-- Sources: The Gallup Organization, Religion News Service
• Ex-counselor sentenced for teen molestation ["Brother Vic"; 40 years molesting]
The Trentonian, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11281388&BRD=1697&PAG=461&dept_id=44551&rfi=6 , By GARRY MITCHELL , Associated Press, 04/10/2004
MOBILE, ALABAMA: A former Roman Catholic high school counselor was sentenced yesterday to the maximum six years in prison for molesting a 14-year-old student in 1991 and then was released from jail on an appeal bond.
Nicholas Paul "Brother Vic" Bendillo, 75, was convicted in February of second-degree sexual abuse and enticing a child.
The victim, Clark Glenn Jr. of Lawrenceville, N.J., now 27, got an apology during sentencing from Bendillo, who said he was "very remorseful, very sorry" for what he had done.
"I'm very sorry for the hurt and betrayal," Bendillo said, facing Glenn, who never made eye contact with Bendillo.
Before sentencing, Glenn urged Circuit Judge Robert G. Kendall to consider Bendillo's other victims. Several similar sexual abuse charges are pending.
"He set himself as a guidance counselor for boys going through difficult times in their lives," Glenn said. "He used that for his own personal desires. ... He's gotten away with this for 40 years."
• Ohio Priest Found Guilty of Growing Marijuana [2004, Arko]
Beliefnet, www.beliefnet.com/story/144/story_14425_1.html , By Karen Farkas, Religion News Service, Apr. 9 2004
AKRON, Ohio (RNS): An unrepentant Catholic priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to growing marijuana in a closet in his rectory, saying he hoped someday it would not be a crime. "I strongly believe in the benefits of marijuana and its use for medical purposes," the Rev. Richard Arko 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, or probation, 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 that he used marijuana. Police officials said there was no indication the marijuana was being grown for medicinal purposes.
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.
• Prosecutors try to keep child sex abuser locked up
TAUNTON (MA): CNN, www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/04/09/priest.abuse , From Jonathan Wald, CNN, Posted: 9:42 PM EDT (0142 GMT), Friday, April 9, 2004
(CNN) -- Prosecutors in Massachusetts tried to convince a judge Friday that convicted pedophile and former Catholic priest James Porter should be held in prison.
"We want to keep him behind bars indefinitely as a 'sexually dangerous person'," said Lisa Leonard, assistant to Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr.
Porter was scheduled to have been released in January of this year from the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater.
A sexual offender deemed likely to re-offend -- even after serving his or her time -- can be kept locked up as a "sexually dangerous person," Leonard said. "We think Porter qualifies."
Porter's lawyer disagreed.
• Porter letters portray tortured priest [Told superiors in 1964]
TAUNTON (MA): Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3359 , By Dave Wedge, Saturday, April 10, 2004
Pedophile ex-priest James Porter told top church brass about his "temptation" to molest kids as early as 1964, according to letters released yesterday.
"There have been many temptations as you can imagine but thank God, with His grace, I have handled them well," Porter wrote to the bishop of Fall River on April 29, 1964.
The letter was one of a dozen that portray Porter as a tortured priest, struggling for acceptance and begging for mercy.
"I realize what a grind is ahead of me and that the temptation will always be there . . . but I do have the will and desire to control it," he wrote in a 1967 letter from a treatment center for pedophile priests to Fall River Bishop James Connolly.
The letters were introduced in Taunton Superior Court, where prosecutors are seeking to have the 70-year-old ex-priest held as a serial molester. Porter was convicted of sexually abusing 28 Massachusetts kids and two in Minnesota. His 18- to 20-year jail term ended in January.
• Cross calls attention to clergy abuse ["Cross of shame" lists priests, suppressors]
FRANKFORT (NY): The Evening Telegram, www.herkimertelegram.com/articles/2004/04/10/news/news01.txt , By JERRY BLAIR
A Frankfort man erected a "Cross of Shame" on his property Friday in an effort to raise awareness of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
Placed by David Leonard in the side yard of his First Avenue home, the handmade display featured the names of priests found to have committed abuses and church officials who have sought to suppress the issue. The 61-year-old said he felt Good Friday was the right time to highlight how the church has handled clergy sexual abuse.
"The terrible pain and suffering felt by the victims of the church also have to be remembered," Leonard said. "I did it in support of the victims and survivors."
The cause is a very personal one for Leonard, who was himself abused by priests in Boston from the time he was 11-years-old until he was a senior in a Catholic school at the age of 16. Leonard's activism stems in part from his membership in Survivors Network Abused by Priests, a national grass-roots support group.
Victims of sexual abuse often feel too stigmatized to talk about what happened; Leonard was silent for 18 years and suffered serious mental illness as a result of his experience. It is because of this that he feels survivors should work to raise awareness when they are able to overcome it.
"There are so many that still can't speak," Leonard said. "I'd like to be, in some small way, their voice."
Leonard said that his display is not meant to be an attack on the Roman Catholic Church, but rather the hierarchy of leaders who have tried to cover up clergy sexual abuse and intimidate its victims. He recently met with new Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley to discuss the issue and was told the church is willing to do "whatever it takes" to remove sexual predators from its ranks.
"It's been a safe haven for too long," Leonard said. "We have to continue to educate and make people aware of what's going on."
Among the names included on the Cross of Shame were The Rev. Robert Shinos, who was removed as pastor of the Church of Saints Anthony and Joseph in Herkimer last month, and Father Charles Celeste, currently on a continuing leave of absence from Holy Family Church in Little Falls. Leonard said he has information about abuse involving six other priests in the region that he has attempted to share with the Albany Diocese. [Picture of the cross and Mr Leonard.]
• Sex abuse victims will be identified to some
Quad-Cities Online, www.qconline.com/archives/qco/sections.cgi?prcss=display&id=190937 , April 9, 2004
CLINTON, Iowa (AP) -- A Clinton County judge has ruled that identities of victims who reported they were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport must be disclosed in civil court -- but only on a limited basis.
Only the judge, plaintiffs and defendants, their attorneys and close staff members, expert witnesses and a few other potential witnesses will know the identities, the ruling by District Judge C.H. Pelton said Thursday.
Alleged abuse victims' names will be removed from documents produced in court and changed to a pseudonym, number or letter.
The judge noted that in the event of a trial, the plaintiffs' and witnesses' identities could become public during the court process. That's why he will allow alleged victims to choose to keep their names confidential by filing a court-directed confidentiality request, which he will consider on a case-by-case basis.
• Porter wrote of wrestling with temptation
Star Tribune, www.startribune.com/stories/462/4715091.html , Associated Press, April 10, 2004
TAUNTON, MASS. -- Former Bemidji, Minn., area priest and convicted pedophile James Porter wrote in a 1967 letter to the bishop of Fall River, Mass., that he would always be tempted to prey on children.
Porter, who pleaded guilty to child molesting in 1993, completed his sentence in January, but prosecutors petitioned the court to hold him indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person.
Several letters written by Porter, part of the prosecution's case against him, were made public Friday, including one that Porter sent to Bishop James Connolly from a treatment center for pedophile priests in New Mexico. The letter was written in November 1967, seven years before Porter was forced to leave the priesthood.
"I realize what a grind is ahead of me and that the temptation will always be there, but I am resolute that I not only have the ability with God's grace, but I do have the will and desire to control it and solve it now," Porter wrote.
After leaving the priesthood, Porter, who served in the Fall River Diocese, married and settled in Minnesota. He had four children of his own before he was charged in Massachusetts with molesting 28 children. Also, more than 30 Bemidji-area victims have told of abuse.
• Journalist, author, Jason Berry is heard on clergy sex abuse at St. Peter's College
NEW JERSEY: The Jersey Journal, "Journalist, author is heard on clergy sex abuse at St. Peter's College," www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-1/108158833741060.xml , By the Rev. Alexander Santora, Journal columnist, Saturday, April 10, 2004
The Catholic Church needs to institute a policy of separation of powers, like the U.S. government's executive and judicial branches, to fully address the problem of sexual abuse by priests, the first journalist to write about the scandal said during a talk at St. Peter's College this week.
To counter Vatican interference and control, journalist and author Jason Berry of New Orleans said the church would do well to set up a judiciary branch to investigate charges and mete out punishment for abusive priests.
Berry, speaking before a group of about 85 members of the controversial Voice of the Faithful organization, offered an example from his new book, "Vows of Silence: the Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II" (Free Press, $26.).
Investigations into sexual abuse charges by nine former Legionnaires of Christ leveled over several decades and around the world against the wealthy religious order's founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, were derailed by Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano, Berry said.
Maciel has denied the charges.
"The church needs an independent judiciary because the pope can intervene," said Berry, an alumnus of Jesuit schools who declared himself a practicing Catholic and said he had "a very benevolent experience of priests and nuns" growing up in Louisiana.
• Burke link to accused priest raises conflict issue [Friend of alleged abuser]
CHICAGO (IL): Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0404100140apr10,1,5071275.story?coll=chi-news-hed , By Todd Lighty, Published April 10, 2004
Victims' advocates say Anne Burke, head of the U.S. Catholic bishops' oversight board on sex abuse, should have disclosed her friendship with a former Chicago priest who resigned in the 1990s amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving a minor.
Burke, an Illinois appellate judge, said her friendship with former priest Thomas O'Gorman--now a speechwriter for her husband, Ald. Edward Burke--had no bearing on her work with the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She said she only recently learned of his past.
Supporting Burke, two fellow board members doubted her friendship with the priest influenced her thinking, arguing she has been a strong advocate for children molested by priests. O'Gorman has denied the accusations against him, and he left the priesthood before church authorities made any official determination in his case.
However, others said Burke should have immediately and fully disclosed the relationship once she learned of the past accusation of abuse against O'Gorman, no matter how minor the allegation appeared.
A prominent Catholic theologian, a priest sex-abuse victim and a victims-rights group said Burke's failure to disclose the relationship damages her credibility as an independent voice for Catholic laypeople.
Rev. Richard McBrien, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, said Burke made a mistake in not disclosing the friendship.
"It has a material effect in assessing her credibility," McBrien said. "It affects how she's perceived and whether she is able to investigate these cases with a completely open mind.
"Perception is important. Perception is part of reality," McBrien said. "It's not Anne Burke's judgment to make. It's up to others--the church, victims, Catholics--to decide whether it affects her credibility."
• Local, regional SNAP meetings begin
HUDSON (IA): Courier, www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2004/04/10/news/regional/967cc2f82dcad46786256e7200066b5d.txt , By PAT KINNEY, Assistant City Editor, Saturday, April 10, 2004
The Northeast Iowa Chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will meet the first Monday of every month beginning May 3, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Hudson Public Library in Hudson.
SNAP is a volunteer self-help organization of survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their supporters.
The organization strives to end the cycle of abuse by supporting one another in personal healing, and by pursuing justice and institutional change by holding individual perpetrators responsible and the church accountable. According to organizer Steve Theisen, the support meetings will be a safe place for victims, their families, and their supporters to meet. Because the meetings are to be a safe place, no media or religious personnel will be allowed to attend unless they themselves have suffered the indignity and pain of religious sexual abuse.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:16 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Saturday April 10, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont76.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sunday April 11, 2004 edition follows:-
• Oakland priest accused of molesting boy returns to his abbey [1994-96]
OAKLAND (CA): Herald Tribune, www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040410/APN/404100731 , The Associated Press, April 10. 2004
An Oakland priest accused of having sex with a teenage boy has returned to his abbey after being released on bail.
60-year-old Donald Weeks was charged this week with 24 felony counts of oral sex with the youth between April 1994 and March 1996.
He posted bond late Thursday after a judge reduced his bail.
His attorney says he's back at Saint Patrick's Abbey - a halfway house for recovering drug addicts and parolees in Oakland's Fruitvale District.
Weeks is scheduled to appear in court again on April 20th.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:57 AM
• Praise for pastor as he's laid to rest
STATEN ISLAND (NY): Staten Island Advance, www.silive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1080830870236540.xml , By LESLIE PALMA-SIMONCEK, Thursday, April 01, 2004
As he concluded the funeral mass for Monsignor Thomas Gaffney yesterday, Cardinal Edward Egan congratulated the priest for the way "he handled the failed attempt to damage his reputation."
The remark was met with thunderous applause from parishioners of St. Charles R.C. Church in Oakwood, who have supported and defended their pastor since a New Jersey man went public in January with an allegation that the monsignor had sexually abused him when he was an altar boy 17 years ago.
"Two days before he went to the Lord, we spoke on the telephone" the cardinal said. "He said, 'Don't worry about me, I'm doing fine.'" Cardinal Egan said "I count it as a privilege to have known this wonderful priest."
Monsignor Gaffney, 79, died Saturday night in Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, where he had been hospitalized since March 15.
• Drive on your own time
PHOENIX (AZ): Tucson Citizen, www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=opinion&story_id=041004b7_edits April 10 2004
Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien went too far this week.
O'Brien, former head of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, was convicted of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. A judge sentenced him to four years of supervised probation and ordered him to perform 1,000 hours of community service.
But this week, O'Brien asked the judge to allow the time he spends driving to his community service work to count against the 1,000-hour requirement.
The judge rightly rejected the request. O'Brien is fortunate not to be spending time behind bars. He shouldn't press it.
• Bishop's judge finds that high-profile trial brings noise aplenty
PHOENIX (AZ): The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0411montini11.html , by Ed Montini, Apr. 11, 2004
Like a lot of us, the judge was fooled by opinion polls and thought there would be a hung jury.
"That would have completely taken me off the hook," Superior Court Judge Stephen Gerst said. "By the time the case was tried again there probably would have been another judge. That would have been OK with me."
But the jury in the criminal trial of Bishop Thomas O'Brien came back with a guilty verdict, and Judge Gerst's quiet professional life got suddenly noisy.
"When I realized that there were a limited number of files on cases of this type, I knew it was possible to do an analysis," he said. "Then once I saw how that was working out, I found that it could be made into a presentation."
At the sentencing of the bishop, Gerst spent about an hour describing his review of 99 other cases in which a defendant had left the scene of an accident. In the end he decided to give the bishop a deferred jail sentence, four years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service. If O'Brien follows the conditions of his probation, he won't spend any time behind bars.
"I didn't have any idea how it came off," Gerst said. "I walked off the bench and into a little hallway behind the courtroom, and there were no one there. It was silent."
Until the bombs went off. Talk radio hosts lashed out and public outcry followed. Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley accused Gerst of giving O'Brien preferential treatment. The same Romley who had worked with Gerst many times before and never questioned his integrity. Gerst had helped Romley go after well-heeled men and women who didn't pay their child support. He had helped Romley get out of a jam caused by a plea bargain Romley made with former Arizona Diamondback pitcher Bobby Chouinard.
• Address concerns of abuse victims
CALIFORNIA: Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/8407201.htm , Opinion, Laura Brickman, San Jose; Posted on Sun, Apr. 11, 2004
John Salberg should be proud of coming forward and making the issue of sexual abuse by Catholic priests public (Page 1B, April 3). In doing so, he has helped many victims of sexual abuse -- not only by priests, but also by relatives or friends. These are dark secrets that no one, including the victim, cares to talk about.
Fear and denial are among the reasons that victims wait so long before coming forward. No one wants to deal with this ugly issue, but Bishop Patrick J. McGrath and others are doing so. They are supportive and should be commended.
For real healing to occur, more openness and cooperation is needed between church officials and the victims. I'm a supportive Catholic, and I hope that victims' concerns are taken into account by the church and our community.
• Catholic Conversion [150,000 joining]
WASHINGTON (DC): ABC, http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Living/catholic_conversion_040410-1.html , By Lisa Stark and Philip Stewart, April 10 2004
Some 150,000 Americans will officially become Catholics this Holy Saturday, celebrating a time, in the Christian world, of repentance and renewal. The large number of those converting to Roman Catholicism comes despite the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the church over the past few years.
Catholic clergy and scholars say those who come into the church have various reasons for doing so. Some are inspired by family members who are Catholic, while others find the church as they explore faith groups until they feel at home.
And still more are those who were baptized but never really practiced until adulthood.
"People come to church on their own terms," said David Gibson, author of The Coming Catholic Church. "They find something beyond the priest or bishop or even the pope that they find attractive about Catholicism."
Gibson attributes the numbers of those joining the church to the idea that in uncertain times, Americans find a "real anchor" in the Catholic faith.
• New Allegations Surface Against Father Weeks
OAKLAND (CA): ABC 7, http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/iteam/040904_iteam_weeks.html , ABC7 I-Team Report, Apr. 9 2004
A controversial East Bay priest is out of jail this evening. Donald Weeks first got attention last month for housing sex offender Cary Verse at his Oakland abbey. Now, he's facing two dozen counts of the sexual abuse of a minor. The ABC7 I-Team has interviewed a key witness in that case. Dan Noyes reports on the details, plus some new allegations.
The I-Team first investigated Father Weeks six years ago -- some female residents in one of his programs complained he was ripping them off. Now, we have new insight into the latest charges against him -- sexual contact with a minor.
Father Donald Weeks is back at St. Patrick's Abbey in Oakland this evening, after getting bailed out of Santa Rita jail. He's charged with 24 counts of the sexual abuse of a minor that occurred from April 1994 through March 1996.
A picture of the alleged victim, now 26, is still posted on the abbey's web site.
Father Donald Weeks, St. Patrick's Abbey: "My attorney has asked me not to comment on the matter until there is further investigation and that's the stand that I have to take right now in respect for my attorney."
But, Weeks told us off camera he is innocent, that police targeted him last month after he took in Cary Verse, the sexually-violent predator released from Atascadero State Hospital.
And there is some truth to that. The I-Team has found the man who sparked the police investigation, after he saw Weeks and Verse together on TV.
Witness: "I just found the whole situation very, very repugnant."
Law enforcement sources confirm this retired minister is a key witness in the case against Weeks. He volunteered at the abbey for several years. He says he left after a falling out with Weeks over sex, drugs and money problems at the abbey.
• Secrecy at Catholic Schools Frustrates Parents and Teachers
NEW YORK: The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/education/11catholic.html?ex=1082260800&en=2b2a706eedac09c5&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ; By DAVID GONZALEZ, Published: April 11, 2004
Parents and teachers at St. Thomas Aquinas School in the Bronx are busy this Easter with a communitywide collection. In an odd twist on the usual Catholic school dilemma, they are collecting signatures - not money - to keep John Burke, the man who has been principal, chief fund-raiser and neighborhood advocate for more than 32 years.
Mr. Burke was told this would be his last year during a passing conversation with the pastor at a recent fund-raising dinner, friends say. Neither the pastor nor the Archdiocese of New York are saying much to him or his parishioners.
Teachers and parents at several other Catholic schools say they also have been frustrated by the reticence of pastors and others to discuss important decisions that have been made. At Mount Carmel/Holy Rosary School in East Harlem, parents said they were blindsided by news in January that the financially troubled school would close. And at St. Francis de Sales & St. Lucy Academy, teachers were outraged by the pastor's surprise decision to not renew the employment of several teachers and administrators. The pastor resigned when his superiors reversed his order.
The events at these schools reflect a more particular anger, a sense of powerlessness among some parents and parishioners who feel that the church, especially in light of the sexual abuse scandals of the last two years, should be more considerate, if not downright grateful, for their loyalty.
"The church should be embracing us, the parents who support Catholic schools," said Evelyn Velazquez, whose son attends St. Thomas Aquinas. "If they don't, they're just going to break our faith. I believe in the church, even with everything that has gone on. I believe the church has done a lot of good."
• James Porter: Trying to define the monster inside [> 100 victims]
Star Tribune, www.startribune.com/stories/484/4715745.html , Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent, April 11, 2004
TAUNTON, MASS. -- At his sentencing in 1993, serial child molester James Porter told a judge that every time he looked into the mirror, he saw "the monster that I was."
In a hearing that could decide whether the former Minnesota priest ever walks free again, another judge will have to determine whether the monster is still there.
After a week of wrenching testimony from victims, his ex-wife and psychologists, Porter, 69, remains an enigma -- silent, bland and impassive.
The verdict on whether he also remains a danger to society is all the more difficult to render because Porter has declined any meaningful therapy in at least two years. Moreover, none of the psychologists testifying in his hearing so far has interviewed him.
Those who know him best -- his victims, his ex-wife, his new girlfriend -- can't explain what sent him on the twisted three-decade trajectory that touched the lives of more than 100 children in five states.
Nor are they sure that he ever came to terms with it.
"What gets me most is that he's still unwilling to admit everything he's done," said one of Porter's alleged victims, now a mother living in New Brighton. "I do believe he's untreatable."
• Burke defends her friendship with ex-priest
CHICAGO (IL): Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-burke11.html , BY DAVE NEWBART, April 11, 2004
Illinois Appellate Justice Anne Burke, head of the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, defended her friendship with a former priest accused of sexual misconduct, saying she did not believe it was a conflict of interest.
Burke said her friendship with Thomas O'Gorman did not cloud her thinking on setting policy for the independent review board. The proof, she said, is the strong stance she has taken against abusive priests and those who cover up abuse, particularly in a February report chastising the church.
"It flies in the face of common sense to say I could be influenced when the results of my report disclose what an advocate I am for children and victims," Burke said Saturday.
But Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said her group "fears that to some Catholics and victims, this will cast an unfortunate cloud over Judge Burke's perceived objectivity."
Burke said she has been friends with O'Gorman since about 1996, a year after he began working as a speechwriter for her husband, Ald. Ed Burke (14th).
In 1992, O'Gorman -- then a priest for 15 years -- was placed on administrative leave from his post as pastor at St. Malachy Church on the West Side after a high school student accused him of sexual misconduct, Archdiocese of Chicago spokesman Jim Dwyer said.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:18 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sunday April 11, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont76.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Monday April 12, 2004 edition follows:-
• Victims testify they were molested by former priest Porter
Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1081796402.htm , The Associated Press, By MARTIN FINUCANE, 04.12.2004
TAUNTON, Mass., (AP) - A former altar boy said Monday that defrocked priest James Porter raped him in a church dressing room in the early 1960s, and later molested him in his hospital bed while he was recovering from pneumonia.
Thomas Kulas, now 52, of Torrington, Conn., was one of five Porter victims who testified on day six of a Superior Court hearing on prosecutors' bid to keep the convicted pedophile locked up as a sexually dangerous person.
He said Porter would follow the altar boys into a basement dressing room after Mass at St. James Catholic church in New Bedford. It was there that Kulas said he was raped by Porter. He was about 12 at the time.
After that, "I was deathly afraid of him. He struck the fear of God in me," he said. "I would run downstairs as soon as Mass was over and I'd hide. Your heart's pounding, praying that the door you were hiding in wasn't going to open."
Porter, 69, was a priest in the Fall River Diocese who was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 children. He completed his prison term in January, but prosecutors petitioned to have him committed indefinitely to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual offenders in Bridgewater.
Kulas said Porter molested him several other times, including once in his hospital bed, where the former priest fondled him. He said he turned to alcohol and drugs to escape the memories and was a heroin addict by 16.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:01 PM
• Victims' parents agree to settlement in Lutheran abuse case
Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw96031_20040412.htm , April 12, 2004, 2:54 PM
MARSHALL, Texas (AP) -- Parents and guardians of 14 alleged victims in a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America testified Monday that they were satisfied with a proposed settlement with most defendants in the case.
Attorneys asked Harrison County District Judge Bonnie Leggat to seal the terms of the settlement pending the outcome of the civil trial that starts Tuesday against the only remaining defendant, the denomination's Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, headquartered in Dallas.
Leggat was hearing testimony from individual victims' parents and guardians, and was approving the settlement plaintiff by plaintiff. Under the settlement, all money will be put into trust funds for the victims, and the money won't be controlled by parents or guardians.
The victims and their families have accused Lutheran officials of ignoring questionable behavior by former pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., who was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for sexually assaulting boys.
• ELCA Statement on Texas Civil Case
CHICAGO (IL): Worldwide Faith News, www.wfn.org/2004/04/msg00081.html , April 12, 2004
ELCA Statement on Texas Civil Case
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is thankful to have reached a settlement in a civil case that arose due to the criminal conduct of former pastor Gerald Thomas. We continue to pray for all who have been adversely affected by this disturbing case, and we ask your prayers for the victims of Thomas and for the congregation that he once served in Marshall, Texas.
This lawsuit has been deeply troubling to all involved and we acknowledge its seriousness. Prior to Thomas' arrest, the ELCA was unaware of the former pastor's reprehensible conduct toward the plaintiffs in the case. Nevertheless, the ELCA is deeply sorry that anyone was victimized by Gerald Thomas.
The ELCA is grateful that, with the cooperation of its insurance carriers, its share of the total settlement payment is being funded without adversely affecting the mission and ministry of this church. In reaching its settlement, the ELCA admitted to no wrongdoing by the church.
• ELCA Settles Texas Civil Case With 14 Plaintiffs
CHICAGO (IL): Worldwide Faith News, www.wfn.org/2004/04/msg00082.html , April 12, 2004
ELCA Settles Texas Civil Case With 14 Plaintiffs 04-061
The churchwide organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) settled a civil suit brought against the church in Marshall, Texas, by 14 plaintiffs in a case that involved the behavior of a former ELCA pastor. The former pastor, Gerald P. Thomas Jr., was found guilty of criminal sexual assault against children in a trial last year and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term.
At the request of the plaintiffs' attorney, the terms of the settlement were not disclosed by the court, said John R. Brooks, a spokesman for the ELCA. The settlement was approved April 12 in a Marshall court by District Judge Bonnie Leggat. The churchwide organization reached a tentative settlement with the plaintiff's attorneys March 27, subject to approval by the court. The issues were "mediated in good faith, and the settlement was reached in good faith," Brooks said.
"The ELCA is thankful to have reached a settlement in a civil case" that arose from Thomas' conduct, Brooks said in a written statement. "We continue to pray for all who have been adversely affected by this disturbing case, and we ask your prayers for the victims of Thomas and for the congregation that he once served in Marshall." Brooks emphasized that Thomas is no longer an ELCA pastor.
• Judge approves Lutheran abuse settlement, seals details
MARSHALL (TX): News 8 Austin, www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=103658&SecID=2 , Associated Press, 4:33 PM, 4/12/2004
A judge in Marshall on Monday approved a settlement involving most defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by 14 alleged victims.
The suit is against the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and related church agencies.
But Judge Bonnie Leggat sealed the settlement details and financial terms pending the outcome of a civil trial that starts on Tuesday.
That action targets the remaining defendant, the denomination's Dallas-based Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod.
The settlement came in the case of former pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr.
Thomas, last year, was sentenced to 397 years in prison for sexually assaulting boys when he served at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall.
• First case shows limits of tracking sex offenders
MINNESOTA: Pioneer Press, www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/8278504.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp ; BY AMY SHERMAN, Posted on Fri, Mar. 26, 2004
Minnesota will begin using its new high-tech system for tracking the state's worst sex offenders next week, but the technology has its limits. The first man to use it lives in such an isolated area, the device won't track him minute-by-minute, for example.
The 35-year-old man, who is expected to be released from prison Monday into the northern Minnesota community of Finland, will wear a bracelet that uses Global Positioning System information.
Although the technology is aimed at keeping a closer watch on sex offenders, it isn't perfect. Curtis John Houle may wear the bracelet as ordered, but because Lake County has little cell-phone coverage, state probation officers won't be able to track his movements throughout the day.
If Houle leaves his home, when he returns he must plug the device into a telephone line and his whereabouts will be downloaded.
"In an area where we don't have cell technology, we still have more information than we've ever had, and it's still probably quicker than we've ever had," said Bill Guelker, director of field services for the Minnesota Corrections Department.
• Priest-Abuse Network Getting Response
CONNECTICUT: The Day, www.theday.com/eng/web/newstand/re.aspx?reIDx=e5faf1a1-0472-43d5-98c9-6844c2c655ae , By KENTON ROBINSON, Day Staff Columnist, Enterprise Reporter/Columnist, Published on 4/12/2004
Since it was founded just over six weeks ago, the Connecticut chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests [SNAP] has signed up 40 members and there are requests from across the state for the chapter to host more meetings, according to the chapter's director.
"It's sad," said Landa Mauriello-Vernon, director of the SNAP chapter, "but we're growing."
The demand, she said, is so extensive that "it took me over 72 hours to return all the e-mails I received after we announced our presence in Connecticut."
The chapter, which conducts one meeting a month in Bridgeport, is adding a second meeting in Hartford and hopes to have a regular meeting in the area of the Norwich Diocese later in the year, she said.
Mauriello-Vernon said she thinks the growing interest springs from the fact that even though dioceses are saying they offer counseling for victims, the last place many victims would turn for help is the church.
• There is no basis for trying to protect anyone
ALBANY (NY): Troy Record, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11292409&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7018&rfi=6 , 04/12/2004
It was a long time coming, but we now know that Rev. John Minkler, who was found dead in his Watervliet home in February, likely committed suicide.
Why it took so long for the Albany County Coroner to release this information remains unclear. Minkler allegedly wrote a letter in the mid-1990s to Cardinal John O'Connor that charged Bishop Howard Hubbard with having sexual relations with other priests in the Albany Diocese, as well as naming many priests who allegedly participated in homosexual activities. A few days before his death, Minkler signed an affidavit stating he never wrote the letter to O'Connor.
Bishop Hubbard, meanwhile, has publicly denied every allegation of sexual misconduct, including those brought forth by people associated with attorney John Aretakis, who represents numerous alleged victims of clergy sex abuse. In order to clear his name, the diocese hired former U.S. attorney Mary Jo White to investigate the charges against the bishop.
With all that is swirling around the diocese, it would make sense that the coroner's office would have expedited the investigation into Minkler's death, and released that information in a public way, not through rumors and telephone calls to homes.
• Victims, church healing
PORTSMOUTH (NH): Portsmouth Herald, (Portsmouth, NH, United States), www.seacoastonline.com/news/04122004/news/10275.htm , By Rochelle Stewart, rstewart@seacoastonline.com , Monday, April 12, 2004
Carolyn Disco, survivor support chairwoman for New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful, said she finds it difficult attending church.
"It’s very difficult when I walk into my parish and on the wall are large color photos of Bishop John McCormack," she said. "Knowing his record of lies and deceit, I find it hard to walk past it in a place where justice should prevail."
Still, Disco attends church regularly and said she participated in church services during Holy Week and on Easter at her parish in Merrimack.
Disco, along with other Catholics and Christians across the world, celebrated Easter on Sunday.
Despite the Easter celebration, Disco said she is not satisfied with the Catholic Church’s attempts to move on from the recent child-abuse scandal. Disco added that many of the victims she has counseled are also still trying to pick up the pieces.
• Former Orange County priest sentenced for molesting girl [2003]
Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/8341842.htm , Associated Press Posted on Fri, Apr. 02, 2004
FULLERTON, Calif. - A Roman Catholic priest who was removed from the ministry after pleading guilty to molesting a 15-year-old girl was sentenced Friday to six months in jail.
Gerardo Tanilong, 72, was sentenced by Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Stanford Jr.
He was also placed on three years probation, ordered to stay away from the victim and her family, and required to register as a sex offender.
Tanilong violated "the most sacred trust of all - the trust of parents who placed their child near him and the trust of a child who respected his position as a spiritual leader," said Orange County District Attorney Anthony Rackauckas.
Tanilong pleaded guilty Jan. 30 to two counts of lewd acts with a child. He admitted molesting the girl last year as they sat in the back seat of a car while her parents were in the front.
• Let Us Prey
CALIFORNIA: Orange County Weekly, www.ocweekly.com/ink/04/31/news-arellano.php , by Gustavo Arellano, Vol. 9 No. 31, April 9 -15, 2004
When Judge Richard W. Stanford sent Father Gerardo Tanilong to prison last week, it was very nearly a first for Orange County.
Tanilong, who most recently served at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Ana’s Delhi barrio, had pleaded guilty in January to charges of fondling a 15-year-old girl while riding in a car with the victim and her family.
The maximum penalty for Tanilong’s crime-two felony counts of lewd conduct with a minor-is three years and eight months. But deputy district attorney Sheila Hanson asked the judge for just one year, with three years probation. Stanford countered with six months, reasoning that Tanilong "immediately expressed remorse" for his crime, that the groping did not constitute "substantial sexual contact," and that Tanilong "is not a danger to society."
"The People were satisfied that the system works," Hanson later told reporters. "[The sentence] is reasonable."
However you set the price for groping a kid, Hanson has reason to cheer: though the Diocese of Orange admits it harbored at least 22 child-molesting priests in its 28-year history, Tanilong is just the second county Catholic priest ever convicted of sexually abusing a minor. You have to go back 18 years for the last conviction, the 1986 trial of Father Andrew Christian Andersen. He pleaded guilty to 26 counts of inappropriately touching four altar boys while serving at St. Bonaventure in Huntington Beach. [...]
Not enough evidence? A few months after the meeting, in 2001, Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray ordered Harris, the Orange Diocese, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to publicly apologize to DiMaria and four other alleged Harris victims and to pay DiMaria $5.2 million in damages as part of a pretrial settlement. That court order represents the largest single-plaintiff settlement against the American Catholic Church and cemented the Orange Diocese’s reputation for covering up priestly pederasty. But it remains a hollow victory for DiMaria.
"Not only did Harris serve no jail time, but also I felt then and now that the DA never had any intention of filing charges against him," says DiMaria, who now works for Manly & McGuire, a Costa Mesa law firm with about 20 sex-abuse lawsuits pending against the diocese. "The whole thing really smelled the way that it played out. The unfortunate reality is that politics sometimes plays an ugly role in justice."
• Trusting 'financial pastor' in Baptist setting cost some their life savings
VIRGINIA: Roanoke Times, "Trusting 'financial pastor' cost some their life savings," www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story165147.html , By Jen McCaffery, Sunday, April 04, 2004
Alisa Price got the first inkling that her family faced financial ruin at the end of January.
She had a message on her cellphone from Tom Warren, a close friend of Price and her husband, Tony, a former youth pastor at Rainbow Forest Baptist Church in Botetourt County.
Warren said the Prices wouldn't receive their monthly check for living expenses for the next couple of weeks, Alisa Price said. He suggested that she make other arrangements, or consider "BR" - bankruptcy. ...
Less than a month later, a federal grand jury indicted Tom Warren for mail fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and criminal contempt. Federal authorities sought the charges in connection with the investments of more than 140 people around the United States - mostly from Virginia, Washington state and Alabama.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennie Waering said the total so far from people who claim they were victimized by Warren is about $12 million. And federal authorities have said the chances that Warren's investors will see their money again are bleak. Warren, 52, faces up to 60 years in prison and fines of $5.5 million on the charges. He has pleaded not guilty. He has been in federal custody since his arrest because he was deemed a flight risk, Waering said. His court-appointed attorney, Brad Braford of Roanoke, declined to comment for this story.
Federal authorities say Warren was running a Ponzi scheme. In such a scam, a person promises investors high rates of return, then uses the money from new investors to pay the previous investors, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association.
Waering has argued that Warren held himself out as a "financial pastor," and that his victims included people from local churches, including Rainbow Forest Baptist Church. [...]
[Walt Rape and his wife, Lynne] were so pleased with the results from their investments that they encouraged other friends, including Waymon and Randi Gay, to invest with Warren. The Gays eventually invested about $500,000 with Warren and lived off the checks of about $6,000 they received each month from what were supposed to be the returns on their principal investment. The Gays in turn encouraged family members to invest with Warren.
The Gays were initially skeptical about the high rate of return, said Randi Gay, who had worked as a development director of nonprofit agencies and hospitals. She said that she and her husband, Waymon, a former engineer, never met Warren but communicated with him over the phone and through e-mail.
Both Randi Gay and Lynne Rape thought Warren had keen financial acumen and instincts. Lynne Rape said she once saw him mentioned on a financial news show as one of the top small investors in the country.
• Exorcism in the home of 'rape' pastor
BRITAIN: Black Information Link, "Exorcism in the home of 'rape' pastor," www.blink.org.uk/pdescription.asp?key=3136&grp=57&cat=258 , By Lester Holloway 6/4/2004
The wife of a pastor accused of rape attempted to exorcise demons from one of her husband's accusers, a court heard
Erica Goodman, the wife of Pastor Douglas Goodman, exorcised of the 'spirit of witchcraft and Jezebel' from a woman, after the congregation member claimed Pastor Goodman had attacked her.
But after laying her hands on the alleged victim's head to draw out the evil spirits, Mrs Goodman then accused the woman of sleeping with a 15-year-old boy.
The woman is one of four women who are alleging sexual assaults by the head of what was Britain's second biggest black church, the Victory Christian Centre.
The Old Bailey heard today how father-of-four Goodman, 47, attacked the churchgoer in his Jeep and Mercedes and then performed a sex act on her in his office.
Friend of the alleged victim, Patricia Brackenridge, said the girl had wept when she told her what Goodman had done to her. After a meeting to discuss the allegations the alleged victim was 'an emotional wreck'.
• Bishops must not delay
UNITED STATES: Baltimore Sun, www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.bishops12apr12,0,70295.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines ; Originally published April 12, 2004
America's Catholic bishops can't afford to have their congregations second-guess their commitment to protect children from sexual abuse. That's because their policy to deal forcefully with clergy who abuse is 2 years old -- too short a time to repair the damage from the church's lax attitude toward problem priests over the decades. A decision to delay annual compliance audits of dioceses on this matter could compromise any headway church leaders have made in restoring their credibility.
A committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops agreed at a meeting late last month to postpone the audits at the request of several bishops who wanted to discuss the review system at the group's next meeting in June. What is there to discuss?
The audits, enacted as part of the bishops' policy on child sexual abuse, assess the 195 dioceses' compliance with policy mandates such as reporting allegations of abuse to police and removing suspect priests from duty. Last year's audit, the first under the new policy, showed that 90 percent of bishops had lived up to their commitments to safeguard children.
But until there is 100 percent compliance no one in the Catholic community should be satisfied -- not cardinals, not congregants. Church reforms matter only if reforms are under way. And how would the greater Catholic community know that but for the annual reviews?
• Settlement hearing planned in Lutheran abuse case
Beacon Journal, www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/8411102.htm , BOBBY ROSS JR., Associated Press
MARSHALL, Texas - Attorneys prepared to meet with an East Texas judge to review a proposed settlement involving most defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and related agencies.
None of the involved parties, including an Ohio seminary, would reveal details of the settlement or how much the plaintiffs might be paid, pending approval of the deal by Harrison County District Judge Bonnie Leggat, who was to consider the plan Monday.
Fourteen alleged victims and their families accused Lutheran officials of ignoring questionable behavior by former pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., who was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for sexually assaulting boys.
Church officials repeatedly denied negligence, despite private memos that detailed allegations against Thomas before his assignment to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall in 1997.
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. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has 5 million members.
• Judge approves Lutheran abuse settlement, seals details.
SAME URL as above, same heading and introduction as News 8 Austin's report
Beacon Journal, By BOBBY ROSS JR., Associated Press, Posted on Mon, Apr. 12, 2004
MARSHALL, Texas - A judge approved and sealed a settlement Monday involving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and 14 alleged sex abuse victims who claim church officials ignored warnings about an errant minister who was later convicted of molesting boys.
Several church agencies also were included in the deal, which Harrison County District Judge Bonnie Leggat sealed pending the outcome of a civil trial against the remaining defendant - the denomination's Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod. Testimony is scheduled to start Tuesday.
The case of former Lutheran pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., who was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for sexually assaulting boys in this East Texas town, has drawn parallels from victims' advocates to some of the worst cases in the Roman Catholic abuse crisis.
Besides the Chicago-based denomination, the Ohio seminary that Thomas attended also was included in the deal, as was a candidacy committee in Michigan and the Marshall congregation where Thomas was pastor from 1997 to 2001.
• As Iowans Celebrate Easter, One Man Spreads Message of Survival & Hope
IOWA: KCRG, www.kcrg.com/article.aspx?art_id=80136&cat_id=123 , By KCRG-TV9 News Reporter Kent Lee - TV9 Cedar Rapids Newsroom 1:58:25 AM, Monday, April 12, 2004
Sunday's holiday marks a special time for faith, families, and feasting. Members of Cedar Rapids Calvary Baptist Church celebrated the holiest of Christian holidays by holding morning services. Easter recognizes the resurrection of Jesus and churches spend weeks preparing for the big day.
Pastor Mike Frey told TV9, “This year again we had an opportunity to bring together our choir for a full production. Involving the multimedia and all of that. It helped us to draw attention to what Christ has done for us."
While many people gathered with their families to attend church, one eastern Iowan stood alone, spreading a message of hope to those who have been sexually abused by a religious figure.
Steve Theisen is a sexual abuse survivor. A nun abused him at his church when he was just 9 years old. The Hudson, Iowa native spent this holiday using his experiences to show other survivors, they're not alone.
• Abuse panelist friend of priest
Washington Times, http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040412-123911-8641r.htm
CHICAGO (AP) (IL) - The head of a Roman Catholic bishops' review board on sexual abuse has acknowledged a friendship with a former priest once accused of sexual misconduct, but says the relationship has not affected her work.
Illinois Appellate Court Judge Anne Burke defended her friendship with Thomas O'Gorman, a speechwriter for her husband, Chicago Alderman Edward Burke.
Judge Burke said that she only recently learned about Mr. O'Gorman's past as a priest and that it did not influence her work with the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
But others said at a time when accusations of sexual abuse have threatened the church's credibility, anything that could be seen as a conflict of interest should have been made public.
• Suit against house of affirmation revisited in 2002, ten years after impoundment order.
MASSACHUSETTS: Worcester Voice, http://worcestervoice.com/house_of_affirmation_revisited_in_2002.htm , News and Opinion
The Worcester Voice has uncovered new information regarding a suit against the House of Affirmation, located in the Worcester Diocese town of Whitinsville.
On November 8, 1991, a civil suit was filed on behalf of "John Doe" in Suffolk Superior Court (SUCV1991-07517) naming the House of Affirmation, Rev. John Thomas, Rev. James Kelley and Rev. Robert Burns. The suit additionally named the Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston and Bishop James M. Malone of Youngstown, Ohio.
On February 7, 1992, Attorney Wilson Rogers, filed a motion for an impound order which reads, "Motion of defts (defendants) Rev John Thomas, Rev James Kelly, Rev Robert Burns and The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston for an Order Impounding All Papers in this action After hearing, ExParte, the court finds that the nature of the parties, the particulars of the controversy, the privacy interests involved, the interest of the community and the reasons as annunciated [enunciated?]in the affidavit submitted represent good cause shown and accordingly the court ORDERS the IMPOUNDMENT of Civil Action Cover Sheet, Complaint, Summons, this motion for Impoundment, Affidavit in Support of Motion and the Docket Sheet. The matter is set cown for a hearing on Tuesday February 11, 1992, at 2:00 PM, counsel for the defts will forthwith notify counsel for plff of this Order, (O'Brien,J)"
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:16 AM
NOTE: "defts" probably means "defendants," and "plff" probably means "plaintiff".
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Monday April 12, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont76.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tuesday April 13, 2004 edition follows:-
• Organized Effort on Catholic Sex Abuse [26 = 2.4%, 67]
IOWA: KCRG, www.kcrg.com/article.aspx?art_id=79950&cat_id=123 , By KCRG-TV9 News Reporter Rachel Leigh - TV9 Cedar Rapids Newsroom, 6:29:13 PM, Thursday, April 08, 2004
Hundreds of Roman Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse in the past several years.
The Archdiocese of Dubuque has received 67 credible allegations against 26 priests between 1950 and 2002.
That's 2.4 percent of the clergy in the Archdiocese.
The Archdiocese says it has settled two of the cases both for under $100,000.
A Hudson man says he's displeased with the way the Catholic Church has handled the sex abuse allegations.
So he's organizing an eastern Iowa chapter of SNAP, which stands for "The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests."
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:39 AM
• Did we only now learn abuse is wrong?
MAINE: Portland Press Herald, www.pressherald.com/viewpoints/mvoice/040412voice.shtml , by Paul Kendrick, Monday, April 12, 2004
Even the disbelievers couldn't turn away from these headlines: "Maine diocese hid abuse" and "An investigation finds the church put children at risk."
David Clohessy of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests stated, "If there ever were any doubts that church officials (in Maine) put the church's reputation and assets ahead of the protection of children, this report should shatter those doubts."
Attorney General Steven Rowe said that investigators reviewed allegations against 63 Roman Catholic priests, brothers and diocesan workers.
ONCE AGAIN, parents and grandparents throughout Maine were painfully reminded that it might have been their own child that Rowe was talking about, or maybe it is one of their kids - who remains silent, still paralyzed by the fear, shame and guilt of their own sexual abuse.
Even with all this bad news, even with all this wreckage, I knew that my church leaders would somehow find a way to make an excuse, to find a loophole, to twist the truth, to minimize the damage, and above all to avoid responsibility and accountability for their past actions.
When we're wrong, it's usually best to apologize, make our amends, and shut up. [...]
Is Bishop Gerry's excuse even credible? Would any parent who learned that a neighbor's child had been sexually abused by a priest, teacher, coach or family member allow their own child to be near this person? What mother or father has only recently learned, as Bishop Gerry said he had, that children should be kept away from sexual predators?
Then there's the minimizing. Diocesan spokeswoman Sue Bernard said, "There's only the one case of reassignment where we know there was more abuse," referring to a case singled out in Rowe's report in which the priest was reassigned after church officials knew he had abused a 6-year-old girl.
"Only the one case." After the priest died in 1990, 10 women came forward and said the priest sexually abused them in the 1960s and early 1970s when they were all between the ages of 8 and 13.
Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said letters she has received from victims often begin by saying, "I have never in my life told a soul what I am about to tell you." - Special to the Press Herald
• Opening statements set in Lutheran abuse trial
MARSHALL (TX): Denton Record-Chronicle, www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D81TNSV83.html , By BOBBY ROSS JR. / Associated Press, 04/13/2004
Attorneys prepared to deliver opening statements in a sexual abuse lawsuit accusing a regional Lutheran synod of negligence in assigning a pastor with a questionable past to an East Texas congregation.
Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., former pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall, was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for sexually assaulting boys.
The Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the only remaining defendant in the civil case filed by 14 alleged victims. The trial was to open Tuesday.
A settlement with other defendants, including the Chicago-based denomination and the Ohio seminary that Thomas attended, was approved Monday by Harrison County District Judge Bonnie Leggat.
However, Leggat sealed the settlement details and financial terms pending the outcome of the trial against the synod, headquartered in Dallas.
A jury of eight men and four women was seated in the case last week.
Edward Hohn, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, characterized the plaintiffs who settled Monday as "peripheral" and called the synod the "target" defendant in the case.
• State wraps up case for keeping ex-priest incarcerated
TAUNTON (MA): Pawtucket Times, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11302066&BRD=1713&PAG=461&dept_id=24491&rfi=6 , by Gregg Miliote, 04/13/2004
A day after Catholics around the globe celebrated their holiest holiday weekend, the church's most notorious former priest sat silently in a courtroom as a Pawtucket resident and four other victims pointed to him as the man who not only molested them as children, but also indirectly tortured their adult lives.
The prosecution wrapped up its case Monday for keeping former priest and convicted child molester James Porter detained indefinitely.
Porter's court-appointed attorney, Michael Farrington, will begin his case today in Superior Court with scheduled expert testimony from two psychologists.
Just as the hearings began last week, Monday's testimony focused on Porter's victims and the psychological trauma the sexual molestation caused them later in their lives.
The five victims testified about anger management issues, drug and alcohol dependency problems and intimacy difficulties, all of which required extensive therapy to address.
• Victims testify of Porter assaults
TAUNTON (MA): Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/04/13/victims_testify_of_porter_assaults ; Associated Press, 4/13/2004
A former altar boy said yesterday that defrocked priest James Porter raped him in a church dressing room in the early 1960s and later molested him in his hospital bed while he was recovering from pneumonia.
Thomas Kulas, 52, of Torrington, Conn., was one of five Porter victims who testified on day six of a Superior Court hearing on prosecutors' bid to keep the convicted pedophile locked up as a sexually dangerous person.
He said Porter would follow the altar boys into a basement dressing room after Mass at St. James Catholic church in New Bedford. It was there that Kulas said he was raped by Porter. He was about 12 at the time.
After that, "I was deathly afraid of him. He struck the fear of God in me," he said. "I would run downstairs as soon as Mass was over and I'd hide. Your heart's pounding, praying that the door you were hiding in wasn't going to open."
Porter, 69, was a priest in the Fall River Diocese who was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 children. He completed his prison term in January, but prosecutors petitioned to have him committed indefinitely to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual offenders in Bridgewater.
• Ex-altar boy: Porter abused me in church, and hospital hallway [1960s]
TAUNTON (MA): Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3425 , By Jessica Heslam, Tuesday, April 13, 2004
As an altar boy in New Bedford, Thomas Kulas was raped in a church dressing room and molested in his hospital bed by convicted pedophile priest James Porter.
After Mass at St. James Parish, Kulas said he would run down to the basement, where he'd hide in a closet and pray that Porter wouldn't find him.
"Your heart's pounding and you're praying that the door you're hiding in isn't going to open," the 52-year-old Kulas testified yesterday at Taunton Superior Court.
Another time, as Kulas recovered from pneumonia in a bed in a hospital hallway, he said he was molested by Porter even as people passed by.
"I became deathly afraid of him. He struck the fear of God in me," said Kulas, who gave permission for his name to be published.
In an emotionally charged courtroom yesterday, Kulas and four other men recalled how Porter molested them in the 1960s.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:27 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tuesday April 13, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont76.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wednesday April 14, 2004 edition follows:
• Lopez hopes to return to work
RACINE (WI): The Journal Times, www.journaltimes.com/articles/2004/04/12/local/iq_2818505.txt , By Jazmin Beltran
The Rev. Pedro Lopez, 39, the Primera Iglesia Luterana pastor who was acquitted of charges of alleged sexual misconduct and incest of an 11-year-old girl, told his congregation he hopes members of the church will vote Wednesday evening to allow him to preach again.
"It's not my decision ... it's your decision to choose what you want," Lopez told those gathered Sunday for Easter service.
The court dismissed two charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child and two charges of incest Tuesday because there were too many inconsistencies in the girl's story, according to court records.
The girl's family, related to Lopez by marriage, had long disliked Lopez, according to court records filed by Lopez' attorney Mark Nielsen. Because they are Catholic and Lopez is Lutheran, they disapproved of his marriage. Some had pressured Lopez' wife to divorce him. "They were all lies," said Lorenzo Arenas, 42, who has attended Primera Iglesia Luterana for two years. "I have known him for six years."
Lopez was not in jail at any time but was restricted from leaving the state. He has not been preaching at his church since the charges were filed in June 2003, but has continued to be active in the ministry.
"Thank God he's here now," said church member Lucia Garcia, 50. "Let's see if he continues with us."
District board members of the church will meet with the congregation on Wednesday evening and registered Lutheran members will vote to determine if Lopez will continue preaching at Primera Iglesia Luterana or will be moved to another church. Lopez said he strongly feels that members of his church will allow him to stay.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:46 PM
• Ex-jail chaplain accused of assault -- Faith Christian Community
ANCHORAGE (AK): Anchorage Daily News, "Ex-jail chaplain accused of assault," www.adn.com/front/story/4883897p-4819678c.html , By TATABOLINE BRANT
A 49-year-old man who worked as an Anchorage jail chaplain was arrested Tuesday on charges he promised visitation privileges to female inmates in exchange for sexual favors.
Ezell Williams is charged with third-degree sexual assault, a felony, and two counts each of fourth-degree sexual assault and official misconduct, all misdemeanors. He is being held in lieu of $30,000 bail at the Anchorage jail where he used to work.
The charges say Williams promised the inmates he would get them contact visits with their children if they would submit to his sexual advances.
At his arraignment Tuesday, Williams limped forward to face the judge, answering most questions "Yes sir" or "No sir." Formerly president of the defunct Greater Faith Christian Mission, according to a database of public records, Williams is also a former pastor and current member of Faith Christian Community, said Bob Sloan, an associate pastor at the church.
"There was no indication of any wrongdoing here," he said.
• Rejected for Failure to Bring Forth a Son
AFRICA: allAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200404130492.html , by Moses Nampala, Kampala, Posted to the web April 13, 2004
Rebbecca Nabiryo sits rigidly, weeping softly on the edge of a maternity bed in Jinja Hospital.
The healthy baby she delivered a while ago, wrapped in layers of snow-white fabric, lies quietly by her side.
A barefoot elderly woman in a gomesi loosely draped on her lean body hurriedly walks to Nabiryo with a bowl of steaming porridge.
"My daughter," she says, an expression of concern on her face, "you haven't eaten anything since you walked out of the labour ward. Have some porridge."
But Nabiryo shakes her head turning down the offer. This prompts the old woman to say "Will you stop torturing yourself over failing to give birth to a baby boy (heir), please?" ...
"From her friend's confession, Magaret intimates, the fetish priest had a speculative way that would help a woman to predetermine the sex of her child. "I decided to try it out," she says.
After deferring me on three occasions without reasonable ground, he insisted I return for treatment on a particular afternoon," recounts Margaret.
She was prompt on the day of appointment. "There was no other client (patient). Apart from the fetish priest and his aides," she says.
"As soon as I entered the shrine the priest followed. He hurriedly bolted the door from inside.
"The priest removed his bark-cloth robe. He had gently pushed me on the floor of the shrine that is covered with mats. He then lay his over-weight body on me," sneers Margaret.
"He whispered that he was initiating me in a ritual that would cleanse me of the bad spirits responsible for my woes. Nobody had told me what was going to happen next. But I sensed danger. The ritual was an excuse for sexual exploitation. I could not wait for this man to rape me," she says.
"But I managed to disentangle myself and fled barefoot leaving my pair of shoes outside the entrance to the shrine."
• State moves to expel Webster County sheriff
MARSHFIELD (MO): News-Leader, www.news-leader.com/today/0410-Statemoves-59832.html , By Jeff Arnold, Apr 10 2004
The Missouri attorney general's office on Friday filed a civil petition seeking the removal of Webster County Sheriff Ron Worsham from office.
The attorney general accuses Worsham of engaging in malfeasance and misconduct and of knowingly and willingly failing to perform official acts and duties.
The civil action - known as a quo warranto - was filed by Assistant Attorney General Theodore Bruce, who has been heading the state's investigation.
"Ousting is a serious step, and it's not something we take lightly," said Scott Holste, spokesman for Attorney General Jay Nixon. "There are times when filing an ouster is the appropriate remedy and the appropriate course of action." ...
Cited in the petition is former volunteer chaplain William Rethford, who has been charged with deviate sexual assault after allegedly engaging in inappropriate contact with inmates during his tenure with Worsham's office.
Also accused is former jailer George Bissell, who - the petition says - coerced female detainees to perform repeated sex acts on him.
Neither man is with the department anymore.
"You don't always hire the right people," Bradshaw said.
• Correction officers union threatening strike after demotions
BOSTON (MA): Herald Tribune, www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040414/APN/404141072 , By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer, April 14 2004
The firing of a supervisor and the demotion of five others at the same prison where defrocked priest John Geoghan was killed has spurred threats of a strike vote from the union presenting nearly 5,000 correction officers in Massachusetts.
The supervisor was fired on Tuesday for using excessive force on an inmate at the Souza-Baranowski Correction Center, then lying in a report and in a later investigation, and making inappropriate comments about an inmates' crime, said Department of Correction spokesman Justin Latini.
The other five supervisors were demoted and transferred to other institutions for filing false reports about the incident, and failing to exercise good judgment as ranking officers. The cases of all six were referred to Worcester District Attorney John Conte for possible criminal prosecution, Latini said.
He read a statement from Correction Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy, who said the officers' "inappropriate and potentially criminal behaviors" were "absolutely unacceptable."
• More charges filed against 'Chaplain Bill'
MARSHFIELD (MO): Ozarks Newstand, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1815&dept_id=59849&newsid=11126197&PAG=461&rfi=9 , By Barry Benintende, South County Mail editor, March/19/2004
Additional charges have been filed against former Webster County Jail chaplain William Rethford, 65, Marshfield, known as "Chaplain Bill."
On Thursday, Webster County Prosecuting attorney Cynthia Black announced that additional charges on the class C felony of deviate sexual intercourse were being filed against the already charged pastor.
According to the probable cause statement, Rethford is alleged to have transported a prisoner to the Christian County Jail on Oct. 23, 2003 and inappropriately touched the inmate while conducting a search of his person.
Previously, Rethford was charged with a pair of felonies for deviate sexual assault and tampering with a witness and with deviate sexual intercourse with an inmate.
• Attorney general seeks Worsham's removal
Ozarks Newstand, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1815&dept_id=59849&newsid=11316600&PAG=461&rfi=9 , By Barry Benintende, South County Mail editor, 04/14/2004
MARSHFIELD, MISSOURI: On Friday, a petition in quo warranto was filed in Marshfield by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon against Webster County Sheriff Ron Worsham. The petition asked the Webster County Circuit Court to remove the sheriff from office.
Worsham, who is on vacation, said that he had to see what the charges are before he could comment. "I'd like to see what I'm accused of before I say anything," Worsham said.
The sheriff flatly denies any wrongdoing. "It's purely political," he said Friday.
The attorney general's office said in a news release that Worsham "engaged in malfeasance and misconduct, and knowingly or willfully failed and refused to perform official acts and duties of his office."
"I'm not surprised to hear charges are being filed," Worsham said.
According to documents filed in Webster County Circuit Court, Worsham is accused of usurping his authority and allowed a person with no authority as a law enforcement officer to remove detainees from Webster County Jail without authorization, among other allegations.
The man named in that allegation is William "Chaplain Bill" Rethford.
Rethford has been charged with deviate sexual assault, stemming from accusations of inappropriate contact with multiple inmates. Rethford has retained Dee Wampler as council.
On March 18, Webster County Prosecuting Attorney Cynthia Black announced that additional charges on the class C felony of deviate sexual intercourse were being filed against the already charged pastor. Rethford has pled not guilty to all charges.
In January, Worsham appointed Jim Longman, pastor of Shady Grove Church, Elkland, to the position vacated by Rethford after charges were levied against him.
• Catholic priest on administrative leave following accusation
KTVB, www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-apr1404-keller.124efa1ad.html , Associated Press, 10:29 AM MDT, Wednesday, April 14, 2004
TWIN FALLS, IDAHO: A Roman Catholic priest in southern Idaho is the subject of a sexual misconduct investigation.
Twin Falls police are looking into allegations against Father Robb Keller. Keller served as a priest at Saint Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Twin Falls from 1992 to 2000 when he went on medical leave until 2002.
The communications director for the Roman Catholic Diocese declined to say whether the accuser is a man or a woman but says the allegations do not involve children.
In 2002, Keller was reassigned as a priest at the Church of Immaculate Conception in Buhl and to Saint Catherine Catholic Church in Hagerman, where he served until the allegations were filed.
• Victims allege Skylstad knew of priest's abuse [O'Donnell]
SPOKANE (WA): Spokesman-Review, www.spokesmanreview.com/spokane-news-story.asp?date=041404&ID=s1509409&cat=section.spokane ; by Virginia de Leon, April 14 2004
After the Diocese of Spokane filed a motion last month to dismiss several lawsuits alleging clergy sex abuse, victims' attorneys responded this week by filing a lengthy brief detailing the extent of the sex abuse crisis and how the diocese allegedly tried to conceal the crimes.
Lawyers for the alleged victims of Patrick O'Donnell -- a priest accused of molesting dozens of boys -- assert that Bishop William Skylstad is directly implicated in a cover-up.
"For years, Bishop Skylstad knew that Patrick O'Donnell was a dangerous child molester yet he kept it secret," according to the brief filed in Spokane County Superior Court. "He knew that children in Spokane parishes were at risk but he said nothing. He ignored laws aimed at protecting children. He remained silent when the law and common decency demanded that he speak."
Attorneys for the diocese declined to comment because they had yet to see the documents. In previous interviews, Skylstad has said that he had no knowledge of any abuse that took place in the diocese.
Michael Pfau, Tim Kosnoff and other lawyers representing more than two dozen alleged victims of O'Donnell dispute the bishop's claim.
In their response filed in court, attorneys included depositions from several alleged victims and also from Rita Flynn, a mother of 11 children and longtime member of Assumption parish. Skylstad was the pastor of that North Side church in 1974 and was O'Donnell's supervisor for 18 months.
In her deposition, Flynn said she confronted Skylstad and the late bishops Lawrence Welsh and Bernard Topel about the stories she heard about O'Donnell on several occasions. She said that in 1975, she spoke to Skylstad about her fears for the first time after hearing from her son that O'Donnell was having boys wash their genitals in front of him.
• Catholic diocese places area priest on administrative leave
BUHL (ID): Times-News, www.magicvalley.com/news/localstate/index.asp?StoryID=9352 , By Denise Turner
A Buhl priest has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into recent allegations of sexual misconduct.
The allegations against Father Robb Keller are being investigated by the Twin Falls police, according to Colette Cowman, communications director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise. Keller was a priest at St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Twin Falls from 1992 to 2000.
The allegations against him do not involve children, Cowman said on Monday. She declined to say whether the accuser is a man or a woman.
"All we know is there have been some allegations of sexual misconduct not involving children," she said.
She added, "We are cooperating fully with the criminal investigation, and the diocese will conduct its own internal investigation."
On Easter Sunday, those attending Mass at St. Edward's received a letter explaining that Bishop Michael Driscoll, of the Boise Diocese, had issued a statement on the subject. The letter, from both Driscoll and Father John Koelsch of St. Edward's, said Keller was staying with family and friends.
• Judge Sets Bail
BUFFALO (NY): WIVB, www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=1785698&nav=0RapMIX8 , April 14, 2004
A judge set bail at a hundred thousand dollars Wednesday for a Chicago area church organist charged with the murder of his former room-mate in Buffalo.
Prosecutors say 58 year old Michael Pavone beat and stabbed 50 year old Keith Sutherland and left the victim's body in the Tifft Nature Preserve some five years ago.
The case remained a mystery until a witness came forward just recently.
Defense attorney Edward Cosgrove said, "He's got a splendid education, a splendid reputation as a musician, in various colleges, university and church communities throughout the eastern part of the U.S."
Prosecutor Joseph Marusak said, "If you compare that with what he's accused of that suggests he has committed this crime, then you have that dichotomy of a Jekyll and Hyde personality."
• McDonnell wants to settle church abuse claims
SPRINGFIELD (MA): Capital News 9, www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=69014&SecID=33 , By Capital News 9 web staff, 6:21 PM, 4/14/2004
The head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield wants to try settling all lawsuits and complaints of clergy sex abuse within the next 45 days.
Bishop Timothy McDonnell said the Diocese has agreed to suspend all litigation for six weeks. During that time, lawyers will try to hammer out deals with about 45 people who said they were childhood victims of pedophile priests.
Bishop McDonnell said it's too soon to say how much the church is willing to pay or how the Diocese will afford them.
McDonnell was installed as Springfield Bishop on April 1 after his predecessor, Bishop Thomas Dupre, stepped down in February, citing health reasons. However, his resignation came a day after The Republican Newspaper of Springfield confronted him with allegations that he molested two boys while he was a parish priest in the 1970s.
• Napa "Old Catholic" leaders get used to scrutiny.
CALIFORNIA: Napa Valley Register, "Napa churches leaders get used to scrutiny," www.napanews.com/templates/index.cfm?template=story_full&id=B36C5135-CBD2-4D8B-B457-20394999B4E2 ; By DAVID RYAN, Wednesday, April 14, 2004
The American justice system is built on the principle that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. But the court of public opinion is a far wilder place, especially between the time a lawsuit is filed and a court metes out a ruling.
With three lawsuits filed in the last year against Napa clergy or churches, members of different local faiths recently sounded off on what congregations and clergy members should do when an entire church hierarchy comes under scrutiny.
"We're inundated every day with these things that are coming out," said Teresa Cahill, a member of the Old Catholic denomination, gathering locally at the Church of St. Peter and Clare.
Cahill's church has not been sued, but she is aware of the suit filed by Pasadena resident Erin Brady, who claims St. Apollinaris' Monsignor Joseph Alzugaray sexually abused her in the 1960s when he was at a church in Los Angeles. Alzugaray has denied the claims and filed a countersuit against his accuser.
"I think in St. Apollinaris' case I admire the people so much who are supporting the pastor," She said. "You're innocent until you're proven guilty. So many people are too quick to judge someone guilty."
• Priest gets probation for theft [CURRENT]
NEW YORK Newsday, www.nynewsday.com/news/local/queens/ny-lipriest0414,0,7637987.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-queens ; By The Associated Press, 2:09 PM EDT, April 14, 2004
A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Wednesday to five years probation and ordered to make full restitution after admitting he stole $50,000 in parishioner donations from a Bethpage church, a prosecutor said.
John Johnston, 64, of Queens, pleaded guilty in February to criminal possession of stolen property. Authorities found the cash in Johnston's apartment in Jackson Heights. The priest had kept 20 envelopes marked with the words, "St. Martin of Tours, Weekly Sacrifice," along with his parishioners' names and dollar amounts contributed.
Johnston, an ordained priest for 40 years, had been celebrating Mass at St. Martin of Tours Church in Bethpage for more than 30 years. He told authorities he stole between $60 and $100 a week from the counting room of the church.
The priest was arrested in October at the Rikers Island jail, where he was being held on other New York City charges, including aggravated harassment and weapon possession. He is suspected of making harassing telephone calls to the staff at a Brooklyn high school.
Johnston pleaded guilty earlier this year to grand larceny in Nassau County, admitting he stole $50,000 from the church; he is expected to receive a similar sentence of probation when he appears in a Mineola courtroom on Friday.
• Bishop: clergy abuse lawsuits on hold for settlement talks
Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1081979558.htm , By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - The new head of the Springfield Diocese said Wednesday that clergy sex abuse lawsuits and complaints will be put on hold for six weeks while church attorneys try to reach a settlement with lawyers for the alleged victims.
Bishop Timothy McDonnell said the diocese has agreed to the 45-day moratorium to foster negotiations with more than 40 people who say they were childhood victims of pedophile priests.
"I have hope that we can reach a fair and agreeable solution that begins the healing," McDonnell said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It won't end the healing by any means, but it will begin the healing."
Officials in the Boston Archdiocese agreed to a similar moratorium last year, but it passed without any resolution. The church eventually reached an $85 million settlement with more than 550 alleged victims of abusive priests.
McDonnell, who plans to meet with alleged victims during the coming weeks, said it's too soon to say how much the church is willing to pay in settlements or how the diocese will afford them.
• Almost every resident of Oakland abbey gone
OAKLAND (CA): Tri-Valley Herald, www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2082891,00.html , By John Geluardi, CORRESPONDENT
The Rev. Donald Weeks is in the process of closing down St. Patrick Abbey several weeks after the city cited the building's out-of-state owners for various fire and building code violations.
The Fruitvale district abbey had served as a halfway house for parolees, recovering drug addicts and the homeless since 1999.
Weeks, who is also facing charges of sexual misconduct with a minor, said city officials became bent on closing the three-story abbey after he invited convicted sex offender Cary Verse to move in after Verse had served his prison time.
Verse previously HAD been forced to move from hotels in Mill Valley and Oakland because of concerns in the community about his criminal past.
"There are only two residents here now, and we've begun to clean out the first floor," Weeks said Tuesday. "We're just throwing everything in a Dumpster, including the furniture, because we can't afford storage and nobody seems to be interested in it."
Weeks said most of the 24 residents living at the abbey last month have since moved out. "Some were relocated by their parole officers, some went into other programs and a few moved in with family members."
• Murder Arrest Ends Long Quest by Victim's Sister
BUFFALO (NY): WGRZ, www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=20126 , By Rich Kellman, Senior Correspondent
The arrest and arraignment of Michael Pavone on Monday ended a long and intense fight by the sister of murder victim Keith Sutherland.
"Keith was a great lover of the outdoors," recalled Donna Rae Sutherland in 2001. Her brother loved Tifft Farm Nature Preserve and South Park Botanical Gardens. "Well, come to find out," she says, "those are two renowned gay hangouts."
Tifft Farm is where Donna says her brother met Michael Pavone about six years ago. Michael was music director at the Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Orchard Park.
Michael moved Keith into the church rectory with him in January 1999, she says. "As best Keith was, it was a love affair."
It was a love affair which the church pastor soon discovered. "Michael knew he couldn't have Keith, his lover, living in the rectory of the church," she says.
Michael Pavone was a widely recognized choral singer, organist and educator. Keith Sutherland had 30 jobs in 26 years. He was in the midst of a divorce. He had an IQ of around 80, according to his sister.
• Church music director surrenders to N.Y. police
GENEVA (IL): Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0404140355apr14,1,3428290.story?coll=chi-news-hed ; By Ted Gregory, Published April 14, 2004
The former music director of a Geneva Catholic parish is in custody in Buffalo on charges that he stabbed and beat to death a man there in 1999, authorities said Tuesday.
Michael Pavone, 58, of West Chicago surrendered to Buffalo police early Monday, said Joseph J. Marusak, a prosecutor in Erie County, N.Y.
Pavone had worked as music director at St. Peter Catholic Church from last summer until this week. He had worked in 2001-02 as an adjunct professor of music and humanities at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn and as music director at St. Charles Episcopal Church in St. Charles, said his attorney, Edward Cosgrove.
An Erie County grand jury indicted Pavone March 31 on charges of second-degree murder, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and fourth-degree criminal mischief, Marusak said. The prosecutor contacted Cosgrove and arranged for Pavone to surrender to authorities after he participated in Holy Week services at St. Peter, the attorney said.
Authorities contend Pavone had been a suspect in the death of Keith Sutherland, 46, of Buffalo from the outset of the investigation. Sutherland and Pavone had been housemates for months in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg before Sutherland left the house in October 1999, Marusak said.
On Oct. 21, 1999, three days after he had been reported missing, Sutherland's body was found floating in a pond in the Tifft Nature Preserve in Buffalo, Marusak said. Sutherland had been stabbed many times and beaten, the prosecutor said.
Cosgrove said Pavone, who is in the Erie County Holding Center without bail, has said he was visiting his father in the hospital on the night of Sutherland's death. Pavone is expected in court Wednesday to ask for bail.
• Choir leader charged in killing
GENEVA (IL): Chicago Daily Herald, www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=38091367 , By Garrett Ordower and Patrick Waldron, Posted Wednesday, April 14, 2004
The day after directing his choir through Easter Sunday Mass, Michael Pavone traveled from Geneva to Buffalo, N.Y., to face charges that he stabbed his lover to death in 1999.
The body of Keith Sutherland, 46, was found floating in a pond in a Buffalo nature preserve in October, three days after his family had reported him missing, authorities said. He had been stabbed more than 20 times.
"The number of stab wounds was plainly indicative of anger or passion, one or the other," Erie County, N.Y., District Attorney Frank Clark said. "It wasn't a passing encounter."
Pavone, 58, who at the time worked as a choir director in a Buffalo church, was the chief suspect from the beginning, Clark said, but investigators didn't have enough evidence to charge him until this week.
The upstate New York native left the area in 2001 and came to Illinois, working as a music director at a Western Springs church from January to June. In August 2003, Pavone was hired at St. Peter's Church in Geneva.
• Church Music Director Charged With Murder
WBBM, www.wbbm780.com/asp/ViewMoreDetails.asp?ID=37426 , 7:32 a.m., Wednesday, April 14, 2004
GENEVA (IL) (AP) -- The music director at the St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva has been charged with killing a mentally handicapped man whose body was found floating in a Buffalo, New York, pond in 1999.
The body of 46-year-old Keith Sutherland of Buffalo was found floating in the pond at Tifft Nature Preserve in South Buffalo in October 1999. Authorities say Sutherland was stabbed 21 times in the head, neck and chest.
Police say Michael Pavone of West Chicago lived in the Buffalo area at the time of Sutherland's death. The 58-year-old Pavone was brought back to Buffalo and on Monday he was arraigned on charges of murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief.
Defense attorney Edward C. Cosgrove says that authorities allege new evidence from a jailhouse informant linked Pavone to the crime.
• Church voice quits after abuse claim [1985, Graziano]
SPRINGFIELD (MA): Republican, http://masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1081932601211550.xml , By BEA O'QUINN DEWBERRY, bdewberry@repub.com , 04/14/2004
For years Michael A. Graziano was the voice of the local Catholic Church, appearing on a weekly TV show and fielding the media's questions as the church grappled with the clergy abuse scandal.
Yesterday Graziano was again involved in the abuse scandal, this time as the highest-ranking lay member of the Springfield Diocese accused of sexual misconduct. Graziano, 47, resigned Monday, less than a week after the new bishop placed him on immediate leave upon hearing Graziano was accused three weeks ago of sexual misconduct in 1985.
Graziano, president of the diocesan communications department since 1998, also faces a criminal inquiry after the diocese forwarded the allegations to the district attorney's office. He has been replaced by interim administrator Sister Catherine F. Homrok.
Graziano, who has worked with the diocesan communications ministry since 1982, submitted a letter of resignation to Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell Monday, citing personal and family reasons.
Graziano was placed on leave Thursday after the Diocesan Review Board investigated the complaint. The board decided March 31 - a day before McDonnell's installation - that the allegation should be investigated further.
• Hearing postponed for priest acc [1970s]
PHILADELPHIA (PA): Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/cities_neighborhoods/philadelphia/8424509.htm?ERIGHTS=1771435276524964281philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y ; Posted on Wed, Apr. 14, 2004
A Philadelphia judge postponed a preliminary hearing yesterday for the Rev. James J. Behan, a former North Catholic High School teacher accused of sexually assaulting a teenager more than two decades ago.
Behan's attorney, Mike McGovern, told Municipal Court Judge Lydia Kirkland he needed more time to prepare for the hearing. She set a date of June 8. Behan, 60, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, sat in the courtroom wearing civilian clothes.
• Graziano resigns following allegations [1985]
SPRINGFIELD (MA): Herald News, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11313501&BRD=1710&PAG=461&dept_id=99697&rfi=6 , by ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer, 04/14/2004
The president of the evangelical wing of the Springfield Diocese has resigned after being accused of sexual misconduct, the latest episode in a scandal that has shocked western Massachusetts Catholics.
The allegations against Michael Graziano, head of the diocese’s Catholic Communications Corporation, date from 1985. Laura Failla Reilly, victim advocate for the diocese, would not give any details of the accusations or the alleged victim.
Graziano, who is not a priest, resigned Monday, citing personal and family reasons. He was in charge of the church’s newspaper, online news services and broadcast programs, including a weekly televised Mass, but had no ministerial or clerical duties, Reilly said.
Reilly said church officials had no reason to suspect Graziano of inappropriate behavior before the complaint was made.
• Bishop demanded accountability
HONOLULU (HI): Honolulu Advertiser, http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Apr/14/ln/ln05a.html , By Vicki Viotti, April 14 2004
The next bishop of Honolulu will have a tough job, said the one who's about to leave, including the nurturing of new priests to serve the 215,000 Catholics in Hawai'i and helping parishioners find their place in the church.
Bishop Francis DiLorenzo, who leaves in May after 10 years in Honolulu, has been praised for forging closer connections with ordinary churchgoers and criticized for what one priest called a "harsh administration."
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
It is largely the same task that the Most Rev. Francis X. DiLorenzo found when he took the job 10 years ago, applying what he called a strict standard of "accountability" to the priests in his charge.
That, DiLorenzo said in a one-hour interview yesterday, is a standard he intends to take with him when he leaves Honolulu May 16 and takes over the diocese of Richmond, Va., one week later.
The Hawai'i flock may have to wait months to learn who will succeed DiLorenzo. The papal nuncio to the United States begins the process by soliciting names of nominees from bishops, including DiLorenzo, and then narrows the list to three; the final choice is made by a Vatican congregation of bishops and confirmed by the pope. Step one - the call for names - hasn't even started, DiLorenzo said, and even a temporary administrator is yet to be named.
• St. Peter employee charged in N.Y. murder
GENEVA (IL): Kane County Chronicle, www.kcchronicle.com/today/KCC/news/280273398093139.html , By ADAM KOVAC and BRENDA SCHORY
The music director at St. Peter Catholic Church was jailed Tuesday in New York and accused of killing his former lover nearly five years ago. Michael Pavone, 58, is charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief in connection with the grisly slaying of Keith A. Sutherland, Erie County, N.Y., Deputy District Attorney Joseph Marusak said.
Sutherland, 45, of Buffalo, N.Y., was found repeatedly stabbed and beaten Oct. 21, 1999, floating in a pond in the Tifft Nature Preserve on the city's south side near where his car was found with its windows and headlights smashed. Pavone surrendered Monday to Buffalo police, about one week after authorities said new evidence from a jailhouse informant linked him to the unsolved crime, Buffalo defense attorney Edward C. Cosgrove said.
The arrest stunned members of St. Peter's congregation, who still are reeling from the controversy stirred by a former priest accused of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred in Geneva in 1999. Pavone, of West Chicago, has pleaded innocent to the offenses, which occurred after he unsuccessfully tried to rekindle a soured romantic relationship with Sutherland, his former roommate, Marusak said.
"I know the Buffalo Police Department worked awfully hard and didn't drop the ball on this and kept going," Marusak said. "They're pleased." Since his arrest, Pavone has been jailed pending a bond hearing scheduled for today. Prosecutors contacted Cosgrove on March 30 and said a grand jury had indicted Pavone on the charges earlier that month. Pavone then arranged to return to New York after Holy Week events at St. Peter, Cosgrove said.
Pavone was never a fugitive, but investigators have wanted to talk with him since Sutherland's death. They were halted when he overdosed on pills and was hospitalized as a suicide risk after Sutherland's body was found, Marusak said.
About one year later, harassment and publicity forced Pavone to quit his job as music director at the Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Orchard Park, N.Y., and move from the south Buffalo suburb of Hamburg, Cosgrove said.
• Doc: Porter likely won't commit sex crime again
TAUNTON (MA): Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3447 , By Jessica Heslam, Wednesday, April 14, 2004
A psychologist who helped free two convicted rapists who were later charged with murder testified yesterday for the defense attorney representing serial molester James Porter, who is fighting for his freedom after a decade behind bars.
Dr. Daniel Kriegman tried to rebuff previous testimony from two psychologists who said the 69-year-old Porter will likely commit more sex crimes if he's freed.
Kriegman said "lay people" are more accurate than clinicians at predicting future behavior. "We are not very good predictors," said Kriegman, who likened it to "tossing a coin."
Porter, a former priest, was sentenced in 1993 to molesting more than two dozen children and has wrapped up his prison sentence. Prosecutors want to keep him locked up as a sexually dangerous person.
Kriegman, the first defense witness to testify at Taunton Superior Court, also said it's "hard to find" a recidivist over age 70.
Porter has been at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater since 2002. Kriegman, who has evaluated sex offenders for years and is often hired by defense attorneys, previously worked at the center but never counseled Porter.
• Psychologist uncertain about abusers
TAUNTON (MA): Boston Globe, www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/105/metro/Psychologist_uncertain_about_abusers+.shtml , By John Ellement, Globe Staff, 4/14/2004
A psychologist suggested yesterday that there is no valid way for mental health specialists to predict whether former Catholic priest James R. Porter will commit new sex crimes if he is released from the state prison where he has been since admitting to molesting dozens of children in the Fall River Diocese.
Appearing as a defense witness in Bristol Superior Court, Daniel Kriegman told Superior Court Judge David A. McLaughlin that the methods and theories used by psychiatrists and psychologists to predict the future behavior of sex offenders are flawed. He testified that one technique, which predicts future behavior based on a clinical examination of a sex offender, is no more accurate than tossing a coin.
McLaughlin must decide whether there is probable cause to believe that Porter is a "sexually dangerous person" who should be civilly committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater for a period ranging from one day to life. If McLaughlin rules against Porter, a trial must be held before the designation becomes permanent.
Porter, 69, has essentially completed his prison sentence and, if released, would be on probation for 10 years. He was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison in 1993 after pleading guilty to 41 counts of sexual assault and other crimes. Prosecutors allege that Porter molested nearly 100 boys and girls in Massachusetts between 1960 and 1967 while working in the Fall River Diocese.
Porter was sent out of state, and during the next several years he molested children in Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and Minnesota, officials have said.
Porter's court-appointed defense attorney, Michael Farrington, is trying to convince McLaughlin that Porter is not currently dangerous. His second and final witness, another psychologist, is expected to testify today, rebutting prosecution specialists who have predicted that Porter will commit new crimes if freed.
• Catholic church official resigns amid abuse claim.
SPRINGFIELD (MA): Republican, http://masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1081890178172520.xml , By BEA O'QUINN DEWBERRY, bdewberry@repub.com , 04/13/2004
The president of the communications department of the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese has resigned and faces a criminal inquiry following his resignation amid an allegation of sexual misconduct.
Michael Graziano, who has worked with the diocesan's communications ministry since 1982 and was named president of the Catholic Communications Corp. in 1998, submitted a letter of resignation to Bishop Timothy McDonnell on Monday, citing personal and family reasons. His resignation came less than a week after the new bishop placed him on leave Thursday upon learning of the allegation.
Graziano, 47, was placed on leave after the Diocesan Review Board investigated a complaint against him alleging misconduct in 1985. The board decided on March 31 -a day before McDonnell's installation - that the allegation should be investigated further.
Laura F. Reilly, diocesan victim outreach director, said the diocese would not comment further on the nature of the allegations, which have been referred to the district attorney's office. The alleged victim's name was not released by the diocese in order to maintain anonymity.
While Reilly would not say if the complainant was a child at the time of the alleged misconduct, she did say "the victim is an adult now."
• Back to square one as bishops duck audits [RCs]
UNITED STATES: National Catholic Reporter, http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/041604/041604t.htm , Issue Date: April 16, 2004
It is too early to jump to conclusions about whether the American bishops will follow up in any substantial way on the reports and audits released earlier. It is not too early, however, to raise the caution flags over the first rumblings that the bishops will attempt to simply scuttle the process.
Apparently some bishops are balking at the recommendation that the audits of dioceses continue annually. Members of the National Review Board say some of the bishops just don’t like the idea of outsiders scrutinizing church governance.
Sounds like we’re back to square one, where bishops hold themselves above accountability to the church they supposedly serve.
No doubt the tug between developing new means of accountability and reverting to the kind of clerical privilege and secrecy that was so much a part of the sex abuse scandal will continue to be an ongoing tension. And the only leverage the board has -- as it has stated from the beginning -- is public opinion.
Continuing the audits is a minimal act in the aftermath of the scandal. It is the least church leaders can do to assure that they have attacked the narrow but deeply damaging problem of clergy sex abuse. Conventional wisdom holds that the church has now successfully dealt with the problem of sexual abuse of children by clergy. To which we say, maybe. Do we really want to have to revisit this issue 20 years from now because, in fact, things were not as they appeared?
• Baptist Church Janitor Allegedly Rapes Teen Parishioner
HOUSTON (TX): News2Houston, "Church Janitor Allegedly Rapes Teen Parishioner; Police Look For Man Who Reportedly Witnessed Attack;" www.click2houston.com/news/3001660/detail.html , April 13, 2004
A church janitor was arrested and placed behind bars for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl at a southwest Houston church, officials told News2Houston Tuesday.
Police are now looking for another man, who reportedly witnessed the attack.
Officials told News2Houston the girl's father dropped her off at Second Baptist Church, 6400 Woodway, Saturday around 7:45 p.m. so she could play basketball.
The girl told police that a man, who she believed to be a church janitor, followed her around most of the night.
At one point, she said the man coaxed her into the audiovisual room, which adjoins the church's old sanctuary, and told her that he wanted to "mess around."
Officials said the girl attempted to run but the suspect caught up with her, and allegedly raped her behind a pew.
Police said another parishioner interrupted the attack, causing both the girl and the man to run away. He immediately called police and the girl was taken to a hospital.
Fidel Francisco Guicol, 30, a janitor at the church, was charged with felony indecency with a child. Officials said they plan to upgrade the charges to aggravated sexual assault after they receive results from lab tests. His bond was set at $30,000.
• Christopher Plummer cast as Boston's Cardinal Law [RC]
Times-Picayune, www.nola.com/newsflash/entertainment/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?g0564_BC_MA--TV-Plummer&&news&newsflash-entertainment ; The Associated Press, 4/13/04
LOS ANGELES (CA) (AP) -- Christopher Plummer has been cast as Cardinal Bernard Law in "Our Fathers," Showtime's TV movie about the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal.
Plummer will bring "authority, humanity, and an appropriately chilling detachment" to the part, Robert Greenblatt, Showtime Networks' entertainment president, said in a statement Tuesday.
Law resigned as archbishop of Boston while under fire for mishandling abuse cases.
"Our Fathers" is based on a book about the scandal written by Newsweek's David France. One recently released study found there had been more than 10,000 abuse claims against nearly 4,400 priests from 1950 to 2002.
Plummer, who is playing King Lear on Broadway, has had a varied career in films, stage and TV and is the winner of Tony and Emmy awards. His films include "The Sound of Music," "The Insider" and "A Beautiful Mind."
• US Lutherans settle Texas civil case with 14 plaintiffs [Thomas]
CHICAGO (IL): Church Executive, "ELCA settles Texas civil case with 14 plaintiffs," www.churchexecutive.com/News.asp?Article=1726 , April 13, 2004
The churchwide organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) settled a civil suit brought against the church in Marshall, TX, by 14 plaintiffs in a case that involved the behavior of a former ELCA pastor. The former pastor, Gerald P. Thomas Jr., was found guilty of criminal sexual assault against children in a trial last year and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term.
At the request of the plaintiffs' attorney, the terms of the settlement were not disclosed by the court, said John R. Brooks, a spokesman for the ELCA. The settlement was approved April 12 in a Marshall court by District Judge Bonnie Leggat. The churchwide organization reached a tentative settlement with the plaintiff's attorneys March 27, subject to approval by the court. The issues were "mediated in good faith, and the settlement was reached in good faith," Brooks said.
"The ELCA is thankful to have reached a settlement in a civil case" that arose from Thomas' conduct, Brooks said in a written statement. "We continue to pray for all who have been adversely affected by this disturbing case, and we ask your prayers for the victims of Thomas and for the congregation that he once served in Marshall." Brooks emphasized that Thomas is no longer an ELCA pastor.
With the cooperation of its insurance carriers, the ELCA "is grateful its share of the total settlement payment is being funded without adversely affecting the mission and ministry of this church," Brooks said. "In reaching its settlement, the ELCA admitted to no wrongdoing by the church."
In an April 7 statement, attorneys for the plaintiffs and defendants in the case confirmed that other defendants in the civil suit had settled with the plaintiffs, subject to court approval. The defendants that have settled are Trinity Lutheran Seminary, the Southeast Michigan Multi-Synodical Candidacy Committee, and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
• Plaintiffs seek 'millions and millions' in abuse trial [Lutherans]
MARSHALL (TX): Denton Record-Chronicle, www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D81U4ELO1.html , By BOBBY ROSS JR. / Associated Press, 04/13/2004
Nine alleged sex abuse victims suing a regional Lutheran synod intend to seek "millions and millions of dollars" in damages for each victim, a plaintiffs' attorney said Tuesday.
Psychological and medical treatment alone will cost millions of dollars for victims of former Lutheran pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., attorney Jason Stephens said as a civil trial opened in this East Texas town.
The plaintiffs claim the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod ignored warnings of questionable behavior by Thomas, who was sentenced last year to 397 years in prison for molesting boys.
"But all the psychological and medical treatment can only sweep up the damage," Stephens told a jury of eight men and four women. "It cannot make it go away. It cannot erase it.
"The only thing we can do is award them compensation for damages that they've suffered, and ... that means millions and millions of dollars for each and every one of them."
Synod attorney Tracy Crawford did not dispute the terrible deeds of Thomas, former minister of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in this East Texas town.
However, Crawford said the Dallas-based synod and its executives, including former Bishop Mark Herbener and former bishop's assistant Earl Eliason, "had absolutely no idea Gerald Patrick Thomas was the kind of person he turned out to be."
• Defense Presents Its Case At Porter Hearing [RCs]
Turn to 10, "Defense Presents Its Case At Porter Hearing; State Wants Former Priest Held;" http://www.turnto10.com/news/3000512/detail.html , April 13, 2004
TAUNTON, Mass. -- The lawyer for James Porter began presenting evidence Tuesday that he hopes will show the defrocked priest is ready to return to society.
The defense is trying to rebut six days of testimony from prosecution witnesses. Prosecutors contend that even though Porter completed his prison sentence for molesting children, he should remain locked up as a dangerous sex offender.
Psychologist Daniel Kriegman, who has 25 years of experience evaluating sex offenders, was the first defense witness. He said there was no accurate way to predict whether a pedophile like Porter would continue to molest children after he's released from prison. But Kriegman said studies show a decrease in the likelihood of committing sexual crimes as a person gets older. Porter is 69.
A judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to hold a trial on the state's request to have Porter held on a civil commitment.
• Vigilance, now more than ever
LONG ISLAND (NY): Newsday, www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-livotf0414,0,2889527.story?coll=ny-li-span-headlines ; BY RITA CIOLLI, April 14, 2004
Speaking for the first time on Long Island Tuesday night, James Post, national president of Voice of the Faithful, urged Catholics to remain vigilant in monitoring the church's response to the priest sex abuse scandal and to continue to hold its leaders accountable.
"The reason why this continues to be so important to us now is that if we don't solve this problem and do it right, we don't have a chance of repairing all of the other issues swirling around in the church," he said. "The clergy's sexual abuse crisis is where we have to reclaim the moral integrity of the church that has been lost these last few years."
Post said it was "immoral" for Bishop William Murphy to refuse to let local Voice of the Faithful groups meet on church property. His visit comes as the local group and the leader of the Diocese of Rockville Centre are in preliminary discussions about lifting the ban.
In January, recognition of the group was one of the top demands by priests of the diocese when Murphy met with them to hear their grievances. A month later, the bishop agreed to appoint a liaison committee of priests to meet with local VOTF leaders.
Another of Post's contentions was that Murphy, who was the second in command in Boston from 1993 until 2001, when he was appointed head of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, "misrepresented the truth about abusive priests."
Murphy has denied any wrongdoing. A spokesman was unavailable to comment Tuesday night.
• Mass. Diocesan Worker Quits in Complaint [1985, RC]
Tallahassee.com ; www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/8425356.htm , By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press, Posted on Wed, Apr. 14, 2004
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The head of communications for the Springfield Diocese - a former diocesan spokesman who often fielded questions about priests accused of sexual abuse - has resigned after being accused of sexual misconduct.
The allegations against Michael Graziano, head of the diocese's Catholic Communications Corporation, date from 1985. Laura Failla Reilly, victim advocate for the diocese, would not give any details of the accusations or the alleged victim.
Graziano, who is not a priest, resigned Monday, citing personal and family reasons. He was in charge of the church's newspaper, online news services and broadcast programs, including a weekly televised Mass, but had no ministerial or clerical duties, Reilly said.
"We received the complaint three weeks ago about a single incident in 1985 of sexual misconduct," Reilly said. "The victim acknowledges never having brought this forward before."
She said the matter was turned over to the district attorney's office. Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett said he is reviewing the claim.
• Christopher Plummer Cast as Boston's Notorious Cardinal Law in Showtime's 'Our Fathers'
LOS ANGELES (CA): PR Newswire, www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-13-2004/0002150885&EDATE ; April 13 2004
Showtime Networks' President of Entertainment Robert Greenblatt announced today that Tony(R) and Emmy(R) Award-winning stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer has agreed to portray Boston's controversial Cardinal Law in "Our Fathers," Showtime's film version of David France's explosive bestselling account of the sexual abuse scandal inside the Roman Catholic Church.
Plummer, currently playing King Lear on Broadway to overwhelming critical acclaim, is one of the finest actors of his generation having portrayed roles as varied as "The Sound of Music's" beloved Captain Von Trapp to the most complex of Shakespearian characters.
"Christopher Plummer was our first and only choice to take on the complex role of this high-ranking Catholic Church official who became the flashpoint in Boston for a scandal that has rocked Catholicism in America and throughout the entire world," said Greenblatt. "He will bring authority, humanity, and an appropriately chilling detachment to the portrayal of a real-life character whose indelible involvement in this tragedy will never be forgotten."
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:50 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wednesday April 14, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont76.htm
or click Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse for current on-line
The Boston Globe Spotlight http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse
The Needle periodically, and books: pbpress@iinet.net.au W. Australia
References at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Overview at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/minilist.htm
Books: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/carnalbooks.htm
Buy Fidelity magazine www.j23.com.au Australia
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