2007
HULL (MA) -- Defrocked priest Anthony Laurano of Hull faced a trial on child-rape charges when he died Sunday, but three of his alleged victims will continue their civil lawsuit, their attorney said.
Prosecutors said Laurano, 82, raped an 8-year-old boy 16 years ago while he was pastor at St. Mary's Church in North Plymouth. The two alleged rapes occurred in the week before the child's First Communion.
While Laurano awaited trial on the child-rape indictment in 2005, he was charged with molesting a retarded neighbor in Hull. He pleaded innocent to both sets of charges.
[~ 1991 Laurano] - RCC. 3 victims.
TheBostonChannel.com
~ June 1, 2007
BOSTON, Massachusetts -- The death of a defrocked priest who was about to go to trial on child rape charges has left his alleged victim feeling robbed of a chance for justice, the man said Friday.
Anthony Laurano, 82, the former pastor of St. Mary's Church in Plymouth, died Sunday.
He was charged in 2005 in the 1991 rape of an 8-year-old boy. While he was awaiting trial, he was charged with molesting his mentally disabled neighbor in Hull, outraging members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, who criticized the decision to allow him to remain free on bail on the earlier charges.
Laurano's alleged victim in the 1991 case said he went to the police in 2005 after recovering repressed memories of being raped. Since then, he has been waiting for Laurano's trial to tell his story.
[2007 Lincoln Diocese] - RCC. Threatens reformers.
World-Herald,
BY ASHLEY HASSEBROEK, ~ June 1, 2007
LINCOLN (NE) -- Officials from the Lincoln's Catholic diocese have asked the Lincoln Police Department to arrest members of Call to Action Nebraska if they follow through on their plan to deliver a petition against Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz today.
The petition criticizes Bruskewitz for his refusal to participate in the church's annual nationwide audit to determine whether dioceses are compliant with church policies on sexual abuse. The Lincoln diocese is the only one in the nation that declines to participate.
Some 1,000 Catholics nationwide signed the petition, Call to Action members say. Bruskewitz has said that anyone who belongs to Call to Action, a group that favors such changes in the church as allowing married priests and women priests, is excommunicated.
[~ 1991 Laurano] - RCC. 3 victims.
The Hull Times,
By Christopher Haraden, May.31.2007
HULL (MA) -- The 82-year-old defrocked priest facing multiple sexual abuse accusations died this weekend at his Hull home, just days before a judge was expected to schedule trial on charges he raped an eight-year-old altar boy in Plymouth in 1991.
Hull police and fire crews were called to the Manomet Ave. home of Anthony J. Laurano at 11:52 a.m. Sunday, after his sister, Gloria, dialed 911 and said her brother was not breathing.
Laurano's funeral was held in East Boston this morning [Thursday], the same day he was scheduled to appear in Brockton Superior Court for another pretrial conference on the rape charges.
- RCC.
KING 5
June 01, 2007
SPOKANE (WA) -- The Spokane Catholic Diocese has emerged from the brink of bankruptcy, thanks to millions of dollars in donations from Seattle.
The Shaun Cross, the attorney representing the Diocese throughout the case, says he filed the final paperwork in court late Thursday afternoon in order to emerge successfully from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection back in December 2004.
The Diocese has received donations from all over the country to help contribute to the $48 million settlement fund for victims of priest sex abuse. As of Thursday night, $20 million was wired to the fund, organized out of Seattle. Most of that money came from insurance settlements. More will be transferred next week from other sources.
- RCC.
Irish Examiner
~ June 01, 2007
IRELAND The closing stages have been reached in the trial of a man for falsely claiming a priest b*ggered him when allegedly helping with prayers for his First Holy Communion almost 30 years ago.
The 34-year-old south inner city accused denies making a false statement to Detective Garda Brian Kavanagh at Kevin Street Garda Station, Dublin on June 18, 2003 that acts of indecent assault and b*ggery were committed on him by the priest in the period February to May 1981.
The jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard closing speeches on day-15 of the trial from prosecuting counsel, Mr Dominic McGinn BL, and defence counsel, Mr Damian Colgan BL.
[~ 2006 Peter Grant] - RCC. Seduced counsellee. Boy.
BBC News,
~ June 01, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- A Catholic priest has been jailed for more than three years for sexually abusing a boy who had asked for advice as he was confused about his sexuality.
Father Peter Grant, 58, of Balfour Mews, Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual activity with a child.
Grant was arrested after the teenager, 15, told another priest what had happened in a confession.
- RCC.
[Mr Kreutzer (Catholic school math teacher)] - Minors.
[Decades - Los Angeles Archdiocese] - ~ 500 plaintiffs.
City of Angels,
By City of Angels Lady, ~ June 1, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Cardinal Roger Mahony is Number 17 on the Plaintiff's Witness List filed May 25th for the Paul Kreutzer Cases going to jury trial June 11th. Defendants have Kreutzer as Witness Number 4, then 9 through 21 are monsignors and sisters, so just reading Defendants' Witness List can be triggering for a survivor.
Mahony's name as a witness caused some of the disarray in LA Superior Court last week, re the hearing that vanished from the May 30th calendar. Right up to the time court went into session plaintiffs still thought the hearing re Interrogatories 1 through 8 was to go forward. It had been "penned" onto the printed sheet of paper that is taped outside the courtroom listing the order of hearings that day.
Then Plaintiff Attorney Steven J. Brady of San Francisco subpoenaed the cardinal last week to testify on the witness stand in the Kreutzer Cases trial June 11th. While the Cardinal was wondering how to avoid answering written questions in Interrogatories 1 through 8, which he'd been avoiding since August, the man in robes got served.
- RCC.
Fox 6,
~ June 1, 2007
SAN DIEGO (CA) -- Victims of clergy sexual abuse are blasting San Diego's Bishop after a bankruptcy hearing that attempted to disclose the church's finances and assets.
- RCC.
Union-Tribune
By Mark Sauer and Jeff McDonald
June 1, 2007
SAN DIEGO (CA) -- A federal judge wants to borrow an idea from Major League Baseball to settle the key issue of how to put monetary values on cases of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests.
Judge Louise DeCarl Adler outlined a plan yesterday in which attorneys for the Diocese of San Diego and those representing about 150 abuse victims would each submit a dollar amount for a specific case and an arbitrator would choose one of the two figures.
Under the plan offered by Adler: A victim's attorney might argue an egregious case involving the long-ago rape of a child by a priest is worth $1.6 million based on the facts of the abuse and on settlements or verdicts elsewhere in similar clergy cases. The diocese might argue that case is worth half that amount, or $800,000.
[~ 2006-07 Bedoya and Mr Estrada] - RCC. Man.
News Journal,
June 1, 2007
DELTONA (FL) -- A Deltona pastor and a priest-in-training will not face formal charges in an alleged sexual battery case, the State Attorney's Office said Thursday.
Spokeswoman Linda Pruitt cited insufficient evidence as the reason not to file charges.
According to a complaint filed in October with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, the Rev. Carlos Bedoya, 44, of St. Clare Catholic Church, invited a 35-year-old man to his home on church grounds to have lunch and "cocktails." He proceeded to restrain the man while David Estrada, a 24-year-old priest-in-training, performed oral sex on the man, the complaint states.
[50yrs - San Diego Diocese] - RCC. Many victim-survivors.
NBC,
~ June 1, 2007
SAN DIEGO (CA) -- The bishop for the Catholic Diocese of San Diego was on the stand again Thursday during another federal bankruptcy hearing, NBC 7/39 reported.
At a hearing last month, Bishop Robert Brom was questioned by people who said they were sexually abused by priests.
They packed the courtroom on Thursday, NBC 7/39 reported.
Attorneys for some of the alleged abuse victims questioned Brom about the finances of the diocese.
[Years - Bro. Moloney, Fr. Garchow] - RCC. Fought extradition. Disabled boys.
Stuff,
NZPA | Friday, 1 June 2007
NEW ZEALAND -- A judge is considering whether boys who allegedly suffered historical abuse by two Catholic clergymen at Christchurch's St John of God School will have to give evidence in court at a depositions hearing.
Judge Michael Crosbie reserved his decision after hearing legal argument at a pre-depositions session in Christchurch District Court this morning.
He expects to release his decision next week, in the case of Brother Roger Moloney, 71, and Father Raymond Garchow, 59, who were extradited from Australia last year.
- Baptists.
Associated Baptist Press
By Robert Marus and Charlie Warren
Published May 31, 2007
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ABP) -- The upcoming Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting may not, like last year's, feature a contested and unpredictable presidential election -- but it is likely to air other contentious issues, according to those who track such things.
Nonetheless, SBC President Frank Page said prayer for revival and spiritual awakening is the intended emphasis for the June 12-13 SBC annual meeting, scheduled for San Antonio's Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. ...
In response to recent exposure the SBC has received concerning clergy sexual abuse, Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson and Texas pastor Benjamin Cole intend to ask the denomination to address the issue.
"Southern Baptists must be proactive when it comes to protecting children under our ministerial care. Our convention cannot retreat behind claims of ecclesiastic polity, and we are encouraged by SBC President Frank Page's tough stance on clergy sexual abuse," Cole said.
- RCC.
Catholic Online,
Catholic News Service ( www.catholicnews.com ), May/31/2007
WASHINGTON (DC), (CNS) - Judge Michael R. Merz of Dayton, Ohio, has been named chairman of the National Review Board. The board oversees the U.S. bishops' compliance with the national sexual abuse and child protection policies they adopted in June 2002.
Merz has been a magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio since 1984 and the district's chief magistrate judge since 2004. A member of the review board since October 2004, as chairman he succeeds Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, head of the board since June 2005.
Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, announced Merz's appointment and named four new board members May 29.
- RCC.
Catholic Sentinel
by Archbishop John Vlazny
May/31/2007
OREGON -- When June rolls around, understandably our parish and school communities shift into low gear. Folks take vacations. Many of us literally stop to smell the roses. It's a time for family, friends and all those leisure activities we dreamed about during the winter rain and chill.
But here in the Archdiocese of Portland we still must address some unfinished business before we allow the magic of summertime to ease our pressures and lighten our hearts. As I announced in my letter of April 17 to all our people, I am asking you to observe a day of prayer and fasting, an extraordinary Ember Day, for the healing of the victims of child sexual abuse and for their reconciliation with the church. I designated June 13, the feast of St. Anthony, for that purpose here in the Archdiocese of Portland. I shall preside at an archdiocesan service of healing and reconciliation at 7:30 p.m. in St. Mary's Cathedral. I encourage similar services in other parts of the diocese so that the people can come together in prayer. Through our prayer and fasting we ask our God to heal all the hurts and to help us move forward with compassion and care for all victims of this scandal.
As you know, I have not addressed the matter of child sexual abuse litigation in this column for many months. The mediators who were working very hard to help us achieve financial settlements with plaintiffs requested that all parties refrain from making public comments in this regard. Even the Catholic Sentinel was asked to withhold any news reports about the matter in its weekly issues. I have great respect for the mediators and I wanted to comply with their demands since the success they were experiencing in mediating our many claims and our disputes with the insurance carriers seemed to be progressing very well. But it was difficult in my role as your pastor and the leader of this church to refrain from communicating with you about these matters. I do hope you understand.
[Decades, 2006 Hanley] - RCC. Swung bat. Boys.
Star-Ledger,
BY JEFF DIAMANT, Friday, June 01, 2007
NEW JERSEY -- James Hanley, a former Catholic priest who admitted molesting about a dozen boys over several decades, lost his appeal yesterday to enter a pretrial intervention program in an unrelated assault case.
He then rejected a Hudson County assistant prosecutor's offer to let him plead guilty to reduced charges in the assault case, which prosecutors say involves an incident with a softball bat 15 months ago at the Extended Stay Hotel in Secaucus.
He is now expected to go on trial in September or October on counts of unlawful weapons possession and making terrorist threats.
Authorities say that, on March 10, 2006, Hanley swung a bat he had been using as a cane at three employees of the hotel after a dispute over payment for a room. The employees called police.
[- 2007 Bishop Bruskewitz] - RCC. Refuses audit, rejects petitioners.
Sioux City Journal,
May 31, 2007
LINCOLN (NE), (AP) -- More than 1,000 Catholics from around the country have signed a petition protesting decisions by Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz.
The petition, which will given to the Lincoln Diocese on Friday, criticizes his refusal to participate in the U.S. bishops' annual audit of sex abuse data -- the only diocese in the country to opt out. It also criticizes his barring girls from serving at the altar and his 1996 excommunication of Call to Action Nebraska members.
"We are not happy with the way Bishop Bruskewitz has been handling things in the diocese and wanted to draw attention to that," said Rachel Pokora, president of Call to Action Nebraska.
- RCC.
London Free Press (Canada),
By JANE SIMS, SUN MEDIA, June 01, 07
CANADA -- It appears the Roman Catholic diocese of London is listening to Rev. Charles Sylvestre's victims.
This week, letters were sent to the women abused as children by the disgraced priest announcing the church will adopt some of their ideas in a new, long-awaited sexual abuse policy.
The suggestions came from a meeting of survivors in Chatham last month.
- RCC.
Leader-Post
Windsor Star
Friday, June 01, 2007
LONDON, Ont., Canada -- The London Catholic diocese no longer will allow priests to be alone with children, according to a letter sent this week to victims of pedophile priest Charles Sylvestre.
A 'two-deep rule' will be included in the new code of conduct, requiring another adult to be present during interactions between priests and children, Rev. John Sharp wrote in the letter dated May 29
"The two-deep rule is something the survivors specifically asked for," said Chatham-Kent Crown attorney Paul Bailey, who prosecuted Sylvestre's case. "So if someone sees a priest in a little room, alone with a child, they will know that's a breach of sexual abuse policy."
[~ 2006 Bedoya, Estrada] - RCC. Man
Orlando Sentinel
by Kristen Reed | Posted June 1, 2007
DELTONA (FL) -- Prosecutors are not pursuing criminal charges against a Deltona priest accused of participating in sexual battery on a man, officials said Thursday.
There was "insufficient evidence" to proceed with a case against the Rev. Carlos Bedoya, State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Linda Pruitt said.
The pastor of St. Clare Catholic Church has been under investigation since October and was removed from his post the following month. Volusia County sheriff's investigators forwarded a complaint in December to the State Attorney's Office, which has been re-interviewing witnesses and collecting additional evidence since then.
According to the criminal report, Bedoya was accused of helping David Estrada commit a sex act on a 35-year-old man at the priest's home. Estrada, 24, also is not being charged in the case.
[1995-99 Timothy Evans] - RCC. Guilty x 2. 2 boys.
Denver Post,
By Ann Schrader, Last Updated 04:09:20 AM MDT, June/01/2007
GOLDEN (CO) -- Saying a "sacrosanct" relationship was violated, a Jefferson County judge on Thursday ordered Catholic priest Timothy Evans to serve four years in prison on top of the 14-year-to-life sentence handed down Wednesday in Larimer County.
Evans, who could have been sentenced to two to six years in prison, is accused in both cases of sexually assaulting teenage boys sent to him for counseling.
"I can't envision a more egregious breach of trust," said Jefferson County District Judge Margie Enquist.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 6:33 AM]
- RCC.
Newsday,
BY MELANIE LEFKOWITZ, melanie.lefkowitz@newsday.com , for June 3, 2007
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- Nestled into Bishop William Murphy's prayer book is a photograph of an altar boy dressed for church. Murphy says the boy's mother sent him the picture after her son, abused at the hands of a priest, killed himself at age 22.
"I see that every single time I open my breviary to pray. And I do that purposely, to remind myself of how seriously tragic and horrific this has been," Murphy said. "The last picture I see before I go to bed is that young man. And please God, I'll have that in there with me until my dying day."
Like the photograph, a portrait of betrayal pressed against pages imprinted with Catholic text, many things associated with the church has become melded with the priest sex abuse scandal that engulfed it. And so it has gone for Murphy. His tumultuous 5 1/2-year tenure as leader of Long Island's 1.4 million Catholics has been seared with the anger arising from decades of hidden abuse and secrets kept.
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Fri June 01, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Church: Ladenburger had history of abuse, was asked to leave ministry
- RCC.
[Ladenburger* (Franciscan)] - 3 charges.
[2007 Franciscan Friars] - Denied past record.
KXLY,
www.kxly.com/ news/?sect_ rank=3§ion_ id=561&story_ id=11560 ,
KXLY.com Staff, 06:54:33 PM, Friday, June 01st, 2007
SPOKANE (WA) -- The Franciscan Friars previously commented earlier this week they had no record of past abuse by former Catholic Priest Louis Ladenburger, arrested earlier this week on three counts of sexual battery. On Friday they set the record straight.
Ladenburger is in custody in Bonner County, where he is being held on a $100,000 bond on three counts of sexual battery. The charges allege that he performed acts of a sexual nature on several minors while he was a counselor at the Elk Mountain Academy near Clark Fork.
An investigation was initiated by the Bonner County Special Victims Unit after the abuse was reported by one of the teens to the school's director.
Louis Ladenburger was a Franciscan Friar and Priest for more than 30 years and served in parishes across the western United States including, as it turns out, St. Anne's School and Parish in Spokane and Mary Queen of Heaven Parish in Sprague during the 1970s.
Father Melvin Jurisich, the Provincial Minister at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, California, confirmed Friday that Ladenburger had been treated twice during the 1980s for "inappropriate professional behavior and relationships." [...]
• Holy Trinity denies everything; demands trial by jury
[? 1970s Katinas] - Greek Orthodox. 2 complainants.
Orthodox Reform,
http:// orthodox reform.org/ cases/fr- nicholas- katinas/ ht-denies- everything ,
June 2, 2007
The National Herald gives an update on the Fr. Katinas lawsuit DALLAS (TX) Holy Trinity Church in Dallas, which is at the center of the pedophile scandal allegedly involving Rev. Nicholas Katinas, its former pastor of 28 years, has replied to the lawsuit launched by two of his alleged victims against the parish; the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver and Metropolitan Isaiah; the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Archbishop Demetrios; and Father Katinas personally.
The parish, through its attorneys Douglas D. Fletcher and Richard G. Miller, has stated that "Defendant (Holy Trinity Church) denies each and every, and all singular, material allegations contained within Plaintiffs' pleadings and demand strict proof thereof."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 1:30 PM]
- RCC.
City of Angels,
By City of Angels Lady, ~ June 02, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- It could have been a coincidence, but yesterday it was impossible to go document diving in the JCCP network provided for free access to the public in Room 106 of Superior Court Los Angeles. Two days earlier I'd written in this blog about reading the documents in descending order -- and yesterday every other function was working in Room 106 except "sort by descending order" in the clergy case documents. I watched people come in and out accessing their civil cases. The only thing the computers would not open was the only way a person can access the thousands of documents for the 500-plus cases working their way through court this year.
So as much as I tried to find out more about Roger Mahony's possible testimony June 11th, the public access computer would not let me go there. You could get as far as "sort by ascending order" where the documents begin with 2002. Normally one more click and you are looking at the most recently filed documents. There are literally thousands of screens between the first and last documents, so technically the public still has access. I'd just have to scroll through about 30,000 screens until I got to the motions filed in 2007.
At 12:20 PM, the first time the click would not work, I shivered. Two weeks to the day earlier, Friday May 18th in that very room, a guy had stood over my shoulder, indeed was breathing down my neck, as I showed him, "See you click here and it goes to the first document filed, click again and it takes you to the ones from a few days ago." This kinda creepy guy had barreled into Room 106 a few minutes earlier announcing that no one respected him for trying to be his own lawyer. He struck up a conversation with me and soon was telling me his own experience with a pederast priest and looking over my shoulders to see how I accessed the documents. Now that function I showed him is just the function that won't work in Room 106 the public access room for civil cases filed in Los Angeles.
- Bishop Spong asks Christians to rethink faith. Book.
Toledo Blade,
June 02, 2007
UNITED STATES -- Retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong doesn't flinch at being called a heretic, but asserts he is trying to make people rethink and, hopefully, save Christianity.
"I believe that I am witnessing the death of Christianity, as it has been historically understood," Bishop Spong writes in his provocative new book, Jesus for the Non-Religious (Harper San Francisco, $24.95). ...
Bishop Spong, 75, said he felt compelled to write Jesus for the Non-Religious because Christianity needs an extreme makeover or it will become the casualty of "an expanded worldview."
"I've gotten to the place where I'm embarrassed by most of the public expressions of religion," he said. "When religion makes the news in America, it's because a priest abused a child or someone is suing over abuse, or because the male hierarchy is pontificating about what a woman should do with her body.
[Bedoya, Mr Estrada] - RCC. Male.
News-Journal,
By NICOLE SERVICE, June 02, 2007
DELTONA (FL) -- The fact that no criminal charges will be filed against a Deltona Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a man doesn't surprise the national director of a support group for victims of abuse by the clergy.
David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said there was so much secrecy surrounding the case that it makes sense the State Attorney Office didn't have enough evidence to charge the Rev. Carlos Bedoya and a seminarian, David Estrada.
"We are disappointed, especially because no church leader has acted responsible and prodded victims and witness to call the police," Clohessy said.
Bedoya, a former pastor of St. Clare Catholic Church, was under investigation since October. He was removed from his post and placed on administrative leave from duties in the local diocese.
[1985-92 Dupree] - RCC. 15 male youths.
Commercial Appeal,
~ June 02, 2007
MEMPHIS (TN) -- An advocacy group for victims of sex abuse pressed Catholic officials Wednesday to publicly acknowledge known child molesters.
David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said Bishop J. Terry Steib has not publicly acknowledged that former Memphis priest Father Daniel Dupree admitted to the diocese that he molested 15 male youths between 1985 and 1992.
Last September, a local man identified as John Doe claimed in a lawsuit that he was sexually molested as a teen by Dupree at the Church of the Resurrection in Memphis.
- RCC.
International Herald Tribune,
The Associated Press, June 2, 2007
SPOKANE, Washington: The Catholic Diocese of Spokane in this western state has emerged from bankruptcy 2 1/2 years after filing because of sex abuse cases. Now, Bishop William Skylstad and parishioners must raise $48 million (€36 million) to settle victims' claims.
"This is the end of a difficult chapter for the diocese and the start of a new day for it," diocese bankruptcy lawyer Greg Arpin said Friday. "We're very pleased to come out of this tragic and difficult period, and looking forward to a new life for the Catholic Church in Eastern Washington."
Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, had no immediate comment, said the Rev. Steven Dublinski, a diocesan spokesman.
Paperwork certifying that the 95,000-member diocese had complied with requirements set forth in a bankruptcy reorganization plan was e-mailed to lawyers Thursday, effectively marking the end of bankruptcy, Arpin said.
[2005 Shrewsbury] - Baptist. Boy.
Roanoke Times,
By Mike Allen, 981-3236, ~ June 02, 2007
VIRGINIA -- A former Bedford County church youth leader was sentenced to serve more than 15 years in prison Friday for molesting a 13-year-old boy in August 2005.
Joseph Steven Shrewsbury, 30, pleaded guilty in November to 12 counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor, two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of carnal knowledge
The boy attended Shady Grove Baptist Church in Thaxton, where Shrewsbury was a part-time employee. According to evidence, the boy confided in Shrewsbury in spring 2005 that he was disturbed by sexual thoughts, which he believed came from demons.
Shrewsbury told the boy he was in fact possessed by a demon and could only be cured by acting out the sexual thoughts with Shrewsbury, according to evidence.
Toledo Blade,
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU, June 02, 2007
COLUMBUS, OHIO - Critics of a new law on child sexual abuse failed to prove that the Republican majority of a House committee illegally conspired behind closed doors last year to kill language that could have reopened litigation for abuse that occurred decades ago.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Pat Sheeran recently ruled that Claudia Vercellotti of Toledo and other plaintiffs failed to prove that a majority of the House Judiciary Committee worked privately to gut the portion of the bill they supported before the full House passed an alternative version.
The bill was rubber-stamped by the Senate, signed by then-Gov. Bob Taft, and became law nearly a year ago.
- RCC.
[1977 Willis] - US$1m claim. Boys.
[50 yrs - Burlington Diocese] - Protected predators. 30 males (including altar boys).
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, Saturday, June 2, 2007
VERMONT -- A lawyer for the state's Roman Catholic diocese appealed to the presiding judge in an upcoming priest sex abuse trial to suppress evidence about how the church handled other child molestation claims against priests over the years.
"A 50-year smear is just going to confuse the issues," diocesan attorney Tom McCormick told Chittenden County Superior Court Judge Ben Joseph on Friday. "It's going to be a tremendous waste of judicial time and it will be unjust."
McCormick made the remark during a pre-trial hearing in the case of a Virginia Beach, Va., man who claims that former Rev. Alfred Willis performed a sex act on him in a Latham, N.Y., motel room when he was a teenager in 1977 and tried to molest him a second time at a home in Milton later that year. ...
"As late as 2002, this diocese's policy was that people like Alfred Willis have to be treated with kid gloves," O'Neill said. "There's a letter from (former) Bishop Angell in May of 2002 apologizing to him for having to report him to the Attorney General's Office." Bishop Kenneth Angell retired in 2005.
At another point, the two lawyers locked horns over the relevance of a meeting in 1978 or 1979 between then-Bishop John Marshall and Chittenden County prosecutors about allegations Willis had molested altar boys.
[1997 Greene] - breakaway Orthodox-style group. Novice monk.
Express-News,
by Zeke MacCormack, ~ June 02, 2007
BLANCO (TX) -- Claiming Samuel A. Greene Jr. violated his probation on a prior indecency rap, prosecutors now want the founder of Christ of the Hills Monastery imprisoned for that crime.
Blanco County Assistant District Attorney Cheryl Nelson said Thursday that she'll file a motion today in state district court in Johnson City to revoke probation.
Greene, now 62, pleaded guilty in 2000 to nine counts of indecency with a novice monk in 1997 and was sentenced to 10 years probation and a $10,000 fine. Nelson now plans to seek the maximum sentence of 20 years.
[1994-95 Banko] - RCC. Boy/s.
The Express-Times,
By ANDREA EILENBERGER, Saturday, June 02, 2007
FLEMINGTON (PA) | A former Milford priest already serving time for molesting an altar boy isn't willing to accept a plea agreement for the latest abuse charges he's facing.
The Rev. John Banko is accused of sexually assaulting a boy younger than 13.
Defense attorney Peter Abatemarco said after a court proceeding Friday that Banko isn't interested in a deal.
"He wants to go trial," Abatemarco said.
- RCC.
The Bellingham Herald,
By JOHN K. WILEY, AP State, ~ June 02, 2007
SPOKANE (WA) -- The Catholic Diocese of Spokane has emerged from bankruptcy 30 months after filing for Chapter 11 protection from lawsuits over past clergy sex abuse. Now, Bishop William Skylstad and parishioners must raise $48 million to settle victims' claims.
"This is the end of a difficult chapter for the diocese and the start of a new day for it," diocese bankruptcy lawyer Greg Arpin said Friday. "We're very pleased to come out of this tragic and difficult period, and looking forward to a new life for the Catholic Church in Eastern Washington."
Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, had no immediate comment, diocesan spokesman the Rev. Steven Dublinski said Friday.
Washington Post,
By Henri E. Cauvin, Page B06, Saturday, June 2, 2007
WASHINGTON (DC) -- In the District, murder is the only crime that never dies.
With no statute of limitations, murder charges can be brought even decades later.
Now, sex abuse victims, crime victim advocates and law enforcement officials are urging the D.C. Council to put child sex abuse in the same category.
A bill that would repeal the statute of limitations on criminal charges and civil claims stemming from child sex abuse has been introduced by several council members.
- RCC.
Beatrice Daily Sun,
By OSKAR GARCIA, 6:47 PM CDT, Friday, June 1, 2007
OMAHA, Neb. - A Catholic bishop in Lincoln on Friday called the church's annual collection of clergy sex abuse data pointless, and said he won't assume wrongdoing by the diocese and its priests.
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz's refusal to take part in the survey from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is odds with the vast majority of the nation's Catholic churches, and has brought criticism from a national group that has questioned his practices.
"We assume the other way _ that our people are decent and good, and that they don't have to be continually monitored, checked and audited because they are not under suspicion," Bruskewitz said.
[Rockville Centre Diocese] - RCC. US$11.45m compensation .
Newsday,
BY ANN GIVENS, ann.givens@newsday.com , 10:10 PM EDT, June 1, 2007,
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- There's a reason the Diocese of Rockville Centre decided not to appeal the first verdict ever against it in a sex abuse case: It couldn't.
On the day last month when the $11.45 million verdict was announced, a diocese spokesman said the church would consider an appeal. Then, the following day, he said the church had decided to let the verdict stand, as a gesture toward healing and moving forward.
But that decision had been made long before the jury foreman ever announced the verdict. Sometime during the trial, the plaintiffs had made a deal with the diocese limiting the amount the church would pay to $5 million on the condition that the diocese would not challenge it, sources close to the case said.
The "high-low" agreement -- not an uncommon kind of deal in civil cases -- also provided an insurance policy of sorts for the plaintiffs. Even if the jury decided not to award them any money, they still would get $1.5 million, a source close to the case said.
- RCC.
[1977 Willis] - Teenage boy.
[Years - Burlington Diocese] - Protected predators. 30 males.
WCAX,
June 1, 2007
BURLINGTON (VT) -- Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese wants a judge to suppress evidence indicating prominent church leaders protected a pedophile priest.
It's part of the potentially explosive evidence that could be introduced when the Diocese goes on trial next month accused of failing to protect a young parishioner from a predatory priest.
The Diocese is being sued by more than 30 men who claim they were sexually abused as young men by priests in Vermont. ...
Lawyer Jerry O'Neill says there's lots of evidence and it shows that Willis's boss at the time, Bishop John Marshall, knew that Willis was a pedophile priest and covered it up.
"We certainly intend as part of our proof to show that what Bishop Marshall was doing he was trying to prevent the state's attorney from prosecuting this individual," said O'Neill at a Friday pre-trial hearing in Burlington.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:02 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sat June 02, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[1980s Szantyr] - Christian. Child.
[2003-07 District Attorney] - Prosecution languishes.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA),
http:// telegram. com/apps/ pbcs.dll/ article? AID=/200706 03/NEWS/706030 500/1116 ;
By Shaun Sutner, ssutner@telegram.com , ~ June 03, 2007
WORCESTER (MA) -- Just over a week ago, District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. faced down a swarm of television crews after the arraignment in Gardner District Court of a 32-year-old woman and her boyfriend charged with beating their 2-year-old daughter, who had died in the hospital a few days earlier.
The May 24 press conference was at least the fourth time that Mr. Early, who has been in office for five months since becoming Worcester County's first new district attorney in 30 years, had made himself available to the media after a violent crime. ...
Not all of the reviews are as positive.
Daniel Dick, victim support coordinator for the Worcester chapter of Voice of the Faithful, said that while Mr. Early assured him that he would look into cases of suspended or retired priests alleged to have committed sex crimes, but who have not been criminally charged, he has seen little action.
"I hear the words, but I don't see any follow-through," Mr. Dick said. "These are credible allegations, but these people have not been tried."
While Mr. Early was viewed suspiciously by some clergy abuse victim advocates because he defended a Worcester priest, the Rev. Joseph A. Coonan, when he was in private practice last year, he is not seen as quite as close to the church hierarchy as Mr. Conte. The former district attorney donated as much as $500 a year to the diocesan Bishop's Fund.
Mr. Early, through his campaign committee, has given smaller amounts.
One clergy abuse case that is in the courts, involving the Rev. John Szantyr, 76, of Waterbury, Conn., has languished since the retired priest was first charged in 2003 with sexually assaulting a child in the mid-1980s, when he was assigned to a Worcester parish.
Mr. Early said that he recently told the assistant district attorney who Mr. Conte assigned to prosecute the case, Joseph J. Reilly III, to pick up the pace. The DA promised that it would go to trial by August.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 3, 2007
3:27 PM]
- RCC.
[Mr Kreutzer (30) (Catholic school math teacher)] - Minors.
[Years - Wempe] - 13 victims.
[Decades - Los Angeles Archdiocese] - ~ 500 plaintiffs.
City of Angels,
By City of Angels Lady, ~ June 03, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Call me Scoop. Thursday I interviewed Tony DeMarco on tape then thought the tape did not record. I could not make it play back. This morning I went to find out what happened and the tape played back. So it's confirmed. Cardinal Roger Mahony was subpoenaed to testify in the Kreutzer
Cases trial, and convicted pedophile priest Michael Edwin Wempe, was quietly released recently and is living in Leisure World.
DeMarco said plaintiff "wants to have Cardinal Mahony testify at the June 11th jury trial, re the Kreutzer Cases." He added: "Church lawyers don't want the Cardinal to testify at trial so they filed a Motion to Quash the Trial Subpoena of the Cardinal."
In fact the night before May 30th hearing on the Cardinal's interrogatory answers, plaintiffs "filed an opposition because the Church lawyers filed a Motion to Quash Mr. Brady's trial subpoena of Cardinal Mahony." That may explain why church attorneys were distracted and didn't show up for the May 30th hearing.
Plaintiff Attorney Steve J. Brady of San Francisco filed the civil subpoena May 22, arguing "it's important for the cardinal to be testifying at trial," DeMarco said.
[1970s ?+ MacIntosh] - Christian. < 11yrs delay. Children.
The Star,
by Matt McClure, Special to the Star, 04:30 AM, June 03, 2007
NEW DELHI, India -For nearly 11 years, a Canadian charged with sexually abusing young boys was free to prey on children overseas while Canadian authorities dragged their feet on his extradition from India.
Now, after being banned from two Indian schools, and more than three decades after allegedly committing his first offences in Canada, the accused pedophile may finally be on the verge of extradition from India.
But Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh's case raises serious questions about Canada's commitment to pursuing fugitives who hide on foreign soil, wreaking havoc with the lives of possible victims.
Officials with the federal justice department and the Nova Scotia prosecution service blame one another for the decade-long delay, but can provide no clear explanation for why this case fell through the cracks.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
Sunday Life,
By Stephen Gordan, Sunday, June 03, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- The internet led to the lies of Ulster child rapist Billy Adams and his money bags priest lover Fr Jeremiah McGrath's being exposed in Liverpool, Sunday Life can reveal.
Online detective work by an uncle of Adams' latest young victim led to the pair being caught and saved his 11-year-old niece from further abuse.
The uncle uncovered newspaper reports revealing the sickening truth about the Irishman who had charmed his Merseyside family, particularly his vulnerable niece who Adams spoilt with gifts paid for by Fr McGrath.
Adams' sister Sonia Erwin has revealed how the worried uncle also tracked her down via the internet and she has remained in close contact with the devastated family ever since.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
Sunday Life
By Stephen Gordon
Sunday, June 03, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- The sister of Ulster child rapist Billy Adams has warned the authorities not to make the same mistake twice.
Sonia Erwin fears her brother - currently awaiting sentence in Liverpool for the multiple rapes of a girl when she was aged just 11 and 12 - will again swing a transfer to a jail in Northern Ireland.
"If there is a loophole which allows Billy to take advantage of the 50 per cent remission rule here he'll take it, he's a master at manipulating the system," said Sonia.
[2006 Mr Tobin*] - Woman dead.
[- ~ 2006 Fr Nugent*] - 2 lovers.
Sunday Mail
By Norman Silvester ~ June 03, 2007
SCOTLAND -- A CHILDREN'S charity have banned the shamed priest in the Angelika Kluk murder trial from doing his community service in their shops.
Social workers hoped Father Gerry Nugent, who claims he had a sexual relationship with Polish student Angelika, could serve his sentence in a Barnardo's shop in Glasgow.
But Susan Dodds, manager of the charity's Queen's Park branch, refused to allow him to work there.
- RCC.
The Boston Globe, By Michael Paulson | June 3, 2007
BOSTON (MA) -- Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley has invited Pope Benedict XVI to come to Boston next year, saying a visit to the city that was at the heart of the clergy abuse scandal would send a positive message to Catholics.
O'Malley said he is hopeful that the pope will accept the invitation because 2008 is both the bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Boston and because Benedict is already expected to come to the country to visit the United Nations.
"Given everything Boston has been through, having the Holy Father come, I think, would be a great joy and a sense of affirmation to us as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of our church," O'Malley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, said in response to a question from the Globe. "I've invited him, and I'm hoping that he will come to Boston."
- RCC. Book review; fiction.
San Francisco Chronicle
Reviewed by Dan Zigmond, Sunday, June 3, 2007
Be Near Me By Andrew O'Hagan
HARCOURT; 305 PAGES; $24
"Troubles like mine begin, as they end, in a thousand places," the English Catholic priest David Anderton explains near the opening of Andrew O'Hagan's new novel, an affecting meditation on faith and disgrace, "but my year in that Scottish parish would serve to unlock everything."
O'Hagan's Father David lives in the rectory in rural Dalgarnock, Scotland, officiates at Sunday Mass and teaches world religions at the local school, pleading with the usual assortment of fidgeting teenagers that "Civilisation takes many forms, and, as Christians, we must use our faith to bring peace to the lives of those people who have none." With so many stories of
disgraced priests in recent years, it will come as no surprise that those students are at the center of O'Hagan's sympathetic portrayal of Father David's own fall.
Perhaps inevitably, abuse and sexual misconduct are near-constant undercurrents in "Be Near Me." Father David reports that "there is said to have been abuse" at the boarding school he himself attended as a child, that "the newspapers can now produce individuals who recognise the gleam of lust on every friendly face from the past." But his own memory is far more ambiguous and
ambivalent; while "some of the monks were troubled or troubling in that particular way ... 'abuse' didn't have the currency in our minds -- perhaps in anybody's mind -- that it now enjoys on a worldwide scale."
- RCC.
Newsday
BY BART JONES
bart.jones@newsday.com
June 3, 2007
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- POLICE ON MOTORCYCLES accompanied Walter P. Kellenberg as he made his way in a convertible through the streets of Nassau County to St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre, where cheers rose from a throng of 10,000. It was May 26, 1957.
Lining the road was a guard of honor formed by Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus. They wore feathered helmets, and their swords glinted in the sun and pointed to the sky.
The 20-car motorcade came to a halt in front of the cathedral. The new bishop climbed out and strode to the rectory to present his credentials in the form of a "papal bull" empowering him to take canonical possession of the newly formed Diocese of Rockville Centre. ...
He feels he has done a lot to involve more lay people in church affairs, though he remains criticized for not doing enough. And in a recent, 45-minute interview, Murphy says he is a man haunted by the cases of children sexually abused by priests.
"I don't think they ever recover from the horrors," Murphy said of the victims. He added that he regrets not listening enough to and meeting with critics such as Voice of the Faithful, a local chapter of a national group that pushes for more involvement of lay people in the church and advocates for victims of priest sexual abuse.
Union-Tribune
By Mark Sauer
June 3, 2007
SAN DIEGO (CA) -- It took Cheryl Outhier nearly 50 years to come forward with her account of being sexually
abused by the late Rev. Franz Robier at Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church in San Diego.
She is among more than 150 people who have sued the Diocese of San Diego since 2002 for sexual-abuse incidents dating back decades.
But psychologists and researchers say most people who were sexually abused as children never reveal what happened, much less file a lawsuit and risk reliving the experience in open court.
Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor of the San Diego diocese, said: "Victims of sexual abuse, both in the church and in all of society, do not come forward until many years after they have been abused. Professionals tell us this is a common trait."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 3, 2007
7:23 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Sun June 03, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[- 2007, May - Ethier -NEW*] - RCC. Child porn.
The Daily Star,
www.thedaily star.com/ news/stories/ 2007/06/04/ jppriest 06032.html ,
By Jake Palmateer, June 04, 2007
ONEONTA (NY) -- A Catholic priest from Columbia County charged last week with possessing child pornography was an associate pastor at St. Mary's Church in Oneonta for five years in the 1990s.
Raymond Ethier, 50, of Hudson, was charged Tuesday with possessing child pornography downloaded from a popular Internet file-sharing program, a felony under federal law punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years and maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, as well as up to a $250,000 fine.
There is no indication Ethier was involved in molestation of children since he became a priest, said officials with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
[LOOK FORWARD: See ethcont142.htm, "Priest pleads guilty to child porn charge,"Albany Times Union, November 16, 2007. ENDS.]
[? 2007 Mojecki -NEW*] - Christian. Soliciting 2 "girls".
PennLive,
BY PETE SHELLEM Of The Patriot-News, Friday, June 01, 2007
PENNSYLVANIA -- Sentencing for a Susquehanna Twp. spiritual leader who was convicted of soliciting sex over the Internet from what he believed were 12-year-old girls was postponed yesterday because of his medical condition.
Dauphin County Judge Bruce S. Bratton granted a continuance to Steven Jacob Mojecki to Aug. 28 after Mojecki's attorney, Sanford Krevsky, said his client was undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkins lymphoma and his immune system had been affected.
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
The Arizona Republic,
www.azcentral. com/news/ articles/ 0604abrk- priestarrest 0604-ON.html ,
by Jordan LaPier, 05:42 PM, Jun. 4, 2007
ARIZONA -- Spanish National Police arrested former Arizona priest Father Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez in Guadarrama, Spain, on charges of sexual abuse, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard announced Monday.
The 51-year-old priest was accused in 2005 of sexually abusing two minors between 1988 and 1991, when he was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 4, 2007
10:57 PM]
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
Fox 11,
By Alicia Barrón, Fox 11 News, 07:40 PM MST on Monday, June 4, 2007
ARIZONA -- A former Arizona member of the clergy has been detained by authorities in Spain.
A news release from Attorney General Terry Goddard indicates the Spanish National Police arrested Father Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez June 3 in Guadarrama, Spain near Madrid.
Cordova, 51, was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma, part of the Tucson Catholic Diocese, where he remained from 1988 to 1991. In 2005 he was accused of sexually abusing two minors during his time in Yuma and was indicted on 10 counts of sexual abuse.
According to the news release, authorities obtained a warrant for Cordova's arrest but he fled to Ecuador to his home diocese.
- RC Church and a cleansing group both lose members.
Catholica Australia,
www.catholica. com.au/brians take/018_bt_ 040607.php ,
June 04, 2007
Dear friends,
AUSTRALIA -- Whichever way you look at it the Holy Roman Catholic Church is in the midst of an enormous crisis. This morning's front page story in the Sydney Morning Herald regarding Cardinal Pell's call for all Catholic School Principals, Deputy Principals and Religious Education Co-ordinators to take an Oath of Allegiance to Church teachings underlines the crisis from one side. One hardly needs to be Methuselah to appreciate the crisis where 85% of the baptised faithful across the Western world have now vamoosed out the door has now reached the point where, privately, even principals, deputy principals and religious education co-ordinators have serious misgivings of what the institutional leaders believe is "the truth". ...
The crisis is not all one-sided though. In news overnight from the United States, one of the principal activist groups in the Church disenchanted with the present direction being forged by the Church's ecclesial leaders is itself in crisis. 38 newspapers across the United States yesterday carried an Associated Press story about the financial and membership crisis facing Voice of the Faithful.
[Troup] - Christian. > 10yrs prison. 3 children.
WETM,
Posted By Naveen Dhaliwal, Last Update 5:40 PM, Jun 4, 2007
BATH (NY) -- A Southern Tier pastor who pled guilty to sexually abusing three kids was sentenced Monday afternoon.
David Troup, 40, will spend more than a decade in prison. His family was visibly upset after Steuben County Court Judge Marianne Furfure ruled.
Troup's attorney, William Kelley, and his social worker both spoke to the court indicating how motivated Troup was during his treatment sessions in the last couple of months.
[? 1970s Katinas] - Greek Orthodox. 2 complainants.
Orthodox Reform,
June 4, 2007
Several leading Greek Orthodox laity speak out on the issue of clergy sex abuse: UNITED STATES -- George Behrakis, a member of the Archdiocesan Council's Executive Committee and Chairman of the Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Endowment Fund - a not-for-profit religious corporation which supports the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America's ministries and programs - openly questioned why Father Katinas has not already been removed from the ranks of the clergy, citing
Archbishop Demetrios of America and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople as the responsible decision makers.
[2 parishes as examples] - RCC. Finances missing.
The Darien Times,
~ June 04, 2007
DARIEN (CT) -- Voice of the Faithful continues its emphasis on financial accountability in the Catholic Church at its meeting on Thursday, June 7, at 7:30 at the First Congregational Church on the Green in Norwalk. All are welcome.
Financial scandals at St. John Parish in Darien and St. Michael Parish in Greenwich are just
two examples of the misappropriation of parish funds throughout the United States and the lack of
any sense of financial accountability to the parishioners, according to Voice of the Faithful
press release. "If the faithful are to trust that their financial contributions to the parish and
the diocese are being used wisely, VOTF believes that essential reforms in fiscal practice on
both levels are necessary," the release said.
Members of the group will be asked to bring their questions about the most recent diocesan
financial report to the meeting. In addition to ongoing study of this issue, members will also be
asked to consider other projects for study, for example, the status of nursing homes formerly
owned by the diocese; the ownership of church property; the status of priests, their
compensation, benefits, and retirement plans; and outreach to young Catholics.
[- 1996 - 4 Churches, and Provinces] - Indigenous children.
Edmonton Journal,
by Catherine Rolfsen, Vancouver Sun, Published: Sunday, June 03, 2007
CANADA -- It's hard to picture Robert Joseph, hereditary chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation and special adviser at West Vancouver's Indian Residential School Survivors Society, at age six. But his grey crewcut and boyish grin hint at the child who was shipped off to St. Michael's residential school
in Alert Bay decades ago.
He didn't know why he was taken from his community, or why he wasn't allowed to speak the only language he knew. He is still struggling to figure out why, 10 years later, he "staggered out of St. Mike's already a full-blown alcoholic."
A lot remains unclear for survivors of Indian residential schools. Although the institutions are now closed -- the last shut its doors in 1996 -- much of their legacy remains unresolved.
Much of his hope rests on a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) planned as part of the landmark $4-billion residential schools settlement agreement negotiated between the federal government, churches involved in running the schools and the Assembly of First Nations.
- RCC.
Catholic World News,
Jun. 4, 2007
ROME (CWNews.com) - Close to 5 million Italian viewers watched the May 31 airing of a BBC television documentary on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, broadcast on the Italian state-run RAI network despite strenuous protests by Catholic leaders.
The documentary, entitled "Sex Crimes and the Vatican," was "clearly biased" and "gravely unfair," complained Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office.
The program, which had aired in Great Britain last October, focused on the 1961 [really 1962 - Webmaster] document Crimen Sollicitationis, dealing with disciplinary action against priests who solicit immoral activity through the confessional. The BBC report argued that by insisting on secrecy in these cases, the Vatican was setting a policy of covering up sex-abuse crimes. Church officials reply that the emphasis on secrecy was designed to protect the confessional seal.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 4, 2007
7:23 AM]
[ENGLISH translation of Crimen Sollicitationis, 1962, is on this website at crimineenglish.htm .
ENDS.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Mon June 04, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[2007 Grant -NEW*] - RCC. 3 1/3yrs prison. Boy.
Watford Observer,
www.watford observer.co. uk/news/local news/display. var.1448797.0. priest_jailed_ for_sex_ with_boy. php ;
~ June 05, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- A Catholic priest who indecently assaulted a boy who went to him for advice about his sexuality has been jailed.
Peter Grant, of Balfour Mews, Bovingdon, was imprisoned for three years and four months at St Albans Crown Court on Friday after pleading guilty to four offences of sexual activity with a child under 16.
The court heard the 59-year-old took advantage of the "confused" 15-year-old on three occasions between January and March this year.
Grant was the parish priest at Berkhamsted's Sacred Heart church at the time the teenager went to him for advice. He later took up a position in Burnt Oak.
[~ 2000s Peters -NEW*] - Baptist. Internet start with teenage girl.
Rocky Mountain News,
By Sue Lindsay, June 5, 2007
DENVER (CO) -- Pastor Michael Peters began a sexually explicit relationship on the Internet with a 17-year-old girl that led to sexual encounters when she babysat at his home for his three children, the girl told a Denver jury today.
"It was kinda weird, but also exciting," the girl, now 21, said of the graphic sexual descriptions on the Internet that began a relationship with her youth pastor and counselor at the Second Baptist Church in Boulder.
She said she had a crush on Peters, who directed the youth choir at the church. After the first "cyber sex" exchange, she said he told her to keep it secret.
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez - NEW*] - RCC. 2 minors.
East Valley Tribune,
by Mike Sakal, ~ June 05, 2007
ARIZONA -- A former Valley priest who mostly served with the Tucson diocese was arrested in Spain on Sunday on suspicion of sex abuse involving a minor.
The Rev. Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez, 51, was arrested by the Spanish National Police in Guadarrama, Spain, while he was attending a seminar near Madrid. He had eluded authorities for more than two years.
In 2005, Hernandez was accused of sexually abusing two minors during his assignment to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma from 1988 to 1991, according to information released by the Arizona Attorney General's Office. He was indicted on 10 counts of sexual abuse and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He initially fled to Ecuador, where his home diocese is located.
[≤ 2007 Livingston -NEW*] - Baptist. Girl.
Caller-Times,
By Adriana Garza (Contact), Originally published 01:00 a.m., Updated 03:57 a.m., June 5, 2007
TEXAS -- A 65-year-old San Patricio County man is out on bond after he was arrested Saturday on charges of indecency with a child and possession of child pornography.
Sinton Police Detective Eric Blanchard said the investigation into Stephen Douglas Livingston began on May 25 when a girl younger than 10 accused the man of sexual abuse. Police would not release the girl's exact age.
Blanchard said Livingston, 65, spent time around children at First Baptist Church of Sinton, where Livingston is a member. Police would not say if the girl also attended the church.
[? 1970s Katinas] - Greek Orthodox. 2 altar boys.
Orthodox Reform,
~ June 05, 2007
UNITED STATES -- Angelo J. Loumbas, a practicing attorney, former prosecutor of child abuse and neglect cases in Illinois, and former altar boy for Father Katinas, had this to say in The National Herald regarding recent sexual misconduct allegations:
As a former altar boy for Father Katinas when he served as the priest of Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Olympia Fields, Illinois in the 1970s (though fortunately not a victim of his alleged misconduct) I, along with others from that parish, have struggled to grasp how a priest of such talent, ability and popularity, who was also a married father of five children himself, could have been committing such moral transgressions.
Loumbas asks questions regarding our responsibility as stewards of our children:
We have also been asking ourselves the classic "who knew what, and when did he know it" question. What information the Church had received about Father Katinas' apparent problem in the 1970's is unclear. What is clear is that the Church's inability to deal with and recognize clergy who posed such a risk to minors during those years, whether negligent or intentional, appears to
have resulted in more victims of such behavior.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 5, 2007
11:12 PM]
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez*] - RCC. 2 minors.
Expatica,
June 5, 2007
MADRID, Spain - A priest accused of sexually abusing two minors was arrested while attending a seminar near Madrid, Spain, authorities said Monday.
Father Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez, 51, faces 10 criminal counts for allegedly abusing two children while on assignment at the St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma, Arizona, U.S. from 1988 to 1991.
The Arizona Attorney General's Office said that Cordova had fled to his home diocese in Ecuador. But authorities caught up to him in Spain, while he was attending a seminar at the Fray Luis of Leon cultural residential complex in Guadarrama, Spain.
Authorities lured Cordova out of the facility by telling him that a local television crew wanted an interview. The Attorney General's Office said Spanish authorities will hold Cordova until his extradition process is completed.
[Allen*] - Church of God in Christ.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
By MELODY McDONALD, ~ June 05, 2007
FORT WORTH (TX) -- A bankruptcy court judge has lifted a stay that temporarily stopped civil litigation against the Rev. Sherman Clifton Allen, a minister accused of paddling and sexually abusing women.
In January, Davina Kelly, a former member of Allen's church, filed a lawsuit against him; his church, Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ; and the national Church of God in Christ, seeking unspecified damages for physical and psychological pain.
Kelly has said she went to Allen for counseling. She accuses him of paddling her, first with her clothes on and later with them off. The physical abuse eventually turned sexual and led to rape, according to Kelly.
[2005-06 Troup*] - Christian. 12yrs prison. 3 boys.
News 10 Now,
By Kat De Maria,Updated 6:19 PM, June/4/2007
NEW YORK -- The former Steuben County pastor who admitted to sexually abusing three young boys has been sentenced. David Troup will serve 12 years in prison for molesting twin boys and another boy over several months in 2005 and 2006.
The judge acknowledged Troup has been working to rehabilitate himself following a guilty plea earlier this year. But, she said those actions came too late to mitigate the boys' pain and restore their lives and futures. Still, both lawyers said Troup's sentence was less than they expected.
The former Steuben County pastor who admitted to sexually abusing three young boys has been sentenced. David Troup will serve 12 years in prison for molesting twin boys and another boy over several months in 2005 and 2006.
"His liability here was 32 years total. I think the judge recognized at sentencing all of the things that he has done to try and rehabilitate himself," said Troup's lawyer, William Kelly.
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
Yuma Sun,
BY NICOLE E. SQUIBBS, 11:09PM, June 4, 2007
YUMA (AZ) --A former Yuma priest wanted on suspicion of sexual abuse of two minors is in custody in Spain while the Arizona Attorney General's Office seeks his extradition to face prosecution. Spanish National Police arrested Father Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez on Sunday in Guadarrama, Spain, on sex abuse charges. He was attending a seminar there, according to Attorney General
Terry Goddard.
In 2005, Cordova, 51, was charged with sexually abusing two teenage girls during his assignment at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma from 1988 to 1991. He was indicted on 10 counts of sexual abuse, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Cordova fled to Ecuador, where his home diocese is located, according to a news release from Goddard's office.
"In this case, he actually had a Web site to advertise he was going to hold a seminar in Spain," AG spokeswoman Andrea Esquer told The Sun. "Spanish police did surveillance, and then were able to arrest him."
The Plain Dealer,
by David Briggs, Plain Dealer Religion Reporter, Tuesday, June 05, 2007
CLEVELAND (OH) -- The Cleveland Catholic Diocese could close about 20 percent of its parishes, or up to 48 churches, nearly twice the number originally estimated.
The City of Cleveland will take the hardest hit with a potential loss of up to 25 churches.
Among the 69 regional clusters in the diocese, other closings will occur in Akron, Lorain and inner-ring suburbs such as Lakewood and Euclid. ...
Ward 11 Councilman Michael Polensek is urging council leaders to request a meeting with Lennon. In a letter to City Council President Martin Sweeney, Polensek said the diocese is embarking on "a suburban strategy" that will lead to a greater migration out of the city "and an increase in disinvestment."
"Many Catholics, including myself, are angry," Polensek said. "We have seen the church spend millions of dollars to settle claims of sexual abuse within the diocese, while at the same time churches and schools, which we need for our spiritual and educational well-being, are now being considered for closure."
- Father Richard Bennett case dismissed, put under RCC supervision.
Naperville Sun,
By Paige Winfield, June 5, 2007
NAPERVILLE (IL) -- After spending months under a dark cloud of a sexual abuse charge, the Rev. Richard Bennett is in the clear.
The pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Community in Naperville was accused 13 months ago of sexually abusing an 11-year-old on one occasion in 1975.
In April 2006, Arizona resident Tim Greco, 43, filed a civil lawsuit claiming Bennett, now 60, had molested him once after discovering him in the shower with a priest in the rectory of St. Pius X Church in Lombard.
After a DuPage County Circuit Court judge dismissed the charges last October, Greco appealed the ruling but failed to follow through. The appeal's statute of limitations has since ended. The diocese freed Bennett two weeks ago from supervision. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet had immediately placed him under supervision after the lawsuit was filed.
- Crimen Sollicitationis secrecy orders.
City of Angels,
By City of Angels lady, ~ June 05, 2007
CALIFORNIA -- (This is a double length post:) Since so many sex crimes that will come up in jury trials the next months in civil cases against the LA Archdiocese took place from 1962 to 2001, plaintiff attorneys may want to enter the 1962 document Crimen Sollicitationis, the hierarchical blueprint written in Latin from the Pope to all bishops.
Directly underneath the title are instructions to hide the document in secret places and tell no one of its contents.
American Catholic bishops handled Sex Crimes in the American Catholic Church for the next decades as laid out in the 1962 Crimen Solicitationis document. The document makes it clear that the Catholics' mishandling of sex crimes was official policy and the result in Southern California was a network of pedophiles that operated free and unfettered within church confines.
These 1962 "instructions" to bishops are at the heart of the Catholic Church's nationwide mishandling of sex crimes among its priests.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 5, 2007
12:17 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Tue June 05, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[2006 Waser -NEW*] - Church of Christ. Child porn.
The Columbus Dispatch,
www.columbus dispatch.com/ dispatch/ content/local_ news/stories/ 2007/06/06/ awaser.html ,
4:36 PM, Wednesday, June 6, 2007
COLUMBUS (OH) -- A former Newark minister was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for ordering and receiving 11 videotapes containing child pornography.
David Waser, 58, had faced a maximum of 20 years in prison from U.S. District Court Judge George C. Smith of Columbus.
He pleaded guilty on March 21 to one count of receiving child pornography.
Waser was pastor of Second Church of Christ in Newark until he was removed in August. His wife, Judy, 54, is awaiting trial on child pornography charges.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 6, 2007
9:12 PM]
[? 1990s-2000s Demby -NEW*] - Christian. Teen.
WLBT,
~ June 06, 2007
RAYMOND (MS) -- A Raymond pastor is facing child molestation charges for allegedly having sexual relations with a teenage relative. Pastor Samuel L. Demby is charged with 2 counts of sexual battery and 2 counts of gratification of lust, according to the Hinds County Sheriff's Office.
The 50 year-old minister was arrested May 24th. He's out on a $50,000 bond. In response, Demby told WLBT news, that is the "worst lie that's ever been told."
[2006 Waser*] - Church of Christ. Video child porn.
The Beacon Journal,
Associated Press, ~ June 06, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A former pastor was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for receiving child pornography videos he bought over the Internet, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
David Waser, 58, former pastor of Newark's Second Church of Christ, ordered 11 child pornography videos in 2006 by sending a $130 money order to an address listed on an Internet advertisement, authorities said. The ad had been posted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as part of an investigation into trafficking of child pornography.
A postal inspector who posed as a letter carrier delivered the videos to Waser's home in Newark, about 30 miles east of Columbus, and obtained a search warrant immediately afterward. The inspector found the package opened and one of the videos inserted into a VCR, the government said.
[2006 Waser*] - Church of Christ. Video child porn.
The Advocate,
By KIMBERLY DICK, June 06, 2007
COLUMBUS (OH) – A federal judge sentenced a former Newark minister to 10 years in prison on child pornography charges Wednesday.
David Waser, 58, a former minister at Newark's Second Church of Christ, remains in federal custody after being sentenced by Judge George C. Smith in U.S. District Court. He faced a maximum sentence of 20 years for buying 11 videotapes featuring sexual scenes with children.
Waser pleaded guilty in March to receiving child pornography. Smith also ordered him to undergo sexual addiction treatment.
As part of a plea agreement, Waser pleaded guilty to one of his two felony charges and agreed to forfeit 11 videotapes and his computer. The judge dismissed the second count Wednesday.
- Baptists.
KTEN,
~ June 06, 2007
Law enforcement agencies are constantly trying to track sex offenders. Now, some Texas churches are joining the effort. KTEN's Jhen Kordela has more. TEXAS -- The Baptist General Convention of Texas has started posting the names of convicted sex offenders who have worked in its churches on a Web site.
Although names of sex offenders are already considered public information, church officials say listing offenders on a central Web site will help keep them out of places where children are present. That way, church members seeking to hire within the church can use the web site as a safety tool.
- RCC.
Archdiocese of Portland,
~ June 06, 2007
PORTLAND (OR)-- Newly released documents on accused clergy in the Portland archdiocese can be found at this site.
The Oregonian,
Posted 15:30PM, June 06, 2007
PORTLAND (OR) -- The Archdiocese of Portland has made available previously secret documents involving priest sexual abuse in Oregon.
The documents are being released as part of the bankrutpcy settlement plan that paid more than $50 million to about 175 victims of clergy sexual abuse.
In 2004, Portland became the first archdiocese in the country to seek bankruptcy protection from sexual abuse litigation.
[Decades - Chicago Archdiocese] - RCC. Transferring sex predators. Perhaps letting "whistleblower" Ms Westrick go.
ABC 7,
June 6, 2007
CHICAGO (IL) -- A Roman Catholic school principal who has criticized Archdiocese of Chicago officials for their handling of sexual abuse allegations against the school's former parish priest said Wednesday she expects to lose her post.
"It breaks my heart, but I just don't see any way out of it," Barbara Westrick, principal of Our Lady of the Westside School, said in a telephone interview.
Westrick sent a letter May 29 to parents of the 200 preschool through eighth-grade students at the school's two campuses, telling them that officials had not yet renewed her contract as principal, a post she has held for four years.
In her letter, Westrick said archdiocesan policy calls for principals' contracts to be renewed by March 1, but said the Rev. Larry Dowling told her in February that he was too unfamiliar with St. Agatha's Church and the parish's school to meet that deadline. She said that on April 17, Dowling told her he would delay his decision until after students left for summer vacation.
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
Tucson Citizen,
By SHERYL KORNMAN, ~ June 06, 2007
ARIZONA -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson on Wednesday renewed its request that anyone with information about the Rev. Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez contact Yuma and Phoenix police, diocesan spokesman Fred Allison said.
Cordova faces 10 counts of child sexual abuse in Yuma.
The 51-year-old priest, now employed by a Catholic diocese in Ecuador, was arrested near Madrid by Spanish police Sunday.
Authorities there are cooperating in efforts to extradite Cordova to Arizona.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 6, 2007
8:33 PM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Wed June 06, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[1970s Mons. Capua -NEW*] - RCC. Minors.
Queens Courier,
www.queens courier.com/ articles/ 2007/06/07/ news/news 03.txt ,
BY PETE DAVIS, Wednesday, June 6 / 7, 2007
WHITESTONE (NY) -- A week after a retired Monsignor at St. Luke's parish in Whitestone was put on administrative leave after a Diocesan review board found evidence tying him to sexual abuse of minors more than 30 years ago, the aftershocks are being felt within the community.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Diocese of Brooklyn announced the decision to remove Monsignor Nicholas Capua of his priestly duties in a letter read aloud to the parishioners by Monsignor Sean G. Ogle, Territorial Vicar for the Queens Vicariate, during masses on the weekend of May 26-27.
[1990s-2000s Cieri -NEW*] - RCC. Over-scale payouts.
Baltimore Sun,
By Liz F. Kay, June 7, 2007
MARYLAND -- The pastor of a Roman Catholic parish in northern Anne Arundel County has stepped down after church officials concluded that he persuaded lay leaders to pay him more money than the Archdiocese Of Baltimore allows.
The Rev. Domenic L. Cieri, who led St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Severn for nearly 15 years, received salary and Mass stipends above the scales approved by the archdiocese, according to an audit conducted in October. Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said Cieri also received a housing allowance to live in northern Baltimore County, although his parish has a rectory.
"What he was receiving was an amount that was too generous and was outside the accepted policies and practices of the archdiocese," Caine said.
[1990s Unnamed clergyman -NEW*] - RCC. Boy.
International Herald Tribune,
The Associated Press, Published: June 7, 2007
GARDEN CITY, Long Island, New York: The pastor of a Roman Catholic parish has been placed on administrative leave following accusations he sexually abused a 10-year-old boy at a different parish more than a decade ago, a spokesman for the local diocese said Thursday.
The Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island has referred the allegations to the Suffolk County district attorney's office and intends to conduct its own investigation, spokesman Sean Dolan said. The diocese is the country's sixth largest with 1.3 million Catholics in 134 parishes across Long Island.
A spokesman for District Attorney Thomas Spota confirmed prosecutors had been informed of the case.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 7, 2007
11:23 PM]
[1994-95 Twomey -NEW*] - RCC. Boy.
Newsday,
BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER, jennifer.kelleher@newsday.com , 9:58 PM EDT,
June 7, 2007
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- A Long Island priest who has been vocal in urging a healing of divisions in the church over the sex abuse scandal is himself being investigated for an allegation that he sexually abused a 10-year-old boy more than a decade ago, officials said Thursday night.
The Suffolk district attorney's office said it received a May 31 letter from the Diocese of Rockville Centre attorney saying there had been an allegation that the Rev. Gerald Twomey abused the the boy "in the period of 1994-95."
At the time, the boy was recuperating at home from a car accident and Twomey was co-pastor of St. Anne's Church in Brentwood, said Bob Clifford, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota.
[Pastor Lambert and Mrs Lambert] - Christian. Child/ren.
Neosho Daily News,
By John Ford / Daily News Managing Editor,
Thursday, June 7, 2007
MISSOURI -- A trial date was set Tuesday for an area pastor and his wife, both of whom face child sexual abuse charges.
Raymond and Patty Lambert will go to trial on Nov. 13 in McDonald County Circuit Court. Judge Timothy Perigo will preside.
The trial setting took place during a pre-trial conference Tuesday morning. A pre-trial conference has been set for Sept. 18 for Raymond Lambert, according to electronic court documents filed on Case.Net.
- RCC.
Catholic Explorer,
By ANN PIASECKI, ~ June 07, 2007
ROMEOVILLE (IL) – Franciscan Sister Mary Frances Seeley, a counselor and certified suicidologist, is heading up a plan to establish a crisis hotline specifically to address the needs of priests and religious brothers in the grips of the often depressive effects of today's skeptical society. Called the Upper Room Crisis Hotline, the program is blessed by the National Federation of Priests' Councils and is slated for connection in late summer or early fall.
As a national hotline, it is intended to alleviate the emotional toll paid by the overwhelming majority of clergy in the post-scandal era, she said. Citing the demonization of priests by a growing number of faithful in the aftermath of embarrassing revelations concerning the sexual abuse of minors in the church, she was called upon in 2000 by the Chicago-based NFPC to fashion an easily accessible interventional buoy for clergymen seeking safe haven and a place to vent frustration without fear of reprisal. The leaders of the priests' organization relied on the nun's noted expertise in the realm of counseling, specifically her success as the mastermind of The Crisis Line of Will County, which has operated continuously since 1976.
[1975-91 Caffoe] - RCC. Children
Valley Sun,
By Mary O'Keefe, June 07, 2007
LA CANADA (CA) -- In a first of its kind ruling, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has handed down a decision that four people who allege sex abuse by a former associate pastor at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Cańada will be allowed to seek punitive damages against the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
Judge Haley J. Fomholz ruled May 23 that punitive damages can be sought against the Archdiocese for failing to protect the four from the accused predator.
The case concerns Father Lynn Caffoe, 61, who has been accused of molesting children from 1975 to 1991. He served as associate pastor at St. Bede from July 1982 to September 1986. Before he arrived at St. Bede there was a complaint on record, made by parents of altar boys who said there had been a "boundary violation" while he served at St. Callistus in Garden Grove. While at St. Bede there was another complaint against Caffoe of boundary violation, made by a nun. The complaints of sexual misconduct continued. According to Archdiocese records, the last complaint was recorded in 2002, when a male reported that Caffoe sexually abused him from 1968 to 1972.
[McCormack*] - RCC. Reformer Ms Westrick loses job. 5 boys.
ABC 7,
By Karen Jordan, June 7, 2007
CHICAGO (IL) -- A Catholic school principal who spoke out against the Chicago archdiocese's handling of a priest abuse case has been fired from her job.
Barbara Westrick was dismissed Thursday as head of Our Lady of the Westside School.
Father Daniel McCormack is accused of fondling boys at that school and its parish, St. Agatha's on Chicago's West Side. Westrick said she did not heed the warnings about repercussions for criticizing the Chicago archdiocese in the way it handled the Father Daniel McCormack alleged abuse scandal. A few months ago, a deadline to renew her contract passed and no action was taken.
She said there was no question that the Archdiocese was waiting for the right time to fire her.
- RCC.
[Mr Kreutzer (30) (Catholic school math teacher)] - Minors.
[Years - Wempe] - 13 victims.
[Decades - Los Angeles Archdiocese] - Avoiding testimony? ~ 500 plaintiffs.
City of Angels,
By City of Angels Lady, ~ June 07, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Judge Haley Fromholz cleared a hurdle for Cardinal Roger Mahony's testimony in upcoming civil trials in LA, by denying the church's Motion for Order Quashing Civil Subpoena filed for a Kreutzer case. Then half hour later, Fromholz granted the church's request to postpone the first jury trial where Mahony is to testify, from June 11th to August 6th. The judge emphasized this is not the first ruling regarding the archbishop.
JUDGE: My rulings here were all tentative. I intend to rule on them, uh, un-tentatively on Monday. (leans forward and asserts) I will rule with fervor and authority on Monday on particular documents, questions to be asked, whether a proffer is needed.
Steven J. Brady, Plaintiff Attorney from San Francisco who subpoenaed the archbishop sat at the table while three church attorneys Phil Baker, Bob Baker, and Michael Hennigan, stood for the defendants at his left. Brady's voice emitted surprising authority:
BRADY: I still expect him to appear at trial.
The three church attorneys each shift weight on their feet. Two of them button their suitcoats.
[≤ 1996-67 MacIntosh] - RCC. Boys.
Toronto Star,
by Matt McClure, 04:30 AM, Jun 07, 2007
NEW DELHI, India - After nearly 11 years of delay and government fumbles, a Canadian man charged with sexually abusing young boys is finally being extradited to face trial.
Escorted by a trio of RCMP officers, Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh boarded a flight from India late yesterday and was expected to arrive in Canada today. A police spokesperson says the 63-year-old could make a court appearance in Nova Scotia as early as tomorrow."Once he's back on Canadian soil we'll read him his rights and handcuff him," said RCMP Cpl. Al Affleck.
MacIntosh's forced journey is the latest stage in a decade-long saga in which Canadian authorities dragged their feet, leaving the accused pedophile free to roam overseas.
[8 clergy] - Baptists.
KCEN
Updated 10:30pm, Jun 6, 2007
TEXAS -- The Baptist church took a bold step to put an end to sexual misconduct Wednesday.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas is posting the names of clergy who are convicted sex offenders, making the list available to anyone.
So far, there are just eight names on the web site. The majority is from the Houston or Dallas area, but one local church affiliate said this is only the beginning step in the right direction.
[8 clergy] - Baptists.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
By MARK AGEE, ~ June 07, 2007
TEXAS -- The Baptist General Convention of Texas has begun posting on its Web site the names of convicted sex offenders who've worked as Baptist ministers. The stated goal is to help churches prevent abuse, but critics say it's not enough.
A section of the organization's site labeled "Broken Trust" has nine names and links to information on the state's sex offender registry. The section also has information on how to conduct interviews and background checks.
"We've found that our church members and churches didn't know what a big problem this is," said Emily Prevost, a convention employee who worked on the project. "They don't know how to access information. We decided to be more proactive and put more information in front of them."
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
Tucson Citizen,
By SHERYL KORNMAN, ~ June 07, 2007
ARIZONA -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson on Wednesday renewed its request that anyone with information about the Rev. Jorge Washington Cordova Hernandez contact the Yuma police, diocesan spokesman Fred Allison said.
Cordova faces 10 counts of child sexual abuse in Yuma.
The 51-year-old priest, who is employed by a Catholic diocese in Ecuador, was arrested Sunday near Madrid by Spanish police.
- RCC.
Limerick Post,
~ June 07, 2007
IRELAND -- THE most important land sale ever in Limerick, is how one local auctioneer described Bishop Donal Murray's NCRd. residence, comprising over six acres, and to be sold by tender on July 4. With developers and builders queueing for suitable landbanks, it is expected that the guide price of 20m euro for Kilmoyle, in one of Limerick's most fashionable areas, will be easily surpassed.
A four bed house on half-an-acre, close to the Bishop's Palace, was sold by Rooneys last year for 4.5m euro.
Kilmoyle, a stylish Victorian residence, set in landscaped gardens occupies 6.5 acres, and a spokesperson for the bishop has confirmed a guide price of 20million euro had been set.
- RCC.
[20 yrs to ≤ 1983 Laughlin] - Dozens of boys.
[Decades - Portland Archdiocese] - Failing to remove seducers.
The Oregonian,
By ASHBEL S. GREEN and STEVE WOODWARD, Thursday, June 07, 2007
PORTLAND (OR) -- Decades after the priest sex abuse scandal first surfaced in Oregon, the Portland Archdiocese released hundreds of secret documents showing how church officials repeatedly sought to keep the crisis quiet and failed to remove clergy who faced credible accusations.
The documents released online late Wednesday represent only a portion of a trove of personnel files, letters and depositions that have been kept from public view since the 1983 conviction of the Rev. Thomas Laughlin, the notorious pedophile accused of abusing dozens of boys over more than 20 years.
The documents fill in the details of a broad outline of sexual abuse exposed by a flood of civil lawsuits that eventually drove the archdiocese into bankruptcy in 2004.
- RCC.
[20 yrs to ≤ 1983 Laughlin] - Dozens of boys.
[Decades - Portland Archdiocese] - Failing to remove seducers.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ June 07, 2007
PORTLAND (OR) -- The Archdiocese of Portland released 30 previously secret documents Wednesday detailing sexual abuse of boys by priests.
They included psychological evaluations, allegations by victims and some candid detail of what went on between some priests and their young parishioners over several years. The documents make clear that church officials had been aware of abuse problems for years and refused to acknowledge them.
The archdiocese released the papers as part of a settlement agreed to in April. Portland lawyer Kelly Clark, who represented more than 40 abuse victims, said he was blindsided by the release of the documents on Wednesday.
- RCC.
[Mr Kreutzer (30) (Catholic school math teacher)] - Minors.
[Decades - Los Angeles Archdiocese] - ~ 500 plaintiffs.
Los Angeles Times,
By John Spano, June 7, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- A judge Wednesday ordered Cardinal Roger M. Mahony to testify in a lawsuit alleging that he failed to protect parishioners from a pedophile teacher, but then granted the Los Angeles cleric's request for a trial delay.
The lawsuit had been scheduled for trial Monday; Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholtz agreed to a two-month delay.
Mary Grant, Western regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called the delay "a shame on the church."
"It's just another tactic used to keep the crimes covered up," she said.
The case involves Paul Kreutzer, a former Catholic teacher who is serving a prison sentence for molesting students. One person who was repeatedly sexually abused at a church in the San Fernando Valley alleged that church officials knew of Kreutzer's behavior but failed to act.
[COMMENT: See AMENDMENT newsitem of June 13, 2007
ENDS.]
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
U.S. Marshals,
June 05, 2007
SPAIN -- On June 3, 2007, Father Jorge Cordova was arrested in Spain via authority of a provisional arrest warrant. He is awaiting extradition back to the United States.
Cordova was wanted for ten counts of Sexual Abuse in Yuma County. An investigation by the Yuma Police Department led to his indictment in Yuma County Superior Court on August 30, 2006. Cordova is accused of sexually abusing two minors during his assignment to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma from 1988 to 1991. Cordova fled to his home diocese in Ecuador before the warrant was issued.
The Yuma Police Department contacted the United States Marshals Service (USMS) Mexican Investigative Liaison Unit (MIL) requesting assistance in locating Cordova. During the joint investigation, information was developed that he was traveling to Spain. The USMS MIL unit coordinated efforts to obtain a provisional warrant to arrest Cordova in Spain and return him to the United States.
United States Marshal David Gonzales praised the work of deputies and agents, "This type of coordination between the USMS MIL Unit, Yuma Police Department and Law Enforcement authorities in Spain proves to be an effective tool in locating fugitives who leave the U.S. to avoid prosecution."
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
The Conservative Voice,
by Jim Kouri, 05:31 AM EST, June 07, 2007
SPAIN -- On June 3, 2007, Father Jorge Cordova was arrested in Spain via authority of a provisional arrest warrant. He is awaiting extradition back to the United States.
Cordova was wanted for ten counts of Sexual Abuse in Yuma County. An investigation by the Yuma Police Department led to his indictment in Yuma County Superior Court on August 30, 2006. Cordova is accused of sexually abusing two minors during his assignment to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma from 1988 to 1991. Cordova fled to his home diocese in Ecuador before the warrant was issued.
The Yuma Police Department contacted the United States Marshals Service (USMS) Mexican Investigative Liaison Unit (MIL) requesting assistance in locating Cordova. During the joint investigation, information was developed that he was traveling to Spain. The USMS MIL unit coordinated efforts to obtain a provisional warrant to arrest Cordova in Spain and return him to the United States.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
Ic Westseftonandwestlancs,
by Sarah Chapman, Bootle Times, Jun 7, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- A CATHOLIC priest convicted of enabling a predatory paedophile to groom and sexually abuse a Liverpool schoolgirl will not face a retrial.
Father Jeremiah McGrath, 63, bankrolled convicted sex offender William Adams during a period of three months in which he repeatedly raped a 12-year-old girl.
McGrath, of Rosslea, County Fermanagh, was convicted by a Liverpool Crown Court jury of one charge of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.
- RCC to take job from whistleblower Ms Westrick.
Chicago Tribune,
By F.N. D'ALESSIO, Associated Press Writer, Published 6:14 PM CDT, June 6, 2007
CHICAGO (IL) -- A Roman Catholic school principal who has criticized Archdiocese of Chicago officials for their handling of sexual abuse allegations against the school's former parish priest said Wednesday she expects to lose her post.
"It breaks my heart, but I just don't see any way out of it," Barbara Westrick, principal of Our Lady of the Westside School, said in a telephone interview.
Westrick sent a letter May 29 to parents of the 200 preschool through eighth-grade students at the school's two campuses, telling them that officials had not yet renewed her contract as principal, a post she has held for four years.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 7, 2007
8:29 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Thu June 07, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
- Arabian prince backing Christian Democrats, and palace, from defence viewpoint!
The Guardian,
www.guardian. co.uk/baefiles/ story/0,,2098 953,00.html ,
By David Leigh and Rob Evans, for Saturday, for June 9, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- Lawyers for Prince Bandar, the Saudi royal who received £1bn from BAE, accepted last night that he had spent $17m (£8.6m) on refurbishing one of his palaces, using cash from the US accounts concerned.
But his lawyers, Herbert Smith, said that as the palace in Riyadh was an official residence, there was nothing illegal or untoward spending money out of a Saudi official defence ministry account held at Riggs Banks in Washington DC. ...
Prince Bandar has spoken himself of his unorthodox methods with cash. He is quoted in a recent biography saying that he personally flew $10m in a suitcase to Rome and gave it to a priest at the Vatican Bank, in order to covertly fund the Christian Democrats against the Communists in the 1983 Italian elections.
He is quoted saying he did this at the request of the Pope, Lady Thatcher and then head of the CIA, Bill Casey. They wanted him to shift the cash so no western fingerprints would be on it.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 8, 2007
9:25 PM]
- Baptists (16.3m members).
The Guardian (Britain),
By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion Writer, 9:31 PM, Friday June 8, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX) -- Southern Baptists head into their annual national meeting next week at odds over whether they've become too conservative and wed to partisan politics, or whether a harder line is necessary to give the denomination a clear identity.
Beginning Tuesday in San Antonio, proposals over everything from political involvement to clergy sexual abuse to speaking in tongues should provide a glimpse at where the 16.3 million-member denomination is headed, 28 years after the "conservative resurgence" swept liberals out.
- General religions.
The Baptist Standard,
By Rick Owen, BGCT Counseling and Psychological Services Center,
~ June 08, 2007
TEXAS -- With few exceptions, the men and women who fill the pulpits and ministry positions of our Texas Baptist churches at one time occupied the pews. The churches from which our ministers came have not been immune to the aftermath of the sexual revolution and the presence of cable TV and the internet.
As a result, those among our memberships and in ministry who suffer with sexual concerns, sexual compulsivity or addiction are many. There are both ministers and church members who struggle with impure sexual thoughts; inappropriate, compulsive, offensive, or illegal sexual behavior; internet pornography addiction; or compulsive sexual-acting-out behaviors of various kinds.
Almost all of us have heard of or know a minister who has had an affair, an emotional affair, became sexually involved with a minor, or whose computer was found to have a history of visits to pornographic websites.
- General religions.
The Baptist Standard,
By Greg Warner, Associated Baptist Press, ~ June 08, 2007
UNITED STATES -- Secrecy about clergy sexual abuse may protect an abuser's current church from embarrassment but often at the expense of his next
church–and its children.
Like many small, rural congregations that find themselves without a pastor, East Bonne Femme Baptist Church had a small budget and few options. So when church members heard there was a new preacher in the area who was seeking a pulpit, it looked like God's timing.
"When somebody comes along who has experience, can talk the language of love and is a good preacher, it's easy for them to believe God has called him to be their pastor," recalled Randy Black, a member of the Missouri church.
The preacher was "a smooth talker" who impressed the congregation as "a godly man," Black said. When his references checked out, the man was hired. One day before he was to preach his first sermon, however, the church received a tip. Their new pastor was a convicted child molester.
- General religions.
The Baptist Standard,
By Jim White, Virginia Religious Herald, ~ June 08, 2007
UNITED STATES -- Most pastors and staff members are aware that ministry sometimes puts them in unique circumstances with all kinds of people. Most also are aware that a rumor of wrongdoing often is enough to end an otherwise fruitful ministry. For this reason, wisdom requires taking precautions to protect one's reputation and ministry.
Occasionally, however, the unthinkable will occur. Someone will accuse a minister of sexual misconduct. Because church members are trusting people, and because such allegations are rare, most never have considered what they would do if such charges were made against one of their ministers.
Although we all pray that no church will ever have to go through such pain, those who have are unanimous in advising others to plan ahead. Policies outlining a specific course of action in the event of such charges are invaluable because the process can be determined ahead of time without regard for personalities involved. Professionals heading children's and youth ministries in denominational offices can offer helpful guidelines.
- General religions.
The Baptist Standard,
By Hannah Elliott, Associated Baptist Press, ~ June 08, 2007
NEW YORK (ABP)–Most people think they can spot a sexual predator. He's the pale loner with greasy hair and quivering lips or the grinning lech who hugs too long and slowly rubs the backs of female co-workers–or church members.
Could be. But for every overt pervert, there are plenty more who go unnoticed–and unsuspected.
Predators gravitate to vulnerable people. They move into places where they are the highest authority and where that authority remains unquestioned. In some cases, that place is the local church.
- General religions.
The Baptist Standard,
By Greg Warner, Associated Baptist Press, ~ June 08, 2007
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.(ABP)–What can churches do to prevent clergy sex abuse and break the pattern of recycling abusers? Even among activists and experts, there is no consensus–and sometimes loud
disagreement–about the steps to be taken.
A ministerial code of ethics. Doctors, lawyers and counselors have it. And so do most ministers, but not most Baptists, although the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission worked with a clergy ethics committee to develop a "covenant of trust" into which minsters and congregations could enter. Without the ability to withdraw ordination, participation is voluntary and enforcement impossible. But it's a start.
Seminary training. Condition Baptist ministers early to avoid moral compromise. But "ministerial ethics is rarely taught in our seminaries, although this area has become a major issue in church life," said Joe Trull of Denton, who previously taught at an SBC seminary.
- Christianity generally.
The Baptist Standard,
By Hannah Elliott, Associated Baptist Press, ~ June 08, 2007
NEW YORK (ABP)–Debbie Vasquez was 14 when her pastor started touching her inappropriately. She was 15 when he raped her and 19 when she had his baby.
Tina Boyd first was molested at age 11. Later, she was raped by her church bus driver. The rapist, whom she eventually married and divorced, has been arrested for dabbling in child pornography.
Vasquez told members in her church about the abuse but was disbelieved and accused of lying. Both women ultimately clammed up, refusing to acknowledge the molestation and living with their pain for years. Now, they're using that pain to alert others to the danger of clergy sex abuse.
- Baptists.
The Baptist Standard,
By Ken Camp, Managing Editor, ~ June 08, 2007
DALLAS (TX) – Some Baptists consider sexual misconduct by clergy the unpardonable sin when it comes to hiring church staff, and many survivors of abuse agree. But others say it depends on which scarlet letter the minister wears–"W" for "wanderer" or a "P" for "predator."
Ethicist Joe Trull accepts the distinction between wanderers and predators. He explained the difference between the two types of offenders in a book he and James Carter, former director of church-minister relations with the Louisiana Baptist Convention, wrote on ministerial ethics.
Building on categories first proposed by Marie Fortune–a pioneer in research related to sexual exploitation by clergy–Trull said predators are people who actively seek opportunities to sexually abuse their prey. The predator often is a dynamic figure with a charismatic personality who may play the part of a loving and concerned pastor, but he abuses his power and position to manipulate vulnerable people.
- Baptists.
The Baptist Standard,
~ June 08, 2007
UNITED STATES -- We need another directory to document clergy sexual abuse. When we learn churches knowingly allow–or force–an abusing minister to move on without doing something to warn others, let's publish their names.
This sounds harsh. But it's nothing compared to the pain and anguish victims go through when their ministers violate their trust and abuse them sexually. So, churches that know about it but don't help stop it should be shamed as if they actually aided and abetted this heinous act. They did.
Because of our polity, Baptists have struggled with deciding how to report sexual abuse by their ministers. We don't have an ecclesiastical hierarchy to enforce rules and regulations, no bishop to render justice or warn other congregations. We don't require ordination for service, so we can't pull a clergy's credentials to block a job with a church after violating trust with another congregation. And, of course, we don't tell churches what to do, so we can't require them to report abuse, just as we can't tell them who or who not to hire as ministers.
[Clergy of Portland Archdiocese] - RCC. Children.
The Register-Guard,
By Bill Bishop, Friday, June 8, 2007
PORTLAND (OR) -- The Archdiocese of Portland has released the first installment of documents concerning priests who sexually abused children, an unprecedented move that church officials hope will help victims heal and be reconciled with the faith.
But lawyers for abuse victims question whether the archdiocese will provide a full accounting of what church leaders knew, when they knew it and what they did or didn't do to prevent it.
The document release was made unilaterally, without public notice and without any index or guide to help the public understand the content, said Portland lawyer Kelly Clark, who represented more than 100 abuse victims in lawsuits against the archdiocese.
[1960s - 2 priests of Richmond Diocese] - RCC. Altar boy.
WVEC,
Associated Press
12:40 PM EDT
Friday, June 8, 2007
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A man's attempt to hold the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond financially liable for his alleged childhood abuse by two priests was rejected by the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday.
The unanimous decision affirmed a lower court's ruling that only individuals -- not their employers -- can be sued for child sexual abuse.
Steve Kopalchick of Hopewell sued the diocese for $5 million in 2003. He claimed two priests at Saint James Catholic Church in Hopewell molested him while he served as an altar boy there in the 1960s.
A 1994 state constitutional amendment extended the statute of limitations for child abuse victims to file lawsuits, but also said such civil suits can only be filed against a "natural person." The Supreme Court said the diocese clearly is not a "natural person," which other courts have defined as "a human being."
[1960s - 2 priests of Richmond Diocese] - RCC. Altar boy.
WDBJ,
Associated Press, 1:05 PM ET, June 8, 2007
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Virginia Supreme Court today rejected a man's attempt to hold the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond financially liable for his alleged abuse by two priests.
The unanimous ruling affirmed a lower court's finding that only individuals -- NOT their employers -- can be sued for child sexual abuse.
Steve Kopalchick of Hopewell sued the diocese for five million dollars in 2003. He claimed two priests at Saint James Catholic Church in Hopewell molested him while he served as an altar boy there in the 1960s.
[McCormack*] - RCC. Whistleblower Ms Westrick loses job. 5 boys.
WJBC,
13:29:15, June/08/2007
CHICAGO (IL), (AP) -- At least one parent isn't buying the Archdiocese of Chicago's explanation that a Roman Catholic school principal was fired for her performance.
Rufus Sims says Barbara Westrick lost her job because she criticized the archdiocese for its handling of sexual abuse allegations against the school's former parish priest.
Sims has four kids enrolled at Our Lady of the Westside. He says
they love Westrick because she's fair and treats students like they are her own children.
- RCC.
Mercury News,
The Associated Press, ~ June 08, 2007
SAN DIEGO (CA) – A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that plaintiffs suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego on sex abuse claims will be permitted to challenge property deals and other financial transactions between the diocese and parishes.
Thursday's ruling by Judge Louise DeCarl Adler could add millions in real estate assets to the diocese estate, expanding the pool of money available to settle more than 140 claims from people who say the church did nothing to stop priests from sexually abusing them as children.
Those lawsuits were suspended after the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.
Church officials reiterated in parish bulletins on Sunday their claim that they have not been hiding or illegally transferring assets.
[1994-95 Twomey*] - RCC. Boy (10).
Newsday,
BY BART JONES, bart.jones@newsday.com , 4:53 PM EDT, June 8, 2007
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- The Rev. Gerald Twomey's attorney Friday vehemently denied allegations that the pastor sexually abused a 10-year-old boy more than a decade ago, while friends and parishioners expressed shock and disbelief that a priest many see as a star in the diocese was involved in wrongdoing.
The Suffolk district attorney's office said late Thursday that it was investigating claims that Twomey abused the boy in 1994 and 1995 while he was stationed at St. Anne's in Brentwood. The allegations were forwarded to it by the diocese.
"I don't believe a word of it," said Greg Florentino, a parishioner a St. Anne's, where Twomey worked for a decade. "He's just not that type of guy."
Tom St. Pierre, a former priest who was Twomey's long-time co-pastor at St. Anne's, also dismissed the possibility. "I would really doubt it," he said. "I've known Gerry Twomey for over 26 years. I lived in the room next door to him for 11 years. We always had our doors open and were yelling, joking and working together until after 11 each night."
- Judaist group evidence.
The Awareness Center,
~ June 08, 2007
WASHINGTON (DC) -- The testimony of Vicki Polin, executive director of The Awareness Center, before the Washington, D.C., City Council can be found at this link. The center is concerned with clergy sexual abuse in the Jewish community.
The hearing dealt with proposed legislation in the District of Columbia to end the criminal statute of limitations for crimes of childhood sexual abuse and to eliminate the civil statute of limitations for recovery of damages arising out of childhood sex abuse claims.
- Guilty verdict for false accusation against RCC clergyman.
Irish Independent,
By Tomas Mac Ruairi, Friday June 08 2007
IRELAND -- A MAN has been convicted of falsely alleging he was b*ggered by a priest he claimed was giving him First Holy Communion tuition more than 25 years ago.
Paul Anderson (34) had denied making a false statement that he was abused by the priest.
Anderson, of Crumlin Park, Crumlin, Dublin, and formerly of Iveagh Trust Flats, New Bride Street, Dublin, has been remanded in custody for sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
He had denied making a false statement to Det-Gda Brian Kavanagh on June 18, 2003 that acts of indecent assault and b*ggery were committed on him by the priest in the period February to May 1981.
- RCC.
Orthodox Reform,
~ June 08, 2007
SPOKANE (WA) -- Highlighting the severe legal liability of not adequately dealing with sexual abuse issues, recent developments reveal childhood victims of abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane will be receiving $48 million:
The Diocese of Spokane emerged from bankruptcy May 31, two-and-a-half years after it entered Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy proceedings.
1990s Unnamed clergyman -NEW*] - RCC. Boy.
Hartford Courant,
Associated Press, June 8, 2007
GARDEN CITY, LONG ISLAND, N.Y. -- The pastor of a Roman Catholic parish has been placed on administrative leave amid allegations he sexually abused a 10-year-old boy when he served at a different parish more than a decade ago, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rockville Centre confirmed Thursday.
The diocese has referred the allegations to the Suffolk County district attorney's office and intends to conduct its own investigation, spokesman Sean Dolan said.
A spokesman for District Attorney Thomas Spota confirmed the prosecutors had received a letter from the diocese about the allegations - a procedure that was enacted in the wake of the nationwide church sex abuse scandal five years ago.
[~ 1982 Garrity* (Jesuit)] - RCC. 5 adults.
News & Observer,
by Yonat Shimron, Staff Writer, ~ June 08, 2007
DURHAM (NC) -- A Jesuit priest who was removed as pastor of Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Durham will continue to receive counseling at an East Coast residential treatment facility for priests.
The priest, the Rev. Stephen M. Garrity, was "recalled" by officials of the Jesuit order, a religious community within the Catholic church.
According to the order, Garrity confessed to sexual relations with five adults 25 years ago while serving in Baltimore and Philadelphia. One of those sexual partners recently contacted the Maryland province of the Society of Jesuits about the relationship, which constituted a violation of Garrity's vow of celibacy.
The order acted quickly and removed Garrity from the Durham church in April. He is not suspected of pedophilia or other criminal activity.
- RCC.
Newsday,
BY PAT McDONOUGH, June 8, 2007
Pat McDonough is a Catholic educator and psychologist from Westbury. NEW YORK -- The Tony Awards are just days away. Among the nominations for best musical is "Curtains," a play based on a book by Rupert Holmes and Peter Stone. The critics called it blissful, witty and thoroughly entertaining. One went as far as to say it was a "gust of giddy good fun."
Well, I wasn't laughing when actor Edward Hibbert walked on stage announcing that "those --- Catholics really know how to put on a show." He went on to disparage the Eucharist in the first of many ill-fated attempts at humor, all of which held the audience hostage for two of the most boring hours on Broadway.
Anti-Catholicism is deeply rooted in the Colonial history of our country, compounded by centuries of immigration and aggravated by the sensationalized coverage of the clergy crisis in recent years. The Center for Media and Public Affairs examined the anti-Catholic bias in the United States and found the church's marginalization of women and its professed sexual mores to be the topics most often addressed by America's media.
[McCormack*] - RCC. Reformer Westrick loses job. 5 boys.
Chicago Tribune,
By Manya A. Brachear, religion reporter, June 8, 2007
CHICAGO (IL) -- The principal of the Roman Catholic school where Rev. Daniel McCormack taught algebra and coached basketball before he was charged with sexually abusing five boys lost her job Thursday.
Barbara Westrick, principal of Our Lady of the Westside school for the last four years, said she has suspected for several months that the Chicago Archdiocese would terminate her after church officials criticized her actions in the McCormack case at the end of last year.
Ever since McCormack was arrested in January 2006, Westrick has insisted she was not to blame for the mishandling of his case and chastised the archdiocese and Cardinal Francis George for allowing him to continue to serve in her school.
[Decades - San Diego Diocese] - RCC. > 150 victims.
Union-Tribune,
By Jeff McDonald, June 8, 2007
SAN DIEGO (CA) -- Creditors suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego will be permitted to challenge property deals and other transactions that church officials approved in the months and years leading up to the February bankruptcy filing, a federal judge ruled yesterday.
But for the time being, those challenges will be limited to a handful of properties whose ownership is already being formally disputed.
The decision from Judge Louise DeCarl Adler represents a significant victory for more than 150 people suing the diocese for alleged sexual abuse committed by San Diego area Catholic priests in cases dating back decades.
[McCormack*] - RCC. Reformer Westrick loses job. 5 boys.
WQAD,
Associated Press, 5:34 AM ET, June 8, 2007
CHICAGO (IL), (AP) - A Catholic school principal who criticized the Archdiocese of Chicago for its handling of sexual abuse allegations against the school's former parish priest has been fired.
Barbara Westrick has accused the archdiocese of trying to make her a scapegoat for its reaction to accusations against the Reverend Daniel McCormack, who is charged with criminal sexual abuse.
Yesterday Westrick lost her job as principal of Our Lady of the Westside school.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 8, 2007
7:29 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Fri June 08, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[Vatican insiders]
Sunday Herald,
www.sunday herald.com/ international/ shinternational/ display.var. 1460519. 0.0.php , June 09, 2007
ROME -- ONE OF the defence lawyers, Pierpaolo Dell'Anno, kissed his mobile phone, looking nervous. It was a superstitious gesture, auguring good luck. Moments later, the verdict was read out: all five defendants on trial for the murder of Roberto Calvi had been acquitted.
Dell'Anno's client, Ernesto Diotallevi, let out a cry of delight as he punched the air and turned to embrace his sons and his lawyer. A thick-set man wearing a blue suit and open-necked shirt, it was the first time that Diotallevi had shown his face in court since the trial began 20 months ago. It was the kind of face you wouldn't want to argue with, and there were tears in the eyes. ...
Calvi had joined the P2 masonic lodge in August 1975 and found himself at the heart of a corrupt power structure that constituted a "state within the state". In return for political favours - such as help in getting round restrictions on the export of currency - P2 expected him to finance friendly political parties, buy control of the country's leading newspaper and fund a global campaign against communism.
The Vatican bank, headed by Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, was a natural ally in the anti-communist struggle. Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano had been founded by a priest and was Italy's premier "Catholic" bank. The partnership between Calvi and Marcinkus enabled both to evade regulatory oversight and funnel money into offshore companies where it became available for discreet political operations, such as funding the anti-communist Solidarity trade union in Poland. Calvi's ties to the Vatican would earn him the sobriquet "God's banker".
Tescaroli painted a grim portrait of Calvi's Italy in his summing up speech. It was a country in the grip of terrorist and mafia violence and characterised by collusion between political power and organised crime. The pope had recently been shot, and on the wider stage, Solidarity had been outlawed in Poland.
Against this backdrop Calvi fled Italy, on a mission to save his bank from imminent bankruptcy. Documents found later in his briefcase showed he was attempting to blackmail the Vatican, among others, in his bid to relieve the financial pressure on the Ambrosiano.
A letter addressed to Pope John Paul II, dated June 5, 1982, warned that he might be induced to reveal his sensitive activities on behalf of the church. "Many would like to know from me whether I supplied arms and other equipment to certain South American regimes to help them fight our common enemies, and whether I supplied funds to Solidarity or arms and funds to other organisations of Eastern countries."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 9, 2007
5:53 PM]
- Parish ejects SNAP.
The Star-Ledger,
BY JEFF DIAMANT, Saturday, June 09, 2007
MENDHAM (NJ) -- A Catholic church in Mendham has rescinded permission for a group of victims of clergy sex abuse to meet on its property, after letting the group gather there for five years.
The pastor says St. Joseph's needs the meeting space for its new pre-kindergarten and that the state chapter of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests can no longer meet on church grounds.
But SNAP members say the decision to evict is troubling given the abuse some members suffered there decades ago when James Hanley was the pastor. They say there is ample space on campus for SNAP to meet one night a month.
Hanley, the worst known perpetrator of clergy sex abuse in New Jersey, was a priest at five churches, including St. Joseph, from 1962 through 1986. At least one parishioner from four of those churches has accused him of abuse. In 2005, the Paterson Diocese settled with 21 of Hanley's accusers for nearly $5 million.
After several victims came forward with allegations in 2002, the church, under its former pastor, Msgr. Kenneth Lasch, let victims meet at its Pax Christi Center. In 2004, the church let them establish a small memorial to sex-abuse victims, just 150 feet from the rectory where they were abused.
[~ 1990s MacIntosh] - RCC. Boys.
Toronto Star,
by Matt McClure, SPECIAL TO THE STAR, 04:30 AM, Jun 09, 2007
NEW DELHI, India - Federal authorities allowed a twice-convicted pedophile to bring a young boy from India to Canada, where he now says he was subjected to repeated sexual abuse.
It appears immigration officials with Canada's mission in New Delhi gave the 15-year-old a visa without checking the criminal background of Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, who was sponsoring his visit.
Court documents show that when MacIntosh went with the boy to apply for the visa in 1990, the bachelor was a known sex offender in Canada because of a 1984 conviction for sexual assault of a young boy in Nova Scotia. The file also mentions an earlier sex-related offence.
- Parish ejects SNAP.
Daily Record,
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF, Saturday, June 9, 2007
MENDHAM (NJ) -- A support group for victims of sexual abuse by priests has been told it no longer will be allowed to meet at St. Joseph's parish, where it has been holding meetings for the past five years.
Monsignor Joseph Anginoli, pastor of the parish, said in a letter to the local chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, that the building where it meets is being renovated to accommodate a pre-kindergarten program.
"This is effective immediately,"Anginoli said in the letter.
Church officials say the move was made solely because of space restrictions.
[1994-95 Twomey*] - RCC. Boy (10).
Long Island Press,
By John Abraham, 3:46 pm, June/08/2007
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- A Long Island priest is facing recent accusations regarding alleged sexual misconduct involving a 10-year-old boy. The abuse allegedly took place in the years 1994 to 1995.
Reverend Gerald Twomey, 53, however, will not face criminal charges because the five-year statute of limitations for the alleged crimes has elapsed, according to Robert Clifford, a spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney.
The alleged abuse was brought to the attention of authorities by a letter received on May 31 from the Diocese of Rockville Centre attorney stating that the Twomey, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima in Manorhaven, had sexually abused a 10-year-old boy in the years 1994-95.
At the time of the suspected abuse, the boy had been at home recovering from injuries sustained in a car accident and Twomey was co-pastor of St. Anne's Church in Brentwood.
- RCC. [Wempe] [Card. Mahony]
Los Angeles Times,
From Times Staff and Wire Reports, June 9, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Demonstrators plan to picket Leisure World on Sunday to notify neighbors of the residency of Michael Wempe, a former Roman Catholic priest paroled after serving a three-year sentence for molesting a boy.
Wempe, 67, was paroled in February, with little publicity, said Mary Grant, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
- Guilty verdict for false accusation against RCC clergyman.
Irish Independent,
By Breda Heffernan, Saturday June 09, 2007
IRELAND -- THE innocent priest who was at the centre of false allegations that he sexually abused a young boy has prayed for mercy for his accuser.
Friends of the priest, who works in a Dublin parish, say he was left "totally devastated" by the allegation, and criticised the four-year wait before his name was cleared.
Paul Anderson (34) from Crumlin Park, Crumlin, Dublin, and formerly of the Iveagh Trust Flats, New Bride Street, Dublin, was convicted earlier this week of making false allegations against the priest.
- RCC. Indigenous people mainly victimised.
News-Miner,
By Mary Beth Smetzer, Published June 9, 2007
FAIRBANKS (AK) -- In a dramatic ceremony prior to a healing Mass on Friday, Bishop Donald Kettler apologized and asked for forgiveness from those hurt by sexual abuse throughout the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese.
"I stand before all of you this evening to say that I, we, and all of us in the Church, past and present, are deeply sorry," Kettler said. "Words are often cheap, especially when many are without much meaning. I promise that mine will be few, but please note that they are spoken from the heart."
The leader of the far-flung diocese, which stretches north from the Alaska Range to the Arctic Ocean, bounded on the east by the Canadian border and on the west by the Bering Sea, said his remarks were especially directed to Alaska's first people. He made them a pledge.
[1970s-80s - 4 priests] - RCC. Boy.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
By Sylvester Brown Jr., June/10/2007
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- Charles Spearman felt a sense of warmth after bumping into an old friend outside Cardinal Ritter College Prep last week. It was an unexpected feeling because there was nothing warm about his visit.
Spearman, 38, took part in a sidewalk news conference with members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. In April, the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Jesuit and Redemptorist orders settled a lawsuit filed by Spearman in 2004. He accused four priests, three of whom taught at Cardinal Ritter, of molesting him during the 1970s and 1980s.
He went to the high school Thursday, he told me, to speak publicly about the abuse he endured, to encourage any "past or present victims" to speak up and to urge the Archdiocese to confront the issue of pedophile priests.
He also wanted to send a special message to African-Americans like him.
[1960-71 Sister Kathleen Honc (Franciscan) -NEW*] - Nun with girl.
Florida Today,
BY JEFF SCHWEERS, June 09, 2007
MELBOURNE (FL) -- A Franciscan nun accused of molesting a Melbourne Central Catholic School student sometime between 1962 and 1971 has lost her job at a church in Seminole, but likely won't face prosecution because the allegation is so old.
The now-adult female victim, who was not identified, recently came forward with the claim that Sister Kathleen Francis Honc sexually abused her as a teen, said Carol Brinati, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Orlando. The victim informed the Franciscan Sisters of Allegheny, N.Y.
The sisters investigated the allegation and determined it to be credible, Brinati said.
[1994-95 Twomey*] - RCC. Boy (10).
1010 WINS,
~ June 09, 2007
MELVILLE, Long Island (NY) (1010 WINS) -- The attorney for a pastor of a Roman Catholic parish is denying allegations that his client sexually abused a ten-year-old boy more than a decade ago.
The Suffolk district attorney's office has said that it is investigating allegations that the Reverend Gerald Twomey abused the boy between 1994 and 1995 while at a parish in Brentwood.
Twomey has been put on administrative leave from his duties as pastor of Our Lady of Fatima in Manorhaven since the allegations surface. The Diocese of Rockville Center says it received notice of the allegations May 31.
Twomey's attorney says the allegation is "utterly false." Attorney Christopher J. Cassar of Huntington says they would fight to clear his name.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on June 9, 2007
8:07 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sat June 09, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[Decades - Wempe] - RCC. 13 victims.
Orange County Register,
www.ocregister. com/ocregister/ homepage/ abox/article_ 1725017.php ,
By KATHERINE NGUYEN, ~ June 10, 2007
SEAL BEACH (CA) - Demonstrators picketed in front of Leisure World in Seal Beach this morning to warn residents that a convicted pedophile priest was living amongst them.
Holding up signs resembling red stop signs, four members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) informed drivers coming in and out of the gated community that Michael Wempe, a former Roman Catholic priest on parole after serving a three year prison sentence for molesting a boy, had quietly moved back into his condo earlier this year inside the private residential community.
Wempe, 67, has admitted to molesting 13 victims throughout his 36 years as a priest with the Los Angeles Archdiocese but was convicted for molesting one boy. The other alleged reports of abuse were too old by the time of his trial.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 9:29 PM]
[2003-06 Lemme -NEW*] - RCC. US$415,848.
Ashbury Park Press,
BY KAREN SUDOL, FREEHOLD BUREAU, ~ June 10, 2007
FREEHOLD (NJ) – A former principal of a Burlington County Roman Catholic high school who resides in Wall has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of stealing $415,848 from the school.
Between June 1, 2003, and Nov. 30, 2006, Joseph R. Lemme, 50, of the Allenwood section transferred funds from Holy Cross High School in Delran into a personal savings account that he tapped for his own use, according to an indictment handed up Monday.
Specifically, he is accused of embezzling funds generated from various school functions, school contracts and book and uniform sales, First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter E. Warshaw Jr. said.
[? 2000s McCormack*] - RCC. Reformer Ms Westrick loses job. 5 boys.
WBBM,
Bob Roberts & Jennifer O'Neill Reporting
CHICAGO (IL) -- Anti-abuse activists claim that the principal of West Side Catholic school was fired because she criticized the Archdiocese of Chicago's handling of sexual abuse allegations at her school. The Archdiocese denies the accusation and says overall performance was the reason.
The Survivors Nework for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and a small group of parents contended Friday that Barbara Westrick was singled out when she failed to heed warnings about repercussions in the wake of the arrest of Father Daniel McCormack.
Westrick learned of her dismissal in a meeting Thursday with St. Agatha's Roman Catholic Church pastor Fr. Larry Dowling.
Westrick had been doing a "splendid" job, said Rufus Sims, whose four children are enrolled at Our Lady of the Westside Schools.
- RCC.
Star-Ledger,
BY JEFF DIAMANT, Sunday, June 10, 2007
NEWARK (NJ) -- In 2004, the Rev. Gerald Sudol believed he would be kicked out of the Catholic priesthood.
A man had accused Sudol of molesting him nearly two decades ago, and the Archdiocese of Newark, after investigating, settled with the man's family in the high five figures. Sudol was on administrative leave.
Fast-forward two years.
A canonical trial acquitted Sudol and he was reassigned to work, at a hospice. This February, an archdiocese church even threw a festive jubilee for the 25th anniversary of his ordination, publicizing the party for "Fr. Gerry" on the Web.
The case highlights the complexities facing the Catholic Church since it adopted the so-called "Dallas Charter" in the wake of damning revelations that church leaders for decades covered up child sex abuse by priests. The charter, hashed out at the U.S. Catholic Bishop's Conference meeting in Dallas five years ago this week, mandated all accusations be investigated and certain steps be taken to prevent future abuse.
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Sun June 10, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Former priest will be sentenced in September on a charge of sexual assault
[1987 Richard] - RCC. 1 male, 3 boys.
The Cape Breton Post,
www.capebreton post.com/index. cfm?sid= 36430&sc= 145 ,
~ June 11, 2007
SYDNEY, CANADA - A retired Cape Breton priest will be sentenced in September on a count of sexual assault involving a male.
Claude Joseph Richard, 71, pleaded guilty to the charge in Supreme Court. The incident occurred in Glace Bay in 1987.
Richard, who is now living in Halifax, has been released on conditions pending his sentencing, Sept. 5.
Richard, along with his twin brother, Clair, also a priest, had previously spent time in jail for sex offences. Richard was given a two-year sentence in 1994 after pleading guilty to sexually abusing three boys.
[LOOK FORWARD: September 11, 2007.]
- Fr Dowd to continue.
NorthJersey.com
By JOHN CHADWICK, STAFF WRITER, Monday, June 11, 2007
NEW JERSEY -- The Rev. William J. Dowd, a popular Bergen County priest who was accused in 2002 of sexual misconduct with minors, has been cleared by church officials in Rome.
"Father Dowd is entitled to the restoration of his reputation and the opportunity to return to ministry," Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese, said Monday.
The decision means the 67-year-old priest can wear clerical garb, celebrate Mass and represent himself as a priest for the first time in more than five years.
But he won't be reassigned to St. Luke's in Ho-Ho-Kus, where he served as pastor for five years before his removal, because the archdiocese installed a new pastor several years ago. Dowd may seek a position outside of a parish ministry given the "notoriety" of the accusations, Goodness said.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 6:00 PM]
[Smith - NEW*] - Church of God in Christ. Girl.
WMC,
Associated Press, 3:25 PM ET, June 11, 2007
SEATTLE (WA), (AP) - The Memphis-based Church of God in Christ was sued today by a Seattle woman who claims she was sexually abused as a child by 1 of its pastors.
Court documents filed in Seattle allege that the Church of God in Christ failed to protect the woman from Pastor Charles E. Smith.
The lawsuit contends that the church failed to properly investigate Smith's background, knew or should have known he was a pedophile, and failed to adequately supervise him.
[Smith*] - Church of God in Christ. Girl.
KNDO/KNDU,
Associated Press, 3:55 PM ET, June 11, 2007
SEATTLE (WA), (AP) - A 53-year-old Seattle woman who says she was sexually abused 40 years ago by a pastor has filed a lawsuit against the Church of God in Christ.
Documents filed in King County Superior Court allege that the church failed to protect her from the pastor.
[~ 2000s Montgomery -NEW*] - Praise 3 Ministries Church. US$130,000.
WVEC,
~ June 11, 2007
VIRGINIA BEACH (VA) -- The case against a Virginia Beach pastor went to court Monday.
Ken Montgomery, former pastor of what was called Praise 3 Ministries church, was accused of misusing more than $130,000 in church funds.
Monday, a judge confirmed a court investigator's findings that Montgomery wrote checks using the church money for his and his wife's personal expenses.
The judgment means Ken and Tammy Montgomery have to pay that money back.
[1956-66 Scherzer] - RCC. 4 boys.
The Courier-Journal,
By Jason Riley, jriley@courier-journal.com , June 11, 2007
LOUISVILLE (KY) -- An 81-year-old Roman Catholic priest sentenced last year to five years of probation for abusing four boys between 1956 and 1966 has violated the conditions of his release by failing to register as a sex offender, according to prosecutors.
The Rev. Edwin Scherzer, a Roman Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Louisville, also was kicked out of the state's Sex Offender Treatment Program for violating his treatment contract by refusing to admit he abused three of the four boys, according to court records.
A Jefferson Circuit Court judge did not decide the issue today.
In November 2005, Scherzer pleaded guilty to four felony counts of indecent or immoral practices with a child under 15, the equivalent of what would be called sexual abuse under current Kentucky law.
[2007 Wilmington Diocese] - RCC. Untruths.
Voice from the Desert,
~ June 11, 2007
DELAWARE -- Here's a recent e-mail from Sister Maureen Paul Turlish of New Castle, Delaware, updating us on the latest news about Delaware Senate Bill 29.
By the way, Delaware's Separation Day was celebrated on Saturday, June 9, 2007 in historic New Castle, Delaware. Separation Day celebrates Delaware's "separation" from the British Crown and the governance of the Penn Family in 1776. The event is sponsored by the State of Delaware through the Separation Day Committee.
Happy Separation Day 2007!
After reading the Delaware News Journal online this morning, where there are two more "letters" supporting Senate Bill 29, I added a long commentary on what untruths were writtten in this week's Catholic newspaper, The Dialog.
Both the letters and commentary can be found at: http://forums. delawareonline. com/viewtopic. php?t=41389 I went down to Old New Castle for my walk today because it's Separation Day.
While sitting waiting for the parade to begin, looked around noticing all the families with children and remembered I still had about 300 flyers supporting Senate Bill 29 and our coalition, ChildVictimsVoice.com, still in the car.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:32 PM]
- RCC.
Pittsburgh Catholic,
by C.T. MAIER and ROBERT P. LOCKWOOD, ~ June 11, 2007
First of a two-part series. UNITED STATES -- This month, five years have passed since the U.S. Catholic bishops responded to the clergy sexual abuse crisis by approving the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People." During that time, the Catholic Church in the United States has done more than perhaps any other institution in the world to confront the problem of child sexual abuse.
Yet, many Catholics are unaware of what the church has been doing on the issue. In fact, a recent survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University found that as many as 80 percent of American Catholics didn't know that the church had done anything at all.
Even a casual look at the church's response, though, reveals a dedicated and long-standing effort to protect children and youth.
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Mon June 11, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
- Judaism. Film.
YouTube,
www.youtube. com/watch?v= 23PJUB76L98 ,
June 12, 2007
(A trailer to a new film by Izzy Moskovitz called "Narrow Bridge" can be seen at this link.
(Vicki Polin, executive director of The Awareness Center, said she has read one of the original scripts and believes the film is well done.
(The story is about a young Jewish college student who was sexually abused by his rabbi as a child and the numerous struggles he encounters as he attempts to heal himself and seek closure.)
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 11:05 PM]
[1987 Richard] - RCC. 1 male, 3 boys.
The Chronicle Herald,
~ June 12, 2007
SYDNEY, CANADA – A former Roman Catholic priest in Cape Breton has admitted to another sex-related offence.
A sentencing hearing for Claude Richard, 71, will be held in September.
He pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual assault that dates back to 1987 in Glace Bay involving a male.
A charge of gross indecency was withdrawn.
[2007 St Louis Archdiocese] - RCC. Trying to keep information secret.
KMOX,
Kevin Killeen Reporting, ~ June 12, 2007
ST. LOUIS (MO), (KMOX News) -- Should St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke be forced to take the witness stand in a civil suit the diocese filed to prevent the release of information on six accused priests? That's the subject of a pretrial hearing scheduled for this afternoon.
- RCC.
[1977 Willis] - Teenage boy.
[Years - Burlington Diocese] - Protected predators. 30 males.
Rutland Herald,
10:44 a.m., June 12, 2007
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - Vermont's Roman Catholic diocese is facing new allegations that two priests hired in the 1960s and 1970s remained with the Diocese even after allegations of sexual misconduct involving children were received by church officials.
The allegations are contained in documents filed in Chittenden Superior Court last week as part of a separate molestation case.
Attorney Jerome O'Neill is using the information as part of the case of a Virginia Beach, Va., man who alleges that former Rev. Alfred Willis molested him in 1977. The case is due to go to trial next week.
The Diocese is asking the court to prevent O'Neill from bringing up evidence about how the diocese handled other child molestation claims. It says church officials had no prior knowledge of child molestation misconduct by Willis.
[50yrs Portland Archdiocese] - RCC. 150 claimants.
Public NewsRoom,
By Colin Fogarty, June-07-2007
PORTLAND, (OR) -- The Archdiocese of Portland released a series of documents today Wednesday from the personnel files of priests accused of molesting children. Church officials agreed to release the papers when they settled a massive bankruptcy case in April involving about 150 claimants. Colin Fogarty reports.
The documents range from the innocuous to legalistic to deeply anguished.
This is only a portion of all the papers the church has agreed to release. Some are waiting for attorneys to notify those who might be identified in the documents. Others are in dispute and a mediator will decide whether to release them.
In reading the papers, one observation becomes quickly obvious: Church officials knew of accusations of sexual misconduct against their priests and struggled over what to do about it.
- RCC.
The Morning Call,
By Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press, June 12, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. | -- Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Kurtz was named archbishop of Louisville by Pope Benedict XVI, succeeding Thomas C. Kelly, who guided the archdiocese through one of its most tumultuous times amid a clergy sex abuse scandal.
Kurtz, 60, has served as bishop of the 50,000-member diocese of Knoxville, Tenn., since 1999. Before that, he was a priest for 27 years in the Diocese of Allentown in Pennsylvania.
"I look forward to the opportunity to serve all the people of our archdiocese," Kurtz said Tuesday at a news conference at the archdiocese main office.
- SNAP.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
By Jim Jones, Special, ~ June 12, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX) -- Leaders of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests -- which now has a Baptist unit -- staged a prayer vigil here Monday, urging members of the Southern Baptist Convention to expose pastors and other church employees who are guilty of sexual abuse.
"It's way too easy for perpetrators of sexual abuse to hide in the Southern Baptist Convention," said Christa Brown of Austin, coordinator of the Baptist unit of the Survivors Network.
She and David Clohessy, executive director of the organization, which is based in St. Louis, conducted the vigil outside the San Antonio Convention Center, where the Southern Baptist Convention opens its two-day annual meeting today.
[1956-66 Scherzer] - RCC. 4 boys.
The Courier-Journal,
By Jason Riley, jriley@courier-journal.com , June 12, 2007
LOUISVILLE (KY) -- An 81-year-old Roman Catholic priest sentenced last year to five years of probation for abusing four boys between 1956 and 1966 has violated conditions of his release by failing to complete sex-offender treatment, according to court records.
The Rev. Edwin Scherzer, a priest in the Archdiocese of Louisville, was kicked out of the state's Sex Offender Treatment Program in November for violating his treatment contract by refusing to admit he abused three of the four boys, according to a supervision report.
The Jefferson commonwealth's attorney's office and state Division of Probation and Parole have asked Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Susan Schultz Gibson to send Scherzer to prison for the remainder of his five-year sentence.
- Vatican says Dowd innocent.
NorthJersey.com ,
By JOHN CHADWICK, Tuesday, June 12, 2007
NEW JERSEY -- The Rev. William J. Dowd, a popular Bergen County priest who was accused in 2002 of sexual misconduct with minors, has been cleared by church officials in Rome.
The decision means the 67-year-old Dowd can wear clerical garb, celebrate Mass and represent himself as a Catholic priest for the first time in more than five years. But he won't be reassigned to St. Luke's in Ho-Ho-Kus, where he had been pastor and where some parishioners had rallied to his defense.
Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese, said Dowd may seek an assignment that doesn't involve working in a church, given the "notoriety" of the accusations.
[1963 Finnin -NEW*] - RCC. Boy.
Leader-Post,
by Heather Polischuk, Tuesday, June 12, 2007
CANADA -- An Allan, Sask., man is suing the Archiepiscopal Corporation of Regina, or the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, alleging he was sexually abused by a priest as a youth.
In his statement of claim filed in March, Albert Laval claims he was abused in or around November 1963 when he spent two nights at the Cantal, Sask., parish rectory.
Laval alleges the now-deceased Pius Finnin, then the parish priest in Wauchope, Sask., abused him knowing Laval was neither consenting, nor of an age where consent was relevant.
- RCC.
[1977 Willis] - Teenage boy.
[Years - Burlington Diocese] - Protected predators. 30 males.
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, Tuesday, June 12, 2007
VERMONT -- The state's Roman Catholic diocese is facing new allegations that it hired two priests in the 1960s and 1970s suspected of molesting boys, then kept them employed after receiving reports of their sexual misconduct while working in Vermont.
The allegations are contained in a document filed late last week in Chittenden Superior Court by Jerome O'Neill, the attorney for a Virginia Beach, Va., man who claims that former Rev. Alfred Willis molested him in 1977.
The document, titled "Plaintiff's statement of disputed material facts," was filed with the court Friday with the stated purpose of combating efforts by the diocese to have the pending case dismissed. The case is set to go to trial next week.
- RCC declares Fr Dowd acquitted.
Star-Ledger,
BY JEFF DIAMANT, Tuesday, June 12, 2007
NEWARK (NJ) -- After five years on leave from Catholic ministry, a priest from the Newark Archdiocese who was once team chaplain for the New York Giants has been acquitted in a church-run trial on charges that he sexually abused minors.
The Rev. William Dowd, 67, will return to ministry soon, possibly at a hospital or college but probably not at a parish, said James Goodness, spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese.
Dowd spoke Friday with Archbishop John J. Myers and was told of the decision, Goodness said.
Dowd stepped down as pastor of St. Luke's Roman Catholic Church in Ho-Ho-Kus, in Bergen County, in April 2002, after a man from Mississippi came forward with an allegation that Dowd molested him repeatedly while he was a teenager living in New Jersey.
[1956-66 Scherzer] - RCC. 4 boys.
Lexington Herald-Leader,
The Associated Press,
~ June 12, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. --Prosecutors are asking a judge to send an 81-year-old former priest to prison for failing to complete sex-offender treatment, court records show.
The Rev. Edwin Scherzer was sentenced last year to five years of house arrest for sexually abusing four boys between 1956 and 1966.
But the Jefferson Commonwealth Attorney's office and state Division of Probation and Parole have asked Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Susan Schultz Gibson to force Scherzer to finish his sentence in jail after Scherzer was kicked out of the state's Sex Offender Treatment Program last November.
[Smith - NEW*] - Church of God in Christ. Girl.
KGW,
By MELANTHIA MITCHELL / Associated Press, June/12/2007
SEATTLE (WA) -- A church with congregations nationwide was sued Monday by a Seattle woman who claims she was sexually abused as a child by one of its pastors here.
The pastor, now 79, denied the accusations.
Court documents filed in King County Superior Court allege that the Church of God in Christ, based in Memphis, Tenn., failed to protect the woman from Pastor Charles E. Smith.
The church failed to properly investigate Smith's background, knew or should have known he was a pedophile, and failed to adequately supervise him, the lawsuit contends.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 3:56 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Tue June 12, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[2007 Grant*] - RCC. Prison 3 1/3 yrs. Suicide attempt. Boy.
Harrow Times,
www.harrow times.co.uk/ news/localnews/ display.var. 1468502.0. priest_ breached_ trust.php ;
~ June 13, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- A CATHOLIC priest who indecently assaulted a boy who went to him for advice about his sexuality has been jailed for his "gross breach of trust".
Father Peter Grant had been working at Our Lady of the Annunciation church, in Thirleby Road, Burnt Oak, for six weeks when the allegations came to light in April. He then took an overdose of whisky and tablets in an attempt to commit suicide, St Albans Crown Court heard on Friday.
He was jailed for three years and four months after pleading guilty to four offences of sexual activity with a child under 16.
[? 2000s Sorvillo -NEW*] - RCC. > US$190,000.
Chicago Tribune,
By Azam Ahmed, 5:29 PM CDT, June 13, 2007
CHICAGO (IL) -- A former pastor of a North Side parish accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the church intends to accept a plea deal calling for a 4-year prison sentence, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Rev. Mark Sorvillo, a former pastor at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, expects to plead guilty in late July, his lawyer, Brian Collins, told Circuit Judge Diane Cannon.
While St. Margaret Mary was struggling to keep its school open, Sorvillo stole from weekly collections and donations from baptisms and weddings, and also misused parish credit cards, taking more than $190,000 in nearly eight years as pastor, prosecutors have said.
- Baptist.
Associated Baptist Press,
By Grace Thornton, June 13, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX), (ABP) -- International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin presented an upbeat report June 12 to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, but he was unable to escape concerns from messengers at the San Antonio, Texas, meeting.
A concern about embezzlement resurfaced when messenger Ron McGowin of Fairfield, Texas, questioned the outcome of a motion he introduced at last year's annual meeting. McGowin's motion had called for an external audit of the Central Asia region's monetary dealings between 1999-2005.
A note in the book of reports said a 2004 audit and "supplemental procedures" on the issue led to "appropriate action" taken by the board. But McGowin, pastor of First Baptist Church in Fairfield, asked why the IMB trustees had decided against the use of external audits.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:00 PM]
- RCC. Let an abuser go on and on.
Irish Independent,
By Dearbhail McDonald, Wednesday June 13 2007
IRELAND -- RETIRED Bishop Brendan Comiskey, the first member of the Church hierarchy to give evidence in an abuse case, has told the High Court he is "more than happy" to appear as a witness.
Lawyers acting for the bishop have informed High Court Judge John Quirke that Bishop Comiskey, a key witness in an abuse action taken by three men from Wexford, that he will co-operate in any way he can in a case taken by the men who allege they were abused by a Ferns priest.
Bishop Comiskey, who has made one public appearance in Wexford since he stepped down as Bishop of Ferns, is one of a number of senior Church figures subpoenaed to appear in the case before the High Court.
Yesterday, on day 12 of the first civil diocesan abuse case to go to full trial, lawyers for the former bishop said he had been out of the country as most of his spiritual work had been in America but that he was currently in Ireland.
[Gray] - Baptist. 4 girls, 1 boy.
First Coast News,
By Jeannie Blaylock, ~ June 13, 2007
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- More legal action is being taken against Trinity Baptist. Two more civil suits have been filed.
They stem from the alleged sexual abuse by former pastor, Bob Gray.
Dr. Gray is scheduled for his criminal trial in November. He's accused of capital sexual battery on several girls and one boy. Those children are now adults.
The two new civil suits bring the total to five filed now against Trinity. The civil suits allege Trinity knew Dr. Gray was a child abuser and did not tell authorities and did not protect the children or warn their families.
- Baptists.
The Christian Post,
By Audrey Barrick, 07:13 PM ET, Wed, Jun. 13 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX) -- The Southern Baptist Convention unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday to protect children from sexual abuse in the church.
In approving the resolution, SBC messengers - representatives from churches around the country - said they express their "deep level of moral outrage and concern at any instance of child victimization."
"We implore Southern Baptist churches to utilize materials from LifeWay Christian Resources and state conventions and other relevant research that help churches prevent child abuse," say messengers in the resolution.
The resolution also strongly recommends that Southern Baptist churches and convention entities respond to any suspicions or allegations of child abuse in a timely and forthright manner and to perform criminal background checks on all ministers, employees and volunteers.
[≤ 2006 Sorvillo*] - RCC. < US$200,000
Chicago Sun-Times,
BY ERIC HERMAN, eherman@suntimes.com , June 13, 2007
CHICAGO (IL) -- A Catholic priest accused of stealing nearly $200,000 from a North Side parish plans to plead guilty and take a four-year prison sentence, his lawyer said today.
Mark Sorvillo, the former pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church in West Rogers Park, will enter the plea on July 20 before Judge Diane Gordon Cannon, lawyers said. In the meantime, the priest's lawyer is gathering evidence about Sorvillo's health to present to the court.
"He suffers from a myriad of medical problems," said Sorvillo's lawyer, Brian Collins.
The Archdiocese of Chicago ousted Sorvillo from St. Margaret Mary in February 2006 after financial irregularities at the parish came to light. Founded in 1921, the church counts Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine among its parishioners. Former U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and personal injury lawyer Philip Corboy grew up in the parish, which today counts 700 to 800 families among its flock.
[≤ 2002 Klubertanz] - RCC. Minor.
The Capital Times,
by Samara Kalk Derby, 11:52 am, June/13/2007
MADISON (WI) – The Rev. Kenneth Klubertanz, former pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Lodi, was permanently removed from any "priestly ministry" Tuesday after being found guilty in an ecclesiastical judicial trial of sexually abusing a minor.
The Diocese of Madison conducted the trial and just received official notification from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding a final decision on Klubertanz.
After Klubertanz was accused of abuse in 2002, the Madison Diocese requested that he take administrative leave.
The Diocesan Review Board found the allegations against Klubertanz to be credible and then-Bishop William Bullock referred the matter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles matters of sexual abuse.
[2007 Spokane Diocese] - RCC. More secrecy.
The Daily News,
June 13, 2007
SPOKANE, Wash. - Agreements to keep the names of clergy sex abuse victims confidential are not public record, so documents naming their abusers and amounts the victims will be paid to settle the Spokane Catholic Diocese bankruptcy will remain secret, a judge has ruled.
In an oral ruling Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams denied The Spokesman-Review's request to open sealed documents in the case.
The mediated settlement approved in April calls for the diocese to pay $48 million to about 150 victims of past clergy abuse at the discretion of an independent reviewer. The newspaper sought details of individual payments and the names of priests accused of abuse, some of whom may still be active in the ministry.
[2007 Spokane Diocese] - RCC. More secrecy.
Editor & Publisher (New York),
11:19 AM ET, Published: June 13, 2007
SPOKANE (WA) -- A federal bankruptcy judge has denied the Spokesman-Review's request for records detailing payouts to sexual abuse victims of Catholic priests in Spokane.
The judge says the records are protected by confidentiality agreements with the Spokane Catholic Diocese.
A lawyer for the newspaper says they prevent the public from knowing which priests were perpetrators of the worst abuse and whether they are still in the ministry.
[1960s-70s Klubertanz] - RCC. Boys.
The Daily News,
By RYAN J. FOLEY, ~ June 13, 2007
MADISON, Wis. - A retired Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1960s and 1970s has been found guilty by a church panel and ordered to never again celebrate Mass, the Diocese of Madison said Wednesday.
The decision comes five years after the Rev. Kenneth Klubertanz was placed on administrative leave as pastor of a church in Lodi, about 30 miles north of Madison, after a man said he was abused by him as a 13-year-old in the 1970s.
At the time, Catholic churches across the country were confronting allegations of widespread sexual abuse of boys by priests and that leaders covered up problems for decades by transferring priests to new parishes.
[1960s-70s Klubertanz] - RCC. Boys.
Gazette,
By Marcia Nelesen, 03:13:03 PM CST, Wednesday, June 13, 2007
JANESVILLE (WI) -- A former Janesville priest has been found guilty in a church trial of sexually abusing a minor.
The Rev. Kenneth Klubertanz, a former priest at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, remains a priest but cannot have a ministry. The three canonists who served as judges also restricted him from being alone with anyone younger than 18.
Klubertanz has been on a leave of absence since 2002, when a former Janesville man, Christopher Leonard, filed an affidavit with Catholic Church officials in Madison describing a 1975 incident at a northern Wisconsin lake.
[2007 St Louis Archdiocese] - RCC. Legal attempt to gag lawyers.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
June/13/2007
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- The Archdiocese of St. Louis dropped a lawsuit Monday against a St. Louis law firm that has represented the majority of clergy sexual abuse cases against the archdiocese.
The archdiocese had filed suit against Chackes, Carlson, Spritzer and Ghio last month seeking relief against what it called the firm's "past disclosure and anticipated future disclosure" of archdiocesan personnel and medical records to "third parties." The suit and the church lawyers alleged that one of those parties was the Post-Dispatch.
The church withdrew the lawsuit Monday before a hearing called to discuss whether Archbishop Raymond Burke would have to testify under oath in a deposition for the case.
- RCC.
[1974-76 Mr Kreutzer (30) (Catholic school math teacher)] - Minors.
[Decades - Los Angeles Archdiocese] - ~ 500 plaintiffs.
[AMENDMENT: Card. Mahony was NOT in charge 1974-76.]
Los Angeles Times,
June 13, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Clergy abuse: An article in Thursday's California section about Cardinal Roger M. Mahony being ordered to testify in a lawsuit said the suit alleged that he failed to protect parishioners from Paul Kreutzer, a pedophile teacher.
In fact, the suit accuses the Archdiocese of Los Angeles of failing to protect parishioners from abuse by Kreutzer between 1974 and 1976. Mahony did not become archbishop until September 1985 and is not named in the suit.
[COMMENT: See June 7 newsitem. ENDS.]
[≤ 1983-2000s Horowitz] - Judaist (Orthodox).
Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence Speak Out,
~ June 13, 2007
UNITED STATES -- There's some days it's difficult to be proud that I'm Jewish. The reasoning has to do with the way our rabbinic leaders have been handling sex crimes through the ages. Their rationalizations, ignorance and denial is enough to make anyone atheist.
Today is one of those dark days. I received an e-mail from a friend which contained part of a letter from a rabbi who some consider being an advocate for survivors. The comments are regarding The Awareness Center's call to action regarding "defrocking" rabbi Alan Horowitz.
Why don't you just "decide" that he is not really a rabbi - no rabbi will ever admitted to giving him ordination - assume that it is bogus - YOU remove his ordination - and challenge him and whoever supposedly gave him smicha to stand up and "take credit". This will force his hand to say who his supposed smicha is from.
[~ 2007 Shaffer] - Christian. Seeking sex is now downgraded to sending lewd picture.
Muskogee Phoenix,
By D. E. Smoot, ~ June 13, 2007
OKLAHOMA -- A former Tahlequah minister awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to one count of using an interactive computer service to transmit an obscene and lewd picture.
The federal charge to which Charles Barry Shaffer, 45, pleaded was alleged in superseding information filed in the U.S. District Court of Western Oklahoma as part of a plea deal.
Shaffer originally was indicted for using the Internet "to persuade, induce, and entice, a person who he believed to be under 18 years of age to engage in sexual activity." He pleaded guilty to the amended charge Monday.
- Baptists allowed predator moves.
The Christian Post,
By Audrey Barrick, June 12, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX) -- Southern Baptist head Frank Page has hope that the nation's largest evangelical denomination can move beyond the divisive issues and seek revival around compassion. ...
Another issue drawing increased concern in the denomination is clergy sexual abuse. A recent ABC 20/20 report revealed several child abuse cases in local Southern Baptist churches where ministers went from church to church sexually abusing kids.
Among others, Burleson expressed deep concern and made a motion Tuesday morning that the Executive Committee examine the feasibility of launching a database of "credibly accused" sexual predators as a resource to churches.
As the controversial issues are likely to come forward during the meeting, SBC's Page still hopes to find common ground around the mission of the church.
[Shorey*] - Christian. Child.
Herald,
by John Swails, ~ June 13, 2007
KIEFER (OK) -- A former Kiefer minister is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing Wednesday in connection with child sexual abuse charges.
Stephen D. Shorey, 40, was arrested in April on a complaint of child sexual abuse.
The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m., and will be heard at the Creek County Courthouse before Special District Judge Richard Woolery.
- Baptists.
Houston Chronicle,
By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion Writer, The Associated Press, ~ June 13, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX), AP – Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page said Tuesday the denomination needs to set aside internal differences and be both "right and relevant" to revive languishing membership trends. ...
Also Tuesday, the Rev. Wade Burleson of Enid, Okla., proposed a feasibility study into developing a national database of Southern Baptist ministers who have been "credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse." A convention committee referred Burleson's motion to the SBC executive committee, which will report back with findings and a recommendation at next year's meeting in Indianapolis.
Some Baptists believe a database would be redundant to background checks most churches already carry out, and also wonder how an accusation will be deemed credible. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which has been passing out leaflets outside the convention center, supports forming an independent review board to make that determination.
Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School in North Carolina and longtime observer of Southern Baptist life, said the convention is in a precarious position because if it acknowledges an oversight role on curbing abuse, it exposes itself to lawsuits.
- Baptists.
Associated Baptist Press,
By Greg Warner and Charlie Warren, Published June 12, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX), (ABP) -- Frank Page was re-elected without opposition to the traditional second one-year term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the first day of the denomination's annual meeting, which also featured efforts to curb clergy sexual abuse and to prevent hiring criteria that are more restrictive than the SBC's official doctrinal statement. ...
Another motion, offered by Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson, asks the SBC Executive Committee to study the establishment of a national registry of "clergy and staff who have been credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse."
The motion, which follows months of revelations about sex abuse in Baptist churches, was referred to the Executive Committee for action.
- Baptists may permit move towards "tongues".
The Dallas Morning News,
By SAM HODGES / samhodges@dallasnews.com , 12:25 AM CDT on
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX) -- "Messengers" to the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting here took a vote Tuesday night that could lead to greater acceptance within the denomination of those who have a private prayer language, a form of speaking in tongues.
But the results weren't to be announced until Wednesday morning. ...
In other business, Mr. Burleson moved that the SBC study the feasibility of creating a database listing pastors and staff known to have engaged in sexual misconduct.
Mr. Burleson said such a database, if made available to churches investigating job candidates, could help stop sexual predators moving from church to church.
The motion was referred to a committee. But the mere fact that the SBC would take up the issue cheered Christa Brown, who leads the Baptist wing of the group SNAP, which advocates for victims of clergy abuse.
[COMMENT: Private prayer language, or "Tongues:" By use of a Concordance, the Baptists could find that in the early Churches speaking "in tongues" was frowned on (see 1 Corinthians 14:2-28), unless there was only one at a time (verse 27), and only if a translator or interpreter was present (also verse 27), so that a helpful message could be heard by the congregation (see verse 9). As the writer said, outsiders would think the brotherhood was all mad if they heard a whole lot of them speaking in strange languages all at once (verse 23). God is not a god of disorder, but of peace (verse 33). Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way (verse 40)
And there is another worrying aspect -- cynics have tape-recorded such sessions, and have never found any linguist who could translate from any of the voices. Yet, speaking in tongues can be thought of as using a "private prayer language," just as 1 Cor 14:2 intimates, and see verse 39.
ENDS.]
- Baptists.
The Courier-Journal,
By Peter Smith, psmith@courier-journal.com , ~ June 13, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX) -- The Southern Baptist Convention took a step yesterday that could lead to the creation of a database of pastors who have committed sexual misconduct.
The convention overwhelmingly voted without debate to ask its Executive Committee to study the feasibility of creating such a database. The committee is required to report back to next year's convention.
The database would include names of those "credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse," according to the motion approved by the convention on the first day of its two-day meeting.
The aim would be to prevent a minister who offends in one church from finding a job in another where the minister's history is unknown.
[2007 St Paul Diocese] - RCC. Supports limitations.
Pulse of the Twin Cities,
by DENNIS GEISINGER, ~ June 13, 2007
MINNESOTA -- "That's right," said Dennis McGrath, director of communications for the St. Paul diocese of the Catholic Church, in a phone interview with Pulse yesterday. "We are opposed to extending the statute of limitations for prosecuting crimes of sexual abuse. We feel that there's no need to fix the system that's already in place," he said.
McGrath was reacting to questions about a full-page advertisement in last Thursday's Star and Tribune from a Pennsylvania group called The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). Titled, "Is It Fair That the Innocent Pay for the Guilty?" the ad predicted "additional 67 million victims of sexual abuse scandals on the horizon."
"State legislatures across the nation are now being pressured to lift or extend retroactively their civil statutes of limitations related to sexual abuse," according to the ad. The ad's sponsors said the Catholic Church and its followers are being "pillaged" by financial awards made to those who have been sexually abused by Catholic clergy, comparing the current perceived assault on the church to historical examples of church persecution.
[COMMENT: Surely seducing children is a form of "persecution"? ENDS.]
- RCC.
The Republican & Herald,
BY STEPHEN J. PYTAK, spytak@republicanherald.com , June/13/2007
PENNSYLVANIA -- The Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz, a Mahanoy City native, was named the ninth Archbishop of Louisville, Ky., on Tuesday.
Kurtz, 60, has served as bishop of Knoxville, Tenn., since October 1999.
As bishop, he guided approximately 46,000 Catholics in 45 parishes that made up 36 eastern Tennessee counties, from the Cumberland plateau to the North Carolina border. ...
Kurtz said he has taken a "proactive" approach to "seek a wholesome and a healthy environment within our parishes, our schools and every institution."
Kurtz said he thought his approach to responding to any controversy from the abuse scandal was a "healthy one."
"It's built on a transparency – a desire not only to cooperate with public authorities when a problem occurs but to be able to have the confidence of the faithful and the average citizen that we are cooperating," he said.
- RCC.
The Courier-Journal,
By Deborah Yetter, dyetter@courier-journal.com , ~ June 13, 2007
KENTUCKY -- Joseph E. Kurtz was invited to come to town the night before he was to be introduced as Louisville's new archbishop -- but he was busy.
He'd promised to visit a Tennessee prison. ...
He also touched on the subject of clergy sexual abuse, which affected his diocese in Knoxville as well, calling it a "crime and sin of sexual misconduct and sexual abuse."
Kurtz said that in Louisville he will strive to "gain the confidence of the faithful" by being open and honest and working to prevent abuse.
Advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse in Louisville said they would like to see Kurtz do more to help those affected by past abuse.
- RCC.
The Courier-Journal,
By Peter Smith, psmith@courier-journal.com , June 13, 2007
LOUISVILLE (KY) -- A leader of the Louisville chapter of a group that serves as an advocate for victims of sexual abuse called on the new archbishop to meet with people abused by priests and others connected with the church.
Vince Grenough, of Voice of the Faithful, said, "The Louisville archdiocese has done some very good things in regards to the sexual-abuse crisis, but there's still a lot of unfinished business."
He encouraged the Most Rev. Joseph Kurtz to meet with abuse victims at a place of their choosing and to add a lay victim of abuse to the archdiocese's board that reviews abuse complaints.
[2007 Card. Mahony] - RCC. Avoiding testimony.
City of Angels,
By City of Angels Lady, ~ June 13, 2007
That his testimony might be inflammatory appears to be unavoidable. -- Judge Fromholz LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Here are quotes from Judge Haley Fromholz' order denying the church's "Motion of Defendant Does 1 and 2 for an Order Quashing Civil Subpoena" dated June 6. . . issued to Cardinal Roger Michael Mahony.
"Plaintiff has issued a Civil Subpoena (Duces Tecum) for the personal appearance and production of documents and things to Cardinal Mahony. Defendants argue that good cause exists to quash the subpoena"
"Motion is denied"
"Defendants first argue that the subpoena is oppressive because Plaintiff has not conducted Cardinal Mahony's deposition and there is therefore "no way of knowing what areas of inquiry or line of questioning Plaintiff's counsel will delve into in order to determine whether it is admissible." [Motion 2:12-14].
Defendants predict that it will consequently be necessary to object to every question that is asked, and that this will prejudice defense counsel in the eyes of the jury. [Id. 2:13-16]. . . . .
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:15 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Wed June 13, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[1970s Henry -NEW*] - RCC. Minor.
The News-Herald,
www.zwire.com/ site/news. cfm?newsid= 18466879&BRD= 1698&PAG= 461&dept_id= 21849&rfi=6 ;
By Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com , June/13/2007
Pastor of St. Christine's Catholic Church in Euclid accused of sexual misconduct with a minor in the mid-1970s EUCLID (OH) -- The Rev. Patrick Henry, pastor of St. Christine's Catholic Church in Euclid, has been placed on administrative leave after being accused of sexual misconduct with a minor in the mid-1970s.
The alleged incident occurred before Henry was a member of the Diocese of Cleveland, said Bob Tayek, a diocesan spokesman.
Tayek would not say the age or gender of the victim. He also would not indicate the nature of the incident or specifically where it allegedly occurred, saying only it was "out of state."
[~ 2000s Tang -NEW*] - Christian. 11 females.
Khaleej Times,
(DPA), June 14, 2007
TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- Taiwan police on Thursday questioned a priest of a Christian church accused of molesting 11 female disciples, under the auspices of sex counselling.
Tang Tai-sheng, 58, founder of the Christian Disciples' Church in Taoyuan near Taipei, was detained on Wednesday night but interrogation began Thursday as under Taiwanese law, a suspect can refuse to be questioned at night.
Tang, who previously was jailed for a sex crime, has been accused by one disciple, named Lin, of molesting 11 female church members, mostly high school and university students, and raping one of them. Lin claims to be one of the victims.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 1:35 AM
[- 2007 Ljubicic -NEW*] - RCC. 5 boys.
PR-Inside,
12:51:58, June-14-2007
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - A priest from a small Croatian island has been detained on suspicion of abusing five boys aged between 10 and 12 -- the second such case in recent years in the predominantly Roman Catholic Croatia, police said Thursday.
Drago Ljubicic, 63, who served on the northern island of Rab, was detained Wednesday evening on charges of performing "lecherous acts" on five children, police said in a statement.
The case has shocked Croatia, where nearly 90 percent of the country's 4.5 million people consider themselves Catholics and the church enjoys wide government and popular support.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:03 AM]
[- 2007 Ljubicic*] - RCC. 5 boys.
Earthtimes,
~ June 14, 2007
ZAGREB, Croatia -- A Croatian priest was detained by police under suspicion that he had sexually molested several boys from his parish, the Vecernji List daily said Thursday.
The 63-year-old priest, identified only by initials, allegedly abused five boys aged between 10 and 12 years, during preparations for their first communion on the Adriatic island of Rab.
Prosecutors would decide Thursday on possible charges against the priest, the report said.
[2007 Curtis*] - Church of God in Christ. Teenage girl.
Journal News,
By Michael D. Pitman, Thursday, June 14, 2007
HAMILTON (OH) -- The 53-year-old Hamilton pastor who allegedly "inappropriately touched" a 17-year-old female member of his congregation will appear before the Butler County Grand Jury.
Fairfield Municipal Court Thursday bound over the case of the Rev. Bruce Alvin Curtis, a religious leader at Community Friendship Church of God in Christ, 2011 Pleasant Ave., Hamilton, who allegedly touched the girl "at a residence in Fairfield" on Feb. 21, according to Fairfield police.
Curtis was arraigned on April 19 for attempted sexual battery, a fourth-degree felony, and sexual imposition, a third-degree misdemeanor. He was released after the arraignment.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:53 PM]
[~ 2007 Moore*] - Methodist. Prostitute act.
The Chattanoogan,
by Judy Frank, posted June 14, 2007
CHATTANOOGA (TN) -- The former pastor of the Ringgold United Methodist Church - one of nine men arrested in April during a Chattanooga prostitution sting - will go before Sessions Court Judge Clarence Shattuck on July 19.
Pastor Steven Andrew Moore, who resigned from his position in May, is charged with patronizing prostitution within a mile and a half of a church or a school.
Moore served as senior pastor at the Ringgold church for eight years, and was also chaplain for the Catoosa County Fire Department at the time he was cited. Police reportedly found a fire chaplain's uniform in the back of his vehicle.
[2007 Davenport Diocese] - RCC. House for US$175,000.
KGAN,
AP, 19:17 EDT, June 14, 2007
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- The Davenport Diocese is selling its former bishop's house to St. Ambrose University.
It ends a bidding process on three properties the diocese put on sale to pay off settlements in sex abuse cases against priests.
The diocese filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy in October after facing mounting litigation from victims of sexual abuse.
St. Ambrose University will buy the house for about 175 thousand dollars and use it as a residence for its president.
[Davenport Diocese] - RCC.
WOI,
Associated Press, 12:14 PM ET, June 14, 2007
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) - A creditors committee in the bankruptcy case of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport wants to hire a financial adviser to help review 48,000 pages of church documents.
The diocese filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall in the wake of claims by people who said they were sexually abused by its priests. The creditors committee is made up of those alleged victims.
[1975 Bennett and Dedera] - RCC. Boy.
Catholic Explorer,
~ June 14, 2007
JOLIET (IL) – Bishop J. Peter Sartain has announced the dismissal of a lawsuit against Father Richard Bennett, pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Community Parish in Naperville, and the Diocese of Joliet. The lawsuit had alleged that Father Bennett engaged in one incident of sexual misconduct with a minor in 1975.
The accuser filed a lawsuit in April 2006, naming Father Bennett and another diocesan priest, Father Philip Dedera, accusing both of sexual misconduct with him when he was 11 years old.
He originally made known his accusation about Father Bennett to the Diocese of Joliet in 2004.
His claim was examined by the Diocesan Review Committee, which determined the allegation was not credible.
He later filed a lawsuit. In October 2006, the Circuit Court of DuPage County dismissed the suit against Father Bennett, but the plaintiff was allowed an appeal.
After he did not file an appeal during the time period granted by the court, the appellate court entered a dismissal order terminating the legal process.
The Diocese of Joliet settled the claim involving Father Dedera, but that settlement clearly states that Father Bennett was not part of the settlement, as he always maintained his innocence in this matter.
[1970s & ? more - Mons. Capua ] - RCC. Minors ?+.
Queens Courier,
BY TRACY SOREN, 9:28 AM CDT, Thursday, June 14, 2007
BROOKLYN (NY) -- It was revealed at an open meeting that the monsignor accused of violating minors at a Brooklyn church 30 years ago also allegedly abused at least one parishioner during his years at St. Luke's in Whitestone.
The community forum was held at St. Luke's School on Clintonville Street on Wednesday, June 6. Attendees shaken up by the sex abuse accusations against retired Monsignor Nicholas J. Capua expressed outrage at the allegations and at the media coverage that ensued.
Some parishioners said that although they sympathize with those who brought the charges, they are having trouble believing the beloved priest could commit such acts. Others were more willing to accept the news. Throughout the room, there was a feeling of betrayal and sadness.
"This parish is devastated," said one parishioner.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
BBC News,
~ June 14, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- The family of a young girl whose rape was aided by a County Kerry priest have said they were left "deeply "traumatised" by the affair.
Jeremiah McGrath, 63, who also worked in Fermanagh, gave thousands to paedophile William Adams to help groom the 12-year-old for sex.
McGrath got a five-year sentence for what relatives called "heinous" crimes.
The family said their trust had been broken by the "evil" priest, who was a friend and visitor to their home.
[Decades - Los Angeles Archdiocese] - RCC. ~ 500 plaintiffs.
City of Angels,
By City of Angels Lady, ~ June 14, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- The more Church Attorneys have to talk in court, the better things go for plaintiffs, as even in today's slow grind of justice, the truth inevitably comes out. At a June 6 hearing, the judge denied plaintiff's request for a protective order, and in the same case, denied the church's attempt to prevent deposition of a witness, and no matter what defendants argued, the plaintiffs' cases kept shining through.
To show how compassionate a man Clinton Hagenbach really is, a Church Attorney told the judge, "A letter was sent to all the members of the parish" about the same time period as the calendar entry about which plaintiffs want to question this witness. The female Church Attorney beside him chimed in, "He (Hagenbach) was upset to be leaving because he had so many dear friends in the families at that parish."
Plaintiff liaison Tony DeMarco jumped up and said, "Your Honor that letter is something we'd like to see."
[1960s-70s Klubertanz] - RCC. Boys.
The Capital Times,
by Samara Kalk Derby, June/14/2007
MADISON (WI) – Chris Leonard, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by the Rev. Kenneth Klubertanz, has a number of questions for Bishop Robert Morlino after the Diocese of Madison permanently removed Klubertanz from the priesthood Tuesday, finding him guilty in an ecclesiastical judicial trial of sexually abusing a minor.
After Klubertanz, former pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Lodi, was accused of abuse in 2002, the diocese placed him on administrative leave.
The diocese conducted the trial and just received official notification from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding a final decision on Klubertanz.
In a letter scheduled to be delivered to Morlino today, Leonard, now 45 and living in Patton, Mo., asks the diocese to place Klubertanz and all other sex offenders in the church on the state sex offender registry immediately.
- RCC. "Gays or lesbians" on Jesuit staff.
BishopAccountability.org ,
By Michael Paulson,
Boston Globe,
www.boston. com/news/ local/articles/ 2007/06/13/ critic_slams_ archdiocese_ land_sale_ as_betrayal ;
June 13, 2007
[See below for the text of Farren's report and letter.]
BOSTON (MA) -- On his way out the door, the departing rector of St. John's Seminary sent a pair of blistering letters to church officials, alleging that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is endangering the future training of priests by letting theological liberals move in next door.
'There could be nothing but shame . . . if we appear to forsake our own mandate, mission and values.' (St. John's Seminary)
The Rev. John A. Farren, a conservative and occasionally controversial Dominican friar, warned in the letters last month that the "doctrinal integrity" of St. John's is at risk because of increased proximity to two Jesuit-run Catholic institutions, Boston College and Weston Jesuit School of Theology, which are expected to move into buildings currently held by the seminary.
Farren did not cite specific issues, saying only that Weston Jesuit employs "self-professed gays or lesbians" as faculty members and that several faculty members there have been questioned by the Vatican.
[≤ 2006 Sorvillo*] - RCC. < US$200,000
Chicago Sun-Times,
By ERIC HERMAN AND SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH, June 14, 2007
CHICAGO (IL) -- The Rev. Mark Sorvillo – who lived to shop at Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's – could soon be shopping at the prison commissary.
Sorvillo, a Catholic priest, plans to plead guilty next month to stealing nearly $200,000 from St. Margaret Mary Church, the West Rogers Park parish where he was pastor for nearly 12 years.
"He could have been stealing for a lot longer than we know," said parishioner Dan McGuire. "It went on a lot of years undetected."
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
Banbury Today,
~ June 14, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- A priest who financed the grooming of a young girl for sex has been jailed for five years.
Father Jeremiah McGrath, 64, gave more than £20,000 to his friend, convicted child rapist Billy Adams, who used the cash to shower a 12-year-old with treats and gifts.
Having bought her silence and trust, 38-year-old Adams, originally from Belfast but latterly of Bootle, Merseyside, raped her repeatedly over a six-month period in 2005.
- Baptists.
The Birmingham News,
By GREG GARRISON, Thursday, June 14, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX) -- After repeated calls for a stand on sexual abuse, the Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday adopted a resolution urging churches to perform criminal background checks on clergy and employees. The statement also renounced child abusers and those who cover up their actions.
"That shows it's an issue of broad concern," said the Rev. C.B. Scott, pastor of Westmont Baptist Church in Birmingham, a foster parent who had submitted one of several proposals to take a stand against sexual abuse.
"The abuse of children is widespread; it's bad," he said. "They need help. I urge pastors and churches to support the Alabama Baptist Children's Home. They provide compassionate care for children."
[1970s Henry*] - RCC. Minor.
The Plain Dealer,
Posted by David Briggs, Religion Reporter, 20:19PM, June 13, 2007
CLEVELAND (OH) -- The pastor of St. Christine Catholic Church in Euclid has been suspended because of an allegation he sexually abused a minor in the mid-1970s.
The Cleveland Catholic Diocese said it recently received a complaint that the Rev. Patrick Henry, 65, "engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor" before he was ordained and outside of the eight-county diocese.
Henry was placed on leave after the Diocesan Review Board concluded the allegation was credible. The diocese said Henry's case has been sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican for "its review and determination."
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
BBC News,
~ June 14, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- A priest from County Kerry has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for aiding the rape of a young girl from Liverpool in 2005.
Jeremiah McGrath, 63, who also worked in County Fermanagh, gave thousands of pounds to a paedophile, William Adams, to help groom the 12-year-old for sex.
Adams, 38, originally from Belfast, was given a life sentence after pleading guilty to rape and abuse of the child.
The West Linn Tidings,
By Nicole DeCosta, Jun 14, 2007
WEST LINN (OR) -- Daniel Gatti could have been a typical tragic tale.
He was molested as a child, and a car crash in college kept him immobile for nearly two years. But he chose not to be a helpless victim.
He became a fighter.
He became empowered.
And now he fights for others.
At 61, Gatti - a lawyer who specializes in serious personal injury cases, cases of sexual abuse and class-action insurance cases - often has his mind running a million miles a minute. Through his own personal experiences with insurance companies and sex abuse cases, Gatti molded a career he can be proud of - helping people in need by giving them a voice.
Gatti, a West Linn resident, is a founding partner of Gatti, Gatti, Maier, Krueger, Sayer and Associates with his brother; a dedicated worker and passionate man who's not afraid to shed a tear in front of a judge while rejoicing in an outcome.
Just out of the courtroom from a three-week, high-profile court case Gatti tried and won the first Catholic clergy-abuse case in Oregon, according to Gatti.
"(This job) is not for the weak or the meek. I don't usually let cases get to me like this. But, when you wake up at two in the morning and throw up, that's sort of an unusual experience for me," Gatti said.
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. Girl.
The Arizona Republic,
by Chelsea Schneider, Jun. 14, 2007
ARIZONA -- A grand jury indicted a Roman Catholic priest of two counts of sexually abusing a 13-year-old Phoenix girl about 14 or 15 years ago, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
The charges were filed nearly a year after a Yuma County grand jury indicted Jorge Washington Cordova on 10 counts of sexually abusing a minor.
Cordova fled the country in 2006 before he could be arrested. He was arrested in Spain earlier this month and is facing extradition.
- RCC.
The Oregonian,
By MARK LARABEE, Thursday, June 14, 2007
PORTLAND (OR) -- During a special Wednesday evening prayer service, Portland's Catholic Archbishop John Vlazny issued a formal apology to the victims of sexual abuse by priests, both for the abuse itself and for the "inadequacy in which the church responded to the crimes."
About 200 people attended the service at St. Mary's Cathedral in Northwest Portland. They sang hymns, said prayers and lit candles for victims. They asked God for forgiveness and emboldened one another to seek the truth and to bring forth healing for both the church and for victims and their families.
"The victims of sexual abuse have carried many burdens," Vlazny said. "I take this opportunity to express my sincerest apology."
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
U.TV
UNITED KINGDOM -- A priest from Co Fermanagh who financed the grooming of a young girl for sex was jailed for five years today.
Father Jeremiah McGrath, 64, gave more than £20,000 to his friend, convicted child rapist Billy Adams, who used the cash to shower a 12-year-old with treats and gifts.
Having bought her silence and trust, 38-year-old Adams, originally from Belfast but latterly of Bootle, Merseyside, raped her repeatedly over a six-month period in 2005.
During a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, McGrath, from Rosslea, Co Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, insisted he had no idea that Adams was abusing the girl and claimed the money was linked to his gambling habit.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
4ni,
~ June 14, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- A Fermanagh priest who gave thousands of pounds to a County Antrim man to finance the grooming of a young girl, is due to be sentenced today.
Jeremiah McGrath, 63, originally from Rosslea gave more than £20,000 to convicted paedophile William Adams to shower a 12-year-old Liverpool girl with gifts.
Adams, 38, originally from Belfast, raped the girl repeatedly over a six-month period in 2005.
It is understood the priest met Adams in a homeless hostel in Dublin in 1988. They subsequently developed a sexual relationship.
[Sylvester] - RCC.
CD 98.9,
Posted by Kate Buick on June/14/2007
CANADA -- It's been months in the making, and today people will get the first look at a full draft of the Roman Catholic Diocese of London's new sexual abuse policy.
Victims of Father Charles Sylvester, a former Port Dover Priest, got to see the draft a few weeks ago.
- Baptists.
The Oklahoman,
By Carla Hinton, Religion Editor, ~ June 14, 2007
SAN ANTONIO (TX) – Southern Baptist women and children must be protected from predatory ministers, an Oklahoma pastor said Tuesday at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting.
The Rev. Wade Burleson of Enid asked the convention's executive committee to study the development of a database identifying sexual predators within the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
That way, such predators cannot be easily passed from church to church – and victim to victim, he said.
"Our convention ought to be able to say, 'This is what we
know'," Burleson said at the meeting in San Antonio.
[? 2000s Krum] - Community Church. Female.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
By AMY ROLPH, ~ June 14, 2007
REDMOND (WA) -- Another young woman has come forward, saying she was raped by Brent Krum, a former youth minister with the now-defunct Summit View Community Church in Redmond.
The additional charges were filed Wednesday. Krum, 37, is now facing three counts of third-degree child rape and three counts of third-degree child molestation.
At his arraignment Wednesday morning, Krum pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance.
"Mr. Krum maintains his innocence," said his attorney, Gene Piculell. "We are going to proceed from here."
[1960s-70s Klubertanz] - RCC. Boys.
Winona Daily News,
The Associated Press, ~ June 14, 2007
MADISON, Wis. – A retired Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1960s and 1970s has been found guilty by a church panel and ordered to never again celebrate Mass, the Diocese of Madison said Wednesday.
The decision comes five years after the Rev. Kenneth Klubertanz was placed on administrative leave as pastor of a church in Lodi, about 30 miles north of Madison, after a man said he was abused by him as a 13-year-old in the 1970s.
At the time, Catholic churches across the country were confronting allegations of widespread sexual abuse of boys by priests and that leaders covered up problems for decades by transferring priests to new parishes.
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
Azfamily,
By Kirsten Joyce / 3TV, 04:27 PM Mountain Standard Time, Wednesday, June 13, 2007
ARIZONA -- A Roman Catholic priest who fled the country after being indicted on sexual abuse charges out of Yuma is now looking at charges out of Maricopa County.
Just this week a Maricopa County grand jury indicted Father Jorge Washington Cordova on two counts of sexual abuse.The alleged incidents occurred 15 years ago when he was assigned to the Charismatic Renewal Ministry in Phoenix.
"Criminal fugitives who flee Maricopa County are learning that the arm of the law is longer than they thought," County Attorney Andrew Thomas said.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas responded today to the sexual abuse charges, shown in the indictment against Father Jorge Washington Cordova, 51.
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Thu June 14, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[2005-06 Hills -NEW*] - RCC. 5mos prison. AU$31,713.
Brisbane Times,
www.brisbane times.com.au/ news/queensland/ expriest-stipped- trust-of-31713/ 2007/06/16/ 118141457 6644.html ;
by Christine Kellett | for June 16, 2007
AUSTRALIA -- A former Catholic priest who stripped a Brisbane hospital trust fund of more than $30,000 will spend at least five months behind bars.
John Michael Hills, 49, was the co-ordinator of the Royal Children's Hospital's Parent Aid Program - a volunteer scheme designed to help abused and neglected children - when he began dipping into several hospital trust accounts in January 2005.
Over a 12 month period, he pilfered $31,713, purchasing household electrical goods for his family, as well as groceries, study materials for himself and his wife, and even food for the re-enactment of their wedding.
[? 1970s Katinas] - Greek Orthodox. 2 altar boys.
Orthodox Reform,
The National Herald, By Theodore Kalmoukos, ~ June 15, 2007
BOSTON (MA) -- Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver took a stand in support of Rev. Nicholas Katinas, who has been accused of being a pedophile by former altarboys while serving as priest at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox parish in Dallas, Texas for 28 years.
Metropolitan Isaiah visited the Holy Trinity parish on its feast day of Pentecost, on Sunday, May 27, for the first time since rumors of this scandal began surfacing in June 2006.
Metropolitan Isaiah surprised Holy Trinity's congregation when he said in his sermon that "I was very troubled because of what happened here in regard to my friend, and I will always call him my friend, the fallen priest. The fallen, that has fallen away. If he did, I don't know, I have no information. And all of us fall in other ways."
This contradicts Rev. Michael Kontogiorgis, Assistant Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese who paid an official visit to the Holy Trinity Parish in Dallas on Wednesday February 21, 2007, and said during his sermon to the congregation of about 400 that "there is no doubt that Fr. Nicholas (Katinas) engaged in serious moral transgressions."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:47 PM]
- "Hand of God" movie for Italian Parliament.
City of Angels,
By City of Angels Lady, ~ June 15, 2007
UNITED STATES -- Friday Roundup: The documentary "Hand Of God" goes to Rome next week to be seen first time by an Italian audience. Joey Cultrera's film about the sexual abuse of his brother Paul by the late Rev. Joseph Birmingham when they were growing up in Salem, Mass. screens June 22 for the Italian Parliament.
Traveling from the Boston area to present the film are Kathy Shaw of Barre, Mass., who produces the daily Clergy Abuse Tracker, and Robert Costello and John Harris of A Matter of Truth, as well as attorney Daniel J. Shea of Houston, Texas, and Massachusetts. A coalition of groups including Anticlericale.net, the Italian Radical Party and the Transnational Radical Party arranged this screening.
Cultrera made the film after he learned his older brother Paul had been abused by a Catholic priest when he was 14 years old, and after the Church his parents helped finance and build (Saint Mary's Italian) was being forced to close by the Archdiocese of Boston. The closing of this church was due in part to offset financial losses the diocese had incurred in the settling of hordes of clergy abuse cases.
[~ 2000s Mr Smith, Mr Zgoznik] - RCC. US$784,000 for consulting.
The Plain Dealer,
Posted by Mike Tobin, 14:39PM, June 15, 2007
CLEVELAND (OH) -- A federal judge ordered the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland to turn over reams of financial records, including information on payments to former Bishop Anthony Pilla and on an account he controlled.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich's ruling this week comes at the request of lawyers for Joseph Smith and Anton Zgoznik, two former diocesan employees accused of stealing $784,000 from the church.
Aldrich ruled the documents, expected to be thousands of pages, can be used only by lawyers associated with the case. But much of the information will likely be aired during a the trial, scheduled to begin in August, in which Pilla is expected to testify.
"This is unprecedented," said Robert Rotatori, Zgoznik's lawyer. "The diocese has never allowed the parishoners to have insight into its finances. This is the first time we will have access to the financial records."
- RCC.
[1977 Willis] - Teenage boy.
[Years - Burlington Diocese] - Protected predators. 30 males.
Newsday,
By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer, 4:21 PM EDT, June 15, 2007,
BURLINGTON, VERMONT -- A civil suit accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington of negligence in its handling of priest sex cases goes to trial Wednesday, the first of its kind to reach a Vermont jury.
The victim, a 46-year-old Virginia Beach, Va., man, says former Rev. Alfred Willis sexually abused him in 1977 at a Latham, N.Y., motel and at his childhood home in Derby and that the Diocese actively tried to block Willis' criminal prosecution.
Jury selection is slated for Monday and Tuesday in Chittenden Superior Court.
The man filed suit in 2004, accusing Willis of performing a sex act on him as he slept in a motel while in New York state to attend his brother's deaconate ceremony. He was 16 at the time. Six months later, Willis -- a friend of the man's parents -- visited the family in Derby and attempted a sex act on the man but was rebuffed, according to the suit.
[Theil, Barry, Gaiter, Posey] - RCC. Boy.
St. Louis American,
By Alvin A. Reid, ~ June 15, 2007
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- Charles Spearman anonymously sued four Catholic priests from the St. Louis area on the grounds that they sexually molested him while attending parochial schools as a child.
Spearman alleged that Father James Theil, Father Michael O. Barry, Father Chester "Chet" Gaiter and Father Thaddeus Posey, all formerly of Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School, sexually abused him.
In late April, Gaiter, Barry and Theil settled for $140,000. Parties to the settlement included the Jesuits of Missouri Province, the Redemptorists Denver Province and the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
Spearman's federal case against Posey is still pending.
[1960s Sister Giannini] - RCC. 2 boys.
TheMilwaukeeChannel.com
MILWAUKEE (WI) -- A nun accused of sexually assaulting two boys at a Milwaukee school in the 1960s is scheduled to go to trial in August, but one of her attorneys said Friday they may be getting close to a plea deal.
Sister Norma Giannini, 78, appeared for a pre-trial hearing Friday, but it was delayed because one of her lawyers is out of town.
Her two alleged victims said she took sexual advantage of them when they were only 12 and 13 years old at St. Patrick's Church on Milwaukee's south side.
[? 1970s Katinas] - Greek Orthodox. 2 altar boys.
Orthodox Reform,
~ June 15, 2007
DALLAS (TX) -- Metropolitan Isaiah (Fr. Katinas's Bishop up until Fr. Katinas was suspended) visited Holy Trinity (Fr. Katinas's home parish) and gave a sermon on Sunday May 27, 2007 that made several troubling statements. Highlights from Metropolitan Isaiah's comments included:
Calling into question if Katinas was in fact a fallen priest and if there really are any victims
Dismissing any alleged victims because of their age
Saying the real victims are those that must endure the scandal (Holy Trinity, Fr. Katinas' wife, etc.)
[? 1970s + Katinas] - Greek Orthodox. 4 minors.
Orthodox Reform,
~ June 15, 2007
DALLAS (TX) -- New allegations are being made as a fourth victim joins the lawsuit against Fr. Katinas, Holy Trinity, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. Referred to as "Doe III", these new charges bring to four the total number of people in the lawsuit who have gone on record to allege sexual abuse at the hands of Fr. Nicholas Katinas.
Doe III claims abuse not as an altar boy, but as a Roman Catholic friend of the family who happened to be having a sleepover at Katinas' house after Halloween trick-or-treating. The suit says of Fr. Katinas:
His sexual abuse of his sons' boyhood friend, John Doe III, demonstrated he was, indeed, not just a menace but a predator.
[1956-66 Scherzer] - RCC. 4 boys.
The Courier-Journal,
By Jason Riley, jriley@courier-journal.com , ~ June 15, 2007
LOUISVILLE (KY) --Probation will not be revoked for an 81-year-old Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of abusing four boys but failed to complete sex-offender treatment, a judge has ruled.
Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Susan Schultz Gibson ruled yesterday that the Rev. Edwin Scherzer, a priest in the Archdiocese of Louisville, is technically not deemed a "sexual offender" because he wasn't convicted of a sex crime under current state law. Therefore, he isn't required to enter or complete the program, she said.
Gibson also said she could order Scherzer to complete the program because it was a condition of his probation set by the previous judge. But Gibson said Scherzer is in poor health and living in an assisted-living facility and "poses little risk to others."
[Nguyen] - RCC. 3 girls.
The Jackson Sun,
~ June 15, 2007
MEMPHIS (TN) -- The Diocese of Memphis announced Thursday three cases of alleged sexual abuse against Father Joseph Nguyen have been settled.
A consent order and settlement agreement has been entered into among the diocese and three alleged victims of abuse.
The agreement brings closure to the litigation of three separate complaints filed as Jane Does against the diocese.
The agreement said the settlement is neither an admission of liability or an admission of the validity of any claims made against the diocese.
- RCC.
[1974-76 Mr Kreutzer (30) (Catholic school math teacher)] - Minors.
[Decades - Los Angeles Archdiocese] - ~ 500 plaintiffs.
[Card. Mahony was NOT in charge 1974-76.]
NewsBusters,
Posted by Dave Pierre, 08:25, on June 15, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Check out the very first line from this June 7, 2007, article in the Los Angeles Times (emphasis mine):
A judge Wednesday ordered Cardinal Roger M. Mahony to testify in a lawsuit alleging that he failed to protect parishioners from a pedophile teacher, but then granted the Los Angeles cleric's request for a trial delay.
Now check out this whopper of a correction from the Times on June 13, 2007 (emphasis mine again):
For the Record.
Clergy abuse: An article in Thursday's California section about Cardinal Roger M. Mahony being ordered to testify in a lawsuit said the suit alleged that he failed to protect parishioners from Paul Kreutzer, a pedophile teacher. In fact, the suit accuses the Archdiocese of Los Angeles of failing to protect parishioners from abuse by Kreutzer between 1974 and 1976. Mahony did not become archbishop until September 1985 and is not named in the suit.
[COMMENT: "False reporting", or ordinary human error? ENDS.]
[Sylvestre] - RCC.
The Sarnia Observer,
By JACK POIRIER / Local News - Friday, June 15, 2007
CANADA -- A woman sexually assaulted as a child by a Catholic priest says she has faith in a draft sexual abuse policy made public by the London diocese Thursday.
Sarnia's Irene Jeannette Williams, one of 47 women sexually abused as children at the hands of Father Charles Sylvestre, praised the report, which contains a 10-point code of conduct for priests.
"I've been holding my breath for 45 years and this has finally allowed me to exhale," she said after reading the policy made public on the London diocese website.
"I'm very pleased with this document."
[Sylvestre] - RCC.
Chatham Daily News,
By ERICA BAJER, Local News - Friday, June 15, 2007
CANADA -- Victims of the late pedophile priest Charles Sylvestre praised the diocese of London's draft sexual misconduct policy released Thursday.
"This is what we wanted," said Lou-Ann Soontiens. "If we can stop this from happening again, it's great."
Soontiens said many of Sylvestre's more than 47 victims - who have joined together to create an advocacy group called From Isolation to Action - have called for change to protect children in the church.
Carol Ann Mieras, of Kingston, said while the policy isn't perfect, it's a good first step in shedding the secrecy surrounding sexual abuse.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
Irish Independent,
By Fergus Black, Friday June 15 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- AN IRISH priest sentenced to five years in prison for aiding the rape of a young girl is to appeal his sentence.
Kerry-born parish priest Fr Jeremiah McGrath (64) gave stg£20,000 (€30,000) to convicted child rapist William Adams to help groom the 12-year-old for sex.
Having bought her silence and trust, Adams (38), originally from Belfast but latterly of Bootle, Merseyside, England, raped her repeatedly over a six-month period in 2005. Adams was given a life sentence after pleading guilty to rape and abuse of the child.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
Ic Liverpool,
by Jessica Shaughnessy, Liverpool Daily Post, Jun 15 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- A MERSEYSIDE MP last night led the calls for an inquiry into how a child rapist was allowed to move to Liverpool to strike again.
After being released from prison in Northern Ireland, where he served six years for raping an eight-year-old girl, William Adams moved to Bootle where he set about grooming his next victim.
Yesterday, he was jailed for life at Liverpool Crown Court for raping the 12-year-old girl five times.
Catholic priest Jeremiah McGrath, who bankrolled Adams over three months, was given five years for facilitating a sex offence.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
News Letter,
By Gemma Murray, ~ June 15, 2007
IRELAND -- FORMER parishioners of Fr Jeremiah McGrath last night told of their outrage that the cleric had brought a convicted paedophile into their community.
Billy Adams surfaced in Rosslea in May 2004 after his release from serving a prison sentence for the rape of an eight-year-old girl.
Locals in Rosslea told of their disgust that McGrath brought him to the local primary school, where McGrath had been chairman of the Board of Governors.
In a statement last night, the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools said at no time had McGrath and Billy Adams been left alone in the presence of children.
- RCC.
Chicago Daily Herald,
By Stacy St. Clair, sstclair@dailyherald.com , Posted Friday, June 15, 2007
CHICAGO (IL) -- As U.S. Catholic bishops prepare to gather in New Mexico next week, local lay people are imploring Cardinal Francis George to use the meeting to re-examine the church's policy on handling sex abuse cases.
Chicagoland Voices of the Faithful has asked George to create a national database of pedophile priests, among other things. The database would include all church personnel with credible accusations against them and offer the dates and places of their service, as well as their current whereabouts.
In letters sent to the cardinal this week, the group also encouraged him to support a law that would briefly relax the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits involving allegation of long-ago abuse.
- RCC.
[1988-2006 Ochoa-Perez*] - Altar boy + 2 others.
[2006 Bishop Walsh*] - Let offender escape.
Sonoma Valley Sun,
by Kate Williams, ~ June 15, 2007
CALIFORNIA -- Without our unique ability to selectively employ amnesia, we - as a species - might stumble, fall, and be crushed by the weight of the many sad and bad things that happen over the course of an average lifetime. We're naturally resilient creatures, capable of bearing up and carrying on despite ugly divorces, lost friends, heartbreak. From earliest childhood we are programmed to forgive and forget, and we've gotten exceptionally good at doing so. Look how quickly we collectively moved past tragedies like Columbine, the DC sniper, even 9/11. Almost as though if it's not on the front page or the six o'clock news, on some level it stops being real.
But some grudges deserve to be remembered, nurtured and tended until they bear fruit. Certain crimes have no shelf life, no "use by" date. Some things are simply unforgivable. Take Father Ochoa, for one.
In his position of authority as a sanctified mouthpiece for the St. Francis Solano Catholic Church, he managed to fly under the radar for a good long while, though there was evidence of impropriety from the start. He wooed his Spanish-speaking parishioners under cover of priestly benediction, hearing their confessions, blessing their weddings and births while hungrily eyeing their sons. His fluent Spanish and authentic community ties made infiltration into the Latino community easy: he became their trusted confessor, their wise counselor, their very own holy man.
Despite the gossip that followed him from parish to parish, for the believers who trusted him, his motives were assumed pure. Even when he brought a Mexican boy home from vacation and installed him in his Santa Rosa house. Even when he stopped by a parishioner's home and forcibly took her young son. Even when the whispers had turned to shouts, Father Ochoa's motives were uncontested. That is, after all, the very nature of faith.
- RCC.
[1977 Willis] - Teenage boy.
[Years - Burlington Diocese] - Protected predators. 30 males.
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, Friday, June 15, 2007
VERMONT -- A former priest accused of molesting a teenage boy in New York and Vermont in 1977 will not appear at an upcoming trial in a case brought by the alleged victim against the state's Roman Catholic diocese.
Alfred Willis, who lives in Leesburg, Va., said in a Monday letter to diocesan attorney David Cleary that the allegations against him are unture but he cannot afford the cost of traveling to Vermont for the trial. The trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
"The claims against me are extremely upsetting and ... to the best of my memory, unfounded," Willis said in the letter on file at Chittenden Superior Court.
- RCC.
[1977 Willis] - Teenage boy.
[Years - Burlington Diocese] - Protected predators. 30 males.
WCAX,
Associated Press, 7:05 AM ET, June 15, 2007
BURLINGTON, VERMONT (AP) - A former priest whose alleged molestation of a teenage boy in the 1970s is at the center of a civil suit that comes to trial next week won't be there in court when it does.
Alfred Willis, who now lives in Leesburg, Virginia, has told Diocese of Burlington lawyers he won't travel to Vermont for the trial of a suit brought his alleged victim against the Diocese.
The victim says Willis performed a sex act on him at a Latham, New York motel in 1977, when Willis was a church deacon, and that Willis tried to molest him at the boy's home in Derby later that year.
[Mons. Fushek] - RCC.
East Valley Tribune,
By Jill Redhage and Gary Grado, ~ June 15, 2007
ARIZONA -- The Arizona Court of Appeals decided Thursday that the former priest of St. Timothy's Catholic Community in Mesa is not entitled to a jury trial when facing the possibly sexually motivated misdemeanor charges against him.
The court found that jury trials are reserved for "serious" offenses, such as those punishable by at least six months in jail, and for offenses that historically have been promised a jury trial.
The case against Monsignor Dale Fushek didn't qualify in either situation, wrote presiding Judge Lawrence Winthrop.
The case has been sent back to the San Tan Justice Court for a decision.
[Decades, and ~ 2006-07 Davenport Diocese] - RCC. Seduced minors. Property doubts.
Des Moines Register,
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR, June 15, 2007
DAVENPORT (IA) -- A creditors committee has asked a bankruptcy judge to authorize hiring financial advisers to review Davenport Catholic Diocese records.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006. Then-Bishop William Franklin said settlement demands by people alleging they were sexually abused by priests exceeded the diocese's ability to pay current and future claims.
Attorneys for the creditors committee filed an application this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Davenport to hire Aurora Management Partners Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., according to court filings.
The creditors want the company to conduct a financial review of 48,000 pages of church documents to help maximize the amount of money they receive.
- Protestants ~ 260 child sex abuse complaints annually.
Chicago Tribune,
By Rose French, Associated Press, June 15, 2007
NASHVILLE (TN) -- Three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.
The figures released to The Associated Press offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down -- the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.
The Roman Catholic Church has said there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950. But Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church.
Some of the numbers come from Church Mutual Insurance Co. of Merrill, Wis.; GuideOne Insurance Co. of West Des Moines, Iowa; and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. of Ft. Wayne, Ind.
[Nguyen ? see ~ Feb 8, 07]
Eyewitness News,
~ June 15, 2007
MEMPHIS (TN) --Eyewitness News Everywhere received the following news release on Thursday, June 14, 2007:
"The Diocese of Memphis announced today that three cases of alleged sexual abuse against Father Joseph Nguyen had been settled.
A Consent Order and Settlement Agreement has been entered into among the Catholic Diocese of Memphis and three alleged victims of abuse. The agreement brings closure to the litigation of three separate complaints filed as Jane Does against the Diocese.
The agreement notes that the settlement is neither an admission of liability or an admission of the validity of any claims made against the Diocese, but is, instead, a compromise of disputed claims.
[2006-07 San Diego Diocese] - RCC. Funny money?
California Catholic Daily,
~ June 15, 2007
SAN DIEGO (CA) -- Could the San Diego diocese's 98 parish properties be considered diocesan assets and so part of the pool of money available for settlement with alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse? The diocese has argued no, saying that properties belong to the parishes, not the diocese. But on June 7, a U.S. bankruptcy court judge ruled that creditors in a diocesan bankruptcy case may challenge transactions and property transfers approved by diocesan officials before bankruptcy proceeding began last February.
Faced with claims by more than 150 alleged victims of sexual abuse and the imminent opening of four civil trials, the diocese on Feb. 27 filed for bankruptcy protection. The filing put the civil cases on hold.
In a report filed with the court, the diocese valued its assets at $97 million -- which did not include parish holdings. Plaintiffs, however, have challenged this reckoning, citing a series of transactions in which properties throughout the diocese were removed as diocesan assets. For instance, according to the June 8 San Diego Union-Tribune, the diocese was in the midst of a sale of the former University of San Diego High School to William Lyon Homes. According to the Union-Tribune, the developer agreed to pay $65 million for the property, but a Feb. 27 amendment to the sale deferred for several years $40 million of the sale price.
[Decades - Portland Archdiocese] - Transferred seducers.
Catholic Sentinel,
June/14/2007
PORTLAND (OR) -- To help in healing and reconciliation for victims of clergy sexual abuse, the Archdiocese of Portland last week released scores of decades-old private personnel documents.
The letters, formal depositions and memos posted on the Internet show that church officials at the highest levels often knew about abusive priests, but operated under the standards of the times and attempted to handle matters internally.
More documents may be released in the future.
In the 1970s and 80s, institutions were coming of age on what the old documents often call "indiscretions." In 1983, at about the same time Father Thomas Laughlin of Portland was getting national attention as one of the first pedophile priests to be charged publicly with a crime, a local physician was accused of abusing youths. The medical group addressed the issue at about the same speed as the archdiocese. Public schools began dealing with cases of abuse by teachers and coaches, going public only reluctantly.
- Book Lead Us Not into Temptation The Huffington Post,
by Jane Ciabattari, ~ June 15, 2007
NEW ORLEANS -- This is the ninth in our occasional series about New Orleans writers. It's hard to judge how many writers have been displaced, dislocated and disoriented by Katrina and aftermath.
A New Orleans native, Jason Berry went to Jesuit High School and Georgetown University. His first book, published with an assist from Walker Percy, was Amazing Grace: With Charles Evers in Mississippi, based on his time as a volunteer in Evers' gubernatorial campaign.
After a stretch in Europe, he moved into a $75-a-month apartment in the Irish Channel in 1973 and began freelancing. He has spent most of the time since then in New Orleans, writing about local politics and culture.
In 1992 his third book, Lead Us Not into Temptation (Doubleday), an investigation of clergy child sexual abuse, generated national attention.
[Burlington, Vermont Diocese] - RCC. > 30 victims.
WCAX,
June 14, 2007
BURLINGTON, VERMONT -- A judge Thursday cleared the way for use of trial evidence indicating Vermont Catholic leaders covered up sex abuse by priests.
A jury could hear that evidence next week in the case of a man who claims he was molested by a priest 30 years ago.
More than 30 lawsuits have been filed against Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese claiming church leaders protected pedophile priests.
[London Diocese (Ontario)] - RCC. 1707 years late!
CNews,
By JANE SIMS, SUN MEDIA, June 15, 2007
CANADA -- Priests would not be allowed alone in their homes with a child under long-awaited guidelines aimed at protecting young Roman Catholics from sexual abuse by clergy.
The diocese of London's sexual abuse policy and code of conduct was published on its website yesterday and the diocese encouraged public comment before the new rules are finalized.
"We're seeking the wisdom of the public and especially those who are closer to these issues," said diocese of London spokesperson Ron Pickersgill.
[London Diocese (Ontario)] - RCC. 1707 years late!
Ottawa Citizen,
by Craig Pearson, The Windsor Star, Published: Friday, June 15, 2007
CANADA -- Priests in London, Ont., must never be alone in their residences or vehicles with children and should have another adult present when counselling young or vulnerable people, suggests a draft report released today by the Roman Catholic Diocese of London.
The report, called A Safe Environment Policy for the Diocese of London, also calls for the creation of a victims' assistance committee, suggests parishes affected by sexual misconduct should have assistance, and provides a code of conduct for anyone associated with the church, from priests to volunteers.
[1970s Henry*] - RCC. Minor.
The Beacon Journal,
~ June 15, 2007
WOOSTER (OH) -- A Euclid priest placed on administrative leave because of a child sexual abuse allegation was once assigned to a Wooster church.
The Rev. Patrick Henry worked at St. Mary's in Wooster from August 2002 to May 2003, according to the Diocese of Cleveland.
Henry, pastor of St. Christine parish in Euclid, recently was placed on leave because of a newly reported allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. The person claims the incident happened in the mid-1970s outside of the diocese and before Henry became a priest.
[2007 Davenport Diocese] - RCC. Mansion goes for US$175,100.
Des Moines Register,
ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ June 15, 2007
DAVENPORT (IA) -- The Davenport Diocese is selling its former bishop's house to St. Ambrose University, ending a bidding process on three properties the diocese put on sale to pay off settlements in sex abuse cases against priests.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October after facing mounting litigation from victims of sexual abuse.
St. Ambrose University will buy the house for $175,100 and will use it as a residence for its president.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:08 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Fri June 15, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
- RCC.
[1988-2006 Ochoa-Perez*] - Altar boy + 2 others.
[2006 Bishop Walsh*] - Let offender escape.
OpEd News,
www.opednews. com/articles/ opedne_debby_ bo_070615 _happy_ anniversary_ u_.htm ,
by Debby Bodkin, http://www.opednews.com , June 16, 2007
CALIFORNIA -- As a Catholic wife and mother in Southern California, Kate Williams' "Happy Anniversary, Padre," brought back many frustrating and painful memories this time last year. "Happy Anniversary, Padre" says it exactly like it is - as a society, are we paying attention to the Enablers of the past that are continuing as Enablers of today?
The sudden disappearance of Father Ochoa, a priest in Sonoma County, under the supervison of Bishop Daniel Walsh last year, was shocking to say the least. After all, how many times will a sex abuse crime get lost in political and religious interference? Bishop Walsh's failed memory enabled another sexual predator to escape from accountability in the United States?
Public opinions will differ regarding the events surrounding Bishop Walsh's delay in reporting a sex crime, as mandated by law, and the Sonoma County District Attorney's office decision not to formally charge Bishop Walsh with a crime. However, one has to wonder exactly who and what Enabler interfered this time around?
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:55 PM]
[1995-99 Timothy Evans] - RCC. Guilty x 2. 2 boys.
The Coloradoan,
BY JP EICHMILLER, JPEichmiller@coloradoan.com , June 16, 2007
COLORADO -- Tim Evans is behind bars, but his victims want more.
In interviews with the Coloradoan, Nick Gerber, 26, and Dana Rotkovich, 33, two of the four victims who testified against Evans at his trial earlier this year, say redemption will only come when the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver opens up about what the victims believe the church knew and did to protect Evans.
"I think Nick and I realize (Evans' conviction) is only half the battle," Rotkovich said. "If the issue is not brought to people's attention, it is likely to occur again. I really believe there are others out there who have yet to come out."
A spokeswoman denied claims that the archdiocese was less than cooperative with authorities investigating Evans.
[Years - St John of God brotherhood] - RCC. Legal fee millions. Many complaints.
Stuff,
The Press | Saturday, 16 June 2007
After nine years as complaints manager for a deeply troubled Catholic order, psychologist Michelle Mulvihill has quit in disgust. YVONNE MARTIN reports. NEW ZEALAND -- Consultant psychologist, former nun and corporate shaker Michelle Mulvihill is the most unlikely whistleblower.
For nine years she worked behind the scenes advising the beleaguered Catholic Order of St John of God on how to deal with an avalanche of serious sexual complaints against its brotherhood. ....
She has never spoken publicly about those meetings and how the order responded to the complaints, until now. Today, Mulvihill tells of a pervasive culture of sexual abuse within the order, the denials among the brotherhood of any problem and the "pastoral offers" grudgingly handed out to the men, while millions of dollars were paid in legal fees to defend accused brothers.
- RCC stops sueing victims' lawyers.
Insurance Journal,
~ June 16, 2007
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- The Archdiocese of St. Louis has dropped a lawsuit against a law firm that represents clients in clergy sexual abuse cases.
The archdiocese had filed suit against Chackes, Carlson, Spritzer and Ghio last month seeking relief against disclosure of archdiocesan personnel and medical records to third parties.
The suit alleged that one of those parties was the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. An editor for the Post-Dispatch previously noted the newspaper was not a party in the lawsuit, and the newspaper did not indicate if it had received documents.
Huntsville Times
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Southern Baptists consider background checks on clergy SAN ANTONIO (TX) -- The Southern Baptist Convention took an important step this week to deal with the very disturbing problem of sexual abuse. Its members passed a resolution that said churches should perform criminal background checks on clergy and employees.
Because Southern Baptist churches are independent, self-governing entities, the convention couldn't mandate that they do the background checks. Nevertheless, the convention, by expressing its will and commitment to this issue, may mean that affiliated churches that aren't doing the checks will feel compelled to do so.
[Miyares*] - Christian.
Miami Herald,
The Associated Press, ~ June 16, 2007
MIAMI (FL) -- A man sued the Archdiocese of Miami on Friday alleging he was sexually abused as a child by one of its priests, who has had prior sexual abuse complaints against him.
The unnamed plaintiff is seeking more than $10 million in compensation, according to the lawsuit filed in Circuit Court.
The lawsuit alleges that the man was sexually abused by the Rev. Gustavo Miyares, whom he met when he was a minor attending a summer camp owned an operated by the archdiocese.
Miyares is on leave following sexual abuse allegations that came to the attention of the archdiocese in the fall of last year, archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said.
- RCC still getting converts.
Sun Chronicle,
BY GLORIA LaBOUNTY / 12:30 AM EDT, Saturday, June 16, 2007
WRENTHAM (MA) -- Back in the 1950s when the Rev. John Connolly was wondering if he should enter the priesthood, he decided to take the advice of someone he trusted.
"A great priest told me what to do, to knock at the seminary door, to give it a whack," he said.
Connolly did just that, and not only became a student, but kept studying until he was ordained in 1963. ...
Then came the sexual abuse scandal that erupted in 2002 in the Archdiocese of Boston, which includes the Wrentham parish. Connolly took the same approach, listening and responding to parishioners, and sharing their pain.
"We were all hurting," he said. "People are still hurting."
While some people left the church, many stayed, and Connolly today is heartened by the thousands of converts across the country who become Roman Catholics each year.
[Mons. Rushek] - RCC.
The Arizona Republic,
by Jim Walsh, Jun. 16, 2007
ARIZONA -- A Roman Catholic priest facing misdemeanor sex charges suffered a legal setback Thursday when the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled he is not entitled by law to a jury trial, even though he could be ordered to register as a sex offender if convicted.
The court ruled in favor of the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, saying it's discretionary whether a judge would order suspended Monsignor Dale Fushek, 54, to register as a sex offender if found guilty.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 9:20 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sat June 16, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Bishops condemn Arroyo for favouring child rapist
- 2 life terms cut to 16yrs.
The Peninsula,
www.thepeninsula qatar.com/ Display_news. asp?section= World_News& subsection= Philippines+% 26+South+Asia& month=June2007 &file=World_ News200706 180484.xml ;
Web posted at 0:48:4, for June/18/2007
MANILLA, Philippines -- Influential Roman Catholic bishops in the Philippines yesterday hit out at President Gloria Arroyo for shortening the jail time of a convicted child rapist, allegedly for political considerations.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' (CBCP) commission on prison pastoral care said commuting Romeo Jalosjos' two life terms to only 16 years showed government was biased in favour of political allies.
Jalosjos, 66 and a former House of Representatives member, was convicted in 1996 for raping an 11-year-old girl. He was sentenced to two life terms and has so far served 10 years in jail.
The conviction was hailed by human rights advocates in this majority Catholic country where powerful political clans often skirt the law.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 9:47 PM]
[Petrocelli]
Providence Journal,
By Scott MacKay, 01:00 AM EDT, for Monday, June 18, 2007
PROVIDENCE (RI) – In 2002, the Most Rev. Robert E. Mulvee, then bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, reached a $14-million settlement in 36 sexual-abuse lawsuits against parish priests, ending what was believed at the time to be the longest stretch of legal action over clergy misconduct in the United States.
As part of that settlement, the diocese agreed to a mediation and arbitration system that handled remaining clergy abuse lawsuits short of trial, by paying settlements of $25,000 to $50,000 to victims and offering them pastoral help and therapy.
That system has worked fairly well, say lawyers for both victims and the diocese; about 50 sexual-abuse claims have been settled for a total of about $2 million under mediation and arbitration.
Yet, one from the 1980s involving former priest John Petrocelli, of Holy Family Church in Woonsocket, has eluded settlement. Christopher Young, of Lincoln, who is now 28, alleges that Petrocelli sexually abused him in a series of incidents that began when Young was in elementary school and flunked his altar boy test. At that time the bishop was the Most Rev. Louis E. Gelineau.
- RCC.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*] - 17 charges. 5yrs prison. Girl (12).
[≤ 2005 Mr Adams*] - Grooming. Sex. Girl (12)
BBC News,
~ June 17, 2007
NORTHERN IRELAND -- The Catholic Church is considering the future of a priest jailed for five years for helping a known paedophile groom a 12-year-old girl for sex.
Kerry priest, Fr Jeremiah McGrath, 63, who also worked in Fermanagh, gave thousands to paedophile William Adams.
He was sentenced last week. On Saturday, the bishop of Clogher said the priest's order woud decide his future when the judicial process ended.
- RCC priest addresses bishops.
Father Lasch,
Saturday June 16, 2007
UNITED STATES -- The following letter was addressed to the bishops of the United States and hand delivered on Thursday, June 13th by Buddy Cotton to Archbishop Harry Flynn, Chair of the bishops' draft committee on the policy for dealing with the abuse crisis. To date, no acknowledgment has been forthcoming.
Dear Fellow Servants:
I hope you will not be offended by this egalitarian salutation. Although you enjoy a higher rank in our Church and surely a greater canonical authority than I among our Catholic brothers and sisters 'in the pew,' I do believe that we enjoy a mutual mission through our common baptism as do all Catholics.
I am just an ordinary priest. I am not a 'celebrity' priest. I have written no books. I have never taught at a university. I am writing as a pastor on behalf of many of my sisters and brothers 'in the pew,' as it were, a title which I hope you will accept as referring to mainstream Roman Catholics. As you know, despite how many people of other religious traditions and even those of no religious tradition view our church, we are a very mixed breed. I believe it is through God's favor that we have maintained external unity and even a high degree of internal unity through the years, despite the revolutionary changes stimulated by Vatican II almost forty years ago.
Although the current crisis is certain to effect significant change in the governance of our Church in the future, I hope that you do not limit your response to a change in policy dealing with sexual misconduct. Most of us believe that your draft proposal is an honest attempt to respond to the horrors of the past by adopting preventative measures that will reduce the possibility of these offenses happening ever again in the future. Despite this noble goal, we know that guarantees are impossible. As you listen to the stories of victims and reflect on the insights of experts of every persuasion, please do not limit your deliberations to a political, legal and yes, even morally correct measures to prevent sexual abuse. Assure us that you are courageous enough to accept responsibility for the failures of the past by naming them. Be brave enough to challenge those among you who out of culpable ignorance or worse, allowed and in some cases, sanctioned the public and private ministry of pedophiles, ephebofiles and other sexually dysfunctional persons, to step down from office as a sign of compunction and compassion.
Father Lasch,
~ June 17, 2007
UNITED STATES -- In order to get the gist of Nathan's words to David, we need to read the entire story of David's misdeed and subsequent cover-up in the Second Book of Samuel, chapters eleven and twelve. It's a sordid tale of David's lust after Bathsheba and his sinister conspiracy to do away with Uriah her faithful husband and heroic commander of David's army.
The first reading hardly does justice to David's sin and in effect almost sweeps his crime under the rug. Not so fast, Nathan. Tell us the whole story.
Actually, Nathan's encounter with David climaxed with a parable about a rich man and a poor man.
The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She was like a daughter to him. Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he took the poor man's ewe lamb instead of his own and made a meal of it for his visitor.
David exclaimed to Nathan: "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity."
But Nathan said to David: "You're are the man!" and continued with the harsh sentence of retribution. "You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down."
The story continues this morning with David's deep remorse and confession of guilt followed by Nathan's absolution on behalf of God.
It's a dramatic narrative of how even the greatest can succumb to the most heinous of sins. Those in the highest places are not exempt from the greatest falls. But Jesus was born in the line of David and it was Jesus' willingness to dine and die with the greatest sinners that resulted in the justification and redemption of all from the least to the greatest.
It is five years this week since the bishops of the United States met in Dallas to hear the heartrending stories of a lifetime and
more–the stories of young and old, victims of abuse by men and women of the cloth, victims whose only weakness was their innocence.
[1984 onwards, Gauthe and others] - RCC.
The Catholic World,
by Nicholas P. Cafardi, J.D., J.C.D., ~ June 17, 2007
UNITED STATES -- Many informed American Catholics are familiar with the actions that the bishops took at their Dallas meeting in 2002, when they adopted the zero tolerance policy for priests who had sexually abused children, a policy that, with the approval of the Apostolic See, became canon law for the United States. This was a drastic measure, meant to deal with drastic facts. It resulted in the removal of over 700 priests from ministry. However, very few people are aware of what led up to Dallas. What did the bishops do before 2002 while the disaster was building?
In the middle of the 1980's a crisis of historic proportions exploded in the Church in the United States. In 1984, in the small diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, a parish priest, Father Gilbert Gauthe, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of child sexual abuse. The first victims' parents to come forward had not originally gone to the civil authorities, but rather to the Lafayette diocesan chancery. Only when diocesan officials failed to act did the victims' parents turn to the police.
Lafayette is "ground zero" in the priest-child sexual abuse crisis that dominated the history of the American church in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Soon after Gauthe's arrest, two other priests of the diocese were charged with similar sexual crimes against children. Once the dam of silence was broken in Lafayette, more victims in more dioceses across the country came forward, and more priests were indicted or sued in civil court (together with their bishops) for the sexual abuse of children. Lafayette became a national epidemic, and Lafayette's handling of its abusive priests proved to be ...
- RCC. 15 trials soon. Total > 500 complainants.
San Luis Obispo Tribune,
By GILLIAN FLACCUS - Associated Press Writer, ~ June 17, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) --After years of legal wrangling, the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese may finally move to settle hundreds of clergy sex abuse claims against it following several legal setbacks and the prospect of jury trials in the months ahead.
Fifteen trials involving 172 of the more than 500 alleged victims will be heard by juries in a six-month courthouse marathon that begins July 9. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overseeing the cases recently ruled that Cardinal Roger Mahony can be called to testify in one of those cases, and attorneys for plaintiffs want to call him as a witness in many more.
The same judge also cleared the way for four alleged victims to seek punitive damages from the archdiocese - something that could open the church to tens of millions of dollars in payouts if the ruling is expanded to other cases.
Legal experts said the archdiocese's financial exposure and the stress of preparing for so many trials at once could mean a settlement before jury selection.
[Bp Pilla] - RCC. Secret account.
WKYC,
by Julie Ocepek, ~ June 17, 2007
CLEVELAND (OH), (AP) -- A federal judge is ruling that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland must turn over financial records.
The records include information about a bank account controlled by former Bishop Anthony Pilla.
The ruling came at the request of lawyers for two former diocesan employees accused of diverting 784 thousand dollars in church funds.
The diocese is expected to appeal the ruling which could delay the start of the August trial for Joseph Smith and Anton Zgoznik.
[1960s-80s Bro. Mueller] - RCC. Stupefying gases. 60 or more victims.
The Pueblo Chieftain,
By PATRICK MALONE, ~ June 17, 2007
COLORADO -- An organization that tracks sexual abuse by clergy considers William Mueller one of the 10 most prolific accused abusers of children in the history of the Catholic Church in America.
Mueller's known accusers in Colorado, Texas and Missouri number 40. That many have been identified in lawsuits and police reports.
At least a dozen more have contacted leaders of the Society of Mary religious order to report that Mueller used the guise of pursuing a master's degree in psychology in order to get them to submit to experiments involving ether, heavy breathing, blindfolding and touching.
"We've only known about this guy for less than three years, and already 40 people have come forward," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, better known as SNAP. "Once all is known, and I'm estimating conservatively, I'd guess that the victims number at least in the 60s. He will probably end up being one of the top 10 worst abusers we've ever seen in terms of sheer numbers."
The News Journal,
By GREGORY F. LAVELLE, Posted Sunday, June 17, 2007
DELAWARE -- The current two-year civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse is unacceptable and needs to be changed. Senate Bill 29 is an effort to do just that. The bill creates a two-year window for past cases of sexual abuse to be brought into court and before a jury for consideration. The alleged abuser and the institution the individual worked for could be held liable for damages. The bill also completely eliminates the statute of limitations for future cases of abuse against children. Again, the alleged abuser and the institution the individual works for could be held liable for damages.
This is a strong bill to address a very serious issue. Understandably, few things shock us more than the sexual abuse of a child. The ability of a victim to face his or her abuser in court is important. To hold institutions accountable for their actions, or failed actions, past, present and future, is also important. For the institution, the possibility of being found liable in such a case should be more than enough to institute policies and procedures to ensure that corrective actions are taken immediately at the first hint that such an offense could be taking place.
Shut your eyes for a moment and then open them. Imagine that before you stand two victims of childhood sexual abuse who are seeking access to the courts. Their stories of abuse at the hands of individuals are the same. The institutions charged with each child's care have also failed to adequately protect them and end the abuse. You would assume that they would both have equal access to the courts to tell their stories and state their facts. The accused would have an opportunity to defend themselves, as would the institutions who may not have acted adequately to stop or prevent the abuse.
The News Journal,
PERSPECTIVE, By KAREN PETERSON, Posted Sunday, June 17, 2007
DELAWARE -- In recent weeks, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington has published a number of articles, letters and editorials purporting to support the objectives of Senate Bill 29, The Child Victims Act, while urging the Legislature to pass amendments that would actually "gut" the bill. The church's claims about the legislation range from misleading to downright false. The purpose of this article is to set the record straight.
First, some facts about the problem:
1 in 5 children is sexually abused. It's an epidemic.
The average age of a child-abuse victim is 9.
85 percent of victims are molested by family members or family acquaintances.
The News Journal,
PERSPECTIVE, By ROBERT G. KREBS, Posted Sunday, June 17, 2007
DELAWARE -- The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington supports changing Delaware's statute of limitations for lawsuits by victims of child sex abuse. Victims of child abuse are uniquely damaged, and typically require a very long time, many years into their adulthood, to come to grips with their abuse.
Last year, the General Assembly agreed that the statute of limitations should be extended, from two years from the date of the abuse to 25 years after a victim turns 18, and the Diocese of Wilmington supported that change. The Diocese of Wilmington also supports the extension of the statute for future claims contained in S.B. 29 even though there are logical and legal reasons not to abolish the statute of limitations completely.
But Senate Bill 29 not only abolishes the statute of limitations, it also opens a window allowing lawsuits to be filed at any time, regardless of when the abuse occurred. Under S.B. 29, lawsuits could be brought concerning events that occurred decades ago.
There is no precedent, in Delaware or in any other state, for completely eliminating the statute of limitations, forward and backward.
Statutes of limitations are designed to enable claims to be investigated and decided fairly, while facts are fresh, memories are vivid, and relevant evidence is still available.
Limitations periods also guarantee that judges and juries will not be so far removed in time from the circumstances surrounding a case that they cannot interpret the evidence in light of those circumstances.
S.B. 29 completely undermines these essential purposes of statutes of limitations.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath*, Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
The Nation Newspaper (Barbados),
BY JEANNETTE LAYNE-CLARK, ~ June 17, 2007
SEX AND THE CLERGY. That's a sizzling topic that has been popping in and out of the news from time to time. Now, it's making headlines again.
Just when memories were beginning to blur over the scandals erupting in the Catholic Church during the last decade, another clergyman has sidled into the international spotlight.
Jeremiah McGrath, an Irish priest from County Kerry, has been sentenced to five years in prison for aiding the rape of a 12-year-old girl from Liverpool in 2005. The 63-year-old, who reportedly gave thousands of pounds to one William Adams "to help groom the girl for sex", was found guilty of facilitating the abuse.
[Cordova]
Azcentral,
by Chelsea Schneider, 10:09 PM, Jun. 16, 2007
ARIZONA -- Members of a national support group for victims of sexual abuse by priests, plan to hand out leaflets Sunday at two West Valley churches where they say a priest arrested last month in Spain once worked.
The group said in a press release tonight that they want parishioners at St. Augustine in west Phoenix and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glendale to press for open discussions about abuse.
Jorge Washington Cordova, 51, served at the two churches in the early 1990s.
Times Argus,
By KEVIN O'CONNOR, June 17, 2007
VERMONT -- James Turner isn't the first person to charge the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington with priest misconduct. But the 46-year-old may soon be the first of more than 30 recent accusers to tell their story to a jury.
Turner and Vermont Catholic Church officials are scheduled to appear in Chittenden Superior Court in Burlington this week to begin what could be a long and lurid child sexual abuse trial.
At least six people have resolved similar civil lawsuits against the diocese by accepting a financial settlement from the church before their cases went to a jury.
- RCC.
The News-Enterprise,
By JOHN FRIEDLEIN, 8:13 PM CDT, Saturday, June 16, 2007
HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY – The Rev. Dick Sullivan praised his new boss for being compassionate to the sick and poor.
The son of a coal miner, Joseph Kurtz, who's the new head of the Louisville archdiocese, understands hard-working people, Sullivan said. Kurtz also cared for his invalid brother, another act that impressed Sullivan, who is pastor of St. James Catholic Church in Elizabethtown. ...
In addition to consolidating parishes, the archdiocese has reduced staff and raised parish assessments to help it pay a $25.7 million settlement to more than 240 victims of sexual abuse by priests or other church workers.
Kelly became archbishop in 1982, after most of the alleged molestation occurred.
Sullivan believes Kurtz will continue to reach out to abuse victims and he will enforce preventative policies already in place.
- RCC.
The Courier-Journal,
By Deborah Yetter, dyetter@courier-journal.com , June 17, 2007
LOUISVILLE (KY) -- He loves playing golf and basketball, and runs or works out regularly. Fiercely competitive, he "takes no prisoners" on the racquetball court, according to a friend.
The Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz, 60, showed similar energy as Roman Catholic bishop of Knoxville, driving hundreds of miles to visit parishes in his East Tennessee diocese, attending festivals, fundraisers and community events, even learning to hold services in Spanish. ...
Kurtz's chief critics are members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests who say he didn't do enough to repudiate the bishop he replaced in Knoxville, Anthony J. O'Connell.
O'Connell became bishop in Palm Beach, Fla., but resigned in 2002 amid allegations he abused students in the 1970s at a Missouri seminary where he taught.
Kurtz said he has tried to address the organization's concerns but acknowledged they haven't always agreed.
Some advocates in Louisville argue the church needs to do more to help victims -- including some they believe never came forward or filed lawsuits.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath* (religious order), Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
Sunday Life,
Sunday, June 17, 2007
NORTHERN IRELAND -- "My faith has been completely shattered," said the grandmother of Ulster child rapist Billy Adams' victim.
Mary, a feisty, working-class Scouser, raised as a God-fearing Catholic, was almost shaking with rage as she told how Fermanagh priest Fr Jeremiah McGrath (64) lulled her family into believing Billy Adams - who he knew was a serial paedophile - could be trusted to babysit her little grand-daughter and her younger brother.
"I was 'made up' when Fr Jerry came to my house for Sunday dinner. I was over the moon. It was an honour to serve a priest. I made such a fuss," she recalled.
"I'd no idea what he was up to. How could I? Why would I think such a thing? I was brought up to believe priests told the truth. I had faith in the Cloth."
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath* (religious order), Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
U.TV,
Press Association, ~ June 17, 2007
NORTHERN IRELAND -- Parishioners of a priest convicted of helping a paedophile groom a 12-year-old girl for sex have been told his future will be decided by his religious order.
In a statement read at Vigil Mass in the Co Fermanagh village of Roslea yesterday, the Bishop of Clogher, Joseph Duffy, said everyone felt let down by 63-year-old Fr Jeremiah McGrath who was jailed on Thursday for five years after being convicted at Liverpool Crown Court of facilitating the abuse of the girl.
The abuser Billy Adams, 38, originally from Belfast, was given a life sentence last week after pleading guilty to rape and abuse of the child.
The judge ordered that he serve a minimum of seven years and six months.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:58 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Sun June 17, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[Decades -Burlington Diocese] - RCC. US$4.5m so far.
WCAX,
www.wcax.com/ Global/story. asp?S=6675876& nav=4QcS ,
June 18, 2007
BURLINGTON, Vermont -- Jury selection is nearly complete for Vermont's second civil trial accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese of failing to protect a boy from a pedophile priest.
The Vermont Diocese has already paid more than one and a half million dollars to settle four lawsuits filed by men who claimed church leaders coddled and covered up for predatory priests.
This Wednesday the Catholic Diocese will go on trial again. But, this time the church is claiming IT is the victim of a man who is making up a story hoping to collect millions.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 9:38 PM]
- RCC lawyers say right to seduce guaranteed by US 1st Amendment.
City of Angels,
By Kay Ebeling, aka City of Angels Lady, ~ June 18, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- I'm still reeling. In a document I read this morning was a Church Newspeak Creation: "Ecclesiastical Cognizance:" where the right of priests to rape children is guaranteed by First Amendment Free Exercise Clause.
Archdiocese Attorneys make such a joke of the First Amendment -- not only do I want these lawyers to lose their cases, I want them deported, their very citizenship revoked.
In: "Answer of Defendant Doe 1 to the Complaint of Plaintiff" re a case with a hearing tomorrow, Bonne Bridges et all declare: "The complaint is barred by the Doctrine of Church Autonomy derived from the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment."
Right. When the Founding Fathers crafted religious freedom into the Bill of Rights it was so pedophile priests could use the sacraments to rape children. Church Attorneys argue that the archdiocese can keep secret what happens with its children, even when it amounts to learning to talk dirty and give oral sex, because of its free exercise of the First Amendment?
[1960s-70s Klubertanz] - RCC. Boys.
The Capital Times,
by Tom O'Connell, guest columnist, 12:38 pm, June/18/2007
MADISON (WI) -- Recently the Diocese of Madison has taken action against Kenneth Klubertanz, a priest who has been accused by the church itself as a child molester. Among the steps being taken, he can no longer present himself publicly as a priest, conduct Mass, or administer sacraments. He must also stay away from children under 18 years of age.
The diocese refuses to give information regarding his whereabouts, counseling received or other information.
While this is a small step by the church in addressing the problem of child molestation, it is not nearly enough. Not only did this current action against Klubertanz take years, the church continues to blanket itself in secrecy as to the actions being taken to address the vast problem of child molestation and the lack of support for victims of such awful crimes.
WPRI,
~ June 18, 2007
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- One man is pressing forward with his sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence five years after church officials reached a $14 million settlement with 36 other people who claimed they were molested by priests.
At issue is exactly when the alleged abuse took place, and whether the statute of limitations has expired on the case. Christopher Young, 28, of Lincoln alleges that he was sexually abused by a parish priest on a number of occasions during the 1980s, beginning when Young was in elementary school.
Young sued former priest John Petrocelli, who was then serving at Holy Family Church in Woonsocket, and the bishop on March 13, 2003, right before his 24th birthday. Young claimed in an interview with the diocese's investigator that the first incidence of abuse occurred in 1988 or 1989, but said he was uncertain.
- RCC parish forbids SNAP meetings on parish property.
Observer-Tribune,
By PHIL GARBER, Managing Editor, Wednesday, June 13, 2007
MENDHAM (NJ) - The church that was at the center of the nationwide clergy sex abuse scandal no longer will accommodate meetings to help victims of such abuse.
The church pastor, Monsignor Joseph T. Anginoli, notified members of the New Jersey chapter of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) on June 6 that they no longer may meet at the church.
A spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Paterson said room in the Pax Christie House adjacent to the church is needed for a new pre-kindergarten program and that numerous church groups will be affected by the squeeze, in addition to SNAP.
Pittsburgh Catholic,
By C.T. Maier and Robert P. Lockwood, ~ June 18, 2007
UNITED STATES -- Five years ago, the U.S. Catholic bishops responded to the clergy sexual abuse crisis by approving the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" and a broad-based effort to address the problem of child sexual abuse in the church and society as a whole.
At the heart of the charter is the bishops' promise to "work to our utmost for the protection of children and youth." The charter backs up their pledge with 17 guidelines that promote healing and reconciliation, guarantee an effective response to abuse cases, ensure accountability and protect the faithful by screening those who work with children and youth.
Yet, many Catholics are unaware of what the church has been doing. A recent survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University found that as many as 80 percent of American Catholics didn't know that the church had done anything at all.
[Syulvestre]
Chatham Daily News,
Editorial - Monday, June 18, 2007
CANADA -- Bishops before him can easily be accused of creating a culture of secrecy in terms of sweeping the misconduct of London diocese priests - notably Father Charles Sylvestre - under the rug.
But Bishop Ronald Fabbro appears committed to leaving a legacy as the man who took great strides to help Sylvestre's 47 victims heal, to admit to the Church's wrongdoing, and now to work to prevent such deeds from recurring.
Fabbro took a strong stance against Sylvestre's actions immediately following the 47 guilty pleas in August 2006. He publicly apologized for Sylvestre's actions - as well as the inaction of the Catholic Church - and moved to have Sylvestre defrocked.
The release of the Code of Conduct for the Roman Catholic Diocese of London last week only further illustrates how strongly Fabbro is committed to eradicating the possibility of future sexual abuse at the hands of an area priest.
[1960s-80s Bro. Mueller] - RCC. Stupefying gases. 60 or more victims.
The Pueblo Chieftain,
By PATRICK MALONE, ~ June 18, 2007
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- Harry Suda Jr. wasn't yet a student at St. John Vianney High School when he met Brother William Mueller in 1963.
Suda, now 56, was a seventh-grader but was familiar with most of the Marianist Brothers at Vianney because one of his older brothers was a student-athlete there, and another was in the novitiate on his way to becoming a Marianist.
Suda's first impressions of Mueller were favorable.
"(Mueller) was always looking out for the little guys ... protecting the freshmen because (he) didn't want the juniors, seniors picking on them. That was always kind of his role," Suda said during a deposition in one of the lawsuits accusing Mueller of abuse.
ABA Journal,
By Terry Carter, ~ June 18, 2007
ST. PAUL (MN) -- From his 10th-floor office in St. Paul,
Minn.–low-lit, with dark wooden blinds shutting out the view of a bridge across the Mississippi–Jeffrey Anderson is soothing, cajoling, strategizing, planning and implementing in phone call after phone call.
He seems as much air traffic controller as lawyer, and control is very much his thing.
Sometimes over the speakerphone, sometimes on the handset to preserve client privilege, Anderson eases from one persona to another.
For journalists, there is clever repartee along with bits of information and encouraging compliments.
[3yrs Cotter] - RCC. Girl
Lancashire Evening Post,
~ June 18, 2007
UNITED KINGDOM -- Police are investigating more complaints against a Catholic priest who has already admitted indecently assaulting a young girl.
Fr Edmund Cotter was due to be sentenced on Friday after he had previously admitted indecently assaulting a young girl over a three-year period.
But the hearing, scheduled to be heard at Preston Crown Court, was delayed after more people approached police with allegations against him.
- RCC.
[1977 Willis] - Teenage boy.
[Years - Burlington Diocese] - Protected predators. 30 males.
WCAX,
June 18, 2007
BURLINGTON, Vermont -- Jury selection begins Monday for another civil suit involving a former priest with the Vermont Catholic Diocese.
The lawsuit claims that former priest Alfred Willis sexually molested a teenage boy in the late seventies.
The church lost a legal battle last week when a judge ruled the plaintiff can present evidence at the trial indicating that the church was aware of pedophile priests and covered up their actions.
[1988-91 Cordova Hernandez] - RCC. 2 minors.
MyFox Phoenix,
~ June 18, 2007
ARIZONA -- Church-goers learned this morning about what happened to one of their former leaders. Father Jorge Cordova was captured in Spain last week.
Father Cordova was wanted in a sexual abuse case here in the Valley.
SNAP handed out fliers at 2 churches Sunday where Father Cordova was employed, hoping to have more people come forward who were abused. Fox 10's Tammy Vo has more...
[1960s-80s Bro. Mueller] - RCC. Stupefying gases. 60 or more victims.
KJCT,
Associated Press, 12:44 PM ET, June 17, 2007
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) - A former Pueblo Marianist brother is listed among the 10 child abusers with the most victims, according to a group that tracks sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.
The Pueblo Chieftain reported today that at least 40 complaints have been filed against William Mueller in Colorado, Texas and Missouri.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Mueller's actions are almost unparalled in the history of abuse by clery.
[1960s-80s Bro. Mueller] - RCC. Stupefying gases. 60 or more victims.
KTVI,
~ June 18, 2007
ST. LOUIS (MO), (KTVI - myFOXstl.com) -- A former St. Louis Marianist brother is listed among the 10 child abusers with the most victims, according to a group that tracks sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.
At least 40 complaints have been filed against William Mueller in Colorado, Texas and Missouri, the Pueblo Chieftain reported Sunday.
"We've only known about this guy for less than three years, and already 40 people have come forward," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, better known as SNAP. "Once all is known, and I'm estimating conservatively, I'd guess that the victims number at least in the 60s. He will probably end up being one of the top 10 worst abusers we've ever seen in terms of sheer numbers."
The Daily Times,
~ June 18, 2007
BETHANY BEACH (MD) -- Coastal Delmarva Chapter of Voice of the Faithful will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. at the South Coastal Library in Bethany Beach.
The principal speaker is Dr. Robert West of the Center for the study of Church Management at Villanova University.
His topic will be "Internal Financial Controls in the U.S. Catholic Church: Policies for Transparency and Accountability."
VOTF was formed in response to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.
It has three goals: to support those who have been abused; to support priests of integrity, and to shape structural change within the Church. For more information, call 302-541-0254.
- RCC.
The Examiner,
by Luke Broadwater, Jun 18, 2007
BALTIMORE - A church organist who says he was fired after he brought forward allegations of sexual abuse can pursue job discrimination claims against the Archdiocese of Washington, Maryland's highest court has ruled.
In a 4-3 decision, the Maryland Court of Appeals found Thursday that a church organist's job is not "ministerial" in nature and therefore the church cannot invoke a "ministerial exemption" – a legal exception to discrimination claims that precludes government interference in the employment decisions of religious organizations.
William Moersen was employed as an organist at St. Catherine Labouré Parish in Wheaton from 1958 to 1976 and again from 1991 to 2002.
Commercial Appeal,
By James Dowd, June 18, 2007
MEMPHIS (TN) -- Three civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by a former Memphis priest have been settled, but an investigation to determine his future in parish ministry is ongoing.
Last week the Catholic Diocese of Memphis reached financial settlements in three cases against Father Joseph Nguyen. The lawsuits, each filed in 2006 by three Vietnamese-American women listed as Jane Doe Nos. 1, 2 and 3, claimed multiple counts of sexual abuse by Nguyen from 1994 to 1999.
The alleged abuse occurred when the women were minors.
The News Journal,
By BETH MILLER, Posted Monday, June 18, 2007
DELAWARE -- The debate about how long -- and under what circumstances -- a victim of child sexual abuse can sue in Delaware returns to Legislative Hall this week.
Senate Bill 29 would eliminate the civil statute of limitations and open a two-year window during which cases previously barred by the state could be filed.
The bill is scheduled to go before the full state House on Tuesday afternoon with several amendments pending.
[≤ 2005 Fr McGrath* (religious order), Mr Adams*] - RCC. 17 charges. Girl (12).
Belfast Telegraph,
Monday, June 18, 2007
NORTHERN IRELAND -- At the weekend, parishioners in the Fermanagh village of Rosslea heard from their bishop on the difficult subject of Fr Jeremiah McGrath.
McGrath was jailed last week for helping paedophile Billy Adams groom a 12-year-old girl for prolonged sexual abuse.
In a statement read at Vigil Mass, the Bishop of Clogher, Joseph Duffy, said McGrath's future in his order will be decided after the conclusion of all current and potential legal proceedings.
- Church schools and Public schools.
The Coloradoan,
by Neil McCaffrey, June 18, 2007
COLORADO -- Item: A Fort Collins pastor faces charges that on more than one occasion he fondled a teenage boy and gave him alcohol. He then called the young man during the police investigation. Convicted of the crimes, the since defrocked priest received a minimum 14-year prison sentence.
Item: A Brighton public school teacher admits to fondling and kissing a teenage boy and giving him alcohol. Then, in violation of her bond, she calls the young man during the investigation. The young man involved says the two once exchanged 76 text messages in a single day. While calling the teacher's actions a "serious criminal offense," the judge, nonetheless, accepted her plea bargain and imposed a 45-day jail sentence, plus a five-year probation and four-year deferred sentence.
Both the priest and the teacher proclaim their innocence, though the teacher pleaded guilty.
Both cases occurred in Larimer County. Both occurred after the advent of tough sexual predator laws.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 7:56 AM ////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Mon June 18, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[1969-78 D'Cruz] - RCC. Girl.
ABC,
http://abc.net. au/news/stories/ 2007/06/19/ 1956004.htm? section= australia ,
June 19, 2007
VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA -- A Victorian court has been told that a Catholic priest charged with the rape and assault of a girl 30 years ago will now face three additional charges.
Most of the 16 counts against 77-year-old Adelrick D'Cruz relate to offences against a girl between 1969 and 1978.
D'Cruz was the assistant priest at Yarrawonga's Sacred Heart Church in the late 1970s.
He has also worked in parishes at Bendigo, Benalla, Corryong and Cohuna.
[1960s-80s Bro. Mueller] - RCC. Stupefying gases. 60 or more victims.
Webster-Kirkwood Times,
June 01, 2007
MISSOURI -- The clergy sexual abuse scandal continues to touch the local area, with new lawsuits and news stories being filed throughout 2007.
Earlier this month, a St. Louis County court heard arguments in the case of Bryan Bacon, a graduate of Vianney High School who claims that in 1985 he was molested by a teacher, Marianist Brother William Mueller.
Bacon, a Kirkwood resident, filed a lawsuit against Mueller, Vianney and the Marianist Order.
Bacon's lawsuit is one of several that have been filed across the country involving Mueller, who has taught students in Pueblo, Colo.; San Antonio, Tex.; and St. Mary's High School in St. Louis, where he served as the principal from 1981 to 1983.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 11:19 AM]
- RCC.
[1974-76 Mr Kreutzer (30) (Catholic school math teacher)] - Minors.
[Decades - Los Angeles Archdiocese] - ~ 500 plaintiffs.
[Card. Mahony was NOT in charge 1974-76, took over in 1985.]
City of Angels,
By Kay Ebeling, aka City of Angels Lady, ~ June 19, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Some blogs and even the Los Angeles Times have shown confusion as to why Cardinal Mahony has to testify in the Kreutzer Cases jury trial. Those incidents took place in the 1970s and Mahony didn't become Archbishop of Los Angeles until 1985.
Steven Brady, San Francisco attorney, issued the subpoena because Mahony signed as author, The Report to the People of God, February 17, 2004, even posted it on the archdiocese website. He outlined how the church handled reports of pedophilia in the priesthood in the previous decades.
"Plaintiff has subpoenaed the person whose signature appears on the document, Cardinal Roger Mahony, with notice to produce the original of the document," writes Brady in his opposition to Defendant's Motion to Quash Subpoena. "The document details not only the current Church policy regarding the handling of alleged pedophiles, it also states the historical policy of the Church regarding same and covers the period of time relevant to the instant case. Aside from authenticating this document, this witness who is the head of the defendant corporation sole can testify as to information and sources of information in that document."
Mahony Can Testify As To "Motive, Plan, and Knowledge"
[Bp Pilla] - RCC. Money.
The Plain Dealer,
~ June 19, 2007
CLEVELAND (OH) -- U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich ordered the diocese to produce documents about the following transactions and entities:
The Anthony M. Pilla Charitable Account, a $500,000 account that church officials said was Pilla's savings.
Payments of $79,000 to remodel and furnish a 5,000-square-foot home in Geauga County that was to be used as a retreat house for church officials.
Payments of $27,800 to Renee Bals, the wife of former Deacon Jerry Bals, who lost his teaching license after being charged with sexually assaulting students while he worked at Lake Catholic High School. The payments were made between 2000 and 2003, and Jerry Bals lived in the house while his wife received the church money.
A $63,000 loan of church money that the Rev. John Wright, then the diocese's financial and legal secretary, made to his secretary. Joseph Smith says Wright made the loan without approval from the diocese.
[St John of God Order]- RCC. Former complaints manager blows whistle.
The Press,
By YVONNE MARTIN | Tuesday, 19 June 2007
NEW ZEALAND -- A controversial Catholic order has a culture of sexual abuse within its ranks and should be shut down, says its former complaints manager Michelle Mulvihill.
The psychologist and former nun has blown the whistle on the St John of God Order's crisis, after quitting as head of its professional standards committee for nine years.
Mulvihill said the brotherhood was in such a state of denial it was impossible to get the gravity of its abuse problem recognised.
"My impression is that there is a culture of collusion inside the province which is deeply ingrained, and which makes it almost impossible for the truth about these matters to be dealt with."
- Creditors want RCC parishes to be part of the pool to recompense victims.
Des Moines Register,
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, RELIGION EDITOR, June 19, 2007
DAVENPORT (IA) -- If a bankruptcy judge approves creditors' request to hire accounting experts to examine the Diocese of Davenport's financial dealings and records, it may give abuse survivors a chance to expand the money pool to cover their financial claims, according to legal experts.
The legal move, which may draw parishes into the bankruptcy, leaves a bad taste in the mouths of some lay Catholics.
"The abuse victims kept saying the lawsuits (against the diocese) weren't about the money," said Stephen Slobodnik of Mount Pleasant, a member of St. Alphonsus parish. "Obviously, it is about the money."
[Years - Franciscan order] - RCC. US$28m. Wanting files secret. 25 victims (some at seminary).
The Mercury News,
The Associated Press, Article Launched, 04:43:23 PM PDT, June/18/2007
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.–A judge on Monday ruled that privacy is not enough to conceal the personnel files of six Franciscan priests and brothers accused of sexual abuse, the first step in what could be the release of the secret documents.
Franciscan friars last year reached a $28 million settlement with 25 people who claimed they were sexually abused at a Santa Barbara seminary and mission. The plaintiffs also sought the release of personnel files of six priests and brothers who invoked their privacy rights.
"The rights of privacy must give way to the state's interest in protecting its children from sexual abuse," wrote Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman.
The Franciscan Friars, Province of Saint Barbara, had no immediate comment.
[1960s-80s Bro. Mueller] - RCC. Stupefying gases. 60 or more victims.
The Pueblo Chieftain,
By PATRICK MALONE, ~ June 19, 2007
PUEBLO (CO) -- Maybe it was the miles between the Marianist headquarters in St. Louis and 30-year-old William Mueller's new assignment at Roncalli High School in Pueblo.
Whatever the reason, it has been alleged in two dozen lawsuits that Mueller's behavior shifted gears in the fall of 1966 from the unusual to the bizarre.
Leaders in the Society of Mary religious order already were aware of at least one indiscretion involving Mueller and a student while he was in training to join the order in 1958 in St. Louis.
And a principal allegedly had learned that Mueller was conducting experiments involving ether on at least one student at St. John Vianney High School in St. Louis during the spring of 1966. The student involved has testified in a deposition that he believes the report precipitated Mueller's move to Pueblo.
[1950s-70s - Franciscan order] - RCC. US$28m. 2007 - Wanting files secret. 25 victims (mainly at seminary).
Los Angeles Times,
By John Spano and Greg Krikorian, June 19, 2007
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- A judge ruled Monday that confidential personnel files on Roman Catholic clergy accused of molesting children can be made public even if the clerics were never charged with a crime and legal claims against them were not proven.
"The rights of privacy must give way to the state's interest in protecting its children from sexual abuse," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter D. Lichtman said in his 22-page ruling.
The decision concerns a small number of Franciscan friars, who will have an opportunity to object to disclosure of specific documents before the files are opened.
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, Tuesday, June 19, 2007
VERMONT -- A jury of six men and six women was picked Monday to hear the case of a Virginia man who has sued the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington in connection with claims that as a teenager in 1977 he was molested by a Vermont priest.
"This is fortunate for many reasons," Judge Ben Joseph told the jury members at the end of a daylong selection process at Chittenden Superior Court. "The process moved more quickly than we anticipated.
Opening arguments in the case are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The trial is expected to last six or seven days.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 7:19 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Tue June 19, 2007
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont137.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
