• Statement on the film: 'Song For a Ragged Boy' LONDON, BRITAIN:
Independent Catholic News,
www.indcatholicnews.com/movrgdby.html ,
by Fr Peter Malone, April 7 2004
(Fr Peter is president of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication)
Song for a Raggy Boy is one of several Irish films, made in 2001-3, on themes of physical and sexual abuse in the Irish Catholic Church. They include The Magdalene Sisters, Sinners, Evelyn, Conspiracy of Silence.
Audiences who regret the dramatisation of Catholic scandals on screen will be upset by these films. The films can be seen, however, as a necessary part of people's coming to terms with abusive behaviour by official church personnel, an acknowledgement that it occurred and had lifelong damaging effect on victims, that compassion was sometimes slow in coming from the authorities and that alarm led to slowness or reluctance in dealing with abuse.
This is part of the church's examination of conscience concerning revelations about what has occurred in recent decades. Patrick Galvin, author of the novel on which the film is based, spoke about the effect of writing the book and of collaborating on the film as an 'exorcism' of the past for himself. Often the victims want only an acknowledgement by the church and the perpetrators that these events happened.
INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs.
This film is set in 1939 in a reform school for boys, some younger than twelve, managed by the local bishop with a priest in charge and staffed by brothers. The brother-prefect is a stern disciplinarian who resorts to excessive physical punishment and humiliation of the boys. One brother is a sexual abuser. There is only one sequence of sexual abuse, visually reticent, but all the more horrendous because of this. It is a disturbing reminder of the reality of such abuse, the pathology of the brother and, particularly, the pain of the reluctant victim who speaks of this in the confessional and is advised to keep what has happened to him to himself.
The physical abuse is alarmingly violent and, dramatically, over the top. Many older Catholics, however, will have stories of these kinds of punishment. For the sake of the narrative, they are put together in a hundred minute film which can give an impression that this was the sole way of dealing with problems.
Song of a Raggy Boy, like the other Irish films (and the presentation of dominant clergy in such films as Ryan's Daughter, The Butcher Boy or Lamb) asks pertinent questions about the severity of the Irish Church, the collaboration with the state in running institutions of correction (and using the same methods of discipline and punishment that were prevalent in those times in state and other institutions) and the screening and training of clergy and religious.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:14 AM
(This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
for Thursday April 08, 2004. )
• Survivors Network urges church to fund more audits of sex abuse procedures. UNITED STATES:
KMOX,
www.kmox.com/news/article.php?id=12845 , April 7, 2004
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is upset with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over a decision not to fund more audits of sex abuse procedures. SNAP"s David Clohessy wants the President of the Bishop's Conference, Belleville Bishop Wilton Gregory, to put pressure on the church body. Clohessy said without the additional audits...it's , in his words. back to business as usual with each Bishop handling abuse cases the way they want to. Bishop Gregory said his administrative committee has discussed funding and will continue to do so, at a June prayer meeting.
• Priest starts marathon effort for abuse victims SPRINGFIELD (MA):
Republican,
http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1081414052121080.xml?cnts ,
by Tom Shea, 04/08/2004
Like a lot of Catholic priests, and so many of the faithful, Father Dan Pacholec was feeling upset.
No, worse. He was feeling helpless.
This was in February, days after the bishop of Springfield, had fled under the cover of night. But no matter how fast Thomas Dupre traveled toward St. Luke's Institute in Maryland, a psychiatric facility better known for treating pedophiles than the heart condition that the diocese had first announced he was being hospitalized for, the allegations that he'd abused children trailed him every mile.
Springfield has been no stranger to predatory clerics. But because the newest alleged member was a bishop, the headline ink was especially black. The news segments lasted longer than 60 seconds. The words roiled the diocese.
Father Dan, the diocesan vocation's director, told a friend of his helpless feelings.
The friend listened. But, more importantly, challenged him: "Are you sure there is nothing you can do to help?"
This caused Father Dan to pause. Then to pray. On Ash Wednesday he went to see the film "The Passion of The Christ." Then he found inspiration in the new Bishop Timothy McDonnell quoting Mother Teresa: "There's nothing so bad that God can't bring a greater good out of it if we let him."
• No Travel Time Credit For Bishop O'Brien [2003]
PHOENIX (AZ):
KPHO,
www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S=1770947&nav=23KuM8my ,
(CBS 5 News)--No break from the Judge for retired Bishop Thomas O'Brien regarding his probation!
You'll remember the Bishop was convicted and sentenced to a thousand hours of community service in the run and run death of pedestrian Jim Reed last year.
We told you Monday O'Brien requested that his travel time be included in his community service requirement.
Late Wednesday night the Judge ruled O'Brien will receive NO credit for the time he must travel to his counseling appointments.
• O'Brien's bid to tally travel time is rejected PHOENIX (AZ):
The Arizona Republic,
www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0408obrien08.html ,
by Joseph A. Reaves, Apr. 8, 2004
A judge on Wednesday rejected Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien's request to count travel time toward the community service he was ordered to perform for a felony hit-and-run conviction.
Judge Stephen A. Gerst of Maricopa County Superior Court issued a brief written order that simply said: "Travel time will not qualify for purposes of receiving credit for community service."
The ruling ended several days of increasingly bitter exchanges between the bishop's defense team and Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley about terms of the bishop's sentence.
O'Brien, 68, was convicted Feb. 17 of leaving the scene of a fatal accident last summer. He was sentenced March 26 to four years of supervised probation and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service ministering to the sick and dying. His driver's license was suspended for five years.
The bishop's attorneys asked Gerst at an informal closed-door hearing six days after the sentencing to modify terms of O'Brien's probation.
They requested that the bishop be given credit for time spent traveling long distances for relatively short community service visits. They also asked for flexibility in the minimum 40 hours per month Gerst sentenced the bishop to spend doing community service.
In his one-page ruling, Gerst said O'Brien could vary his hours somewhat but must submit quarterly reports to show he is making steady progress toward his 1,000-hour commitment.
"The community service hours over the three-month quarterly period should average a minimum of 40 hours per month," Gerst said. "Any excess hours performed will carry forward to the next quarterly period."
• Detroit Archdiocese says 30 percent of students taught dangers of bad touching DETROIT (MI):
Detroit Free Press,
www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw95824_20040408.htm ,
April 8, 2004
Thirty percent or more of the Roman Catholic schools under the direction of the Archdiocese of Detroit are educating students about inappropriate touching by strangers.
Archdiocesan officials expect to present safety lessons to all students within two years, a diocese official said.
The diocese provided the 30 percent estimate in response to a newspaper story that reported its schools provided no such education and had no concrete time frame for doing so. The archdiocese disputed those statements, The Detroit News reported Thursday.
Archdiocesan officials said nearly one-third of its Catholic school students are receiving a lesson either through an outside program or through the schools sex education program that unfolds in religion classes, Superintendent Sister Mary Gehringer said.
• Letters illustrate path of 'illness' TAUNTON (MA):
Herald News,
www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11264366&BRD=1710&PAG=461&dept_id=99784&rfi=6 ,
By GREGG M. MILIOTE, gmiliote@heraldnews.com , 04/08/2004
Two letters recently submitted into evidence during the James Porter sexually dangerous hearings offer a rare glimpse into the mind of the all-star predator of children during very different times of his life.
One such letter, penned by Porter in 1973, was written to the pope while the other, sent in 1996, was delivered to his former wife, Verlyne Gray.
In the letter addressed to "Most Holy Father," Porter is requesting his release from the priesthood after 13 years of being transferred from parish to parish due to his proclivity for sex with children. Porter, without going into detail, gives the pope a brief run-down of each parish he served at and explains how he "fell back into his sickness" each and every time. The letter reveals Porter sexually molested children in five different states at eight different parishes. Porter begins with his 1960 ordination into the Diocese of Fall River by former Bishop James Connolly. "I was first assigned to St. Mary's Parish in North Attleboro, where I remained for 3 1/2 years, until it became necessary for the bishop to transfer me because of my failures to live up to my priestly responsibilities," Porter wrote on May 17, 1973. "It became known and reported to Bishop Connolly that I had become homosexually involved with some of the youth of the parish." Porter goes on to attempt to explain away his behavior, saying, "This possibly came about due to the fact that I was always associated with the youth of the parish. I realized I was somewhat of an idol of the children and this was very comforting to me." The pedophile priest continued to document his journey around the country from church to church where he consistently continued to abuse children. In his letter, Porter says he molested children in three Massachusetts parishes including Sacred Heart in Fall River and St. James in New Bedford, two churches in New Mexico and one parish each in Minnesota, Nevada and Texas. He also says that his recollection of all sexual molestation incidents is not fully clear since he was given electro-shock therapy for his "sickness" in the mid-1960s. The letter then goes on to indicate Porter was asked by a Monsignor Sexton from St. Patrick's Parish in Stoneham to confer with one of his assistant priests, Paul Shanley. Shanley has since been charged with raping four boys at a parish in Newton during the 1980s. He is currently awaiting trial on those charges. Porter was eventually granted his request for release from the priesthood and began working jobs as a manager at a Burger King and as a bank teller, both in Minnesota. His belief that leaving the priesthood would cure his sexually deviant behavior was belied when he was later accused of molesting two of his children's baby-sitters, among others in Minnesota while he was a lay person.
In a second letter released by the court this week from June 1996, Porter begs his former wife for forgiveness and her continued support. "I did horrendous and despicable things to children in the past and there is no excuse," Porter wrote in his letter to Gray, who also testified during Monday's opening day of probable cause hearings aimed at keeping Porter detained indefinitely. Gray has also since accused her former husband of molesting at least three of their four children. But in his letter to her he insists this allegation, unlike all the others, is untrue. "Please don't ever accuse me of molesting or sexually abusing our children. I could never live with myself if I did or even attempted. It's bad enough that I have to live with what I did in the past and the harm I caused others," Porter wrote. "Honey, I did much bad in my life, but never my children. I truly love them and couldn't ever consider doing anything like that to them." Porter concludes his letter to Gray by asking her to continue to write to him and have his children do the same. His wishes, though, were likely never granted since Gray said neither she nor her children have had any contact with Porter since the couple divorced in 1996.
• Catholic order drops zoning change request MISSOURI:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+/+County/9033A7A3B9C713F286256E7000171A5B?OpenDocument&Headline=JEFFERSON+COUNTY&highlight=2%2Cservants%2Cof%2Cparaclete ,
04/08/2004
The Servants of the Paraclete, an order of Catholic priests who tend to troubled priests and members of other religious orders, has withdrawn a request for a zoning change to allow development of 226 acres near Pacific as a retreat for priests who suffer from problems like alcoholism and depression. The order also works with pedophiles.
The zoning change request was set to be heard tonight before the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission. The new facility would have combined the programs of the order's Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer and the St. Michael's Community in Sunset Hills.
County planner Roger Hurst said a representative for the Paracletes withdrew the request Wednesday after officials from the order had met with neighboring residents to discuss their concerns.
The Rev. Peter Lechner, servant general of the Paraclete, said the order had decided not to proceed with plans for the retreat after meeting with residents and hearing their concerns.
• Lutherans reach deal with abuse plaintiffs Denton Record-Chronicle,
www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/040804dntexlutherans.53954.html ,
Associated Press, 08:24 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 7, 2004
MARSHALL, Texas - Plaintiffs suing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its agencies said Wednesday that they had reached agreements with all defendants except the regional synod in one of the most serious sexual abuse cases to hit a U.S. Protestant denomination.
The announcement came just two days after a jury was selected in a civil case brought by 14 victims of former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. and their families. They argued that the Chicago-based denomination, which has 5 million members, should have done more to stop Mr. Thomas.
A joint statement by the plaintiffs and the defendants Wednesday said the settlement involved the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, the Southeast Michigan Multi-Synodical Candidacy Committee and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall, where Mr. Thomas served as pastor from 1997 to 2001.
The settlement is subject to court approval at a hearing Monday.
None of the parties would reveal details of the settlement or how much victims might be paid.
The Associated Press reported last week that the sides were nearing agreement on a $40 million settlement, averaging about $2.85 million per plaintiff. However, the settlement amount could have changed and could not be verified Wednesday.
• Porter's lawyer says he poses little risk Star Tribune,
www.startribune.com/stories/462/4711223.html , by Denise Lavoie, Associated Press,
April 8, 2004
TAUNTON, MASS. -- The lawyer for former priest James Porter contended Wednesday that older pedophiles present a low risk of committing more sex crimes, but two prosecution witnesses insisted that the 69-year-old Porter remains a threat.
Porter pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children in Massachusetts. He was scheduled to complete his sentence earlier this year, but prosecutors asked that he be declared a sexually dangerous person, which would allow him to be held indefinitely.
Porter also has been accused of abusing about two dozen men in the Bemidji area, where he was a priest until the early 1970s.
On the third day of a hearing on that request, Michael Farrington, Porter's court-appointed lawyer, presented a study that showed that 3.8 percent of sex offenders who reach age 70 commit additional sex crimes.
While acknowledging that the statistics for older men are low, forensic pathologist John Daignault, a prosecution witness, said he still considers Porter likely to commit additional sex crimes.
"This individual has demonstrated repeated sexual misconduct against children," said Daignault. "In his case, I see him as a very high risk, and age is not significant to [reducing] that risk."
• 6 answer call to priesthood despite church struggles BOSTON (MA):
The Union Leader,
www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=35784 ,
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Why would six talented New Hampshire Catholics want to enter the ranks of a shrinking priesthood during what has been a humiliated church's darkest hour?
"(There) is no greater time to be a priest because there will be a lot of people who need healing," explained former Milford and Merrimack resident Steven M. Lepine, 36, one of six seminarians at St. John's Seminary in Brighton studying to become priests in the Manchester diocese.
Scandalized by decades of child sexual abuse by clergy that shattered the trust of many Catholics in their church and its leaders, these men embrace the daunting task ahead.
Former Manchester resident Sean Thomas, 34, said that while it's a "very humbling time to be a priest," theirs is a "higher obligation" to serve.
"We were called to be priests at this time especially because the church needed mending and, certainly in the United States, the church needed to be re-evangelized," added Thomas, who left a 10-year career in New Hampshire politics to enter the seminary in 2002.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:39 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Thursday April 08, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit:
www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont76.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Friday April 09, 2004 edition follows:- • Ex-priest's home raided by police [Computer seized; 33 complainants]
CHICOPEE (MA):
Republican,
http://masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/108150073153180.xml ,
By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , 04/09/2004
State police confiscated computer equipment during a search of the home of defrocked priest and convicted child molester Richard R. Lavigne yesterday.
State law enforcement officials would not specify the reason for the search, which occurred on the religious feast day celebrating the priesthood in the Catholic Church. But a computer removed from the home was placed in a vehicle with New Hampshire license plates, according to abc40, which aired footage of the raid last night.
When Lavigne was asked by a reporter for The Republican to comment, he said, "I wouldn't talk to you if my life depended upon it."
Lavigne, who pleaded guilty in 1992 to two counts of molestation and was given a 10-year probation sentence, was accused by a then Hawley youth of sexually abusing him and taking him to New Hampshire. In 1993, then 19-year-old Dana Cayo said Lavigne once brought him to Mount Washington in New Hampshire for a week.
Lavigne has been accused by about 33 people of molesting them as minors when Lavigne served as a priest in the Springfield diocese.
The raid comes as Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett investigates the overall handling of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.
Bennett has already handed over to a grand jury allegations of sexual abuse against former bishop, the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:01 AM
• After the hit, what could make a driver run? UNITED STATES:
St. Petersburg Times,
www.sptimes.com/2004/04/09/Tampabay/After_the_hit__what_c.shtml ,
By LEONORA LaPETER, Published April 9, 2004
A Catholic bishop from Arizona runs over a jaywalking pedestrian and drives off.
A drunk Texas woman hits a homeless man, then leaves him embedded in her windshield for two days before dumping him in a park to die.
And in Tampa, an elementary school teacher involved in a crash that killed two brothers waits five days to come forward.
Since that March 31 accident, Tampa Bay area residents have struggled to understand how any driver could leave the scene of a crash in which four children were hit. Experts say most people who flee have something to hide or protect. Others haven't developed a strong conscience, or they've killed it.
"All of us have the capacity to do the wrong thing, and at times we do," said Katie Sutliff, a character development consultant for the nonprofit Ethics Resource Center in Washington.
• All defendants but one settle in Lutheran sexual abuse case San Diego Union-Tribune,
www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040407-1719-lutherans-abuse.html ,
By Bobby Ross Jr., ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 8, 2004
MARSHALL, Texas - Plaintiffs suing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and related agencies for allegedly failing to do more to stop a sexually abusive pastor said Wednesday they had reached settlements with nearly all defendants.
The announcement came two days after a jury was selected in a civil case involving former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. that was brought by 14 alleged victims and their families.
A joint statement by plaintiffs and defendants said the settlement involved the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Ohio seminary that Thomas attended, a candidacy committee in Michigan, and the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall, where Thomas was pastor from 1997 to 2001.
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 Chicago-based denomination has 5 million members.
The settlement is subject to court approval at a hearing Monday. None of the parties would reveal details of the settlement or how much victims might be paid.
• Jury to hear of indecency arrests of Lutheran leader who organised pastor transfers DALLAS (TX):
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette,
"Jury to hear of indecency arrests;
Lutheran synod sued over pastor's abuse;"
www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/8393846.htm ,
By Bobby Ross Jr., Associated Press, Fri, Apr. 9, 2004
Plaintiffs suing a regional synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in a sexual abuse case can present evidence about a top synod official's three arrests on indecent exposure charges, a judge ruled Thursday.
The judge denied a defense motion to exclude the information from a civil trial set to begin Tuesday in the east Texas town of Marshall.
Harrison County Judge Bonnie Leggat did not explain her ruling in the lawsuit brought by 14 alleged victims of former minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., who was sentenced last year to 397 years in prison for sexually assaulting boys.
Plaintiffs' attorneys said the background of former bishop assistant Earl Eliason is relevant because he was in charge of pastor assignments in the Dallas-based Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod when Thomas was sent to Marshall's Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in 1997.
"Eliason's own sexual addiction impaired and compromised his judgment as a decision-making officer of the synod, especially with regards to the fitness and prior misconduct of Gerald Thomas," Edward L. Hohn, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, said in court papers.
The denomination's attorneys argued that all three of Eliason's convictions - in 1987, 1996 and 2003 - resulted from no-contest pleas and should be inadmissible as evidence.
• 'Brother Vic' sentenced to prison for sex crimes MOBILE (AL):
Mobile Register,
www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1081502296157270.xml ,
By GARY McELROY, 04/09/04
Nicholas "Brother Vic" Bendillo, who never said a word in or out of court since his arrest and conviction for sex crimes against teenage schoolboys, offered a confused, often inaudible apology Thursday before a Mobile County Circuit Court judge ordered him to prison for five years.
Bendillo's repentance swayed neither Presiding Judge Robert Kendall nor one of his accusers, who later urged the judge to send Bendillo to prison.
"I have never seen a more cynical, selfish abuse of power," Kendall told Bendillo.
He then gave Bendillo the five-year maximum for enticing a child for immoral purposes and a maximum one-year sentence for second-degree sex abuse, ordering the sentences to be served concurrently.
Assistant District Attorney Steve Giardini, who prosecuted the case, introduced one of Bendillo's victims and the mother of another.
Bendillo's actions caused her family "unbelievable pain," the mother said.
His face wan, Bendillo told Kendall that he was sorry in his "heart and soul ... for anything I have done out of order."
• Former Catholic school counselor gets maximum for sex abuse [1991; 40 years abusing]
ALABAMA:
Times Daily,
www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040409/APN/404090694 ,
By GARRY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer, April 09 2004
A former Roman Catholic high school counselor was sentenced Thursday 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."
According to trial testimony, Bendillo's concerns as a counselor turned to the teenager's sex life and the development of his genitals, with Bendillo allegedly masturbating the boy and saying it would improve his condition.
Bendillo's lawyer, Donald Briskman, appealed for probation, saying Bendillo's age and frail health made it unlikely he could survive in prison.
• Church argues to coordinate northern abuse suits LOS ANGELES (CA):
Marin Independent Journal,
www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~26642~2073063,00.html ,
Associated Press, Friday, April 09, 2004
A judge heard arguments yesterday on whether to have one court coordinate scores of Northern California lawsuits involving molestation claims against Roman Catholic priests.
Plaintiffs' attorneys said the move would undermine cases already well under way.
More than 20 lawyers packed into Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy's courtroom for the two-hour hearing. McCoy did not rule on the issue yesterday.
At least 400 Southern California cases from the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Orange dioceses were coordinated under one judge nearly 18 months ago to streamline legal proceedings and reduce costs. The church and plaintiffs have been involved in mediation since then.
But about 150 cases pending against dioceses in Northern California have proceeded individually. Several cases have been settled and about 10 percent more have trial dates set, said Rick Simmons, a plaintiffs' attorney from Northern California.
Under coordination, one judge would oversee the discovery process and rule on legal questions that apply to all cases. Currently, judges from different Northern California counties are handling the cases, which are all at different stages.
The ruling will determine the future of a flood of litigation that resulted from state legislation temporarily lifting the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits over alleged sexual molestation. Attorneys have estimated up to 800 people sued California dioceses before a one-year window that ended Dec. 31.
• Sex abuse lawsuits could be combined LOS ANGELES (CA):
San Francisco Chronicle,
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/09/BAGP762RG61.DTL ,
Chronicle Staff and News Services, Friday, April 9, 2004
A Los Angeles judge is considering whether to consolidate scores of molestation lawsuits against Roman Catholic priests from courtrooms across Northern California and send them to a single judge for pretrial proceedings.
Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy deferred a ruling Thursday after two hours of arguments from attorneys for the church, who favor the move, and the plaintiffs, who say it would delay cases that are nearing trial to await rulings in less advanced cases.
The procedure, called coordination, was used 18 months ago to streamline proceedings in at least 400 cases from the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Orange dioceses. The church and plaintiffs have been involved in mediation since then.
But about 150 cases pending against dioceses in Northern California have proceeded individually. About 10 percent have trial dates set, said Rick Simmons, a plaintiffs' attorney from Northern California.
• Cardinal Mahony to give deposition in O'Grady abuse case [1970s]
CALIFORNIA:
Lodi News-Sentinel,
www.lodinews.com/articles/2004/04/08/news/05_mahony_040408.txt ,
By Ross Farrow, Apr 08 2004
Details of exactly what Roger Mahony, cardinal of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, knew about the alleged sexual abuse by a former Lodi priest may come to light on April 22 when he's scheduled to give a deposition in one of several civil cases against Oliver O'Grady.
Mahony was bishop of the Stockton Diocese from 1980 to 1985 when he became archbishop of Los Angeles. Pope John Paul II elevated him to the position of cardinal in 1991.
The deposition will be conducted by John Manly, a Costa Mesa-based attorney, who represents a 40-year-old former Lodi resident who says he was sexually abused in the 1970s by O'Grady, then a priest at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Lodi.
The lawsuit, against O'Grady and the Stockton Diocese, claims that the plaintiff was sexually assaulted several times by O'Grady when he was an altar boy at St. Anne's in the 1970s.
The former altar boy, whose name is not disclosed in the lawsuit, sued the diocese in 1994, but the case was thrown out because the statute of limitations law had expired.
But that changed when the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1779, which waived the statute of limitations law on child sexual assault cases for the 2003 calendar year. The former altar boy then refiled his suit last year.
• Priest's life turned upside down by abuse charge judged 'unfounded' [1980s]
Catholic News Service,
www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/20040408.htm ,
By Joseph Kenny, April 8 2004
ST. LOUIS (MO) (CNS) -- Without warning, his life was turned upside down.
Father Alexander Anderson, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Eureka, learned on a spring day in 2002 that he was the subject of an allegation of sexual abuse against a minor.
He had been called to the St. Louis archdiocesan offices where he was told that officials had been informed of the allegation and would turn over the matter to the St. Louis circuit attorney for a full investigation.
Next came a media frenzy about the accusation. The allegation dated to the 1980s when Father Anderson was chaplain of the now-closed St. Joseph Home for Boys in South St. Louis.
Early on, after an investigation by an archdiocesan committee, the archdiocese issued a statement that it believed the allegation was "completely unfounded."
• Diocese places priest on leave [1970s]
CHARLOTTESVILLE (VA):
Daily Progress,
www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031774778885&path=!frontpage ,
By Olympia Meola, April 8, 2004
The Rev. Dennis Murphy, who took over the Holy Comforter Catholic Church in 2002 when its pastor resigned over allegations of sexually abusing a teenage boy, has been placed on leave pending investigation into his actions with teenagers, the Catholic Diocese of Richmond announced Thursday.
The painfully familiar news rattled parishioners who turned out for evening Mass on Holy Thursday, as most of the 100 in attendance arrived unaware of Murphy's removal. Many received the news with disbelief, wondering how a sex scandal involving a priest could invade this Charlottesville congregation yet again.
"It's unbelievable," said Mildred Dudley upon learning of the news. "He's been such a wonderful priest. This is very sad if this is true."
A member since 1940, Dudley said the congregation will unite to get through this trying time as they did the last.
"This is Holy Thursday - it's hard to even think it even could be true," she said.
In a press release, diocesan spokesman Father Pat Apuzzo said his office removed Murphy out of an "abundance of caution."
"We are responding to a combination of information which warrants our concern and attention to safeguard everyone involved," he said in the release, which does not specify when or where any questionable behavior occurred.
Sgt. Paul Davis with the Charlottesville Police Department said they are not investigating Murphy at this time.
• Neighbors' anxiety torpedoes plan to house troubled priests MISSOURI:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/2654FBD85A18CE5886256E710012799A?OpenDocument&Headline=Neighbors'+anxiety+torpedoes+plan+to+house+troubled+priests+ ;
By Tim Rowden, 04/08/2004
Faced with fear and anger from Jefferson County residents, a religious order has scrapped its plan to develop a retreat near Pacific for troubled priests, including some accused of having sex with children.
Servants of the Paraclete, an order of Catholic priests who tend to troubled priests and members of other religious orders, had sought to change the zoning on 226 acres off Wade Road in far northwestern Jefferson County to allow for development of the retreat. The area is densely wooded, with steep, winding roads curving past older and many newer homes on multiacre lots.
The Rev. Peter Lechner, servant general of the Paraclete, said he withdrew the request from the county zoning board this week, after meeting with about 80 neighboring property owners. The neighbors - many of them parents of young children - worried that bringing the retreat into their community would endanger their children and threaten their property values.
"I would characterize the meeting as a very respectful dialogue, in which there were very strong feelings of anger and fear but also love," Lechner said. "I understand the love that people have for their children. It's because of that, and their fear of having priests who have acted inappropriately in a pedophilic manner in the past, that I feel that it's best for us not to pursue the project."
• Prosecutors: Split Shanley case in two BOSTON (MA):
Boston Herald,
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3339 ,
By Robin Washington, Friday, April 9, 2004
Prosecutors preparing to try the Rev. Paul R. Shanley on child-rape charges made a bid to split the case in two yesterday, beginning the Oct. 18 Middlesex Superior Court trial with two alleged victims instead of four.
While prosecutors said reshuffling the complainants was "just for efficiency," the move could postpone testimony by Newton's Gregory Ford, whose civil suit contained contradictory assertions of when he first recalled being abused by Shanley.
Assistant District Attorney Lynn Rooney also asked Judge Steven Neal to allow nine others to testify Shanley molested them, though he hasn't been charged in those cases.
• Perv therapy controversial [porn mags and IT nudies]
BOSTON (MA):
Boston Herald,
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3355 ,
By Dave Wedge, Friday, April 9, 2004
Bay State pedophiles and rapists, including pervert ex-priest James Porter, have undergone controversial "behavior treatment" - some involving pornographic magazines and computer-generated images of nude kids, therapists told the Herald.
"If someone were doing that in their house, that would be cause for an investigation," says Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. "It sounds as perverted as what got them in there in the first place."
Walsh, whose office is currently seeking to have Porter civilly committed for being an incurable sex predator, says officials should investigate the controversial therapies.
Ex-workers at the Massachusetts Treatment Center say sex fiends in the past have been given girlie magazines and shown nude pictures of children while being bombarded with noxious odors as "aversion therapy."
Current tactics are unclear, although the Bridgewater center's Web site lists "modifying deviant arousal" as an existing program. Officials say aversion therapy is no longer done at Bridgewater, but it is still in use at state-contracted facilities run by Justice Resource Initiative.
JRI director Dr. Carol Ball said pedophiles referred for counseling through probation and parole are sometimes shown computer-generated pictures of nude children as part of their treatment. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that such images are legal.
"If we find someone who has a high arousal to 5-year-old girls, then one of the treatments would be to reduce that person's deviant interest," Ball explained.
• Victim: Don't release Porter TAUNTON (MA):
Boston Herald,
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3356 ,
By Jessica Heslam, Friday, April 9, 2004
As victim testimony was delayed yesterday, one victim said outside the courtroom that notorious pedophile priest James Porter should remain locked up.
"If you put a vampire away for 10 years, he's still going to want blood. I think it's just an instinct that he has no control over," former North Attleboro altar boy Dan Kiley told reporters at Taunton Superior Court.
Kiley plans to testify for prosecutors, who want to keep the 69-year-old Porter locked up as a sexually dangerous person. Porter pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 Bay State children and has finished his prison sentence.
Lawyers for The Providence Journal and The Standard Times newspapers asked the court to allow them to publish the victims' names. One of the five victims scheduled to testify next week asked not to be identified to the public.
• Conduct of priest investigated [Second in succession]
RICHMOND (VA):
Richmond Times-Dispatch,
www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031774777396&path=!news&s=1045855934842 ;
BY ALBERTA LINDSEY, Apr 9, 2004
A Charlottesville priest has been placed on administrative leave while the Catholic Diocese of Richmond investigates what it says are complaints of questionable behavior with teenagers.
A statement released late yesterday by the diocese did not say whether the behavior being questioned involved sexual misconduct by the Rev. Dennis Murphy, pastor of Holy Comforter Catholic Church. The statement also did not say if the teens were male or female.
The diocese was told that civil authorities have been notified and are likely to make inquiries, the statement said.
Murphy replaced the Rev. Julian Goodman in September 2002 after Goodman was dismissed from priestly ministry because of sexual abuse of a minor in the 1970s. That abuse did not occur at Holy Comforter.
Cardinal William Keeler, apostolic administrator of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, placed Murphy on leave after an examination of preliminary information. While on administrative leave, the priest cannot perform Mass or any other priestly duties.
Murphy will undergo an "extensive evaluation," and the diocesan review board will investigate and assess the situation, according to the statement.
• Judge: Church sex abuse victims may be identified Quad-City Times,
www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1026733&t=Local+News&c=2,1026733 ,
By Kay Luna, Thursday, April 8th, 2004
CLINTON, Iowa - The identities of victims who reported they were sexually abused by priests in the Catholic Diocese of Davenport must be disclosed in civil court, but only on a limited basis, under a Clinton County judge's ruling.
After several months of weighing legal arguments regarding confidentiality and trial preparation concerns, District Judge C.H. Pelton ruled the names of several "John Doe" plaintiffs and people who have filed abuse complaints with the diocese should be reported to the parties and potential witnesses involved in multiple civil lawsuits in Clinton and Scott counties.
However, the ruling does not mean the names will be made public in court documents or at trial. Alleged abuse victims' names will be removed from documents produced in court and changed to a pseudonym, number or letter.
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 states.
• Plaintiffs' attorney wants to question retired bishop; Plans to depose 20 priests accused of abuse in N. Kentucky BURLINGTON (KY):
Lexington Herald-Leader,
www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/8391433.htm ,
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Fri, Apr. 09, 2004
Plaintiffs' attorneys in a class-action lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests want to question retired Bishop William Hughes about his oversight of the Diocese of Covington.
Attorney Robert Steinberg said he wants to ask Hughes about what he knew of the alleged abuse during his tenure as Covington bishop.
Steinberg said he is not accusing Hughes of being an abuser. Hughes was Covington bishop from 1979 until his retirement in 1995.
Steinberg also plans to take the depositions of 20 priests accused of sexually abusing children while serving in the Northern Kentucky diocese.
Special Judge John Potter on Tuesday set an Oct. 25 trial date for the nation's first class-action suit over allegations of sexual abuse by priests. The trial in Boone County Circuit Court is expected to last up to four weeks. A pretrial hearing is set for July 12.
• Archdiocese calls sex abuse claim credible [1986]
MILWAUKEE (WI):
Pioneer Press,
www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/states/wisconsin/8390163.htm ,
BY JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press, Fri, Apr. 09, 2004
The Milwaukee Roman Catholic Archdiocese has asked the Vatican to remove a priest from active ministry because of allegations of sexual abuse while he worked in a Catholic school.
A review committee determined that the allegations of abuse by the Rev. Marvin Knighton, 54, were credible, archdiocese spokeswoman Kathleen Hohl said Thursday.
The panel concluded that the allegations met the canonical standard of proof and forwarded its report to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who sent it to the Vatican to request that Knighton be reduced from the clerical state to the laity, she said.
Knighton worked in various archdiocesan jobs, including at Pius XI High School in Milwaukee in the 1980s, and served in the 2000-2001 school year as vice principal at St. Mary's Catholic High School in Phoenix, where he now lives.
• Judge protects identity of 'Witness X' [Porter hearings]
TAUNTON (MA):
The Pawtucket Times,
www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11272819&BRD=1713&PAG=461&dept_id=24491&rfi=6 ,
by Gregg M. Miliote, 04/09/2004
Superior Court Judge David McLaughlin, presiding over convicted child rapist James Porter's sexually dangerous person hearings, ordered the media not to identify a witness scheduled to testify next Monday in press accounts of the day's testimony.
Although it is general news media policy not to identify victims of sexual assaults, attorneys representing two area newspapers appeared in court Wednesday and Thursday to take part in a constitutional hearing regarding their clients' rights to restrain themselves from printing names of rape victims.
The issue was first raised at the outset of the hearings Monday when many in the courtroom perceived McLaughlin had ordered no dissemination of the identities of any victims testifying during the hearings.
Although he never made such an order, one of the newspaper lawyers entered the courtroom Wednesday seeking to file a motion requesting that McLaughlin vacate the order.
After being informed there was no such order, the matter seemed to be concluded. But because Assistant District Attorney Rene Dupuis was among the many to believe an order had been issued, she filed her own motion requesting such an order, barring the media from printing or broadcasting any victim's identities during the proceedings.
• Girl allowed to testify against former priest ILLINOIS:
Chicago Daily Herald,
www.dailyherald.com/dupage/main_story.asp?intID=3808638 ,
By Patrick Waldron, Posted Friday, April 09, 2004
The former Aurora Central Catholic High School student who accused ex-priest Mark Campobello of sexual abuse will be allowed to testify in a trial involving similar charges brought against him by a Geneva student.
During a hearing Thursday, Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon said he would allow the testimony and that evidence would not diminish Campobello's right to a fair trial.
Campobello's defense attorney, Van Richards, fought against the request brought by prosecutors and disagreed with the ruling.
"I'm not surprised," Richards said.
He called the state's desire to bring more than one girl into the case a "safety in numbers" tactic.
The decision, which Sheldon said is allowed under a specific 1998 law governing sexual misconduct, opens the door to allowing accusations brought against Campobello in 2003 to be used to prove allegations brought in 2002.
In most instances, the law doesn't allow evidence not related to the specific charges at hand to be brought up at trial because doing so would violate the defendant's rights to fair trial.
• Police Search Home Of Defrocked Priest; Lavigne Classified As Sex Offender.
TheBostonChannel.com ;
www.thebostonchannel.com/news/2988922/detail.html , POSTED: 7:47 am EDT April 9, 2004
CHICOPEE, Mass. -- State police searched the home of defrocked priest and convicted pedophile Richard R. Lavigne and were seen leaving with some confiscated computer equipment, according to news reports.
State Police Lt. Peter J. Higgins refused to comment on the search of Lavigne's home on Thursday, the Republican newspaper reported, and referred all questions to Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett.
Bennett is investigating the handling of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield under former Bishop Thomas L. Dupre, and Higgins is heading that probe.
Dupre stepped down as bishop in February, citing health reasons. His retirement came a day after the Republican confronted him with allegations that he molested two boys when he was a parish priest in the 1970s.
A woman who answered the phone at Bennett's home early Friday said the district attorney was not available.
A diocesan spokesman told the Republican that church officials had no knowledge of the Lavigne search. Lavigne was defrocked in January, but his $1,030 monthly stipend and health and dental benefits will continue until May 1.
• Milwaukee Archdiocese says sexual abuse claim against priest is credible [Knighton; known since 1970s]
MILWAUKEE (WI):
Boston Herald,
http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=1692 ,
By Associated Press, Friday, April 9, 2004
The Milwaukee Roman Catholic Archdiocese has asked the Vatican to remove a priest from active ministry because of allegations of sexual abuse while he worked in a Catholic school.
A review committee determined that the allegations of abuse by the Rev. Marvin Knighton, 54, were credible, archdiocese spokeswoman Kathleen Hohl said Thursday. She gave no details.
Knighton worked in various archdiocesan jobs, including at a high school in the 1980s, and during the 2000-2001 school year was vice principal at a high school in Phoenix, where he now lives.
Peter Isely, Milwaukee spokesman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said removing a priest is rare and shows the seriousness of the situation.
"Our concern is that the archdiocese now take responsibility for the ruling," he said. "They've known about his sexual misconduct since at least the late 1970s."
Isely said he hopes the schools Knighton worked for notify alumni of the ruling.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:50 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Friday April 09, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http:www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont76.htm
##### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Saturday April 10, 2004 edition follows:- • Pedophile priest must not go free [Porter, 100 victims]
MASSACHUSETTS:
The Enterprise,
http://enterprise.southofboston.com/articles/2004/04/07/news/opinion/opinion01.txt ,
April 7 2004
The most dangerous man in prison may well be James Porter, the former priest who is accused of molesting and raping about 100 children. Remarkably, Porter's prison time is finished and he wants his freedom. But this is the type of situation the one-day-to-life civil commitment was created for - to keep dangerous criminals segregated from society after they have done their time.
It's hard to believe that Porter has been locked up for a decade after his conviction for molesting 23 children. It seems like just yesterday when a troubled group of adults trudged through a Massachusetts courtroom and told their tales of horror - how Porter had molested and raped them, some of them a 100 times. They were baby sitters, altar boys, anyone who was young and vulnerable. Porter abused them and threw them away when they got too old or too scared and he thought they might tell someone.
Some of these same victims appeared in a Taunton courtroom again this week to retell their stories and how many of them are still suffering, 30 or 40 years after the crimes. It would stun us to see Porter walk free again.
But the law being what it is, there is always that possibility. Porter was sentenced under old guidelines and is technically able to be paroled. Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh argued in court that Porter is still a sexually dangerous person and is likely to reoffend.
That is true of most pedophiles. It is a sickness that cannot be cured. It can be controlled - to some degree - but never cured. Society should not have to take a chance that Porter will have a relapse and start preying on children again.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:48 AM
• Catholic and Protestant church attendance UNITED STATES:
Indianapolis Star,
www.indystar.com/articles/8/136546-9738-047.html ,
April 10, 2004
More Protestants than Catholics now attend church on a weekly basis, according to polls taken by the Gallup Organization.
After the clergy sexual abuse scandal broke in January 2002, Catholic weekly church attendance reached an all-time low of 35 percent. By November 2003, attendance had climbed back to 45 percent.
During that period, Protestant attendance remained fairly stable at around 47 percent
1n 1955, however, almost twice as many Catholics as Protestants attended church on a weekly basis, 74 percent to 42 percent.
In 2003, 40 percent of Catholics said they had attended church the previous week, while 47 percent of Protestants said they had attended church the previous week.
-- 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