References cont. (75) -- Clergy Child Molesters

• Book about Voice of the Faithful, and Petition for Reforming RCC. - Roman Catholic Church.

   Voice of the Faithful, United States of America, E-mail, April 1 2004
   Dear Friends, We want you to be aware of two exciting developments
   Announcing Keep the Faith, Change the Church -- the first book dedicated to telling a story of Voice of the Faithful's founding
   Co-authored by founding president James Muller and author Charles Kenney, Keep the Faith, Change the Church is a highly readable narrative of the founding story of Voice of the Faithful. While no single book can tell the whole story, Muller and Kenney articulate the steady advance of an awakening spirit in the laity that has moved from outrage to resolve in returning responsibility to Catholicism.
   From the first gathering in St. John the Evangelist School basement in Wellesley, MA through the 2002 convention in Boston, and on to the time of Cardinal Law's resignation, the authors describe the surprises, disappointments and revelations about Church dynamics and politics as well as survivors' prophetic courage, priests' struggles and Catholic activism.
   An excerpt of the first chapter of the book is currently featured on the religious and spiritual Web site, Beliefnet.com, which nominated Voice of the Faithful for the "Inspirational Person of the Year" in 2002.

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FOR GOOD TEACHINGS TO BE HEEDED, A BIG CLEAN-UP IS NEEDED
Series starts: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm Visit http://www.ncrnews.org/abuse

Sources JavaScript Kit and www.aftinet.org.au/campaigns/signonconfirm.html

   INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs.    We are offering several purchase options of the book to you - all of which help support Voice of the Faithful and the important work we all do to address the immediate and underlying problems the Church faces. To get your copies, click: www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M637415325574225663355&iEvent=14456 .
Voice of the Faithful places a full-page ad in the National Catholic Reporter
   Also, in this week's National Catholic Reporter, we will be running the same advertisement we ran in the New York Times on February 29th. The advertisement, with the headline "Our Trust Has Been Violated. But Not Our Faith," presents several Petitions for Reform directed to Pope John Paul II and each U.S. Bishop. The ad is a call to return responsibility to Catholicism and provides Catholics the opportunity to make their voice heard by taking the small step of signing the petitions.
   Thanks to all for your continued support for Voice of the Faithful and for your work on behalf of our very important undertaking to Keep the Faith, Change the Church.
   Sincerely, Suzanne N. Morse, Communications Manager, Voice of the Faithful
   PS. If you haven't yet had the opportunity, please take one minute to sign the Petitions for Reform, http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M637414025574225663355&iEvent=14456 . Then, please take another minute and give your friends and family the opportunity to make their voice heard by forwarding the petitions to at least three people. Silence is no longer an option.
• Inquiry into Institutionalised Children.
   E-mail, April 1, 2004
   AUSTRALIA: The Senate (Australia) inquiry into Children in Institutionalised Care is due to report April/May this year.
   The Hansard transcripts of evidence and submissions: www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/clac_ctte/inst.care/index.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thursday April 01, 2004 edition follows:-
• Church not suable 'good news' [1969-81; Bennett seduced hundreds]
   Western Catholic Reporter, www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2004/0405/suable040504.shtml , By ART BABYCH, Canadian Catholic News, Week of April 5, 2004
   OTTAWA, CANADA: The decision of Canada's highest court not to rule on whether the entire Roman Catholic Church can be sued is "good news," says the lawyer for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
   William Sammon added, "We would have liked a clearer answer on the suability of the Church, but we certainly understand where the court is coming from because the Church was un-represented throughout the entire proceedings."
   The effect of the ruling is to "leave in place the other decisions in Canada that say the Roman Catholic Church is not a suable entity," Sammon said. "Those decisions are still good law and so from that perspective we're certainly pleased with the court's decision."
   Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote, "The record does not provide the clear picture of the details of the Church's hierarchy or of the relationship between the Church and its constituent parts, necessary to delineate the boundaries of the institution, the nature of its legal status, and its potential liability."
   However, the nine-member court reinstated the trial judge's ruling that the Episcopal Corporation of St. George's, in Newfoundland, was vicariously liable for sexual abuses committed by Father Kevin Bennett, a priest who worked in parishes in western Newfoundland.
   He pleaded guilty to hundreds of sexual assaults involving altar boys between 1961 and 1989, and was sentenced to a total of five years in two court actions in the early 1990s. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:50 PM]
• Archbishop says he'll help with grief process
   Kenai Peninsula Online, www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/040104/new_040104new004001.shtml , By PHIL HERMANEK, Peninsula Clarion, Web posted Thursday, April 1, 2004
   ALASKA: The Archbishop of Anchorage apologized to Catholics from Kenai Peninsula parishes Tuesday evening for failures of leadership in conjunction with the sexual abuse case involving a former Kenai priest.
   The Rev. Robert Wells, who died in April 1992, was named as the abuser of a female minor while Wells was assigned to the Kenai Peninsula between 1974 and 1990. The victim was not identified.
   "We have certainly discovered that we in leadership have failed," Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz told nearly 100 men and women at a meeting at Soldotna's Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.
   "I want to apologize and assure you, we will work to see that the failures don't continue in the future," Schwietz said.
   The leader of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, which includes the Kenai Peninsula, originally was slated to visit area parishioners to speak about the church's evangelization program, report on its financial audit and describe the archdiocesan implementation of child and youth protection measures.
• McDonnell apologizes to victims of clergy abuse as he is installed as Springfield's eighth bishop
   Boston Globe ; www.boston.com/dailynews/092/region/McDonnell_apologizes_to_victim:.shtml , By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press, Apr/1/2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) With song, ceremony and a touch of Irish wit, Bishop Timothy McDonnell took over a Springfield Diocese that has been stung by accusations his predecessor molested two boys and is facing lawsuits by alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.
   During his installation ceremony Thursday in St. Michael's Cathedral, McDonnell used his homily to apologize to the victims of clergy abuse.
   "Over the years young people were wronged, and the trust given so freely by their families was betrayed," he said. "It should never have happened, and from the depth of my being I apologize to those that were hurt."
   McDonnell invited alleged victims of abusive priests to the ceremony, including the two men who say they were abused by his predecessor, Bishop Thomas Dupre. He promised to meet with and listen to the victims.
   "I thank you for being here," he said. "And I will pray for each of you day in and day out every day and I ask you to pray for me.
   "In the name of the church, I apologize," he said. "I am overwhelmingly sorry. I pray to God to help me to prevent any such wrongs and I pray to God that I can be a means of restoring faith."
• Davenport Diocese faces new sex abuse lawsuit [Wiebler admitted to 12]
   Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1026423&t=Local+News&c=2,1026423 , By Todd Ruger, Thursday, April 1st, 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): A new lawsuit filed against the Catholic Diocese of Davenport claims a former Bettendorf priest admitted molesting at least 12 boys during his career while meeting with church leaders in May 2002, more than 21 months before the diocese publicly sought to defrock him.
   The lawsuit, filed by a man identified only as "Jack Doe," claims the Rev. William Wiebler used his position as a priest at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Bettendorf to sexually abuse him for two years in the 1970s. The lawsuit said Doe's father died when he was 5 years old and that the abuse occurred not long thereafter.
   Doe's mother had looked to Wiebler as a positive male role model in his life, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Scott County District Court.
   Wiebler did not deny those assertions of sexual misconduct at a May 2002 meeting between himself, Doe and three church officials, including Bishop William Franklin and Chancellor Irene Loftus, the lawsuit claims.
• Rev Jean -Paul Gagnon, former pastor of St Augustine Church, scheduled to be arraigned May 17, on indecent assault and battery charges. [2002 Gagnon] - RCC.
   Worcester Voice, "Ex-Millville pastor faces assault charge; Allegation follows abuse civil suit;" http://worcestervoice.com/jean-paul_charged.htm , by Kathleen A. Shaw, Friday, April 2, 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): Father Jean-Paul Gagnon has been charged with 1 count of indecent assault and battery on a person over age 14. The criminal charge was issued through the Uxbridge District Court.
   The offense is alleged to have occurred in Sutton on or about Oct. 11, 2002. Father Gagnon was assigned pastor of St. Augustine parish of Millville, Mass. The complaining witness, an adult male, attended and was active within that church.
   Father Gagnon is scheduled to be arraigned May 17 in Uxbridge District Court.
   A civil lawsuit was filed in September 30, 2002 in Worcester Superior Court by Timothy P. Staney and his parents, Joseph and Corinne Staney. The lawsuit states that Gagnon used information obtained in a confessional with Staney to set Staney up as Gagnon's sex partner.
   The alleged incidents took place when Gagnon was a priest at the Holy Name of Jesus parish in Worcester. When Staney confessed the details to Gagnon at age 14, Gagnon used that information "to take over for himself," according to Daniel Shea of Houston, Texas, who is lawyer for the Staneys.
• Priest's victims urged to speak out
   Union-Tribune, www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040401/news_7m1priest.html , By Alex Roth, April 1, 2004
   SAN DIEGO (CA): The brother of disgraced former San Diego priest Edward Anthony Rodrigue made a public plea yesterday for all potential sex-crime victims of Rodrigue to come forward with their stories.
Tom Rodrigue also said he knew for decades that his brother was a pedophile but remained silent for fear of upsetting their parents.
   "I was a coward," said Tom Rodrigue, 65, a former state tax administrator who lives in Reno. "My parents were still alive. I knew if my mother knew this it would kill her and if my dad knew it he would kill my brother."
   He spoke at a news conference yesterday outside the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego in Clairemont. The news conference, organized by a group representing sex-assault victims of priests, was meant to criticize the church for failing to take aggressive action in locating potential victims of Edward Anthony Rodrigue.
   The former priest was sentenced in 1998 to 10 years in state prison for molesting an 11-year-old developmentally disabled boy. In the past year, at least 19 people have filed lawsuits accusing Rodrigue of sexually abusing them during his years in the dioceses of both San Diego and San Bernardino counties.
• Archbishop Kelly to be deposed
   WHAS 11, www.whas11.com/news/local/stories/WHAS11_LOCAL_ThomasKelly.e23f2754.html , 12:41 PM EST, Thursday, April 1, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): Archbishop Thomas Kelly will have to answer to lawyers.
   This comes as a part of a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Louisville.
   Plaintiff Kyle Burden claims the archdiocese knew about, but covered up, child sexual abuse by priests, teachers and others connected to the Roman Catholic church.
   Jefferson County Circuit Judge Thomas Wine ruled during a morning hearing that Burden's lawyers can depose Archbishop Kelly.
   But the judge added some limitations; ruling the deposition must be sealed and he limited who can be present for the questioning.
• Toledo Diocese settles with 12 victims of abuse
   TOLEDO (OH): Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040401/NEWS10/404010366/-1/NEWS , By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
   The Toledo Catholic diocese and attorneys representing 12 people who say they were molested as children by priests reached out-of-court settlements yesterday for undisclosed financial amounts, although one lawyer said the total is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
   The settlements were reached individually for each of the dozen victims who filed suits in Lucas County Common Pleas Court against six Catholic priests, one of whom is deceased.
   Four of the alleged abusers were Toledo diocesan priests and two were religious order priests, according to victims' attorneys David Zoll, Michelle Kranz, and Pamela Borgess.
   "We are satisfied with the efforts of all parties, including the diocese, and the closure it brings to victims," Ms. Kranz said at a news conference yesterday afternoon at her Sylvania law firm.
   One victim reached for comment declined. None of the others could be reached for comment.
   Ms. Kranz said Melvin Resnick, a former Lucas County Common Pleas Court and Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals judge, mediated the lawsuits, which were filed within the last 18 months.
   Mr. Zoll and Ms. Kranz said they will release financial details of the settlements after other lawsuits pending against the Toledo diocese are resolved.
• Sex Charges vs Oakland Rev Doubted
   KRON, www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1753317&nav=5D7lLxOi , Posted at 4:04 p.m., March 31, 2004
   OAKLAND (CA) (BCN) -- The Rev. Donald Weeks' attorney and residents at St. Patrick Abbey expressed doubt Wednesday about the validity of sexual assault charges against the priest.
   Oakland attorney John Burris, who came to the abbey Wednesday to meet with the facility's interim leaders, said "the allegations (against Weeks) have come out of the blue" and that he's been told the alleged victim in the case cooperated with Oakland police only because he has a criminal record and didn't have a choice.
   Hubert Bowen, who has participated for six months in the transitional housing program that Weeks runs at the abbey, said the timing of Weeks' arrest yesterday is fishy, coming only a few weeks after convicted sex offender Cary Verse stayed at the abbey for a few days and Oakland officials found various code violations at the facility.
   Located on East 12th Street in Oakland's Fruitvale District, the program houses parolees and drug and alcohol addicts looking for a second chance in life.
   Bowen said he believes the informant who told police about Weeks' alleged involvement with the alleged victim has an agenda against Weeks, as the informant worked as a priest under Weeks and was dismissed twice.
• Monk has heart attacks
   OAKLAND (CA): Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8328216.htm , By Guy Ashley
   The Rev. Donald Weeks remained hospitalized Wednesday following his arrest on suspicion of unlawful sex with a minor, the latest controversy surrounding Weeks and the Christian monastery and halfway house he leads in East Oakland.
   Weeks was arrested by Oakland police Tuesday morning at St. Patrick's Abbey, which has been engulfed in a storm of controversy since it was disclosed earlier this month that state-designated sexual predator Cary Verse had been allowed to live there.
   Although Verse left the abbey after four days, the City of Oakland is trying to shut it down because it lacks permits to operate as a shelter for the two dozen recovering addicts and ex-felons who live there.
   Deacon Donny Ratcliff, the abbey's acting administrator, said Weeks suffered a pair of heart attacks following his arrest -- one Tuesday night and one Wednesday morning. Weeks' attorney, John Burris, said Wednesday he could not confirm the report.
   Burris said Weeks has a history of heart trouble and has suffered a heart attack in the past.
   Weeks identifies himself as a Benedictine monk and an ordained priest of the Old Catholic Church. He is not a Roman Catholic priest, and has said he is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland.
• Abbey cleric still in hospital as new details emerge
   OAKLAND (CA) Oakland Tribune, www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2055521,00.html , By Laura Counts and Harry Harris, STAFF WRITERS
   Controversial religious leader Donald Weeks remained in the hospital Wednesday as police continued to investigate what they say are inconsistencies in his statements about his relationship with a teenage boy he is accused of molesting.
   Weeks, 60, who gained widespread publicity after he gave sanctuary to convicted sex offender Cary Verse, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of multiple counts of oral copulation with a minor. He entered the hospital shortly after his arrest, following a diabetic attack.
   Police were going through papers and Weeks' computer hard drive, which were seized Tuesday in the search of St. Patrick Abbey at 3700 E. 12th St.
   Senior Deputy District Attorney Norbert Chu said because Wednesday was a court holiday, Weeks may not be charged until Friday.
   He could be arraigned in the hospital, where he remains under police guard with bail set at $200,000. ...
   Weeks has said he is an ordained priest of a branch of the Old Catholic Church, and is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. He maintained an extensive Web site with his biography and information on his programs.
   But it appears that most of the information cannot be verified. He lists honorary doctorates from St. Jude Seminary, St. Ephrim Institute and the Pontifica Universitas Lateranensis, none of which could be located.
   He also served as archbishop of the Apostolic Episcopal Church and abbott for the American Congregation of Saint Benedict -- a sect he may have created when he founded the abbey in 1999.
   The site also lists other ministries with the same address as the abbey, including several programs -- such as housing for women -- that don't appear to exist.
• Bishop hoping to heal wounds
   SPRINGFIELD (MA) The Republican, http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1080812853227972.xml?nntn , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Apr/01/2004
   On the eve of his installation as eighth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell stated that settlement of clergy sexual abuse suits will be one of his highest priorities.
   "My hope is that we can rebuild trust with those who have been hurt," McDonnell said in his first statement since being appointed a month ago to replace the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre. Dupre resigned Feb. 10 amid allegations he sexually abused two men when they were minors and he was a parish priest.
   McDonnell's installation is scheduled for 2 p.m. today at St. Michael's Cathedral. It is expected to last two hours and will be followed by a public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Mont Marie gym in Holyoke. The installation will be televised live on WWLP TV22.
   McDonnell's first press release states that he recently met with mediator Paul A. Finn and that McDonnell hopes Finn can be as successful mediating a settlement here as he was last year in settling more than 500 suits in the Archdiocese of Boston.
• Lincoln Boy Scouts, Parents Discuss Minister
   TheOmahaChannel.com ; www.theomahachannel.com/news/2954905/detail.html
   LINCOLN, Neb. -- Local Boy Scout leaders met with about 30 parents to answer questions following child sex assault charges against a minister and former Boy Scout leader.
   One message emphasized during the meeting Friday was that scouts are not to interact one-on-one with troop leaders.
   Steven Smith, chief executive of the Cornhusker Council of Boy Scouts, said some scouts spent the night at the Rev. Norman Leach's home -- an occurrence that should never happen.
   Leach (pictured, left) has pleaded innocent to one count of misdemeanor child sexual assault.
   The prominent minister and former executive director of the Lincoln Interfaith Council was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of fondling a Troop 9-11 Scout who was in Leach's bed.
• Ex-church volunteer arrested on sex charges [2001-02]
   SAN JOSE (CA): Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/8325274.htm , By Crystal Carreon
   A former San Jose church youth-group volunteer was arrested this week on suspicion of inappropriate sexual contact with at least three adolescent boys during sleepovers at his apartment several years ago, police said Wednesday.
   Detectives tracked down Bradley Schrader, 29, in Laramie, Wyo., and authorities there arrested the former East San Jose resident on Tuesday, said police Sgt. Steve Dixon.
   San Jose police had issued a $400,000 felony arrest warrant for Schrader in late February after a 15-month investigation into allegations that he molested a 16-year-old boy and inappropriately touched two other boys, ages 12 and 13, whom he had befriended at North Valley Christian Fellowship Church. The alleged abuse occurred in 2001 and 2002, police said.
   One of the church's pastors on Wednesday described Schrader as a "serious intellectual" who had earned the trust of the parents of those involved in his youth group.
   "He was a serious person who took an interest in the growth and development of kids," said associate pastor Rick Jolicoeur. "I knew he would occasionally have kids over, but not to the extent he did it. That was not a church event."
• Clergyman going to prison in sex case
   TEXAS San Antonio Express-News, www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA01.02B.Sanchez_Sentenced_0401.14036202.html , by Lisa Marie Gómez, Web Posted: Apr/01/2004
   For the first time in Bexar County history, a clergyman who was found guilty of sexual assault with a child is going to prison.
   It is a crime for anyone to abuse a child sexually, but a new statute mandates a distinct charge for clergy who are in a position of exploiting the emotions of anyone seeking guidance from a pastor.
   Robert Sanchez, the former pastor of Upon This Rock, a nondenominational church, was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison on the count of sexual assault by a clergyman; six years' probation for sexual assault on a child; and four years' probation on two counts of indecency with a child.
   After his release from prison, Sanchez must register as a sex offender.
   Sanchez will have to serve the full two years, and his attorney said he doesn't plan to file an appeal.
   "I do think their (jurors) message was a strong one," said Catherine Babbitt, lead prosecutor on the case. "We're not going to give pastors probation. We're going to send them to prison."
• City officials put stop to proposed group home
   SAN BERNARDINO (CA) The Press-Enterprise, www.pe.com/localnews/sanbernardino/stories/PE_News_Local_pastor01.a113a.html , By JOHN F. BERRY 01:30 AM PST, Thursday, April 1, 2004
   San Bernardino City Attorney James Penman is satisfied that city officials have successfully stopped an operator of a now-closed group home in Pomona from bringing a similar home to the city.
   "We don't want group homes opening in San Bernardino from outside the area, especially if the children are going to be abused," Penman said Wednesday night. "We're glad no children were moved here and no children were in danger in our town."
   On Tuesday, San Bernardino city officials got a search warrant and searched the San Bernardino home of Pastor James Otis McIntyre, 44, whose Ministerial Christian Academy was shut down Tuesday morning by Montclair police amid allegations of child abuse and sexual assault.
• Attorneys fighting each other
   COVINGTON (KY): Cincinnati Post, www.cincypost.com/2004/04/01/dioc040104.html , By Paul A. Long, Apr 1 2004
   Attorneys who are suing the Catholic Diocese of Covington over sex abuse by priests in the past half-century are becoming bitterly divided over how the cases should proceed.
   Stan Chesley and Robert Steinberg, who convinced a judge to certify a class-action lawsuit in the case, said a former colleague is skimming off and settling several cases, hurting other victims and risking chances of a fair overall settlement.
   Now, the pair said, Covington attorney Barbara Bonar -- who until recently was a member of the legal team representing the class -- wants to additionally interfere in the case so she can represent individual clients against the class's best interest.
   At best, they say, her actions are a clear conflict of interest. At worst, they may border on neglecting her duty as an attorney, Chesley and Steinberg said.
   "We first expressed concern that the individual settlements made by Ms. Bonar were below the fair value of the claims, that victims were being charged unreasonable fees by their individual attorney, and that the victims were not protected by court review of the settlements -- ," Steinberg and Chesley said in a motion filed this week in Boone Circuit Court. "(Bonar) has in the past and continues to violate her fiduciary duty to the class."
• Honolulu bishop chosen to lead Richmond Catholic diocese
   RICHMOND (VA): The Virginian-Pilot, http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=68306&ran=28515 , By STEVEN G. VEGH, April 1, 2004
   Bishop Francis Xavier DiLorenzo, the 61-year-old head of Hawaii's Catholic diocese, will become the new Bishop of Richmond, the Vatican announced Wednesday.
   At a news conference in Richmond, DiLorenzo said the appointment by Pope John Paul II caught him by surprise. "I'd been in Honolulu 10 years, growing exceptionally comfortable," DiLorenzo said genially.
   DiLorenzo succeeds Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, who led the Richmond diocese for 29 years before he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 last year. ...
   During his tenure in Hawaii, DiLorenzo expelled at least three priests from ministry in connection with sexual abuse of children. In the Richmond diocese, five priests have been removed or resigned because of abuse complaints.
   On Wednesday, DiLorenzo deplored the incidence of abuse in the Catholic church, but stressed that only a fraction of clergy were involved. He said his "concrete strategy" for dealing with abuse was to follow the sex abuse charter adopted by the nation's Catholic bishops in 2002.
   The bishop said he would reach out to Catholics alienated by the scandal by acknowledging that the church wasn't perfect.
   "We're going to ask for their forgiveness," he said, adding that disaffected parishioners also had to be willing to reconcile with the Catholic church.
• New prisons chief vows a 'more humane' system
   The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/04/01/new_prisons_chief_vows_a_more_humane_system , By Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff, Apr/1/2004
   MILFORD (MA): Kathleen M. Dennehy, the new commissioner of the Department of Correction, says she borrowed one idea for improving the state prison system from Filene's.
   "When you walk into the lobby of a state prison on a visit, you should be able to know who the superintendent is, who the shift commander is," said Dennehy, walking around her desk at the state Correction Department headquarters to show off a prototype for new lobby signs that will be posted in each of the state's 18 prisons.
   On a 3-by-2-foot steel panel were pictures of three Correction Department managers, along with their names and ranks, much in the way that Filene's, Stop & Shop, and other retail outlets post the names of managers, she said.
   Dennehy, 49, who was named by Governor Mitt Romney last month to take one of the state's largest bureaucracies in a new direction, said the lobby signs are just the start.
   During an interview Monday evening that stretched past 9 p.m., Dennehy ticked off a half-dozen changes she plans to make to create a "smarter, more humane" prison system.
   The crisis that resulted Aug. 23 when defrocked priest John J. Geoghan was killed in his cell is expected to throw open the windows and let fresh air into a prison system largely closed off to the public and styled after Governor William F. Weld's 1990 campaign promise to reintroduce inmates to the "joys of busting rocks."
   Leslie Walker, the head of a legal rights advocacy group for prisoners and a leading critic of the Department of Correction, said that Dennehy is attempting "a huge cultural shift and the introduction of accountability."
• Grand jury charges abuse by priest [1978 Behan (Oblate of St. Francis de Sales)] - RCC. Boy.
   Philadelphia Daily News, "Grand jury charges abuse by priest; Ex-Northeast Catholic teacher will surrender to face rape accusation from '78"; www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8326674.htm?ERIGHTS=20454770195085162philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y , By JOSEPH R. DAUGHEN & RON GOLDWYN, daughej@phillynews.com , Posted on Thu, Apr. 01, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): An investigating grand jury has recommended charging a Catholic priest with raping a teen-aged Philadelphia boy a quarter-century ago.
   District Attorney Lynne Abraham identified the priest as the Rev. James J. Behan, 60, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.
   The charges are the first brought by the grand jury, which has been investigating sexual abuse of minors by priests and other religious officials since April 2002.
   Behan, a Philadelphia native, was teaching religion at Northeast Catholic High School when the alleged rape and other sexual offenses occurred, Abraham said. He served as a priest in North Carolina from 1980 to 2002.
   Since he has been out of the state since 1980, Abraham said, the 12-year statute of limitations on rape does not come into play.
   A defense lawyer who asked not to be identified predicted it would become an issue in the case. Merely moving to another state does not stay the statute, the lawyer said, unless the subject tries to conceal his identity or otherwise hide his whereabouts.
   Behan was openly living in North Carolina and functioning as a parish priest.
• Expert: Probe will go right to the top
   Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8326675.htm?1c , By RON GOLDWYN, goldwyr@phillynews.com , Posted on Thu, Apr. 01, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): The Philadelphia grand jury appears to be going "right to the top" in its long-secret probe of priest sexual abuse, according to an expert witness who testified before it on Catholic hierarchy.
   "They're going to the top. They will always look to the top. The archbishop is ultimately the one responsible," the Rev. Thomas Doyle told the Daily News yesterday.
   Doyle wasn't predicting specific charges against any of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia leadership. But he noted, "does the hierarchy in Philadelphia have responsibility for mishandling cases? My strong suspicion is yes."
   Experts say the grand jury is almost certainly going beyond individual priests and long-ago abuse cases to focus on questions of continuing culpability by higher-ups.
   A presentment yesterday that charged a priest repeatedly molested a teenage boy at Northeast Catholic High School 1978-80 could be the tip of the iceberg in the two-year probe, expert observers said yesterday.
   District Attorney Lynne Abraham refused again to discuss the grand jury's work except to term it "complex." She said the case against the Rev. James J. Behan was "just the first presentment."
• Diocese accused of ignoring victims
   The Press-Enterprise, www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_rod01.a15c4.html , By MICHAEL FISHER, Posted 01:52 AM PST on Thursday, April 1, 2004
   SAN DIEGO (CA): Advocates for victims of sexual abuse accused Catholic leaders of failing to identify and help boys allegedly molested by the Rev. Edward Anthony Rodrigue, who has told authorities that he abused dozens of children during his 22 years in the San Bernardino and San Diego dioceses.
   "There are hundreds of families out there in both of the dioceses who have been affected by this man and they are still the responsibility of the church," said Margaret Schettler, choking back tears as she stood with Rodrigue's brother and other victims' advocates outside the Diocese of San Diego's Pastoral Center on Wednesday.
   At least 15 men sued the dioceses of San Diego and San Bernardino last year, charging that church leaders failed to protect them from Rodrigue, whom they accuse of sexually abusing them as young boys between 1967 and 1979. Rodrigue, known as Father Tony, worked at churches in Ontario, Loma Linda, Coachella and elsewhere. Rodrigio Valdivia, chancellor and spokesman for the San Diego Diocese, denied the advocates' accusations. He said the diocese has brochures available at all its churches instructing victims on how to report sexual abuse, and its biweekly newspaper has included information on how to report abuse.
• Alleged victim of former priest might testify [1999]
   ILLINOIS: Chicago Daily Herald, www.dailyherald.com/kane/main_story.asp?intID=3807859 , By Garrett Ordower Daily Herald Staff Writer Posted Thursday, April 01, 2004
   In order to show a pattern of sexual abuse and propensity toward committing such crimes, testimony from the second alleged victim of former priest Mark Campobello might be allowed at his first trial.
   But by mutual agreement of the defense and prosecution, evidence about how the Rockford Diocese handled Campobello will not be heard at the May trial.
   "The people are attempting to try two cases in one," Campobello's lawyer Paul Gaziano told Judge Timothy Sheldon Wednesday morning.
   But according to Illinois law, Assistant State's Attorney Jody Gleason said, evidence that Campobello "singled out" two girls and abused them within a matter of months can be heard at trial.
   Normally, the law doesn't allow evidence to be brought up at trial that isn't related to the specific charges being tried because it would be unfairly prejudicial.
   But in 1998, Illinois passed a law making an exception for sex crimes because of the propensity of sex offenders to repeat their offenses, Gleason said.
   Campobello, 39, became involved with a 14-year-old girl in eighth grade at St. Peter's school in Geneva from January to April 1999 while living there and working at Mooseheart, Gleason said, then at the start of the next school year, he started a relationship with a 15-year-old girl who was a sophomore at Aurora Central Catholic High School.
   In both cases, Gleason said, the priest "singled out" the girls and started relationships with them.
• Sex survey for priests comes under fire - Anglican.
   Iafrica.com ; http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/313489.htm , Posted Thu, 01 Apr 2004
   AUSTRALIA: The Anglican Church in Australia was criticised on Thursday for demanding would-be priests complete a detailed questionnaire about their sexuality before they can become ministers.
   The move by the Sydney diocese was slammed as invasion of privacy by civil libertarians but supporters said it would help prevent sexual abuse in the church.
   Eight page questionnaire: The eight-page questionnaire quizzes potential clerics about child abuse, homosexuality, sex outside marriage, sexual harassment and whether they use pornography.
   It also probes involvement in the occult, misuse of drugs, maltreatment of animals, criminal conduct and financial conduct.
   Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen said anyone wanting to become a new priest in the Sydney diocese or transferring to its ministry from another region had to complete the questionnaire.
• Honolulu loses its bishop - RCC.
   Honolulu Advertiser, http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Apr/01/ln/ln01a.html , By Vicki Viotti, Posted on: Thursday, April 1, 2004
   HAWAII: Catholics in Hawai'i are anticipating months of uncertainty about who will be the next bishop of the Honolulu diocese after yesterday's surprise announcement that the Most Rev. Francis X. DiLorenzo has been transferred to Richmond, Va.
   DiLorenzo, who worked during his 11-year tenure in Hawai'i to make parishes more open and welcoming, has been in Virginia since Monday and did not return phone calls for comment yesterday. ...
   Diocese officials rank Welcoming Parish and the Synod 2000 diocesan conference aimed at refocusing attention on youth ministry and other goals among DiLorenzo's proudest achievements. His thorniest experience was the furor over allegations of sexual abuse among priests.
   A national scandal erupted over clergy sex-abuse two years ago. The investigation in the Islands, delving back to the 1960s, led the diocese to report that it had substantiated molestation allegations against five Catholic priests. The cases reportedly involved at least eight children.
   In January, an audit faulted the diocese for, among other criticisms, lagging in developing an outreach program for victims and in developing "clear standards of behavior" for priests and other church officials in regular contact with minors.
   But DiLorenzo's administration was praised for establishing a policy on alleged sexual misconduct within the church in 1990 and for forming a standing committee to advise the bishop on misconduct allegations. Five men were removed from the active ministry, four of them before the scandal even broke, Downes said.
   Tom Dinell, retired head of Catholic Charities but still an active parishioner, said DiLorenzo's move would take him closer to the center of the church's national leadership.
• Md. priest charged with rape in Philly [1978 onwards]
   Observer-Reporter, www.observer-reporter.com/282898670974887.bsp , ASSOCIATED PRESS
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): A 60-year-old Maryland priest was charged Wednesday with sexually abusing a teenage boy almost a quarter century ago when he was a teacher at a Roman Catholic high school in Philadelphia.
   The Rev. James J. Behan is the first person to be charged by a grand jury convened by Philadelphia's district attorney in 2002 to investigate decades-old allegations of abuse by clergy.
   Behan, a member of the order of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, was charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.
   He remained free Wednesday. Prosecutors said the priest, now living in Childs, Md., had made arrangements to surrender voluntarily to authorities within the next few days.
   The grand jury accused Behan of having several sexual encounters with a student at Northeast Catholic High School, beginning in 1978 when the boy was 15.
• New bishop pledges help in healing
   PORTLAND (ME) Portland Press Herald, www.pressherald.com/news/local/040401bishop.shtml , By GREGORY D. KESICH, Thursday, April 1, 2004
   Bishop Richard J. Malone promised at his installation as leader of Maine's Roman Catholic Church Wednesday to restore trust in a church that has been damaged by a sexual-abuse scandal.
   Malone accepted the crozier, the hooked shepherd's staff symbolic of his pastoral leadership, as 1,200 people watched the ceremony at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland.
   He pledged to reach out to victims of sexual abuse by clergymen, and to listen to any victims who want to meet with him.
   "Going forward, I believe that the parishes and other institutions of the Catholic Church will be among the safest environments for children," Malone said. "I am committed to that cause."
• Demonstrators recall abuse victims
   Portland Press Herald, www.pressherald.com/news/local/040401protest.shtml , By DAVID HENCH, Thursday, April 1, 2004
   PORTLAND (ME): As Maine's Roman Catholic Church installed a new bishop Wednesday, two dozen demonstrators gathered across the street from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to show support for victims of sexual abuse by priests.
   The group, who came from the Boston area as well as from Maine, held placards showing childhood photographs of people who have identified themselves as victims of abuse by priests. Beneath each picture was the person's age when the alleged abuse occurred.
   The demonstration was a memorial service for victims who had taken their own lives, said Paul Kendrick, an organizer of the event and an outspoken critic of the church's handling of sexual-abuse allegations.
• More details of Kenai sex abuse allegations released
   News-Miner, www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2055735,00.html , The Associated Press, Thursday, April 01, 2004
   ANCHORAGE (AK): The Archdiocese of Anchorage has released more information about sex abuse allegations against a now-deceased Kenai priest.
   Church officials said Monday that Rev. Robert Wells was accused in a one-time incident, but corrected that account Tuesday, saying the girl reportedly was abused between the ages of 10 or 12 and 18.
   The Archdiocese identified Wells to Kenai Peninsula parishioners on Sunday. Wells, of the Redemptorist order, is one of three accused priests from the archdiocese.
   A review by church authorities of the archdiocese's file dealing with the allegation showed that the abuse continued regularly for years before the girl broke off the relationship when she was 18, said the Rev. Donald Bramble, vicar general of the archdiocese.
   The sexual abuse appeared to be mostly fondling, "but clearly sexual in nature and inappropriate and a complete violation," Bramble said.
   The girl's family was close to Wells, Bramble said, and the priest was a confidante for her. He did not know when or where the abuse started, but it likely took place when Wells served in Kenai. According to an obituary, Wells came to Alaska in 1974 and was the pastor at Our Lady of the Angels in Kenai until 1988 and spent two years in Seward from 1988 to 1990 before he suffered a heart attack.
• Priest indicted for sex abuse of teenager [1970s, Behan]
   The Daily Times, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1675&dept_id=18171&newsid=11221518&PAG=461&rfi=9 , By PATTI MENGERS, pmengers@delcotimes.com , Apr/01/2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): Twenty-six years after he allegedly began assaulting a student, a 60-year-old priest who formerly taught at Northeast Catholic High School for Boys was charged with sexual abuse Wednesday by District Attorney Lynne Abraham.
   The Rev. James J. Behan is the first person to be charged as a result of a grand jury investigation of clerical sexual abuse allegations in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia launched by Abraham on April 24, 2002.
   A member of the order of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, Behan was charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors. The alleged victim is now about 40, said Abraham's spokeswoman, Cathie Abookire.
   Since April 2002 when the sexual abuse allegations first surfaced in North Carolina, Behan has been a resident of the De Sales Oblate Residence in Childs, Md. He is expected to surrender to authorities within the next few days. "He is now charged and has agreed through his attorney, Mike McGovern, to turn himself in within a day or two," Abookire said Wednesday afternoon. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:27 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thursday April 01, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont75.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Friday April 02, 2004 edition follows:-
• Reader response to report on U.S. bishops' norms for sexual abuse;
   National Catholic Reporter, USA, The Word From Rome, By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., April 2, 2004
   ROME: NOTE: Throughout 2004, the American bishops will be making their every-five-year ad limina vists to Rome. Pope John Paul II will speak to each group, and collectively these talks should reveal a great deal about the thinking of the pope and the Vatican with respect to the American Catholic church. The pope's first address, to the bishops of the provinces of Atlanta and Miami, took place this morning. Here is the full text in English: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/.
   Last week I reported on a conference on canon law at Rome's Santa Croce University, where the U.S. bishops' norms for sexual abuse, and especially their "zero tolerance" policy, came in for criticism.
   As I noted, the norms aren't popular among canonists who believe they undercut procedural guarantees in the Code of Canon Law. Example: I ran into a prominent Italian church observer this week who called the American norms "the Guantanamo Bay of the Catholic church." He sees them as an ecclesiastical analogue to what the Bush administration is doing with Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners in Cuba - in his view, flouting due process standards.
   On the other hand, the norms have their defenders, and I heard from several. One American close to the work on the charter and the norms, in fact, sent me a point-by-point response to the criticisms that surfaced at Santa Croce. Below I offer some excerpts, because they help set the terms of debate that no doubt will unfold between the Holy See and the U.S. bishops' conference between now and March 5, 2005, when the two-year approval for the norms expires.
   • Some canonists at Santa Croce objected that by seeking to remove priests from ministry using administrative authority rather than a canonical trial, the American bishops are neglecting the due process rights of priests, something these canonists see as a matter of "natural justice." The commentator made two arguments: First, a full-blown trial may not be necessary if the priest is obviously guilty, in which case an abbreviated administrative process could do the trick; second, the demand for trials at all costs risks exalting the rights of priests over everybody else.
   "Due process seems to be defined solely as the juridical procedures of canon law. … While the church may currently demand a judicial forum in every instance, that doesn't mean another method cannot be just. … Is a church trial really necessary for someone whose guilt has been amply demonstrated in a civil trial?
   "I find it difficult to accept the rhetoric of natural justice applied to situations in which the natural rights of life and liberty are not in jeopardy, but only continuation in ministry, to which there is no natural right. … When we apply conceptions of natural justice in this way, we seem to be protecting not the rights of all, but the rights of some."
   • Another complaint is that the American "one-strike" policy does not make allowance for the rehabilitation of the offending priest. The expert said: " The church wants to help the offender not to offend again. But does returning him to ministry actually do this? We wouldn't ask a recovering kleptomaniac to count the collection."
   • One of the most oft-heard complaints among canon lawyers is that the American bishops could have brought abuser priests to trial in the 1980s and '90s but didn't, in part because they didn't want to play the heavy, in part because it was just too much work. This expert, however, said that's not so.
   "Most of the cases were not canonically prosecutable," he said, "either because the canonical five-year statute of limitations had passed or because of lack of imputability due to mental illness." (That means the defendant lacked competence to stand trial.)
   Moreover, the expert said, the American bishops had a legitimate fear of undertaking a costly procedure that might run afoul of Roman review. "A trial could be a real crap-shoot," he said. "It's a lengthy process, and then [it might be] shot down in Rome on account of procedural errors."
   • One canon lawyer at Santa Croce charged that the Vatican's new rules on sex abuse trials do not give the defendant the right to confront his accusers, something that the American expert says is hardly a novelty: " The world might be a better place if that were a 'cornerstone of judicial procedure,' but it has never been an absolute principle in church practice, as far as I can see," he said.
   • Another canonist complained that under new Vatican rules "prescription," or the statue of limitations in canon law, can be waived on a case-by-case basis for priests charged with sexual abuse. The canonist said this too violates the natural rights of the priest, an argument our expert wasn't buying.
   "How is prescription an element of natural justice? It may be a wise and prudent measure, but it is a procedural norm that varies widely. For some crimes, in both civil and canon law, there is no prescription. … Canon law is not an adversarial system, and its goal is to determine the truth. If truth and justice are not being done due to a procedural rule, then why shouldn't the rule yield?"
   • Finally, some canonists argued that church law envisions a fitting proportion between one's crime and the penalty. An automatic penalty such as permanent removal from ministry, they argued, is foreign to canonical tradition.
   Not so, our expert said. "What about automatic excommunications for various crimes? Isn't that 'zero tolerance' of certain behaviors?
   "Let's be real here. Canon law doesn't deal in a wide variety of punishments, as does civil law with its numerous lengths of sentences, suspended sentences, community service and all the rest.  . . . Canon law often calls for 'a just penalty,' whatever that is. In this case, fundamentally it comes down to suspension or dismissal. One way to judge what is appropriate might be to ask whether such behavior would disqualify a candidate for the priesthood. If so (as I believe it would), why shouldn't it be disqualifying for continuation in ministry?"
• For U.S. Bishops, a Pause for Discernment
   Zenit, www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=51702 Code: ZE04040202, APRIL 2, 2004
   VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org).- The five-yearly visit to Rome by a group of U.S. bishops is an opportunity for discernment and renewal for a scandal-shaken Church, says John Paul II.
   The Pope made this proposal today when he received a group of U.S. bishops from the ecclesiastical provinces of Atlanta and Miami.
   "Our meetings are taking place at a difficult time in the history of the Church in the United States," the Holy Father told his guests.
   He said he hoped the meetings will "bear particular fruit in a deeper appreciation of the mystery of the Church in all its richness, and a far-reaching discernment of the pastoral challenges facing the bishops of the United States at the dawn of the new millennium."
   The visit has three parts. The first is the personal meeting between the bishops and the Pope. The second involves the bishops praying together, particularly at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. And the third part is an opportunity to meet with members of the Roman Curia.
   At the end of their visit, the Holy Father will meet with groups of bishops to address the challenges facing the Church in the United States.
   "Many of you have already spoken to me of the pain caused by the sexual abuse scandal of the past two years and the urgent need for rebuilding confidence and promoting healing between bishops, priests and the laity in your country," John Paul II said.
   "I am confident that the willingness which you have shown in acknowledging and addressing past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them, will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal," the Pope added.
• Victims of pedophile priest approach hearing with trepidation [James Porter case]
   CBS 4, http://cbs4boston.com/massachusetts/MA--ChurchAbuse-Porte-gn/resources_news_html , By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer, Friday April 02, 2004
   BOSTON (MA) (AP): Christine Hickey won't be in court next week when prosecutors begin their quest to keep notorious pedophile priest James Porter locked up indefinitely. She's afraid she'll have flashbacks to the day she says Porter raped her in a church sacristy when she was 11.
   "I can't see his image in the newspaper without getting just terrified," Hickey said. "I don't think it would help me personally to be there."
   Porter, a former priest in the Fall River Diocese, pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children during the 1950s and 1960s. He was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. He was also convicted in 1992 of sexually abusing a baby sitter in Minnesota.
   Because Porter was sentenced under old laws that required inmates to serve only a portion of their sentences, his prison term ended in January. But a judge ordered him held until a hearing on the state's petition to keep him locked up indefinitely.
   The hearing will begin Monday in Taunton Superior Court, when a judge will be asked to determine whether there is probable cause to believe Porter is a sexually dangerous person. If the judge finds probable case, a full trial will be held.
   For Porter's victims, the prospect of his release is startling.
• Pope shares "pain" of US bishops over sex scandals
   Yahoo! News, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1542&ncid=1542&e=10&u=/afp/20040402/en_afp/vatican_pope_us_church_040402175232 , 12:52 PM ET, Fri Apr 2, 2004
   VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope John Paul II lamented the "pain" of a series of sex scandals involving Roman Catholic priests in the United States, which he said had put the Church in an "increasingly difficult" position in the country.
   In an address to members of the US bishops conference visiting the Vatican (news - web sites), the pope acknowledged the Church in the US was "going through a difficult time" in the aftermath of the scandals.
   "Our meetings are taking place at a difficult time in the history of the Church in the United States. Many of you have already spoken to me of the pain caused by the sexual abuse scandals of the past two years and the urgent need for rebuiliding confidence and promoting healing between bishops, priests and the laity of your country."
   But he said he was "confident" that the willingness shown by US bishops "in acknowledging and addressing past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them," would lead to reconciliation and renewal.
   "Viewed with the eyes of faith, the present moment of difficulty is also a moment of hope," he said.
   The bishops were given the task of rebuilding the credibility of the US Church after the widespread public condemnation which followed a series of sex abuse scandals involving paedophile priests, and attempts by many senior Catholic clergy to cover up abuses by priests under their authority.
• Pope says sex abuse scandal also provides hope, renewal
   Billings Gazette, www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/04/02/build/business/18-vatican-sexabuse.inc , Associated Press, April 2, 2004
   VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II told American bishops Friday that the U.S. church's painful experience in dealing with the clergy sex abuse scandal also provided it with reason for reform and renewal.
   The 83-year-old pope told the bishops from Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas that as leaders of their communities, they needed to be better models and "be the first to conform" their lives to Christ and holiness.
   His comments seemed far more encouraging to the bishops than when he summoned the American church hierarchy to Rome in April 2002, at the height of the scandal, and told U.S. cardinals that there was no place in the priesthood for anyone who would abuse the young.
   "Our meeting is taking place at a difficult time in the history of the church in the United States," John Paul told the nearly 20 prelates in a private audience, according to a copy of the pope's remarks released by the Vatican.
   He said many of them had told him personally of the "pain caused by the sexual abuse scandal of the past two years and the urgent need for rebuilding confidence and promoting healing between bishops, priests and the laity."
   John Paul said he remained confident in the church in America, and confident that the bishops' willingness to address "past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them, will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal."
• Lincoln Diocese settles abuse suit
   Omaha World-Herald, www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=57&u_sid=1050780 , BY STEPHEN BUTTRY, Published Tuesday March 30, 2004
   LINCOLN: The Lincoln Catholic Diocese expressed regret Monday for pain and suffering experienced by an Arizona man who accused a priest of molesting him.
   In statements released by the diocese and the attorney for Robert Goodman of Phoenix, the diocese did not explicitly agree that the Rev. Jerome Murray abused Goodman at St. Joseph Catholic Church and Grade School in York in the 1970s.
   However, a statement by Goodman's attorney, William Walker of Tucson, Ariz., said, "The Diocese acknowledges that Mr. Goodman has presented his claims in good faith and with sincerity. . . . The Diocese regrets any pain or suffering that Mr. Goodman may have experienced."
   A statement released by Monsignor Timothy Thorburn said the diocese was pleased to settle the lawsuit and would have no comment beyond Walker's statement.
   Neither party disclosed whether the diocese paid anything in the settlement. [Posted by Dennis Coday, NCR staff writer at 02:48 PM]
• Bishop urges healing
   The Republican, http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1080899111197715.xml?nntn , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Apr/02/2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): With a mixture of sadness and humor and the promise he will try to be a healer, the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell was installed yesterday as eighth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.
   In his homily at a Mass following his installation, McDonnell recognized what he has said will be a top priority - healing the pain and damage caused by clergy abuse.
   Acknowledging the presence of alleged victims he invited to the installation, he apologized on behalf of the church.
   "From the depth of my being, I apologize to those who have been hurt, who have suffered wrongs from those they should have been able to trust. I hope that trust, that faith can be restored," McDonnell said.
   Some of the alleged victims in attendance lauded the new bishop's sincerity and expressed hope that it will lead to a greater healing.
   Throughout the liturgy there was no reference to McDonnell's predecessor, the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre, who resigned in February amid allegations of sexual abuse.
• Bishop reaches out to alleged victims
   The Republican, http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1080899102197714.xml?nntn , By BEA O'QUINN DEWBERRY, bdewberry@repub.com , Apr/02/2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): Before yesterday, Thomas Martin last set foot inside a Catholic church more than 20 years ago, and that was to attend his brother's funeral.
   Martin, an alleged victim of abuse by defrocked priest Richard R. Lavigne, returned to church yesterday - joining others invited to attend the installation of the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell as eighth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. Like them, he was eager to find solace and support from the church he once served as an altar boy.
   "I was definitely sick to my stomach with a whole flood of emotions: depression, anger, fear, sadness, even that feeling-sorry-for-myself feeling," Martin said as he passed through the ornate doors of St. Michael's Cathedral.
   After McDonnell's homily addressed clergy abuse and the pain and suffering experienced by victims, Martin, 42, said he finally felt some relief.
   "His message definitely hit home with me," the Springfield man said. "I believe wholeheartedly he'll be steadfast in settling this issue in the Springfield diocese. He's a good man walking into a mess."
• Rape victim attacks system [1980-89]
   Belfast Telegraph, www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=507581 , By Jonathan McCambridge, jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk , 02 April 2004
   NORTHERN IRELAND: A BRAVE rape victim today revealed the full horrific details of her nine-year abuse ordeal at the hands of her brother, a Sunday School teacher, starting when she was eight years old.
   Val Hanna, chairperson of the Belfast Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Centre, said she had given up her right to anonymity in order to give strength to other victims and to highlight injustices in the legal system against rape victims.
   Neil Alain Hanna was jailed for 10 years in 2002 for 40 sexual offences against his sister; an appeal against the conviction was recently thrown out by the Belfast Court of Appeal.
   His abuse against his sister began when she was just eight years old in 1980 and continued until 1989.
   Val Hanna spoke about her ordeal today. She said: "I thought this journey for justice would never end because it has taken three years and nine months to reach its conclusion.
   "The system forced me to keep the secret by holding the trial 'in camera' which is supposedly to protect me the victim. 'In camera' means in secret. No public, no press, but more importantly, no support.
   "I sat in that courtroom alone. My counsellor from the Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Centre was not allowed in. It is a disgrace that my abuser was allowed to sit with his family whilst I sat alone as his victim.
   "He was afforded legal representation to defend himself and his rights are always protected. This is not so in the case of a victim. The DPP is not there to represent the victims. They present a statement as a case to court, this leaves the victim afloat like an island in the world of legalese.
   "When I was being abused he was teaching Sunday school, heavily involved in the church and all round good Christian guy.  . . .
• Jehovah's Witnesses join the U.S. religions facing key molestation cases - Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishnas, Evangelical Lutherans.
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1080857602.htm , The Associated Press, By RICHARD N. OSTLING, AP Religion Writer, 5:13 P.M., Apr.01.2004
   NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - They're an all-volunteer organization with little money, and could only muster two dozen attendees to their first national meeting last weekend. But a group called silentlambs [ www.silentlambs.org ] has still gained visibility in its campaign to change the sexual abuse policies of Jehovah's Witnesses.
   Founder William Bowen says silentlambs exists to educate the public and "give a voice to survivors of child sexual abuse that had been silenced by the institution of Jehovah's Witnesses."
   The group claims rules of the Witnesses protect child molesters: The Witnesses, however, insist that they are committed to doing everything their faith allows to prevent abuse.
   Meanwhile, the whole situation highlights the fact that, while the clergy sex abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church has dominated headlines the past two years, smaller American religious bodies are dealing with variations on the same problem.
   The Hare Krishnas, with 100,000 devotees in the United States and Canada, are working on a settlement with 540 students who claim they were abused in boarding schools while their parents were practicing the faith by chanting and begging. A $400 million suit by 91 of them drove the Hindu group into bankruptcy.
   In a trial scheduled to open Monday in Marshall, Texas, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America agencies, including an Ohio seminary, are charged with negligence in ordaining a pastor who molested 14 boys. [...]
   The conflict [regarding Jehovah's Witnesses] escalated in mid-2002 when Kimberlee Norris, a tenacious Fort Worth, Texas, attorney, began working full-time on Witnesses litigation. She has since filed suits for 47 alleged victims in California, Nevada, Oregon and Texas, with 20 more cases in the pipeline.
   Norris targets Watchtower organizations and alleged abusers who are leaders in local congregations. She told the silentlambs she culled the strongest cases from 2,000 people who contacted her, making accusations against 729 Witnesses.
   She says the Witnesses' policy will change only when "the cost is too much, in the court of law or in the court of public opinion."
   Eventually, Norris plans to get testimony from Barbara Anderson of Tullahoma, Tenn. Now disfellowshipped, Anderson says that, while working as a Witnesses headquarters researcher, she compiled an inch-thick dossier about believers' child abuse and other psychological maladies that went to the Governing Body in 1992.
   Says Anderson: "Yes, they knew (about abuse), and didn't do a thing about it."
   On the Net: Silentlambs: http://www.silentlambs.org
   Jehovah's Witnesses news releases: http://www.jw-media.org/newsroom/index.htm?contentbackground.htm
   [COMMENT: The JW's exposure is NOT new. For example, this website's oldest article on the subject is probably at www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/jehovah.htm , of Sep 3 2002, giving the WWW address of Silentlambs, and other newsitems since, all probably through the good offices of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker. To find the newsitems, use the Search panel provided elsewhere by courtesy of LookSmart. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Former Notre Dame principal cleared [1968] - RCC.
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040402/NEWS/404020388/1003/NEWSLETTERS03 , Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com
   FITCHBURG (MA): A former principal of Notre Dame High School has been acquitted of charges that he assaulted a student in 1968.
   Brother Louis Laperle, 76, of Pascoag, R.I., was cleared last week in Fitchburg District Court of charges that he assaulted a student between Jan. 1 and June 30, 1968, when he was principal. He is now retired.
   Brother Laperle was charged with three misdemeanor charges of assault and battery and was found not guilty on all charges, according to Elizabeth Stammo, spokeswoman for Mr. Conte.
   Mr. Conte said last year, at the time Brother Laperle was charged, that the accusation involved indecent assault and battery, but that charge did not exist in 1968 when the alleged incidents happened, so he could only be charged with assault and battery.
   The accuser, who has not been named publicly, is a 52-year-old Lunenburg resident. State police reports said the man left the school because of the alleged abuse.
• Gagnon faces assault charge
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040402/NEWS/404020417/1006/NEWSLETTERS07 , by Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com
   WORCESTER (MA): The Rev. Jean-Paul Gagnon has been charged with indecent assault and battery on a person over age 14 at a time when he was pastor of St. Augustine parish in Millville.
   According to a statement from the office of District Attorney John J. Conte, the offense occurred in Sutton on Oct. 11, 2002. The accuser, who has not been named publicly, was described as a man who was active in the Millville parish.
   The criminal charge was issued through Uxbridge District Court. Rev. Gagnon is scheduled to be arraigned there on May 17.
   Mr. Conte said the allegation against Rev. Gagnon was investigated by the state police detectives unit assigned to his office.
   Rev. Gagnon took personal leave in October 2002 after Timothy P. Staney of Worcester, and his parents, Corrine and Joseph Staney of Spencer, filed a civil suit against him.
   The suit alleges that Rev. Gagnon sexually abused Timothy Staney while he was serving at Holy Name of Jesus parish in Worcester. Rev. Gagnon has denied all the allegations.
   He remained pastor in Millville until last July, when Bishop Daniel P. Reilly put him on administrative leave so he could appoint a permanent pastor there to serve the parishioners. The bishop's action came after an investigation by the diocesan review board.
• With transfer of miter comes hope for trust - RCC. Apology.
   The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/04/02/with_transfer_of_miter_comes_hope_for_trust , By Brian MacQuarrie, Apr/2/2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): In elegant St. Michael's Cathedral yesterday, the transfer of the bishop's miter to a Bronx-born son of Irish immigrants symbolized the Diocese of Springfield's unsettling place at a crossroads of crisis and hope. More than 1,400 friends, family, and parishioners gathered for a centuries-old rite that installed Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell as the eighth leader of the diocese.
   McDonnell, 66, has been charged by Pope John Paul II with bringing stability and healing to a diocese rocked by a flood of clergy sex-abuse allegations that included his predecessor, Bishop Thomas L. Dupre, among dozens of priests who are said to have molested minors.
   Dupre, 70, abruptly resigned in February when confronted with allegations that he had abused two minors in the 1970s. Dupre has been sued by the alleged victims, now 39 and 40, and Hampden District Attorney William Bennett has convened a grand jury to consider criminal complaints against him.
   "From the depths of my being, I apologize to those who have been hurt, who have suffered wrongs from those they should have been able to trust," McDonnell said during the installation. "I am overwhelmingly sorry. I pray for God's help to prevent any such wrong ever happening again."
   Such words will need to be buttressed by active outreach to the abused, greater participation by the laity in diocesan affairs, and sweeping changes in a church hierarchy that is viewed with grave suspicion, according to alleged victims and Catholic activists here.
   "Survivors, in particular, who trusted and have been burned again and again by church officials are wary of giving that trust again," said Peter Pollard, coordinator of the Western Massachusetts chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
• Springfield bishop installed
   Bershire Eagle, www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~7514~2057646,00.html , By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press, Friday, April 02, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): With song, ceremony and a touch of Irish wit, Bishop Timothy McDonnell took over a Springfield Diocese that has been stung by accusations his predecessor molested two boys and is facing lawsuits by alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.
   During his installation ceremony yesterday in St. Michael's Cathedral, McDonnell used his homily to apologize to the victims of clergy abuse.
   "Over the years young people were wronged, and the trust given so freely by their families was betrayed," he said. "It should never have happened, and from the depth of my being I apologize to those that were hurt."
   McDonnell invited alleged victims of abusive priests to the ceremony, including the two men who say they were abused by his predecessor,BishopThomas Dupre. He promised to meet with and listen to the victims.
   "I thank you for being here," he said. "And I will pray for each of you day in and day out every day and I ask you to pray for me.
   "In the name of the church, I apologize," he said. "I am overwhelmingly sorry. I pray to God to help me to prevent any such wrongs and I pray to God that I can be a means of restoring faith." [...]
   McDonnell has already begun to address issues of sex abuse. He met earlier this week the mediator trying to help settle 15 of the 21 lawsuits filed against the church by people who say they were molested by priests.
   Still, about 15 people huddled under umbrellas and a makeshift shelter outside the cathedral in a silent vigil for victims.
   "We want to remind the laity and hierarchy that survivors are present and need to be taken seriously," said Peter Pollard, coordinator of the Western Massa-chu-setts chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
• Davenport Diocese faces new sex abuse lawsuit [1970s Wiebler] - RCC.
   Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1026456&t=Local+News&c=2,1026456 , By Todd Ruger, Friday, April 2nd, 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): A new lawsuit filed against the Catholic Diocese of Davenport claims a former Bettendorf priest admitted molesting at least 12 boys during his career while meeting with church leaders in May 2002, more than 21 months before the diocese publicly sought to defrock him.
   The lawsuit, filed by a man identified only as "Jack Doe," claims the Rev. William Wiebler used his position as a priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Bettendorf to sexually abuse him for two years during the 1970s. The lawsuit states that Doe's father died when he was 5 years old and that the abuse occurred not long thereafter.
   Doe's mother had looked to Wiebler as a positive male role model, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Scott County District Court.
   Wiebler did not deny those assertions of sexual misconduct at a May 2002 meeting between himself, Doe and three church officials, including Bishop William Franklin and Chancellor Irene Loftus, the lawsuit claims.
• Archbishop Kelly will give deposition
   The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/04/02ky/B1-abuse04020-3812.html , By JASON RILEY, jriley@courier-journal.com , Friday, April 02, 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly will have to answer questions under oath from a victim in one of the few sexual abuse lawsuits remaining against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
   Jefferson Circuit Judge Thomas Wine ruled yesterday that Kelly may be deposed in the case of Kyle Burden, the only eligible plaintiff who opted out of the $25.7million settlement of the lawsuits.
   That settlement with 243 plaintiffs was reached in June, and Kelly was never deposed.
   Yesterday's ruling was a major victory for Burden, who has said that he hopes his lawsuit will bring answers to the questions that he has for Kelly.
   "He wants Archbishop Kelly to stand up and say, `Here's what I knew, here's what I did, and here's what I didn't do,'" said Wallace Rogers, Burden's attorney. "It's a big emotional and psychological victory" for his plaintiff.
• Skeptics pray new bishop has healing touch
   Portland Press Herald, www.pressherald.com/news/nemitz/040402malone.shtml , by Bill Nemitz, Friday, April 2, 2004
   PORTLAND (ME): He was never sexually abused by a priest, but as a lawyer, Donald Fontaine has represented two such victims and counseled many others. His education was pure Jesuit, but these days he wants nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church.
   No wonder that, as the faithful entered the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Wednesday to welcome Richard J. Malone as their new bishop, Fontaine stood with a small knot of demonstrators across Cumberland Avenue and impulsively stepped forward to speak through the scratchy bullhorn.
   "I no longer want to belong to the church. I no longer want to attend Mass," Fontaine told his somber audience. "I wish it wasn't so, but it is."
   Therein lies the ultimate challenge facing Malone, who this week became the 11th bishop of the Diocese of Portland. As he takes the crozier and tries to lead his new flock out of the controversy that has raged for the past two years, how can he persuade fallen-away Catholics like Fontaine to follow?
• Sex abuse by priests gives group its mission
   Anchorage Daily News, www.adn.com/alaska/story/4914100p-4848637c.html , By NICOLE TSONG, Published: April 2, 2004
   ANCHORAGE (AK): David Clohessy tucked leaflets into windshield wipers of cars parked in front of Holy Family Cathedral on Thursday and handed the white pieces of paper to churchgoers who would take one as they emerged from noon Mass.
   It's grunt work that has no immediate outcome. But maybe within hours, or weeks, or months or years, a victim who has never spoken about his or her sexual abuse by a priest will pick up the phone and call Clohessy's organization, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP].
   That is all Clohessy, 47, can hope for. Despite the flurry of attention the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal has received in the past two years, Clohessy will continue to hand out leaflets and talk about priest sex abuse even when it seems like no one else cares.
   For Clohessy, the organization's St. Louis-based executive director, Anchorage is another stop on a long road. He is here to talk to victims and offer support, to deliver a letter to church officials about the network and to try to reach others who still need to take the first step and talk about their abuse. He gave a letter to the vicar general Thursday, asking the archdiocese to post information about SNAP in parishes.
   "There's still this enormous backlog of pain," Clohessy said. And most victims will never tell anyone about their abuse, he said.
   Clohessy, who was abused in Missouri in the 1960s and 1970s, has been working for SNAP for about 13 years. He is the network's exuberant, always available spokesman. He tirelessly follows news stories about the Catholic Church and speaks knowledgeably on practically every topic related to clergy sex abuse. But in person, he is often on the verge of tears as he talks about victim suffering, pulling out a crumpled handkerchief and wiping his eyes.
• Priest's name removed from facility [Clark]
   Tri-Valley Herald, www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2058098,00.html , By Melissa Evans, Friday, April 02, 2004
   FREMONT (CA): The parish center at Corpus Christi Catholic Church no longer is dedicated to the memory of Rev. James Clark, after church leaders decided it would not be appropriate to keep the priest's name on the building in the wake of sexual-misconduct accusations brought by three former altar boys.
   Removing Clark's name from the building was a difficult decision, said the Rev. Tim Stier, current pastor of Corpus Christi, who met with Dan McNevin, one of Clark's accusers, shortly before The Argus ran a story last week detailing McNevin's accusations.
   "I believe Dan's story," Stier said. "I felt out of consideration to the alleged and actual victims, it was the right thing to do."
   McNevin, 45, said he was touched by the decision. "It's a gesture that shows a great amount of compassion toward my family and me, as well as the other victims of Father Clark," he said.
   McNevin's lawsuit, filed in December, asks for an unspecified monetary settlement and the removal of the sign. McNevin said he was sexually abused at age 12 after Clark invited the former altar boy to answer phones in the parish office.
• Archbishop to answer questions under oath
   WHAS 11, www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/WHAS11_TOP_archbishoptoanswerquestions.e636b26e.html 07:15 AM EST on Friday, April 2, 2004
   LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A judge has ruled that Louisville Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly may be questioned under oath in a pending lawsuit that accuses a priest of sexual abuse of a child.
   Kyle Burden is the only eligible plaintiff who opted out of the $25.7 million settlement with 243 plaintiffs that was reached in June. Burden has said he hopes his lawsuit will bring answers to the questions that he has for Kelly.
   "He wants Archbishop Kelly to stand up and say, 'Here's what I knew, here's what I did, and here's what I didn't do,"' said Wallace Rogers, Burden's attorney. "It's a big emotional and psychological victory" for his client.
   Burden's lawsuit accuses the Rev. Daniel Clark of fondling him in 1982 after Burden, then 12, got a bloody nose while playing softball at St. Rita, where he attended school and Clark was a priest. Burden alleged that Clark drove him home and fondled him.
   Clark pleaded guilty in 1988 to sexually abusing two boys in 1981 and 1982. He is serving a 10-year prison sentence he received in Bullitt County on sexual abuse charges. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:42 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Friday April 02, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont75.htm
• Principal cleared of child porn charge.
   The West Australian, Perth, W. Australia, "Principal cleared of child porn charge," www.thewest.com.au/20040402/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto122563.html , by Anne Calverley, page 1, Friday April 2 2004
   PERTH: The former principal of Wesley College will have a charge relating to pornographic websites dropped by police today, clearing the way for an unfair dismissal claim against the private boys' school.
   Police prosecutors will apply to dismiss a charge of accessing explicit websites laid against John Bednall, 57, of Mosman Park.
   The besieged principal resigned in August 2002, a month after he was accused of logging on to hundreds of child pornography websites at work.
   Investigations uncovered 330 hits on a wide variety of websites, 338 hits on a Russian boy scout site and, in a single week, 101 hits on one called Johnny Boy Paradise.
   Mr Bednall admitted logging on to the sites but maintained it was for research.
   He pleaded not guilty to one charge under the Censorship Act of using his work computer to obtain an objectionable article.
   Police have admitted it was too difficult to mount a case against him and will apply in the Perth Magistrates Court today to withdraw the charge.
   The decision followed defence calls during a two-day hearing held in December and February for the prosecution to specify the exact date, website address and offensive article.
   The prosecution was given extra time but failed to provide the specific details.
   In February, Magistrate Vicki Stewart warned she would dismiss the case if police did not provide the details to support the charge.
   Police reduced the charge in another appearance earlier this month before deciding this week to drop the case.
   Senior Sergeant Steve Pitman admitted the prosecution encountered problems trying to present complex technical evidence to prove the charge.
   "The charge against Mr Bednall was technical and complex in nature and involved a relatively untested area of law, involving computer crime," Sgt Pitman said last night.
   During the February hearing, police prosecutor Sen. Const. Glenn Lloyd told the court Mr Bednall admitted to police he had accessed the websites and he was the only one using his computer.
   He said forensic imaging was used to retrieve sexually explicit images from computer hard drives at Mr Bednall's work and office but it was too difficult to trace them to an exact date when they might have been downloaded.
   Sen. Const. Lloyd argued the task of detailing every individual access to the website would be exhaustive and time-consuming.
   But Tom Percy QC, for Mr Bednall, said it would be difficult to establish who was using the computer at the time of the alleged offence without specific information.
   He said his client never admitted accessing the sites for perverse or improper reasons but rather for "entirely legitimate educational purposes".
   The West Australian understands Mr Bednall is expected to mount an unfair dismissal case against his former school. [Picture]
   [COMMENT: Readers from other countries who ask themselves how could a man who gave his resignation possibly hope to get money for "unfair dismissal" -- he wasn't dismissed -- need to know that the Australian laws about unfair dismissal are so unfair that, with a lawyer as good as Tom Percy QC, he might win. People ought to express sympathy to the Uniting Church and the Wesley College board. -- FPP 04 Apr 04. COMMENT ENDS.] [Apr 2, 04]
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Saturday April 03, 2004 edition follows:-
• Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell becomes new shepherd of Springfield Diocese
   Iobserve (Catholic Communications Corp.), www.iobserve.org/rn0402a.html , By Peggy Weber
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): With the promise to be a listener and a sincere apology to victims of clergy abuse, Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell was installed as the Eighth Bishop of Springfield in a ceremony rich in tradition at St. Michael's Cathedral on April 1.
   The two-hour ceremony began with Bishop McDonnell's reception at the door of the cathedral and greeting from Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley of Boston. There Archbishop O'Malley presented Bishop McDonnell with a crucifix and holy water.
   Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, papal nuncio, read an Apostolic Letter of Appointment which was then shown to the College of Consultors.
   Bishop McDonnell was then escorted to his cathedra, the cathedral seat and symbol of his apostolic authority.
   Archbishop O'Malley then presented Bishop McDonnell with the diocesan crosier and introduced him to the congregation. There he was met with thunderous applause and a lengthy standing ovation.
   Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:40 PM
• Weeks hears sex charges [1994 approx. Weeks] - RCC.
   Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8346948.htm , By Chris Metinko, Posted on Sat, Apr. 03, 2004
   OAKLAND (CA): The Rev. Donald Weeks, the leader of a Christian monastery and halfway house in East Oakland, was arraigned Friday on 24 counts of unlawful sex with a minor.
   Weeks, 60, was arrested by Oakland police Tuesday at St. Patrick's Abbey, which had been embroiled in a heated-debate since it was disclosed earlier this month that state-designated sexual predator Cary Verse had been allowed to live there.
   According to police, they were investigating Weeks due to accusations by a confidential informant that he had unlawful sex with a teenage boy about 10 years ago. Police say the victim, now 26, confirmed those allegations.
   John Burris, Weeks' defense attorney, claims the informant is a "disgruntled" former abbey employee.
   Weeks, who suffered two heart attacks after his arrest, identifies himself as a Benedictine monk and an ordained priest of the Old Catholic Church. He is not a Roman Catholic priest and has said he is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland.
• $240,000 bail for priest in sex case [1994-96]
   Tri-Valley Herald, www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2060589,00.html , By FROM STAFF REPORTS, Last Updated: Saturday, April 03, 2004
   OAKLAND (CA): A priest who last month gave refuge to a paroled sexual predator was led shackled before an Alameda County Superior Court judge Friday to face charges he repeatedly engaged in oral sex with a teenage boy.
   Father Donald Weeks was dressed in a red jail jumpsuit and his wrists were linked to a chain around his waist as bailiffs ushered him from a holding cell to the courtroom of Judge Winifred Smith.
   The red garb indicated Weeks is being kept separate from the general population behind bars.
   Weeks, 60, was given a copy of the complaint sheet listing 24 felony sex-crime counts filed against him earlier that day. Weeks is accused of either giving or getting oral sex from a teenager about once a month from April 1994 to March 1996.
   Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman, the prosecutor handling the case, faced defense attorneys Arthur Mitchell and Ben Nisenbaum during the brief hearing. Weeks stood grim-faced between his lawyers and sheriff's deputies as Smith set his bail at $240,000 and arranged for him to return to court April 7 to enter his plea.
   Mitchell told Smith that Weeks has medical concerns he wants addressed, but did not elaborate in public. Weeks has diabetes and was hospitalized Tuesday after his arrest by Oakland police, but is now in custody at Santa Rita jail in Dublin.
• Opinions mixed on O'Brien ruling
   The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/chandler/articles/0403react03Z6.html , by Michael Clancy, Apr. 3, 2004
   PHOENIX (AZ): Relief was the predominant emotion at the Diocesan Pastoral Center when Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien was spared a jail term and sentenced March 26 to probation and community service for his conviction in a fatal hit-and-run accident.
   Outside Catholic Church headquarters, the reaction was much more varied, ranging from relief to understanding to outright anger.
   "I, too, am relieved," said the Rev. Chris Carpenter, pastor of Christ the King parish in Mesa. "I think the sentence is just and is the best possible situation both for Bishop O'Brien and for the diocese. Hopefully, all local Catholics can now put this painful time behind us and move into the future."
   Tom Van Dyke of Phoenix saw things differently.
   "I think he got special treatment from the judge," Van Dyke said. "If he wasn't a bishop, he would be serving jail time."
• Archdiocese reports loss of $14m in its central fund
   The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/04/03/archdiocese_reports_loss_of_14m_in_its_central_fund , By Steve Kurkjian, Globe Staff, Apr/3/2004
   BOSTON (MA): Weakened by a decline in contributions from major donors, as well as in gifts and bequests, the central fund of the Boston Archdiocese lost nearly $14 million in the fiscal year 2003, according to the fund's 2003 annual report.
   The fund, which pays for the archdiocese's central operations and outreach programs to minorities and young adults, had an overall deficit of $13.9 million in the fiscal year that ran from July 2002 to June 2003, according to the annual report published in this week's edition of The Pilot.
   The fund showed nearly $24 million in total revenues, gains, and other support, but logged about $38 million in expenses. In the fiscal year ending June 2002, the fund had a $12 million deficit.
   "Despite the generosity of many, our support and revenue for the year 2003 was significantly lower than in prior years, resulting in a significant operating shortfall that was funded through a combination of debt and cash reserves," said David W. Smith, chancellor of the archdiocese, in a written statement published in The Pilot, the newspaper of the archdiocese.
   The annual Catholic Appeal, the church's principal fund-raising account, dropped to $7.6 million last year, down from $9 million in 2002 and $16.2 million the year before that. Other contributions, bequests, and grants fell to $2.8 million last year, down from $8.6 million in 2002, according to the financial report.
   To avoid an even more serious deficit in the overall $44.7 million budget, the church made deep cuts in its spending on education and pastoral programs. The annual report showed that spending on support services for youth, family life, and ethnic apostolates was slashed from $11.7 million to $7.4 million. In addition, support for parochial schools was cut from $4.6 million in 2002 to $1.8 million in 2003.
• State Wants Porter Locked Up Again
   Turn to 10, www.turnto10.com/news/2971485/detail.html
   TAUNTON, Mass. -- Convicted pedophile priest James Porter will be back in a Massachusetts courtroom next week as state prosecutors ask to have him locked up indefinitely as a sexually dangerous offender.
   Porter pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children while he was a priest during the 1950s and '60s.
   He was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison, but because of lenient sentencing laws in effect at the time of the crimes, Porter completed his sentence two months ago.
   Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh wants Porter to be civilly committed.
   A probable cause hearing set to begin Monday in Taunton Superior Court will determine whether there is enough evidence to hold a full trial about Walsh's request.
   Several of Porter's victims as well as Porter's ex-wife are expected to be called as witnesses by prosecutors.
• Porter timeline
   Star Tribune, www.startribune.com/stories/462/4702859.html ,
   UNITED STATES:
   TIMELINE: Massachusetts exposed ex-priest James Porter as a sexual predator in 1993, when he pleaded guilty to molesting 28 boys and girls. Now the district attorney's office in Taunton, Mass., is fighting to block the 69-year-old Porter's release from prison. Here's a chronology of Porter's life:
   Jan. 2, 1935: Porter is born to William and Elda Porter in East Boston, Mass.
   1948-52: Attends Boston College High School.
   1956: As a seminarian in charge of a dormitory at a Catholic youth camp in Massachusetts, Porter molests a 12-year-old boy who grows up to be an FBI agent. The agent says he reported the incident to a camp supervisor who told him, "I'll take care of it."
   April 1960: Ordained and assigned to St. Mary's Church, North Attleboro.
   1960-63: Molests many parish children.
• Ex-wife: Porter should stay locked up [Porter] - RCC.
   Star Tribune, www.startribune.com/stories/462/4702655.html , by Tony Kennedy, April 4, 2004
   MINNESOTA: Verlyne Gray has a new story to tell about James Porter, the most prolific clerical sex offender that Minnesota has ever known.
   Ten years ago, Gray was Porter's supportive wife, standing by his side during a New England court trial that ended with Porter pleading guilty to sexually abusing 28 kids from Roman Catholic parishes in Fall River and North Attleboro, Mass.
   "This is a good person," she told Newsweek magazine before the trial.
   On Monday, Gray, a long-time Oakdale resident, will return to Massachusetts with three of Porter's sexual abuse victims from Minnesota. Their intent is to block his release from prison. At a hearing that could last all week, prosecutors in Taunton, Mass., will fight for Porter to be classified as a sexually dangerous person.
   If Gray and 11 other prosecution witnesses are not persuasive, Porter will walk away from the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater where he has been held since his 1993 conviction. If the courts agree that Porter, 69, is still a threat, he will continue to be held indefinitely.
   "I wish he was sentenced to life without parole, but that didn't happen," said Gray, who fears he would return to Minnesota to kidnap their youngest son from grade school.
   Gray divorced Porter in 1995 after a painful awakening from her state of denial.
   She now agrees with prosecutors and victims' lawyers who have documented that Porter voraciously preyed on more than 100 children in Massachusetts, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada and Minnesota during his career as a young, charismatic priest and later as a househusband in Oakdale who briefly worked as a Burger King store manager in St. Paul. Although Gray was blind to her husband's deceit during their marriage, she said she has grown to realize that he not only victimized family baby-sitters, but that he also sexually abused at least one of their four children.
   Their oldest son, Sean, died last June of an accidental methadone overdose in a drug rehabilitation halfway house in Ramsey County, according to his death certificate. Gray said she believes her son's death at age 23 was linked to personal struggles that stemmed from childhood sexual abuse by Porter. In puberty, Sean sexually abused a younger boy after first terrorizing the boy with the threat of flushing him down a toilet, Gray said. He told authorities that his father had abused him.
   At Sean's funeral, Gray displayed photographs of her son, but only after she cut out all images of Porter.
• Australian Anglicans under fire over sex survey for priests - Anglicans.
   Q; www.q.co.za/2004/04/0402_aussiePriests.htm , April 1 2004
   SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (AFP) - The Anglican Church in Australia was criticised Thursday for demanding would-be priests complete a detailed questionnaire about their sexuality before they can become ministers.
   The move by the Sydney diocese was slammed as invasion of privacy by civil libertarians but supporters said it would help prevent sexual abuse in the church.
   The eight-age questionnaire quizzes potential clerics about child abuse, homosexuality, sex outside marriage, sexual harassment and whether they use pornography.
   It also probes involvement in the occult, misuse of drugs, maltreatment of animals, criminal conduct and financial conduct.
   Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen said anyone wanting to become a new priest in the Sydney diocese or transferring to its ministry from another region had to complete the questionnaire.
   Jensen said the church did not want to rely solely on police records to assess whether a candidate was suitable and the questionnaire would help make an assessment of their character.
   "We are trying to help people who are entering the ministry and trying to protect the churches and people in them," he said.
• Cleric may be questioned [1981-82]
   Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/04/03/loc_loc2louchu.html , The Associated Press, April 3 2004
   LOUISVILLE (KY): A judge has ruled that Louisville Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly may be questioned under oath in a pending lawsuit that accuses a priest of sexual abuse of a child.
   Kyle Burden is the only eligible plaintiff who opted out of the $25.7 million settlement with 243 plaintiffs that was reached in June. Burden has said he hopes his lawsuit will bring answers to the questions that he has for Kelly.
   "He wants Archbishop Kelly to stand up and say, 'Here's what I knew, here's what I did, and here's what I didn't do,' " said Wallace Rogers, Burden's attorney. "It's a big emotional and psychological victory" for his client.
   Burden's lawsuit accuses the Rev. Daniel Clark of fondling him in 1982 after Burden, then 12, got a bloody nose while playing softball at St. Rita, where he attended school and Clark was a priest. Burden alleged that Clark drove him home and fondled him.
   Clark pleaded guilty in 1988 to sexually abusing two boys in 1981 and 1982. He is serving a 10-year prison sentence he received in Bullitt County on sexual abuse charges.
• Mahony to Testify in Abuse Lawsuit [1970s O'Grady]
   LOS ANGELES (CA): Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mahony3apr03,1,1853426.story?coll=la-headlines-california , By Jean Guccione, Apr 3 2004
   Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is scheduled to testify about a Stockton priest accused of molesting a boy three decades ago, beginning what could be a series of depositions as the Roman Catholic Church grapples with lawsuits stemming from the clergy sex scandals.
   Mahony has agreed to give a deposition April 22 in a civil case involving a former priest he supervised two decades ago as bishop of Stockton. The accused cleric was convicted of child molestation in 1994 and spent six years in state prison.
   The lawsuit was brought by a man who said he was molested by Oliver Francis O'Grady in the 1970s while he was attending St. Anne Catholic School in Lodi. He has sued the Diocese of Stockton for negligence, claiming that former bishops, including Mahony, transferred O'Grady to other church parishes despite their knowledge that the priest was a child molester. Mahony denies that charge.
   "We are not resisting," J. Michael Hennigan, an attorney for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, said about Mahony's decision to testify. Stockton is likely to be just the start.
   The Los Angeles Archdiocese is being sued by more than 500 people who say they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests
• The bishop's work - RCC.
   Berkshire Eagle, www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~6267~2060059,00.html , Saturday, April 03, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): Bishop Timothy McDonnell sounded the right note in his first homily, apologizing "in the name of the church" to the child victims of sexual abuse by clergymen and promising not to tolerate such behavior. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield faces no fewer than 21 lawsuits alleging molestation by priests in Western Massachusetts, and its former bishop, Thomas Dupre, is the first in the United States to face indictment by a grand jury. Bishop McDonnell comes in with a mandate to heal suffering, restore faith and settle lawsuits. He's certainly got his work cut out for him.
• Pope tells bishops to find hope in scandal
   The Post and Courier, www.charleston.net/stories/040304/wor_03vatican.shtml , Associated Press, Saturday, April 3, 2004
   VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II told U.S. bishops Friday that the clergy sex abuse scandal can be a renewing "moment of hope" for the church in the United States despite "outspoken hostility" from many of the faithful.
   The Most Rev. David Baker, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, was among the group of about 20 prelates from the southeastern United States who met with the pope in a private audience.
   John Paul told them he had confidence in the American church, and was sure that the bishops' willingness to address "past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them, will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal."
   "Viewed with the eyes of faith, the present moment of difficulty is also a moment of hope," the pope said.
   The prelates were the first of several groups who will make their "ad limina" visits to Rome this year. The regular visits are scheduled every five years.
• Couple's Trek Aims To Aid Clergy Sex Abuse Victims [1970s Pritchard] - RCC.
   Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/religion/8346774.htm , By Brandon Bailey, Sat, Apr. 03, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: Their backpacks filled with printed fliers, bottled water and extra socks, a San Jose husband and wife launched a three-day, 57-mile campaign Friday to remind Roman Catholics that victims of clergy sexual abuse aren't ready for the issue to go away.
   John Salberg, 39, helped bring a national scandal home to the Diocese of San Jose two years ago when he became the first of more than 20 men to disclose they had been abused by a respected priest in the 1970s.
   This weekend, Salberg and Lori Uchiyama say they will walk from San Francisco to San Jose. They are urging other victims to come forward and accusing church officials of withholding information about the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard's career.
   The couple plans to stop at several churches and schools where Pritchard served before arriving at noon Sunday outside St. Martin of Tours Church in San Jose, where Salberg and many of his former classmates say they were abused.
   He and Uchiyama said they want other victims to feel comfortable seeking help and church officials to accept responsibility for past abuse.
• Priest surrenders in rape case [1978-80 Behan; OMI]
   Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8345609.htm?ERIGHTS=640487717681933312philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y , By RON GOLDWYN, goldwyr@phillynews.com , Sat, Apr. 03, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): The Rev. James J. Behan surrendered to authorities yesterday on rape and abuse charges, while his lawyer argued that the case should be dismissed because it falls outside the statute of limitations.
   Behan, 60, a priest of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, is the first clergy member charged by the city grand jury that has been investigating sexual abuse of minors by priests and other religious officials.
   The grand jury has been at work since April 2002 investigating clergy abuse.
   Behan was charged Wednesday with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors and other crimes for allegedly molesting a Northeast Catholic High School student from 1978 through 1980.
   Behan is expected to be released today on $10,000 cash bail, according to his lawyer, Michael McGovern.
   The grand jury presentment said Behan's alleged sexual abuse of the complainant "included making him perform [sex acts and] Behan's infliction on the boy of oral sex, humping, fondling and kissing."
• Church removes name of priest from building [Clark] - RCC. Altar boys.
   Alameda Times-Star, www.timesstar.com/Stories/0,1413,125~1486~2060708,00.html , By Melissa Evans, Saturday, April 03, 2004
   FREMONT (CA): The parish center at Corpus Christi Catholic Church no longer is dedicated to the memory of Rev. James Clark, after church leaders decided it would not be appropriate to keep the priest's name on the building in the wake of sexual-misconduct accusations brought by three former altar boys.
   Removing Clark's name from the building was a difficult decision, said the Rev. Tim Stier, current pastor of Corpus Christi, who met with Dan McNevin, one of Clark's accusers, shortly before The Argus ran a story last week detailing McNevin's accusations.
   "I believe Dan's story," Stier said. "I felt out of consideration to the alleged and actual victims, it was the right thing to do."
   McNevin, 45, said he was touched by the decision. "It's a gesture that shows a great amount of compassion toward my family and me, as well as the other victims of Father Clark," he said.
   McNevin's lawsuit, filed in December, asks for an unspecified monetary settlement and the removal of the sign. McNevin said he was sexually abused at age 12 after Clark invited the former altar boy to answer phones in the parish office.
   Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:21 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Saturday April 03, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont75.htm
• Police defend Bednall charges. [2002 Bednall] - Wesley College.
   The West Australian, Perth, W. Australia, "Police defend Bednall charges," www.thewest.com.au/20040403/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto122635.html , By Anne Calverley and Susan Hewitt, page 6, April 3, 2004
   PERTH: POLICE have defended their decision to charge a former Wesley College principal for accessing pornographic websites despite dropping the charges yesterday for a lack of evidence.
   Almost two years of anxiety for John Bednall came to an end in less than two minutes in Perth Magistrate's Court when Magistrate Vicki Stewart dismissed formally a charge of accessing explicit websites.
   The ordeal is over for the 57-year-old Mosman Park man with both the police and Director of Public Prosecutions confirming no further charges would be laid against him.
   DPP Robert Cock QC said any further action would not be in the public interest given the lapse of time since the incident.
   Mr Bednall had pleaded not guilty to one charge under the Censorship Act of using his work computer to obtain an objectionable article in July 2002.
   Investigations uncovered 330 hits on a variety of websites, 338 hits on a Russian boy scout site and, in a single week, 101 hits on one called Johnny Boy Paradise.
   The besieged principal resigned a month after being accused of logging on to hundreds of child pornography websites at work, and has not worked since. Mr Bednall admitted logging on to the sites but maintained it was for research.
   He has not ruled out launching an unfair dismissal claim against the exclusive private boys' school.
   Police prosecutors sought advice from the DPP about the case after encountering problems part-way through a hearing earlier this year.
   Neither the police nor Mr Cock would disclose the nature of the advice requested or given in relation to the case. The difficulty arose in the prosecution's failure to provide an exact time or date Mr Bednall allegedly accessed the websites, claiming it was too hard.
   Child abuse investigators had a choice of charging him with the more serious charge of possessing child pornography, which is heard in the District Court and attracts a maximum of five years jail, or, as they did in this case, opting for the lesser charge in the lower court.
   It is arguably easier to prosecute the possession charge because prosecutors need not specify a time or date, only that he had accessed the explicit images.
   Sen. Sgt Steve Pitman said it was only the second time the Censorship Act charge had been prosecuted, both unsuccessfully, in what was a relatively untested area of law.
   But he said each case was judged on its merits and the strength of the evidence to determine the more appropriate charge.
   After leaving court yesterday, Mr Bednall said he planned to ask the moderator of the Uniting Church to help him seek reconciliation with Wesley College.
   Wesley College school council, headed by chairman Peter Shack, refused to be drawn into the matter yesterday.
   [COMMENT: Confused? He is reported as considering making a request for compensation, yet on the other hand he seeks reconciliation. And, being an educated man, he stated that he was doing it for research. Overall, the refusal of the police to prosecute him for possessing child pornography, and their action in taking it in a lower court which can impose less penalties, makes it appear that all is not well in the State of Western Australia. Anyone reading these webpages would not be unduly surprised at anything. COMMENT ENDS.] [Apr 3, 04 ]
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sunday April 04, 2004 edition follows:-
• Gay activists in church protest
Express (Britain), www.express.co.uk/story.html?story=6&r=108112049518211363
[Might not be usable. Today, April 08 2004 this URL displayed a newsitem dated today April 08, "Adoption plans speed relatives hunt"]
   Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:45 PM
• Reports Over Doctrinal Congregation Refuted
Zenit, www.zenit.org/english [and browse from there], "Reports Over Doctrinal Congregation Refuted; Dicastery's Secretary Says No New Court Set Up;" Code: ZE04040404; April 4, 2004
   VATICAN CITY, Zenit - Contrary to some media reports, John Paul II has not instructed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to establish a new court, says a Vatican aide.
   Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the dicastery, said that the Vatican congregation has been a court since its founding; thus to speak of a "court" in connection with it is nothing new.
   "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has always exercised judicial jurisdiction in some specific cases, involving defense of the faith, morality, the dignity of the sacraments, especially of reconciliation and the Eucharist," he said.
   "Some more serious offenses ('delicta graviora') have always been the exclusive competence of the congregation," Archbishop Amato told Vatican Radio.
   "The Pope has recently reconfirmed this competence and updated both the procedures as well as the list of 'delicta graviora,' such as clerics' abuse of minors," he said.
   These novelties are included in John Paul II's 2001 apostolic letter "Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela," on the norms regarding the more serious crimes reserved to the doctrinal congregation.
   "In any case, it's about details of a technical and juridical character which have been decided on the competence of the congregation itself," Archbishop Amato explained. "In fact, it is not a question of a new court."
   He said that the confusion might stem from a recent decision "to prepare some premises in the same building of the Holy Office to ensure more suitable environments to offer this service."
• Priest almost drove victim to suicide [1987 + Kinsey]
   Wales on Sunday, icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=14115794&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=priest-almost-drove-victim-to-suicide-name_page.html , by Laura Kemp, Apr 4 2004
   WALES:A former choirboy who was groomed for sex abuse by a Welsh priest last night said it nearly drove him to suicide. Cardiff-born John Kinsey, a novice monk at Belmont Abbey in Herefordshire, was jailed for five years this week for the indecent assault of three schoolboys. One of them, a 32-year-old computer programmer, is now demanding an apology from the abbey, who, he says, allowed the priest to continue preying on young boys.
   "I joined the abbey for the sixth-form," said Kinsey's victim, from Hereford. "I met Brother John as soon as I started at the abbey and thought he was kind and friendly to the boys. "But it became apparent almost as soon as I started that Brother John had his favourites and I was one of them. "He used to give me chocolates and treats, which are always lucrative currency in a boarding school." But in the spring term of 1987, Kinsey waged his first sexual attack on the young boy.
   "When the abuse first began I had a real sense of disbelief," he said. "I was shocked and just froze. I just wanted to get away as fast as I could." From then on until the student left the abbey when he was 19, the abuse continued on a weekly basis. Eventually the ordeal became too much for the victim, who failed his A-levels at the abbey and was forced to re-sit them the next year. By that point Kinsey had left for Rome University to study theology.
   But on the eve of his return, the suicidal victim felt he could no longer suffer in silence and told one of the other monks at the school. "But nothing was done when Brother John returned, so I confronted him myself," said the man. "I told him I knew everything about what had been going on and that I knew there were other victims. "Eventually he told me about another boy he had abused. "He also told me that it was my fault and that I was somehow responsible for his actions.
   "Then he became extremely apologetic and said he would never do it again." He claimed Kinsey offered him £400 and also invited the 19-year-old boy to his parents' home in Cardiff. That was the last he saw of Kinsey - until he returned to the abbey to confront the priest in 1993. "I was angry because I found out he had been ordained as a Catholic priest despite the fact that at least one person at Belmont Abbey knew what he had done," he claimed.
   "I told him twice that I had forgiven him for what he had done in the hope that it would make me feel better. "But unfortunately the anger has never dissipated." The former choirboy finally went to the police with his allegations in September 2001 after he was advised to contact them by his counsellor.
   Around six months after he gave his formal statement, the victim learned that two more former schoolboys had come forward with similar stories about Kinsey. On Thursday at Worcester Crown Court, the trio finally saw justice done when 46-year-old Kinsey was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault.
   Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Geddes told Kinsey: "You were a Roman Catholic priest and an initiate monk and, as such, had access to the boys. "You know that you should have been someone the boys could trust absolutely. Instead, you abused that trust and indecently assaulted three boys aged between 14 and 16. "The damage you have done to them is incalculable."
   After the hearing, the victim said he may pursue the Catholic Church for compensation. "Belmont Abbey has handled this situation badly," the victim said. "They have dealt with it without compassion, charity or sympathy." Last night a spokesman for the abbey said: "We can only hope that the appeal procedures are concluded justly and quickly so that we can try to deal with some of the issues. In the meantime of course we are unable to comment on the case."
Have your say on the News Messageboard: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/messageboard/
• Hudson man forms group for victims of clergy abuse
   Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2004/04/04/news/top_news/01fa4034d8fce51086256e6c00199644.txt , By PAT KINNEY, Assistant City Editor , Sunday, April 04, 2004
   HUDSON --- A Hudson man and former Dubuque police officer --- who alleges he is a survivor of child sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church --- is organizing a Northeast Iowa chapter of a national support group for similar victims.
   Steve Theisen, a self-employed safety consultant, is starting a chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
   SNAP, as the group is called, would hold meetings in Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Dubuque and Mason City, all within the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Times and locations have not been determined.
   "Basically, it would be a safe place where victims of any religious sexual abuse will have a chance to come and feel comfortable around other victims and talk if they desire to," Theisen said.
   Age and denomination don't matter.
   "It's not just for victims that were abused as children," he added. "It's also for vulnerable adults --- those adults who went to a spiritual leader and were subsequently sexually abused by them."
   The meetings will be confidential. "There will be no media allowed, no religious (ordained church personnel) allowed, unless the religious were abused themselves," Theisen said. "It's just an opportunity for victims to realize they're not out there by themselves. They're not alone."
   Theisen has attended SNAP meetings in Minnesota and western Iowa. He decided to form a local chapter out of frustration with what he feels is a lack of progress by the Archdiocese of Dubuque in investigating his own case, first reported to them about a year ago.
• Decades after murder trial, questions hang over community [1955]
   Star-Telegram, www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/local/8352432.htm , By Bob Ray Sanders, Star-Telegram Staff Writer, Posted on Sun, Apr. 04, 2004
   UNITED STATES: A 16-year-old black girl, brutally raped and murdered in 1955, cries from the grave for justice. In the past three columns I've told the story of Bennie Faye Lennox, a student at I.M. Terrell High School, whose mutilated body was found July 27, 1955, in a wooded area down the hill from the Butler Place "projects" where she lived.
   Her death caused quite a stir in the segregated black community of Fort Worth, as speculation mounted about who could have done such a crime.
   Many in the community thought two white men found fighting in the area the night before might have had something to do with the killing. Others pointed fingers at a white store owner in the neighborhood who they say had some relationship with Bennie Faye or her mother.
   Still others -- some to this day -- believe that the pastor of her church, the Rev. L.C. Henegan, was responsible.
   Mildred B. Ballard, 78, who said she was with the woman who discovered Bennie Faye's body that Wednesday morning, lived behind the historic St. John Baptist Church where Henegan was the new pastor. She sang in the church choir at the time.
   "Henegan did it," she repeated again last week. "Didn't nobody do it but him."
   As to rumors about white racists and the store owner (who will not be named in this column), Ballard insists, "White people ain't did this."
   Ballard and others cite Henegan's penchant for young girls.
• L.A. cardinal slated to testify in sex abuse trial [1980s O'Grady]
   Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8352907.htm , Associated Press, Sun Apr 4 2004
   LOS ANGELES - Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is scheduled to give testimony this month in a clergy molestation lawsuit that could mark the first in a series of depositions by the leader of the nation's largest archdiocese in sex abuse cases against priests.
   Mahony will give testimony April 22 in a civil case involving former priest Oliver Francis O'Grady, whom Mahony supervised two decades ago while serving as bishop of Stockton.
   O'Grady was convicted of child molestation in a separate case 10 years ago and spent six years in state prison.
   The lawsuit was filed by a man who said he was molested by O'Grady in the 1970s while he was attending St. Anne Catholic School in Lodi. The man has sued the Diocese of Stockton for negligence, claiming former bishops, including Mahony, transferred O'Grady to other churches despite their knowledge that the priest was a child molester. Mahony denies that allegation.
   More than 500 people who claim they were sexually assaulted as children by Catholic priests have filed negligence suits against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. In the suits, the alleged victims contend church leaders did not do enough to protect children.
• Public defender denied [Hollingsworth]
   The Hawk Eye, www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln7_0403.html
   By DOROTHY de SOUZA GUEDES dotdsg@thehawkeye.com When Harry Frederick Hollingsworth turned himself in at the Des Moines County Courthouse on March 23, he had a public defender in tow.
   There was a warrant out for Hollingsworth's arrest on a Class D felony charge of sexual abuse by a counselor or therapist, but he had not been served.
   A former pastor of Danville Baptist Church, the 57-year-old Hubbard, Texas, man was arrested after he appeared in court and was processed at jail and filled out a request to have an attorney appointed.
   Associate District Court Judge Mark Kruse set a preliminary hearing for April 12 and released Hollingsworth without requiring him to post bond. The judge, however, denied Hollingsworth's application for court-appointed counsel.
   So why did Public Defender D.J. Arbabha show up with Hollingworth? [...]
   Iowa law permits a public defender to make a temporary determination if someone is eligible for a public defender even before the person files an application for appointment. Then it's up to a judge to decide whether to make the appointment.
   People with the financial resources to hire an attorney often do so even before they are arrested. Public defenders don't want their clients to be prejudiced during that time period, Sallen said.
   "We believe the best services that can be provided by an attorney are from the beginning of a case," Sallen said.
• A 'faithful friend' for the diocese
   Richmond Times-Dispatch, www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031774681640&path=!news&s=1045855934842 , by Alberta Lindsey, Apr 4, 2004
   The Most Rev. Francis X. DiLorenzo is laid back enough to greet his new flock with "aloha."
   But he's tough enough to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy when it comes to priest sexual abuse of children.
   DiLorenzo, who will become bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond on May 24, has led the Diocese of Honolulu for about 10½ years.
   During his tenure, he removed five priests for sexually abusing minors. Four of them were quietly dismissed several years before the national sexual-abuse scandal broke in 2002.
   Patrick Downes, spokesman for the Honolulu diocese, said DiLorenzo spoke out in Dallas in 2002 when the U.S. Conference of Bishops was ironing out a plan for dealing with sexual misconduct.
   DiLorenzo told fellow bishops that just one incident of abuse is enough to tarnish the priesthood, Downes said in a phone interview.
   "He's given the people of Hawaii trust that the diocese would do the right thing," Downes added. "He's been good for us, and we are going to miss him."
• Ex-priest's former wife to testify against him; JUSTICE:James Porter's ex-wife will join with some of his sex-abuse victims to keep him jailed
   Dulith News Tribune, www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/8352049.htm , Associated Press, Sun Apr 4 2004
   MINNEAPOLIS - Ten years ago, Verlyne Gray played the role of supportive wife of James Porter, a former priest and prolific clerical sex offender.
   Gray stood by Porter's side during a New England court trial that ended with Porter pleading guilty to sexually abusing 28 children from Roman Catholic parishes in Fall River and North Attleboro, Mass.
   "This is a good person," she told Newsweek before the trial.
   On Monday, Gray, a longtime Oakdale, Minn., resident, will return to Massachusetts with three of Porter's sexual abuse victims from Minnesota. Their intent is to block his release from prison. At a hearing that could last all week, prosecutors in Taunton, Mass., will fight for Porter to be classified as a sexually dangerous person.
   If Gray and 11 other prosecution witnesses are not persuasive, Porter will walk away from the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater, where he has been held since his 1993 conviction. If the courts agree that Porter, 69, is still a threat, he will remain in custody indefinitely.
   "I wish he was sentenced to life without parole, but that didn't happen," said Gray, who fears he would return to Minnesota to kidnap their youngest son from grade school.
   Gray divorced Porter in 1995. She now agrees with prosecutors and victims' lawyers who have documented that Porter preyed on more than 100 children in Massachusetts, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada and Minnesota during his career as a young, charismatic priest and later as a househusband in Oakdale who briefly worked as a Burger King store manager in St. Paul.
   Gray said she has grown to realize that he not only victimized family baby sitters, but that he also sexually abused at least one of their four children.
   Their oldest son, Sean, died last June of an accidental methadone overdose in a drug rehabilitation halfway house, according to his death certificate. Gray said she believes her son's death at age 23 was linked to personal struggles that stemmed from childhood sexual abuse by Porter.
   "Here's this monster and his own wife didn't even know what he was doing," said James Grimm, 46, of Bemidji, Minn. "People like him are masters of deception. There's no way you couldn't expect him to find more victims if he is let out."
• Bedford priest answers the call
   Star Telegram, www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/local/states/texas/northeast/8352333.htm?1c , By Darren Barbee, Sun Apr 4 2004
   BEDFORD - He trusted the priest. Twenty years his senior, the man was his teacher and friend.
   "He wined and dined me," the Rev. John Robert Skeldon said.
   But when the priest touched him inappropriately -- a moment that nearly caused him to leave the seminary where the priest taught -- Skeldon froze.
   Skeldon felt betrayed and confused, but he decided to continue in the seminary after the older priest was asked to leave.
   Seven years later, Skeldon's smooth face and thin frame give him a boyish quality at age 30.
   For the past four weeks, he's been settling in at St. Michael Catholic Church in Bedford, the parish he attended as a teen-ager. [...]
   With his fellow priest and members of the congregation in tears, he apologized for all of the hurt that he was not responsible for.
   And he told the story of how his shepherd had become a wolf. How an older priest had pursued, propositioned and taken advantage of his power and authority, Skeldon said.
   The priest, whom Skeldon refused to name, is no longer at St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, where he taught. The rector of the seminary, the Rev. Brendan Cahill, could not be reached for comment last week.
• Rapist Porter faces commitment trial
   Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3217 , By Dave Wedge, Sunday, April 4, 2004
   UNITED STATES: A judge faced this week with deciding whether pedophile ex-priest James R. Porter should be freed or remain locked up may hear evidence that the convicted rapist molested his own children, the Herald has learned.
   "In 14 years as a prosecutor, he's the most dangerous man I've ever seen," Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said yesterday of Porter. "Every opportunity he has had to be near children, he's molested them. At parishes in Attleboro, Fall River, New Bedford, Minnesota. Even in his own home."
   Porter's ex-wife, Verlyne Gray of Minnesota, has alleged that Porter molested three of their four children, including one son who committed suicide last year.
   Gray is expected to be among several witnesses to testify starting tomorrow in Taunton Superior Court as prosecutors seek to have Porter committed as a sexually dangerous person.
   Porter was sentenced in 1993 to 18-to-20 years in prison for sexually abusing 28 Massachusetts children. He also was convicted in 1992 of sexually abusing a babysitter in Minnesota.
   Because of outdated sentencing laws, his bid ended in January, prompting Walsh's office to seek a civil commitment to keep the serial pedophile locked in a treatment center. He is currently incarcerated pending the outcome of Walsh's petition.
   Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:04 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sunday April 04, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont75.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Monday April 05, 2004 edition follows:-
• Ferns diocese settles four cases of abuse by Fortune and Grennan
   One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/fernsdiocese , by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent Irish Times, http://www.ireland.com
   IRELAND: The Catholic diocese of Ferns has said it has reached settlement with three men who were victims of abuse by the late Father Seán Fortune and with Ms Fiona Gahan who was abused at Monageer by the late Father James Grennan.
   It is understood the men abused by Father Fortune received amounts of €300,000, €250,000 and €135,000.
   Two of the abused came forward after the BBC's Suing the Pope was broadcast in March 2002. One of the men featured in that programme, the director/founder of the One in Four organisation, Mr Colm O'Gorman, received €300,000 in settlement from the diocese last April.
   Negotiations are continuing on settlement with Mr Pat Jackman and Mr Damien McAleen, who also featured in the programme.
   It was alleged that Father Grennan, the parish priest at Monageer, Co Wexford, sexually abused Ms Fiona Gahan when she was 12, and other girls.
   On February 20th last year at Wexford Circuit Court her barrister, Mr Stephen Lanigan-O'Keeffe, criticised the diocese for what he claimed was its obstruction at every procedural step in his efforts to have an application for discovery in the case transferred to the High Court.
   A discovery order had been issued to the diocese by Wexford Circuit Court in July 2002.
   Mr Lanigan-O'Keeffe's application was granted, but an application by the diocese at the same hearing, that restrictions on media reporting of the case be imposed, was refused.
   A "joint statement" last night, issued by the Ferns communications office, read: "The litigation between Fiona Gahan and the Diocese of Ferns has been resolved. The diocese wishes to acknowledge publicly the hurt experienced by Fiona Gahan.
   "Bishop Walsh and the Gahan family urge that the differences surrounding the events of 1988 be set aside in the interests of all involved."
   A separate statement said: "To clarify recent media speculation regarding settlements reached in the case of the late Seán Fortune, there have been three such settlements in recent times." © The Irish Times
   Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:14 PM
!!!: Ferns: Abuse settlement questions; Close your eyes, and ... [1988, at Confirmation classes]
   One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/fernsabuse , from Irish Examiner, By Neans McSweeney
   IRELAND: Serious questions remain unanswered now the Catholic Church has settled a legal action with an alleged victim of clerical sexual abuse in a Wexford diocese plagued by allegations, a victims’ group says.
   The Diocese of Ferns has agreed an undisclosed settlement with 27-year-old Fiona Gahan, a victim of alleged clerical sexual abuse in the parish of Monageer in 1988. It brings to at least six the number of settlements agreed in the region.
   Ms Gahan was 12 when abused on the altar of her local church by the late Fr Jim Grennan. It is alleged Fr Grennan ordered Ms Gahan and 10 other schoolgirls to close their eyes during a pre-Confirmation ceremony and fondle his genitals.
   In a joint statement the diocese confirmed legal proceedings between Ms Gahan and the Diocese of Ferns had been resolved.
   "The diocese wishes to acknowledge publicly the hurt experienced by Fiona Gahan. Bishop Walsh and the Gahan family urge that the differences surrounding the events of 1988 be set aside in the interests of all involved," said Fr John Carroll, Ferns Diocesan spokesman.
   But abuse victim Colm O'Gorman and director of the support group, One in Four, says while the Church has faced up to its responsibility in the case, the South Eastern Health Board, the Department of Education and the gardaí still have questions to answer.
   He said these must be answered at the ongoing Ferns Inquiry in Dublin.
   "Questions remain unanswered by the State, which validated this abuse. It has to explain why someone who a health board said had a case to answer was allowed to be reinstated and reintroduced to the parish and became manager of the local school.
   "The Church may well have answered its case. But now it's up to the Department of Education and Science to tell us why he was made manager of the local school; the health board must explain why it did not follow up when it showed he had a case to answer. And we must find out what happened to the garda file which went missing," Mr O'Gorman said.
   South Eastern Health Board director of community care Dr Paddy Judge reported on the Monageer case when complaints were raised by parents at the local school. He found Fr Grennan was "a danger to children and should be removed from the parish".
   In August 1988, the health board wrote to the bishop to inform him of the findings of their probe. It wasn't until March 1989 that Bishop Brendan Comiskey wrote back to the health board, acknowledging the letter and seeking copies of statements by parents etc.
   Fr Grennan was removed for just three weeks and was returned to the parish and made manager of the local school board. Meanwhile, the abuse continued.
   Other allegations also surfaced. It is believed a number of other cases are pending. -- Irish Examiner www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sg2fntiFnKY92sg0aewFBADppk.asp
• Anglican native children's settlement fund reaches a third of its target
   Anglican Journal, Canada, Settlement fund reaches a third of its target , http://anglicanjournal.com/extra/news.html?newsItem=2004-04-05_rs.news , Apr. 5, 2004
   CANADA : The Indian residential schools settlement fund is more than one-third of the way toward its target of $25 million. As of March 31, 2004, the fund had collected a total of $10.1 million from the church's 30 dioceses and the national office, according to treasurer Jim Cullen.
   One year ago, the Anglican Church of Canada signed an agreement with the federal government, limiting the church's liability to $25 million in lawsuits concerning a now-defunct boarding school system for native children. The agreement staved off the threat of bankruptcy for the national church and several dioceses, although the diocese of Cariboo in British Columbia suspended diocesan operations in 2001 under financial pressure from legal costs.
   The fund, called the Anglican Church of Canada Resolution Corp., is paying 30 per cent of settlements (with the federal government paying 70 per cent) awarded plaintiffs proving sexual or physical abuse in Anglican-run schools. As of March 31, $2.6 million had been paid in settlements to successful plaintiffs, according to Mr. Cullen. Of the 80 Indian residential schools that existed for more than century into the 1970s, the Anglican church operated 26.
   General Synod has paid $3 million - its full share of the $25 million - into the fund. Dioceses agreed to contribute funds over five years in proportion to their regular annual gift to General Synod, the church’s national office).
   Six dioceses - Edmonton, Quebec, Moosonee, Athabasca, Calgary and Yukon - have paid their five-year commitments in full. Parishes in the former diocese of Cariboo, now called the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior, contributed $10,000. April 05, 2004
• Woman alleges Anglican minister's sex assault
   The Advertiser, Adelaide, South Australia, www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9200855%255E2682,00.html , By Court Reporter MICHAEL OWEN-BROWN, April 6 2004
   ADELAIDE, South Australia: The Anglican Church has been embroiled in another sex scandal, in which an Adelaide woman alleges she was sexually assaulted by a priest who told her he had "comforted" many other parishioners in that way.
   Archbishop of Adelaide Ian George yesterday refused to reveal to The Advertiser whether the priest was still working, whether other complaints had been made about his conduct and if attempts had been made to find other victims. The woman - who was aged in her early 30s when the alleged incident occurred in 1984 at a city north of Adelaide - is suing the Anglican Church dioceses of Adelaide and Willochra in the District Court.
   Her statement of claim alleges she told another priest about the incident shortly afterwards, but he told her she had "no evidence" and did not follow up the issue.
   It further alleges that two years ago a senior church figure, Bishop of Willochra Garry Weatherill, told her that the priest had admitted sexually assaulting her.
   No defence documents have yet been filed. An independent inquiry is under way into the church's handling of sexual abuse and misconduct cases within the diocese of Adelaide.
   After being asked whether these allegations will be examined, the church said "the conduct of the Board of Inquiry is confidential and the diocese does not have knowledge of any submissions that may have been made".
   In her statement of claim, the woman says she placed "absolute trust and confidence" in her parish priest.
• Boston Church Settles Lawsuits Over Accused Rapist [Shanley ]
   Reuters, www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4755249 , By Greg Frost, 05:11 PM ET, Mon Apr 5, 2004
   BOSTON (Reuters) - Accused pedophile priest Paul Shanley was a "human wrecking ball" who likely molested hundreds of people, a lawyer for four of the cleric's alleged victims said on Monday as he announced a settlement of their lawsuits against the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
   The settlement came on top of the landmark $85 million payout the archdiocese made last year to hundreds of people who say they were abused by its priests.
   Financial terms of the latest deal were not disclosed. But attorney Roderick MacLeish, who represents the four plaintiffs, hinted that the amounts were large.
   "One case ... is the largest amount ever provided in a sexual abuse case in Massachusetts, and certainly one of the largest nationally," MacLeish told a news conference.
   In announcing the deal with the church over Shanley, an elderly priest at the heart of some of the most shocking allegations in a pedophilia scandal that enveloped the archdiocese two years ago, MacLeish presented what he called new details pertinent to Shanley's criminal trial.
   Shanley, who was arrested in California in 2002, brought back to Massachusetts and ultimately released on $300,000 bail, has pleaded not guilty to raping and sexually assaulting a number of boys at a Boston-area church. Three of the boys involved in Monday's settlement are among the accusers in the criminal case, which is expected to come to trial this year.
• Victims of pedophile priest testify at hearing [Porter]
   The Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1081200860.htm , By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer, 04.05.2004
   TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) - He was an 11-year-old altar boy, and one Sunday after Mass, the Rev. James Porter invited him back to the rectory for some cookies and milk.
   He remembers the cookie jar because it had one of the Ten Commandments written on it, "Thou Shalt Not Steal." That was the first time Porter raped him, he said.
   "He pulled my pants off and performed anal sex on me," he testified Monday, as prosecutors began making their case to keep Porter locked up.
   Porter was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 children during the 1950s and 1960s when he was a priest in the Fall River diocese. He was scheduled to complete his sentence this year, but Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh is asking that he be civilly committed as a "sexually dangerous person" who is likely to commit other sexual crimes if he is released.
   As the hearing opened Monday, prosecutors called four people who said they were sexually abused by Porter as children. Three of the alleged victims were from Minnesota, where Porter lived in the late 1960s and later married after he was forced to leave the priesthood in 1974.
• San Roque Priest Targeted [Ford]
   Santa Barbara Independent, www.independent.com/news/now906.htm , issue: April 1, 2004
   UNITED STATES: A popular priest faces a civil lawsuit charging sexual abuse of a child, while the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is demanding his removal. Fr. James Ford continues his ministry at San Roque Catholic Church despite accusations against him.
   Outside Sunday mass on March 28, SNAP handed out leaflets insisting the congregation take action to protect their children. SNAP members argue that Ford should not be employed by any parish according to the Catholic Church’s "one strike and you’re out" policy.
   SNAP member Danny Pata, whose family left San Roque because of the accusations against Ford, said the priest had simply fallen through the cracks. Ford was not at mass on Sunday.
• Bolstering the faith in finances of diocese
   Times Leader, North-Eastern Pennsylvania, USA, www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/8330306.htm Posted on Sun, Apr. 04, 2004
   UNITED STATES: This is the nature of faith: You believe in something without seeing, without proof.
   Organized religions survive on public trust in keepers of the faith, the men and women who preach it, who stand at the pulpits and seek funds to maintain and spread the faith.
   If that trust is breached, it causes doubt that can lead to outright disbelief. That's the nature of faith.
   In the Diocese of Scranton, someone - probably several people - broke trust by letting debts of parishes and schools grow to a total of $11 million while many parishioners thought everything was fine.
   The debt came to light when Pittston area parents rallied to save St. John the Baptist Elementary, one of two schools - the other is St. Mary's in Avoca - the diocese plans to close.
   Pittston supporters eagerly offered to raise money to save their beloved classrooms. Problem is, they have to raise a lot of money.
   When Diocese Spokeswoman Maria Orzel revealed the $11 million debt, she said $1 million of that is owed by parishes and schools in region 7, home to the two schools scheduled to be shuttered.
• Alleged Shanley Victims Reach Civil Settlement: Attorney Vows To Pursue Criminal Case Against Former Priest [1980s]
   BostonChannel.com ; www.thebostonchannel.com/news/2974205/detail.html , April 5, 2004
   BOSTON -- The Boston Archdiocese reached a settlement in the sex abuse case surrounding accused pedophile priest Paul Shanley. [Video: Janet Wu reports on settlement.]
   NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported that church officials confirmed Monday that they reached a deal with four alleged victims of Shanley. As Shanley awaits trial, he maintains his innocence to the charges that date back to the 1980s.
   The settlement was reached after two months of negotiations. Gregory Ford, Paul Busa and two other men who asked not to be identified, refused to sign on to last fall's $85 million group settlement. They credit Archbishop Sean O'Malley with helping to resolve the civil suit.
   Attorney Eric MacLeish believes it is the largest abuse settlement in Massachusetts, although he refused to release the details of the settlement.
   Ford and Busa did not attend Monday's press conference, but Ford's sister read a short statement.
   "I would like to move forward with my life in a quiet manner. My hope is that all of the survivors can find some peace in their lives as well," Ford said in a statement.
   It was the Ford family's refusal to reach a quiet settlement with the Archdiocese two years ago that released a torrent of church documents that implemented [sic] Shanley and other priests in a pattern of abuse that the church allegedly chose to hide.
• Rape alleged 27 years later
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040404/NEWS/404040327/0/FRONTPAGE ,
[Have to be s subscriber to access newsitem.]
• Oakland pastor -- a man of many guises [Weeks]
   San Francisco Chronicle, www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/05/BAGSB60LT51.DTL , Monday, April 5, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Oakland street minister Donald Weeks has been portrayed as both a saint who has healed drug addicts and a sinner cloaked in a robe and collar who sexually abused a boy, depending on whom you ask.
   The Rev. Donald Weeks remains a mystery, even to some of the people who have supported him over the years.
   To the two dozen men who lived at Weeks' Oakland halfway house, the minister was a big-hearted man who they say lavished Christian kindness on them. By his own description, Weeks is a humanitarian crusader who has put his life on the line to help others.
   As a civil rights worker in the South in the 1960s, Weeks said he was stabbed by a member of the Ku Klux Klan and survived a car bombing and arson fire at his home. "I'm very proud of the things I've done in the past. But I'm also the type of person who is not afraid of anyone," he said in a March interview. "I fear only God."
   Weeks' career as a humanitarian was officially suspended on Friday, when he was charged with 24 counts of having sex with a boy over a two-year period beginning in 1994. In the criminal complaint, authorities allege that the abuse began when the boy was 16.
• Sexual abuse by clergy leaves greater damage, experts say; 'Murder of the soul' is one description of sexual abuse inflicted by priests. [1962 Brickley]
   The Des Moines Register, http://desmoinesregister.com/life/stories/c5351764/23975169.html , By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE, Register Religion Editor, Apr/04/2004
   UNITED STATES: Confronting the issue of priest abuse has created conflict, controversy and pain in the U.S. Catholic Church.
   But on one point, church officials, victims advocates and researchers agree: Children abused by clergy often suffer deeper damage than other victims of child sexual abuse.
   "The priest was an icon of the transcendent, and hence the abuse had consequences that went beyond the damage caused by similar cases of abuse not involving clergy," Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley said in January in a conference at Boston College on the impact of clergy sexual abuse. "The wound left by the abuse was not only to one's psyche, but also to their spiritual life and identity."
   David Clohessy, executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, calls child sexual abuse by priests a "murder of the soul."
   "Some survivors become atheists and others are intensely devout," Clohessy said. "Some are promiscuous and others are petrified of emotional attachment. They can be overachievers or incapacitated, unemployable and terribly depressed."
"Spiritual desecration"
   Kenneth Pargament, Bowling Green University professor of psychology and author of "The Psychology of Religion and Coping," calls the damage "spiritual desecration."
   "It's pretty clear now that abuse by clergy causes psychological, physical and spiritual trauma. Studies show a good relationship between clergy abuse and the child's broken relationship with church and God," he said.
   Particularly significant is the fact the victims often were from very religious Catholic families who were active in parish life and who granted priests a revered position in their lives.
   William Ferreter, 53, fits that profile. Growing up near Cedar Rapids, his Irish Catholic family was large, poor and devout. When Father John Brickley visited, he was treated like royalty.
   The priest was also a pedophile who Ferreter said began molesting him in 1962 when he was 12.
   Sister Carol Hoverman, communications director for the Dubuque Archdiocese, confirmed that the diocese received credible child-abuse allegations against Brickley, who died in 1998.
Recalls visits
   Ferreter recalled Brickley's visits to his home were of showman quality. "With all the papal presence he could muster, he would always invoke a blessing on our home and my family as we all knelt in a circle around him. His choice of language was Latin and ended with us making the sign of the cross as he pronounced the final phrase . . . "In nomine Patris, et Filii, [et] spiritus Sancti. Amen."
   Ferreter, who now lives in Kansas, broke from Catholicism long ago. He hasn't entered a church since, except for funerals.
   "For decades I have had a smoldering hate that mainly manifested when I would see a priest wearing a Roman collar," he said. "Most time I would only stare at the individual with a glare that probably expressed dissatisfaction, at the least. Sometimes I would physically tremble with rage, enough to want to initiate violence. Thankfully that never happened."
   In whose name, Ferreter now wonders, was "Father John" acting when he sexually abused a young boy, who at age 8 had promised his mother he would become pope for her.
   "Was he acting in nomine Patris - in the name of the Father?" Ferreter asked.
   The identification of the priest with the presence of God, with holiness and the wholeness of life cannot be underestimated, according to the Rev. Robert Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils.
   "In Roman Catholicism it has been sacrosanct," Silva said. "It has meant that the relationship of a priest to those persons with whom he interacts is perceived as most intimate, sacred and most trustworthy. It is, in effect, for the individual to be in touch with what leads to God."
Shattered perceptions
   Pargament has researched what happens when values perceived as sacred are attacked. He found that victims with shattered spiritual perceptions suffer more anxiety and depression than those who do not hold the values as dearly.
   Charles Kenney, who with Dr. James Muller wrote Keep the Faith, Change the Church: The Battle of Catholics for the Soul of Their Church, interviewed many abuse survivors.
   "The survivors of sexual abuse by priests may have been betrayed not once but twice, and in some cases more than that," Kenney said. "They were betrayed by having to endure dreadful sexual abuse as a child. Then if they sought help from the church, instead of being helped to heal, they were rejected. The bishops refused to talk to them and assigned the case to lawyers."
Traumatic, injurious
   David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, reports that child sexual abuse by clergy is among the more serious traumatic and injurious relationships.
   "It is a betrayal of trust by someone generally seen as having community status," Finkelhor said. "It can interfere with the victim's spiritual development and closure. We know that some of the trauma is related to secrecy and shame - the child is not able to talk about it or may believe people will not respond supportively if they do speak."
   Researchers also are coming to believe that predator priests often targeted children they believed to be needy and troubled, Finkelhor said.
   "We're not saying the abuse wasn't the source of the individual's problems, but they may have been on a troubled path when the abuse happened," he said.
   Ferreter kept the abuse secret, stuffed away while he tried to live a normal life. After he viewed a 1994 "60 Minutes" expose on a pedophile priest, he broke down and told his wife.
   He reported the abuse to the Rev. Daniel W. Kucera, who was then archbishop of the Dubuque archdiocese, only to be told that Brickley was shocked and had no memory of the incidents.
"Served well"
   "Every indication points to the fact that Father Brickley has served well in the church for these many years," Kucera wrote. "He is now well advanced in age and retired. . . . As difficult as it is, I hope you can find it possible to forgive and accept the possibility of conversion and repentance."
   Ferreter sent a second letter in April 2002 after reading about the diocese's anti-abuse program. "I used phraseology like "SHAME ON YOU," " Ferreter said. "It was great rhetoric. I wish I had kept a copy."
   Clohessy, who is an abuse survivor, is often asked if he and other members of the Survivors Network have lost their faith.
   "I tell people no, we didn't lose our faith - it was stolen from us," he said. "It remains a gaping wound in people.
   "On Sunday morning, when I'm walking the kids to the park, we go past people on church steps laughing and hugging. I look at the comfort and fellowship and meaning and joy Catholics get from belonging to the church. We see it happening for others, but never happening for me."
• New bishop a man of substance
   The Virginian-Pilot, http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=68453&ran=53193 , By STEVEN G. VEGH, April 4, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Sixteen years after he became a bishop , the Rev. Francis Xavier DiLorenzo is still one of the lesser-known Catholic prelates in the United States. But rest assured, say colleagues past and present: Once you meet him, you won’t forget him.
   He’s a tall 300-pounder with a fat sense of humor, a clergyman fiercely loyal to the pope but willing to push Rome to allow "Christian hula." He prefers parish halls to soapboxes, but courted public opinion in battling same-sex marriage in Hawaii in the 1990s.
   Though a sharp administrator with a "buck stops here" attitude, those who have worked with him say that he’d rather spread the gospel than push paper.
   On Wednesday, the Vatican announced that DiLorenzo, 61 , would become the bishop of Richmond, succeeding Bishop Walter F. Sullivan , who retired last fall.
   Upon his formal installation on May 24 , he’ll oversee a diocese of 213,000 Catholics, including 64,000 in South Hampton Roads
• Sex Abuse by Teachers Said Worse Than Catholic Church
   Newsmax, www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/4/5/01552.shtml , by Jon E. Dougherty, Monday, Apr. 05, 2004
   UNITED STATES: In 2002, the Boston Globe uncovered a scandal of international proportions when it began running a series of investigative reports detailing dozens of cases in which Catholic priests had sexually abused scores of children.
   The paper's damning revelations shook the church to its core, prompting outrage and calls for reform all the way from California to New York to the Vatican in Rome.
   By year's end, some 1,200 priests had been accused of abuse nationwide, the New York Times reported, in an investigative report of its own. In the ensuing maelstrom, five U.S. prelates resigned. Also, bishops from Argentina, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Wales, Scotland, Canada, Switzerland and Austria were also forced out of the church. More than 80 percent of the church's victims were male.
   Worse for the church, Americans discovered some of the most abusive priests were protected by upper echelons of the clergy. Repeated abusive offenses by men like Revs. James Porter and John Geoghan were covered up by the church or, when they occasionally were made public, dismissed as rarities or infrequent behavior.
   These priests were moved around from diocese to diocese, given positions that limited their contact with children, or moved to administrative duties - but they usually found their way back into a parish, holding Mass and coming in contact with more potential victims.
   In the end, the Vatican's credibility, the church itself, and the entire Catholic faith, was damaged to the point where it will take decades to repair; the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a report on the nature and scope of the abuse problems, found almost 11,000 cases of abuse by about 4,000 priests and deacons since 1950.
   "The heartfelt sorrow that we feel for this violation and the often ineffective ways with which it was dealt has strengthened our commitment to do everything possible to see that it does not happen again," said Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
   Now, on the heels of the Catholic abuse scandal comes another of historic proportions -- one that has the potential to be much greater and far-reaching. According to a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, in compliance with the 2002 "No Child Left Behind" act signed into law by President Bush, between 6 percent and 10 percent of public school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees and teachers.
   Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the report, said the number of abuse cases -- which range from unwanted sexual comments to rape -- could be much higher.
   "So we think the Catholic Church has a problem?" she told industry newspaper Education Week in a March 10 interview.
   To support her contention, Shakeshaft compared the priest abuse data with data collected in a national survey for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000. Extrapolating data from the latter, she estimated roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee from a single decade -- 1991-2000. That compares with about five decades of cases of abusive priests.
   Such figures led her to contend "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."
Early Comparisons
   The comparison of church-school sexual abuse cases began early -- years before Shakeshaft's report was completed.
   In June 2002, The Associated Press reported clergy abuse cases overshadowed teacher-student sex abuse cases, though the report stated the school cases were not "uncommon."
   "Some experts point to what they see as a permissive attitude toward such relationships and a double standard because cases involving female teachers and male students are treated less severely," AP reported.
   "The dynamics of the teacher-student cases are often different than the classic sexual abuse cases because they seem to involve consenting relationships between teachers and students," Finkelhor, director of the Center for Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, told the wire service. ". . . Clear boundaries have to be enforced."
   Nan Stein, director of a project on sexual harassment in schools at the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College, cited far fewer cases annually than Shakeshaft; she said she believes "several hundred" cases of student-teacher sexual abuse cases occur each year.
   And six years earlier Education Week searched newspaper archives and databases, finding 244 cases in a six-month period. The allegations in that short 1998 study ranged from unwanted touching to sexual relationships and serial rape.
   Currently, there is no single agency that tracks such incidents. And only a few national surveys, as of 2002, had been conducted on the subject of teacher-student sex -- and most of them were sexual harassment studies.
   "None of these studies -- either singly or as a group -- answer all of the reasonable questions that parents, students, educators, and the public ask about educator sexual misconduct," says Shakeshaft, in her draft report. "And certainly do not provide information at a level of reliability and validity appropriate to the gravity of these offenses."
The Death of Outrage?
   What is also different about the school cases is the level of secondary media coverage it has -- or, in this case, hasn't -- received.
   Yet, media coverage of the Catholic priest abuse scandal was nearly wall-to-wall; every major television news program, every major newspaper and wire service, and most mass market magazines covered the scandal relentlessly.
   But, reports the National Catholic Register, a leading faith publication, "a search on the media database LexisNexis for "Charol Shakeshaft" turned up no articles eight days after" the Education Week report.
   An online search by NewsMax.com found similar disinterest. Google.com's news database, for example, returned just four entries for "Charol Shakeshaft;" two were Catholic publications.
   The Indianapolis Star and Christian Science Monitor only briefly mentioned Shakeshaft's data; the later publication couched her remarks about schools in an article primarily rehashing the Catholic church abuse scandal.
   Yahoo.com's news search engine returned only three; two were similar stories from the Indianapolis Star.
'Serious' Issue?
   Catholic leaders especially are wondering why more coverage of the issue, as well as more action by government education officials, hasn't been forthcoming, in the weeks since the Education Week story.
   "If the country is serious about [sexual abuse of children] as a national issue, we have to direct our resources to where the problem is worse," Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, an New York-based Catholic advocacy group, told the Register. "But instead what we get is a selective indignation that suggests there is an agenda here."
   Indeed, even some judges express a more permissive attitude regarding teacher-pupil sex.
   Case in point: In Hackensack, N.J., in the spring of 2002, a state judge sentenced 43-year-old teacher Pamela Diehl-Moore to probation for having sex with a seventh-grade student who was only 13 at the time.
   Though prosecutors had argued for jail for Diehl-Moore, the judge in the case, Bruce A. Gaeta, disagreed. He put the onus on the student, saying the encounters with his teacher may only have been a way for him to "satisfy his sexual needs."
   According to court transcripts, as reported by AP, Gaeta said, "I don't see anything here that shows this young man has been psychologically damaged by her actions. And don't forget, this was mutual consent." He was referred to a judicial disciplinary committee.
   That is one identifiable double-standard: relationships between male students and female teachers. For one, say experts, most school sexual abuse occurs between male teachers and female students. For another, male students tend to report sex with female teachers far less; they are treated less severely because boys see little wrong with the acts.
   "I think our society sort of says to the boy: 'Congratulations, that's great. Everybody fantasizes about having a sexual relationship with an older woman,'" Bob Shoop, an education professor at Kansas State University and an expert witness in 30 court cases involving sexual abuse in schools, told AP.
Case Studies
   Some of the most recent cases of school sexual abuse include the following:

In 2002, a California high school teacher ran off to Las Vegas with one of her 15-year-old students;

The same year, a Louisiana teacher was accused of having an affair with a 14-year-old student;

In the Bronx, one teacher was charged with the statutory rape of a 16-year-old former student;

In March, a 20-year-old Anderson, Ind. choir aide was charged with allegedly raping a 16-year-old female student -- the two had a consensual relationship for three months before the girl asked to break it off;

A week earlier, an Indianapolis Public Schools substitute was caught having sex with a 15-year-old student in a vacant classroom;

A Washington state teacher was convicted of 10 counts of sexually exploiting minors by persuading them to pose nude for him -- he then uploaded some of the images to a Web site;

Also in Washington, state officials say 159 coaches of girls sports have been fired or reprimanded over the last decade for sexual misconduct;

An investigation found more than 60 instances in the last four years of Texas high school and middle school coaches losing jobs as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct.
What Next?
   Some states have specific laws banning sex between teachers and students. Many others, however, rely on statutory rape laws, but they sometimes do little to protect student-teacher sex that is consensual or between an adult and minor child close to the age of consent.
   For her part, Shakeshaft believes more study of the issue is needed, but that officials and educators should take the available data in her report to heart now.
   "Some individual districts might have changed some policies or had an in-service workshop, but really there hasn't been any systematic response to this issue," she said.
   "It isn't as if we need to stop and wait for a study. I do believe we know enough to take some actions."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Catholic Scandal: www.newsmax.com/hottopics/Catholic_Scandal.shtml
• Four Settle With Boston Archdiocese [1980s, Shanley]
   The Guardian, Britain, www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3941563,00.html Monday April 5, 2004
   BOSTON (AP) - The lawyer representing four alleged sexual abuse victims of former priest Paul R. Shanley said a settlement has been reached over a civil suit with the Archdiocese of Boston, but vowed the criminal case against the one-time street priest would continue.
   "It's not over until Paul Shanley is in jail,'' attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr. said early Monday morning. He said the settlement was reached about 11 p.m. Sunday.
   MacLeish, who declined to reveal the size of the settlement at the request of his clients, said a joint statement by his office and church leaders was to be released Monday.
   A call to archdiocesan headquarters was not immediately returned.
   The four alleged victims and their families refused to sign onto a massive $85 million settlement with the church last September.
   Shanley, once known for his street ministry to gay and troubled youth, has pleaded innocent to charges of raping boys in the Boston suburb of Newton in the 1980s. He was released on $300,000 bail last December, and is awaiting trial.
   MacLeish, whose law firm won an unprecedented court ruling ordering the archdiocese to turn over the church personnel files for all priests who had an allegation of sexual abuse made against them, said archbishop Sean P. O'Malley was consulted during the negotiations with church attorneys and two mediators.
• Churches learning to work with fewer priests
   Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw95655_20040405.htm , April 5, 2004
   DETROIT (AP) -- Holy Week is the busiest time of year for Christian clergy, but many churches are finding themselves with fewer people to handle the load.
   The Archdiocese of Detroit's priestly ranks have declined by a third in the past 20 years. By June, 17 priests will have reached the retirement age of 70, but just nine new ones will have been ordained.
   The problem is nationwide and experts say the Roman Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal has made the shortage worse. In the last two years, the Archdiocese of Detroit removed 20 priests from active assignments because of abuse allegations.
   "There's no cliff that we walk over. It's just simply going to get worse and worse," said Dean Hoge, a sociology professor at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
   A little more than a year ago, St. Sebastian Catholic Church in Dearborn Heights offered parishioners three masses a day during the week and six for their Sunday obligation.
   Then a retired priest died, the associate pastor left and the pastor of 33 years was removed after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced.
   Filling the void is a new pastor -- the Rev. Jeffrey Day, ordained in 1999 and one of the youngest archdiocesan priests.
   Day, 31, runs the 2,000-family parish without an associate priest, celebrates most masses, every funeral, every wedding and every baptism. Weekend masses are down to four and weekday services have been cut to one or two. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:40 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Monday April 05, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont75.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tuesday April 06, 2004 edition follows:-
• Suit alleges molestation by priest [1950s Knecht]
   SEATTLE (WA) The Spokesman-Review www.spokesmanreview.com/cover-news-story.asp?date=040604&ID=s1506610 , by Kevin Blocker
   A Seattle attorney has filed a lawsuit against the Spokane Catholic Diocese on behalf of a man who alleges he was sexually abused by a priest.
   The plaintiff, identified in court records only as "J.D.," alleges he was abused by the late Father Joseph Knecht at the now-defunct St. Mary's Catholic Church and School in Chewelah.
   The unidentified plaintiff attended the school from 1950 to 1955. The lawsuit filed last week alleges he was abused by Knecht repeatedly over a period of approximately three years.
   It further alleges that Knecht sexually abused the boy at least once a month. He often told the boy he loved him, kissed and fondled him, the lawsuit claims.
   In December, the diocese publicly released Knecht's name as someone who was credibly accused of sex acts against a boy.
   "Bishop William Skylstad has repeatedly, respectfully called for victims of clerical abuse to come forward. This is another example of a victim responding to that request," said Father Steve Dublinski [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:44 PM]
• Former local priest admits to child porn [2000, 2004 Kujawa]
   The Houma Courier, Louisana, www.houmatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040406/NEWS/404060307/1025 , By JOHN DeSANTIS, Senior Staff Writer, April 06. 2004
   HOUMA (LA): A Roman Catholic priest who once served at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral in Houma pleaded guilty Monday to federal child-pornography charges and could face major prison time if a state judge revokes his probation on a previous charge.
   Patrick Kujawa, 35, most recently served the Diocese of Houma Thibodaux in Morgan City, but was residing at a monastery in St. Mary Parish when he was arrested by federal agents in February. They said he had hundreds of images of naked children on his computer.
   He faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and may face an additional 60 years behind bars if his probation is revoked.
   Kujawa is on probation for a guilty plea in 2000 to 15 counts of possessing child pornography.
   Those charges resulted in Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux officials removing the priest from his post as associate pastor at Holy Cross Church in Morgan City.
• Priest pleads guilty to selling marijuana in church home [Arko]
   Kansas City Star, www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/8370471.htm?ERIGHTS=-6090322087121893567kansascity::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=9ppppvquvyvyxpsysyqqpppppp|Kathleen|Y , BY PHIL TREXLER, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Posted on Tue, Apr. 06, 2004
   AKRON, Ohio - (KRT) - The Rev. Richard Arko offered his contrition Tuesday for growing marijuana inside his Norton, Ohio, church home.
   His penance: two years probation.
   Arko, 40, told Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove that the 35 marijuana plants growing in his church home were primarily for medical use.
   It's a contention Norton police detectives say they can't confirm.
   "At no time during the course of this investigation did we find any evidence to suggest he was growing marijuana for anything other than personal use," Detective Thad Hete said after the hearing.
   Arko was arrested in January when Norton police searched the Prince of Peace church rectory after an informant purchased $15 worth of marijuana from a man living at the residence.
   Arko pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges of illegally cultivating marijuana and possession of criminal tools used to grow the plants.
   Arko requested a leave of absence from the diocese and he said in court that his return to the priesthood is unlikely.
• Coroners release Minkler autopsy results
   Capital News 9, www.capitalnews9.com/content/your_news/capital_region/default.asp?ArID=67792 By Capital News 9 web staff, Updated 7:07 PM Apr/6/2004
   ALBANY (NY): The death of a local priest is being ruled a suicide.
   The Albany County Coroners Office said autopsy results show Father John Minkler, 57, committed suicide. Minkler was found dead in his home in Watervliet on February 15.
   Minkler reportedly left a suicide note, but the contents of that note have never been made public. The exact cause of death is not being released.
   Two days earlier, the Albany Diocese said Minkler signed a note denying he ever accused Bishop Howard Hubbard of sexual abuse in a letter to the Archdiocese of New York. Attorney John Aretakis who represents a number of alleged victims of priest sexual abuse, released a letter he claimed was written by Minkler back in 1995.
• Rev. Weeks Plans To Close St. Patrick Abbey Reverend Is Asking For Public's Help To Raise Money
   NBC 11, www.nbc11.com/news/2978341/detail.html , POSTED: 10:03 pm PDT April 5, 2004
   OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Rev. Donald Weeks of St. Patrick Abbey in Oakland said Monday that he plans to close the 5-year-old transitional housing program he has run for parolees and substance abusers.
   Weeks, who was charged last week with 24 counts of oral copulation with a minor, also is asking for the public to help him raise enough money so he can get out of Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, where he is being held in lieu of $240,000 bail.
   Weeks' attorney, John Burris, said he will ask that bail be lowered when Weeks, who was arraigned on Friday, returns to Alameda County Superior Court on Wednesday to enter a plea to the charges against him.
   Weeks suffers from heart and diabetic conditions, but Burris said that when he met with Weeks Monday, he seemed to be in decent health, getting the insulin he needs, and "was bright and alert and responsive."
   "He wants to vindicate himself and is committed to his innocence," Burris said.
   Brother Donny Ratcliff, who is helping run the abbey in Weeks' absence, said that one of Weeks' legal representatives gave him a statement in which Weeks said, "It is with a sad heart and deep concern that I have to announce the closing of St. Patrick Abbey."
• Vigil to Call for Change in Roman Catholic Church
   CINCINNATI (OH): Ohio News Network, www.onnnews.com/story.php?record=29719 , April 6, 2004
   Activists say the Roman Catholic Church needs to be more open about priests accused of sexually abusing children.
   Advocates for abuse victims plan a vigil this evening outside the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's St. Peter in Chains Cathedral. They say they want the archdiocese to disclose the current locations of abusive priests. The activists say the disclosure would help protect the public from priests who might repeat their sexual abuse of young people.
   Cincinnati Archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco says the church won't reveal the locations of accused priests. Andriacco says that would subject the priests' neighbors to unwanted attention from reporters and camera crews.
• Hit-and-run bishop wants judge to count travel time as community service [2003 O'Brien]
   WAFF, Huntsville, Decatur, and Shoals, USA, www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=1766945
   PHOENIX (AZ) AP -- An Arizona prosecutor says a bishop convicted in a fatal hit-and-run case should spend all of his community service time ministering to the sick, injured and dying.
   Bishop Thomas O'Brien doesn't see it that way. He's asked that his travel time -- the time he spends going to and from his community service work -- be deducted from the thousand-hours of service he has to perform.
   In a motion filed this week, the prosecutor says "it offends any notion of equal justice" for O'Brien to make that request.
   O'Brien was convicted in February for a fatal accident in June, 2003.
   No formal orders have been issued. But the prosecutor says O'Brien should not get credit "for time spent riding around in a car doing whatever he chooses."
• Ariz. Bishop Seeks Leniency in Probation [O'Brien]
   Newsday, www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-bishop-probation,0,1043411.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines , By Associated Press, April 6, 2004,
   PHOENIX (AZ): Bishop Thomas O'Brien asked a judge to deduct travel time from the 1,000 hours of community service he has to serve for a felony hit-and-run conviction.
   O'Brien also requested some flexibility in the number of hours he must serve each month, according to a court document.
   The requests were made during a meeting last week with sentencing Judge Stephen Gerst. Details emerged Monday when Maricopa County prosecutor Rick Romley filed a motion asking Gerst to clarify the terms of O'Brien's probation.
   According to the motion, Gerst "indicated a willingness to be flexible" with the bishop's requests, though no formal orders have been issued. But Romley criticized the bishop's action.
   "It offends any notion of equal justice for the defendant to ask the court to allow him credit for travel time in performing community service," Romley said.
   "The defendant should be required to spend 1,000 hours actually ministering to the sick, injured and dying, without receiving credit for time spent riding around in a car doing whatever he chooses," he said.
   While the probation office normally sets guidelines for community service, O'Brien's probation was arranged so the church could pick the people he helps, Romley said.
• Prescott Lighthouse Community Church pastor arrested for sexual abuse [CURRENT ? Lamb]
   PRESCOTT (AZ) The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0406pastorarrested-ON.html , Associated Press Apr. 6, 2004
   A 43-year-old Prescott pastor was arrested Monday for allegedly sexually abusing women during counseling sessions.
   Ty Scott Lamb, pastor of the Lighthouse Community Church, was arrested after several women alleged unsolicited, unwanted sexual conduct by Lamb, said Susan Quayle of the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office.
   After the investigation began last fall, three other women came forward with similar allegations, officials said.
   Lamb was booked into Yavapai County Jail on six counts of sexual abuse and two counts of unlawful imprisonment.
• Church settles abuse suits over California priest [Shanley]
   SAN BERNARDINO (CA): The Desert Sun, www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/local/20040405234700.shtml ,
   Staff and wire reports, April 6th, 2004
   The Boston Archdiocese said Monday it has settled lawsuits filed by four people who claim they were sexually abused by the Rev. Paul R. Shanley, a one-time Diocese of San Bernardino priest who became a key figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.
   "Shanley was exposed for the predator he is," Mary Grant, southwest regional director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said from her Long Beach home. "But no amount of money is going to take away the harm and the hurt of the victims."
   Kevin English, a Big Bear man who said he was abused by Shanley, is also pursuing legal action against Shanley, the San Bernardino diocese and its leadership.
   English said Shanley encouraged him to view pornography and have sex with other men at a gay-themed hotel Shanley co-owned in Palm Springs’ Warm Sands neighborhood with another Boston priest, according to the Boston Globe.
   The legal action against Shanley and the San Bernardino diocese is still pending, said diocesan spokesman the Rev. Howard Lincoln. The diocese had no comment on the Boston settlement, Lincoln added.
   Telephone calls to English’s mother, Linda English, and to English’s legal counsel, Boston attorney Carmen Durso, were not returned Monday.
   Shanley was sent from Boston to the San Bernardino Diocese in 1990 with a positive recommendation.
• Foundation set up to help victims of clergy sexual abuse [Birmingham]
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040406/APN/404060787&cachetime=5 , The Associated Press
   LOWELL, Mass.- A man who was sexually abused by a priest as a child has started a nonprofit organization to establish support groups for other victims and their families.
   Gary Bergeron, of Lowell, became one of the most vocal spokesmen for victims two years ago, when he went public with his own abuse by the late Rev. Joseph Birmingham.
   He recently formed The T.R.U.S.T. Foundation Inc.: Treatment, Recovery & Understanding Sexual Trauma.
   He said the foundation will seek to establish weekly, biweekly and eventually daily support groups run by trained clinical professionals.
   "Finding out that there were few, if any, places to turn for help after coming forward was overwhelming," Bergeron said.
• New twist to Catholic order abuse allegations [1950s + St John of God Order] - RCC. Two abused one together
   Stuff, www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2868201a11,00.html , By YVONNE MARTIN, 07 April 2004
   NEW ZEALAND: The sexual scandal plaguing a Catholic order has taken a new twist, with allegations that two religious brothers abused a boy together.
   The allegations are cited among fresh charges laid by Christchurch police against two brothers and a priest from the St John of God Order.
   Warrants to arrest the men, aged 82, 69 and 56 - now living in New South Wales - were issued by the Christchurch District Court yesterday.
   Police are trying to extradite the trio, who face a total of 64 sexual abuse charges relating to their time working at Marylands, a former school for boys with learning and intellectual disabilities.
   Complaints have been received from former pupils dating back almost 50 years.
   Documents presented to the court have given the first indication of collective abuse, in that two brothers together preyed on a schoolboy under 16.
• Priest accused of abuse to have hearing next week [1978 Behan]
   Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/8363319.htm? , Posted on Tue, Apr. 06, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): The Rev. James J. Behan, accused last week of sexually assaulting a student at Northeast Catholic High School for Boys more than 20 years ago, will face a preliminary hearing on those charges next Tuesday.
   Behan, 60, was arraigned Saturday on charges that included rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and indecent assault in connection with a 21/2-year relationship he allegedly began with the 15-year-old student in 1978, when Behan was a religion teacher at the school. Bail was set at $100,000. Behan posted bond of $10,000 and was released.
   A grand jury presentment released last week asserted that Behan, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales order, had admitted to his religious superiors that he had had improper sexual contact with the boy.
• Selection of jury starts in Lutheran sexual abuse case - Evangelical Lutheran.
   MARSHALL (TX): Houston Chronicle, www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2487741 , Associated Press, April 5, 2004
   Jury selection began Monday in a civil case involving 14 victims of a Lutheran pastor who allege Evangelical Lutheran Church in America agencies gave a known molester what amounted to a license to prey on young boys.
   Outside the East Texas courtroom, a dispute arose over whether a tentative settlement had been reached in one of the most serious sexual abuse cases ever to hit a major U.S. Protestant denomination.
   John Brooks, spokesman for the 5 million-member ELCA, said the Chicago-based denomination and its Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, had agreed to a settlement. He declined to provide details.
   "The settlement is not official until it is approved by the court, and we anticipate that date could be as early as April 12," Brooks said. That is when Judge Bonnie Leggat has scheduled opening statements in the case.
   But Lyda Creus Molanphy, spokeswoman for the plaintiffs, denied any settlement.
   "There are no settlements, period," Molanphy said. "We are picking a jury this morning, and we are preparing to go to trial against all defendants."
   Asked why Brooks would be reporting a settlement, she said, "I think court documents will show and we will prove that these defendants have a history of not telling the truth, which is why we find ourselves in this position to begin with."
• Deal claim disputed in Lutheran sex case [Evangelical Lutheran]
   San Antonio Express-News, www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA06.03B.TX_Lutheran_abuse.2d4616cc.html , Web Posted: Apr/06/2004
   MARSHALL (TX): As a jury was picked Monday, a dispute arose outside the courtroom over whether a settlement had been reached with two of the three major defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by 14 victims of a former Lutheran pastor.
   The Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, both reported tentative settlements in the case.
   That would leave the ELCA's Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, headquartered in Dallas, as the only remaining defendant in one of the most serious sexual abuse cases ever to hit a major U.S. Protestant denomination.
   However, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs disputed the settlement claims.
   "There have been no settlements," attorney Edward Hohn said after a jury of eight men and four women was picked Monday afternoon.
   "The case is going to trial as to all defendants," Hohn said. "That's all the comment I've got."
   The case involves Gerald Patrick Thomas, a former minister of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in this East Texas town.
   Thomas, who attended Trinity Lutheran Seminary, was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for sex crimes involving boys he befriended and lured into a world of child pornography, videotaped indecency and sexual assault.
• Report disputed in Lutheran abuse lawsuit [sentence 397 years]
   MARSHALL (TX) Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "Report disputed in abuse lawsuit," www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/8366174.htm?ERIGHTS=-1963708100995799890dfw::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=8oowvxvswtpwovppxorooooooo|Kathleen|Y , By Bobby Ross Jr., The Associated Press, Posted on Tue, Apr. 06, 2004
   As a jury was picked Monday, a dispute arose outside the courtroom over whether a settlement had been reached with two of the three major defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by 14 victims of a former Lutheran pastor.
   The Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, both reported tentative settlements in the case. That would leave the ELCA's Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, based in Dallas, as the only remaining defendant in one of the most serious sexual abuse cases ever to hit a major U.S. Protestant denomination.
   However, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs disputed the settlement claims.
   "There have been no settlements," attorney Edward Hohn said after a jury of eight men and four women was picked Monday afternoon. "The case is going to trial as to all defendants. That's all the comment I've got."
   The case involves Gerald Patrick Thomas, a former minister of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall. Thomas, who attended Trinity Lutheran Seminary, was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for sex crimes involving boys he befriended and lured into a world of child pornography, videotaped indecency and sexual assault.
   John Brooks, spokesman for the 5 million-member denomination, and Scott Shanes, attorney for the Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, both said formal settlement approval could come as soon as April 12. That is when District Judge Bonnie Leggat has scheduled opening statements in the case.
• Abuse Victims Protest at Annual Mass
   LOS ANGELES (CA): Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-protest6apr06,1,6820781.story?coll=la-commun-los_angeles_metro , By Larry B. Stammer, April 6, 2004
   More than a dozen victims of sexual abuse and their supporters staged a silent protest Monday night during an annual Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels during which priests in the Los Angeles archdiocese renew their vows.
   The protesters sat unnoticed throughout most of the Chrism Mass until the congregation rose for the Eucharist. Then they quietly removed coats and sweaters to reveal matching black T-shirts with the message: "Survivors of Silence."
   The protesters joined an estimated 2,000 worshipers and walked forward to receive the Sacraments or to be blessed.
   The demonstration came at a time when the Los Angeles archdiocese, the nation's largest, continues to argue with law enforcement authorities over the release of church documents that could shed additional light on how the church handled the sexual abuse of minors by priests over the years - and what actions, if any, it took to remove offending priests.
   Molly Clark of Burbank, who said the protest was her idea, said: "I believe we were respectful . . . We did give witness through our courage."
• S.N.A.P. Wants List Posted Of Priests Convicted Of Sexual Abuse
   WOAI, www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=B565CBE7-6800-4E3A-BF33-2F44153A56FA , Posted By: Carly Miller, LAST UPDATE: 6:32:53 AM, Apr/6/2004
   SAN ANTONIO (TX): Hundreds of people are demanding San Antonio's Catholic Archdiocese post a list of the names of local priests convicted of sexual abuse.
   The local president of a Priest Abuse Survivors Network delivered a petition Monday afternoon signed by 200 people.
   The group also wants a meeting arranged between those priests and victims of abuse.
   So far they're being told a posting of names, and a meeting, are an impossibility.
   "There was one posted in April 28, 2002 and it wasn't an impossibility. I showed her the signatures, I told her that the group would like to meet with her to express themselves as to why they want these lists of names posted," said Barbara Garcia Boehland.
• Four More Who Charged Abuse Settle With Boston Archdiocese [Shanley]
   The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/national/06SETT.html?ex=1081828800&en=738023b9ea839152&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE , By KATIE ZEZIMA, Published: April 6, 2004
   BOSTON (MA) April 5 - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has reached settlements with four men who say they were sexually abused by the Rev. Paul R. Shanley and who opted out of an $85 million agreement brokered last year with hundreds of people who say they were abused by priests.
   The settlements, reached late Sunday night, mean that nearly all of the civil cases against Father Shanley, a central figure in the sexual abuse scandal here, have been resolved.
   A court order involving two of the men who settled Sunday had prompted the release of thousands of pages of documents, including personnel files of clergy members, detailing a pattern of shuttling abusive priests from parish to parish. The documents galvanized attention to the scandal here, leading to the resignation of the archdiocese's leader, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, in December 2002.
   The two men, Gregory Ford and Paul Busa, said that beginning when they were 6, Father Shanley took them out of religious education classes at St. Jean's Parish in Newton and sexually abused them in the rectory, confessional, bathroom and other places at the church. The names of the other two men who settled Sunday were not released.
   Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not reveal specifics of the settlements, but said payments would be larger than the maximum of $300,000 in last year's settlement.
   One of the lawyers, Roderick MacLeish Jr., said one victim would receive what he believed to be the highest award for a sexual abuse case in Massachusetts. Until now, that had been $1.4 million, with interest, he said.
• Ex-wife faces ex-priest Porter in court [Porter]
   Star Tribune, www.startribune.com/stories/462/4706844.html , Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune Washington Correspondent, April 6 2004
   TAUNTON, Mass. -- The last time Verlyne Gray testified publicly about James Porter, it was to tell a Minneapolis jury in 1992 that a baby sitter who accused her ex-priest husband of sexual abuse was flat wrong.
   On Monday, she and the former baby sitter gave testimony to help ensure that Porter -- one of the nation's most prolific known child molesters -- never gets out of prison.
   The turnaround for Gray, 51, of Oakdale, came before Bristol County (Mass.) Superior Court Judge David McLaughlin, who will decide whether to hold a trial to classify Porter as a sexually dangerous person and commit him indefinitely to a Massachusetts treatment center.
   Porter, 69, looked on nervously as Gray -- who divorced him in 1995 - described how he reluctantly admitted molesting children after a former abuse victim tracked him down and telephoned him in 1990.
   "He didn't want to talk about it," Gray testified. "I asked for more details, it was just so foreign to me. . . . He said it was true, that he had touched boys, molested them -- I don't know if he used that word -- when he was a priest."
   Among Porter's victims, Gray disclosed for the first time, were her own younger sister and another neighborhood girl who was not part of Porter's 1992 trial in the Twin Cities.
• Former nun engaged to convicted ex-priest Porter
   Star Tribune, www.startribune.com/stories/484/4706875.html , Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent, April 6, 2004
   TAUNTON, MASS. -- Verlyne Gray had always stood by her man, convicted pedophile priest James Porter -- until she divorced him and turned into a witness for the state.
   But in Bristol County (Mass.) Superior Court Monday, Porter had a new woman in his corner, 70-year-old ex-nun Anne Milner, who displayed an engagement ring and said she is ready to marry the former Minnesota priest.
   "Jim knows with certitude that wherever he is, for however long, I'm there for him," said Milner, of Providence, R.I.
   Porter, 69, has known Milner for 46 years, going back to the days when he was a young seminarian with Milner's brother in the late 1950s.
   Milner went on to become a missionary, then married and was widowed. While she was out of touch with Porter all those years, she said she carried a flame for him since the day they met.
   The years were not so kind to Porter, nor to many of the children he admitted to abusing.
   But Milner, a redhead just like Gray, says Porter has owned up to his past sexual abuse and is working hard to change as he fights in court to be paroled from prison.
• High court seeks abuse documents [Luddy]
   Altoona Mirror, www.altoonamirror.com/news/story/046202004_new01papers.asp , By Phil Ray, Thu Apr 08 2004
   HOLLIDAYSBURG - The state Supreme Court wants to review thousands of pages of documents associated with the civil priest sexual abuse case against the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese and the Rev. Francis Luddy.
   The court made the request last week, and for several days, Blair County court personnel pieced together the entire record of the case.
   The 498 documents, packed into five cardboard boxes, will be sent by certified mail today to the court in Pittsburgh.
• Sentence served, but Porter could remain behind bars
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20040406_ma6porter.10b68e.html , BY ROB MARGETTA, 01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 6, 2004
   TAUNTON (MA): The hearing to determine whether convicted child molester James Porter, 69, still poses a threat began yesterday in Taunton Superior Court with testimony from Porter's ex-wife and four of his victims.
   Porter, a former Catholic priest who served in several parishes, including Fall River and Attleboro, pleaded guilty to charges of molesting 28 children in 1993 and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison.
   The end of Porter's sentence was scheduled for January because of statutory time credits and sentencing schemes in effect at the time he committed his crimes. But just before his release, Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. petitioned the Superior Court to continue holding Porter, invoking the 1999 Massachusetts Sexually Dangerous Person statute.
   That statute allows courts to assign civil commitments -- which can be for any term, including life -- for convicted sex offenders who still present threats. Superior Court data shows that since January 2000, Walsh filed 18 petitions for civil commitments, but the court only upheld 2 of them.
   Yesterday was the first day of Porter's probable cause hearing. The judge will determine whether there is enough evidence to hold a trial on the state's request to keep Porter committed at the Massachusetts Treatment Center
• Local man settles sexual-abuse case [1980s McGreal]
   SEATTLE (WA) Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattlepi.com/local/167842_mcgreal06.html , By TRACY JOHNSON,, Tuesday, April 6, 2004
   A man who continued his legal fight against the Archdiocese of Seattle when 15 others settled similar sexual-abuse allegations said yesterday he was satisfied that the church is taking responsibility.
   Yesterday, he agreed to settle his lawsuit for an undisclosed amount after the archdiocese conceded negligence in what allegedly happened to him nearly 30 years ago at the hands of the Rev. James McGreal.
   The case had been set for trial this week in King County Superior Court.
   The man, who is identified only by initials in court documents, said he is glad that he pursued the case as far as he did.
   "This was an opportunity for me to stand up for myself," said the 39-year-old man, who still lives in the Seattle area. "It was something I didn't feel I could do when I was 12 years old."
   In a written statement, Archbishop Alexander Brunett apologized to the man and all others who have been abused by clergy.
   "We as a church accept responsibility for the abuse as well as the pain this victim suffered as a result," he said. "... We hope and pray that his healing can begin, and we ask for his forgiveness."
• Holdout in abuse suit settles with archdiocese [McGreal]
   SEATTLE (WA) Seattle Times http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001896400_mcgreal06m.html , By Janet I. Tu, Tuesday, April 06, 2004
   On the eve of trial, the lone holdout among 16 plaintiffs has reached a settlement in the largest sexual-abuse lawsuit to date against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and one of its priests.
   The other 15 men who were part of the same suit against the archdiocese and the Rev. James McGreal settled in September for $7.87 million - one of the highest average per-plaintiff payouts in the country since the national sexual-abuse scandal broke in 2002.
   Listed in court documents as "MW," the 39-year-old Renton construction worker who settled Sunday evening did not wish to disclose the terms of his settlement, other than to say he was happy with it.
   His attorney, Michael Pfau, said the amount was higher than the average amount his 15 co-plaintiffs were awarded.
   The man, who asked not to be identified, had said he wanted to hold the church accountable.
• Record-breaking settlement reached in Shanley lawsuits [1980s Shanley]
   BOSTON (MA) Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3277 , By Robin Washington, Tuesday, April 6, 2004
   The highest-profile clergy molestation cases against the Archdiocese of Boston have been settled in a deal that reportedly includes the largest single sexual abuse payout in state history, but avoids an admission of responsibility that could be used in a related criminal case.
   "It is what I believe . . . the largest amount ever provided in a sexual abuse case in Massachusetts, and certainly one of the largest nationally," attorney Roderick MacLeish, Jr., said in announcing the settlement of suits by Gregory R. Ford, Paul Busa, and two other men claiming the Rev. Paul R. Shanley raped them as youngsters at Newton's St. Jean/St. John's Parish 20 years ago.
   Though MacLeish and church officials declined to give any amounts, he said one suit - probably that of Ford and his family - exceeds the current $1.4 million record. Ford's parents and sister stood in for him yesterday.
   "My hope is all of us survivors can find some peace in their lives," Ford said in a statement read by his sister, Kathryn. His mother, Paula, added: "We need to love our children unconditionally. . . . Go home and hug your children."
   In a statement, the church said Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley has met with the Fords and was "struck by the devotion of the Ford parents to their son" and hopes the settlement will bring them "some measure of healing."
• Victims recount sex horrors hoping to keep ex-priest in jail [1970s Porter]
   TAUNTON (MA): Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3276 , By Jessica Heslam, Tuesday, April 6, 2004
   A former altar boy recalled a haunting history of sex abuse yesterday, including an instance when he testified ex-priest James Porter assaulted him and a group of boys on a weekend baseball trip.
   "One by one he'd bring us in there and take his turn with us," testified the 45-year-old man, who said he was 11 years old and living in Minnesota when Porter repeatedly raped and molested him 35 years ago.
   The 69-year-old Porter, a former priest from the Diocese of Fall River, was sentenced in 1993 to 18-to-20 years in prison for molesting 28 Bay State children. He finished the sentence this year but prosecutors are seeking to keep him locked up in a treatment center as a sexually dangerous person.
   In Taunton Superior Court, the former altar boy said he feared Porter, who abused him at church, on the way home from basketball practice and on the school roof.
   "Anytime and every time he was with me alone resulted in sexual abuse," the victim said. The Herald does not identify sexual assault victims.
   Another altar boy from North Attleboro and two former Minnesota babysitters testified that Porter had molested them.
• Church said to settle with 4 in Shanley suit
   BOSTON (MA): The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/04/06/church_said_to_settle_with_4_in_shanley_suit , By Michael S. Rosenwald, Apr 6, 2004
   Four alleged sexual abuse victims of the Rev. Paul R. Shanley, a priest at the center of the national scandal in the Catholic church, reached financial settlements with the Boston Archdiocese Sunday for an undisclosed amount, their attorneys said yesterday.
   Among those settling a lawsuit was Gregory Ford, who will receive more than $1.4 million, according to an individual involved in the settlement. That's more than four times the highest payment made to an individual victim in the $85 million settlement the archdiocese reached with more than 500 other victims of clergy sexual abuse last year.
   Ford, along with Paul Busa and two other unidentified individuals, had opted out of the historic settlement, which capped individual awards at $300,000. Ford's parents had relentlessly pursued the archdiocese on behalf of their son, who as a young boy was allegedly repeatedly raped by Shanley at the now-defunct St. Jean the Evangelist Parish in Newton.
   At an afternoon news conference, lawyers Roderick MacLeish Jr. and Jeffrey A. Newman of the law firm Greenberg Traurig released evidence they said they would have presented at trial, including depositions by other students who said that Ford and Busa were sent repeatedly to Shanley for misbehaving during religious education classes.
   Many times, Ford would never return to class, according to the depositions. On one occasion, Shanley was overheard using a raised voice with Ford in a meeting in a nearby bathroom, when there were two empty classrooms that could have been used for a private conversation. According to depositions, Ford was seen with his head down being led by Shanley to his residence in the rectory.
• Victims oppose release of Porter [1960s-80s Porter]
   TAUNTON (MA): The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/04/06/victims_oppose_release_of_porter , By John Ellement, Apr/6/2004
   When he was 11 years old and Rev. James R. Porter was his parish priest in Minnesota, a man who now sells annuities for a Catholic organization was one of Porter's favorites, the man testified yesterday.
   Being singled out by Porter meant unrelenting sexual assaults, the 45-year-old man said in Bristol Superior Court, where prosecutors are seeking to have the former priest declared a "sexually dangerous person."
   The man said Porter molested and raped him as a boy more than 100 times: in the sacristy of their church in Bemidji, Minn., in the church basement, in the rectory, in Porter's car, even in the boy's bedroom while his brother slept 3 feet away.
   Once, Porter sexually assaulted him on the roof of the Catholic elementary school where he was a student, he said. "Any time he was with me alone, and every time, he abused me," said the man, whose name is not being published by the Globe because he is a victim of a sex crime. "I guess I was one of his favorites, so I got to do it more often."
   The man was one of four people to testify yesterday that they had been raped, molested, or indecently touched by Porter from the 1960s to the 1980s, including two former baby-sitters.
   Porter's former wife, Verlyne K. Gray, said that he admitted to her in the early 1990s that he was a serial pedophile. "He said it was true, that he had touched boys, molested them . . . when he was a priest," she testified.
   Yesterday's probable-cause hearing was the first step in a two-stage process. Bristol Assistant District Attorney Renee P. Dupuis sought to convince Superior Court Judge David A. McLaughlin that Porter, now 69, should be locked up for 60 days while independent evaluators assess whether he is currently sexually dangerous.
   A trial, which could take place in front of a jury, is required to decide if Porter, imprisoned since December 1993, should be civilly committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for a period ranging from one day to life.
   In January, he finished serving his sentence for abusing 26 children while serving as a priest in Fall River in the 1960s. However, the former priest has remained behind bars because of the petition to declare him sexually dangerous.
• Forest Lake priest abuse lawsuit voided [1977 Krautkremer]
   MINNESOTA: Pioneer Press, www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/8363198.htm , BY MARIE McCAIN, Posted on Tue, Apr. 06, 2004
   A Ramsey County judge has dismissed a Forest Lake man's lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that had claimed he was sexually abused by a priest as a child and had challenged the statute of limitations on these kinds of civil suits.
   "I cannot imagine the pain and anger the plaintiff has had to deal with for the past 27 years. … But the record does not allow me to take it to the next step, the one the plaintiff seeks me to take," District Judge Gary Bastian wrote in his decision.
   In the 2002 suit, Theodore James Krammer Jr. had asked Bastian to consider the case because the archdiocese allegedly breached a 1983 verbal agreement made with Krammer's parents, when Krammer was 16. The Krammers asked the archdiocese to prohibit the Rev. Lee D. Krautkremer from unsupervised contact with children. They also asked for regular updates on the therapy Krautkremer was receiving. In exchange the family agreed not to go to police or sue.
   Krammer argued that the archdiocese failed to abide by the agreement. As a result, he contended that his lawsuit should be considered even though it was filed well beyond the six-year statute of limitations. Krammer alleged Krautkremer molested him at a Wisconsin cabin in 1977, when Krammer was 10.
   At the time, Krautkremer was a priest at St. Peter's Church in Forest Lake, where Krammer was an altar boy and a student at the parish school.
• Archdiocese reaches settlement in sex abuse case [$US 7.87m +, McGreal]
   SEATTLE (WA): KGW, www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D81P6GO02.html , By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE, Associated Press, Apr/06/2004
   The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle has reached a settlement with a man who said he was abused decades ago by the Rev. James McGreal, a former pastor at several churches in the area.
   "I offer my apology to the victim in this case and to all those who have experienced abuse by clergy," Archbishop Alexander J. Brunett said in a written statement released Monday.
   "We as a church accept responsibility for the abuse as well as the pain this victim suffered as a result," Brunett added. "We know that no words can make up for the pain he endured and continues to endure."
   McGreal's accuser, identified in court papers only by his initials, M.W., was one of 16 men who alleged they were sexually abused by McGreal, who retired from the clergy in 1988.
   Last fall, the archdiocese agreed to pay $7.87 million to 15 of those victims. But M.W. wanted his case heard in court, his attorney, Michael Pfau, said. The case was set for trial this week in King County Superior Court.
• Porter horror revisited [Porter]
   TAUNTON (MA): The Herald News, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11248549&BRD=1710&PAG=461&dept_id=99784&rfi=6 , By GREGG M. MILIOTE , Apr/06/2004
   Two former altar boys and a pair of Minnesota sisters who baby-sat for convicted child molester James Porter’s children all presented emotionally charged testimony detailing the sexual abuses they suffered at the hands of the former priest during Monday’s opening day of probable cause hearings aimed at keeping Porter incarcerated indefinitely.
   Porter, 69, a former Diocese of Fall River priest, was convicted of 41 counts of sexual assault against 26 victims in 1993.
   He was set to be released from prison this past January, but was instead remanded to the custody of the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater pending the outcome of a sexually dangerous person petition filed by prosecutors just prior to his release date.
   The probable cause hearings, scheduled for at least the rest of the week, will determine whether the matter will go to trial. If it does and Porter is found to be a high-risk to re-offend, he will be forced to remain at the treatment center indefinitely.
   Monday’s hearing began and ended with gut-wrenching, descriptive testimony from four of Porter’s victims.
• Former pastor is accused of abusing boy in early 1990s [1990s Girard, + false carjacking]
   BALTIMORE (MD) Baltimore Sun, www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.priest05apr05,0,4489835.story , By Allison Klein, Originally published April 5, 2004
   A Baltimore County priest who resigned in 2002 after filing a false carjacking report to cover up a night with a male prostitute has been accused of sexually abusing a boy while he was pastor of St. Clement I Roman Catholic Church in Lansdowne, the Archdiocese Of Baltimore announced yesterday.
   The county state's attorney's office and the archdiocese are investigating the allegation that Steven P. Girard abused the boy on church grounds in the early 1990s, said Sean Caine, an archdiocesan spokesman. No charges have been filed.
   Arnold M. Zerwitz, an attorney who represents Girard, said his client has "emphatically and completely denied" the allegation. Zerwitz said church officials have not told his client who made the accusation, leaving Girard in an awkward and unfair position.
   Cardinal William H. Keeler issued a statement yesterday saying he is committed to being "open and accountable."
   "We are deeply sorry for the pain suffered by survivors of abuse due to the actions of clergy, and nothing is more important than protecting our children," Keeler said. "There is no place in the priesthood or religious life for those who harm children."
   Girard was sentenced in 2002 to one year of supervised probation after admitting that he made a false carjacking report to cover up a night spent with a male prostitute.
   Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:04 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tuesday April 06, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont75.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wednesday April 07, 2004 edition follows:
• Pope wants altar boys groomed for priesthood
   One in Four, 2 Holles Street, Dublin, Ireland; http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/altarboys , by Caroline Crawford, Irish Independent, http://www.irish-independent.ie/ , ~ April 7, 2004
   VATICAN CITY: The Pope has called upon priests to set a good example to altar boys in order to encourage them to join the priesthood.
   In his annual Easter Week letter to priests, Pope John Paul II commented that the number of priests is dwindling in some parts of the world "without sufficient replacements from the younger generation" and he urged priests to look to altar servers as potential successors.
   Addressing the priests, he added: "Show special care for altar servers, who represent a kind of garden of priestly vocations . . . May you be for them fathers, teachers and witnesses of Eucharistic piety and holiness of life."
   According to Vatican figures, the total numbers of priests were down sharply in Europe and North America.
   However, they were up just as smartly in Latin America, Asia and Africa, they said.
   But last night Colm O'Gorman, spokesperson for the One in Four group said the message jarred somewhat given the Church's record on child protection.
   "Of course it's important that everybody attempts to be positive and good role models to children.
   "But it does somehow jar to hear the Pope call on priests to be good role models, when there are still issues about how the Church and the Vatican restore trust in their child protection," he said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:09 PM]
• Group asks for names of abusive priests
   SAN ANTONIO (TX): News 9, http://news9sanantonio.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=10294 , By James Lozada, News 9 San Antonio, Apr/7/2004
   A petition with more than 250 signatures urges the San Antonio Archdiocese to release the names of abusive priests.
   Twenty priests since 1950 make up that list and victims say the move would help them heal.
   "For some, they want to know if there's a name on there that has not been exposed that is perhaps their perpetrator and someone else has come forward, yet they don't have the courage to come forward yet," explains Barbara Garcia-Boehland of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests or SNAP.
   Garcia-Boehland says the organization has tried for months to get the names released with no success.
   "They're not entitled to that and if they are, they have to go through the legal process to get them. We're not gonna give them to them just because they're asking for them," Archbishop Patrick Flores says.
   Other large archdioceses have released the names of priests, like Los Angeles and Baltimore.
   San Antonio says it will not, because of a difference of opinion in how you minister to victims.
• Legal cost cut proposed [< 12,000 native child victims]
   Western Catholic Reporter, www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2004/0412/legal041204.shtml , By ART BABYCH, Canadian Catholic News, Week of April 12, 2004
   OTTAWA, CANADA: Catholic religious orders who operated Indian residential schools could cut their legal costs from abuse claims by signing a financial agreement with the federal government, says the deputy minister of Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada (IRSRC).
   "Those that have signed such an agreement are usually able to decrease significantly their legal expenditures," Mario Dion said in a March 31 interview.
   That is a prospect some Catholic leaders find "somewhat appealing," he added.
   "If you sign a financial agreement you are essentially in a position to leave it to the federal government lawyers to ensure an adequate defence of the crown's interests and in so doing at the same time making sure that only valid claims will be paid."
   Consider it, says Dion. To the heads of religious orders worried about the cost of legal fees - believed to be in the millions of dollars to date, Dion suggested "maybe they ought to examine seriously the possibility of entering into a financial agreement with the federal government."
• O'Brien should stop angling for special favors, go to work
   The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0407roberts07.html , by Laurie Roberts, Apr. 7, 2004
   Well, it didn't take long for the wriggling to begin.
   PHOENIX (AZ): Just 12 days ago, the Rev. Thomas J. O'Brien received the answer to his prayers and was given probation for his role in the hit-and-run death of Jim Reed. Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Gerst withstood the wrath of a portion of the community and spared the bishop a stint in the pokey.
   One of O'Brien's attorneys praised the judge that day, saying he showed "extraordinary courage" in keeping the bishop out of Sheriff Joe's jail.
   "It was a thoughtful, deliberate analysis of issues and, more importantly, humanistic concerns in terms of sentencing an individual," said Patrick McGroder, a member of O'Brien's legal defense team. "I thought his integrity and courage were outstanding."
   Six days later, the bishop's attorneys began angling to wriggle out of some of that "thoughtful, deliberate" sentence.
   With the specter of iron bars safely behind him, suddenly the 1,000 hours of community service the judge ordered O'Brien to serve over the next few years loomed large. A bit too large, as it turned out.
   So Team O'Brien returned to Gerst's office last Thursday, quietly asking that some of the bishop's travel time to and from nursing homes and the like be counted as part of the 1,000 hours he's supposed to spend ministering to the sick and dying.
   There is just one problem. O'Brien's attorneys have said all along that the bishop shouldn't be treated differently for leaving the scene of the accident just because he's a bishop.
• O'Brien team rips Romley
   PHOENIX (AZ): The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0407obrien07.html , by Joseph A. Reaves, Apr. 7, 2004
   Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien's lawyers on Tuesday accused Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley of political "grandstanding" and "professional misconduct" in his effort to block the bishop's attempts to have a felony hit-and-run sentence modified.
   Tom Henze, O'Brien's lead counsel, made the accusations in response to court documents filed earlier by Romley in which the county attorney raised concerns the bishop was seeking "preferential treatment" in the four-year probation sentence he received.
   "The state is simply grandstanding for what undersigned counsel perceives is a political purpose that does not reflect the views of most all of the community," Henze wrote.
   "To infer that the court is engaging in preferential treatment in the administration of the terms and conditions of probation is irresponsible professional misconduct."
   Romley said Henze's comments were reminiscent of a bitter public standoff 10 months ago when O'Brien signed an immunity agreement to avoid prosecution for protecting child-molesting priests. One day after that agreement became public, O'Brien called a news conference and scheduled a series of interviews to downplay his role in the sex abuse cover-up.
   "This is déjà vu all over again," Romley said from his home on Tuesday night.
   "The bishop is coming back to court less than a week after he is convicted of a felony, and now he's trying to change things just like he did after he signed the immunity agreement."
• Bishop’s request draws fire [O’Brien]
   East Valley Tribune, www.aztrib.com/index.php?sty=19717 , By Gary Grado, ggrado@aztrib.com , ~ April 7, 2004
   PHOENIX (AZ): The hit-and-run case of Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien is still causing a stir, even though it’s been nearly two weeks since a judge spared the former Catholic leader jail time and sentenced him to 1,000 hours of community service.
   On Tuesday, Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley lashed out at the bishop and Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Stephen Gerst after O’Brien asked the judge to give him credit for travel time during his community service. "It’s like being paid for going to and from work," Romley said.
   The request came Thursday in an "informal" off-the-record session between Gerst, O’Brien’s defense attorneys and prosecutors.
   According to a written motion filed Friday by prosecutors, "the Court indicated a willingness to allow the Defendant credit for travel time in performing community service."
   Defense attorney Tom Henze said in a written reply that the state is misrepresenting what occurred in the meeting, grandstanding for political reasons.
• Teacher Fired Over Sex Abuse Allegations [1970s Adams]
   WPVI, http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/040704_nw_firedteacher.html , April 7, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: A math teacher at Cardinal O'Hara High School has been fired because of an allegation of child sex abuse some 30 years ago.
   The Philadelphia Archdiocese has fired Cardinal O'Hara High School teacher, Edward Adams. The math teacher and chess club sponsor, was dismissed after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor surfaced, that according to a statement released by the archdiocese, occurred about 30 years ago in Philadelphia and did not involve a former student. The statement also says:
   Adams has denied the allegation. That after an internal inquiry, the allegation was determined to be credible and that the moral and physical well being of students is of the utmost concern.
   Students say they learned of Adams situation through an announcement today that also warned they would be written up for talking to the media. Still students told Action News off camera the charge against the kind and popular teacher is unbelievable, and that teachers openly cried when they heard about it. Parent's reaction to the firing is mixed.
• Another allegation against ex-priest [1990s Girard]
   Arbutus Times, http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpID=805&NewsID=539208&CategoryID=5768&show=localnews&om=1 , Apr/07/04
   MARYLAND: An allegation that former Catholic priest Steven P. Girard sexually abused a minor during the early 1990s, while he was pastor at St. Clement I parish in Lansdowne, was announced Sunday by the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
   The archdiocese learned about the case from Baltimore County police and is investigating it, according to a press release issued April 4 by the archdiocese.
   Girard has denied the allegation, according to the press release.
   The police department, which received the complaint in February, is not conducting an investigation because the alleged victim does not want to file charges, according to police spokesman Bill Toohey.
   The alleged victim has been offered counseling assistance by the archdiocese, and the allegation has been reported to the State's Attorney's Office, according to the press release.
   No further details of the case were included.
• Alleged victim recants abuse claim, pastor reinstated [White]
   National Catholic Reporter, http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/040904/040904i.php , By Catholic News Service, ~ April 7, 2004
   JOLIET (IL): Fr. Thomas White was exonerated of abuse charges and reinstated as pastor of St. Daniel the Prophet Parish in Wheaton, Ill., after James Tibor of Naperville recanted charges of sexual abuse he made against the priest, the Joliet diocese has announced.
   Tibor, 34, had named the priest and the diocese in an October 2003 lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of a minor in 1979 and 1980. White had been on administrative leave since Oct. 22.
   Tibor, in a written statement, admitted that he was never alone with the priest and "that Fr. White never had any physical, sexual or other contact with him at any time." Last October, Tibor had said reports of priests abusing children had brought suppressed memories to the surface.
   "Upon further reflection, he has come to doubt whether the events in the lawsuit ever occurred," his attorney said March 22.
   White, 70, who always maintained his innocence, was elated at his complete exoneration, said diocesan spokesman John Cullen.
• Parish responds to abuse charge with rite to purify church [1970s]
   National Catholic Reporter, http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/040904/040904h.php , By SAM LUCERO, Catholic News Service, ~ April 7, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): On the first Sunday of Lent, Michael Sneesby said he experienced his personal resurrection.
   At Milwaukee’s St. Augustine Church during a Feb. 29 healing service for those sexually abused by priests, Sneesby shed tears as Fr. Tom Wittliff, pastor, presided at a rarely performed rite called a "public prayer after the desecration of a church."
   Sneesby, 47, said he was sexually abused in the church more than 30 years ago by the priest who was associate pastor at St. Augustine at that time. That priest, who retired in 1995, denies he abused Sneesby.
   According to Jerry Topczewski, administrative assistant to Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, a review of allegations against the priest is still pending.
   The penitential rite of purifying a Catholic church is not new -- Canon 1211 of the Code of Canon Law describes its use -- but performing it in response to the sexual abuse of a minor that took place there is new.
   Msgr. Anthony Sherman, associate director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Liturgy, said he was not aware of the penitential rite being used for this purpose, but any bishop could designate its use.
• Abuse audits up-in-the-air; Kerry's Catholicism hits the headlines
   National Catholic Reporter, www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/washington , By Joe Feuerherd, ~ April 7, 2004
   WASHINGTON (DC): An anticipated second round of independent audits designed to test diocesan compliance with child protection policies approved by the U.S. Bishops may not happen.
   Under pressure from bishops apparently opposed to outside scrutiny of church governance, the 48-member administrative committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops decided last month to defer a decision on whether to proceed with the 2004 audit. The full body of bishops will consider how to proceed at their next meeting, a private "prayer retreat" scheduled for June in Denver.
   A first round of audits, released in January, showed that the vast majority of dioceses had established the child protection programs and procedures called for by the bishops in their June 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth." The 12-member National Review Board established by the bishops to oversee the audits and investigate the causes of the clergy sex abuse crisis recommended that the audits be conducted annually.
   The Review Board is "very troubled" by the Administrative Committee's action, said Washington attorney Robert Bennett, a member of the panel. "We feel that the church has made a real positive step toward resolving this problem and we are concerned that if they take a step backward not only will it contribute to more problems but it will cause enormous tensions with the laity," Bennett told NCR.
   Bennett expressed concern that a relatively small number of bishops were able to stymie the process. "Part of the problem is that [the bishops] are so concerned about stepping on the shoes of a fellow bishop that they have got themselves in a structural bind where a few people can delay and do things contrary to the will of the overwhelming majority -- and I'm assuming it's a majority -- who want to move forward," said Bennett.
• Attorneys to question retired Covington bishop
   COVINGTON (KY): Cincinnati Post, www.cincypost.com/2004/04/07/ohabuse040704.html , By Bob Driehaus, ~ April 7, 2004
   Attorneys for dozens of plaintiffs who claim they were abused by Diocese of Covington priests plan to question retired Covington Bishop William Hughes about his oversight of the diocese as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit now scheduled to go to trial in October.
   Plaintiffs' attorney Robert Steinberg said he wants to ask Hughes about a wide range of topics but especially about what he knew of the abuse that was taking place under his watch. He is not accusing Hughes, who was Covington bishop from 1979 until his retirement in 1995, of being an abuser.
   Steinberg arguing, with co-counsel Stan Chesley, the first class-action case against a U.S. diocese on sexual abuse claims, also plans to take the depositions of 20 priests accused of sexually abusing children while serving in the diocese.
   At a hearing in Boone Circuit Court Tuesday, Special Judge John Potter set Oct. 25 for the beginning of a trial that's expected to last up to four weeks. A pre-trial hearing to discuss specifics of the trial is set for July 12.
• Child Protection director explains abuse reports [700 removed]
   The Catholic Telegraph, www.catholiccincinnati.org/tct/apr0904/040904protection.html , By Alexis McLaughlin, ~ April 7, 2004
   DAYTON (OH): DAYTON DEANERY - Kathleen McChesney, director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), cited reasons to be optimistic about the progress that has been made following the clergy sexual abuse tragedy.
   "Since 2002, 700 priests with credible allegations against them have been removed from ministry," she said.
   She described a changing United States church that is open to continued review and revision through her office and the National Review Board (NRB), both of which were called for in the USCCB’s 2002 charter on child protection.
• Pathologist Testifies Against Pedophile Priest [2002, too Porter]
   TheBostonChannel.com ; www.thebostonchannel.com/news/2982591/detail.html , ~ April 7, 2004
   TAUNTON, Mass. -- Convicted pedophile priest James Porter was cited twice in 2002 for alleged sexual misconduct in prison, according to treatment records presented in court.
   Porter, a former priest in the Fall River Diocese, pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children. He was scheduled to complete his sentence earlier this year, but prosecutors asked that he be declared a sexually dangerous person, which would allow him to be held indefinitely.
   A forensic pathologist testified Tuesday that Porter was cited in 2002 for touching the buttocks of another inmate at the Franklin County Jail in Greenfield, where Porter was being held. The same year, he was written up for trying to lure another person into sex, said John Daignault, a private clinician who teaches at Harvard University.
   The records also show that Porter, now 69, failed "relapse prevention" programs at least twice in prison, once as recently as September 2002, he said.
   "There's a very high risk of likelihood that he will engage in future sex offenses if he is not confined to a secure facility," Daignault said.
   Porter's court-appointed attorney, Michael Farrington, challenged the validity of the prison treatment reports, which show no record that Porter was disciplined. He also argued against drawing conclusions from Porter's past sexual abuse.
   "What we're talking about is Jim Porter's current mental condition, and he hasn't offended against anyone in many, many years," Farrington said.
• "Voice Of The Faithful" Prays For Healing
   CINCINNATI (OH): WCPO, www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/04/06/voice.html , Reported by: 9News, Web produced by: Stacy Puzo, Photographed by: 9News; 10:55:40 PM, Apr/6/04
   As holy week begins local religious activists gather to demand answers from the Cincinnati Archdiocese.
   Members of the group "Voice of the Faithful" [VOTF] gathered outside Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral downtown Tuesday.
   The group said they are praying to show support for priests of integrity and praying for victims of sexual abuse.
   The organization is also demanding that the church disclose the current locations of abusive priests.
   They said there shouldn't be any special treatment of sexual abusers and that includes priests.
• Sex-abuse victim forms treatment, recovery program
   Lowell Sun, www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105~4761~2068530,00.html , By ANDREW RAVENS, ~ April 7, 2004
   LOWELL (MA): Gary Bergeron was sitting in a funeral Mass for a fellow church sexual-abuse victim who had overdosed on drugs when it dawned on him that something needed to be done.
   There were not enough programs, if any, established to counsel victims of sexual abuse, he thought.
   With that in mind, the Lowell resident recently formed The TRUST Foundation Inc.: Treatment, Recovery & Understanding Sexual Trauma. The nonprofit organization will establish support groups for victims and their families.
   "Over the last two years, hundreds upon hundreds (of victims) have come forward, but we have yet to see any new programs put in place," said Bergeron, who explained that professional counseling could curb drug use and reduce the amount of victim deaths.
   He said the foundation will seek to establish weekly, biweekly and, eventually, daily support groups run by trained professionals.
   The foundation, which begins holding sessions May 1, will also promote research into the area of childhood sexual abuse, particularly by priests.
• Lawyer: Porter a low risk to commit more sex crimes [28 children]
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1081374036.htm , By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer, ~ April 7, 2004
   TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) - The lawyer for former priest James Porter contended Wednesday that older pedophiles present a very low risk to continue committing sex crimes, but two prosecution witnesses insisted that the 69-year-old Porter is still a threat.
   Porter, a former priest in the Fall River Diocese, pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children. He was scheduled to complete his sentence earlier this year, but prosecutors asked that he be declared a sexually dangerous person, which would allow him to be held indefinitely.
   On the third day of a hearing on that request, Michael Farrington, Porter's court-appointed lawyer, presented a study that showed that just 3.8 percent of sex offenders who reach age 70 commit additional sex crimes.
   While acknowledging that the statistics for older men are low, forensic pathologist John Daignault, a prosecution witness, said he still considers Porter likely to commit additional sex crimes.
   "This individual has demonstrated repeated sexual misconduct against children," said Daignault. "In his case, I see him as a very high risk, and age is not significant to (reducing) that risk."
• Priest's death is ruled a suicide [Minkler]
   ALBANY (NY): Albany Times Union, www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=236224&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=&newsdate=4/7/2004 , By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON and JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, First published: Wednesday, April 7, 2004
   The Rev. John Minkler's death on Feb. 15 was ruled a suicide late Tuesday, bringing to a close nearly two months of fervent speculation in a Catholic diocese rocked by the clergy sex abuse scandal.
   Albany County Coroner Herman Thomas declined to describe what the reports specifically showed, saying only that based on them his office had concluded there was no foul play involved in Minkler's death.
   Based on the findings, Thomas said his office concluded that Minkler, 57, had taken his own life.
   By law, an autopsy report can only be distributed to the victim's family or the district attorney.
   Minkler's body was found by his sister on the kitchen floor of his Watervliet apartment, laying face down on a blanket.
   "That's a great loss for his friends, family, and the people he worked with," said diocese spokesman Ken Goldfarb. "I'm not sure there's much more to say about it."
   Goldfarb said he learned about the coroner's findings from reporters.
   An unidentified bottle of prescription drugs was found by Minkler's side, along with a suicide note, neither of which have, or are likely to be, made public.
   No specific cause of death was released Tuesday.
   Minkler's sister, Colleen Quackenbush, refused comment Tuesday night, while his other sister, Patricia Minkler, couldn't be reached.
   "We don't accept the findings of the coroner," said Phillip Kiernan, who heads the Coalition of Concerned Catholics of the Albany Diocese, a conservative group that has taken Hubbard to task for the ills of his diocese.
• Local pastor faces sexual abuse charges [CURRENT Lamb]
   The Daily Courier, www.communitypapers.com/DAILYCOURIER/myarticles.asp?P=922635&S=400&PubID=12270 , ~ April 7, 2004
   PRESCOTT (AZ): A local pastor faces multiple sexual abuse charges in connection with a lengthy investigation that concluded with his arrest on Monday.
   Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) deputies arrested 43-year-old Ty Scott Lamb, pastor of the Lighthouse Community Church in Prescott, on six counts of sexual abuse and two counts of unlawful imprisonment.
   According to a YCSO report, the investigation began in the fall of 2003 after a woman told detectives that Lamb allegedly solicited sex during counseling sessions.
• Trial set for Covington diocese sex-abuse lawsuit [1950s onwards]
   The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/04/07ky/B5-diocese04070-5613.html , By BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press, ~ April 7, 2004
   BURLINGTON (KY): A judge yesterday scheduled an Oct. 25 trial for the nation's first class-action lawsuit over allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests.
   Senior Judge John Potter set the trial date at the end of a hearing in which lawyers for the plaintiffs and the Diocese of Covington wrangled over several pretrial motions.
   Potter did not rule on a motion by plaintiffs' lawyers to force the diocese to turn over records it considers privileged or on a motion to allow several people to opt out of the class-action suit.
   The lawsuit was filed on behalf of alleged molestation victims in the Northern Kentucky diocese since the 1950s. It contends the diocese mishandled claims against its clergymen.
   The suit in the heavily Catholic region was certified as a class action by another judge in October.
   Plaintiffs' lawyer Robert Steinberg pushed for a trial date during the hearing yesterday in Boone Circuit Court.
• Vt. diocese in record settlement over abuse [1979, Willis] - RCC. Boys.
   The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2004/04/07/vt_diocese_in_record_settlement_over_abuse , By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff, Apr/7/2004
   VERMONT: The Roman Catholic Church in Vermont has agreed to a record settlement in a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit, while acknowledging that the priest involved was transferred to a new parish despite recurring allegations of sexual misconduct with minors.
   The admission that diocesan officials transferred the Rev. Alfred Willis without telling his new pastor about the sexual abuse allegations was required as part of a $170,000 settlement with Robert Douglas, 38, of Burlington, Vt. The settlement is the highest paid in a clergy sex abuse case in Vermont.
   Douglas sued the Burlington Diocese last April, alleging that Willis had sexually abused him at St. Ann's Parish in Milton, Vt., in 1979 when Douglas was 13. Bishop John Marshall had transferred Willis from St. Augustine's Parish in Montpelier, despite allegations that the priest had engaged in sexual misconduct with boys during his time at that parish and in a previous assignment at St. Anthony's Parish in Burlington.
   Douglas said he would not have agreed to the settlement without the admission about the transfer by the church, which will pay $150,000 of the settlement. Willis, who will pay the remaining $20,000, was found guilty in 1981 of sexual offenses with minors by a secret canonical tribunal, removed from active ministry, and defrocked in 1985.
• Priest's death deemed suicide: Watervliet resident was alleged to have penned 1995 letter condemning bishop [Minkler]
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11255099&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6 , By: Robert Cristo , Apr/07/2004
ALBANY (NY): The February death of Watervliet resident Rev. John Minkler was labeled a suicide Tuesday by the Albany County Coroner's Office.
   After more than three months of examination, autopsy results reveal that Minkler did commit suicide just days after allegations surfaced that he wrote a 1995 letter to the late Cardinal John O'Conner condemning Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard and other priests for having alleged homosexual relations.
   Coroner Herman Thomas confirmed Tuesday by telephone from his home that it was a suicide, but made no official statement on the case.
   Albany County District Attorney Paul Clyne was also called at home Tuesday evening, but said he was not aware of the autopsy results.
   Minkler was a priest at the Stratton Veterans Affairs Hospital since 1984.
   Only a few days before his death, Minkler signed an affidavit stating he did not write the letter to O'Connor, which alleges that Hubbard had sexual relations with two other priests.
   Hubbard has wholeheartedly denied the accusations, which have prompted the hiring (by the Albany Diocese) of former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White at more than $700 an hour to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against the bishop.
   The letter also included a description of many other local priests alleged to have had homosexual relations with adults and children.
• Sex abuse victims want addresses of priests [1983]
   CINCINNATI (OH): Cleveland Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1081330292257160.xml , by John Nolan, Associated Press, Apr/07/04
   Advocates for victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests are pushing the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to disclose where abusive priests live.
   "Our ultimate goal is to stop this abuse," said Christy Miller on Tuesday, who says she was abused by an archdiocese priest in 1983 at her Catholic high school in suburban Cincinnati. "The only way we know to do that is to find out where these men are . . . and make the public aware of it."
   Dan Andriacco, a Cincinnati archdiocese spokesman, said the archdiocese knows where the priests are, but disclosing that could subject a priest's neighbors to unwanted attention from reporters and camera crews.
   The 14 accused priests have been identified publicly, and the archdiocese expects to list their names on its Web site within days, Andriacco said. All 14 have been suspended from clerical duties - but continue to be paid - pending Vatican decisions on whether they should be removed from the priesthood, he said.
   Last fall, Miller founded a Cincinnati chapter of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests [SNAP], a national support group for victims of abuse by the clergy. Members of the group and Voice of the Faithful [VOTF], an organization of Catholics pressing for church reforms, planned a vigil Tuesday evening outside the Cincinnati Archdiocese's Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains.
• Priest gets 2 years community control in marijuana case; Growing marijuana earns priest 2 years community control [Arko]
   Cleveland Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/summit/1081330486257164.xml , by Karen Farkas, Apr/07/04
   AKRON (OH): An unrepentant Rev. Richard Arko pleaded guilty Tuesday to growing marijuana in a closet in his rectory, saying he hoped that someday it would not be a crime.
   "I strongly believe in the benefits of marijuana and its use for medical purposes," he said when asked by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove why he had jeopardized everything he had worked so hard for by cultivating the drug. "For some time I have seen those benefits, and they are very helpful."
   But cultivating 35 plants and owning the tools to do so are illegal. Cosgrove sentenced Arko, 40, to two years of community control and 100 hours of community service. The judge, who suspended a two-year prison sentence, said Arko would be randomly tested for drugs. Arko admitted during his intake interview at the Summit County Jail that he used marijuana.
   Norton Police Lt. Thad Hete, who investigated the case, looked bemused after the sentencing.
   "At no time did the investigation show that the marijuana was being grown for medicinal purposes," he said.
   Arko's status with the Cleveland Catholic Diocese is uncertain. Diocesan officials placed him on unpaid leave after he was arrested in January but said he would never return to Prince of Peace Church in Barberton regardless of the outcome of the case.
• Parishioners hope for healing [1980s Shanley]
   BOSTON (MA): Newton Tab, www.townonline.com/newton/news/local_regional/new_covneshanley04072004.htm , By Sarah Andrews, Wednesday, April 7, 2004
   When St. Jean's Catholic Church in Nonantum closed a few years ago, the nearby parish of Our Lady's Help of Christians had no idea that it would inherit more than a few extra members.
   But now, over two years after the sexual abuse allegations broke against a former St. Jean's priest - and two days after a landmark settlement was awarded to plaintiffs who say they were abused at his hands - Our Lady's priest Father Walter Cuenin said he hopes the plaintiffs and local parishioners can begin to heal.
   "I'm happy to see a settlement reached, not that it can make up for what happened, but hopefully it can help [plaintiff] Greg Ford and the others in the process of healing," he said.
   In 2002, Ford, a 26-year-old Nonantum resident, Paul Busa and two other former Newton residents filed a civil lawsuit against the Boston Archdiocese alleging that former priest Rev. Paul R. Shanley raped and molested them while they were children at St. Jean's Parish in Newton during the 1980's.
   On Monday, the Archdiocese reached a settlement with the four men. One of the plaintiffs, assumed to be Ford, was said to receive the largest dollar amount in any sexual abuse case in Massachusetts, although exact numbers were not released. The current record is $1.4 million.
• Psychologist testifies against Porter in Massachusetts court [2002 too, Porter]
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040407/APN/404070680&cachetime=5 , The Associated Press, Apr 7 2004
   TAUNTON, Mass.- Convicted pedophile priest James Porter was cited twice in 2002 for alleged sexual misconduct in prison, according to treatment records presented in court on Tuesday.
   Porter, a former priest in the Fall River Diocese, pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children. He was scheduled to complete his sentence earlier this year, but prosecutors asked that he be declared a sexually dangerous person, which would allow him to be held indefinitely.
   A forensic pathologist testified Tuesday that Porter was cited in 2002 for coming into contact with the buttocks of another inmate at the Franklin County Jail in Greenfield, where Porter was bring held. The same year, he was written up for trying to lure another person into sex, said John Daignault, a private clinician who teaches at Harvard University.
   The records also show that Porter, now 69, failed "relapse prevention" programs at least twice in prison, once as recently as September 2002, he said.
• Judge drops 9 charges for man accused of child rape [McNeese]
   The Leaf-Chronicle, www.theleafchronicle.com/news/stories/20040328/localnews/164213.html , ~ April 7, 2004
   TENNESSEE: Nine additional charges have been dismissed against the Rev. La Monte McNeese, though formal judgments have not been entered into the court system's computers. 0
   Judgments signed by Circuit Judge Michael Jones and Assistant District Attorney Art Bieber and dated June 6 indicate the nine statutory rape charges have been dismissed.
   The documents, however, weren't filed until Feb. 12 and the charges were not listed as dismissed in the court's public access computers Friday afternoon.
   Defense attorney Jes Beard did not sign the dismissal forms. His signature, however, is optional, the forms indicate.
   Bieber was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment on why the nine statutory rape charges were dismissed. Circuit Court Clerk Cheryl Castle said she needed to check with the District Attorney's Office before she could comment on the judgments.
   The nine charges dropped are the second round of dismissals in McNeese's case. Judgments dismissing nine other sex-related charges were filed in Circuit Court on June 10.
   McNeese was arrested in August 2002 and charged with 19 counts of statutory rape, eight counts of sexual battery and two counts of child rape. With the most recent round of dismissals, only 11 counts remain against him. Those counts all involve one of the two girls named in the original indictment.
   A May 25 trial date is set for those counts.
• Lutheran Officials Under Fire
   Kansas City Star, www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/8373336.htm?&ERIGHTS=8752043383597907643kansascity::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=9ppppvquvyvyxpsysyqqpppppp|Kathleen|Y , By BOBBY ROSS JR., Associated Press, ~ April 7, 2004
   MARSHALL, Texas - Jurors took less than 15 minutes last year to convict former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. of sexually assaulting boys, then sentenced him to 397 years behind bars.
   Now the question is whether the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its agencies should have done more to stop him.
   In the same East Texas courtroom where Thomas was convicted, a jury was selected this week in a civil case brought by 14 victims of Thomas and their families. They claim the church groups failed to keep Thomas from the ministry despite warnings about his behavior.
   "These guys all knew what his record was," said the father of one victim suing the Chicago-based denomination, its Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and its Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, headquartered in Dallas. The Associated Press is withholding the father's name to protect his son's identity.
   Reminiscent of complaints against the Roman Catholic hierarchy in recent years, the Thomas case is one of the most serious abuse lawsuits to hit a U.S. Protestant denomination.
   "It's sad that we're seeing some of the same patterns that have been so painfully common within the Catholic hierarchy," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
   The case could be settled before testimony begins next week, and the ELCA and the seminary claimed Monday that they have reached deals with plaintiffs subject to the judge's approval - although they declined to provide specific details.
• Sex Abuse Audits on Hold
   WASHINGTON (DC): Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55989-2004Apr6.html , By Alan Cooperman, Page A06, Wednesday, April 7, 2004;
   The leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has rejected the recommendation by a panel of prominent Roman Catholic lay people that it immediately authorize a second round of independent audits of sex abuse procedures in dioceses across the country.
   Last year, teams of auditors, mainly former FBI agents, were hired by the church to visit all 195 U.S. dioceses and determine whether they were complying with the charter on sex abuse that the bishops adopted in June 2002 under the glare of a national scandal.
   The audits were a cornerstone of the bishops' response to the scandal, allowing an unprecedented degree of outside scrutiny of how bishops run their dioceses. Many church officials, victims' groups and lay Catholic organizations assumed that the audits would be an automatic, annual process. But it now appears that may not be the case.
   At a meeting in Washington of the Administrative Committee of the bishops conference March 23 to 25, the National Review Board, a panel of 13 lay Catholic leaders appointed by the bishops, recommended that the church "immediately go ahead with another round of audits, as we believe the charter requires," said the board's chairman, Anne M. Burke.
   Burke, a judge on the Illinois Appellate Court, said the same recommendation was made by the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, chaired by Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and by the church's Office of Child and Youth Protection, headed by former FBI official Kathleen L. McChesney.
   But several members of the bishops' conference, including Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York and Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., wrote letters urging the 48-member Administrative Committee to postpone any decision on audits until the next regular business meeting of the 300 active U.S. bishops, which will take place in November.
• Volunteer finds relief along 14th
   The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/sports/golf/articles/2004/04/07/volunteer_finds_relief_along_14th , By Jim McCabe, Globe Staff, Apr/7/2004
   AUGUSTA, Ga. -- When you have devoted as much of your life in recent years to a gut-wrenching story of human anguish as Paul Finn has with the sexual abuse scandal inside the Roman Catholic Church, then you are entitled to whatever source of peace and solitude you can find.
   For Finn, that spot is along the 14th fairway at Augusta National Golf Club, a solitary figure amid towering Georgia pines and very much engulfed in the ambiance of the Masters. An avid golfer who plays out of Thorny Lea GC in Brockton, Mass., Finn for the second year is a marshal at the 440-yard hole that often gets overlooked because it is squeezed between the par-5 13th and the par-5 15th, the inward holes that are pillars of Masters folklore.
   But the 14th green is arguably the most devilish on the course and is one superb challenge. And it's where you'll find Finn, a Hyde Park native who attended Boston Latin High School and Stonehill College. Finn, a lawyer, has served as a mediator in the series of settlements that have arisen out of the scandals. There were more than 540 cases mediated by Finn in the Boston area and he also has been involved with many in the Springfield Diocese.
   All in all, a very taxing and emotional endeavor, so Finn is happy to be volunteering his time in such a peaceful setting as Augusta National.
   Having attended the tournament annually beginning with Fred Couples's win in 1992, Finn has enjoyed the environment and he mentioned five years ago that if they ever needed a marshal, he was available. He got the call last year and was assigned the 14th hole. He's there again this year, standing quietly as Gary Player, Colin Montgomerie, and Charles Howell made solo trips through in the quiet of an Augusta morning.
• Psychologist says Porter is still dangerous
   Star Tribune, www.startribune.com/stories/484/4709065.html by Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent, April 7, 2004
   TAUNTON, MASS. -- James Porter's decades-long record of sexual misconduct, some of it as a Roman Catholic priest in Minnesota, apparently did not end with his 1993 conviction for molesting dozens of children.
   New treatment records disclosed Tuesday in a weeklong hearing to keep the former priest confined as a sexually dangerous person show he was cited two times in 2002 for alleged sexual misconduct.
   The records, from the Franklin County Jail in Greenfield, Mass., where he is being held, contain one citation for coming into contact with the buttocks of another inmate, and another for alleged "grooming behavior," meaning acts meant to lure another person into sex.
   In addition, the records show that Porter, now 69, failed "relapse prevention" programs at least twice in prison, once as recently as September 2002.
   The reports were cited by forensic psychologist John Daignault, the first of four psychologists to testify before a Massachusetts judge, who must decide whether Porter should face a trial that could commit him to a hospital until he is no longer a threat to children.
• Victims and their kin don't want abuser freed
   SAN ANTONIO (TX): Express-News, www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA07.02B.Lozano_Bail_0407.525ddc5.html , by Lisa Marie Gómez, San Antonio Express-News, Web Posted: Apr/07/2004
   It's been more than a decade, but John Zuniga remembers clearly the fear he felt when the lights went out in his dorm at St. Anthony's High School Seminary in the early 1990s.
   That's when Carlos Lozano, a priest and dean at the school, would come in and sexually abuse him and at least three other male students.
   "He wore glasses, and I still remember him walking in the dark with a glare reflecting on them," Zuniga said. "I still have nightmares about that, and for years I would sleep with the lights on."
   The sexual abuse began when Zuniga was a freshman on a scholarship and lasted throughout his sophomore year. After leaving the school as a junior, he told his mother about the abuse.
   "You feel like a dirty rag that can't get clean no matter how much bleach you put on it," said Zuniga, 27, by phone from his home in Austin. "You lose a lot of dignity."
   Lozano pleaded no contest in 1995 to charges that he molested four teenage boys at the school. He was given 10 years of deferred adjudication and served 30 days in prison.
• Snag in Atlanta church reforms Two vital positions, but dismissed
   ATLANTA (GA): The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0404/07catholics.html , By JOHN BLAKE, Apr/06/04
   Less than three months after satisfying national child sex abuse reforms, the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta is operating without two vital positions required by reform guidelines.
   The archdiocese has refused to comment on why the women who held the positions - one a volunteer - were dismissed.
   But the women say it was because they told church leaders that the archdiocese wasn't doing enough to comply with the reforms. One said she was concerned that victims were directed to call church officials instead of police to report allegations. Another said church leaders rebuffed her ideas for training priests.
   The archdiocese does not "live up to the promises . . . or the spirit" of church reforms, said Ann Price, who was the coordinator of its sexual abuse victims assistance program.
   Neither Archbishop John Donoghue nor his spokeswoman and vice chancellor, Kathi Stearns, would comment on the women's allegations. But Stearns said the archdiocese has instituted a national search for their replacements.
   "It takes time to find qualified people, and we are committed to that process," she said.
   Stearns confirmed that the archdiocese fired Price on Jan. 23, four-and-a-half months after Donoghue hired her. She also confirmed that the archdiocese discharged Sally Horan, a child sexual abuse specialist, from an unpaid position on the archbishop's abuse advisory board.
   Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the church's National Office of Child and Youth Protection, said the coordinator and the child sex abuse specialist are not optional. Both positions are required by national guidelines established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 and by the archdiocese's own policy, implemented Aug. 1, 2003.
• Catholic Church admits guilt, settles priest misconduct charge for $150,000 [Willis]
   VERMONT: Times Argus, http://timesargus.com/04/Story/81740.html , By Kevin O'Connor, RUTLAND HERALD, ~ April 7, 2004
   Vermont's Catholic Church has paid $150,000 and released an unprecedented admission of past actions to settle the last priest misconduct lawsuit against it.
   In return, Robert Douglas II, a 38-year-old Burlington man, will drop his court case against the state diocese and the former Rev. Alfred Willis, who was a priest in Burlington, Montpelier and Milton before being defrocked in 1985.
   Douglas says he was 13 when Willis sexually abused and exploited him at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Milton in 1979.
   "All the while this was happening at St. Ann's parish, the diocese knew Alfred Willis was completely untrustworthy with children," Douglas said Tuesday.
   The diocese, in response, admitted in writing it knew Willis had faced sexual misconduct charges as early as seminary, but transferred him repeatedly without telling churchgoers of his problematic history, even when it asked the Vatican to defrock him after determining he was guilty of child abuse.
   Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:17 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wednesday April 07, 2004
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