• Lutheran synod loses abuse case [$36m, Thomas, and $32m] - Lutheran. $US36m to 9, on top of $US32m settled on others. Boys.
Denton Record-Chronicle,
www.dentonrc. com/sharedcontent/ dws/news/texas southwest/stories/ 042304dntex lutheran.14e3 cac07.html ;
By JEFFREY WEISS and SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH,
09:24 PM CDT, Thursday, April 22, 2004
TEXAS: Leaders of a Dallas-based Lutheran synod allowed a sexually abusive minister to be assigned to a church in Marshall, Texas, an East Texas civil jury decided Thursday.
The panel recommended awarding $36 million in damages to nine victims who sued the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Previously, the ELCA , the Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and other defendants had reached a settlement that included payment of $32 million, the victims' lawyers said.
The Marshall congregation said it was never told of the sexually suspicious behavior that dogged Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. before he took over the church in 1997. His pastorate ended in 2001, when he was arrested on child pornography charges.
Last year, Mr. Thomas was sentenced to 397 years in state prison for molesting boys. He's serving a separate five-year sentence at a federal penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas, on federal child pornography charges.
(This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
for Thursday April 22, 2004.)
INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs.
"We grieve for and continue to pray for the victims and their families," synod Bishop Kevin S. Kanouse said Thursday. "We trust and hope that the compensation awarded the victims will provide them and their families support, care and the opportunity to heal their anguish."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw
at 09:33 PM]
• Trial date set in 39-year-old priest abuse case [1965, Berube (La Sallette)]
The Ascension Citizen,
www.ascensioncitizen.com/articles/2004/04/22/news/news4.txt , April 22 2004
LOUISIANA: A civil lawsuit filed by four men against the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge and St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church claims a now-deceased priest sexually molested them in 1965 while they were parishioners at the local church.
Judge Alvin Turner set a April 26 trial date for the case last week. Turner denied efforts by the defense to throw out the case because the defense claimed that the four plaintiffs did not file the suit within a year of knowing about the alleged acts.
Attorney Don Richard, a lawyer for the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge and St. Theresa, argued that the parents of the four approached the pastors at St. Theresa in 1965 when they became aware of what reportedly happened to their children.
Plaintiff's attorney Darrell Papillion said the four victims, now in their 40s, suffered severe repressed memories until media coverage surrounding the 2002 Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Boston dredged up the incident. The lawsuit contends that the four victims did not confront their parents until April 23, 2002. The four filed their lawsuit in 2003.
The Rev. John Berube, who allegedly molested the four, died several years ago. [...]
The victims were between the ages of 9 and 13 when the crimes occurred, Papillion said.
Deacon Bob Furlow, communications director of the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, said Berube was only at St. Theresa for six months and was not a diocesan priest. Berube was a member of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Sallette, a St. Louis-based order.
• Evangelical Lutherans to pay $8 Million Portion Of Texas Civil Case Settlement [14 survivors, Thomas]
Worldwide Faith News,
"Plaintiffs Get $8 Million In ELCA Portion Of Texas Civil Case Settlement,"
www.wfn.org/2004/04/msg00176.html , 15:37:25 -0500, Thu, 22 Apr 2004
CHICAGO (IL) (ELCA): Fourteen plaintiffs and their attorneys will get $8 million in a settlement of a civil suit against the churchwide
organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Initially, all of the ELCA portion of the settlement will be paid from
insurance funds, said John R. Brooks, a spokesman for the ELCA. In
reaching the settlement, Brooks said the ELCA churchwide organization
admitted to no wrongdoing.
The churchwide organization settled March 27 with the 14 plaintiffs
in a civil suit brought against the church in Marshall, Texas. The case
involved the criminal behavior of a former ELCA pastor, Gerald P. Thomas,
Jr. He was found guilty of sexual assault against children in a trial
last year and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term.
• "Christ returned" cult members disturb local religious leaders [1980s settlement, Schacknow]
FAIRFIELD (CT):
Fairfield Minuteman,
www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11370447&BRD=1653&PAG=461&dept--id=12717&rfi=6 ,
By Chris Ciarmiello , April/22/2004
With some of their colleagues getting unwanted visits in the past few months, some area clergymen are keeping watch for several men who claim that their deceased leader was the second coming of Christ, and who say that those who do not follow them will face damnation.
"Many of us have had visits from ... representatives of 'Julius, the Christ,' in recent months," the Rev. Dr. Arthur McClanahan, pastor of Fairfield Grace United Methodist Church, said in an e-mail to 15 other local religious leaders last month. "Some of our experiences, as we've reported, have been disruptive, even unnerving. Some have even endured verbal abuse."
The men, McClanahan said, are followers of the late Julius Schacknow, the self-proclaimed "sinful messiah" who announced at a 1970 Trumbull outdoor revival that he was Jesus Christ reincarnated, according to the New Haven Register.
Schacknow, who faced two civil sexual assault lawsuits that were settled out of court in the 1980s - one filed by his stepdaughter - claimed that he needed to sin to know what sin was like, according to published reports. He allegedly used his charisma and position as a religious leader to entice women to sleep with him, according to the Register, and he died in 1996 at the home of one of his seven unofficial wives.
"It's really a bizarre cult that kind of, I guess, went dark for a while," McClanahan said. "Then in the last year I've become aware of them [coming to the area]."
• Anglican Canon law invoked in sex case [Shearman ]
AUSTRALIA:
The Courier-Mail,
"Canon law invoked in sex case,"
www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story--page/0,5936,9361817%255E3102,00.html ,
by Chris Taylor, for Apr 23 04
BRISBANE'S Anglican Diocese will invoke centuries-old law and for the first time put on trial a priest over allegations of child sex abuse.
The church will address allegations that retired Bishop Donald Shearman had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl by later this year convening the ancient Panel of Triers, an eight-member in-house legal body which will hear the case.
The Panel will be headed by a Brisbane Supreme Court Judge Justice Debra Mullins and the members made up of both clergy and laymen who are elected every three years by the Anglican Synod - even though they have yet to be put to use.
Church officials are drafting Articles of Accusation - the equivalent of an indictment in modern law - following the procedures outlined in the Canon Law Code, drafted more than 200 years ago.
The panel will ask all involved parties, including Shearman and his alleged victim, to give evidence and will be responsible for reaching a verdict on the accusations.
The Panel of Triers procedure can, according to Canon Law, ultimately lead to a priest's defrocking.
• Three former O'Brien deputies to be replaced [2003]
Casa Grande Valley Newspapers,
www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11368192&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept--id=222076&rfi=6 ,
Wire Services, Associated Press, April 22, 2004
PHOENIX (AZ) (AP) - The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix is shaking up its top management, removing three former confidants of Bishop Thomas O'Brien.
Monsignors Dale Fushek and Richard Moyer plus chancellor Sister Mary Ann Winters will be replaced July 1, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted announced Tuesday.
As O'Brien's top aides, all three were thought to possess inside knowledge and influence over the sexual abuse crisis that led the bishop to sign an immunity agreement with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office last year.
Each of them also has been named in at least one civil lawsuit filed against the church by victims of sexual abuse.
O'Brien, 68, resigned in June after his arrest in connection with a fatal hit-and-run accident - ending his 21-year tenure as leader of the diocese's nearly 480,000 Catholics.
• Court orders bundling of priest molest cases [~ 150 cases, six dioceses]
CALIFORNIA:
San Francisco Chronicle,
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/22/BAG9368O2Q1.DTL ,
by Bob Egelko, Thursday, April 22, 2004
Dozens of lawsuits accusing Roman Catholic priests in Northern California of molestation will go to a single judge for pretrial proceedings, a development that pleased church officials and disappointed plaintiffs' lawyers, who fear their cases will be delayed.
The order to coordinate at least 56 cases came Monday from Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy, who recommended that a judge in San Francisco handle the pretrial matters. Ronald George, chief justice of the state Supreme Court, will decide the site and the judge.
About 150 suits alleging sexual abuse are pending against the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of Monterey, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa and Stockton. McCoy said 56 suits and as many as 94 could be affected; lawyers said there could be more.
The issue before McCoy was whether to refer those cases to one judge, who would rule on legal questions that apply to all cases and oversee discovery, when each side examines the other's witnesses and documents before trial. Each case would then be tried in its county of origin.
• Jury finds Lutheran synod negligent in abuse case
[Nearly $US 37m, Thomas]
Tribnet.com ;
www.tribnet.com/24hour/nation/story/1311059p-8455156c.html ,
By BOBBY ROSS JR., Associated Press, 12:55 pm PDT, April 22, 2004
MARSHALL, Texas - Victims of a former Lutheran minister who sexually molested boys won a jury award of nearly $37 million Thursday, bringing the total payout in the case to about $69 million.
The case is the most serious to hit the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has about 5 million members, and has drawn comparisons to the worst abuses committed during the Roman Catholic molestation crisis.
In addition to Thursday's verdict, an attorney for the plaintiffs disclosed that separate settlements reached before the trial were worth $32 million. Those deals were struck with the Chicago-based denomination and the seminary in Columbus, Ohio, that Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. attended.
The lawsuit charged that former Bishop Mark Herbener of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, and former bishop's assistant Earl Eliason, ignored warnings about Thomas' behavior.
Thomas, minister of Marshall's Good Shepherd Lutheran Church from 1997 until his arrest in 2001, was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for molesting boys. The victims said the congregation was not warned about several incidents in which Thomas was accused of inappropriate behavior.
Jurors deliberated for about five hours over two days before rendering their verdict. Nine plaintiffs won awards in the suit, ranging from $50,000 to $9.8 million.
"I find no reason the verdict should not be accepted," said District Judge Bonnie Leggat, who presided over the case.
• Jury finds Lutheran synod negligent in abuse case
[$US 36m, Thomas]
MARSHALL (TX):
The Dallas Morning News,
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/042204dntexlutheran.14e3cac07.html ;
By SUSAN HOGAN / ALBACH,
02:16 PM CDT on Thursday, April 22, 2004
A civil jury on Thursday found Lutheran hierarchy based in Dallas negligent in assigning a minister with a history of sexual misconduct toward boys to a church in Marshall, Texas.
The jury recommended awarding $36 million in damages to nine victims who sued the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod. The synod, headquartered in Dallas, is a regional body of 37,000 baptized members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
The Marshall congregation said it was never told of the sexually suspicious behavior that dogged Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. before he took over their church in 1997. His pastorate ended in 2001, when he was arrested on child pornography charges.
Last year, Mr. Thomas was sentenced to 397 years in state prison for molesting boys. He's currently serving five years at the U.S. Penitentiary in Beaumont on federal child pornography charges.
“We have not had a case like this in the history of the ELCA,” said John Brooks, the denomination's spokesman. “This is very rare.”
Since the early 1990s, the denomination has had an aggressive zero tolerance policy considered much stricter than the one adopted by Catholic bishops. Pastors who abuse -- and often those who harass others -- are automatically removed from their congregations and stripped of their clergy credentials.
• Diocese reinstates accused Rancho priest [1970s-1980s, Covas]
SAN BERNARDINO (CA):
San Bernardino Sun,
www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~2099166,00.html ,
By WILL MATTHEWS, Wednesday, April 21, 2004
A Rancho Cucamonga priest twice arrested for public sexual misconduct and accused of but never charged with child molestation has been reinstated to good standing by the Diocese of San Bernardino.
The Rev. Peter Covas, 73, who was removed as pastor of St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church in April 2002 and placed on administrative leave after allegations surfaced that he had molested a teenage boy in the 1970s and 1980s, will be able to perform all priestly duties, including celebrating mass, performing baptisms, weddings and funerals and taking confessions.
Bishop Gerald Barnes reinstated Covas last week after what the Rev. Howard Lincoln, a spokesman for the diocese, said was a "thorough review and investigation' by church officials into the allegations against Covas and his prior arrests.
The decision was announced in a memo written April 16 by Monsignor Gerard M. Lopez and delivered only to priests and other diocesan staff. The memo was later posted on the diocese's Web site.
"Bishop Barnes made this decision only after completion of both the civil and church investigations,' Lincoln said. "Father Covas was then notified that he could exercise his priestly ministries in the diocese.'
• Details of Leach case familiar to local man [1965, Leach]
LINCOLN (NE):
Lincoln Journal Star,
www.journalstar.com/articles/2004/04/22/local/10048490.txt ,
by Nargaret Reist, Apr 22 2004
The allegations by a teenage Boy Scout in news accounts of a prominent minister's arrest were eerily familiar.
Uncannily similar, said a Lincoln man who grew up in York in the 1960s, to something that happened to him in the spring of 1965.
On a camping trip. With a guy involved with the Boy Scouts, a man named Norman Leach.
"When I read in the paper - I thought, 'The guy's still up to it.' I've seen his picture on TV for years, and it just kind of cringes me."
The 54-year-old man, who asked not to be identified, is acquainted with a staff member at the Child Advocacy Center. He told her in October that he had been molested as a 15-year-old.
Child Advocacy officials told police about the incident. Police investigators said there was little they could do because the man did not call police and because it was too late to prosecute an offense so old.
The man said he didn't want to call police because it happened so long ago. He figured the guy couldn't keep doing that and not get caught, thought maybe it was something he'd stopped.
Back in 1965, the man recalled, Leach was a bigwig in Scouts.
• Leach guilty of sex assault [1960s, 2003-04, Leach]
LINCOLN (NE):
Lincoln Journal Star,
www.journalstar.com/articles/2004/04/22/local/10048489.txt ,
by Margaret Reist, Apr 22 2004
The Rev. Norman Leach, accused of fondling a Boy Scout in the troop he created, walked into Lancaster County Court Wednesday and ended the prospects of a trial.
Leach, 63, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of misdemeanor third-degree sexual assault, even as reports surfaced that the nationally recognized Scout leader had molested boys in the 1960s while working for the Scouts in York.
His plea deal leaves open the possibility of additional charges.
"We wanted to make sure if new victims came forward we would be able to prosecute," Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey said Wednesday.
Prosecutors alleged that Leach had sexual contact with a teenage Scout at Leach's home between Oct. 16 and March 1.
Four other Scouts, ages 12 to 15, told police that Leach insisted they sleep in his bed when they spent the night, but they did not allege Leach touched them inappropriately.
Since the investigation began, several men have come forward to say they were abused by Leach from 1963 to 1967, when he was working in York for the Boy Scouts' Cornhusker Council.
Officials from Lincoln Police, the Child Advocacy Center and the Cornhusker Council said they have received calls about incidents in the 1960s.
Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said Wednesday that three men in their 50s contacted his investigators in the last two weeks to report that they were also fondled by Leach in the early to mid-1960s when he was in York.
Steve Smith, director of the council, said he got a call from a man who said he was representing at least four men who had been abused by Leach.
• Minister Pleads No Contest To Assault Charges [Leach]
TheOmahaChannel.com ;
www.theomahachannel.com/news/3029785/detail.html ,
POSTED 10:14 pm CDT April 21, 2004
LINCOLN, Neb. -- The former executive director of the Lincoln Interfaith Council has pleaded no contest to third-degree sexual assault charges.
Rev. Norman Leach appeared in Lancaster County Court Wednesday. The prominent minister and former Boy Scout leader is accused of fondling a 15-year-old boy, a member of his troop, who was staying at his house.
• Layman defends Episcopal priest [Platt]
KENTUCKY:
Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington (Ky.),
www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/8484194.htm ,
By FRANK E. LOCKWOOD, Posted on Wed, Apr. 21, 2004
The Rev. Chris Platt requested and received "blanket authority" to give St. Augustine Chapel's money to the poor, the chapel's former senior warden told an ecclesiastical court yesterday.
Scott Estes, the Episcopal chapel's top layman, said Platt had the authority to give cash to the needy and wasn't required to submit receipts or get approval.
"We had, over time, developed a trust relationship with Chris, and we saw no evidence at any time that he had ever abused his authority," Estes said.
Lexington Episcopal diocese officials say Platt embezzled nearly $50,000 while serving as St. Augustine's chaplain and as assistant to Bishop Stacy Sauls.
Estes defended Platt, 56, saying he saw no evidence that the priest had ever acted inappropriately.
A five-member panel is hearing the case, which is expected to wrap up today. If it convicts Platt of "crime" and "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy," it could suspend or permanently bar him from the ministry.
Because it is a religious tribunal without secular authority, it cannot imprison Platt or fine him.
• Episcopal priest asserts his innocence [Platt]
Lexington Herald-Leader,
www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/8489774.htm ,
By Frank E. Lockwood, flockwood@herald-leader.com , Posted on Thu, Apr. 22, 2004
KENTUCKY: The Rev. Chris Platt told a church tribunal yesterday that he's a "terrible administrator" but not a thief.
The former bishop's assistant and college chaplain denied a charge that he had embezzled nearly $50,000 from Episcopal Church accounts and said that he spent the church's money only on "pious and charitable purposes."
Lexington Episcopal diocese officials want Platt defrocked, alleging that he committed a "crime" and engaged in "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy."
The ecclesiastical court, consisting of three priests and two rank-and-file Episcopalians, has no secular authority. If it finds "clear and convincing" evidence that Platt is guilty, it can permanently bar him from the ministry but cannot fine or imprison him.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin this morning.
At Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington yesterday, about 15 spectators listened intently as Platt testified.
The priest portrayed himself as a friend of the poor and needy, someone who made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for street people and gave Presto Log-style firewood to the homeless.
• Lawsuits say Church of God in Christ ignored abuse claims [1989 and 1999, Tate]
The Oregonian,
"Lawsuits say church ignored abuse claims,"
www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1082635655318782.xml ,
By MAXINE BERNSTEIN, Thursday, April 22, 2004
PORTLAND (OR): Two women on Wednesday filed lawsuits against the jurisdiction that oversees Portland's Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ, accusing the denomination of failing to respond to allegations that the Rev. Roy Tate sexually abused them as minors.
The lawsuits, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, come as the North Portland church continues to try to remove Tate from preaching after a council of church elders found Tate guilty of conduct unbecoming a minister on Dec. 2.
The elders held a trial that drew testimony from Tate's church members and others who alleged that Tate had sex with troubled women he counseled and mismanaged church money. Despite the council's order that he be suspended indefinitely, effective Jan. 4, Tate has continued to preach each weekend.
"I have a right to do that while an appeal is pending," Tate said, reached by phone Wednesday. "Allegations are allegations. These people are just trying to jump on the bandwagon and want to get some easy money. Fifteen years ago, I had some indiscretions, but it was never anything with minors."
In the lawsuits, a 21-year-old woman only identified as "S.S." contends Tate abused his position of trust and confidence as church leader and began sexually abusing her in 1999 when she was 16. She alleges he molested her at least twice at the church and in other Portland locations.
A second woman identified as "C.Y." contends she was sexually abused by Tate as early as 1989 when she was 16 and continued to be molested by him for one to two years at the church and elsewhere.
• Plaintiffs await verdict in Lutheran clergy abuse case [Thomas]
Denton Record-Chronicle,
www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D823PNC00.html ,
By BOBBY ROSS JR. / Associated Press,
April/22/2004
MARSHALL (TX):
Nine alleged sex abuse victims waited Thursday for a jury's verdict on their claim that a regional Lutheran synod ignored warnings about a minister who preyed on boys.
After hearing seven days of testimony, jurors got the civil case Wednesday. They deliberated for about an hour and were to return to the jury room Thursday.
In closing arguments Wednesday, attorneys for the plaintiffs urged the jury to deliver "full justice" and hold the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod responsible for former minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr.'s crimes.
Thomas, former pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in this East Texas town, was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for molesting boys.
Plaintiffs' attorney Jason Stephens said full justice would mean awarding $50 million in damages to each of the two most traumatized victims. He did not specify amounts on the other seven plaintiffs.
Stephens appealed to jurors to send a message that the church hierarchy must protect children from sexual predators.
• Reverend Tate faces sexual abuse allegations [1990s, Thomas]
KATU,
www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=66603 , April 21, 2004
PORTLAND (OR): A well-known member of Portland's African American community may be in trouble.
Two women are suing the Reverend Roy Tate over allegations of sexually abusing them in the 1990's, when they were 16 years old.
Tate is a pastor at the Christ Memorial Church of God in north Portland. The women are also suing the church for negligence.
They claim church officials knew about the inappropriate behaviors, but failed to investigate.
Late last year Tate was also accused of paying women he ministered for sex.
• Sex abuse victim says diocese's apology seems hollow [1980s, Celeste]
Troy Record,
www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11365291&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept--id=7021&rfi=6 ,
By Robert Cristo, April/22/2004
ALBANY (NY): After meeting with Albany Roman Catholic Diocese Bishop Howard Hubbard earlier this week, a former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute student who was sexually abused by a Troy priest said he was disappointed he had to wait eight months for his pain to be acknowledged by the church.
Randall Sweringen, 38, went public last November with his two-decade-old allegations against former Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity Chaplain Rev. Charles Celeste, who also served as a priest at St. Paul the Apostle parish on 12th Street.
Sweringen sat with Hubbard Tuesday to discuss the four-year, spiritual-based relationship with Celeste that culminated with the priest making sexual advances to him in his dorm room.
Sweringen discussed details of the meeting Wednesday with the
media at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Albany, with attorney John Aretakis by his side.
"The formal apology I received from him (Hubbard) yesterday rings hollow because of his compromised position," said Sweringen, who is admittedly homosexual and currently lives in California.
"Bishop Hubbard changed course completely and finally admitted to me yesterday that I was the victim of sexual misconduct, that the sex was not consensual, and that Father Celeste had abused his power, authority and position as a priest," he added.
• New state law on abuse a good one Green Bay News-Chronicle,
www.greenbaynewschron.com/page.html?article=125393 ,
By Bishop David Zubik, head of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, For The News-Chronicle, ~ April 22, 2004
WISCONSIN: On Monday, Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law two important changes in reporting child sexual abuse and bringing justice to those harmed.
"One, all clergy - rabbis, ministers, deacons, imams as well as priests - are included among the designated "mandatory reporters" as identified by state law. All clergy now stand shoulder to shoulder with teachers, therapists, physicians, law officers and many other professionals who are legally obligated to report child sexual abuse to local authorities.
Two years ago, nearly every U.S. diocese - including the Diocese of Green Bay - made a commitment to remove from public ministry all priests who had even one credible allegation of child sexual abuse against them regardless of how long ago it happened.
The policy and practice of the Diocese of Green Bay is to turn over to civil authorities all credible allegations of current and past incidents of child sexual abuse. We have encouraged those reporting allegations to the diocese to also report to the police.
Additionally, we have notified worshipping communities and the media when a priest has been removed, and we have conducted background checks and provided sexual abuse prevention training to all diocesan and church staff and volunteers.
• Bishop's apology fails to salve victim's anguish [1984-87 Celeste]
Albany Times Union,
www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=241111&category=ALBANY&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=4/22/2004 ;
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Thursday, April 22, 2004
ALBANY (NY): A 38-year-old former monk fought tears of anguish and gratitude Wednesday, a day after receiving a personal apology from the leader of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese for having been victimized as a teenage student by his college chaplain.
Randy Sweringen said he met Tuesday with Bishop Howard Hubbard who condemned the Rev. Charles Celeste's sexual misconduct and abuse of trust.
Celeste was the man's spiritual confessor at RPI from 1984 to '87.
Sweringen said the bishop's words were healing, but he believes Hubbard should step aside so new leadership can handle the sexual abuse crisis.
"He has spent years trying to do what is right and good, yet has made some grave mistakes ... both in his personal life and with the priests under his care," Sweringen said. "He is no longer a credible leader."
Hubbard denied allegations in February that he had sex with a young man in the 1970s who later killed himself. He said it would be wrong to dignify a false charge by walking away from his post.
• Rev Paid For Sex with His Alleged Victim [1994-96 Weeks]
KRON,
www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1805041&nav=5D7lMUh3 ,
Posted: 6:34 p.m., April 21, 2004
OAKLAND (CA) (BCN) -- The Rev. Donald Weeks of St. Patrick Abbey in Oakland admitted Wednesday that he paid to have sex with a man whom police allege Weeks molested when the man was a minor.
Weeks, 60, who was closely scrutinized by Oakland officials after he briefly housed convicted sex offender Cary Verse at the abbey last month, continues to emphatically deny allegations that he molested the man during a two-year period beginning in 1994, when the alleged victim was 16.
Weeks was charged with 24 counts of oral copulation with a minor, but the Alameda County district attorney's office dismissed the charges Tuesday noting a lack of sufficient evidence. However, Oakland Deputy Police Chief Mike Holland said police are continuing to investigate Weeks because they believe he did commit a crime.
In an interview Wednesday following a civil court hearing concerning his landlord's attempt to evict him and the abbey from their premises in Oakland's Fruitvale district, Weeks said of the alleged victim, "I paid him to have oral sex on me."
• Weeks says he paid for sex with alleged victim [1994-95 Weeks]
San Mateo Daily Journal,
www.smdailyjournal.org/article.cfm?issue=04-22-04&storyID=30125 ,
Daily Journal Wire Report, Saturday April 24, 2004
OAKLAND (CA): The Rev. Donald Weeks of St. Patrick Abbey in Oakland admitted today that he paid to have sex with a man who police allege Weeks molested when the man was a minor.
Weeks, 60, who was closely scrutinized by Oakland officials after he briefly housed convicted sex offender Cary Verse at the abbey last month, continues to emphatically deny allegations that he molested the man during a two-year period beginning in 1994, when the alleged victim was 16.
Weeks was charged with 24 counts of oral copulation with a minor, but the Alameda County District Attorney's Office dismissed the charges Tuesday noting a lack of sufficient evidence. However, Oakland Deputy Police Chief Mike Holland said police are continuing to investigate Weeks because they believe he did commit a crime.
In an interview Wednesday following a civil court hearing concerning his landlord's attempt to evict him and the abbey from their premises in Oakland's Fruitvale district, Weeks said of the alleged victim, "I paid him to have oral sex on me."
Weeks, who has run a transitional housing program at the abbey for parolees and substance abusers over the last five years, said, "He was 18 and we were consenting adults" and he doesn't believe he committed a crime.
Weeks said allegations by Oakland police officers that he "groomed" the alleged victim to be a sex partner are untrue. Weeks said, "He approached me knowing I was bisexual."
• Priest-abuse settlement may be record [$US 1.675 m; 1977-2000, Wolken]
Post-Dispatch,
www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/2D827A8419FB97CD86256E7D0046AB60?OpenDocument&Headline=Priest-abuse+settlement+may+be+record ;
By William C. Lhotka, April/21/2004
ST. LOUIS (MO): The Archdiocese of St. Louis agreed to pay $1,675,000 to a St. Louis family whose son was sexually abused over a three-year period by a Catholic priest. The settlement could be largest involving the church in the area.
Robert F. Ritter, the attorney for the family, confirmed that he and attorneys for the church reached the settlement on Tuesday in a civil lawsuit that has been pending for about two years in St. Louis Circuit Court.
The Rev. Gary P. Wolken, 38, was arrested in 2002 and, authorities said, admitted he had molested the child between August 1997 and July 2000 when he was a baby sitter for the boy - the son of a family friend.
Wolken pleaded guilty in December 2002 to two counts of statutory sodomy and six counts of child molestation. The child was in kindergarten when the abuse began.
• Two testify against pastor [2003, Guti] - Assemblies of God. Girls.
The Herald,
www.herald.co .zw/index.php? id=31077&pub date=2004-04-20
Herald Reporter, Apr 20 2004
ZIMBABWE: Chitungwiza police recently arrested Pastor Nelson Guti (69) of the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (Zaoga) Church for allegedly sexually assaulting two girls aged six and seven years in Zengeza 4.
Guti has since appeared at the Chitungwiza Magistrates' Courts facing charges of rape.
The girls last week testified before magistrate Mr Taurai Chigwedu.
The girls told the court that Guti drove them to a secluded place just outside Zengeza 4 where he allegedly raped them.
Mr Morgan Dube, appearing for the State, told the court that on October 27 last year, Guti saw the two girls playing with his daughter at his house in Zengeza 4 and he took the three into his car.
Guti is alleged to have driven the girls to a secluded place just outside Zengeza 4 where he told his daughter to stay behind in the car.
Mr Dube told the court that Guti then went into a bushy area with the two girls and he allegedly ordered the six-year-old girl to keep a distance away from the place where he allegedly sexually assaulted the eldest girl.
• Wisconsin Clergy Sex Abuse Law Strengthened The Badger Herald,
www.badgerherald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/04/22/4087309f45e92 ,
by Becky Malinsky, News Reporter, April 22, 2004
WISCONSIN:
Gov. Jim Doyle signed legislation April 19 strengthening laws applying to child abuse by clergy.
The bill states clergy will be required to report suspected child abuse and extends time limits for victims to sue clergy or other religious organizations to provide further support and protection for victims.
"This provision will ensure that religious organizations are held more accountable for the actions of clergy under their supervision if they failed to report the behavior or if they did not make an effort to prevent repeat incidents of abuse," Gov. Doyle said in a release.
Since most other secular professions are already required by law to report abuse of minors, SB 207 extends the law of reporting child abuse to religious organizations. In addition, victims will now have until they reach 35 years of age to file civil suits and until they are 45 years old to file criminal actions.
The bill required compromises from both Gov. Doyle and the Catholic Church.
"One exemption to this new legislation is that any incident of child abuse discussed in private conversation, not just in a confessional, is exempt from being reported," said Peter Isely, Midwest director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), meaning a bishop may discuss a specific incident of abuse with a priest in private conversation and it is not required by law to be reported.
[Posted by Kathy Shawat 01:40 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Thursday April 22, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont78.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Friday April 23, 2004 edition follows:- • Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary names president [replacing Mulder, accused of misconduct with women]
Kentucky.com ;
www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/8503281.htm ,
Associated Press, Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary has named a new president.
The Rev. Dean K. Thompson of West Virginia was appointed Thursday in a unanimous vote by the seminary's trustees. He will take over in June, succeeding a president who resigned over sexual misconduct.
Thompson has more than 30 years of experience as a pastor and as a part-time teacher and board member of various seminaries affiliated with the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The Presbyterian seminary is an official training ground for Methodist and Presbyterian ministers, though its students come from 22 denominations or religious traditions, according to the seminary.
Thompson becomes the eighth president in the seminary's 151-year history. He succeeds the Rev. John Mulder, who resigned in October 2002 after 21 years as president. Since then, John Kuykendall has served as interim president.
When Mulder stepped down, he cited health problems. But in September 2003, Mulder was suspended from ministry after he and Presbyterian officials disclosed that he was involved in sexual misconduct with adult women.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:41 AM]
• Former Mormon Bishop Charged with Sex Abuse [1990s Gomez]
KUTV,
"Former Bishop Charged with Sex Abuse,"
http://kutv. com/topstories/ local--story-- 114100632.html , 8:03 am US/Mountain,
Apr 23, 2004
UTAH: Corrections administrator and former Mormon Bishop David James Gomez has been charged in connection with the molesting several teenage boys.
The 57-year-old Gomez was charged yesterday with three counts of first-degree felony sodomy on a child and three counts of second-degree felony sex abuse of a child.
The allegations stem from alleged incidents ten to 13 years ago, when Gomez was bishop of the Hunter tenth Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Gomez, director of Utah Correctional Industries, was placed on administrative leave by the Department of Corrections following his arrest Monday.
• Retired Anglican Bishop Shearman to face sex allegations
[1950s and 1970s Shearman] - Anglican. Named in Hollingworth affair. Girl.
Ninemsn ;
"Retired bishop to face sex allegations,"
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/National/story--56202.asp ,
19:01 AEST, Fri 23 Apr 2004
AUSTRALIA: A bishop named in a landmark Anglican Church child abuse report, written in the wake of the Peter Hollingworth scandal, is to face a church tribunal.
The Anglican Diocese of Brisbane has convened an in-house legal body, known as a Panel of Triers, to hear allegations that retired bishop Donald Shearman had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.
It is the first time this panel, headed by Brisbane Supreme Court judge Debra Mullins and comprised of seven clergy and lay people elected by the Anglican synod, has ever been convened in Queensland.
The tribunal is expected to ask Bishop Shearman and his alleged victim to give evidence and has the power to defrock, or strip the bishop of his priestly powers and authority, if it finds him guilty.
The tribunal, convened under a little-used church law, is considered the last opportunity for the alleged victim, now aged in her 60s, to have her case heard.
The assault is alleged to have occurred when Bishop Shearman was a young curate about 50 years ago, with the girl a resident in a church hostel he supervised.
The pair allegedly also had a brief relationship in the 1970s when the woman was an adult.
Former Brisbane Archbishop and ex-governor-general Peter Hollingworth had been accused of covering up these allegations and allowing the bishop to continue uncensured with his ministry.
• Diocese responds to conviction of pastor [1980s, Jablonowski]
Marietta Times,
www.mariettatimes.com/news/story/0423202004--new03dioc423.asp ,
By Justin McIntosh, jmcintosh@mariettatimes.com , Friday, April 23, 2004
OHIO: The Diocese of Steubenville is asking anyone who may have been harmed by Anthony Jablonowski, the former pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Churchtown, to contact the bishop.
The diocese issued the statement in response to Jablonowski's conviction last week of sexual acts with a minor while in Wyoming 20 years ago.
The diocese also said in the statement, which was the first public statement issued since the conviction, that it does not condone the penitential practices performed by Jablonowski. The former priest had said the acts were spiritual and not sexual in nature.
"This is indeed a sad day for Father Anthony Jablonowski, for anyone who was injured by his actions and for the Diocese of Steubenville," said Bishop Daniel Conlon in the statement. "It is also a sad day for his friends and those who have benefited from his ministry."
Jablonowski was sentenced to a 15-month to seven-year sentence April 15 in Platte County, Wyo., in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
• Accused priests fight release of psychological reports [1997-2000; Ensey, Urrutigoity]
Tribune,
www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11375426&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept--id=416046&rfi=6 ,
By David Singleton, April/23/2004
SCRANTON (PA): Two priests who have been accused of molesting a former St. Gregory's Academy student deny they consented to the release of psychological evaluations requested by the Diocese of Scranton.
In affidavits filed in U.S. District Court as part of the civil case, the Rev. Eric Ensey and the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity said they never authorized the release of the records to the diocese or to Bishop James C. Timlin.
The priests are appealing a March 23 decision by U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III that would allow attorneys for the former student -- identified in court papers as John Doe -- to review certain psychological records.
A civil complaint filed in March 2002 by the former student accused the Revs. Urrutigoity and Ensey of molesting him between 1997 and 2000.
When the molestation allegations surfaced, Bishop Timlin ordered both men, members of the Society of St. John, to be evaluated.
The priests underwent five-day evaluations in March 2002 at the Southdown Institute in Ontario, Canada, a treatment facility used by the diocese.
• Rev. Weeks Denies Story KTVU,
www.ktvu.com/news/3032849/detail.html , POSTED: 5:07 pm PDT April 22, 2004
OAKLAND (CA): The Rev. Donald Weeks denied a news report Thursday that he paid a man for sex.
Last night, KTVU News ran a story published by the Bay City News wire that quoted Weeks as saying he paid a man for oral sex. After the story aired, the reverend called the newsroom and said he was misquoted.
Weeks told us he never paid to have oral sex. Bay City News is standing by its story.
Oakland Police had previously accused Weeks of molesting the man in question. Earlier this week, the Alameda County District Attorney's office dropped all charges against Weeks because of insufficient evidence.
• Episcopal Church Panel finds priest guilty;
Says Platt Stole From Church Fund. [< $US 50,000]
Herald-Leader,
www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/8499296.htm ,
By Frank E. Lockwood,
Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004
LEXINGTON (KY): Rev. Chris Platt is guilty of "crime" and "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy," an Episcopal Church tribunal ruled yesterday.
The panel, consisting of three priests and two rank-and-file Episcopalians, said that Platt had repeatedly stolen money from the bishop's discretionary fund and from St. Augustine's Chapel at the University of Kentucky.
The thefts and Platt's "sloppy and improper bookkeeping practices" had brought discredit to the church and to the ordained ministry, the church court declared.
Sentencing for the former college chaplain and diocesan administrator is scheduled for June 10.
The ecclesiastical court has no secular authority, so it can't imprison Platt or fine him. At most, it can permanently bar the 56-year-old priest from the ministry.
Yesterday Platt was ordered to stand as Presiding Judge the Rev. Mann S. Valentine read the unanimous verdict. Afterward, Platt's attorney, Lee Van Horn, said he wasn't surprised by the verdict.
"If you're a student of history, then you'd understand it's difficult to win an ecclesiastical trial when you're the defendant," he said.
Platt, when asked if he had any comments, said: "Nothing that you could print."
This week's ecclesiastical-trial is believed to be the first ever held in the Lexington diocese. [...]
Diocesan officials say Platt embezzled nearly $50,000 from the bishop's fund and from bank accounts belonging to the Episcopal student ministry at UK.
They portrayed Platt as financially irresponsible, a man who declared bankruptcy in 2001 after running up $107,000 in credit card debts. Despite annual salary and benefits of $79,000, Platt used church funds to pay his taxes, see a psychologist, buy clothes and finance home improvements.
• Victims of Lutheran Abuse Win $37M Award [1987, 1996, 2001, and 2003 Thomas] - Lutheran.
Phillyburbs.com ;
www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-04232004-287481.html ,
By BOBBY ROSS JR., The Associated Press, 7:35 AM, April 23, 2004
MARSHALL, Texas: Dozens of blue notebooks, thick with child porn images by the hundreds of thousands, fill a law office a block from the East Texas courthouse where victims of sex abuse by a former Lutheran minister won a jury award of nearly $37 million.
The notebooks are filled with images that were printed out from three computers in the parsonage of former minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., attorneys said. Two poster-size photographs of Thomas, one showing the minister with his arm around a victim, also sit on the law office shelves.
For three years, the office has served as the "war room" for the plaintiffs' attorneys as they built their case that Thomas had accomplices - namely, the Lutheran authorities who ordained him and assigned him to Marshall despite accusations of past inappropriate behavior.
On Thursday, the jury agreed, awarding nine plaintiffs amounts ranging from $50,000 to $9.8 million, depending on their medical needs and the level of abuse suffered. [...]
In his closing argument, Crawford said Herbener and Eliason acted reasonably in assigning Thomas to Marshall, based upon his graduation from the Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
But plaintiffs' attorneys said the synod did not disclose that Thomas had given tequila shots to two teenage boys and that the boys had found a gay pornographic video in the parsonage when Thomas served as a ministry intern in Wilson, Texas, in 1996.
Eliason denied knowing about Thomas' past. But the victims made Eliason's background an issue, noting that he pleaded no-contest three times - in 1987, 1996 and 2003 - to indecent exposure charges.
Thomas, 41, was charged in 2001 after a teenager found nude images of friends on the pastor's computer and tried to blackmail him.
Convicted on federal child pornography charges, he is serving five years at the U.S. Penitentiary in Beaumont. His state sentence will start after that.
• $69 million awarded in Lutheran sex-abuse case Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/8502041.htm?1c ,
By Bobby Ross Jr., The Associated Press, Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004
MARSHALL (TX): Victims of a former Lutheran minister who sexually molested boys won a jury award of nearly $37 million Thursday, bringing the payout in the case to about $69 million.
The case is the most serious to hit the Protestant denomination and has drawn comparisons to the worst abuses committed during the Roman Catholic molestation crisis.
An attorney for the plaintiffs disclosed Thursday that separate settlements reached before the trial were worth $32 million.
Other terms of last week's agreements released by attorney Edward Hohn include apologies to victims and parishioners nationwide; development of a strategy for preventing and handling sexual misconduct, including a review of all ministers; and creation of a nationwide system in the denomination for reporting sexual abuse.
John Brooks, spokesman for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, denied that any such noneconomic agreements involve the national denomination.
• First Amendment on trial [Porter] - RCC.
Providence Journal,
www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/content/projo--20040423--23edport.1ab680.html ,
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, April 23, 2004
TAUNTON (MA): The principal defendant in a Taunton Superior Court probable-cause hearing this month shifted from former Roman Catholic priest James R. Porter to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This happened when a judge and district attorney temporarily abandoned their pursuit of the child molester and put on trial the issue of "prior restraint."
But, blessedly, the Constitution won -- at least for now -- when Massachusetts Appeals Court Judge Cynthia Cohen struck down Superior Court Judge David McLaughlin's strange order forbidding anyone to identify one of Porter's victims.
Referred to as "Witness X," the victim testified in open court on April 12, during the probable-cause hearing to determine whether Porter was still a threat to society and should remain in prison, despite having completed his sentence for serial sexual abuse. The Appeals Court ruling came that same day, after Witness X had testified.
It was Dist. Atty. Paul Walsh, through his First Assistant Dist. Atty. Renee Dupuis, who had sought the prior-restraint order forbidding use of the names and images of the victims who testified.
In courtrooms, the public -- including the press -- is generally allowed to gather information, for later disclosure. In this case, the assistant district attorney knew that the other witnesses had offered no objection to being named or photographed during the proceedings. And, indeed, Witness X had offered to testify openly -- until prompted otherwise by a request from Mr. Walsh's office to ask for anonymity. (The request was odd, given that a decade ago Witness X had voluntarily appeared in Porter's trial, and sought media attention.)
• Priest cleared of charges [1970s Covas] - RCC.
Los Angeles Times,
www.latimes.com/news/local/rcv/la-rcv-priest23apr23,1,4809614.story?coll=la-tcn-rcv-news ;
April 23, 2004
SAN BERNARDINO (CA): A retired Rancho Cucamonga priest who had been under investigation for sexual abuse before prosecutors declined to press charges can return to the ministry, officials with the Diocese of San Bernardino said.
In an April 16 memo to priests and other church officials and staff, the diocese said that Father Peter Covas, 73, was, "free to exercise his priestly ministry in the Diocese," and that, "all civil and ecclesiastical inquiries have been concluded."
Covas served at St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church from 1992 until April 2002, when he resigned after the diocese turned over allegations of sexual abuse against him and 19 other priests to San Bernardino police.
San Bernardino County prosecutors last year said they did not have enough evidence to charge Covas for having an alleged relationship with a 14-year-old boy in the 1970s.
• Diocese actions affect 2 priests [Luque, Ayala] - RCC.
Press-Enterprise,
www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE--News--Local--dio23.eda7.html
By MICHAEL FISHER, 01:29 AM PDT on Friday, April 23, 2004
SAN BERNARDINO (CA): Monsignor Peter Luque, a prominent Inland priest removed from his Corona church two years ago amid decades-old accusations that he molested two boys, has agreed not to return to ministry, San Bernardino Diocese officials said Thursday.
Bishop Gerald Barnes, who leads the diocese encompassing Riverside and San Bernardino counties, also ordered Luque not to present himself as a priest in public, not to wear a priestly collar and not to participate in the celebration of public events as a priest, said the Rev. Howard Lincoln, the diocese's spokesman.
"Bishop Barnes and Monsignor Luque have agreed he will not return to ministry," Lincoln said, adding that Luque, 70, is now preparing for his retirement.
The San Bernardino Diocese has ordered Monsignor Peter Luque not to present himself as a priest. The diocese has also agreed to settle a lawsuit filed against the Rev. Saul Ayala.
Diocesan officials also revealed Thursday that they have agreed to pay $30,000 to settle an unrelated lawsuit filed by two sisters who accused the Rev. Saul Ayala, a former priest in Mecca and San Bernardino, of molesting them in the 1980s.
Ayala plans to work in Mexico and will not be returning to the Inland diocese, Lincoln said. Neither Ayala nor the diocese admitted wrongdoing in the settlement, Lincoln said.
• Hubbard enemies plan 'pep rally' - RCC. Brady and Likoudis to speak.
Albany Times Union,
www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=241435&category=ALBANY&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=4/23/2004 ;
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Friday, April 23, 2004
ALBANY (NY): Two Midwestern conservative activists determined to unseat Bishop Howard Hubbard -- and any other Catholic bishop they believe is actively homosexual -- make a return trip to the Capital Region on May 8.
Stephen Brady of Illinois, president of Roman Catholic Faithful, and Paul Likoudis, of the Minnesota Catholic newspaper The Wanderer, will speak at a daylong conference sponsored by the Coalition of Concerned Catholics of the Albany Diocese.
The event is called "Agony in Albany -- Leadership in Crisis."
"It's kind of a pep talk; where we go from here ... how we hope to accomplish Hubbard's removal," Brady said Thursday in telephone interview.
In February, he and Likoudis led a contentious forum at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Albany that drew about 200 people. The meeting took place just days after the Rev. John Minkler committed suicide at his Watervliet home.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:43 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Friday April 23, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont78.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Saturday April 24, 2004 edition follows:- • Priest removed from Plaquemines Parish church [1993, Sanders] - RCC.
Times-Picayune,
www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1082854746294401.xml ,
By BRETT MARTEL, The Associated Press, April/24/2004
NEW ORLEANS (LA) (AP) -- Allegations of sexual misconduct with minors during a church-related trip 11 years ago led to the removal of a priest this week from a Plaquemines Parish church, the Archdiocese of New Orleans announced Saturday evening.
The Rev. Patrick Sanders, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Belle Chasse, lost his priestly functions on Friday after an archdiocese review of allegations by two men who were 16 at the time of the 1993 trip, archdiocese spokesman the Rev. Robert Maestri said.
Sanders, who also was the dean of the Algiers-Plaquemines Deanery, has denied the allegations. He was the vicar at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in New Orleans at the time of the alleged wrongdoing.
No other allegations have been made against Sanders, Maestri said, and Sanders' removal "is not meant to convey any sense of guilt or innocence."
Both alleged victims asked that their names not be released, Maestri said.
The first allegation came on Feb. 16 of this year.
Maestri said the man met with an archdiocese victims' assistance coordinator because he was "concerned about the welfare of others who may be injured or harmed and therefore felt a responsibility to come forward."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:39 PM]
• Ypsilanti pastor arrested in sex crime case [2000s] - Baptist.
E-mails. Girl.
Detroit Free Press,
www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw96501--20040421.htm ,
April 21, 2004
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The pastor of an Ypsilanti church was arrested Wednesday on charges related to sexually explicit e-mail correspondence with a person he thought was a 14-year-old former parishioner, Attorney General Mike Cox said.
James Coleman Southward, a pastor at Graceway Baptist Church, faces one count of sexually abusive activity with a child and one count of using the Internet to communicate with another to commit sexually abusive activity with a child. Each is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Southward, 63, was arraigned in an Ypsilanti district court.
"Today's arrest was possible because an alert parent saw inappropriate correspondence between the suspect and a child and notified authorities," Cox said in a news release.
Phone messages left with Graceway Baptist Church were not immediately returned Wednesday. [...]
Law enforcement officials say they then set up a persona to mimic the child, and that Southward set up a meeting to engage in sexual activity.
• Attorney: Award in Lutheran case could be reduced [Thomas]
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/8512300.htm?1c ,
By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press, Posted on Sat, Apr. 24, 2004
WICHITA FALLS, Texas - An attorney for a regional Lutheran headquarters said Saturday that as much as $25 million of a nearly $37 million jury award in a sexual abuse case could be covered by an earlier settlement.
Tracy Crawford, who represents the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the amount credited toward the damages will be "significant" and will be determined by a judge.
Insurance funds will cover whatever amount is left over, but if the church appeals, "the outcome could be quite some time in coming," Crawford told church leaders at the synod's annual meeting in Wichita Falls.
On Thursday, jurors in Marshall sided with nine sex abuse victims who sued the Dallas-based synod, claiming a former bishop and his assistant ignored warnings about former pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. Separate earlier settlements involved the award of another $32 million.
• Airbrushing out the ugliness [Ferrario] - RCC.
Crux News,
www.cruxnews. com/NORNotes/ nor-16April04 .html , 16 April 2004
HAWAII:
Obituaries are not fun reading, but they can be revealing, not necessarily about the person, but about the newspaper. For example, many liberal newspapers portray notorious Communist fronters as "idealists" who "worked for a better world." The Communist fronting is airbrushed out.
Retired Bishop Joseph Ferrario of Honolulu died on December 12, 2003. He was, to put it gently, a controversial figure.
There are four general-interest national Catholic newspapers in this country [USA]. What did they say? The National Catholic Reporter and the National Catholic Register had no story on Ferrario's passing. Maybe they figured that if they couldn't say anything nice, it'd be better to say nothing at all. O.K., that's one way to handle deaths that are embarrassing to the Church, though the
Reporter seldom shies away from stories that embarrass the Church (and well they shouldn't).
However, Our Sunday Visitor did print an obituary (Jan. 4). Accompanied by a flattering full-color photo of Ferrario in full regalia, it noted where he was born, that he was Auxiliary Bishop and then Bishop of Honolulu, that he died at 77, and that he "had undergone quintuple bypass surgery in 1992 and resigned because of ill health the following year," etc. A lovely obituary it was, with nothing embarrassing to the Church.
Let us note here that Ferrario resigned at age 67, eight years before the retirement age for bishops.
The Wanderer also had an obit (Jan. 1) and here we get the real story. Did he resign because of "ill health"? Well, he did undergo quintuple bypass surgery in 1992, but people do recover from such surgery and can go on to lead normal lives.
The Wanderer obit, written by Paul Likoudis, says that Ferrario was "the first American bishop to be publicly accused of being a homosexual predator ... . Ferrario resigned his post as bishop 'for health reasons' ... but ... had been immersed in numerous scandals since his appointment to Honolulu ... . His resignation followed a dramatic reversal, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, of an illegal decree of excommunication he imposed on six Hawaii Catholics who were critical of his rule." Likoudis's book Amchurch Comes Out (2002) said that "Ferrario is enjoying his retirement on the golf courses of Maui."
Did Ferrario resign because of "ill health," as the Visitor asserts, or did Rome pressure him to resign? It's definitely an open question.
The Wanderer obit continues: "The first allegation of homosexual predation against Ferrario was made in 1980, when he was an auxiliary bishop, by a former student at St. Stephen's [Seminary in Hawaii]…." Another man, David Figueroa, "publicly accused Ferrario at the U.S. bishops' meeting in Baltimore in 1989 of initiating a homosexual relationship with him. Ferrario also allegedly recruited homosexual clergy from the mainland U.S. to serve in Hawaii…. Ironically, Ferrario's canon lawyer, Fr. Joseph Bukoski III, who…prepared the excommunications of six Hawaii Catholics, was himself later accused of sexual molestation. He was removed from a parish in 2002. Ferrario's oppressive reign over Catholics in Hawaii was documented for years in the
Catholic Lay Press, an independent newspaper…; by journalist Jason Berry in his groundbreaking book, Lead Us Not Into Temptation; and by this reporter [Likoudis] in Amchurch Comes Out. His reign was marked by the desecration of traditional-style churches; the imposition of serious abuses in the liturgy; the liquidation of Church property; the advocacy of homosexual rights in Church structures as well as in civil legislatures…."
We went back and read the extensive sections on Ferrario in Likoudis's book and in Jason Berry's book, and they are hair-raising. For example, Berry (who is a liberal Catholic) quotes Msgr. Francis Marzen, a Hawaii priest, as saying that "it was common knowledge among the clergy that he [Ferrario] is homosexual." Berry also quotes Marzen as saying that Ferrario "corresponded with problem priests throughout the country. Some men turned up on our doorstep…." Berry continues, "One priest welcomed by Ferrario…was Monsignor William Spain, who left San Diego in the mid-eighties following news reports of his relationship [a love affair, according to news reports] with a male cocaine addict. Ferrario and Spain concelebrated Masses." Well, you get the idea.
As noted in the previous New Oxford Note, Our Sunday Visitor bills itself as a newspaper written by Catholic journalists you can "trust." Trust to do what? Airbrush out the ugliness? #
• Questions Remain in Lutheran Church Poisonings, though main suspect suicided. [2003 Bondeson]
The Sentinel,
"Questions Remain in Church Poisonings,"
www.cumberlink.com/articles/2004/04/24/ap/Headlines/d825bfd00.txt ,
By JERRY HARKAVY, Apr 24 2004
NEW SWEDEN, Maine - For survivors of the nation's worst case of arsenic poisoning, cold and numb limbs and intermittent pain linger as reminders of an episode that many in this tiny community would like to forget.
Questions about the attack at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church still gnaw at Dale Anderson, 54, who drank the tainted coffee at a church meeting and now experiences constant pain from his knees down and complains of memory loss.
"There's always this feeling: Who did this? We want to know the full story," he said.
Even with the suicide of the prime suspect in the case, questions remain. A detective is working on the case nearly full-time, and two new books promise answers to the whodunit.
The poisoning at last year's April 27 church meeting killed Walter Reid Morrill, 78, and injured 15 others, some critically.
Five days later, church member Daniel Bondeson shot himself in the chest at his home. He left a suicide note that implicated him in the attack and persuaded investigators that he hadn't acted alone.
The note has not been made public, but Lt. Dennis Appleton, who oversees the investigation, says internal church issues remain "high on the list of speculations" about a motive.
Some in New Sweden, population 621, are eager to put the incident behind them, but others say that will be hard to do without assurances that no one who had a hand in the calamity is still in their midst.
• Police Suspected Priest in Nun's Death [1980, Robinson] - RCC. Nun dead.
Pennsylvania News (comprising
Burlington County Times, Bucks County Courier Times, and The Intelligencer),
www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-04242004-288661.html ,
By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press, Apr 24, 2004
TOLEDO (OHI0): A Roman Catholic priest charged in the 1980 strangling and stabbing of a nun whose body was found in a hospital chapel had always been a suspect in the killing.
Police never could gather enough evidence, though, until they reopened the case about five months ago. On Friday, police arrested the Rev. Gerald Robinson, who performed the funeral for the 71-year-old nun.
Police Chief Mike Navarre would only say that "new technology" led them back to Robinson, 66, who was charged with murder. Navarre would not talk about evidence or a motive.
Robinson and Sister Margaret Ann Pahl worked together at Mercy Hospital, where he was chaplain.
Pahl was strangled and stabbed about 30 times on April 5, 1980. Her body was found surrounded by lit candles with her arms folded across her chest in the chapel, where she was the caretaker.
It was described by some investigators as a "ritualistic" killing.
The victim's sister, Catherine Flegal, said Saturday she was shocked to hear of an arrest more than 24 years after the crime.
• Priest accused of murdering nun in 1980 [1980, Robinson] - RCC.
Toledo Blade,
www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040424/NEWS03/404240373 ,
By ROBIN ERB and CHRISTINA HALL, staff writers, Apr 24 2004
TOLEDO (OH): Twenty-four years after an elderly nun was killed in the sacristy of a Mercy Hospital chapel, the priest who presided over her funeral service was arrested and charged last night in the slaying.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson faces a charge of murder in the death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. The 71-year-old woman, who belonged to the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, was found dead April 5, 1980. It was Holy Saturday.
Sources described her death as part of a ritual slaying in which Sister Margaret was strangled, then covered with an altar cloth, and stabbed several times along the neck and torso.
Police yesterday said she was stabbed 27 to 32 times, with most of the wounds inflicted after she died. Her body had been posed and it initially appeared that she had been sexually assaulted, though authorities offered no details last night.
"We're very saddened by the whole experience," said the Rev. Michael Billian, Episcopal vicar of the Diocese of Toledo. "It certainly saddens the diocese that any one of its ministers would be in this situation."
The human condition is sinful and priests are human, Father Billian said.
• Sixth lawsuit filed against former priest [1967-70, McSheffery]
Newsday,
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--churchabuse-mcshe0424apr24,0,5615630.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire ;
April 24, 2004
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A sixth lawsuit has been filed against a former North Branford priest accused of sexual abuse.
The man, referred to as "James Doe" in court papers, said the Rev. Daniel McSheffery abused him between 1967 and 1970 when he was a parishioner and student at St. Augustine Church and school.
McSheffery was the school's director in the late 1960s and 70s. The claims are similar to five other pending lawsuits.
"There is overwhelming evidence that the diocese knew that many of these priests were sexually abusing boys and did nothing," said Thomas McNamara, the man's attorney.
The lawsuit claims the man needs psychological counseling, and no longer attends church. It seeks monetary and punitive damages.
McSheffery, 74, was pastor of St. Augustine Church for 16 years. He is now retired and lives in Florida.
• Sixth lawsuit filed against former priest [McSheffery]
WTNH,
www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=1811684&nav=3YeXMZ1Q , 10:00 PM,
Apr. 24, 2004
NEW HAVEN (CT) (AP): A former North Branford priest is facing accusations of sexual abuse from a sixth man.
An unidentified man is accusing the Reverend Daniel McSheffery of sexual abuse between 1967 and 1970. The man says he was abused when he was a parishioner and student at Saint Augustine Church and school.
The lawsuit seeks punitive and monetary damages. It says he needs psychological counseling and no longer attends
church.
McSheffery is facing five other similar lawsuits.
• Church of England Clergyman Sacked after Admitting Affair [Graham] - Church of England. Woman.
Scotsman,
"Priest Sacked after Admitting Affair,"
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2825640 ,
By Gemma Collins, PA News, ~ April 24, 2004
BRITAIN:
A married priest has been sacked after admitting an affair, it emerged today.
Father-of-two the Rev Robert Graham had been senior assistant priest of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Nailsea, near Bristol.
The 33-year-old admitted having a "short" affair with a woman, a spokesman for the diocese of Bath and Wells said.
He appeared before a Consistory Court of the Diocese of Bath and Wells on Thursday.
At the hearing Mr Graham acknowledged that his behaviour, which had been the subject of a complaint, fell short of the conduct required of a priest in Holy Orders, the spokesman said.
He has now been sacked from his post at the Church of the Holy Trinity by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Right Rev Peter Price, and disqualified from exercising the functions of a priest in the Church of England.
• Abuse case going to trial; Jehovah's Witnesses national groups dropped from suit. [Kelley]
Amarillo Globe-News,
www.amarillonet.com/stories/040404/new--abusecase.shtml ,
By JIM McBRIDE, jim.mcbride@amarillo.com , April 4, 2004
TEXAS: A sex abuse lawsuit against Jehovah's Witnesses groups in Amarillo and Dumas will go to trial in the wake of a judge's ruling, but national Jehovah's Witnesses groups from New York and Pennsylvania have been removed from the suit.
The case centers on the claims of an Amarillo woman, Amy B., who sued Larry Kelley and several Jehovah's Witnesses organizations last year, claiming Kelley sexually abused her and church officials took no action to halt the abuse.
Church groups have denied the suit's claims.
According to the suit:
Kelley used his position as Dumas church elder to sexually abuse children.
While Kelley was a Dumas elder, church officials learned he was sexually abusing children of the congregation, but they did not report the abuse to authorities or warn church members.
